EXTRACTS
JT I think it shows what an influence she had. She was the real priest in Shiloh. I think what is meant is that she influenced Eli. He was a man of that kind. She came up to Shiloh with the boy and the bullocks and the wine and told him she was the woman that prayed. She influenced Eli, so that her influence led to worship.
RWS She did not have in mind the Sunday-school idea, or the young peoples’ meetings. She wanted to present him before Jehovah.
JT She brought him up with offerings that referred to full manhood; not a pigeon or a turtledove, but it says, “she took him up with her when she had weaned him, with three bullocks, and one ephah of flour, and a flask of wine, and brought him to the house of Jehovah to Shiloh; and the boy was young”. But she was thinking of manhood. She had a man in her mind.
Rem. I heard a brother say that the reason the young people were not getting on in their souls was because they did not have young peoples’ meetings. This would offset that.
JT The Lord is helping on that point. The idea of separating children negates the manhood thought. Manhood is shut out for the moment. I have been where they had young peoples’ meetings and the assembly meeting next door. Manhood is shut out. The boy is young, but in Hannah’s mind, she has great, mature thoughts. How is he to be in the house of God save in view of being a man?
Rem. In the wilderness it was one omer of manna every day. There was no division of the manna.
JT The youngest child got the same amount as the father, showing that the divine thought is the same for all.
J. Taylor (Vol. 92, pp.163, 164)
Now, I have this in mind because of the prevalence of absenteeism from our gatherings. The Lord would convey to us that He has given us to each other. He has selected us for Himself. The assembly is for Christ and for God, but we are also for each other; and that should be a powerful incentive to our assembling ourselves together. The Lord assembles us, too, for the assembly is His. But there is the assembling of ourselves together; the Lord has given the saints to each other and we are to be respected mutually. The saints are worthy of respect. Were heaven to call attention to us, it would say something distinctive about each of us, and that would be an incentive for mutual respect and affection among us. There is great variety resulting from the work of God, and this is calculated to draw us together. It will be a feature in heaven. Some of you may recall that when Abraham was shown the land of promise, there were no saints named. He saw it from the level—north, south, east, and west; but Moses was shown it from mount Pisgah, and what he was shown was the territory of the saints—where the saints should be, the positions of certain of the tribes being mentioned. Heaven with God, heaven with Christ, heaven with the angels, heaven with the Holy Spirit, of course, but heaven with the saints. So that the gathering of the saints implies that we love each other and hence there is enjoyment; enjoyment not to be found elsewhere.
J. Taylor (Vol. 69, pp.288, 289)
GWH You were saying it was a good thing to get into the region of the Spirit. Would you say what it is?
FER The Spirit has to maintain us in the consciousness of divine relations. And you get very easily out of this. In Romans 5, “the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which is given unto us”. He brings the heart into the light and sense of divine love, and you cry, “Abba, Father”. That is where we have to abide. Take the average Christian, How much of every day is a Christian diligent to take advantage of the Spirit, and to live in the sense of divine relations? Not long, I take it. A good part of the night is taken up with sleep, and a good part of the day with meals and with business, and very little of the day is devoted to the maintenance of divine relations.
F. E. Raven (Vol. 17, p.308)
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