o go to the forges of their oppressors to get even
their ploughshares sharpened.

On the death of Joshua (about 1350 B.C.), who had succeeded Moses and
led the Israelites into Canaan, "nearly the whole of the sea-coast, all
the strongholds in the rich plain of Esdraelon, and, in the heart of
the country, the invincible fortress of Jebus [later site of Jerusalem],
were still in the hands of the unbelievers." The conquest therefore was
yet imperfect, like that of the Christianized Saxons in the time of
Alfred over the pagan Danes in England. The times were full of peril and
fear. They developed the military energies of the Israelites, but bred
license, robbery, and crime,--a wild spirit of personal independence
unfavorable to law and order. In those days "every man did that which
was right in his own eyes." It was a period of utter disorder, anarchy,
and lawlessness, like the condition of Germany and Italy in the Middle
Ages. The persons who bore rule permanently were the princes or heads of
the several tribes, the judges, and the high-priest; and in that
primitive state of society these dignitaries rode on asses, and lived in
tents. The virtues of the people were rough, and their habits warlike.
Their great men were fighters. Samson was a sort of Hercules, and
Jephthah an Idomeneus,--a lawless freebooter. The house of Micah was
like a feudal castle; the Benjamite war was like the strife of Highland
clans. Jael was a Hebrew Boadicea; Gideon, at the head of his three
hundred men, might have been a hero of mediaeval romance.

The saddest thing among these social and political evils was a great
decline of religious life. The priesthood was disgraced by the
prevailing vices of the times. The Mosaic rites may have been
technically observed, but the officiating priests were sensual and
worldly, while gross darkness covered the land. The high-priests
exercised but a feeble influence; and even Eli could not, or did not,
restrain the glaring immoralities of his own sons. In those evil days
there were no revelations from Jehovah, and there was no divine vision
among the prophets. Never did a nation have greater need of a deliverer.

It was then that Samuel arose, and he first appears as a pious boy,
consecrated to priestly duties by a remarkable mother. His childhood was
passed in the sacred tent of Shiloh, as an attendant, or servant, of the
aged high-priest, or what would be called by the Catholic Church an
acolyte. He belonged