Our Daily Homily

Devotional For

October 19

      But the thing displeased Samuel.... And Samuel prayed unto the Lord. 1 Samuel 8:6.
      
      A little further down in the chapter we learn that Samuel rehearsed the words of the people unto the Lord. His prayer, to a large extent, was a rehearsal of all the strong and unkind things that the people had said to him; and in this way he passed them off his mind, and found relief. There is a suggestion of close communion with God in the expression, "He rehearsed them in the ears of the Lord." It had been the habit of his life to be on intimate terms with his God.
      
      Things do not always turn out as we had hoped, and we get displeased for our own sakes and God's. We had planned in one direction, but events have issued in another; and the results have threatened to become disastrous. There is but one resource. If we allow vexations to eat into our heart, they will corrode and injure it. We must rehearse them to God spreading the letter before Him, as Hezekiah did; making request like Paul; crying like Samuel.
      
      Surely it is the mistake of our life, that we carry our burdens instead of handing them over; that we worry instead of trusting; that we pray so little. The grass grows thick on the pathway to our oratory; the cobwebs hang across the doorway. The time we spend in prayer is perhaps better spent than in any other way. It was whilst Samuel prayed thus, that he saw the Divine programme for Israel:
      
      "And he who at the sixth hour sought
          The lone house top to pray,
      There gained a sight beyond his thought
          The dawn of Gentile day.
      
      Then reckon not, when perils lour,
          The time of prayer mis spent;
      Nor meanest chance, nor place, nor hour,
          Without its heavenward bent."