In the very house of Eli he placed a Samuel. Besides this, a prophet was sent to the feeble, miserable Eli, who spared the sins of his children, and ruined both them and his nation. The man of God came like a condemning conscience, unveiled the high-priest to himself, and announced to him the destruction of his family. "There shall not be an old man in thine house for ever" (v. 32.) There should be continued vexation and sorrow amongst his descendants when they ceased to be priests. "And the man of thine, whom I shall not cut off from mine altar, shall be to consume thine eyes, and to grieve thine heart; and all the increase of thine house shall die in the flower of their age" (xxxiii.)

What lesson is afforded here to over-indulgent and inconsiderate parents! They, like Eli, abstain from checking their children's faults, or only make a feeble remonstrance, and then close their eyes; not considering that each vice in a child is like a wolf, and will injure it more deeply than the bite of a wild beast. Hophni and Phinehas, the wicked sons who grew to be wicked priests, not only ruined themselves, but ruined their father, who died broken-hearted at their fall; and ruined their country, which, became by the battle they fell in, subject to the oppression of the Philistines. Had their father been faithful to his God, and to his duty to them, he might have lived for them to bless him, instead of dying amidst the ruin they had caused.

In one day they died both of them. And so will surely die spiritually all who are forgetful of the laws of truth and duty to our Heavenly Father, and a deeper death and a deeper condemnation must come to those depraved ministers who have profaned their office by their lusts, and have betrayed the holy cause of heaven among men which they were especially appointed to guard. "The soul that sinneth it shall die," is true of all. But priests who sin, as they have had more safe-guards and deeper responsibilities, sink more deeply when they fall, and doubtless are of those who are "beaten with many stripes."

Let us now turn to the second and more cheering portion of our text. In the description of what Samuel would be, we have the delineation of a real minister of the Lord Jesus Christ. "I will raise me up a faithful priest, that shall do according to that which is in mine heart, and in my mind” (v. 35.)

The Lord's heart is His Divine Love. The first characteristic of the true minister is to be in harmony with the Divine heart. The Lord desires to bless His children for ever in

heaven, and to prepare them for this everlasting blessedness by regeneration. The true minister enters into the same spirit, he lives for this, and labours for this, among the people. That which is in the Lord's heart is in his heart also; and he rejoices in leading men to their Saviour, in elevating and strengthening in them all that is noble, pure, and good. He feels for the weak and the wicked, and pities them. He does not quench the smoking flax, nor break the bruised reed, but brings forth judgment unto victory. He tells men plainly of their sins, but also cheers them with the hope and faith which animate himself. He knows that whosoever seeks his Saviour truly and earnestly, receives power to turn away from his wickedness, and save his soul alive. The heart of the Lord Jesus is very merciful, very tender, and very patient; and the minister who knows the Lord does according to that which is in His heart.

"The sons of Eli," it is said, “knew not the Lord” (ver. 12), and so they did harsh, cruel, and vile things. True ministers of religion know the Lord, are in sympathy with Him, enter into the atmosphere of His Love, and delight in seeing Him giving sight to the blind, opening the ears of the deaf, causing the lame to walk, and raising the dead. One sinner that repents causes the angels who watch over him to rejoice, and to the good minister also there is a similar joy, when the lost sheep returns to the fold of the good again.

He does according to what is in the Lord's heart; but also according to what is in the Lord's mind. The mind of the Lord is infinitely wise. From the Divine Wisdom comes all truth, and without truth there is no progress. The faithful minister of the Lord is very zealous for the spread of truth.

One of the insidious dangers against which the Christian needs to be on his guard is slothfulness and unconcern in relation to truth. The feeling of indifference will creep over him at times; and when he sees people outwardly living a moral life, with many a form of erroneous doctrine and varied creed, the thought will sometimes come, "of what consequence can it be whether people have a false creed or a true creed, false doctrines or true, or if they know little or much of the truths of religion ?" But this is an error as dangerous as it is unscriptural. We need truth daily to sustain us, to purify us, to strengthen and to elevate us. An outwardly becoming life may be induced by fashion, by fear, by desire of a good name, or by the dread of being singular or losing caste; and may cover a soul infested with selfish anxieties, dead to everything

good and great. Such a one is a whited sepulchre, full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness. A lack of taste for truth is a mark of an evil state. The man who loves good, loves truth, and delights to speak about it, hear about it, and read about it. When a person finds he has no pleasure in a good book abounding with truths, he may be certain he is spiritually unwell. He has a chronic, low, mental fever, and it deprives him of appetite. He should pray to the Lord as is done so often in the Psalms: "O send out thy light and THY TRUTH : let them lead me" (xliii. 3). "Thou desirest TRUTH in the inward parts, and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom" (li. 6). "God shall send forth His mercy and His TRUTH" (lvii. 13). "O prepare mercy and TRUTH, which may preserve him (lxi. 7).

From the inestimable value of the knowledge of truth, and because one leading duty of the true minister of the Lord is to diffuse it, we read, " For the priest's lips shall keep knowledge, and they should seek the law at his mouth, for he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts" (Mal. ii. 7). In like manner, in our text, the faithful priest is said not only to do according to what is in the Lord's heart, but also according to what is in His mind; or according to the Divine Truth. He is anxious that all around him should know the truth, and see it in its own light. The bad priest is afraid of truth, and would rather that ignorance and superstition should continue to enslave mankind; that the multitude should be the tools and slaves of the few. The good priest, however, knows that truth is light, "the true light which enlighteneth every man that cometh into the world." He shudders to think of a world without light, and not the less does he dread to contemplate a soul without truth.

Without light no man can see the beauties either of earth or heaven. "He that walketh in darkness, knoweth not whither he goeth" (John xii. 35.) Error is the wrong road home. He who follows ignorantly may find his home at last, but not till after many a weary turn, and many a painful quagmire. Probably much more than half of the evils and sorrow under which men suffer, come from error and ignorance. People take the wrong road, believing it to be right. To be unconcerned and indifferent about this is to be heedless of lifelong and widespread suffering.

What were the famines and pestilences of the middle ages, but the results of that ignorance of divine laws which made men indifferent to districts of vile and festering vegetation, poisoning

the atmosphere with vapours bearing on their horrid bosoms fever and death? What were the persecutions of past times, in which myriads suffered pains incredible, but the result of the ignorant persuasion that the God of Love would be pleased by fierce souls harassing to death those who thought differently from themselves? What has so long continued undiminished the terrible sufferings of innumerable diseases, but the false idea that afflictions come from God, instead of the truth, that they arise from the violations of God's laws, and indulging in self-will both in mind and body. The drunkard or the glutton dies of apoplexy, the immediate result of a last serious error; and disregarding the years and years during which he has violated the laws of health, people say he has died by the visitation of God! These false ideas are engendered by other and deeper errors which underlie them; and so vast strata sustain the mighty empire of wrong.

But the real messenger of heaven, the true minister of the Lord, unfolds the divine mind to the people. He unfurls the standard of truth. He opens the fountains of living water. "Arise, shine," he says, "for your light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon you. Darkness hath covered the earth, and gross darkness the people; but the Lord shall arise upon you, and His glory shall be seen upon you” (Isa lx. 1, 2). Such a priest would Samuel be. Hence it is written, "He shall do according to that which is in mine heart, and IN MY MIND."

We read further, "I will build him a sure house; and he shall walk before mine anointed for ever" (ver. 35). To make Samuel a sure house would doubtless mean that he would be established as a prophet; that he would have a firm position in the esteem and reverence of the people. To walk before the anointed would be a prophecy that when a king, an anointed one, was chosen for Israel (they had no king then), Samuel would be his guide and director "for ever," that is, for his age or dispensation; for such is the import of the Hebrew term which is rendered "for ever."

But what is said of Samuel is still more deeply true of every real genuine minister of the Lord Jesus Christ, of every faithful and true priest. The Lord makes him a sure house. He is built up on the rock of ages; truths are the stones, and these are cemented with love. This is a sure house: neither death nor hell can shake it. He walks before the Anointed One. He lives on earth, and will hereafter live for ever in the Heavens, under the blessing and favour of the Lord Jesus Christ, who is King of kings, and Lord of lords.

SERMON III.

SAMUEL AND ELI.

"And the child Samuel ministered unto the Lord before Eli. And the Word of the Lord was precious in those days; there was no open vision.

"And it came to pass at that time, when Eli was laid down in his place, and his eyes began to wax dim, that he could not see;

was

And ere the lamp of God went out in the temple of the Lord, where the ark of God and Samuel was laid down to sleep;

"That the Lord called Samuel: and he answered, Here am I."-1 SAM. iii. 1-4.

PERHAPS there is no period in the whole career of the Israelitish nation more sad to contemplate than that in which Eli was high priest. His feeble and heedless government suffered the elements of evil and decay to gather on every hand. It is true that he came to a position sunk in corruption, a land disordered, a people ignorant and degraded; a priesthood droning lazily a drowsy service, offering sacrifices not as offerings of the heart, but as their trade. All was mean, debased, and disorderly. But he made no real effort to stay the impending ruin, to restore that which was decayed, or to stand up for God and right among men. He was false to his vocation, faithless to his duty, permitting his children to mock at virtue, and to ruin the Church it was his supreme duty to preserve. In positions of great dignity and responsibility, neglect is treachery. Fli was a watchman, but he gave no warning. The wreck came, and the slothful heedless captain perished with the ship.

Before we proceed to the especial lessons of our text, it will be useful to notice the inference that presents itself from the statement that "the Word of the Lord was precious in those days; there was no open vision." It would seem to be suggested by that language, that open vision had preceded the Word of the Lord, that there had been a time when men consorted with angels, and saw the things of the eternal world.

The invisible world is not distant; it is only too refined for

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