been at least as frequently called upon, before this period, to the consideration of his duty.

1. The character and conduct of Elkanah and Hannah were in themselves calculated to do so. The interview which he had with the mother of Samuel before he was born, proves that Eli was far from being insensible to the evil of sin in others; while the entire surrender and dedication of such a Child unto God, by both Parents, and their leaving him, at such an early age, "to minister unto the Lord before Eli," was a standing reproof to him, who did not scrutinize the conduct of his own sons, now fit in point of age, and under obligation in point of office, to devote themselves entirely to the sanctuary. I do not say, that he was altogether unmoved; for Hannah's present of Samuel seems to have made some impression. If Eli worshipped the Lord there," after such a gift, it was well, but, alas! he is roused neither to a sense of his own danger nor his guilt.

2. Did he not hear the awakening language of Hannah herself, under divine influence, when she said

"He will keep the feet of his saints,

But the wicked shall be silent in darkness;
For by strength shall no man prevail.
The adversaries of the Lord shall be crushed,
Out of heaven shall He thunder upon them.
The Lord shall judge the ends of the earth;
He shall give strength unto his KING,
And exalt the horn of his MESSIAH? *

3. A third, and far more solemn, premonition, however, awaited Eli, at the advanced age of eighty-eight, when a

*By the way, the reader may here observe Hannah describing the promised Saviour of the world, as a King, before there was any king in Israel; and first applying to him the remarkable epithet Messiah, in Hebrew; Christ, in Greek; and Anointed, in English; which was adopted by David and Nathan, Isaiah and Daniel, and the succeeding prophets of the Old Testament, as well as the apostles and inspired writers of the New.-Hales, ii. 332.

prophet of God came to him, and charged him as an accomplice in the crimes of his children, saying, “Thus saith the Lord,

"Did I plainly appear unto the house of thy Father,

When they were in Egypt, in Pharaoh's house?

And did I choose him out of all the tribes of Israel to be my Priest? To offer upon mine altar, to burn incense, to wear an ephod before me? And did I give to the house of thy Father,

All the offerings made by fire of the Children of Israel?

Wherefore kick ye at my sacrifice, and at mine offering,
Which I have commanded in my habitation?

And honorest thy Sons above me, to make yourselves fat
With the chiefest of all the offerings of Israel my people?
Wherefore the Lord, the God of Israel saith,

I said indeed that thy house, and the house of thy Father,
Should walk before me for ever:

But now the Lord saith, Be it far from me;

For them that honor me, I will honor,

And they that despise me, shall be lightly esteemed.
Behold the days come, that I will cut off thine arm,
And the arm of thy Father's house;

And there shall not be an old man in thine house :
And thou shalt see the affliction of the tabernacle,

Instead of all the wealth which God would have given Israel : *
And there shall not be an old man in thine house for ever.
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. And this shall be a sign unto thee,

That shall come upon thy Sons,

On Hophni and Phineas,

In one day they shall die, both of them!

And I will raise me up a faithful Priest,

That shall do according to all that is in mine heart and in my
And I will build him a sure house;

mind.

And he shall walk before mine anointed for ever.

And it shall come to pass, that every one that is left in thine house
Shall come and crouch to him for a piece of silver, and a morsel of bread,
And shall say, Put me into somewhat about the priesthood,
That I may eat a piece of bread !"

*This appears to be the true translation; and accordingly Eli did see the tabernacle deprived of the ark, which was its glory, and lived to hear that it was captured by the Philistines.

After such an awful, such an heart-rending premonition as this, surely some effect will follow. Eli must be roused. But, no! if he even said any thing, it was not deemed to be worth recording: that he did nothing seems but too evident, from the fact, that seven or eight years passed away before another messenger was sent to him. At last, then, since Eli has trifled so long with parental obligations, and since he will not positively "restrain" these children, even this child Samuel has been reared up before his eyes to rebuke him. God had spoken twice, nay thrice, yet he had not perceived. Now he shall be awaked from his slumbers three times in one night, and then left in awful suspense until the morning, as to what awaited him. A man of God had been sent to him years before, and now, after ample time and space for repentance, there is sent to him literally a child. Conscious, it seems, of his constitutional failing, and of the sad torpor of his mind, at last he is anxiously alive and in earnest. "And Samuel lay until the morning, and opened the doors of the house of the Lord. And Samuel feared to show Eli the vision. Then Eli called Samuel, and said, Samuel, my son. And he answered, Here am I. And he said, What is the thing that the Lord hath said unto thee? I pray thee hide it not from me: God do so to thee and more also, if thou hide any thing from me, of all the things that he said unto thee." Who will not admire the delicate sensibility of this child, in not saying a word till he is sent for; and his fidelity, in not concealing one word when he is questioned ! For "Samuel told him every whit, and hid nothing from him." But what did he say? More awful language he could not employ than that which Eli had already heard. No, certainly; but to Eli's ear it must have been more awful, from its being at once the dreadful reverberation of a neglected warning, and an

explicit testimony to the sufficiency of that warning. "And the Lord said to Samuel, Behold, I will do a thing in Israel, at which both the ears of every one that heareth it shall tingle."

"In that day I will perform against Eli,

All which I have spoken concerning his house.

When I begin, I will also make an end.

For I have told him, that I will judge his house for ever
For the iniquity which he knoweth,

Because his sons made themselves vile,

And he restrained them not.

And therefore I have sworn unto the house of Eli,

That the iniquity of Eli's house

Shall not be purged with sacrifice nor offering for ever."

Yet, roused as Eli was at last to his criminal negligence, what did it avail? It is true, that nine or ten years are yet to elapse before he and his Sons die in one day; but there is a certain bound to imprudence and misbehavior, which being transgressed, there remains no possibility of redressing the grievance. To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heavens. "It is further very much to be remarked, that neglects from inconsiderateness,-want of attention,-not looking about us to see what we have to do, are often attended with consequences altogether as dreadful as any active misbehavior from the most extravagant passion."*

For nineteen years had Eli held the office of priesthood before Samuel was born: after this, a prophet had been sent to warn him in such terms, that one is astonished at his torpitude; for still he delays till Samuel is grown up, even to his twelfth year, before he is convinced and laid low for his remiss conduct! It now therefore only remains for the reader to mark the inevitable and awful results of Parental remissness.

* Butler.

Third, The ruin which ensued from the negligence and torpor of even a religious Parent.

As in many, if not in most cases, it does not comport with infinite wisdom and divine forbearance, that the punishment of neglect should follow immediately so now we are to see, that "the delay of punishment is no sort or degree of presumption of final impunity." Long indeed had the Almighty been of beginning, but now he tells Eli, and by the lips of a child, "When I begin I will also make an end." After such delay, too, it is observable, that vengeance comes not by degrees, but suddenly, with violence and at once. In one day, Hophni and Phineas are slain, and thirty thousand men with them; the ark of God itself is taken, and at this intelligence, before the sun is set, at the age of ninety-eight, Eli also expires! Even his daughter-in-law, the wife of Phineas, apparently a good woman, can live no longer. On the same day she also dies, leaving an orphan behind her, to look back on this as the day on which he was born! With her dying breath, too, she named him Ichabod, or where is the glory? for she said, "the glory is departed from Israel."

Long, however, had Jehovah borne with Eli, and long will he continue to testify to his guilt and sin. Many, many years pass away, when "in one day" again, besides Abimelech, the great-grandson of Eli, not less than eighty-four priests of his house are slain, with their entire families! Neither man, or woman, child or suckling, is spared by the cruel hand of Doeg the Edomite. “The sins of pious individuals among Eli's posterity would be pardoned through the sacrifice of Christ for their eternal salvation; but the Lord had determined that no number of sin-offerings or oblations should prevail with him to continue that family in the priesthood."* On this account, we find that even this slaughter was not the final

* Scott.