1 Samuel 3:20

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 like these must be chosen by the open eyes of boyhood, must be pursued with all its vivid forces. Again, in the higher spiritual world how young have been most of our chieftains, the saints of heaven, at the time when their choice was made and proclaimed. It has often been noticed how young the great leaders of European Christendom have ever been.

I. Notice first that in the text we have a resolution, and a young resolution.

II. The second point is what Samuel resolved to do, and at what time. To be a prophet of the Lord seems to imply such grace from heaven, such free-will on the part of God God everything, man nothing. And perhaps we may be liable to forget that the man may be prepared and fitted for his work or otherwise, and that by the line which he has himself taken. Samuel gave himself up to be what God would have him to be, to be that in the best way and in the most perfect degree.

III. The history is not the history of countries or of Churches only. It is the history of the cause of God, and there is no place, no society, in which the cause of God does not go through the self-same phases, maintained and counteracted; and when should boyish resolve more affect the Church of God than as it works in our society?

IV. It is inconsistency on our part which weakens the cause of our Master in any place. We must be established, we must be faithful, to be servants of the Lord. (1) No one can serve God without prayer. Prayer is the means of obtaining that strength which is our chief want. (2) A second point is friendship. Mere ordinary friendships do good on the whole, but how much more would they do if there were a little resolve, a little more holding yourselves and your friends true to principles which you respect, and if you established yourselves to be true friends to each other.

Archbishop Benson, Boy Life: Sundays in Wellington College,p. 11.

References: 1 Samuel 3:21. Parker, vol. vii., p. 60. 1 Samuel 4:3. Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. iv., No. 186; Parker, vol. vi.. p. 259; Clergyman's Magazine,vol. x., p. 278; Homiletic Quarterly,vol. iii., p. 255. 1 Samuel 4:7. Parker, vol. vii., p. 60.