IT Last summer I sojourned for a few days in a village situated on the northern slopes of the Ochils. While there I heard frequent reference made to a curious stone called the " Ebenezer Stone," said to exist in a lonely spot far up among the hills. I resolved to see it, and set off one beautiful day, along with some friends, to look for it. After a long climb, and considerable search, we found it — a plain stone like a small gravestone, two feet six inches in height, and two feet broad. On the upper edge was deeply cut the word "Ebenezer." On one side was an inscription in Latin, which I translated thus: "Here out of darkness light shone forth, therefore glory be to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, my God ; and the name of this place is Light." On the other side were the well-known words of Isaiah : " Who is among you that feareth the Lord, that obeyeth the voice of his servant, that walketh in darkness, and hath no light ? let him trust in the name of the Lord, and stay upon his God." What was the meaning of it all ? That stone with its inscrip-
• F. W. Robertson, Life and Letters, 172. ' F. B. Meyer.
I SAMUEL VII. 12 2S3
tions is a monumental record of a soul's history. More than a hundred years ago, a stranger came to these parts and set up as a' sheep-farmer. He was reserved, moody, and distant. He had been trained for the ministry, but, owing to theological doubts, had never taken orders. He was long under the cloud. He walked in darkness and agony, until one blessed and ever- memorable day, on that lone hillside, the light shone upon his troubled soul, and he found God and peace. And so, like the patriarchs of old, he set up his stone of Ebenezer, of thankfulness to God, and there it stands to-day after a hundred years, an encouragement to every troubled and benighted soul.^
^ I wonder if there ever was an old homestead in America which did not have its Ebenezer stone in the front yard ; the old stone that was allowed to remain, the survivor of the rocky field of one hundred years ago, before the house was built, and all the rest were cleaned out, while this old rock was left. Its hard surface scooped out here and there to hold a little water for the robins and the sparrows that come to bathe and drink in the morning ; its old sides embossed and bronzed with lichens and mosses, altogether worn with the feet of the children of three generations, embowered in wild vines and flowing honeysuckle — it stands there the sign of God's blessing from the wilderness of the past ! *
2. But in order that a memorial may have its value for the spiritual life, it has to be erected on a battlefield of the past, and it has to be the sign of our consecration to God's service in the future.
(1) Our memorials are erected on the lattlefields of the past. Samuel's Ebenezer was placed on the site of an old battlefield. Twenty years before, a battle had been fought and lost upon that very site. Then the fields, which were now waving with corn, had been drenched with the blood of 30,000 men. There the corpses had been heaped highest, for there the last terrific conflict took place around the ark, where Hophni and Phinehas, the sons of Eli, with desperate vigour, gathered the people of Israel to preserve the sacred ark which, against the best judgment of Eli, had been brought into the van of the battle.
But it was not only the scene of defeat, it was the scene of victory ; for, during the twenty years that had intervened, Samuel had been building up, had been reconstructing, the Hebrew State, * D. Watson, In Life's School, 177. ^ E. J. Haynea.
284 THE STONE OF HELP
until that great meeting at Mizpah. There he had rallied the whole nation round him, and there he had revived the national unity ; there he had brought the people back to allegiance to God; they had swept down the mountain-side in irresistible onslaught, and when the Philistines attacked they overcame and drove them down to Bethcar. And so the stones reared up in a field which had been the scene of the most disastrous defeat, became twenty years after, because of moral and spiritual work that Samuel had done, the scene of the most stupendous victory.
^ Now and again in the history of the world it has happened that the same spot has witnessed first a defeat and then a victory. During the Middle Ages the republic of Genoa, in Italy, was often at war with the republic of Pisa. On one occasion the Genoese were badly beaten in a sea-fight near the little island of Meloria ; but the time came afterwards, in the year 1284, when the Genoese admiral, Oberto Doria by name, directed his warships to the same spot, and said, " Here is that rock ; a Genoese defeat made it famous, — a victory would make it immortal." The result of the second battle was a great victory for Genoa. Half the Pisan fleet, of seventy-two galleys, was destroyed. The power of Pisa was crushed. So great was the number of prisoners taken by the Genoese that it was said, "To see Pisa, you must now go to Genoa." And Pisa was compelled to give up to Genoa the whole of Corsica and part of Sardinia, and to pay a fine of 160,000 gold pieces.