The Tupelo journal., 1904-12-02
Gods will and Gods leading. Self seek

rights. 1t rules, and proposes to rule.
1t is not willing to surrender to God.
Old Eli in the temple must make room
for the younger man. And when at last
he opened the way for Samuel to meet
God and hear His voice and receive His
message, it was that Goo might deliver
His judgment upon Eli and Ellis GUS
for sin and misrule. When self at last
is brought to the point of recognizing
Gods voice and bids the soul respond
to Gods call, it NEAR that self is at
last ready to step to Gods judgment
bar and receive sentence. 1t was Gods
plan that Samuel should fill the place
of Eli, and it is His plan, His blessed
plan, that the soul should occupy the
place OF self. Self is under judgment.
1t is to be destroyed. AS Gods word
puts it, "the old man is to be crucified,
with the affections and lusts," in order
that the soul may expand to the in
filling Of God and occupy the body tenn
Pile; in order that the new man, the
new creation in Christ Jesus, may come
to the fullness of the stature of a son
of God. Self is the present occupant
of the body temple that is to be judged
and removed, while the soul is to be
%quickened by the touch of God and ap-
pointed to fill the high priestly Office.
1t is not pleasant for M to contem-
plate the giving up of self in order that
God may be formed in him, except as
we view it from Gods standpoint. With
all the awful judgment before him, Eli
could say: ut is the Lord; let Him do
what seemeth Him good" And SO can
we say, as we hear the Judgment of God
against self and the will of the flesh.
T HERE are three things in the atti-
tude of Samuel which we wish to
specially emphasize: First, he was
awakened; second, he was stirred to
seek, and, third, he was patient to wait.
Had he had the spirit of some people
when the voice of God at last pierces
the heavy ears and wakes them to con-
seriousness, he would have listened for
a moment or two in Impotence and then
would have turned over for "a little
more sleep and a little more slumber."
But the voice of God aroused him, and
he was thoroughly awake and anxious
to hear and obey. He did not know
God in a personal way. God had never
spoken to him with distinct voice. All,
how many there are who are in the same
spiritual condition. But God speaks,
and the voice is heard, and the evidence
is furnished in the case of Samuel by
his springing out or bed and seeking
the voice, and in the case of the soul in
its search after the voice that has
spoken. Bed was no longer the place
for Samuel, and the present place OF
Indifference is not the place for the
soul to abide. The voice has called.
You are in perplexity and doub+. You
know not what it all means. But the
voice has called, and your duty is to
spring from the place of Indifference to
that of active search. And "he that
seeketh fndeth." You will come to
know clearly as Samuel did that it Is
God that has been calling, and then it
is your part to patiently wait in faith
uLtll NOu oPCaho dSoAhS 81 tAoS yoo
may answer in obedience and faith:
Speak, Lord, for Thy servant heareth."
Such must be the attitude of the soul If
it would come to know God and hear
Him speak. Awake, oh soul, to thy
need! Seek that you may find! Pa
tiently wait that God may speak to your
soul His revelation!
G AMUEL, as he listened that night to
y the revelation of God, discovered
three things, and every soul as he re-
ceives the revelation Of God through
the Holy Spirit has a like experience.
Samuel found a new relationship with
God. His life was linked with that Of
God as never before. He had been serv-
ing in the temple? Yes. He had been
ministering unto the Lord before Eli?
Yes. And so may you, and still be a
stranger to God, as Samuel was. But
when the revelation came, as the reward
of listening and seeking and waiting,
then was begun a fellowship between
Samuel and the Lord which the ages
since that period when he wrought and
served in Israel have only served to
make more perfect and complete. And
not only was there union with God in
will and purpose, but there rested upon
him a sense of new obligation to man
kind. Because of the revelation and
the fellowship with God his RESPONSE
bilities were increased toward the ma
ton whose prophet and judge he was
to become. Has God revealed Himself
to your heart? Have you been made
one with the Father through faith in the
crucified son? Then upon you has rolled
a new and heavy responsibility. Dare
you be Indifferent to it, while you hear
the judgments of God pronounced
against sin and the sinner? Dare you
keep silent, while men are going down.
to eternal death? Can you remain in
different while friends and loved ones
are being swept along in the tide that
will plunge the soul to eternal de-
struction? Yours is a new and ire
nendous responsibility, if the light
Of Gods revelation has shined in
your heart. And the third expe-
rience which comes with the reve-
lation OF God to the soul is the realiza-
ton Of Gods righteousness and the aw-
full sinfulness Of sin. Before you re-
ceived Gods gracious revelation you
perhaps did not realize what sin was
and what awful judgments God has
pronounced against it, but as you have
come into the pure light of Gods holi-
ness and been cleansed from all sin in
blood of the precious Lamb of God