The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1889-10-10
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
Weekly Discourse of the Great
Brooklyn Preacher.
subjocts "The shorn Locks of Sam.
son"


thee eref'y one Of us eleven hundred pieces Of
silrsr."-Judges xvi, 5.
One thousand pounds or about five thou.
sand dollars Of our money, were thus offered
for the capture OF giant. 1t would take q
skillful photographer TO picture Samson as
no really was. The most facils words are
mot supple enough to describe him. He was
giant and child; the conquoror and the de.
feated, able TO snap at lions jaw, and yet
captured by the sigh of maiden. He was
ruler and slave;s commingling of virtue and
vice, the sublime and the ridiculous; sharp
enough TO make good riddle, and yet weak
enough to be caught in the
most superficial stratagem; honest
enough TO settle his debt, and vet out
rageously robbing somebody else to get the
material to pay it; a miracle and n scofiing;
q browning glory and burning shame.
There he stands, looming up above other
men, a mountain of flesh; his arms punched
with muscle that can lift the gate Of a city;
taking an attitude defiant of armed men and
wild beasts. His hair had never been cut,
and it rolled down in seven great plsits over
his shoulders, adding to his fierceness and
terror. The Philistines want to conquer
him, and therefore they must find out where
the secret of his strength lies
There is a woman living in the valley OF
Sorek by the name of Delilah. They appoint
are secreted in the same building, and then
Delilah goes to work and coaxes Samson to
tell what is the secret of his strength. "Well,n
he says, IF you should take seven green
wlthes, such as they fasten wild beasts with,
and put them around me, l should be per-
fectly powerless." So she binds him with the
seven green withes. Then she claps her
hands and says: They come--the Philis-
tines" and he walks ont as though there
N N m nAflip la,t Sbn in
and says; Now tell me the secret OF
this great strength; and he replies; "If you
should take some ropes that have never been
used, and tie me with them, | should be lust
like other men, She ties him with tho
ropes, clsps her hands and shouts. They
eome-the Philistinesm He walks out as
hssy as he did before-not single obstruc-
Ion. She cosxes him again, and he says;
"Now, il you should take these seven long
pl>,ts of hair. and by this house loom weave
bhOn into web, l could not get away" So
kNbouse loom is rolled up, and the shuttle
dies backward and forward, and the long
plaits of hair are woven into a web. Then
the claps her hands, and says: "They come!
The Phiiistines'
he walks out as easily as he did before
dragging part of the loom with him. But
after awhile she persuades him to tell the
ruth. He says: IF you should take razor,
Or shears, and cut off this long hair l should
Be- powerless, and in the hands of my ene-
miles, Samson sleeps, and that she may not
wake him up during the process of shearing,
help is called in, You know that the BARRIERS
Of the East have such skillful way of man
lpulating the head, to this very day they will
put man, wide awake, sound asleep. hear
the blades of the shears grinding against each
other, and | see the long locks falling off.
The shears, or razor, accomplishes what green
N nd
not do. Suddenly she claps her hands and
rays: THE Philistines be upon thee, Sam
sen" He rouses up with a struggle, but his
strength is ali gone, He is in the hands of
his enemies Ihear the groan of the giant
rs they take his eyes out and then see him
staggering on in his blindness, feeling his
way as he goes on toward GAIA The prison
door is opened and the giant is thrust in. He
sits down and puts his hands on the mill
crank, which, with exhausting horizontal
notion goes day after day week after week,
month after month--work, work, work
The CONSERVATION Of the world is captivity,
his locks shorn, his eyes punctured, grinding
corn i'll GAIA. In previous sermon on this
character / learned some lessons, but another
class of lessons are before us now.
Learn first how very strong people are
sometimes coaxed into great imbecilities.
Samson had no right to reveal the secret of
his strength Deliiahs first attempt to find
out is failure. He says "Green withes
will bind me- but it was a failure. Then
he says; "a new rope will hold me- but that
also was failure. Then he says: Weave
my locks into a web and that will bind me-"
yet that also was failure. But at last you
see how she coaxed it out him. Unimportant
actions in life that involve no moral princi-
pie may without injury be subjected to
ardent persuasions, but as soon as you have
come to tho line that separates right from
wrong no inducement or Establishment ought
to MAKE you step over it. Suppose man
has bsen brought up in a Christian house
hold and taught sacredly to observe
the Sabbath, Sunday comes; you want
fresh air Temptation says: Sunday
bigoted; we will ride forth among the works
of God; the whole earth is His temple; we
will not go into any designations; come, now,
have the carrisge engaged and we shall be
back soon enough to go to church in the
evening; don't yield to Puritanic notions;
you will be no worse for ride in the coun-
try; the blossoms are out and they say every
thing is looking glorious" well, will go
to please YOU" is the response. And out
they go over the street, conscience drowned
In the clatter of the swift hoofs and the rush
of the resounding wheels That tempted
man may have had moral character enough
to break the green withss of ten thousand
Philistine allurements but he has been over
come by coaxing.
Two young men passing down this street
came opposite drinking saloon with red
lantern hung out from the door to light men
to perdition. LET us go in" says one. mo,
I won't" says the other; Il never go to such
places Now, you don't say you are as
weak as that. Why, have been going there
for two years and it hasn't hurt me. Come,
come now, be q man. If you can't stand
anything stronger, take little sherry. You
need to see the world as it is don't believe
in intemperance any more than you. | cau
stop drinking just when l want to. You
shall go. Now come right along" Persuasion
has conquered. Samson yields to the coaxine
and there is carnival in hell that night
among the Philistines and they shout: ''Ha
ha! We've got him" Those who have the
kindest and most sympathetic natures are
the most i'll danger. Your very disposition
to please Others will be the very trap they
set. If you were cold and harsh and severe
in your nature you would not be tempered
with. People never fondle a hedgehog. Tt,
most sentimental Greenlander never kisse,
an iceberg. The warmth and susceptibility
of your nature will encourage the siren
Though strong as a giant, look out fol
Delilahs scissors. Samson, the strongest
man who ever lived, was overcome by coax
ing.
Again, this narrative teaches us the powe:
of sn i'll disposed woman. In the portrait
gallery of Bible Queens we find Abigail ant
Ruth and Miriam and Vashti and Deborah
but in the rogues' gallery of police station
you find the pictures OF women as well a
men. Deliah's picture belongs to the rogues
gallary, but she had more power than al
Philistia armed with sword and spear. Sh,
could carry off the iron gates of Samson's reso
luton as easily as he shouldered the gates o
GAIA The force that had killed the hon which
one day plunged out fierce from the thicket
utterly succumbs to the silken net which
Delilah weaves for the giant. He who hat
driven an army in riotous retreat with TIL
bleached jaw bone, shifting them hip anc
thigh with great slaughter, now falls captiv'
at the feet Of an unworthy woman. Delilaf
in the Bible stands in the memorable com
pany of Adah, and Zillah, and Bathsheba
and Jezebel, and Athaliah. and Herodias.
How deplorable the influence of such II
contrast with Rebecca and Phoebe and HUI
dab and Tryphona and Jephtha' daughter
and Mary, the mother of jesus While TIN
latter glitter in the armament of Gods Wort
Ike consultations with steady, cheerful
holy light, the former shoot like baleful me
teors across the terrified heavens, ominous o.
war, disaster and death. II there is divin,
power in the good mother her face bright
with purity, an unselfish love beaming from
bar ave a oaptlan hat by panpS and suffer