SERMONS. I. THE CHARACTER OF 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."1 SAMUEL iii. 1. It is impossible to read this chapter without perceiving that it draws a marked contrast between the two persons of whom it speaks, - Eli and Samuel. 1. They are contrasted in point of years: for the one is a boy, the other a gray-headed old man; and if it were for only this, the chapter would be one of deep interest. For it is interesting always to see a friendship between the old and the young. It is striking to see the aged one retaining so much of freshness and simplicity as not to repel the sympathies of boyhood. It is surprising to see the younger one so advanced and thoughtful, as not to find dull the society of one who has outlived excitability and passion. This is the picture presented in this chapter. A pair of friends, childhood and old age standing to each other in the relationship, not of teacher and pupil, but of friend and friend. 2. They are contrasted again in point of office. Both are judges of Israel. But Eli is a judge rendering up his trust, and closing his public career. Samuel is a judge entering upon his office: and the outgoing ruler Eli is placed under very novel and painful circumstances in reference to his successor. He receives God's sentence of doom from the lips of the child he has taught and the friend he has loved. The venerable jo forty years is sentenced by the judge elect. of 3. Still more striking is the contrast in point of character. A difference of character we expect when ages are so different. But here the difference of inferiority is on the wrong side. It is the young who is counselling, supporting, admonishing the old. It is not the ivy clinging for its own sake to the immovable wall, to be held up; but it is the badly built, mouldering wall held together by the ivy, and only by the ivy kept from falling piecemeal into ruin. 4. Once more, we have here the contrast between a judge by office and a judge by Divine call. In the first days of the judges of Israel we find them raised up separately by God, one by one, one for each emergency. So that if war threatened the coasts of Israel, no man knew whence the help would come, or who would be Israel's deliverer. It always did come: there was always one qualified by God, found ready for the day of need, equal to the need; one whose fitness to be a leader no one had before suspected. But when he did appear, he proved himself to be Israel's acknowledged greatest,greatest by the qualities he displayed, qualities given unto him by God. Therefore men rightly said he was a judge raised up by God. But it seems that in later days judges were appointed by hereditary succession. When danger was always near, men became afraid of trusting to God to raise up a defender for them, and making no preparations for danger of invasion; therefore, in the absence of any special qualification marking out the man, the judge's son became judge at his father's death; or the office devolved on the high-priest. This was Eli's qualification, it would seem. Eli was high-priest, and therefore he was judge. He appears not to have had a single ruling quality. He was only a judge because he was born to the dignity. There is an earthly wisdom in such an arrangement, -nay, such an arrangement is indispensable. It is wise after an earthly sort to have an appointed succes |