{"id":3872,"date":"2008-11-17T18:03:51","date_gmt":"2008-11-17T23:03:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.purposedriven.ca\/wiki\/ch-spurgeon\/1-samuel-712"},"modified":"2008-11-17T18:03:51","modified_gmt":"2008-11-17T23:03:51","slug":"1-samuel-712","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/purposedriven.ca\/wiki\/2008\/11\/17\/1-samuel-712\/","title":{"rendered":"1 Samuel 7:12"},"content":{"rendered":"<blockquote>\n<p>&#8220;Hitherto hath the Lord helped us.&#8221;&nbsp; <br \/>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &#8212; 1 Samuel 7:12 <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>The word &#8220;hitherto&#8221; seems like a hand pointing in the direction of the<br \/>past. Twenty years or seventy, and yet, &#8220;hitherto the Lord hath<br \/>helped!&#8221; Through poverty, through wealth, through sickness, through<br \/>health, at home, abroad, on the land, on the sea, in honour, in<br \/>dishonour, in perplexity, in joy, in trial, in triumph, in prayer, in<br \/>temptation, &#8220;hitherto hath the Lord helped us!&#8221; We delight to look down<br \/>a long avenue of trees. It is delightful to gaze from end to end of the<br \/>long vista, a sort of verdant temple, with its branching pillars and<br \/>its arches of leaves; even so look down the long aisles of your years,<br \/>at the green boughs of mercy overhead, and the strong pillars of<br \/>lovingkindness and faithfulness which bear up your joys. Are there no<br \/>birds in yonder branches singing? Surely there must be many, and they<br \/>all sing of mercy received &#8220;hitherto.&#8221; <\/p>\n<p>But the word also points forward. For when a man gets up to a certain<br \/>mark and writes &#8220;hitherto,&#8221; he is not yet at the end, there is still a<br \/>distance to be traversed. More trials, more joys; more temptations,<br \/>more triumphs; more prayers, more answers; more toils, more strength;<br \/>more fights, more victories; and then come sickness, old age, disease,<br \/>death. Is it over now? No! there is more yet-awakening in Jesus&#8217;<br \/>likeness, thrones, harps, songs, psalms, white raiment, the face of<br \/>Jesus, the society of saints, the glory of God, the fulness of<br \/>eternity, the infinity of bliss. O be of good courage, believer, and<br \/>with grateful confidence raise thy &#8220;Ebenezer,&#8221; for-  <\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>He who hath helped thee hitherto<br \/>Will help thee all thy journey through. <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>When read in heaven&#8217;s light how glorious and marvellous a prospect will<br \/>thy &#8220;hitherto&#8221; unfold to thy grateful eye!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;Hitherto hath the Lord helped us.&#8221;&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &#8212; 1 Samuel 7:12 The word &#8220;hitherto&#8221; seems like a hand pointing in the direction of thepast. Twenty years or seventy, and yet, &#8220;hitherto the Lord hathhelped!&#8221; Through poverty, through wealth, through sickness, throughhealth, at home, abroad, on the land, on the sea, in honour, indishonour, in perplexity,&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"twitterCardType":"","cardImageID":0,"cardImage":"","cardTitle":"","cardDesc":"","cardImageAlt":"","cardPlayer":"","cardPlayerWidth":0,"cardPlayerHeight":0,"cardPlayerStream":"","cardPlayerCodec":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3872","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/purposedriven.ca\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3872","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/purposedriven.ca\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/purposedriven.ca\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purposedriven.ca\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purposedriven.ca\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3872"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/purposedriven.ca\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3872\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/purposedriven.ca\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3872"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purposedriven.ca\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3872"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purposedriven.ca\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3872"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}