Oh! ’tis for offices like these the last sweet child is given;
The mother’s joy, the father’s pride, the fairest boon of heaven: 
Their fireside plaything first, then of their failing strength the rock,
The rainbow to their wavering years, the youngling of their flock.

ALARIC A. WATTS.

* * * * *

Original.

THE MOTHERS OF THE BIBLE.

THE MOTHER OF SAMSON.

In the thirteenth chapter of the Book of Judges is recorded the short but suggestive story which is our Bible lesson for the present month.  Horeb is long since left behind.  The evil generation, who forty years tried the patience of Jehovah, have fallen in the wilderness, and their successors are now in possession of the promised land.  Moses, and Joshua, and Caleb, have gone to their rest, and Israel, bereft of their counsel, follow wise or evil advices as a wayward fancy may dictate, and receive a corresponding recompense at the hands of their God.  The children proved in no respect wiser or more obedient than their fathers.  Again and again “they forsook the Lord and served the idols of the Canaanites, and in wrath He gave them up to their enemies.”  Often in pity he raised up for them deliverers who would lead them for a time in better paths, “but when the judge was dead, they returned, and corrupted themselves more than their fathers, in following other gods to serve them, and to bow down unto them; they ceased not from their own doings nor from their stubborn way,” and therefore were they often for long tedious years in bondage to the various nations which God had left in the land “to prove them whether they would walk in his ways.”  It was during one of these seasons of trouble that the subject of our study is mentioned.  She was the wife of Manoah, a citizen of Zorah, of the tribe of Dan.  Of her previous history, and the events of her after life, we know nothing.  He who sitteth on the circle of the heavens, and beholdeth all things that are done under the sun, and readeth all hearts, had marked her out as the instrument, wherewith he would work to get glory to himself, and however little known to others, He deemed her worthy of this distinguished honor, and to receive a direct communication from himself.  Of her character nothing is said, but we gather with unerring certainty that she was a self-denying, obedient child of God, for He would not have chosen one who would not adhere strictly to his every injunction.

It is not necessary that we should detail every incident of those interviews with the angel Jehovah, which the mother of Samson was permitted to enjoy.  Take your Bible, friend, and read for yourself in words more befitting than we can use, and as you rise from the perusal, if the true spirit of a Christian reigns in your heart, you will perhaps exclaim, “Oh, that the Lord would come to me also and tell me how I shall order my children that so they may be the