LVIII. SAMUEL.-PART II. KEEPING SELF, AN ATTRIBUTE OF HOLY 1 SAM. III. 1. "AND THE CHILD SAMUEL MINISTERED UNTO THE LORD BEFORE ELI." 1. THE infancy and boyhood of Samuel were the parents of his after years, and the prayers of Hannah and the seclusion of the house of GOD, the safeguards which kept him through years of strife. But, besides this example, it is clear from the life of the prophet that there is a duty in preparing and protecting ourselves against temptation as well as in actually resisting it when it comes; so in the health of the body there is a general condition and habit which we can gain, which will be the best preservative of health, and be far more efficient towards that end than remedies which we may use when health is impaired. So again in matters of earthly warfare, the movement and position of an army, the arrangement of its line, and the state of its men, are more important towards the preservation of life and ultimate success than any amount of offensive or defensive armour. The same principle may be carried into religion. We are bound to be presenting continually such a front to Satan as will deter him from making an assault upon us. Now popular views with regard to religion would lead us to distrust the position I have here taken. Some persons might be inclined to think that such a view leant too much to the idea that our inherent power was so strong as to be sufficient to resist and foil the attacks of Satan. But this is by no means the case. There are passages in Holy Scripture which lead us to see very plainly that certain opportunities can be seized by the powers of evil through which they are able to pull down the integrity of the soul; and that evil spirits wait for an opportunity of assaulting us, and to a certain degree are foiled and disappointed if we do not grant that opportunity. For instance, in the parable of the "unclean spirit," which being driven from the soul wandered through dry places, "seeking rest and finding none," the warning is based upon the fact that to each evil spirit a single soul is assigned, and that the only resting place of that tempter till the day of judgment is the soul which is committed to it to be brought lost and ruined to the bar of GOD. Now the simple principle involved in these words is this, we are so formed originally that certain acts of ours are able to avert the operations of Satan upon us, and to present an all but invulnerable exterior to his attacks. The question therefore will be for us to ask, what are these acts which have so important an influence on our spiritual state? We have to ask the question, inasmuch as, if this principle be considered as true, we cannot too early begin to steel ourselves against the Evil one. In this we can scarcely avoid seeing the allegory involved in classical literature, where we read of the mother dipping her child in the stream, leaving but one portion vulnerable, and through that he met his death; -a striking lesson this to the Christian! lest while he attends to the ninety-nine points, he voluntarily neglects the hundredth, and while he makes an exception in the case in which his own will is concerned, he omits the one thing needful to his own salvation, and through that very point receives his death wound. With regard to this exterior armour by which we are to avert Satan's shafts, it is very clear that it has connection with that necessary consent or not of our own will to any attack made by the Evil one, so that in proportion as he is able to reach that will, in that proportion he is able to injure us, and, in proportion as that will is shielded from the attack, his aims are powerless for our destruction. It is also remarkable that in a passage of the New Testament we are told to take heed not only lest the enemy wound us, but lest he "touch us," so that this defence, whatever it may be, will consist in what will prevent even the very contact of evil with our interior being. 2. a. I consider, then, that the first act towards this keeping of ourselves, is Self-respect. There is no exterior defence through whose chinks, if once broken, the lines of the enemy find so rapid and easy a way. One reason why we are inclined to do right and resist evil is that we have done right hitherto; and the principle of continuity in us makes us wish naturally to finish what we have begun. So also we have a desire within us to act up to a character which we may have formed in ourselves; and if we have damaged a certain ideal which we have raised of self, we have thereby lost one of the springs and motives of action; as much as when the painter who draws from an imperfect or a partially eclipsed scene or object, or having copied a perfect one sees a blot on his imitation, loses half his pleasure. This is a law of our original nature, and we can no more account for it than we can for the primary desires to win the approbation of the good, and the respect of those in authority over us. If once we have destroyed the fair image which ever floats and lives before the eye of our own character, we have then taken away one of the great motives for resisting evil. That floating and moving form, like the star of Bethlehem, is placed continually before us in all the circumstances of life and is intended to attract us by its beauty until it settles down upon the final point of our journey heavenwards, the Throne of GOD come to judge human character. b. The second great means towards this end |