1 Samuel 2:12

1 Samuel 2:12 , 1 Samuel 2:26

The sacred historian dwells with evident pleasure on the beautiful, holy boyhood of the child who served before the Lord, wearing a linen ephod, and who in the visitations of the night, thrilling to the Divine voice which called him by his name, answered fearlessly, "Speak, Lord; for Thy servant heareth." Yet from the same tabernacle, from the same tutelage, from the same influences, came forth also the sons of Eli; and the sons of Eli were men of Belial; they knew not the Lord.

I. The training the same, the product how different; the school the same, the boys whom it educated so fearfully contrasted. Such contrasts seem strange, but they are in reality matters of daily experience. Daily from the same home we see boys go forth, some to live noble, self-denying lives, others to live lives that come to nothing, and do deeds as well undone. So too, often, from happy conditions come base characters, from degraded environments strong, sweet natures struggle into the light.

II. Our inference from this is, that the personal devotion of the heart, the personal surrender of the individual will, can alone save a man or make him holy A man's life may be influenced, but it is not determined by his circumstances. No aid, save that which comes from above to every man, can help him to climb the mountain-path of life, or enter the wicket-gate of righteousness. Nor, on the other hand, can any will or power except his own retard his ascent or forbid his ingress. On ourselves, on the conscious exercise of our own free will, depends our eternal salvation or ruin.

F. W. Farrar, In the Days of the Youth,p. 99.

References: 1 Samuel 2:12. Parker, vol. vii., p. 57. 1 Samuel 2:17. Ibid.,vol. vi., p. 228, and vol. vii., p. 58,