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into the service of the Lord, and surely this is the spirit in which all true service and
sacrifice should be offered to our great God and Heavenly Father. Not in a spirit of
resignation or martyrdom, but in a spirit of joy which should characterize all our walk
and witness. Whatever we give to God has first been received from Him, and gladsome
giving is surely the moral of this story.
Chapter 1: closes with the following words:
"And he (i.e. Samuel) worshipped the Lord there" (I Sam. 1: 28).
The child played his part beyond that which could have been expected from one so
young. He was no doubt exceedingly forward for one of his years. Hannah would have
trained him up most carefully and instructed him for what was to be his life's work.
Among the Proverbs written for Solomon we find the words "Train up a child in the way
he should go: (i.e. in the beginning of his way. Spurgeon applied it `in the way you wish
you had gone yourself') and when he is old, he will not depart from it" (Prov. 22: 6). In
Samuel's case this was indeed so, though not, alas, in Solomon's. God has given to each
one of us the freedom of choice. None of us are puppets. But once we make the first
step--He comes to meet us.
In the first epistle written by John we find the wonderful words:
"In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent His only
begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. Herein is love, not that
we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins"
(I John 4: 9, 10).
The word `propitiation' takes us back to Paul's letter to the Romans, chapter 3:,
verses 23-26, where we read:
"For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; being justified freely by His
grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: Whom God hath set forth to be a
propitiation through faith in His blood, to declare His righteousness for the remission of
sins that are past, through the forbearance of God. To declare, I say, at this time His
righteousness: that He might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus."
The same Greek word for `propitiation' is used in the Septuagint translation of the
O.T. where we find the word `mercy seat'. In the Tabernacle the `mercy seat' was found
in the Holy of Holies. In Exod. 25:, we read God's instructions to Moses concerning
the making of the Tabernacle and its furniture. In verse 17 he was told to make a
mercy-seat of pure gold. Unlike the ark of wood which was overlaid with gold; it had to
be of pure gold. It had to be made in one piece together with the cherubims with their
wings stretched forth on high covering the mercy seat, and with their faces turned
inwards. In verse 22 we read these amazing words:
"And there I will meet with thee, and I will commune with thee from above the
mercy-seat, from between the two cherubims . . . . ." (Exod. 25: 22).