The Stone of Help.
DEUT.-ESTH. — 18
Literature.
Davies (J. LI.), Spiritual Apprehension, 329.
Dick (G. H.), The Yoke and the Anointing, 187.
Humberstone (W. J.), The Cure of Care, 83.
James (J. A.), Sermons, iii. 189.
Jerdan (C), Gospel Milk and Honey, 89.
Maclaren (A.), Expositions : Deuteronomy-1 Samuel, 283.
Matheson (Q.), Moments on the Mount, 201.
Meyer (F. B.), Samuel the Prophet, 53.
Pentecost (G. F.), Bible Studies : Mark and Jewishi History, 221.
Salmond (C. A.), For Days of Youth, 364.
Spurgeon (C. H.), Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, ix. (1863), No. 500.
„ Morning by Morning, 365.
Williams (T. M.), Sermons of the Age, 85. Christian World Pulpit, xlii. 22 (Hall) ; Ixi. 244 (Meyer). Expository Tiines, vii. 86 (Ford). Homiletic Review, 1. 386 (Haynes).
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The Stone of Help.
Then Samuel took a stone, and set it between Mizpah and Shen, and called the name of it Eben-ezer, saying, Hitherto hath the Lord helped us. — I Sam. vii. 12,
1. The Israelites had rejected the Lord as their God before the prophet Samuel was raised to teach them and to deliver them from their enemies, and consequently they were severely oppressed by the Philistines. Samuel assured Israel that if they would return unto the Lord with all their hearts He would deliver them out of the hands of the Philistines. They turned to the Lord ; they put away their idols ; they renounced their evil habits ; and they asked the prophet to pray to the Lord for them. Their enemies, the Philistines, came against Israel when they were actually engaged in renewing their covenant with the Lord under the guidance of the prophet. " But the Lord thundered with a great thunder on that day upon the Philistines, and discomfited them ; and they were smitten down before Israel, Then Samuel took a stone, and set it between Mizpah and Shen, and called the name of it Eben-ezer, saying. Hitherto hath the Lord helped us."
■fl " Are we not all guests of Allah ? " says the Arab of the desert, as he welcomes the stranger to his tent and showers upon him all that hospitality can suggest. The simple words well indicate the situation. " Guests of Allah " are we all on our very entrance into the world, and " Guests of Allah " we remain to the close of our sojourn. We are partakers of a store we have not prepared, spectators of a beauty we have not conceived or executed, and sharers of a glory we only dimly understand.^
2. "Hitherto hath the Lord helped us." The characteristic feature of the inscription lies in the word " hitherto." It was no
^ M. 0. Albright, The Common Heritage, 135. 875
276 THE STONE OF HELP
doubt a testimony to special help obtained in that time of trouble ; it was a grateful recognition of that help ; and it was an enduring monument to perpetuate the memory of it. But it was more, much more. The word " hitherto " denotes a series, a chain of similar mercies, an unbroken succession of Divine interpositions and Divine deliverances. The special purpose of this inscription was to link on the present deliverance to all the past, and to form a testimony to the enduring faithfulness and mercy of a covenant- keeping God.
^ The name " Ebenezer " has become a Christian name. The English Puritans of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, who loved the Old Testament, were fond of giving Hebrew names to their children. They called their girls by such names as Hagar, Leah, Dinah, Kezia; and they might name their boys Abraham, Phinehas, Habakkuk, Ebenezer. Not only so, but a sailors' chapel in England is often caUed a " Bethel " ; so among the small and simple meeting-houses which used to serve for the Free Churches in country districts there was one here and there that went by the name of the " Ebenezer." ^
3. But was there not something strange in this inscription, considering the circumstances? Could Samuel have forgotten that tragic day at Shiloh — the bewildered, terrified look of the messenger that came from the army to bring the news, the con- sternation caused by his message, the ghastly horror of Eli and his tragic death, the touching death of the wife of Phinehas, and the sad name which she had, with such seeming propriety, given to her babe. Was that like God remembering them? Had Samuel forgotten how the victorious Philistines soon after dashed upon Shiloh like beasts of prey, plundering, destroying, massacring till nothing more remained to be done to justify the name of "Ichabod"? How could Samuel blot that chapter out of the history? Or how could he say, with that chapter fresh in his recollection, " Hitherto hath the Lord helped us " ?
All that had Samuel considered well. Even amidst the deso- lations of Shiloh the Lord was helping them. He was helping them to know themselves, helping them to know their sins, and helping them to know the bitter fruit and woeful punishment of sin. He was helping them to achieve the great end for which He
* C. Jordan.
I SAMUEL VII. 12 277
had called them — to keep alive the knowledge of the true God and the practice of His worship, onward to the time when the great promise should be realized — when He should come in whom all the families of the earth were to be blessed.