The Village Pulpit, Volume II. Trinity to Advent: A Complete Course of 66 Short Sermons, or Full Sermon Outlines for Each Sunday, and Some Chief Holy Days of the Christian YearBaring-Gould, S. (Sabine)
Religion
The Village Pulpit, Volume II. Trinity to Advent: A Complete Course of 66 Short Sermons, or Full Sermon Outlines for Each Sunday, and Some Chief Holy Days of the Christian Year
Baring-Gould, S. (Sabine)
Anglican Communion -- England -- Sermons; Church of England -- Sermons; Church year sermons; Sermons, English
SUBJECT.--How striking is the zeal of David, and how little zeal have
we for God's glory, and for the adornment of His house! Let us
consider to-day this zeal for God's house, and for those things that
appertain to the worship of God, and tend to His glory.
I. Of all the pathetic stories in the Bible, there is one which has
struck me for its singular pathos, yet it is one which I dare say has
escaped your notice. You have heard of the zeal of David, how his
enthusiasm carried him away, out of himself, so that he forgot his
royal dignity, and danced before the ark. You have heard of his bitter
disappointment, how when through many years he had longed and planned
to build the temple of God, his desire was not allowed to be carried
into effect, but the honour was reserved for his son. The zeal of
God's house had eaten him up. This was very touching, I think, but I
remember a still more touching story of zeal for God's house, and God's
honour, and that, not in a great man, but in a humble woman.
Eli, the priest and judge of Israel, had two sons, Hophni and Phinehas,
and they were priests in Shiloh. They were utterly bad, profligate
men, utterly regardless of the honour of God, and they disgraced their
sacred calling by their shameless lives. They snatched from the
sacrifices the best portion of the meat, and kept it for themselves,
and they dishonoured the tabernacle by their shameless immoralities
committed with those women who came to Shiloh to worship.
In a great battle fought between the Israelites and the Philistines,
the ark of God was taken, and Hophni and Phinehas were both slain.
Then the news was brought to Eli the priest, and the old man, when he
heard it, fell back off his chair in a fit, and broke his neck and
died. The news also reached the wife of Phinehas. We do not know her
name. We only hear of her this once, but by the one little incident
recorded of her, we know what she was.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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