p. 154Ladies and Gentlemen,—
Have you ever thought of the story of Eli, as regards the evidence its mere existence as a story affords of the truth and therefore Divinity of the Bible? How could a fiction writer, writing from whatever motive, write such a story as this?:— The mother of Samuel brings her little boy, in fulfilment of a vow, to minister in the service of the Tabernacle at Shiloh, under Eli the priest. “Now the sons of Eli were sons of Belial; they knew not the Lord.” They violated the women that came to sacrifice, and they used force in getting for themselves the best of the sacrifices, without regard to the prescriptions of the law on the subject. “Wherefore the sin of the young men was very great before the Lord; for men abhorred the offering of the Lord.” Eli mildly expostulated with his sons, but took no steps to interfere with their wicked ways. So there came a message from God to him by a prophet: “Wherefore kick ye at my sacrifice and at mine offering which I have commanded in my habitation, p. 155 and honourest thy sons above me, to make yourselves fat with the chiefest of all the offerings of Israel my people? Wherefore the God of Israel saith. . . . Them that honour me I will honour, but 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 that there shall not be an old man in thy father’s house. And thou shalt see an enemy in my habitation” (1 Sam. iii. 29).
How Eli received this message we are not told, but we are admitted to a very close view of his bearing in another similar incident which shortly ensued. “The word of the Lord was precious in those days (in this sense): THERE WAS NO OPEN VISION.” There was no response in the holiest—no answer from God—in a time of such lawlessness. Mark how artlessly the narrative notes the absence of revelation when there was none. A romancing narrative would have no use for such intervals.
At such a barren time as this a message came to the child Samuel, “I will perform against Eli all things which I have spoken concerning his house. 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. Therefore I have sworn unto the house of Eli that the iniquity of Eli’s house shall not be purged for ever.” Eli asked earnestly what the message was. Samuel would feel no desire to be communicative on such a subject. But Eli knew there had been a message, from the child Samuel running to him when he heard his name called, not knowing it was the Lord’s call, and supposing it was Eli’s. As everyone knows, the call was several times repeated, with the result in each case that Samuel came to Eli thinking Eli was p. 156 calling, till “Eli perceived that the Lord had called the child,” and directed him next time to say, “Speak Lord, for thy servant heareth,” for “Samuel did not yet know the Lord, neither was the word of the Lord as yet revealed unto him” (verse 7).
Samuel having received the message, lay still, “fearing to shew Eli the vision.” In the morning Eli said to him, “What is the thing that the Lord hath said unto thee? I pray thee, hide it not from me.” And Samuel “told him every whit, hiding nothing.”
Ladies and Gentlemen,—Is the existence of such a story accountable for on any principle except its truth? Who would invent it and what for? Try to suggest a conceivable motive, and you will feel how strong the case is, especially taken in connection with the sequel. The Philistines invade the land. Israel goes out to fight them. In their first encounter, Israel experiences a reverse, but not an overthrow. They hold a council of war, and resolve to send for the ark to Shiloh, to where Eli and the child Samuel were. The two sons of Eli (Hophni and Phinehas) accompany the ark to the camp of Israel. On its arrival in the camp, the Israelites gave a shout of triumph that made the earth ring. The Philistines, hearing the shout, enquired the cause, and hearing that the ark had arrived, they were afraid, and said, “Woe unto us. Who shall deliver us from these mighty Gods which smote the Egyptians with all the plagues in the wilderness?” Notwithstanding their well-grounded fears, they encouraged each other, and advanced to the attack and overthrew the Israelites with great slaughter, capturing the ark and killing the two sons of Eli, as had been foretold in the message. Eli, an old man, hearing the news, falls off his seat and dies. p. 157 All these particulars, so damaging to the credit of Israel and apparently reflecting on the power of their God, as conceived from a merely human point of view, are frankly and modestly set forth in the historic archives of the nation. Could the presence of such a narrative there be accounted for if it were not true?
The triumph of the Philistines is followed by a season of adversity and darkness as foretold, and then Samuel emerges upon the field of public life. Note the character in which he appears; not as a hero aiming at self-elevation, but as a modest Judge and Prophet, seeking to bring the nation to God, and rebuking their sins. “Return unto the Lord with all your hearts; put away the strange gods; prepare your hearts unto the Lord and serve him only.” He prays for them. The Philistines are discomfited and driven out of the land and Samuel judges them for a period. Then they weary of the service of the law. They desire a human head like the nations around them. They ask Samuel to appoint them a king. Samuel is heavily displeased and submits the matter to God. God says: “Hearken unto the voice of the people in all that they say unto thee; for they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them. According to all the works which they have done since the day that I brought them up out of Egypt, even unto this day, wherewith they have forsaken me and served other gods; so do they also unto thee.”
Samuel convenes the people: “Ye have this day rejected your God, who himself saved you out of all your adversities and your tribulations. . . . Now, therefore, stand and see this great thing which the Lord will do before your eyes. Is it not wheat harvest to-day? I will call unto the Lord and he p. 158 shall send thunder and rain, that ye may perceive and see that your wickedness is great which ye have done in the sight of the Lord in asking you a king.”
Ladies and Gentlemen,—Is it possible to imagine such things could have been written if they were not true? Fables we can understand; flattering stories we can understand; legends and traditions and myths we can understand. I mean we can understand the human tastes, motives, and aims that could bring such things into literary existence. But, can you understand a solemn record of sin where there was none; rebuke invented where none was administered or needed; dishonours and disgrace imagined without a object; disaster as a punishment where every natural instinct would rather lead writers to smooth away and whitewash the national experience?
This, you perceive, is no question of manuscripts or authenticity or anything requiring or involving learning. It is a question of the meaning of a simple matter of fact. The story is here, no one can contradict. The question is, How came such a story to be written? Whatever other questions may be raised, this is a question that no man can burke, and that no man can fail to see the issue of as a matter of commonsense. The story cannot be accounted for, on any rational supposition, but the one simple fact of its truth.
And, if true in these sombre particulars, the truth of all the adjuncts is involved: the existence of the tabernacle and the priesthood and the law; and the occurrence of Divine revelation to Samuel, and the consequent truth of a thousand other things in the Bible, ending with the resurrection and ascension of Christ in the first century.