The progressive farmer., 1901-07-16
Christian Life Column,
A STRONG WEAK MAN.

sllv strong and physically week. Sam
son i11ustrated the former combina-
tion. His own people and his enemies
stood in awe of his arm, and one
woman played with his will. Paul
was an illustration of the second
combination. In presence he said
men might regard him as weak and
oontenptible, but the indomitable
resolution, the rugged spiritual
mower, the irrefragable moral pur-
nose of the little Jew of Tarsus are
still the admiration and delight of
men.
Physical weakness cannot break
moral strength, but moral weakness
is constantly breaking down physical
strength. 1t was so with Samson.
He lay in Delilah's lap, loving the
woman who was liar and traitress
both, aud he in his folly opened his
heart to her. One of the most COM
mon and fatal forms of moral weak
ness is betrayal of the inner secrets
of life to the unworthy and unclean.
And he paid the penalty. His
strength was stolen from him. And
so still, sin brings its consequences
in weakness, in pain, in disease.
And where these are not it's penal
ties, they come nevertheless in some
form of deterioration in the life.
Alas for the sense of loss which
comes to the strong weak man in the
day of his need, when he thinks he
will rise up in the freedom and
power of his strength, and finds it
gone Il will go out as at other
times before, and shake myself, "
said Samson, feeling in anticipation
the thrill of his supreme might.
But she wist not that the Lord was
departed from him" The weak man
thought himself strong. But his
strength had resided in his clean
ness and whOlesOmeness of life, and
ne had left them in Delilah' s lap
with the locks of his hair, and knew
not what he had lost until the hour
of testing came, and he lost his sight
with his strength, and ground as a
slave in the prison house at GAIA.
The great power of life is moral
power. Health, wealth, stature,
beauty, talents of whatsoever sort,
are of less worth than plain, stern
strength of the moral life. The
strong man, full of resources and the
power that resources command, but
destitute of moral faith and immov-
able principle, is a weak object in
comparison with the child who pos
sesses nothing but an uncOmpromis-
ing adherence of lies, and an inabil-
ity to pursue a single course of dis
honor
"And Jesus stood before the gov
ernOr. In the eyes of the world, He
stands there now, the helpless Cali
lean, without one supporter, penni
less, confronting the representative
Of the supreme power of the world,
rich, supported by soldiers and
wealth, and able at word to ami
hilate him Which is the weak man,
which the strong? The man of no
material power looms like the vault
of heaven, like the throne of God
above the man of no moral power.
PLATE appears a squalid, craven
thing beside Jesus.
&, oE e
world there are great forces which
men honor and fear because they are
mighty and overbearing, which yet
are weak and temporal. There is no
righteousness in them. To beat
down the helpless by force is poor
business, and it does not represent
the abiding power. Truth and jus
tioe, though unsupported by armies,
do represent the forces which, in
the end, are to prevail and rule the
earth
Truth, crushed to earth, shall rise
again,
The eternal years of God are hers"
The Lord of all the worlds came to
Bethlehem as helpless babe. And
his kingdom is an everlasting king
dom, and there shall be no other.
And still in man and among men the
strength of the child, innocent, pure,
seIhess, is greater than the strength
Of money, of force, of vanity, of the
outstretched arm, of the will Of the
flesh, of the long looks of Samson
left in Delilah's lap.-Sunday Schoo