THE MAN AFTER THE FLESH. Chapter 3:

GOD'S CARE FOR HIS OWN HONOR. (1 Sam. 5:, 6:) (Continued from page 61.)

And so at last the lesson of divine holiness is in some measure learned. The people are forced, by the smiting of God, even though but just returned amongst them, to acknowledge that He must be approached with reverence and godly fear. " Who is able to stand before this holy Lord God ? " Here unbelief struggles with reverence, and for the time triumphs; and instead of turning in simplicity to the One who had smitten them, to learn why, and how they could approach Him and enjoy His favor without danger, they are more concerned, as the Philistines had been, that the ark should go up from them, not of course to be taken out of their land, but still to be removed from their immediate presence-so that they could have the benefit of God's favor without the dread sense of His too near presence, a thing, alas, too common amongst God's professed people. And may we not detect in our own hearts a kindred feeling which would shrink from the constant sense of the presence of God in every thought and word and act of our lives, and would rather have Him, as it were, at a little distance, where we can resort in time of need or as desire may move us, but where we are not always under His eye ? Thank God, it is vain to wish this, it cannot be; and yet as to our experience, how often are we losers in our souls because the desire of the psalmist is not more completely our own:"One thing have I desired of the Lord,- that will I seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord, and inquire in His temple."

And so the ark cannot yet find a resting-place in the midst of the nation, but is sent off to Kirjath-Jearim, "the city of the woods," strange contradiction, and suggestive of the place of practical banishment into which God was being put, a city in name and yet a forest. Here David finds it (Ps 132:6). "We found it in the fields of the wood;" noplace, surely, for the throne of God; yet here it abides for twenty years (chap. 7:2) until the needed work of repentance is fulfilled. We can well believe them to have been years of faithful ministry on the part of Samuel, and of gradual, perhaps unwilling submission and longing, on the part of the people. We are told all the house of Israel lamented after the Lord. Meanwhile, the ark rests in the house of Abinadab in the hill, and his son Eleazar, with the priestly name, "my God is help," remains in charge. The ark never again returns to Shiloh:"He forsook the tabernacle of Shiloh, the tent which He placed among men, and delivered His strength into captivity and His glory into the enemy's hand (Ps. 78:60, 61). "He refused the tabernacle of Joseph and chose not the tribe of Ephraim (Ps. 78:67). "Go ye now unto My place which was in Shiloh, where I set My name in the first and see what I did to it for the wickedness of My people Israel" (Jer. 7:12).

There was fitness in this in two ways. God never restores in exactly the same way a failed testimony. Shiloh had, as it were, become defiled and its name connected with the apostasy of the people under Eli. It had the dishonor of having allowed the throne of God to be removed into the enemy's hands. It had, so to speak, as the representative of the nation, proven its incompetency to guard God's honor, and it could not again be entrusted with it.

Then, too, it was in the tribe of Ephraim-that tribe which spoke of the fruits of the life in contrast to Judah, from which tribe our Lord came, and whose name, "praise," suggests that in which alone God can dwell:"Thou inhabitest the praises of Israel." Praise for Christ is the only atmosphere in which God can abide. How everything emphasizes the refusal of the flesh! Even as Joseph himself displaced Reuben the first-born, and as Ephraim, the younger brother, was chosen before Manasseh, so now again the tribe which had the headship and out of which the nation's great leader, Joshua, had come, must be set aside. "The Lion of the tribe of Judah " is the only One who can prevail, and all these changes emphasize this fact which God has written all over His word-there is no strength in man, no reliance in nature, the flesh is unprofitable, Christ is all.

CHAPTER IV. GOD'S MERCY TO HIS HUMBLED PEOPLE. (1 Sam. 7:)

At last the faithful ministry of Samuel was about to produce manifest fruit. The twenty years of humbling had gradually, no doubt, led the people to an increasing sense of their own helplessness, of their absolute dependence upon God and a glimmer, at least, of that holiness without which He could never manifest Himself on their behalf. So Samuel now can say to them:"If ye do return unto the Lord with all your hearts, then put away the strange gods and Ashtaroth from among you, and prepare your hearts unto the Lord and serve Him only and He will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines,"This searching of heart had prepared them to receive this word now. Their return to the Lord, gradual though it may have been, was now sincere and had that measure of whole-heartedness .which His grace is ever ready to recognize. He cannot endure a feigned obedience, and yet with the best of our repenting there is ever mingled something of the flesh. How good it is to remember that if there be a real turning, He recognizes that, and not the imperfection that accompanies it!

But a true turning to Him is of an intensely practical character and is shown in the life. If He has His place in the heart or in the land, all strange gods must be put away. All the loathsome idolatry, copied from their neighbors, must be judged, and God alone have His place. He cannot endure a heart divided between Himself and a false god. While all this is perfectly simple, yet there must be preparation and purpose of heart if it is to be carried out effectually and permanently. To serve Him alone means how much for ourselves; how much more indeed than for Israel, whose service was to a great. ' extent of an outward character, at least so far as the nation was concerned! If they are ready for this, then there is the distinct promise:" He will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines." He Himself had removed His ark from the Philistines' land, and yet until the people were in a true state before God, He could not in His holiness rescue them from the power of the same enemy.

Through God's mercy, Israel acts and the land is cleansed under the power of the ministry of Samuel whose life we have traced from its beginning. No longer now a child, in the full maturity of his powers he is in a position to be used, not now in a limited circle, but for all Israel. As his word had brought them to repentance, he now turns in intercession to God:"Gather all Israel to Mizpah and I will pray for you unto the Lord." The man who speaks for God to the people is the one who is able to speak to God for the people. The man in whom the word of God abides and who is faithful in using it will know much, too, of the priestly privilege of intercession, while those who may have as clear a view of the evil, but dwell upon that merely without divine' power, are never brought into God's presence about it, and so are themselves overwhelmed by it rather, and rendered helpless instead of being prevailing intercessors.

We may well remark, in passing, upon the importance of being occupied with evil only to deal with it according to the word of God, and thus to be able to work a deliverance through His word, and intercession with Him. There is always hope even in a day of decline and ruin when there are intercessors amongst the people of God; those who, if they know nothing else to do, at least know where to turn for help. Private intercession often opens the way to more public ministry, and this in turn to fresh prayer for God's recovering grace.

And so the people are gathered together to Mizpah. Common needs, common danger, and above
all, a common turning to God will bring His people together. All other gatherings are worthless and worse. Here they pour out water before the Lord and fast and acknowledge their sin afresh. The pouring out of water and fasting seem to be but two sides of the same act, expressed probably in the words which follow:"We have sinned against the Lord."The pouring out of water seems to be an acknowledgment of their utter helplessness and worthlessness."We are as water spilled upon the ground which cannot be gathered up again."They had spent their strength for naught and were indeed as weak as water. This weakness had come from their sinning against God. So it is proper that fasting should accompany this solemn act,-no mere religious form or unwilling abstinence from food, as though there were some merit in that, but that intense earnestness of spirit which is so absorbed in its purpose that necessary food is for the time forgotten, or refused as an intrusion upon the more important business before the soul. Fasting, as a means to produce certain desired effects, savors too much of ritualism and fosters self-righteousness in its devotees; but as a result,-as an indication of the state of soul-it is always the mark of a truly earnest seeker after God.

A people thus self-judged, and in humiliation before Him, are now in position to receive with profit the ministry of God's truth; so Samuel can now judge them, take up in detail their walk, ways and association and deepen that work which God had already begun in their souls. It is not enough to say in a general way:"We have sinned against the Lord." This, if real, includes all else, but for that
very reason, details can then be gone into. A mere general judgment of self is too often but vague, and beneath its broad generalities may be hidden many a specific evil which has not been dragged out into the light, and judged according to God's holy word. Yet the two must come in this way:-there must first be the judgment of ourselves, that state of true humility which is ready to bow before God, before there can be a helpful taking up of specific acts and testing them by the Word.

It is to be feared that we often fail in this individually, and in our efforts to help the saints of God. Unless one is truly humbled before God, truly broken, it is vain to reach a real judgment of specific wrong. Thus a trespass committed against a brother will be condoned, or that brother's own share in wrong doing will be brought up-an effectual check in true judgment of the act in question. What is needed is to get before God, to pour out before Him the water of a true and real judgment of ourselves according to His word-owning that we are capable of anything, yea, of everything, unless hindered by His grace, owning too our sin. This will enable us to judge calmly and dispassionately as to the details of the actual trespass. Would to God that this were realized more amongst us! There would be more true recovery of those who have gone wrong, and a consequent greater victory over our spiritual foes.

Then, too, the judging of the people suggests not merely looking at their past conduct, but ordering their present walk. Any associations, practices, worship, that were not according to His mind and which had up to this time been ignored by the people, or which they were in no true state to form a proper judgment upon, all these things would now come into review. Practices and principles will be tested by god’s truth, and so the walk be ordered aright. To be low in His presence, as we said before, is the only place where we can be truly judged. It is a place of humbling, but after all, how blessed to be there! It is the place of power as well, for God is there. Israel at Bochim may not have been an inspiriting sight to nature. The flesh always despises that which humbles it, but Bochim is where the messenger of god can meet His repentant people and hold out to them hopes of deliverance. Israel, we may say, at Mizpah were again at Bochim.