1 Samuel 3:1 Of Bible boys Samuel is a chief favourite. The reason is that nothing under the sun is more beautiful than piety in childhood. Nothing like grace for making the young graceful. Martin Luther in his gentler moments dwelt with great tenderness on the boyhood of Samuel. He found in him wh... [ Continue Reading ]
1 SAMUEL 1-4 _(with Judges 21:16)_ I. With all his virtues and natural advantages Eli had one great fault. He was a good man of the easy type; the kind of man who makes an admirable servant, who does his duty to perfection so long as his duty merely troubles himself, but who has not force of chara... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Samuel 3:8 I. We may define a call, as usually understood, to be an inward conviction of the soul that such and such is the will of God concerning it, accompanied with an irresistible desire to obey the conviction. In such cases a test is required. There is perhaps no extent of self-deception to... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Samuel 3:9 Samuel was called to be a prophet of God in a great crisis of Jewish history. His appearance was quieter and less dramatic than those of Moses and Elijah, but it was almost as momentous. The epoch was one of those which determine the character and destiny of nations. One great act in t... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Samuel 3:10 The call of Samuel is very different in its circumstances from the call of St. Paul; yet it resembles it in this particular, that the circumstance of his obedience to it is brought out prominently even in the words put into his mouth by Eli in the text. The characteristic of all Divin... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Samuel 3:13 It was at Shiloh that Eli spent his years. Tranquil and busy, and in the main, honourable years they were. Shiloh was well-fitted to be the seat of ecclesiastical rule, lying as it did well off the main highroad which ran through the country from north to south, lying among hills which... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Samuel 3:14 I. There must have been in Eli a real sense of the sacredness of his function. Whatever reverence a man can inspire by showing that his heart is personally engaged in his work, that it caused him inward delight, he will have inspired. But there is a limit to this kind of respect, and... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Samuel 3:18 I. Notice first the history and fate of Eli. (1) Observe his amiability and kindness, shown in his readily retracting his opinion of Hannah and changing the language of uncharitable-ness into that of benediction. (2) Observe the piety of Eli. What meek submission is discernible in his... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Samuel 3:20 An Italy once, an India twice, have succumbed to a boyish resolve. In the higher sphere, that of conquest in the intellectual world, it is mere matter of necessity that to be a great poet, scholar, or orator, must have been the boy's resolve before it was the man's reward. Careers lik... [ Continue Reading ]