The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Samuel — Section 87

II. I-rs ME\I_I_oo IS rnroRT~NT. It should be-1. _Timely; commenced at an early ng-e (ProY. x111. 24). 2. Firm nnd j11st. 3. \V1th co11side1·ation kind11e~s ancf patience (Eph. Yi. 4; Col. iii. 21). ' ' " O'er warwar,l childhood wouldst thou hold firm rule, And sun thee .in the light of happy faces, L°'·e, hope, and patience, these must be thy graces And in thine own heart let them first keep school; ' For as old Atlas on his broad neck {>laces Heaven's starry globe, and there sustams it ; so Do these bear up the little world below Of education-patience, love, and hope" (Coleridge). IV. ITs OMISSION )S nurno~s. I. To children ( eh. iv. 11). 2. To parents (eh. iv. 18). 3. To the nation ( eh. 1,·. 22). "lndl!lgent parents are cruel to themselv1\S and their posterity" (Hall). How numerous are the facts which justify these statements! "As in individuals, so in nations, unbridled indulgence of the passions must produce and does produce, frivolity, effeminacy, slavery to the appetite of the moment• ~ brutalised and reckless temper, before which prudence, energy, national feeling ~ny and every feeling which is not centred in self, perishes utterly. The old F;ench noblesse gave a proof of iliis law which will last as a warning beacon to the !'nd of time. The Spanish population of America, I nm told, gives now a fearful proof of 1.his same terrible penalty. Has not Italy proved it likewise for centuries past? It must be so. For national life is grounded on, is the development of, the life of tl,e family. And where ilie root is ;orrupt_~he tree must be corrupt likewise" (Kingsley, • The Roman and the Teuton, Leet. 11.). Therefore (1) let parents exercise due restraint over their children; and (2) let children submit to the restraint of their parents (Exod. xx. 12; Levit. xix. 3; Prov. xxx. 17; Jer. xxx,·. 18, 19).-D. Ver. 18.-Resignation. "It is the Lord: let him do what seemeth him good." The sentence which was pronounced on Eli and his house was almost as severe as can be conceivf'd. But the manner in w,hich it was received by him shows that, r10twithstanding the defects of his character, he possessed the "spirit of faith," "·hich shone like a spark of fire amidst the ashes and gloom of his closing days. He did not refuse to admit its Divine Author, did not question its justice, did not rebel against it and seek to reverse it, did not fre_t and murmur and give himself up to despair. His language expresses a spirit the exact oppo~ite of all this. "When Samuel bad told him every "·hit, Eli replied, It is the Lord. The highest religion could say no more. What more can there be than surrender to the will of God? In that one brave sentence you forg·et all Eli's vacillation. Free from envy, free from priestcraft, earnest, humbly submissive ; that is the bright side of Eli's character, ~nd the side least known or thought of'' (F. W. Robertson). I. HE RECOGNISES THE ArPOINTMENT OF GOD. "It is the Lord," or "he is the- Lord," who has spoken. He believed that the voice was really his, notwithstanding (I) it came to him indirectly-through the agency of another; (2) it came in an 1inexpected manner; and (3) it announced what he naturally disliked to hear, and w Ji at was most grievous. These things sometimes dispose men to doubt " the word of the Lord," and are made excuses for rejecting it. It is not, in its mode of com- munication or in its contents, " according to their mind." But the spirit of faith n>ntures not to dictate to God how or what he shnll say, and it perceives the Divine ,-oice when those who are destitute of it perceive only what is purely natural and. l1uman. II. HE JUSTIFIES Tirn RECTITUDE OF Goo. Such justification (Ps. Ii. 4)-1. 1B 1'1nplied in the acknow!edgment that it comes from ~chovah, who al~~e is holy ( eh. ii. 2). "Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?" (Gen. xvm. 25). 2. Proceeds from the conviction that it is deserved on account of the iniquity of his sons and his own sins of omission (Lam. iii. 39; Micah vii. 9). They who have a clue 'sense of the evil of sin are not disposed to complain of the severity of the- sentence pronounced against it. 3. Is not the less real because not fully expressed, for silence itself iH often the most genuine testimony to the perfect equity of tho !Ji vine procedure. "A:1ron held l1is peace" (Lev. x. 3; Ps. xxxix. 9, 11 ). on. 111. 1-21.] THE FIHST BOOK 01<' SAMuEL.