The Evening statesman. [volume] (Walla Walla, Wash.) 1903-1910, 1904-01-25
SAMSON WAS THE POPULAR iOo-
OF THE TRIBE OF DAN IN
ANCIENT TIMES.
Rev. Austin Rice Delivered An Able
Discourse at First Congregational
Church Last Night.

Sunday evening Rev Austin Rice,
Of the First Congregational church
delivered an able and very interesting
sermon. taking for the subject of his
discourse. sampson: A Hero of
Faith In part he said:
"Sampson was the popular hero of
the tribe of Dan. The stories which
come down to us concerning his eX-
PLOTS bear signs of the eXaggerat1on
and the idealiZing which surround the
life of every hero of antiquity. The
attempts. however, to consider the
story as Il Sun-myth or Il Jewish YER
sion of the Greek Hercules are dis
ship.
The secret of Samson's strength
was primarily, not physical, but in the
early training and conservation of his
when a child He was trained in hab-
its>of self control and temperance.
".Oh madness, to think use OF
strongest wines,
And strongest drinks our chief sup
port of health
When God, with these forbidden
made choice to rear
His mighty champion. strong be
yond compare.
Whose drink was only from the Ii
Quid brook"
These early habits of conservation
and temperance stood by him in those
dark days of conservation and were
an explanation of his final triumph.
Let no mother nor Sunday school
teacher despair. The early drill in
right. even though it's fruits seem
wasted is not everybody lost.
The second stage in SamSon's ca
reer was the dallying with tempta-
ton. the overcOnfidence which led him
raShly to give away the secret of his
power until at length he was taken
prisoner and With eyes put out COM
PEELED to grind at the mill.
We are apt to think of SIMPSONS
life as a lesson against running into
sin. but the most remarkable fact is
that in spite Of greviouS sin this man
is Yet recorded in the New Testa
ment as Il hero of the Faith. AS Dr..
Gordon remarks-S Some people have
felt it Il source Of vast annoy
ance to find in that masnif
e.: q. clio
enth chapter of Hebrews. 1t seems
an insult to the faith to suppose that
Sampson in the performance OF his
feqts stood in any relation to the di-
Vine
what is d hero? Is he only the
faultless man? Has the roll call of
Gods warriors only for men of a
single conventional type of piety, the
starched. prim. decorus proper man
or woman: TO limit heroism to this
class would be to make a man over into
Il tin soldier. People have blamed God
because he speaks in praise of men
like David and Abraham and Samson.
But God never praises or condOnes
the sins of these men. He cOmmends
the magnificent struggle, the perse-
verance which held on. the faith which
against vast odds and in the teeth of
apparent total wreck still kept true
until a final victory was achieved.
The lesson of Samson is the
boundless power and mercy and COM
passion of God which can take the
toughest. coarsest man in the hour of
utter failure and fill him With power
to become Il hero. God never deserts
the man who has given his life to the
divine keeping"
The sermon closed with COMPARE
son of the popular and the re
ligiOus" hero, showing how the latter
must be broa dened as to in
clude the former and how together they
made up the true man of faith.