Course 1, Chapter 33: The Messiah promised and prefigured — Fifteenth figure of the Messiah. — Sampson. (A. C. 1245-1117.)

1. After the death of Gideon, did the Israelites long remain faithful to the Lord?

After the death of Gideon, the Israelites soon fell into idolatry; but their infidelity brought upon them many and speedy calamities. They were op-

96 CATECHISM OF PERSEVERANCE.

pressed by the Philistine?, an idolatrous people, who inhabited one of the provinces of the land of promise.

2. By whom were they delivered from the servitude of the Philistines '!

They were delivered from the servitude of the Philistines by Sampson, whose birth was miraculous, and whose strength was extraordinary. He passed the first twenty years of his life with his parents, and married a wife among the Philistines.

3. What was his first exploit t

His first exploit was to kill a young lion, which came at him to devour him.

4. What were his other exploits 1

The other exploits of Sampson are not all known to us. We know only that to punish, the Philistines, he burnt their harvest-fields and vineyards, by letting loose in them three hundred foxes, tied two and two, with lighted torches fastened to their tails; he after wards carried off, on his shoulders, the gates of the city of Gaza, in which city they had shut him up.

5. What was the end of Sampson 1

Sampson was betrayed by a woman, named Dalila, who cut off his hair, in which his strength resided, and then delivered him into the hands of the Philistines; they put out his eyes and shut mm up in a prison, where they made him turn a mill. But on a day of festivity, Sampson shook down upon the Philistines the temple in which they were assembled, by which he killed more than three thousand of them, and lost his own life.

6. Was Sampson a figure of the Messiah 1

Sampson is the fifteenth figure of the Messiah: 1st. Sampson was born in a miraculous manner; our Lord was also born in a miraculous manner. Sampson took a spouse among the Philistines; our Lord chose the Church, his spouse, among the Gentiles. Sampson killed a lion, which came to devour him; our Lord overpowered the pagan world, which, like a lion,

endeavored during three hundred years to devour his infant Church. 2d. Sampson was shut up, by his ene mies, in the city of Gaza; our Lord was shut up, by liis enemies, in the tomb. Sampson rose in the middle of the night, pulled up the gates with their fasten ings, and, despite the guards, went forth from the city in which he had been shut up; our Lord, after having descended into Limbo, where he broke asunder the gates of hell and death, went forth, full of life, from the tomb, in despite of his guards. 3d. Sampson was delivered up to his enemies; our Lord also was delivered up to his enemies. Sampson, in dying, killed more Philistines than he had destroyed during the rest of his life; our Lord, in dying, did more harm to the devil, and drew to himself more disciples, than he had done during his life.