The Philistines took the ark of God, and brought it into the house of Dagon, and set it by Dagon.
At the same time, observe that Dagon was not broken. He had fallen on his face, but that was all; so that the next day his foolish worshipers could set him up again. Sometimes at the first entrance of grace there is a downfall of sin, but nothing like such a breaking and destroying of sin in the soul as there will be afterwards. When the divine life has entered sin is dethroned, it no longer sits up there in the place of God; but yet, for all that, there is an awful power remaining in the corrupt nature, a deadly tendency to sin, a powerful law in the members bringing the soul into captivity. Still, down the idol goes, even if it is not broken: it cannot reign, though it may remain to trouble us.
