"S^~> -^-.>>^.-: ■::.i3r-j>i. ^^:^^^4 > ^>^ ^£> > Zyyry- ^ . :>^J- —^^:;f ^^^Zp:::^ ..\:>^^:> - :^^- i Uu:l^fl::i'. ii ii i 'i ii iriijij ii ii CHARLES 8. ALEXANDER. g'^y^ >'~3>3:^^^ ?^: .W^»l' tihrary of ^he theological ^eminarjp PRINCETON • NEW JERSEY •d^D* PRESENTED BY Mrs. Winthro-j W. Aldrich '-C/>v >^n^;r^:- u^^^:.^.n^Mjirr ^- ! IW ■ y ■^^^-?5-tv N f'^'^O/ ^^dm r^ \ Z' M«- ^ I -ey.'lp.^ , BRING ME UP SAMUEL BY JAIVIES W. ALEXANDER, D.D. "WTiom shall 1 bring up uuto thee?" And ho said, •' Briug me up Samuel." 1 Samckl 28 : 11. NEW YORK : ANSON D. F. RANDOLPH, No. 683 BROADWAY. 1859. THIS SERMON, AMOXG THE LAST PREACHED BY ITS AUTHOR, IS KOW GIVEN TO THE PEOPLE FOR 'WnOJI IT WAS ORIGIXALLT PREPARED, AS A MEMENTO OF THEIR PASTOR, A^T> AX EXPRESSION OP THE ABLDIXG AFFECTION OF (£. €. ^. BRING ME UP SAIMUEL, 1 Samuel, 2S : VL We feel the freshness of the oriental and almost patriarchal scene, when the young and valiant son of Kish is sent out of Benja- min to seek the asses which had strayed. " He was a choice vouns: man and a sj'oodlv, and there was not among the children of Israel a goodlier person than he : from his shoulders and upward he was higher than any of the people."' The interview with the maidens near the well, and the introduction BRING ME UP SAMUEL. to tlic Seer, are indelibly impressed upon our memory. From that day the prophet Samuel became, not only liis mentor, but liis guardian angel, God's special messenger, and afterwards his stern rebuker. Thus it sometimes liappens in our less important lives, that the merest casualty brings us acquainted with the person whose thread of life is thenceforward to be closely twisted with our own. In those days of youtliful sim})licity and innocent surprise, Saul was no doubt deeply under tlie influence of relig- ious feeling. The shudder of reverential awe had not worn away under custom in sinnino:. He heard "with astonishment his designation as the deliverer of Israel ; and bowed his head witli humble thouglitfulness to the great anointing. He even became, soon after, a sharer in prophetic gifts, which "HW BRING ME UP SAMUEL. were not confined to men of real inward holiness. More nearly still was he brought into hallowed connection with the prophet, when the venerable man, amidst the many- thousands of Israel, brought him 'forth from his hiding, and said, " See ye him whom the Lord hath chosen, that there is none like him among all the people." Religion was the prevalent spirit on the coronation-day, when " they sacrificed sacri- fices of peace-offerings before the Lord ; aud there Saul and all the men of Israel rejoiced greatly." During all his early reign and successes, the young king was evidently un- der the guidance of Samuel, wlio continued to convey to him those counsels of God, by which even the monarch was to be governed under the theocracy. But pride led to pre- sumption, and his conduct soon showed that 8 JIRIXG ME UP SAMUEL. it was not his purpose to govern in the fear of the Lord. Now tlie plot begins to thick- en and take on darker colors. Saul, amidst his host, insults the prophet by impatiently offering sacrifice before his arrival. Sam- uel pronounces the awful words : " But now thy kingdom shall not continue . . . because thou hast not kept that which the Lord commanded thee." Then follows a succes- sion of disobediences and disasters. He who had led Israel to victory suffers defeat after defeat, intermingling with these the transgression of express commands. In al- most every one of these, Samuel appears in the crisis of the dark hour, to frown on the sin and to denounce vengeance. He who as a little boy, girded with a linen ephod, was sent to aged Eli with messages of re- buke, is still tlie herald of divine judgment, BRING ME UP SAMUEL. 9 coming again and again upon the stage. Again the God of his mother Hannah liad ajDpeared unto him in vision, af- ter the King's sparing of the Amalakite. " Stay," said Samuel, " and I will tell tliee what the Lord hath said to me this night. . . . . When thou wast little in thine own sight, wast thou not made head of the tribes of Israel. . . . Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than tlie fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of tvitchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, he hath also rejected thee from being King." The effect of this reproof was not affront, but horror. He confesses, he entreats, he asks for the prophet's prayers, he seizes upon his garment to prevent his going % 10 BRING ME UP SAMUEL. a\7ay, so tliat tlio ^kirt of llie mantle rent; upon whicli Samuel said, '' Tlie Lord hath rent the kingdom of Israel from tliee this day and hath given it to a neighbor of thine, that is better than thou." Thus God does not leave the sinner unwarned, but meets him at every new turning even of liis road of apostasy. This meeting at Gilgal closes the earthly connection of the king and the prophet. Tlie point had been reached when reproof is no longer endurable. " Tlien Samuel went to Ramah, and Saul went up to his house to Gibeali of Saul. And Sam- uel came no more to see Saul until the day of his death ; nevertheless, Samuel mourned for Saul." It is an affecting moment. AYe see their paths separating at this point. We observe on which side the union ceases. ' Samuel BRING ME UP SAMUEL. 11 came no more to see Saul, until the day of Ills death.' We behold one going off into deeper iniquities and blacker clouds of peril and despondency, and the other seeking an old age of solitude, to lament over his fallen son. ' Nevertheless, Samuel mourned for Saul.' Last interviews of this kind are very touching. When God separates us from those who have been our chief advisers, who more than all other mortals have made us feel our sins, it is like taking away another barrier between us and ruin. It is related of Samuel Finley, that his influence was so great, by his faithful preaching, upon an intemperate man in his congregation, that this person was restrained for years from the excesses of his darling sin. At length Finley died. The news was brought to the parishioner, who exclaimed, ' My guardian is 12 BRING ME UP SAMUEL. gone and I am lest/ and immediately re* sumed his intoxication and died the drunk- ard's death. Even that ministry which we deem too austere, and under which we Avince, sarcas- tically declaring it too heavenly for our worldly minds, is nevertheless a blessing, and keeps us from secret sins, and the taking of it away from us is sometimes a premoni- tion of wrath. ' Samuel came no more to see Saul until the day of his death.' But I suppose his stately figure and reproachful face often visited the king, amidst the sleep- less hours of his palace and the dreary watches of the battle-field. The impression made on the soul by a faithful counsellor often lasts for life. For Saul, the voyage without a pilot was becoming more tempestu- ous. Because a man has (5vcrmastered his BRING ME UP SAMUEL. 13 conscience, so that he can sin in spite of its stings, it does not follow that he is happy in sinning. Bear witness ye, who have for- saken the lessons of your youth, have aban- doned your Bible, have estranged yourselves from prayer, have run into ways which once you shunned with horror, and who neverthe- less know that ye were never so wretched in your lives. *' The Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the Lord trou- bled [terrified] him." Relief must come from the very youth who is destined to replace him. Goliath, of Gath, defies the armies of the living God and dishonors their king. Relief must again come from the son of Jesse. The malicious rage and murderous intentions of Saul go on to worse crimes against the harmless and forgiving 14 BRING ME UP SAMUEL. David. The star of the abandoned king pales its ineffectual fires. His frenzy breaks out against the priesthood of God, and his treachery practises mischief secretly against his rival. Amidst tliese increasing sins and sorrows, Samuel the prophet dies, and proba- bly leaves no one on earth who can influence the apostate king for good. We need not wonder to see the last act run down rapidly towards its catastrophe ; and this brings us more directly to our special subject. When men forsake the true God, they seek direction and aid from idols, and some- times from evil spirits. The more besotted they are by sin, the more do their vain curiosity and guilty foreboding lead them to pry into the future, which an evil con- science prompts tliem continually to dread. Here we find the origiu of all augury, sooth- BRING ME UP SAMUEL. 15 saying, magio, witchcraft, and necromancy. They all involve a distrust and denial of the true God, and therefore were forbidden under heavy penalties by the Mosaic Law. We are not permitted to say that all was imposture, either in the witch of former days, or (if I must use their own jargon) the medium of our own ; thougli in both nine parts out of ten may be referred to this source. As we know that there were real demoniacal possessions, we need not doubt that by a similar collusion with abandoned and impious men, Satan and his angels some- times afforded a knowledge of things beyond human ken ; and this would be proper Avitch- craft. The alliance of what is absurdly called Spiritualism (I use the term under protest) with nervous disease, abnormal sus- ceptibility and licentious passion, has been 16 BRING MI-: UP SAMUEL. sufficiently made out in our own day. to set wise and virtuous persons on tlieir <;'uard. In a period of great unbelief and crime such extravagancies abound, just as noxious ver- min crawl out at night. As King of Israel, Saul had animadverted in a stringent manner on these seducers, who professed to hold commerce witli tlie spirits of the departed. The presumption is, that he liad done this in liis better day and under the counsel of the great prophet ; for mark the connection : " Now Samuel was dead, and all Israel had lamented liim, and buried him in Ramah, even in his own city. And Saul had put away those that had familiar spirits and the wizards, out of the land." But wlien liis day began to decline, and tem- pestuous clouds betokened an evening of (k's- pair, the agony of his soul craved some rev- BRING ME UP SAMUEL. l'^ elation concerning the future. He was beset by enemies, and saw the Philistines, not merely at the doors, but within the citadel, and gaining on him every day. -And when Saul saw the host of the Philis- tines, he was afraid, and his heart greatly trembled." Prop after prop had been taken from him ; his skies shone lurid ; David had been driven away, and Samuel was dead. Greatly as he had offended against the God of his fathers, he still essayed to gain some light from his wisdom ; as we frequently see profligate men, in times of extreme fear, re- sorting to divine service and to the ministers of religion. But in vain. "And when Saul inquired of the Lord, the Lord an- swered him not, neither by dreams, nor by Urim, nor by prophets." This was perhaps the turiiing-point in his defection from the 18 BRING ME UP SAMUEL. true God. Before this, lie probably might have returnei ; but now he consciously and wilfully abandons Jehovali forever. In like manner, we find all the leading devotees and advocates of our modern necromancy to be infidels. They forsake God before they sell themselves to tlie devil. It is but a partial glimpse which we can gain into the secret throes and convulsions of a black and pow- erful nature like Saul's. The woes of Orestes and Oedipus, on the Grecian stage, could not, in their original, have been more fearful. His thouglits in tumult must have broken into such ejaculations as these : All is over with me ! The heavens above me are brass, and the ear of God is deaf. Xo response comes to me from the awful void. My foes increase and there is no help for me in God. I will betalce me to otlicr powers of nnkire, of BRING ME UP SAMUEL. 19 which I have heard. There is more than one kingdom in the universe ; and perchance there may be a turbulent satisfaction in ally- ing myself with the principalities which fell. At least, let me avail myself of their keener insight. " Then said Saul unto his servants, Seek me a woman that hath a familiar spirit, that I may go to her and inquire of her." The clairvoyante whom they indicated lived at a place named En-Dor; and thither the despairing monarch went in disguise, by night, accompanied by two retainers. After quieting the fears of the hag, he expressed his desire to commune with one of the de- parted. I cannot bring myself to believe, that the spirits of just men made perfect can be made to come and go at the bidding of 2rouglit to mind. Thus, being dead he still speaketli ; just as John the Baptist still spake in the conscience of Herod, causing him to sec this second Eli- jah even in tlie gentle miracles of Jesus, and to say, ''It is John the Baptist who has risen from the dead." Bring me Samuel, cries he who disregarded Samuel wliile liv- ing. And so it often is. The father and mother who taught you tlie right ways of the Lord, have Ijcen met by your contempt and disobedience. But the days are coming wlien their meek, remonstrant faces sliall flit BRING ME UP SAMUEL. 31 before you, and when you will long to bring them back, that you might learn from them the secret of their liappiness and their power. Beside the tomb of your parents, you will be ready to long that you could bring them again, that you might bewail your undutiful neglects, and make even this tardy reparation for the dishonor you have done them. For, wdiat blessing of your bet- ter days is not associated with their persons so closely that you cannot think of youthful joys without thinking of them ? And what instructions can ever compare with those which were the first, the simplest, and the most loving ? If you had the power of raising the dead, in your hour of woe^ your language would not be, Bring me up the ministers of my mirth — my comrades in wassail and the dance — my flatterers, my 32 BRIXa ME UP SAMUEL. lovers, my deceivers, the partners of my avarice and my pomp, the serpents that twined about me and stuns: me : but, Brins: me up the "old man" covered with a man- tle, whose gray hairs I brouglit down with sorrow to the grave ! Bring me up /^er, who loved me even in my waywardness, who tried to counsel me even wlien I would not hearken, who comforted me in illness, and who died brcatliing prayers in my be- half! The feeling of the ricli man in tor- ment w^as natural ; but sucli appeals of sinners to the other world are vain, " neither ^vould they be converted though one rose from the dead." Should you enter some cavern, and from some a'ai)ini2' cliasm beliold tlie apparition of tliose honored forms, it would only be to hear what Saul lieai-d, '* Why hast thou disquieted me, to l)ring BRING ME UP SAMUEL. 33 me up ? " Why call us from our rest, to mourn anew over the sins whicli ye will not abandon ? Ministers of the gospel often lament in secret over the indifference with whicli their messages are heard, and sometimes they forecast a time, after their decease, when their words may come back to these hearers with a prevailing force. In this way, as well as others, dead ministers continue to preach. It is wise to cherish their memory. " Remember thera . . . which have spoken unto you the word of God ; whose faith follow." But times of distress particularly bring them to mind. Even while they live, tliey are often sent for in great haste, and alas ! too late, by those who neglected them in days of health, but who now cry out for their guidance and prayers amidst the ago- 34 BRTXr, ME L'P SAMUEI.. nies of death. And \y1icii the faithful pastor has been dead many years, liis warnings still linger in the mind of the ungodly, who, surrounded bv the Philistines, entanii^led in the sins of a life-time, and awaiting unknown increase of terrors, earnestly cries, that I could noiv hear what I once contemned ! for a day, an hour, of instruction from tlie father of my childhood, the counsellor of my riper years! Give me back my unlieeded monitor — " Bring me up Samuel ! " Ah ! my respected but unconverted hear- ers, we come to you, after many trials of preparation and with much consciousness of infirmity, sermon after sermon. Sabbath af- ter Sabbath, month after month, year after year ; we grow gray and feeble waiting on you with tlic Lord's message, wjiirli you will not consider ; and then we die and you BRING ME UP SAMUEL. 35 are released from the distasteful reiteration of warning and entreaty. God grant that the day may not come when you shall gaze on some marble and wish us back ; and v/hen echo shall seem to say with Samuel, " Wherefore tlien dost thou ask of me, see- ing the Lord is departed from thee, and is become thine enemy." Suppose we could return all ghastly to stand beside your death-bed, we could bring you no gospel which you have not rejected. Nothing will have come upon you but that which we had predicted. You have been forewarned ; so was Saul. Hence, the prophet whom he invokes, says to him : " And the Lord hath done to him as he spake by me .... be- cause thou obeyedst not the voice of tlie Lord." " Because I have called and ye re- fused ; I have stretched out my hand and 36 BRTXrj ME IP SAMTEL. no man regarded ; bat ye have set at naagiit all mv counsel and would none of my reproof : I also will laugh at your ca- lamitv. I will mock when vour fear cometh : when your fear cometh as desolation and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind, when distress and anguish cometh upon you. Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer ; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me : for that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the Lord.*^ The scene changes in the 31st chapter, to the battleground of Mount GUboa. Amidst the dust and turmoil of the fight, we behold a gory figure, taller than all about him, and scarce!}- taught to stoop, even in his despair. He is begirt with Philistines. There lie the corpses of Jonathan and his other sons. BRING ME UP SAMUEL. 37 Let US read. "And the battle Tvent sore against Saul, and lie was sore wounded of the archers. Then said Saul unto his armor-bearer. Draw thy sword and thrust me through therewith, lest these uncircum- cised abuse me. But his armor-bearer was afraid. Therefore Saul took a sword and fell upon it.'* The prophet whom he called up had foretold it all. Even those who have loved us and exhorted us, must take God's side, and be witnesses against us, if we reject the counsel of God against our- selves. Be assured, my unpardoned hear- ers, unless Christianity is a fiction, days are comino: in which the truths with which vou now trifle will have acquired a portentous solemnity. How differently sounds the name of Jesus, now, in your moments of security . . . and in the chamber of death ! 38 BRING ME UP SAMUEL. What an unmeaning object is the Cross, here, where you have no sense of danger . . . . and what is its import yonder, at tlie close of your career, wlien this only can save you from hell ! The wliole intention of these remarks has been to impress on you a weighty reason for liearkening now to the lessons of wisdom, because otlierwise you will turn to tliem witli the instinct of anguish in the hour of despair. Thus Jesus weeps over Jerusalem, saying, " 0, that thou hadst known, even thou, the things that belong to thy peace ; but now they are hidden from thine eyes ! " Great privileges do not secure salvation. To Christ himself, some will sav, " Hast Thou not taught in our streets?" to whom he will reply, " T never knew you!" Dear hearer, the Mount at whose foot you stand BRING ME UP SAMUEL. 39 to-day, is not Gilboa, nor yet Sinai ... it is Zion ! Come, therefore, to Jesus, tlie Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that " speaketh better things than that of Abel." Why will ye die, when salvation is at the door, and when we pray you in Christ's stead to be recon- ciled to God? ^f^'-^^^'^^^^mm wo /^/ '"^^ki®.A^,/S,Vr?^!i'. ^r^r\ j/^A^ ^^ '-«C7 4.» 1. Mri r ■ -^CTc V c- . tu^ ', ^i^ -'^ " ^^^^"rz^c^"^' < HmK^C^ c •c •• i fe^"^ ' "^ %:'^^ ^^ ^A rV?^'V. V ^c_ i i^"" ^ - T^"-; ^■.-•^■. ■. f~' ^ 5^^.r - <^...-^<:-^ Ivc -C C'^ ^i^ ^S^v"^:: ^ c' <. ^"J^: ^