"If

thought of what may be his treatment of you! the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and sinners appear?" Or as a greater than Eli reasoned, when, bearing the cross up the hill of Calvary, he pointed to his own sufferings for sin as a pledge and presage of judgment against sinners;-"If these things be done in the green tree, what shall be done in the dry?"

4. And, finally, let all lay to heart the irrevocable decree and determination of God, that sin shall not pass unpunished; let them look and see the end of the wicked, while they stand in awe at the chastisement of the just. Whatever excuse the wicked may frame out of the weakness of those who should have restrained them; and whatever promise the just may plead as warranting assurance and good hope through grace; the law of the divine procedure is fixed, as announced to Eli and his sons "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 honour me I will honour, and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed" (1 Sam. ii. 30).

XVIII.

ELI-A GODLY MAN TREMBLING FOR THE ARK OF

GOD.

"His heart trembled for the ark of God."-1 SAM. iv. 13.

PART SECOND.

In the circumstances, as we have seen, Eli's heart might well tremble, and could not but tremble, for the ark of God. That sacred symbol was put in peril; nor was there any thing, either in the composition of the army or in the character of the fight, to allay the apprehension that might be awakened. On the contrary, whether he considered into what hands the ark had fallen, when it was carried into the camp under the charge of his unhappy sons,-or pondered on the circumstances that led to its being sent for, and the use to which it was to be applied, the old man had too good reasons for apprehension and alarm.

The same reasons, alas! might cause the heart of many an Eli now to tremble for the ark of God;whether the holy veteran looked to the sort of company which has assumed, or accepted, the guardianship of that sacred symbol; or to the exigencies which

demand, and the motives which prompt, the risking or committing of what is God's, on the uncertain field of human controversy and strife. Our subject may thus branch out into two topics:-I. The heart trembling for the ark of God on account of the hands that bear or defend it; and, II., The same anxiety caused by the occasions and circumstances which serve to bring it forward in battle, and to peril it on the issue. The first of these topics will chiefly occupy our attention; the second being but briefly noticed.

I. The mixed and motley character—the very miscellaneous composition-of the army in whose hands the ark of God seems to be placed, may well cause the heart of an Eli to tremble. Let any thoughtful man cast his eye along the ranks-alas! how broken and disordered of the host that should be fighting the Lord's battle; and can his heart fail to tremble?

In the first place, there are those whose mere bodily presence is all that can be reckoned on-the lukewarm and indifferent-the treacherous and false-the men who have joined the standard on compulsion; or in the crowd; or to serve a purpose; disguised spies and traitors in the enemy's interests; or soldiers of fortune, fighting every one for himself. "Unto the wicked God saith, What hast thou to do to declare my statutes, or that thou shouldest take my covenant in thy mouth?" "Thy people," says Jehovah to our Lord, the Captain of our salvation, the Conqueror out of Zion, the Ruler in the midst of his enemies-"thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power." They shall be all volunteers-no pressed men among

them they shall be all in earnest. That indeed will be the day of his power, when his people are thus willing; the day of his power in a double sense ;-the day when, in the first place, he makes them all willing, with the rod of discipline and doctrine wielded by his own Spirit; thinning perhaps the columns, yet by that very process inspiring new courage, and giving new compactness to those that remain; and when, secondly, he uses that band of brothers for mightier conquests and triumphs than have ever yet been dreamed of. Gideon's proclamation—“ Whosoever is fearful and afraid, let him return and depart,' ay, and besides this appeal to conscience, some Gideonlike test, some trial appointed by the Lord himself, whether it be the lapping of water or the baptism of fire, must go before that "breaking of the yoke of Zion's burden-the staff of his shoulder and the rod of his oppressor"-which is to be as another day of Midian; "for every battle of the warrior is with confused noise, and garments rolled in blood, but this shall be with burning and fuel of fire.”*

*

Judg. vii.; Isa. ix. 4, 5, where this comparison occurs between the victory of Christ and that of Gideon, in immediate connection, on the one hand, with that brief picture of restored peace after successful war, which goes before: "Thou hast multiplied the nation, and increased to him the joy (marginal reading—or, whose joy thou hadst not increased): they joy before thee according to the joy in harvest, and as men rejoice when they divide the spoil;" and, on the other hand, with that glorious doxology or song of praise, that follows (ver. 6, 7): "Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder; and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The Mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this."

It is no strife this for mere hireling mercenaries; or for reluctant recruits, enlisted in a fit of temporary excitement, and almost unawares, and now kept in the camp only because they are ashamed, or are not allowed, to draw back; or for officious allies, encumbering the real force with their intrusive self-sufficiency. The Lord needs no such aid for any purpose of his his own zeal will perform it; and it will be a zeal whose cleansing and sifting power his own troops may have to experience in the first instance, before he pours out its fury on his foes. They are not all accessions that the Church receives, as its numbers are filled up from among the people of the land. The "mixed multitude" who go up with the children of Israel out of Egypt, "fall a lusting" themselves, and spread discontent and weeping throughout all the tribes; and when the sacred deposit is in the custody of such hands, the godly man may indeed tremble for the ark of God. These are they who, if they are not conscious and wilful hypocrites, making a gain of godliness, yet almost seem to think that they compliment God by giving in their adherence to his cause, and consenting to take charge of his ark; and make no scruple about bearing it ostentatiously before them into the very heart of the enemy's country, and the thickest throng of the ungodly; having no fear but that they will be able to bear it in safety through, or to retrieve and repair any temporary damage it may sustain.

Oh! how does our heart tremble for the ark of the Lord, when we see so many lightly taking upon them the Christian name, and making the Christian profession with little of any thing like an adequate and serious sense of what so solemn a pledge implies.