XVII.

ELI-HIS HEART TREMBLED FOR THE ARK OF GOD.

"I will judge his house for ever; because his sons made themselves vile, and he restrained them not." "And Eli said, It is the Lord; let him do what seemeth him good." "Eli sat by the wayside watching; for his heart trembled for the ark of God."-1 SAM. i.-iv.

PART FIRST.

THE key to Eli's character is in these simple words :"His heart trembled for the ark of God." He was a good man, but timid; faithful, but fearful; with much love in his heart to God and the ark of God; but with little strength of mind, or firmness and decision of purpose. His conduct at this crisis, may be con

trasted with that of Moses on a similar occasion.

When the Israelites, discouraged by the report of the spies, refused to go up and take possession of the promised land, and were condemned, in consequence, to wander for forty years in the wilderness,-stung with remorse, they resolved hastily to repair their fatal fault; "They rose up early in the morning, and gat them up into the top of the mountain, saying, Lo, we be here, and will go up unto the place which the Lord

hath promised: for we have sinned." Moses not only opposed their resolution;-"It shall not prosper; go not up, for the Lord is not among you; that ye be not smitten before your enemies;" but peremptorily refused, either to lead them himself, or to let the ark of God go with them;-"They presumed to go up unto the hill-top: nevertheless the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and Moses, departed not out of the camp." The issue of the engagement was disastrous to the Israelites; for "the Amalekites came down, and the Canaanites which dwelt in that hill, and smote them, and discomfited them, even unto Hormah.” But, by the moral courage of Moses, the ark of God was safe (Numbers xiv. 40-45).

Eli is placed in circumstances not unlike those in which Moses acted so nobly. The army of Israel is smarting under a defeat sustained at the hands of the Philistines. It is proposed to send for the ark of God: "Let us fetch the ark of the covenant of the Lord out of Shiloh unto us, that, when it cometh among us, it may save us out of the hand of our enemies" (1 Sam. iv. 3). Eli being both high priest and chief magistrate -for he is at the head of civil affairs as well as ecclesiastical-has of course the custody of the ark; and has in fact, in virtue of his double office, more power over it than even Moses himself could possess. Evidently he has misgivings as to the step about to be taken; and well he may, considering all things. A heavy cloud of judgment overhangs himself and his household. If the ark is to accompany the army, it must be under the custody of his sons. Are they fit keepers of it, vile as they have made themselves, and doomed to perish miserably? Is the army itself engaged

in so righteous a warfare, and animated by so good a spirit, as to warrant their carrying with them what, in better times, was wont to be the pledge of victory? Eli may well hesitate; and, when the message from the army reaches him, it must cause him deep distress. Is he to consent? Hophni and Phinehas are ready to run every risk; not unwilling, perhaps, to seize the opportunity of somewhat recovering their character, and gaining a little credit with their countrymen. The elders and people are importunate. The old man does not resist, though in the very act of yielding his mind misgives him, and his heart cannot but tremble for the ark of God.

He is a godly man, and as kind as he is godly. The brief notices of his connection with Samuel are singularly affecting. He seems never to have forgotten the little injustice he had inadvertently done to his mother, Hannah, when he mistook her unwonted fervency in prayer for a sign of intoxication-" Now Hannah, she spake in her heart; only her lips moved, but her voice was not heard therefore Eli thought she had been drunken" (1 Sam. i. 13). Observe how promptly and eagerly he accepts her explanation, and hastens to relieve her wounded spirit; "No, my lord, I am a woman of a sorrowful spirit: I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink, but have poured out my soul before the Lord" (ver. 15); "Then Eli answered and said, Go in peace; and the God of Israel grant thee thy petition that thou hast asked of him. And she said, Let thine handmaid find grace in thy sight. So the woman went her way, and did eat, and her countenance was no more sad" (ver. 17, 18). Thus he turns her weeping into joy.

And ever after he seems anxious to make up for that first affront by his treatment of her son, whom the Lord gave her in answer to her many prayers, and whom, in terms of her own vow, she gave to the Lord. The child, Samuel, is warmly welcomed by him when his mother leaves him, while yet an infant, under his care; and as he "grows on, and is in favour both with the Lord, and also with men" (1 Sam. ii. 26), he shares the home, perhaps even the chamber, of his venerable guardian;-the parents, as they pay their annual visit to Shiloh, receive his blessing;-and the youthful servant of the sanctuary is to Eli, as it might seem, instead of his own sons.

With what affectionate tenderness does Eli initiate Samuel in the right manner of receiving the word of the Lord! Eli, old and wellnigh blind, is "laid down in his place;" and Samuel hearing himself called by name, naturally starts up to see what service his now almost helpless friend may be requiring from him; "Here am I, for thou didst call me." "I called not, my son; lie down again ;" is the simple reply,-until the third repetition of the incident awakens Eli to its real meaning; “Eli perceived that the Lord had called the child” (1 Sam. iii. 8). Nor is there any grudging in the old man's bosom that he should be passed by, and another, a mere child, chosen to receive one of those divine communications which in these degenerate days had become so precious, because so rare (ver. 1). On the contrary, we almost seem to see the lighting up of his dim eye, and to feel the throbbing of his heart, as with tenderest interest he tells the favoured youth how to demean himself under so high an honour; "Go, lie down and it shall be, if he call thee, that

thou shalt say, Speak, Lord; for thy servant heareth" (ver. 9); and then he quietly composes himself to await the issue of the scene.

Ah! little did he dream what the issue was to be! Some fond thoughts he might have as to the sort of voice or vision from on high, likely to mark the beginning of a child's—and such a child's—prophetic ministry. Something bright- something encouragingsomething charged with the fulness of Divine love and heavenly joy-will probably form the appropriate subject of the Lord's first message or address to so gracious a youth. Alas! alas! little thinks the old man that Samuel's office, like Jeremiah's afterwards, is to open with denunciations of wrath and judgment; still less, that these denunciations are to be directed against himself. Eli has been warned already by a man of God, and warned in language of terrible distinctness, that he and his whole house are to be shamefully cut off from the earth (1 Sam. ii. 27-36). Must the warning be repeated? And must it be through the lips of the child he has so fondly cherished? And must it be the very first word these lips are to be inspired to utter in the name of the Lord? A hard and cruel trial this might well be thought to be.

No wonder that "Samuel feared to show Eli the vision," and that it was only after the most solemn and urgent importunity on the part of Eli-" God do so to thee, and more also, if thou hide any thing from me," that he could find it in his heart to "tell him every whit, and hide nothing from him." Nor would it have been any wonder, if, on hearing such a message conveyed through such a messenger, some little of the irritation of wounded love had ruffled Eli's