The High Priest, in the days of the judges. (1 Samuel 2:11) His name is very significant, meaning, my God. The sin of Eli is remarkably striking. And it teaches most powerfully. We see in him a decided proof of the great danger of consulting the feelings of nature, rather than obeying the precepts of grace. His tenderness, as a father, tempted him to lose sight of his reverence for God. He therefore contented himself with reproving his sons for their vileness, when he should have publicly stript them of their office, and banished them from his presence. And though he was admonished of this evil conduct by the child Samuel, speaking to him in a vision from the Lord, yet we find no firmness to reform. And though the Lord deferred the threatened punishment of his two sons for near twenty and seven years, yet he allowed them still to minister in the service of the sanctuary. At length the judgment came, and a most tremendous judgment it was. (See Hophni, 1 Samuel 4:12-22) How different from him, of whom it is said, "He did not acknowledge his brethren, nor know his own children!" (Deuteronomy 33:9)