1 Samuel 7:13-17

First fruits of repentance.

The facts are—

1 . Israel enjoy freedom from the oppression of the Philistines and regain lost cities.

2 . Their restless ancestral enemy the Amorite is quiet.

3 . Samuel quietly and happily attends to his civil functions.

4 . Ramah, the home of Samuel, is blessed with an altar to Jehovah. The mention of these suggestive facts immediately after the reference to the call to repentance and its response exhibit the natural results of the efforts of prophet and people. A fruitful theme is given.

I. In RELATION TO ISRAEL THESE FRUITS WERE MOST IMPORTANT ; just such as a nation might well prize. An active, powerful foe was held in restraint. Territory and cities were restored to the government and general influence of a true man of God. Their fathers' foe, who disputed the march of Joshua, and ever lay as a savage beast by their side, was controlled by an unseen hand. An orderly and beneficent civil administration, diligently maintained on religious principles, was enjoyed by the various districts, and the residence of the ruler of the people was conspicuously a centre of religious influence. Blessed fruits of national repentance! When will nations learn the clear lessons of this precious book of God?

II. In RELATION TO THE RELIGIOUS LIFE OF CHRISTIANS THESE FACTS ARE FULL OF SIGNIFICANCE . It is not wise to seek out spiritual meanings from every simple historic fact in the Old Testament. Plain history is not given as a religious enigma to be solved by some transcendental insight. Yet there are analogies between national and individual life, and principles of holiness and righteousness work in the same directions in both. As there is a Babylon both spiritual and historical, so there is the Philistine and Amorite of our great warfare. As treasures change hands in Israel's conflict, so there are valuable possessions in man which may be dominated by opposing powers. Thus, then, we may consider some of the firstfruits of repentance in Christian life.

1 . The great world power is largely subdued and cast off. The man who in his life has passed through what Israel did in answer to Samuel's call finds that the evil influences of the world around have less hold on him. They are repressed. Their force has been weakened, if not annihilated.

2 . Faculties once governed by unhallowed tendencies are restored to the rightful ruler. There are, so to speak, cities—seats of power and resource—in every man's nature. While in a sinful course of life these are dominated largely by principles alien to God, and adverse to true self-interest: true repentance brings every faculty, thought, and desire into a willing subordination to him whose right it is to reign. The soul is a "holy land" in which Christ is King.

3 . Deep seated, corrupt passions are quieted. There are ancient, very corrupt passions of a fleshly character embedded in human nature. These Amorites of our experience are unusually powerful during a life of sinful indulgence. They grow fat and flourish. One of the first consequences of the new life is to tone them down. The causes of their extreme activity and restlessness are partially removed. A strong hand holds them down in comparative quietude. Their destiny, like that of Israel's cruel foe, is to be utterly destroyed; but even now, compared with former almost irresistible aggressions, there is peace with them.

4 . A considerable degree of prosperity anal order is maintained. The reformed soul has law administered within itself. Every interest, every claim of striving powers and tendencies, is considered and decided in harmony with the law of Christ. The intellect does not absorb the time and energy due to the culture of the emotions, and vice versa. To some degree the inner man is in an orderly, prosperous condition. He is an improved being.

5 . The holy, elevating power of devotion is cherished at the centre of influence. Samuel's home was the centre of influence in Israel, and it was made by express arrangement conspicuously devout. There is in our nature a seat of supreme influence. The faculties and tendencies of the soul act in subordination to the commanding affection of life. True repentance issues in the heart becoming the seat of a powerful influence dominating all else. There is an altar there on which the inextinguishable fire burns, filling with its heavenly, glory the entire man. "Old things have passed away; all things are become new." Are these fruits found in all lives called Christian? They ought to be, and are, if "Christian" is more than a name.

HOMILIES BY D. FRASER