(M. G. Pearse.)

I. IN THE FIRST PLACE, LOOK AT THE SUBLIME ATTITUDE WHICH SAMUEL ASSUMED IN RELATION TO THE CORRUPTION OF THE FAITH. Samuel distinctly charged the house of Israel with having gone astray from the living God. Distinctly, without reservation, without anything that indicated timidity on his part, he laid this terrible indictment against the house of Israel. In doing so he assumed a sublime attitude. He stood before Israel as a representative of the God who had been insulted, dishonoured, abandoned. We find sublimity in the attitude, imperial force in the tone. How did Samuel's influence come to be so profound upon this occasion? The instant answer is, Because his influence is moral. Moral influence goes to the heart of things. He who deals with moral questions deals with the life of the world. Any other influence addresses itself to affairs of the moment; all other influences are superficial and transitory. He who repronounces God's commandments, and tells to the heart of the world God's charges, wields a moral, and therefore a profound influence. Herein is the supreme advantage of the Gospel. The Gospel of Christ lays its saving hand upon the human heart and says, "This is the sphere of my mission. I will affect all things that are superficial and local and temporary; but I shall affect them indirectly. By putting the life right, I shall put the extremities right; by making the heart as it ought to be, the whole surface of nature will become healthful and beautiful." We need men in society who stand apart frees the little fights, petty controversies, and angry contentions which seem to be part and parcel of daily life, and who shall speak great principles, breathe a heavenly influence, and bring to bear upon combatants of all kinds considerations which shall survive all their misunderstandings. Regard Samuel in this light, and you will see the sublimity of his attitude. Herein, again, is the great influence of a moral teacher, a revealer of Christian truth. Whenever we hear a preacher who speaks the right word, we hear God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Ghost; through his voice we hear the testimony of the angels unfallen; out of his words there comes the declaration of all that is bright, pure, true, wise, in the universe of God!

II. NOW LET US LOOK AT THE HOLY ATTITUDE WHICH SAMUEL ASSUMED IN RELATION TO THE GUILT OF ISRAEL. In the first instance he describes the corruptness of the case, points out the right course, exhorts the people to take that course instantly, and then he speaks these healing words: "If ye will do these things, and gather yourselves together to Mizpeh, I will pray unto the Lord for you." That is all we can do for one another — the work of an instrument, the ministry of an agent. "I will pray for you unto the Lord." Then the human needs the Divine. We never find — taking great breadths of history, ages and centuries — that the human has been able to exist alone, and to grow upward and onward in its atheism, What became of the Philistines? Now that Israel is getting its old heart back again, and its eyes are being turned to the heavens, what becomes of the Philistines? The Lord thundered that day upon the Philistines, and discomfited them, and they were smitten before Israel. The Philistines came against a praying army. We must consider not what the praying army did in the first instance, but what God did. Observe when it was that Samuel said he would pray for the house of Israel. The great lesson here turns upon a point of time. When Israel returned unto the Lord with all their heart; when Israel put away the strange Gods and Ashtaroth; when Israel prepared the heart unto the Lord and was ready to serve him Duly; when Israel had done this part, then Samuel said, "I will pray for you unto the Lord." Under other circumstances prayer would have been wasted breath. We find a great law here, which applies to the natural and the spiritual. Is there a plague in the city? Purify your sanitary arrangements, cleanse your drains, disinfect your channels, use everything that is at all likely to conduce to a good end — then pray unto the Lord. After nature has exhausted herself, there may be something for the Lord to do, may there mot? Sometimes worldly people say — "Pray for us." Men have said that to us. What kind of men were they? Sometimes men who have made wrecks of them. selves, who have gone as far devilward as they could get, whose hearts were like a den of unclean beasts, men who had no longer any grip of the world — the whole thing was slipping away from them — they have said to the minister whom they had previously characterised as a canting parson, "Pray for us." But one condition must be forthcoming on their part. There must be self-renunciation, contrition, moral anguish, pain of the soul, repentance towards God. When these conditions are forthcoming, the servant of Christ may say, "I will pray for you unto the Lord."

III. IN THE THIRD PLACE, LOOK AT THE EXALTED ATTITUDE WHICH SAMUEL ASSUMES IN RELATION TO HIS WHOLE LIFETIME. We read in the fifteenth verse of this chapter, "Samuel judged Israel all the days of his life." Think of being able to account for all the days of a whole human history! Think of being able to write your biography in one sentence! Think of being able to do without parentheses, footnotes, reservations, apologies, and self-vindications! When we attempt to write our lives, there is so much to say that is collateral and modifying in its effect — so much which is to explain the central line. So our biographical record becomes anomalous, contradictory, irreconcilable. Here is a man whose lifetime is gathered up in one sentence. "Samuel judged Israel all the days of his life." We have seen him in his childhood, we have had glances of him as he was passing up to his mature age. Today we see him in three impressive and remarkable attitudes. His whole history is in this sentence: He was a judge of God all his days. Think of giving a whole lifetime to God. There are those who cannot do that now. But young men may be able to give twenty, thirty, perhaps fifty years all to Christ. See then the profound influence which may be exerted by one life. We are dealing with Samuel, and with Samuel alone. Samuel's life is not confined to himself; it is a radiating life, streaming out from itself and touching thousands of points in the social and national life of others. Who can tell what may be dons by one man? Speak the truth of God, and eternity itself cannot exhaust the happy effect of that blessed influence!

(J. Parker, D. D.)

I. ONE, TO HAVE POWER OVER MEN, MUST HAVE POWER WITH GOD. Why are the people, though late in their repentance, now so willing to listen to the prophet's words and obey them? Samuel influenced the people, because God influenced him. The secret of his power over men was his power with God. In a preeminent degree, this prophet and judge of Israel was a man to whom unseen realities were brought near. Thus, God fitted Samuel to do a work in Israel in the transition period between the theocracy and monarchy, making him an eminent judge, the first in the regular succession of prophets, the founder of the prophetic schools, the anointer of Israel's first and second king, and the man whom the people — even when debauched by idolatry — reverenced, and whose voice was to them like the voice of God. He was all this, because he held close intercourse with Heaven. The hand that is outstretched to save, must clasp the throne. Ministers are weak in the pulpit whenever they are weak in the closet.

II. THE NECESSITY AND VALUE OF RELIGIOUS ORDINANCES, RIGHTLY USED. It was not enough that Samuel assemble Israel at Mizpeh. Gathered there, the people must be so influenced that the impressions made would be permanent, and they fixed in their new attitude of loyalty to God. Samuel must instruct them in the proper use of religious rites, and show them how God can be so approached as to win His favour. Thus, far back at Mizpeh, were taught the truths of Calvary. God is approached reverently, with confession, with sacrifice, and with supplication. These two ways of approaching God — Samuel's with sacrifice and supplication, and Israel's of bearing aloft the ark with heedless shoutings — teach us lessons respecting the methods by which, now, God is, and is not, appropriately worshipped. Not by magnifying the outward, by giving prominence to the seen and the tangible, while the unseen and spiritual are lightly esteemed. The value of religious ordinances consists not in what man's eye sees or his ear hears, but in what his heart feels, and in what the eye of God perceives within the breast. No wonder that Israel, thus addressing the Throne of Grace, were prevalent over their toes. God heard their cry, and the arm of Omnipotence was their defence. What though the Philistines, or Israel, or the prophet himself, could not answer the question how God at that moment put a voice into the arching heavens, or kindled up the clouds with electric fires? What though, then as well as now, and now as well as then, the philosophy of prayer baffles finite skill? Is it, therefore, any the less true that the prayer of penitence and faith prevails with God? One other element now is needed to make the worship complete — that is, an expression of thanksgiving. It was a fitting sequel, therefore, when Samuel "took a stone and set it between Mizpeh and Shen, and called the name of it Ebenezer," saying, "Hitherto hath the Lord helped us." We learn, therefore, that expressed gratitude to God should find a prominent place in all our worship. Israel not only felt grateful, they gave it utterance; they clothed with form the sentiments their hearts felt.

(Monday Club Sermons.)

II. VICTORY ON THE FIELD OF FORMER DEFEAT. The battle is joined on the old field. Strategic considerations probably determined the choice of the ground, as they did the many battles on the plain of Esdraelon, for instance, or on the fields of the Netherlands. At all events, there they were, face to face once more on the old spot. On both sides might be men who had been in the former engagement. Depressing remembrances or burning eagerness to wipe out the shame would stir, in those on the one side; contemptuous remembrances of the ease with which the last victory had been won would animate the other. God himself helped them by the thunder storm, the solemn roll of which was "the voice of the Lord" answering Samuel's prayer. "They were smitten before," not by, the victors. The true victor was God. The story gives boundless hope of victory, even on the fields of our former defeats. We can master rooted faults of character, and overcome temptations which have often conquered us. So, though the whole field may be strewed with relics, eloquent of former disgrace, we may renew the struggle with confidence that the future will not always copy the past. We are saved by hope; by hope we are made strong. It is the very helmet on our heads. The warfare with our own evils should be waged in the assurance that every field of our defeat shall one day see set up on It the trophy of, not our victory, but God's in us.

III. GRATEFUL COMMEMORATION OF VICTORY. Where that gray stone stands no man knows today, but its name lives forever. This trophy bore no vaunts of leader's skill or soldier's bravery; One name only is associated with it. It is "the stone of help," and its message to succeeding generations is: "Hitherto hath the Lord helped us." That "hitherto" is the word of a mighty faith. It includes as parts of one whole the disaster no less than the victory. The Lord was helping Israel no less by sorrow and oppression than by joy and deliverance. The defeat which guided them back to Him was tender kindness and precious help. Such remembrance has in it a half-uttered prayer and hope for the future. Memory passes into hope, and the radiance in the sky behind throws light on to our forward path. God's "hitherto" carries "henceforward" wrapped up in it. The devout man's "gratitude" is, and ought to be, "a lively sense of favours to come." The best use of memory is to mark more plainly than it could be seen at the moment the Divine help which has filled our lives.

(A. Maclaren, D. D.)

1. In exhorting and directing them with a view to bring them into a right state before God.

2. This being accomplished, in praying for them in their time of trouble, and obtaining Divine help when the Philistines drew near in battle.

1. In the course of time the people appear to have come to feel how sad and desolate their national life was without any tokens of God's presence and grace "All the house of Israel lamented after the Lord." These symptoms of repentance, however, had not shown themselves in a very definite or practical form. Now the putting away of the strange gods and Ashtaroth was a harder condition than we at first should suppose. Some are inclined to fancy that it was a mere senseless and ridiculous obstinacy that drew the Israelites so much to the worship of the idolatrous gods of their neighbours. In reality the temptation wan of a much more subtle kind. Their religious worship as prescribed by Moses had little to attract the natural feelings of the human heart. It was simple, it was severe, it was self-denying. The worship of the pagan nations was more lively and attractive. Fashionable entertainments and free-and-easy revelries were superadded to please the carnal mind. To put away Baalim and Ashtaroth was to abjure what was fashionable and agreeable, and fall back on what was unattractive and sombre. Was it not, too, an illiberal demand? No. If the people were in earnest now, they must show it by putting away every image and every object and ornament that was connected with the worship of other gods. But the people were in earnest; and this first demand of Samuel was complied with. Then the first steps towards revival and communion must be the forsaking of these sins, and of ways of life that prepare the way for them. It is not enough that in church, or at some meeting, or in our closet, we experience a painful conviction how much we have offended God, and a desire not to offend Him in like manner any more. We must "prepare our hearts" for this end. We must remember that in the world with which we mingle we are exposed to many influences that remove God from our thoughts, that stimulate our infirmities, that give force to temptation, that lessen our power of resistance, that tend to draw us back into our old sine. Having found the people so far obedient to his requirements, Samuel's next step was to call an assembly of all Israel to Mizpeh. It is important to mark the stress which is laid here on the public assembly of the people. When Samuel convened the people to a public assembly, he evidently did it on the principle on which in the New Testament we are required not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together. It is in order that the presence of people like-minded, and with the same earnest feelings and purposes, may have a rousing and warming influence upon us. The next scene in the panorama of the text is — the Philistines invading Israel. Here Samuel's service is that of an intercessor, praying for his people, and obtaining God's blessing. The Israelites knew where their help was to be found, and recognising Samuel as their mediator, they said to him, "Cease not to cry unto the Lord our God for us, that He will save us out of the hand of the Philistines." With this request Samuel most readily complies. But first he offers a sucking lamb as a whole burnt offering to the Lord, and only after this are we told that "Samuel cried unto the Lord, and the Lord heard him." The lesson is supremely important. When sinners approach God to entreat His favour, it must be by the new and living way, sprinkled with atoning blood. All other ways of access will fail. Luther humbles himself in the dust and implores God's favour, and struggles with might and main to reform his heart; but Luther cannot find peace until he sees how it is in the righteousness of another he is to draw nigh and find the blessing — in the righteousness of the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world.

(W. G. Blaikie, D. D.)

1. Those people must admit the necessity of a new departure in their conduct and life immediately; they must "return unto the Lord with all their hearts."

2. They must put away every sign and vestige of a bad past; "strange gods" would have to be entirely relinquished.

3. They must instantly enter upon a fresh spiritual consecration: they would have to "prepare their hearts unto the Lord and serve Him only."

4. Then they must trust wholly, to the ancient promises God had made to their fathers and to them; for He had covenanted to "deliver them out of the hands of" their foes.

II. THEN FOLLOWED AN EXEMPLARY RESPONSE FROM THE NATION: "Then the children of Israel did put away Baalim and Ashtaroth, and served the Lord only." This sudden and thorough cleansing of themselves from forms of idolatry reminds us of what in Britain used to be called "a reformation of manners."

III. NEXT THEIR LEADER SUMMONED A GREAT ASSEMBLAGE FOR A RELIGIOUS SERVICE OF PRAYER.

IV. NOW COMES WHAT MIGHT BE CALLED A PROTRACTED MEETING. There is always a point at which human mediation in behalf of sinners must cease; then the sinners must take up the duty of supplication for themselves, or be lost. This was true of even such a prophet. priest as Samuel (Jeremiah 15:1): "Then said the Lord unto me, Though Moses and Samuel stood before me, yet my mind could not be towards this people: cast them out of my sight and let them go forth." In this case the people were intelligent enough to undertake at least these four duties which are mentioned.

1. They came to a direct posture of humiliation; they "fasted on that day."

2. Then these people made confessions of sin: they "said there, We have sinned against the Lord."

3. Next, these repenting people soberly renewed their covenant: "They drew water, and poured it out before the Lord." One of the Targums renders the clause thus: "And they poured out their hearts in penitence as waters before the Lord." Gill says: "This signified that they thoroughly renounced idolatry, that nothing of it should remain, as when water is poured out of a cask there remains no smell, as there does when other liquors are poured out."

4. They put themselves into condition for fresh activity in devotion. The best explanation of that statement, "Samuel judged the children of Israel in Mizpeh," seems to be that he reorganised the people afresh, for military service and for civil order and for religious worship.

V. THUS THERE CAME THE DESCENT OF BLESSING IN FULFILMENT OF THE LORD'S COVENANT.

1. Real consecration of Christians generally evokes new opposition from foes.

2. Importunate prayer is the condition of all success.

3. The full consecration of one's soul must recognise the sacrifice for sins. This lamb was the suggestion of atonement made by a Redeemer.

4. God is faithful to the instant in His interposition.

VI. THERE REMAINED NOW NOTHING MORE THAN TO ERECT A MEMORIAL OF THE TRANSACTION.

1. All glory and honour of the achievement should be distinctly ascribed to God: "The Lord hath helped us."

2. We should make our acknowledgment as permanent as possible. Samuel chose stone; so did Jacob (Genesis 28:18).

3. We should take pains to group our memorials so that one shall strengthen the other. Samuel set up his pillar between Mizpeh, where this deliverance was vouchsafed, and Shen, where another had been vouchsafed in the victory gained over the Philistines twenty years before. Thus he linked the histories together, like pearls in a necklace.

4. Each successive deliverance by a gracious God should deepen our trust and quicken our expectation.The careful investigation of such an incident as this has given us certain conclusions which might well be stated at the close of our study now.

1. A revival of religion is located in the church, and assumes a previous state of sad and guilty backsliding.

2. The conversion of sinners is not a revival; it is the gracious result that follows one which is genuine.

3. Any "measures" are allowable, provided they are decent and orderly, that will lead believers to penitence and duty.

4. Blessed is the congregation whose spirituality is lifted and whose life is saved by a day of God's visitation.

5. More blessed still is that church which never had a revival in all its history, and never needed one.

(C. S. Robinson, D. D.)

(H. C. Trumbull.)

(J. Spencer.)

1. It means that they were greatly oppressed. Their goods ware taken from them. They were beaten. They saw their children slain. They were the slaves of the Philistines.

2. I think that, by the house of Israel lamenting after the Lord, is meant, next, that they began to be inwardly convinced that nobody could help them but the Lord.

3. It seems to me that, while they desired Him, they were afraid that He would not deliver them. They prayed after a fashion, but there was a dash of doubt about it.

4. Moreover, these people had very little hope, but they had very much desire.

5. If you read the third verse, you will see that, all this while, they had not parted with their idols. They lamented after the Lord, but they did not get the Lord, because they wanted to have the Lord and to have their idols, too. John Bunyan tells us that, when he was playing at the game of "cat" one Sunday, on Elstow Green, as he was going to strike the cat with his stick, he thought he heard a voice crying, "Wilt thou keep thy sins, and go to hell; or wilt thou give up thy sins, and go to heaven?" That question, without an angel's voice, you may hear at this moment. I put it now to some of you who would like to keep your sins, and yet go to heaven. You lament after the Lord. You would be a saint; but then you want to be a sinner, too. It is useless lamenting after the Lord, if it does not lead you to give up your idols.

6. It meant that they could never rest till God returned. Some of you have tried many ways to get rest. Some years ago you got harpooned at a meeting; and though, like a big whale, you have dragged out miles of line, and gone to the bottom of the sea of sin, the harpoon sticks in you still. I know what you have been doing to get rest. You have tried the world, and now there is nothing there that pleases you. I wonder what you will try next. Will you try dissipation? Will you try drunkenness? Will you try the use of drugs? Well; if God means to save you, you will never rest till you are anchored in the port of Christ's atoning sacrifice. I sometimes hear of persons getting very angry after a gospel sermon, and I say to myself, "I am not sorry for it." Sometimes when we are fishing, the fish gets the hook into his mouth. He pulls hard at the line: if he were dead, he would not; but he is a live fish, worth the getting; and though he runs away for a while, with the hook in his jaws, he cannot escape. His very wriggling and his anger show that he has got the hook, and the hook has got him. Have the landing net ready; we shall land him by-and-by. Give him more line; let him spend his strength, and then we will land him, and he shall belong to Christ forever.

II. THESE PEOPLE WERE CALLED UPON TO TAKE THREE VERY DECIDED STEPS.

1. The first thing that they were to do was to "put away the strange gods." Every man seems to have a different idol. One has pride: he is so wonderfully good, so self-righteous; he has never done anything wrong. He is quite as good as a Christian, and rather' better. Another man's god is his self-confidence. Hear him talk. He understands everything; he does not need to be taught anything; and if there is anything in the Bible that he does not understand, why; then he does not believe it.

2. Now, notice the next step of decision: "Put away the strange gods, and prepare your hearts unto the Lord." The mere outward reformation was not enough. They might have torn down every idol in the land, and have been no nearer God for that. See, in France today, how the people who have for so long bent the knee in superstition and idolatry, have, many of them, flung away their vain worship, only to sink into infidelity. What better are they, when they exalt the "Goddess of Reason" where before stood the altars of the Papacy, when the heart is untouched, and God is not in all their thoughts? Still, there are many in that land, as I trust, there are many here, who are lamenting after God, and only await the preparation of the heart, which comes from Him, to how in allegiance before His throne. What, then, is the way to prepare the heart? The first thing is, confession of sin. Then resolve in your soul that you will quit these sins. Then there must be much prayer; for so it was with these people. Cry mightily unto God: "Lord, save me!" Remember, too, that there must be trust, or else the heart is not rightly prepared. Then, break away from the world.

3. That is the next step, the service of God: "Serve him only," said Samuel. "Then the children of Israel did put away Baalim and Ashtaroth, and served the Lord only."

III. THEY WERE HELPED TO DO ALL THIS BY HAVING FAITH. It was faith in Samuel, as we have already noticed. You can be much more helped, yea, graciously enabled, if you have faith in Christ.

1. They believed Samuel's word.

2. These people believed chiefly in Samuel's prayers.

3. The people had faith in Samuel's sacrifice.

4. Israel also accepted Samuel's rule.The Lord help you to believe in God incarnate, in God making sacrifice for sin, in Jesus dead, buried, risen, ascended, sitting at the right hand of God, and soon to come in glory! Let him enter your life, and dwelling in your heart, judge your every action, and rule over your entire life.

( C. H. Spurgeon.)

1. Samuel preached repentance. This has ever been the subject of earnest exhortation in times of attempted revival. It rang through Germany by Luther's lips of music, and echoed among the Alpine valleys from Zuingle's patriotic soul. It was the subject of Latimer's blunt home thrusts at the practical heart of England, and it thundered throughout Scotland from the stern and fearless Knox. The doctrine of repentance is the appendix to every republication of the Ten Commandments, and the preface to every offer of the Gospel. So, when Samuel taught, this was his awakening theme. The law of God was his great argument, and the acquiescing consciences of the people his responses to the truth; therefore, with authority and with boldness did he convince of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. The people began to awake. A deep impression fell upon them all from Dan to Beersheba. They saw their sin in the light of God's law. Twenty years of unpardoned sin was a heart-breaking retrospect. And therefore did they lament. It was well to be awakened from the long spiritual sleep. It was well to be sorry for their sin.

2. Samuel sought fruits meet for repentance. The people were anxious, for sin oppressed their souls; but Samuel did not rest satisfied with the expressed emotion. He demanded instant proof of professed sincerity. To give up evil ways is one of the earliest signs of a penitent soul. It is indispensable to separate from whatever contaminates the soul. To put away idolatry was, therefore, the first requirement which Samuel made of the awakened people. At the time of the Protestant Reformation, when the people were awakened, they cleared the churches and also their houses of all images used for worship. When Christianity was successfully introduced among the South Sea Islanders, She burning of the idols was the proof of their sincere awakening.

3. Samuel urged a believing return to the Lord. Repentance does not constitute reformation. It is only the outer court. By faith we enter into the holy place. Faith lays hold of a covenant God, of His pardoning mercy and justifying righteousness. Faith is the reunion of the soul to the Lord. The heart must have an object. No person is without a god, to whom all his efforts are devoted, and on whom his affections are placed. It may be the world, or the creature, or self, or some superstition, or else the true God. The tendency of the heart is to the false and the worldly. But the awakened conscience finds no satisfaction in anything less than God. When the work of reformation was being wrought among the people Samuel felt anxious that all the nation should realise the benefit. He therefore summoned all Israel together. "They drew water and poured it out before the Lord." This was not a Divine institution; but it was a practice frequently observed to give confirmation to solemn pledges. It perhaps implied that as "water is spilled upon the ground and cannot be gathered up again," so their vow was never to be recalled, but to be preserved in all its obligation and obedience. It is like that testimony which Scotland, as a nation, once gave to the Covenant in a time of spiritual revival. "At request of their devoted leaders in the Reformation, the people crowded to Edinburgh from all parts of the country, and assembled in the Greyfriars' Churchyard to the number of sixty thousand! Alexander Henderson stood forth in their midst, and, in a prayer of wondrous power and pathos, confessed the nation's sins, and their desire to return to the Lord and to the purity of worship commanded in His word. It was then proposed to join themselves in a covenant engagement to maintain the Lord's cause. The deed was read and explained." Those that had doubts were conferred with ere the deed was subscribed. "Again," says the historian, "a deep and solemn pause ensued; not the pause of irresolution, but of modest diffidence, each thinking every other more worthy than himself to place the first name upon this sacred bond. An aged nobleman, the venerable Earl of Sutherland, at length stepped slowly and reverentially forward, and with throbbing heart and trembling hand subscribed Scotland's covenant with God. All hesitation in a moment disappeared. Name followed name in swift succession, till all within the church had given their signatures. It was then removed into the churchyard and spread out on a level gravestone to obtain the subscription of the assembled multitude. As the space became filled they wrote their names in a contracted form, limiting them at last to the initial letters, till not a spot remained on which another letter could be inscribed. There was another pause. The nation had framed a covenant in former days and had violated its engagements, hence the calamities in which it had been and was involved. If they too should break this sacred bond how deep would be their guilt! Such seem to have been their thoughts during this period of silent communing with their own hearts; for, as moved by one spirit, they lifted up their right hands to heaven, avowing by this solemn appeal that they had now joined themselves to the Lord by an everlasting covenant that shall not be forgotten. In Israel, Samuel stood forth and led the services of worship. Nor could that day be soon forgotten by the people. It witnessed the renewal of their covenant with the Lord. It recorded their marvellous mercy, when the crimson stains of twenty years were forever wiped out by God. It celebrated the recovery of a nation's backsliding, when sins which as a thick cloud had darkened their moral firmament were blotted out;. Backslider, Mizpeh speaks to thee! That spectacle of a nation's penitence, and the healing of a long backsliding, tells thee that there is mercy with God, and illustrates His words of love, "Return unto me, ye backsliding children; I will heal your backslidings." Unconverted sinner, Mizpeh speaks to thee! That scene of repentance after twenty years of sins, reveals many who then first found the Lord. Backsliders were restored, the impenitent might be saved.

(R. Steel.)

(W. L. Watkinson.)

     5794   asceticism
     6735   repentance, examples
     7442   shrine
     7773   prophets, role
     8432   fasting, practice

1 Samuel 7:3-9

     7734   leaders, spiritual

1 Samuel 7:3-13

     6634   deliverance

1 Samuel 7:5-6

     5213   assembly

1 Samuel 7:5-9

     8611   prayer, for others

Three Decisive Steps
"And it came to pass, while the ark abode in Kirjath-jearim, that the time was long; for it was twenty years: and all the house of Israel lamented after the Lord. And Samuel spake unto all the house of Israel, saying, If ye do return unto the Lord with all your hearts, then put away the strange gods and Ashtaroth from among you, and prepare your hearts unto the Lord, and serve him only: and he will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines. Then the children of Israel did put away Baalim and …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 37: 1891

Ebenezer!
I beg you, therefore, dear friends, for a little time this morning, to fix your thoughts upon your God in connection with yourselves; and, while we think of Samuel piling the stones and saying, "Hitherto hath the Lord helped us," let us lay the emphasis upon the last word and say, "Hitherto hath the Lord helped US," and if you can put it in the singular, and say, "Hitherto hath the Lord helped ME," so much the better. Again, it is a very delightful exercise to remember the various ways in which the …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 9: 1863

Ebenezer 1Sam 7:12
…
John Newton—Olney Hymns

Faithlessness and Defeat
'And the word of Samuel came to all Israel. Now Israel went out against the Philistines to battle, and pitched beside Eben-ezer: and the Philistines pitched in Aphek. 2. And the Philistines put themselves in array against Israel: and when they joined battle, Israel was smitten before the Philistines: and they slew of the army in the field about four thousand men. 3. And when the people were come into the camp, the elders of Israel said, Wherefore hath the Lord smitten us today before the Philistines? …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

Of the Public Fast.
A public fast is when, by the authority of the magistrate (Jonah iii. 7; 2 Chron. xx. 3; Ezra viii. 21), either the whole church within his dominion, or some special congregation, whom it concerneth, assemble themselves together, to perform the fore-mentioned duties of humiliation; either for the removing of some public calamity threatened or already inflicted upon them, as the sword, invasion, famine, pestilence, or other fearful sickness (1 Sam. vii. 5, 6; Joel ii. 15; 2 Chron. xx.; Jonah iii. …
Lewis Bayly—The Practice of Piety

Emmaus. Kiriath-Jearim.
"From Beth-horon to Emmaus it was hilly."--It was sixty furlongs distant from Jerusalem.--"To eight hundred only, dismissed the army, (Vespasian) gave a place, called Ammaus, for them to inhabit: it is sixty furlongs distant from Jerusalem." I inquire, whether this word hath the same etymology with Emmaus near Tiberias, which, from the 'warm baths,' was called Chammath. The Jews certainly do write this otherwise... "The family (say they) of Beth-Pegarim, and Beth Zipperia was out of Emmaus."--The …
John Lightfoot—From the Talmud and Hebraica

Samuel
Alike from the literary and the historical point of view, the book[1] of Samuel stands midway between the book of Judges and the book of Kings. As we have already seen, the Deuteronomic book of Judges in all probability ran into Samuel and ended in ch. xii.; while the story of David, begun in Samuel, embraces the first two chapters of the first book of Kings. The book of Samuel is not very happily named, as much of it is devoted to Saul and the greater part to David; yet it is not altogether inappropriate, …
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament