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THE BOOK OF JUDGES.
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\a
JUDGES AND RUTH.
BY THE REV.
ROBERT A. WATSON, D.D.
AUTHOR OF "gospels OF YESTERDAY."
NEW YORK :
C. ARMSTRONG AND SON
51 East loth Street, Near Broadway.
1893.
CONTENTS.
THE BOOK OF JUDGES.
I.
PAGE
PROBLEMS OF SETTLEMENT AND WAR • • • • • 3
JUDGES I. I — II.
II.
THE WAY OF THE SWORD , , iS
JUDGES I. 12 — 26.
III.
AT bochim: the first prophet voice . • • • 3t
JUDGES II. I 5.
IV.
AMONG the rocks OF PAGANISM .••••• 45
JUDGES II. 7—23.
V.
THE ARM OF ARAM AND OF OTHNIEL ' • • • . 61
JUDGES III. I — II.
VI.
THE DAGGER AND THE OX-GOAD •••••• 77
JUDGES III. 12 — ^31.
vi CONTENTS.
VII.
PAGE
THE SIBYL OF MOUNT EPIIRAIM . 9I
JUDGES IV.
VIII.
DEBORAH'S SONG: A DIVINE VISION • • • , • I06
JUDGES V.
IX.
Deborah's song: a chant of patriotism • . ,120
JUDGES V.
X.
THE desert hordes; and the man at ophrah , .135
JUDGES VI. 1 — 14.
XI.
GIDEON, ICONOCLAST AND REFORMER , . , , • I50
JUDGES VI. 15—32.
XII.
"THE PEOPLE ARE YET TOO MANY" • , , , .164
JUDGES VI. 33 — VII. 7.
XIII.
•'midian's evil day" . . , , ., • • ,178
JUDGES VII. 8— vin. 21.
XIV.
GIDEON THE ECCLESIASTIC , ,195
JUDGES VIII. 22 — 28.
XV.
ABIMELECH AND JOTHAM • . • • i , , 209
JUDGES VIII. 29— IX. 57.
CONTENTS. vii
XVI.
PAGE
GILEAD AND ITS CHIEF . ..••••. 224
JUDGES X. I — XI. II.
XVI I.
THE TERRIBLE VOW , , 239
JUDGES XI. 12—40.
XVIII.
SHIBBOLETHS 254
JUDGES XII. I — 7.
XIX.
THE ANGEL IN THE FIELD .•••••. 266
JUDGES XIII. I — iS,
XX.
SAMSON PLUNGING INTO LIFE . • . , *, , 279
JUDGES XIII. 24 — XIV. 20.
XXI.
DAUNTLESS IN BATTLE, IGNORANTLY BRAVE « • , 293
JUDGES XV.
XXI I.
PLEASURE AND PERIL IN GAZA •••••• 307
JUDGES XVI. I — 3.
XXIII.
THE VALLEY OF SOREK AND OF DEATH • • • .319
JUDGES XVI. 4—31.
viii CONTENTS.
XXIV.
THE STOLEN GODS . . , , ,
JUDGES XVII., XVIII.
PAGE
. 335
XXV.
FROM JUSTICE TO WILD REVENGE . , , , , ,3^
JUDGES XIX. — XXI.
THE BOOR OF RUTH.
Naomi's burden •... 363
RUTH I. 1 — 13.
II.
THE PARTING OF THE WAYS ..«.,,, 375
RUTH I. 14 — 19.
III.
IN THE FIELD OF EOAZ 3S6
RUTH I. 19—11. 23,
IV.
THE HAZARDOUS PLAN j •••••• . 397
RUTH III.
V.
THE MARRIAGE AT THE GATE •••••• 408
RUTH IV
Index ..,,.,,.,». 421
PROBLEMS OF SETTLEMENT AND WAR.
Judges i. I-II.
IT was a new hour in the history of Israel. To a
lengthened period of serfdom there had succeeded
a time of sojourn in tents, when the camp of the tribes,
half-military, half-pastoral, clustering about the Taber-
nacle of Witness, moved with it from point to point
through the desert. Now the march was over ; the
nomads had to become settlers, a change not easy for
them as they expected it to be, full of significance
for the world. The Book of Judges, therefore, is a
second Genesis or Chronicle of Beginnings so far as
the Hebrew commonwealth is concerned. We see the
birth-throes of national life, the experiments, struggles,
errors and disasters out of which the moral force of
the people gradually rose, growing Uke a pine tree out
of rocky soil.
If we begin our study of the book expecting to find
clear evidence of an established Theocracy, a spiritual
idea of the kingdom of God ever present to the mind,
ever guiding the hope and effort of the tribes, we shall
experience that bewilderment which has not seldom
fallen upon students of Old Testament histor}^ Divide
the life of man into two parts, the sacred and the secular ;
regard the latter as of no real value compared to the
THE BOOK OF JUDGES.
other, as havirg no relation to that Divine purpose of
which the Bible is the oracle; then the Book of Judges
must appear out of place in the sacred canon, for
unquestionably its main topics are secular from first
to last. It preserves the traditions of an age when
spiritual ideas and aims were frequently out of sight,
when a nation was struggling for bare existence, or,
at best, for a rude kind of unity and freedom. But
human life, sacred and secular, is one. A single strain
of moral urgency runs through the epochs of national
development from barbarism to Christian civilization.
A single strain of urgency unites the boisterous vigour
of the youth and the sagacious spiritual courage of
the man. It is on the strength first, and then on the
discipline and purification of the will, that everything
depends. There must be energy, or there can be no
adequate faith, no earnest religion. We trace in the
Book of Judges the springing up and growth of a
collective energy which gives power to each separate
life. To our amazement we may discover that the
Mosaic Law and Ordinances are neglected for a time ;
but there can be no doubt of Divine Providence, the
activity of the redeeming Spirit. Great ends are being
served, — a development is proceeding which will by-
and-by make religious thought strong, obedience and
worship zealous. It is not for us to say that spiritual
evolution ought to proceed in this way or that. In
the study of natural and supernatural fact our business
is to observe with all possible care the goings forth of
God and to find as far as we may their meaning and
issue. Faith is a profound conviction that the facts
of the world justify themselves and the wisdom and
righteousness of the Eternal ; it is the key that makes
history articulate, no mere tale full of sound and fury
i. i-ii.] PROBLEMS OF SETTLEMENT AND WAR. 5
signifying nothing. And the key of faith which here
we are to use in the interpretation of Hebrew life has
yet to be apphed to all peoples and times. That this
may be done we firmly believe : there is needed only
the mind broad enough in wisdom and sympathy to
gather the annals of the world into one great Bible
or Book of God.
Opening the story of the Judges, we find ourselves
in a keen atmosphere of warlike ardour softened by
scarcely an air of spiritual grace. At once we are
plunged into military preparations ; councils of war
meet and the clash of weapons is heard. Battle
follows battle. Iron chariots hurtle along the valleys,
the hillsides bristle with armed men. The songs are
of strife and conquest ; the great heroes are those who
smite the uncircumcised hip and thigh. It is the story
of Jehovah's people ; but where is Jehovah the merci-
ful ? Does He reign among them, or sanction their
enterprise? Where amid this turmoil and. bloodshed
is the movement towards the far-oflf Messiah and the
holy mountain where nothing shall hurt or destroy ?
Does Israel prepare for blessing all nations by crushing
those that occupy the land he claims ? Problems many
meet us in Bible history ; here surely is one of the
gravest. And we cannot go with Judah in that first
expedition ; we must hold back in doubt till clearly we
understand how these wars of conquest are necessary
to the progress of the world. Then, even though the
tribes are as yet unaware of their destiny and how
it is to be fulfilled, we may go up with them against
Adoni-bezek.
Canaan is to be colonised by the seed of Abraham,
Canaan and no other land. It is not now, as it was in
THE BOOK OF JUDGES.
Abraham's time, a sparsely peopled country, with room
enough for a new race. Canaanites, Hivites, Perizzites,
Amorites cultivate the plain of Esdraelon and inhabit
a hundred cities throughout the land. The Hittites
are in considerable force, a strong people with a civi-
lization of their own. To the north Phoenicia is astir
with a mercantile and vigorous race. The Philistines
have settlements southward along the coast. Had
Israel sought a region comparatively unoccupied, such
might, perhaps, have been found on the northern coast
of Africa. But Syria is the destined home of the tribes.
The old promise to Abraham has been kept before
the minds of his descendants. The land to which they
have moved through the desert is that of which he took
earnest by the purchase of a grave. But the promise
of God looks forward to the circumstances that are to
accompany its fulfilment; and it is justified because
the occupation of Canaan is the means to a great de-
velopment of righteousness. For, mark the position
which the Hebrew nation is to take. It is to be the
central state of the world, in verity the Mountain of
God's House for the world. Then observe how the
situation of Canaan fits it to be the seat of this new
progressive power. Egypt, Babylon, Assyria, Greece,
Rome, Carthage, lie in a rude circle around it. From
its sea-board the way is open to the west. Across the
valley of Jordan goes the caravan route to the East.
The Nile, the Orontes, the ^gean Sea are not far off.
Canaan does not confine its inhabitants, scarcely
separates them from other peoples. It is in the midst
of the old world.
Is not this one reason why Israel must inhabit
Palestine ? Suppose the tribes settled in the highlands
of Armenia or along the Persian Gulf; suppose them
i.i-ii.] PROBLEMS OF SETTLEMENT AND WAR. 7
to have migrated westward from Egypt instead oi
eastward, and to have found a place of habitation on
towards Libya : would the history in that case have
had the same movement and power ? Would the
theatre of prophecy and the scene of the Messiah's
work have set the gospel of the ages in the same relief,
or the growing City of God on the same mountain
height? Not only is Canaan accessible to the
emigrants from Egypt, but it is by position and con-
figuration suited to develop the genius of the race.
Gennesaret and Asphaltitis ; the tortuous Jordan and
Kishon, that " river of battles " ; the cliffs of Engedi,
Gerizim and Ebal, Carmel and Tabor, Moriah and Olivet,
— these are needed as the scene of the great Divine
revelation. No other rivers, no other lakes nor moun-
tains on the surface of the earth will do.
This, however, is but part of the problem which meets
us in regard to the settlement in Canaan. There are
the inhabitants of the land to be considered— these
Amorites, Hittites, Jebusites, Hivites. H&w do we
justify Israel in displacing them, slaying them, absorb-
ing them ? Here is a question first of evolution, then
of the character of God.
Do we justify Saxons in their raid on Britain ?
History does. They become dominant, they rule, they
slay, they assimilate ; and there grows up British
nationality strong and trusty, the citadel of freedom
and religious life. The case is similar, yet there is a
difference, strongly in favour of Israel as an invading
people. For the Israelites have been tried by stern
discipline : they are held together by a moral law, a
religion divinely revealed, a faith vigorous though but
in germ. The Saxons worshipping Thor, Frea and
Woden sweep religion before them in the first rush of
THE BOOK OF JUDGES.
conquest. They begin by destroying Roman civiliza-
tion and Christian culture in the land they ravage.
They appear "dogs," "wolves," "whelps from the
kennel of barbarism " to the Britons they overcome.
But the Israelites have learned to fear Jehovah, and
they bear with them the ark of His covenant.
As for the Canaanitish tribes, compare them now
with what they were when Abraham and Isaac fed
their flocks in the plain of Mamre or about the springs
of Beersheba. Abraham found in Canaan noble cour-
teous men. Aner, Eshcol and Mamre, Amorites, were
his trusted confederates ; Ephron the Hittite matched
his magnanimity ; Abimelech of Gerar " feared the
Lord." In Salem reigned a king or royal priest,
Melchizedek, unique in ancient history, a majestic un-
sullied figure, who enjoyed the respect and tribute of
the Hebrew patriarch. Where are the successors of
those men? Idolatry has corrupted Canaan. The
old piety of simple races has died away before the
hideous worship of Moloch and Ashtoreth. It is over
degenerate peoples that Israel is to assert its dominance ;
they must learn the way of Jehovah or perish. This
conquest is essential to the progress of the world.
Here in the centre of empires a stronghold of pure
ideas and commanding morality is to be established,
an altar of witness for the true God.
So far we move without difficulty towards a justifica-
tion of the Hebrew descent on Canaan. Still, however,
when we survey the progress of conquest, the idea
struggling for confirmation in our minds that God was
King and Guide of this people, while at the same time
we know that all nations could equally claim Him as
their Origin, marking how on field after field thousands
were left dying and dead, we have to find an answer
i. i-ii] rROBLEMS OF SETTLEMENT AND WAR. 9
to the question whether the slaughter and destruction
even of idolatrous races for the sake of Israel can be
explained in harmony with Divine justice. And this
passes into still wider inquiries. Is there intrinsic
value in human life ? Have men a proper right of
existence and self-development ? Does not Divine
Providence imply that the history of each people, the
life of each person will have its separate end and
vindication ? There is surely a reason in the righte-
ousness and love of God for every human experience,
and Christian thought cannot explain the severity of
Old Testament ordinances by assuming that the
Supreme has made a new dispensation for Himself.
The problem is difficult, but we dare not evade it nor
doubt a full solution to be possible.
We pass here beyond mere " natural evolution." It
is not enough to say that there had to be a struggle
for life among races and individuals If natural forces
are held to be the limit and equivalent of God, then
"survival of the fittest" may become a ^reh'gious
doctrine, but assuredly it will introduce us to no God
of pardon, no hope of redemption. We must discover
a Divine end in the life of each person, a member it
may be of some doomed race, dying on a field of battle
in the holocaust of its valour and chivalry. Explana-
tion is needed of all slaughtered and " waste " lives,
untold myriads of lives that never tasted freedom or
knew holiness.
The explanation we find is this : that for a human
life in the present stage of existence the opportunity of
struggle -for moral ends — it may be ends of no great
dignity, yet really moral, and, as the race advances,
religious — this makes life worth living and brings to
every one the means of true and lasting gain. " Wheic
THE BOOK OF JUDGES.
ignorant armies clash by night" there may be in the
opposing ranks the most various notions of religion
and of what is morally good. The histories of the
nations that meet in shock of battle determine largely
what hopes and aims guide individual lives. But to
the thousands who do valiantly this conflict belongs to
the vital struggle in which some idea of the morally
good or of religious duty directs and animates the soul,
for hearth and home, for wife and children, for chief
and comrades, for Jehovah or Baal, men fight, and
around these names there cluster thoughts the sacredest
possible to the age, dignifying life and war and death.
There are better kinds of struggle than that which is
acted on the bloody field ; yet struggle of one kind or
ether there must be. It is the law of existence for the
barbarian, for the Hebrew, for the Christian. Ever
there is a necessity for pressing towards the mark,
striving to reach and enter the gate of higher life. No
land flowing with milk and honey to be peaceably
inherited and enjoyed rewards the generation which
has fought its way through the desert. No placid
possession of cities and vineyards rounds off the life of
Canaanitish tribe. The gains of endurance are reaped,
only to be sown again in labour and tears for a
further harvest. Here on earth this is the plan of God
for men ; and when another life crowns the long effort
of this world of change, may it not be with fresh calls
to more glorious duty and achievement?
But the golden cord of Divine Providence has more
than one strand ; and while the conflicts of life are
appointed for the discipline of men and nations in moral
vigour and in fidelity to such religious ideas as they
possess, the purer and stronger faith always giving
more power to those who exercise it, there is also in
i.i-ii.] PROBLEMS OF SETTLEMENT AND WAR. ii
the course of life, and especially in the suffering war
entails, a reference to the sins of men. Warfare is a
sad necessity. Itself often a crime, it issues the judg-
ment of God against folly and crime. Now Israel, now
the Canaanite becomes a hammer of Jehovah. One
people has been true to its best, and by that faith-
fulness it gains the victory. Another has been false,
cruel, treacherous, and the hands of the fighters grow
weak, their swords lose edge, their chariot-wheels roll
heavily, they are swept away by the avenging tide.
Or the sincere, the good are overcome ; the weak who
are in the right sink before the wicked who are strong.
Yet the moral triumph is always gained. Even in
defeat and death there is victory for the faithful.
In these wars of Israel we find many a story of
judgment as well as a constant proving of the worth
of man's religion and virtue. Neither was Israel
always in the right, nor had those races which Israel
overcame always a title to the power they held and
the land they occupied. Jehovah was a stern arbiter
among the combatants. When His own people failed in
the courage and humility of faith, they v/ere chastised.
On the other hand, there were tyrants and tyrannous
races, freebooters and banditti, pagan hordes steeped
in uncleanness who had to be judged and punished.
Where we cannot trace the reason of what appears
mere waste of life or wanton cruelty, there lie behind, in
the ken of the All-seeing, the need and perfect vindica-
tion of all He suffered to be done in the ebb and flow
of battle, amid the riot of war.
Beginning now with the detailed narrative, we find
first a case of retribution, in which the Israelites served
the justice of God. As yet the Canaanite power was
Tim BOOK OF JUDGES.
unbroken in the central region of Western Palestine,
where Adoni-bezek ruled over the cities of seventy
chiefs. It became a question who should lead the
tribes against this petty despot, and recourse was had to
the priests at Gilgal for Divine direction. The answer
of the oracle was that Judah should head the campaign,
the warlike vigour and numerical strength of that tribe
fitting it to take the foremost place. Judah accepting
the post of honour invited Simeon, closely related by
common descent from Leah, to join the expedition ;
and thus began a confederacy of these southern tribes
which had the effect of separating them from the others
throughout the whole period of the judges. The
locality of Bezek which the king of the Canaanites held
as his chief fortress is not known. Probably it was
near the Jordan valley, about half-way between the
two greater lakes. From it the tyranny of Adoni-
bezek extended northward and southward over the
cities of the seventy, whose submission he had cruelly
ensured by rendering them unfit for war. Here, in
the first struggle, Judah was completely successful.
The rout of the Canaanites and Perizzites was decisive,
and the slaughter so great as to send a thrill of terror
through the land. And now the rude judgment of men
works out the decree of God. Adoni-bezek suffers the
same mutilation as he had inflicted on the captive
chiefs and in Oriental manner makes acknowledgment
of a just fate. There is a certain religiousness in his
mind, and he sincerely bows himself under the judgment
of a God against Whom he had tried issues in vain.
Had these troops of Israel come in the name of
Jehovah ? Then Jehovah had been watching Adoni-
bezek in his pride when as he daily feasted in his hall
the crowd of victims grovelled at his feet like dogs.
i.i-il.] PROBLEMS OF SETTLEMENT AND WAR. 13
Thus early did ideas of righteousness and of wide
authority attach themselves in Canaan to the name of
Israel's God. It is remarlsable how on the appearance
of a new race the first colHsion with it on the battle-
field will produce an impression of its capacity and
spirit and of unseen powers fighting along with it.
Joshua's dash through Canaan doubtless struck far
and wide a belief that the new comers had a mighty
God to support them ; the belief is reinforced, and there
is added a thought of Divine justice. The retribution
of Jehovah meant Godhead far larger and more terrible,
and at the same time more august, than the religion of
Baal had ever presented to the mind. From this point
the Israelites, if they had been true to their heavenly
King, fired with the ardour of His name, would have
occupied a moral vantage ground and proved invincible.
The fear of Jehovah would have done more for them
than their own valour and arms. Had the people of
the land seen that a power was being established
amongst them in the justice and benignity of which
they could trust, had they learned not only to fear but
to adore Jehovah, there would have been quick fulfil-
ment of the promise which gladdened the large heart
of Abraham. The realization, however, had to wait
for many a century.
It cannot be doubted that Israel had under Moses
received such an impulse in the direction of faith in
the one God, and such a conception of His character
and will, as declared the spiritual mission of the tribes.
The people were not all aware of their high destiny,
rot sufficiently instructed to have a competent sense
of it; but the chiefs of the tribes, the Levites and the
heads of households, should have well understood the
part that fell to Israel among the nations of the world.
THE BOOK OF JUDGES.
The law in its main outlines was known, and it should
have been revered as the charter of the commonwealth.
Under the banner of Jehovah the nation ought to have
striven not for its own position alone, the enjoyment
of fruitful fields and fenced cities, but to raise the
standard of human morality and enforce the truth of
Divine religion. The gross idolatry of the peoples
around should have been continually testified against ;
the principles of honesty, of domestic purity, of regard
for human life, of neighbourliness and parental authority,
as well as the more spiritual ideas expressed in the
first table of the Decalogue, ought to have been guarded
and dispensed as the special treasure of the nation.
In this way Israel, as it enlarged its territory, would
from the first have been clearing one space of earth
for the good customs and holy observances that make
for spiritual development. The greatest of all trusts
is committed to a race when it is made capable of this ;
but here Israel often failed, and the reproaches of her
prophets had to be poured out from age to age.
The ascendency which Israel secured in Canaan, or
that which Britain has won in India, is not, to begin
with, justified by superior strength, nor by higher in-
telligence, nor even because in practice the religion of
the conquerors is better than that of the vanquished.
It is justified because, with all faults and crimes that
may for long attend the rule of the victorious race,
there lie, unrealised at first, in conceptions of God and
of duty the promise and germ of a higher education
of the world. Developed in the course of time, the
spiritual genius of the conquerors vindicates their ambi-
tion and their success. The world is to become the
heritage and domain of those who have the secret of
large and ascending life.
i.i-ll.] PROBLEMS OF SETTLEMENT AND WAR. 1$
Judah moving southward from Bezek took Jerusalem,
not the stronghold on the hilltop, but the city, and
smote it with the edge of the sword. Not yet did that
citadel which has been the scene of so many conflicts
become a rallying-point for the tribes. The army,
leaving Adoni-bezek dead in Jerusalem, with many
who owned him as chief, swept southward still to
Hebron and Debir. At Hebron the task was not
unlike that which had been just accomplished. There
reigned three chiefs, Sheshai, Ahiman and Talmai,
who are mentioned again and again in the annals as
if their names had been deeply branded on the memory
of the age. They were sons of Anak, bandit captains,
whose rule was a terror to the country side. Their
power had to be assailed and overthrown, not only for
the sake of Judah which was to inhabit their strong-
hold, but for the sake of humanity. The law of God
was to replace the fierce unregulated sway of inhuman
violence and cruelty. So the practical duty of the hour
carried the tribes beyond the citadel where the best
national centre would have been found to attack another
where an evil power sat entrenched.
One moral lies on the surface here. We are naturally
anxious to gain a good position in life for ourselves,
and every consideration is apt to be set aside in favour
of that. Now, in a sense, it is necessary, one of the
first duties, that we gain each a citadel for himself.
Our influence depends to a great extent on the standing
we secure, on the courage and talent we show in
making good our place. Our personality must enlarge
itself, make itself visible by the conquest we effect and
the extent of affairs we have a right to control. Effort
on this line needs not be selfish or egoistic in a bad
sense. The higher self or spirit of a good man finds
l6 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.
in chosen ranges of activity and possession its true
development and calling. One may not be a worldling
by any means while he follows the bent of his genius
and uses opportunity to become a successful merchant,
a public administrator, a great artist or man of letters.
All that he adds to his native inheritance of hand,
brain and soul should be and often is the means of
enriching the world. Against the false doctrine of
self-suppression, still urged on a perplexed generation,
stands this true doctrine, by which the generous helper
of men guides his life so as to become a king and priest
unto God. And when we turn from persons of highest
character and talent to those of smaller capacity, we may
not alter the principle of judgment. They, too, serve
the world, in so far as they have good qualities, by con-
quering citadels and reigning where they are fit to reign.
If a man is to live to any purpose, play must be given to
his original vigour, however much or little there is of it.
Here, then, we find a necessity belonging to the
spiritual no less than to the earthly life. But there lies
close beside it the shadow of temptation and sin.
Thousands of people put forth all their strength to
gain a fortress for themselves, leaving others to fight
the sons of Anak — the intemperance, the unchastity, the
atheism of the time. Instead of triumphing over the
earthly, they are ensnared and enslaved. The truth is,
that a safe position for ourselves we cannot have while
those sens of Anak ravage the country around. The
Divine call therefore often requires of us that we leave a
Jerusalem unconquered for ourselves, while we pass on
with the hosts of God to do battle with the public enemy.
Time after time Israel, though successful at Hebron,
missed the secret and learnt in bitter sadness and loss
how near is the shadow to the glory.
i.i-ii.] PROBLEMS OF SETTLEMENT AND WAR. 17
And for any one to-day, what profits it to be a
wealthy man, living in state with all the appliances of
amusement and luxury, well knowing, but not choosing
to share the great conflicts between religion and un-
godliness, between purity and vice? If the ignorance
and woe of our fellow-creatures do not draw our hearts,
if we seek our own things as loving our own, if the
spiritual does not command us, we shall certainly lose
all that makes life — enthusiasm, strength, eternal joy.
Give us men who fling themselves into the great
struggle, doing what they can with Christ-born ardour,
foot soldiers if nothing else in the army of the Lord
of Righteousness.
II.
THE WAY OF THE SWORD,
Judges i. 12-26,
THE name Kiriath-sepher, that is Book-Town, has
been supposed to point to the existence of a
semi-popular hterature among the pre-Judeean inhabi-
tants of Canaan. We cannot build with any certainty
upon a name ; but there are other facts of some signili-
cance. Already the Phoenicians, the merchants of the
age, some of whom no doubt visited Kiriath-sepher on
their way to Arabia or settled in it, had in their dealings
with Egypt begun to use that alphabet to which most
languages, from Hebrew and Aramaic on through Greek
and Latin to our own, are indebted for the idea and
shapes of letters. And it is not improbable that an
old-world Phoenician library of skins, palm-leaves or
inscribed tablets had given distinction to this town
lying away towards the desert from Hebron. Written
words were held in half-superstitious veneration, and
a very few records would greatly impress a district
peopled chiefly by wandering tribes.
Nothing is insignificant in the pages of the Bible,
nothing is to be disregarded that throws the least light
UDor human aifairs and Divine Providence ; and here
we nave a suggestion of no slight importance. Doubt
has been cast on the existence of a written language
i. 12-26.] THE WAY OF THE SWORD. 19
among the Hebrews till centuries after the Exodus.
It has been denied that the Law could have been
written out by Moses. The difficulty is now seen to
be imaginary, like many others that have been raised.
It is certain that the Phoenicians trading to Egypt in
the time of the Hyksos kings had settlements quite
contiguous to Goshen. What more likely than that
the Hebrews, who spoke a language akin to the Phoe-
nician, should have shared the discovery of letters
almost from the first, and practised the art of writing in
the days of their favour with the monarchs of the Nile
valley ? The oppression of the following period might
prevent the spread of letters among the people ; but a
man like Moses must have seen their value and made
himself familiar with their use. The importance of
this indication in the study of Hebrew law and faith is
very plain. Nor should we fail to notice the interest-
ing connection between the Divine lawgiving of Moses
and the practical invention of a worldly race. There
is no exclusiveness in the providence of Go'd. The
art of a people, acute and eager indeed, but without
spirituality, is not rejected as profane by the inspired
leader of Israel. Egyptians and Phoenicians have their
share in originating that culture which mingles its
stream with sacred revelation and religion. As, long
afterwards, there came the printing-press, a product of
human skill and science, and by its help the Refor-
mation spread and grew and filled Europe with new
thought, so for the early record of God's work and will
human genius furnished the fit instrument. Letters
and religion, culture and faith must needs go hand in
hand. The more the minds of men are trained, the
more deftly they can use literature and science, the
more able they should be to receive and convey the
THE BOOK OF JUDGES.
spiritual message which the Bible contains. Culture
which does not have this effect betrays its own petti-
ness and parochialism ; and when we are provoked to
ask whether human learning is not a foe to religion,
the reason must be that the favourite studies of the
time are shallow, aimless and ignoble.
Kiriath-sepher has to be taken. Its inhabitants,
strongly entrenched, threaten the people who are
settling about Hebron and must be subdued ; and
Caleb, who has come to his possession, adopts a
common expedient for rousing the ambitious young
men of the tribe. He has a daughter, and marriage
with her shall reward the man who takes the fortress.
It is not likely that Achsah objected. A courageous
and capable husband was, we may say, a necessity, and
her father's proposal offered a practical way of settling
her in safety and comfort. Customs which appear to
us barbarous and almost insulting have no doubt
justified themselves to the common-sense, if not fully to
the desires of women, because they were suited to the
exigencies of life in rude and stormy times. There is
this also, that the conquest of Kiriath-sepher was part
of the great task in which Israel was engaged, and
Achsah, as a patriotic daughter of Abraham, would feel
the pride of being able to reward a hero of the sacred
war. To the degree in which she was a woman of
character this would balance other considerations.
Still the custom is not an ideal one ; there is too much
uncertainty. While the rivalry for her hand is going
on the maiden has to wait at home, wondering what
her fate shall be, instead of helping to decide it by her
own thought and action. The young man, again, does
not commend himself by honour, but only by courage
i. 12-26.] THE WAY OF THE SWORD. 21
and skill. Yet the test is real, so far as it goes, and
fits the time.
Achsah, no doubt, had her preference and her hope,
though she dared not speak of them. As for modern
feeling, it is professedly on the side of the heart in such
a case, and modern literature, with a thousand deft
illustrations, proclaims the right of the heart to its
choice. We call it a barbarous custom, the disposition
of a woman by her father, apart from her preference,
to one who does him or the community a service ; and
although Achsah consented, we feel that she was a
slave. No doubt the Hebrew wife in her home had a
place of influence and power, and a woman might even
come to exercise authority among the tribes ; but, to
begin with, she was under authority and had to subdue
her own wishes in a manner we consider quite incom-
patible with the rights of a human being. Very slowly
do the customs of marriage even in Israel rise from the
rudeness of savage life. Abraham and Sarah, long
before this, lived on something like equality, he k prince,
she a princess. But what can be said of Hagar, a
concubine outside the home-circle, who might be sent
any day into the wilderness ? David and Solomon
afterwards can marry for state reasons, can take, in
pure Oriental fashion, the one his tens, the other his
hundreds of wives and concubines. Polygamy survives
for many a century. When that is seen to be evil,
there remains to men a freedom of divorce which of
necessity keeps women in a low and unhonoured
state.
Yet, thus treated, woman has always duties of the
first importance, on which the moral health and vigour
of the race depend ; and right nobly must many a
Hebrew wife and mother have fulfilled the trust. It
THE BOOK OF JUDGES.
is a pathetic story ; but now, perhaps, we are in sight
of an age when the injustice done to women may be
replaced by an injustice they do to themselves. Liberty
is their right, but the old duties remain as great as ever.
If neither patriotism, nor religion, nor the home is to
be regarded, but mere taste ; if freedom becomes license
to know and enjoy, there will be another slavery worse
than the former. Without a very keen sense of Chris-
tian honour and obligation among women, their enfran-
chisement will be the loss of what has held society
together and made nations strong. And looking at the
way in which marriage is frequently arranged by the
free consent and determination of women, is there much
advance on the old barbarism ? How often do they
sell themselves to the fortunate, rather than reserve
themselves for the fit ; how often do they marry not
because a helpmeet of the soul has been found, but
because audacity has won them or jewels have dazzled ;
because a fireside is offered, not because the ideal of
life may be realized. True, in the worldliness there is a
strain of moral effort often pathetic enough. Women
are skilful at making the best of circumstances, and
even when the gilding fades from the life they have
chosen they will struggle on with wonderful resolution
to maintain something like order and beauty. The
Othniel who has gained Achsah by some feat of
mercantile success or showy talk may turn out a poor
pretender to bravery or wit ; but she will do her best
for him, cover up his faults, beg springs of water or
even dig them with her own hands. Let men thank
God that it is so, and let them help her to find her
1 ight place, her proper kingdom and liberty.
There is another aspect of the picture, however, as
it unfolds itself. The success of Othniel in his attack
i. 12-26.] THE IV A Y OF THE SWORD. 23
on Kiriath-sepher gave him at once a good place as a
leader, and a wife who was ready to make his interests
her own and help him to social position and wealth.
Her first care was to acquire a piece of land suitable
for the flocks and herds she saw in prospect, well
watered if possible, — in short, an excellent sheep-farm.
Returning from the bridal journey, she had her stratagem
ready, and when she came near her father's tent
followed up her husband's request for the land by
h'ghting eagerly from her ass, taking for granted the
one gift, and pressing a further petition — " Give me a
blessing, father. A south land thou hast bestowed,
give me also wells of water." So, without more ado,
the new Kenazite homestead was secured.
How Jewish, we may be disposed to say. May we
not also say. How thoroughly British ? The virtue of
Achsah, is it not the virtue of a true British wife ? To
urge her husband on and up in the social scale, to aid
him in every point of the contest for wealth and place,
to raise him and rise with him, what can 'be more
admirable ? Are there opportunities of gaining the
favour of the powerful who have offices to give, the
liking of the wealthy who have fortunes to bequeath ?
The managing wife will use these opportunities with
address and courage. She will light off her ass and
bow humbly before a flattered great man to whom she
prefers a request. She can fit her words to the occasion
and her smiles to the end in view. It is a poor spirit
that is content with anything short of all that may be
had : thus in brief she might express her principle of
duty. And so in ten thousand homes there is no ques-
tion whether marriage is a failure. It has succeeded.
There is a combination of man's strength and woman's
wit for the great end of " getting on." And in ten thou-
THE BOOK OF JUDGES.
sand others there is no thought more constantly present
to the minds of husband and wife than that marriage
is a failure. For restless ingenuity and many schemes
have yielded nothing. The husband has been too slow
or too honest, and the wife has been foiled ; or, on the
other hand, the woman has not seconded the man, has
not risen with him. She has kept him down by her
failings ; or she is the same simple-minded, homely
person he wedded long ago, no fit mate, of course, for
one who is the companion of magnates and rulers.
Well may those who long for a reformation begin by
seeking a return to simplicity of life and the relish for
other kinds of distinction than lavish outlay and social
notoriety can give. Until married ambition is fed and
hallowed at the Christian altar there will be the same
failures we see now, and the same successes which
are worse than " failures."
For a moment the history gives us a glimpse of
another domestic settlement. "The children of the
Kenite went up from the City of Palm Trees with the
children of Judah," and found a place of abode on the
southern fringe of Simeon's territory, and there they
seem to have gradually mingled with the tent-dwellers
of the desert. By-and-by we shall find one Heber the
Kenite in a different part of the land, near the Sea of
Galilee, still in touch with the Israelites to some extent,
while his people are scattered. Heber may have felt
the power of Israel's mission and career and judged it
wise to separate from those who had no interest in the
tribes of Jehovah. The Kenites of the south appear in
the history like men upon a raft, once borne near shore,
virho fail to seize the hour of deliverance and are carried
away again to the wastes of sea. They are part of the
i. 12-26.] THE WAY OF THE SIVORD. 25
drifting population that surrounds the Hebrew church,
type of the drifting multitude who in the nomadism of
modern society are for a time seen in our Christian
assemblies, then pass away to mingle with the careless.
An innate restlessness and a want of serious purpose
mark the class. To settle these wanderers in orderly
religious life seems almost impossible ; we can perhaps
only expect to sow among them seeds of good, and to
make them feel a Divine presence restraining from evil.
The assertion of personal independence in our day has
no doubt much to do with impatience of church bonds
and habits of worship ; and it must not be forgotten
that this is a phase of growing life needing forbear-
ance no less than firm example.
Zephath was the next fortress against which Judah
and Simeon directed their arms. When the tribes
were in the desert on their long and difficult march
they attempted first to enter Canaan from the south,
and actually reached the neighbourhood of this town.
But, as we read in the Book of Numbers, Arad the king
of Zephath fought against them and took some of them
prisoners. The defeat appears to have been serious,
for, arrested and disheartened by it, Israel turned
southward again, and after a long detour reached
Canaan another way. In the passage in Numbers the
overthrow of Zephath is described by anticipation ;
in Judges we have the account in its proper historical
place. The people whom Arad ruled were, we may
suppose, an Edomite clan living partly by merchandise,
mainly by foray, practised marauders, with difficulty
guarded against, who having taken their prey disap-
peared swiftly amongst the hills.
In the world of thought and feeling there are many
26 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.
Zephaths,' whence quick outset is often made upon the
faith and hope of men. We are pressing towards some
end, mastering difficulties, contending with open and
known enemies. Only a little way remains before us.
But invisible among the intricacies of experience is
this lurking foe who suddenly falls upon us. It is a
settlement in the faith of God we seek. The onset is
of doubts we had not imagined, doubts of inspiration,
of immortality, of the incarnation, truths the most vital.
We are repulsed, broken, disheartened. There remains
a new wilderness journey till we reach by the way of
Moab the fords of our Jordan and the land of our
inheritance. Yet there is a way, sure and appointed.
The bafrled, wounded soul is never to despair. And
when at length the settlement of faith is won, the
Zephath of doubt may be assailed from the other side,
assailed successfully and taken. The experience of
some poor victims of what is oddly called philosophic
doubt need dismay no one. For the resolute seeker
after God there is always a victory, which in the end
may prove so easy, so complete, as to amaze him. The
captured Zephath is not destroyed nor abandoned, but
is held as a fortress of faith. It becomes Hormah —
the Consecrated.
Victories were gained by Judah in the land of the
Philistines, partial victories, the results of which were
not kept. Gaza, Ashkelon, Ekron were occupied for a
time ; but Philistine force and doggedness recovered,
apparently in a few years, the captured towns.
Wherever they had their origin, these Philistines were
a strong and stubborn race, and so different from the
Israelites in habit and language that they never freely
mingled nor even lived peaceably with the tribes. At
i. 12-26.] THE WAY OF THE SWORD. 27
this time they were probably forming their settlements
on the Mediterranean seaboard, and were scarcely able
to resist the men of Judah, But ship after ship from
over sea, perhaps from Crete, brought new colonists ;
and during the whole period till the Captivity they were
a thorn in the side of the Hebrews. Beside these,
there were other dwellers in the lowlands, who were
equipped in a way that made it difficult to meet them.
The most vehement sally of men on foot could not
break the line of iron chariots, thundering over the
plain. It was in the hill districts that the tribes gained
their surest footing, — a singular fact, for mountain people
are usually hardest to defeat and dispossess ; and we
take it as a sign of remarkable vigour that the invaders
so soon occupied the heights.
Here the spiritual parallel is instructive. Conversion,
it may be said, carries the soul with a rush to the high
ground of faith. The Great Leader has gone before
preparing the way. We cHmb rapidly to fortresses
from which the enemy has fled, and it would §eem that
victory is complete. But the Christian life is a constant
alternation between the joy of the conquered height
and the stern battles of the foe-infested plain. Worldly
custom and sensuous desire, greed and envy and base
appetite have their cities and chariots in the low ground
of being. So long as one of them remains the victory
of faith is unfinished, insecure. Piety that believes
itself delivered once for all from conflict is ever on the
verge of disaster. The peace and joy men cherish,
while as yet the earthly nature is unsubdued, the very
citadels of it unreconnoitred, are visionary and relaxing.
For the soul and for society the only salvation lies in
mortal combat — life-long, age-long combat with the
earthly and the false. Nooks enough may be found
28 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.
among the hills, pleasant and calm, from which the
low ground cannot be seen, where the roll of the iron
chariots is scarcely heard. It may seem to imperil all
if we descend from these retreats. But when we have
gained strength in the mountain air it is for the battle
down below, it is that we may advance the lines of
redeemed life and gain new bases for sacred enterprise.
A mark of the humanness and, shall we not also
say, the divineness of this history is to be found in
the frequent notices of other tribes than those of Israel.
To the inspired writer it is not all the same whether
Canaanites die or live, what becomes of Phoenicians or
Philistines. Of this we have two examples, one the
case of the Jebusites, the other of the people of Luz.
The Jebusites, after the capture of the lower city
already recorded, appear to have been left in peaceful
possession of their citadel and accepted as neighbours
by the Benjamites. When the Book of Judges was
written Jebusite families still remained, and in David's
time Araunah the Jebusite was a conspicuous figure.
A series of terrible events connected with the history
of Benjamin is narrated towards the end of the Book.
It is impossible to say whether the crime which led to
these events was in any way due to bad influence
exercised by the Jebusites. We may charitably doubt
whether it was. There is no indication that they were
a depraved people. If they had been licentious they
could scarcely have retained till David's time a strong-
hold so central and of so much consequence in the land.
They were a mountain clan, and Araunah shows himself
in contact with David a reverend and kingly person.
- As for Bethel or Luz, around which gathered notable
associations of Jacob's life, Ephraim, in whose territory
i. 12-26.] THE WAY OF THE SWORD. 29
it lay, adopted a stratagem in order to master it, and
smote the city. One family alone, the head of which
had betrayed the place, was allowed to depart in peace,
and a new Luz was founded " in the land of the
Hittites." We are inclined to regard the traitor as
deserving of death, and Ephraim appears to us dis-
graced, not honoured, by its exploit. There is a fair,
straightforward way of fighting ; but this tribe, one of
the strongest, chooses a mean and treacherous method
of gaining its end. Are we mistaken in thinking that
the care with which the founding of the new city is
described shows the writer's sympathy with the Luz-
zites ? At any rate, he does not by one word justify
Ephraim ; and we do not feel called on to restrain our
indignation.
The high ideal of life, how often it fades from our
view ! There are times when we realize our Divine
calling, when the strain of it is felt and the soul is on
fire with sacred zeal. We press on, fight on, true to
the highest we know at every step. We are chivalrous,
for we see the chivalry of Christ; we are tender and
faithful, for we see His tenderness and faithfulness.
Then we make progress ; the goal can almost be
touched. We love, and love bears us on. We aspire,
and the world glows with light. But there comes a
change. The thought of self-preservation, of selfish
gain, has intruded. On pretext of serving God we are
hard to man, we keep back the truth, we use compro-
mises, we descend even to treachery and do things
which in another are abominable to us. So the fervour
departs, the light fades from the world, the goal recedes,
becomes invisible. Most strange of all is it that side
by side with cultured religion there can be proud
t;ophistry and ignorant scorn, the very treachery of the
30 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.
intellect towards man. Far away in the dimness of
Israel's early days we see the beginnings of a pious
inhumanity, that may well make us stay to fear lest
the like should be growing among ourselves. It is not
what men claim, much less what they seize and hold,
that does them honour. Here and there a march may
be stolen on rivals by those who firmly believe they
are serving God. But the rights of a man, a tribe, a
church lie side by side with duties; and neglect of
duty destroys the claim to what otherwise would be a
right. Let there be no mistake : power and gain are
not allowed in the providence of God to anyone that
he may grasp them in despite of justice or charity.
One thought may link the various episodes we have
considered. It is that of the end for which individu-
ality exists. The home has its development of personality
— for service. The peace and joy of religion nourish
the soul — for service. Life may be conquered in
various regions, and a man grow fit for ever greater
victories, ever nobler service. But with the end the
means and spirit of each effort are so interwoven that
alike in home, and church, and society the human soul
must move in uttermost faithfulness and simplicity or
fail from the Divine victor}' that wins the prize.
III.
4r BOCHIMt "^i^S FIRST PROPHET VOICE.
JuLvvs ii. 1-5.
1^ ClOM the time of AL/aham on to the settlement in
Canaan the Israelites had kept the faith of the
one God. They had their origin as a people in a
decisive revolt against polytheism. Of the great
Semite forefather of the Jiiwish people, it has been
finely said, " He bore upon his forehead the seal of
the Absolute God, upon v^hich was written, This
race will rid the earth of superstition." The cha-
racter and structure of the Hebrew tongue resisted
idolatry. It was not an imaginative language ; it had
no mythological colour. We who have inherited an
ancient culture of quite another kind do not think it
strange to read or sing :
"Hail, smiling morn, that tip'si the hills with gold.
Whose rosy fingers ope the gates of day,
Who the gay face of nature dost unfold,
At whose bright presence darkness flies away.*
These lines, however, are full of latent mythology.
The " smiling morn " is Aurora, the darkness that flies
away before the dawn is the Erebus of the Greeks.
Nothing of this sort was possible in Hebrew literature.
In it all change, all life, every natural incident are
ascribed to the will and power of one Supreme Being.
32 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.
"Jehovah thundered in the heavens and the Highest
gave His voice, hailstones and coals of fire." " By the
breath of God ice is given, and the breadth of the
Vi^aters is straitened." " Behold, He spreadeth His
light around Him ; ... He covereth His hands with
the lightning." " Thou makest darkness and it is
night." Always in forms like these Hebrew poetry sets
forth the control of natuie by its invisible King. The
pious word of Fenelon, "What do I see in nature?
God ; God everywhere ; God alone," had its germ, its
very substance, in the faith and language of patriarchal
times.
There are some who allege that this simple faith
in one God, sole Origin and Ruler of nature and life,
impoverished the thought and speech of the Hebrews.
It was in reality the spring and safeguard of their
spiritual destiny. Their very language was a sacred
inheritance and preparation. From age to age it
served a Divine purpose in maintaining the idea of the
unity of God ; and the power of that idea never failed
their prophets nor passed from the soul of the race.
The whole of Israel's literature sets forth the universal
sway and eternal righteousness of Him who dwells
in the high and lofty place. Whose name is Holy. In
canto and strophe of the great Divine Poem, the glory
of the One Supreme burns with increasing clearness,
till in Christ its finest radiance flashes upon the world.
While the Hebrews were in Egypt, the faith inherited
from patriarchal times must have been sorely tried, and,
all circumstances considered, it came forth wonderfully
pure. "The Israelites saw Egypt as the Mussulman
Arab sees pagan countries, entirely from the outside,
perceiving only the surface and external things." They
indeed carried with them into the desert the recollection
ii.i-S] AT nOCniM : THE TlRST PROPHET VOICE. 33
of the sacred bulls or calves of which they had seen
images at Hathor and Memphis. But the idol they
made at Horeb was intended to represent their Deliverer,
the true God, and the swift and stern repression by
Moses of that symbolism and its pagan incidents
appears to have been effectual. The tribes reached
Canaan substantially free from idolatr}', though tera-
phim or fetishes may have been used in secret with
magical ceremonies. The religion of the people gene-
rally was far from spiritual, yet there was a real faith
in Jehovah as the protector of the national life, the
guardian of justice and truth. From this there was no
falling away when the Reubenites and Gadites on the
east of Jordan erected an altar for themselves. " The
Lord God of gods," they said, " He knoweth, and Israel
he shall know if it be in rebellion, or if in transgression
against the Lord." The altar was called Ed, a witness
between east and west that the faith of the one Living
God was still to unite the tribes.
But the danger to Israel's fidelity came when there
began to be intercourse with the people of Canaan, now
sunk from the purer thought of early times. Every-
where in the land of the Hittites and Amorites, Hivites
and Jebusites, there were altars and sacred trees, pillars
and images used in idolatrous worship. The ark and
the altar of Divine religion, established first at Gilgal
near Jericho, afterwards at Bethel and then at Shiloh,
could not be frequently visited, especially by those who
settled towards the southern desert and in the far
north. Yet the necessity for religious worship of some
kind was constantly felt ; and as afterwards the syna-
gogues gave opportunity for devotional gatherings
when the Temple could not be reached, so in the earlier
time there came to be sacred observances on elevated
3
34 THE BOOK OF JUDGES
places, a windy threshing-floor, or a hill-top already used
for heathen sacrifice. Hence, on the one hand, there
was the danger that worship might be entirely neglected,
on the other hand the grave risk that the use of heathen
occasions and meeting-places should lead to heathen
ritual, and those who came together on the hill of Baal
should forget Jehovah. It was the latter evil that
grew; and while as yet only a few Hebrews easily
led astray had approached with kid or lamb a pagan
altar, the alarm was raised. At Bochim a Divine
warning was uttered which found echo in the hearts
of the people.
There appears to have been a great gathering of the
tribes at some spot near Bethel. We see the elders
and heads of families holding council of war and
administration, the thoughts of all bent on conquest
and family settlement. Religion, the purity of Jehovah's
worship, are forgotten in the business of the hour.
How shall the tribes best help each other in the
struggle that is already proving more arduous than
they expected ? Dan is sorely pressed by the Amorites.
The chiefs of the tribe are here telling their story of
hardship among the mountains. The Asherites have
failed in their attack upon the sea-board towns Accho
and Achzib ; in vain have they pressed towards Zidon.
They are dwelling among the Canaan ites and may soon
be reduced to slavery. The reports from other tribes
are more hopeful; but everywhere the people of the
land are hard to overcome. Should Israel not remain
content for a time, make the best of circumstances,
cultivate friendly intercourse with the population it
cannot dispossess ? Such a policy often commends
itself to those who would be thought prudent; it is
apt to prove a fatal policy.
ii.l-5.] AT BOCIIIM: THE FIRST PROniET VOICE. 35
Suddenly a spiritual voice is heard, clear and intense,
and all others are silent. From the sanctuary of God
at Gilgal one comes whom the people have not ex-
pected ; he comes with a message they cannot choose
but hear. It is a prophet with the burden of reproof
and warning. Jehovah's goodness, Jehovah's claim are
declared with Divine ardour ; with Divine severity the
neglect of the covenant is condemned. Have the tribes
of God begun to consort with the people of the land ?
Are they already dwelling content under the shadow of
idolatrous groves, in sight of the symbols of Ashtoreth ?
Are they learning to swear by Baal and Melcarth and
looking on while sacrifices are offered to these vile
masters ? Then they can no longer hope that Jehovah
will give them the country to enjoy ; the heathen shall
remain as thorns in the side of Israel and their gods
shall be a snare. It is a message of startling power.
From the hopes of dominion and the plans of worldly
gain the people pass to spiritual concern. They have
offended their Lord ; His countenance is turited from
them. A feeling of guilt falls on the assembly. " It came
to pass that the people lifted up their voice and wept."
This lamentation at Bochim is the second note of
religious feeling and faith in the Book of Judges. The
first is the consultation of the priests and the oracle
referred to in the opening sentence of the book.
Jehovah Who had led them through the wilderness was
their King, and unless He went forth as the unseen
Captain of the host no success could be looked for.
" They asked of Jehovah, saying, Who shall go up for
us first against the Canaanites, to fight against them ? "
In this appeal there was a measure of faith which is
neither to be scorned nor suspected. The question
36 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.
indeed was not whether they should fight at all, but
how they should fight so as to succeed, and their trust
was in a God thought of as pledged to them, solely
concerned for them. So far accordingly there is nothing
exemplary in the circumstances. Yet we find a lesson
for Christian nations. There are many in our modern
parliaments who are quite ready to vote national prayer
in war-time and thanksgiving for victories, who yet
would never think, before undertaking a war, of con-
^sulting those best qualified to interpret the Divine will.
The relation between religion and the state has this fatal
hitch, that however Christian our governments profess
to be, the Christian thinkers of the country are not
consulted on moral questions, not even on a question
so momentous as that of war. It is passion, pride, or
diplomacy, never the wisdom of Christ, that leads nations
in the critical moments of their history. Who then
scorn, who suspect the early Hebrew belief? Those
only who have no right ; those who as they laugh at
God and faith shut themselves from the knowledge
by which alone life can be understood ; and, again,
those who in their own ignorance and pride unsheathe
the sword without reference to Him in Whom they
profess to believe. We admit none of these to criticise
Israel and its faith.
At Bochira, where the second note of religious feeling
is struck, a deeper and clearer note, we find the prophet
listened to. He revives the sense of duty, he kindles
a Divine sorrow in the hearts of the people. The
national assembly is conscience-stricken. Let us
allow this quick contrition to be the result, in part,
cf superstitious fear. Very rarely is spiritual concern
quite pure. In general it is the consequences of trans-
gression rather than the evil of it that press on the
ii. 1-5-] ATBOCHIM: THE FIRST PROPHET VOICE. 37
minds of men. Forebodings of trouble and calamity
are more commonly causes of sorrow than the loss of
fellowship with God ; and if we know this to be the
case with many who are convicted of sin under the
preaching of the gospel, we cannot wonder to find the
penitence of old Hebrew times mingled with supersti-
tion. Nevertheless, the people are aware of the broken
covenant, burdened with a sense that they have lost
the favour of their unseen Guide. There can be no
doubt that the realization of sin and of justice turned
against them is one cause of their tears.
Here, again, if there is a difference between Israel
and Christian nations, it is not in favour of the latter.
Are modern senates ever overcome by conviction of
sin ? Those who are in power seem to have no fear
that they may do wrong. Glorifying their blunders
and forgetting their errors, they find no occasion for
self-reproach, no need to sit in sackcloth and ashes.
Now and then, indeed, a day of fasting and humiliation
is ordered and observed in state ; the sincere Christian
for his part feeling how miserably formal it is, how
far from the spontaneous expression of abasement and
remorse. God is called upon to help a people who
have not considered their ways, who design no amend-
ment, who have not even suspected that the Divine
blessing may come in still further humbling. And
turning to private life, is there not as much of self-
justification, as little of real humility and faith ? The
shallow nature of popular Christianity is seen here,
that so few can read in disappointment and privation
anything but disaster, or submit without disgust and
rebellion to take a lower place at the table of Providence.
Our weeping is so often for what we longed to gain or
wished to keep in the earthly and temporal region, so
38 THE BOOK OF [UDGES.
seldom for what we have lost or should fear to lose
in the spiritual. We grieve when we should rather
rejoice that God has made us feel our need of Him,
and called us again to our true blessedness.
The scene at Bochim connects itself very notably
with one nine hundred and fifty years later. The poor
fragments of the exiled tribes have been gathered again
in the land of their fathers. They are rebuilding Jeru-
salem and the Temple. Ezra has led back a company
from Babylon and has brought with him, by the
favour of Artaxerxes, no small treasure of silver and
gold for the house of God. To his astonishment and
grief he hears the old tale of alliance with the inhabi-
tants of the land, intermarriage even of Levites, priests
and princes of Israel with women of the Canaanite
races. In the new settlement of Palestine the error
of the first is repeated. Ezra calls a solemn assembly
in the Temple court — "every one that trembles at the
words of the God of Israel." Till the evening sacrifice
he sits prostrate with grief, his garment rent, his hair
torn and dishevelled. Then on his knees before the
Lord he spreads forth his hands in prayer. The tres-
passes of a thousand years afflict him, afflict the faithful.
"After all that is come upon us for our evil deeds,
shall we again break Thy commandments, and join in
affinity with the peoples that do these abominations ?
wouldest not Thou be angry with us till Thou hadst
consumed us so that there should be no remnant nor
any to escape ? . . . Behold we are before Thee in
our guiltiness; for none can stand before Thee because
of this." The impressive lament of Ezra and those
who join in his confessions draws together a great
congregation, and the people weep very sore.
ii. 1-5.] AT BOCHIM: THE FIRST PROrHET VOICE. 39
Nine centuries and a half appear a long time in the
history of a nation. What has been gained during the
period ? Is the weeping at Jerusalem in Ezra's time,
like the weeping at Bochim, a mark of no deeper feeling,
no keener penitence ? Has there been religious advance
commensurate with the discipline of suffering, defeat,
slaughter and exile, dishonoured kings, a wasted land ?
Have the prophets not achieved anything ? Has not
the Temple in its glory, in its desolation, spoken of a
Heavenly power, a Divine rule, the sense of which enter-
ing the souls of the people has established piety, or at
least a habit of separateness from heathen manners and
life ? It may be hard to distinguish and set forth the
gain of those centuries. But it is certain that while the
weeping at Bochim was the sign of a fear that soon
passed away, the weeping in the Temple court marked
a new beginning in Hebrew history. By the strong
action of Ezra and Nehemiah the mixed marriages
were dissolved, and from that time the Jewish people
became, as they never were before, exclusive and
separate. Where nature would have led the nation
ceased to go. More and more strictly the law was
enforced ; the age of puritanism began. So, let us say,
the sore discipline had its fruit.
And yet it is with a reservation only we can enjoy
the success of those reformers who drew the sharp line
between Israel and his heathen neighbours, between
Jew and Gentile. The vehemence of reaction urged
the nation towards another error — Pharisaism. Nothing
could be purer, nothing nobler than the desire to make
Israel a holy people. But to inspire men with religious
zeal and yet preserve them from spiritual pride is
always difficult, and in truth those Hebrew reformers
did not see the danger. There came to be, in the
40 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.
new development of faith, zeal enough, jealousy enough,
for the purity of religion and life, but along with these
a contempt for the heathen, a fierce enmity towards the
uncircumcised, which made the interval till Christ
appeared a time of strife and bloodshed worse than any
that had been before. From the beginning the Hebrews
were called with a holy calling, and their future was
bound up with their faithfulness to it. Their ideal was
to be earnest and pure, without bitterness or vainglory ;
and that is still the ideal of faith. But the Jewish
people like ourselves, weak through the flesh, came
short of the mark on one side or passed beyond it
on the other. During the long period from Joshua to
Nehemiah there was too little heat, and then a fire
was kindled which burned a sharp narrow path, along
which the life of Israel has gone with ever-lessening
spiritual force. The unfulfilled ideal still waits, the
unique destiny of this people of God still bears them
on.
Bochim is a symbol. There the people wept for a
transgression but half understood and a peril they could
not rightly dread. There was genuine sorrow, there
was genuine alarm. But it was the prophetic word,
not personal experience, that moved the assembly. And
as at Florence, when Savonarola's word, shaking with
alarm a people who had no vision of holiness, left them
morally weaker as it fell into silence, so the weeping
at Bochim passed like a tempest that has bowed and
broken the forest trees. The chiefs of Israel returned
to their settlements with a new sense of duty and peril ;
but Canaanite civilization had attractions, Canaanite
women a refinement which captivated the heart. And
the civilization, the refinement, were associated with
idolatry. The myths of Canaan, the poetry of Tammuz
ii. i-S.] AT BOCIILM: THE FIRST PROPHET VOICE. 41
and Astarte, were fascinating and seductive. We
wonder not that the pure faith of God was corrupted,
but that it survived. In Eg^^pt the heathen worship
was in a foreign tongue, but in Canaan the stories of
the gods were whispered to Israehtes in a language
they knew, by their own kith and kin. In many a
home among the mountains of Ephraim or the skirts of
Lebanon the pagan wife, with her superstitious fears,
her dread of the anger of this god or that goddess,
wrought so on the mind of the Jewish husband that
he began to feel her dread and then to permit and
share her sacrifices. Thus idolatry invaded Israel,
and the long and weary struggle between truth and
falsehood began.
We have spoken of Bochim as a symbol, and to us
it may be the symbol of this, that the very thing which
men put from them in horror and with tears, seeing
the evil, the danger of it, does often insinuate itself
into their lives. The messenger is heard, and while
he speaks how near God is, how awful is the. sense
of His being ! A thrill of keen feeling passes from soul
to soul. There are some in the gathering who have
more spiritual insight than the rest, and their presence
raises the heat of emotion. But the moment of reve-
lation and of fervour passes, the company breaks
up, and very soon those who have won no vision of
holiness, who have only feared as they entered into
the cloud, are in the common world again. The finer
strings of the soul were made to thrill, the conscience
was touched ; but if the will has not been braced, if the
man's reason and resoluteness are not engaged by a
new conception of life, the earthly will resume control
and God will be less known than before. So there are
many cast down to-day, crying to God in trouble of
42 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.
soul for- evil done or evil which they are tempted to
do, who to-morrow among the Canaanites will see
things in another light. A man cannot be a recluse.
He must mingle in business and in society with those
who deride the thoughts that have moved him and
laugh at his seriousness. The impulse to something
better soon exhausts itself in this cold atmosphere.
He turns upon his own emotion with contempt. The
words that came with Divine urgency, the man whose
face was like that of an angel of God, are already
subjects of uneasy jesting, will soon be thrust from
memory. Over the interlude of superficial anxiety the
mind goes back to its old haunts, its old plans and
cravings. The religious teacher, while he is often in no
way responsible for this sad recoil, should yet be ever
on his guard against the risk of weakening the moral
fibre, of leaving men as Christ never left them, flaccid
and infirm.
Again, there are cases that belong not to the history
of a day, but to the history of a life. One may say,
when he hears the strangely tempting voices that
whisper in the twilight streets, "Am I a dog that
from the holy traditions of my people and country I
should fall away to these ? " At first he flies the dis-
tasteful entreaty of the new nature-cult, its fleshly art
and song, its nefarious science. But the voices are
persistent. It is the perfecting of man and woman to
which they invite. It is not vice but freedom, bright-
ness, life and the courage to enjoy it they cunningly
propose. There is not much of sweetness ; the voices
rise, they become stringent and overbearing. If the
man would not be a fool, would not lose the good of
the age into which he is born, he will be done with
unnatural restraints, the bondage of purity. Thus
ii.i-S.] AT BOCHIMi THE FIRST PROPHET VOICE. 43
entreaty passes into mastery. Here is truth ; there
also seems to be fact. Little by little the subtle argu-
ment is so advanced that the degradation once feared
is no longer to be seen. It is progress now ; it is
full development, the assertion of power and privilege,
that the soul anticipates. How fatal is the lure, how
treacherous the vision, the man discovers when he has
parted with that which even through deepest penitence
he may never regain. People are denying, and it has
to be reasserted that there is a covenant which the
soul of man has to keep with God. The thought is
" archaic," and they would banish it. But it stands
the great reality for man ; and to keep that covenant
in the grace of the Divine Spirit, in the love of the
holiest, in the sacred manliness learned of Christ, is the
only way to the broad daylight and the free summits
of life. How can nature be a saviour ? The sugges-
tion is childish. Nature, as we all know, allows the
hypocrite, the swindler, the traitor, as well as the brave,
honest man, the pure, sweet woman. Is it said that
man has a covenant with nature ? On the temporal
and prudential side of his activities that is true. He
has relations with nature which must be apprehended,
must be wisely realised. But the spiritual kingdom to
which he belongs requires a wider outlook, loftier aims
and hopes. The efforts demanded by nature have to
be brought into harmony with those diviner aspirations.
Man is bound to be prudent, brave, wise for eternity.
He is warned of his own sin and urged to fly from it.
This is the covenant with God which is wrought into
the very constitution of his moral being.
It would be a mistake to suppose that the scene at
Bochim and the words which moved the assembly to
44 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.
tears had no lasting effect whatever. The history deals
with outstanding facts of the national development.
We hear chiefly of heroes and their deeds, but we shall
not doubt that there were minds which kept the glow
of truth and the consecration of penitential tears. The
best lives of the people moved quietly on, apart from
the commotions and strifes of the time. Rarely are
the great political names even of a religious community
those of holy and devout men, and, undoubtedly, this
was true of Israel in the time of the judges. If we
were to reckon only by those who appear conspicuously
in these pages, we should have to wonder how the
spiritual strain of thought and feeling survived. But
it did survive ; it gained in clearness and force. There
were those in every tribe who kept alive the sacred
traditions of Sinai and the desert, and Levites through-
out the land did much to maintain among the people
the worship of God. The great names of Abraham
and Moses, the story of their faith and deeds, were the
text of many an impressive lesson. So the light of
piety did not go out ; Jehovah was ever the Friend of
Israel, even in its darkest day, for in the heart of the
nation there never ceased to be a faithful remnant
maintaining the fear and obedience of the Holy Name.
IV.
AMONG THE ROCKS OF PAGANISM.
Judges ii. 7-23.
*' A ND Joshua the son of Nun, the sei^vant of the
-Tjl Lord, died, being an hundred and ten years old.
And they buried him in the border of his inheritance in
Timnath-heres, in the hill country of Ephraim, on the
north of the mountain of Gaash." So, long after the age
of Joshua, the historian tells again how Israel lamented
its great chief, and he seems to feel even more than did
the people of the time the pathos and significance of
the event. How much a man of God has been to his
generation those rarely know who stand beside his
grave. Through faith in him faith in the Eternal has
been sustained, many who have a certain piety of their
own depending, more than they have been aware, upon
their contact with him. A glow went from him which
insensibly raised to something like religious warmth
souls that apart from such an influence would have
been of the world worldly. Joshua succeeded Moses
as the mediator of the covenant. He was the living
witness of all that had been done in the Exodus and
at Sinai. So long as he continued with Israel, even in
the feebleness of old age, appearing, and no more, a
venerable figure in the council of the tribes, there was
a representative of Divine order, one who testified to
THE BOOK OF JUDGES.
the promises of God and the duty of His people. The
elders who outlived him were not men like himself,
for they added nothing to faith ; yet they preserved the
idea at least of the theocracy, and when they passed
away the period of Israel's robust youth was at an end.
It is this the historian perceives, and his review of the
following age in the passage we are now to consider is
darkened throughout by the cloudy and troubled atmo-
sphere that overcame the fresh morning of faith.
We know the great design that should have made
Israel a singular and triumphant example to the nations
of the world. The body politic was to have its unity
in no elected government, in no hereditary ruler, but
in the law and worship of its Divine King, sustained by
the ministry of priest and prophet. Every tribe, every
family, every soul was to be equally and directly
subject to the Holy Will as expressed in the law and
by the oracles of the sanctuary. The idea was that
order should be maintained and the life of the tribes
should go on under the pressure of the unseen Hand,
never resisted, never shaken off, and full of bounty
always to a trustful and obedient people. There might
be times when the head men of tribes and families
should have to come together in council, but it would be
only to discover speedily and carry out with one accord
the purpose of Jehovah. Rightly do we regard this
as an inspired vision ; it is at once simple and majestic.
When a nation can so live and order its affairs it will
have solved the great problem of ^ jvernment still
exercising every civilized community. The Hebrews
never realized the theocracy, and at the time of the
settlement in Canaan they came far short of under-
standing it. " Israel had as yet scarcely found time to
imbue its spirit deeply with the great truths which
ii. 7-23-] AMONG THE ROCKS OF PAGANISM. 47
had been awakened into life in it, and thus to appro-
priate them as an invaluable possession : the vital
principle of that religion and nationality by which it
had so wondrously triumphed was still scarcely under-
stood when it was led into manifold severe trials." '
Thus, while Hebrew history presents for the most part
the aspect of an impetuous river broken and jarred
by rocks and boulders, rarely settling into a calm
expanse of mirror-like water, during the period of the
judges the stream is seen almost arrested in the difficult
country through which it has to force its way. It is
divided by many a crag and often hidden for consider-
able stretches by overhanging cliffs. It plunges in
cataracts and foams hotly in cauldrons of hollowed
rock. Not till Samuel appears is there anything like
success for this nation, which is of no account if not
earnestly religious, and never is religious without a
stern and capable chief, at once prophet and judge,
a leader in worship and a restorer of order and unity
among the tribes.
The general survey or preface which we have before
us gives but one account of the disasters that befell the
Hebrew people — they " followed other gods, and pro-
voked the Lord to anger." And the reason of this
has to be considered. Taking a natural view of the
circumstances we might pronounce it almost impossible
for the tribes to maintain their unity when they were
fighting, each in its own district, against powerful
enemies. It seems by no means wonderful that nature
had its way, and that, weary of war, the people tended
to seek rest in friendly intercourse and alliance with
their neighbours. Were Judah and Simeon always to
' Evvald.
48 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.
fight, though their own territory was secure? Was
Ephraim to be the constant champion of the. weaker
tribes and never settle down to till the land ? It was
almost more than could be expected of men who had
the common amount of selfishness. Occasionally, when
all were threatened, there was a combination of the
scattered clans, but for the most part each had to fight
its own battle, and so the unity of life and faith was
broken. Nor can we marvel at the neglect of worship
and the falling away from Jehovah when we find so
many who have been always surrounded by Christian
influences drifting into a strange unconcern as to
religious obligation and privilege. The writer of the
Book of Judges, however, regards things from the stand-
point of a high Divine ideal — the calling and duty of
a God-made nation. Men are apt to frame excuses
for themselves and each other ; this historian makes no
excuses. Where we might speak compassionately he
speaks in sternness. He is bound to tell the story from
God's side, and from God's side he tells it with puritan
directness. In a sense it might go sorely against the
grain to speak of his ancestors as sinning grievously
and meriting condign punishment. But later genera-
lions needed to hear the truth, and he would utter it
without evasion. It is surely Nathan, or some other
prophet of Samuel's line, who lays bare with such
faithfulness the infidelity of Israel. He is writing for
the men of his own time and also for men who are to
come ; he is writing for us, and his main theme is the
stern justice of Jehovah's government. God bestows
privileges which men must value and use, or they shall
suffer. When He declares Himself and gives His law,
let the people see to it ; let them encourage and constrain
each other to obey. Disobedience brings unfailing
ii.7-23.] AMONG THE ROCKS OF PAGANISM. 49
penalty. This is the spirit of the passage we are
considering. Israel is God's possession, and is bound
to be 'faithful. There is no Lord but Jehovah, and
it is unpardonable for any Israelite to turn aside and
worship a false God. The pressure of circumstances,
often made much of, is not considered for a moment.
The weakness of human nature, the temptations to
which men and women are exposed, are not taken
into account. Was there little faith, little spirituality ?
Every soul had its own responsibility for the decay,
since to every Israelite Jehovah had revealed His love
and addressed His call. Inexorable therefore was
the demand for obedience. Religion is stern because
reasonable, not an impossible service as easy human
nature would fain prove it If men disbelieve they
incur doom, and it must fall upon them.
Joshua and his generation having been gathered unto
their fathers, "there arose another generation which
knew not the Lord, nor yet the work which Re had
wrought for Israel. And the children of Israel did
that which was evil in the sight of the Lord, and served
the Baalim," How common is the fall traced in these
brief, stern words, the wasting of a sacred testimony
that seemed to be deeply graven upon the heart of a
race ! The fathers felt and knew ; the sons have only
traditional knowledge and it never takes hold of them.
The link of faith between one generation and another
is not strongly forged ; the most convincing proofs of
God are not recounted. Here is a man who has
learned his own weakness, who has drained a bitter
cup of discipline — how can he better serve his sons
than by telling them the story of his own mistakes and
sins, his own suffering and repentance ? Here is one
4
50 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.
who in dark and trying times has found solace and
strength and has been lifted out of horror and despair
by the merciful hand of God — how can he do a father's
part without telling his children of his defeats and
deliverance, the extremity to which he was reduced
and the restoring grace of Christ ? But men hide their
weaknesses, and are ashamed to confess that they ever
passed through the Valley of Humiliation. They leave
their ov/n children unwarned to fall into the sloughs
in which themselves were well-nigh swallowed up.
Even when they have erected some Ebenezer, some
monument of Divine succour, they often fail to bring
their children to the spot, and speak to them there with
fervent recollection of the goodness of the Lord. Was
Solomon when a boy led by David to the town of
Gath, and told by him the story of his cowardly fear,
and how he fled from the face of Saul to seek refuge
among Philistines ? Was Absalom in his 3^outh ever
taken to the plains of Bethlehem and shown where his
father fed the flocks, a poor shepherd lad, when the
prophet sent for him to be anointed the coming King
of Israel? Had these young princes learned in frank
conversation with their father all he had to tell of
temptation and transgression, of danger and redemption,
perhaps the one would never have gone astray in his
pride nor the other died a rebel in that wood of
Ephraim. The Israelitish fathers were Hke many
fathers still, they left the minds of their boys and girls
uninstructed in life, uninstructed in the providence of
God, and this in open neglect of the law which marked
out their duty for them with clear injunction, recalling
the themes and incidents on which they were to
dwell.
One passage in the history of the past must have
"•7-23.] AMONG THE ROCKS OF PAGANISM. 51
been vividly before the minds of those who crossed the
Jordan under Joshua, and should have stood a protest
and warning against the idolatry into which families so
easily lapsed throughout the land. Over at Shittim,
when Israel lay encamped on the skirts of the mountains
of Moab, a terrible sentence of Moses had fallen like
a thunderbolt. On some high place near the camp a
festival of Midianitish idolatry, licentious in the ex-
treme, attracted great numbers of Hebrews ; they went
astray after the worst fashion of paganism, and the
nation was polluted in the idolatrous orgies. Then
Moses gave judgment — " Take the heads of the people
and hang them up before the Lord, against the sun."
And while that hideous row of stakes, each bearing
the transfixed body of a guilty chief, witnessed in the
face of the sun for the Divine ordinance of purity,
there fell a plague that carried off twenty-four thousand
of the transgressors. Was that forgotten ? Did the
terrible punishment of those who sinned in the matter
of Baal-peor not haunt the memories of men when they
entered the land of Baal-worship ? No : like others, they
were able to forget. Human nature is facile, and from
a great horror of judgment can turn in quick recovery
of the usual ease and confidence. Men have been in
the valley of the shadow of death, where the mouth
of hell is ; they have barely escaped ; but when they
return upon it from another side they do not recognize
the landmarks nor feel the need of being on their guard.
They teach their children many things, but neglect to
make them aware of that right-seeming way the end
whereof are the ways of death.
The worship of the Baalim and Ashtaroth and the
place which this came to have in Hebrew life require
52 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.
our attention here. Canaan had for long been more
or less subject to the influence of Chaldea and Egypt,
and " had received the imprint of their religious ideas.
The fish-god of Babylon reappears at Ascalon in the
form of Dagon, the name of the goddess Astarte and
her character seem to be adapted from the Babylonian
Ishtar. Perhaps these divinities were introduced at a
time when part of the Canaanite tribes lived on the
borders of the Persian Gulf, in daily contact with the
inhabitants of Chaldea." * The Egyptian Isis and
Osiris, again, are closely connected with the Tammuz
and Astarte worshipped in Phoenicia. In a general
way it may be said that all the races inhabiting Syria
had the same religion, but " each tribe, each people,
each town had its Lord, its Master, its Baal, designated
by a particular title for distinction from the masters or
Baals of neighbouring cities. The gods adored at Tyre
and Sidon were called Baal-Sur, the Master of Tyre ;
Baal-Sidon, the Master of Sidon. The highest among
them, those that impersonated in its purity the concep-
tion of heavenly fire, were called kings of the gods.
El or Kronos reigned at Byblos ; Chemosh among the
Moabites ; Amman among the children of Ammon ;
Soutkhu among the Hittites." Melcarth, the Baal of
the world of death, was the Master of Tyre. Each
Baal was associated with a female divinity, who was
the mistress of the town, the queen of the heavens.
The common name of these goddesses was Astarte.
There was an Ashtoreth of Chemosh among the
Moabites. The Ashtoreth of the Hittites was called
Tanit. There was an Ashtoreth Karnaim or Horned,
so called with reference to the crescent moon; and
• Maspero,
ii. 7-23.] AMONG THE ROCKS OF PAGANISM. 53
another was Ashtoreth Naamah, the good Astarte. In
short, a special Astarte could be created by any town
and named by any fancy, and Baals were multiplied in
the same way. It is, therefore, impossible to assign
any distinct character to these inventions. The Baalim
mostly represented forces of nature — the sun, the stars.
The Astartes presided over love, birth, the different
seasons of the year, and — war. *' The multitude of
secondary Baalim and Ashtaroth tended to resolve
themselves into, a single supreme pair, in comparison
with whom the others had little more than a shadowy
existence." As the sun and moon outshine all the
other heavenly bodies, so two principal deities repre-
senting them were supreme.
The worship connected with this horde of fanciful
beings is well known to have merited the strongest
language of detestation applied to it by the Hebrew
prophets. The ceremonies were a strange and degrad-
ing blend of the licentious and the cruel, notorious even
in a time of gross and hideous rites. The Baalim were
supposed to have a fierce and envious disposition,
imperiously demanding the torture and death not only
of animals but of men. The horrible notion had taken
root that in times of public danger king and nobles
must sacrifice their children in fire for the pleasure
of the god. And while nothing of this sort was done
for the Ashtaroth their demands were in one aspect
even more vile. Self-mutilation, self-defilement were
acts of worship, and in the great festivals men and
women gave themselves up to debauchery which cannot
be described. No doubt some of the observances of
this paganism were mild and simple. Feasts there
were at the seasons of reaping and vintage which were
of a bright and comparatively harmless character ; and
54 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.
it was by' taking part in these that Hebrew families
began their acquaintance with the heathenism of the
country. But the tendency of polytheism is ever
downward. It springs from a curious and ignorant
dwelling on the mysterious processes of nature, untamed
fancy personifying the causes of all that is strange
and horrible, constantly wandering therefore into more
grotesque and lawless dreams of unseen powers and
their claims on man. The imagination of the worshipper,
which passes beyond his power of action, attributes to
the gods energ}-- more vehement, desires more sweeping,
anger more dreadful than he finds in himself. He
thinks of beings who are strong in appetite and will
and yet under no restraint or responsibility. In the
beginning polytheism is not necessarily vile and cruel ;
but it must become so as it develops. The minds by
whose fancies the gods are created and furnished with
adventures are able to conceive characters vehemently
cruel, wildly capricious and impure. But how can they
imagine a character great in wisdom, holiness and
justice ? The additions of fable and belief made from
age to age may hold in solution some elements that are
good, some of man's yearning for the noble and true
beyond him. The better strain, however, is overborne
in popular talk and custom by the tendency to fear
rather than to hope in presence of unknown powers,
the necessity which is felt to avert possible anger of
the gods or make sure of their patronage. Sacrifices
are multiplied, the offerer exerting himself more and
more to gain his main point at whatever expense ; while
he thinks of the world of gods as a region in which
there is jealousy of man's respect and a multitude of
rival claims all of which must be met. Thus the whole
moral atmosphere is thrown into confusion.
ii.7-23.] AMOXG THE ROCKS OF PAGANISM. 55
Into a polytheism of this l:ind came Israel, to whom
had been committed a revelation of the one true God,
and in the first moment of homage at heathen altars
the people lost the secret of its strength. Certainly
Jehovah was not abandoned ; He was thought of still
as the Lord of Israel. But He was now one among
many who had their rights and could repay the fervent
worshipper. At one high-place it was Jehovah men
sought, at another the Baal of the hill and his Ashtoreth.
Yet Jehovah was still the special patron of the Hebrew
tribes and of no others, and in trouble they turned to
Him for relief. So in the midst of mythology Divine
faith had to struggle for existence. The stone pillars
which the Israelites erected were mostly to the name
of God, but Hebrews danced with Hittite and Jebusite
around the poles of Astarte, and in revels of nature-
worship they forgot their holy traditions, lost their
vigour of body and soul. The doom of apostasy ful-
filled itself. They were unable to stand before their
enemies. " The hand of the Lord w^as ag'ainst them
for evil, and they were greatly distressed."
And why could not Israel rest in the debasement of
idolatry ? Why did not the Hebrews abandon their
distinct mission as a nation and mingle with the races
they came to convert or drive away ? They could not
rest ; they could not mingle and forget. Is there ever
peace in the soul of a man who falls from early impres-
sions of good to join the licentious and the profane ?
He has still his own personality, shot through with
recollections of youth and traits inherited from godly
ancestors. It is impossible for him to be at one with
his new companions in their revelry and vice. He
finds that from which his souls revolts, he feels disgust
56 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.
which he has to overcome by a strong effort of perverted
will. He despises his associates and knows in his
inmost heart that he is of a different race. Worse he
may become than they, but he is never the same. So
was it in the degradation of the Israelites, both indi-
vidually and as a nation. From complete absorption
among the peoples of Canaan they were preserved by
hereditary influences which were part of their very
life, by holy thoughts and hopes embodied in their
national history, by the rags of that conscience which
remained from the law-giving of Moses and the dis-
cipline of the wilderness. Moreover, akin as they were
to the idolatrous races, they had a feel.'ng of closer
kinship with each other, tribe with tribe, family with
family ; and the worship of God at the little-frequented
shrine still maintained the shadow at least of the
national consecration. They were a people apart, these
Beni-Israel, a people of higher rank than Amorites or
Perizzites, Hittites or Phcenicians. Even when least
alive to their destiny they were still held by it, led
on secretly by that heavenly hand which never let them
go. From time to time souls were born among them
aglow with devout eagerness, confident in the faith of
God. The tribes were roused out of lethargy by voices
that woke many recollections of half-forgotten purpose
and hope. Now from Judah in the south, now
from Ephraim in the centre, now from Dan or Gilead
a cry was raised. For a time at least manhood was
quickened, national feeling became keen, the old faith
was partly revived, and God had again a witness in
His people.
We have found the writer of the Book of Judges
consistent and unfaltering in his condemnation of Israel ;
he is queally consistent and eager in his vindication of
ii.7-23.] AMONG THE ROCKS OF PAGANISM. 57
God. It is to him no doubtful thing, but an assured
fact, that the Holy One came with Israel from Paran
and marched with the people from Seir. He has no
hesitation in ascribing to Divine providence and grace
the deeds of those men who go by the name of judges.
It startles and even confounds some to note the plain
direct terms in which God is made, so to speak, re-
sponsible for those rude warriors whose exploits we
are to review, — for Ehud, for Jephthah, for Samson.
The men are children of their age, vehement, ofter_
reckless, not answering to the Christian ideal of heroism.
They do rough work in a rough way. If we found
their history elsewhere than in the Bible we should be
disposed to class them with the Roman Horatius, the
Saxon Hereward, the Jutes Hengest and Horsa and
hardly dare to call them men of God's hand. But here
they are presented bearing the stamp of a Divine
vocation ; and in the New Testament it is emphatically
reaffirmed. " What shall I more say ? for the time will
fail me if I tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, 'Jephthah ;
.... who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought
righteousness, obtained promises, .... waxed mighty
in war, turned to flight armies of aliens."
There is a crude religious sentimentalism to which
the Bible gives no countenance. Where we, mistaking
the meaning of providence because we do not rightly
believe in immortality, are apt to think with horror of
the miseries of men, the vigorous veracity of sacred
writers directs our thought to the moral issues of life
and the vast movements of God's purifying design.
Where we, ignorant of much that goes to the making
of a world, lament the seeming confusion and the
errors, the Bible seer discerns that the cup of red wine
poured out is in the hand of Almighty Justice and
58 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.
Wisdom. It is of a piece with the superficial feeling
of modern society to doubt whether God could. have
any share in the deeds of Jephthah and the career ot
Samson, whether these could have any place in the
Divine order. Look at Christ and His infinite com-
passion, it is said ; read that God is love, and then
reconcile if you can this view of His character with
the idea which makes Barak and Gideon His ministers.
Out of all such perplexities there is a straight way.
You make light of moral evil and individual responsi-
bility when you say that this war or that pestilence
has no Divine mission. You deny eternal righteous-
ness when you question whether a man, vindicating it
in the time-sphere, can have a Divine vocation. The
man is but a human instrument. True. He is not
perfect, he is not even spiritual. True. Yet if there
is in him a gleam of right and earnest purpose, if he
stands above his time in virtue of an inward light which
shows him but a single truth, and in the spirit of that
strikes his blow — is it to be denied that within his
limits he is a weapon of the holiest Providence, a
helper of eternal grace ?
The storm, the pestilence have a providential errand.
They urge men to prudence and effort ; they prevent
communities from settling on their lees. But the hero
has a higher range of usefulness. It is not mere
prudence he represents, but the passion for justice.
For right against might, for liberty against oppression
he contends, and in striking his blow he compels his
generation to take into account morality and the will
of God. He may not see far, but at least he stirs
inquiry as to the right way, and though thousands die
in, ^he conflict he awakens there is a real gain which
the coming age inherits. Such a one, however faulty
ii. 7-23.] AMOXG THE ROCK'S OF PAGANISM. 59
however, as we may say, earthly, is yet far above mere
earthly levels. His moral concepts may be poor and
low compared with ours ; but the heat that moves him
is not of sense, not of clay. Obstructed it is by the
ignorance and sin of our human estate, nevertheless it
is a supernatural power, and so far as it works in
any degree for righteousness, freedom, the realization
of God, the man is a hero of faith.
We do not affirm here that God approves or inspires
all that is done by the leaders of a suffering people in
the way of vindicating what they deem their rights.
Moreover, there are claims and rights so-called for
which it is impious to shed a drop of blood. But if the
state of humanity is such that the Son of God must
die for it, is there any room to wonder that men have
to die for it ? Given a cause like that of Israel, a need
of the whole world which Israel only could meet, and
the men who unselfishly, at the risk of death, did their
part in the front of the struggle which that cause and
that need demanded, though they slew their thousands,
were not men of whom the Christian teacher needs be
afraid to speak. And there have been many such in
all nations, for the principle by which we judge is of
the broadest application, — men who have led the forlorn
hopes of nations, driven back the march of tyrants,
given law and order to an unsettled land.
Judge after judge was " raised up " — the word is
true — and rallied the tribes of Israel, and while each
lived there were renewed energy and prosperity. But
the moral revival was never in the deeps of life and no
deliverance was permanent. It is only a faithful nation
that can use freedom. Neither trouble nor release from
trouble will certainly make either a man or a people
steadily true to the best. Unless there is along with
6o THE BOOK OF JUDGES.
trouble a conviction of spiritual need and failure, men
will forget the prayers and vows they made in. their
extremity. Thus in the history of Israel, as in the
history of many a soul, periods of suffering and of
prosperity succeed each other and there is no distinct
growth of the religious life. All these experiences are
meant to throw men back upon the seriousness of duty,
and the great purpose God has in their existence. We
must repent not because we are in pain or grief, but
because we are estranged from the Holy One and have
denied the God of Salvation. Until the soul comes to
this it only struggles out of one pit to fall into another.
THE ARM OF ARAM AND OF OTIINIEL,
Judges iii. l-ll.
WE come now to a statement of no small impor-
tance, which may be the cause of some per-
plexity. It is emphatically affirmed that God fulfilled
His design for Israel by leaving around it in Canaan
a circle of vigorous tribes very unlike each other, but
alike in this, that each presented to the Hebrews a
civilisation from which something might be learned but
much had to be dreaded, a seductive form of jjaganism
which ought to have been entirely resisted, an aggres-
sive energy fitted to rouse their national feeling. We
learn that Israel was led along a course of development
resembling that by which other nations have advanced
to unity and strength. As the Divine plan is unfolded,
it is seen that not by uiidivided possession of the
Promised Land, not by swift and fierce clearing away
of opponents, was Israel to reach its glory and become
Jehovah's witness, but in the way of patient fidelity
amidst temptations, by long struggle and arduous dis-
cipline. . And why should this cause perplexity? If
moral education did not move on the same line for all
peoples in every age, then indeed mankind would be
put to intellectual confusion. There was never any
other way for Israel than for the rest of the world.
62 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.
" These are the nations which the Lord left to prove
Israel by them, to know whether they would hearken
unto the commandments of the Lord." The first-named
are the Philistines, whose settlements on the coast-
plain toward Egypt were growing in power. They
were a maritime race, apparently much like the Danish
invaders of Saxon England, sea-rovers or pirates, ready
for any fray that promised spoil. In the great coalition
of peoples that fell on Egypt during the reign of
Ramses III., about the year 1260 b.c, Philistines
were conspicuous, and after the crushing defeat of the
expedition they appear in larger numbers on the coast of
Canaan. Their cities were military republics skilfully
organized, each with a seren or war-chief, the chiefs
of the hundred cities forming a council of federation.
Their origin is not known ; but we may suppose them
to have been a branch of the Amorite family, who after
a time of adventure were returning to their early haunts.
It may be reckoned certain that in wealth and civiliza-
tion they presented a marked contrast to the Israelites,
and their equipments of all kinds gave them great
advantage in the arts of war and peace. Even in the
period of the Judges there were imposing temples in the
Philistine cities and the worship must have been care-
fully ordered. How they compared with the Hebrews
in domestic life we have no means of judging, but there
was certainly some barrier of race, language, or custom
between the peoples which made intermarriage very
rare. We can suppose that they looked upon the
Hebrews from their higher worldly level as rude and
slavish. Military adventurers not unwilling to sell
their services for gold would be apt to despise a race
half-nomad, half-rural. It was in war, not in peace,
that Philistine and Hebrew met, contempt on either
iii. i-ii.] THE ARM OF ARAM AND OF OTHNIEL. d^
side gradually changing into keenest hatred as century
after century the issue of battle was tried with varying
success. And it must be said that it was well for the
tribes of Jehovah rather to be in occasional subjection
to the Philistines, and so learn to dread them, than
to mix freely with those by whom the great ideas of
Hebrew life were despised.
On the northward sea-board a quite different race,
the Zidonians, or Phoenicians, were in one sense better
neighbours to the Israelites, in another sense no better
friends. While the Philistines were haughty, aristo-
cratic, military, the Phoenicians were the great bour-
geoisie of the period, clever, enterprising, eminently
successful in trade. Like the other Canaanites and the
ancestors of the Jews, they were probably immigrants
from the lower Euphrates valley ; unlike the others, they
brought with them habits of commerce and skill in
manufacture, for which they became famous along
the Mediterranean shores and beyond the Pillars
of Hercules. Between Philistine and Phoenician the
Hebrew was mercifully protected from the absorbing
interests of commercial hfe and the disgrace of
prosperous piracy. The conscious superiority of the
coast peoples in wealth and influence and the material
elements of civilisation was itself a guard to the Jews,
who had their own sense of dignity, their own claim to
assert. The configuration of the country helped the
separateness of Israel, especially so far as Phoenicia was
concerned, which lay mainly beyond the rampart of
Lebanon and the gorge of the Litany ; while with the
fortress of Tyre on the hither side of the natural
frontier there appears to have been for a long time no
intercourse, probably on account of its peculiar position.
But the spirit of Phoenicia was the great barrier.
64 THE BOOK OF [UDGES.
Along the crowded wharves of Tyre and Zidon, in ware-
houses and markets, factories and workshops, a hun-
dred industries were in full play, and in their luxurious
dwellings the busy prosperous traders, with their silk-
clad wives, enjoyed the pleasures of the age. From all
this the Hebrew, rough and unkempt, felt himself shut
out, perhaps with a touch of regret, perhaps with scorn
equal to that on the other side. He had to live his life
apart from that busy race, apart from its vivacity
and enterprise, apart from its lubricity and worldliness.
The contempt of the world is ill to bear, and the Jew
no doubt found it so. But it was good for him. The
tribes had time to consolidate, the religion of Jehovah
became established before Phoenicia thought it worth
while to court her neighbour. Early indeed the idolatry
of the one people infected the other and there were the
beginnings of trade, yet on the whole for many centuries
they kept apart. Not till a king throned in Jerusalem
could enter into alliance with a king of Tyre, crown
with crown, did there come to be that intimacy which
had so much risk for the Hebrew. The humbleness
and poverty of Israel during the early centuries of its
history in Canaan was a providential safeguard. God
would not lose His people, nor suffer it to forget its
mission.
Among the inland races with whom the Israelites are
said to have dwelt, the Amorites, though mentioned
along with Perizzites and Hivites, had very distinct
characteristics. They were a mountain people like the
Scottish Highlanders, even in physiognomy much
resembling them, a tall, white-skinned, blue-eyed race.
Warlike we know they were, and the Egyptian repre-
sentation of the siege of Dapur by Ramses II. shows
what is supposed to be the standard of the Amorites
iii. i-ii.] THE ARM OF ARAI\I AND OF OTHNIEL. C5
on the highest tower, a shield pierced by three arrows
surmounted by another arrow fastened across the top
of the staff. On the east of Jordan they were defeated
by the Israelites and their land between Arnon and
Jabbok was allotted to Reuben and Gad. In the west
they seem to have held their ground in isolated for-
tresses or small clans, so energetic and troublesome
that it is specially noted in Samuel's time that a great
defeat of the Philistines brought peace between Israel
and the Amorites. A significant reference in the
description of Ahab's idolatry — " he did very abomin-
ably in following idols according to all things as did
the Amorites " — shows the religion of these people to
have been Baal-worship of the grossest kind ; and
we may well suppose that by intermixture with them
especially the faith of Israel was debased. Even now,
it may be said, the Amorite is still in the land ; a blue-
eyed, fair-complexioned type survives, representing that
ancient stock.
Passing some tribes whose names imply rather
geographical than ethnical distinctions, we come to the
Hittites, the powerful people of whom in recent years
we have learned something. At one time these Hittites
were practically masters of the wide region from
Ephesus in the west of Asia Minor to Carchemish on the
Euphrates, and from the shores of the Black Sea to the
south of Palestine. They appear to us in the archives
of Thebes and the poem of the Laureate, Pentaur, as
the great adversaries of Egypt in the days of Ramses I.
and his successors ; and one of the most interesting re-
cords is of the battle fought about 1383 B.C. at Kadesh
on the Orontes, between the immense armies of the
two nations, the Egyptians being led by Ramses II.
Amazing feats were attributed to Ramses, but he was
5
66 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.
compelled to treat on equal terms with the "great
king of Kheta," and the war was followed by a
marriage between the Pharaoh and the daughter of the
Hittite prince. Syria too was given up to the latter as
his legitimate possession. The treaty of peace drawn
up on the occasion, in the name of the chief gods of
Egypt and of the Hittites, included a compact of offen-
sive and defensive alliance and careful provisions for
extradition of fugitives and criminals. Throughout it
there is evident a great dependence upon the company
of gods of either land, who are largely invoked to punish
those who break and reward those who keep its terms.
" He who shall observe these commandments which
the silver tablet contains, whether he be of the people
of Kheta or of the people of Egypt, because he has not
neglected them, the company of the gods of the land
of Kheta and the company of the gods of the land of
Egypt shall secure his reward and preserve life for him
and his servants."^ From this time the Amorites of
southern Palestine and the minor Canaanite peoples
submitted to the Hittite dominion, and it was while this
subjection lasted that the Israelites under Joshua
appeared on the scene. There can be no doubt that
the tremendous conflict with Egypt had exhausted the
population of Canaan and wasted the country, and
so prepared the way for the success of Israel. The
Hittites indeed were strong enough had they seen fit
to oppose with great armies the new comers into Syria.
But the centre of their power lay far to the north,
perhaps in Cappadocia ; and on the frontier towards
Nineveh they were engaged with more formidable
opponents. We may also surmise that the Hittites,
• "The Hittites," by A. H. Sayce, LL.D., p. 36.
iii.l-ii.] THE ARM OF ARAM AND OF OTIINIEL. 67
whose alliance with Egypt was by Joshua's time some-
what decayed, would look upon the Hebrews, to begin
with, as fugitives from the misrule of the Pharaoh
who might be counted upon to take arms against their
former oppressors. This would account, in part at
least, for the indifference with which the Israelite
settlement in Canaan was regarded; it explains why
no vigorous attempt was made to drive back the tribes.
For the characteristics of the Hittites, whose appear-
ance and dress constantly suggest a Mongolian origin,
we can now consult their monuments. A vigorous
people they must have been, capable of government, of
extensive organization, concerned to perfect their arts
as well as to increase their power. Original contri-
butors to civilization they probably were not, but they
had skill to use what they found and spread it widely.
Their worship of Sutekh or Soutkhu, and especially of
Astarte under the name of Ma, who reappears in the
Great Diana of Ephesus, must have been very elaborate.
A single Cappadocian city is reported to have had at
one time six thousand armed priestesses and eunuchs
of that goddess. In Palestine there were not many
of this distinct and energetic people when the Hebrews
crossed the Jordan. A settlement seems to have
remained about Hebron, but the armies had with-
drawn ; Kadesh on the Orontes was the nearest garrison.
One peculiar institution of Hittite religion was the
holy city, which afforded sanctuary to fugitives ; and it
is notable that some of these cities in Canaan, such as
Kadesh-Naphtali and Hebron, are found among the
Hebrew cities of refuge.
It was as a people at once enticed and threatened,
invited to peace and constantly provoked to war, that
Israel settled in the circle of Syrian nations. After tho
68 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.
first conflicts, ending in the defeat of Adoni-bezek and
the capture of Hebron and Kiriath-sepher, the Hebrews
had an acknowledged place, partly v/on by their prowess,
partly by the terror of Jehovah which accompanied
their arms. To Philistines, Phoenicians and Hittites,
as we have seen, their coming mattered little, and the
other races had to make the best of affairs, sometimes
able to hold their ground, sometimes forced to give
wa}'. The Hebrew tribes, for their part, were, on the
whole, too ready to live at peace and to yield not a
little for the sake of peace. Intermarriages made their
position safer, and they intermarried with Amorites,
Hivites, Perizzites. Interchange of goods was profit-
able, and they engaged in barter. The observance of
frontiers and covenants helped to make things smooth,
and they agreed on boundary lines of territory and
terms of fraternal intercourse. The acknowledgment
of their neighbours' religion was the next thing, and
from that they did not shrink. The new neighbours
were practically superior to themselves in many ways,
well-informed as to the soil, the climate, the methods
of tillage necessary in the land, well able to teach use-
ful arts and simple manufactures. Little by little the
debasing notions and bad customs that infest pagan
society entered Hebrew homes. Comfort and prosper-
ity came ; but comfort was dearly bought with loss
of pureness, and prosperity with loss of faith. The
watchwords of unity were forgotten by many. But
for the sore oppressions of which the Mesopotamian
was the first the tribes would have gradually lost all
coherence and vigour and become like those poor
tatters of races that dragged out an inglorious existence
between Jordan and the Mediterranean plain.
Yet it is with nations as with men ; those that have
iii. i-ii.] THE ARM OF ARAM AND OF OTHNIEL. 69
a reason of existence and the desire to realize it, even at
intervals, may fall away into pitiful languor if corrupted
by prosperity, but when the need comes their spirit
will be renewed. While Hivites, Perizzites and even
Amorites had practically nothing to live for, but only
cared to live, the Hebrews felt oppression and restraint
in their inmost marrow. What the faithful servants
of God among them urged in vain the iron heel of
Cushan-rishathaim made them remember and realize
that they had a God from Whom they were basely
departing, a birthright they were selling for pottage.
In Doubting Castle, under the chains of Despair, they
bethought them of the Almighty and His ancient pro-
mises, they cried unto the Lord. And it was not the
cry of an afflicted church ; Israel was far from deserv-
ing that name. Rather was it the cry of a prodigal
people scarcely daring to hope that the Father would
forgive and save.
Nothing yet found in the records of Babylon or
Assyria throws any light on the invasion of Cushan-
rishathaim, whose name, which seems to mean Cushan
of the Two Evil Deeds, may be taken to represent his
character as the Hebrews viewed it. He was a king
one of whose predecessors a few centuries before had
given a daughter in marriage to the third Amenophis
of Egypt, and with her the Aramaean religion to the
Nile valley. At that time Mesopotamia, or Aram-
Naharaim, was one of the greatest monarchies of western
Asia. Stretching along the Euphrates from the Khabour
river towards Carchemish and away to the highlands
of Armenia, it embraced the district in which Terah
and Abram first settled when the family migrated
from Ur of the Chaldees. In the days of the judges
of Israel, however, the glory of Aram had faded. The
70 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.
Assyrians threatened its eastern frontier, and about
1325 B.C., the date at which we have now arrived, they
laid waste the valley of the Khabour. We can suppose
that the pressure of this rising empire was one cause
of the expedition of Cushan towards the western sea.
It remains a question, however, why the Mesopota-
mian king should have been allowed to traverse the
land of the Hittites, either by way of Damascus or the
desert route that led past Tadmor, in order to fall on
the Israelites ; and there is this other question. What
led him to think of attacking Israel especially among
the dwellers in Canaan ? In pursuing these inquiries
we have at least presumption to guide us, Carchemish
on the Euphrates was a great Hittite fortress command-
ing the fords of that deep and treacherous river. Not
far from it, within the Mesopotamian country, was
Pethor, which was at once a Hittite and an Aramaean
town — Pethor the city of Balaam with whom the
Hebrews had had to reckon shortly before they entered
Canaan. Now Cushan-rishathaim, reigning in this
region, occupied the middle ground between the Hittites
and Assyria on the east, also between them and
Babylon on the south-east ; and it is probable that he
was in close alliance with the Hittites. Suppose then
that the Hittite king, who at first regarded the Hebrews
with indifference, was now beginning to view them with
distrust or to fear them as a people bent on their own
ends, not to be reckoned on for help against Egypt, and
we can easily see that he might be more than ready to
assist the Mesopotamians in their attack on the tribes.
To this we may add a hint which is derived from
Balaam's connection with Pethor, and the kind of
advice he was in the way of giving to those who
consulted him. Does it not seem probable enough that
iii. i-ii.] THE ARM OF ARAM AND OF OTIINIEL. 71
some counsel of his survived his death and now guided
the action of the king of Aram ? Balaam, by profession
a soothsayer, was evidently a great political personage
of his time, foreseeing, crafty and vindictive. Methods
of his for suppressing Israel, the force of whose genius
he fully recognised, were perhaps sold to more than
one kingly employer. " The land of the children of
his people " would almost certainly keep his counsel
in mind and seek to avenge his death. Thus against
Israel particularly among the dwellers in Canaan the
arms of Cushan-rishathaim would be directed, and the
Hittites, who scarcely found it needful to attack Israel
for their own safety, would facilitate his march.
Here then we may trace the revival of a feud which
seemed to have died away fifty years before. Neither
nations nor men can easily escape from the enmity
they have incurred and the entanglements of their
history. When years have elapsed and strifes appear
to have been buried in oblivion, suddenly,, as if out
of the grave, the past is apt to arise and confront us,
sternly demanding the payment of its reckoning. We
once did another grievous wrong, and now our fondly
cherished belief that the man we injured had forgotten
our injustice is completely dispelled. The old anxiety,
the old terror breaks in afresh upon our lives. Or it
was in doing our duty that we braved the enmity of
evil-minded men and punished their crimes. But
though they have passed away their bitter hatred
bequeathed to others still survives. Now the battle
of justice and fidelity has to be fought over agaift, and
well is it for us if we are found ready in the strength
of God.
And, in another aspect, how futile is the dream some
indulge of getting rid of their history, passing beyond
THE BOOK OF JUDGES.
the memory or resurrection of what has been. Shall
Divine forgiveness obliterate those deeds of which we
have repented ? Then the deeds being forgotten the
forgiveness too would pass into oblivion and all the
gain of faith and gratitude it brought would be lost.
Do we expect never to retrace in memory the way we
have travelled ? As well might we hope, retaining our
personality, to become other men than we are. The
past, good and evil, remains and will remain, that
we may be kept humble and moved to ever-increas-
ing thankfulness and fervour of soul. We rise "on
stepping-stones of our dead selves to higher things," and
every forgotten incident by which moral education has
been provided for must return to light. The heaven
we hope for is not to be one of forgetfulness, but a state
bright and free through remembrance of the grace that
saved us at every stage and the circumstances of our
salvation. As yet we do not half know what God has
done for us, what His providence has been. There
must be a resurrection of old conflicts, strifes, defeats
and victories in order that we may understand the
grace which is to keep us safe for ever.
Attacked by Cushan of the Two Crimes the Israelites
were in evil case. They had not the consciousness of
Divine support which sustained them once. They had
forsaken Him whose presence in the camp made their
arms victorious. Now they must face the conse-
quences of their fathers' deeds without their fathers'
heavenly courage. Had they still been a united nation
full oi faith and hope, the armies of Aram would have
assailed them in vain. But they were without the
spirit which the crisis required. For eight years the
northern tribes had to bear a sore oppression, soldiers
quartered in their cities, tribute exacted at the point
iii. i-ii.] THE ARM OF ARAM AND OF OTHNIEL. 73
of the sword, their harvests enjoyed by others. The
stern lesson was taught them that Canaan was to be
no peaceful habitation for a people that renounced the
purpose of its existence. The struggle became more
hopeless year by year, the state of affairs more wretched.
So at last the tribes were driven by stress of persecu-
tion and calamity to call again on the name of God, and
some faint hope of succour broke like a misty morning
over the land.
It was from the far south that help came in response
to the piteous cry of the oppressed in the north ; the
deliverer was Othniel, who has already appeared in the
history. After his marriage with Achsah, daughter of
Caleb, we must suppose him living as quietly as possi-
ble in his south-lying farm, there increasing in import-
ance year by year till now he is a respected chief of
the tribe of Judah. In frequent skirmishes with Arab
marauders from the wilderness he has distinguished
himself, maintaining the fame of his early exploit.
Better still, he is one of those who have kept the great
traditions of the nation, a man mindful of the law of
God, deriving strength of character from fellowship
with the Almighty. " The Spirit of Jehovah came
upon him and he judged Israel ; and he went out to
war, and Jehovah delivered Cushan-rishathaim king
of Mesopotamia into his hand."
" He judged Israel and went out to war." Signifi-
cant is the order of these statements. The judging of
Israel by this man, on whom the Spirit of Jehovah was,
meant na doubt inquisition into the religious and moral
state, condemnation of the idolati-y of the tribes and a
restoration to some extent of the worship of God. In
no other way could the strength of Israel be revived.
The people had to be healed before they could fight,
74 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.
and the needed cure was spiritual. Hopeless invariably
have been the efforts of oppressed peoples to deliver
themselves unless some trust in a divine power has
given them heart for the struggle. When we see an
army bow in prayer as one man before joining battle,
as the Swiss did at Morat and the Scots at Bannock-
burn, we have faith in their spirit and courage, for
they are feeling their dependence in the Supernatural.
Othniel's first care was to suppress idolatry, to teach
Israelites anew the forgotten name and law of God
and their destiny as a nation. Well did he know that
this alone would prepare the way for success. Then,
having gathered an army fit for his purpose, he was
not long in sweeping the ganisons of Cushan out of
the land.
Judgment and then deliverance ; judgment of the
mistakes and sins men have committed, thereby bringing
themselves into trouble ; conviction of sin and righteous-
ness ; thereafter guidance and help that their feet may
be set on a rock and their goings established — this is
the right sequence. That God should help the proud,
the self-sufficient out of their troubles in order that
they may go on in pride and vainglory, or that He
should save the vicious from the consequences of their
vice and leave them to persist in their iniquity, would be
no Divine work. The new mind and the right spirit
must be put in men, they must hear their condemnation,
lay it to heart and repent, there must be a revival of
holy purpose and aspiration first. Then the oppressors
will be driven from the land, the weight of trouble lifted
from the soul.
Othniel the first of the judges seems one of the best.
He is not a man of mere rude strength and dashing
enterprise. Nor is he one who runs the risk of sudden
iii. i-ii.] THE ARM OF ARAM AND OF OTIINIEL.
elevation to power, which few can stand. A person of
acknowledged honour and sagacity, he sees the pro-
blem of the time and does his best to solve it. He is
almost unique in this, that he appears without offence,
without shame. And his judgeship is honourable to
Israel. It points to a higher level of thought and
greater seriousness among the tribes than in the century
when Jephthah and Samson were the acknowledged
heroes. The nation had not lost its reverence for the
great names and hopes of the exodus when it obeyed
Othniel and followed him to battle.
In modern times there would seem to be scarcely
any understanding of the fact that no man can do real
service as a poHtical leader unless he is a fearer of
Gcd, one who loves righteousness more than country,
and serves the Eternal before any constituency. Some-
times a nation low enough in morality has been so far
awake to its need and danger as to give the helm, at
least for a time, to a servant of truth and righteousness
and to follow where he leads. But more commonly is
it the case that political leaders are chosen anywhere
rather than from the ranks of the spiritually earnest.
It is oratorical dash now, and now the cleverness of the
intriguer, or the power of rank and wealth, that catches
popular favour and exalts a man in the state. Members
of parliament, cabinet ministers, high officials need
have no devoutness, no spiritual seriousness or insight.
A nation generally seeks no such character in its
legislators and is often content with less than decent
morality. Is it then any wonder that politics are arid
and government a series of errors ? We need men
who have the true idea of liberty and will set nations
nominally Christian on the way of fulfilling their
mission to the world. When the people want a spiritual
76 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.
leader he will appear ; when they are ready to follow
one of high and pure temper he will arise and show
the way. But the plain truth is that our chiefs in the
state, in society and business must be the men who
represent the general opinion, the general aim. While
we are in the main a worldly people, the best guides,
those of spiritual mind, will never be allowed to carry
their plans. And so we come back to the main lesson
of the whole history, that only as each citizen is
thoughtful of God and of duty, redeemed from selfish-
ness and the world, can there be a true commonwealth,
honourable government, beneficent civilization.
VI.
THE DAGGER AND THE OX-GOAD.
Judges iii. 12-31.
THE world is served by men of very diverse kinds,
and we pass now to one who is in strong con-
trast to Israel's first deliverer. Othniel the judge with-
out reproach is followed by Ehud the regicide. The
long peace which the country enjoyed after the Mesopota-
mian army was driven out allowed a return of prosperity
and with it a relaxing of spiritual tone. Again there
was disorganization ; again the Hebrew strength decayed
and watchful enemies found an opportunity. The
Moabites led the attack, and their king was at the
head of a federation including the Ammonites and
the Amalekites. It was this coalition the power of
which Ehud had to break.
We can only surmise the causes of the assault made
on the Hebrews west of Jordan by those peoples on
the east. When the Israelites first appeared on the
plains of the Jordan under the shadow of the mountains
of Moab, before crossing into Palestine proper, Balak
king of Moab viewed with alarm this new nation which
was advancing to seek a settlement so near his
territory. It was then he sent to Pethor for Balaam,
in the hope that by a powerful incantation or curse
the great diviner would blight the Hebrew armies and
78 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.
make them an easy prey. Notwithstanding this scheme,
which even to the Israehtes did not appear contemptible,
Moses so far respected tlic relationship between Moab
and Israel that he did not attack Balak's kingdom,
although at the time it had been weakened by an
unsuccessful contest with the Amorites from Giload.
Moab to the south and Amnion to the north were both
left unharmed.
But to Reuben, Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh
was allotted the land from which the Amorites had
been completely driven, a region extending from the
frontier of Moab on the south away towards Ilermon
and the Argob ; and these tribes entering vigorously on
their possession could not long remain at peace with
the bordering races. We can easily see how their
encroachments, their growing strength would ve.x Moab
and Amnion and drive them to plans of retaliation.
Balaam had not cursed Israel ; he had blessed it, and
the blessing was being fulfilled. It seemed to be
decreed that all other peoples east of Jordan were to
be overborne by the descendants of Abraham ; yet one
fear wrought against another, and the hour of Israel's
security was seized as a fit occasion for a vigorous
sally across the river. A desperate eflbrt was made
to strike at the heart of the Hebrew power and assert
the claims of Chemosh to be a greater god than He
Who was reverenced at the sanctuary of the ark.
Or Amalek may have instigated the attack. Away
in the Sinaitic wilderness there stood an altar which
Moses had named Jehovah-Nissi, Jehovah is my
banner, and that altar commemorated a great victory
gained by Israel over the Amalekites. The greater
part of a century had gone by since the battle, but
the memory of defeat lingers long with the Arab — and
iii. 12-31] THE DAGGER AND THE OX-GOAD. 79
these Amalekites were pure Arabs, savage, vindictive,
chorishing their cause of war, waiting their revenge,
"Wc know the command in Deuteronomy, " Remember
what Amalck did unto thcc by the way, when ye were
come forth out of Egypt. How he met thee by the
way and smote the hindmost of thee, even all that
were feeble behind thee. Thou shalt blot out the
remembrance of Amalck from under heaven. Thou
shalt not forget it." We may be sure that Reuben and
Gad did not forget the dastardly attack ; we may be
sure that Amalck did not forget the day of Rephidim.
If Moab was not of itself disposed to cross the Jordan
and fall on Benjamin and Ephraim, there was the
urgency of Amalek, the proffered help of that fiery
people to ripen decision. The ferment of war rose.
Moab, having walled cities to form a basis of operations,
took the lead. The confederates marched northward
along the Dead Sea, seized the ford near Gilgal and
mastering the plain of Jericho pushed their conquest
beyond the hills. Nor was it a temporary advance.
They established themselves. Eighteen years after-
wards we find Eglon, in his palace or castle near the
City of Palm Trees, claiming authority over all Israel.
So the Hebrew tribes, partly by reason of an old
strife not forgotten, partly because they have gone on
vigorously adding to their territory, again suffer assault
and are brought under oppression, and the coalition
against them reminds us of confederacies that are in
full force to-day. Ammon and Moab are united against
the church of Christ, and Amalek joins in the attack.
The parable is one, we shall say, of the opposition the
church is constantly provoking, constantly experiencing,
not entirely to its own credit. Allowing that, in the
main,Christainity is truly and honestly aggressive, that
So THE BOOK OF JUDGES.
on its march' to the heights it does straight battle with
the enemies of mankind and thus awakens the hatred
of bandit Amaleks, yet this is not a complete account
of the assaults which are renewed century after century.
Must it not be owned that those who pass for Chris-
tians often go beyond the lines and methods of their
proper warfare and are found on fields where the
weapons are carnal and the fight is not " the good fight
of faith " ? There is a strain of modern talk which
defends the worldly ambition of Christian men, sounding
very hollow and insincere to all excepting those whose
interest and illusion it is to think it heavenly. We
hear from a thousand tongues the gospel of Christian-
ized commerce, of sanctified success, of making business
a religion. In the press and hurry of competition
there is a less and a greater conscientiousness. Let
men have it in the greater degree, let them be less
anxious for speedy success than some they know, not
quite so eager to add factory to factory and field to
field, more careful to interpret bargains fairly and do
good work ; let them figure often as benefactors and be
free with their money to the church, and the residue of
worldly ambition is glorified, being sufficient, perhaps,
to develop a merchant prince, a railway king, a
"millionaire" of the kind the age adores. Thus it
comes to pass that the domain which appeared safe
enough from the followers of Him who sought no power
in the earthly range is invaded by men who reckon
all their business efforts privileged under the laws of
heaven, and every advantage they win a Divine plan
for wresting money from the hands of the devil.
Now it is upon Christianity as approving all this
that the Moabites and Ammonites of our day are falling.
They are frankly worshippers of Chemosh and Milcom,
iii. 12-31.] THE DAGGER AND THE OX-GOAD. 81
not of Jehovah ; they believe in wealth, their all is
staked on the earthly prosperity and enjoyment for
. Vi^hich they strive. It is too bad, they feel, to have
their sphere and hopes curtailed by men who profess
no respect for the world, no desire for its glory but
a constant preference for things unseen ; they writhe
when they consider the triumphs wrested from them
by rivals who count success an answer to prayer and
believe themselves favourites of God. Or the frank
heathen finds that in business a man professing Chris-
tianity in the customary way is as little cumbered as
himself by any disdain of tarnished profits and "smart"
devices. What else can be expected but that, driven
back and back by the energy of Christians so called,
the others shall begin to think Christianity itself largely
a pretence ? Do we wonder to see the revolution in
France hurling its forces not only against wealth and
rank, but also against the religion identified with wealth
and rank ? Do we wonder to see in our day socialism,
which girds at great fortunes as an insult to humanity,
joining hands with agnosticism and secularism to make
assault on the church ? It is precisely what might be
looked for; nay, more, the opposition will go on till
Christian profession is purged of hypocrisy and Chris-
tian practice is harmonized with the law of Christ.
Not the push, not the equivocal success of one person
here and there is it that creates doubt of Christianity
and provokes antagonism, but the whole S3^stems of
society and business in so-called Christian lands, and
even the conduct of affairs within the church, the strain
of feeling there. For in the church as without it
wealth and rank are important in themselves, and make
some important who have little or no other claim to
respect. In the church as without it methods are
6
82 Tim BOOK OF JUDGES.
adopted that involve large outlay and a constant need
for the support of the wealthy; in the church as. with-
out it life depends too much on the abundance of the
things that are possessed. And, in the not unfair judg-
ment of those who stand outside, all this proceeds from
a secret doubt of Christ's law and authority, which more
than excuses their own denial. The strifes of the day,
even those that turn on the Godhead of Christ and the
inspiration of the Bible, as well as on the divine claim
of the church, are not due solely to hatred of truth and
the depravity of the human heart. They have more
reason than the church has yet confessed. Christianity
in its practical and speculative aspects is one ; itcanmt
be a creed unless it is a life. It is essentially a life not
conformed to this world, but transformed, redeemed.
Our faith will stand secure from all attacks, vindicated
as a supernatural revelation and inspiration, when the
whole of church life and Christian endeavour shall rise
above the earthly and be manifest everywhere as a
fervent striving for the spiritual and eternal.
We have been assuming the unfaithfulness of Israel
to its duty and vocation. The people of God, instead
of commending His faith by their neighbourliness and
generosity, were, we fear, too often proud and selfish,
seeking their own things not the well-being of others,
sending no attractive light into the heathenism around.
Moab was akin to the Hebrews and in many respects
similar in character. When we come to the Book of
Ruth we find a certain intercourse between the two.
Auimon, more unsettled and barbarous, was of the
same stock. Israel, giving nothing to these peoples, but
taking all she could from them, provoked antagonism
all the more bitter that they were of kin to her, and
they felt no scruple when their opportunity came. Not
Hi. 12.31.] THE DAGGER AND THE OX-GOAD. 83
only had the Israeh'tes to suffer for their failure, but
Moab and Amnion also. The wrong beginning of the
relations between them was never undone. Moab and
Ammon went on worshipping their own gods, enemies
of Israel to the last.
Ehud appears a deliverer. He was a Benjamite, a
man left-handed ; he chose his own method of action,
and it was to strike directly at the Moabite king.
Eager words regarding the shamefulness of Israel's
subjection had perhaps already marked him as a leader,
and it may have been with the expectation that he would
do a bold deed that he was chosen to bear the periodical
tribute on this occasion to Eglon's palace. Girding a
long dagger under his garment on his right thigh, where
if found it might appear to be worn without evil intent,
he set out with some attendants to the Moabite head-
quarters. The narrative is so vivid that we seem able
to follow Ehud step by step. He has gone from the
neighbourhood of Jebus to Jericho, perhaps by the road
in which the scene of our Lord's parable of the Good
Samaritan was long afterwards laid. Having delivered
the tribute into the hands of Eglon he goes southward
a few miles to the sculptured stones at Gilgal, where
possibly some outpost of the Moabites kept guard.
There he leaves his attendants, and swiftly retracing
his steps to the palace craves a private interview with
the king and announces a message from God, at Whose
name Eglon respectfully rises from his seat. One flash
of the dagger and the bloody deed is done. Leaving
the kingis dead body there in the chamber, Ehud bolts
the door and boldly passes the attendants, then quicken-
ing his pace is soon beyond Gilgal and away by another
route through the steep hills to the mountains of
Lphraim. Meanwhile the murder is discovered and
84 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.
there is confusion at the palace. No one being at
hand to give, orders, the garrison is unprepared to act,
and as Ehud loses no time in gathering a band and
returning to finish his work, the fords of Jordan are
taken before the Moabites can cross to the eastern
side. They are caught, and the defeat is so decisive
that Israel is free again for fourscore years.
Now this deed of Ehud's was clearly a case of
assassination, and as such we have to consider it. The
crime is one which stinks in our nostrils because it
is associated with treachery and cowardice, the basest
revenge or the most undisciplined passion. But if
we go back to times of ruder morality and regard the
circumstances of such a people as Israel, scattered and
oppressed, waiting for a sign of bold energy that may
give it new heart, we can easily see that one who chose
to act as Ehud did would by no means incur the repro-
bation we now attach to the assassin. To go no faither
back than the French Revolution and the deed of Char-
lotte Corday, we cannot reckon her among the basest —
that woman of " the beautiful still countenance " who
believed her task to be the duty of a patriot. Never-
theless, it is not possible to make a complete defence of
Ehud. His act was treacherous. The man he slew
was a legitimate king, and is not said to have done his
ruling ill. Even allowing for the period, there was
something peculiarly detestable in striking one to death
who stood up reverently expecting a message from
God. Yet Ehud may have thoroughly believed himself
to be a Divine instrument.
This too we see, that the great just providence of the
Almighty is not impeached by such an act. No word
in the narrative justifies assassination ; but, being done,
place is found for it as a thing overruled for good in the
iii. 12-31.] THE DAGGER AND THE OX-GOAD. 85
development of Israel's history. Man has no defence
for his treachery and violence, yet in the process of
events the barbarous deed, the lierce crime, are shown
to be under the control of the Wisdom that guides all
men and things. And here the issue which justifies
Divine providence, though it does not purge the criminal,
is ck ar. For through Ehud a genuine deliverance was
wrought for Israel. The nation, curbed by aliens, over-
borne by an idolatrous power, was free once more to
move toward the great spiritual end for which it had
been created. We might be disposed to say that on
the whole Israel made nothing of freedom, that the
faith of God revived and the heart of the people became
devout in times of oppression rather than of liberty.
In a sense it was so, and the story of this people is the
story of all, for men go to sleep over their best, they
misuse freedom, they forget why they are free. Yet
every eulogy of freedom is true. Man must even have
the power of misusing it if he is to arrive at the best.
It is in liberty that manhood is nursed, and therefore
in liberty that religion matures. Autocratic laws mean
tyranny, and tyranny denies the soul its responsibility
to justice, truth, and God. Mind and conscience held
from their high office, responsibility to the greatest
overborne by some tyrant hand that may seem beneficent,
the soul has no space, faith no r^om to breathe ; man
is kept from the spontaneity and gladness of his proper
life. So we have to win liberty in hard struggle and
know ourselves free in order that we may belong com-
pletely to God.
See how life advances ! God deals with the human
race according to a vast plan of discipline leading to
heights which at first appear inaccessible. Freedom is
one of the first of these, and only by way of it are the
86 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.
higher summits reached. During the long ages of dark
and weary struggle, which seem to many but a fruitless
martyrdom, the Divine idea was interfused with all
the strife. Not one blind stroke, not one agony of the
craving soul was wasted. In all the wisdom of God
wrought for man, through man's pathetic feebleness or
most daring achievement. So out of the chaos of the
gloomy valleys a highway of order was raised by which
the race should mount to Freedom and thence to Faith.
We see it in the history of nations, those that have
led the way and those that are following. The posses-
sors of clear faith have won it in liberty. In Switzerland,
in Scotland, in England, the order has been, first civil
freedom, then Christian thought and vigour. Wallace
and Bruce prepare the way for Knox ; Boadicea,
Hereward, the Barons of Magna Charta for Wycliffe
and the Reformation ; the men of the Swiss Cantons
who won Morgarten and routed Charles the Bold were
the forerunners of Zwingli and Farel. Israel, too,
had its heroes of freedom ; and even those who, hke
Ehud and Samson, did little or nothing for faith and
struck wildly, wrongly for their country, did yet choose
consciously to serve their people and were helpers ot
a righteousness and a holy purpose they did not know.
When all has been said against them it remains true
that the freedom they brought to Israel was a Divine
gift.
It is to be remarked that Ehud did not judge Israel.
He was a deliverer, but nowise fitted to exercise high
office in the name of God. In some way not made
clear in the narrative he had become the centre of the
resolute spirits of Benjamin and was looked to by them
to find an opportunity of striking at the oppressors.
His calling, we may say, was human, not Divine ; it was
iii. 12-31.] THE DAGGER AND THE OX-GOAD. 87
limited, not national ; and he was not a man who could
rise to any high thought of leadership. The heads
of tribes, ingloriously paying tribute to the Moabites,
may have scoffed at him as of no account. Yet he did
what they supposed impossible. The little rising grew
with the rapidity of a thunder-cloud, and, when it
passed, Moab, smitten as by a lightning flash, no longer
overshadowed Israel. As for the deliverer, his work
having been done apparently in the course of a few
days, he is seen no more in the history. While he
lived, however, his name was a terror to the enemies
of Israel, for what he had effected once he might be
depended upon to do again if necessity arose. And
the land had rest.
Here is an example of what is possible to the obscure
whose qualifications are not great, but who have spirit
and firmness, who are not afraid of dangers and priva-
tions on the way to an end worth gaining, be it the
deliverance of their country, the freedom or purity of
their church, or the rousing of society again^ a flagrant
wrong. Do the rich and powerful angrily refuse their
patronage ? Do they find much to say about the
impossibility of doing anything, the evil of disturbing
people's minds, the duty of submission to Providence
and to the advice of wise and learned persons ? Those
who see the time and place for acting, who hear the
clarion-call of duty, will not be deterred. Armed for
their task with fit weapons — the two-edged dagger of
truth for the corpulent lie, the penetrating stone of a
just scorn for the forehead of arrogance, they have the
right to go forth, the right to succeed, though probably
when the stroke has told many will be heard lamenting
its untimeliness and proving the dangerous indiscretion
of Ehud and all who followed him.
THE BOOK OF JUDGES.
In the same line another type is represented by
Shamgar, son of Anath, the man of the ox-goad, who
considered not whether he was equipped for attacking
Phihstines, but turned on them from the plough, his
blood leaping in him with swift indignation. The
instrument of his assault was not made for the use to
which it was put : the power lay in the arm that
wielded the goad and the fearless will of the man who
struck for his own birthright, freedom, — for Israel's
birthright, to be the servant of no other race. Un-
doubtedly it is well that, in any efforts made for the
church or for society, men should consider how they
are to act and should furnish themselves in the best
manner for the work that is to be done. No outfit of
knowledge, skill, experience is to be despised. A man
does not serve the world better in ignorance than in
learning, in bluntness than in refinement. But the
serious danger for such an age as our own is that
strength may be frittered away and zeal expended in
the mere preparation of weapons, in the mere exercise
before the war begins. The important points at issue
are apt to be lost sight of, and the vital distinctions on
which the whole battle turns to fade away in an atmo-
sphere of compromise. There are those who, to begin,
are Israelites indeed, with a keen sense of their nation-
ality, of the urgency of certain great thoughts and the
example of heroes. Their nationality becomes less and
less to them as they touch the world ; the great thoughts
begin to seem parochial and antiquated ; the heroes
are found to have been mistaken, their names cease
to thrill. The man now sees nothing to fight for, he
cares only to go on perfecting his equipment. Let us
do him justice. It is not the toil of the conflict he
shrinks from, bat the rudeness of it, the dust and hea«-
iii. 12-31.] THE DAGGER AND THE OX-GOAD. S9
of warfare. He is no voluntary now, for he values the
dignity of a State Church and feels the charm of
ancient traditions. He is not a good churchman, for
he will not be pledged to any creed or opposed to any
school. He is rarely seen on any political platform,
for he hates the watchwords of party. And this is the
least of it. He is a man without a cause, a believer
without a faith, a Christian without a stroke of brave
work to do in the world. We love his mildness ; we
admire his mental possessions, his broad sympathies.
But when we are throbbing with indignation he is too
calm; when we catch at the ox-goad and fly at the
enemy we know that he disdains our weapon and is
affronted by our fire. Better, if it must be so, the
rustic from the plough, the herdsman from the hill-side ;
better fer he of the camel's hair garment and the keen
cry. Repent, repent !
Israel, then, appears in these stories of her iron age
as the cradle of the manhood of the modern world ; in
Israel the true standard was lifted up for the people.
It is liberty put to a noble use that is the mark of
manhood, and in Israel's history the idea of responsi-
bility to the one living and true God takes form and
clearness as that alone which fulfils and justifies liberty.
Israel has a God Whose will man must do, and for the
doing of it he is free. If at the outset the vigour which
this thought of God infused into the Hebrew struggle
for independence was tempestuous ; if Jehovah was
seen not in the majesty of eternal justice and sublime
magnanimity, not as the Friend of all, but as the unseen
King of a favoured people,— still, as freedom came,
there came with it always, in some prophetic word,
some Divine psalm, a more living conception of God
as gracious, merciful, holy, unchangeable ; and notwith-
90 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.
Standing all lapses the Hebrew was a man of higher
quality than those about him. You stand by the cradle
and see no promise, nothing to attract. But give the
faith which is here in infancy time to assert itself, give
time for the vision of God to enlarge, and the finest
type of human life will arise and establish itself, a type
possible in no other way. Egypt with its long and
wonderful history gives nothing to the moral life of
■ the new world, for it produces no men. Its kings are
despots, tomb-builders, its people contented or dis-
contented slaves. Babylon and Nineveh are names
that dwarf Israel's into insignificance, but their power
passes and leaves only some monuments for the anti-
quarian, some corroborations of a Hebrew record.
Egypt and Chaldea, Assyria and Persia never reached
through freedom the idea of man's proper life, never
rose to the sense of that sublime calling or bowed in
that profound adoration of the Holy One which made
the Israelite, rude fanatic as he often was, a man and
a father of men. From Egypt, from Babylon, — yea,
from Greece and Rome came no redeemer of mankind,
for they grew bewildered in the search after the chief
end of existence and fell before they found it. In the
prepared people it was, the people cramped in the
narrow land between the Syrian desert and the sea,
that the form of the future Man was seen, and there,
where the human spirit felt at least, if it did not realise
its dignity and place, the Messiah was born.
VII.
THE SIBYL OF MOUNT EPHRAIM.
Judges iv.
THERE arises now in Israel a prophetess, one of
those rare women whose souls burn with enthu-
siasm and holy purpose when the hearts of men are
abject and despondent ; and to Deborah it is given to
make a nation hear her call. Of prophetesses the
world has seen but few ; generally the woman has her
work of teaching and administering justice in the
name of God within a domestic circle and finds all her
energy needed there. But queens have reigned with
firm nerve and clear sagacity in many a land, and
now and again a woman's voice has struck the deep
note which has roused a nation to its duty. Such in
the old Hebrew days was Deborah, wife of Lappidoth.
It was a time of miserable thraldom in Israel when
she became aware of her destiny and began the sacred
enterprise of her life. From Hazor in the north near
the waters of Merom Israel was ruled by Jabin, king
of the Canaanites — not the first of the name, for
Joshua had before defeated one Jabin king of Hazor,
and slain him. During the peace that followed Ehud's
triumph over Moab the Hebrews, busy with worldly
affairs, failed to estimate a danger which year by year
became more definite and pressing — the rise of the
92 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.
ancient strongholds of Canaan and their chiefs to new
activity and power. Little by little the cities Joshua
destroyed were rebui.'t, re-fortified and made centres of
warlike preparation. The old inhabitants of the land
recovered spirit, while Israel lapsed into foolish con-
fidence. At Harosheth of the Gentiles, under the
shadow of Carmel, near the mouth of the Kishon,
armourers were busy forging weapons and building
chariots of iron. The Hebrews did not know what
was going on, or missed the purpose that should have
thrust itself on their notice. Then came the sudden
rush of the chariots and the onset of the Canaanite
troops, fierce, irresistible. Israel was subdued and
bowed to a yoke all the more galling that it was a
people they had conquered and perhaps despised that
now rode over them. In the north at least the
Hebrews were kept in servitude for twenty years,
suffered to remain in the land but compelled to pay
heavy tribute, many of them, it is likely, enslaved or
allowed but a nominal independence. Deborah's song
vividly describes the condition of things in her country.
Shamgar had made a clearance on the Philistine border
and kept his footing as a leader, but elsewhere the land
was so swept by Canaanite spoilers that the highways
were unused and Hebrew travellers kept to the tortuous
and difficult by-paths down in the glens or among the
mountains. There was war in all the gates, but in
Israelite dwellings neither shield nor spear. Defenceless
and crushed the people lay crying to gods that could
not save, turning ever to new gods in strange despair,
the national state far worse than when Cushan's army
held the land or when Eglon ruled from the City of
Palm Trees.
Born before this time of oppression Deborah spent
iv.] THE SIBYL OF MOUNT EFHRAIM. 93
her childhood and youth in some village of Issachar,
her home a rude hut covered with brushwood and clay,
like those which are still seen by travellers. Her
parents, we must believe, had more religious feeling than
was common among Hebrews of the time. They would
speak to her of the name and law of Jehovah, and she,
we doubt not, loved to hear. But with the exception
of brief oral traditions fitfully repeated and an example
of reverence for sacred times and duties, a mere girl /'
would have no advantages. Even if her father was
chief of a village her lot would be hard and monotonous,
as she aided in the work of the household and went
morning and evening to fetch water from the spring /
or tended a few sheep on the hill-side. While she was
yet young the Canaanite oppression began, and she
with others felt the tyranny and the shame. The
soldiers of Jabin came and lived at free quarters among
the villagers, wasting their property. The crops were
perhaps assessed, as they are at the present day in
Syria, before they were reaped, and sometimes half or
even more would be swept away by the remorseless
collector of tribute. The people turned thriftless and
sullen. They had nothing to gain by exerting them-
selves when the soldiers and the tax-gatherer were
ready to exact so much the more, leaving them still in
poverty. Now and again there might be a riot. Mad-
dened by insults and extortion the men of the village
would make a stand. But without weapons, without
a leader, what could they effect ? The Canaanite
troops were upon them ; some were killed, others
carried away, and things became worse than before.
There was not much prospect at such a time for a
Hebrew maiden whose lot it seemed to be, while yet
scarcely out of her childhood, to be married like the
94 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.
rest and sink into a household drudge, toiling for a
husband who in his turn laboured for the oppressor.
But there was a way then, as there is always a way
for the high-spirited to save life from bareness and
desolation ; and Deborah found her path. Her soul
went forth to her people, and their sad state moved her
to something more than a woman's grief and rebellion.
As years went by the traditions of the past revealed
their meaning to her, deeper and larger thoughts came,
a beginning of hope for the tribes so downcast and
weary. Once they had swept victoriously through the
land and smitten that very fortress which again over-
shadowed all the north. It was in the name of Jehovah
and by His help that Israel then triumphed. Clearly
the need was for a new covenant with Him ; the people
must repent and return to the Lord. Did Deborah put
this before her parents, her husband ? Doubtless they
agreed with her, but could see no way of action, no
opportunity for such as they. As she spoke more and
more eagerly, as she ventured to urge the men of her
village to bestir themselves, perhaps a few were moved,
but the rest heard carelessly, or derided her. We can
imagine Deborah in that time of trial growing up into
tall and striking womanhood, watching with indignation
many a scene in which her people showed a craven
fear or joined slavishly in heathen revels. As she
spoke and saw her words burn the hearts of some to
whom they were spoken, the sense of power and duty
came. In vain she looked for a prophet, a leader, a
man of Jehovah to rekindle a flame in the nation's
heart. A flame ! It was in her own soul, she might
wake it in other souls; Jehovah helping her she
v.ould.
But when in her native tribe the brave woman
iv.J THE SIBYL OF MOUNT EPHRAIM. 95
Degan to urge with prophetic eloquence the return to
God and to preach a holy war her time of peril came,
fssachar lay completely under the survey of Jabin's
officers, overawed by his chariots. And one who would
deliver a servile people had need to fear treachery.
Issachar was " a strong ass couching down between
the sheepfolds" ; he had "bowed his shoulder to bear"
and become "a servant under task-work." As her
purpose matured she had to seek a place of safety
and influence, and passing southward she found it in
some retired spot among the hills between Bethel and
Ramah, some nook of that valley which, beginning near
Ai, curves eastward ard narrows at Geba to a rocky
gorge with precipices eight hundred feet high, — the
Valley of Achor, of which Hosea long afterwards said
that it should be a door of hope. Here, under a palm
tree, the landmark of her tent, she began to prophesy
and judge and grow to spiritual power among the
tribes. It was a new thing in Israel for a. woman to
speak in the name of God. Her utterances had no
doubt something of a sibyllic strain, and the deep or
wild notes of her voice pleading for Jehovah or raised
in passionate warning against idolatry touched the
finest chords of the Hebrew soul. In her rapture she
saw the Holy One coming in majesty from the southern
desert where Horeb reared its sacred peak ; or again,
looking into the future, foretold His exaltation in
proud triumph over the gods of Canaan, His people
free once more, their land purged of every heathen
taint. So gradually her place of abode became a
rendezvous of the tribes, a seat of justice, a shrine
of reviving hope. Those who longed for righteous
administration came to her ; those who were fearers
of Jehovah gathered about iier. Gaining wisdom she
96 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.
was able to represent to a rude age the majesty as well
as the purity of Divine law, to establish order as well
as to communicate enthusiasm. The people felt that
sagacity like hers and a spirit so sanguine and fearless
must be the gift of Jehovah ; it was the inspiration of
the Almighty that gave her understanding.
Deborah's prophetical utterances are not to be tried
by the standard of the Isaian age. So tested some of
her judgments might fail, some of her visions lose their
charm. She had no clear outlook to those great
principles which the later prophets more or less fully
proclaimed. Her education and circumstances and her
intellectual power determined the degree in which she
could receive Divine illumination. One woman before
her is honoured with the name of prophetess, Miriam,
the sister of Moses and Aaron, who led the refrain of
the song of triumph at the Red Sea. Miriam's gift
appears limited to the gratitude and ecstasy of one day
of deliverance ; and when afterwards on the strength
of her share in the enthusiasm of the Exodus she
ventured along with Aaron to claim equality with
Moses, a terrible rebuke checked her presumption.
Comparing Miriam and Deborah, we find as great an
advance from the one to the other as from Deborah to
Amos or Hosea. But this only shows that the inspira-
tion of one mind, intense and ample for that mind, may
come far short of the inspiration of another. God does
not give every prophet the same insight as Moses, for
the rare and splendid genius of Moses was capable of
an illumination which very few in any following age
have been able to receive. Even as among the Apostles
of Christ St. Peter shows occasionally a lapse from the
highest Christian judgment for which St. Paul has to
take him to task, and yet does not cease to be inspired,
iv.] THE SIBYL OF MOUNT EPIIRAIM. 97
SO Deborah is not to be denied the Divine gift though
her song is coloured by an all too human exultation
over a fallen enemy.
It is simply impossible to account for this new be-
ginning in Israel's history without a heavenly impulse ;
and through Deborah unquestionably that impulse came.
Others were turning to God, but she broke the dark
spell which held the tribes and taught them afresh how
to believe and pray. Under her palm tree there were
solemn searchings of heart, and when the head men
of the clans gathered there, travelling across the moun-
tains of Ephraim or up the wadies from the fords of
Jordan, it was first to humble themselves for the sin
of idolatry, and then to undertake with sacred oaths
and vows the serious work which fell to them in Israel's
time of need. Not all came to that solemn rendezvous.
When is such a gathering completely representative ?
Of Judah and Simeon we hear nothing. Perhaps they
had their own troubles with the wandering tribes of
the desert; perhaps they did not suffer as the others
from Canaanite tyranny and therefore kept aloof.
Reuben on the other side Jordan wavered, Manasseh
made no sign of sympathy ; Asher, held in check by
the fortress of Hazor and the garrison of Harosheth,
chose the safe part of inaction. Dan was busy trying
to establish a maritime trade. But Ephraim and
Benjamin, Zebulun and Naphtali were forward in the
revival, and proudly the record is made on behalf of
her native tribe, " the princes of Issachar were with
Deborah." Months passed ; the movement grew
steadily, there was a stirring among the dry bones, a
resurrection of hope and purpose.
And with all the care used this could not be hid from
the Canaanites. For doubtless in not a few liraelite
7
98 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.
homes heathen wives and half-heathen children would
be apt to spy and betray. It goes hardly with men
if they have bound themselves by any tie to those
who will not only fail in sympathy when religion makes
demands, but will do their utmost to thwart serious
ambitions and resolves. A man is terribly compromised
who has pledged himself to a woman of earthly mind,
ruled by idolatries of time and sense. He has under-
taken duties to her which a quickened sense of Divine
law will make him feel the more ; she has her claim
upon his hfe, and there is nothing to wonder at if
she insists upon her view, to his spiritual disadvantage
and peril. In the time of national quickening and
renewed thoughtfulness many a Hebrew discovered
the folly of which he had been guilty in joining hands
with women who were on the side of the Baalim and
resented any sacrifice made for Jehovah. Here we
find the explanation of much lukewarmness, indifference
to the great enterprises of the church and withholding
of service by those who make some profession of being
on the Lord's side. The entanglements of domestic
relationship have far more to do with failure in religious
duty than is commonly supposed.
Amid difficulty and discouragement enough, with
slender resources, the hope of Israel resting upon her,
Deborah's heart did not fail nor her head for affairs.
When the critical point was reached of requiring a
general for the war she had already fixed upon the
man. At Kadesh-Naphtali, almost in sight of Jabin's
fortress, on a hill overlooking the waters of Merom,
ninety miles to the north, dwelt Barak the son of
Abinoam. The neighbourhood of the Canaanite capital
and daily evidence of its growing power made Barak
ready for any enterprise which had in it good promise
iv.] THE SIBYL OF MOUNT EPHRAIM. 99
of success, and he had better qualifications than mere
resentment against injustice and eager hatred of tie
Canaanite oppression. Already known in Zebulun and
Naphtali as a man of bold temper and sagacity, he was
in a position to gather an army corps out of those
tribes — the main strength of the force on which Deborah
relied for the approaching struggle. Better still, he
was a fearer of God. To Kadesh-Naphtali the pro-
phetess sent for the chosen leader of the troops of Israel,
addressing to him the call of Jehovah : " Hath not the
Lord commanded thee saying, Go and draw towards
Mount Tabor" — that is, Bring by detachments quietly
from the different cities towards Mount Tabor — "ten
thousand men of Naphtali and Zebulun ? " The
rendezvous of Sisera's host was Harosheth of the
Gentiles, in the defile at the western extremity of the
valley of Megiddo, where Kishon breaks through to the
plain of Acre. Tabor overlooked from the north-east
the same wide strath which was to be the tield where
the chariots and the multitude should be delivered into
Barak's hand.
Not doubting the word of God, Barak sees a difficulty.
For himself he has no prophetic gift ; he is ready to
fight, but this is to be a sacred war. From the very first
he would have the men gather with the clear under-
standing that it is for religion as much as for freedom
they are taking arms ; and how may this be secured ?
Only if Deborah will go with him through the country
proclaiming the Divine summons and promise of victory.
He is- very decided on the point. " If thou wilt go
with me, then I will go : but if thou wilt not go with
me, I will not go." Deborah agrees, though she would
fain have left this matter entirely to men. She warns
him that the expedition will not be to his honour, since
THE BOOK OF JUDGES.
Jehovah will give Sisera into the hand of a woman.
Against her will she takes part in the military prepara-
tions. There is no need to find in Deborah's words a
prophecy of the deed of Jael. It is a grossly untrue
taunt that the murder of Sisera is the central point of
the whole narrative. When Deborah says, "The Lord
shall sell Sisera into the hand of a woman," the reference
plainly is, as Josephus makes it, to the position into
which Deborah herself was forced as the chief person
in the campaign. With great wisdom and the truest
courage she would have limited her own sphere. With
equal wisdom and equal courage Barak understood how
the zeal of the people was to be maintained. There
was a friendly contest, and in the end the right way
was found, for unquestionably Deborah was the genius
of the movement. Together they went to Kedesh,^
not Kadesh-Naphtali in the far north, but Kedesh on
the shore of the Sea of Galilee, some twelve miles from
Tabor.^ From that as a centre, journeying by secluded
ways through the northern districts, often perhaps by
night, Deborah and Barak went together rousing the
enthusiasm of the people, until the shores of the lake
and the valleys running down to it were quietly occu-
pied by thousands of armed men.
The clans are at length gathered ; the whole force
marches from Kedesh to the foot of Tabor to give
battle. And now Sisera, fully equipped, moves out of
Harosheth along the course of the Kishon, marching
well beneath the ridge of Carmel, his chariots thunder-
ing in the van. Near Taanach he orders his front to be
formed to the north, crosses the Kishon and advances
on the Hebrews who by this time are visible beyond
' See Conder's Tent Work in Palestine,
iv.] THE SIBYL OF MOUNT EPHRAIM. loi
the slope of Moreh. The tremendous moment has
come. " Up," cries Deborah, " for this is the day in
which the Lord hath dehvered Sisera into thine hand.
Is not the Lord gone out before thee ? " She has
waited till the troops of Sisera are entangled among
the streams which here, from various directions, con-
verge to the river Kishon, now swollen with rain and
difficult to cross. Barak, the Lightning Chief, leads his
men impetuously down into the plain, keeping near the
shoulder of Moreh where the ground is not broken by
the streams ; and with the fall of evening he begins the
attack. The chariots have crossed the Kishon but are
still struggling in the swamps and marshes. They are
assailed with vehemence and forced back, and in the
waning light all is confusion. The Kishon sweeps
away many of the Canaanite host, the rest make a
stand by Taanach and further on by the waters of
Megiddo. The Hebrews find a higher ford and following
the south bank of the river are upon the foe again. It
is a November night and meteors are flashing through
the sky. They are an omen of evil to the disheartened
half-defeated army. Do not the stars in their courses
fight against Sisera? The rout becomes complete;
Barak pursues the scattered force towards Harosheth,
and at the ford near the city there is terrible loss.
Only the fragments of a ruined army find shelter
within the gates.
Meanwhile Sisera, a coward at heart, more familiar
with the parade ground than fit for the stern necessities
of war,, leaves his chariot and abandons his men to their
fate, his own safety all his care. Seeking that, it is
not to Harosheth he turns. He takes his way across
Gilboa toward the very region which Barak has left.
On a little plateau overlooking the Sea of Galilee, near
THE BOOK OF JUDGES.
Kedesh, there is a settlement of Kenites whom Sisera
thinks he can trust. Like a hunted animal he presses
on over ridge and through defile till he reaches the
black tents and receives from Jael the treacherous
welcome, " Turn in, my lord, turn in to me ; fear not."
The pitiful tragedy follows. The coward meets at the
hand of a woman the death from which he has fled.
Jael gives him fermented milk to drink which, exhausted
as he is, sends him into a deep sleep. Then, as he lies
helpless, she smites the tent-pin through his temples.
In her song Deborah describes and glories over the
execution of her country's enemy. " Blessed among
women shall Jael, the wife of Heber be; with the
hammer she smote Sisera ; at her feet he curled up,
he fell." Exulting in every circumstance of the
tragedy, she adds a description of Sisera's mother
and her ladies expecting his return as a victor laden
with spoil, and listening eagerly for the wheels of that
chariot which never again should roll through the
streets of Harosheth. As to the whole of this passage,
our estimate of Deborah's knowledge and spiritual
insight does not require us to regard her praise and her
judgment as absolute. She rejoices in a deed which
has crowned the great victory over the master of nine
hundred chariots, the terror of Israel ; she glories in
the courage of another womian, who single-handed
finished that tyrant's career ; she does not make God
responsible for the deed. Let the outburst of her
enthusiastic relief stand as the expression of intense
feeling, the rebound from fear and anxiety of the
patriotic heart. We need not weight ourselves with
the suspicion that the prophetess reckoned Jael's deed
the outcome of a Divine thought. No : but we may
believe this of Jael, that she is on the side of Israel, her
IV.] THE SIBYL OF MOUNT EPHRAIM.
103
sympathy so far repressed by the league of her people
with Jabin, yet prompting her to use every opportunity
of serving the Hebrew cause. It is clear that if the
Kenite treaty had meant very much and Jael had felt
herself bound by it, her tent would have been an
asylum for the fugitive. But she is against the enemies
of Israel ; her heart is with the people of Jehovah in
the battle and she is watching eagerly for signs of the
victory she desires them to win. Unexpected, startling,
the sign appears in the fleeing captain of Jabin's host,
alone, looking wildly for shelter. " Turn in, my lord ;
turn in." Will he enter ? Will he hide himself in a
woman's tent ? Then to her will be commiitted ven-
geance. It will be an omen that the hour of Sisera's
fate has come. Hospitality itself must yield ; she will
break even that sacred law to do stern justice on a
coward, a tyrant, and an enemy of God.
A line of thought like this is entirely in harmony
W'ith the Arab character. The moral id^eas of the
desert are rigorous, and contempt rapidly becomes
cruel. A tent woman has few elements of judgment,
and, the balance turning, her conclusion will be quick,
remorseless. Jael is no blameless heroine ; neither is
she a demon. Deborah, who understands her, reads
clearly the rapid thoughts, the swift decision, the
unscrupulous act and sees, behind all, the purpose of
serving Israel. Her praise of Jael is therefore with
knowledge ; but she herself would not have done the
thing she praises. All possible explanations made, it
remains a murder, a wild savage thing for a woman
to do, and we may ask whether among the tents of
Zaanannim Jael was not looked on from that day as
a woman stained and shadowed, — one who had been
treacherous to a guest.
THE BOOK OF JUDGES.
Not here can the moral be found that the end justifies
the means, or that we may do evil with good intent ;
which never was a Bible doctrine and never can be.
On the contrary, we find it written clear that the end
does not justify the means. Sisera must live on and
do the worst he may rather than any soul should be
soiled with treachery or any hand defiled by murder.
There are human vermin, human scorpions and vipers.
Is Christian society to regard them, to care for them ?
The answer is that Providence regards them and
cares for them. They are human after all, men whom
God has made, for whom there are yet hopes, who are
no worse than others would be if Divine grace did
not guard and deliver. Rightly does Christian society
affirm that a human being in peril, in suffering, in any
extremity common to men is to be succoured as a man,
without inquiry whether he is good or vile. What
then of justice and man's administration of justice ?
This, that they demand a sacred calm, elevation above
the levels of personal feeling, mortal passion and ignor-
ance. Law is to be of no private, sudden, unconsidered
administration. Only in the most solemn and orderly
way is the trial of the worst malefactor to be gone
about, sentence passed, justice executed. To have
reached this understanding of law with regard to all
accused and suspected persons and all evildoers is one
of the great gains of the Christian period. We need
not look for anything like the ideal of justice in the
age of the judges ; deeds were done then and zealously
and honestly praised which we must condemn. They
were meant to bring about good, but the sum of human
violence was increased by them and more work made
for tJie moral reformer of after times. And going back
to Jael's deed we see that it gave Israel little more than
iv.] THE SIBYL OF MOUNT ErHRAIM. 105
vengeance. In point of fact the crushing defeat of the
army left Sisera powerless, discredited, open to the
displeasure of his master. He could have done Israel
no more harm.
One point remains. Emphatically are we reminded
that life continually brings us to sudden moments in
which we must act without time for careful reflection,
the spirit of our past flashing out in some quick deed
or word of fate. Sisera's past drove him in panic over
the hills to Zaanannim. Jael's past came with her to
the door of the tent ; and the two as they looked at
each other in that tragic moment were at once, without
warning, in a crisis for which every thought and passion
of years had made a way. Here the self-pampering
of a vain man had its issue. Here the woman, un-
disciplined, impetuous, catching sight of the means to
do a deed, moves to the fatal stroke like one possessed.
It is the sort of thing we often call madness, and yet
such insanity is but the expression of what men and
women choose to be capable of. The casual allowance
of an impulse here, a craving there, seems to mean little
until the occasion comes when their accumulated force
is sharply or terribly revealed. The laxity of the past
thus declares itself; and on the other hand there is
often a gathering of good to a moment of revelation.
The soul that has for long years fortified itself in pious
courage, in patient well-doing, in high and noble
thought, leaps one day, to its own surprise, to the
height of generous daring or heroic truth. We deter-
mine the issue of crises which we cannot foresee.
VIII.
DEBORAH'S SONG: A DIVINE VISION.
Judges v.
THE song of Deborah and Barak is twofold, the
first portion, ending with the eleventh verse, a
chant of rising hope and pious encouragement during
the time of preparation and revival, the other a song of
battle and victory throbbing with eager patriotism and
the hot breath of martial excitement. In the former
part God is celebrated as the Helper of Israel from of
old and from afar; He is the spring of the movement
in which the singer rejoices, and in His praise the
strophes culminate. But human nature asserts itself
after the great and decisive triumph in the vivid
touches of the latter canto. In it more is told of the
doings of men, and there is picturesque fiery exultation
over the fallen. One might almost think that Deborah,
l.erself childless, glories over the mother of Sisera in
the utter desolation Vvhich falls on her when she hears
the tidings of her son's defeat and death. Yet this
mood ceases abruptly, and the song returns to Jehovah,
Whose friends are lifted up to joy and strength by His
availing help.
The main interest of the twofold song lies in its
religious colour, for here the pious ardour of the Israel
of the judges comes to finest expression. As a whole
v.] DEBORAIPS SONG: A DIVINE VISION. 107
it is more patriotic than moral, m.ore warlike than
religious, and thus unquestionably reflects the temper
of the time. What ideas do we find in it of the relation
of Israel to God and of God to Israel, what conceptions
of the Divine character ? Jehovah is invoked and
praised as the God of the Hebrews alone. He seems
to have no interest in the Canaanites, nor compassion
towards them. Yet the grandeur of the Divine forth-
going is declared in bold and striking imagery, and the
high resolves of men are clearly traced to the Spirit
of the Almighty. Duty to God is linked with duty to
country, and it is at least suggested that Israel without
Jehovah is nothing and has no right to a place among
the peoples. The nation exists for the glory of its
Heavenly King, to make known His power and His
righteous acts. A strain like this in a war-song belong-
ing to the time of Israel's semi-barbarism bears no
uncertain promise. From the well-spring out of which
it flows clear and sparkling there will come otJier songs,
with tenderer music and holier longing, — songs of
spiritual hope and generous desire for Messianic
peace.
I. The first religious note is struck in what may be
called the opening Hallelujah, although the ejaculation,
" Bless the Lord," is not, in Hebrew, that which after-
wards becam.e the great refrain of sacred song.
" For that leaders led in Israel,
For that the people offered themselves willingly :
Bless ye Jehovah."
Here is more than belief in Providence. It is faith
in the spiritual presence and power of God swaying
the souls of m,en. Has Deborah seen at last, after long
io8 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.
efforts to rouse the careless people, one and another
responding to her appeals and seeking her tent among
the hills ? Has she witnessed the vows of the chiefs
of Israchar and Zebulun that they would not be
wanting in the day of battle ? Not to herself but to the
God of. Israel is the new temper ascribed. Jehovah,
"Who touched her own heart, has now touched many
another. For years she had been aware of holier
influences than came to her from the people among
whom she lived. In secret, in the silence of the heart,
she had found herself mastered by thoughts that none
around her shared. She has well accounted for them.
Jehovah has spoken to her, Jehovah caring still for His
people, waiting to redeem them from bondage. And
now, when her prophetic cry finds echo in other souls,
when men who were asleep rise up and declare their
purpose, especially when from this side and that com-
panies of brave youths and resolute elders come to
her — from the slopes of Carmel, from the hills of Gilead
— the fire of hope in their eyes, how otherwise explain
the upspringing of energy and devotion than as the
work of the Spirit that has moved her own soul ? To
Jehovah is all the praise.
Common enough in our day is a profession of belief
in God as the source of every good desire and right
effort, as inspiring the charity of the generous, the
affection of the loving, the fidelity of the true. But it
our faith is deep and real it brings us much nearer
than we usually feel ourselves to be to Him Who is
the Life indeed. The existence and energy of God are
assured to those who have this insight. Every kind-
ness done by man to man is a testimony against
which denial of the Divine life has no power. Though
tl:e intellect searching far afield makes out only as
v.] DEBORAH'S SONG: A DIVINE VISION. 109
it were some few dim and indistinct footprints of a
Mighty Being Who has passed by, seen at intervals on
the plains of history, then lost in the morasses or on
the rocky ground, there ought to be found in every
human life daily evidence of Divine grace and wisdom.
The good, the true, the noble constantly appeal to men,
find men ; and through these God finds them. When
a magnanimous word is spoken, God is heard. When
a deed is done in love, in purity, in courage or pity,
God is seen. When out of languor and corruption and
self-indulgence men arise and set their faces to the
steep of duty, God is revealed. He in Whom we trust
for the redemption of the world never leaves Himself
without a witness, whether faith perceives or unbelief
denies. The human story unfolds a Divine urgency
by which the progress, the evolution of all that is good
proceed from age to age. Man has never been left to
nature alone nor to himself alone. The supernatural
has always mingled with his life. He ha^ resisted
often, he has rebelled ; yet conscience has not ceased,
God has not withdrawn. This living energy of Jehovah,
not only as belonging to the past but discovered in the
new zeal of Israel, Deborah saw, and in virtue of the
revelation she was far before her time. For the fresh
life of the people, for the willing self-devotion of so
many to the great cause, she lifted her voice in praise
to Israel's Eternal Friend.
2. The next passage may be called a prologue in
the heavens. Partly historical, it is chiefly a vision of
Jehovah's age-long work for His people. In words
that flash and roll the song describes the glorious
advent of the Most High, nature astir with His pre-
sence, the mountains shaking under His tread.
The seat cf the Divine Majesty appears to the
THE BOOK OF JUDGES.
prophetess to be in Seir. She looks across the hills
of the south and passes beyond the desert to that
place of mystery where God spoke in thunder and
proclaimed Himself in the Law. The imagery points
to the phenomena of earthquake and a fearful lightning
storm accompanied with heavy rain. These, the most
striking natural symbols of the supernatural, form the
materials of the strophe. Perhaps even as the song is
chanted the thunders of Sinai are echoed in a great
storm that shakes the sky and rolls among the hills.
The outward signs represent the new impressions of
Divine power and authority which are startling and
rousing the tribes. They have heard no voices, seen
no tokens of God for many a year. He Who led their
fathers out of bondage, He Who marched with them
through the desert, has been forgotten ; but He returns,
He is with them again. The office of the prophetess
is to celebrate God's presence and excite in the dull
souls of men some feeling of His majesty. Sinai once
trembled and was dismayed before God. The great
peak beside which Tabor is but a mound flowed down
in volcanic glow and rush. It is He Whose coming
Deborah hears in the beating storm. He Whose vic-
torious feet shake the hills of Ephraim. Have the people
forsaken their King ? Let them seek Him, trust Him
now. Under the shadow of His wings there is refuge ;
before His arrows and the fierce floods He pours from
heaven who can stand ?
It has been well said that for the Israel of ancient
times all natural phenomena — a storm, a hurricane or a
flood — had more than ordinary.import. " Forbidden to
recognise and, as it were, grasp the God of heaven in
any material form, or to adore even in the heavens
themselves any constant symbols of His being and His •
v.] DEBORAirS SONG: A DIVINE VISION. \\l
power, yet yearning more in spirit for manifestations of
His invisible existence, Israel's mind was ever on the
stretch for any hint in nature of the unseen Celestial
Being, for any glimpse of His mysterious ways, and
its courage rose to a far higher pitch when Divine
encouragement and impulse seemed to come from the
material world." ^ From the images of Baal and the
Ashtaroth Israel had turned ; but where was their
Heavenly King ? The answer came with marvellous
power when Deborah in the midst of the rolling
thunder could say, " Lord, when Thou wentest forth out
of Seir, when Thou marchedst out of the field of Edom,
the earth trembled, the heavens also dropped. The
mountains flowed down at the presence of Jehovah."
If the people bethought themselves of the clear demon-
stration of Divine majesty made to their fathers, they
would realize God once more as the Ruler in heaven
and earth. Then would courage revive, and in the
faith of the Almighty they would go forth to victory.
Now was there in this faith an elemenf of reason,
a correspondence with fact ? Is it fancy and nothing
else, the poetic flight of an ardent soul eager to rouse
a nation ? Have we here an arbitrary connection
made between striking natural events and a Divine
Person throned in the heavens Whose existence the
prophetess assumes. Whose supposed claim to obedience
haunts her mind ? In such a question our age utters
its scepticism.
An age it is of science, of positive science. Toiling
foi centuries at the task of understanding the phe-
nomenal, research has at length assumed the right to
tell us what we must believe concerning the world — •
Ewald.
THE BOOK OF JUDGES.
what we are to believe, observe, for it is a new creed
and nothing else that confronts us here. "The govern-
ment of the world," says one, " must not be considered
as determined by an extramundane intelligence, but by
one immanent in the cosmical forces and their rela-
tions." Another says: "The world or matter with its
properties which we term forces must have existed
from eternity and must last for ever — in one word, the
world cannot have been created. . . . The ever-chang-
ing action of the natural forces is the fundamental cause
of all that arises and perishes." Or again, not most
recent in time but entirely modern in temper, we have
the following : " Science has gradually taken all the
positions of the childish belief of the peoples ; it has
snatched thunder and lightning from the hands of the
gods. The stupendous powers of the Titans of the olden
time have been grasped by the fingers of man. That
which appeared inexplicable, miraculous and the work
of a supernatural power has by the touch of science
proved to be the effect of hitherto unknown natural
forces. Everything that happens does so in a natural
way, i.e., in a mode determined only by accidental or
necessary coalition of existing materials and their
immanent natural forces." Here is dogma forced on
faith with fine energy ; and what more is to be said
when judgment is given — "I have searched the heavens,
but have nowhere found the traces of a God " ?
We hear the boast that no song of Hebrew seer can
withstand this modern wisdom, that the superstition
of Bible faith shall vanish like starlight before the
rising sun. To science every opinion shall submit.
But wait. It is dogmatism against belief after all,
authority against authority, and the one in a lower
region than the other, with vastly inferior sanctions.
v.] DEBORAH'S SONG: A DIVINE VISION. 113
Natural science declares the present result of its obser-
vation of the universe, investigation brief, superficial,
and limited to one small corner of the whole. Yet
these deliverances are to be set above the science
which deals with existence on the highest plane, the
spiritual, solving deepest problems of life and con-
science, finding perpetual support in the experience of
men. The claim is somewhat large ; it lacks the proof
of service ; it lacks verification. Science boasts greatly,
as is natural to its adolescence. But at what point can
it dare to say. Here is final truth, here is certainty ?
We do not repel our debt to the discoverer when we
maintain that natural science is only watching the
surface of a stream for a few miles along its course,
while the springs far away among the eternal hills
and the outflow into the infinite ocean are never viewed.
Are we taunted with believing ? Those who taunt us
must supply for their part something more than in-
ference ere we trust all to their wisdom. The." Force "
that is so much invoked, what is it so far as the defi-
nitions of science go ? Effects we see ; Force never.
All statemr nts as to the nature of force are pure dogma.
It is declared that there are necessary and eternal laws
of matter. What makes them necessary, and who
can prove their everlastingness ? Using such words
men pass infinitely beyond material research — they
infer — they assert. In the region of natural science
we can affirm nothing to be eternal, and even necessity
is a word that has no warrant. It is only in the soul,
in the region of moral ideas, we come on that which
endures, which is necessary, which has constant reality.
And it is here that our belief in God as universal Creator,
the Source of power and life, the One Agent, the King
eternal, immortal and invisible, finds root and strength.
8
THE BOOK OF JUDGES.
The battle between materialism and religious faith
fe not a battle in which facts are arrayed on one side
and inferences and dreams on the other. The array is
of facts against facts, as we have said, and with an
immense difference of value. Is it an established
sequence that when the electricity in the clouds is not
in equipoise with that of the earth, under certain condi-
tions there is a thunderstorm ? It is surely a sequence
of higher moment that when the sense of righteousness
seizes the minds of men they rise against iniquity and
there is a revolution. There natural forces operate,
here spiritual. But on which side is the indication of
eternity ? Which of these sequences can better claim
to give a key to the order of the universe ? Surely if
the evolution of the ages, so far, has culminated in man
with his capability of knowing and serving the true,
the just, the good, these facts of his mind and life are
the highest of which we can take cognizance, and in
them, if anywhere, we must find the key to all know-
ledge, the reason of all phenomena. Evolutionary
science itself must agree to this. In the movements of
nature we find no advance to fixity and finality. Nature
labours, men labour with or against nature ; but the flux
of things is perpetual ; there is no escape from change.
In the eff'orts of the spiritual life it is not so. When
we strive for equalness, -for verity, for purity, we have
glimpses then of the changeless order which we must
needs call Divine. Here is the indication of eternity ;
and as we investigate, as we experience, we come to
certitude, we reach larger vision, larger faith. That
which endures rises clear above that which appears
and passes.
Returning to Deborah's song and her vision of the
coming of God in the impetuous storm, we see the
v.] DEBORAH'S SONG: A DIVINE VISION. 115
practical value of Theism. One great idea, comprehen-
sive and majestic, leads thought beyond symbol and
change to the All-righteous Lord. To attribute phe-
mena to " Nature" is a sterile mode of thought ; nothing
is done for life. To attribute phenomena to a variety
of superhuman persons limits and weakens the religious
idea sought after ; still one is lost in the changeable.
Theism delivers the soul from both evils and sets it
on a free upward path, stern yet alluring. By this
path the Hebrew prophet rose to the high and fruitful
conceptions which draw men together in responsibility
and worship. The eternal governs all, rules every
change ; and that eternal is the holy will of God. The
omnipotence nature obeys is the omnipotence of right.
Israel returning to God will find Him coming to the help
of His people in the awful or kindly movements of the
natural world. Our view in one sense extends beyond
that of the Hebrew seer. We find the purpose dis-
closed in natural phenomena to be somewhat differ-
ent. Not the protection of a favoured race, but the
discipline of humanity is what we perceive. Ours is
an expansion of the Hebrew faith, revealing the same
Divine goodness engaged in a redeeming work of wider
scope and longer duration.
The point is still in doubt among us whether the
good, the true, the right, are invincible. Those who
go forth in the service of God are often borne down by
the graceless multitude. From age to age the problem
of God's supremacy seems to remain in suspense, and
men are not afraid, in the name of foulest iniquity, to
try issues with the best. Be it so. The Divine work is
slow. Even the best need discipline that they may have
strength, and God is in no haste to carry His argument
against atheism. There is abundance of time. Those
n6 THE BOOK OE JUDGES.
bent on evil or misled by falsehood, those who are
on the wrong side though they consider themselves
soldiers of a good cause may gain on many a field, yet
their gain will turn out in the long run to be loss, and
they who lose and fall are really the victors. There
is defeat that is better than success. Other ages than
belong to this world's history are yet to dawn, and the
discovery will come to every intelligence that he alone
triumphs whose life is spent for righteousness and
love, in fidelity to God and man.
3. Let it be allowed that we find the latter canto of
Deborah's song expressive of faith rather than of clear
moralit}', pointing to a spiritual future rather than
exhibiting actual knowledge of the Divine character.
We hear of the righteous acts of the Lord, and the note
is welcome, yet most likely the thought is of retribu-
tive justice and punishment that overtakes the enemies
of Israel. When the remnant of the nobles and
the people come down — that remnant of brave and
faithful men never wanting to Israel — the Lord comes
down with them, their Guide and Strength. Meroz is
cursed because the inhabitants do not go forth to the
help of Jehovah. And finally there is glorying over
Sisera because he is an enemy of Israel's Unseen King.
There is trust, there is devotion, but no largeness ol
spiritual view.
We must, however, remember that a song full of the
spirit of battle and the gladness of victory cannot be
expected to breathe the ideal of religion. The mind
of the singer is too excited by the circumstances of
the time, the bustle, the triumph, to dwell on higher
themes. When fighting has to be done it is the main
business of the hour, cannot be aught else to those who
are engaged. A woman especially, strung to an unusual
v.] DEBORAH'S SONG: A DIVINE VISION. 117
pitch of nervous endurance, would be absorbed in the
events and her own new and strange position ; and she
would pass rapidly from the tension of anxiety to a
l<een passionate exuhation in which everything was lost
except the sense of deliverance and of personal vindica-
tion. When that is past which was an issue of life
or death, freedom or destruction, joy rises in a sudden
spring, joy in the prowess of men, the fulness of Divine
succour ; neither the prophetess nor the fighters are in-
different to justice and mercy, though they do not name
them here. Deborah, a woman of intense patriotism
and piety, dared greatly for God and her country ; of
a base thing she was incapable. The men who fought
by the waters of Megiddo and slew their enemies
ruthlessly in the heat of battle knew in the time of
peace the duties of humanity and no doubt showed
kindness when the war was over to the widows and
orphans of the slain. To know and serve Jehovah was
a guarantee of moral culture in a rude age ; -and the
Israelites when they returned to Him must have con-
trasted very favourably in respect of conduct with the
devotees of Baal and Astarte.
For a parallel case we may turn to Oliver Cromwell.
In his letter after the storming of Bristol, a bloody
piece of work in which the mettle of the Parliamentary
force was put keenly to proof, Cromwell ascribes the
victory to God in these terms : — " They that have been
employed in this service know that faith and prayer
obtained this city for you. God hath put the sword in
the Parliament's hands for the terror of evil-doers
and the praise of them that do well." Of victory after
victory which left many a home desolate he speaks
as mercies to be acknowledged with all thankfulness.
" God exceedingly abounds in His goodness to us, and
nS THE BOOK OF JUDGES.
will not be weary until righteousness and peace meet;
and until He hath brought forth a glorious work for the
happiness of this poor kingdom." Read his dispatches
and you find that though the man had a generous heart
and was a sworn servant of Christ the merciful, yet
he breathes no compassion for the royal troops. These
are the enemy against whom a pious man is bound to
fight ; the slaughter of them is a terrible necessity.
Just now it is the fashion to depreciate as much as
possible the moral value of the old Hebrew faith. We
are assured in a tone of authority that Israel's Jehovah
was only another Chemosh, or, say, a respectable Baal,
a being without moral worth, — in fact, a mere name of
might worshipped by Israelites as their protector. The
history of the people settles this uncritical theory. If
the religion of Israel did not sustain a higher morality,
if the faith of Jehovah was purely secular, how came
Israel to emerge as a nation from the long conflict with
Moabites, Canaanites, Midianites and Philistines ? The
Hebrews were not superior in point of numbers, unity
or military skill to the nations whose interest it was
to subdue or expel them. Some vantage ground the
Israelites must have had. What was it? Justice
between man and man, domestic honour, care for
human life, a measure of unselfishness, — these at least,
as well as the entire purity of their religious rites, were
their inheritance ; through these the blessing of the
Eternal rested upon them. There could never be a
return to Him in penitence and hope without a return
to the duties and the faith of the sacred covenant. We
know therefore that while Deborah sings her song of
battle and exults over fallen Sisera there is latent in
her mind and the minds of her people a warmth of
moral purpose justifying their new hberty. This nation
v.] DEBORAH'S SONG: A DIVINE VISION. 119
is again a militant church. The hearts of men enlarge
that God may dwell in them. Israel's triumph, shall
it not be for the good of those who are overcome ?
Shall not the people of Jehovah, going forth as the sun
in his might, shed a kindly radiance over the lands
around ? So fine a conception of duty is scarcely to be
found in Deborah's song, but, realized or not in Old
Testament times, it was the revelation of God through
Israel to the world.
IX.
DEBORAWS SONG: A CHANT OF PATRIOTISM.
Judges v.
WE have already considered the song of Deborah
as a declaration of God's working more broad
and spiritual than might be looked for in that age.
We now regard it as exhibiting different relations of
men to the Divine purpose. There is a religious spirit
in the whole movement here described. It begins in
a revival of faith and obedience, prospers despite the
coldness and opposition of many, grows in force and
enthusiasm as it proceeds and finally is crowned with
success. The church is militant in a literal sense ;
3'et, fighting with carnal weapons, it is really contending
for the glory of the Unseen King. There is a close
parallel between the enterprise of Deborah and Barak
and that which opens before the church of the present
time. No forced accommodation is needed to gather
from the song lessons of different kinds for our guidance
and warning in the campaign of Christianity.
Here are Deborah herself, a mother in Israel, and the
leaders who take their places at the head of the armies
of God. Here also are the people willingly offering
themselves, imperilling their lives for religion and
freedom. The history of the past and the vision of
Jehovah as sole Ruler of nature and providjnce en-
v.] DEBORAirS SONG: A CHANT OF TATRIOTISM. 121
courage the faithful, who rise out of lethargy and leave
the by-ways of life to take the field in battle array.
The levies of Ephraim, Benjamin, Zebulun, Issachar
and Naphtali represent those who are decisively
Christian, ready to hazard all for the gospel's sake.
But Reuben sits among the sheepfolds and listens to
the pipings for the flocks, Dan remains in ships, Asher
at the haven of the sea ; and these may stand for
the self-cultivating self-serving professors of religion.
Jabin and Sisera again are established opponents of
the right cause ; they are brave in their own defence ;
their positions look most formidable, their battalions
shake the ground. But the stars from heaven, the
floods of Kishon, are only a small part of the forces
of the King of heaven ; and the soul of Israel marches
on in strength till the enemy is routed. Meroz practi-
cally helps the foe. Those who dwell within its walls
are doubtful of the issue and will not risk their lives ;
the curse of sullen apostasy falls upon them, Jael is
a vivid type of the unscrupulous helpers of a good
cause, those who employing the weapons and methods
of the world would fain be servants of that kingdom
in which nothing base, nothing earthly can have place.
And there are the children of the hour, the fine ladies
of Harosheth whose pleasure and pride are bound up
with oppression, who look through the lattices and
listen in vain for the returning chariots laden with
spoil
I. The leaders and head men of the tribes under
Deborah and Barak, Deborah foremost in the great
enterprise, her soul on fire with zeal for Israel and
for God.
Deborah and Barak show throughout that spirit of
cordial agreement, that frank support of each other
THE BOOK OF JUDGES.
which at all times are so much to be desired in religious
leaders. There is no jealousy, no striving for pre-
eminence. Barak is a brave man, but he will not stir
without the prophetess ; he is quite content to give
her the place of honour while he does the martial work.
Deborah again would commit the task to Barak's hands
in complete reliance on his wisdom and valour ; yet
she is ready to appear along with him, and in her song,
while she claims the prophetic office, it is to Barak she
renders the honours of victory — "Lead thy thraldom
in thrall, thou son of Abinoam."
Rarely, it must be confessed, is there entire harmony
among the leaders of affairs. Jealousy is too often
with them from the first. Suspicion lurks under the
council table, private ambitions and unworthy fears
make confusion when each should trust and encourage
another. The fine enthusiasm of a great cause does
not overcome as it ought the selfishness of human
nature. Moreover, varieties in disposition as between
the cautious and the impetuous, the more and the less
of sagacity or of faith, a failure in sincerity here, in
justice there, are separating influences constantly at
work. But when the pressing importance of the duties
entrusted to men by God governs every will, these
elements of division cease ; leaders who differ in tem-
perament are loyal to each other then, each jealous of the
others' honour as servants of truth. In the Reforma-
tion, for example, prosperity was largely due to the
fact that two such men as Luther and Melanchthon, very
different yet thoroughly united, stood side by side in the
thick of the conflict, Luther's impetuosity moderated
by the calmer spirit of the other, Melanchthon's craving
for peace kept from dangerous concession by the bold-
ness of his friend. Their mutual love and fidelity
v.] DEBORAirS SONG: A CHANT OF PATRIOTISM. 123
showed the nobleness of both, showed also what the
Protestant Gospel was. Their differences melted away
in enthusiasm for the Word of God, which one thought
of as a celestial ambrosia, the other as a sword, a war,
a destruction springing upon the children of Ephraim
like a lioness in the forest. The Divine work was the
life of each ; each in his own way sought with splendid
earnestness to forward the truth of Christ.
Church leaders are responsible for not a little which
they themselves condemn. Differences do not quickly
arise among disciples when the teachers are modest,
honourable, and brotherly. Paul cries, " Is Christ
divided ? Were ye baptized into the name of Paul ?
What is Apollos ? What is Paul ? Ministers by whom
ye believed." When our leaders speak and feel in like
manner there will be peace, not uniformity but some-
thing better. God's husbandry, God's building will
prosper.
But it is declared to be jealousy for religion that
divides — jealousy for the pure doctrine of Christ —
jealousy for the true church. We try to believe it.
But then why are not all in that spirit of holy jealousy
found side by side as comrades, eagerly yet in cordial
brotherhood discussing points of difference, determined
that they will search together and help each other until
they find principles in which they can all rest ? The
leaders of different Christian bodies do not appear like
Deborah and Barak engaged in a common enterprise,
but as chiefs of rival or even opposing armies. The
reason is that in this church and the other there has been
a foreclosing of questions, and the elected leaders are
almost all men who are pledged to the tribal decrees.
In the decisions of councils and synods, and not les3
in the deliverances of learned doctors apologising each
124 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.
for his owir sect and marking out the path his party
must travel, there has been ever since the days of the
apostles a hardening and limiting of opinion. Thought
has been prematurely crystallized and each church
prides itself on its own special deposit. The true church
leader should understand that a course which may have
been inevitable in the past is not the virtue of to-day and
that those are simply adhering to an antiquated position
who affirm one church to be the sole possessor of truth,
the only centre of authority. It may seem strange to
advise the churches to reconsider many of the ideas
built into creed and constitution and to reject all leaders
who are such by credit of sitting immovable in the
seats of the rabbis, but the progress of Christianity in
power and assurance waits upon a new brotherliness
which will bring about a new catholicity. Under
guides of the right kind the churches will have qualities
and distinctions as heretofore, each will be a rendezvous
for spirits of a certain order, but frankly confessing
each other's right and honour they will press on abreast
to scale and possess the uplands oi truth.
To be sure something is said of tolennce. But that is
a purely political idea. Let it not be so .much as named
in the assembly of God's people. Does Barak tolerate
Deborah ? Does Moses tolerate Aaron ? Does St.
Peter tolerate St. Paul ? The disciples of Christ
tolerate each other, do they ? What marvellous large-
ness of soul I One or two, it appears, have been made
sole keepers of the ark but are prepared to tolerate the
embarrassing help of well-meaning auxiliaries. Neither
charity of that sort nor flabbiness of belief is asked.
Let each be strongly persuaded in his own mind of
that which he has learned from Christ. But where
Christ has not foreclosed inquiry and where sincere
v.] DEBORAH'S SONG: A CHANT OF PATRIOTISM. 125
and thoughtful believers differ there is no place for
what is called tolerance ; the demand is for brotherly
fellowship in thought and labour.
Deborah was a mother in Israel, a nursing mother of
the people in their spiritual childhood, with a mother's
warm heart for the oppressed and weary flock. The
nation needed a new birth, and that, by the grace of
God, Deborah gave it in the sore travail of her soul.
For many a year she suffered, prayed and entreated.
Israel had chosen new gods and in serving them was
dying to righteousness, dying to Jehovah. Deborah
had to pour her own life into the half-dead, and com-
pared to this effort the battle with the Canaanites was
but a secondary matter. So is it always. The Divine
task is that of the mother-like souls that labour for the
quickening of faith and holy service. Great victories of
Christian valour, patience and love are never won with-
out that renewal of humanity ; and everything is due
to those who have guided the ignorant into kr*owledge,
the careless to thought and the weak to strength
through years of patient toil. They are not all prophets,
not all known to the tribes : of many such the record
waits hidden with their God until the day of revealing
and rejoicing.
Yet Barak also, the Lightning Chief, has honourable
part. When the men are collected, men new-born into
life, he can lead them. They are Ironsides under him.
He rushes down from Tabor and they at his feet with
a vigour nothing can resist. If we have Deborah we
shall also have Barak, his army and his victory. The
promise is not for women only but for all in the
private ways and obscure settlements of life who labour
at the making of men. Every Christian has the re-
sponsibility and joy of helping to prepare a way for the
126 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.
coming of Jehovah in some great outburst of faith and
righteousness.
2. We contrast next the people who offered them-
selves willingly, who "jeoparded their lives unto the
death upon the high places of the field," and those who
for one reason or another held aloof.
"With united leaders there is a measure of unity
among the tribes. Barak and Deborah summon all
who are ready to strike for liberty, and there is a great
muster. Yet there might be double the number.
Those who refuse to take arms have many pretexts,
but the real cause is want of heart. The oppression
of Jabin does not much affect some Israelites, and so
far as it does they would rather go on paying tribute
than risk their Uves, rather bear the ills they have
than hazard anything in joining Barak. These holding
back, the work has to be done by a comparatively small
number, a remnant of the nobles and the people.
But a remnant is always found ; there are men and
women who do not bow the knee to the Baal of worldly
fashion, who do not content their souls amid the flesh-
pots of low servitude. They have to venture and
sacrifice much in a long and varying war, and often-
times their flesh and heart may almost fail. But a
great reward is theirs. While others are spiritless and
hopeless they know the zest of life, its real power and
joy. They know what believing means, how strong it
makes the soul. Their all is in the spiritual kingdom
which cannot be moved. God is the portion of their
souls, their gladness and glory. Those who stand by
and look on while the conflict rages may share to a
certain extent in the liberty that is won, for the gains
of Christian warfare are not limited, they are for all
mankind. There is a wider and better ordered life for
v.] DEBORAH- S SONG: A CHANT OF PATRIOTISM. 127
all when this evil custom and that have been overcome,
when one Jabin after another ceases to oppress. Yet
what is it after all to touch the border of Christian
liberty ? To the fighters belongs the inheritance itself,
an ever-extending conquest, a land of olives and vine-
yards and streams of living water.
Different tribes are named that sent contingents
to the army of Barak. They are typical of different
churches, different orders of society that are forward
in the campaign of faith. The Hebrews who came most
readily at the battle call appear to have belonged to
districts where the Canaanite oppression was heavy,
the country that lay between Harosheth, the head-
quarters of Sisera, and Hazor the city of Jabin. So
in the Christian struggle of the ages the strenuous
part falls to those who suffer from the tyranny of
the temporal and see clearly the hopelessness of life
without religion. The gospel of Christ is peculiarly
precious to men and women whose lot is hard, whose
earthly future is clouded. Sacrifices for God's cause
are made as a rule by these. In His great purpose, in
His deep knowledge of the facts of life, our Lord joined
Himself to the poor and left with them a special
blessing. It is not that men who dwell in comfort are
independent of the gospel, but they are tempted to
think themselves so. In proportion as they are fenced
in amongst possessions and social claims they are apt,
though devout, to miss that very call which is the
message of the gospel to them. Well-meaning but
absorbed, they can rarely bestir themselves to hear
and do until some personal calamity or public disaster
awakens them to the truth of things. The steady sup-
port of Christian ordinances and work in our day is
largely the honour of people who have their full share
128 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.
in the struggle for earthly necessaries or a humble
standing in the ranks of the independent. The paradox
is real and striking ; it claims the attention of those who
vainly dream that a comfortable society would certainly
become Christian, as effect follows cause. While
the religion of Christ makes for justice and temporal
well-being, blessing even the unbeliever, while it leads
the way to a high standard of social order, these things
remain of no value in themselves to men unspiritual :
it holds true that man can never live by bread alone,
but by the words which proceed out of the mouth of
God. And there are forces at work among us on behalf
of the Divine counsel that shall not fail to maintain
the struggle necessary to the discipline and growth
of souls.
The real army of faith is largely drawn from the
ranks of the toilers and the heavy laden. Yet not
entirely. We reckon many and fine exceptions. There
are rich who are less worldly than those who have
little. Many whose lot lies far from the shadow of
tyranny in green and pleasant valleys are first to
hear and quickest to answer every call from the Captain
of the Lord's host. Their possessions are nothing to
them. In the spiritual battle all is spent, knowledge,
influence, wealth, life. And if you look for the highest
examples of Christianity, a faith pure, keen and lovely,
a generosity that most clearly reveals the Master, a
passion for truth consuming all lower regards, you will
find them where culture has done its best for the mind
and the bounty of providence has kindled a gracious
humility and an abounding gentleness of heart. The
tawdry vanities of their fellows in rank and wealth
seem what they are to these, the gaudy toys of children
who have not yet seen the glory and the goal of life.
v.] DEBORAirS SONG: A CHANT OF PATRIOTISM. 129
And how can men and women hear the clarion of the
Christian war ringing over the valleys of degradation
and fear, see the Divine contest surging through the
land, and not perceive that here and here only is life ?
Men play at statecraft and grow cold as they intrigue ;
they play at financing and become ciphers in a mon-
strous sum ; they toil at pleasure till Satan himself
might pity them, for at least he has a purpose to serve.
All the while there is offered to them the vigour, the
buoyancy, the glow of an ambition and a service in
which no spirit tires and no heart withers. Passing
strange it is that so few noble, so few mighty, so few
wise hear the keen cry from the cross as one of life
and power.
Among the tribes that held aloof from the great
conflict several are specially named. Messengers have
gone l3 the land of Reuben beyond Jordan, and carried
the fiery cross through Bashan. Dan has been sum-
moned and Asher from the haven of the sea. But
these have not responded. Reuben indeed has search-
ings of heart. Some of the people remember the old
promise made at Shittim in the plain of Moab, that they
would help their brethren who crossed into Canaan,
never refusing assistance till the land was fully pos-
sessed. Moses had solemnly charged them with that
duty, and they had bound themselves in covenant : "As
the Lord hath said unto thy servants, so will we do."
Could anything have been more seriously, more deci-
sively undertaken ? Yet, when this hour of need came,
though the duty lay upon the conscience nothing was
done. Along the watercourses of Gilead and Bashan
there were flocks to tend, to protect from the Amalekites
and Midianites of the desert who would be sure to
make a raid in the absence of the fighting men. To
9
130 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.
Asher and Dan the reference is perhaps somewhat
ironical. The " ships " for trade, the " haven of the
sea," were never much to these tribes, and their mari-
time ambition made an unworthy excuse. They had
perhaps a Httle fishing, some small trade on the coast,
and petty as the gain was it filled their hearts. Asher
"abode by his creeks."
It is not to a religious festival that Deborah and
Barak have called the tribes. It is to serious and
dangerous duty. Yet the call of duty should come with
mere power than any invitation even to spiritual enjoy-
ment. The great religious gathering has its use, its
charm. We know the attraction of the crowded con-
vocation in which Christian hope and enthusiasm are
re-kindled by stirring words and striking instances,
faith rising high as it views the wide mission of gospel
truth and hears from eloquent lips the story of a
modern day of Pentecost. To many, because their own
spiritual life burns dull, the daily and weekly routine
of things becomes empty, vain, unsatisfying. In the
common round even of valued rehgious exercise the
heat and promise of Christianity seem to be lacking.
In the convention they appear to be realized as nowhere
else, and the persuasion that God may be felt there in
a special manner is laying hold of Christian people.
They are right in their eager desire to be borne along
with the flood of redeeming grace ; but we have need
to ask what the life of faith is, how it is best nourished.
To have a personal share in God's controversy with
evil, to have a place however obscure in the actual
struggle of truth with falsehood, — this alone gives con-
fidence in the result and power in believing. Those
who are in contact with spiritual reality because they
have their own testimony to bear, their own watch to
v.] DEBORAH'S SONG: A CHANT OF PATRIOTISM. 131
keep at some outpost, find stimulus in the urgency
of duty and exultation in the consciousness of service.
Men often seek in public gatherings what they can only
find in the private vi^ays of effort and endurance ; they
seek the joy of harvest vi^hen they should be at the
labour of sowing ; they would fain be cheered by the
song of victory when they should be roused by the
trumpet of battle.
And the result is that where spiritual work waits
to be done there are but few to do it. Examine the
state of any Christian church, reckon up those who
are deeply interested in its efficiency, who make sacri-
fices of time and means, and set against these the
half-hearted, who ignobly accept the religious provision
made for them and perhaps complain that it is not
so good as they would like, that progress is not so
rapid as they think it might be, — the one class far
outnumbers the other. As in Israel twice or three
times as many might have responded to Barak's call,
so in every church the resolute, the energetic and
devoted are few compared with those who are capable
of energy and devotion. It is sometimes maintained
that the worship of goodness and the Christian ideal
command the minds of men more to-day than ever
they did, and proof seems ready to hand. But, after
all, is it not religious taste rather than reverence that
grows ? Self-culture leads many to a certain admira-
tion of Christ and a form of discipleship. Christian
worship is enjoyed and Christian philanthropy also,
but when the spiritual freedom of mankind calls for
some effort of the soul and life, we see what religion
means — a wave of the hand instead of enthusiasm, a
guinea subscription instead of thoughtful service.
Is it a Christian or a selfish culture which is content
132 THE BOOK OF JVDGES.
with fragmentary concessions and complacent patronage
where the claims of social " inferiors " are concerned ?
That there is a wide diffusion of religious feeling
is clear enough; but in many respects it is mere
dilettantism.
Notice the history of the tribes that lag behind in
the day of the Lord's summons. What do we hear of
Reuben after this ? "Unstable as water thou shalt not
excel." Along with Gad Reuben possessed a splendid
country, but these two faded away into a sort of
barbarism, scarcely maintaining their separateness from
the wild races of the desert. Asher in like manner
suffered from the contact with Phoenicia and lost
touch with the more faithful tribes. So it is always.
Those who shirk religious duty lose the strength and
dignity of religion. Though greatly favoured in place
and gifts they fall into that spiritual impotence which
means defeat and extinction.
" Curse ye Meroz, said the angel of the Lord, curse
ye bitterly the inhabitants thereof; because they came
not to the help of the Lord against the mighty." It is
a stern judgment upon those whose active assistance
was humanly speaking necessary in the day of battle.
The men only held back, held back in doubt, supposing
that it was vain for Hebrews to fling themselves
against the iron chariots of Sisera. Were they not
prudent, looking at the matter all round ? Why should
a curse so heavy be pronounced on men who only
sought to save their lives ? The reply is that secular
history curses such men, those of Sparta for example
to whom Athens sent in vain when the battle of
Marathon was impending ; and further that Christ has
declared the truth which is for all time, '* Whosoever
will save his life shall lose it." Erasmus was a wise
v.] DEBORAirS SONG: A CHANT OF PATRIOTISM. 133
man ; yet he made the great blunder. He saw clearly
the errors of Romanism and the miserable bondage in
which it kept the souls of men, and if he had joined the
reformers his judgment and learning would have become
part of the world's progressive life. But he held back
doubting, criticising, a friend to the Reformation but
not an apostle of it. Admire as we may the wit, the
reasoner, the philosopher, there must always be severe
judgment of one who professing to love truth declared
that he had no inclination to die for it. There are
many who without the intellect of Erasmus would fain
be thought catholic in his company. Large is the
family of Meroz, and little thought have they of any
ban lying upon them. Is it a fanciful danger, a mere
error of opinion without any peril in it, to which we
point here ? People think so ; young men especially
think so and drift on until the day of service is past and
they find themselves under the contempt of man and
the judgment of Christ. " Lord, when saw .we Thee a
stranger or in prison and did not minister unto Thee ? "
" Depart from Me, I never knew you."
3. Jael, a type of the unscrupulous helpers of a
good cause.
Long has the error prevailed that religion can be
helped by using the world's weapons, by acting in the
temper and spirit of the world. Of that mischievous
falsehood have been born all the pride and vainglory,
the rivalries and persecutions that darken the past
of Christendom, surviving in strange and pitiful forms
to the present day. If we shudder at the treachery
in the deed of Jael, what shall we say of that which
through many a year sent victims to inquisition-
dungeons and to the stake in the name of Christ ?
And what shall we say now of that moral assassination
134 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.
which in one tent and another is thought no sin against
humanity, but a service of God ? Among us are too
many who suffer wounds keen and festering that have
been given in the house of their friends, yea, in the
name of the one Lord and Master. The battle of truth
is a frank and honourable fight, served at no point by
what is false or proud or low. To an enemy a Christian
should be chivalrous and surely no less to a brother.
Granting that a man is in error, he needs a physician
not an executioner ; he needs an example not a dagger.
How much farther do we get by the methods of
opprobrium and cruelty, the innuendo and the whisper
of suspicion ? Besides, it is not the Siseras to-day
who are dealt with after this manner. It is the
" schismatic " within the camp on whom some Jael
falls with a hammer and a nail. If a church cannot
stand by itself, approved to the consciences of men, it
certainly will not be helped by a return to the temper
of barbarism and the craft of the world. " The weapons
of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God
to the casting down of strongholds."
X.
THE DESERT HORDES; AND THE MAN AT OFHRAH.
Judges vi. I-14.
JABIN king of Canaan defeated and his nine hundred
chariots turned into ploughshares we might expect
Israel to make at last a start in its true career.
The tribes have had their third lesson and should know
the peril of infidelity. Without God they are weak as
water. Will they not bind themselves now in a con-
federacy of faith, suppress Baal and Astarte worship
by stringent laws and turn their hearts to God and
duty ? Not yet : not for more than a century. The
true reformer has yet to come. Deborah's work is
certainly not in vain. She passes through the land
administering justice, commanding the destruction of
heathen altars. The people leave their occupations
and gather in crowds to hear her ; they shout, in
answer to her appeals, Jehovah is our King. The
Levites are called to minister at the shrines. For a
time there is something like religion along with im-
proving circumstances. But the tide does not rise
long nor far.
Some twenty years have passed, and what is to be
seen going on throughout the land ? The Hebrews
have addressed themselves vigorously to their work in
field and town. Everywhere they are breaking up new
136 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.
ground, building houses, repairing roads, organising
traffic. But they are also falling into the old habit of
friendly intercourse with Canaanites, talking with them
over the prospects of the crops, joining in their festivals
of new moon and harvest. In their own cities the old
inhabitants of the land sacrifice to Baal and gather
about the Asherim. Earnest Israelites are indignant
and call for action, but the mass of the people are
so taken up with their prosperity that they cannot be
roused. Peace and comfort in the lower region seem
better than contention for anything higher. In the
centre of Palestine there is a coalition of Hebrew and
Canaanite cities, with Shechem at their head, which
recognize Baal as their patron and worship him as
the master of their league. And in the northern tribes
generally Jehovah has scant acknowledgment ; the
people see no great task He has given them to do.
If they live and multiply and inherit the land they
reckon their function as His nation to be fulfilled.
It is a temptation common to men to consider their
own existence and success a sort of Divine end in
serving which they do all that God requires of them.
The business of mere living and making life comfortable
absorbs them so that even faith finds its only use in
promoting their own happiness. The circle of the
year is filled with occupations. When the labour of
the field is over there are the houses and cities to
enlarge, to improve and furnish with means of safety
and enjoyment. One task done and the advantage of
it felt, another presents itself. Industry takes new
forms and burdens still more the energies of men.
Education, art, science become possible and in turn make
their demands. But all may be for self, and God may
be thought of merely as the great Patron satisfied wish
vi.i-i4.] DESERT HORDES; THE MAX AT OPHRAH. 137
His tithes. In this way the impulses and hopes of
faith are made the ministers of egoism, and as a
national thing the maintenance of law, goodwill, and
a measure of purity may seem to furnish religion with
a sufficient object. But this is far from enough. Let
worship be refined and elaborated, let great temples be
built and thronged, let the arts of music and painting be
employed in raising devotion to its highest pitch — still
if nothing beyond self is seen as the aim of existence,
if national Christianity realizes no duty to the world out-
side, religion must decay. Neither a man nor a people
can be truly religious without the missionary spirit, and
that spirit must constantly shape individual and collec-
tive life. Among ourselves worship would petrify and
faith wither were it not for the tasks the church has
undertaken at home and abroad. But half-understood,
half-discharged, these duties keep us alive. And it is
because the great mission of Christians to the world
is not even yet comprehended that we have .so much
practical atheism. When less care and thought are
expended on the forms of worship and the churches
address themselves to the true ritual of our religion,
carrying out the redeeming work of our Saviour, there
will be new fervour ; unbelief will be swept away.
Israel losing sight of its mission and its destiny
felt no need of faith and lost it ; and with the loss
of faith came loss of vigour and alertness as on other
occasions. Having no sense of a common purpose
great enough to demand their unity the Hebrews were
again unable to resist enemies, and this time the
Midianites and other wild tribes of the eastern desert
found their opportunity. First some bands of them
came at the time of harvest and made raids on the
cultivated districts. But year by year they ventured
138 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.
farther in increasing numbers. Finally they brought
their tents and families, their flocks and herds, and
took possession.
In the case of all who fall away from the purpose
of life the means of bringing failure home to them
and restoring the balance of justice are always at hand.
Let a men neglect his fields and nature is upon him ;
weeds choke his crops, his harvests diminish, poverty
comes like an armed man. In trade likewise careless-
ness brings retribution. So in the case of Israel :
although the Canaanites had been subdued other foes
were not far away. And the business of this nation
was of so sacred a kind that neglect of it meant great
moral fault and every fresh relapse into earthliness
and sensuality after a revival of religion implied more
serious guilt. We find accordingly a proportionate
severity in the punishment. Now the nation is
chastised with whips, but next time it is with scorpions.
Now the iron chariots of Sisera hold the land in terror ;
then hosts of marauders spread like locusts over the
country, insatiable, all-devouring. Do the Hebrews
think that careful tilling of their fields and the making
of wine and oil are their chief concern ? In that they
shall be undeceived. Not mainly to be good husband-
men and vine-dressers are they set here, but to be a
light in the midst of the nations. If they cease to
shine they shall no longer enjoy.
It was by the higher fords of Jordan, perhaps north
of the Sea of Galilee, that the Midianites fell on western
Canaan. Under their two great emirs Zebah and
Zalmunna, who seem to have held a kind of barbaric
state, troops of riders on swift horses and dromedaries
swept the shore of the lake and burst into the plain
of Jezreel. There were no doubt many skirmishes
vi.i-i4.] DESERT HORDES ; THE MAN AT OPHRAH. 139
between their squadrons and the men of Naphtali and
Manasseh, But one horde of the invaders followed
another so quickly and their attacks were so sudden
and fierce that at length fesistance became impossible,
the Hebrews had to betake themselves to the heights
and dwell in the caves and rocks. Once in the desert
under Moses they had been more than a match for
these Arabs. Now, although on vantage ground moral
and natural, fighting for their hearths and homes
behind the breastwork of lake, river and mountain,
they are completely routed.
Between the circumstances of this oppressed nation
and the present state of the church there is a wide
interval, and in a sense the contrast is striking. Is
not the Christianity of our time strong and able to hold
its own ? Is not the mood of many churches of the
present day properly that of elation ? As year after
year reports of numerical increase and larger contri-
butions are made, as finer buildings are raised for. the
purposes of worship and work at home and abroad is
carried on more efficiently, is it not impossible to trace
any resemblance between the state of Israel during the
Midianite oppression and the state of religion now ?
Why should there be any fear that Baal-worship or
other idolatry should weaken the tribes, or that
marauders from the desert should settle in their land ?
And yet the condition of things to-day is not quite
unlike that of Israel at the time we are considering.
There are Canaanites who dwell in the land and carry
on their debasing worship. These too are days when
guerilla troops of naturalism, nomads of the primaeval
desert, are sweeping the region of faith. Reckless
and irresponsible talk in periodicals and on platforms ;
novels, plays and verses often as clever as they are
140 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.
unscrupulous are incidents of the invasion, and it is
well advanced. Not for the first time is a raid of this
kind made on the territory of faith, but the serious
thing now is the readiness to give way, the want of
heart and power to resist that we observe in family
life and in society as well as in literature. Where
resistance ought to be eager and firm it is often igno-
rant, hesitating, lukewarm. Perhaps the invasion m.ust
become more confident and more injurious before it
rouses the people of God to earnest and united action.
Perhaps those who will not submit may have to betake
themselves to the caves of the mountains while the
new barbarism establishes itself in the rich plain. It
has almost come to this in some countries ; and it may
be that the pride of those who have been content
to cultivate their vineyards for themselves alone, the
security of those who have too easily concluded that
fighting was over shall yet be startled by some great
disaster.
" Israel was brought very low because of Midian."
A traveller's picture of the present state of things on
the eastern frontier of Bashan enables us to under-
stand the misery to which the tribes were reduced
by seven years of rapine. " Not only is the country —
plain and hill-side alike — chequered with fenced fields,
but groves of fig-trees are here and there seen and
terraced vineyards still clothe the sides of some of
the hills. These are neglected and wild but not
fruitless. They produce great quantities of figs and
grapes which are rifled year after year by the Bedawin
in their periodical raids. Nowhere on earth is there
such a melancholy example of tyranny, rapacity and
misrule as here. Fields, pastures, vineyards, houses,
villages, cities are all alike deserted and waste. Even
vi.i-i4.] DESERT HORDES: THE MAN AT OPHRAII. 141
the few inhabitants that have hid themselves among
the rocky fastnesses and mountain defiles drag out a
miserable existence, oppressed by robbers of the desert
on the one hand and robbers of the government on
the other." The Midianites of Gideon's time acted the
part both of tyrants and depredators. They " left no
sustenance for Israel, neither sheep nor ox nor ass.
They entered into the land for to destroy it."
"And the children of Israel cried unto the Lord";
the prodigals bethought them of their Father. Having
come to the husks they remembered Him who fed His
people in the desert. Again the wheel has revolved
and from the lowest point there is an upward move-
ment. The tribes of God look once more towards the
hills from whence their help cometh. And here is seen
the importance of that faith which had passed into the
nation's life. Although it was not of a very spiritual
kind, yet it preserved in the heart of the people a
recuperative power. The majority knew little more
of Jehovah than His name. But the name suggested
availing succour. They turned to the Awful Name,
repeated it and urged their need. Here and there
one saw God as the infinitely righteous and holy and
added to the wail of the ignorant a more devout appeal,
recognizing the evils under which the people groaned
as punitive and knowing that the very God to Whom
they cried had brought the Midianites upon them. In
the prayer of such a one there was an outlook towards
holier and nobler life. But even in the case of the
ignorant the cry to One higher than the highest
had help in it. For when that bitter cry was raised
self-glorifying had ceased and piety begun.
Ignorant indeed is much of the faith that still
expresses itself in so-called Christian prayer, almost
142 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.
as ignorant as that of the disconsolate Hebrew tribes.
The moral purpose of discipline, the Divine ordinances
of defeat and pain and affliction are a mystery unread.
The man in extremity does not know why his hour
of abject fe?r has come, nor see that one by one all
the sta3's of his selfish life have been removed by a
Divine hand. His cry is that of a foolish child. Yet
is it not true that such a prayer revives hope and gives
new energy to the languid life ? It may be many years
since prayer was tried, not perhaps since he who is now
past his meridian knelt at a mother's knee. Still as
he names the name of God, as he looks upward, there
comes with the dim vision of an Omnipotent Helper
within reach of his cry the sense of new possibilities,
the feeling that amidst the miry clay or the heaving
waves there is something firm and friendly on which
he may yet stand. It is a striking fact as to any kind
of religious belief, even the most meagre, that it does
for man what nothing else can do. Prayer must cease,
we are told, for it is mere superstition. Without
denying that much of what is called prayer is an
expression of egotism, we must demand an explanation
of the unique value it has in human life and a sufficient
substitute for the habit of appeal to God. Those
who would deprive us of prayer must first re-make man,
for to the strong and enlightened prayer is necessary as
well as to the weak and ignorant. The Heavenly is
the only hope of the earthly. That we understand
God is, after all, not the chief thing : but does He
know us? Is He there, above yet beside us, for
ever ?
The first answer to the cry of Israel came in the
message of a prophet, one who would have been
despised by the nation in its self-sufficient mood but
vi. I-I4.] DESERT HORDES; THE MAN AT OPHRAH. 143
now obtained a hearing. His words brought instruc-
tion and made it possible for faith to move and work
along a definite line. Through man's struggle God
helps him ; through man's thought and resolve God
speaks to him. He is already converted when he
believes enough to pray, and from this point faith
saves by animating and guiding the strenuous will.
The ignorant abject people of God learns from the
prophet that something is to be done. There is a
command, repeated from Sinai, against the worship of
heathen gods, then a call to love the true God the
Deliverer of Israel. Faith is to become life, and life
faith. The name of Jehovah which has stood for one
power among others is clearly re-affirmed as that of
the One Divine Being, the only Object of adoration.
Israel is convicted of sin and set on the way of
obedience.
The answer to pra3'er lies very near to him who
cries for salvation. He has not to move a step. He
has but to hear the inner voice of conscience. Is there
a sense of neglect of dut}'', a sense of disobedience, of
faults committed ? The first movement towards salva-
tion is set up in that conviction and in the hope that
the evil now seen may be remedied. Forgiveness is
implied in this hope, and it will become assured as
the hope grows strong. The mistake is often made of
supposing that answer to prayer does not come till
peace is found. In reality the answer begins when
the will is bent towards a better life, though that
change may be accompanied by the deepest sorrow
and self-humiliation. A man who earnestly reproaches
himself for despising and disobeying God has already
received the grace of the redeeming Spirit.
But to Israel's cry there was another answer. When
144 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.
repentance was well begun and the tribes turned from
the heathen rites which separated them from each
other and from Divine thoughts, freedom again became
possible and God raised up a liberator. Repentance in-
deed was not thorough ; therefore a complete national
reformation was not accomplished. Yet as against
Midian, a mere horde of marauders, the balance of
righteousness and power inclined now in behalf of
Israel. The time was ripe and in the providence of
God the fit man received his call.
South-west from Shechem, among the hills of
Manasseh at Ophrah of the Abiezrites, lived a family
that had suffered keenly at the hands of Midian. Some
members of the family had been slain near Tabor, and
the rest had as a cause of war not only the constant
robberies frcm field and homestead but also the duty
of blood-revenge. The deepest sense of injury, the
keenest resentment fell to the share of one Gideon,
son of Joash, a young man of nobler temper than most
Hebrews of the time. His father was head of a Thou-
sand ; and as he was an idolater the whole clan joined
him in sacrificing to the Baal whose altar stood within
the boundary of his farm. Already Gideon appears
to have turned with loathing from that base worship ;
and he was pondering earnestly the cause of the pitiful
state into which Israel had fallen. But the circum-
stances perplexed him. He was not able to account
for facts in accordance with faith.
In a retired place on the hillside where a winepress
has been fashioned in a hollow of the rocks we first
see the future deliverer of Israel. His task for the
day is that of threshing out. some wheat so that, as
soon as possible, the grain may be hid from the
Midianites ; and he is busy with the flail, thinking
vi. 1-14.] DESERT HORDES; THE MAN AT OPHRAH. 145
deeply, watching carefully as he plies the instrument
with a sense of irksome restraint. Look at him and
you are struck with his stalwart proportions and his
bearing : he is " like the son of a king." Observe
more closely and the fire of a troubled yet resolute
soul will be seen in his eye. He represents the best
Hebrew blood, the finest spirit and intelligence of the
nation ; but as yet he is a strong man bound. He
would fain do something to deliver Israel ; he would
fain trust Jehovah to sustain him in striking a blow
for liberty ; but the way is not clear. Indignation
and hope are bafQed.
In a pause of his work, as he glances across the
valley with anxious eye, suddenly he sees under an
oak a stranger sitting staff in hand, as if he had sought
rest for a little in the shade. Gideon scans the visitor
keenly, but finding no cause for alarm bends again to
his labour. The next time he looks up the stranger
is beside him and words of salutation are falling from
his lips — " Jehovah is with thee, thou mighty man of
valour." To Gideon the words did not seem so
strange as they would have seemed to some. Yet what
did they mean ? Jehovah with him ? Strength and
courage he is aware of. Sympathy with his fellow-
Israelites and the desire to help them he feels. But
these do not seem to him proofs of Jehovah's presence.
And as for his father's house and the Hebrew people,
God seems far from them. Harried and oppressed they
are surely God-forsaken. Gideon can only wonder at
the unseasonable greeting and ask what it means.
Unconsciousness of God is not rare. Men do not
attribute their regret over wrong, their faint longing
for the right to a spiritual presence within them and a
Divine working. The Unseen appears so remote, man
10
THE BOOK OF JUDGES.
appears so shut off from intercourse with any super-
natural Cause or Source that he fails to link his own
strain of thought with the Eternal, The word of God
is nigh him even in his heart, God is " closer to him
than breathing, nearer than hands and feet." Hope,
courage, will, life — these are Divine gifts, but he does
not know it. Even in our Christian times the old
error which makes God external, remote, entirely aloof
from human experience survives and is more common
than true faith. We conceive ourselves separated from
the Divine, with springs of thought, purpose and power
in our own being, whereas there is in us no absolute
origin of power moral intellectual or physical. We
live and move in God : He is our Source and our Stay,
and our being is shot through and through with rays
of the Eternal, The prophetic word spoken in our
ear is not more assuredly from God than the pure
wish or unselfish hope that frames itself in our minds
or the stern voice of conscience heard in the soul. As
for the trouble into which we fall, that too, did we
understand aright, is a mark of God's providential care.
Would we err without discipline ? Would we be
ineffective and have no bracing ? Would we follow
lies and enjoy a false peace ? Would we refuse the
Divine path to strength yet never feel the sorrow of
the weak ? Are these the proofs of God's presence
our ignorance would desire ? Then indeed we imagine
an unholy one, an unfaithful one upon the throne of
the universe. But God has no favourites ; He does
not rule like a despot of earth for courtiers and an
aristocracy. In righteousness and for righteousness,
.for eternal truth He works, and for that His people
must endure.
"Jehovah is with thee:" so ran the salutation.
vi. I- 14.] DESERT HORDES; THE MAN AT OPHKAH.
147
Gideon thinking of Jehovah does not wonder to hear
His name. But full of doubts natural to one so Httle
instructed he feels himself bound to express them :
" Why is all this evil befallen us ? Hath not Jehovah
cast us off and delivered us into the hand of Midian ? "
Unconstrainedly, plainly as man to man Gideon speaks,
the burdensome thought of his people's misery over-
coming the strangeness of the fact that in a God-
forsaken land any one should care to speak of things
like these. Yet momentarily as the conversation
proceeds there grows in Gideon's soul a feeling of awe,
a new and penetrating idea. The look fastened upon
him conveys beside the human strain of will a sug-
gestion of highest authority ; the words, " Go in this
thy might and save Israel, have not I sent thee ? "
kindle in his heart a vivid faith. Laid hold of, lifted
above himself, the young man is made aware at last
of the Living God, His presence, His will. Jehovah's
representative has done his mediatorial work. Gideon
desires a sign ; but his wish is a note of habitual
caution, not of disbelief, and in the sacrifice he finds
what he needs.
Now, why insist as some do on that which is not
affirmed in the text ? The form of the narrative must
be interpreted : and it does not require us to suppose
that Jehovah Himself, incarnate, speaking human words,
is upon the scene. The call is from Him, and indeed
Gideon has already a prepared heart, or he would not
listen to the messenger. But seven times in the brief
story the word Malakli marks a commissioned servant
as clearly as the other word Jehovah marks the Divine
will and revelation. After the man of God has vanished
from the hill swiftly, strangely, in the manner of his
coming, Gideon remains alive to Jehovah's immediate
148 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.
presence and voice as he never was before. Humble
and shrinking — " forasmuch as I have seen the angel
of the Lord face to face " — he yet hears the Divine bene-
diction fall from the sky, and following that a fresh
and immediate summons. Whether from the tabernacle
at Shiloh an acknowledged prophet came to the brood-
ing Abiezrite, or the visitor was one who concealed
his own name and haunt that Jehovah might be the
more impressively recognised, it matters not. The
angel of the Lord made Gideon thrill with a call to
highest duty, opened his ears to heavenly voices and
then left him. After this he felt God to be with
himself.
" The Lord looked upon Gideon and said. Go in this
thy might and save Israel from the hand of Midian :
have not I sent thee?" It was a summons to stern
and anxious work, and the young man could not be
sanguine. He had considered and re-considered the
state of things so long, he had so often sought a way
of liberating his people and found none that he needed
a clear indication how the effort was to be made.
Would the tribes follow him, the youngest of an obscure
family in Manasseh ? And how was he to stir, how
to gather the people ? He builds an altar, Jehovah-
shalom; he enters into covenant with the Eternal in
high and earnest resolution, and with a sudden flash
of prophet sight he sees the first thing to do. Baal's
altar in the high place of Ophrah must be overthrown.
Thereafter it will be known what faith and courage
are to be found in Israel.
It is the call of God that ripens a life into power,
resolve, fruitfulness — the call and the response to it.
Continually the Bible urges upon us this great truth,
that through the keen sense of a close personal rela-
vi. 1.14.] DESERT HORDES: THE MAN AT OPHRAH. 149
tion to God and of duty owing to Him the soul grows
and ccmes to its own. Our human personality is
created in that way and in no other. There are indeed
lives which are not so inspired and 3'et appear strong ;
an ingenious resolute selfishness gives them momentum.
But this individuality is akin to that of ape or tiger ;
it is a part of the earth-force in yielding to which a
man forfeits his proper being and dignity. Look at
Napoleon, the supreme example in history of this
failure. A great genius, a striking character ? Only
in the carnal region, for human personality is moral,
spiritual, and the most triumphant cunning does not
make a man ; while on the other hand from a very
moderate endowment put to the glorious usury of God's
service will grow a soul clear, brave and firm, precious
in the ranks of life. Let a human being, however
ignorant and low, hear and ansv/er the Divine summons
and in that place a man appears, one who stands
related to the source of strength and light. And when
a man roused by such a call feels responsibility for
his country, for religion, the hero is astir. Something
will be done for which mankind waits.
But heroism is rare. We do not often commune
with God nor listen with eager souls for His word.
The world is always in need of men, but few appear.
The usual is worshipped ; the pleasure and profit of
the day cccupy us ; even the sight of the cross does
not rouse the heart. Speak, Heavenly Word I and
quicken our clay. Let the thunders of Sinai be heard
again, and then the still small voice that penetrates the
soul. So shall heroism be born and duty done, and
the dead shall live.
XI.
GIDEON, ICONOCLAST AND REFORMER.
Judges vi. 15-32.
" 'T~^HE Lord is with thee, thou mighty man of
X valour : " — so has the prophetic salutation come
to the young man at the threshing-floor of Ophrah.
It is a personal greeting and call — "with thee" — just
what a man needs in the circumstances of Gideon.
There is a nation to be saved, and a human leader must
act for Jehovah. Is Gideon fit for so great a task ?
A wise humility, a natural fear have held him under
the yoke of daily toil until this hour. Now the needed
signs are given ; his heart leaps up in the pulses of a
longing which God approves and blesses. The criti-
cism of kinsfolk, the suspicious carping of neighbours,
the easily affronted pride of greater families no longer
crush patriotic desire and overbear yearning faith.
The Lord is with thee, Gideon, youngest son of Joash,
the toiler in obscure fields. Go in this thy might ; be
strong in Jehovah.
But the assurance must widen if it is to satisfy.
With me — that is a great thing for Gideon ; that gives
him free air to breathe and strength to use the sword.
But can it be true ? Can God be with one only in the
land ? He seems to have forsaken Israel and sold His
people to the oppressor. Unless He returns to all in
vi. 15-32.] GIDEON, ICOKOCLAST AND REFORMER. 151
forgiveness and grace nothing can be done ; a renewal
of the nation is the first thing, and this Gideon desires.
Comfort for himself, freedom from Midianite vexation for
himself and his father's house would be no satisfaction
if, all around, he saw Israel still crushed under heathen
hordes. To have a hand in delivering his people from
danger and sorrow is Gideon's craving. The assurance
given to himself personally is welcome because in it there
is a sound as of the beginning of Israel's redemption.
Yet "if the Lord be with us, why then is all this
befallen us?" God cannot be with the tribes, for they
are harassed and spoiled by enemies, they lie prone
before the altars of Baal.
There is here an example of largeness in heart and
mind which we ought not to miss, especially because
it sets before us a principle often unrecognised. It is
clear enough that Gideon could not enjoy freedom
unless his country was free, for no man can be safe in
an enslaved land ; but many fail to see that spiritual
redemption in like manner cannot be enjoyed by one
unless others are moving towards the light. Truly
salvation is personal at first and personal at last; but
it is never an individual affair only. Each for himself
must hear and answer the Divine call to repentance ;
each as a moral unit must enter the strait gate, press
along the narrow way of life, agonize and overcome.
But the redemption of one soul is part of a vast redeem-
ing purpose, and the fibres of each life are interwoven
with those of other lives far and wide. Spiritual
brotherhood is a fact but faintly typified by the brother-
hood of the Hebrews, and the struggling soul to-day,
like Gideon's long ago, must know God as the Saviour
of all men before a personal hope can be enjoyed worth
the having. As Gideon showed himself to have the
152 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.
Lord with him by a question charged not with indivi-
dual anxiety but with keen interest in the nation, so
a man now is seen to have the Spirit of God as he
exhibits a passion for the regeneration of the world.
Salvation is enlargement of soul, devotion to God and
to man for the sake of God. If anyone thinks he is
saved while he bears no burdens for others, makes no
steady effort to liberate souls from the tyranny of the
false and the vile, he is in fatal error. The salvation of
Christ plants always in men and women His mind, His
law of life. Who is the Brother and Friend of all.
And the church of Christ must be filled with His
Spirit, animated by His law of life, or be unworthy the
name. It exists to unite men in the quest and realiza-
tion of highest thought and purest activity. The church
truly exists for all men, not simply for those who
appear to compose it. Salvation and peace are with the
church as with the individual believer, but only as
her heart is generous, her spirit simple and unselfish.
Doubtful and distressed as Gideon was the church of
Christ should never be, for to her has been whispered
the secret that the Abiezrite had not read, how the
Lord is in the oppression and pain of the people, in the
sorrow and the cloud. Nor is a church to suppose
that salvation can be hers while she thinks of any
outside with the least touch of Pharisaism, denying
their share in Christ. Better no visible church than
one claiming exclusive possession of truth and grace ;
better no church at all than one using the name of
Christ for privilege and excommunication, restricting
the fellowship of life to its own enclosure.
But with utmost generosity and humaneness goes
the clear perception that God's service is the sternest
of campaigns, beginning with resolute protest and
vi. 15-32.] GIDEON, ICONOCLAST AND REFORMER. 153
decisive deed, and Gideon must rouse himself to strike
for Israel's liberty first against the idol-worship of his
own village. There stands the altar of Baal, the symbol
of Israel's infidelity ; there beside it the abominable
Asherah, the sign of Israel's degradation. Already he
has thought of demolishing these, but has never sum-
moned courage, never seen that the result would justify
him. For such a deed there is a time, and before. the
lime comes the bravest man can only reap discomfiture.
Now, with the warrant in his soul, the duty on his
conscience, Gideon can make assault on a hateful
superstition.
The idolatrous altar and false worship of one's
own clan, of one's own family — these need courage to
overturn and, more than courage, a ripeness of time
and a Divine call. A man must be sure of himself and
his motives, for one thing, before he takes upon him to
be the corrector of errors that have seemed truth to his
fathers and are maintained by his friends. Suppose
people are actually worshipping a false god, a world-
power which has long held rule among them. If one
would act the part of iconoclast the question is, By
what right ? Is he himself clear of illusion and idolatry ?
Has he a better system to put in place of the old ? He
may be acting in mere bravado and self-display, flou-
rishing opinions which have less sincerity than those
which he assails. There were men in Israel who had
no commission and could have claimed no right to
throw down Baal's altar, and taking upon them such a
deed would have had short shrift at the hands of the
people of Ophrah. And so there are plenty among us
who if they set up to be judges of their fellow-men and
of beliefs which they call false, even when these are
false, deserve simply to be put down with a strong
154 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.
hand. There are voices, professuig to be those of
zealous reformers, whose every word and toiie are
insults. The men need to go and learn the first
lessons of truth, modesty and earnestness. And this
principle applies all round — to many who assail modern
errors as well as to many who assail established beliefs.
On the one hand, are men anxious to uphold the true
faith ? It is well. But anxiety and the best of motives
do not qualify them to attack science, to denounce all
rationalism as godless. We want defenders of the
faith who have a Divine calling to the task in the way
of long study and a heavenly fairness of mind, so that
they shall not offend and hurt religion more by their
ignorant vehemence than they help it by their zeal.
On the other hand, by what authority do they speak
who sneer at the ignorance of faith and would fain
demolish the altars of the world ? It is no slight
equipment that is needed. Fluent sarcasm, confident
worldllness, even a large acquaintance with the dogmas
of science will not suffice. A man needs to prove
himself a wise and humane thinker, he needs to know
by experience and deep sympathy those perpetual
wants of our race which Christ knew and met to the
uttermost. Some facile admiration of Jesus of Nazareth
does not give the right to free criticism of His life and
words, or of the faith based upon them. And if the
plea is a rare respect for truth, an unusual fidelity to
fact, humanity will still ask of its would-be liberator
on what fields he has won his rank or what yoke
he has borne. Successful men especially will find it
difficult to convince the world that they have a right to
btrike at the throne of Him who stood alone before the
Roman Pilate and died on the Cross.
Gideon was not unfit to render high service. He
vi. 15-32.] GIDEON, ICONOCLAST AND REFORMER. 155
was a young man tried in humble duty and disciplined
in common tasks, shrewd but not arrogant, a person
of clear mind and a patriot. The people of the farm
and a good many in Ophrah had learned to trust him
and were prepared to follow when he struck out a new
path. He had God's call and also his own past to
help him. Hence when Gideon began his undertaking,
although to attempt it in broad day would have been
rash and he must act under cover of darkness, he soon
found ten men to give their aid. No doubt he could in
a manner command them, for they were his servants.
Still a business of the kind he proposed was likely to
rouse their superstitious fears, and he had to conquer
these. It was also sure to involve the men in some
risk, and he must have been able to give them confi-
dence in the issue. This he did, however, and they went
forth. Very quietly the altar of Baal was demolished
and the great wooden mast, hateful symbol of Astarte,
was cut down and split in pieces. Such was <he first
act in the revolution.
We observe, however, that Gideon does not leave
Ophrah without an altar and a sacrifice. Destroy one
system without laying the foundation of another that
shall more than equal it in essential truth and practical
power, and what sort of deliverance have you effected ?
Men will rightly execrate you. It is no reformation
that leaves the heart colder, the life barer and darker
than before ; and those who move in the night against
superstition must be able to speak in the day of a
Living God who will vindicate His servants. It has
been said over and over again and must yet be repeated,
to overturn merely is no service. They that break
down need some vision at least of a building up, and
it is the new edifice that is the chief thing. The world
156 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.
of thought to-day is infested with critics and destroyers
and may well be tired of them. It is too much in need^
of constructors to have any thanks to spare for new
Voltaires and Humes. Let us admit that demolition
is the necessity of some hours. We look back on the
ruins of Bastilles and temples that served the uses of
tyranny, and even in the domain of faith there have
been fortresses to throw down and ramparts that made
evil separations among men. But destruction is not
progress ; and if the end of modern thought is to be
agnosticism, the denial of all faith and all ideals, then
we are simply on the way to something not a whit
better than primeval ignorance.
The morning sun showed the gap upon the hill
where the symbols had stood of Baal and Astarte, and
soon like an angry swarm of bees the people were
buzzing round the scattered stones of the old altar and
the rough new pile with its smoking sacrifice. Where
was he who ventured to rebuke the city ? Very
indignant, very pious are these false Israelites. They
turn on Joash with the fierce demand, " Bring out thy
son that he may die." But the father too has come
to a decision. We get a hint of the same nature as
Gideon's, slow, but firm when once roused ; and if
anything would rouse a man it would be this brutal
passion, this sudden outbreak of cruelty nursed by
heathen custom, his own conscience meanwhile testi-
fying that Gideon was right. Tush ! says Joash, will
you plead for Baal ? Will you save him ? Is it
necessary for you to defend one whom you have wor-
shipped as Lord of heaven ? Let him ply his lightnings
if he has any. I am tired of this Baal who has no
principles and is good only for feast-days. He that
pleads for Baal, let him be the man to die. — Unexpected
vi. 15-32.] GIDEON, ICONOCLAST AND REFORMER. 157
apolog}', serious too and unanswerable. Conscience
that seemed dead is suddenly awakened and carries all
before it. There is a quick conversion of the whole
town because one man has acted decisively and another
speaks strong words which cannot be gainsaid. To
be sure Joash uses a threat — hints something of taking
a very short method with those ^^ho still protest for
Baal ; and that helps conversion. But it is force
against force, and men cannot object who have them-
selves talked of killing. By a rapid popular impulse
Gideon is justilied, and with the new name Jerubbaal
he is acknowledged as a leader in Manasseh.
False religion is not always so easily exposed and
upset. Truth may be so mixed with the error of a
system that the' moral sense is confused and faith
clings to the follies and lies conjoined with the truth.
And when we look at Judaism in contact with Chris-
tianity, at Romanism in contact with the Protestant
spirit, we see how difficult it may be to liberaj;e faith.
The Apostle Paul wielding the weapon of a singular
and keen eloquence cannot overcome the Pharisaism
of his countrymen. At Antioch, at Iconium he does
his utmost with scant success. The Protestant refor-
mation did not so swiftly and thoroughly establish
itself in every European country as in Scotland.
Where there is no pressure of outward circumstances
forcing new leligious ideas upon men there must be
all the more a spirit of independent thought if any
salutary change is to be made in creed and worship.
Either there must be men of Berea who search the
Scriptures daily, men of Zurich and Berne with the
energy of free citizens, or reformation must wait on
some political emergency. And in effect conscience
rarely has free play, since men are seldom manly but
158 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.
more or less like sheep. Hence the value, as things
go in this world, of leaders like Joash, princes like
Luther's Elector, who give the necessary push to the
undecided and check forward opponents by a significant
warning. It is not the ideal way of reforming the
world, but it has often answered well enough within
limits. There are also cases in which the threats of
the enemy have done good service, as when the appear-
ance of the Spanish Armada on the English coast did
more to confirm the Protestantism of the country than
many years of peaceful argument. In truth were there
not occasionally something Hke master-strokes in Pro-
vidence the progress of humanity would be almost
imperceptible. Men and nations are urged on although
they have no great desire to advance ; they are com-
mitted to a voyage and cannot return ; they are caught
in currents and must go where the currents bear them.
Certainly in such cases there is not the ardour, and
men cannot reap the reward belonging to the thinkers
and brave servants of the truth. Practically whether
Protestants or Romanists they are spiritually inert.
Still it is well for them, well for the world, that a
strong hand should urge them forward, since otherwise
they would not move at all. Of many in all churches
it must be said they are not victors in a fight of faith,
they do not work out their own salvation. Yet they
are guided, warned, persuaded into a certain habit of
piety and understanding of truth, and their children
have a new platform somewhat higher than their
fathers' on which to begin life.
At Ophrah of the Abiezrites, though we cannot say
much for the nature of the faith in God which has
replaced idolatry, still the way is prepared for further
and decisive action. Men do not cease from worship-
vi. 15-32.] GIDEON, ICONOCLAST AND REFORMER. 159
ping Baal and become true servants of the Most Holy
in a single day ; that requires time. There are better
possibilities, but Gideon cannot teach the way of
Jehovah, nor is he in the mood for religious inquiry.
The conversion of Abiezer is quite of the same sort
as in early Christian times was effected when a king
went over to the new faith and ordered his subjects to
be baptized. Not even Gideon knows the value of the
faith to which the people have returned, in the strength
of which they are to fight. They will be bold now,
for even a little trust in God goes a long way in sus-
taining courage. They will face the enemy now to
whom they have long submitted. But of the purity
and righteousness into which the faith of Jehovah
should lead them they have no vision.
Now with this in view many will think it strange to
hear of the conversion of Abiezer. It is a great error
however to despise the day of small things. God gives
it and we ought to understand its use. Conversion
cannot possibly mean the same in every period of the
world's history ; it cannot even mean the same in any
two cases. To recognise this would be to clear the
ground of much that hinders the teaching and the
success of the gospel. Where there has been long
familiarity with the New Testament, the facts of
Christianity and the high spiritual ideas it presents,
conversion properly speaking does not take place till
the message of Christ to the soul stirs it to its depths,
moves alike the reason and the v^ill and creates
fervent d.iscipleship. But the history of Israel and of
humanity moves forward continuously in successive
discoveries or revelations of the highest culminating in
the Christian salvation. To view Gideon as a religious
reformer of the same kind as Isaiah is quite a mistake.
i6o THE BOOK OF JUDGES.
He had scarcely an idea in common with the great
prophet of a later day. But the Hberty he desired for
his people and the association of liberty with the
worship of Jehovah made his revolution a step in the
march of Israel's redemption. Those who joined him
with any clear purpose and sympathy were therefore
converted men in a true if very limited sense. There
must be first the blade and then the ear before there
can be the full corn. We reckon Gideon a hero of
faith, and his hope was truly in the same God Whom
we worship — the God and Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ. Yet his faith could not be on a level with
ours, his knowledge being far less. The angel who
speaks to him, the altar he builds, the Spirit of the
Lord that comes upon him, his daring iconoclasm, the
new purpose and power of the man are in a range
quite above material life — and that is enough.
There are some circles in which honesty and truth-
speaking are evidence of a work of grace. To become
honest and to speak truth in the fear of God is to be
converted, in a sense, where things are at that pass.
There are people who are so cold that among them
enthusiasm for anything good may be called super-
human. Nobody has it. If it appears it must come
from above. But these steps of progress, though we
may describe them as supernatural, are elementary.
Men have to be converted again and again, ever making
one gain a step to another. The great advance comes
when the soul believes enthusiastically in Christ,
pledging itself to Him in full sight of the cross. This
and nothing less is the conversion we need. To love
freedom, righteousness, charity only prepares for the
supreme love of God in Christ, in which life springs to
its highest power and joy.
VI. 15-32.] GIDEON, ICONOCLAST AND REFORMER. l6i
Now are we to suppose that Gideon alone of all the
men of Israel had the needful spirit and faith to lead
the revolution ? Was there no one but the son of
Joash ? We do not find him fully equipped, nor as
the years go by does he prove altogether worthy to be
chief of the tribes of God. Were there not in many
Hebrew towns souls perhaps more ardent, more
spiritual than his, needing only the prophetic call, the
touch of the Unseen Hand to make them aware of
power and opportunity ? The leadership of such a one
as Moses is complete and unquestionable. He is the
man of the age ; knowledge, circumstances, genius
fit him for the place he has to occupy. We cannot
imagine a second Moses in the same period. But in
Israel as well as among other peoples it is often a very
imperfect hero who is found and followed. The work
is done, but not so well done as we might think
possible. Revolutions which begin full of promise lose
their spirit because the leader reveals his weaJcness
or even folly. We feel sure that there are many who
have the power to lead in thought where the world
has not dreamt of climbing, to make a clear road where
as yet there is no path ; and yet to them comes no
messenger, the daily task goes on and it is not sup-
posed that a leader, a prophet is passed by. Are there
no better men that Ehud, Gideon, Jephthah must stand
in the front ?
One answer certainly is that the nation at the stage
it has reached cannot as a whole esteem a better man,
cannot understand finer ideas. A hundred men of
more spiritual faith were possibly brooding over Israel's
state, ready to act as fearlessly as Gideon and to a
higher issue. But it could only have been after a
cleansing of the nation's life, a suppression of Baal-
II
1 62 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.
worship much more rigorous than could at that time
be effected. And in every national crisis the. thought
of which the people generally are capable determines
who must lead and what kind of work shall be done.
The reformer before his time either remains unknown
or ends in eclipse ; either he gains no power or it
passes rapidly from him because it has no support in
popular intelligence or faith.
It may seem well-nigh impossible in our day for any
man to fail of the work he can do ; if he has the will
we think he can make the way. The inward call is the
necessity, and when that is heard and the man shapes
a task for himself the day to begin will come. Is that
certain ? Perhaps there are many now who find
circumstance a web from which they cannot break away
without arrogance and unfaithfulness. They could
speak, they could do if God called them ; but does He
call them ? On every side ring the fluent praises of
the idols men love to worship. One must indeed be
deft in speech and many other arts who would hope to
turn the crowd from its folly, for it will only listen to
what seizes the ear, and the obscure thinker has not
the secret of pleasing. While those who see no visions
lead their thousands to a trivial victory, many an
uncalled Gideon toils on in the threshing-floor. The
duties of a low and narrow lot may hold a man ; the
babble all around of popular voices may be so loud that
nothing can make way against them, A certain slow-
ness of the humble and patient spirit may keep one
silent who with little encouragement could speak
words of quickening truth. But the day of utterance
never comes.
To these waiting in the market-place it is compara-
tively a small thing that the world will not hire them.
vi. 15-32.] GIDEON, ICONOCLAST AND REFORMER. 163
But does the church not want them ? Where God is
named and professedly honoured, can it be that the
smooth message is preferred because it is smooth ?
Can it be that in the church men shrink from instead
of seeking the highest, most real and vital word that
can be said to them ? This is what oppresses, for it
seems to imply that God has no use in His vineyard
for a man when He lets him wait long unregarded, it
seems to mean that there is no end for the wistful hope
and the words that burn unspoken in the breast. The
unrecognized thinker has indeed to trust God largely.
He has often to be content with the assurance that
what he would say but cannot as yet shall be said in
good time, that what he would do but may not shall be
done by a stronger hand. And further, he may cherish
a faith for himself. No life can remain for ever un-
fruitful, or fruitful only in its lower capacities. Pur-
poses broken off here shall find fulfilment. Where
the highways of being reach beyond the visible horizon
leaders will be needed for the yet advancing host, and
the time of every soul shall come to do the utmost that
is in it. The day of perfect service for many of God's
chosen ones will begin where beyond these shadows
there is light and space. Were it not so, some of the
best lives would disappear in the darkest cloud.
XII.
« THE PEOPLE ARE YET TOO MANY*
Judges vi. 33-vii. 7.
ANOTHER day of hope and energy has dawned.
One hillside at least rises sunlit out of darkness
with the altar of Jehovah on its summit and holier
sacrifices smoking there than Israel has offered for
many a year. Let us see what elements of promise,
what elements of danger or possible error mingle with
the situation. There is a man to take the lead, a young
man, thoughtful, bold, energetic, aware of a Divine call
and therefore of some endowment for the task to be
done. Gideon believes Jehovah to be Israel's God and
Friend, Israel to be Jehovah's people. He has faith in
the power of the Unseen Helper. Baal is nothing, a
mere name — Bosh'eth, vanity. Jehovah is a certainty ;
and what He wills shall come about. So far strength,
confidence. But of himself and the people Gideon is
not sure. His own ability to gather and command an
army, the fitness of any army the tribes can supply to
contend with Midian, these are as yet unproved. Only
one fact stands clear, Jehovah the supreme God with
Whom are all powers and influences. The rest is in
shadow. For one thing, Gideon cannot trace the con-
nection between the Most High and himself, between
the Power that controls the world and the power that
vi.33-vii. 7-] "THE PEOPLE ARE YET TOO MANY."* 165
dwells in his own will or the hearts of other men.
Yet with the first message a sign has been given, and
other tokens may be sought as events move on. With
that measure of uncertainty which keeps a man humble
and makes him ponder his steps Gideon finds himself
acknowledged leader in Manasseh and a centre of
growing enthusiasm throughout the northern tribes.
For the people generally this at least may be said,
that they have wisdom enough to recognize the man of
aptitude and courage though he belongs to one of the
humblest families and is the least in his father's house-
hold. Drowning men indeed must take the help that
is offered, and Israel is at present almost in the condi-
tion of a drowning man. A little more and it will sink
under the wave of the Midianite invasion. It is not a
time to ask of the rank of a man who has character
for the emergency. And yet, so often is the hero un-
acknowledged, especially when he begins, as Gideon did,
with a religious stroke, that some credit must be given
to the people for their ready faith. As the flame goes
up from the altar at Ophrah men feel a flash of hope
and promise. They turn to the Abiezrite in trust and
through him begin to trust God again. Yes : there is
a reformation of a sort, and an honest man is at the
head of it. So far the signs of the time are good.
Then the old enthusiasm is not dead. Almost Israel
had submitted, but again its spirit is rising. The
traditions of Deborah and Barak, of Joshua, of Moses,
of the desert march and victories linger with those
who are hiding amongst the caves and rocks. Songs
of liberty, promises of power are still theirs ; they feel
that they should be free. Canaan is Jehovah's gift to
them and they will claim it. So far as reviving human
energy and confidence avail, there is a germ out of
i66 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.
which the proper life of the people of God may spring
afresh. And it is this that Gideon as a reformer must
nourish, for the leader depends at every stage on the
desires that have been kindled in the hearts of men.
While he goes before them in thought and plan he
can only go prosperously v^here they intelligently,
heartily y^\\\ follow. Opportunism is the base lagging
behind with popular coldness, as moderatism in religion
is. The reformer does not wait a moment when he
sees an aspiration he can guide, a spark of faith that
can be fanned into flame. But neither in church nor
state can one man make a conquering movement. And
so we see the vast extent of duty and responsibility.
That there may be no opportunism every citizen must
be alive to the morality of politics. That there may be
no moderatism every Christian must be alive to the
real duty of the church.
Now have the heads of families and the chief men
in Israel been active in rallying the tribes ? Or have
the people waited on their chiefs and the chiefs coldly
held back ?
There are good elements in the situation but others
not so encouraging. The secular leaders have failed ;
and what are the priests and Levites doing ? We hear
nothing of them. Gideon has to assume the double
office of priest and ruler. At Shiloh there is an altar.
There too is the ark, and surely some holy observances
are kept. Why does Gideon not lead the people to
Shiloh and there renew the national covenant through
the ministers of the tabernacle ? He knows little of the
moral law and the sanctities of worship ; and he is not
at this stage inclined to assume a function that is not
properly his. Yet it is unmistakable that Ophrah has
to be the religious centre. Ah ! clearly there is oppor-
VL 33-vii. 7-] " THE FEOPLE ARE YET TOO MANYP 167
tunism among secular leaders and moderatism among
the priests. And this suggests that Judah in the south,
although the tabernacle is not in her territory, may hav^;
an ecclesiastical reason for holding aloof now, as in
Deborah's time she kept apart. Simeon and Levi are
brethren. Judah, the vanguard in the desert march, the
leading tribe in the first assault on Canaan, has taken
Simeon into close alliance. Has Levi also been almost
absorbed ? There are signs that it may have been so.
The later supremacy of Judah in religion requires early
and deep root ; and we have also to explain the separa-
tion between north and south already evident, which
was but half overcome by David's kingship and re-
appeared before the end of Solomon's reign. It is very
significant to read in the closing chapters of Judges
of two Levites both of whom were connected with
Judah. The Levites were certainly respected through
the whole land, but their absence from all the inci-
dents of the period of Deborah, Gideon, Abimelech
and Jephthah compels the supposition that tfiey had
most affinity with Judah and Simeon in the south.
"We know how people can be divided by ecclesiasticism ;
and there is at least some reason to suspect that while
the northern tribes were suffering and fighting Judah
went her own way enjoying peace and organizing
worship.
Such then is the state of matters so far as the tribes
are concerned at the time when Gideon sounds the
trumpet in Abiezer and sends messengers throughout
Manasseh^ Zebulun, Asher and Naphtali. The tribes
are partly prepared for conflict, but they are weak and
still disunited. The muster of fighting men who gather
at the call of Gideon is considerable and perhaps
astonishes him. But the Midianitcs are in enormous
i68 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.
numbers in the plain of Jezreel between Moreh and
Gilboa, having drawn together from their marauding
expeditions at the first hint of a rising among the
Hebrews. And now as the chief reviews his troops
his early apprehension returns. It is with something
like dismay that he passes from band to band. Ill-
disciplined, ill-assorted these men do not bear the air
of coming triumph. Gideon has too keen sight to be
misled by tokens of personal popularity ; nor can he
estimate success by numbers. Looking closely into the
faces of the men he sees marks enough of hesitancy,
tokens even of fear. Many seem as if they had gathered
like sheep to the slaughter, not as lions ready to dash
on the prey. Assurance of victory he cannot find in his
army; he must seek it elsewhere.
It is well that multitudes gather to the church to-day
for worship and enter themselves as members. But to
reckon all such as an army contending with infidelity
and wickedness — that would indeed be a mistake.
The mere tale of numbers gives no estimation of
strength, fighting strength, strength to resist and to
suffer. It is needful clearly to distinguish between
those who may be called captives of the church or
vassals simply, rendering a certain respect, and those
others, often a very few and perhaps the least re-
garded, who really fight the battles. Our reckoning
at present is often misleading so that we occupy ground
which we cannot defend. We attempt to assail infidelity
with an ill-disciplined host, many of whom have no clear
faith, and to overcome worldliness by the co-operation
of those who are more than half-absorbed in the
pastimes and follies of the world. There is need to
look back to Gideon who knew what it was to fight.
While we are thankful to have so many connected with
vt. 33-vii. 7.] " THE PEOPLE ARE YET TOO MANVr 169
the church for their own good we must not suppose
that they represent aggressive strength ; on the contrary
we must clearly understand that they will require no
small part of the available time and energy of the
earnest. In short we have to count them not as helpers
of the church's forward movement but as those who
must be helped.
Gideon for his work Vv^ill have to make sharp division.
Three hundred who can dash fearlessly on the enemy
will be more to his purpose than two-and- thirty thou-
sand most of whom grow pale at the thought of battle,
and he will separate by-and-by. But first he seeks
another sign of Jehovah. This man knows that to do
anything worthy for his fellow-men he must be in living
touch with God. The idea has no more than elementary
form; but it rules. He, Gideon, is only an instrument,
and he must be well convinced that God is working
through him. How can he be sure ? Like other
Israelites he is strongly persuaded that God appears
and speaks to men through nature ; and he craves a
sign in the natural world which is of God's making
and upholding. Now to us the sign Gideon asked may
appear rude, uncouth and without any moral signifi-
cance. A fleece which is to be wet one morning while
the threshing-floor is dry, and dry next morning while
the threshing-floor is wet supplies the means of testing
the Divine presence and approval. Further it may be
alleged that the phenomena admit of natural explana-
tion. But this is the meaning. Gideon providing the
fleece identifies himself with it. It is his fleece, and if
God's dew drenches it that will imply that God's power
shall enter Gideon's soul and abide in it even though
Israel be dry as the dusty floor. The thought is at
once simple and profound, child-like and Hebrew-
170 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.
like, and carefully we must observe that it is a nature
sign, not a mere portent, Gideon looks for. It is not
whether God can do a certain seemingly impossible
thing. That would not help Gideon. But the dew
represents to his mind the vigour he needs, the vigour
Israel needs if he should fail ; and in reversing the sign,
" Let the dew be on the ground and the fleece be dry,"
he seems to provide a hope even in prospect of his own
failure or death. Gideon's appeal is for a revelation of
the Divine in the same sphere as the lightning storm
and rain in which Deborah found a triumphant proof
of Jehovah's presence ; yet there is a notable contrast.
We are reminc'ed of the " still small voice " Elijah heard
as he stood in the cave-mouth after the rending wind and
the earthquake and the lightning. We remember also
the image of Rosea, "I will be as the dew unto Israel."
There is a question in the Book of Job, " Hath the
rain a father ? or who hath begotten the drops of dew ? "
The faith of Gideon makes answer, "Thou, O Most
High, dost give the dews of heaven." The silent
distillation of the dew is profoundly symboHc of the
spiritual economy and those energies that are " not of
this noisy world but silent and Divine." There is
much of interest and meaning that lies thus beneath
the surface in the story of the fleece.
Assured that yet another step in advance may be
taken, Gideon leads his forces northward and goes
into camp beside the spring of Harod on the slope of
Gilboa. Then he does what seems a strange thing for
a general on the eve of battle. The army is large but
utterly insufficient in discipline and morale for a pitched
battle with the Midianites. Men who have hastily
snatched their fathers' swords and pikes of which they
are half afraid are not to be relied upon in the heat
vi. 33-vii. 7.] " THE PEOPLE ARE YET TOO MANY." 171
of a terrible struggle. Proclamation is therefore made
that those who are fearful and trembling shall return
to their homes. From the entrenchment of Israel
on the hillside, where the name Jalid or Gilead still
survives, the great camp of the desert people could be
seen, the black tents darkening all the valley toward
the slope of Moreh a few miles away. The sight was
enough to appal even the bold. Men thought of their
famihes and homesteads. Those who had anything
to lose began to re-consider and by morning only one-
third of the Hebrew army was left with the leader. So
perhaps it v/ould be with thousands of Christians if
the church were again called to share the reproach of
Christ and resist unto blood. Under the banner of a
pc pular Christianity many march to stirring music who
if they supposed struggle to be imminent would be
tempted to leave the ranks. Yet the fight is actually
going on. Camp is set against camp, army is mingle^
with army; at the front there is hot work and many
are falling. But in the rear it would seem to be a
holiday ; men are idling, gossiping, chaffering as though
they had come out for amusement or trade, not at all
like those who have pledged life in a great cause and
have everything to win or lose. And again, in the thick
of the strife, where courage and energy are strained to
the utmost, we look round and ask whether the fear-
ful have indeed withdrawn, for the suspicion is forced
upon us that many who call themselves Christ's are on
the other side. Did not some of those who are striking
at us lift their hands yesterday in allegiance to the great
Captain ? Do we not see some who have marched
with us holding the very position we are to take, bear-
ing the very standards we must capture ? Strangely
confused is the field of battle, and hard is it to distin-
172 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.
guish friends from foes. If the fearful would retire
we should know better how we stand. If the enemy
were all of Midian the issue would be clear. But fear-
ful and faint-hearted Israelites who may be found any
time actually contending against the faith are foes of
a kind unknown in simpler days. So frequently does
something of this sort happen that every Christian has
need to ask himself whether he is clear of the offence.
Has he ever helped to make the false world strong
against the true, the proud world strong against the
meek ? Many of those who are doubtful and go home
may sooner be pardoned than he who strikes only where
a certain false eclat is to be won.
"Just for a handful of silver he left us,
Just for a riband to stick in his coat —
Found the one gift of whicli fortune bereft U3,
Lost all the others she lets us devote ....
We shall march prospering — not thro' his presence;
Songs may inspirit us — not from his lyre ;
Deeds will be done — while he boasts his quiescence,
Still bidding crouch whom the rest bade aspire."
In the same line of thought lies another reflection.
The men who had hastily snatched their fathers' swords
and pikes of which they were half afraid represent to
us certain modern defenders of Christianity — those who
carry edged weapons of inherited doctrine with which
they dare not strike home. The great battle-axes of
reprobation, of eternal judgment, of Divine severity
against sin once wielded by strong hands, how they
tremble and swerve in the grasp of many a modern dia-
lectician. The sword of the old creed, that once like
Excalibur cleft helmets and breastplates through, how
often it maims the hands that try to use it but want
alike the strength and the cunning. Too often we see
vi.33-vii. 7-] " THE PEOPLE ARE YET TOO MANY." 173
a wavering blow struck that draws not a drop of blood
nor even dints a shield, and the next thing is that
the knight has run to cover behind some old bulwark
long riddled and dilapidated. In the hands of these
unskilled fighters too well armed for their strength the
battle is worse than lost. They become a laughing-
stock to the enemy, an irritation to their own side. It
is time there was a sifting among the defenders of the
faith and twenty and two thousand went back from
Gilead. Is the truth of God become mere tin or lead
that no new sword can be fashioned from it, no blade
of Damascus firm and keen ? Are there no gospel
armourers fit for the task ? Where the doctrinal contest
is maintained by men who are not to the depth of their
souls sure of the creeds they found on, by men who
have no vision of the severity of God and the mean-
ing of redemption, it ends only in confusion to them-
selves and those who are with them.
Ten thousand Israelites remain who according to
their own judgment are brave enough and 'prepared
foi the fight ; but the purpose of the commander is not
answered yet. He is resolved to have yet another
winnowing that shall leave only the men of temper like
his own, men of quick intelligence no less than zeal.
At the foot of the hill there flows a stream of water,
and towards it Gideon leads his diminished army as
if at once to cross and attack the enemy in camp.
Will they seize his plan and like one man act upon it ?
Only on those who do can he depend. It is an effec-
tive trial. With the hot work of fighting before them
the water is needful to all, but in the way of drinking
men show their spirit. The most kneel or lie down by
the edge of the brook that by putting their lips to the
water they may take a long and leisurely draught. A
174 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.
few supply themselves in quite another way. As a
dog whose master is passing on with rapid strides,
coming to a pool or stream by the way stops a moment
to lap a few mouthfuls of water and then is off again
to his master's side, so do these — three hundred of the
ten thousand — bending swiftly down carry water to
their mouths in the hollow of the hand. Full of the
day's business they move on again before the nine
thousand seven hundred have well begun to drink.
They separate themselves and are by Gideon's side, be-
yond the stream, a chosen band proved fit for the work
that is to be done. It is no haphazard division that is
made by the test of the stream. There is wisdom in
it, inspiration. " And the Lord said unto Gideon, By
the three hundred men that lapped will 1 save you and
deliver the Midianites into thine hand."
Many are the commonplace incidents, the seemingly
small points in life that test the quality of men. Every
day we are led to the stream-side to show what we
are, whether eager in the Divine enterprise of faith or
slack and self-considering. Take any company of men
and women who claim to be on the side of Christ,
engaged and bound in all seriousness to His service.
But how many have it clearly before them that they
must not entangle themselves more than is absolutely
needful with bodily and sensuous cravings, that they
must not lie down to drink from the stream of pleasure
and amusement ? We show our spiritual state by
the way in which we spend our leisure, our Saturday
afternoons, our Sabbaths. We show whether we are
fit for God's business by our use of the flowing stream
of literature, which to some is an opiate, to others a
pure and strengthening draught. The question simply
is whether we are so engaged with God's plan for our
vi. 33-vii. 7.J " THE PEOPLE ARE YET TOO MANY." 17$
life, in comprehending it, fulfilling it, that we have no
time to dawdle and no disposition for the merely casual
and trifling. Are we in the responsible use of our
powers occupied as that Athenian was in the service
of his country of whom it is recorded : " There was
in the whole city but one street in which Pericles was
ever seen, the street which led to the market-place
and the council-house. During the whole period of
his administration he never dined at the table of a
friend " ? Let no one say there is not time in a world
like this for social intercourse, for literary and scientific
pursuits or the practice of the arts. The plan of
God for men means life in all possible fulness and
entrance into every field in which power can be
gained. His will for us is that we should give to the
world as Christ gave in free and uplifting ministry,
and as a man can only give what he has first made his
own the Christian is called to self-culture as full as
the other duties of life will permit. He cannot explore
too much, he cannot be too well versed in th'e thoughts
and doings of men and the revelations of nature, for all
he learns is to find high use. But the aim of personal
enlargement and efficiency must never be forgotten,
that aim which alone makes the self of value and gives
it real life — the service and glory of God. Only in
view of this aim is culture worth anything. And
when in the providence of God there comes a call
which requires us to pass with resolute step beyond
every stream at which the mind and taste are stimulated
that we may throw ourselves into the hard fight
against evil there is to be no hesitation. Everything
must yield now. The comparatively small handful who
press on with concentrated purpose, making God's
call and His work first and all else even their own
176 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.
needs a secondary affair — to these will be the honour
and the joy of victory.
We live in a time when people are piling up object
after object that needs attention and entering into
engagement after engagement that comes between
them and the supreme duty of existence. They form
so many acquaintances that every spare hour goes in
visiting and receiving visits : yet the end of life is not
talk. They are members of so many societies that they
scarcely get at the work for which the societies exist :
yet the end of life is not organizing. They see so
many books, hear so much news and criticism that
truth escapes them altogether : yet the end of life is
to know and do the Truth. Civilization defeats its
own use when it keeps us drinking so long at this and
the other spring that we forget the battle. We mean
to fight, we mean to do our part, but night falls while
we are still occupied on the way. Yet our Master is
one who restricted the earthly life to its simplest
elements because only so could spiritual energy move
freely to its mark.
In the incidents we have been reviewing voluntary
churches may find hints at least towards the justifica-
tion of their principle. The idea of a national church
is on more than one side intelligible and vaHd. Chris-
tianity stands related to the whole body of the people,
bountiful even to those who scorn its laws, pleading on
their behalf with God, keeping an open door and sending
forth a perpetual call of love to the weak, the erring,
the depraved. The ideal of a national church is to
represent this universal office and realize this inclusive-
ness of the Christian religion ; and the charm is great.
On the other hand a voluntary church is the recognition
of the fact that while Christ stands related to all men
VI. 33-vii. 7.] " THE PEOPLE ARE YET TOO MANY. ' 177
it is those only who engage at expense to themselves
in the labour of the gospel who can be called believers,
and that these properly constitute the church. The
Hebrew people under the theocracy may represent
the one ideal ; Gideon's sifting of his army points to
the other; neither, it must be frankly confessed, has
ever been realized. Large numbers may join with
some intelligence in worship and avail themselves of
the sacraments who have no sense of obligation as
members of the kingdom and are scarcely touched
by the teaching of Christianity as to sin and salva-
tion. A separated community again, depending on
an enthusiasm which too often fails, rarely if ever
accomplishes its hope. It aims at exhibiting an active
and daring faith, the militancy, the urgency of the
gospel, and in this mission what is counted success
may be a hindrance and a snare. Numbers grow,
wealth is acquired, but the intensity of belief is less
than it was and the sacrifices still required are not
freely made. Nevertheless is it not plain that'a society
which would represent the imperative claim of Christ
to the undivided faith and loyalty of His followers
must found upon a personal sense of obligation and
personal eagerness? Is it not plain that a society which
would represent the purity, the unearthliness, the
rigour, we may even say, of Christ's doctrine. His life
of renunciation and His cross must show a separateness
from the careless world and move distinctly in advance
of popular religious sentiment ? Israel__wasGrod's
people, yet when_a leader went forth to aworTr^qT
deliverance he had_to sift oiit the few keen and devoted
spirits. In^Jrutli_£very reformation implies a winnow-
ing,^and_bfr^oes Kttle as a teacher or a guide who does
^lioi make division among men
12
XIII.
•MIDIAN'S EVIL DAY*
Judges vii. 8-viii. 21.
THERE is now with Gideon a select band of
three hundred ready for a night attack on the
Midianites. The leader has been guided to a singular
and striking plan of action. It is however as he well
knows a daring thing to begin assault upon the im-
mense camp of Midian with so small a band, even
though reserves of nearly ten thousand wait to join
in the struggle ; and we can easily see that the temper
and spirit of the enemy were important considerations
on the eve of so hazardous a battle. If the Midianites,
Amalekites and Children of the East formed a united
army, if they were prepared to resist, if they had posted
sentinels on every side and were bold in prospect of
the fight, it was necessary for Gideon to be well
aware of the facts. On the other hand if there were
symptoms of division in the tents of the enemy, if
there were no adequate preparations, and especially if
the spirit of doubt or fear had begun to shov.' itself,
these would be indications that Jehovah was preparing
victory for the Hebrews.
Gideon is led to inquire for himself into the condition
of the Midianitish host. To learn that already his
name kindles terror in the ranks of the enemy will
vii. S-viii.2i.] "M/D/A.V'S EVIL DAY" 179
dispel his lingering anxiety, "Jehovah said unto him
... Go thou with Purah thy servant down to the
camp ; and thou shalt hear what they say ; and after-
ward shall thine hands be strengthened." The principle
is that for those who are on God's side it is always
best to know fully the nature of the opposition. The
temper of the enemies of religion, those irregular troops
of infidelity and unrighteousness with whom we have
to contend, is an element of great importance in shap-
ing the course of our Christian warfare. We hear of
organised vice, of combinations great and resclute
against which we have to do battle. Language is used
which implies that the condition of the churches of
Christ contrasts pitiably with the activity and agree-
ment of those who follow the black banners of evi'.
A vague terror possesses many that in the conflict with
vice they must face immense resources and a powerful
confederacy. The far-stretching encampment of the
Midianites is to all appearance organised for defence at
every point, and while the servants of God are*resolved
to attack they are oppressed by the vastness of the
enterprise. Impiety, sensuality, injustice may seem to
be in close alliance with each other, on the best under-
standing, fortified by superhuman craft and malice,
with their gods in their midst to help them. But let
us go down to the host and listen, the state of things
may be other than we have thought.
Under cover of the night which made Midian seem
more awful the Hebrew chief and his servant left the
outpost on the slope of Gilboa and crept from shadow
to shadow across the space which separated them from
the enemy, vaguely seeking what quickly came. Lying
in breathless silence behind some bush or wall the
Hebrews heard one relating a dream to his fellow. " I
i8o THE BOOK OF JUDGES.
dreamed," he said, " and, lo, a cake of barley bread
tumbled into the camp of Midian and came unto a
tent and smote it that it fell, and overturned it that it
lay along." The thoughts of the day are reproduced
in the visions of the night. Evidently this man has
had his mind directed to the likelihood of attack,
the possibility of defeat. It is well known that the
Hebrews are gathering to try the issue of battle.
They are indeed like a barley cake such as poor Arabs
bake among ashes — a defeated famished people whose
life has been almost drained away. But tidings have
come of their return to Jehovah and traditions of His
marvellous power are current among the desert tribes.
A confused sense of all this has shaped the dream in
which the tent of the chief appears prostrate and
despoiled. Gideon and Purah listen intently, and what
they hear further is even more unexpected and re-
assuring. The dream is interpreted : " This is nothing
else save the sword of Gideon the son of Joash, a man
of Israel ; for into his hand God hath delivered Midian
and all the host." He who reads the dream knows
more than the other. He has the name of the Hebrew
captain. He has heard of the Divine messenger who
called Gideon to his task and assured him of victory.
As for the apparent strength of the host of Midian,
he has no confidence in it for he has felt the tremor that
passes through the great camp. So, lying concealed,
Gideon hears from his enemies themselves as from
God the promise of victory, and full of worshipping joy
hastens back to prepare for an immediate attack.
Now in every combination of godless men there is
a like feeling of insecurity, a like presage of disaster.
Those who are in revolt against justice, truth and the
religion of God have nothing on which to rest, no
vii.8-viii.2i.] "MIDIAN'S EVIL DAVr \%\
enduring bond of union. What do they conceive as
the issue of their attempts and schemes ? Have they
anything in view that can give heart and courage ; an
end worth toil and hazard ? It is impossible, for their
efforts are all in the region of the false where the
seeming realities are but shadows that perpetually
change. Let it be allowed that to a certain extent
common interests draw together men of no principle
so that they can co-operate for a time. Yet each in-
dividual is secretly bent on his own pleasure or pre fit
and there is nothing that can unite them constantly.
One selfish and unjust person may be depended upon
to conceive a lively antipathy to every other selfish and
unjust person. Midian and Amalek have their differ-
ences with one another, and each has its own rival
chiefs, rival families, full of the bitterest jealousy which
at any moment may burst into flame. The whole com.-
bination is weak from the beginning, a mere horde
of clashing desires incapable of harmony, incapable of
a sustaining hope.
In the course of our Lord's brief ministry the in-
security of those who opposed Him was often shown.
The chief priests and scribes and lawj'ers whispered to
each other the fears and anxieties He aroused. In the
Sanhedrin the discussion about Him comes to the point,
"What do we? For this man doeth many signs. If
we let Him thus alone, all men will believe on Him :
and the Romans will come and take away both our
peace and our nation." The Pharisees say among
themselves, " Perceive ye how ye prevail nothing ?
Behold the world is gone after Him." And what was
the reason, what was the cause of this weakness?
Intense devotion to the law and the institutions of
religion animated those Israelites yet sufficed not to
THE BOOK OF JUDGES.
bind them together. Rival schools and claims honey-
combed the whole social and ecclesiastical fabric. The
pride of religious ancestry and a keenly cherished
ambition could not maintain peace or hope ; they were
of no use against the calm authority of the Nazarene.
Judaism was full of the bitterness of falsehood. The
seeds of despair were in the minds of those who
accused Christ, and the terrible harvest was reaped
within a generation.
Passing from this supreme evidence that the wrong
can never be the strong, look at those ignorant and
unhappy persons who combine against the laws of
society. Their suspicions of each other are proverbial,
and ever with them is the feeling that sooner or later
they will be overtaken by the law. They dream of that
and tell each other their dreams. The game of crime
is played against well-known odds. Those who carry
it on are aware that their haunts will be discovered,
their gang broken up. A bribe will tempt one of their
number and the rest will have to go their way to the
cell or the gallows. Yet with the presage of defeat
wrought into the very constitution of the mind and with
innumerable proofs that it is no delusion, there are
always those amongst us who attem„pt what even in
this world is so hazardous and in the larger sweep of
moral economy is impossible. In selfishness, in op-
pression and injustice, in every kind of sensuality men
adventure as if they could ensure their safety and defy
the day of reckoning.
Gideon is now well persuaded that the fear of
disaster is not for Israel. He returns to the camp and
forthwith prepares to strike. It seems to him now the
easiest thing possible to throw into confusion that
great encampment of Midian. One bold device rapidly
vii.8-vm.2i.] "jV/D/JJV'S EVIL DAY." 1S3
executed will set in operation the suspicions and fears
of the different desert tribes and they will melt away
in defeat. The stratagem has already shaped itself.
The three hundred are provided with the earthenware
jars or pitchers in which their simple food has been
carried. They soon procure firebrands and from
among the ten thousand in the camp enough rams' horns
are collected to supply one to each of the attacking
party. Then three bands are formed of equal strength
and ordered to advance from different sides upon the
enemy, holding themselves ready at a given signal to
break the pitchers, flash the torches in the air and
make as much noise as they can with their rude moun-
tain horns. The scheme is simple, quaint, ingenious.
It reveals skill in making use of the most ordinary
materials which is of the very essence of generalship.
The harsh cornets especially filling the valley with
barbaric tumult are well adapted to create terror and
confusion. We hear nothing of ordinary weapons, but
it must not be supposed that the three hundred were
unarmed.
It was not long after midnight, the middle watch had
been newly set, when the three companies reached
their stations. The orders had been well seized and
all went precisely as Gideon had conceived. With
crash and tumult and flare of torches there came the
battle-shout — " Sword of Jehovah and of Gideon.'
The Israelites had no need to press forward ; they
stood every man in his place, while fear and suspicion
did the work. The host ran and cried and fled. To
and fro among the tents, seeing now on this side now
on that the menacing flames, turning from the battle-
cry here to be met in an opposite quarter by the wild
dissonance of the horns, the surprised army was thrown
l84 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.
into utter confusion. Every one thought of treachery
and turned his sword against his fellow. Escape was
the common impulse, and the flight of the disorganized
host took a south-easterly direction by the road that
led to the Jordan valley and across it to the Hauran
and the desert. It was a complete rout and the
Hebrews had only to follow up their advantage. Those
who had not shared the attack joined in the pursuit.
Every village that the flying Midianites passed sent out
its men, brave enough now that the arm of the tyrant
was broken. Down to the ghor of Jordan the terror-
stricken Arabs fled and along the bank for many a
mile, harassed in the difficult ground by the Hebrews
who know every yard of it. At the fords there is
dreadful work. Those who cross at the highest point
near Succoth are not the main body, but the two chiefs
Zebah and Zalmunna are among them and Gideon
takes them in hand. Away to the south Ephraim has
its opportunity and gains a victory where the road
along the valley of Jordan diverges to Beth-barah.
For days and nights the retreat goes on till the strange
swift triumph of Israel is assured.
I. There is in this narrative a lesson as to equip-
ment for the battle of life and the service of God
somewhat like that which we found in the story of
Shamgar, yet with points of difference. We are re-
minded here of what may be done without wealth,
without the material apparatus that is often counted
necessary. The modern habit is to make much of tools
and outfit. The study and applications of science have
brought in a fashion of demanding everything possible
in the way of furniture, means, implements. Every-
where this fashion prevails, in the struggle of commerce
and manufacture, in literature and art, in teaching and
vii.8-viii.2i.] "MWIAN'S EVIL DAY," 185
household economy, worst of all in church life and
work. Michael Angelo wrought the frescoes of the
Sistine chapel with the ochres he dug with his own
hands from the garden of the Vatican. Mr. Darwin's
great experiments were conducted with the rudest
and cheapest furniture, anything a country house could
supply. But in the common view it is on perfect tools
and material almost everything depends ; and we seem
in the way of being absolutely mastered by them.
What, for example, is the ecclesiasticism which covers
an increasing area of religious life ? And what is the
parish or congregation fully organized in the modern
sense ? Must we not call them elaborate machinery
expected to produce spiritual life ? There must be an
extensive building with every convenience for making
worship agreeable; there must be guilds and guild rooms,
societies and committees, each with an array of officials ;
there must be due assignment of observances to fit
days and seasons ; there must be architecture, jnusic
and much else. The ardent soul desiring to serve God
and man has to find a place in conjunction with all this
and order his work so that it may appear well in a
report. To some these things may appear ludicrous,
but they are too significant of the drift from that
simplicity and personal energy in which the Church
of Christ began. We seem to have forgotten that the
great strokes have been made by men who like Gideon
delayed not for elaborate preparation nor went back
on rule and precedent, but took the firebrands, pitchers
and horns that could be got together on a hill-side.
The great thing both in the secular and in the spiritual
region is that men should go straight at the work which
has to be done and do it with SiTgacity, intelligence and
fervour of their own.
l86 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.
We look back to those few plain men with whom lay
the new life of the world, going forth with the strong
certain word of a belief for which they could die,
a truth by which the dead could be revived. Their
equipment was of the soul. Of outward means and
material advantages they were, one may say, destitute.
Our methods are very different. No doubt in these
days there is a work of defence which requires the
finest weapons and most careful preparation. Yet
even here no weight of polished armour is so good
for David's use as the familiar sling and stone. And
in the general task of the church, teaching, guiding,
setting forth the Gospel of Christ, whatever keeps
soul from honest and hearty touch with soul is bad.
We want above all things men who have sanctified
common-sense, mother-wit, courage and frank sim-
plicity, men who can find their own means and gain
their own victories. The churches that do not breed
such are doomed.
2. We have been reading a story of panic and
defeat, and we may be advised to find in it a hint of
the fate that is to overtake Christianity when modern
criticism has finally ordered its companies and provided
them with terrifying horns and torches. Or certain
Christians may feel that the illustration fits the state
of alarm in which they are obliged to live. Is not the
church like that encampment in the valley, exposed to
the most terrible and startling attacks on all sides,
and in peril constantly of being routed by unforeseen
audacities, here of Ingersoll, Bakunin, Bebel, there of
Huxley or Renan ? Not seldom still, though after
many a false alarm, the cry is raised, " The church,
the faith — in danger ! "
Once for all — the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ is
vii.8-viii.2i.] "MIDI AN' S EVIL DAVr 187
never in danger, though enemies buzz on every side
like furious hornets. A confederation of men, a human
organization may be in deadly peril and may know that
the harsh tumult around it means annihilation. But
no institution is identical with the Catholic Church,
much less with the kingdom of God. Christians need
not dread the honest criticism which has a right to
speak, nor even the malice, envy, which have no right
yet dare to utter themselves. Whether it be sheer
atheism or scientific dogma or political change or
criticism of the Bible that makes the religious world
tremble and cry out for fear, in every case panic is
unchristian and unworthy. For one thing, do we not
frame numerous thoughts and opinions of our own and
devise many forms of service which in the course of
time we come to regard as having a sacredness equal
to the doctrine and ordinances of Christ ? And do we
not frequently fall into the error of thinking that
the symbols, traditions, outward forms of a Qhristian
society are essential and as much to be contended for
as the substance of the gospel ? Criticism of these is
dreaded as criticism of Christ, decay of them is regarded,
often quite wrongly, as decay of the work of God on
earth. We forget that forms, as such, are on perpetual
trial, and we forget also that no revolution or seeming
disaster can touch the facts on which Christianity rests.
The Divine gospel is eternal. Indeed, assailants of the
right sort are needed, and even those of the bad sort
have their use. The encampment of the unseeing and
unthinking, of the self-loving and arrogant needs to be
startled ; and he is no emissary of Satan who honestly
leads an attack where men lie in false peace, though
he may be for his own part but a rude fighter. The
panic indeed sometimes takes a singular and pathetic
iS8 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.
form. The unexpected enemy breaks in on the camp
with blare of ignorant rebuke and noisy demonstration
of strength and authority. Him the church hails as a
new apostle, at his feet she takes her place with a
strange unprofitable humility : and this is the worst
kind of disaster. Better far a serious battle than such
submission.
3. Without pursuing this suggestion we pass to
another raised by the conduct of the men of Ephraim.
They obeyed the call of Gideon when he hastily sum-
m.oned them to take the lower fords of Jordan within
their own territory and prevent the escape of the
Midianites. To them it fell to gain a great victory,
and especially to slay two subordinate chiefs, Oreb
and Zeeb, the Crow and the Wolf. But afterwards they
complained that they had not been called at first when
the commander was gathering his army. We are in-
formed that they chode with him sharply on this score,
and it was only by his soft answer which implied a
little flattery that they were appeased. " What have I
now in comparison with you ? Is not the gleaning
of the grapes of Ephraim better than the vintage of
Abiezer ? "
The men of Ephraim were not called at first along
with Manasseh, Zebulun, Asher and Naphtali. True.
But why? Was not Gideon aware of their selfish
indifference ? Did he not read their character ? Did
he not perceive that they would have sullenly refused
to be led by a man of Manasseh, the youngest son of
Joash of Abiezer? Only too well did the young chief
know with whom he had to deal. There had been
fighting already between Israel and the Midianites.
Did Ephraim help then ? Nay : but secure in her
mountains that tribe sullenly and selfishly held aloof.
vii.8-viii. 21.] "MIDIAN'S EVIL DAVr 1S9
And now the complaint is made when Gideon, once
unknown, is a victorious hero, the deliverer of the
Hebrew nation.
Do we not often see something like this ? There
are people who will not hazard position or profit in
identifying themselves with an enterprise while the
issue is doubtful, but desire to have the credit of con-
nection with it if it should succeed. They have not the
humanity to associate themselves with those who are
fighting in a good cause because it is good. In fact
they do not know what is good, their only test of value
being success. They lie by, looking with half-concealed
scorn on the attempts of the earnest, sneering at their
heat either in secret or openl}^, and when one day it
becomes clear that the world is applauding they con-
ceive a sudden respect for those at whom they scoffed.
Now they will do what they can to help, — with
pleasure, with liberality. Why were they not sooner
invited ? They will almost make a quarrel 0/ that,
and they have to be soothed with fair speeches. And
people who are worldly at heart push forward in this
fashion when Christian affairs have success or eclat
attached to them, especially where religion wears least
of its proper air and has somewhat of the earthly in
tone and look. Christ pursued by the Sanhedrip,
despised by the Roman is no person for them to know.
Let Him have the patronage of Constantine or a de'
Medici and they are then assured that He has claims
which they will admit — in theory. More than that
needs not be expected from men and women "of the
world." " Messieurs, surioiit, pas de zele^ Above all,
no zeal : that is the motto of every Ephraim since time
began. Wait till zeal is cooling before you join the
righteous cause.
igo THE BOOK OF JUDGES.
4. But while there are the carnal who Hke to share
the success of religion after it has cooled down to
their temperature, another class must not be forgotten,
those who in their selfishness show the worst kind of
hostility to the cause they should aid. Look at the
men of Succoth and Penuel. Gideon and his band
leading the pursuit of the Midianites have had no food
all night and are faint with hunger. At Succoth they
ask bread in vain. Instead of help they get the taunt
— "Are Zebah and Zalmunna now in thine hand that
we should give bread unto thine army ? " Onward
they press another stage up the hills to Penuel, and
there also their request is refused. Gideon savage
with the need of his men threatens dire punishment
to those who are so callous and cruel ; and when he
returns victorious his threat is made good. With
thorns and briars of the wilderness he scourges the
elders of Succoth. The pride of Penuel is its watch-
tower, and that he demolishes, at the same time
decimating the men of the city.
Penuel and Succoth lay in the way between the
wilderness in which the Midianites dwelt and the
valleys of western Palestine. The men of these cities
feared that if they aided Gideon they would bring on
themselves the vengeance of the desert tribes. Yet
where do we see the lowest point of unfaith and
meanness, in Ephraim or Succoth ? It is perhaps
hard to say which are the least manly : those contrive
to join the conquering host and snatch the credit of
victory ; these are not so clever, and while they are
as eager to make things smooth for themselves the
thorns and briars are more visibly their portion. To
share the honour of a cause for which you have done
very little is an easy thing in this world, though an honest
vii.8-viii.2i.] "MIDIAN'S EVIL DAY." 191
man cannot wear that kind of laurel ; but as for Succoth
and Penuel, the poor creatures, who will not pity
them ? It is so inconvenient often to have to decide.
They would temporise if it were possible — supply the
famished army with mouldy corn and raisins at a high
price, and do as much next time for the Midianites.
Yet the opportunity for this kind of salvation does not
always come. There are times when people have to
choose definitely whom they will serve, and discover to
their horror that judgment follov/s swiftly upon base
and cowardly choice. And God is faithful in making
the recusants feel the urgency of moral choice and the
grip He has of them. They would fain let the battle
of truth sweep by and not meddle with it. But some-
thing is forced upon them. They cannot let the whole
affair of salvation alone, but are driven to refuse
heaven in the very act of trying to escape hell. And
although judgment lingers, ever and anon demonstra-
tion is made among the ranks of the would-be grudent
that One on high judges for His warriors. It is not
the Gideon leading the little band of faint but eager
champions of faith who punishes the callous heathenism
and low scorn of a Succoth and Penuel. The Lord of
Hosts Himself will vindicate and chasten. " Whoso
shall cause one of these little ones that believe in Mc
to stumble, it is profitable for him that a great millstone
should be hanged about his neck, and that he should
be sunk in the depth of the sea."
5. Yet another word of instruction is found in the
appeal of Gideon : " Give, I pray you, loaves of bread
unto the people that follow me, for they be faint and
I am pursuing after Zebah and Zalmunna." Well has
the expression " Faint yet pursuing " found its place
as a proverb of the religious life. We are called to
192 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.
run with patience a race that needs long ardour and
strenuous exertion. The goal is far away, the ground
is difficult. As day after day and year after year
demands are made upon our faith, our resolution, our
thought, our devotion to One who remains unseen and
on our confidence in the future life it is no wonder that
many feel faint and weary. Often have we to pass
through a region inhabited by those who are indifferent
or hostile, careless or derisive. At many a door we
knock and find no sympathy. We ask for bread and
receive a stone ; and still the fight slackens not, still
have we to reach forth to the things that are before. But
the faintness is not death. In the most terrible hours
there is new life for our spiritual nature. Refreshment
comes from an unseen hand when earth refuses help.
We turn to Christ ; we consider Him who endured
great contradiction of sinners against Himself; we
realize afresh that we are ensured of the fulness of His
redemption. The body grows faint, but the soul presses
on ; the body dies and has to be left behind as a
worn-out garment, but the spirit ascends into immortal
youth.
•' On, chariot ! on, soul I
Ye are all the more fleet.
Be alone at the goal
Of the strange and the sweet 1 *
6. Finally let us glance at the fate of Zebah and
Zaimunna, not without a feeling of admiration and of
pity for the rude ending of these stately lives.
The sword of Jehovah and of Gideon has slain its
thousands. The vast desert army has been scattered
like chaff, in the flight, at the fords, by the rock Oreb
and the winepress Zeeb, all along the way by Nobah
and Jogbehah, and finally at Karkor, where having
vii.8-viii.2i.] "MWIAN'S EVIL DAY." 193
encamped in fancied security the residue is smitten.
Now the two defeated chiefs are in the hand of Gideon,
their miUtary renown completely wrecked, their career
destroyed. To them the expedition into Canaan was
part of the common business of leadership. As emirs
of nomadic tribes they had to find pasture and prey
for their people. No special antagonism to Jehovah,
no ill-will against Israel more than other nations led
them to cross the Jordan and scour the plains of
Palestine. It was quite in the natural course of things
that Midianites and Amalekites should migrate and
move towards the west. And now the defeat is crush-
ing. What remains therefore but tg die ?
We hear Gideon command his son Jether to fall
upon the captive chiefs, who brilliant and stately once
lie disarmed, bound and helpless. The indignity is not
to our mind. We would have thought more of Gideon
had he offered freedom to these captives " fallen on
evil days," men to be admired not hated. But probably
they do not desire a life which has in it no more of
honour. Only let the Hebrew leader not insult them
by the stroke of a young man's sword. The great
chiefs would die by a warrior's blow. And Jether
cannot slay them ; his hand falters as he draws the
sword. These men who have ruled their tens of
thousands have still the Hon look that quails. " Rise
thou and fall upon us," they say to Gideon : " for as
the man is, so is his strength." And so they die,
types of the greatest earthly powers that resist the
march of- Divine Providence, overthrown by a sword
which even in faulty weak human hands has indefeasible
sureness and edge.
" As the man is, so is his strength." It is another
of the pregnant sayings which meet us here and there
13
194 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.
even in the least meditative parts of Scripture. Yes :
as a man is in character, in faith, in harmony with the
vi^ill of God, so is his strength ; as he is in falseness,
injustice, egotism and ignorance, so is his weakness.
And there is but one real perennial kind of strength.
The demonstration made by selfish and godless persons,
though it shake continents and devastate nations, is
not Force. It has no nerve, no continuance, but is
mere fury which decays and perishes. Strength is the
property of truth and truth only ; it belongs to those
who are in union with eternal reahty and to no others
in the universe. Would you be invincible ? You
must move with the eternal powers of righteousness
and love. To be showy in appearance or terrible in
sound on the wrong side with the futilities of the world
is but incipient death.
On all sides the application may be seen. In the
home and its varied incidents of education, sickness,
discipline; in society high and low; in politics, in
literature. As the man or woman is in simple allegi-
ance to God and clear resolution there is strength to
endure, to govern, to think and every way to live.
Otherwise there can only be instability, foolishness,
blundering selfishness, a sad passage to inanition and
decay.
XIV.
GIDEON THE ECCLESIASTIC
Judges viii. 22-28.
THE great victory of Gideon had this special signifi-
cance, that it ended the incursions of the wandering
races of the desert. Canaan offered a continual lure to
the nomads of the Arabian wilderness, as indeed the
eastern and southern parts of Syria do at the present
time. The hazard was that wave after wave of Midianites
and Bedawin sweeping over the land should destroy
agriculture and make settled national life ancl civiliza-
tion impossible. And when Gideon undertook his work
the risk of this was acute. But the defeat inflicted on
the wild tribes proved decisive. " Midian was subdued
before the children of Israel, and they lifted up their
heads no more." The slaughter that accompanied the
overthrow of Zebah and Zalmunna, Oreb and Zeeb
became in the literature of Israel a symbol of the
destruction which must overtake the foes of God.
" Do thou to thine enemies as unto Midian " — so runs
the cry of a psalm — " Make their nobles like Oreb and
Zeeb : yea, all their princes like Zebah and Zalmunna,
who said, Let us take to ourselves in possession the
habitations of God." In Isaiah the remembrance gives
a touch of vivid colour to the oracle of the coming
Wonderful, Prince of Peace. " The yoke of his burden
196 THE BOOK OF fUDGES.
and the staff of his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor
shall be broken as in the day of Midian." Regarding
the Assyrian also the same prophet testifies, "The
Lord of Hosts shall stir up against him a scourge as
in the slaughter of Midian at the rock of Oreb." We
have no song like that of Deborah celebrating the
victory, but a sense of its immense importance held
the mind of the people, and by reason of it Gideon
found a place among the heroes of faith. Doubtless
he had, to begin with, a special reason for taking up
arms against the Midianitish chiefs that they had slain
his two brothers : the duty of an avenger of blood fell
to him. But this private vengeance merged in the
desire to give his people freedom, religious as well as
political, and it was Jehovah's victory that he won, as
he himself gladly acknowledged. We may see, there-
fore, in the whole enterprise, a distinct step of religious
development. Once again the name of the Most High
was exalted ; once again the folly of idol worship was
contrasted with the wisdom of serving the God of
Abraham and Moses. The tribes moved in the direc-
tion of national unity and also of common devotion to
their unseen King. If Gideon had been a man of larger
intellect and knowledge he might have led Israel far on
the way towards fitness for the mission it had never yet
endeavoured to fulfil. But his powers and inspiration
were limited.
On his return from the campaign the wish of the
people was expressed to Gideon that he should assume
the title of king. The nation needed a settled govern-
ment, a centre of authority which would bind the tribes
together, and the Abiezrite chief was now clearly marked
as a man fit for royalty. He was able to persuade as
well as to fight ; he was bold, firm and prudent. But
viii.22-2S.] GIDEON THE ECCLESIASTIC. 197
to the request that he should become king and found a
dynasty Gideon gave an absolute refusal : " I will not
rule over you, neither shall my son rule over you ;
Jehovah shall rule over you." We always admire a
man who refuses one of the great posts of human
authority or distinction. The throne of Israel was
even at that time a flattering offer. But should it have
been made ? There are few who will pause in a
moment of high personal success to think of the point
of morality involved ; yet we may credit Gideon with
the belief that it was not for him or any man to be
called king in Israel. As a judge he had partly proved
himself, as a judge he had a Divine call and a marvel-
lous vindication : that namie he would accept, not the
other. One of the chief elements of Gideon's character
was a strong but not very spiritual religiousness. He
attributed his success entirely to God, and God alone
he desired the nation to acknowledge as its Head. He
would not even in appearance stand between the people
and their Divine Sovereign, nor with his will should
any son of his take a place so unlawful and dangerous.
Along with his devotion to God it is quite likely that
the caution of Gideon had much to do with his resolve.
He had already found some difficulty in dealing with the
Ephraimites, and he could easily foresee that if he became
king the pride of that large clan would rise strongly
against him. If the gleaning of the grapes of Ephraim
was better than the whole vintage of Abiezer, as Gideon
had declared, did it not follow that any elder of the great
central tribe would better deserve the position of king
than the youngest son of Joash of Abiezer? The men
of Succoth and Penuel too had to be reckoned with.
Before Gideon could establish himself in a royal seat
he would have to fight a great coalition in the centre
198 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.
and south and also beyond Jordan. To the pains of
oppression would succeed the agony of civil war.
Unwilling to kindle a fire which might burn for years
and perhaps consume himself, he refused to look at the
proposal, flattering and honourable as it was.
But there was another reason for his decision which
may have had even more weight. Like many men
who have distinguished themselves in one way, his
real ambition lay in a different direction. We think of
him as a military genius. He for his part looked to
the priestly office and the transmission of Divine oracles
as his proper calling. The enthusiasm with which
he overthrew the altar of Baal, built the new altar of
Jehovah and offered his first sacrifice upon it survived
when the wild dehghts of victory had passed awa3^
The thrill of awe and the strange excitement he had
felt when Divine messages came to him and signs were
given in answer to his prayer affected him far more
deeply and permanently than the sight of a flying
enemy and the pride of knowing himself victor in a
great campaign. Neither did kingship appear much in
comparison with access to God, converse with Him
and declaration of His will to men. Gideon appears
already tired of war, with no appetite certainly for
more, however successful, and impatient to return to
the mysterious rites and sacred privileges of the altar.
He had good reason to acknowledge the power over
Israel's destiny of the Great Being Whose spirit had
come upon him, Whose promises had been fulfilled. He
desired to cultivate that intercourse with Heaven which
more than anything else gave him the sense of dignity
and strength. From the offer of a crown he turned as if
eager to don the robe of a priest and listen for the holy
oracles that none beside himself seemed able to receive.
viii.22-2S.] GIDEON THE ECCLESIASTIC. 199
It is notable that in the history of the Jewish kings
the tendency shown by Gideon frequently reappeared.
According to the law of later times the kingly duties
should have been entirely separated from those of the
priesthood. It came to be a dangerous and sacrilegious
thing for the chief magistrate of the tribes, their leader
in war, to touch the sacred implements or offer a
sacrifice. But just because the ideas of sacrifice and
priestly service were so fully in the Jewish mind the
kings, either when especially pious or especially strong,
felt it hard to refrain from the forbidden privilege.
On the eve of a great battle with the Philistines Saul,
expecting Samuel to offer the preparatory sacrifice
and inquire of Jehovah, waited seven days and then
impatient of delay undertook the priestly part and
offered a burnt sacrifice. His act was properly speaking
a confession of the sovereignty of God ; but when
Samuel came he expressed great indignatioh against
the king, denounced his interference with sacred things
and in effect removed him then and there from the
kingdom. David for his part appears to have been
scrupulous in employing the priests for every religious
function ; but at the bringing up of the ark from the
house of Obed-Edom he is reported to have led a
sacred dance before the Lord and to have worn a linen
ephod, that is a garment specially reserved for the
priests. He also took to himself the privilege of
blessing the people in the name of the Lord. On the
division of the kingdom Jeroboam promptly assumed
the ordering of religion, set up shrines and appointed
priests to minister at them ; and in one scene we find
him standing by an altar to offer incense. The great
sin of Uzziah, on account of which he had to go forth
from the temple a hopeless leper, is stated in the second
THE BOOK OF JUDGES.
book of Chronicles to have been an attempt to burn
incense on the altar. These are cases in point ; but
the most remarkable is that of Solomon. To be king,
to build and equip the temple and set in operation
the whole ritual of the house of God did not content
that magnificent prince. His ambition led him to
assume a part far loftier and more impressive than
fell to the chief priest himself. It viras Solomon who
offered the prayer when the temple was consecrated,
who pronounced the blessing of God on the worshipping
multitude ; and at his invocation it was that " fire came
down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering
and the sacrifices." This crowning act of his Hfe, in
which the great monarch rose to the very highest pitch
of his ambition, actually claiming and taking precedence
over all the house of Aaron, will serve to explain the
strange turn of the Abiezrite's history at which we
have now arrived.
"He made an ephod and put it in his city, even
in Ophrah." A strong but not spiritual religiousness,
we have said, is the chief note of Gideon's character.
It may be objected that such a one, if he seeks ecclesias-
tical olifice, does so unworthily; but to say so is an
uncharitable error. It is not the devout temper alone
that finds attraction in the ministry of sacred things ;
nor should a love of place and power be named as
the only other leading motive. One who is not devout
may in all sincerity covet the honour of standing for
God before the congregation, leading the people in
worship and interpreting the sacred oracles. A vulgar
explanation of human desire is often a false one ; it
is so here. The ecclesiastic may show few tokens of
the spiritual temper, the other-worldliness, the glowing
and simple truth we rightly account to be the proper
viii. 22-28.] GIDEON THE ECCIESIASTIC. 201
marks of a Christian ministry ; yet he may by his
own reckoning have obeyed a clear call. His function
in this case is to maintain order and administer out-
ward rites with dignity and care — a limited range of
duty indeed, but not without utility, especially when
there are inferior and less conscientious men in office
not far away. He does not advance faith, but accord-
ing to his power he maintains it.
But the ecclesiastic must have the ephod. The man
who feels the dignity of religion more than its humane
simplicity, realizing it as a great movement of absorbing
interest, will naturally have regard to the means of
increasing dignity and making the movement impressive.
Gideon calls upon the people for the golden spoils
taken from the Midianites, nose-rings, earrings and
the like, and they willingly respond. It is easy to
obtain gifts for the outward glory of religion, and a
golden image is soon to be seen within a^ house of
Jehovah on the hill at Ophrah. Whatever form it had,
this figure was to Gideon no idol but a symbol or sign
of Jehovah's presence among the people, and by means
of it, in one or other of the ways used at the time,
as for example by casting lots from within it, appeal
was made to God with the utmost respect and con-
fidence. When it is supposed that Gideon fell away
from his first faith in making this image the error
lies in overestimating his spirituality at the earlier
stage. We must not think that at any time the use
of a symbolic image would have seemed wrong to him.
It was not against images but against worship of false
and impure gods that his zeal was at first directed.
The sacred pole was an object of detestation because
it was a symbol of Astarte.
In some way we cannot explain the whole life of
THE BOOK OF JUDGES.
Gideon appears as quite separate from the religious
ordinances maintained before the ark, and at the same
time quite apart from that Divine rule which forbade
the making and worship of graven images. Either he
did not know the second commandment, or he under-
stood it only as forbidding the use of an image of any
creature and the worship of a creature by means of
an image. We know that the cherubim in the Holy
of Holies were symbolic of the perfections of creation,
and through them the greatness of the Unseen God
was realized. So it was with Gideon's ephod or image,
which was however used in seeking oracles. He acted
at Ophrah as priest of the true God. The sacrifices
he offered were to Jehovah. People came from all
the northern tribes to bow at his altar and receive
divine intimations through him. The southern tribes
had Gilgal and Shiloh. Here at Ophrah was a service
of the God of Israel, not perhaps intended to compete
with the other shrines, yet virtually depriving them of
their fame. For the expression is used that all Israel
went a whoring after the ephod.
But while we try to understand we are not to miss
the warning which comes home to us through this
chapter of religious history. Pure and, for the time,
even elevated in the motive, Gideon's attempt at priest-
craft led to his fall. For a while we see the hero
acting as judge at Ophrah and presiding with dignity
at the altar. His best wisdom is at the service of the
people and he is ready to offer for them at new moon
or harvest the animals they desire to consecrate and
consume in the sacred feast. In a spirit of real faitli
and no doubt with much sagacity he submits their
inquiries to the test of the ephod. But " the thing
became a snare to Gideon and his house," perhaps in
viii. 22-28.] GIDEON THE ECCLESIASTIC. 205
the way of bringing in riches and creating the desire
for more. Those who appHed to him as a revealer
brought gifts with them. Gradually as wealth increased
among the people the value of the donations would
increase, and he who began as a disinterested patriot
may have degenerated into a somewhat avaricious man
who made a trade of religion. On this point we have,
however, no information. It is mere surmise depend-
ing upon observation of the way things are apt to go
amongst ourselves.
Reviewing the story of Gideon's life we find this
clear lesson, that within certain limits he who trusts
and obeys God has a quite irresistible efficiency. This
man had, as we have seen, his limitations, very con-
siderable. As a religious leader, prophet or priest, he
was far from competent ; there is no indication that he
was able to teach Israel a single Divine doctrine, and
as to the purity and mercy, the righteousness.and love
of God, his knowledge was rudimentary. In the remote
villages of the Abiezrites the tradition of Jehovah's
name and power remained, but in the confusion of the
times there was no education of children in the will of
God : the Law was practically unknown. From Shechem
where Baal-Berith was worshipped the influence of a
degrading idolatry had spread, obliterating every reli-
gious idea except the barest elements of the old faith.
Doing his very best to understand God, Gideon never
saw what religion in our sense means. His sacrifices
were appeals to a Power dimly felt through nature
and in the greater epochs of the national history,
chastising now and now friendly and beneficent.
Yet, seriously limited as he was, Gideon when he
had once laid hold of the fact that he was called by the
unseen God to deliver Israel went on step by step to
204 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.
the great victory which made the tribes free. His
responsibility to his fellow-Israelites became clear along
with his sense of the demand made upon him by God.
He felt himself like the wind, like the lightning, like
the dew, an agent or instrument of the Most High,
bound to do His part in the course of things. Iiis will
was enlisted in the Dirine purpose. This work, thi?
deliverance of Israel was to be effected by him and ne
other. He had the elemental powers with him, in hira
The immense armies of Midian could not stand in his
way. He was, as it were, a storm that must hurl them
back into the wilderness defeated and broken.
Now this is the very conception of life which we in
our far wider knowledge are apt to miss, which never-
theless it is our chief business to grasp and carry into
practice. You stand there, a man instructed in a
ihousand things of v;hich Gideon was ignorant, in-
structed especially in the nature and will of God Whom
Christ has revealed. It is your privilege to take a
broad survey of human life, of duty, to look beyond
the present to the eternal future with its infinite possi-
biHties of gain and loss. But the danger is that year
after year all thought and effort shall be on your owi
account, that with each changing wind of circumstanc<
you change your purpose, that you never understand
God's demand nor find the true use of knowledge, will
and life in fulfilling that. Have you a Divine task to
effect ? You doubt it. Where is anything that can
be called a commission of God ? You look this way
and that for a little, then give up the quest. This year
finds you without enthusiasm, without devotion even
as you have been in other years. So life ebbs away
and is lost in the wide flat sands of the secular and
trivial, and the ^C"I never becomes part of the strong
viii.22-2S.] GIDEON THE ECCLESIASTIC. 205
ocean current of Divine purpose. We pity or deride
some who, with little knowledge and in many errors
alike of heart and head, were yet men as many of us
may not claim to be, alive to the fact of God and their
own share in Him. But they were so limited, those
Hebrews, you say, a mere horde of shepherds and
husbandmen ; their story is too poor, too chaotic to have
any lesson for us. And in sheer incapacity to read the
meaning of the tale you turn from this Book of Judges,
as from a barbarian myth, less interesting than Homer,
of no more application to yourself than the legends of
the Round Table, Yet, all the while, the one supreme
lesson for a man to read and take home to himself is
written throughout the book in bold and living cha-
racters— that only when life is realized as a vocation is
it worth living. God may be faintly known, His will
but rudely interpreted ; yet the mere understanding
that He gives life and rewards effort is an inspiration.
And when His life-giving call ceases to stir and guide,
there can be for the man, the nation, only irresolution
and weakness.
A century ago Englishmen were as little devout as
they are to-day ; they were even less spiritual, less
moved to fine issues. They had their scepticisms too,
their rough ignorant prejudices, their giant errors and
perversities. " We have gained vastly," as Professor
Seeley says, "in breadth of view, intelligence and
refinement. Probably what we threw aside could not
be retained ; what we adopted was forced upon us by
the age. Nevertheless, we had formerly what I may
call a national discipline, which formed a firm, strongly-
marked national character. We have now only
materials, which may be of the first quality, but have
not been worked up. We have everything except
2o6 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.
lecided views and steadfast purpose — everything in
short except character." Yes : the sense of the nation's
calling has decayed, and with it the nation's strength.
In leaders and followers alike purpose fades as faith
evaporates, and we are faithless because we attempt
nothing noble under the eye and sceptre of the King.
You live, let us say, among those who doubt God,
doubt whether there is any redemption, whether the
whole Christian gospel and hope are not in the air,
dreams, possibilities, rather than facts of the Eternal
Will. The storm-wind blows and you hear its roaring :
that is palpable fact, divine or cosmic. Its errand will
be accomplished. Great rivers flow, great currents
sweep through the ocean. Their mighty urgency who
can doubt ? But the spiritual who can believe ? You
do not feel in the sphere of the moral, of the spiritual
the wind that makes no sound, the current that rolls
silently charged with sublime energies, effecting a vast
and wonderful purpose. Yet here are the great facts ;
and we must find our part in that spiritual urgency, do
our duty there, or lose all. We must launch out on
the mighty stream of redemption or never reach eternal
light, for all else moves down to death. Christ Himself
is to be victorious in us. The glory of our life is that
we can be irresistible in the region of our duty, irresis-
tible in conflict with the evil, the selfishness, the false-
hood given us to overthrow. To realize that is to live.
The rest is all mere experiment, getting ready for the task
of existence, making armour, preparing food, otherwise,
at the worst, a winter's morning before inglorious death.
One other thing observe, that underlying Gideon's
desire to fill the office of priest there was a dull percep-
tion of the highest function of one man in relation to
others. It appears to the common mind a great thinjjc
/lii. 22-28.] GIDEON THE ECCLESIASTIC. 207
to rule, to direct secular affairs, to have the command
of armies and the power of filling offices and conferring
dignities ; and no doubt to one who desires to serve
his generation well, royalty, political power, even
municipal office offer many excellent opportunities.
But set kingship on this side, kingship concerned
with the temporal and earthly, or at best humane
aspects of life, and on the other side priesthood of
the true kind which has to do with the spiritual, by
which God is revealed to man and the holy ardour
and divine aspirations of the human will are sustained
— and there can be no question which is the more impor-
tant. A clever strong man may be a ruler. It needs a
good man, a pious man, a man of heavenly power and
insight to be in any right sense a priest. I speak not
of the kind of priest Gideon turned out, nor of a Jewish
priest, nor of any one who in modern times professes
to be in that succession, but of one who really stands
between God and men, bearing the sorrows of his kind,
their trials, doubts, cries and prayers on his heart and
presenting them to God, interpreting to the weary and
sad and troubled the messages of heaven. In this sense
Christ is the one True Priest, the eternal and only
sufficient High Priest. And in this sense it is possible
for every Christian to hold towards those less enlight-
ened and less decided in their faith the priestly part.
Now in a dim way the priestly function presented
itself to Gideon and allured him. Sufficient for it he
was not, and his ephod became a snare. Neither could
he grasp the wisdom of heaven nor understand the
needs of men. In his hands the sacred art did not
prosper, he became content with the appearance and
the gain. It is so with many who take the name
of priests In truth on one side the term and all it
2o8 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.
Stands for must be confessed full of danger to him set
apart and thos.-^ who separate him. Here as pointedly
as anywhere m-jst it be affirmed, " Whatsoever is not
of faith is sin." There must be a mastering sense of
God's calling on the side of him who ministers, and on
the side of the people recognition of a message, an
example coming to them through this brother of theirs
«vho speaks what he has received of the Holy Spirit,
who offers a personal living word, a personal testimony.
Here, be it called what it may, is priesthood after the
pattern of Christ's, true and beneficent ; and apart
from this, priesthood may too easily become, as many
have affirmed, a horrible imposture and baleful lie.
Christianity brings the whole to a point in every life.
God's calling, spiritual, complete, comes to each soul
in its place, and the holy oil is for every head. The
father, mother, the employer and the workman, the
surgeon, writer, lawyer — everywhere and in all posts,
just as men and women are living out God's demand
upon them — these are His priests, ministrants of the
hearth and the shop, the factory and the office, by the
cradle and the sick-bed, wherever the multitudinous
epic of life goes forward. Here is the common and
withal the holiest calling and office. That one dwelling
with God in righteousness and love introduce others
into the sanctuary, declare as a thing he knows the
will of the Eternal, uplift the feebleness of faith and
revive the heart of love — this is the highest task on
earth, the grandest of heaven. Of such it may be said,
*' Ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy
nation, a peculiar people that ye should show forth the
praises of Him Who hath called you out of darkness
into His marvellous light."
XV.
aIBIMELECH and fOTHAM.
Judges viii. 29— ix. 57.
THE history we are tracing moves from man to
man ; the personal influence of the hero is every-
thing while it lasts and confusion follows on his death.
Gideon appears as one of the most successful Hebrew
judges in maintaining order. While he was there in
Ophrah religion and government had a centre "and
the country was in quietness forty years." A .man far
from perfect but capable of mastery held the reins and
gave forth judgment with an authority none could
challenge. His burial in the family sepulchre in
Ophrah is specially recorded as if it had been a
great national tribute to his heroic power and skilful
administration.
The funeral over, discord began. A rightful ruler
there was not. Among the claimants of power there
was no man of power. Gideon left many sons, but not
one of them could take his place. The confederation
of cities half Hebrew, half Canaanite with Shechem at
their head, of which we have already heard, held in
check while Gideon lived, now began to control the
politics of the tribes. By using the influence of this
league a usurper who had no title whatever to the con-
fidence of the people succeeded in exalting himself.
14
THE BOOK OF JUDGES.
The old town of Shechem situated in the beautiful
valley between Ebal and Gerizim had long been a
centre of Baal worship and of Canaanite intrigue,
though nominally one of the cities of refuge and there-
fore specially sacred. Very likely the mixed population
of this important town, jealous of the position gained
by the hill-village of Ophrah, were ready to receive
with favour any proposals that seemed to offer them
distinction. And when Abimelech, son of Gideon by
a slave woman of their town, went among them with
ambitious and crafty suggestions they were easily
persuaded to help him. The desire for a king which
Gideon had promptly set aside lingered in the minds
of the people, and by means of it Abimelech was able to
compass his personal ends. First, however, he had
to discredit others who stood in his way. There at
Ophrah were the sons and grandsons of Gideon, three-
score and ten of them according to the tradition, who
were supposed to be bent on lording it over the tribes.
Was it a thing to be thought of that the land should
have seventy kings ? Surely one would be better, less
of an incubus at least, more likely to do the ruling well.
Men of Shechem too would not be governed from
Ophrah if they had any spirit. He, Abimelech, was
their townsman, their bone and flesh. He confidently
looked for their support.
We cannot tell how far there was reason for saying
that the family of Gideon were aiming at an aristocracy.
They may have had some vague purpose of the kind.
The suggestion, at all events, was cunning and had its
eifect. The people of Shechem had stored considerable
treasure in the sanctuary of Baal, and by public vote
seventy pieces of silver were paid out of it to Abimelech.
The money was at once used by him in hiring a band of
viii. 29-ix. 57-] ABIMELECH AND JOTHAM. 211
men like himself, unscrupulous, ready for any desperate
or bloody deed. With these he marched on Ophrah
and surprising his brothers in the house or palace of
Jerubbaal speedily put out of his way their dangerous
rivalry. With the exception of Jotham, who had
observed the band approaching and concealed himself,
the whole house of Gideon was dragged to execution.
On one stone, perhaps the very rock on which the altar
of Baal once stood, the threescore and nine were
barbarously slain.
A villainous coup d'etat this. From Gideon over-
throwing Baal and proclaiming Jehovah to Abimelech
bringing up Baal again with hideous fratricide — it is
a wretched turn of things. Gideon had to some extent
prepared the way for a man far inferior to himself, as
all do who are not utterly faithful to their light and
calling ; but he never imagined there could be so quick
and shocking a revival of barbarism. Yet the ephod-
dealing, the polygamy, the immorality into which he
lapsed were bound to come to fruit. The man who
oncfc was a pure Hebrew patriot begat a half-heathen
son to undo his own work. As for the Shechemites,
they knew quite well to what end they had voted those
seventy pieces of silver; and the general opinion seems
to have been that the town had its money's worth, a life
for each piece and, to boot, a king reeking with blood
and shame. Surely it was a well-spent grant. Their
confederation, their god had triumphed. They made
Abimelech king by the oak of the pillar that was in
Shechem.
It is the success of the adventurer we have here,
that common event. Abimelech is the oriental adven-
turer and uses the methods of another age than ours ;
yet we have our examples, and if they are less scan-
THE BOOK OF JUDGES.
dalous in some ways, if they are apart from bloodshed
and savagery, they are still sufficiently trying to those
who cherish the faith of divine justice and providence.
How many have to see with amazement the adventurer
triumph by means of seventy pieces of silver from the
house of Baal or even from a holier treasury. He in a
selfish and cruel game seems to have speedy and com-
plete success denied to the best and purest cause. Fight-
ing for his own hand in wicked or contemptuous hardness
and arrogant conceit, he finds support, applause, an
open way. Being no prophet he has honour in his
own town. He knows the art of the stealthy insinua-
tion, the lying promise and the flattering murmur;
he has skill to make the favour of one leading person
a step to securing another. When a few important
people have been hoodwinked, he too becomes impor-
tant and "success" is assured.
The Bible, most entirely honest of books, frankly
sets before us this adventurer, Abimelech, in the midst
of the judges of Israel, as low a specimen of " success "
as need be looked for; and we trace the well-known
means by which such a person is promoted. " His
mother's brethren spake of him in the ears of all the
men of Shechem." That there was little to say, that
he was a man of no character mattered not the least.
The thing was to create an impression so that Abime-
lech's scheme might be introduced and forced. So far
he could intrigue and then, the first steps gained, he
could mount. But there was in him none of the
mental power that afterwards marked Jehu, none of
the charm that survives with the name of Absalom. It
was on jealousy, pride, ambition he played as the most
jealous, proud and ambitious ; yet for three years the
Hebrews of the league, blinded by the desire to have
viii. 29-ix. 57.] ABIMELECII AND JOTIIAM. 213
their nation like others, suflfered him to bear the name
of king.
And by this sovereignty the IsraeHtes who acknow-
ledged it were doubly and trebly compromised. Not
only did they accept a man without a record, they
believed in one who was an enemy to his country's
religion, one therefore quite ready to trample upon its
liberty. This is really the beginning of a worse op-
pression than that of Midian or of Jabin. It shows
on the part of Hebrews generally as well as those
who tamely submitted to Abimelech's lordship a most
abject state of mind. After the bloody work at Ophrah
the tribes should have rejected the fratricide with
loathing and risen like one man to suppress him.
If the Baal-worshippers of Shechem would make him
king there ought to have been a cause of war against
them in which every good man and true should have
taken the field. We look in vain for any such opposi-
tion to the usurper. Now that he is crowned, Manasseh,
Ephraim and the North regard him complacently. It
is the world all over. How can we wonder at this
when we know with what acclamations kings scarcely
more reputable than he have been greeted in modern
times ? Crowds gather and shout, fires of welcome
blaze ; there is joy as if the millennium had come. It
is a king crowned, restored, his country's head, de-
fender of the faith. Vain is the hope, pathetic the joy.
There is no man of spirit to oppose Abimelech in the
field. The duped nation must drink its cup of misrule
and blood. But one appears of keen wit, apt and
trenchant in speech. At least the tribes shall hear
what one sound mind thinks of this coronation. Jotham,
as we saw, escaped the slaughter at Ophrah. In the
rear of the murderer he has crossed the hills and he
214 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.
will now utter his warning, whether men hear or
whether they forbear. There is a crowd assembled for
worship or deliberation at the oak of the pillar. Sud-
denly a voice is heard ringing clearly out between hill
and hill, and the people looking up recognize Jotham
who from a spur of rock on the side of Gerizim
demands their audience. " Hearken unto me," he
cries, "ye men of Shechem, that God may hearken
unto you." Then in his parable of the olive, the fig-
tree, the vine and the bramble, he pronounces judgment
and prophecy. The bramble is exalted to be king,
but on these terms, that the trees come and put their
trust under its shadow; "but if not, then let fire come
out of the bramble and devour the cedars of Lebanon."
It is a piece of satire of the first order, brief, stinging,
true. The craving for a king is lashed and then the
wonderful choice of a ruler. Jotham speaks as an
anarchist, one might say, but with God understood
as the centre of law and order. It is a vision of the
Theocracy taking shape from a keen and original mind.
He figures men as trees growing independently, duti-
fully. And do trees need a king ? Are they not set
in their natural freedom each to yield fruit as best it
can after its kind ? Men of Shechem, Hebrews all,
if they will only attend to their proper duties and do
quiet work as God wills, i.ppear to Jotham to need a
king no more than the trees. Under the benign course
of nature, sunshine and rain, wind and dew, the trees
have all the restraint they need, all the liberty that is
good for them. So men under the providence of God,
adoring and obeying Him, have the best control, the
only needful control, and with it liberty. Are they
not fools then to go about seeking a tyrant to rule
them, they who should be as cedars of Lebanon, wil-
viii.29ix. 57-] ABIMELECH AND JOTIIAM. 215
lows by the watercourses, they who are made for
simple freedom and spontaneous duty ? It is some-
thing new in Israel this keen intellectualizing ; but
the fable, pointed as it is, teaches nothing for the
occasion. Jotham is a man full of wit and of intelli-
gence, but he has no practicable scheme of govern-
ment, nothing definite to oppose to the mistake of
the hour. He is all for the ideal, but the time and
the people are unripe for the ideal. We see the
same contrast in our own day ; both in politics and
the church the incisive critic discrediting subordination
altogether fails to secure his age. Men are not trees.
They are made to obey and trust. A hero or one who
seems a hero is ever welcome, and he who skilfully
imitates the roar of the lion may easily have a following,
while Jotham, intensely sincere, highly gifted, a true-
sighted man, finds none to mind him.
Again the fable is directed against Abimelecb. What
was this man to whom Shechem had sworn fealty ?
An olive, a fig-tree, fruitful and therefore to be sought
after? Was he a vine capable of rising on popular
support to useful and honourable service ? Not he.
It was the bramble they had chosen, the poor grovelling
jagged thorn-bush that tears the flesh, whose end is to
feed the fire of the oven. Who ever heard of a good
or heroic deed Abimelech had done ? He was simply
a contemptible upstart, without moral principle, as
ready to wound as to flatter, and they who chose him
for king would too soon find their error. Now that
he had done something, what was it ? There were
Israelites among the crowd that shouted in his honour.
Had they already forgotten the services of Gideon so
completely as to fall down before a wretch red-handed
from the murder of their hero's sons ? Such a begin-
2i6 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.
ning showed the character of the man they trusted,
and the same fire which had issued from the bramble
at Ophrah would flame out upon themselves. This
was but the beginning; soon there would be war to
the knife between Abimelech and Shechem.
We find instruction in the parable by regarding the
answers put into the mouth of this tree and that when
they are invited to wave to and fro over the others.
There are honours which are dearly purchased, high
positions which cannot be assumed v.'ithout renouncing
the true end and fruition of life. One for example
who is quietly and with increasing efficiency doing his
part in a sphere to which he is adapted must set aside
the gains of long discipline if he is to become a social
leader. He can do good where he is. Not so certain
is it that he will be able to serve his fellows well in
public office. It is one thing to enjoy the deference
paid to a leader while the first enthusiasm on his behalf
continues, but it is quite another thing to satisfy all the
demands made as years go on and new needs arise.
When any one is invited to take a position of authority
he is bound to consider carefully his own aptitudes.
He needs also to consider those who are to be subjects
or constituents and make sure that they are of the kind
his rule will fit. The olive looks at the cedar and the
terebinth and the palm. Will they admit his sove-
reignty by-and-by though now they vote for it ? Men
are taken with the candidate who makes a good im-
pression by emphasizing what will please and sup-
pressing opinions that may provoke dissent. When
they know him, how will it be ? When criticism
begins, will the ohve not be despised for its gnarled
stem, its crooked branches and dusky foliage?
The fable does not make the refusal of olive and fig-
viii. 29-ix. 57-] ABIMELECH AND JOTHAM. 217
tree and vine rest on the comfort they enjoy in the
humbler place. That would be a mean and dishonour-
able reason for refusing to serve. Men who decHne
public office because they love an easy Hfe find here no
countenance. It is for the sake of its fatness, the oil
it yields, grateful to God and man in sacrifice and
anointing, that the olive-tree declines. The fig-tree
has its sweetness and the vine its grapes to yield.
And so men despising self-indulgence and comfort
may be justified in putting aside a call to office. The
fruit of personal character developed in humble unob-
trusive natural life is seen to be better than the more
showy clusters forced by public demands. Yet, on the
other hand, if one will not leave his books, another
his scientific hobbies, a third his fireside, a fourth his
manufactory, in order to take his place among the
magistrates of a city or the legislators of a land the
danger of bramble supremacy is near. Next a.wretched
Abimelech will appear ; and what can be done but set
him on high and put the reins in his hand ? Unques-
tionably the claims of church or country deserve most
careful weighing, and even if there is a risk that
character may lose its tender bloom the sacrifice must
be made in obedience to an urgent call. For a time, at
least, the need of society at large must rule the loyal
life.
The fable of Jotham, in so far as it flings sarcasm at
the persons who desire eminence for the sake of it and
not for the good they will be able to do, is an example
of that wisdom which is as unpopular now as ever it
has been in human history, and the moral needs every
day to be kept full in view. It is desire for distinction
and power, the opportunity of waving to and fro over
tne trees, me ngni co use tnis nanaie ana mat co meir
2i8 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.
names that will be found to make many eager, not the
distinct wish to accomplish something which the times
and the country need. Those who solicit public office
are far too often selfish, not self-denying, and even in
the church there is much vain ambition. But people
will have it so. The crowd follows him who is eager
for the suffrages of the crowd and showers flattery and
promises as he goes. Men are lifted into places they
cannot fill, and after keeping their seats unsteadily for
a time they have to disappear into ignominy.
We pass here, however, beyond the meaning Jotham
desired to convey, for, as we have seen, he would have
justified every one in refusing to reign. And certainly
if society could be held together and guided without
the exaltation of one over another, by the fidelity of
each to his own task and brotherly feeling between
man and man, there would be a far better state of
things. But while the fable expounds a God-impelled
anarchy, the ideal state of mankind, our modern schemes,
omitting God, repudiating the least notion of a super-
natural fount of Hfe, turn upon themselves in hopeless
confusion. When the divine law rules every life .we
shall not need organised governments ; until then entire
freedom in the world is but a name for unchaining
every lust that degrades and darkens the life of man.
Far away, as a hope of the redeemed and Christ-led
race, there shines the ideal Theocracy revealed to the
greater minds of the Hebrew people, often re-stated,
never realised. But at present men need a visible
centre of authority. There must be administrators
and executors of law, there must be government and
legislation till Christ reigns in every heart. The move-
ment which resulted in Abimelech's sovereignty was
the blundering start in a series of experiments the
viii. 29-ix. 57.] ABIMELECH AND fOTIIAM. 219
Hebrew tribes were bound to make, as other nations
had to make them. We are still engaged in the search
for a right system of social order, and while fearers
of God acknowledge the ideal towards which they
labour, they must endeavour to secure by personal toil
and devotion, by unwearying interest in affairs the most
effective form of liberal yet firm government.
Abimelech maintained himself in power for* three
years, no doubt amid growing dissatisfaction. Then
came the outburst which Jotham had predicted. An
evil spirit, really present from the first, rose between
Abimelech and the men of Shechem. The bramble
began to tear themselves, a thing they were not pre-
pared to endure. Once rooted however it was not
easily got rid of. One who knows the evil arts of
betrayal is quick to suspect treachery, the false person
knows the ways of the false and how to fight them with
their own weapons. A man of high character may be
made powerless by the disclosure of some true words
he has spoken ; but when Shechem would be rid of
Abimelech it has to employ brigands and organise
robbery. " They set liers in wait for him in the
mountains who robbed all that came along that way,"
the merchants no doubt to whom Abimelech had given
a safe conduct. Shechem in fact became the head-
quarters of a band of highwaymen whose crimes were
condoned or even approved in the hope that one day
the despot would be taken and an end put to his
misrule.
It may appear strange that our attention is directed
to these vulgar incidents, as they may be called, which
were taking place in and about Shechem. Why has the
historian not chosen to tell us of other regions where
some fear of God survived and guided the lives of men,
THE BOOK OF JUDGES.
instead of giving in detail the intrigues and treacheries
of Abimelech and his rebellious subjects ? Would we
not much rather hear of the sanctuary and the worship,
of the tribe of Judah and its development, of men and
women who in the obscurity of private life were main-
taining the true faith and serving God in sincerity ? The
answer must be partly that the contents of the history
are determined by the traditions which survived when
it was compiled. Doings like these at Shechem keep
their place in the memory of men not because they are
important but because they impress themselves on
popular feeling. This was the beginning of the ex-
periments which finally in Samuel's time issued in the
kingship of Saul, and although Abimelech was, properly
speaking, not a Hebrew and certainly was no wor-
shipper of Jehovah, yet the fact that he was king for
a time gave importance to everything about him.
Hence we have the full account of his rise and fall.
And yet the narrative before us has its value from
the religious point of view. It shows the disastrous
result of that coalition with idolaters into which the
Hebrews about Shec.iem entered, it illustrates the
danger of co-partnery with the worldly on worldly terms.
The confederacy of which Shechem was the centre
is a type of many in which people who should be
guided always by religion bind themselves for business
or political ends with those who have no fear of God
before their eyes. Constantly it happens in such
cases that the interests of the commercial enterprise
or of the party are considered before the law of righ-
teousness. The business affair must be made to
succeed at all hazards. Christian people as partners
of companies are committed to schemes which imply
Sabbath work, sharp practices in buying and selling,
viii. 29-ix. 57.] ABIMELECII AND JOTHAM. 221
hollow promises in prospectuses and advertisements,
grinding of the faces of the poor, miserable squabbles
about wages that should never occur. In politics the like
is frequently seen. Things are done against the true
instincts of many members of a party ; but they, for
the sake of the party, must be silent or even take their
places on platforms and write in periodicals defending
what in their souls and consciences they know to be
wrong. The modern Baal-Berith is a tyrannical god,
ruins the morals of many a worshipper and destroys
the peace of many a circle. Perhaps Christian people
will by-and-by become careful in regard to the schemes
they join and the zeal with which they fling themselves
into party strife. It is high time they did. Even
distinguished and pious leaders are unsafe guides when
popular cries have to be gratified ; and if the principles
of Christianity are set aside by a government every
Christian church and every Christian voic.e should
protest, come of parties what may. Or rather, the
party of Christ, which is always in the van, ought to
have our complete allegiance. Conservatism is some-
times right. Liberalism is sometimes right. But to
bow down to any Baal of the League is a shameful
thing for a professed servant of the King of kings.
Against Abimelech the adventurer there arose another
of the same stamp, Gaal son of Ebed, that is the
Abhorred, son of a slave. In him the men of Shechem
put their confidence such as it was. At the festival
of vintage there was a demonstration of a truly bar-
barous sort. High carousal was held in the temple
of Baal. There were loud curses of Abimelech and
Gaal made a speech. His argument was that this
Abimelech, though his mother belonged to Shechem,
was yet also the son of Baal's adversary, far too much
THE BOOK OF JUDGES.
of a Hebrew to govern Canaanites and good servants
of Baal. Shechemites should have a true Shechemite
to rule them. Would to Baal, he cried, this people
were under my hand, then would I remove Abimelech.
His speech, no doubt, was received with great applause,
and there and then he challenged the absent king.
Zebul, prefect of the city, who was present, heard all
this with anger. He was of Abimelech's party still and
immediately informed his chief, who lost no time in
marching on Shechem to suppress the revolt. Accord-
ing to a common plan of warfare he divided his troops
into four companies and in the early morning these
crept towards the city, one by a track across the
mountains, another down the valley from the west,
the third by way of the Diviners' Oak, the fourth
perhaps marching from the plain of Mamre by way of
Jacob's well. The first engagement drove the Shechem-
ites into their city, and on the following day the place
was taken, sacked and destroyed. Some distance from
Shechem, probably up the valley to the west, stood a
tower or sanctuary of Baal around which a consider-
able village had gathered. The people there, seeing
the fate of the lower town, betook themselves to the
tower and shut themselves up within it. But Abimelech
ordered his men to provide themselves with branches
of trees, which were piled against the door of the
temple and set on fire, and all within were smothered
or burned to the number of a thousand.
At Thebez, another of the confederate cities, the
pretender met his death. In the siege of the tower
which stood within the walls, of Thebez the horrible
expedient of burning was again attempted. Abimelech
directing the operations had pressed close to the door
when a woman cast an upper millstone from the
viii.29-ix. 57-] ADIMELECII AND JOTHAM. 223
parapet with so true an aim as to break his skull. So
ended the first experiment in the direction of monarchy ;
so also God requited the wickedness of Abimelech.
One turns from these scenes of bloodshed and cruelty
with loathing. Yet they show what human nature
is, and how human history would shape itself apart
from the faith and obedience of God. We are met by
obvious warnings; but so often does the evidence of
divine judgment seem to fail, so often do the wicked
prosper that it is from another source than observation
of the order of things in this world we must obtain the
necessary impulse to higher life. It is only as we wait
on the guidance and obey the impulses of the Spirit
of God that we shall move towards the justice and
brotherhood of a better age. And those who have
received the light and found the will of the Spirit must
not slacken their efforts on behalf of religion. Gideon
did good service in his day, yet failing in faithfulness
he left the nation scarcely more earnest, his own family
scarcely instructed. Let us not think that religion can
take care of itself. Heavenly justice and truth are
committed to us. The Christ-life generous, pure,
holy must be commended by us if it is to rule the
world. The persuasion that mankind is to be saved
in and by the earthly survives, and against that most
obstinate of all delusions we are to stand in constant
resolute protest, counting every needful sacrifice our
simple duty, our highest glory. The task of the faith-
ful is ho easier to-day than it was a thousand years
ago. Men and women can be treacherous still with
heathen cruelty and falseness ; they can be vile still
with heathen vileness, though wearing the air of the
highest civilization. If ever the people of God had
a work to do in the world they have it now.
XVI.
CI LEAD AND ITS CHIEF,
Judges x. i — xi. ii.
THE scene of the history shifts now to the east of
Jordan, and we learn first of the influence which
the region called Gilead was coming to have in Hebrew
development from the brief notice of a chief named Jair
who held the position of judge for twenty-two years.
Tola, a man of Issachar, succeeded Abimelech, and
Jair followed Tola. In the Book of Numbers we are
informed that the children of Machir son of Manasseh
went to Gilead and took it and dispossessed the
Amorites which were therein ; and Moses gave Gilead
unto Machir the son of Manasseh. It is added that
Jair the son or descendant of Manasseh went and took
the towns of Gilead and called them Havvoth-jair ;
and in this statement the Book of Numbers anticipates
the history of the judges.
Gilead is described by modern travellers as one of
the most varied districts of Palestine. The region is
mountainous and its peaks rise to three and even four
thousand feet above the trough of the Jordan. The
southern part is beautiful and fertile, watered by the
Jabbok and other streams that flow westward from
the hills. " The valleys green with corn, the streams
fringed with oleander, the magnificent screens of yellow-
X. i-xi. II.] GILEAD AND ITS CHIEF. 225
green and russet foliage which cover the steep slopes
present a scene of quiet beauty, of chequered light and
shade of uneastern aspect which makes Mount Gilead
a veritable land of promise." " No one," says another
writer, " can fairly judge of Israel's heritage who has
not seen the exuberance of Gilead as well as the hard
rocks of Judaea which only yield iheir abundance to
reward constant toil and care," In Gilead the rivers
flow in summer as well as in winter, and they are filled
with fishes and fresh-water shells. While in Western
Palestine the soil is insufficient now to support a large
population, beyond Jordan improved cultivation alone
is needed to make the whole district a garden.
To the north and east of Gilead lie Bashan and that
extraordinary volcanic region called the Argob or the
Lejah where the Havvoth-jair or towns of Jair were
situated. The traveller who approaches this singular
district from the north sees it rising abruptly from the
plain, the edge of it like a rampart about twenty feet
high. It is of a rude oval shape, some twenty miles
long from north to south, and fifteen in breadth, and
is simply a mass of dark jagged rocks, with clefts
between in which were built not a few cities and
villages. The whole of this Argob or Stony Land,
Jephthah's land of Tob, is a natural fortification, a
sanctuary open only to those who have the secret of
the perilous paths that wind along savage cliff and
deep defile. One who established himself here might
soon acquire the fame and authority of a chief, and
Jair, acknowledged by the Manassites as their judge,
extended his power and influence among the Gadites
and Reubenites farther south.
But plenty of corn and wine and oil and the advan-
tage of a natural fortress which might have been held
15
■226 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.
against any foe did not avail the Hebrews when they
were corrupted by idolatry. In the land of Gilead and
Bashan they became a hardy and vigorous race, and
yet when they gave themselves up to the influence
of the Syrians, Sidonians, Ammonites and Moabites,
forsaking the Lord and serving the gods of these
peoples, disaster overtook them. The Ammonites were
ever on the watch, and now, stronger than for centuries
in consequence of the defeat of Midian and Amalek by
Gideon, they fell on the Hebrews of the east, subdued
them and even crossed Jordan and fought with the
southern tribes so that Israel was sore distressed.
We have found reason to suppose that during the
many turmoils of the north the tribes of Judah and
Simeon and to some extent Ephraim were pleased to
dwell secure in their own domains, giving little help
to their kinsfolk. Deborah and Barak got no troops
from the south, and it was with a grudge Ephrann
joined in the pursuit of Midian. Now the time has
come for the harvest of selfish content. Supposing
the people of Judah to have been specially engaged
with religion and the arranging of worship — that did
rot justify their neglect of the political troubles of the
north. It w^as a poor religion then, as it is a poor
religion now, that could exist apart from national well-
being and patriotic duty. Brotherhood must be realised
in the nation as well as in the church, and piety must
fulfil itself through patriotism as well as in other ways.
No doubt the duties we owe to each other and to
the nation of which we form a part are imposed by
natural conditions which have arisen in the course of
history, and some may think that the natural should
give way to the spiritual. They may see the interests
of a kingdom of this world as actually opposed to
x.i-xi. II.] GILEAD AND ITS CHIEF. 227
the interests of the kingdom of God, The apostles of
Christ, however, did not set the human and divine in
contrast, as if God in His providence had nothing to
do with the making of a nation. " The powers that
be are ordained of God," says St. Paul in writing to
the Romans; and again in his First Epistle to Timothy,
" I exhort that supplications, prayers, intercessions,
thanksgivings be made for all men : for kings and all
that are in high place, that we may lead a tranquil and
quiet life in all godliness and gravity." To the same
eflect St. Peter says, " Be subject to e"iry ordinance
of man for the Lord's sake." Natural and secular
enough were the authorities to which submission was
thus enjoined. The policy of Rome was of the earth
earthy. The wars it waged, the intrigues that went
on for power savoured of the most carnal ambition.
Yet as members of the commonwealth Christians were
to submit to the Roman magistrates and intercede
with God on their behalf, observing closely and intelli-
gently all that went on, taking due part in affairs. No
room was to be given for the notion that the Christian
society meant a new political centre. In our own times
there is a duty which many never understand, or which
they easily imagine is being fulfilled for them. Let
religious people be assured that generous and intelligent
patriotism is demanded of them and attention to the
political business of the time. Those who are careless
will find, as did the people of Judah, that in neglecting
the purity of government and turning a deaf ear to
cries for justice, they are exposing their country to
disaster and their religion to reproach.
We are told that the Israelites of Gilead worshipped
the gods of the Phoenicians and Syrians, of the Moabites
and of the Ammonites. Whatever religious rites took
228 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.
their fancy they were ready to adopt. This will be to
their credit in some quarters as a mark of openness of
mind, inte'ligence and taste. They were not bigoted ;
other men's ways in religion and civilization were not
rejected as beneath their regard. The argument is too
familiar to be traced more fully. Briefly it may be
said that if catholicity could save a race Israel should
rarely have been in trouble, and certainly not at this
time. One name by which the Hebrews knew God
was El or Elohim. When they found among the gods
of the Sidonians one called El, the careless-minded
supposed that there could be no harm in joining in
his worship. Then came the notion that the other
divinities of the Phoenician Pantheon, such as Melcarth,
Dagon, Derketo, might be adored as well. Very likely
they found zeal and excitement in the alien religious
gatherings which their own had lost. So they slipped
into practical heathenism.
And the process goes on among ourselves. Through
the principles that culture means artistic freedom and
that worship is a form of art we arrive at taste or
liking as the chief test. Intensity of feeling is craved
and religion must satisfy that or b2 despised. It is the
very error that led Hebrews to the feasts of Astarte
and Adonis, and whither it tends we can see in the old
history. Turning from the strong earnest gospel which
grasps intellect and will to shows and ceremonies that
please the eye, or even to music refined and devotional
that stirs and thrills the feelings, we decline from the
reality of religion. Moreover a serious danger threatens
us in the far too common teaching which makes little of
truth everything of charity. Christ was most charitable,
but it is through the knowledge and practice of truth
He offers freedom. He is our King by His witness-
X. i-xi. fi.l GILEAD AND ITS CHIEF. 229
bearing not to charity but to truth. Those who are
anxious to keep us from bigotry and tell us that meek-
ness, gentleness and love are more than doctrine
mislead the mind of the age. Truth in regard to God
and His covenant is the only foundation on which life
can be securely built, and without right thinking there
cannot be right living. A man may be amiable, humble,
patient and kind though he has no doctrinal belief
and his religion is of the purely emotional sort ; but it
is the truth believed by previous generations, fought
and suffered for by stronger men, not his own gratifi-
cation of taste that keeps him in the right way. And
when the influence of that truth decays there will
remain no anchorage, neither compass nor chart for the
voyage. He will be like a wave of the sea driven of
the wind and tossed.
Again, the religious so far as they have wisdom and
strength are required to be pioneers, which .they can
never be in following fancy or taste. Here nothing but
strenuous thought, patient faithful obedience can avail.
Hebrew history is the story of a pioneer people and
every lapse from fidelity was serious, the future of
humanity being at stake. Each Christian society and
believer has work of the same kind not less important,
and failures due to intellectual sloth and moral levity
are as dishonourable as they are hurtful to the human
race. Some of our heretics now are more serious than
Christians, and they give thought and will more
earnestly to the opinions they try to propagate. While
the professed servants of Christ, who should be march-
ing in the van, are amusing themselves with the
accessories of religion, the resolute socialist or nihilist
reasoning and speaking with the heat of conviction
leads the masses where he will.
230 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.
The Ammonite oppression made the Hebrews feel
keenly the uselessness of heathenism. Baal and Mel-
carth had been thought of as real divinities, exercising
power in some region or other of earth or heaven,
and Israel's had been an easy backsliding. Idolatry
did not appear as darkness to people who had never
been fully in the light. But when trouble came and
help was sorely needed they began to see that the
Baalim were nothing. What could these idols do for
men oppressed and at their wits' end ? Religion was of
no avail unless it brought an assurance of One Whose
strong hand could reach from land to land, Whose
grace and favour could revive sad and troubled souls.
Heathenism was found utterly barren, and Israel
turned to Jehovah the God of its fathers. " We have
sinned against Thee even because we have forsaken
our God and have served the Baalim."
Those who now fall away from faith are in worse
case by far than Israel. They have no thought of
a real power that can befriend them. It is to mere
abstractions they have given the divine name. In sin
and sorrow aUke they remain with ideas only, with
bare terms of speculation in which there is no life, no
strength, no hope for the moral nature. They are
men and have to live ; but with the living God they
have entirely broken. In trouble they can only call on
the Abyss or the Immensities, and there is no way
of repentance though they seek it carefully with tears.
At heart therefore they are pessimists without resource.
Sadness deep and deadly ever waits upon such unbelief,
and our religion to-day suffers the gloom because it is
infected by the uncertainties and denials of an agnosti-
cism at once positive and confused.
Another paganism, that of gathering and doing in
X. 1-xi. II.] GILEAD AND ITS CHIEF. 231
the world-sphere, is constantly beside us, drawing
multitudes from fidelity to Christ as Baal-worship
drew Israel from Jehovah, and it is equally barren in
the sharp exptriences of humanity. Earthly things
venerated in the ardour of business and the pursuit of
social distinction appear as impressive realities only
while the soul sleeps. Let it be aroused by some
overturn of the usual, one of those floods that sweep
suddenly down on the cities which fill the valley of life,
and there is a quick pathetic confession of the truth.
The soul needs help now, and its help must come from
the Eternal Spirit. We must have done with mere
saying of prayers and begin to pray. We must find
access if access is to be had to the secret place of the
Most High on Whose mercy we depend to redeem us
from bondage and fear. Sad therefore is it for tho.se
who having never learned to seek the throne of divine
succour are swept by the wild deluge from their temples
and their gods. It is a cry of despair they raise amid
the swelling torrent. You who now by the sacred
oracles and the mediation of Christ can come into the
fellowship of eternal life be earnest and eager in the
cultivation of your faith. The true religion of God
which avails the soul in its extremity is not to be had
in a moment, when suddenly its help is needed. That
confidence which has been established in the mind by
serious thought, by the habit of prayer and reliance
on divine wisdom can alone bring help when the
foundations of the earthly are destroyed.
To Israel troubled and contrite came as on previous
occasions a prophetic message ; and it was spoken by
one of those incisive ironic preachers who were born
from time to time among this strangely heathen,
Strangely believing people. It is in terms of earnest
232 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.
remonstrance he speaks, at first almost going the
length of declaring that there is no hope for the
rebellious and ungrateful tribes. They found it an
easy thing to turn from their Divine King to the gods
they chose to worship. Now they perhaps expect as
easy a recovery of His favour. But healing must begin
with deeper wounding, and salvation with much keener
anxiety. This prophet knows the need for utter seri-
ousness of soul. As he loves and yearns over his
country-folk he must so deal with them ; it is God's
way, the only way to save. Most irrationally, against
all sound principles of judgment they had abandoned
the Living One, the Eternal to worship hideous idols
like Moloch and Dagon. It was wicked because it was
wilfully stupid and perverse. And Jehovah says, "I
will save you no more. Go and cry unto the gods
which ye have chosen ; let them save you in the day
of your distress." The rebuke is stinging. The preacher
makes the people feel the wretched insufficiency of
their hope in the false, and the great strong pressure
upon them of the Almighty, Whom, even in neglect,
they cannot escape. We are pointed forward to the
terrible pathos of Jeremiah : — " Who shall have pity
upon thee, O Jerusalem ? or who shall bemoan thee ?
or who shall turn aside to ask of thy welfare ? Thou
hast rejected me, saith the Lord, thou art gone back-
ward : therefore have I stretched out my hand against
thee, and destroyed thee : I am weary with repenting."
And notice to what state of mind the Hebrews were
brought. Renewing their confession they said, " Do
thou unto us whatsoever seemeth good unto Thee."
They would be content to suffer now at the hand of
God whatever He chose to inflict on them. They them-
selves would have exacted heavy tribute of a subject
X. i-xi. !i.] GILEAD AND ITS CHIEF. 233
people that had rebelled and came suing for pardon.
Perhaps they would have slain every tenth man.
Jehovah might appoint retribution of the same kind ;
He might afflict them with pestilence ; He might require
them to offer a multitude of sacrifices. Men who traffic
with idolatry and adopt gross notions of revengeful
gods are certain to carry back with them when they
return to the better faith many of the false ideas they
have gathered. And it is just possible that a demand
for human sacrifices was at this time attributed to God,
the general feeling that they might be necessary con-
necting itself with Jephthah's vow.
It is idle to suppose that Israelites who persistently
lapsed into paganism could at any time, because they
repented, find the spiritual thoughts they had lost.
True those thoughts were at the heart of the national
life, there always even when least felt. But thousands
of Hebrews even in a generation of reviving faith died
with but a faint and shadowy personal understanding
of Jehovah. Everything in the Book of Judges goes to
show that the mass of the people were nearer the level
of their neighbours the Moabites and Ammonites than
the piety of the Psalms. A remarkable ebb and flow
are observable in the history of the race. Look at
some facts and there seems to be decline. Samson is
below Gideon, and Gideon below Deborah ; no man of
leading until Isaiah can be named with Moses. Yet
ever and anon there are prophetic calls and voices out
of a spiritual region into which the people as a whole
do not enter, voices to which they listen only when dis-
tressed and overborne. Worldliness increases, for the
world opens to the Hebrew ; but it often disappoints,
and still there are some to whom the heavenly secret
is told. The race as a whole is not becoming more
234 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.
devout and holy, but the few are gaining a clearer
vision as one experience after another is recorded.
The antithesis is the same we see in the Christian
centuries. Is the multitude more pious now than in the
age when a king had to do penance for rash words
spoken against an ecclesiastic ? Are the churches less
worldly than they were a hundred years ago ? Scarcely
may we affirm it. Yet there never was an age so rich
as ours in the finest spirituality, the noblest Christian
thought. Our van presses up to the Simplon height
and is in constant touch with those who follow; but
the rear is still chaffering and idling in the streets of
Milan. It is in truth always by the fidelity of the
remnant that humanity is, saved for God.
We cannot say that when Israel repented it was in
the love of holiness so much as in the desire for liberty.
The ways of the heathen were followed readily, but the
supremacy of the heathen was ever abominable to the
vigorous Israelite. By this national spirit however
God could find the tribes, and a special feature of the
deliverance from Ammon is marked where we read :
" The people, the princes of Gilead said one to the
other, What man is he that will begin to fight against
the children of Ammon ? He shall be head over all
the inhabitants of Gilead." Looking around for the fit
leader they found Jephthah and agreed to invite him.
Now this shows distinct progress in the growth of
the nation. There is, if nothing more, a growth in
practical power. Abimelech had thrust himself upon
the men of Shechem. Jephthah is chosen apart from
any ambition of his own. The movement which made
him judge arose out of the consciousness of the
Gileadites that they could act for themselves and were
bound to act for themselves. Providence indicated the
X. i-xi.il,] GILEAD AND ITS CHIEF. 235
chief, but they had to be instruments of providence in
making him chief. The vigour and robust intelligence
of the men of Eastern Palestine come out here. They
lead in the direction of true national life. While on
the west of Jordan there is a fatalistic disposition, these
men move. Gilead, the separated country, with the
still ruder Bashan behind it and the Argob a resort of
outlaws, is beneath some other regions in manners and
in thought, but ahead of them in point of energy. We
need not look for refinement, but we shall see power;
and the chosen leader while he is something of the
barbarian will be a man to leave his mark on history.
At the start we are not prepossessed in favour of
Jephthah. There is some confusion in the narrative
which has led to the supposition that he was a foundling
of the clan. But taking Gilead as the actual name of
his father, he appears as the son of a harlot, brought up
in the paternal home and banished from it when there
were legitimate sons able to contend with him. We
get thus a brief glance at a certain rough standard
of morals and see that even polygamy made sharp
exclusions. Jephthah, cast out, betakes himself to the
land of Tob and getting about him a band of vain
fellows or freebooters becomes the Robin Hood or
Rob Roy of his time. There are natural suspicions
of a man who takes to a life of this kind, and yet the
progress of events shows that though Jephthah was a
sort of outlaw his character as well as his courage must
have commended him. He and his men might occa-
sionally seize for their own use the cattle and corn of
Israelites when they were hard pressed for food. But
it was generally against the Ammonites and other
enemies their raids were directed, and the modern
instances already cited show that no little magnanimity
236 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.
and even patriotism may go along with a life of lawless
adventure. If this robber chief, as some might call
him, now and again levied contributions from a wealthy
flock-master, the poorer Hebrews were no doubt
indebted to him for timely help when bands of
Ammonites swept through the land. Something of
this we must read into the narrative otherwise the
elders of Gilead would not so unanimously and urgently
have invited him to become their head.
Jephthah v^as not at first disposed to believe in the
good faith of those who gave him the invitation.
Among the heads of households who came he saw his
own brothers who had driven him to the hills. He
must have more than suspected that they only wished
to make use of him in their emergency and, the fighting
over, would set him aside. He therefore required an
oath of the men that they would really accept him as
chief and obey him. That given he assumed the
command.
And here the religious character of the man begins
to appear. At Mizpah on the verge of the wilderness
where the Israelites, driven northward by the victories
of Ammon, had their camp there stood an ancient cairn
or heap of stones which preserved the tradition of a
sacred covenant and still retained the savour of sanctity.
There it was that Jacob fleeing from Padan-aram on
his way back to Canaan was overtaken by Laban, and
there raising the Cairn of Witness they swore in the
sight of Jehovah to be faithful to each other. The
belief still lingered that the old monument Was a place
of meeting between man and God. To it Jephthah
repaired at this new point in his life. No more an
adventurer, no more an outlaw, but the chosen leader
of eastern Israel, "he spake air his words before
X. i-xi. n.] GILEAD AND ITS CHIEF. 237
Jehovah in Mizpah." He had his life to review there,
and that could not be done without serious thought.
He had a new and strenuous future opened to him.
Jephthah the outcast, the unnamed, was to be leader
in a tremendous national struggle. The bold Gileadite
feels the burden of the task. He has to question him-
self, to think of Jehovah. Hitherto he has been doing
his own business and to that he has felt quite equal ;
now with large responsibility comes a sense of need.
For a fight with society he has been strong enough ;
but can he be sure of himself as God's man, fighting
against Ammon? Not a few words but many would
he have to utter as on the hill-top in the silence he
lifted up his soul to God and girt himself in holy
resolution as a father and a Hebrew to do his duty
in the day of battle.
Thus we pass from doubt of Jephthah to the hope
that the banished man, the free-booter will yet prove
to be an Israelite indeed, of sterling character, whose
religion, very rude perhaps, has a deep strain of reality
and power. Jephthah at the cairn of Mizpah lifting
up his hands in solemn invocation of the God of Jacob
reminds us that there are great traditions of the past
of our nation and of our most holy faith to which we
are bound to be true, that there is a God our witness
and our judge in Whose strength alone we can live and
do nobly. For the service of humanity and the main-
tenance of faith we need to be in close touch with the
brave and good of other days and in the story of their
lives find quickening for our own. Along the same
line and succession we are to bear our testimony, and
no link of connection with the Divine Power is to be
missed which the history of the men of faith supplies.
Yet as our personal Helper especially we must know
238 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.
God. Hearing His call to ourselves we must lift the
standard and go forth to the battle of life. Who can
serve his family and friends, who can advance the
well-being of the world, unless he has entered into
that covenant with the Living God which raises mortal
insufficiency to power and makes weak and ignorant
men instruments of a divine redemption ?
XVII.
THE TERRIBLE VOW.
Judges xi. 12-40.
AT every stage of their history the Hebrews were
capable of producing men of passionate religious-
ness. And this appears as a distinction of the group
of nations to which they belong. The Arab of the
present time has the same quality. He can be excited
to a holy war in which thousands perish. With the
battle-cry of Allah and his Prophet he forgets fear.
He presents a different mingling of character from the
Saxon, — turbulence and reverence, sometimes apart,
then blending — magnanimity and a tremendous want
of magnanimity ; he is fierce and generous, now
rising to vivid faith, then breaking into earthly passion.
We have seen the type in Deborah. David is the same
and Elijah ; and Jephthah is the Gileadite, the border
Arab. In each of these there is quick leaping at life
and beneath hot impulse a strain of brooding thought
with moments of intense inward trouble. As we follow
the history we must remember the kind of man it
presents to us. There is humanity as it is in every
race, daring in effort, tender in affection, struggling
with ignorance yet thoughtful of God and duty, triumph-
ing here, defeated there. And there is the Syrian with
the heat of the sun in his blood and the shadow of
240 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.
Moloch on his heart, a son of the rude hills and of
barbaric times, yet with a dignity, a sense of justice,
a keen upward look, the Israelite never lost in the
outlaw.
So soon as Jephthah begins to act for his people,
marks of a strong character are seen. He is no ordinary
leader, not the mere fighter the elders of Gilead may
have taken him to be. His first act is to send messengers
to the king of Ammon saying, What hast thou to do
with me that thou art come to fight against my land ?
He is a chief who desires to avert bloodshed — a new
figure in the history.
Natural in those times was the appeal to arms, so
natural, so customary that we must not lightly pass
this trait in the character of the Gileadite judge. If
we compare his policy with that of Gideon or Barak
we see of course that he had different circumstances
to deal with. Between Jordan and the Mediterranean
the Israelites required the whole of the land in order
to establish a free nationality. There was no room
for Canaanite or Midianite rule side by side with their
own. The dominance of Israel had to be complete
and undisturbed. Hence there was no alternative
to war when Jabin or Zebah and Zalmunna attacked
the tribes. Might had to be invoked on behalf of
right. On the other side Jordan the position was
different. Away towards the desert behind the moun-
tains of Bashan the Ammonites might find pasture for
their flocks, and Moab had its territory on the slopes
of the lower Jordan and the Dead Sea. It was not
necessary to crush A.mmon in order to give Manasseh,
Gad and Reuben space enough and to spare. Yet
there was a rare quality of judgment shown by the
man who although called to lead in war began with
xi. 12-40.] THE TERRIBLE VOW. 241
negotiation and aimed at a peaceful settlement. No
doubt there was danger that the Ammonites might
unite with Midian or Moab against Israel. But Jeph-
thah hazards such a coalition. He knows the bitterness
kindled by strife. He desires that Ammon, a kindred
people, shall be won over to friendliness with Israel,
henceforth to be an ally instead of a foe.
Now in one aspect this may appear an error in
policy, and the Hebrew chief will seem especially to
blame when he makes the admission that the Ammonites
hold their land from Chemosh their god. Jephthah
has no sense of Israel's mission to the world, no wish
to convert Ammon to a higher faith, nor does Jehovah
appear to him as sole King, sole object of human
worship. Yet, on the other hand, if the Hebrews
were to fight idolatry everywhere it is plain their
swords would never have been sheathed. Phcenicia
was close beside ; Aram was not far away ; northward
•the Hittites maintained their elaborate ritual. A line
had to be drawn somewhere and, on the whole, we
cannot but regard Jephthah as an enlightened and
humane chief who wished to stir against his people
and his God no hostility that could possibly be avoided.
Why should not Israel conquer Ammon by justice and
magnanimity, by showing the higher principles which
the true religion taught ? He began at all events by
endeavouring to stay the quarrel, and the attempt was
wise.
The king of Ammon refused Jephthah's offer to
negotiate. He claimed the land bounded by the Arnon,
the'Jabbok and Jordan as his own and demanded
that it should be peaceably given up to him. In reply
Jephthah denied the claim. It was the Amorites, he
said, who originally held that part of Syria. Sihon
16
242 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.
who was defeated in the time of Moses was not an
Ammonite king, but chief of the Amorites. Israel had
by conquest obtained the district in dispute, and Ammon
must give place.
The full account given of these messages sent by
Jephthah shows a strong desire on the part of the
narrator to vindicate Israel from any charge of un-
necessary warfare. And it is very important that this
should be understood, for the inspiration of the historian
is involved. We know of nations that in sheer lust
of conquest have attacked tribes whose land they did
not need, and we have read histories in which wars
unprovoked and cruel have been glorified. In after
times the Hebrew kings brought trouble and disaster
on themselves by their ambition. It would have been
well if David and Solomon had followed a policy like
Jephthah's rather than attempted to rival Assyria and
Egypt. We see an error rather than a cause of boast-
ing when David put garrisons in Syria of Damascus :
strife was thereby provoked which issued in many a
sanguinary war. The Hebrews should never have
earned the character of an aggressive and ambitious
people that required to be kept in check by the king-
doms around. To this nation, a worldly nation on the
whole, was committed a spiritual inheritance, a spiritual
task. Is it asked why being worldly the Hebrews
ought to have fulfilled a spiritual calling ? The answer
is that their best men understood and declared the
Divine will, and they should have listened to their best
men. Their fatal mistake was, as Christ showed, to
deride their prophets, to crush and kill the messen-
gers of God. And many other nations likewise have
missed their true vocation being deluded by dreams
of vast empire and earthly glory. To combat idolatry
xi. I2-40.] THE TERRIBLE VOW. 243
was indeed the business of Israel and especially to
drive back the heathenism that would have overwhelmed
its faith ; and often this had to be done with an earthly
sword because liberty no less than faith was at stake.
But a policy of aggression was never the duty of this
people.
The temperate messages of the Hebrew chief to the
king of Ammon proved to be of no avail : war alone
was to settle the rival claims. And this once clear
Jephthah lost no time in preparing for battle. As one
who felt that without God no man can do anything, he
sought assurance of divine aid ; and we have now to
consider the vow which he made, ever interesting on
account of the moral problem it involves and the very
pathetic circumstances which accompanied its fulfilment.
The terms of the solemn engagement under which
Jephthah came were these : — " If Thou wilt indeed
deliver the children of Ammon into mine hand, then
it shall be that whatsoever" (Septuagmt *and Vul-
gate, " whosoever ") " cometh forth of the doors of my
house to meet me when I return in peace from the
children of Ammon shall be the Lord's, and I will
offer it (otherwise, hmi) for a burnt offering." And
here two questions arise ; the first, what he could have
meant by the premise ; the second, whether we can
justify him in making it. As to the first, the explicit
designation to God of whatever came forth of the doors
of his house points unmistakably to a human life as
the devoted thing. It would have been idle in an
emergency like that in which Jephthah found himself,
v;ith a hazardous conflict impending that was to decide
the fate of the eastern tribes at least, to anticipate the
appearance of an anim.al, bullock, goat or sheep, and
promise that in sacrifice. The form of words used in
244 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.
ihe vow cannot be held to refer to an animal. The
chief is thinking of some one who will express joy at
his success and greet him as a victor. In the fulness
of his heart he leaps to a wild savage mark of devotion.
It is a crisis alike for him and for the people and what
can he do to secure the favour and help of Jehovah ?
Too ready from his acquaintance with heathen sacri-
fices and ideas to believe that the God of Israel will
be pleased with the kind of offerings by which the
gods of Sidon and Aram were honoured, feeling himself
as the chief of the Hebrews bound to make some great
and unusual sacrifice, he does not promise that the
captives taken in war shall be devoted to Jehovah, but
some one of his own people is to be the victim. The
dedication shall be all the more impressive that the life
given up is one of which he himself shall feel the loss.
A conqueror returning from war would, in ordinary
circumstances, have loaded with gifts the first member
of his household who came forth to welcome him.
Jephthah vows to give that very person to God. The
insufficient religious intelligence of the man, whose life
had been far removed from elevating influences, this
once perceived — and we cannot escape from the facts
of the case — the vow is parallel to others of which
ancient history tells. Jephthah expects some servant,
some favourite slave to be the first. There is a touch
of barbaric grandeur and at the same time of Roman
sternness in his vow. As a chief he has the lives of
all his household entirely at his disposal. To sacrifice
one will be hard, for he is a humane man ; but he
expects that the offering will be all the more acceptable
to the Most High. Such are the ideas moral and
rehgious from which his vow springs.
Now we should like to find more knowledge and a
xi.i2-40.] THE TERRIBLE VOW. 245
higher vision in a leader of Israel. We would fain
escape from the conclusion that a Hebrew could be so
ignorant of the divine character as Jephthah appears ;
and moved by such feelings many have taken a very
different view of the matter. The Gileadite has, for
example, been represented as fully aware of the Mosaic
regulations concerning sacrifice and the method for
redeeming the life of a firstborn child ; that is to say
he is supposed to have made his vow under cover of
the Levitical provision by which in case his daughter
should first meet him he would escape the necessity
of sacrificing her. The rule in question could not,
however, be stretched to a case like this. But, suppos-
ing it could, is it likely that a man whose whole soul
had gone out in a vow of life and death to God would
reserve such a door of escape ? In that case the story
would lose its terror indeed, but also its power : human
history would be the poorer by one of the great tragic
experiences wild and supernatural that show man
struggling with thoughts above himself.
What did the Gileadite know ? What ought he to
have known ? We see in his vow a fatalistic strain ;
he leaves it to chance or fate to determine who shall
meet him. There is also an assumption of the right
to take into his own hands the disposal of a human
life ; and this, though most confidently claimed, was
entirely a factitious right. It is one which mankind
has ceased to allow. Further the purpose of offering a
human being in sacrifice is unspeakably horrible to us.
But how differently these things must have appeared in
the dim light which alone guided this man of lawless life
in his attempt to make sure of God and honour Him !
We have but to consider things that are done at the
present day in the name of religion, the lifelong
246 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.
*' devotion " of young women in a nunnery, for example,
and all the ceremonies which accompany that outrage
on the divine order to see that centuries of Christianity
have not yet put an end to practices which under colour
of piety are barbaric and revolting. In the modern
case a nun secluded from the world, dead to the world,
is considered to be an offering to God. The old
conception of sacrifice was that the life must pass out
of the world by way of death in order to become God's.
Or again, when the priest describing the devotion of
his body says : " The essential, the sacerdotal purpose
to which it should be used is to die. Such death must
be begun in chastity, continued in mortification, con-
summated in that actual death which is the priest's
final oblation, his last sacrifice," * — the same super-
stition appears in a refined and mystical form.
His vow made, the chief went forth to battle leaving
in his home one child only, a daughter beautiful, high-
spirited, the joy of her father's heart. She was a true
Hebrew girl and all her thought was that he, her sire,
should dehver Israel. For this she longed and prayed.
And it was so. The enthusiasm of Jephthah's devotion
to God was caught by his troops and bore them on
irresistibly. Marching from Mizpah in the land of
Bashan they crossed Manasseh, and south from Mizpeh
of Gilead, which was not far from the Jabbok, they
found the Ammonites encamped. The first battle
practically decided the campaign. From Aroer to
iVIinnith, from the Jabbok to the springs of Arnon, the
course of flight and bloodshed extended, until the
invaders were swept from the territory of the tribes.
Then came the triumphant return.
• Henri Perreyve.'
xi. 12-40] THE TERRIBLE VOW. 2an
We imagine the chief as he approached his home
among the hills of Gilead, his eagerness and exultation
mingled with some vague alarm. The vow he has
made cannot but weigh upon his mind now that the
performance of it comes so near. He has had time
to think what it implies. When he uttered the words
that involved a life the issue of war appeared doubtful.
Perhaps the campaign would be long and indecisive.
He might have returned not altogether descredited,
yet not triumphant. But he has succeeded beyond
his expectation. There can be no doubt that the
offering is due to Jehovah. Who then shall appear ?
The secret of his vow is hid in his own breast. To no
man has he revealed his solemn promise ; nor has he
dared in any way to interfere with the course of events.
As he passes up the valley with his attendants there
is a stir in his rude castle. The tidings of his coming
have preceded him and she, that dear girl vvho is the
very apple of his eye, his daughter, his only child,
having already rehearsed her part, goes forth eagerly
to welcome him. She is clad in her gayest dress.
Her eyes are bright with the keenest excitement.
The timbrel her father once gave her, on which she
has often played to delight him, is tuned to a chant of
triumph. She dances as she passes from the gate. Her
father, her father, chief and victor 1
And he ? A sudden horror checks his heart. He
stands arrested, cold as stone, with eyes of strange
dark trouble fixed upon the gay young figure that wel-
comes him to home and rest and fame. She flies to
his arms, but they do not open to her. She looks at
him, for he has never repulsed her — and why now ?
He puts forth his hands as if to thrust away a dread-
ful sight, and what does she hear ? Amid the sobs of
248 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.
a strong man's agony, " Alas, my daughter, thou hast
brought me very low . . . and thou art one of them
that trouble me." To startled ears the truth is slowly
told. She is vowed to the Lord in sacrifice. He can-
not go back. Jehovah who gave the victory now claims
the fulfilment of the oath.
We are dealing with the facts of life. For a time
let us put aside the reflections that are so easy to make
about rash vows and the iniquity of keeping them.
Before this anguish of the loving heart, this awful
issue of a sincere but superstitious devotion we stand
in reverence. It is one of the supreme hours of
humanity. Will the father not seek relief from his
obligation ? Will the daughter not rebel ? Surely a
sacrifice so awful will not be completed. Yet we remem-
ber Abraham and Isaac journeying together to Moriah,
and how with the father's resignation of his great hope
there must have gone the willingness of the son to face
death if that last proof of piety and faith is required.
We look at the father and daughter of a later date and
find the same spirit of submission to what is regarded
as the will of God. Is the thing horrible — too horrible
to be dwelt upon ? Are we inclined to say,
••...' Heaven heads the count of crimes
With that wild oath ? ' She renders answer high,
• Not SQ ; nor once alone, a thousand times
I would be born and die.' "
It has been affirmed that "Jephthah's rash act,
springing from a culpable ignorance of the character
of God, directed by heathen superstition and cruelty
poured an ingredient of extreme bitterness into his cup
of joy and poisoned his whole life." Suffering indeed
there must have been for both the actors in that pitiful
xi. 12-40] THE TERR ism V*i>V7. a^r
tragedy of devotion and ignorance, who knew not the
God to Whom they offered the sacrifice. But it is one
of the marks of rude erring man that he does take upon
himself such burdens of pain in the service of the
invisible Lord. A shallow scepticism entirely misreads
the strange dark deeds often done for religion ; yet
one who has uttered many a foolish thing in the way
of "explaining" piety can at last confess that the
renouncing mortifying spirit is, with all its errors, one
of man's noble and distinguishing qualities. To Jeph-
thah, as to his heroic daughter, religion was another
thing than it is to many, just because of their extraor-
dinary renunciation. Very ignorant they were surel}',
but they were not so ignorant as those who make no
great offering to God, who would not resign a single
pleasure, nor deprive a son or daughter of a single
comfort or delight, for the sake of religion and the
higher life. To what purpose is this waste ? said the
disciples, when the pound of ointment of spikenard very
costly was poured on the head of Jesus and the house
was filled with the odour. To many now it seems
waste to expend thought, time or money upon a
sacred cause, much more to hazard or to give life itself.
We see the evils of enthusiastic self-devotion to the
work of God very clearly ; its power we do not feel.
We are saving life so diligently, many of us, that we
may well fear to lose it irremediably. There is no
strain and therefore no strength, no joy. A weary
pessimism dogs our unfaith.
To Jephthah and his daughter the vow was sacred,
irrevocable. The deliverance of Israel by so signal
and complete a victory left no alternative. It would
have been well if they had known God differently; yet
belter this darkly impressive issue which went to the
THE BOQr^,
^SSuK^OF JUDGES.
making of Hebrew faith and strength than easy unfruitful
evasion of duty. We are shocked by the expenditure
of fine feeUng and heroism in upholding a false idea of
God and obligation to Him ; but are we outraged and
distressed by the constant effort to escape from God
which characterizes our age ? And have we for our
own part come yet to the right idea of self and its rela-
tions ? Our century, beclouded on many points, is
nowhere less informed than in matters of self-sacrifice ;
Christ's doctrine is still uncomprehended. Jephthah was
wrong, for God did not need to be bribed to support
a man who was bent on doing his duty. And many
fail now to perceive that personal development and
service of God are in the same line. Life is made for
generosity not mortification, for giving in glad ministry
not for giving up in hideous sacrifice. It is to be
devoted to God by the free and holy use of body,
mind and soul in the daily tasks which Providence
appoints.
The wailing of Jephthah's daughter rings in our ears
bearing with it the anguish of many a soul tormented
in the name of that which is most sacred, tormented
by mistakes concerning God, the awful theory that He
is pleased with human suffering. The relics of that
hideous Moloch-worship which polluted Jephthah's
faith, not even yet purged away by the Spirit of Christ,
continue and make religion an anxiety and life a kind
of torture. I do not speak of that devotion of thought
and time, eloquence and talent to some worthless cause
which here and there amazes the student of history and
human life, — the passionate ardour, for example, with
which Flora Macdonald gave herself up to the service
of a Stuart. But religion is made to demand sacrifices
compared to which the offering of Jephthah's daughter
THE TERRIBLE VX)W.
was easy. The imagination of women especially, fired
by false representations of the death of Christ in which
there was a clear divine assertion of self, while it is
made to appear as complete suppression of self, bears
many on in a hopeless and essentially immoral endeavour.
Has God given us minds, feelings, right ambitions that
we may crush them ? Does He purify our desires and
aspirations by the fire of His own Spirit and still
require us to crush them ? Are we to find our end
in being nothing, absolutely nothing, devoid of will,
of purpose, of personality ? Is this what Christianity
demands? Then our religion is but refined suicide,
and the God who desires us to annihilate ourselves is
but the Supreme Being of the Buddhists, if those may
be said to have a god who regard the suppression of
individuality as salvation.
Christ was made a sacrifice for us. Yes : He sacrificed
everything except His own eternal life and power ; He
sacrificed ease and favour and immediate success for
the manifestation of God. So He achieved the fulness
of personal might and royalty. And every sacrifice
His religion calls us to make is designed to secure
that enlargement and fulness of spiritual individuality in
the exercise of which we shall truly serve God and our
fellows. Does God require sacrifice ? Yes, unques-
tionably— the sacrifice which every reasonable being
must make in order that the mind, the soul may be
strong and free, sacrifice of the lower for the higher,
sacrifice of pleasure for truth, of comfort for duty, of
the life that is earthly and temporal for the life that is
heavenly and eternal. And the distinction of Chris-
tianity is that it makes this sacrifice supremely reason-
able because it reveals the higher life, the heavenly
hope, the eternal rewards for which the sacrifice is to
252 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.
be made, that it enables us in making it to feel ourselves
united to Christ in a divine work which is to issue in
the redemption of mankind.
There are not a few popularly accepted guides in
religion who fatally misconceive the doctrine of sacrifice.
They take man-made conditions for Divine opportunities
and calls. Their arguments come home not to the
selfish and overbearing, but to the unselfish and long-
suffering members of society, and too often they are
more anxious to praise renunciation — any kind of it,
for any purpose, so it involve acute feeling — than to
magnify truth and insist on righteousness. It is women
chiefly these arguments affect, and the neglect of pure
truth and justice with which women are charged is in
no small degree the result of false moral and religious
teaching. They are told that it is good to renounce and
suffer even when at every step advantage is taken of
their submission and untruth triumphs over generosity.
They are urged to school themselves to humiliation and
loss not because God appoints these but because
human selfishness imposes them. The one clear and
damning objection to the false doctrine of self-suppres-
sion is here : it makes sin. Those who yield where
they should protest, who submit where they should
argue and reprove, make a path for selfishness and
injustice and increase evil instead of lessening it.
They persuade themselves that they are bearing the
cross after Christ ; but what in effect are they doing ?
The missionary amongst ignorant heathen has to bear
to the uttermost as Christ bore. But to give so-called
Christians a pov.er of oppression and exaction is to
turn the principles of religion upside down and hasten
the doom of those for whom the sacrifice is made.
When we meddle with truth and righteousness even in
xi. I2-40.] THE TERRIBLE VOW. 253
the name of piety we simply commit sacrilege, we range
ourselves with the wrong and unreal ; there is no
foundation under our faith and no moral result of our
endurance and self-denial. We are selling Christ not
following Him.
XVIII.
SHIBBOLETHS.
I Judges xii. 1-7.
WHILE Jephthah and his Gileadites were engaged
in the struggle with Ammon jealous watch was
kept over all their movements by the men of Ephraim.
As the head tribe of the house of Joseph occupying
the centre of Palestine Ephraim was suspicious of all
attempts and still more of every success that threatened
its pride and pre-eminence. We have seen Gideon in
the hour of his victory challenged by this watchful
tribe, and now a quarrel is made with Jephthah who
has dared to win a battle without its help. What were
the Gileadites that they should presume to elect a chief
and form an army ? Fugitives from Ephraim who had
gathered in the shaggy forests of Bashan and among
the cliffs of the Argob, mere adventurers in fact, what
right had they to set up as the protectors of Israel ?
The Ephraimites found the position intolerable. The
vigour and confidence of Gilead were insulting. If a
check were not put on the energy of the new leader
might he not cross the Jordan and establish a tyranny
over the whole land ? There was a call to arm.s, and
a large force was soon marching against Jephthah's
camp to demand satisfaction and submission.
The pretext that Jephthah had fought against
xii. 1-7.] SHIBBOLETHS. 255
Ammon without asking the Ephraimites to join him
was shallow enough. The invitation appears to have
been given ; and even without an invitation Ephraim
might well have taken the field. But the savage
threat, "We will burn thine house upon thee with
fire," showed the temper of the leaders in this expedi-
tion* The menace was so violent that the Gileadites
were roused at once and, fresh from their victory over
Ammon, they were not long in humbling the pride of
the great western clan.
One may well ask, Where is Ephraim's fear of God ?
Why has there been no consultation of the priests at
Shiloh by the tribe under whose care the sanctuary
is placed ? The great Jewish commentary affirms that
the priests were to blame, and we cannot but agree.
If religious influences and arguments were not used
to prevent the expedition against Gilead they should
have been used. The servants of the oraoie might
have understood the duty of the tribes to each other
and of the whole nation to God and done their utmost
to avert civil war. Unhappily, however, professed
interpreters of the divine will are too often forward
in urging the claims of a tribe or favouring the arrogance
of a class by which their own position is upheld. As
on the former occasion when Ephraim interfered, so in
this we scarcely go beyond what is probable in suppos-
ing that the priests declared it to be the duty of faithful
Israelites to check the career of the eastern chief and
so prevent his rude and ignorant religion from gaining
dangerous popularity. Bishop Wordsworth has seen
a fanciful resemblance between Jephthah's campaign
against Ammon and the revival under the Wesleys
and Whitefield which as a movement against ungodliness
put to shame the sloth of the Church of England. He
2S6 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.
has remarked on the scorn and disdain — and he might
have used stronger terms — with which the estabhshed
clergy assailed those who apart from them were suc-
cessfully doing the work of God. This was an example
of far more flagrant tribal jealousy than that of Ephraim
and her priests; and have there not been cases of
religious leaders urging retaliation upon enemies or
calling for war in order to punish what was absurdly
deemed an outrage on national honour? With facts
of this kind in view we can easily believe that from
Shiloh no word of peace, but on the other hand words of
encouragement were heard when the chiefs of Ephraim
began to hold councils of war and to gather their men
for the expedition that was to make an end of Jephthah.
Let it be allowed that Ephraim, a strong tribe, the
guardian of the ark of Jehovah, much better instructed
than the Gileadites in the divine law, had a right to
maintain its place. But the security of high position lies
in high purpose and noble service ; and an Ephraim
ambitious of leading should have been forward on every
occasion when the other tribes were in confusion and
trouble. When a political party or a church claims to
be first in regard for righteousness and national well-
being it should not think of its own credit or con-
tinuance in power but of its duty in the war against
injustice and ungodliness. The favour of the great, the
admiration of the multitude should be nothing to either
church or party. To rail at those who are more
generous, more patriotic, more eager in the service of
truth, to profess a fear of some ulterior design against
the constitution or the faith, to turn all the force of
influence and eloquence and even of slander and menace
against the disliked neighbour instead of the real
enemy, this is the nadir of baseness. There are
iii.i-7.] SHIBBOLETHS. 257
Ephraims still, strong tribes in the land, that are
too much exercised in putting down claims, too little
in finding principles of unity and forms of practical
brotherhood. We see in this bit of history an example
of the humiliation that sooner or later falls on the
jealous and the arrogant ; and every age is adding
instances of a like kind.
Civil war, at all times lamentable, appears peculiarly
so when the cause of it lies in haughtiness and distrust.
We have found however that, beneath the surface,
there may have been elements of division and ill-will
serious enough to require this painful remedy. The cam-
paign may have prevented a lasting rupture between
the eastern and western tribes, a separation of the
•stream of Israel's religion and nationality into rival
currents. It may also have arrested a tendency to
ecclesiastical narrowness, which at this early stage
would have done immense harm. It is quite true that
Gilead was rude and uninstructed, as Galilee h*ad the
reputation of being in the time of our Lord. But the
leading tribes or classes of a nation are not entitled
to overbear the less enlightened, nor by attempts at
tyranny to drive them into separation. Jephthah's
victory had the effect of making Ephraim and the other
western tribes understand that Gilead had to be
reckoned with, whether for weal or woe, as an integral
and important part of the body politic. In Scottish
history, the despotic attempt to thrust Episcopacy on
the nation was the cause of a distressing civil war ; a
people who would not fall in with the forms of religion
that were in favour at head-quarters had to fight for
liberty. Despised or esteemed they resolved to keep
r.nd use their rights, and the religion of the world owes
a debt to the Covenanters. Then in our own times,
17
258 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.
lament as we may the varied forms of antagonism to
settled faith and government, that enmity of which
communism and anarchism are the delirium, it would
be simply disastrous to suppress it by sheer force even
if the thing were possible. Surely those who are
certain they have right on their side need not be
arrogant. The overbearing temper is always a sign of
hollow principle as well as of moral infirmity. Was
any Gilead ever put down by a mere assertion of
superiority, even on the field of battle ? Let the truth
be acknowledged that only in freedom lies the hope
of progress in intelligence, in constitutional order and
purity of faith. The great problems of national life
and development can never be settled as Ephraim tried
to settle the movement beyond Jordan. The idea o£
life expands and room must be left for its enlargement.
The many lines of thought, of personal activity, of
religious and social experiment leading to better ways
or else proving by-and-by that the old are best — all
these must have place in a free state. The threats of
revolution that trouble nations would die away if this
were clearly understood ; and we read history in vain
if we think that the old autocracies or aristocracies will
ever approve themselves again, unless indeed they take
far- wiser and more Christian forms than they had in
past ages. The thought of individual liberty once firmly
rooted in the minds of men, there is no going back to
the restraints that were possible before it was familiar.
Government finds another basis and other duties. A
new kind of order arises which attempts no suppression
of any idea or sincere belief and allows all possible
room for experiments in living. Unquestionably this
altered condition of things increases the weight of moral
responsibility. In ordering our own lives as well as in
xii. 1-7.] SHIBBOLETHS. 259
regulating custom and law we need to exercise the most
serious care, the most earnest thought. Life is not
easier because it has greater breadth and freedom.
Each is thrown back more upon conscience, has more
to do for his fellow-men and for God.
We pass now to the end of the campaign and the
scene at the fords of Jordan, when the Gileadites,
avenging themselves on Ephraim, used the notable
expedient of asking a certain word to be pronounced in
order to distinguish friend from foe. To begin with,
the slaughter was quite unnecessary. If bloodshed
there had to be, that on the field of battle was certainly
enough. The wholesale murder of the " fugitives of
Ephraim," so called with reference to their own taunt,
was a passionate and barbarous deed. Those who
began the strife could not complain ; but it was the
leaders of the tribe who rushed on war, and now the
rank and file must suffer. Had Ephraim triumphed
the defeated Gileadites would have found no quarter;
victorious they gave none. We may trust, however,
that the number forty-two thousand represents the total
strength of the army that was dispersed and not those
left dead on the field.
The expedient used at the fords turned on a defect
or peculiarity of speech. Shibboleth perhaps meant
stream. Of each man who came to the stream of
Jordan wishing to pass to the other side it was required
that he should say Shibboleth. The Ephraimites tried
but said Sibboleth instead, and so betraying their west-
country birth they pronounced their own doom. The
incident has become proverbial and the proverbial use
of it is widely suggestive. First, however, we may
note a more direct application.
26o THE BOOK OF JUDGES.
Do we not at times observe how words used in
common speech, phrases or turns of expression betray
a man's upbringing or character, his strain of thought
and desire ? It is not necessary to lay traps for men,
to put it to them how they think on this point or that
in order to discover where they stand and what they
are. Listen and you will hear sooner or later the
Sibboleth that declares the son of Ephraim. In religious
circles, for example, men are found who appear to be
quite enthusiastic in the service of Christianity, eager
for the success of the church, and yet on some
occasion a word, an inflexion or turn of the voice will
reveal to the attentive listener a constant worldliness
of mind, a worship of self mingling with all they think
and do. You notice that and you can prophesy what
will come of it. In a few months or even weeks the
show of interest will pass. There is not enough praise
or deference to suit the egotist, he turns elsewhere to
find the applause which he values above everything.
Again, there are words somewhat rude, somewhat
coarse, which in carefully ordered speech a man may
not use ; but they fall from his lips in moments of
unguarded freedom or excitement. The man does not
speak " half in the language of Ashdod"; he particularly
avoids it. Yet now and again a lapse into the Philis-
tine dialect, a something muttered rather than spoken
betrays the secret of his nature. It would be harsh to
condemn any one as inherently bad on such evidence.
The early habits, the sins of past years thus unveiled
may be those against which he is fighting and praying.
Yet, on the other hand, the hypocrisy of a life may
terribly show itself in these little things ; and every one
will allow that in choosing our companions and friends
we ought to be keenly alive to the slightest indications
xii. 1-70 SHIBBOLETHS. 261
of character. There are fords of Jordan to which we
come unexpectedly, and without being censorious we
are bound to observe those with whom we purpose to
travel further.
Here, however, one of the most interesting and, for
our time, most important points of application is to
be found in the self-disclosure of writers — those who
produce our newspapers, magazines, novels, and the
like. Touching on religion and on morals certain of
these writers contrive to keep on good terms with
the kind of belief that is popular and pays. But
now and again, despite efforts to the contrary, they
come on the Shibboleth which they forget to pronounce
aright. Some among them who really care nothing for
Christianity and have no belief whatever in revealed
religion, would yet pass for interpreters of religion and
guides of conduct. Christian morality and worship
they barely endure ; but they cautiously adjust every
phrase and reference so as to drive away no reader
and offend no devout critic ; that is, they aim at doing
so ; now and again they forget themselves. We catch
a word, a touch of flippancy, a suggestion of licence,
a covert sneer which goes too far by a hairsbreadth.
The evil lies in this that they are teaching multitudes
to say Sibboleth along with them. What they say is so
pleasant, so deftly said, with such an air of respect for
moral authority that suspicion is averted, the very elect
are for a time deceived. Indeed we are almost driven
to think that Christians not a few are quite ready to
accept the unbelieving Sibboleth from sufficiently dis-
tinguished lips. A little more of this lubricity and
there will have to be a new and resolute sifting at the
fords. . The propaganda is villainously active and with-
out intelligent and vigorous opposition it will proceed
262 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.
to further audacity. It is not a few but scores of
this sect who have the ear of the pubhc and even in
religious publications are allowed to convey hints of
earthliness and atheism. A covert worship of Mammon
and of Venus goes on in the temple professedly
dedicated to Christ, and one cannot be sure that a
seemingly pious work will not vend some doctrine of
devils. It is time for a slaughter in God's name of
many a false reputation.
But there are Shibboleths of party, and we must be
careful lest in trying others we use some catchword
of our own Gilead by which to judge their religion
or their virtue. The danger of the earnest, alike in
religion, politics and philanthropy, is to make their
own favourite plans or doctrines the test of all worth
and belief. Within our churches and in the ranks of
social reformers distinctions are made where there
should be none and old strifes are deepened. There
are of course certain great principles of judgment.
Christianity is founded on historical fact and revealed
truth. "Every spirit which confesseth that Jesus
Christ is come in the flesh is of God." In such a
saying lies a test which is no tribal Shibboleth. And
on the same level are others by which we are con-
strained at all hazards to try ourselves and those who
speak and write. Certain points of morality are vital
and must be pressed. When a writer says, " In
mediaeval times the recognition that every natural
impulse in a healthy and mature being has a claim
to gratification was a victory of unsophisticated nature
over the asceticism of Christianity " — we use no
Shibboleth-test in condemning, him. He is judged and
found wanting by principles on which the very existence
xii. 1-7.] SHIBBOLETHS. 263
of human society depends. It is in no spirit of bigotry
but in faithfulness to the essentials of life and the hope
of mankind that the sternest denunciation is hurled
at such a man. In plain terms he is an enemy of
the race.
Passing from cases like this, observe others in
which a measure of dogmatism must be allowed to
the ardent. Where there are no strong opinions
strenuously held and expressed little impression will
be made. The prophets in every age have spoken
dogmatically ; and vehemence of speech is not to be
denied to the temperance reformer, the apostle of
purity, the enemy of luxurious self-indulgence and cant.
Moral indignation must express itself strongly ; and
in the dearth of moral conviction we can bear with
those who would even drag us to the ford and make
us utter their Shibbolelh. They go too far, people say :
perhaps they do ; but there are so many who will not
move at all except in the way of pleasure.
Now all this is clear. But we must return to the
danger of making O'le aspect of morality the sole test
of morals, one religious idea the sole test of religion
and so framing 3. formula by which men separate
themselves from th^^ir friends and pass narrow bitter
judgments on their kinsfolk. Let sincere belief and
strcng feeling rise to the prophetic strain ; let there be
ardour, let there be dogmatism and vehemence. But
beyond urgent words and strenuous example, beyond
the effort to persuade and convert there lie arrogance
and the usurpation of a judgment which belongs to
God alone. In proportion as a Christian is living the
life of Christ he will repel the claim of any other man
however devout to force his opinion or his action. All
attempts at terrorism betray a lack of spirituality. The
264 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.
Inquisition was in reality the world oppressing spiritual
life. And so in less degree, with less truculence, the
unspiritual element may show itself even in company
with a fervent desire to serve the gospel. There need
be no surprise that attempts to dictate to Christendom or
any part of Christendom are warmly resented by those
who know that religion and liberty cannot be separated.
The true church of Christ has a firm grasp of what it
believes and is aiming at, and by its resoluteness it
bears on human society. It is also gracious and per-
suasive, reasonable and open, and so gathers men into
a free and frank brotherhood, revealing to them the
loftiest duty, leading them towards it in the way of
liberty. Let men who understand this try each
other and it will never be by limited and suspicious
formulae.
Amidst pedants, critics, hot and bitter partisans, we
see Christ moving in divine freedom. Fine is the
subtlety of His thought in which the ideas of spiritual
liberty and of duty blend to form one luminous strain.
Fine are the clearness and simplicity of that daily life in
which He becomes the way and the truth to men. It
is the ideal life, beyond all mere rules, disclosing the
law of the kingdom of heaven ; it is free and powerful
because upheld by the purpose that underlies all
activity and development. Are we endeavouring to
realize it ? Scarcely at all : the bonds are multiplying
not falling away ; no man is bold to claim his right,
nor generous to give others their room. In this age
of Christ we seem neither to behold nor desire His
manhood. Shall this always be ? Shall there not
arise a race fit for liberty because obedient, ardent,
-true ? Shall we not come in the unity of the faith and
of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect
xil 1-7.] SHIBBOLETHS. 265
man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of
Christ ?
For a little we must return to Jephthah, who after
his great victory and his strange dark act of faith
judged Israel but six years. He appears in striking
contrast to other chiefs of his time and even of far
later times in the purity of his home life, the more
notable that his father set no example of good. Per-
haps the legacy of dispeace and exile bequeathed to
him with a tainted birth had taught the Gileadite, rude
mountaineer as he was, the value of that order which
his people too often despised. The silence of the
history which is elsewhere careful to speak of wives
and children sets Jephthah before us as a kind of puritan,
with another and perhaps greater distinction than the
desire to avoid war. The yearly lament for his
daughter kept alive the memory not only of the heroine
but of one judge in Israel who set a high example of
family life. A sad and lonely man he went those few
years of his rule in Gilead, but we may be sure that
the character and will of the Holy One became more
clear to him after he had passed the dreadful hill of
sacrifice. The story is of the old world, terrible ; yet
we have found in Jephthah a sublime sincerity, and we
may believe that such a man though he never repented
of his vow would come to see that the God of Israel
demanded another and a nobler sacrifice, that of life
devoted to His righteousness and truth.
XIX.
THE ANGEL IN THE FIELD.
Judges xiii. i-l8.
IN our ignorance not in our knowledge, in our blind-
ness not in our light we call nature secular and
think of the ordinary course of events as a series of
cold operations, governed by law and force, having
nothing to do with divine purpose and love. Often-
times we think so, and suffer because we do not under-
stand. It is a pitiful error. The natural could not
exist, there could be neither substance nor order with-
out the over-nature which is at once law and grace.
Vitality, movement are not an efflorescence heralding
decay — as to the atheist ; they are not the activity of
an evil spirit — as sometimes to confused and falsely in-
structed faith. They are the outward and visible action
of God, the hem of the vesture on which we lay hold
and feel Him. In the seen and temporal there is a
constant presence maintaining order, giving purpose
and end. Were it otherwise man could not live an
hour ; even in selfishness and vileness he is a creature
of two worlds which yet are one, so closely are they
interwoven. At every point natural and supernatural
are blended, the higher shaping the development of the
lower, accomplishing in and through the lower a great
spiritual plan. This it is which gives depth and weight
xiii. i-i8.] THE ANGEL IN THE FIELD. 267
to our experience, communicating the dignity of the
greatest moral and spiritual issues to the meanest,
darkest human life. Everywhere, always, man touches
God though he know Him not.
No surprise, therefore, is excited by the modes of
speech and thought we come upon as we read Scripture.
The surprise would be in not coming upon them. If
we found the inspired writers divorcing God from the
world and thinking of " nature " as a dark chamber of
sin and torture echoing with His curse, there would be
no profit in studying this old volume. Then indeed
we might turn from it in discontent and scorn, even
as some cast it aside just because it is the revelation
of God dwelling with men upon the earth.
Dut what do the writers of faith mean when they
tell of divine messengers coming to peasants at labour
in the fields, speaking to them of events common to
the race — the birth of some child, the defeat of a rival
tribe — as affairs of the spiritual even more th^n of the
temporal region ? The narratives simple yet daring
which affirm the mingling of divine purpose and action
with human life give us the deepest science, the one
real philosophy. Why do we have to care and suffer
for each other ? What are our sin and sorrow ?
These are not material facts ; they are of quite another
range. Always man is more than dust, better or worse
than clay. Human lives are linked together in a
gracious and awful order the course of which is now
clearly marked, now obscurely traceable ; and if it were
in our power to revive the history of past ages, to mark
the operation of faith and unbelief among men, issuing
in virtue and nobleness on the one hand, in vice and
lethargy on the other, we should see how near heaven
is to earth, how rational a thing is prophecy, not only
268 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.
as relating to masses of men but to particular lives.
It is our stupidity not our wisdom that starts back
from revelations of the over-vi^orld as if they confused
what would otherwise be clear.
In more than one story of the Bible the motherhood
of a simple peasant woman is a cause of divine com-
munications and supernatural hopes. Is this amazing,
incredible? What then is motherhood itself? In the
coming and care of frail existences, the strange blending
in one great necessity of the glad and the severe, the
honourable and the humiliating, with so many pos-
sibilities of failure in duty, of error and misunder-
standing ere the needful task is finished, death ever
waiting on life, and agony on joy — in all this do we not
find such a manifestation of the higher purpose as might
well be heralded by words and signs ? Only the order
of God and His redemption can explain this " nature."
Right in the path of atheistic reasoners, and of others
not atheists, lie facts of human life which on their
theory of naturalism are simply confounding, too great
at once for the causes they admit and the ends they
foresee. And if reason denies the possibility of pre-
diction relating to these facts we need not wonder.
Without philosophy or faith the range of denial is
unlimited.
From the quaint and simple narrative before us the
imaginative rationalist turns away with the one word
— "myth." His criticism is of a sort which for all its
ease and freedom gives the world nothing. We desire
to know why the human mind harbours thoughts of
the kind, why it has ideas of God and of a supernatural
order, and how these work in developing the race.
Have they been of service ? Have they given strength
and largeness to poor rude lives and so proved a great
xiii. i-i8.] THE ANGEL IN THE FIELD. 269
reality ? If so, the word myth is inadmissible. It sets
falsehood at the source of progress and of good.
Here are two Hebrew peasants, in a period of
Philistine domination more than a thousand years
before the Christian era. Of their condition we know
only what a few brief sentences can tell in a history
concerned chiefly with the facts of a divine order in
which men's lives have an appointed place and use.
It is certain that a thorough knowledge of this Danite
family, its own history and its part in the history of
Israel, would leave no difficulty for faith. Belief in the
fore-ordination of all human existence and the constant
presence of God with men and women in their endur-
ance, their hope and yearning would be forced upon
the most sceptical mind. The insignificance of the
occasion marked by a prediction given in the name of
God may astonish some. But what is insignificant ?
Wherever divine predestination and authority extend,
and that is throughout the whole universe, nothing can
properly be called insignificant. The laws according
to which material things and forces are controlled by
God touch the minutest particles of matter, determine
the shape of a dew-drop as certainly as the form of
a world. At every point in human life, the birth of
a child in the poorest cottage as well as of the heir to
an empire, the same principles of heredity, the same
disposition of affairs to leave room for that life and
to work out its destiny underlie the economy of the
world.
A life- is to appear. It is not an interposition or
interpolation. No event, no life is ever thrust into an
age without relation to the past ; no purpose is formed
in the hour of a certain prophecy. For Samson as for
every actor distinguished or obscure upon the stage of
270 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.
the world the stars and the seasons have co-operated
and all that has been done under the sun has gone to
make a place for him. One who knows this can speak
strongly and clearly. One who knows what hinders
and what is sure to aid the fulfilment of a great destiny
can counsel wisely. And so the angel of Jehovah, a
messenger of the spiritual covenant, is no mere vehicle
of a prediction he does not understand. Without
hesitation he speaks to the woman in the field of what
her son shall do. By the story of God's dealings with
Israel, by the experiences of tribe and family and
individual soul since the primitive age, by the simple
faith of these parents that are to be and the honest
energy of their humble lives he is prepared to announce
to them their honour and their duty. " Thou shalt bear
a son and he shall begin to deliver Israel." The mes-
senger has had his preparation of thought, inquiry deep
devout and pondering, ere he became fit to announce
the word of God. No seer serves the age to which he
is sent with that which costs him nothing, and here
as elsewhere the law of all ministry to God and man
must apply to the preparation and work of the revealer.
The personality of the messenger was carefully
concealed. "A man of God whose countenance was
like that of an angel of God very terrible" — so runs
the pathetic, suggestive description ; but the hour was
too intense for mere curiosity. The honest mind does
not ask the name and social standing of a messenger
but only — Does he speak God's truth ? Does he open
life ? There are few perhaps, to-day, who are simple
and intelligent enough for this ; few, therefore, to whom
divine messages come. It is the credentials we are
anxious about, and the prophet waits unheard while
people are demanding his family and tribe, his college
xiii. i-iS.] THE ANGEL IN THE FIELD. 271
and reputation. Are these satisfactory ? Then they
will listen. But let no prophet come to them unnamed.
Yet of all importance to us as fro Manoah and his wife
are the message, the revelation, the announcement of
privilege and duty. Where that divine order is dis-
closed which lies too deep for our own discovery but
once revealed stirs and kindles our nature, the prophet
needs no certification.
The child that was to be born, a gift of God, a divine
charge, was promised to these parents. And in the
case of every child born into the world there is a
divine predestination which whether it has been
recognized by the parents or not gives dignity to his
existence from the first. There are natural laws and
spiritual laws, the gathering together of energies and
needs and duties which make the life unique, the care
of it sacred. It is a new force in the world — a new
vessel, frail as yet, launched on the sea of time. In it
some stores of the divine goodness, some treasures of
heavenly force are embarked. As it holds its way
across the ocean in sunshine or shadow, this life will
be watched by the divine eye, breathed gently upon
by the summer airs or buffeted by the storms of God.
Does heaven mind the children ? " In heaven their
angels do always behold the face of My Father."
In the marvellous ordering of divine providence
nothing is more calculated than fatherhood and mother-
hood to lift human life into the high ranges of expe-
rience and feeling. Apart from any special message
or revelation, assuming only an ordinary measure of
thoughtfulness and interest in the unfolding of life,
there is here a new dignity the sense of which connects
the task of those who have it with the creative energy
of Gud. Everywhere throughout the world we can
272 THE BOOK OF fUDGES.
trace a more or less clear understanding of this. The
tide of life is felt to rise as the new office, the new
responsibility are grasped. The mother is become —
"A link among the days to knit
The generations each to each."
The father has a sacred trust, a new and nobler duty
to which his manhood is entirely pledged in the sight
of that great God who is the Father of all spirits,
doubly and trebly pledged to truth and purity and
courage. It is the coronation of life ; and the child,
drawing father and mother to itself, is rightly the object
of keenest interest and most assiduous care.
The interest lies greatly in this, that to the father and
mother first, then to the world there may be untold
possibilities of good in the existence which has begun.
Apart from any prophecy like that given regarding
Samson we have truly what may be called a special
promise from God in the dawning energy of every
child-life. By the cradle surely, if anywhere, hope
sacred and heavenly may be indulged. With what
earnest glances will the young eyes look by-and-by
from face to face. With what new and keen love will
the child-heart beat. Enlarging its grasp from year to
year the mind will lay hold on duty and the will address
itself to the tasks of existence. This child will be a
heroine of home, a helper of society, a soldier of the
truth, a servant of God. Does the mother dream long
dreams as she bends over the cradle? Does the
father, one indeed amongst millions, yet with his
special distinction and calling, imagine for the child
a future better than his own ? It is well. By the
highest laws and instincts of our humanity it is right
and good. Here men and women, the rudest and
xiii. i-iS.] THE ANGEL IN THE FIELD. 473
least taught, live in the immaterial world of love,
faith, duty.
We observe the anxiety of Manoah and his wife to
learn the special method of training which should fit
their child for his task. The father's prayer so soon
as he heard of the divine annunciation was, " O Lord,
let the man of God whom Thou didst send come again
unto us and teach us what we shall do unto the child
that shall be born." Conscious of ignorance and inex-
perience, feeling the weight of responsibility, the parents
desired to have authoritative direction in their duty,
and their anxiety was the deeper because their child
was to be a deliverer in Israel. In their home on the
hillside, where the cottages of Zorah clustered over-
looking the Philistine plain, they were frequently dis-
turbed by the raiders who swept up the valley of Sorek
from Ashdod and Ekron. They had often wondered
when God would raise up a deliverer as of old, some
Deborah or Gideon to end the galling oppressicin. Now
the answer to many a prayer and hope was coming,
and in their own home the hero was to be cradled.
We cannot doubt that this made them feel the pressure
of duty and the need of wisdom. Yet the prayer of
Manoah was one which every father has need to present,
though the circumstances of a child's birth have nothing
out of the most ordinary course.
To each human mind are given powers which require
special fostering, peculiarities of temperament and
feeling which ought to be specially considered. One
way will not serve in the upbringing of two children.
Even the most approved method of the time, whether
that of private tutelage or public instruction, may thwart
individuality ; and if the way be ignorant and rough
the original faculty will at its very springing be dis-
18
274 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.
torted. It is but the barest commonplace, yet with
what frequency it needs to be urged that of all tasks
in the world that of the guide and instructor of youth
is hardest to do well, best worth doing, therefore most
difficult. There is no need to deny that for the earliest
years of a child's life the instincts of a loving faithful
mother may be trusted to guide her efforts. Yet even
in those first years tendencies declare themselves that
require to be wisely checked or on the other hand
wisely encouraged ; and the wisdom does not come by
instinct. A spiritual view of life, its limitations and
possibilities, its high calling and heavenly destiny is
absolutely necessary — that vision of the highest things
which religion alone can give. The prophet comes and
directs ; 3'et the parents must be prophets too. " The
child is not to be educated for the present — for this
is done without our aid unceasingly and powerfully —
but for the remote future and often in opposition to
the immediate future. . . . The child must be armed
against the close-pressing present with a counter-
balancing weight of three powers against the three
weaknesses of the will, of love and of religion. . . .
The girl and the boy must learn that there is something
in the ocean higher than its waves — namely, a Christ
who calls upon them."^ On the religious teaching espe-
cially which is given to children much depends, and
those who guide them should often begin by searching
and reconsidering their own beliefs. Many a promising
life is marred because youth in its wonder and sincerity
was taught no living faith in God, or was thrust into
the mould of some narrow creed which had more in it
of human bigotry than of divine reason and love.
• Richter, Levana.
xiii. i-iS.] THE ANGEL IN THE FIELD. 275
"What shall be the ordering of the child?" is
Manoah's prayer, and it is well if simply expressed.
The child's way needs ordering. Circumstances must
be understood that discipline may fit the young life
for its part. In our own time this represents a serious
difficulty. What to do with children, how to order
their lives is the pressing question in thousands of
homes. The scheme of education in favour shows little
insight, little esteem for the individuality of children,
which is of as much value in the case of the backward
£s of those who are lured and goaded into distinction.
To broaden life, to give it many points of interest is
well. Yet on the other hand how much depends on
discipline, on limitation and concentration, the need of
which we are apt to forget. Narrow and limited was the
life of Israel when Samson was born into it. The boy
had to be what the nation was, what Zorah was, what
Manoah and his wife were. The limitations of the time
held him and the secluded life of Dan knowing, but one
article of patriotic faith, hatred of the Philistines. Was
there so much of restriction here as to make greatness
impossible ? Not so. To be an Israelite was to have
a certain moral advantage and superiority. It was not
a barren solidarity, a dry ground in which this new life
was planted ; the sprout grew out of a living tree ;
traditions, laws full of spiritual power made an environ-
ment for the Hebrew child. Through the limitations,
fenced and guided by them, a soul might break forth to
the upper air. It was not the narrowness of Israel nor
of his own home and upbringing but the licence of
Philistia that weakened the strong arm and darkened
the eager soul of the young Danite. Are we now to be
afraid of limitations, bent on giving to youth multiform
experience and the freest possible access to the world ?
276 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.
Do we dream that strength will come as the stream of
life is allowed to wander over a whole valley, turning
hither and thither in a shallow and shifty bed ? The
natural parallel here will instruct us, for it is an image
of the spiritual fact. Strength not breadth is the mark
at which education should be directed. The intellec-
tually and morally strong will find culture waiting them
at every turn of the way and will know how to select,
what to appropriate. In truth there must be first the
moral power gained by concentration, otherwise all
culture — art, science, literature, travel — proves but a
Barmecide feast at which the soul starves.
The special m.ethod of training for the child Samson
is described in the words, " He shall be a Nazirite unto
God." The mother was to drink no strong drink nor
eat any unclean thing. Her son was to be trained in
the same rigid abstinence; and always the sense of
obligation to Jehovah was to accompany the austerity.
The hair neither cut nor shaven but allowed to grow in
natural luxuriance was to be the sign of the separated
life. For the hero that was to be, this ascetic purity,
this sacrament of unshorn hair were the only things
prescribed. Perhaps there was in the command a
reference to the godless life of the Israelites, a protest
against their self-indulgence and half-heathen freedom.
One in the tribe of Dan would be clear of the sins of
drunkenness and gluttony at least, and so far ready for
spiritual work.
Now it is notable enough to find thus early in history
the example of a rule which even yet is not half under-
stood to be the best as well as the safest for the guidance
of appetite and the development of bodily strength.
The absurdities commonly accepted by mothers and by
those who only desire some cover for the indulgence of
■I 8.] THE ANGEL IN THE FIELD. 277
taste are here set aside. A hero is to be born, one who
in physical vigour will distinguish himself above all,
the Hercules of sacred history. His mother rigidly
abstains, and he in his turn is to abstain from strong
drink. The plainest dieting is to serve both her and
him — the kind of food and drink on which Daniel
and his companions throve in the Chaldean palace.
Surely the lesson is plain. Those who desire to excel
in feats of strength speak of their training. It embraces
a vow like the Nazirites, wanting indeed the sacred
purpose and therefore of no use in the development of
character. But let a covenant be made with God, let
simple food and drink be used under a sense of obliga-
tion to Him to keep the mind clear and the body clean,
and soon with appetites better disciplined we should
have a better and stronger race.
It is not of course to be supposed that there was
nothing out of the common in Samson's bodily vigour.
Restraint of unhealthy and injurious appetite was not
the only cause to which his strength was due. Yet as
the accompaniment of his giant energy the vow has
great significance. And to young men who incline to
glory in their strength, and all who care to be fit for
the tasks of life the significance will be clear. As for
the rest whose appetites master them, who must have
this and that because they crave it, their weakness
places them low as men, nowhere as examples and
guides. One would as soon take the type of manly
vigour from a paralytic as from one whose will is in
subjection to the cravings of the flesh.
It soon becomes clear in the course of the history
that while some foniis of evil were fenced off by
Naziritism others as perilous were not. The main part
of the devotion lay in abstinence, and that is not
278 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.
spiritual life. Here is one who from his birth set
apart to God is trained in manly control of his appetites.
The locks that wave in wild luxuriance about his neck
are the sign of robust physical vigour as well as of
consecration. But, strangely, his' spiritual education
is not cared for as we might expect. He is dis-
ciplined and yet undisciplined. He fears the Lord
and yet fears Him not. He is an Israelite but not a
true Israehte. Jehovah is to him a God who gives
strength and courage and blessing in return for a
certain measure of obedience. As the Holy God, the
true God, the God of purity, Samson knows Him not,
does not worship Him. Within a certain limited range
he hears a divine voice saying, " Thou shalt not," and
there he obeys. But beyond is a great region in which
he reckons himself free. And what is the result ? He
is strong, brave, sunny in temper as his name implies.
But a helper of society, a servant of divine religion, a
man in the highest sense, one of God's free men Samson
does not become.
So is it always. One kind of exercise, discipline, obe-
dience, virtue will not suffice. We need to be temperate
and also pure, we need to keep from self-indulgence
but also from niggardliness if we are to be men. We
have to think of the discipline of mind and soul as well
as soundness of body. He is only half a man, how-
ever free from glaring faults and vices, who has not
learned the unselfishness, the love, the ardour in holy
and generous tasks which Christ imparts. To abstain
is a negative thing; the positive should command us
— the highest manhood, holy, aspiring, patient, divine.
XX.
SAMSON PLUNGING INTO LIFE.
Judges xiii. 24 — xiv. 20.
OF all who move before us in the Book of Judges
Samson is pre-eminently the popular hero. In
rude giant strength and wild daring he stands alone
against the enemies of Israel contemptuous of their
power and their plots. It is just such a man who
catches the public eye and lives in the traditions of a
country. Most Hebrews of the time minded piety and
culture as little as did the Norsemen when they first
professed Christianity. Both races liked Tnanliness
and feats of daring and could pardon much to one who
flung his enemies and theirs to the ground with god-
like strength of arm, and in the narrative of Samson's
exploits we trace this note of popular estimation. He
is a singular hero of faith, quite akin to those half-
converted half-savage chiefs of the north who thought
the best they could do for God was to kill His enemies
and bound themselves by fierce oaths in the name of,
Christ to hack and slaughter. For the separateness
from others, the isolation which marked Samson's
whole career the reasons are evident. His vow of
Naziritism, for one thing, kept him apart. Others were
their own men, he was Jehovah's. His radiant health
and uncommon physical energy even in boyhood were
28o THE BOOK OF JUDGES.
to himself and others the sign of a divine blessing
which maintained his sense of consecration. While he
looked on at the riot and drunkenness of the fisasts
of his people he felt a growing revulsion, nor was he
pleased with other indications of their temper. The
frequent raids of Philistines from their walled cities by
the coast struck terror far and wide — up the valleys of
Dan into the heart of Judah and Ephraim. Samson as
he grew up marked the supineness of his people with
wonder and disgust. If he did anything for them it
was not because he honoured them but in fulfilment of
his destiny. At the same time we must note that the
hero though a man of wit was not wise. He did the
most injudicious things. He had nothing in him of the
diplomatist, not much of the leader of men. It was
jonly now and again when the mood took him that he
! cared to exert himself. So he went his own way an
admired hero, a lonely giant among smaller beings.
Worst of all he was an easy prey to some kinds of
temptation. Restrained on one side, he gave himself
license on others ; his strength was always undisciplined,
and early in his career we can almost predict how it
will end. He ventures into one snare after another.
The time is sure to come when he will fall into a pit
out of which there is no way of escape.
Of the early life of the great Danite judge there is no
record save that he grew and the Lord blessed him.
The parents whose home on the hill-side he filled with
boisterous glee must have looked on the lad with
something like awe — so different was he from others,
so great were the hopes based on his future. Doubtless
they did their best for him. The consecration of his
life to God they deeply impressed on his mind and
taught him as well as they could the worship of the
xiii.24-xiv.20.] SAMSON PLUNGING INTO LIFE. aSi
Unseen Jehovah in the sacrifice of lamb or kid at the
altar, in prayers for protection and prosperity. But
nothing is said of instruction in the righteousness,
the purity, the mercifulness which the law of God
required. Manoah and his wife seem to have made the
mistake of thinking that outside the vow moral educa-
tion and discipline would come naturally, so far as they
were needed. There was great strictness on certain
points and elsewhere such laxity that he must have
soon become wilful and headstrong and somewhat of
a terror to the father and mother. Lads of his own
age would of course adore him ; as their leader in
every bold pastime he would command their deference
and loyalty, and many a wild thing was done, we can
fancy, at which the people of the valley laughed
uneasily or shook their heads in dismay. He who
afterwards tied the jackals' tails together and set fire-
brands between each pair to burn the Philistines' corn
must have served an apprenticeship to that kind of
savage sport. Hebrew or alien for miles round who
roused the anger of Samson would soon learn how
dangerous it was to provoke him. Yet a dash of
generosity always took the edge from fiery temper and
rash revenge, and the people of Dan, for their part,
would allow much to one who was expected to bring
deliverance to Israel. The wild and dangerous youth
was the only champion they could see.
But even before manhood Samson had times of
deeper feeling than people in general would have
looked for. Boisterous hot-blooded impetuous natures
grievously wanting in decorum and sagacity are not
always superficial ; and there were occasions when the
Spirit of the Lord began to move Samson. He felt
the purpose of his vow, saw the serious work to wliich
282 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.
his destiny was urging him, looked down on the plain
of the Philistines with a kindling eye, spoke in strains
that even rose to prophetic intensity. At Mahaneh-
Dan, the camp of Dan, where the more resolute spirits
of the tribe came together for military exercise or to
repel some raid of the enemy, Samson began to speak
of his purpose and to make schemes for Israel's libera-
tion. Into these the fiery vehemence of the young
man flowed, and the enthusiasm of his nature bore
others along. Can we be wrong in supposing that in
various ways, by plans often ill-considered he sought
to harass the Philistines, and that failure as a leader
in these left him somewhat discredited? Samson v;as
just of that sanguine venturesome disposition which
makes light of difficulties and is always courting defeat.
It was easy for him with his immense bodily strength
to break through where other men were entrapped.
A frequent result of the frays into which he hurried
must have been, we imagine, to make his own friends
doubt him rather than to injure the enemy. At all
events he became no commander like Gideon or Jeph-
thah, and the men of Judah, if not of Dan, while they
acknowledged his calling and his power, began to think
of him as a dangerous champion.
So far we have the merest hints by which to go, but
the narrative becomes more detailed when it approaches
the time of Samson's marriage. A strange union it is
for a hero of Israel. What made him think of going
down among the Philistines for a wife ? How can
the sacred writer say that the thing was of the Lord ?
Let us try to understand the circumstances. Between
the people of Zorah and the villagers of Timnah a few
miles down the valley on the other side who, though
Philistines, were presumably not of the fighting sort
xiii. 24-xiv. 20.] SAMSON PLUNGING INTO LIFE. 283
there was a kind of enforced neighbourliness. They
could not have lived at all unless they had been content,
Philistines for their part, Hebrews for theirs, to let
the general enmity sleep. Samson by observing certain
precautions and keeping his Hebrew tongue quiet was
safe enough in Timnah, an object of fear rather than
himself in danger. At the same time there may have
been a touch of bravado in his rambles to the Philistine
settlement, and the young woman of whom he caught
a passing glance, perhaps at the spring, had very likely
all the more charm for him that she was of the strong
hostile race. History as well as fiction supplies in-
stances in which this fascination does its work, family
feuds, oppositions of caste and religion directing the
eye and the fancy instead of repelling. In his sudden
wilful way Samson resolved, and his mind once made
up no one in Zorah could induce him to alter it.
" The thing was of the Lord ; for he sought an occasion
against the Philistines." Perhaps Samson thought the
woman would be denied to him, a straight way to a
quarreh But more probably it is the outcome of the
whole pitiful business that is in the mind of the his-
torian. After the event he traces the hand of Provi-
dence.
As we pass with Samson and his parents down to
Timnah we cannot but agree with Manoah in his
objection, " Is there never a woman among the daughters
of thy brethren or among all my people that thou
goest to take a wife of the uncircumcised Philistines ?"
It was emphatically one of those cases in which liking
should not have led. An impetuous man is not to be
excused ; much less those who claim to be exceedingly
rational and yet go against reason because of what
they call love — or, worse, apart from love. General
284 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.
rules are with difficulty laid down in matters of this
sort, and to deny the right of love would be the worst
error of all. So far as our popular writers are con-
cerned, we must allow that they wonderfully balance
the claims of " arrangement" and honest affection,
declaring strongly for the latter. But yet such a dif-
ference as between faith and idolatry, between piety
and godlessness, is a barrier that only the blindest folly
can overleap when marriage is in view. Daughters
of the Philistines may be " most divinely fair," most
graceful and plausible ; men who worship Moloch or
Mammon or nothing but themselves may have most
persuasive tongues and a large share of this world's
good. But to mate with these, whatever liking there
may be, is an experiment too rash for venturing. In
Chiistian society now, is there not much need to
repeat old warnings and revive a sense of peril that
seems to have decayed ? The conscience of piously
bred young people v^-as alive once to the danger and
sin of the unequal yoke. In the rush for position and
means marriage is being made by both sexes, even in
most religious circles, an instrument and opportunity
of earthly ambition, and it must be said that foolish
romance is less to be feared than this carefulness in
which conscience and heart alike submit to the imperious
cravings of sheer worldliness. Novels have much to
answer for ; yet they can make one claim — they have
done something for simple humanity. We want more
than nature, however. Christian teaching must be
heard and the Christian conscience must be re-kindled.
The hope of the world waits on that devout simplicity
of life which exalts spiritual aims and spiritual comrade-
ship and by its beauty shames all meaner choice. In
marriage not only should heart go out to heart, but
xiii.24-xiv. 20.] SAAfSON PLUNGING INTO LIFE. 2?,$
mind to mind and soul to soul ; and the spirit of one j
who knows Christ can never unite with a self- worshipper '
or a servant of mammon.
Returning to Samson's case, he would possibly have
said that he wished an adventurojs marriage, that to
wed a Danite woman would have in it too little risk,
would be too dull, too commonplace a business for
him, that he wanted a plunge into new waters. It is
in this way, one must believe, many decide the great
affair. So far from thinking they put thought away ;
a liking seizes them and in they leap. Yet in the best
considered marriage that can be made is there not I
quite enough of adventure for any sane man or woman ? /
Always there remain points of character unknown,
unsuspected, possibilities of sickness, trouble, privation
that fill the future with uncertainty, so far as human
vision goes. It is, in truth, a serious undertaking for
men and women, and to be entered upon only with
the distinct assurance that divine providence clears the
way and invites our advance. Yet again we are not
to be suspicious of each other, probing every trait and
habit to the quick. Marriage is the great example
and expression of the trust which it is the glory of
men and women to exercise and to deserve, the great
symbol on earth of the confidences and unions of
immortality. Matter of deep thankfulness it is that so
many who begin the married life and end it on a low
level, having scarcely a glimpse of the ideal, though
they fail of much do not fail of all, but in some patience,
some courage and fidelity show that God has not left
them to nature and to earth. And happy are they who
adventure together on no way of worldly poh'cy or
desire but in the pure love and heavenly faith which
link their lives for ever in binding them to God.
286 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.
I Samson, reasoned with by his parents, waved their
objection royally aside and ordered them to aid his
design. It was necessary according to the custom of
the country that they should conduct the negotiations
for the marriage, and his wilfulness imposed on them
a task that went against their consciences. So they
found themselves with the common reward of worship-
ping parents. They had toiled for him, made much of
him, boasted about him no doubt ; and now their boy-
god turns round and commands them in a thing they
cannot believe to be right. They must choose between
Jehovah and Samson and they have to give up Jehovah
and serve their own lad. So David's pride in Absalom
ended with the rebellion that drove the aged father
from Jerusalem and exposed him to the contempt of
Israel. It is good for a man to bear the yoke in his
youth, the yoke even of parents who are not so wise
as they might be and do not command much reverence.
The order of family life among us, involving no abso-
lute bondage, is recognized as a wholesome discipline
by all who attain to any understanding of life. In
Israel, as we know, filial respect and obedience were
virtues sacredly commended, and it is one mark of
Samson's ill-regulated self-esteeming disposition that
he neglected the obvious duty of deference to the
judgment of his parents.
On the way to Timnah the young man had an
adventure which was to play an important part in his
life. Turning aside out of the road he found himself
suddenly confronted by a lion which, doubtless as
much surprised as he was by the encounter, roared
against him. The moment was not without its peril ;
but Samson was equal to the emergency and springing
on the beast "rent it as he would have rent a kid.
xiii.24-xiv.20.] SAMSON- PLUNGING INTO LIFE. 287
The affair however did not seem worth referring to
when he joined his parents, and they went on their
way. It was as when a man of strong moral principle:
and force meets a temptation dangerous to the weak.i
to him an enemy easily overcome. His vigorous truth
or honour or chastity makes short work of it. He
lays hold of it and in a moment it is torn in pieces.
The great talk made about temptations, the ready ex-
cuses many find for themselves when they yield are
signs of a feebleness of will which in other ranges of
life the same persons would be ashamed to own. It
is to be feared that we often encourage moral weakness
and unfaithfulness to duty by exaggerating the force
of evil influences. Why should it be reckoned a feat
to be honest, to be generous, to swear to one's own
hurt ? Under the dispensation of the Spirit of God,
with Christ as our guide and stay every one of us
should act boldly in the encounter with the lions of
temptation. Tenderness to the weak is a Christian
duty, but there is danger that young and old alike,
hearing much of the seductions of sin, httle of the ready
help of the Almighty, submit easily where they should
conquer and reckon on divine forbearance when they
ought to expect reproach and contempt. Our genera-
tion needs to hear the words of St. Paul : " There hath
no temptation taken you but such as man can bear :
but God is faithful Who will not suffer you to be tempted
above that ye are able." Is there a tremendous pres-
sure constantly urging us towards that which is evil ?
In our large cities especially is the power of iniquity
almost despotic ? True enough. Yet men and women
should be braced and strengthened by insistence on
the other side. In Christian lands at least it is un-
questionable that for every enticement to evil there
2S8 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.
is a Stronger allurement to good, that against every
argument for immorality ten are set more potent in
behalf of virtue, that where sin abounds grace does
much more abound. Young persons are indeed tempted ;
but nothing will be gained by speaking to them or
about them as if they were children incapable of de-
cision, of whom it can only be expected that they will
fail. By the Spirit of God, indeed, all moral victories
are gained ; the natural virtue of the best is uncertain
and cannot be trusted in the trying hour, and he only
who has a full inward life and earnest Christian pur-
pose is ready for the test. But the Spirit of God is
given. His sustaining, purifying, strengthening power
is with us. We do not breathe deep, and then we com-
plain that our hearts cease to beat with holy courage
and resolve.
At Timnah, where life was perhaps freer than in a
Hebrew town, Samson appears to have seen the woman
who had caught his fancy ; and he now found her,
Philistine as she was, quite to his mind. It must
have been by a low standard he judged, and many
possible topics of conversation must have been carefully
avoided. Under the circumstances, indeed, the difficulty
of understanding each other's language may have been
their safety. Certainly one who professed to be a
fearer of God, a patriotic Israelite had to shut his
eyes to many facts or thrust them from sight when he
determined to wed this daughter of the enemy. But
when we choose we can do much in the way of keep-
ing things out of view which we do not wish to see.
Persons who are at daggers drawn on fifty points
show the greatest possible affability when it is their
interest to be at one. Love gets over difficulties and so
does policy. Occasions are found when the anxiously
xiii.24-xiv.20.] SAMSON PLUNGING INTO LIFE. 2S9
orthodox can join in some comfortable compact with
the agnostic, and the vehement state-churchman with
the avowed secularist and revolutionary. And it seems
to be only when two are nearly of the same creed, with
just some hairsbreadth of divergence on a few articles
of belief, that the obstacles to happy union are apt to
become insurmountable. Then every word is watched,
each tone noted with suspicion. It is not between
Hebrew and Philistine but between Ephraim and
Judah that alliances are difficult to form. We hope
for the time when the long and bitter disputes of
Christendom shall be overcome by love of truth and
God. Yet first there must be an end to the strange
reconcilings and unions which like Samson's marriage
often confuse and obstruct the way of Christian people.
There is an interval of some months after the marriage
has been arranged and the bridegroom is on his way
once more down the valley to Timnah. As he passes
the scene of his encounter with the lion be turns
aside to see the carcase and finds that bees have made
it their home. Vultures and ants have first found it and
devoured the flesh, then the sun has thoroughly dried
the skin and in the hollow of the ribs the bees have
settled. At considerable risk Samson possesses him-
self of some of the combs and goes on eating the
honey, giving a portion also to his father and mother.
It is again a type, and this time of the sweetness to
be found in the recollection of virtuous energy and over-
coming. Not that we are to be always dwelling on
our faithfulness even for the purpose of thanking God
Who gave us moral strength. But when circumstances
recall a trial and victory it is surely matter of proper
joy to remember that here we were strong enough to be
true, and there to be honest and pure when the odds
19
290 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.
seemed to be against us. The memories of a good
man or good woman are sweeter than the honeycomb,
-though tempered often by sorrow over the human
instruments of evil who had to be struggled with and
thrust aside in the sharp conflict with sin and wrong.
Very few in youth or middle-life seem to think of
this joy, which makes beautiful many a worn and aged
face on earth and will not be the least element in the
felicity of heaven. Too often we bear burdens because
we must ; we are dragged through trial and distress to
comparative quiet ; we do not comprehend what is at
stake, what we may do and gain, what we are kept
from losing ; and so the look across our past has none
of the glow of triumph, little of the joy of harvest.
For man's blessedness is not to be separated from
personal striving. In fidelity he must sow that he may
reap in strength, in courage that he may reap in glad-
ness. He is made not for mere success, not for mere
safety, but for overcoming.
We are not finished with the lion ; he next appears
covertly, in a riddle. Samson has shown himself a
strong man ; now we hear him speak and he proves a
jwit. It is the wedding festival, and thirty young men
;have been gathered — to honour the bridegroom, shall
' we say ? — or to watch him ? Perhaps from the first
there has been suspicion in the Philistine mind, and
it seems necessary to have as many as thirty to one in
order to overawe Samson. In the course of the feast
there might be quarrels, and without a strong guard
on the Hebrew youth Timnah might be in danger. As
the days went by the company fell to proposing riddles
and Samson, probably annoyed by the Philistines who
watched every movement, gave them his, on terms quite
fair, 3'et leaving more than a loophole for discontent
xiii.24-xiv.20.] SAMSON PLUNGING INTO LIFE. 291
and strife. In the conditions we see the man perfectly
self-reHant, full of easy superiority, courting danger
and defying envy. The thirty may win — if they can. In
that case he knows how he will pay the forfeit. " Put
forth thy riddle," they said, " that we may hear it ; "
and the strong mellow Hebrew voice chanted the
puzzling verse :
'• Out of the eater came forth meat ;
Out of the strong came forth sweetness,"
Now in itself this is simply a curiosity of old-world
table-talk. It is preserved here mainly because of its
bearing on following events ; and certainly the state-
ment which has been made that it contained a gospel
for the Philistines is one we cannot endorse. Yet
like many witty sayings the riddle has a range of
meaning far wider than Samson intended. Adverse
influences conquered, temptation mastered, difficulties
overcome, the struggle of faithfulness will supply
us not only with happy recollections but also with
arguments against infidelity, with questions that con-
found the unbeliever. One who can glory in tribulations
that have brought experience and hope, in bonds and
imprisonments that have issued in a keener sense of
liberty, who having nothing yet possesses all things —
such a man questioning the denier of divine provi-
dence cannot be answered. Invigoration has come
out of that which threatened life and joy out of that
which made for sorrow. The man who is in covenant
with God is helped by nature ; its forces serve him ;
he is fed with honey from the rock and with the finest
of the wheat. When out of the mire of trouble and
the deep waters of despondency he comes forth braver,
more hopeful, strongly confident in the love of God,
292 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.
sure of the eternal foundation of life, what can be said
in denial of the power that has filled him with strength
and peace ? Here is an argument that can be used
by every Christian, and ought to be in every Christian's
hand. Out of his personal experience each should be
able to state problems and put inquiries unanswerable
by unbelief. For unless there is a living God Whose
favour is life, Whose fellowship inspires and ennobles the
soul, the strength which has come through weakness,
the hope that sprang up in the depth of sorrow cannot
be accounted for. There are natural sequences in
which no mystery lies. When one who has been
defamed and injured turns on his enemy and pursues
him in revenge, when one who has been defeated sinks
back in languor and waits in pitiful inaction for death,
these are results easily traced to their cause. But the
man of faith bears witness to sequences of a different
kind. His fellows have persecuted him, and he cares
for them still. Death has bereaved him, and he can
smile in its face. Afflictions have been multiplied and
he glories in them. The darkness has fallen and he
rejoices more than in the noontide of prosperity. Out
of the eater has come forth meat, out of the strong has
come forth sweetness. " Except a corn of wheat fall
into the ground and die, it abideth alone; but if it die,
it bringeth forth much fruit." The paradox of the
life of Christ thus stated by Himself is the supreme
instance of that demonstration of divine power which
the history of every Christian should clearly and con-
stantly support.
XXI.
DAUNTLESS IN BATTLE, IGNORANTLY BRAVE.
JODGES XV.
GIVEN a man of strong passions and uninstructed
conscience, wild courage and giant energy, with
the sense of a mission which he has to accomplish
against his country's enemies so that he reckons
himself justified in doing them injury or killing them
in the name of God, and you have, no complete hero,
but a real and interesting man. Such a character,
however, does not command our admiration. The
enthusiasm we feel in tracing the career of Deborah
or Gideon fails us in reviewing these stories of revenge
in which the Hebrew champion appears as cruel and
reckless as an uncircumcised Philistine. When we see
Samson leaving the feast by which his marriage has
been celebrated and marching down to Ashkelon where
in cold blood he puts thirty men to death for the sake
of their clothing, when we see a country-side ablaze
with the standing corn which he has kindled, we are as
indignant with him as with the Philistines when they
burn his wife and her father with fire. Nor can we
find anything like excuse for Samson on the ground
of zeal in the service of pure religion. Had he been
a fanatical Hebrew mad against idolatry his conduct
might find some apology ; but no such clue offers.
294 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.
The Danite is moved chiefly by selfish and vain
passions, and his sense of official duty is all too weak
and vague. We see little patriotism and not a trace
of religious fervour. He is serving a great purpose
with some sincerity, but not wisely, not generously nor
greatly. Samson is a creature of impulse working out
his life in blind almost animal fashion, perceiving the
next thing that is to be done not in the light of religion
or duty, but of opportunity and revenge. The first of
his acts against the Philistines was no promising start
in a heroic career, and almost at every point in the
story of his life there is something that takes away
our respect and sympathy. But the life is full of moral
suggestion and warning. He is a real and striking
example of the wild Berserker type.
I. For one thing this stands out as a clear principle
that a man has his life to live, his work to do, alone
if others will not help, imperfectly if not in the best
fashion, half-wrongly if the right cannot be clearly seen.
This world is not for sleep, is not for inaction and
sloth. " Whatsoever thy hand finds to do, do it with
thy might." A thousand men in Dan, ten thousand in
Judah did nothing that became men, sat at home while
their grapes and olives grew, abjectly sowed and reaped
their fields in dread of the Philistines, making no
attempt to free their country from the hated yoke.
Samson, not knowing rightly how to act, did go to
work and, at any rate, lived. Among the dull spiritless
Israelites of the day, three thousand of whom actually
came on one occasion to beseech him to give himself
up and bound him with ropes that he might be safely
passed over to the enemy, Samson with all his faults
looks like a man. Those men of Dan and Judah would
slay the Philistines if they dared. It is not because
XV.] DAUNTLESS IN BATTLE, IGNORANTL V BRA VE. 295
they are better than Samson that they do not go down
to Ashkelon and kill. Their consciences do not keep
them back ; it is their cowardice. One who with
some vision of a duty owing to his people goes forth
and acts, contrasts well with these chicken-hearted
thousands.
We are not at present stating the complete motive
of human activity nor setting forth the ideal of life. To
that we shall come afterwards. But before you can
have ideal action you must have action. Before you
can have life of a fine and noble type you must have
life. Here is an absolute primal necessity ; and it is
the key to both evolutions, the natural and the spiritual.
First the human creature must find its power and
capabilit}^ and must use these to some end, be it even
a wrong end, rather than none ; after this the ideal is
caught and proper moral activity becomes possible.
We need not look for the full corn in the ear till
the seed has sprouted and grown and sentjts roots
well into the soil. With this light the roll of Hebrew
fame is cleared and we can trace freely the growth of
life. The heroes are not perfect ; they have perhaps
barely caught the light of the ideal ; but they have
strength to will and to do, they have faith that this
power is a divine gift, and they having it are God's
pioneers.
The need is that men should in the first instance live
so that they may be faithful to their calhng. Deborah
looking round beheld her country under the sore
oppression of Jabin, saw the need and answered to it.
Others only vegetated ; she rose up in human stature
resolute to live. That also was what Gideon began to
do when at the divine call he demolished the altar on
the height of Ophrah ; and Jephthah fought and endured
296 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.
by the sanie law. So soon as men begin to live there
is hope of them.
Now the hindrances to life are these — first, slothful-
ness, the disposition to drift, to let things go ; second,
fear, the restriction imposed on effort of body or of
mind by some opposing force ingloriously submitted
to ; third, ignoble dependence on others. The proper
life of man is never reached by many because they are
too indolent to win it. To forecast and devise, to try
experiments, pushing out in this direction and that is
too much for them. Some opportunity for doing more
and better lies but a mile away or a few yards ; they
see but will not venture upon it. Their country is
sinking under a despot or a weak and foolish govern-
ment ; they do nothing to avert ruin, things will last
their time. Or again, their church is stirred with
throbs of a new duty, a new and keen anxiety ; but
they refuse to feel any thrill, or feeling it a moment they
repress the disturbing influence. They will not be
troubled with moral and spiritual questions, calls to
action that make life severe, high, heroic. Often this
is due to want of physical or mental vigour. Men and
women are overborne by the labour required of them,
the weary tale of bricks. Even from youth they have
had burdens to bear so heavy that hope is never
kindled. But there are many who have no such excuse.
Let us alone, they say, we have no appetite for exertion,
for strife, for the duties that set life in a fever. The
old ways suit us, we will go on as our fathers have
gone. The tide of opportunity ebbs away and they
are left stranded.
Next, and akin, there is fear, the mood of those who
hear the calls of life but hear more clearly the threaten-
ings of sense and time. Often it comes in the form of
XV.] DAUNTLESS IN BATTLE, IGNORANTLY BRAVE. 297
a dread of change, apprehension as regards the unknown
seas on which effort or thought would launch forth.
Let us be still, say the prudent ; better to bear the
ills we have than fly to others that we know not of.
Are we ground down by the Philistines ? Better suffer
than be killed. Are our laws unjust and oppressive ?
Better rest content than risk revolution and the up-
turning of everything. Are we not altogether sure of the
basis of our belief ? Better leave it unexamined than
begin with inquiries the end of which cannot be fore-
seen. Besides, they argue, God means us to be content.
Our lot in the world however hard is of His giving ;
the faith v/e hold is of His bestowing. Shall we not
provoke Him to anger if we move in revolution or in
inquiry. Still it is life they lose. A man who does not
think about the truths he rests on has an impotent
mind. One who does not feel it laid on him to go
forward, to be brave, to make the world better has an
impotent soul. Life is a constant reaching after the
unattained for ourselves and for the world.
And lastly there is ignoble dependence on others.
So many will not exert themselves because they wait
for some one to come and lift them up. They do not
think, nor do they understand that instruction brought
to them is not life. No doubt it is the plan of God
to help the many by the instrumentality of the few, a
whole nation or world by one. Again and again we
have seen this illustrated in Hebrew history, and else-
where the fact constantly meets us. There is one
Luther for Europe, one Cromwell for England, one
Knox for Scotland, one Paul for early Christianity.
But at the same time it is because life is wanting,
because men have the deadly habit of dependence that
the hero must be brave for them and the reformer must
298 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.
break their bonds. The true law of life on all levels,
from that of bodily effort upwards, is self-help ; without
it there is only an infancy of being. He who is in a
pit must exert himself if he is to be delivered. He who
is in spiritual darkness must come to the light if he is
to be saved.
Now we see in Samson a man who in his degree
lived. He had strength like the strength of ten ; he
had also the consecration of his vow and the sense of
a divine constraint and mandate. These things urged
him to life and made activity necessary to him. He
might have reclined in careless ease like many around.
But sloth did not hold him nor fear. He wanted no
man's countenance nor help. He lived. His mere
exertion of power was the sign of higher possibilities.
Live at all hazards, imperfectly if perfection is not
attainable, half-wrongly if the right cannot be seen.
Is this perilous advice? From one point of view it
may seem very dangerous. For many are energetic in
so imperfect a way, in so blundering and false a way
that it might appear better for them to remain quiet,
practically dead than degrade and darken the life of the
race by their mistaken or immoral vehemence. You
read of those traders among the islands of the Pacific
who, afraid that their nefarious traffic should suffer if
missionary work succeeded, urged the natives to kill
the missionaries or drive them away, and when they
had gained their end quickly appeared on the scene to
exchange for the pillaged stores of the mission-house
muskets and gunpowder and villainous strong drink.
May it not be said that these traders were living out
their lives as much as the devoted teachers who had
risked everything for the sake of doing good ? Napo-
leon I., when the scheme of empire presented itself to
XV.] DAUNTLESS IN BA TTLE, IGNORANTL V BRA VE. 299
him and all his energies were bent on climbing to the
summit of affairs in France and in Europe — was not he
living according to a conception of what was greatest
and best ? Would it not have been better if those
traders and the ambitious Corsican alike had been
content to vegetate — inert and harmless through their
days ? And there are multitudes of examples. The
poet B3Ton for one — could the world not well spare
even his finest verse to be rid of his unlawful energy
in personal vice and in coarse profane word ?
One has to confess the difficulty of the problem, the
danger of praising mere vigour. Yet if there is risk on
the one side the risk on the other is greater : and truth
demands risk, defies peril. It is unquestionable that
any family of men when it ceases to be enterprising
and energetic is of no more use in the economy of
things. Its land is a necropolis. The dead cannot
praise God. The choice is between activity that
takes many a wrong direction, hurrying men often
towards perdition, yet at every point capable 'of re-
demption, and on the other hand inglorious death, that
existence which has no prospect but to be swallowed
up of the darkness. And while such is the common
choice there is also this to be noted that inertness is
not certainly purer than activity though it may appear
so merely by contrast. The active life compels us to
judge of it ; the other a mere negation calls for no
judgment, yet is in itself a moral want, an evil and
injury. Conscience being unexercised decay and death
rule all.
Men cannot be saved by their own effort and vigour.
Most true. But if they make no attempt to advance
towards strength, dominion and fulness of existence,
they are the prey of force and evil. Nor will it suffice
300 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.
that they simply exert themselves to keep body and
soul together. The life is more than meat. We must
toil not only that we may continue to subsist, but for
personal distinctness and freedom. Where there are
strong men, resolute minds, earnestness of some kind,
there is soil in which spiritual seed may strike root.
The dead tree can produce neither leaf nor flower. In
short, if there is to be a human race at all for the
divine glory it can only be in the divine way, by the
laws that govern existence of every degree.
2. We come, however, to the compensating principle
of responsibility — the law of Duty which stands over
energy in the range of our life. No man, no race is
justified by force or as we sometimes say by doing. It
is faith that saves. Samson has the rude material of
life ; but though his action were far purer and nobler
it could not make him a spiritual man : his heart is not
purged of sin nor set on God.
Granted that the time was rough, chaotic, cloudy,
that the idea of injuring the Philistines in every possible
way was imposed on the Danite by his nation's abject
state, that he had to take what means lay in his power
for accomplishing the end. But possessed of energy
he was deficient in conscience, and so failed of noble
life. This may be said for him that he did not turn
against the men of Judah who came to bind him and
give him up. Within a certain range he understood
his responsibility. But surely a higher life than he
lived, better plans than he followed were possible to
one who could have learned the will of God at Shiloh,
who was bound to God by a vow of purity and had
that constant reminder of the Holy Lord of Israel. It
is no uncommon thing for men to content themselves
with one sacrament, one observance which is reckoned
XV.] DAUNTLESS IN BA TTLE, IGNORANTL Y BRA VE. 301
enough for salvation — honesty in business, abstinence
from strong drink, attendance on church ordinances.
This they do and keep the rest of existence for un-
restrained self-pleasing, as though salvation lay in a
restraint or a form. But whoever can think is bound
to criticise life, to try his own life, to seek the way of
salvation, and that means being true to the best he
knows and can know, it means believing in the will
of God. Something higher than his own impulse is
to guide him. He is free, yet responsible. His
activity, however great, has no real power, no vindica-
tion unless it falls in with the course of divine law
and purpose. He lives by faith.
Generally there is one clear principle which, if a man
held to it, would keep him right in the main. It may
not be of a very high order, yet it will prepare the way
for something better and meanwhile serve his need.
And for Samson one simple law of duty was to keep
clear of all private relations and entanglements with
the Philistines. There was nothing to hinder him from
seeing that to be safe and right as a rule of life. They
were Israel's enemies and his own. He should have
been free to act against them : and when he married
a daughter of the race he forfeited as an honourable
man the freedom he ought to have had as a son of
Israel. Doubtless he did not understand fully the evil
of idolatry nor the divine law that Hebrews were to
keep themselves separate from the worshippers of
false gods. Yet the instincts of the race to which he
belonged, fidelity to his forefathers and compatriots
made their claim upon him. There was a duty too
which he owed to himself. As a brave strong man
he was discredited by the line of action which he fol-
lowed. His honour lay in being an open enemy to
302 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.
the Philistines, his dishonour in making underhand
excuses for attacicing them. It was base to seek occa-
sion against them when he married the woman at
Timnah, and from one act of baseness he went on to
others because of that first error. And chiefly Samson
failed in his fidelity to God. Scarcely ever was the
name of Jehovah dragged through the mire as it was
by him. The God of truth, the divine guardian of
faithfulness, the God who is light, in Whom is no dark-
ness at all, was made by Samson's deeds to appear as
the patron of murder and treachery. We can hardly
allow that an Israelite was so ignorant of the ordinary
laws of morality as to suppose that faith need not be
kept with idolaters ; there were traditions of his people
which prevented such a notion. One who knew of
Abraham's dealings with the Hittite Ephron and his
rebuke in Egypt could not imagine that the Hebrew
lay under no debt of human equity and honour to the
Philistine. Are there men among ourselves who think
no faithfulness is due by the civilised to the savage ?
Are there professed servants of Christ who dare to
suggest that no faith need be kept with heretics ?
They reveal their own dishonour as men, their own
falseness and meanness. The primal duty of intelligent
and moral beings cannot be so dismissed. And even
Samson should have been openly the Philistines' enemy
or not at all. If they were cruel, rapacious, mean, he
ought to have shown that Jehovah's servant was of
a different stamp. We cannot believe morality to have
been at so low an ebb among the Hebrews that the
popular leader did not know better than he acted. He
became a judge in Israel, and his judgeship would have
been a pretence unless he had some of the justice, truth
and honour which God demanded of men. Beginning
XV.] DA UNTLESS IN BA TTLE, IGNORANTL V BRA VE. 303
in a very mistaken way he must have risen to a higher
conception of duty, otherwise his rule would have been
a disaster to the tribes he governed.
Conscience has originated in fear and is to decay
with ignorance, say some. Already that extraordinary
piece of folly has been answered. Conscience is the
correlative of power, the guide of energy. If the one
decays, so must the other. Living strongly, energetic-
ally, making experiments, seeking liberty and dominion,
pressing towards the higher we are ever to acknowledge
the responsibility which governs life. By what we
know of the divine will we are to order every purpose
and scheme and advance to further knowledge. There
are victories we might win, there are methods by which
we might harass those who do us wrong. One voice
says Snatch the victories, go down by night and injure
the foe, insinuate what you cannot prove, while the
sentinels sleep plunge your spear through the heart of
a persecuting Saul. But another voice asks, Is this
the way to assert moral life ? Is this the line for a
man to take ? The true man swears to his own hurt,
suffers and is strong, does in the face of day what he
has it in him to do and, if he fails, dies a true man
still. He is not responsible for obeying commands of
which he is ignorant, nor for mistakes which he cannot
avoid. One like Samson is clean-handed in what it
would be unutterably base for us to do. But close beside
every man are such guiding ideas as straightforward-
ness, sincerity, honesty. Each of us knows his duty so
far and cannot deceive himself by supposing that God
will excuse him in acting, even for what he counts a
good end, as a cheat and a hypocrite. In politics the
rule is as clear as in companionship, in war as in love.
It has not been asserted that Samson was without
304 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.
a sense of responsibility. He had it, and kept his vow.
He had it, and fought against the Philistines. He did
some brave things openly and like a man. He had a
vision of Israel's need and God's will. Had this not
been true he could have done no good ; the whole
strength of the hero would have been wasted. But
he came short of effecting what he might have effected
just because he was not wise and serious. His strokes
missed their aim. In truth Samson never went earnestly
about the task of delivering Israel. In his fulness of
power he was always half in sport, making random
shots, indulging his own humour. And we may find in
his career no inapt illustration of the careless wa}' in
which the conflict with the evils of our time is carried
on. With all the rage for societies and organizations
there is much haphazard activity, and the fanatic for
rule has his contrast in the free-lance who hates the
thought of responsibility. A curious charitableness too
confuses the air. There are men who are full of ardour
to-day and strike in with some hot scheme against social
wrongs, and the next day are to be seen sitting at a feast
with the very persons most to blame under some pretext
of finding occasion against them or showing that there
is "nothing personal." This perplexes the whole cam-
paign. It is usually mere bravado rather than charity,
a mischief not a virtue.
Israel must be firm and coherent if it is to win liberty
from the Philistines. Christians must stand by each
other steadily if they are to overcome infidelity and
rescue the slaves of sin. The feats of a man who holds
aloof from the church because he is not willing to be
bound by its rules count for little in the great warfare
of the age. Many there are among our literary men,
politicians and even philanthropists who strike in now
. XV.] DA UNTLESS IN BA TTLF, IGNORANTL Y BRA VE. 305
and again in a Christian way and with unquestionably
Christian purpose against the bad institutions and social
evils of our time, but have no proper basis or aim
of action and maintain towards Christian organizations
and churches a constant attitude of criticism. Samson-
like they make showy random attacks on " bigotry,"
"inconsistency" and the like. It is not they who will
deliver man from hardness and worldliness of soul; not
they who will bring in the reign of love and truth.
3. Looking at Samson's efforts during the first part
of his career and observing the want of seriousness and
wisdom that marred them, we may say that all he did
was to make clear and deep the cleft between Philistines
and Hebrews. When he appears on the scene there
are signs of a dangerous intermixture of the two races,
and his own marriage is one. The Hebrews were appa-
rently inclined to settle down in partial subjection to the
Philistines and make the best they could of the situation,
hoping perhaps that by-and-by they might reach a
state of comfortable alliance and equality. Samson
may have intended to end that movement or he may
not. But he certainly did much to end it. After the
first series of his exploits, crowned by the slaughter at
Lehi, there was an open rupture with the Philistines
which had the best effect on Hebrew morals and religion.
It was clear that one Israelite had to be reckoned with
whose strong arm dealt deadly blows. The Philistines
drew away in defeat. The Hebrews learned that they
needed not to remain in any respect dependent or afraid.
This kind of division grows into hatred ; but, as things
were, dislike was Israel's safety. The Philistines did
harm as masters ; as friends they would have done even
more. Enmity meant revulsion from Dagon-worship
and all the social customs of the opposed race. For this
20
3o6 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.
the Hebrews were indebted to Samson ; and although
he was not himself true all along to the principle of
separation, yet in his final act he emphasized it so
by destroying the temple of Gaza that the lesson was
driven home beyond the possibility of being forgotten.
It is no slight service those do who as critics of
parties and churches show them clearly where they
stand, who are to be reckoned as enemies, what alliances
are perilous. There are many who are exceedingly
easy in their beliefs, too ready to yield to the Zeit Gcist
that would obliterate definite belief and with it the
vigour and hope of mankind. Alliance with Philistines
is thought of as a good, not a risk, and the whole of a
party or church may be so comfortably settling in the
new breadth and freedom of this association that the
certain end of it is not seen. Then is the tim.e for the
resolute stroke that divides party from party, creed
from creed. A reconciler is the best helper of religion
at one juncture; at another it is the Samson who
standing alone perhaps, frowned on equally by the
leaders and the multitude, makes occasion to kindle
controversy and set sharp variance between this side
and that. Luther struck in so. His great act was one
that "rent Christendom in twain." Upon the Israel
which looked on afraid or suspicious he forced thedivision
which had been for centuries latent. Does not our age
need a new divider ? You set forth to testify against
Philistines and soon find that half your acquaintances
are on terms of the most cordial friendship with them,
and that attacks upon them which have any point are
reckoned too hot and eager to be tolerated in society.
To the few who are resolute duty is made difficult and
protest painful : the reformer has to bear the sins and
even the scorn of many who should appear with him.
XXII.
PLEASURE AND PERIL IN GAZA.
Judges xvi. I-3.
BY courage and energy Samson so distinguished
himself in his own tribe and on the Philistine
border that he was recognized as judge. Government
of any kind was a boon, and he kept rude order, as
much perhaps by overawing the restless enemy as by
administering justice in Israel. Whether the period of
twenty years assigned to Samson's judgeship inter-
vened between the fight at Lehi and the visit to Gaza we
cannot tell. The chronology is vague, as might be ex-
pected in a narrative based on popular tradition. Most
likely, the twenty years cover the whole time during
which Samson was before the public as hero and
acknowledged chief.
Samson went down to Gaza, which was the principal
Philistine city situated near the Mediterranean coast
some forty miles from Zorah. For what reason did he
venture into that hostile place ? It may, of course,
have been that he desired to learn by personal inspec-
tion what was its strength, to consider whether it
might be attacked with any hope of success ; and if
that was so we would be disposed to justify him. As
the champion and judge of Israel he could not but feel
the danger to which his people were constantly exposed
THE BOOK OF JUDGES,
from the Philistine power so near to them and in those
days always becoming more formidable. He had to a
certain extent secured deliverance for his country as
he was expected to do ; but deliverance was far from
complete, could not be complete till the strength of the
enemy was broken. At great risk to himself he may
have gone to play the spy and devise, if possible, some
plan of attack. In this case he would be an example
of those who with the best and purest motives, seeking
to carry the war of truth and purity into the enemy's
country, go down into the haunts of vice to see what
men do and how best the evils that injure society may
be overcome. There is risk in such adventure ; but it
is nobly undertaken, and even if we do not feel disposed
to imitate we must admire. Bold servants of Christ
may feel constrained to visit Gaza and learn for them-
selves what is done there. Beyond this too is a kind
of adventure which the whole church justifies in pro-
portion to its own faith and zeal. We see St. Paul
and his companions in Ephesus, in Philippi, in Athens
and other heathen towns, braving the perils which
threaten them there, often attacked, sometimes in the
jaws of death, heroic in the highest sense. And we see
the modern missionary with like heroism landing on
savage coasts and at the constant risk of life teaching
the will of God in a sublime confidence that it shall
awaken the most sunken nature ; a confidence never
at fault.
But we are obliged to doubt whether Samson had in
view any scheme against the Philistine power ; and we
may be sure that he was on no mission for the good of
Gaza. Of a patriotic or generous purpose there is no
trace; the motive is unquestionably of a different kind.
From his youth this man was restless, adventurous, ever
xvi. 1-3] rLEASUKE AND PERIL IN GAZA. 309
craving some new excitement good or bad. He could
do anything but quietly pursue a path of duty ; and in
the small towns of Dan and the valleys of Judah he
had little to excite and interest him. There life went
on in a dull way from year to year, without gaiety,
bustle, enterprise. Had the chief been deeply interested
in religion, had he been a reformer of the right kind he
would have found opportunity enough for exertion
and a task into which he might have thrown all his
force. There were heathen images to break in pieces,
altars and high-places to demolish. To banish Baal-
worship and the rites of Ashtoreth from the land, to
bring the customs of the people under the law of
Jehovah would have occupied him fully. But Samson
did not incline to any such doings ; he had no passion
for reform. We never see in his life one such moment
as Gideon and Jephthah knew of high religious daring.
Dark hours he had, sombre enough, as at Lehi "after
the slaughter. But his was the melancholy of a life
without aim sufficient to its strength, without a* vision
matching its energy. To suffer for God's cause is the
rarest of joys and that Samson never knew though he
wa6 judge in Israel.
We imagine then that in default of any excite-
ment such as he craved in the towns of his own land
he turned his eyes to the Philistine cities which pre-
sented a marked contrast. There life was energetic
and gay, there many pleasures were to be had. New
colonists were coming in their swift ships and the
streets presented a scene of constant animation. The
strong eager man, full of animal passion, found the life
he craved in Gaza where he mingled with the crowds
and heard talcs of strange existence. Nor was there
wanting the opportunity for enjoyment which at home
3IO THE BOOK OF /UDGES.
he could not indulge. Beyond the critical observation
of the elders of Dan he could take his fill of sensual
pleasure. Not without danger of course. In some
brawl the Philistines might close upon him. But he
trusted to his strength to escape from their hands, and
the risk increased the excitement. We must suppose
that, having seen the nearer and less important towns
such as Ekron, Gath and Ashkelon he now ventured to
Gaza in quest of amusement, in order, as people say, to
see the world.
A constant peril this of seeking excitement, especially
in an age of high civilization. The means of variety
and stimulus are multiplied, and ever the craving
outruns them, a craving yielded to, with little or no
resistance, by many who should know better. The
moral teacher must recognize the desire for variety and
excitement as perhaps the chief of all the hindrances he
has now to overcome. For one who desires duty there
are scores who find it dull and tame and turn from it,
without sense of fault, to the gaieties of civilized society
in which there is "nothing wrong" as they say, or at
least so little of the positively wrong that conscience is
easily appeased. The religious teacher finds the demand
for " brightness " and variety before him at every turn ;
he is indeed often touched by it himself and follows
with more or less of doubt a path that leads straight
from his professed goal. " Is amusement devilish ? "
asks one. Most people reply with a smile that life
must be lively or it is not worth having. And the
Philistinism that attracts them with its dash and gaudi-
ness is not far away nor hard to reach. It is not
necessary to go across to the Continent where the
brilliance of Vienna or Paris offers a contrast to the
grey dulness of a country village ; nor even to London
xvi. 1-3.1 PLEASURE AND PERIL IN GAZA. 311
where amid the lures of the midnight streets there is
peril of the gravest kind. Those who are restless and
foolhardy can find a Gaza and a valley of Sorek nearer
home, in the next market town. Philistine life, lax in
morals, full of rattle and glitter, heat and change, in
gambling, in debauchery, in sheer audacity of move-
ment and talk, presents its allurements in our streets,
has its acknowledged haunts in our midst. Young
people brought up to fear God in quiet homes whether
of town or country are enticed by the whispered coun-
sels of comrades half ashamed of the things they say,
yet eager for more companionship in what they secretly
know to be folly or worse. Young women are the prey
of those who disgrace manhood and womanhood by
the offers they make, the insidious lies they tell. The
attraction once felt is apt to master. As the current
that rushes swiftly bears them with it they exult in the
rapid motion even while life is nearing the fatal cataract.
Subtle is the progress of infidelity. From the per-
suasion that enjoyment is lawful and has no peril in
it the mind quickly passes to a doubt of the old laws
and warnings. Is it so certain that there is a reward
for purity and unworldliness ? Is not all the talk about
a life to come a jangle of vain words ? The present is
a reality, death a certainty, life a swiftly passing posses-
sion. They who enjoy know what they are getting.
The rest is dismissed as altogether in the air.
With Samson, as there was less of faith and law to
fling aside, there was less hardening of heart. He was
half a heathen always, more conscious of bodily than of
moral strength, reliant on that which he had, indisposed
to seek from God the holy vigour which he valued
little. At Gaza where moral weakness endangered
life his well-knit muscles released him. We see him
312 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.
among the Philistines entrapped, apparently in a posi-
tion from which there is no escape. The gate is closed
and guarded. In the morning he is to be seized and
killed. But aware of his danger, his mind not put com-
pletely off its balance as yet by the seductions of the
place, he arises at midnight and, plucking the doors of
the city-gate from their sockets carries them to the top
of a hill which fronts Hebron.
Here is represented what may at first be quite
possible to one who has gone into a place of temptation
and danger. There is for a time a power of resolution
and action which when the peril of the hour is felt may
be brought into use. Out of the house which is like
the gate of hell, out of the hands of vile tempters
it is possible to burst in quick decision and regain
liberty. In the valley of Sorek it may be otherwise,
but here the danger is pressing and rouses the will.
Yet the power of rising suddenly against temptation,
of breaking from the company of the impure is not
to be reckoned on. It is not of ourselves we can be
strong and resolute enough, but of grace. And can
a man expect divine succour in a harlot's den ? He
thinks he may depend upon a certain self-respect, a
certain disgust at vile things and dishonourable life.
But vice can be made to seem beautiful, it can over-
come the aversion springing from self-respect and the
best education. In the history of one and another of
the famous and brilliant, from the god-like youth of
Macedon to the genius of yesterday the same unutter-
ably sad lesson is taught us ; we trace the quick descent
of vice. Self-respect ? Surely to Goethe, to George
Sand, to Musset, to Burns that should have remained,
a saving salt. But it is clear that man has not the
power of preserving himself. While he says in his
xvi. 1-3.] PLEASURE AND PERIL IN GAZA. 313
heart, That is beneath me ; I have better taste ; I shall
never be guilty of such a low, false and sickening thing
— he has already committed himself.
Samson heard the trampling of feet in the streets and
was warned of physical danger. When midnight came
he lost no time. But he was too late. The liberty he
regained was not the liberty he had lost. Before he
entered that house in Gaza, before he sat down in it,
before he spoke to the woman there he should have
fled. He did not ; and in the valley of Sorek his
strength of will is not equal to the need Delilah
beguiles him, tempts him, presses him with her wiles.
He is infatuated ; his secret is told and ruin comes.
Moral strength, needful decision in duty to self and
society and God — few possess these because few have
the high ideal before them, and the sense of an obliga-
tion which gathers force from the view of eternity.
We live, most of us, in a very limited range of time.
We think of to-morrow or the day beyond ; we think
of years of health and joy in this world, rarely of the
boundless after-life. To have a stain upon the cha-
racter, a blunted moral sense, a scar that disfigures the
mind seems of little account because we anticipate but
a temporary reproach or inconvenience. To be defiled,
blinded, maimed for ever, to be incapacitated for the
labour and joy of the higher world does not enter into
our thought. And many who are nervously anxious to
appear well in the sight of men are shameless when |
God only can see. Moral strength does not spring out
of such imperfect views of obligation. What availed
Samson's fidelity to the Nazirite vow when by another
gate he let in the foe ?
The common kind of religion is a vow which covers
two or three points of duty only. The value and glory
314 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.
of the religion of the Bible are that it sets us on our
guard and strengthens us against everything that is
dangerous to the soul and to society. Suppose it were
asked wherein our strength lies, what would be the
answer ? Say that one after another stood aside con-
scious of being without strength until one was found
willing to be tested. Assume that he could say, I am
temperate, I am pure ; passion never masters me : so
far the account is good. You hail him as a man of
moral power, capable of serving society. But you have
to inquire further before you can be satisfied. You
have to say, Some have had too great liking for money.
Francis Bacon, Lord Chancellor of England, notable in
the first rank of philosophers, took bribes and was con-
victed upon twenty-three charges of corruption. Are
you proof against covetousness ? because if you can be
tempted by the glitter of gold reliance cannot be placed
upon you. And again it must be asked of the man —
Is there any temptress who can wind you about her
fingers, overcome your conscientious scruples, wrest
from you the secret you ought to keep and make you
break your covenant with God, even as Delilah over-
came Samson ? Because, if there is, you are weaker
than a vile woman and no dependence can be placed
upon you. We learn from history what this kind of
temptation does. We see one after another, kings,
statesmen, warriors who figure bravely upon the scene
for a time, their country proud of them, the best hopes
of the good centred in them, suddenly in the midst of
their career falling into pitiable weakness and covering
themselves with disgrace. Like Samson they have
loved some woman in the valley of Sorek. In the life
of to-day instances of the same pitiable kind occur in
every rank and class. The shadow falls on men who
xvi. 1-3.] PLEASURE AND PERIL IN GAZA. 315
held high places in society or stood for a time as pillars
in the house of God.
Or, taking another case, one may be able to say, I
am not avaricious, I have fidelity, I would not desert a
friend nor speak a falsehood for any bribe ; I am pure ;
for courage and patriotism you may rely upon me : —
here are surely signs of real strength. Yet that man
may be wanting in the divine faithfulness on which
every virtue ultimately depends. With all his good
qualities he may have no root in the heavenly, no
spiritual faith, ardour, decision. Let him have great
opposition to encounter, long patience to maintain,
generosity and self-denial to exercise without prospect
of quick reward — and will he stand ? In the final test
nothing but fidelity to the Highest, tried and sure
fidelity to God can give a man any right to the confi-
dence of others. That chain alone which is welded
with the fire of holy consecration, devotion of heart
and strength and mind to the will of God is able to
bear the strain. If we are to fight the battles of life
and resist the urgency of its temptations the whole
divine law as Christ has set it forth must be our
Nazirite vow and we must count ourselves in respect of
every obligation the bondmen of God. Duty must not
be a matter of self-respect but of ardent aspiration.
The way of our life may lead us into some Gaza full of
enticements, into the midst of those who make light
of the names we revere and the truths we count most
sacred. Prosperity may come with its strong tempta-
tions to pride and vainglory. If we would be safe it
must be in the constant gratitude to God of those who
feel the responsibility and the hope that are kindled at
the cross, as those who have died with Christ and now
live with Him unto God. In this redeemed life it may
3i6 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.
be almost said there is no temptation ; the earthly
ceases to lure, gay shows and gauds cease to charm
the soul. There still are comforts and pleasures in
God's world, but they do not enchain. A vision of the
highest duty and reality overshines all that is trivial
and passing. And this is life — the fulness, the charm,
the infinite variety and strength of being. " How can
he that is dead to the world live any longer therein ? "
Yet he lives as he never did before.
In the experience of Samson in the valley of Sorek
we find another warning. We learn the persistence
with which spiritual enemies pursue those whom they
mark for their prey. It has been said that the adver-
saries of good are always most active in following the
best men with their persecutions. This we take leave
to deny. It is when a man shows some weakness,
gives an opportunity for assault that he is pressed and
hunted as a wounded lion by a tribe of savages. The
occasion was given to the Philistines by Samson's
infatuation. Had he been a man of stern purity they
would have had no point of attack. But Delilah could
be bribed. The lords of the Philistines offered her a
large sum to further their ends, and she, a willing in-
strument, pressed Samson with her entreaties. BafQed
again and again she did not rest till the reward was
won.
We can easily see the madness of the man in treating
lightly, as if it were a game he was sure to win, the
solicitations of the adventuress. " The Philistines be
upon thee, Samson" — again and again he heard that
threat and laughed at it. The green withes, the new
ropes with which he was bound were snapped at will.
Even when his hair was woven into the web he could
go away with web and beam and the pin with which
xvi.i-3.] PLEASURE AND PERIL IN GAZA. ,317
they had been fixed to the ground. But if he had been
aware of what he was doing how could he have failed
to see that he was approaching the fatal capitulation,
that wiles and blandishments were gaining upon him ?
When he allowed her to tamper with the sign of his
vow it was the presage of the end.
So it often is. The wiles of the spirit of this world
are woven very cunningly. First the " over-scrupu-
lous " observance of religious ordinances is assailed.
The tempter succeeds so far that the Sabbath is made
a day of pleasure : then the cry is raised, " The Philis-
tines be upon' thee." But the man only laughs. He
feels himself quite strong as yet, able for any moral
task. Another lure is framed — gambling, drinking. It
is yielded to moderately, a single bet by way of sport,
one deep draught on some extraordinary occasion.
He who is the object of persecution is still self-confi-
dent. He scorns the thought of danger. A prey to
gambling, to debauchery? He is far enough from that.
But his weakness is discovered. Satanic profit is to
be made out of his fall ; and he shall not escape.
It is true as ever it was that the friendship of the
world is a snare. When the meshes of time and sense
close upon us we may be sure that the end aimed at
is our death. The whole world is a valley of Sorek to
weak man, and at every turn he needs a higher than
himself to guard and guide him. He is indeed a
Samson, a child in morals, though full-grown in muscle.
There are some it is true who are able to help, who
if they were beside in the hour of peril would inter-
pose with counsel and warning and protection. But
a time comes to each of us when he has to go alone
through the dangerous streets. Then unless he holds
straight forward, locking neither to right hand nor left,
318 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.
pressing towards the mark, his weakness will be quickly
detected, that secret tendency scarcely known to him-
self by which he can be most easily assailed. Nor
will it be forgotten if once it has been discovered. It
is now the property of a legion. Be it vanity or
avarice, ambition or sensuousness, the Philistines know
how to gain their end by means of it. There is strength
indeed to be had. The weakest may become strong,
able to face all the tempters in the world and to pass
unscathed through the streets of Gaza or the crowds
of Vanity Fair. Nor is the succour far away. Yet to
persuade men of their need and then to bring them to
the feet of God are the most difficult of tasks in an age
of self-sufficiency and spiritual unreason. Harder than
ever is the struggle to rescue the victims of worldly
fashion, enticement and folly : for the false word has
gone forth that here and here only is the life of man
and that renouncing the temporal is renouncing all.
XXIII.
THE VALLEY OF SO RE K AND OF DEATH.
Judges xvi. 4-31.
''T^HE strong bold man who has blindly fought his
JL battles and sold himself to the traitress and to
the enemy,
" Eyeless in Gaza at the mill with slaves,"
the sport and scorn of those who once feared him, is
a mournful object. As we look upon him there in his
humiliation, his temper and power wasted, his life
withered in its prime, we almost forget the folly and
the sin, so much are we moved to pity and regret. For
Samson is a picture, vigorous in outline and colour, of
what in a less striking way many are and many more
would be if it were not for restraints of divine grace.
A fallen hero is this. But the career of multitudes
without the dash and energy ends in the like misery
of defeat ; nothing done, not much attempted, their
existence fades into the sere and yellow leaf. There
has been no ardour to make death glorious.
Every man has his defects, his besetting sins, his
dangers. It is in the consciousness of our own that
we approach with sorrow the last scenes of the eventful
history of Samson. Who dares cast a stone at him ?
320 THE BOOK OF JUDGES,
Who carl fling a taunt as he is seen groping about in
his blindness ?
"A little onward lend thy guiding hand
To these dark steps, a little further on.
For yonder bank hath choice of sun or shade ;
There I am wont to sit when any chance
Relieves me from my task of servile toil.
O dark, dark, dark amid the blaze of noon,
Irrecoverably dark, total eclipse
Without all hope of day : "
SO we hear him bewail his lot. And we, perchance,
feeling weakness creep over us while bonds of circum-
stance still hold us from what we see to be our divine
calling, — we compassionate ourselves in pitying him ;
or, if we are as yet strong and buoyant, our history
before us, plans for useful service of our time clearly
in view, have we not already felt the symptoms of
moral infirmity which make it doubtful whether we
shall reach our goal ? There are many hindrances,
and even the brave unselfish man who never loiters
in Gaza or in the treacherous valley may find his way
barred by obstacles he cannot remove. But in the case
of most the hindrances within are the most numerous
and powerful. This man who should effect much for
his age is held by love which blinds him, that other
by hatred which masters him. Now covetousness,
now pride is the deterrent. Many begin to know them-
selves and the difficulty of doing great tasks for God
and man when noontide is past and the day has begun
to decline. Great numbers have only dreamed of
attempting something and have never bestirred them-
selves to act. So it is that Samson's defeat appears
a symbol of the pathetic human failure. To many his
character is full of sad interest, for in it they see what
xvi,4-3i-] THE VALLEY OF SOREK AND OF DEATH. 321
they have fears of becoming or what they have already
become.
What has Samson lost when he has revealed his
secret to Delilah ? Observe him when he goes forth
from the woman's house and stands in the sunlight.
Apart from the want of his waving locks he seems the
same and is physically the same ; muscle and sinew,
Lone and nerve, stout-beating heart and strong arm,
Samson is there. And his human will is as eager
as ever ; he is a bold daring man this morning as he
was last evening, with the same dream of " breaking
through all " and bearing himself as king. But he is
more lonely than ever before ; something has gone
from his soul. A heavy sense of faithlessness to one
prized distinction and known duty oppresses him.
Chake thyself as at other times, poor rash Samson,
but know in thy heart that at last thou art powerless :
the audacity of faith is no longer thine. Thou art the
natural man still, but that is not enough, the spiritual
sanction gone. The Philistines, half afraid, gather
about thee ten to one ; they can bind now and lead
captive for thou hast lost the girdle which knit thy
powers together and made thee invincible. The con-
sciousness of being God's man is gone — the conscious-
ness of being true to that which united thee in a
rude but very real bond to the Almighty. Thou hast
scorned the vow which kept thee from the abyss,
and with the knowledge of utter moral baseness comes
physical prostration, despair, feebleness, ruin. Samson
at last knows himself to be no king at all, no hero nor
judge.
It is common to think the spiritual of little account,
faith in God of little account. Suppose men give that
up ; suppose they no longer hold themselves bound by
21
Sn THE BOOK OF JUDGES.
duty to the Almighty; they expect nevertheless to con-
tinue the same. They will still have their reason,
their strength of body and of mind ; they believe that
all they once did they shall still be able to do and now
more freely in their own way, therefore even more
successfully. Is that so ? Hope is a spiritual thing.
It is apart from bodily strength, distinct from energy
and manual skill. Take hope away from a man, ihe
strongest, the bravest, the most intelligent, and will
he be the same ? Nay. His eye loses its lustre ; the
vigour of his will decays; he lies powerless and defeated.
Or take love away — love which is again a spiritual
thing. Let the ardour, the reason for exertion which
love inspired pass away. Let the man who loved and
would have dared all for love be deprived of that
source of vital power, and he will dare no longer. Sad
and weary and dispirited he will cast himself down
careless of life.
But hope and love are not so necessary to the full
tide of human vigour, are not so potent in stirring the
powers of manhood as the friendship of God, the con-
sciousness that made by God for ends of His we have
Him as our stay. Indeed without this consciousness
manhood never finds its strength. This gives a hope
far higher and more sustaining than any of a personal
or temporal kind. It makes us strong by virtue of the
finest and deepest affection which can possibly move
us ; and more than that it gives to life full meaning,
proper aim and justification. A man without the sense
of a divine origin and election has no standing-ground;
he is so to speak without the right of existence, he has
no claim to be heard in speaking and to have a place
among those who act. But he who feels himself to be
in the world on God's business, to be God's servant,
svi.4-3i.] THE VALLEY OF SOREK AND OF DEATH. 323
has his assured place and claim as a man, and can see
reason and purpose for every sharp trial to which he
is put. Here then is the secret of strength, the only
source of power and steadfastness for any man or
woman. And he who has had it and lost it, breaking
with God for the sake of gain or pleasure or somie
earthly affection, must like Samson feel his vigour
sapped, his confidence forfeited. Now his power to
command, to advise, to contend for any worthy result
has passed away. He is a tree whose root teases to
feed in the soil though still the leaves are green.
The spiritual loss, the loss of living faith, is the great
one : but is it for that we generally pity ourselves or
any person known to us ? Life and freedom are dear,
the ability to put forth energy at our will, the sense
of capacity ; and it is the loss of these in outward and
visible ranges that most moves us to grief. We com-
miserate the strong man whose exploits in the world
seem to be over, as we pity the orator whose power of
speech is gone, the artist who can no more handle the
brush, the eager merchant whose bargaining is done.
We give our sympathy to Samson, because in the
midst of his days he has fallen overcome by treachery,
because the cruelty of enemies has afflicted him. Yet,
looking at the truth of things, the real cause of pity is
deeper than any of these and different. A man who
is still in living touch with God can suffer the saddest
deprivations and retain a cheerful heart, unbroken
courage and hope. Suppose that Samson, surprised
by his enernies while he was about some worthy task,
had been seized, deprived of his sight, bound with
fetters of iron and consigned to prison. Should we
then have had to pity him as we must when he is
taken, a traitor to himself, the dupe of a deceiver, with
324 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.
the badge of his vow and the sense of his fidelity
gone ? We feel with Jeremiah in his affliction ; we ft-el
with John the Baptist confined in the prison into wliich
Herod has cast him, with St. Paul in the Philippian
dungeon and with St. Peter lying bound with chains in
the castle of Jerusalem. But we do not commiserate,
we admire and exult. Here are men who endure for
the right. They are martyrs, fellow-sufferers with
Christ; they are marching with the cohorts of God
to the deliverances of eternity. Ah ! It is the men
who are " martyrs by the pang without the palm," the
men who have lost not only liberty but nobleness, who
dragged after false lures have sold their prudence and
their strength — these it is for whom we need to weep.
He who doing his duty has been mastered by enemies,
he who fighting a brave battle has been overcome —
let us not dare to pity him. But the man who has
given up the battle of faith, who has lost his glory,
him the heavens look upon with the profound sorrow
that is called for by a wasted life.
And how pathetic the touch : " He wist not that the
Lord had departed from him." For a little time he
failed to realize the spiritual disaster he had brought
on himself. For a little time only ; soon the dark
conviction seized him. But worse still would have
been his case if he had remained unconscious of loss.
This sense of weakness is the last boon to the sinner.
God still does this for him, poor headstrong child of
nature as he would fain be, living by and for himself:
he is not permitted. Whether he will own it or not
he shall be weak and useless until he returns to God
and to himself. Often indeed we find the enslaved
Samson refusing to allow that anything is wrong with
him. Out of sight of the world, in some very secret
xvi.4-3i.] THE VALLEY OF SOREK AND OF DEATLL 325
place he has broken the obligations of faith, temperance,
chastity, and yet thinks no special result has followed.
He can meet the demands of society and that is enough,
supposing the matter should come to light. Of the
subtle poisoning of his own soul he has no thought.
Is the thing hidden then? The law which determines
that as a man is so his strength shall be follows every
one into the most secret place. It keeps watch over
our veracity, our sobriety, our purity, our faithfulness.
Whenever in one point our covenant with God is
broken a part of strength is taken away. Do we not
perceive the loss ? Do we flatter ourselves that all is
as before ? That is only our spiritual blindness ; the
fact remains.
What a pitiful thing it is to see men in this plight
trying in vain to go about as if nothing had happened
and they w^ere as fit as ever for their places in society
and in the church ! We do not speak solely of sins like
those into which Samson and David fell. The/e are
others, scarcely reckoned sins, which as surely result
in moral weakness perceived or unperceived, in the
loss of God's countenance and support. Our covenant
is to be pure and also merciful ; let one fail in merci-
fulness, let there be a harsh pitiless temper cherished
in secret, and this as well as impurity will make him
morally weak. Our covenant is to be generous as
well as honest ; let a man keep from the poor and
from the church what he ought to give, and he will
lose his strength of soul as surely ias if he cheated an-
other in trade, or took what was not his own. But
we distinguish between sin and default and think of
the latter as a mere infirmity which has no ill effect.
There is no acknowledgment of loss even when it has
become almost complete. The man who is not generous
326 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.
nor merciful, nor a defender of faith goes on thinking
all is well with him, imagining that his futile religious
exercises or gifts to this and that keep him on good
terms with God and that he is helping the world, while
in truth he has not the moral strength of a child. He
acts the part of a Christian teacher or servant of the
church, he leads in prayer, he joins in deliberations
that have to do with the success of Christian work.
To himself all seems satisfactory and he expects that
good shall result from his efforts. But it cannot be.
There is the strain of exertion but no power.
Do we wonder that more is not effected by our
organizations, religious and other, which seem so
powerful, quite capable of Christianising and reforming
the world ? The reason is that many of the professed
religious and benevolent, who appear zealous and
strenuous, are dying at heart. The Lord may not
have departed from them utterly ; they are not dead ;
there is still a rootlet of spiritual being. But they
cannot fight ; they cannot help others ; they cannot
run in the way of God's commandments. Are we not
bound to ask ourselves how we stand, whether any
failure in our covenant-keeping has made us spiritually
weak. If we are paltering with eternal facts, if between
us and the one Source of Life there is a widening
distance surely the need is urgent for a return to
Christian honour and fidelity which will make us
strong and useful.
And there is something here in the story of Samson
that bids us think hopefully of a new way and a new
life. In the misery to which he was reduced there
came to him with renewed acceptance of his vow a
fresh endowment of vigour. It is the divine healing,
the grace of the long-suffering Father which are thus
XV. 4-31] THE VALLEY OF SOREK AND OF DEATH. 327
represented. No human soul needs to be utterly
disconsolate, for grace waits ever on discomfiture.
Return to me, says the Lord, and I will return to you ;
I will heal your backslidings and love you freely. Out
of the deepest depths there is a way to the heights
of spiritual privilege and power. To confess our faults
and sins, to resume the fidelity, the uprightness, the
generosity and mercifulness we renounced, to take
again the straight upward path of self-denial and duty
— this is always reserved for the soul that has not
utterly perished. The man, young or old, who has
become weaker than a child for any good work may hear
the call that speaks of hope. He who in self-indulgence
or hard worldliness has abandoned God may turn
again to the Father's entreaty, " Remember from what
thou hast fallen and repent."
We pass now to consider a point suggested by the
terms in which the Philistines triumphed over their
captured foe. When the people saw him they praised
their God : for they said. Our god hath delivered into
our hand our enemy, and the destroyer of our country
which hath slain many of us. Here the ignorant religi-
ousness and gratitude of Philistines to a god which
was no Gcd might provoke a smile were it not for the
consideration that under the clear light of Christianity
equal ignorance is often shown by those who profess
to be piously grateful. You say it was the bribe which
the Philistine lords offered to Delilah and her treachery
and Samson's sin that put him in the enemy's hand.
You say, Surely the most ignorant man in Gaza must
have seen that Dagon had nothing whatever to do with
the result. And yet it is very common to ascribe to
God what is nowise His doing. There are indeed
times when we almost shudder to hear God thanked
328 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.
for that which could only be attributed to a Dagon
or a Moloch.
We are told of the tribal gods of those old Syrians
— Baal, Melcarth, Sutekh, Milcom and the rest— each
adored as master and protector by some people or race.
Piously the devotees of each god acknowledged his
hand in every victory and every fortunate circumstance,
at the same time tracing to his anger and their own
neglect of duty to him all calamities and defeats.
May it not be said that the belief of many still is in
a tribal god, falsely called by the name of Jehovah, a
god whose chief function is to look after their interests
whoever may suffer, and take their side in all quarrels
whoever may be in the right ? Men make for them-
selves the rude outline of a divinity who is supposed to
be indifferent or hostile to every circle but their own,
suspicious of every church but their own, careless of
the sufferings of all but themselves. In two countries
that are at war prayers for success will ascend in
almost the same terms to one who is thought of as a
national protector, not to the Father of all; each side
is utterly regardless of the other, makes no allowance
in prayer for the possibility that the other may be in
the right. The thanksgivings of the victors too will be
mixed with glorying almost fiendish over the defeated,
whose blood, it may be, dyed in pathetic martyrdom
their own hill- sides and valleys. In less flagrant cases,
where it is only a question of gain or loss in trade, of
getting some object of desire, the same spirit is shown.
God is thanked for bestowing that of which another,
perhaps more worthy, is deprived. It is not to the
kindness of Heaven, but rather to the proving severity
of God, we may say, that the result is due. Looking
on with clear eyes we see som.ething very different
xvi.4-3»-] THE VALLEY OF SOREK AND OF DEATH. 329
from divine approval in the prosperous efforts of un-
scrupulous push and wire-pulling. Those who have
much success in the world have need to justify their
comforts and the praise they enjoy. They need to
show cause to the ranks of the obscure and ill-paid for
their superior fortune. Success like theirs cannot be
admitted as a special mark of the favour of that God
Whose ways are equal, Whose name is the Holy and
Just.
Next look at the ignoble task to which Samson is put
by the Philistines, a type of the ignominious uses to
which the hero may be doomed by the crowd. The
multitude cannot be trusted with a great man.
In the prison at Gaza the fallen chief was set to grind
corn, to do the work of slaves. To him, indeed, work
was a blessing. From the bitter thoughts that would
have eaten out his heart he was somewhat delivered by
the irksome labour. In reality, as we. now perceive,
no work degrades; but a man of Samson's type and
period thought differently. The Philistine purpose was
to degrade him ; and the Hebrew captive would feel in
the depths of his hot brooding nature the humiliating
doom. Look then at the parallels. Think of a great
statesman placed at the head of a nation to guide its
policy in the line of righteousness, to bring its laws
into harmony with the principles of human freedom
and divine justice — think of such a one, while labouring
at his sacred task with all the ardour of a noble heart,
called to account by those whose only desire is for
better trade, the means of beating their rivals in some
market or bolstering up their failing speculations. Or
see him at another time pursued by the cry of a class
that feels its prescriptive rights invaded or its position
threatened. Take again a poet, an artist, a writer, a
330 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.
preacher intent on great themes, eagerly following
after the ideal to which he has devoted himself, but
exposed every moment to the criticism of men who
have no soul — held up to ridicule and reprobation
because he does not accept vulgar models and repeat
the catchwords of this or that party. Philistinism is
always in this way asserting its claim, and ever and
anon it succeeds in dragging some ardent soul into the
dungeon to grind thenceforth at the mill.
With the very highest too it is not afraid to inter-
meddle. Christ Himself is not safe. The Philistines
of to-day are doing their utmost to make His name
inglorious. For what else is the modern cry that
Christianity should be chiefly about the business of
making life comfortable in this world and providing
not only bread but amusement for the crowd ? The
ideas of the church are not practical enough for this
generation. To get rid of sin — that is a dream ; to
make men fearers of God, soldiers of truth, doers of
lighteousness at all hazards — that is in the air. Let
it be given up ; let us seek what we can reach ; bind
the name of Christ and the Spirit of Christ in chains
to the work of a practical secularism, and let us turn
churches into pleasant lounging places and picture
galleries. Why should the soul have the benefit of so
great a name as that of the Son of God ? Is not the
body more ? Is not the main business to have houses
and railways, news and enjoyment ? The policy of
undeifying Christ is having too much success. If it
make way there will soon be need for a fresh departure
into the wilderness.
The last scene of Samson's history awaits us — the
gigantic effort, the awful revenge in which the Hebrew
champion ended his days. In one sense it aptly
xvi.4-3i.] THE VALLEY OF SOREK AND OF DEATH. 331
crowns the man's career. The sacred historian is
not composing a romance, yet the end could not have
been more fit. Strangely enough it has given occasion
for preaching the doctrine of self-sacrifice as the only
means of highest achievement, and we are asked to
see here an example of the finest heroism, the most
sublime devotion. Samson dying for his country is
likened to Christ dying for His people.
It is impossible to allow this for a moment. Not
Milton's apology for Samson, not the authority of
all the illustrious men who have drawn the parallel
can keep us from deciding that this was a case of
vengeance and self-murder not of noble devotion. We
have no sense of vindicated principle when we see
that temple fall in terrible ruin, but a thrill of dis-
appointment and keen sorrow that a servant of Jehovah
should have done this in His name. The lords of
the Philistines, all the sevens or chiefs of the hundred
cities are gathered in the ample porch of the building.
True, they are assembled at an idolatrous feast ; but
this idolatry is their religion which they cannot choose
but exercise for they know of no better, nor has Samson
ever done one deed or spoken one word that could con-
vince them of error. True, they are met to rejoice over
their enemy and they call for him in cruel vainglory
to make them sport. Yet this is the man who for his
sport and in his revenge once burned the standing corn
of a whole valley and more than once went on slaying
Philistines till he was weary. True, Samson as a
patriotic Israelite views these people as enemies. Yet
it was among them he first sought a wife and after-
wards pleasure. And now, if he decides to die th.it
he m'ay kill a thousand enemies at once, is the self-
chosen death less an act of suicide ?
33'2 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.
If this was truly a fine act of self-sacrifice what good
came of it ? The sacrifice that is to be praised does
distinct and clearly purposed service to some worthy
cause or high moral end. We do not find that this
dreadful deed reconciled the Philistines to Israel or
moved them to belief in Jehovah. We observe, on the
contrary, that it went to increase the hatred between
race and race, so that when Canaanites, Moabites,
Ammonites, Midianites no longer vex Israel these
Philistines show more deadly antagonism— antagonism
of which Israel knew the heat when on the red field of
Gilboa the kingly Saul and the well-beloved Jonathan
were together stricken down in death. If there was in
Samson's mind any thought of vindicating a principle
it was that of Israel's dignity as the people of Jehovah.
But here his testimony was worthless.
As we have already said, much is written about self-
sacrifice which is sheer mockery of truth, most falsely
sentimental. Men and women are urged to the notion
that if they can only find some pretext for renouncing
freedom, for curbing and endangering life, for stepping
aside from the way of common service that they may
give up something in an uncommon way for the sake
of any person or cause, good will come of it. The
doctrine is a lie. The sacrifice of Christ was not of
that kind. It was under the influence of no blind
desire to give up His life, but first under the pressure
of a supreme providential necessity, then in renunciation
of the earthly life for a clearly seen and personally
embraced divine end, the reconciliation of man to God,
the setting forth of a propitiation for the sin of the
world — for this it was He died. He willed to be our
Saviour ; having so chosen He bowed to the b'urden
that was laid upon Him. " It pleased the Lord to
xvi.4-3i.] THE VALLEY OF SOREK AND OF DEATH. 333
bruise Him ; He hath put Him to grief." To the end
He foresaw and desired there was but one way — and
the way was that of death because of man's wicked-
ness and ruin.
Suffering for itself is no end and never can be to
God or to Christ or to a good man. It is a necessity
on the way to the ends of righteousness and love. If
personality is not a delusion and salvation a dream
there must be in every case of Christian renunciation
some distinct moral aim in view for every one concerned,
and there must be at each step, as in the action of our
Lord, the most distinct and unwavering sincerity, the
most direct truthfulness. Anything else is a sin
against God and humanity. We entreat would-be
moralists of the day to comprehend before they write
of " self-sacrifice." The sacrifice of the moral judgment
is always a crime, and to preach needless suffering for
the sake of covering up sin or as a means of atoning
for past defects is to utter most unchristian falsehood.
Samson threw away a life of which he was Weary
and ashamed. He threw it away in avenging a cruelty ;
but it was a cruelty he had no reason to call a wrong.
" O God, that I might be avenged ! " — that was no
prayer of a faithful heart. It was the prayer ot
envenomed hatred, of a soul still unregenerate after
trial. His death was indeed 5^^-sacrifice — the sacrifice
of the higher self, the true self, to the lower. Samson
should have endured patiently, magnifying God, Or we
can imagine something not perfect yet heroic. Had
he said to those Philistines, My people and you have
been too long at enmity. Let there be an end of it.
Avenge yourselves on me, then cease from harassing
Israel, — that would have been like a brave man. But it
is not this we find. And we close the story of Samson
334 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.
more sad than ever that Israel's history has not
taught a great man to be a good man, that the hero
has not achieved the morally heroic, that adversity has
not begotten in him a wise patience and magnan-
imity. Yet he had a place under Divine Providence.
The dim troubled faith that was in his soul was not
altogether fruitless. No Jehovah-worshipper would
ever think of bowing before that god whose temple
fell in ruins on the captive Israelite and his thousand
victims.
XXIV.
THE STOLEN GODS
Judges xvii., xviii.
THE portion of the Book of Judges which begins
with the seventeenth chapter and extends to
the close is not in immediate connection with that
which has gone before. We read (ch. xviii. 30) that
"Jonathan, the son of Gershom, the son of Manasseh,
he and his sons were priests to the tribe of Dan until
the day of the captivity of the land." But the proper
reading is, " Jonathan, the son of Gershom, the son of
Moses." It would seem that the renegade Levite of
the narrative was a near descendant of the great law-
giver. So rapidly did the zeal of the priestly house
decline that in the third or fourth generation after
Moses one of his own line became minister of an idol
temple for the sake of a living. It is evident, then,
that in the opening of the seventeenth chapter we are
carried back to the time immediately following the
conquest of Canaan by Joshua, when Othniel was
settling in the south and the tribes were endeavouring
to establish themselves in the districts allotted to them.
The note of time is of course far from precise, but the
incidents are certainly to be placed early in the period.
We are introduced first to a family living in Mount
Ephraim consisting of a widow and her son Micah
336 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.
who is married and has sons of his own. It appears
that on the death of the father of Micah a sum of
eleven hunded shekels of silver, about a hundred and
twenty pounds of our money — a large amount for the
time — was missed by the widow, who after vain search
for it spoke in strong terms about the matter to her
son. He had taken the money to use in stocking his
farm or in trade and at once acknowledged that he had
done so and restored it to his mother, who hastened to
undo any evil her words had caused by invoking upon
him the blessing of God. Further she dedicated two
hundred of her shekels to make graven and molten
images in token of piety and gratitude.
We have here a very significant revelation of the
state of religion. The indignation of Moses had burned
against the people when at Sinai they made r. rude
image of gold, sacrificed to it and danced about it in
heathen revel. We are reading of what took place say a
century after that scene at the foot of Sinai, and already
those who desire to show their devotion to the Eternal,
very imperfectly known as Jehovah, make teraphim
and molten images to represent Him. Micah has a
sort of private chapel or temple among the buildings
in his courtyard. He consecrates one of his sons to
be priest of this little sanctuary. And the historian
adds in explanation of this, as one keenly aware of the
benefits of good government under a God-fearing mon-
arch— " In those days there was no king in Israel.
Every man did that which was right in his own eyes."
We need not take for granted that the worship in
this hill-chapel was of the heathen sort. There was
probably no Baal, no Astarte among the images; or,
if there was, it may have been merely as representing
a Syrian power prudently recognised but not adored.
. xvii., xviii.] THE STOLEN GODS. 337
No hint occurs in the whole story of a licentious or
a cruel cult, although there must have been something
dangercusly like the superstitious practices of Canaan.
Micah's chapel, whatever the observances were, gave
direct introduction to the pagan forms and notions
which prevailed among the people of the land. There
already Jehovah was degraded to the rank of a nature-
divinity, and represented by figures.
In one of the highland valleys towards the north of
Ephraim's territory Micah had his castle and his ecclesi-
astical establishment — state and church in germ. The
Israelites of the neighbourhood, who looked up to the
well-to-do farmer for protection, regarded him all the
more that he showed respect for religion, that he
had this house of gods and a private priest. They
came to worship in his sanctuary and to inquire of the
ecclesiastic, who in some way endeavoured to discover
the will of God by means of the terapbim and ephod.
The ark of the covenant was not far away for Bethel
and Gilgal were both within a day's journey. But the
people did not care to be at the trouble of going so far.
They liked better their own local shrine and its home-
lier ways ; and when at length Micah secured the
services of a Levite the worship seemed to have all the
sanction that could possibly be desired.
It need hardly be said that God is not confined to
a locality, that in those days as in our own the
true worshipper could find the Almighty on any hill-
top, in any dwelling or private place, as well as at the
accredited shrine. It is quite true, also, that God
makes large allowance for the ignorance of men and
their need of visible signs and symbols of what is
unseen and eternal. We must not therefore assume
at once that in Micah's house of idols, before the
22
338 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.
widow's graven and molten figures there could be no
acceptable worship, no prayers that reached the ear
of the Lord of Hosts. And one might even go the
length of saying that, perhaps, in this schismatic
sanctuary, this chapel of images, devotion could be
quite as sincere as before the ark itself. Little good
came of the religious ordinances maintained there
during the whole period of the judges, and even in
Eli's latter days the vileness and covetousness practised
at Shiloh more than countervailed any pious influence.
Local and family altars therefore must have been of
real use. But this was the danger, that leaving the
appointed centre of Jehovah-worship, where symbolism
was confined within safe limits, the people should in
ignorant piety multiply objects of adoration and run
into polytheism. Hence the importance of the decree,
afterwards recognised, that one place of sacrifice should
gather to it all the tribes and that there the ark of the
covenant with its altar should alone speak of the will
and holiness of God. And the story of the Danite
migration connected with this of Micah and his Levite
well illustrates the wisdom of such a law, for it shows
how, in the far north, a sanctuary and a worship were
set up which, existing long for tribal devotion, became
a national centre of impure worship.
The wandering Levite from Bethlehem-judah is one,
we must believe, of many Levites, who having found
no inheritance because the cities allotted to them were
as yet unconquered spread themselves over the land
seeking a livelihood, ready to fall in with any local
customs of religion that offered them position and
employment. The Levites were esteemed as men
acquainted with the way of Jehovah, able to maintain
that communication with Him without which no busi-
xvii.,xviii.] THE STOLEN GODS. 339
iiess could be hopefully undertaken. Something of the
dignity that was attached to the names of Moses and
Aaron ensured them honourable treatment everywhere
unless among the lowest of the people ; and when this
Levite reached the dwelling of Micah, beside which
there seems to have been a khan or lodging-place for
travellers, the chance of securing him was at once seized.
For ten pieces of silver, say twenty-five shillings a year,
with a suit of clothes and his food, he agreed to become
Micah's private chaplain. At this very cheap rate the
whole household expected a time of prosperity and
divine favour. " Now know I," said the head of the
family, "that the Lord will do me good seeing I have
a Levite to my priest." We must fear that he took
some advantage of the man's need, that he did not
much consider the honour of Jehovah yet reckoned on
getting a blessing all the same. It was a case of seek-
ing the best religious privileges as cheaply as possible,
a very common thing in all ages.
But the coming of the Levite was to have results
Micah did not foresee. Jonathan had lived in Bethle-
hem, and some ten or twelve miles westward down the
valley one came to Zorah and Eshtaol, two little towns
of the tribe of Dan of which we have heard. The
Levite had apparently become pretty well known in
the district and especially in those villages to which he
went to offer sacrifice or perform some other religious
rite. And now a series of incidents brought certain
old acquaintances to his new place of abode.
Even in Samson's time the tribe of Dan, whose
territory was to be along the coast west from Judah,
was still obliged to content itself with the slopes of the
hills, not having got possession of the plain. In the
earlier period with which we are now dealing the Danites
340 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.
were in yet greater difficulty, for not only had they
Philistines on the one side but Amorites on the other.
The Amorites "would dwell," we are told, "in Mount
Heres, in Aijalon and in Shaalbim." It was this
pressure which determined the people about Zorah and
Eshtaol to find if possible another place of settlement,
and five men were sent out in search. Travelling north
they took the same way as the Levite had taken, heard
of the same khan in the hill-country of Ephraim and
made it their resting-place for a night. The discovery
of the Levite Jonathan followed and of the chapel in
which he ministered with its wonderful array of images.
We can suppose the deputation had thoughts they did
not express, but for the present they merely sought
the help of the priest, begging him to consult the oracle
on their behalf and learn whether their mission would
be successful. The five went on their journey with the
encouragement, " Go in peace ; before the Lord is your
way wherein ye go."
Months pass without any more tidings of the Danites
until one a day a great company is seen following the
hill-road near Micah's farm. There are six hundred
men girt with weapons of war with their wives and
children and cattle, a whole clan on the march, filling
the road for miles and moving slowly northward. The
five men have indeed succeeded after a fashion. Away
between Lebanon and Hermon in the region of the
sources of Jordan they have found the sort of district
they went to seek. Its chief town Laish stood in the
midst of fertile fields with plenty of wood and water.
It was a place, according to their large report, where
was " no want of anything that is in the earth." More-
over the inhabitants, who seem to have been a Phoeni-
cian colony, dwelt by themselves quiet and secure
xvii.,xviii.] THE STOLEN GODS. 34 1
having no dealings or treaty with the powerful Zido-
nians. They were the very kind of people whom a
sudden attack would be likely to subdue. There was
an immediate migration of Danites to this fresh field,
and in prospect of bloody work the men of Zorah and
Eshtaol seem to have had no doubt as to the rightness
of their expedition ; it was enough that they had felt
themselves straitened. The same reason appears to
suffice many in modern times. Were the aboriginal
inhabitants of America and Australia considered by
those who coveted their land ? Even the pretence of
buying has not always been maintained. Murder and
rapine have been the methods used by men of our own
blood, our own name, and no nation under the sun has
a record darker than the tale of British conquest.
Men who go forth to steal land are quite fit to
attempt the strange business of stealing gods — that is
appropriating to themselves the favour of divine powers
and leaving other men destitute. The Danites as
they pass Micah's house hear from their spies of the
priest and the images that are in his charge. " Do
you know that there is in these houses an ephod and
teraphim and a graven image and a molten image ?
Now therefore consider what ye have to do." The
hint is enough. Soon the court of the farmstead is
invaded, the images are brought out and the Levite
Jonathan, tempted by the offer of being made priest
to a clan, is fain to accompany the marauders. Here
is confusion on confusion. The Danites are thieves,
brigands, and yet they are pious ; so pious that they
steal images to assist them in worship. The Levite
agrees to the theft and accepts the offer of priesthood
under them. He will be the minister of a set of thieves
to forward their evil designs, and they knowing him to
342 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.
be no better than themselves expect that his sacrifices
and prayers will do them good. It is surely a capital
instance of perverted religious ideas.
As we have said, these circumstances are no doubt
recounted in order to show how dangerous it was to
separate from the pure order of worship at the sanc-
tuary. In after times this lesson was needed, especially
when the first king of the northern tribes set his golden
calves the one at Bethel, the other at Dan. Was Israel
to separate from Judah in religion as well as in govern-
ment ? Let there be a backward look to the beginning
of schism in those extraordinary doings of the Danites.
It was in the city founded by the six hundred that one
of Jeroboam's temples was built. Could any blessing
rest upon a shrine and upon devotions which had such
an origin, such an history ?
May we find a parallel now ? Is there a constituted
religious authority with which soundness of belief and
acceptable worship are so bound up that to renounce
the authority is to be in the way of confusion and error,
schism and eternal loss ? The Romanist says so.
Those who speak for the Papal church never cease to
cry to the world that within their communion alone are
truth and safety to be found. Renounce, they say, the
apostolic and divine authority which we conserve and
all is gone. Is there anarchy in a country ? Are the
forces that make for political disruption and national
decay showing themselves in many lands? Are
monarchies overthrown ? Are the people lawless and
wretched ? It all comes of giving up the Catholic
order and creed. Return to the one fold under the
one Shepherd if you would find prosperity. And there
are others who repeat the same injunction, not indeed
denying that there may be saving faith apart from their
xvii.,xvui.] THE STOLEN GODS. 343
ritual, but insisting still that it is an error and a sin to
seek God elsewhere than at the accredited shrine.
With Jewish ordinances we Christians have nothing
to do when we are judging as to religious order and
worship now. There is no central shrine, no exclusive
human authority. Where Christ is, there is the temple ;
where He speaks, the individual conscience must
respond. The work of salvation is His alone, and the
humblest believer is His consecrated priest. When our
Lord said, " The hour cometh and now is when the true
worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in
truth " ; and again, " Where two or three are gathered
together in My name there am I in the midst of them";
when He as the Son of God held out His hands
directly to every sinner needing pardon and every
seeker after truth, when He offered the one sacrifice
upon the cross by which a living way is opened into
the holiest place, He broke down the walls of partition
and with the responsibility declared the freedom of
the soul.
And here we reach the point to which our narrative
applies as an illustration. Micah and his household
worshipping the images of silver, the Levite officiating
at the altar, seeking counsel of Jehovah by ephod and
teraphim, the Danites who steal the gods, carry off
the priest and set up a new worship in the city they
build — all these represent to us types and stages of
what is really schism pitiful and disastrous — that is,
separation from the truth of things and from the sacred
reahties of divine faith. Selfish untruth and infidelity
are schism, the wilderness and outlawry of the soul.
I. Micah and his household, with their chapel of
images, their ephod and teraphim represent those who
fall into the superstition that religion is good as insuring
344 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.
temporal success and prosperity, that God will see to
the worldly comfort of those who pay respect to Him.
Even among Christians this is a very common and very
debasing superstition. The sacraments are often ob-
served as signs of a covenant which secures for men
divine favour through social arrangements and human
law. The spiritual nature and power of religion are
not denied, but they are uncomprehended. The
national custom and the worldly hope have to do with
the observance of devout forms rather than any move-
ment of the soul heavenward. A church may in this
way become like Micah's household, and prayer may
mean seeking good terms with Him who can fill the
land with plenty or send famine and cleanness of teeth.
Unhappil}^ many worthy and most devout persons still
hold the creed of an early and ignorant time. The
secret of nature and providence is hid from them. The
severities of life seem to them to be charged with
anger, and the valleys of human reprobation appear
darkened by the curse of God. Instead of finding in
pain and loss a marvellous divine discipline they perceive
only the penalty of sin, a sign of God's aversion not
of His Fatherly grace. It is a sad, a terrible blindness
of soul. We can but note it here and pass on, for
there are other applications of the old story.
2. The Levite represents an unworthy worldly
ministry. With sadness must confession be made that
there are in every church pastors unspiritual, world-
lings in heart whose desire is mainly for superiority of
rank or of wealth, who have no vision of Christ's cross
and battle except as objective and historical. Here,
most happily, the cases of complete worldliness are
rare. It is rather a tendency we observe than a
developed and acknowledged state of things. Very few
. xvii.,xviii.] THE STOLEN GODS. 34S
of those in the ranks of the Christian ministry are
entirely concerned with the respect paid to them in
society and the number of shekels to be got in a year.
That he keeps pace with the crowd instead of going
before it is perhaps the hardest thing that can be said
of the worldly pastor. He is humane, active, intelli-
gent; but it is for the church as a great institution,
or the church as his temporal hope and stay. So his
ministry becomes at the best a matter of serving tables
and providing alms — we shall not say amusement.
Here indeed is schism ; for what is farther from the
truth of things, what is farther from Christ ?
3. Once more we have with us to-day, very much
with us, certain Danites of science, politics and the
press who, if they could, would take away our God
and our Bible, our Eternal Father and spiritual hope,
not from a desire to possess but because they hate to
see us believing, hate to see any weight of silver given
to religious uses. Not a few of these are marching as
they think triumphantly to commanding and opulent
positions whence they will rule the thought of the
world. And on the way, even while they deiide and
detest the supernatural, they will have the priest go
with them. They care nothing for what he says ; to
listen to the voice of a spiritual teacher is an absurdity
of which they would not be guilty; for to their own
vague prophesying all mankind is to give heed, and
their interpretations of human life are to be received as
the bible of the age. Of the same order is the socialist
v.'ho would make use of a faith he intends to destroy
and a priesthood whose claim is offensive to him on
his way to what he calls the organization of society.
In his view the uses of Christianity and the Bible are
temporal and earthly. He will not have Christ the
346 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.
Redeemer of the soul, yet he attempts to conjure with
Christ's words and appropriate the power of His name.
The audacity of these would-be robbers is matched
only by their ignorance of the needs and ends of
human life.
We might here refer to the injustice practised by one
and another band of our modern Israel who do not
scruple to take from obscure and weak households of
faith the sacraments and Christian mmistry, the marks
and rights of brotherhood. We can well believe that
those who do this have never looked at their action
from the other side, and may not have the least idea
of the soreness they leave in the hearts of humble
and sincere believers.
In fine, the Danites with the images of Micah went
their way and he and his neighbours had to suffer the
loss and make the best of their empty chapel where no
oracle thenceforth spoke to them. It is no parable, but
a very real example of the loss that comes to all who
have trusted in forms and symbols, the outward signs
instead of the living power of religion. While we
repel the arrogance that takes from faith its symbolic
props and stays we must not let ourselves deny that
the very rudeness of an enemy may be an excellent
discipline for the Christian. Agnosticism and science
and other Danite companies sweep with them a good
deal that is dear to the religious mind and may leave
it very distressed and anxious — the chapel empty, the
oracle as it may appear lost for ever. With the symbol
the authority, the hope, the power seem to be lost irre-
coverably. What now has faith to rest upon ? But
the modern spirit with its resolution to sweep away
every unfact and mere form is no destroyer. Rather
does it drive the Christian to a science, a virtue far
xvii.,xviii.] THE STOLEN GODS. 347
beyond its own. It forces we may say on faith that
severe truthfulness and intellectual courage which are
the proper qualities of Christianity, the necessary
counterpart of its trust and love and grace. In short,
when enemies have carried off the poor teraphim and
fetishes which are their proper capture they have but
compelled religion to be itself, compelled it to find its
spiritual God, its eternal creed and to understand its
Bible. This, though done with evil intent, is surely no
cruelty, no outrage. Shall a man or a church that has
been so roused and thrown back on reality sit wailing
in the empty chapel for the images of silver and the
deliverances of the hollow ephod ? Everything remains,
the soul and the spiritual world, the law of God, the
redemption of Christ, the Spirit of eternal life.
XXV.
FROM JUSTICE TO WILD REVENGE.
Judges xiK.-xxi.
THESE last chapters describe a general and vehe-
ment outburst of moral indignation throughout
Israel, recorded for various reasons. A vile thing is
done in one of the towns of Benjamin and the fact is
published in all the tribes. The doers of it are defended
by their clan and fearful punishment is wrought upon
them, not without suffering to the entire people. Like
the incidents narrated in the chapters immediately
preceding, these must have occurred at an early stage
in the period of the judges, and they afford another
illustration of the peril of imperfect government, the
need for a vigorous administration of justice over the
land. The crime and the volcanic vengeance belong
to a time when there was " no king in Israel " and,
despite occasional appeals to the oracle, " every man
did that which was right in his own eyes." In this
we have one clue to the purpose of the history.
The crime of Gibeah brought under our notice here
connects itself with that of Sodom and represents a
phase of immorality which, indigenous to Canaan,
mixed its putrid current with Hebrew life. There are
traces of the same horrible impurity in the Judah of
Rehoboam and Asa ; and in the story of Josiah's reign
xix.-xxi.] FROM JUSTICE TO WILD REVENGE. 349
we are horrified to read of " houses of Sodomites that
were in the house of the Lord, where the women
wove hangings for the Asherah." With such lurid
historical light on the subject we can easily understand
the revival of this warning lesson from the past of
Israel and the fulness of detail with which the incidents
are recorded. A crime originally that of the ofif-scour-
ings of Gibeah became practically the sin of a whole
tribe, and the war that ensued sets in a clear light the
zeal for domestic purity which was a feature in every
religious revival and, at length, in the life of the
Hebrew people.
It may be asked how, while polygamy was practised
among the Israelites, the sin of Gibeah could rouse
such indignation and awaken the signal vengeance of
the united tribes. The answer is to be found partly in
the singular and dreadful device which the indignant
husband used in making the deed known. The ghastly
symbols of outrage told the tale in a way that was
fitted to stir the blood of the whole country. Every-
where the hideous thing was made vivid and a sense
of utmost atrocity was kindled as the dissevered mem-
bers were borne from town to town. It is easy to see
that womanhood must have been stirred to the fieriest
indignation, and m-anhood was bound to follow. What
woman could be safe in Gibeah where such things
were done ? And was Gibeah to go unpunished ? If
so, every Hebrew city might become the haunt of
miscreants. Further there is the fact that the woman
so foully murdered, though a concubine, was the con-
cubine of a Levite. The measure of sacredness with
which the Levites were invested gave to this crime,
frightful enough in any view, the colour of sacrilege.
How degenerate were the people of Gibeah when
350 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.
a servant of the altar could be treated with such foul
indignity and driven to so extraordinary an appeal for
justice? There could be no blessing on the tribes if
they allowed the doers or condoners of this thing to go
unpunished. Every Levite throughout the land must
have taken up the cry. From Bethel and other
sanctuaries the call for vengeance would spread and
echo till the nation was roused. Thus, in part at least,
we can explain the vehemence of feeling which drew
together the whole fighting force of the tribes.
The doubt will yet remain whether there could have
been so much purity of life or respect for purity as to
sustain the public indignation. Some may say, Is there
not here a sufficient reason for questioning the veracity
of the narrative ? First, however, let it be remembered
that often where morals are far from reaching the level
of pure mcnogamic life distinctions between right and
wrong are sharply drawn. Acquaintance with phases
of modern life that are most painful to the mind
sensitively pure reveals a fixed code which none may
infringe without bringing upon themselves reprobation,
perhaps more vehement than in a higher social grade
visits the breach of a higher law. It is the fact that
concubinage has its unwritten acknowledgment and
protecting customs. There is marriage that is only
a name ; there is concubinage that gives the woman
more rights than one who is married. Against the
immorality and the gross evils of cohabitation is to
be set this unwritten law. And arguing from popular
feeling in our great cities we reach the conclusion that
in ancient Israel where concubinage prevailed there was
a wide and keen feeling as to the rights of concu-
bines and the necessity of upholding them. Many
women must have been in this relation, below those
xnu-xxi.] FROM JUSTICE TO WILD REVENGE. 351
who could count themselves legally married, and all
the more that the concubine occupied a place inferior
to that of the lawful wife would popular opinion take
up her cause and demand the punishment of those who
did her wrong.
And here we are led to a point which demands clear
statement and recognition. It has been too readily
supposed that polygamy is always a result of moral
decline and indicates a low state of domestic purity.
It may, in truth, be a rude step of progress. Has it
been sufficiently noted that in those countries in which
the name of the mother not of the father descended to
the children the reason may be found in universal or
almost universal unchastity ? In Egypt at one time the
law gave to women, especially to mothers, peculiar
rights ; but to praise Egyptian civilization for this
reason and hold up its treatment of women as an
example to the nineteenth century is an extraordinary
venture. The Israelites, however lax, were doubtless in
advance of the society of Thebes. Among the Canaanites
the moral degradation of women, whatever freedom
may have gone with it, was so terrible that the Hebrew
with his two or three wives and concubines, but with
a morality otherwise severe, must have represented a
new and holler social order as well as a new and holier
religion. It is therefore not incredible but appears
simply in accordance with the instincts and customs
proper to the Hebrew people that the sin of Gibeah
should provoke overwhelming indignation. There is
no pretence of purity, no hypocritical anger. The
feeling is sound and real. Perhaps in no other matter
of a moral kind would there have been such intense
and unanimous exasperation. A point of justice or of
belief would not have so moved the tribes. The better
352 THE BOOK OF JUDGES,
self of Israel appears asserting its claim and power.
And the miscreants of Gibeah representing the lower
self, verily an unclean spirit, are detested and denounced
on every hand.
The time was that of fresh feeling, unwarped by
those customs which in the guise of civilisation and
refinement afterwards corrupted the nation. And we
may see the prophetic or hortatory use of the narrative
for an after age in which doings as vile as those at
Gibeah were sanctioned by the court and protected
even by religious leaders. It would be hoped by the
sacred historian that this tale of the fierce indignation
of the tribes might rouse afresh the same moral feeling.
He would fain stir a careless people and their priests by
the exhibition of this tumultuous vengeance. Nor can
we say that the necessity for the impressive lesson has
ceased. In the heart of our large cities vices as vile as
those of Gibeah are heard muttering in the nightfall,
life as abandoned lurks and festers creating a social
gangrene.
Recognise, then, in these chapters a truth for all time
boldly drawn out — the great truth as to moral reform
and national purity. Law will not cure moral evils;
a statute book the purest and noblest will not save.
Those who by the impulse of the Spirit gathered the
various traditions of Israel's life knew well that on
a living conscience in men everything depended, and
they at least indicate the further truth which many
of ourselves have not grasped, that the early and rude
workings of conscience, producing stormy and terrible
results, are a necessary stage of development. As
there must be energy before there can be noble energ)',
so there must be moral vigour, it may be rude, violent,
ignorant, a stream rushing out of barbarian hills,
xix.-xxi.] FROM JUSTICE 10 WILD REVENGE. 353
sweeping with most appalling vehemence, before there
can be spiritual life patient calm and holy. Law is a
product not a cause ; it is not the code we make that
will preserve us but the God-given conscience that
informs the code and ever goes before it a pillar of fire,
at times flashing vivid lightning. Even Christian law
cannot save a people if it be merely a series of injunc-
tions. Nothing will do but the mind of Christ in every
man and woman continually inspiring and directing
life. The reformer who thinks that a statute or regu-
lation will end some sin or evil custom is in sad error.
Say the decree he contends for is enacted ; but have
the consciences of those against whom it is made
been quickened ? If not, the law merely expresses a
popular mood and the life of the whole community
will not be permanently raised in tone.
The church finds here a perpetual mission of influ-
ence. Her doctrine is but half her message. From the
doctrine as frcm an eternal fount must go life-giving
moral heat in every range, and the Spirit is ever with
her to make the word like a fire. Her duty is wide
as righteousness, great as man's destiny ; it is never
ended, for each generation comes in a new hour with
new needs. The church, say some, is finishing its
work ; it is doomed to be one of the broken moulds of
life. But the church that is the instructor of conscience
and kindles the flame of righteousness has a mission
to the ages. We are far yet from that day of the Lord
when all the people shall be prophets ; and until then
how can the world live without the church ? It would
be a body without a soul.
Conscience the oracle of life, conscience working
badly rather than held in chains of mere rule without
spontaneity and inspiration, moral energy widespread
21
354 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.
personal and keen, however rude — here is one of the
notes of the sacred writer ; and another note, no less
distinct, is the assertion of moral intolerance. It has
not occurred to this prophetic annalist that endurance of
evil has any curative power. He is a Hebrew, full of
indignation against the vile and false, and he demands
a heat of moral force in his people. Foul th'ngs are
done at the court and even in the temple ; there is a
depraving indifference to purity, a loose notion (very
similar to the idea of our day), that all the sides of
life should have free play and that the heathen had
much to teach Israel. The whole of the narrative
before us is infused with a righteous protest against
evil, a holy plea for intolerance of sin. Will men
refuse instruction and persist in making themselves
one with bestiality and outrage ? Then judgment
must deal with them on the ground they have chosen
to occupy, and until they repent the conscience of
the race must repudiate them together with their sin.
Along with a keenly burning conscience there goes this
necessity of moral intolerance. Charity is good, but
not always in place ; and brotherhood itself demands
at times strong uncompromising judgment of the evil-
doer. How else among men of weak wills and waver-
ing hearts can righteousness vindicate and enforce
itself as the eternal reality of life ? Compassion is
strong only when it is linked to unfaltering declara-
tions ; mercy is divine only when it turns a front of
mail to wickedness and flashes lightning at proud wrong.
Any other kind of charity is but a new offence — the
sinner pardoning sin.
Now the people of Gibeali were not all vile. The
wretches whose crime called for judgment were but the
rabble of the town. And we can see that the tribes
.xix..xxi.] FROM JUSTICE TO WILD REVENGE. 355
when they gathered in indignation were made serious
by the thought that the righteous might be punished
with the wicked. We are told that they went up to the
sanctuary and asked counsel of the Lord whether they
should attack the convicted city. There was a full
muster of the fighting men, their blood at fever heat,
yet they would not advance without an oracle. It was
an appeal to heavenly justice, and demands notice as a
striking feature of the whole terrible series of events.
For an hour there is silence in the camp till a higher
voice shall speak.
But what is the issue ? The oracle decrees an
immediate attack on Gibeah in the face of all Benjamin
which has shown the temper of heathenism by refusing
to give up the criminals. Once and again there is trial
of battle which ends in defeat of the allied tribes. The
wrong triumphs ; the people have to return humbled
and weeping to the Sacred Presence and sit fasting and
disconsolate before the Lord.
Not without the suffering of the entire community is
a great evil to be purged from a land. It is easy to
execute a murderer, to imprison a felon. But the spirit
of the murderer, of the felon, is widely diffused, and
that has to be cast out. In the great moral struggle
year after year the better have not only the openly vile
but all who are tainted, all who are weak in soul, loose
in habit, secretly sympathetic with the vile, arrayed
against them. There is a sacrifice of the good before
the evil are overcome. In vicarious suffenng many
must pay the. penalty of crimes not their own ere the
wide-reaching wickedness can be seen in its demonic
power and struck down as the cruel enemy of the
people.
When an assault is made on some vile custom the
356 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.
sardonic laugh is heard of those who find their profit
and their pleasure in it. They feel their power. They
know the wide sympathy with them spread secretly
through the land. Once and again the feeble attempt
of the good is repelled. With sad hearts, with im-
poverished means, those who led the crusade retire
baffled and weary. Has their method been unintelli-
gent ? There very possibly lies the cause of its failure.
Or, perhaps, it has been, though nominally inspired
by an oracle, all too human, weak through human
pride. Not till they gain with new and deeper devotion
to the glory of God, with more humility and faith, a
clearer view of the battle-ground and a better ordering
of the war shall defeat be changed into victory. And
may it not be that the assault on moral evils of our
day, in which multitudes are professedly engaged, in
which also many have spent substance and life, shall
fail till there is a true humiliation of the armies of God
before Him, a new consecration to higher and more
spiritual ends ? Human virtue has ever to be jealous
of itself, the reformer may so easily become a Pharisee.
The tide turned and there came another danger,
that which waits on ebullitions of popular feeling. A
crowd roused to anger is hard to control, and the tribes
having once tasted vengeance did not cease till Ben-
jamin was almost exterminated. The slaughter ex-
tended not only to the fighting men, but to women and
children. The six hundred who fled to the rock-fort
of Rimmon appear as the only survivors of the clan.
Justice overshot its mark and for one evil made another.
Those who had most fiercely used the sword viewed
the result with horror and amazement, for a tribe was
lacking in Israel. Nor was this the end of slaughter.
Next for the sake of Benjamin the sword was drawn
.xlx.-xxi.] FROM JUSTICE TO WILD REVENGE. 357
and the men of Jabesh-gilead were butchered. It has
to be noticed that the oracle is not made responsible
for this horrible process of evil. The people came of
their own accord to the decision which annihilated
Jabesh-gilead. But they gave it a pious colour ;
religion and cruelty went together, sacrifices to Jehovah
and this frightful outbreak of demonism. It is one of
the dark chapters of human history. For the sake of
an oath and an idea death was dealt remorselessly.
No voice suggested that the people of Jabesh may have
been more cautious than the rest, not less faithful to
the law of God. The others were resolved to appear
to themselves to have been right in almost annihilating
Benjamin ; and the town which had not joined in the
work of destruction must be punished.
The warning conveyed here is intensely keen. It
is that men, made doubtful by the issue of their actions
whether they have done wisely, may fly to the resolu-
tion to justify themselves and may do so even at^the
expense of justice ; that a nation may pass from the
right way to the wrong and then, having sunk to
extraordinary baseness and malignity, may turn writhing
and self-condemned to add cruelty to cruelty in the
attempt to still the upbraidings of conscience. It is
that men in the heat of passion which began with
resentment against evil may strike at those who have
not joined in their errors as well as those who truly
deserve reprobation. We stand, nations and individuals,
in constant danger of dreadful extremes, a kind of
insanity hurrying us on when the blood is heated
by strong emotion. Blindly attempting to do right we
do evil, and again, having done the evil we blindly
strive to remedy it by doing more. In times of moral
darkness and chaotic social conditions, when men are.
358 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.
guided by a few rude principles, things are done that
afterwards appal themselves, and yet may become an
example for future outbreaks. During the fury of their
Revolution the French people, with some watchwords
of the true ring as liberty, fraternity, turned hither and
thither, now in terror, now panting after dimly seen
justice or hope, and it was always from blood to blood.
We understand the juncture in ancient Israel and
realize the excitement and the rage of a self-jealous
people when we read the modern tales of surging
ferocity in which men appear now hounding the
shouting crowd to vengeance then shuddering on the
scaffold.
In private life the story has an application against
wild and violent methods of self-vindication. Many a
man, hurried on by a just anger against one who has
done him wrong, sees to his horror after a sharp blow
is struck that he has broken a life and thrown a brother
bleeding to the dust. One wrong thing has been done
perhaps more in haste than vileness of purpose, and
retribution, hasty, ill-considered, leaves the moral
question tenfold more confused. When all is reckoned
we find it impossible to say where the right is, where
the wrong.
Passing to the final expedient adopted by the chiefs
of Israel to rectify their error — the rape of the women
at Shiloh— we see only to how pitiful a pass moral
blundering brings those who fall into it : other moral
teaching there is none. We might at first be disposed
to say that there was extraordinary want of reverence
for religious order and engagements when the men of
Benjamin were invited to make a sacred festival the
occasion of taking what the other tribes had solemnly
vowed not to give. But the festival at Shiloh must
.xix.-xxi.] FROM [USTICE TO WILD REVENGE. 339
have been far more of a merry-making than of a sacred
assembly. It needs to be recognised that many gather-
ings even in honour of Jehovah were mainly, hke those
of Canaanite worship, for hilarity and feasting. There
was probably no great incongruity between the occasion
and the plot.
But the scenes certainly change in the course of this
narrative with extraordinary swiftness. Fierce indigna-
tion is followed by pity, weeping for defeat by tears for
too complete a victory. Horrible bloodshed wastes the
cities and in a month there is dancing in the plain of
Shiloh not ten miles from the field of battle. Chaotic
indeed are the morality and the history ; but it is the
disorder of social life in its early stages, with the
vehemence and tenderness, the ferocity and laughter of
a nation's youth. And, all along, the Book of Judges
bears the stamp of veracity as a series of records
because these very features are to be seen — this
tumult, this undisciplined vehemjence in feeling and act.
Were we told here of decorous solemn progress at slow
march, every army going forth with some stereotyped
invocation of the Lord of Hosts, every leader a man of
conventional piety supported by a blameless priesthood
and orderly sacrifices, we should have had no evidence
of truth. The traditions preserved here, whoever
collected them, are singularly free from that idyllic
colour which an imaginative writer would have endea-
voured to give.
At the last, accordingly, the book we have been
reading stands a real piece of history, proving itself
over every kind of suspicion a true record of a people
chosen and guided to a destiny greater than any other
race of man has known. A people understanding its
call and responding with eagerness at every point ?
36o THE BOOK OF JUDGES.
Nay. .The world is in the heart of Israel as of every
other nation. The carnal attracts, and malignant cries
overbear the divine still voice ; the air of Canaan
breathes in every page, and we need to recollect that
we are viewing the turbulent upper-waters of the
nation and the faith. But the working of God is
plain ; the divine thoughts we believed Israel to have
in trust for the world are truly with it from the first,
though darkened by altars of Baal and of Ashtoreth.
The Word and Covenant of Jehovah are vital facts of
the supernatural which surrounds that poor struggling
erring Hebrew flock. Theocracy is a divine fact in
a larger sense than has ever been attached to the word.
Inspiration too is no dream, for the history is charged
with intimations of the spiritual order. The light of the
unrealized end flashes on spear and altar, and in the
frequent roll of the storm the voice of the Eternal is
heard declaring righteousness and truth. No story
this to praise a dynasty or magnify a conquering
nation or support a priesthood. Nothing so faithful,
so true to heaven and to human nature could be done
from that motive. We have here an imperishable
chapter in the Book of God,
THE BOOK OF RUTH.
NAORirS BURDEI7.
Ruth i. 1-13.
LEAVING the Book of Judges and opening the
story of Ruth we pass from vehement out-door
life, from tempest and trouble into quiet domestic
scenes. After an exhibition of the greater movements
of a people we are brought, as it were, to a cottage
interior in the soft light of an autumn evening, to obscure
lives passing through the cycles of loss and comfort,
affection and sorrow. We have seen the ebb and flow
of a nation's fidelity and fortune, a few leaders ajjpear-
ing clearly on the stage and behind them a multitude
indefinite, indiscriminate, the thousands who form the
ranks of battle and die on the field, who sway together
from Jehovah to Baal and back to Jehovah again.
What the Hebrews were at home, how they lived in
the villages of Judah or on the slopes of Tabor the
narrative has not paused to speak of with detail. Now
there is leisure after the strife and the historian can
describe old customs and family events, can show us
the toiling flockmaster, the busy reapers, the women
with their cares and uncertainties, the love and labour
of simple life. Thunderclouds of sin and judgment
have rolled over the scene ; but they have cleared
away and we see human nature in examples that
364 THE BOOK OF RUTH.
become familiar to us, no longer in weird shadow or
vivid lightning flash, but as we commonly know it,
homely, erring, enduring, imperfect, not unblest.
Bethlehem is the scene, quiet and lonely on its high
ridge overlooking the Judaean wilderness. The little city
never had much part in the eager life of the Hebrew
people, yet age after age some event notable in history,
some death or birth or some prophetic word drew the
eyes of Israel to it in affection or in hope ; and to us
the Saviour's birth there has so distinguished it as one
of the most sacred spots on earth that each incident
in the fields or at the gate appears charged with predic-
tive meaning, each reference in psalm or prophecy has
tender significance. We see the company of Jacob on a
journey through Canaan halt by the way near Ephrath,
which is Bethlehem, and from the tents there comes
a sound of wailing. The beloved Rachel is dead. Yet
she lives in a child new-born, the mother's Son of
Sorrow, who becomes to the father Benjamin, Son of the
Right Hand. The sword pierces a loving heart, but
hope springs out of pain and life out of death. Gene-
rations pass and in these fields of Bethlehem we see
Ruth gleaning, Ruth the Moabitess, a stranger and
foreigner who has sought refuge under the shadow of
Jehovah's wings ; and at yonder gate she is saved from
want and widowhood, finding in Boaz her goel and
menuchah, her redeemer and rest. Later, another
birth, this time within the walls, the birth of one long
despised by his brethren, gives to Israel a poet and a
king, the sweet singer of divine psalms, the hero of
a hundred fights. And here again we see the three
mighty men of David's troop breaking through the
Philistine host to fetch for their chief a draught from
the cool spring by the gate. Prophecy, too, leaves
i. 1-13.] NAOMI'S BURDEN. 365
Israel looking to the city on the hill. Micah seems
to grasp the secret of the ages when he exclaims,
" But thou, Bethlehem Ephrathah, which art little to be
among the thousands of Judah, out of thee shall one
come forth unto Me that is to be the ruler in Israel;
whose goings forth are from of old, from everlasting."
For centuries there is suspense, and then over the
quiet plain below the hill is heard the evangel : " Be
not afraid : for, behold, I bring you good tidings of
great joy which shall be to all the people : for there is
born to you this day in the city of David a Saviour,
which is Christ the Lord." Remembering this glory
of Bethlehem we turn to the story of humble life there
in the days when the judges ruled, with deep interest
in the people of the ancient city, the race from which
David sprang, of which Mary was born.
Jephthah had scattered Ammon behind the hills and
the Hebrews dwelt in comparative peace and security.
The sanctuary at Shiloh was at length recognised as
the centre of religious influence ; Eli was in the begin-
ing of his priesthood, and orderly worship was main-
tained before the ark. People could live quietly about
Bethlehem, although Samson, fitfully acting the part
of champion on the Philistine border, had his work in
restraining the enemy from an advance. Yet all was
not well in the homesteads of Judah, for drought is
as terrible a foe to the flockmaster as the Arab hordes,
and all the south lands were parched and unfruitful.
We are to follow the story of Elimelech, his wife
Naomi and their sons Mahlon and Chilion whose home
at Bethlehem is about to be broken up. The sheep
are dying in the bare glens, the cattle in the fields.
From the soil usually so fertile little corn has been
366 THE BOOK OF RUTH.
reaped. Elimelech, seeing his possessions melt away,
has decided to leave Judah for a time so as to save
what remains to him till the famine is over, and he
chooses the nearest refuge, the watered Field of Moab
beyond the Salt Sea. It was not far ; he could imagine
himself returning soon to resume the accustomed life
in the old home. True Hebrews, these Ephrathites were
not seeking an opportunity to cast off pious duty and
break with Jehovah in leaving His land. Doubtless
they hoped that God would bless their going, prosper
them in Moab and bring them back in good time. It
was a trial to go, but what else could they do, life
itself, as they believed, being at hazard ?
With thoughts like these men often leave the land
of their birth, the scenes of early faith, and oftener
still without any pressure of necessity or any purpose
of returning. Emigration appears to be forced upon
many in these times, the compulsion coming not from
Providence but from man and man's law. It is also
an outlet for the spirit of adventure which characterizes
some races and has made them the heirs of continents.
Against emigration it would be folly to speak, but great
is the responsibility of those by whose action or want
of action it is forced upon others. May it not be said
that in every European land there are persons in power
whose existence is like a famine to a whole country-
side ? Emigration is talked of glibly as if it were no
loss but always gain, as if to the mass of men the
traditions and customs of their native land were mere
rags well parted with. But it is clear from innumerable
examples that many lose what they never find again,
of honour, seriousness and faith.
The last thing thought of by those who compel
emigration and many who undertake it of their own
i. 1-13.] NAOMI'S BURDEN. 367
accord is the moral result. That which should be first
considered is often not considered at all. Granting the
advantages of going from a land that is over-populated
to some fertile region as yet lying waste, allowing
what cannot be denied that material progress and
personal freedom result from these movements of
population, yet the risk to individuals is just in pro-
portion to the worldly attraction. It is certain that in
many regions to which the stream of migration is
flowing the conditions of life are better and the natural
environment purer than they are in the heart of large
European cities. But this does not satisfy the religious
thinker. Modern colonies have indeed done marvels
for political independence, for education and comfort.
Their success here is splendid. But do they see the
danger? So much achieved in short time for the
secular life tends to withdraw attention from the root
of spiritual growth — simplicity and moral earnestness.
The pious emigrant has to ask himself whether his
children will have the same thought for religion l)eyond
the sea as they would have at home, whether he himself
is strong enough to maintain his testimony while he
seeks his fortune.
We may believe that the Bethlehemite if he made a
mistake in removing to Moab acted in good faith and
did not lose his hope of the divine blessing. Probably
he would have said that Moab was just like home.
The people spoke a language similar to Hebrew, and
like the tribes of Israel they were partly husbandmen
partly keepers of cattle. In the " Field of Moab," that
is the upland canton bounded by the Arnon on the
north, the mountains on the east and the Dead Sea
precipices on the west, people lived very much as they
did about Bethlehem, only more safely and in greater
368 THE BOOK OF RUTH.
comfort. But the worship was of Chemosh, and
Elimelech must soon have discovered how great a
difference that made in thought and social custom and
in the feehng of men toward himself and his famil}^
The rites of the god of Moab included festivals in
which humanity was disgraced. Standing apart from
these he must have found his prosperity hindered, for
Chemosh was lord in everything. An alien who had
come for his own advantage yet refused the national
customs would be scorned at least if not persecuted.
Life in Moab became an exile, the Bethlehemites saw
that hardship in their own land would have been as
easy to endure as the disdain of the heathen and con-
stant temptations to vile conformity. The family had a
hard struggle, not holding their own and yet ashamed
to return to Judah.
Already we have a picture of wayworn human lives
tried on one side by the rigour of nature, on the other
by unsympathetic fellow-creatures, and the picture
becomes more pathetic as new touches are added to it
Elimelech died ; the 3-oung men married women of
Moab ; and in ten years only Naomi was left, a widow
with her widowed daughters-in-law. The narrative
adds shadow to shadow. The Hebrew woman in her
bereavement, with the care of two lads who were some-
what indifferent to the religion she cherished, touches
our sympathies. We feel for her when she has to
consent to the marriage of her sons with heathen
women, for it seems to close all hope of return to her
own land and, sore as this trial is, there is a deeper
trouble. She is left childless in the countrj' of exile.
Yet all is not shadow. Life never is entirely dark
unless with those who have ceased to trust in God and
care for man. While we have compassion on Naomi
i.i-i3.1 NAOMI'S BURDEN. 369
we must also admire her. An Israelite among heathen
she keeps her Hebrew ways, not in bitterness but in
gentle fidelity. Loving her native place more warmly
than ever she so speaks of it and praises it as to make
her daughters-in-law think of settling there with her.
The influence of her religion is upon them both, and
one at least is inspired with faith and tenderness equal
to her own. Naomi has her compensations, we see.
Instead of proving a trouble to her as she feared,
the foreign women in her house have become her
friends. She finds occupation and reward in teaching
them the religion of Jehovah, and thus, so far as use-
fulness of the highest kind is concerned, Naomi is
more blessed in Moab than she might have been in
Bethlehem.
Far better the service of others in spiritual things than
a life of mere personal ease and comfort. We count up
our pleasures, our possessions and gains and think that
in these we have the evidence of the divine favour.
Do we as often reckon the opportunities giverr us of
helping our neighbours to believe in God, of showing
patience and fidelity, of having a place among those
who labour and wait for the eternal kingdom? It is
here that we ought to trace the gracious hand of God
preparing our way, opening for us the gates of life.
When shall we understand that circumstances which
remove us from the experience of poverty and pain
remove us also from precious means of spiritual service
and profit ? To be in close personal touch with the
poor, the ignorant and burdened is to have simple
every-day openings into the region of highest power
and gladness. We do something enduring, something
that engages and increases our best powers when we
guide, enlighten and comfort even a few souls and plant
24
370 THE BOOK OF RUTH.
but a few flowers in some dull corner of the world.
Naomi did not know how blest she had been in Moab.
She said afterwards that she had gone out full and the
Lord had brought her home again empty. She even
imagined that Jehovah had testified against her and
cast her from Him in rejection. Yet she had been
finding the true power, winning the true riches. Did
she return empty when the convert Ruth, the devoted
Ruth went back with her ?
Her two sons taken away, Naomi felt no tie binding
her to Moab. Moreover in Judah the fields were green
again and life was prosperous. She might hope to
dispose of her land and realize something for her old
age. It seemed therefore her interest and duty to
return to her own country; and the next picture of the
poem shows Naomi and her daughters-in-law travelling
along the northward highway towards the ford of
Jordan, she on her way home, they accompanying her.
The two young widows are almost decided when they
leave the desolate dwelling in Moab to go all the way
to Bethlehem. Naomi's account of the life there, the
purer faith and better customs attract them, and they
love her well. But the matter .is not settled ; on the
bank of Jordan the final choice will be made.
There are hours which bring a heavy burden of re-
sponsibility to those who advise and guide, and such an
hour came now to Naomi. It was in poverty she was
returning to the home of her youth. She could promise
to her daughters-in-law no comfortable easy life there,
for, as she well knew, the enmity of Hebrews against
Moabites was apt to be bitter and they might be scorned
as aliens from Jehovah. So far as she was concerned
nothing could have been more desirable than their
company. A woman in poverty and past middle life
I. 1-13.] NAOMVS BURDEN. 37^
could not wish to separate herself from young and
affectionate companions who would be a help to her
in her old age. To throw off the thought of personal
comfort natural to one in her circumstances and look
at things from an unselfish point of view was very
difficult. In reading her story let us remember how
apt we are to colour advice half unconsciously with our
own wishes, our own seeming needs.
Naomi's advantage lay in securing the companionship
of Ruth and Orpah, and religious considerations added
their weight to her own desire. Her very regard and
care for these young women seemed to urge as the
highest service she could do them to draw them out of
the paganism of Moab and settle them in the country
of Jehovah. So while she herself would find reward
for her patient efforts these two would be rescued from
the darkness, bound in the bundle of life. Here,
perhaps, was her strongest temptation ; and to some it
may appear that it was her duty to use every argument
to this end, that she was bound as one who watched
for the souls of Ruth and Orpah to set every fear,
every doubt aside and to persuade them that their
salvation depended on going with her to Bethlehem.
Was this not her sacred opportunity, her last opportu-
nity of making sure that the teaching she had given
them should have its fruit ?
Strange it may seem that the author of the Book of
Ruth is not chiefly concerned with this aspect of the
case, that he does not blame Naomi for failing to set
spiritual considerations in the front. The narrative
indeed afterwards makes it clear that Ruth chose the
good part and prospered by choosing it, but here the
writer calmly states without any question the very
temporal and secular reasons which Naomi pressed on
372 THE BOOK OF RUTH.
the two widows. He seems to allow that home and
country — though they were under the shadow of
heathenism — home and country and worldly prospects
were rightly taken account of even as compared with
a place in Hebrew life and faith. But the underlying
fact is a social pressure clearly before the Oriental
mind. The customs of the time were overmastering,
and women had no resource but to submit to them.
Naomi accepts the facts and ordinances of the age ;
the inspired author has nothing to say against her.
" The Lord grant you that ye may find rest, each of
you in the house of her husband." That the two young
widows should return each to her mother's house
and marry again in Moab is Naomi's urgent advice to
them. The times were rude and wild. A woman could
be safe and respected only under the protection of a
husband. Not only was there the old-world contempt
for unmarried women, but, we may say, they were an
impossibility ; there was no place for them in the social
life. People did not see how there could be a home
without some man at the head of it, the house-band in
whom all family arrangements centred. It had not
been strange that in Moab Hebrew men should marry
women of the land ; but was it likely Ruth and Orpah
would find favour at Bethlehem ? Their speech and
manners would be despised and dislike once incurred
prove hard to overcome. Besides, they had no property
to commend them.
Evidently the two were very inexperienced. They
had little thought of the difficulties, and Naomi, there-
fore, had to speak very strongly. In the grief of
bereavement and the desire for a change of scene they
had formed the hope of going where there were good
men and women like the Hebrews they knew, and
i. 1-13.] NAOMI'S BURDEN. 373
placing themselves under the protection of the gracious
God of Israel. Unless they did so life seemed practic-
ally at an end. But Naomi could not take upon herself
the responsibility of letting them drift into a hazardous
position, and she forced a decision of their own in full
view of the facts. It was true kindness no less than
wisdom. The age had not dawned in which women
could attempt to shape or dare to defy the customs of
society, nor was any advantage to be sought at the
risk of moral compromise. These things Naomi under-
stood, though afterwards, in extremity, she made Ruth
venture unwisely to obtain a prize.
Looking around us now we see multitudes of women
for whom there appears to be no room, no vocation.
Up to a certain point, while they were young, they had
no thought of failure. Then came a time when Provi-
dence appointed a task ; there were parents to care for,
daily occupations in the house. But calls for their
service have ceased and they feel no responsibility
sufficient to give interest and strength. The world has
moved on and the movement has done much for women,
yet all do not find themselves supplied with a task and
a place. Around the occupied and the distinguished
circles perpetually a crowd of the helpless, the aimless,
the disappointed, to whom life is a blank, offering no
path to a ford of Jordan and a new future. Yet half
the needful work is done for these when they are made
to feel that among the possible ways they must choose
one for themselves and follow it ; and all is done when
they are shown that in the service of God, which is the
service also of mankind, a task waits them fitted to
engage their highest powers. Across into the region
of religious faith and energy they may decide to pass,
there is room in it for every life. Disappointment will
374 THE BOOK OF RUTH.
end when selfish thoughts are forgotten ; helplessness
will cease when the heart is resolved to help. Even to
the very poor and ignorant deliverance would come
with a religious thought of life and the first step in
personal duty.
11.
THE PARTING OF THE WAYS,
Ruth i. 14-19.
WE journey along with others for a time, enjoying
their fellowship and sharing their hopes, yet
with thoughts and dreams of our own that must sooner
or later send us on a separate path. But decision is
so difficult to many that they are glad of an excuse
for self-surrender and are only too willing to be led by
some authority, deferring personal choice as long as
possible. Let an ecclesiastic or a strong-minded com-
panion lay down for them the law of right an^ wrong
and point the path of duty and they will obey, welcoming
the relief from moral effort. Not seeing clearly, not
disciplined in judgment, they crave external human
guidance. The teachers of submission find many
disciples not because they speak truth but because
they meet the indolence of the human will with a
crutch instead of a stimulus ; they succeed by pam-
pering weakness and making ignorance a virtue. A
time comes, however, when the method will not serve.
There are moments when the will must be exercised in
choosing between one path and another, advance and
retreat ; and the alternative is too sharp to allow any
escape. If the person is to live at all as a human
being he has to decide whether he will go on in such
376 THE BOOK OF RUTH.
a company or turn back ; he has to declare what or
who has the strongest hold upon his mind. Such an
occasion came to Ruth and Orpah when they reached
the border of Moab.
To Orpah the arguments of Naomi were persuasive.
Her mother lived in Moab, and to her mother's house
she could return. There the customs prevailed which
from childhood she had followed. She would have
liked to go with Naomi, but her interest in the Hebrew
woman and the land and law of Jehovah did not suffice
to draw her forward. Orpah saw the future as Naomi
painted it, not indeed very attractive if she returned
to her native place, but with far more uncertainty and
possible humiliation if she crossed the dividing river.
She kissed Naomi and Ruth and took the southward
road alone, weeping as she went, often turning for yet
another sight of her friends, passing at every step into
an existence that could never be the old life simply
taken up again, but would be coloured in all its ex-
perience by what she had learned from Naomi and
that parting which was her own choice.
The others did not greatly blame her, and we, for
our part, may not reproach her. It is unnecessary to
suppose that in returning to her kinsfolk and settling
down to the tasks that offered in her mother's house
she was guilty of despising truth and love and re-
nouncing the best. We may reasonably imagine her
henceforth bearing witness for a higher morality and
affirming the goodness of the Hebrew religion among
her friends and acquaintances. Ruth goes where
affection and duty lead her ; but for Orpah too it may
be claimed that in love and duty she goes back. She
is not one who says, Moab has done nothing for me ;
Moab has no claim upon me; I am free to leave my
J. I4-I9-] THE PARTING OF THE WAYS. 377
country ; I am under no debt to my people. We shall
not take her as a type of selfishness, worldliness or
backsliding, this Moabite woman. Let us rather believe
that she knew of those at home who needed the help
she could give, and that with the thought of least
hazard to herself mingled one of the duty she owed
to others.
And Ruth : — memorable for ever is her decision,
charming for ever the words in which it is expressed.
" Behold," said Naomi, " thy sister-in-law is gone back
unto her people, and unto her god : return thou after
thy sister-in-law." But Ruth replied, " Intreat me not
to leave thee, and to return from following after thee :
for whither thou goest, I will go ; and where thou
lodgest, I will lodge : thy people shall be my people,
and thy God my God : where thou diest, will I die,
and there will I be buried : the Lord do so to me,
and more also, if aught but death part thee and me."
Like David's lament over Jonathan these words have
sunk deep into the human heart. As an expression
of the tenderest and most faithful friendship they are
unrivalled. The simple dignity of the iteration in
varying phrase till the climax is reached beyond which
no promise could go, the quiet fervour of the feeling,
the thought which seems to have almost a Christian
depth — all are beautiful, pathetic, noble. From this
moment a charm lingers about Ruth and she becomes
dearer to us than any woman of whom the Hebrew
records tell.
Dignified and warm affection is the first characteristic
of Ruth and close beside it we find the strength of
a firm conclusion as to duty. It is good to be capable
of clear resolve, parting between this and that of oppos-
ing considerations and differing claims. Not to rush
378 THE BOOK OF RUTH.
at decisions and act in mere wilfulness, for wilfulness
is the extreme of weakness, but to judge soundly and
on this side or that to say, Here I see the path for me
to follow : along this and no other I conclude to go.
Unreason decides by taste, by momentary feeling, often
out of mere spite or antipathy. But the resolve of a
wise thoughtful person, even though it bring temporal
disadvantage, is a moral gain, a step towards salvation.
It is the exercise of individuality, of the soul.
One may act in error, as perhaps Ellmelech and
Orpah acted, yet the life be the stronger for the mis-
taken decision ; only there must be no repentance for
having exercised the power of judgment and of choice.
Women are particularly prone to go back on themselves
in false repentance. They did what they could not but
think to be duty ; they carefully decided on a path in
loyalty to conscience ; yet too often they will reproach
themselves because what they desired and hoped has
not come about. We cannot imagine Ruth in after
years, even though her lot had remained that of the
poor gleaner and labourer, returning upon her decision
and weeping in secret as if the event had proved her
high choice a foolish one. Her mind was too firm
and clear for that. Yet this is what numbers of women
are doing, burdening their souls, making that a crime
in which they should rather practise themselves. Our
decisions, even when they are made with all the
wisdom and information we can command in thorough
sanity and sincerity, may be, often are very faulty;
and do we expect that Providence will perpetually
interfere to bring a perfect result out of the imperfect ?
Only in the perfect order of God, through the perfect
work of Christ and the perfect operation of the Holy
Spirit is the glorious consummation of human history
i.i4-i9-] THE PARTING OF THE WAYS. 379
and divine purpose to come. As for us, we are to
iearn of God in Christ, to judge and act our best ;
thereafter, leaving the result to Providence, never go
back on that of which the Spirit of the Ahnighty made
us capable in the hour of trial.
" Then welcome each rebuff
That turns earth's smoothness rough,
Each sting that bids nor sit nor stand but go!
Be our joys three parts pain !
Strive, and hold cheap the strain ;
Learn, nor account the pang ; dare, never grudge the throe !"*
In religion there is no escape from personal decision ;
no one can drift to salvation with companions or with
a church. In art, in literature, in ordinary morality it
is possible to possess something without any special
effort. The atmosphere of cultured society, for instance,
holds in solution the knowledge and taste which have
been gained by a few and may pass in some measure
to those who associate with them, though personally
these have studied and acquired very little. Any one
who observes how a new book is talked of will see the
process. But the supreme nature of religion and its
unique part in human development are seen here, that
it demands high and sustained personal effort, the
constant action of the will; that indeed every spiritual
gain must result from the vital activity of the individual
mind choosing to enter and enter yet farther the king-
dom of divine revelation and grace. As it is expressed
in the Epistle to the Hebrews : " We desire that every
one of you do show the same diligence to the full
assurance of hope unto the end : that ye be not slothful,
but followers of them who through faith and patience
' Browning: Rabbi Ben Ezra.
38o THE BOOK OF RUTH.
inherit the promises." The training in resoluteness,
therefore, finds highest value and significance in view
of the religious life. Those who live by habit and
dependence in other matters are not prepared for
the strenuous calling of faith, and many a one is kept
from the freedom and joy of Christianity not because
they are undesired, not because the call of Christ is
unheeded, but for want of the power of decision,
strength to go forward on a personal quest. Thousands
are in the way of saying. Will you go to an evangelistic
meeting ? Then I will go. Will you take the Sacra-
ment ? Then I will. Will you teach in the Sunday-
school? Then I will. So far something is gained:
there is a half-decision. But the spiritual life is sure at
some point to demand more than this. Even Naomi's
advice must not deter Ruth from taking the way to
Bethlehem.
Like many women Ruth was moved greatly by love.
W^as her love justified ? Did it rightly govern her to
the extent her words imply? "Whither thou goest,
I will go : thy people shall be my people : where thou
diest I will die, and there will I be buried." It is
beautiful to see such love : but how was it earned ?
Surely by j-ears of patient faithful help ; not by a few
cheap words and caresses, a few facile promises ; not
by beauty of face, gaiety of temper. The love that has
nothing but these to found upon is not enough for
a life-companionship. But if there is honour, clear
sincerity of soul, generosity of nature ; if there is brave
devotion to duty, there love can rest without fear,
reproach or hazard. When these cast their light on
your way, love then, love freel}' and strongly ; you are
safe. It is indeed called love where these are not — but
only in ignorance and lightness : the heart has been
1.14-19.] THE PARTING OF THE WAYS. 381
caught by a word, ensnared by a look. How pathetic
are the errors into which we see our friends and
neighbours fall, errors that call for a life-long repentance
because reason and serious purpose had nothing to
do with the loving. No law of God is written against
human affection, nor has He any jealousy of the
devotion we show to worthy fellow-creatures; but
there are divine laws of love to restrain our weak fancy
and uplift our emotions ; and if we disdain or cast aside
these laws we must suffer however ardent and self-
sacrificing affection may be. Egotistical wilfulness in
serving some one who engages our admiration and
passionate devotion is not properly speaking love.
It is rather an offence against that divine grace which
bears the noble name. Of course we are not here
speaking of Christian charity towards our neighbours,
interest in them and care for their well-being, which are
always our duty and must not be limited. The story
we are following is one of an intimate and personal
affection.
Lastly and chiefly the answer of Ruth implies a
religious change — conversion. She renounces Chemosh
and turns in faith and hope to the God of Israel, and
this is the striking feature of her choice. Dimly seen,
the grace and righteousness of the Most High touched
her soul, commanded her reverence, drew her to follow
one who was His servant and could recount the won-
derful story of His people. Surely it is a supreme
event in any life when this vision of the Best allures
the mind and engages the will, even though knowledge
of God be as yet very imperfect. And the reliance of
Ruth upon the little she felt and knew of God, her clear
resolution to seek rest under His wings appear in
striking contrast with the reluctance, the unconcern,
382 THE BOOK OF RUTH.
the hard unfaith of many to-day. How is it that they
to whom the Word speaks and the life is revealed,
whose portion is at every moment enriched by that
Word and that life are so blind to the grace that
encompasses and deaf to the love that entreats ?
Again and again we see them on the banks of some
Jordan, with the land of God clear in view, with the
promise of devotion trembling on their Hps ; but they
turn back to Moab and Chemosh, to paganism, unrest
and despair.
Ruth's life properly began when at Naomi's side she
passed through the waters, the very waters of baptism
to her. There, with the purple mountains of Moab
and the precipices of the Dead Sea shore behind, she
sent her last look to Orpah and the past, and saw
before her the steep narrow ascent through the Judaean
hills. With rising faith, with growing love she moved
to the fulfilment of womanhood in realizing the soul's
highest power and privilege. The upward path was
hard to weary feet and all was not to be easy for Ruth
in the Bethlehem of which she had dreamed ; but fully
committed and pledged to the new life she went for-
ward. How much is missed when the choice to serve
God is not unreservedly made, and there is not that
full consecration of which Ruth's decision may be a
type.
Of this loss we see examples on every side. To
remain in the low ground by the river, still within
reach of some paganism that fascinates even after pro-
fession and baptism — this is the end of religious feeling
with many. Where the narrow way of discipleship
leads they will not adventure ; it is too bare, confining
and severe. They will not beUeve that freedom for the
human soul is found by that path alone; they refuse
M. 14-19.1 THE PARTING OF THE WAYS. 383
to be bound and therefore never discover the inheri-
tance of God's children to which they are called.
When He who alone can guide, quicken, redeem is
accepted solemnl^^ and finally as the Lord of life, then
at last the weak and entangled spirit knows the begin-
ning of liberty and strength. Sad is the reckoning in
our time of those who refuse to pledge themselves to
the Saviour Whose claim they do feel to be divine and
urgent. Not yet may the preacher cease to speak of
conversion as the necessity in every life. Rather be-
cause it is easy to be in touch with Christianity at
some point, because gospel influences are widely
diffused, and church connection can be lightly held,
the personal pledge to Christ must be insisted upon in
the pulpit and kept in view as the end to which all the
work of the church is directed.
Life has many partings, and we have all had our
experience of some which without fault on either side
separate those well fitted to serve and bless each other.
Over matters of faith, questions of political order and
even social morality separations will occur. There
may be no lack of faithfulness on either side when
at a certain point widely divergent views of duty are
taken by two who have been friends. One standing
only a little apart from the other sees the same light
reflected from a different facet of the crystal, streaming
out in a different direction. As it would be altogether
a mistake to say that Orpah took the way of worldly
selfishness, Ruth only going in the way of duty, so it
is entirely a mistake to accuse those who part with us
on some question of faith or conduct and think of them
as finally estranged. A little more knowledge and we
would see with them or they with us. Some day they
384 THE BOOK OF RUTH.
and we shall reach the truth and agree in our conclu-
sions. Separations there must be for a time, for as the
character leans to love or justice, the mind to reasoning
or emotion, there is a difference in the vision of the
good for which a man should strive. And if it comes
to this that the paths chosen by those who were once
dear friends divide them to the end of earthly days,
they should retain the recollection not so much of the
single point that separated, as of the many on which
there was agreement. Even though they have to fight
on opposite sides it should be as those who were
brothers once and shall be brothers again. Indeed,
are they not brothers still, if they fight for the same
Master ?
Yet one difference between men reaches to the roots
of life. The company of those who keep the straight
way and press on towards the light have the most
sorrowful recollection of some partings. They have
had to leave comrades and brethren behind who
despised the quest of holiness and immortality and
had nothing but mockery for the Friend and Saviour
of man. The shadows of estrangement falling between
those who are of Christ's company are nothing com-
pared with the dense cloud which divides them from
men pledged to what is earthly and ignoble; and so
the reproach of sectarian division coming from irreli-
gious persons needs not trouble those who have as
Christians an eternal brotherhood.
There are divisions sharp and dreadful, not always
at some river which clearly separates land from land.
They may be made in the street where parting seems
temporary and casual. They may be made in the
very house of God. While some members of a family
are responding with joy to a divine appeal, one may
-i. 14-19] THE PARTING OF THE WAYS. 385
be resolutely turning from it to a base idolatry. Of
three who went together to a place of prayer two
may from that hour keep company in the heavenward
journey, while the third moves every day towards the
shadow of self-chosen reprobation. Christ has spoken
of tremendous separations which men make by their
acceptance or rejection of Him. " These shall go away
into eternal punishment, but the righteous into life
eternal.'*
25
w
III.
JN THE FIELD OF BOAZ.
Ruth i. 19-11.23.
EARY and footsore the two travellers reached
Bethlehem at length, and " all the city was
moved about them." Though ten years had elapsed,
many yet remembered as if it had been yesterday
the season of terrible famine and the departure of the
emigrants. Now the women lingering at the well,
when they see the strangers approaching, say as they
look in the face of the elder one, " Is this Naomi ? "
What a change is here ! With husband and sons,
hoping for a new life across in Moab, she went away.
Her return has about it no sign of success ; she comes
on foot, in the company of one who is evidently of an
alien race, and the two have all the marks of poverty.
The women who recognize the widow of Elimelech are
somewhat pitiful, perhaps also a little scornful. They
had not left their native land nor doubted the promise
of Jehovah. Through the famine they had waited, and
now their position contrasts very favourably with hers.
Surely Naomi is far down in the world since she has
made a companion of a woman of Moab. Her poverty
is against the wayfarer, and to those who know not the
story of her life that which shows her goodness and
faithfulness appears a cause of reproach and reason of
suspicion.
i. 19-ii. 23.] IN THE FIELD OF BOAZ. 387
Is it too harsh to interpret thus the question with
which Naomi is met ? We are only using a key which
common experience of life supplies. Do people give
sincere and hearty sympathy to those who went away
full and return empty, who were once in good standing
and repute and come back years after to their old
haunts impoverished and with strange associates ?
Are we not more ready to judge unfavourably in such
a case than to exercise charity ? The trick of hasty
interpretation is common because every one desires to
be on good terms with himself, and nothing is so sooth-
ing to vanity as the discovery of mistakes into which
others have fallen. " All the brethren of the poor do
hate him," says one who knew the Hebrews and human
nature well ; " how much more do his friends go far
from him. He pursueth them with words, yet they are
wanting to him," Naomi finds it so when she throws
herself on the compassion of her old neighbours. They
are not uninterested, they are not altogether unkind,
but they feel their superiority.
And Naomi appears to accept the judgment they
have formed. Very touching is the lament in which
she takes her position as one whom God has rebuked,
whom it is no wonder, therefore, that old friends
despise. She almost makes excuse for those who look
down upon her from the high ground of their imaginary
virtue and wisdom. Indeed she has the same belief as
they that poverty, the loss of land, bereavement and
every kind of affliction are marks of God's displeasure.
For, what does she say ? " Call me not Naomi,
Pleasant, call me Mara, Bitter, for the Almighty hath
dealt very bitterly with me. . . . The Lord hath testi-
fied against me and the Almighty hath afflicted me,"
Such was the Hebrew thought, the purpose of God in
THE BOOK OF RUTH.
His dealings with men not being apprehended. Under
the shadow of loss and sorrow it seemed that no heat
of the Divine Presence could be felt. To have a
husband and children appeared to Naomi evidence of
God's favour ; to lose them was a proof that He had
turned against her. Heavy as her losses had been the
terrible thing was that they implied the displeasure of God.
It is perhaps difficult for us to realize even by an
imaginative effort this condition of soul — the sense of
banishment, darkness, outlawry which came to the
Hebrew whenever he fell into distress or penury. And
yet we ourselves retain the same standard of judgment
in our common estimate of life ; we still interpret things
by an ignorant unbelief which causes many worthy
souls to bow in a humiliation Christians should never
feel. Do not the loneliness, the poverty, the testimony
of Christ teach us something altogether different ? Can
we still cherish the notion that prosperity is an evidence
of worth and- that the man who can found a family
must be a favourite of the heavenly powers ? Judge
thus and the providence of God is a tangle, a perplex-
ing darkening problem which, believe as you may,
must still overwhelm. Wealth has its conditions ;
money comes through some one's cleverness in work
and trading, some one's inventiveness or thrift, and
these qualities are reputable. But nothing is proved
regarding the spiritual tone and nature of a life either
by wealth or by the want of it. And surely we have
learned that loss of friends and loneliness are not to
be reckoned the punishment of sin. Often enough we
hear the warning that wealth and worldly position are
not to be sought for themselves, and yet, side by side
with this warning, the implication that a high place
and a prosperous Hfe are proofs of divine blessing.
- i. 19-ii. 23.] IN THE FIELD OF BOAZ. 389
On the whole subject Christian thought is far from
clear, and we have need to go anew to the Master and
inquire of Him Who had no place where to lay His
head. The Hebrew belief in the prosperity of God's
servants must fulfil itself in a larger better faith or the
man of to-morrow will have no faith at all. One who
bewails the loss of wealth or friends is doing nothing
that has spiritual meaning or value. When he takes
himself to task for that despondency he begins to touch
the spiritual.
In Bethlehem Naomi found the half-ruined cottage
still belonging to her, and there she and Ruth took up
their abode. But for a living what was to be done ?
The answer came in the proposal of Euth to go into
the fields where the barley harvest was proceeding and
glean after the reapers. By great diligence she might
gather enough day by day for the bare sustenance that
contents a Syrian peasant, and afterwards some other
means of providing for herself and Naomi might be
found. The work was not dignified. She would have to
appear among the waifs and wanderers of the country,
with women whose behaviour exposed them to the
rude gibes of the labourers. But whatever plan Naomi
vaguely entertained was hanging in abeyance, and the
circumstances of the women were urgent. No kinsman
came forward to help them. Loath as she was to
expose Ruth to the trials of the harvest-field, Naomi
had to let her go. So it was Ruth who made the first
move, Ruth the stranger who brought succour to the
Hebrew widow when her own people held aloof and
she herself knew not how to act.
Now among the farmers whose barley was falling
before the sickle was the land-owner Boaz, a kinsman
of Elimelech, a man of substance and social importance,
390 THE BOOK OF RUTH,
one of those who in the midst of their fruitful fields
shine with bountiful good-humour and by their presence
make their servants work heartily. To Ruth in after
days it must have seemed a wonderful thing that her
first timid expedition led her to a portion of ground
belonging to this man. From the moment he appears
in the narrative we note in him a certain largeness of
character. It may be only the easy kindness of the
prosperous man, but it commends him to our good
opinion. Those who have a smooth way through the
world are bound to be especially kind and considerate
in their bearing toward neighbours and dependants,
this at least they owe as an acknowledgment to the rest
of the world, and we are always pleased to find a rich
man paying his debt so far. There is a certain piety
also in the greeting of Boaz to his labourers, a cus-
tomary thing no doubt and good even in that sense,
but better when it carries, as it seems to do here, a
personal and friendly message. Here is a man who will
observe with strict eye everything that goes on in the
field and will be quick to challenge any lazy reaper.
But he is not remote from those who serve him, he and
they meet on common ground of humanity and faith.
The great operations which somie in these days think
fit to carry on, more for their own glory certainly than
the good of their country or countrymen, entirely pre-
clude anything like friendship between the chief and
the multitude of his subordinates. It is impossible
that a man who has a thousand under him should know
and consider each, and there would be too much pre-
tence in saying, " God be with you," on entering a yard
or factory when otherwise no feeling is shown with
which the name of God can be connected. Apart
altogether from questions as to wealth and its use
i. i9-ii.23.] IN THE FIELD OF BOAZ. 39c
every employer has a responsibility for maintaining
the healthy human activity of his people, and nowhere
is the immorality of the present system of huge con-
cerns so evident as in the extinction of personal good
will. The workman of course may adjust himself to
the state of matters, but it will too often be by dis-
crediting what he knows he cannot have and keeping
up a critical resentful habit of mind against those who
seem to treat him as a machine. He may often be
wrong in his judgment of an employer. There may be
less hardness of temper on the other side than there is
on his own. But, the conditions being what they are,
one may say he is certain to be a severe critic. We
have unquestionably lost much and are in danger of
losing more, not in a financial sense, which matters
httle, but in the infinitely more important affairs of
social sweetness and Christian civilization.
Boaz the farmer had not more in hand than he could
attend to honestly, and everything under his care was
well ordered. He had a foreman over the reapers, and
from him he required an account of the stranger whom
he saw gleaning in the field. There were to be no
hangers-on of loose character where he exercised
authority ; and in this we justify him. We like to see
a man keeping a firm hand when we are sure that he
has a good heart and knows what he is doing. Such a
one is bound within the range of his power to have all
done rightly and honourably, and Boaz pleases us all
the better that he makes close inquiry regarding the
woman who seeks the poor gains of a common gleaner.
Of course in a place like Bethlehem people knew
each other, and Boaz was probably acquainted with
most whom he saw about ; at once, therefore, the new
figure of the Moabite woman attracted his attention.
392 THE BOOK OF RUTH.
Who is she ? A kindly heart prompts the inquiry for
the farmer knows that if he interests himself in this
young woman he may be burdened with a new depen-
dant " It is the Moabitish damsel that came back
with Naomi out of the country of Moab." She is the
daughter-in-law of his old friend Elimelech. Before
the eyes of Boaz one of the romances of life, common
and tragic too, is unfolding itself. Often had Boaz
and Elimelech held counsel with each other, met at
each other's houses, talked together of their fields or
of the state of the country. But Elimelech went away
and lost all and died ; and two widows, the wreck of
the family, had returned to Bethlehem. It was plain
that these would be new claimants on his favour, but
unlike many well-to-do persons Boaz does not wait
for some urgent appeal ; he acts rather as one who is
glad to do a kindness for old friendship's sake.
Great was the surprise of the lonely gleaner when
the rich man came to her side and gave her a word of
comfortable greeting. " Hearest thou not, my daughter ?
Go not to glean in another field, but abide here fast by
my maidens." Nothing had been done to make Ruth
feel at home in Bethlehem until Boaz addressed her.
She had perhaps seen proud and scornful looks in the
street and at the well, and had to bear them meekly,
silently. In the fields she may have looked for some-
thing of the kind and even feared that Boaz would dis-
miss her. A gentle person in such circumstances is
exceedingly grateful for a very small kindness, and it
was not a slight favour that Boaz did her. But in
making her acknowledgments Ruth did not know what
had prepared her way. The truth was that she had
met with a man of character who valued character, and
her faithfulness commended her. " It hath been fully
- 1. 19-ii. 23.] IN THE FIELD OF BOAZ. 393
showed me, all that thou hast done unto thy mother-in-
law since the death of thine husband." The best point
in Boaz is that he so quickly and fully recognises the
goodness of another and will help her because they
stand upon a common ground of conscience and duty.
Is it on such a ground you draw to others ? Is your
interest won by kindly dispositions and fidelity of
temper? Do you love those who are sincere and
patient in their duties, content to serve where service
is appointed by God ? Are you attracted by one who
cherishes a parent, say a poor mother, in the time of
feebleness and old age, doing all that is possible to
smooth her path and provide for her comfort ? Or
have you little esteem for such a one, for the duties so
faithfully discharged, because you see no brilliance or
beauty, and there are other persons more clever and
successful on their own account, more amusing because
they are unburdened ? If so, be sure of your own
ignorance, your own undutifulness, your own want of
principle and heart. Character is known by ch^acter,
and worth by worth. Those who are acquainted with
you could probably say that you care more for display
than for honour, that you think more of making a fine
figure in society than of showing generosity, forbearance
and integrity at home. The good appreciate goodness,
the true honour truth. One important lesson of the
Book of Ruth lies here, that the great thing for young
women, and for young men also, is to be quietly
faithful in the service, however humble, to which God
has called them and the family circle in which He has
set them. Not indeed because that is the line ot
promotion, though Ruth found it so ; every Ruth does
not obtain favour in the eyes of a wealthy Boaz. So
honourable and good a man is not to be met on every
394 THE BOOK OF RUTH.
harvest- field ; on the contrary she may encounter a
Nabal, one who is churlish and evil in his doings.
We must take the course of this narrative as
symbolic. The book has in it the strain of a religious
id}'!. The Moabite who wins the regard of this man of
Judah represents those who, though naturally strangers
to the covenant of promise, receive the grace of God
and enter the circle of divine blessing — even coming to
high dignity in the generations of the chosen people.
It is idyllic, we say, not an exhibition of every-day fact ;
yet the course of divine justice is surely more beautiful,
more certain. To every Ruth comes the Heavenly
Friend Whose are all the pastures and fields, all the
good things of life. The Christian hope is in One Who
cannot fail to mark the most private faithfulness, piety
and love hidden like violets among the grass. If there
is not such a One, the Helper and Vindicator of meek
fidelity, virtue has no sanction and well-doing no
recompense.
The true Israelite Boaz accepts the daughter of an
alien and unfriendly people on account of her own
character and piety. " The Lord recompense thy work,
and a full reward be given thee of the Lord, the God
of Israel, under Whose wings thou art come to take
refuge." Such is the benediction which Boaz invokes
on Ruth, receiving her cordially into the family circle
of Jehovah. Already she has ceased to be a stranger
and a foreigner to him. The boundary walls of race
are overstepped, partly, no doubt, by that sense of kin-
ship which the Bethlehemite is quick to acknowledge.
For Naomi's sake and for Elimelech's as well as her
own he craves divine protection and reward for the
daughter of Moab. Yet the beautiful phrase he employs,
full of Hebrew confidence in God, is an acknowledg-
■ I. i9-;i. 23.] m THE FIELD OF BOAZ. 395
ment of Ruth's act of faith and her personal right to
share with the children of Abraham the fostering love
of the Almighty. The story, then, is a plea against
that exclusiveness which the Hebrews too often in-
dulged. On this page of the annals the truth is written
out that though Jehovah cared for Israel much He
cares still more for love and faithfulness, purity and
goodness. We reach at last an instance of that fulfil-
ment of Israel's mission to the nations around which
in our study of the Book of Judges we looked for in
vain. .
Not for Israel only in the time of its narrowness
was the lesson given. We need it still. The justifi-
cation and redemption of God are not restricted to
those who have certain traditions and beliefs. Even
as a Moabite woman brought up in the worship of
Chemosh, with many heathen ideas still in her mind,
has her place under the wings of Jehovah as a soul
seeking righteousness, so from countries and regions of
life which Christian people may consider a kind of rude
heathen Moab many in humility and sincerity may
be coming nigh to the kingdom of God. It was so in
our Lord's time, and it is so still. All along the true
religion of God has been for reconciliation and brother-
hood among men, and it was possible for many Israelites
to do what Naomi did in the way of making effectual the
promise of God to Abraham that m his seed all families
of the earth should be blessed. There never was a
middle wall of partition between men except in the
thought of the Hebrew. He was separated that he
might be able to convert and bless, not that he might
stand aloof in pride. The wall which he built Christ
has broken down that the servants of His gospel may
go freely forth to find everywhere brethren in common
396 THE BOOK OF RUTH.
humanity and need, who are to be made brethren in
Christ. The outward representation of brotherhood in
faith must follow the work of the reconciling Spirit —
cannot precede it. And when the reconciliation is felt
in the depth of human souls we shall have the all-
comprehensive church, a fair and gracious dwelling-
place, wide as the race, rich with every noble thought
and hope of man and every gift of Heaven.
IV.
THE HAZARDOUS PLAN.
Ruth iii.
HOPE came to Naomi when Ruth returned with
the ephah of barley and her story of the rich
man's hearty greeting. God was remembering His
handmaiden ; He had not shut up His tender mercies.
Through His favour Boaz had been moved to kindness,
and the house of EHmelech would yet be raised from
the dust. The woman's heart, chnging to its last hope,
was encouraged. Naomi was loud in her praises of
Jehovah and of the man who had with such pious
readiness befriended Ruth. And the young woman
had due encouragement. She heard no fault-finding, no
complaint that she had made too little of her chance.
The young sometimes find it difficult to serve the old,
and those who have come down in the world are very
apt to be discontented and querulous ; what is done for
them is never rightly done, never enough. It was not
so here. The elder woman seems to have had nothing
but gratitude for the gentle effort of the other. And so
the weeks of barley-harvest and of wheat-harvest went
by, Ruth busy in the fields of Boaz, gleaning behind
his maidens, helped by their kindness — for they knew
better than to thwart their master — and cheered at
home by the pleasure of her mother-in-law. An idyl ?
Yes : one that might be enacted, with varying circum-
398 THE BOOK OF RUTH.
stances,. in a thousand homes where at present distrust
and impatience keep souls from the peace God would
give them.
But, one may ask, why did Boaz, so well inclined to
be generous, knowing these women to be deserving
of help, leave them week after week without further
notice and aid ? Could he reckon his duty done when
he allowed Ruth to glean in his fields, gave her a share
of the refreshment provided for the reapers, and ordered
them to pull some ears from the bundles that she might
the more easily fill her arms ? For friendship's sake
even, should he not have done more ?
We keep in mind, for one thing, that Boaz, though
a kinsman, was not the nearest relation Naomi had in
Bethlehem. Another was of closer kin to Elimelech,
and it was his duty to take up the widow's case in
accordance with the custom of the time. The old law
that no Hebrew family should be allowed to lapse had
deep root and justification. How could Israel maintain
itself in the land of promise and become the testifying
people of God if families were suffered to die out and
homesteads to be lost ? One war after another drained
away many active men of the tribes. Upon those who
survived lay the serious duty of protecting widows,
upholding claims to farm and dwelling and raising up
to those who had died a name in Israel. The stress
of the time gave sanction to the law ; without it Israel
would have decayed, losing ground and power in the
face of the enemy. Now this custom bound the nearest
kinsman of Naomi to befriend her and, at least, to
establish her claim to a certain " parcel of land " near
Bethlehem. As for Boaz, he had to stand aside and
give the goel his opportunity.
And another reason is easily seen for his not hastening
iii.] THE HAZARDOUS PLAN. ' 399
to supply the two widows with every comfort and
remove from their hearts every fear, a reason which
touches the great difficulty of the philanthropic, — how
to do good and yet do no harm. To give is easy ; but
to help without tarnishing the fine independence and
noble thrift of poorer persons is not easy. It is, in
truth, a very serious matter to use wealth wisely, for
against the absolute duty of help hangs the serious
mischief that may result from lavish or careless charity.
Boaz appears a true friend and wise benefactor in
leaving Ruth to enjoy the sweetness of securing the
daily portion of corn by her own exertion. He might
have relieved her from toiling like one of the poorest
and least cared for of women. He might have sent her
home the first day and one of his young men after her
with store of corn and oil. But if he had done so he
would have made the great mistake so often made
now-a-days by the bountiful. An industrious patient
generous life would have been spoiled. To protect
Ruth from any kind or degree of insolence, to show
her, for his own part, the most delicate respect — this
Boaz could well do. In what he refrained from doing
he is an example, and in the kind and measure of
attention he paid to Ruth. Corresponding acts of
Christian courtesy and justice due from the rich and
influential of our time to persons in straitened circum-
stances are far too often unrendered. A thousand
opportunities of paying this real debt of man to man
are allowed to pass. Those concerned do not see any
obligation, and the reason is that they want the proper
state of ' mind. That is indispensable. Where it
exists true neighbourliness will follow ; the best help
will be given naturally with perfect taste, in proper
degree and without self-sufficiency or pride.
THE BOOK OF RUTH.
A gre^t hazard goes with much of the spiritual work
of our time. The Ruth gleaning for herself in the field
of Christian thought, finding here and there an ear of
heavenly corn which, as she has gathered it, gives true
nourishment to the soul — is met not by one but by
many eager to save her all the trouble of searching the
Scriptures and thinking out the problems of life and
faith. Is it wrong to deprive a brave self-helper of
the need to toil for daily bread ? How much greater
is the wrong done to minds capable of spiritual endea-
vour when they are taught to renounce personal effort
and are loaded with sheaves of corn which they have
neither sowed nor reaped. The fashion of our time is
to save people trouble in religion, to remove all resist-
ance from the way of mind and soul, and as a result
the spiritual life never attains strength or even con-
sciousness. Better the scanty meal won by personal
search in the great harvest field than the surfeit of
dainties on which some are fed, spiritual paupers though
they know it not. The wisdom of the Divine Book is
marvellously shown in that it gives largely without
destroying the need for effort, that it requires examina-
tion and research, comparison of scripture with scripture,
earnest thought in many a field. Bible study, therefore,
makes strong Christians, strong faith.
As time went by and harvest drew to a close, Naomi
grew impatient. Anxious about Ruth's future she
wished to see something done towards establishing her
in safety and honour. " My daughter-in-law," we hear
her say, " shall I not seek rest — a menuchah or asylum
for thee, that it may be well with thee ? " No goel or
redeemer has appeared to befriend Naomi and reistnate
her, or Ruth as representing her dead son, in the rights
of Elimelech. If those rights are not to lapse, some-
iii.] THE HAZARDOUS PLAN. 401
thing must be done speedily ; and Naomi's plot is a
bold one. She sets Ruth to claim Boaz as the kins-
man whose duty it is to marry her and become her
protector. Ruth is to go to the threshing-floor on the
night of the harvest festival, wait until Boaz lies down
to sleep beside the mass of winnowed grain, and place
herself at his feet, so reminding him that if no other
will it is his part to be a husband to her for the sake
of Elimelech and his sons. The plan is daring and
appears to us indelicate at least. It is impossible to
say whether any custom of the time sanctioned it ; but
even in that case we cannot acquit Naomi of resorting
to a stratagem with the view of bringing about what
seemed most desirable for Ruth and herself.
Now let us remember the position of the two widows,
lonely, with no prospect before them but hard toil that
would by-and-by fail, unable to undertake anything on
their own account, and still regarded with indifference
if not suspicion by the people of Bethlehem. There is
no asylum for Ruth except in the house of a husband.
If Naomi dies she will be worse than destitute, morally
under a cloud. To live by herself will be to lead a
life of constant peril It is, we may say, a desperate
resource on which Naomi falls. Boaz is probably
already married, has perhaps more wives than one.
True, he has room in his house for Ruth ; he can
easily provide for her ; and though the customs of the
age are strained somewhat we must partly admit
excuse. Still the venture is almost entirely suggested
and urged by worldly considerations, and for the sake
of them great risk is run. Instead of gaining a husband
Ruth may completely forfeit respect. Boaz, so far
from entertaining her appeal to his kinship and genero-
sity, may drive her from the threshing-floor. It is one
26
402 THE BOOK OF RUTH.
of those cases in which, notwithstanding some possible
defence in custom, poverty and anxiety lead into
dubious ways.
We ask why Naomi did not first approach the proper
goel, the liinsman nearer than Boaz, on whom she had
an undeniable claim. And the answer occurs that
he did not seem in respect of disposition or means so
good a match as Boaz. Or why did she not go directly
to Boaz and state her desire ? She was apparently
not averse from grasping at the result, compromising
him, or running the risk of doing so in order to gain
her end. We cannot pass the point without observing
that, despite the happy issue of this plot, it is a warning
not an example. These secret, underhand schemes are
not to our liking ; they should in no circumstances be
resorted to. It was well for Ruth that she had a man
to deal with who was generous, not irascible, a man
of character who had fully appreciated her goodness.
The scheme would otherwise have had a pitiful result.
The story is one creditable in many respects to human
nature, and the Moabite acting under Naomi's direction
appears almost blameless ; yet the sense of having
lowered herself must have cast its shadow. A risk
was run too great by far for modesty and honour.
To compromise ourselves by doing that which savours
of presumption, which goes too far even by a hair's-
breadth in urging a claim is a bad thing. Better
remain without what we reckon our rights than lower
our moral dignity in pressing them. Independence of
character, perfect honour and uprightness are too pre-
cious by far to be imperilled even in a time of serious
difficulty. To-day we can hardly turn in any direction
without seeing instances of risky compromise often
ending in disaster. To obtain preferment one will
iii.] THE HAZARDOUS PLAN. 403
offer some mean bribe of flattery to the person who
can give it. To gain a fortune men will condescend to
pitiful self-humiliation. In the literary world the upward
ways open easily to talent that does not refuse com-
promises ; a writer may have success at the price of
astute silence or careful caressing of prejudice. The
candidate for office commits himself and has afterwards
to wriggle as best he can out of the straits in which he
is involved. And what is the meaning of the light
judgment of drunkenness and impurity by men and
women of all ranks who associate with those known to
be guilty and make no protest against their wrong-
doing ?
It would be shirking one of the plain applications of
the incidents before us if we passed over the com-
promises so many women make with self-respect and
purity. Ruth, under the advice of one whom she
knew to be a good woman, risked something : with us
now are many who against the entreaty of all true
friends adventure into dangerous ways, put themselves
into the power of men they have no reason to trust.
And women in high place, who should set an example
of fidelity to the divine order and understand the
honour of womanhood, are rather leading the dance of
freedom and risk. To keep a position or win a position
in the crowd called society some will yield to any
fashion, go all lengths in the license of amusement, sit
unblushing at plays that serve only one end, give
themselves and their daughters to embraces that
degrade. The struggle to live is spoken of sometimes
as an excuse for women. But is it the very poor only
who compromise themselves ? Something else is going
on beside the struggle to find work and bread. People
are forgetting God, thrusting aside the ideas of the soul
404 THE BOOK OF RUTH.
and of sin ; they want keen delight and are ready to
venture all if only in triumphant ambition or on the
perilous edge of infamy they can satisfy desire for
an hour. The cry of to-day, spreading down through
all ranks, is the old one, Why should we be righteous
over much and destroy ourselves ? It is the expres-
sion of a base and despicable atheism. To deny the
higher light which shows the way of personal duty and
nobleness, to prefer instead the miserable rushlight of
desire is the fatal choice against which all wisdom
of sage and seer testifies. Yet the thing is done daily,
done by brilliant women who go on as if nothing was
wrong and laugh back to those who follow them. The
Divine Friend of women protests, but His words are
unheard, drowned by the fascinating music and quick
pulsation of the dance of death.
To compromise ourselves is bad : close beside lies
the danger of compromising others ; and this too is
illustrated by the narrative. Boaz acted in generosity
and honour, told Ruth plainly that a kinsman nearer
than himself stood between them, made her a most
favourable promise. But he sent her away in the early
morning " before one could recognise another." The
risk to which she had exposed him was one he did not
care to face. While he made all possible excuses for
her and was in a sense proud of the trust she had
reposed in him, still he was somewhat alarmed and
anxious. The narrative is generous to Ruth ; but this
is not concealed. We see very distinctly a touch of
something caught in heathen Moab.
On the more satisfactory side of the picture is the
confidence so unreservedly exercised, justified so tho-
roughly. It is good to be among people who deserve
trust and never fail in the time of trial. Take them at
iii] THE HAZARDOUS PLAN. 405
any hour, in any way they are the same. Incapable
of baseness they bear every test. On the firm convic-
tion that Boazwas a man of this kind Naomi depended,
upon this and an assurance equally firm that Ruth
would behave herself discreetly. Happy indeed are
those who have the honour of friendship with the
honourable and true, with men who would rather lose
a right hand than do anything base, with women who
would die for honour's sake. To have acquaintance
with faithful men is to have a way prepared for faith
in God.
Let us not fail, however, to observe where honour
like this may be found, where alone it is to be found.
Common is the belief that absolute fidelity may exist
in soil cleared of all religious principle. You meet
people who declare that religion is of no use. They
have been brought up in religion, but they are tired
of it. They have given up churches and prayers and
are going to be honourable without thought of God,
on the basis of their own steadfast virtue. We ^all
not say it is impossible, or that women like Ruth may
not rely upon men who so speak. But a single word
of scorn cast on religion reveals so faulty a character
that it is better not to confide in the man who utters
it. He is in the real sense an atheist, one to whom
nothing is sacred. About some duties he may have
a sentiment ; but what is sentiment or taste to build
upon ? For one to trust where reputation is concerned,
where moral well-being is involved a soul must be
found whose life is rooted in the faith of God. True
enough, we are under the necessity of trusting persons
for whom we have no such guarantee. Fortunately,
however, it is only in matters of business, or municipal
affairs, or parliamentary votes, things extraneous to our
4o6 THE BOOK OF RUTH.
proper life. Unrighteous laws may be made, we may
be defrauded and oppressed, but that does not affect
our spiritual position. When it comes to the soul and
the soul's life, when one is in search of a wife, a
husband, a friend, trust should be placed elsewhere,
hope built on a sure foundation.
May we depend upon love in the absence of religious
faith ? Some would fain conjure with that word ; but
love is a divine gift when it is pure and true ; the rest
is mere desire and passion. Do you suppose because
an insincere worldly man has a selfish passion for you
that 3'ou can be safe with him ? Do you think because
a worldly woman loves you in a worldly way that your
soul and your future will be safe with her ? Find a
fearer of God, one whose virtues are rooted where
alone they can grow, in faith, or live without a wife, a
husband. It is presupposed that you yourself are a
fearer of God, a servant of Christ. For, unless you are,
the rule operates on the other side and you are one who
should be shunned. Besides, if you are a material-
ist living in time and sense and yet look for spiritual
graces and superhuman fidelity, your expectation is
amazing, your hope a thing to wonder at.
True, hypocrites exist, and we may be deceived just
because of our certainty that religion is the only root
of faithfulness. A man may simulate religion and
deceive for a time. The young may be sadly deluded,
a whole community betrayed by one who makes the
divinest facts of human nature serve his ov/n wicked-
ness awhile. He disappears and leaves behind him
broken hearts, shattered hopes, darkened lives. Has
religion, then, nothing to do with morality ? The very
ruin we lament shows that the human heart in its depth
testifies to an intimate and eternal connection with the
Mi.] THE HAZARDOUS FLAiV. 407
absolute of fidelity. Not otherwise could that hypocrite
have deceived. And in the strength of faith there are
men and women of unflinching honour, who, when they
find each other out, form rare and beautiful alliances.
Step for step they go on, married or unmarried, each
cheering the other in trial, sustaining the other in
every high and generous task. Together they enter
more deeply into the purpose of life, that is the will
of God, and fill with strong and healthy religion the
circle of their influence.
Of the people of ordinary virtue what shall be said ?
— those who are neither perfectly faithful nor disgrace-
fully unfaithful, neither certain to be staunch and true
nor ready to betray and cast aside those who trust
them. Large is the class of men whose individuality
is not of a moral kind, affable and easy, brisk and
clever but not resolute in truth and right. Are we
to leave these where they are ? If we belong to their
number are we to stay among them ? Must they get
on as best they can with each other, neither blessed
nor condemned ? For them the gospel is provided in
its depth and urgency. Theirs is the state it cannot
tolerate nor leave untouched, unaffected. If earth is
good enough for you, so runs the divine message to
them, cling to it, enjoy its dainties, laugh in its sunlight
— and die with it. But if you see the excellence of
truth, be true ; if you hear the voice of the eternal
Christ, arise and follow Him, born again by the word
of God which liveth and abideth for ever.
THE MARRIAGE AT THE GATE
Ruth iv
A SIMPLE ceremony of Oriental life brings to a
climax the history which itself closes in sweet
music the stormy drama of the Book of Judges. With
all the literary skill and moral delicacy, all the charm
and keen judgment of inspiration the narrator gives us
what he has from the Spirit. He has represented with
fine brevity and power of touch the old life and custom
of Israel, the private groups in which piety and faithful-
ness were treasured, the frank humanity and divine
seriousness of Jehovah's covenant. And now we are
at the gate of Bethlehem where the head men are
assembled and according to the usage of the time the
affairs of Naomi and Ruth are settled by the village
court of justice. Boaz gives a challenge to the goel
of Naomi, and point by point we follow the legal forms
by which the right to redeem the land of Elimelech is
given up to Boaz and Ruth becomes his wife.
Why is an old custom presented with such minute-
ness ? We may affirm the underlying suggestion to be
that the ways described were good ways which ought
to be kept in mind. The usage implied great openness
and neighbourliness, a simple and straightforward
method of arranging affairs which were of moment to
Jv.] THE MARRIAGE AT THE GATE. 409
a community. People lived then in very direct and
frank relations with each other. Their little town and its
concerns had close and intelligent attention. Men and
women desired to act so that there might be good
understanding among them, no jealousy nor rancour
of feeling. Elaborate forms of law were unknown,
unnecessary. To take off the shoe and hand it to
another in the presence of honest neighbours ratified
a decision as well and gave as good security as much
writing on parchment. The author of the Book of
Ruth commends these homely ways of a past age and
suggests to the men of his own time that civilization
and the monarchy, while they have brought some gains,
are perhaps to be blamed for the decay of simplicity
and friendliness.
More than one reason may be found for supposing
the book to have been written in Solomon's time,
probably the latter part of his reign when laws and
ordinances had multiplied and were being enforced in
endless detail by a central authority ; when the manners
of the nations around, Chaldea, Egypt, Phoenicia, were
overbearing the primitive ways of Israel ; when luxury
was growing, society dividing into classes and a proud
imperialism giving its colour to habit and religion.
If we place the book at this period we can understand
the moral purpose of the writer and the importance of
his work. He would teach people to maintain the spirit
of Israel's past, the brotherliness, the fidelity in every
relation that were to have been all along a distinction
of Hebrew life because inseparably connected with the
obedience of Jehovah. The splendid temple on Moriah
was now the centre of a great priestly system, and from
temple and palace the national and, to a great extent,
the personal life of all Israelites was largely influenced.
410 THE BOOK OF RUTH.
not in every respect for good. The quiet suggestion is
here made that the artificiality and pomp of the kingdom
did not compare well with that old time when the affairs
of an ancestress of the splendid monarch were settled
by a gathering at a village gate.
Nor is the lesson without its value now. We are
not to go back on the past in mere antiquarian curiosity,
the interest of secular research. Labour which goes to
revive the story of mankind in remote ages has its value
only when it is applied to the uses of the moralist and
the prophet. We have much to learn again that has
been forgotten, much to recall that has escaped the
memory of the race. Through phases of complex
civilization in which the outward and sensuous are
pursued the world has to pass to a new era of more
simple and yet more profound life, to a social order
fitted for the development of spiritual power and grace.
And the church is well directed by the Book of God.
Her inquiry into the past is no affair of intellectual
curiosity, but a research governed by the principles that
have underlain man's life from the first and a growing
apprehension of all that is at stake in the multiform
energy of the present. Amid the bustle and pressure
of those endeavours which Christian faith itself may
induce our minds become confused. Thinkers and
doers are alike apt to forget the deliverances knowledge
ought to effect, and while they learn and attempt much
they are rather passing into bondage than finding life.
Our research seems more and more to occupy us with
the manner of things, and even Bible Archaeology is
exposed to this reproach. As for the scientific com-
parers of religion they are mostly feeding the vanity
of the age with a sense of extraordinary progress and
enlightenment, and themselves are occasionally heard to
- IV.] THE MARRIAGE AT THE GATE. 4"
confess that the farther they go in study of old faiths,
old rituals and moralities the less profit they find, the
less hint of a design. No such futility, no failure of
culture and inquiry mark the Bible writers' dealing with
the past. To the humble life of the Son of Man on
earth, to the life of the Hebrews long before He
appeared our thought is carried back from the thousand
objects that fascinate in the world of to-day. And
there we see the faith and all the elements of spiritual
vitality of which our own belief and hope are the fruit.
There too without those cumbrous modern involutions
which never become familiar, society wonderfully fulfils
its end in regulating personal effort and helping the
conscience and the soul.
The scene at the gate shows Boaz energetically
conducting the case he has taken up. Private con-
siderations urged him to bring rapidly to an issue the
affairs of Naomi and Ruth since he was involved, and
again he commends himself as a man who, having a
task in hand, does it with his might. His pledge to
Ruth was a pledge also to his own conscience that no
suspense should be due to any carelessness of his ; and
in this he proved himself a pattern friend. The great
man often shows his greatness by making others wait
at his door. They are left to find the level of their
insignificance and learn the value of his favour. So
the grace of God is frustrated by those who have the
opportunity and should covet the honour of being His
instruments. Men know that they should wait patiently
on God's time, but they are bewildered when they have
to wait on the strange arrogance of those in whose
hands Providence has placed the means of their succour.
And many must be the cases in which this fault of man
412 THE BOOK OF RUTH.
begets bitterness, distrust of God and even despair. It
should be a matter of anxiety to us all to do with speed
and care anything on which the hopes of the humble
and needy rest. A soul more worthy than our own
may languish in darkness while a promise which should
have been sacred is allowed to fade from our memory.
Boaz was also open and straightforward in his
transactions. His own wish is pretty clear. He seems
as anxious as Naomi herself that to him should fall the
duty of redeeming her burdened inheritance and reviv-
ing her husband's name. Possibly without any public
discussion, by consulting with the nearer kinsman and
urging his own wish or superior ability he might have
settled the affair. Other inducements failing, the offer
of a sum of money might have secured to him the right
of redemption. But in the light of honour, in the court
of his conscience, the man was unable thus to seek his
end ; and besides the town's people had to be consi-
dered ; their sense of justice had to be satisfied as well
as his own.
Often it is not enough that we do a thing from
the best of motives ; we must do it in the best way,
for the support of justice or purity or truth. While
private benevolence is one of the finest of arts, the
Christian is not unfrequently called to exercise another
which is more difficult and not less needful in society.
Required at one hour not to let his left hand know
what his right hand doeth, at another he is required in
all modesty and simplicity to take his fellows to witness
that he acts for righteousness, that he is contending for
some thought of Christ's, that he is not standing in the
outer court among those who are ashamed but has taken
his place with the Master at the judgment bar of the
world. Again, when a matter in which a Christian is
iv.] THE MARRIAGE AT THE GATE. 413
involved is before the public and has provoked a good
deal of discussion and perhaps no little criticism of
religion and its professors it is not enough that out of
sight, out of court some arrangement be made which
counts for a moral settlement. That is not enough
though a person whose rights and character are affected
may consent to it. If still the world has reason to
question whether justice has been done, — justice has
not been done. If still the truthfulness of the church
is under valid suspicion, — the church is not manifesting
Christ as it should. For no moral cause once opened at
public assize can be issued in private. It is no longer
between one man and another, nor between a man
and the church. The conscience of the race has been
empanelled and cannot be discharged without judgment.
Innumerable causes withdrawn from court, compro-
mised, hushed up or settled in corners with an effort at
justice still shadow the history of the church and cast
a darkness of justifiable suspicion on the path along
which she would advance.
Even in this little affair at Bethlehem the good man
will have everything done with perfect openness and
honour and will stand by the result whether it meet
his hopes or disappoint them. At the town-gate, the
common meeting-place for conversation and business,
Boaz takes his seat and invites the goel to sit beside
him and also a jury of ten elders. The court thus
constituted, he states the case of Naomi and her desire
to sell a parcel of land which belonged to her husband.
When Elimelech left Bethlehem he had, no doubt,
borrowed money on the field, and now the question is
whether the nearest kinsman will pay the debt and
beyond that the further value of the land so that the
widow may have something to herself Promptly the
414 THE BOOK OF RUTH.
goel answers that he is ready to buy the land. This,
however, is not all. In buying the field and adding it
to his estate will the man take Ruth to wife, to raise
up the name of the dead upon his inheritance ? He is
not prepared to do that, for the children of Ruth would
be entitled to the portion of ground and he is unwilling
to impoverish his own family. " I cannot redeem it
for myself, lest I mar my own inheritance." He draws
off his shoe and gives it to Boaz renouncing his right
of redemption.
Now this marriage-custom is not ours, but at the
time, as we have seen, it was a sacred rule, and the
goel was morally bound by it. He could have insisted
on redeeming the land as his right. To do so was
therefore his duty, and to a certain extent he failed from
the ideal of a kinsman's obligation. But the position
was not an easy one. Surely the man was justified in
considering the children he already had and their claims
upon him. Did he not exercise a wise prudence in
refusing to undertake a new obligation ? Moreover
the circumstances were delicate and dispeace might
have been caused in his household if he took the
Moabite woman. It is certainly one of those cases in
which a custom or law has great weight and yet creates
no little difficulty, moral as well as pecuniary, in the
observance. A man honest enough and not ungenerous
may find it hard to determine on which side duty lies.
Without, however, abusing this goel we may fairly take
him as a type of those who are more impressed by the
prudential view of their circumstances than by the
duties of kinship and hospitality. If in the course of
providence we have to decide whether we will admit
some new inmate to our home worldly considerations
must not rule either on the one side or the other.
iv.] THE MARRIAGE AT THE GATE. 415
A man's duty to his family, what is it ? To exclude
a needy dependant however pressing the claim may
be ? To admit one freely who has the recommendation
of wealth ? Such earthly calculation is no rule for
a true man. The moral duty, the moral result are
always to be the main elements of decision. No
family ever gains by relief from an obligation con-
science acknowledges. No family loses by the fulfil-
ment of duty, whatever the expense. In household
debate the balance too often turns not on the character
of Ruth but on her lack of gear. The same woman
who is refused as a heathen when she is poor, is
discovered to be a most desirable relation if she
brings fuel for the fire of welcome. Let our decisions
be quite clear of this mean hypocrisy. Would we
insist on being dutiful to a rich relation ? Then the
duty remains to him and his if they fall into poverty,
for a moral claim cannot be altered by the state of the
purse.
And what of the duty to Christ, His church, His
poor ? Would to God some people were afraid to leave
their children wealthy, were afraid of having God
inquire for His portion. A shadow rests on the inherit-
ance that has been guarded in selfish pride against the
just claims of man, in defiance of the law of Christ.
Yet let one be sure that his liberality is not mixed with
a carnal hope. What do we think of when we declare
that God's recompense to those who give freely comes
in added store of earthly treasure, the tithe returned
ten and twenty and a hundred fold ? By what law of
the material or spiritual world does this come about ?
Certainly we love a generous man, and the liberal
shall stand by liberal things. But surely God's purpose
is to make us comprehend that His grace does not
4i6 THE BOOK OF RUTH.
take the form of a percentage on investments. When
a man grows spiritually, when although he becomes
poorer he yet advances to nobler manhood, to power
and joy in Christ — this is the reward of Christian
generosity and faithfulness. Let us be done with
religious materialism, with expecting our God to repay
us in the coin of this earth for our service in the
heavenly kingdom.
The marriage of Ruth at which we now arrive
appears at once as the happy termination of Naomi's
solicitude for her, the partial reward of her own faith-
fulness and the solution so far as she was concerned
of the problem of woman's destiny. The idea of the
spiritual completion of life for woman as well as man,
of the woman being able to attain a personal standing
of her own with individual responsibility and freedom
was not fully present to the Hebrew mind. If un-
married, Ruth would have remained, as Naomi well
knew and had all along said, without a place in society,
without an asylum or shelter. This old-world view of
things burdens the whole history, and before passing on
we must compare it with the state of modern thought
on the question.
The incompleteness of the childless widow's life
which is an element of this narrative, the incomplete-
ness of the life of every unmarried woman which
appears in the lament for Jephthah's daughter and
elsewhere in the Bible as well as in other records of the
ancient world had, we may say, a two-fold cause. On
the one hand there was the obvious fact that marriage
has a reason in physical constitution and the order of
human society. On the other hand heathen practices
and constant wars made it, as we have seen, impossible
for women to establish themselves alone. A woman
iv] THE MARRIAGE AT THE GATE. 417
needed protection, or as the law of England has it,
coverture. In very exceptional cases only could the
opportunity be found, even among the people of Jehovah,
for those personal efforts and acts which give a position
in the world. But the distinction of Israel's custom
and law as compared with those of many nations lay
here, that woman was recognized as entitled to a place
of her own side by side with man in the social scheme.
The conception of her individuality as of individuality
generally was limited. The idea of what is now called
the social organism governed family life, and the very
faith that was afterwards to become the strength of
individuality was held as a national thing. The view
of complete life had no clear extension into the future,
even the salvation of the soul did not appear as a
distinct provision for personal immortality. Under
these limitations, however, the proper life of every
woman and her place in the nation were acknowledged
and provision was made for her as well as circumstances
would allow. By the customs of marriage and. by the
laws of inheritance she was recognized and guarded.
Now it may appear that the problem of woman's
place, so far from approaching solution in Christian
times, has rather fallen into greater confusion ; and
many are the attacks made from one point of view and
another upon the present condition of things. By the
nature school of revolutionaries physical constitution is
made a starting-point in argument and the reasoning
sweeps before it every hindrance to the completion
of life on that side for women as for men. Christian
marriage is itself assailed by these as an obstacle in
the path of evolution. They find women, thanks to
Christianity, no longer unable to establish themselves
in hfe ; but against Christianity which has done this
27
4i8 THE BOOK OF RUTH.
they raise the loud complaint that it bars the individual
from full life and enjoyment. In the course of our
discussion of the Book of Judges reference has been
made once and again to this propaganda, and here its
real nature comes to light. Its conception of human
life is based on mere animalism ; it throws into the
crucible the gain of the centuries in spiritual discipline
and energetic purity in order to make ample provision
for the flesh and the fulfilling of the lusts thereof.
But the problem is not more confused ; it is solved,
as all other problems are by Christ. Penetrating and
arrogant voices of the day will cease and His again be
heard Whose terrible and gracious doctrine of personal
responsibility in the supernatural order is already the
heart of human thought and hope. There is turmoil,
disorder, vile and foolish experimenting ; but the
remedy is forward not behind. Christ has opened the
spiritual kingdom, has made it possible for every soul
to enter. For each human being now, man and
woman, life means spiritual overcoming, spiritual
possession, and can mean nothing else. It is altogether
out of date, an insult to the conscience and common
sense of mankind, not to speak of its faith, to go back
on the primitive world and the ages of a lower evolu-
tion and fasten down to sensuousness a race that has
heard the liberating word. Repent, believe and live.
The incompleteness of a human being lies in subjection
to passion, in existing without moral energy, governed
by the earthly and therefore without hope or reason
of life. To the full stature of heavenly power the
woman has her way open through the blood of the
cross, and by a path of loneliness and privation, if need
be, she may advance to the highest range of priestly
service and blessing.
iv.] THE MARRIAGE AT THE GATE. 4^9
To the Jewish people and to the writer of the Book
of Ruth as a Jew genealogy was of more account than
to us, and a place in David's ancestry appears as the
final honour of Ruth for her dutifulness, her humble
faith in the God of Israel. Orpah is forgotten ; she
remained with her own people and died in obscurity.
But faithful Ruth lives distinguished in history. She
takes her place among the matrons of Bethlehem and
the people of God. The story of her life, sa3'S one,
stands at the portal of the life of David and at the
gates of the gospel.
Yet suppose Ruth had not been married to Boaz or
to any other good and wealthy man, would she have
been less admirable and deserving ? We attribute
nothing to accident. In the providence of God Boaz
was led to an admiration for Ruth and Naomi's plan
succeeded. But it might have been otherwise. There
is nothing, after all, so striking in her faith that we
should expect her to be singled out for special honour ;
and she is not. The divine reward of goodness is the
peace of God in the soul, the gladness of fellowship
with Him, the opportunity of learning His will and
dispensing His grace. It is interesting to note that
Ruth's son Obed was the father of Jesse and the
grandfather of David. But was Ruth no also the
ancestress of the sons of Zeruiah, of Absalom, Adonijah
and Rehoboam ? Even though looking down the
generations we see the Messiah born of her line, how
can that glorify Ruth ? or, if it does, how shall we
explain the want of glory of many an estimable and
godly woman who fighting a battle harder than Ruth's,
with clearer faith in God, lived and died in some
obscure village of Naphtali or dragged out a weary
widowhood on the borders of the Syrian desert ?
THE BOOK OF RUTH.
Yet there is a sense in which the history of Ruth
stands at the gates of the gospel. It bears the lesson
that Jehovah acknowledged all who did justly and
loved mercy and walked humbly with Him. The
foreign woman was justified by faith, and her faith had
its reward when she was accepted as one of Jehovah's
people and knew Him as her gracious Friend. Israel
had in this book the warrant for missionary work
among the pagan nations and a beautiful apologue of
the reconciliation the faith of Jehovah was to effect
among the severed families of mankind. The same
faith is ours, but with deeper urgency, the same spirit
of reconciliation reaching now to farther mightier issues.
We have seen the Goel of the race and have heard His
offer of redemption. We are commissioned to those
who dwell in the remotest borders of the moral world
under oppressions of heathenism and fear or wander in
strange Moabs of con fusion where deep calleth unto deep.
We have to testify that with One and One only are the
light, the joy, the completeness of man, because He alone
among sages and helpers has the secret of our sin and
weakness and the long miracle of the soul's redemption.
*' Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to
the whole creation : and lo, I am with you." The
faith of the Hebrew is more than fulfilled. Out of
Israel He comes our Menuchah, Who is " an hiding
place from the wind and a covert from the tempest, as
rivers of water in a dry place, as the shadow of a great
rock in a weary land"
INDEX
ACHSAH, 20,
Adoni-bezek, 12.
Adventurer, the, 21 1.
Agnosticism, 156.
Altars, local, 338.
Amalek, 78.
Amorites, 64.
Angel of Jehovah, 147.
Ascendency of races, 14.
Astarte, 52.
Baal, 52.
Baal-berith, the modern, 221.
Baal-peor, 51.
Balaam, 70.
Barak, the Lightning Chief, 99;
agreement with Deborah, 122.
Barbarism, the new, 140.
Bethlehem, 364.
Canaan, its population, 6; central
position, 6; degeneracy of its
people, 8 ; gods of, 52.
Character, national, 205 ; of Arabs,
239 ; decision of, 378.
Charity, careless, 399.
Christ, the Strengthener, 42, 43;
and the inquirer, 124; and the
church, 152, 177; critics of, 154;
personal pledge to, 1 60, 383;
enemies of, 181 ; priesthood of,
20S; kingship of, 228; sacrifice
of) 251, 332; manliness of, 264;
the temple, 343; His teaching as
to wealth, 3S8.
Christianity secularized, 330.
Church, the, opposition to, 79, 82,
leaders in, 1 23 ; custody of truth
by, 124; world in, 133 ; elation
of, 139; right spirit of, 152; con-
fusion in, 171; ^national, 176;
attacks upon, 186; perpetual duty
of, 353-
Completeness of life, 416.
Compromise, 88, 402; with hea-
thens, 98.
Concentration, 175; and breadth,
275-
Conscience, correlative of power,
303 ; and Ufe, 353, 354; insanity
of, 357-
Conversion, 27, 159; imperfect, 41 ;
helped by circumstances, 158;
complete, 160; Ruth's, 381.
Co-partnery, with the world, 220 ;
between Hebrew and Philistine,
284.
Creed, the old, 172.
Culture, 20, 88; affecting religion,
228.
422
INDEX.
Cushan-rishathaim, 6g.
Custom, old, why recorded, 408.
Danite migration, 340.
Date of Book of Ruth, 409.
Deborah, 91; inspiration of, 96, 102,
108; her wisdom, 100; not un-
merciful, 117; her judgeship,
135-
Dependents, duty to, 414.
Dependence, ignoble, 297.
Divine judgment, 1 1 ; of Meroz the
prudent, 132.
Divine Vindicator, the, 394.
Doubt, religious, 26.
Earth-force in man, 149.
Ecclcsiasticism, 167, 20I,
Education, 273.
Ehud, 83.
Emigration, 366.
Entanglements, base, 301.
Equipment for life, 184,
Evil, despotic, 287.
Evolution, spiritual, 4, 85, 109.
Ezra, 38.
Faint yet pursuing, 191.
Faith, development of, 4; conflicts
of, 27; link between generations,
49 ; army of, 128 ; recuperative
power of, 141 ; power through,
203 ; ebb and flow of, 233 ; saves,
not doing, 300 ; courage forced
on, 347-
Fidelity depends on religion, 405.
Fittest, survival of, 9.
Fleece, Gideon's, 169.
Freedom, cradle of faith, 85, 86, 90;
right of the rude, 258.
Free-lance, 304.
GiBEAH, crime of, 348.
Gideon, 144; his fleece, 169; his
three hundred, 173; kingship
refused by, 196; his caution, 197;
desire for priesthood, 198; his
ephod-dealing, 202; a storm of
God, 204.
Gilead, its vigour, 235.
God with man, 146.
Goel, duty of, 398.
Gospel, at the gates of, 420.
Heathenism, rites of, 53.
■Hebrews, language of, 31 ; inter-
mixture with Canaanites, 68;
national spirit of, 234.
Heroism, 149.
History, key to, 5, 295.
Hittitcs, 65.
Honey from the carcase, 289.
Humanity, priesthood of, 208.
Ideal, of life, 29; for Israel, 48,
242.
Idolatry, 33 ; unpardonable, 49.
Intolerance, moral, 354,
Israel, mission of, 13; oppressed
by Cushan-rishathaim, 72 ; by
Jabin, 92; by Midianites, 137;
tribes of, 97, 132, 167; its idea
of Jehovah, 107, 118; superiority
of, 55, 69, 90-
Jael, 103, 134; her tragic moment,
105.
Jealousy, tribal, 255.
Jebusites, 28.
Jephthah, the outlaw, 235 ; chosen
leader, 236 ; his peaceful policy,
240 ; his vow, 243 ; his daughter,
247.
Jerusalem 15.
INDEX.
423
Joash of Ahiezer, 156.
Joshua, 45.
Jotham's parable, 214.
Judges, their vindication, 57.
Justice, passion for, 58; human
effort for, 104; should be open,
412.
Kenites, 24.
Kingship, refused by Gideon, 196.
Kiriath-sepher, 18.
Leaders, uncalled, 163.
Leadership, incomplete, 161.
Levites, 338.
Life, the law of, 294, 299; hind-
rances to, 296 ; fear hindering,
297; complete, 314.
Literature, 19; Danites of, 345, 346.
Love, 380.
Luz, 28.
Marriage, 20 ; a failure ? 24 ; rash
experiments in, 284.
Marriages, mixed, 38.
Master-strokes in providence, 158.
Meroz, 132.
Micah, 335.
Midianites, 137, 195.
Missionary spirit, 137,
Moab, 77, 367.
Moderatism, 166.
Monotheism, 32.
Moral intolerance, 354.
Moses, 13, 19.
Motherhood, 268.
National church, 176.
Nature, God revealed in, in-15;
and supernatural, 266.
Nature-cult, 42, 418.
Nazirite vow, 276.
Nomadism, religious, 25. [
Opportunism, 166.
Organized vice, 179.
Orpah, 376.
Othniel, 22, 73.
Parentage, 271.
Past, the, returning, 71 ; lessons of,
410.
Pastors, unspiritual, 344.
Patriotism, religious, 226.
Personal ends engrossing, 136.
Personality, 15; in religion, 379.
Pessimism, 230.
Pharisaism, 39 ; danger of) 356.
Philistines, 26, 62.
Philistinism, 310, 329.
Phosnicians, 63.
Polygamy, 21, 351.
Polytheism, its development, 54.
Prayer, 142, 143, 231.
Predestination, 269.
Priesthood, Gideon's desire for,
198; true, 206; Roman Catholic,
246.
Prophets, unrecognized, 162 ; their
preparation, 270.
Prosperity, misunderstood, 388.
Providence, imperfect instruments
of, 58, 84.
Public office, 2l6.
Purity, 350.
Reconciliation, religion always
for, 395.
Reformer, his character, 153.
Reformation, the true, 155.
Religion, emotional, 130; and the
state, 36, 75.
Remnant, the godly, 126, 131.
Repentance, imperfect, 40.
Responsibility, 300; in advising,
370.
Retribution, 138.
424
INDEX.
Rich, obligations of, 390.
Rights and duties, 30, 256.
Ruth, her choice, 377 ; conversion
of, 381 ; goodness commending
her, 392 ; her danger, 401 ; her
marriage, 416.
Sacred places, 33.
Salvation, personal, 15 1.
Samson, his loneliness, 279 ; boy-
hood of, 280; character of, 281 ;
his marriage, 290; his riddle,
291 ; no reformer, 308.
Schism, 342, 345.
Science, dogmatism of, lI2;Danites
of, 345-
Self-respect, 312.
Self-sacrifice, 249, 331, 333.
Self-suppression, 16, 251, 375.
Self-vindication, 358.
Separations in life, 383.
Shechem, 210.
Shibboleths, of reform, 262 ; allow-
able, 263 ; Christ used none, 264.
Sibboleths, of egotism, 260; of bad
habit, 260; of literature, 261.
Sisera, loi.
Spiritual brotherhood, 151; strength,
321, 324; service, 369; pauperism,
40a
Strength and character, 193.
Struggle, the law of existence, lO.
Success, sanctified, 80 ; succeeding,
189.
Succoth and Penuel, 190.
Supernatural in human life, 267.
Temptation, 287; process of, 317.
Theocracy, 3, 46 ; Jotham's idea of,
214, 218.
Tribal religion, 328.
Truth and charity, 228.
Unscrupulous helpers, 133.
Veracity of the narrative, 359.
Vicarious suffering, 355.
Voluntary churches, 176.
Wars 01 conquest, 5.
Women, treatment of, 21 ; their
freedom, 22; duties of, 125,
social bondage of, 372; helpless,
373 ; submission preached to
375 ; problems in their life, 416,
418.
Wrong never strong, 182.
Zephath, 25.
Theological Seminary-Speer
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