The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1895-11-23
The Sunday School Lesson.
SERIES FOR 18s5---FOURTH QUARTER.
STUDIES IN JEWISH HISTORY.

the nation, it was in violation OF no law
for Samuel to hold religious or revival
services wherever he might choose, a1d
to make the same impr sssive by burnt
| offerings. 1t was not essentially strain
| ing his custom for him to take heifer and
go to Bethlehem, with the announced
purpose of holding religious assembly
for all the people, and offering in their
behalf burnt offering.
Yet there was enough of the unusual
in this proceeding to cause the chief
men of Bethlehem to inquire OF him
concerning the intent Of his coming.
Did it imply that they were. above their
neighbors, sinners, needing repentance
and pardon? He assured them that he
came in peaceable spirit, and invited
all the people to fulfill the ceremonial
requirements Of washings and Hastings,
and participate in the solemn assembly
Before the time appointed for the
feast arrived,-fo days of preparation
we're required, Samuel in some way
impressed upon Jesse that the occasion
had a particular prophetic meaning to
him and his sons. He must have told
Jesse that one of his seven sons was to
be, in some ways scarcely as yet under
stood even by the prophet, set apart for
an exalted mission in the service OF his
country. Jesse was patriot; he did not
oppose but facilitated this divine cleo
ton of one from among his sons.
2. The Choice not Made Ac-
cOrding to Human VisiOn,-vs.
CLIO.
The public service having been COM
pleted before the hastily erected altar,
the feast which followed remained to
be observed. AS Samuel had brought
the heifer for sacrifice, to him fell the
portion Of the animal which was restored
to the giver of the sacrifice to the Lord.
It implies that Samuel had been tarry-
ing at the house of jesse, that his post
sacrificial feast was celebrated in Jesse's
family.
At this family feast Samuel proposed
to pass in review the sons Of Jesse, and
choose from among them the one which
the Inner Voice elected to be the com
ing king. The sons we're evidently not
averse to making the most favorable ex-
hibition of themselves. While the COM
pany was standing, preliminary to sit
ting or reclining at the FEAST the sons
passed before the prophet. First came
Eliab, the first born, man OF great size
and yigor and symmetry of body. The
impression made on Samuel was at the
first favorable. But Samuel meditated.
Favorable external appearance, as he
must have recalled, had been at first
Saul's chief recommendation; it had
proved deceptive. AS be looked intent
ly into the face of Eliab he did not see
there any unmistakable sign OF royal
qualities. He obeyed divine impulse
in not choosing as his king one who had
chiefly physical traits to commend him.
Now was evolved the aphoristic saying:
The Lord seeh not as man seeth; for
man looketh on the oatacdrd appear
ance, but the Lord looketh on the heart.
The Lord, in other words, esteems a
man chiefly for what he is in his real
life, his spirit, in the aggregate of all es-
sential qualities. So the first-born of
Jesse was not elected. The next, Abin-
adab, passed before Samuel; but the
Inner Voice decided for Samuel Meth
err hath the Lord chosen this. We are
told of the third son of Jesse, Shammah,
passing the same ordeal to meet the
same rejection. And three more sons of
Jesse, the names of which Josephus re-
potts as Nathaniel, Rael and Asam,-
were then subjected to the keen gaze of
the aged Samuel. And not one gave to
the prophet the testimony he could
trust that he was capable of exercising
royal power in the service of God and
man.
The picturesque nature Of this exami-
nation of the six sons of Jesse has been
recognized by one Of the great poets of
the ages. Goethe, after he had mas
tered the writings of all the philoso-
pliers and found them all unsatisfactory,
wrote these lines descriptive of his ex-
perience:
"This case was mine too, when at leisure,
What all the sages wrote read.
When with their small wits they would meas
ure
The wealth of worlds around us spread;
thought of Samuel then. when he
Made Jesse's sons in row appear.
And when the seven were sounded, said:
ARE all thy children here?'"
8. The Spirits Choice Anoint-
ed,-vs. lib.
To Samuel's question Jesse replied,
There remdineth get the youngest. and
behold, he keepeth the sheep. The ten
ding Of focks was at this period not in
best repute among the descendants Of
Israel, who we're now rising out of their
shepherd habits and becoming agricul