1 Samuel 3:1-10 And the child Samuel ministered to the LORD before Eli. And the word of the LORD was precious in those days; there was no open vision.… This white flower blossomed on a dunghill. The continuous growth of a character, from a child serving God, and to old age walking in the same path, is the great lesson which the story of Samuel teaches us. "The child is father of the man," and all his long days are "bound each to each by" true religion. There are two types of experience among God's greatest servants. Paul, made an apostle from a persecutor, heads the one class. Timothy in the New Testament and Samuel in the Old represent the other. An Augustine or a Bunyan is made the more earnest, humble, and whole-hearted by the remembrance of a wasted youth and of God's arresting mercy. But there are a serenity and continuity about a life which has grown up in the fear of God that have their own charm and blessing. It is well to have "much transgression" forgiven, but it may be better to have always been "innocent" and ignorant of it. Samuel's peaceful service is contrasted, in the second half of the first verse, with the sad cessation of Divine revelation in that dreary time of national laxity. A demoralised priesthood, an alienated people, a silent God, — these are the outstanding features of the period, when this fair life of continuous worship unfolded itself. This flower grew in a desert. Parallel Verses KJV: 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. |
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