“And when Delilah saw that he had told her all his heart, she sent and called for the lords of the Philistines, saying, ‘Come up this once, for he hath showed me all his heart.’ Then the lords of the Philistines came up unto her, and brought money in their hand. And she made him sleep upon her knees; [alas! alas! a fatal sleep to God’s Nazarite!] and she called for a man, and she caused him to shave off the seven locks of his head; and she began to afflict him, and his strength went from him. And she said, ‘The Philistines be upon thee, Samson.’ And he awoke out of his sleep, and said, ‘I will go out as at other times before, and shake myself.’ And he wist not that the Lord was departed from him. But the Philistines took him, and put out his eyes, and brought him down to Gaza, and bound him with fetters of brass; and he did grind in the prison-house.” (Judges xvi. 18-21.) Oh, reader, what a picture! How solemn! how admonitory! What a melancholy spectacle was Samson—going out to shake himself, “as at other times”! Alas! the “_as_” was out of place. He might shake himself, but it was no longer “as at other times,” for the power was gone; the Lord was departed from him, and the once-powerful Nazarite became a blind prisoner; and instead of triumphing over the Philistines, he had to grind in their prison-house. So much for yielding to mere nature. Samson never regained his liberty. He was permitted, through the mercy of God, to gain one more victory over the uncircumcised; but that victory cost him his life. God’s Nazarites must keep themselves pure or lose their power. In their case, power and purity are inseparable. They cannot get on without inward holiness; and hence the urgent need of being ever on the watch against the various things which tend to draw away the heart, distract the mind, and lower the tone of spirituality. Let us ever keep before our souls those words of our chapter, “All the days of his separation he is holy unto the Lord.” Holiness is the grand and indispensable characteristic of all the days of Nazariteship; so that when once holiness is forfeited, Nazariteship is at an end. What, then, it may be asked, is to be done? The scripture before us supplies the answer.—“And if any man die very suddenly by him, and he hath defiled the head of his consecration, then he shall shave his head in the day of his cleansing; on the seventh day shall he shave it. And on the eighth day he shall bring two turtles, or two young pigeons, to the priest, to the door of the tabernacle of the congregation; and the priest shall offer the one for a sin-offering, and the other for a burnt-offering, and make an atonement for him, for that he sinned by the dead, and shall hallow his head that same day. And he shall consecrate unto the Lord the days of his separation, and shall bring a lamb of the first year for a trespass-offering; but the days that were before shall be lost, because his separation was defiled.” (Num. vi. 9-12.)