* * * *

"O lonely grave in Moab's land!
O dark Bethpeor's hill!
Speak to these curious hearts of ours,
And teach them to be still!
God hath his mysteries of grace,
Ways that we cannot tell;
He hides them deep, like the hidden sleep
Of him he loved so well."

SAMUEL.

1100 B.C.

THE HEBREW THEOCRACY, UNDER JUDGES.

After Moses, and until David arose, it would be difficult to select any
man who rendered greater services to the Israelitish nation than Samuel.
He does not stand out in history as a man of dazzling intellectual
qualities; but during a long life he efficiently labored to give to the
nation political unity and power, and to reclaim it from idolatries. He
was both a political and moral reformer,--an organizer of new forces, a
man of great executive ability, a judge and a prophet. He made no
mistakes, and committed no crimes. In view of his wisdom and sanctity it
is evident that he would have adorned the office of high-priest; but as
he did not belong to the family of Aaron, this great dignity could not
be conferred on him. His character was reproachless. He was, indeed, one
of the best men that ever lived, universally revered while living, and
equally mourned when he died. He ruled the nation in a great crisis, and
his influence was irresistible, because favored alike by God and man.

Samuel lived in one of the most tumultuous and unsettled periods of
Jewish history, when the nation was in a transition state from anarchy
to law, from political slavery to national independence. When he
appeared, there was no settled government; the surrounding nations were
still unconquered, and had reduced the Israelites to humiliating
dependence. Deliverers had arisen occasionally from the time of
Joshua,--like Gideon, Jephthah, and Samson,--but their victories were
not decisive or permanent. Midianites, Amorites, and Philistines
successively oppressed Israel, from generation to generation; they even
succeeded in taking away their weapons of war. Resistance to this
tyranny was apparently hopeless, and the nation would have sunk into
despair but for occasional providential aid. The sacred ark was for a
time in the hands of enemies, and Shiloh, the religious capital,--abode
of the tabernacle and the ark,--had been burned. Every smith's forge
where a sword or a spear-head could be rudely made was shut up, and the
people were forced t