From Samuel to Solomon

Contents

I. CONSCIENTIOUS ROUTINE FOR CHILDREN -_. 7

" Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord, neither was the word of the Lord yet revealed unto him." i Sam. 3:7.

XL AWAKENED RESTLESSNESS IN CHILDREN 17

Preface

Whenever a New Testament truth is found incarnated in an Old Testament biography, the analysis of each chapter of this will be sure to yield instruction. Four histories — Samuel's and Saul's, David's and Solomon's — cross the highest lines of Israel's splendor as a kingdom. Whoever understands those men will have attained a knowledge of human nature which will prove valuable to him as a citizen and a Christian.

It is easy to call the contents of this volume lectures; but the fairer thing to say would be that they have all done their duty in the pulpit just the same as if they had been sermons. I am pleased to detect in them repetitions and reiterations now and then; for it shows a fearless desire to press the expository lessons as they came from the four teachers whose lives were so individual and yet in many respects so alike.

More and more am I convinced, as years move on, that the true secret of a pastor's influence and success is found in the one counsel: "Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long-suffering and doctrine."

CHARLES SEYMOUR ROBINSON.

57 East Fifty-fourth Street, New York, February 25, 1889.

FROM

SAMUEL TO SOLOMON.

I. Conscientious Routine For Chil- Dren

" Now Samuel DID not yet know the Lord, neither was the

WORD OF THE JLORD YET REVEALED UNTO HLM." — 1 Sam. 3 : 7.

It would be difEcult to find another scene in the whole Bible so full of dramatic interest as the account of Samuel's early call to the ministry of leadership in the Israelitish nation and the office of priest and prophet in the Old Testament church. That night-spectacle grows fairly weird and beautiful as we attempt to reproduce it in our imagination. The lamps of the seven-branched candlestick are mentioned here for the last time in history ; the whole narrative suggests change ; a new order for the people is soon to be brought out of the confusion.

Shadows lie heavily within that sacred inclosure; the embroidered folds of the Tabernacle curtains are thin, so that a summons might easily be heard through the partitions ; the steps fall noiselessly

Upon the floor. The young child sleeps with the unconscious fearlessness of youth, but a mysterious Voice awakes him just before daybreak. Unsuspicious and unalarmed, he supposes that Eli has wanted him for a momentary service of waiting. The old man is unaccountably dull, probably in his turn judging that his ward has been dreaming, and Samuel goes back and drops down into instant drowsiness once more. Again comes the sound of the Voice, and without a murmur of petulant feeling that amiable child reports for commonplace duty. Thus the night wears away, and the dialogue continues till at last even Eli's curiosity becomes thoughtful; the mature priest consents to be taught by his young servitor; out of the mouth of this babe is ordained strength ; God's tones are recognized, and the soul of Samuel bends in acquiescent humility before Jehovah.

Here are represented three phases of religious experience in children.. A study of this story will show parents and teachers much which ought to be supremely helpful in their dealings with those young persons who come under their care. Our present space in speaking we shall have to distribute over these phases in turn, taking up one at a time as the chapter invites us. We simply enumerate them beforehand for the sake of order: first, conscientious routine ; then awakened restlessness ; and lastly, spiritual surrender to the full service of God.

There is, first, the period of conscientious routine. For a while every child born of Christian parents,

CONSCIENTIOUS ROUTINE FOR CHILDREN. 9

and trained as Samuel was, will follow the traditions his father and mother have passed on down to him in course of education. It is needful now that we become familiar with the facts. One of the more scholarly of our modern commentators tells us that the earlier verses, as rendered in our common English Bibles, give no very clear idea of the real meaning, as they make Eli's dimness of eyes, his being laid down in his place, and his not being able to see, all mark the moment of Samuel's being laid down to sleep, and leave indefinite the meaning of the lamp going out in the temple, besides grammatically putting the call of Samuel as occurring before he had laid down to sleep. But common sense will keep the English reader straight. Eli's eyes were dim by reason of age; he was lying in his place at night, the lamp was not yet out for the night, and Samuel was lying down. Eli's "place " is explained by some of the ancient commentators as **in the inner part of the court, near to the tabernacle;" and Samuel is supposed (after the Eastern fashion) to be asleep quite near, perhaps just outside the door, ready to answer Eli's call at any time, and be eyes to the blind man. Hence it will be better for us to read over the narrative as we find it in the new Revision. Some few changes in the phraseology will have to be noticed in passing:

"And the child Samuel ministered unto the Lord before Eli. And the word of the Lord was precious in those days; there was no open vision. And it came to pass at that time, when EH was laid lO FROM SAMUEL TO SOLOMON.

down ill Ills place (now his eyes had begun to wax dim, that he could not see), and the lamp of God was not yet gone out, and Samuel was laid down to sleep, in the temple of the Lord, where the ark of God was, that the Lord called Samuel: and he said, Here am I. And he ran unto Eli and said, Here am I; for thou calledst me. And he said, I called not; lie down again. And he went and lay down. And the Lord called yet again, Samuel. And Samuel arose and went to Eli, and said. Here am I; for thou calledst me. And he answered, I called not, my son; lie down again. Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord, neither was the word of the Lord yet revealed unto him."

Here, then, is disclosed to us the exact historic point in the experience of this young lad indicated by the term we have employed. He was living along quietly, engaged in the services of a conscientious routine with Eli.

A very pathetic picture is presented of the little fellow in one of the previous chapters of this book: *'But Samuel ministered before the Lord, being a child, girded with a linen ephod. Moreover, his mother made him a little coat, and brought it to him from year to year, when she came up with her husband to offer the yearly sacrifice."

This young lad's mother brought him each year new clothing, such as he would need for all ordinary wear ; but Eli seems to have put him into priest's dress at once, although he was not a priest at all. He wore an ''ephod," so the story says. That means a decent linen garment of two parts,

CONSCIENTIOUS ROUTINE FOR CHILDREN. II

front and back, and joined at the shoulders, a sort of double apron of white cloth. And our minds are arrested by the sight of this quiet and industrious boy doing his tasks there among the folds of the Tabernacle.

But now it is just as well to settle at once that it was not the showiness of Samuel's position, nor the shining of his cleanly robe, nor even the place where his mother put him, which gave him favor in the sight of God; for the sons of Bli had all this in similar kind, but they behaved awfully and were punished in a way afterwards that made the nation's ears tingle. It was Samuel's fidelity to duty, and his reverence for God's house and God's people, his care, his watchfulness, and his serious, sedate demeanor while about it, that made his w^ork every day acceptable to EH and to Jehovah, the great and holy God whom he ministered unto.

Then, too, we ought to remember that the word "minister" means only "a servant." It is not a name of office, but of work. It should never render any man proud, but always keep him humble.

Does any one ask what it w^as which Samuel found to do in the Tabernacle ? ■ We do not know exactly: but we can guess somewhere in the region of the truth. I think we might quote the words of the very wise and quaint commentator, Matthew Henry, on this head:

"He did well, indeed, for he ministered to the Lord according as his capacity was. He learned his catechism, and was doubtless constant to his devotions, soon learned to read, and took his pleasure ill the law of God. He ministered before Eli: that is, he served under his inspection and as he ordered him; but not before Eli's sons, for all parties were agreed that they were unfit to be his tutors. Perhaps he attended immediately on Eli's person, was ready to him to fetch and bring as he had occasion ; and that is in the verse called 'ministering to the Ivord.' Some little services perhaps he was employed in about the altar, though much under the age appointed by the law for the Levites' ministration. He could light a candle or hold a dish, or run on an errand or shut an open door ; and because he did this with a pious disposition or temper of mind, it is called 'ministering to the Lord,* and great notice is taken of it. After a while he did his work so well that Eli appointed that he should minister as the priests did, because he saw that God was accepting the boy and was with him."

What is it possible for any child now to do, as a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ, under the family rule ? The very quietness of such a question shows how unnecessary it will be to try to give it an exhaustive answer. Young people can be taught to pray, to take the care of some practical schemes of usefulness, to study the Word of God diligently, to contribute money to religious causes, to become interested in the poor, to speak words of counsel and encourao^ement and warnino^ to such as need direction or assistance. The grand old moralities are always within their reach: fidelities at school, courtesies to the aged, consideration for the weak,

CONSCIENTIOUS ROUTINE FOR CHILDREN. 1 3

keeping the Sabbath, aiding in household cares, and full obedience to all God's commands.

How far is this truly religious? That is a singularly profound question; it cannot always be answered. Children differ extremely. Some of them become spiritual Christians quite early; some never know the date of any experience that might be considered a regeneration; some are alert, imaginative, poetic, sensitive; others are slow, heavy, and run to rigid moralities with supreme delight and conscientious satisfaction. It is always right to do right, and God loves a virtuous, correct life. Of this we can be comfortably certain.

As to the spiritual condition of Samuel at this period of his career, there is found one verse in the record which has given some trouble: "Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord, neither was the word of the Lord yet revealed unto him." Even our venerable translators tried twice upon it; for the margin says: "Thus did Samuel before he knew the Lord, and before the word of the Lord was revealed unto him." Evidently there passed a vivid and permanent change over this boy's heart and history in that night's experience: God called him. The scene is solemn and impressive as we watch that unsuspicious lad going backwards and forwards, trying to find out whose was the voice he heard and to learn what it wished him to do. Twice he heard, and made the mistake of supposing that Eli, his natural monitor, w^as the one who wanted him for some real purpose. But Eli was as blind as the boy in his unconscious ignorance, and seems to have supposed Samuel was awakened by a dream.

Here then we may as well arrest our present exposition. In this first phase of childish experience we see that Samuel was moral and dutiful, obedient, and to a certain extent religiously inclined. God was dealing with him, but neither the lad nor his counsellor knew it.

A single question arises now which may profitably claim a notice. Is there in modern times anything that answers to this description of a child's religion ? Much, indeed : and yet I choose to answer the inquiry with only one illustration. It may be of the best interest for me to relate here, almost in the words of his autobiography, the fascinating story of Goethe, the great German poet and philosopher, as he penned it in his mature years for the world to read.

The young Wolfgang had gone no farther, at this period of his precocious boyhood, so he says, than to keep his convictions along on the plane of the article of simple belief in an overruling Power. He tells us he cherished an unbroken confidence that the God who stands in immediate connection with nature, and owns it and loves it as his work, seemed to him in those days the proper Supreme Being, who might be brought into closer relationship with man, as with everything else, and who would take care of him, as of the motion of the stars, the days and seasons, the animals and plants. There were texts of the Gospels which explicitly stated this. The lad could ascribe no form to this

CONSCIENTIOUS ROUTINE FOR CHILDREN. 1 5

Being; he therefore sought him in his works, and would, in the good Old Testament fashion, build him an altar. Nature's productions were set forth as images of the world, over which a flame was to burn, signifying the aspirations of man's heart towards his Maker. He therefore brought out of the collection of natural objects which he possessed, and which had been increased as chance directed, the best ores and other specimens of earths and rocks.

But the prime difficulty was as to how they should be arranged and raised into a pile. His father possessed a beautiful red-lacquered musicstand, ornamented wnth gilt flowers, in the form of a four-sided pyramid with different elevations, which had been found convenient for a quartet, but lately was not much in use. He laid hands on this, and built up his representatives of nature one above the other in steps, so that it all looked quite pretty and at the same time sufficiently significant.

On an early sunrise his first worship of God was to be celebrated; but the young priest had not yet settled how to produce a flame which should at the same time emit an agreeable odor. At last it occurred to him to combine the two, as he possessed a few fumigating pastiles which diffused a pleasant fragrance with a glimmer, if not with a flame. Nay, this soft burning and exhalation seemed a better representation of what passes in the heart than an open flame. The sun had already risen, but the neighboring houses concealed the east. At last it glittered above the roofs; a burning-glass was at once taken up and applied to the pastiles, which were fixed on the summit of the pile in a fine porcelain saucer. Everything succeeded according to the wish, and the service was complete.

The altar remained as a peculiar ornament of the room which had been assigned to him in the new house. Every one regarded it only as a wellarrangfed collection of natural curiosities. The lad knew better, but concealed his knowledge. He longed for a repetition of the solemnity. But unfortunately, just as the most opportune sun arose, the porcelain saucer was not at hand; he placed the pastiles directly on the upper surface of the stand; they were kindled, and so great was the devotion of the young priest that he did not observe, until it was too late, the mischief his sacrifice was doing. The pastiles had burned mercilessly into the red lacquer and beautiful gold flowers, and, as if some evil spirit had disappeared, had left their black, ineffaceable mark.

Thus ended Goethe's juvenile experiment in natural religion. The mischief could be covered up with the largest pieces of his show-materials; but the spirit for any new offerings was gone.

''The accident might almost be considered a hint and a warning," so remarks this singular man in a closing comment upon his own story, " in wishing to approach the Deity in such a way."

AWAKEiNED RESTLESSNESS IN CHILDREN. 1 7

II. Awakened Restlessness In Chil

DREN.

"And Eli perceived that the Lord had called the child."

It is possible that such a case as that of the poet Goethe, which has already been noticed, may be considered as unusual and extreme. And sure we are that the young Wolfgang was a singularly imaginative child, and in the end the development of his infant piety was never of the most exemplary sort.

Really, a much better illustration for our present use could be found almost anywhere among our own Christian households. I should like to be permitted to perpetuate here one incident that occurred under my own observation in a parish of which I was for a while the pastor; and this for the sake of recalling the pathetic memory of one of my little friends. A young lad, four or five years old, used to hold a religious service regularly upon the Sabbath in his father's parlor. He was accustomed to summon the other children, and conduct the ordinary exercises of public worship after his own fashion. He would give out the hymn and all would sing it with their quaint music. They would repeat the Lord's Prayer in unison. Then an older member of the audience would read the brief lesson from the Word, and at the proper moment thisju-

From Samuel to Soiomon.

venile evangelist would mount an ottoman for his pulpit and deliver his sermon with a reverent solemnity which older preachers might well emulate. Of course, a contribution invariably was taken at the close of the meeting.

Was there any good in this ? It would be diffijcult to pronounce upon the undertaking. We cannot say what these home-promptings of religiouslydirected feeling amount to anyway. One touching recollection comes to my mind now. There was brought to me, after a lengthened series of assemblies one winter, the sum of fifty-three cents for a grand result in money; and this was added (receipt being given with my own hand) to our church subscription of many thousands of dollars to erect a building for the Mission School.

That boy is now beyond childish years in strength and zeal; the sweet girl, who sang her part and passed the plate, has gone away into a higher service in heaven; the home continues yet, as it always was, a centre of life and love in the gospel; and this small record is dismissed to its end as an instance of conscientious routine, with a pastor's proud gladness as he thinks affectionately of the group which he remembers through the years.

But we move forward in our patient exposition. The matter for consideration on the present occasion is the second in order of the three phases of child-life: namely, the awakened restlessness of children under the repeated call of God. "And the Lord called Samuel again the third time. And he arose and went to Eli, and said. Here am I; for thou call-

AWAKENED RESTLESSNESS IN CHILDREN. 19

edst me. And Eli perceived that the Lord had called the child. Therefore Eli said unto Samuel, Go, lie down; and it shall be, if he call thee, that thou shalt say, Speak, Lord; for thy servant heareth. ' '

The young lad lay down quietly as he was bidden. If he slept, his heart still kept awake; for he was waitinof to hear what the God who called him twice before had now to speak in the ear of his soul. When God calls a child twice, it may be expected that he will soon call him a third time. The Lord often speaks to a child directly, when his parent, his teacher, or his pastor is dull of apprehension. Eli was not ready to admit that, in all likelihood. Many a man of God since that day has told a youthful inquirer to go and lie down again, because he himself was not familiar enough with the divine voice to recognize it when it came. But there must be discrimination even in our surprise over EH as well as in our censure. For God often is exceedingly direct, and of necessity individual or actually exclusive, in talking with children. Samuel could hear what the Lord said to Samuel better than Eli could hear what the Lord said to Samuel. iVt any rate, God did in this one instance make his voice heard by a child when an older and wiser person heard nothing at all.

But at last the call was recognized. When the third summons came, even this old man perceived that God was speaking to his ward among the shadows of the Tabernacle in the night. It is much to Eli's credit that he found out his own mistake and

20 FROM SAMUEI. TO SOI.OMON.

swiftly corrected it. His example ought to serve as a caution to other religious teachers to beware of bidding any child to lie down when the almighty God is arousing his conscience with a celestial call.

All this is legitimate instruction, and it comes easily from the Old Testament story. But we shall be wiser to press at once into our household experience.

There is a period in the history of almost every one who, reared in a Christian land, has been more or less directly under the pressure of the truth, in which he really faces the great question of his relation to God. And the effort is often an earnest one and is directed towards a positive decision concerning a religious life.

This period you may recognize in yourself, or detect in others, almost always by certain unmistakable signs. There will be outward manifestations of solicitude which will show how seriously the soul contemplates its own experience. Skill, however, and especially patience, will be needed to imderstand these revelations of inward struo^gfle. They often partake of the nature of strategy, and press their advance in the line of a precise contradiction. Then they will have to be read, like Hebrew syllables, from right to left.

For example, you see a young man inquisitive and impetuous, ready to speak about his religious feelings, but eminently heterodox in every expression he makes. Old creeds are too narrow for him, and old forms of thought are discarded with an appearance of malevolence or spite. He dares to

AWAKENED RESTLESSNESS IN CHILDREN. 21

doubt what all education has been trying to impress upon his heart as absolutely sacred. He is in a mood of mind alarming to most of those who converse with him. Authority is lightly esteemed. Dogmatic utterances of doctrine are irreverently rejected. He now ventures to cherish views of his own. Put on his manhood to defend them, he takes an evidently malicious delight in observing how shocked are the minds of those who listen to his bold and mischievous speculations. Opinionated and headstrong, he seems to be moved with a restless spirit of contradiction or dissent, and grows more and more defiant.

You see a young woman, less demonstrative somewhat, because less argumentative, but very much in the same temper, or distemper, of mind. She is impatient of all attempt at control, and imperiously self-willed under any form of expostulation. She affects gayeties she does not enjoy, and clamors for pleasures for w^hich in reality she has no taste. With a high profession of contempt for the opinions of those whom she understands now to be painfully on the watch for her, she seems to court the half-mournful, half-indignant censures bestowed justly on her caprice and perversity. Proud and wilful, she will not hear one word of remonstrance she can by any ingenuity avoid. She will curl her lip against any appeal, replying to it in a strain of wildest remark, and casting oftentimes most unreasonable sneers at everything she would be supposed traditionally to hallow. And the more pointed her wit and the more hateful the sarcasm, the more satisfied in her wicked spirit she appears to be. The spectacle seems pitiful, and would in the outset seem hopeless if it were not that these persons, as we daily associate with them, appear conscientious, and certainly do remain moral in behavior and in spirit measurably djsvout.

Such demonstrations are often seriously alarming to an affectionate circle around who are watching for better things. During the winter that I had charge of the Bible-class last we enjoyed what we considered a season of special outpouring of the Spirit of God. It was at that time I found a letter upon the question-wire which perhaps it is better that I should reproduce here.

" I am constrained to seek your advice and help under a sense of embarrassment and actual fear. You know my children, my son and my daughter. It has grieved me for years to see them growing up so unconcerned for themselves. They are now just entering society; and my heart is exceedingly anxious to have them truly converted. There can be no safety for them unless they are experimentally grounded by saving faith upon the Lord Jesus Christ before they are exposed to the world. Especially at this time, when others are going into the kingdom, I have been looking for their immediate change.

" But to my surprise, they both seem farther off than ever. They grow ribald about the meetings. My daughter is actually spiteful at times, and says the wildest sorts of things. And her brother encourages her, though he admits that she is acting

AWAKENED RESTLESSNESS IN CHILDREN. 23

strangely. I think they confirm and countenance each other in their rebelliousness and sin. They reject exhortations. They go to church, but come home declaring they do not believe what you say from the pulpit. Every day they are becoming more and more violent. They introduce the subject of religion themselves in my presence, for no other reason (as I conjecture) than to break out with some ridicule or reproach.

"I confess I am frightened. I do not know what to do in such straits. Counsel me and pray for me. It seems to me I cannot bear that these children of the covenant should become skeptics."

Thus the sad epistle concludes with the name. There can be no doubt concerning this as a living experience; it could be paralleled over and over ag:ain even now. The first thino^ needed in treatingf it, or even in treating of it, is to gain, if possible, a true and sufiicient explanation of the exhibition which is made. What is it that causes these alarming demonstrations which startle friends and strangers so ?

It is very easy for parents and Christian friends to be mistaken here in all such cases. This point once reached by any young man, his history becomes involved and measurably intricate. And sooner or later it is reached. Every individual of us, in these communities lit with truth, comes one day to see that his path to heaven is unlike that of any other person, and henceforth he must journey on alone. That thought is revolutionary. Every intrusion of another's experience upon his seems like a new offer of marriage to a bride pressed upon her wedding morning. The soul gets offended by an irr^ '^r^inent profession of interest while it is preparing to put on the white garments of its espousal to Christ. But the thing to be remembered is this: "And Eli perceived that the Lord had called the child." Men and women may forget this, and grow as sorrowfully "amazed " as was Mary when she rebuked Jesus for not paying more attention to her feelings. They ought to recollect those calm words: "Wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business?"

For really this is the explanation of the perverse disclosure thus made. Instead of becoming unbelievers, many of these persons are more nearly believers than ever before. They are at any rate roused out of the dead rut of indifference. And in so far their posture of mind is hopeful. Remember that it is not the delirious words of one in a fever, horrible as they may sound on our startled ears, that are his peril; cure the fever and the tongue will do its duty better. There is in this experience much that is worthy of truest sympathy. And so far from bitter or hasty rebuke being just the thing to meet it, nothing could be more ill-advised and dangerous.

The value of the crisis is what should render it so inexpressibly welcome. Oh, is it true that God is now calling my child ? Did Hannah dream that night what was going on up at the Tabernacle? Would that she as well as Eli had been on the bended knees of their souls before the covenant-keeping God! Who can regret that the hour has