138 BOYS OF THE BIBLE.

the beaten path, a roaring lion confronts the young Nazarite.
The Bible says:

“The spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him, and
he rent him as he would have rent a kid, and he had nothing in
his hand.”

And strange to say, when he rejoined his parents he
seems to have made no reference to the encounter. It may
be, that not once only, but many times, Samson was victo-
rious in his encounters with the wild beasts of the field.
In fact, nothing in the range of adventure seems to have
been omitted in the remarkable career of Samson; and
the stories of his powers are given with great circum-
stantiality.

Strangely enough, a while after, as Samson was passing
that same way, he had the curiosity to turn aside and see
what had become of the carcass of the lion, and, would you
believe it? the bees in that neighborhood had swarmed, and
they had made a hive of the dead body of the lion. Samson
brought his father and mother some of the honey from this
remarkable bee-hive, but he said nothing to them about hav-
ing killed the lion.

By this time Samson had fallen in love with a young
Philistine woman of Timnath and wanted to marry her. His
parents were very sorry. They wanted him to take a wife
of the daughters of Israel, and not of the enemies of the land.
But Samson was head-strong as well as hand-strong—too
strong to be guided, too weak to be wise. His parents saw
danger ahead, but what did Samson care for danger! He was
strong enough to fight and conquer a roaring lion, but not
strong enough to deny himself and conquer his passing fancies.
He was the strongest and the weakest of all the boys of the
Bible.