The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Samuel — Section 82

their eyes. They are full of eloquent regrets. But all in vain. When they have done wrong once tlicy do wrong again. What are such persons to be in the next life? Where will tlie Elis of this world be? God only knows" (Robertson). II. THE CilILD CALLED TO DE A rnorIIET. We may discern even in" little Samuel" the beginnings of a great character, prognostics of an illustrious career. The child was courageous, not afraid to sleep in one of the priest's chambers alone, no father or mother near. And he was dutiful to the aged Eli, liastening to him when he thought that he had called in the night; and considerate to his feelings, reluctant to tell him in the morning the heavy judgments of which God had spoken. From that night he began to be a prophet. Very soon were the hopes of Hannah for her son fulfilled, nay, surpassed. "Samuel grew, and the Lord was with him, anrl did let none of his words fall to the ground." The nature of the first communication made through Samuel gave some indication of the future strain of his prophetic life and testimony. He was not to be one of those, like Isaiah, Daniel, and Zechariah, whose prophecies and visions reached far forward into future times. His function was more like that of Moses, Elijah, or Jeremiah, as a teacher of private and public righteousness. He- was destined to maintain the law and authority of God, to rebuke iniquity, to check and even sentence transgressors in high places, to withstand the current of national degeneracy, and insist on the separation of Israel from the heathen nations and their customs. The pith of his life-ministry lay in his urgency for moral obedience. III. LIGHT THROWN ON THE .EARLY TRAINING OF Goo's PUBLIC SERVANTS. It is ac- knowledged that some who have been eminently useful in Christian times have been converted in manhood, and their earlier life may seem to have been lost. Paul was so converted. So was Augustine. But th.ise really fmm no exception to the rule that God directs the training of his servants from childhood. Paul had a good Jewish Rabbinical education, and, besides this, an acquaintance with Greek literature and forms of thought. Having been brought up a Pharisee, he was the more fitted after his conversion to estimate at its full force that Jewish resistance to Christianity on the ground of law-righteousness which he above all men combatted. At the same time, knowing the world, and being from his youth up cultivated and intelligent according to the Greek standard, he was prepared to be, after his conversion, a most suitable apostle of Christ to the Gentiles. A similar process of preparation may be traced in Augustine. His early studies in logic and rhetoric prepared him, though he knew it not, to become II great Christian dialectician ; and even the years in which he served his own youthful passions were not without yielding some profit, inasmuch as they intensified his knowledge of the power of sin, and ultimately of the sin-vanquishing power of grace. By far the greater number of those who have served the Lord as prophets, preachers, or pastors of his flock, have been nourished up for such service from early years, though they knew it not. Some of them went first to other callings. John Chrysostom was at the bar; Ambrose in the civil service, rising to be prefect of Liguria; Cyprian was a teacher of rhetoric; Melancthon, a professor of Greek. l\foses himself grew up a scholar and a soldier, and no one who saw him in the court of Egypt could have guessed his future career. But in such cases God guided his servants in youth through paths of knowledge and experience which were of utmost vnlue to them when they found at last their real life-work fo, his name. There is <lunger, however, in sudden transitions from one walk of life to another, and from one mould of character to another. It is the danger of extravagarn·e. There is a proverb about the excessive zeal of sudden converts ; and there is this measure of truth in it, that persons who rapidly change their views or their position need some lapse of time, and some inward discipline, before they learn calmness, religious self-possession, nnd meekness of wisdom. It is therefore worthy of om notice that God gaYe Moses a long pause in the land of Midiun, and Paul also in Arabia. We return to the fact that the great majority of God's servants in the gospel have grown up with religion~ Af'ntiments and d('sires from their very childhood. So it was with John the Baptist, with Timothy, with BaRil, with Jerome, with Bernard of Clairvaux, with Columba, with Usher, with Zinzendorf, with Bengel, and many more. So it was with Samuel. His first lessons were from the devout and gifted Hannah in the quiet home at Ramah. From his earliest consciousness he knew that he was to be the Lord's. and a specially consecrnted servant or Nazarite. Then he was taken to Shiluh, and his special training 78 THE :nmrr DOOK OJ<' SAMUEL. [en. m. 1-21.