by the Lord to their enemies, and were enslaved by the Philistines and Ammonites. In their distress they finally sent for Jephthah, a brave soldier whom they had once driven out of the land because he married a woman who did not belong to the congregation of Israel. They sent to him and asked him to return and be their leader and save them from the Ammonites. He reminded them that they had driven him out and ill-used him and asked them if they would make him their Judge, in case he did return and delivered them from the Ammonites. They promised that they would do so.

Then Jephthah sent to the King of the Ammonites, and remonstrated with him and urged him to cease from his unjust war against Israel, but the king refused and then Jephthah prepared to fight him. But Jephthah first vowed that if God would give him victory over the Ammonites he would sacrifice to God, as a burnt offering, whatsoever first came forth out of his house to meet him as he returned! home in triumph. Then he fought the battle and won it, and completely subdued the Ammonites. But when he returned home his daughter, his only child, was the first to come out to meet him. This gave him unspeakable sorrow,

but he kept his vow and sacrificed her. After him Ibzan and Elon and Abdon were successively Judges of Israel, and then the Israelites were conquered by the Philistines again.

Samson.

There was a good man in Israel named Manoah, and he and his wife had no child. But the angel of God appeared to them and promised them a son, who should take the vow of a Nazarite. That is, he should never drink wine, nor cut his hair, and should be a servant of God all his life. So a son was born to them and they named him Samson. And when he was grown to be a man he loved a daughter of a certain Philistine and determined to marry her. On his way to be married he was attacked by a lion, which he caught in his hands and killed with ease. A few days. later he found a swarm of bees had settled on the lion's body and made honey there, and he took some of the honey and ate it. Then he gave a marriage feast to thirty of the Philistines, which lasted seven days. He gave them a riddle to guess, and. agreed that if they guessed it he should give each of them a suit of clothes, but if they could not guess it, each of them should give him a suit. The riddle was, “Out of the eater came forth meat, and out of the strong came forth sweetness." It referred to the honey he had taken from the body of the lion. They could not guess

it, and at last went to Samson's wife and told her she must coax him to tell her the riddle and then come and tell them, and if she did not do so they would burn her to death. In her fear she did so, and they told Samson the answer, and he lost the wager. But he knew his wife had told them.

Then Samson began his warfare against the Philistines, to set Israel free. He went to the city of Askelon and slew thirty Philistines, and took their clothes to pay the forfeit of his riddle. Next he caught three hundred foxes and tied firebrands to their tails and turned them loose in the fields of the Philistines, and thus burned their orchards and vineyards. In revenge, the Philistines took his wife and her

father and burned them to death.

Then the Israelites became afraid, and delivered Samson up to the Philistines. But in the midst of the camp of the Philistines he broke his bonds, and snatching up the jaw-bone of an ass he slew a thousand men and escaped. Next he went to Gaza, and the Philistines shut the city gates against him. But he took up the great gates and their posts upon his shoulders and carried them far away.

Unfortunately he next fell under the spell of a wicked woman named Delilah, whom the Philistines had bribed to betray him. She tried for a long time to find out the secret of his strength, but he would not tell her. Finally, however, she prevailed upon him and he confessed to her that if his hair should be cut he would lose his strength. Thereupon, when he next fell asleep, she cut off his hair, and his strength departed, and she delivered him up to the Philistines. They did not kill him, but put him in prison, made him blind, and set him to grinding corn in a mill. After a time he repented of his sin, and his hair grew, and his strength was restored to him, but he did not tell the Philistines of it. One day the Philistines made a great feast in honor of their god, Dagon, and brought Samson out of prison to make sport for them. They put him between the two great pillars of stone that supported the centre of the roof of the house in which were assembled all the great lords and ladies of Philistia. Then Samson grasped the pillars with his hands and prayed for strength, and dragged the pillars down, and the roof fell. And Samson himself and all the multitude of the Philistines were killed in the ruins.

Ruth.

In the time of the Judges there was a famine in Canaan, and one of the Israelites went from his home at Bethlehem to live in the land of Moab till the famine was past. There he died, leaving his wife, Naomi, and his two daughters-in-law, Orpah and Ruth. When the famine was over, Naomi returned to Bethlehem, but asked her daughters-in-law if they would not rather stay in Moab, which had always been their home. Orpah decided that she would, but Ruth returned with Naomi, saying: "Entreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee; for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge; thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God. Where thou diest, will I die, and there will I be buried. The Lord do so to me, and more also, if aught but death part thee and me."

So Naomi and Ruth returned to Bethlehem, and Ruth went to glean in the cornfields of a rich kinsman of theirs named Boaz. And Boaz noticed her and inquired who she was, and when he found out that she was Naomi's daughter he gave her much grain, so that she prospered. And after a time he loved her and made her his wife. And they had a son, whom they called Obed.

Samuel.

There was a man named Elkanah, whose wife was named Hannah, who went every year to Shiloh to offer sacrifices. But they were unhappy because they were childless. One day Hannah prayed long and earnestly for a son, and vowed that if

she might have one she would make him a Nazarite, as Samson was. Her prayer was answered, and she called her son Samuel, and took him to Shiloh and left him with the High Priest, Eli, to be a servant of the Tabernacle. The boy grew up to be devout and pious, and was obedient to Eli. One night he heard a voice calling him by name, and arose and said to Eli, "Here am I"; for he supposed Eli had called him. But Eli had not. A second time it occurred, and a third, and then they knew it was God who was calling him. And God made him a prophet.

Now came on a war with the Philistines, and the Israelites were defeated. In their despair, they sent for the Ark of the Covenant, to carry it before their army, in hope that it would give them the victory. The two sons of Eli, who, though priests, were wicked men, went with it. It was an unlawful thing thus to take the Ark away from the Tabernacle, and it displeased God so that he caused the Israelites to be defeated. They were utterly routed, and thirty thousand of them slain, including the two sons of Eli, and the Ark was captured by the Philistines. And when Eli heard it, he fell down dead. The Philistines took the Ark to their city of Ashdod, and put it in the temple of Dagon. The next day they found the great image of Dagon had fallen down on its face before the Ark. They set it up again, and the next day it was not only fallen but broken. Then a great pestilence came upon them, and many died. So they knew it was because they had taken the Ark from the Israelites, and they wanted to get rid of it. Wherever they took it, evil came upon them. At last they put the Ark upon a cart, and hitched two cows before it, and let them go without a driver. And the cattle took it back to Israel. Saul.

Samuel succeeded Eli as High Priest and also as Judge over Israel, and he ruled righteously for many years. But when he became old, and his two sons proved themselves wicked men, the people clamored for a king. Samuel warned them that it would be a great mistake, but they persisted, so at last God commanded Samuel to chose a king for them. He sent to Samuel for that purpose a young man named Saul. Now Saul was the tallest and one of the handsomest men in all the land, and the people accepted him gladly, and Samuel anointed him king. Then the Ammonites attacked Israel, and Saul commanded every able-bodied man to come out and help repulse them. In that way he raised a great army, and destroyed the Ammonites. But his rule was so arbitrary that the people began to fear that Saul would be not only their king but their oppressor.

After a couple of years Saul formed a standing army, and made his son. Jonathan one of its commanders. The Philistines came up, and defeated them, and Saul and Jonathan were put to flight. Then Saul sent for Samuel to come and offer sacrifices, to gain the favor of God. But Samuel was slow in coming, and Saul impatiently offered the sacrifices himself. That was unlawful, and Samuel rebuked him for it, and told him the Lord would deprive him of his kingdom for it. But still God gave the Israelites victory. Jonathan and a single follower entered the Philistine's camp and did great slaughter, and an earthquake threw the Philistine army into confusion, and Saul and his army came up and completed the victory.

David and Goliath.

After this Saul sinned more and more, and at last God commanded Samuel to go to Bethlehem and find a man named Jesse, son of Obed, and anoint one of his sons to be king in Saul's place. Samuel did so and found Jesse and his seven sons. And the Lord said unto Samuel, "Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature: For the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart." So Samuel would not choose any one of the seven, but asked Jesse if he had no other children. And Jesse said that he had another son, the youngest, who was in the fields watching the sheep. Samuel made him send for him, and when he came saw at once that it was he whom God intended for the next king of Israel. So he anointed the boy, whose name was David, and the spirit of the Lord came upon David from that day forward. But the spirit of the Lord departed from Saul and an evil spirit began to trouble him. His attendants told him that he could get relief from the evil spirits only by having some one play the harp before him. So Saul said to his servants, "Provide me now a man that can play well, and bring him to me." Then one of them said that David, the son of Jesse, was a fine player, and Saul bade them send for him. So David came to Saul and Saul was pleased with him and made him his armor-bearer. And it came to pass that when the evil spirit troubled Saul, David took a harp and played upon it, and the evil spirit was driven out and Saul was refreshed and made well. But Saul did not know that David had been anointed to be king in his place.

Now the Philistines came up again, led by a gigantic warrior named Goliath, who was much larger and stronger than any other man in all the land. This giant daily defied the Israelites to come out and fight him, and Saul and all Israel were afraid of him. For a time no one could be found who would attempt to cope with Goliath. But one day David visited the camp and asked what was the matter. And when he heard he said he would go out and fight the Philistine. Saul tried to dissuade him, but David told how he had killed a lion and a bear with his hands, and said he was able, with the strength of the Lord, to overthrow Goliath. Then Saul gave David his own armor and sword with which to fight, but David declined to use them. He took nothing but his staff and a sling and five smooth stones. When Goliath saw David come against him he scorned him and cursed him. But David defied him in the name of God, and put a stone in his sling, and slung it, and struck the Philistine on his forehead. And Goliath staggered and fell before the blow, and David ran up and drew Goliath's own sword from its scabbard and cut off his head with it. And when the Philistines saw that their champion was dead they fled in confusion, and Saul's army pursued them and routed them utterly.

The Passing of Saul.

David now lived with Saul all the time, and became the closest friend of Jonathan. But it came to pass that when the army returned from the war the people cried aloud, "Saul hath slain his thousands, but David his ten thousands." This made Saul jealous and angry, to think that David should be praised more