Eli

“ From indolence of nature, or that phase of affection which leads to connivance at sin or pampering the inborn evil of the heart, Eli did not repress iniquity; he suffered it to grow, even in the house of God, without any effectual restraint; and what was the result? It ranks among the most terrific of all that is contained in the Word of God. ”

“ Therefore Eli thought she had been drunken. 14 Eli said to her, "How long will you be drunken? Put away your wine from you."
15 Hannah answered, "No, my lord, I am a woman of a sorrowful spirit. I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink, but I poured out my soul before Yahweh. 16 Don't count your handmaid for a wicked woman; for I have been speaking out of the abundance of my complaint and my provocation."
17 Then Eli answered, "Go in peace; and may the God of Israel grant your petition that you have asked of him." ”

“ When Eli grew to be a large girl, I thought she would find more happiness among strangers than here. It is seldom that I have insisted on anything; it usually has been wrong, too, when I have; and so it was with this. The mother yearned for her child, although only the lake parted them; and at last I found out that Eli was not under the best influences over at the parsonage, for there is really much good-natured nonsense about the priest's family; but I found it out too late. Now she seems to care for neither father nor mother. ”

“ Eli, ill-formed as he was, was much stronger than most men, nature having endowed his sinews with wondrous hardness and powers of endurance. Eli did no work, but lived by poaching and begging food at the farmhouses. ”

“ The worm Jacob shall yet thresh the mountains; the little flock shall yet possess the kingdom; “there shall be a handful of corn on the top of the mountains, the fruit thereof shall shake like Lebanon, and they of the city shall flourish like grass of the earth.”
It is mainly the picture of Eli’s house and the behaviour of his family that fills our eye in this chapter. It is to be noticed that Eli was a descendant, not of Eleazar, the elder son of Aaron, but of Ithamar, the younger. Why the high priesthood was transferred from the one family to the other, in the person of Eli, we do not know. ”

“ One day, when I was dancing along, humming a little song I used to sing with Mary, I met the old man, and he laid his hand upon my head. It seemed for a moment as if it must be my own father, and I almost threw my arms around him, but was afraid of the long, silvery beard; and yet it does not look like icicles now, but is soft and flowing. It made me think of a picture father has of a wise old man named Eli, and I shall always call him Eli now, for I like that people should have names. I think the lady's name must be Intelletta, because I saw it written in a book that was unclasped, one day. ”

“ Now Eli was the first of the family of Ithamar, the other son of Aaron, that had the government; for the family of Eleazar officiated as high priest at first, the son still receiving that honor from the father which Eleazar bequeathed to his son Phineas; after whom Abiezer his son took the honor, and delivered it to his son, whose name was Bukki, from whom his son Ozi received it; after whom Eli, of whom we have been speaking, had the priesthood, and so he and his posterity until the thee of Solomon's reign; but then the posterity of Eleazar reassumed it. ”

“ Eli Jones's grandfather on his mother's side was the first acknowledged minister in this meeting. Eli first heard the gospel preached in this house, and here he saw the occasional visitors from afar. Each year, which added its natural increase to the boy's stature, was marking a no less evident growth of mind and vigor of spirit. His mother taught him that "serving God and keeping His commandments was the whole duty of man." ”

“ But Eli still shook his head, and ejaculated "Brackish, brackish!" as he began to put the bit in Doll's patient mouth. He was thinking, with a passion of loyalty, of the clear, ice-cold water at home, which had never been shut out by a pump from the purifying airs of heaven, but lay where the splashing bucket and chain broke every day the image of fern and moss. His throat grew parched and dry with longing. When they were within three miles of the sea, it seemed to them that they could taste the saltness of the incoming breeze; the road was ankle deep in dust ”

“ It was the outrageous character of the offence in the matter of the golden calf that justified the severe and abrupt procedure; but it was Eli’s condemnation that though the sin of his sons was equally outrageous, he was moved to no indignation, and took no step to rid the tabernacle of men so utterly unworthy.
It is often very difficult to explain how it comes to pass that godly men have had ungodly children. There is little difficulty in accounting for this on the present occasion. There was a fatal defect in the method of Eli. His remonstrance with his sons is not made at the proper time. ”

“ Lo, there entereth Eli, priest of Israel. (Prologue withdraws.)
(Eli, the old priest, enters, and stands praying.) Eli: O Lord God, turn thou my sons, I pray thee, from their evil ways. Lo, they come yonder, full of wine and drink, a disgrace to mine old age.
(Hophni and Phinehas come swaggering in, arm in arm. One has a jug of wine; he drinks and hands it to the other. Eli raises a trembling hand toward them.)
Hophni: Hi there, old man, art going to chide again?
Phinehas (mockingly) : Do not show anger, for anger doth not become a man of God. ”

“ Eli in the Old Testament was not a bad man, but he destroyed both the ark of the Lord and himself and his sons also, because his sons made themselves vile, and he restrained them not. God’s children are never so soft, and sweet, and good, and happy as just after He restrains them, and has again laid the rod of correction upon them. ”

“ Then there was Eli, good old brother, best farmer in the duchy. Eli was welcome to stop too and share all profits. Ortho hoped that he would stop, but he had noticed that Eli had been very silent and strange since his home-coming and was not sure of him—might be wanting to marry as well and branch out for himself. Tregors had gone, but there was over four hundred pounds of that smuggling money remaining, and if Eli wanted to set up for himself he should have every penny of it to start him, every blessed penny—it was not more than his due, dear old lad. ”

“ Concerning The Birth Of Samuel; And How He Foretold The Calamity That Befell The Sons Of Eli.
1. And now upon the ill state of the affairs of the Hebrews, they made war again upon the Philistines. The occasion was this: Eli, the high priest, had two sons, Hophni and Phineas. These sons of Eli were guilty of injustice towards men, and of impiety towards God, and abstained from no sort of wickedness. Some of their gifts they carried off, as belonging to the honorable employment they had; others of them they took away by violence. ”

“ Boylike, I thought men always acted with some big idea in view, but the next minute Eli and Cap'n Jesse had grabbed holt of one another and was scuffling and giggling around the deck like a pair of kids. Captain Jess was stout about the shoulders; he had Eli waving in the breeze once, but at last Eli gave him a back trip and down they come. Then up they got; each cut off a hunk of chewing and began to talk as if they'd acted perfectly reasonable. Seems that's the way they always come together. ”

“ Eli reproved his sons too gently, and did not threaten them as he should, and therefore God sent a prophet to him to reprove him sharply, and to threaten him, because, by his indulgence of them, he had strengthened their hands in their wickedness. If good men be wanting in their duty, and by their carelessness and remissness contribute any thing to the sin of sinners, they must expect both to hear of it and to smart for it. ”

“ They experienced the fate of men who deliberately sin against the light, who love their lusts so well that nothing will induce them to fight against them; they were so hardened that repentance became impossible, and it was necessary for them to undergo the full retribution of their wickedness.
3. But it is time we should look at the message brought to Eli by the man of God. In that message Eli was first reminded of the gracious kindness shown to the house of Aaron in their being entrusted with the priesthood, and in their having an honourable provision secured for them. ”

“ Many a coveted pleasure did the faithful sisters give up that they might keep Eli well clothed, or send him some country dainty to cheer the studies which seemed to them painfully hard and mysteriously precious. Father began to take pride in the ugly duckling now, and brothers to brag of his great learning. Neighbors came in to hear his letters, and when vacation brought him home, the lads and lasses regarded him with a certain awe; for his manners were better, his language purer, than theirs, and the new life he led refined the country boy till he seemed a gentleman. ”

“ Then Eli suddenly walked up to the foreman and faced him.
“Now,” he said, “we 'll stop. The very next turn breaks ground. If you, or any other man that you set on, tries to talk to me when I don't want to hear, to worry me to death—look out!”
How the long hours wore on! How easy, sometimes, to resist an open pressure, and how hard, with the resistance gone, to fight, as one that beats the air! How the prospect of a whole hostile town loomed up, in a mirage, before Eli! ”

“ Then they left him, with a cruel joke about a good journey, and made off with their booty. It was the first time poor Eli had met with such a mishap, and as he stood in the rain looking at his wares scattered about the road, he felt inclined to throw himself into the creek, and forget his woes there among the frogs and snakes. ”

“ The sad prophecy which is committed to such apparently incongruous lips reiterates a former message by 'a man of God.' Eli was a kindly, and, in his way, good man, but wanting in firmness, and acquiescent in evil, partly, perhaps, from lack of moral courage and partly from lack of fervent religion. He is not charged with faults in his own administration of his office, but with not curbing his disreputable sons. The threatenings are directed, not against himself, but against his 'house,' who are to be removed from the high priestly office. Nothing less than a revolution is foretold. ”

“ Both of them give this quotation from Ps. xxii. 1 in Aramaic: Eli (Mark: Eloi) , Eli, (3) lema sabacthani. The purpose is clearly to enable the reader to understand what follows, which we quote from the first Gospel: "And some of them that stood there, when they heard it said: This man calleth for Elijah.... The rest said, Let be, let us see whether Elijah cometh to save him." (4) It is impossible to confuse "Eli" or "Eloi" with "Elijahu" (5) and the explanations suggested by apologists are not sufficient to remove a difficulty which seems to betray the legendary character of the statement. ”

“ The Lord maketh poor and maketh rich;
He bringeth low; he also lifteth up.
For by strength shall no man prevail.
The Lord shall judge the ends of the earth;
He shall give strength unto his king
And exalt the horn of his anointed.
(She turns, embraces the child, then bows before Eli.)
O Eli, priest of God and judge of Israel, the Lord be with thee.
(Hannah and Elkanah go.)
Eli (sits on couch and beckons to Samuel) : Come hither, lad. (Samuel goes to him reluctantly.) What do they call thee?
Samuel (sniffling) : Samuel, master.
Eli: Samuel? And what hath thy mother taught to thee? ”

“ If he had run immediately with the tidings to Eli, this would have looked as if he desired the woeful day and hoped to build his own family upon the ruin of Eli's; therefore it became him not to be forward to declare the vision. No good man can take pleasure in bringing evil tidings, especially not Samuel to Eli, the pupil to the tutor whom he loves and honours. ”

“ The tension of the hour was almost more than he could bear; he longed for morning in sharp suspense, with a faint hope that the light might bring relief. Just as the stars faded and one luminous line penciled the east, he rose, smoothed his hair, and stepped softly out upon the beach. There he saw two shadowy figures, Sereno and Hattie. She hurried forward to meet him.
"You goin' to see the sunrise, too, father?" she asked. "I made Sereno come. He 's awful mad at being waked up."
Eli grasped her arm. ”

“ Eli Jones, now in his eighty-second year, can never again visit in the body these two spots which he fondly loves, but he rejoices in his last days that the cause so near his heart is receiving so warm a support, and the advance which has been made prophesies the day when the Syrian wife shall have a woman's voice and a woman's power, and when the marvellous blessing of Christ's immeasurable love shall be felt in the hearts of those who now sit in darkness, though in the land where "the great Light has shined." ”

“ Eli counted the seconds. He knew the determination of the foreman.
The silence became intense.
“I want to say my say,” said a short man in a pea-jacket,—a retired San Francisco pilot, named Eldridge. “I entertain no doubt the man is guilty. At the same time, I allow for differences of opinion. I don't know this man that's voted 'not guilty,' but he seems to be a well-meaning man. I don't know his reasons; probably he don't understand the case. I should like to have the foreman tell the evidence over, so as if he don't see it clear, he can ask questions, and we can explain.” ”

“ The duties of farm-work filled up the spaces between the monthly, quarterly, and general meetings which he attended. The little black horse that all his townsmen knew so well grew very familiar with the winding roads to Vassalboro', Brooks, St. Albans, Manchester, and other near-lying towns. "Uncle Eli has come" made all who had gathered at the meeting-house rejoice, and, whether the subject was peace, temperance, or salvation, he spoke strong words to stir the listeners.
During all his life he has loved to till the soil; trees seem to be near friends of his. ”