Israel, and the glory of the Lord had departed from His tabernacle.

The ark of the covenant of the Lord was the sign of God's presence among the children of Israel the sign that He was their God, and would dwell among them, and that they were His people. And when Eli heard that the ark was gone from among them, his heart sunk within him, and he fell; for it seemed as if the Lord had now forsaken Israel, and would no longer dwell among them, and be their God.

He had

Eli had judged Israel forty years. walked in the way of God's commandments, and had loved the Lord, but not with all his heart and with all his strength. He had not been zealous for the honour of the Lord his God. The Lord had made him to be His priest, and a judge in Israel, but he had not been firm and courageous to use his power to punish all who sinned. The Lord had made him to be a father, but he had not trained his children to fear the Lord and do His will. When they did wrong, though he had advised them well, and warned

them as a friend, he had not chastened nor restrained them as his sons. He had not done his duty in the state to which God had called him, as a judge, or as a father; and therefore he brought evil upon himself and others. He brought upon himself a death in sorrow and anguish of spirit; upon the people the loss of the ark of God; and upon his house and his wicked sons, the wrath and heavy judgment of the Lord.

1 Sam. iv.

To be zealous, is to be earnest, eager, and determined to do a thing.

To train, is to teach a person to do a thing readily and well, by making him do it often and regularly. Children are trained to fear the Lord and to serve Him, when from early years they are made to honour the name of God, and all things which belong to Him, when they are taught what the will of God is, and made to do it, and are punished when they disobey God, or treat without reverence the things which are His.

To chastise, is to punish a person, in love, in order to make him better.

Chapter C.

THE ARK OF THE LORD IN THE LAND OF THE
HEATHEN.

1128.

WHEN the Philistines had taken the ark of God About from the men of Israel, they brought it from the B.C land of Canaan to the city of Ashdod, in their own land; and they placed it in the house of their idol Dagon, by the side of the image of Dagon.

And on the morrow, when the men of Ashdod went into the temple of their idol, they saw Dagon fallen upon his face before the ark of the Lord. Then they took it, and set it upon its place again. And when they arose on the morrow, the idol Dagon was again fallen on his face before the ark of the Lord; and the head of the idol and both his hands were cut off. And the hand of the Lord was heavy upon the people of Ashdod, and He destroyed them, and smote them with sickness.

Then the men of Ashdod said, "The ark of

F

the God of Israel shall not abide with us; for His hand is sore upon us, and upon Dagon our god." So they sent the ark of God from Ashdod; and for seven months they carried it about from one city to another throughout their land. For wherever the ark of the Lord was taken, the hand of the Lord was heavy upon the men of that place, and He smote them with sickness as He had smitten the men of Ashdod.

When the ark of the Lord had been in the country of the Philistines seven months, the people besought the lords and rulers of the land to send away the ark of the God of Israel, and let it go again to its own place. Then they called for the priests of their idols, and asked them what they should do with the ark of the God of Israel. And they said, "Wherefore do ye harden your hearts, as the Egyptians and Pharaoh hardened their hearts? when He had wrought wonderfully among them, did they not let the people go, and they departed?” Then they told the lords of the Philistines to send away the ark, and to give glory to the God of Israel, and send with it a

trespass offering of jewels of gold, that He might lighten His hand from off them, and from their gods, and from their land.

And the lords of the Philistines did as their priests had said. They placed the ark of the Lord in a new cart, and put jewels of gold in a box by the side of the ark, and they took two cows which had calves, and which had never borne a yoke, and tied them to the cart, and brought their calves away from them, and shut them up. And thus they sent the ark away; for their priests had said, that if the cows went away from their calves, and their own home, towards the land of Israel, they should know that it was the God of Israel that had caused all the evil that had happened to them.

And when the cows had been fastened to the cart in which the ark of God was placed, "they took the straight way to Bethshemesh (a city of the tribe of Judah), and went along the highway, lowing as they went, and turned not aside to the righthand or to the left; and the lords of the Philistines went after them to the border of Bethshemesh."