1 Samuel 7:12 Then Samuel took a stone, and set it between Mizpeh and Shen, and called the name of it Ebenezer, saying… From this passage we are forcibly taught, in the first place: — I. THAT IT IS OUR ESPECIAL DUTY, UNDER THE APPREHENSION OF ANY IMPENDING CALAMITY, TO SEEK UNTO GOD FOR DELIVERANCE BY FERVENT BELIEVING PRAYER. II. WE ARE TAUGHT BY THIS PORTION OF SACRED HISTORY, THAT GOD WILL HEAR THE RELIEVING PRAYERS OF HIS SERVANTS. We are far from affirming that prayers, offered up in faith, and "for things agreeable to God's will," will always be granted in the season or in the manner that the supplicants might either desire, or in their fallible judgment might deem most proper No! This would be to usurp God's prerogative, and to substitute our own erring judgments in the place of His wise and all. disposing sovereignty. All that God permits us to do, is to approach Him in importunate, believing prayer, leaving the result to His own unerring disposal. III. IT IS OUR DUTY TO RECOGNISE THE HAND OF GOD IN EVERY DELIVERANCE. IV. A PUBLIC ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF GRATITUDE IS DUE TO ALMIGHTY GOD FOR MERCIES RECEIVED AND FOR DELIVERANCE FROM IMPENDING EVILS. In perusing the history of the heathen world, we are particularly struck with the practice of perpetuating the memory of great events to future generations. When nations were delivered from impending calamities or favoured with unlooked for blessings, they raised the song of gratitude to those whom they esteemed their preservers. The praises of their deliverers were sung by the poet, and extolled by the historian; their statues adorned the cities which gave them birth; and other striking memorials were instituted to convey to future generations an abiding sense of the value of their services. If, from the heathen, we turn to the enlightened world, we shall find that the memorials which, in the one, were erected to the statesman or the conqueror, were, in the other, expressly instituted in token of gratitude to God — the great and only Deliverer. V. LET YOUR RECOLLECTION OF GOD'S PAST MERCIES INSPIRE YOU WITH THE FEELINGS OF FUTURE, UNRESERVED CONFIDENCE. VI. LET ME CALL UPON YOU TO TESTIFY YOUR SENSE OF THE DIVINE MERCIES, BY AN INCREASING DEVOTEDNESS TO THE SERVICE OF YOUR GOD. (Robert Cook.) Parallel Verses KJV: Then Samuel took a stone, and set it between Mizpeh and Shen, and called the name of it Ebenezer, saying, Hitherto hath the LORD helped us. |
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