The Bible Year

“When you are reading a book in a dark room, and come to a difficult part, you take it to a window to get more light. So take your Bibles to Christ.”—Robert McCheyne.

“The Bible alone of all the books in the world, instead of uttering the opinions of the successive ages that produced it, has been the antagonist of these opinions.”—Stuart Robinson.

“I never saw a useful Christian who was not a student of the Bible. If a man neglects his Bible, he may pray and ask God to use him in his work; but God cannot make much use of him, for there is not much for the Holy Ghost to work upon.”—D. L. Moody.

First and Second Samuel

Originally these two books were reckoned as one, and for the present purpose will be so treated. They contain three “interlaced biographies,”—those of Samuel, the last and greatest of the judges; Saul, the first king of Israel; and David, the most noble and beloved of her rulers. It is supposed that the books are called by the prophet's name because his history comes first in the record.

The authorship of the books is a matter of dispute. One widely accepted theory is that the first twenty-four chapters were written by Samuel, and the remaining portions by Nathan and Gad, since these prophets are referred to in 1 Chron. 29: 29 as having a part in writing the life of King David. But though the human hand that traced these ancient pages may be unknown, the authority of their divine Author is clearly seen. “The book of Samuel is one of the best specimens of Hebrew prose in the golden age of Hebrew literature. In prose it holds the same place which Joel and the undisputed prophecies of Isaiah hold in poetical or prophetical language.”

Ebenezer

When Samuel set up a stone between Mizpeh and Shen (see I Sam. 7: 12), to commemorate Israel's victory over the Philistines, he was following an old, old custom among the peoples of the East. Only two hundred and seventy years after this time, a king of Moab, Mesha by name, who was a contemporary of Omri, set up a pillar to commemorate his deliverance from the yoke of Israel. This pillar was set up at Dibon, in the hills of Moab, a day's journey eastward from the Red Sea. In 1868 this pillar was still standing, and was in a good state of preservation. It is now in the Louvre, in Paris.

Saul

The life of the first king of Israel may be divided into three parts: (1) Promise time; (2) testing and failure; (3) disobedience and doom. He entered upon his career with the fairest possible prospects; before him were spread out “wonderful and beautiful possibilities. The morning of his kingdom rose almost cloudless.” That his life should have gone out in such darkness and disgrace was due, not to a lack of opportunity for the development of moral fiber, but to his neglect to restrain and subdue the natural impulses of the human heart. “Saul was a clever man, a great military leader, an able statesman; yet his life was a miserable failure because he tried to put himself in place of God, and to carry out his own plans. He was self-willed and disobedient. He failed to see that which he ought to have perceived at once, that this was God's nation and not his own, and that Jehovah had plans which must be carried out.” Self-will, jealousy, and greed were allowed to rule his course; and gradually “he lost his kingly nature and power. His faults developed—treachery, vanity, selfishness, iniquity, blasphemy. He became almost insane.”