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THE

CHRISTIAN WITNESS,

AND

CONGREGATIONAL MAGAZINE.

DECEMBER, 1865.

MEMORIAL STONES OF SCRIPTURE.

BY THE REV. ALEX. THOMSON, M.A.

V.-Ebenezer." The Stone of Help." I Sam. vii. 2.

THE Prophet Samuel is one of the finest and greatest characters in sacred history. The circumstances of his birth and the well-known scenes of his childhood, throw around him in early life a peculiar attractiveness, which is fully justified by his subsequent career. The graces which adorned him as a saint were fully equalled by the public virtues which dignified him as a ruler. His integrity in the administration of justice, his fearlessness in the repression of wrong, and his courageous zeal in maintaining the liberties of the nation, while recalling them to their allegiance to their Heavenly King, were in beautiful keeping with the sanctity of his life and the fervour of his devotion. So great and permanent was the influence which he exerted on the moral and religious condition of the Israelites, that his ministry, as the last of the judges, forms an epoch in their history to which we trace the more complete establishment of their peculiar institutions. If Moses must be venerated as, under God, the founder of these, Samuel should be honoured as the restorer of them, after they had fallen by long neglect into desuetude and decay. And such was the Divine wisdom given to him that he not only succeeded, by his personal labours, in imparting new life and vigour to the frame of the Theocracy, but in "the schools of the prophets," which he originated, he opened a fountain of renovating and conservative power which sent forth its healing streams to the latest age of the sacred commonwealth. Men were trained in those schools to be instructors of the people in spiritual religion and morality, and to act as guardians of the Divine polity-watchmen to the house of Israel-who recalled

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kings and priests and people alike to a sense of their duties and a knowledge of their dangers.

The time when Samuel first comes prominently into notice was a season of national depression and gloom. The people had long been mourning under the tokens of God's just displeasure. Their unfaithfulness was suffering the punishment of a lengthened subjugation to the Philistine power. Not only had their cities been taken from them by the invader, but-what was far worse than captured towns and pillaged fields-their Sanctuary was forsaken and desolate. No songs were heard around the Tabernacle in Shiloh, no smoke of incense ascended there, no sacrifices could be presented on the altar; for the Ark-the symbol of the Divine presence, the centre of all the observances of public worship-was absent. It had returned, indeed, from its captivity in the coasts of the Philistines, who had been only too glad to be rid of the presence of so calamitous a trophy; but it still remained in a kind of self-chosen retirement in Kirjath-jearim, withdrawn from acknowledged connection with the people. This privation produced its intended effect, bringing them to a sense of the loss they suffered through their departure from the Lord. "The time was long, for it was twenty years; and all the House of Israel lamented after the Lord." This is the sorrow which God loves to see, a lamentation which He is sure to regard. "Blessed are they who thus mourn, for they shall be comforted."

His servant Samuel is sent to them with a message, containing a command and a promise. "If ye do return unto the Lord with all your hearts, then put away the strange gods and Ashtaroth, and prepare your hearts unto the Lord, and serve Him only; and He will deliver you out of the hands of the Philistines." It was a rousing and a cheering summons, assuring them that if they brought forth fruits meet for repentance, the light of God's countenance would visit them again. It wrought successfully: they "did put away Baalim and Ashtaroth, and served the Lord only." Samuel saw that the time was come, and he now convoked a great national assembly-not to deliberate on schemes of political reform, nor to concert patriotic resistance, but to lay their case before their Divine Sovereign, and make their appeal to Him. It was a great and solemn meeting, and a day much to be remembered of humiliation, fasting, and prayer. The place where they assembled deserves our notice. They were gathered together to Mizpeh, which was the rendezvous of the tribes on several important occasions. The name, which is common to several conspicuous heights in different parts of Palestine, signifies "a place of look out, or watchtower;" and, in the present instance, is most probably identified with a hill, now called Neby Samwil (the Prophet Samuel), which is situated about five or six miles to the north of Jerusalem, close to the site of ancient Gibeon. It rises abruptly to a height of about 500 or 600 feet above the little plain of Gibeon, on the south side of it, and is the most conspicuous and commanding eminence in the whole surrounding country. Standing on its summit, central Palestine is spread out around the spectator like an embossed map. Not to particularise localities lying in other directions, the eye ranges to the south over the summits of the Judean hills, as far as the environs of

Hebron; while, on the west, at the base of the mountains, the plain of Philistia lies in view, on which may be distinguished Lydda, and even Joppa, washed by the waves of the Mediterranean.

Here, then, it was, on a spot commanding so extensive a prospect of their native soil, and of the coasts of their enemies, that all the tribes assembled in solemn convocation at the command of the Prophet. Here they humbled themselves, and confessed their sins before God, while Samuel offered up prayer on their behalf; but, while they are thus engaged, an alarming report interrupts their devotions. The lords of the Philistines have heard of their national gathering, and believing that it must indicate some concerted scheme of resistance to their power, they muster their forces to go up against Israel. The thought of again encountering those warlike bands, whose fierce onset had often scattered them in flight, makes the hearts of the Israelites tremble. But they show at the same time that the lessons they have been learning have not been lost upon them. They know now where their true refuge and strength should be sought, and they entreat the Prophet's continued intercession with the Lord to deliver them from their enemies. Samuel complied with their request by sacrifice and prayer, while the tribes began to marshal themselves to meet the attack of their foes, who might be seen now in full march, their armour and weapons glancing in the sun, thronging up from the western plains towards the mountains of Judah. But, before they reached the vicinity of Mizpeh, another host appeared on the scene of conflict. The heavens grew dark above the Philistine banners. Vast clouds, charged with the artillery of the skies, came rolling up behind them from the sea. The shouts of the heathen soldiery died away as the roar of the thunder began to awake the echoes of the hills. The Lord had arisen and come forth in His majesty and might to the help of His people. Long had He kept silence; now His voice was heard in the heavens, striking dismay into the hearts of His enemies. "He bowed the heavens and came down, and darkness was under his feet. The Lord thundered in the heavens, and the Highest gave his voice: hailstones and coals of fire. Yea, he sent out his arrows, and scattered them; and he shot out lightnings, and discomfited them." How sublime and awful must have been the sight, as the black masses of clouds, like the chariots of avenging angels, came down on the Philistine host, enveloping it in gloom, and the bolts of lightning, cleaving the darkness, flashed right into their serried ranks, spreading terror and dismay on every side. The Israelites must, indeed, have rejoiced, with trembling, as they viewed the scene from their lofty watchtower," till, roused by the peals which summoned them to battle, and inspired with new courage by the consciousness of Divine aid, they rushed to the conflict and joined in the pursuit. Short time would any fragments of the invading army stand before them; all would soon be scattered in headlong rout downwards to the plain. What holy triumph must have lighted up the eyes of the Prophet, as he stood before the altar on which the lamb was burning, and from that mountain height, as he lifted up his hands to the throne of God, beheld the immediate and visible answer given to his prayer!

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The victory was a most decisive one. It was more than a victory; it was

a conquest. For the Philistines were subdued, so that they came no more into the coasts of Israel; and the cities which they had taken from Israel were recovered and restored, from Ekron even unto Gath, along the entire border. It was fitting that such an event as this should receive lasting commemoration. Samuel felt the occasion to be a great crisis in the history of the nation—“a year of the right hand of the Most High." As a monument of it, he "took a stone, and set it between Mizpeh and Shen, and called the name of it Ebenezer (stone of help), saying, Hitherto hath the Lord helped us." It was the very spot where, twenty years before, when he was a mere youth, the armies of Israel had sustained that terrible defeat in which the profligate sons of Eli were slain and the Ark of God was taken. The dishonour of that day was now wiped out, the calamity was reversed; and Israel might now rejoice in the renewal of that Almighty help which had been the glory of their fathers, and would continue to be the hope of their children.

It was the hand of a prophet that erected the stone, and the voice of a prophet that pronounced the name "Ebenezer ;" and how full of prophetic meaning and consoling power has that name been found by all generations of believers! Often, on emerging from dark clouds of trial, or after some sore conflict has terminated in light and deliverance, the servant of God is heard to repeat the word as the memento of past mercies and the pledge of future blessings. It is the summing up of a grateful experience, which delights to link together all the proofs of Divine aid, and to see them renewed and confirmed by its most recent display, resting there and taking courage as the heart looks forward to scenes yet unknown and emergencies yet to be encountered. Especially at each fresh stage of our life's journey, as we pause to review the past and anticipate the future, this sacred monument rises up in our imagination as the appropriate expression of our feelings. Other monuments may crumble and fall into ruin, but in the history of God's people, Ebenezer will always stand erect and fair, proclaiming the truth and mercy of a covenant God. At the close of each year, as we think of the goodness that has crowned it, of the power and faithfulness of Him who has strengthened us for its labours, comforted us under its sorrows, and brought us safe through its conflicts, do we not seem to stand again by this stone, repeating the grateful acknowledgment, "Hitherto hath the Lord helped us?" He hath helped us notwithstanding our sins and departures from Him, displaying His grace in bringing us to repentance, melting our hearts with godly sorrow, and then revealing His glory in our deliverance. Though our enemies have been numerous and mighty, He has put them to flight, and, by His help, we have recovered the ground we had lost. This help is no new thing: it has sustained us hitherto, and will accompany us to the end. With what courage and energy should it inspire us! "If God be for us, who can be against us?" Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the Lord his God!" "As the mountains are round about Jerusalem, so the Lord is round about his people from henceforth even for ever."

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THE VALUE OF FIFTY-TWO SABBATHS IN THE YEAR.
FROM A SERMON BY THE REV. ALBERT BARNES.

"THE Sabbath was made for man," and, like every other Divine arrangement, it is full of benevolence towards man. It is replete with good, and with no evil. No individual is made the worse by observing it as it was designed that it should be observed; there is no one that might not be made better and happier by it; there is no family that keeps it in a proper manner into which it brings disease, or poverty, or discord, or tears, or vice; there is none which it does not contribute to purify and elevate; there is no neighbourhood, city, nation, which is not made more orderly, intelligent, and happy by its observance; none that now desecrates the day that might not derive important advantages by regarding it as a season of sacred rest.

Let us notice the thoughts suggested by these two topics: The Sabbaths of a year, and the fact that they are closing.

I. The Sabbaths of a year. From the year, itself a brief period, there is abstracted for the purposes of the Sabbath one-seventh part of the whole -fifty-two days-almost two entire months. Perhaps we may, in some respects, best estimate the value of this time by supposing that it were continuous time, taken together from any one period of the year, instead of being distributed along in small portions through the whole. To see its value, then, it may be proper to inquire what could be accomplished during those fifty-two days in a year, in the ordinary employments in which men are engaged; and perhaps some estimate of their value may be thus obtained. I refer to this estimate now, on the

supposition that in reference to the prosecution of the ordinary pursuits of life with vigour and with profit and with health, it makes no difference as to the other days of the year, whether these fifty-two days are devoted to worldly occupations or to religion. I believe, indeed, that this estimate is to be materially modified by the fact, that a proper observance of a day of rest is really no loss to a man as a labourer, or a student, or a traveller, or in the lawful enjoyments of life, but that in fact the remainder of the year, is worth more to him in these respects, than it would be if it were a period of continuous labour, without any interruption or rest; but still this is the pecuniary value which is to be fixed upon the time as such.

Now, in this mode of estimating these days, it is clear that they should not have been spent without securing to us something in actual value that would be, in fact, a compensation for the tax or price which we have paid for the Sabbath. It is clear that they might have been turned to great account. Suppose you were to take any continuous fifty-two days to read the Bible, and to pray, and to pursue a careful inquiry into the state of your opinions on religion. Suppose you were to take the entire two months of the new year, that is to open upon us, to devote to a serious inquiry whether you are prepared to die. Suppose you were to devote them to the single purpose of becoming a Christian-by withdrawing from the world, suspending your business, excluding yourself from all amusements or cares that would distract the mind-can you

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