St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1907-05-25
SERMoNETTE.

The Triumph of EVil.-"our
god hath delivered Samson our
enemy into our hand" was the
boast of the PhiIistines. They
saw in the downfall of their
powerful enemy an evidence of
the favor of their god Dagon,
and a proof of their own Prov
ess. And that is as far as they
could see or understand. Evil
always is half blind. Its vision
Is limited by the horizon of the
physical and temporal. 1t eIimi-
mates the true God as factor
and places superstition and
pride upon the throne of rea-
son. Evil does not recognize
God as a controlling factor in
the affairs of life; It does not
understand that it overreaches
itself and brings about it's own
destruction.
But from the Divine view
point, evil triumphs over the
good because sin is permitted
to usurp the place of God in the
heart and life. The fortress of
the heart is impregnabIe until
the little side door of sin is
opened to admit the enemy.
Samson was a defeated man
from the moment he let the
earthly love usurp the place of
God, and the final yielding to
the opportunities of DeIiIah was
but the Inevitable outcome of
such unhoIy alliance.
"Let no man say when he is
tempted, am tempted of God;
for God cannot be tempted with
evil, neither tempteth He any
man; but every man is tempted
when he is drawn away of his
own lust and enticed. Then
when lust hath conceived, it
bringeth forth sin; and sin,
when it is finished, hringeth
forth death"
Recovered Strength. - But
while evil in it's blindness was
glorying in the fall of the
mighty Samson, the mercy and
forgiveness of God were BEING
bestowed upon repentant sim
ner. What evil can do to a man
Is nothing to what God can do
for him. Samson shorn and
blind and in the power of the
enemy may yet rise above the
miserable conditions into
which his sin has plunged him.
He may again become the In
strument of Righteousness to
the condemnation and judgment
upon evil.
"lf we confess our sins He is
faithful and just to forgive US
our sins and cleanse US from all
unrighteousness." The prison
. house at GAIA became Samson's
confessional. The PhiIistines
could shut out the light of day
from his eyes, but they could
not shut out God from his
heart. They could bind his
limbs with letters of brass, but
. they could net chain down his
spirit and prevent it from
reaching out and finding the
forgiving and restoring God.
After all, how circumscribed
are the powers of evil. How
) the servant Of God ought to rea-
lie the possibilities which lie
) within him as he links his life
with that of God.
To fall into sin is grievous,
but to remain in the condition
where sin has cast US is mex
. cusabIe, objectionable. Here is
where sanson's faith, spoken of
. in the eleventh of Hebrews,
shines out the brightest. Though
|. the physical eyes were never to
see again, not so with the eyes
/. of the soul. Faith touched the
blindness which had come from
: sin and the soul looks up and
, sees the God that giveth
) strength to the humble and re-
.. storeth them which be of a
; contrite spirit, and so we find
the latter end of this man Sam
) son was better than the first:
. that he rose above defeat to
win browning victory. So
may 1t be with every child of
God.