of the children of Ammon, and the gods of the Philistines, and forsook the Lord, and served not him. And the anger of the Lord was hot against Israel, and he sold them into the hands of the Philistines, and into the hands of the children of Ammon; who vexed and oppressed the children of Israel eighteen years : so that Israel was again sore distressed.

E. Did God have pity upon them again?

M. They cried to God as usual, Edward, in the time of trouble; but the Lord wished to make them feel the consequences of their continual wanderings from him, and therefore, when they cried unto him, he would not help them as he had done before, but said unto them: "Did I not deliver you from the Egyptians and from the Amorites, from the children of Ammon and from the Philistines? the Zidonians also, and the Amalekites; ye cried unto me, and I delivered you out of their hand. Yet ye have forsaken me and served other gods: wherefore I will deliver you no more. Go and cry unto the gods which ye have chosen, and let them deliver you in the time of your tribulation."

Oh! what a dreadful answer was this to their prayers! and yet how could they expect any other? How great must have been their misery, when the God of heaven and earth, who alone could help them, turned away from them, and left their idols to take care of them! Poor foolish men! What good could their false gods do them? What were they but idols made of silver and gold, even the work of men's hands? which had mouths, but they could not speak ; eyes, but they could not see; ears, but they could not hear. Well did Israel know that they should call

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upon their own gods in vain; therefore they said unto the Lord: “We have sinned; do thou unto us whatsoever seemeth good unto thee; deliver us only this day;" and, therefore, they put away the strange gods from among them and served the Lord; taught by their great misery to see, that the Lord, whose name is Jehovah, is only the Most Highest over all the earth, and that there is no god like him.

E. Ah! mamma ; I think God will forgive them now : for you have often told me how kind he is to those who are sorry for their sins.

M. You are quite right, my child; when the Lord saw that his people repented, “ his soul was grieved for the misery of Israel;" that is, he pitied them for the unhappiness which they had brought upon themselves, and raised them up another deliverer, whose name was Jephthah, who subdued their enemies before them.

Their repentance this time seems to have been more real and deep and lasting, than it ever was before; for we do not hear of their worshipping idols again for about twenty years.

At the end of that time, however, we read that the children of Israel did evil again in the sight of the Lord; who therefore delivered them into the hands of the Philistines for forty years. At this time it was that God raised up to them another deliverer, whose name was Samson, whom you have often heard of as the strongest man that ever lived.

His father's name was Manoah; and both he and his mother were very good people, and found favour in the sight of the Lord. When we first hear of them, they had no children ; but God sent an angel to tell

own accord into temptation; and how can they expect God to deliver them out of it? Samson little thought, when he chose his friends from among the heathen, what great misery he was about to bring upon himself. But so it was; as we shall see if we go on with his story.

Some of the Philistines saw that Samson was very fond of a wicked woman called Delilah, and that he was anxious to please her in every thing: they, therefore, sent for Delilah, and told her that, if she could persuade him to tell her where his great strength lay, so that they might get him into their power, then each of them would give her eleven hundred pieces of silver. Now, though Samson loved Delilah so much, she did not really care for him; indeed the love of the wicked is seldom to be trusted ; and anxious to get so great a reward, she determined to try and find where his great strength lay. She therefore took great pains to persuade Samson to tell her so important a secret: several times he deceived her, and when the Philistines thought they were quite sure of him, he escaped out of their hands. Then this wicked woman was.greatly disappointed, and said unto him, How canst thou say, I love thee, when thy heart is not with me? thou hast mocked me these three times, and hast not told me where thy great strength lieth." “ And it came to pass when she pressed him daily with her words and urged him, so that his soul was vexed even unto death, that he told her all his heart, and said unto her: There hath not come a razor upon mine head; for I am a Nazarite unto God; if I be shaven, then my strength will go from me, and I shall become weak, and be like another man VOL. 11.

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