UNIV. OF CALIFORNIA

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VII

UNCONSCIOUS DETERIORATION

And he awoke out of his sleep, and said I will go out as at other times and shake myself free. But he knew not that Jehovah was departed from him.”—JUDGES 16, 20:21.

AMSON was the champion strong man. He

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was a giant physically. The extraordinary thing is that he was numbered among the saints. Yet, you unquestionably find his record among the immortals of the faith enrolled in the eleventh chapter of Hebrews.

The first was he of the warriors who sought to put down Philistine power. The Philistines had reduced the Israelites to such abject servitude that the people could not even sharpen a ploughshare. Philistia was a little country southwest of Judah. Its people were strong physically, but like the Thebans, they were thick-headed and dull. Those who pride themselves on the philosophy of Elbert Hubbard's "Philistine" might well remember the origin of the name.

Samson was a great overgrown boy, bubbling over with life and fun, untempered by restraint or sense of cruelty. He ties lighted torches to foxes' tails; he is fond of asking riddles; he pays a wedding forfeit by slaying the friends of those to whom

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the forfeit is to be paid; he slays Philistines with the jaw-bone of an ass. He takes long journeys into the desert; he discovers wild honey in unlikely places. This son of the adventurous life had no definite purpose. He was actuated by a kind of halfway patriotism. His one redeeming quality was his "Nazarite Vow." He abstained from strong drink, but he gave way to sensual weakness.

His one surpassing characteristic was his physical strength. He could carry the gates of Gaza as easily as a school boy his books. He could be bound seven times with green withes and with rope as tough as tow and strong as hemp, and he could snap them like threads.

He laid him down in the lap of sensuality. Betrayed into the hands of his enemies, "he awoke out of his sleep, and said, I will go out as at other times and shake myself free. But he wist not that the Lord his strength had departed from him. And 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 prisonhouse."

Looking at this giant smitten in the fulness of his powers, the examining physicians are unanimous of diagnosing the disease which laid him low as "unconscious deterioration."

Because the creeping paralysis of unconscious deterioration is more deadly than spinal meningitis, because it threatens annihilation for every man, woman, and child; because Unconscious Deteriora

tion saps the strength, smothers ambition, and binds men and women with fetters of brass, let us consider it for a little while.

Some years ago, in common with other newspapers, the Boston Herald editorially defended the head of a great life insurance company who had been universally respected as a man of unimpeachable honesty, but who had been shown to be utterly unscrupulous in his handling of great trust funds. He was excused as a victim of modern business conditions. The plea was true as to his original integrity and ability. Probably true as to his success being the product of modern business conditions; absolutely not true that he was entitled to excuse as being the victim of modern business conditions in his downfall. Modern business conditions did create the atmosphere of high finance, modern legal attitude of invoking legal process to defeat the ends of justice rather than to uphold its majesty, did make possible the legal doing of many questionable transactions, the handling of large sums of money did give the opportunity of the misuse of trust funds.

But just because he was originally a man of integrity this man knew that however great the temptation, and however easy the opportunity, right was right since God is God. Had one, years before, told him that he would misuse money not his own, he would have made answer with righteous indignation. But he lived in the atmosphere of loose financial dealing so long that his moral vision

became blinded. He slept. "And he awoke out of his sleep and said I will go out as at other times and shake myself free. But he knew not that his strength was departed from him, and the Philistines laid hold of him and put out his eyes, and they brought him down to Gaza and bound him with fetters of brass, and he did grind in the prisonhouse." This modern Samson of the financial world knew not that his strength had departed from him. Unconscious deterioration was his disease.

I. Deterioration's method is always insidious. Like the mighty monster in Hugo's "Toilers of the Sea," it wraps the coils of its tentacles round the busy workman who is cumbered with the cares of life. Like a vampire breathing forth the charmed atmosphere of promised success, it sucks the very breath of life out of strong men. Like a serpent it waits in the vernal woods of childhood and youth and lies coiled behind the boulders of later life ready to strike at the unwary passer-by with its forked tongue. Like a tiger it draws near on velvet feet until it pounces on the unsuspecting traveller in the jungles of life. Like the roundleaved sun-dew, which plies its nefarious vocation from Labrador to Florida, its agent's outward appearance is most fair, but death is in its embrace. Naturalists tell us that the pretty little white blossoms of the sun-dew beckon to wayfaring flies and moths a token of good cheer. Circling the flower stalk in rosette fashion are a dozen or more round leaves, each of them wearing scores of glands, very

like little pins, a drop of gum glistening on each and every pin by way of a head. This appetizing gum is no other than a fatal stick-fast, the raying pins closing in and the more certainly to secure a hopeless prisoner. Soon his prison-house becomes a stomach for his absorption. So ease and contentment with present attainment lure one to rest for a while, that deterioration may feed upon that which should have been for the strengthening of his better development.

This then is the insidiousness of deterioration: That its victim is unconscious of its approach, but its attack is none the less deadly.

No normal man ever really means to lie or steal, he only does it when deterioration by constantly breathing into its victim the atmosphere of loose financial dealing perverts his moral judgment, or by the alluring picture of success weakens his will. But lying is lying and stealing is stealing, none the less. No normal man ever really means to be untrue to talents that God has given him, but comfort and contentment and laziness weave a silken net about him and basking in the sunshine he remains a mediocre man all his life. So is dishonest dealing with God's talents set on high. No normal man or woman ever really means to shut God and the highest yearnings out of the heart; but neglect and the undue pursuit of pleasure dry up that which should have been springs of living water. This is the misuse of God's mightiest trust fund. Premeditated evil has slain her thousands, unconscious