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SAMSON THE VIRGINIAN SLAVE.

CHAPTER VII. AND LAST.-THE JOURNEY NORTH.

WHEN Samson left Mr. Willard's he walked two or three miles across the fields and wood; then, striking on a road which led north, he pursued that. He had walked three hours, and was already weary and sensible of weakness, when a waggon drove up behind him. He stepped aside, hoping to be unobserved in the darkness, when a familiar voice exclaimed,

Ah, Samson! we've found thee. Come, don't run away from thy friends and throw thyself into the hands of thy enemies.'

Samson knew the voice. Walking up to the waggon, he said: ' Massa Jones, why have you followed me? Let me go. I never will be took 'live. Don't make me fight you.'

'Fight me? said Abram Jones, laughing. 'What's thee going to fight me for? I've followed thee because thee's not strong enough to walk to-night as far towards the north star as thee ought to go; and because thee doesn't know thy friends from thy enemies here. Get in and ride, and I'll carry thee to a place of safety, and leave thee with those who will carry thee farther on thy way to-morrow night.'

Samson was re-assured, and getting into the waggon was carried forward all night, friend Jones meanwhile giving him much valuable information in regard to the country and the course best for him.

Just before morning they stopped at a house, and he was introduced as a passenger on the railroad, who wanted accommodations through the day and a ticket to the next depot.

Which he shall have to be sure,' said the good man of the house, shaking his hand cordially as he led him in.

Samson was now fairly on the underground railroad, a famous institution, of which, however, he had never heard till he was made to feel its benefits. He was quietly carried forward through Pennsylvania, and then, as it was considered safe for

him to travel by day, he was left to walk, taking directions from one place to another.

One night, about the middle of April, a quiet family in Central New York were aroused by a loud rapat their door after they had retired to rest. The master of the house arose, thinking a neighbour might be in trouble, or perhaps a parishioner was sick and wanted his presence - for he was a minister but when he opened the door, though he is not a timid man, he started back with a feeling something akin to terror; for there, said he, dimly revealed in the starlight, stood the tallest, the largest, the blackest man I had ever seen; so haggard, so worn and weary, and yet so determined in his aspect, that I knew at a glance he was no ordinary man, with an ordinary history. His black face bore the records of terrible suffering, fierce passions and unconquerable resolution.

Samson asked for lodging, and mentioned the name of a friend forty miles south, with whom he had taken breakfast, and who had directed him here.

He was welcomed with Christian hospitality; for this was one of the many families in that land who fear God more than man: who live under the higher law,' and will not Oppress the poor because he is poor, nor turn aside the stranger from his rights.' He was treated with the utmost kindness, which he seemed to feel with gratitude, but he could not divest himself of the fear that he might be betrayed. He ate his supper with his cane-which was rather a club-in his hand, and when offered lodging in a chamber he declined, saying he would rather stay out of doors than go up there: he would stay where, if there was a treachery, he could not be so easily made a prisoner.

This man, in his wearisome journey, in his perils and suffering for freedom, had felt his heart growing

Poor Samson's Ignorance.

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stronger, and the blessing for which, himself unworthy of his sacred office.

he sought far more precious every day. He realized the truth of what the poet has written:

The slave that once conceives the glowing thought

Of freedom, in that hope itself possesses All that the contest calls for.'

As he drew nearer and nearer to the prize, he lived in the hope of its possession. Life, with all the advantages which a slave can possibly enjoy, became utterly loathsome in his sight. He wondered how he had ever endured it. In those wearisome and perilous night journeys he had enjoyed more than in all his life before, for he had been free free to walk when and where he

would-free to choose his hiding place in the swamp. When a fox darted by him, or an eagle soared over his head, he had shouted for joy that they were no longer his superiors in the possession of liberty He felt that he was taking possession of his birthright, long kept back by fraud. No wonder that he guarded his right with jealous care.

His new-found friends understood his feelings, and willingly gave him a bed on the first floor. His kind host accompanied him to his room, and noticing that he was in pain inquired the cause.

'Dat ar's whar de dog bit me,' he said, laying his hand on his thigh. 'Let me see,' said his friend, and he uncovered the wound, where the stitches of the Quaker doctor were still festering.

And with that wounded limb have you walked from O. to day?'

O, dat ar isn't much, now,' he said, smiling grimly. It was bad, but I walks pretty well now.'

The next day was the Sabbath, and the pastor went to his pulpit, his heart full of indignation and abhorrence of the oppression which is committed in that land; and if he had not lifted up his voice against that system which brutalizes man, making him a thing to be sold in the market, or to be hunted with dogs like a wild beast, he would have felt

Samson was persuaded to remain and rest through the day, and his kind hostess stayed at home with him. It was during these Sabbath hours that she drew from him the facts which we have tried to relate. When she had heard his story she said to him,

God has guided you, and that you 'Do you not feel that the hand of owe him gratitude and praise for his

merciful care ?'

'Don' 'no',' he said, with a bewildered look. 'Don' 'no' anything 'bout God.'

'But has no one told you of God, who is the Father of us all, and who preserves our lives and gives us all we have ?'

'I've heard some folks talk about

God; but I don' 'no' where He is. He isn't my Father.'

She tried to explain to him something of the nature and character of God, and of our relations to him, to which he listened with the attention of one who hears a wonderful truth for the first time. When he seemed to have grasped the idea of a God, who is our Creator, our Preserver, and our Judge, she said:

'But, Samson, have you heard of Jesus Christ ?'

'Yes,' he said, 'I've heard the old women speak of him.'

'But do you know that he is our Saviour ?'

'Don' 'no' nothing 'bout him. I's neber heard dat we had a Saviour.'

Then she told him how God was angry with us for our sins; how Jesus, his Son, had come into the world, taken the form of a man and died for us, that we might have pardon and eternal life through faith in him; and how he had risen from the grave and gone up into heaven, where he still lives, our Friend and Mediator. As he listened the fierce look of hatred and passion faded away from his face, and tears flowed silently down his dark cheeks.

'Nobody eber told me dis yere before,' he said sadly. Well might he say that in the midst of a people professedly Christian no man had cared for his soul. He listened with

450

Scripture Illustrated—' Power on the Head because of the Angels.'

rapt attention as she read some portion of Scripture, and we will hope and pray that the light of truth which then dawned on this benighted spirit may guide him even to the land where they need not the light of the sun or of the moon; for the Lord God himself is their light.

We will pursue our narrative_no farther, except to say that on Monday morning Samson went on his way, parting with tears of gratitude from his kind friends, who have since learned that he reached Canada in safety.

Scripture Illustrated.

'POWER ON THE HEAD BECAUSE OF THE ANGELS.'

1 Cor. xi. 10.

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THE word translated 'power' is perhaps a mere symbolic title for the veil worn by Eastern women: nor is the figure altogether strange or unintelligible to an Oriental. The veil is, in fact, the beautiful lady's strength and defence. Modestly veiled she appears anywhere and everywhere in perfect safety. She is held inviolate by a sensitive, and most zealous public sentiment, and no man insults her but at the risk of being torn in pieces by an infuriated mob; but without the veil she is a weak, helpless thing, at the mercy of every brute who may choose to abuse her. The veil is therefore the virtuous woman's power,' and whenever she appears in public she ought to have this power on her head;' in church 'because of the angels; that is, the messengers and ministers, as I suppose. The women must be modestly veiled, because they are to sit in the presence and full view of the ministers, comparatively strangers to them, and many of them evangelists from foreign nations. Doddridge thinks it indecent to suppose that the ladies must be veiled, lest by their attractions they disturb the minds of the ministers. Such an idea could only be entertained by one ignorant of the power of Oriental customs in these matters. The oldest and most eminently modest native preacher that I am acquainted with,

objected not only to the ladies appearing unveiled (and for the very reason alluded to), but he would not have even their voices heard in the singing of the church, because in this country they never sing but in strains designed and adapted to excite emotions which should be utterly banished from the place of prayer. Put the case thus: a pious and modest Oriental preacher (who perhaps has rarely looked upon the face of any woman except those of his nearest relations) when he rises to preach, finds himself confronted by the beauty and fashion of the city in their best attire. Is it strange that he should be confused and disturbed? And, moreover, the veil is as necessary for the modest female, who desires to worship in purity and peace, as it is for the

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angel.' Secluded by the rigid laws of Eastern society from familiar association with all men except near relatives, so that she would be overwhelmed with confusion should her veil fall in the presence of a stranger, it is no reflection upon her purity of mind, but the contrary, that she cannot appear unveiled before the angel with that entire composure which becomes the house of God. Such will wear the veil from choice. Change the state of society (and in many places it is being changed), educate the females (and the males too), let the community be pure from Moslem and heathen mixtures, and trained to free and becoming social intercourse, and then neither men nor women will think of veils and screens, nor

Scripture Illustrated-Ox-Goads, The Flight of the Hawk. 451

need these apostolic directions in their, known a most important lesson. exact letter. Their spirit, however, will always be obligatory in every country and all states of society; and a little more modesty in female attire would be a very happy improvement in many a Western congregation.-Dr. W. M. Thomson.

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'The words of the wise are as goads.'Ecc. xii. 11.

It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks (goads').-Acts. ix. 5.

THE goad is an indispensible accompaniment to the Eastern plough. The upper end with its pointed prick, serves instead of rein and lash to guide and urge on the lazy ox; and the other end with its chisel, as you call it, is used to clean the share from earth and weeds, and to cut the roots and thorns that catch or choke the plough. It was to sharpen this part of the goads that the Philistines permitted the Jews to have a file in the early days of Saul, 1 Sam. xiii. 21. The references to the goad in the Bible are numerous and interesting. Solomon says that the words of the wise are as goads' to guide and keep in the right path (or furrow) and to stimulate the indolent to exertion. Our Lord, in His address to Saul, says, 'It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks,' a proverbial expression, taken from the action of an unruly ox, which, when pricked by the goad, kicks back in anger, and thus wounds himself more deeply. Commentators on this passage have collected many examples of the use of this exact figure by classic authors. Thus Euripides says, 'I who am a frail mortal, should rather sacrifice to Him who is a God, than, by giving place to anger, kick against the goads.' And so Terence: "These things have come to my recollection, for it is foolishness for thee to kick against a goad.' The proverb is exceedingly expressive, and one which conveys to all the world where the goad is

The particular force of the expres sion is unhappily lost by our translation. It is folly, certainly, to kick even a stone against which one may have dashed his foot, and still more so to do this against thorns that may have pierced us. But there is a deeper lesson in this proverb. The ox kicks back against the goad with which he has been intentionally pricked in order to bring him into the right path, or to prompt him to the necessary activity, just as that plough-boy is constantly guiding and stimulating his team. To kick back, therefore, is not merely impotent and injurious folly, but it is rebellion against Him who guides. This is the precise lesson which our Lord intended to teach, and which heathen poets and moralists have drawn from the proverb, or rather from the basis in agricultural life which suggested it.-Ibid.

THE FLIGHT OF THE HAWK.

stretch her wings towards the south?'-'Doth the hawk fly by thy wisdom, and Job xxxix. 26.

THIS variety of hawk migrates like other birds. There is a very singu lar reason for particularizing their return towards the south. I have often seen them returning south during the latter part of September, but never saw them migrating northward. I can only account for this by supposing that in going they straggle along in single pairs, and at no particular time, or else by some distant interior route, but that when their young are grown they come back southward in flocks; but even then they do not fly in groups, as do cranes, geese, and storks, but keep passing for days in straggling lines like scattered ranks of a routed army. Here and there, as far as eye can reach they come, flying every one apart, but all going steady to the south. Job therefore states the fact just as he had seen it, and as you may also, on Lebanon, next September.-Ibid.

Wayside Gleanings.

THE DIVINITY AND HU-mensity; as He is man, He is cir

MANITY OF JESUS CHRIST.

THE Condition of the person who was born is here of the greatest consideration. For He that cried in the manger, that hath exposed Himself to poverty and a world of inconveniences, is the Son of the living God; of the same substance with the Father, begotten before all ages, before the morning stars; He is God eternal. He is also by reason of the personal union of the Divinity with His human nature, the Son of God, not by adoption, as good men and beatified angels are, but by an extraordinary and miraculous generation. He is the Heir of His Father's glories and possessions, not by succession (for His Father cannot die), but by an equality of communication: He is the express image of His Father's person according to both natures; the miracle and excess of His godhead being, as upon wax, imprinted upon all the capacities of His humanity and after all this, He is our Saviour: that to our duties of wonder and adoration, we may add the affections of love and union,

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cumscribed by an uneasy cradle, and cries in a stable. As He is God, He is seated upon a super-exalted throne; as man exposed to the lowest estate of uneasiness and need. As God, clothed in a robe of glory at the same instant when you may behold and wonder at His humanity, wrapped in cheap and unworthy cradle bands. As God, He is encircled with millions of Angels; as man in the company of beasts. As God, He is the Eternal word of the Father, Eternal, sustained by Himself, all-sufficient, and without need; and yet He submitted Himself to a condition imperfect, inglorious, indigent, and necessitous: and this consideration is apt and natural to produce great affection of love, duty, and obedience, desires of union and conformity to His sacred person, life, actions, and laws: that we resolve all our thoughts, and finally determine our reason, and our passions, and capacities, upon that saying of St. Paul, 'He that loves not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be accursed.'-Jeremy Taylor.

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TO CHRIST.'

as Himself, besides His being ad- QUIT YOUR TRYING, AND GO mirable in Himself, is become profitable to us. Vere Verbum hoc est abbreviatum, saith the prophet: the Eternal word of the Father is shortened to the dimensions of an infant. Here then are concentred the prodigies of greatness and goodness, of wisdom and charity, of meekness and humility; and march all the way in mystery and incomprehensible mixtures, if we consider Him in the bosom of His Father, where He is seated by the postures of love and essential felicity, and in the manger, where love also placed Him, and an infinite desire to communicate His felicities to us. As He is God, His throne is in heaven, and He fills all things by His im

A SHORT time since I called to see an aged person who was very ill. I had been accustomed to see her, but not as I saw her on this occasion. I found her weeping in bed. I asked her if anything painful had happened to her. She said, 'The doctor has been here, and he told me to prepare for my latter end, for it was near. I told him that I had been trying for two years, but had not found peace. He turned round and said, ** Quit your trying' and go to Christ;" and then left the room.' I saw at once what her medical man meant, and said to her, 'Don't you know

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