DAGON AND THE ARK.

The messenger said, “I have just
run from the army.” Then Eli
trembled very much, and asked,
“What is done there? tell me.”
The man said, “The Israelites are
conquered, Hophni and Phinehas
are slain, and the ark of God is
taken away.” Eli heard it all; but
when the messenger said that the

 

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ark was gone, he could bear no more;
he did not look up, nor speak again ;
he fell back off his seat, and his neck
broke, and he died. He could not
bear so much sorrow. He had lost
all his comforts; God’s anger was
upon the country; and the ark and
the blessing of God were taken
away.

 

XOVIL.

| Pacon AND THE PRK.

HE Philistines took away
the ark from Ebenezer,
where the battle was
fought, and carried it to
Ashdod, and put it in

the temple of their idol Dagon. The

Philistines thought that the ark was

an idol like Dagon; but God soon

showed them that it was very dif-
ferent.

When the Philistines came into
the temple on the morrow morning,
they saw Dagon fallen down before
the ark; and they took him, and
put him up again. But the next
day, they found Dagon fallen down
again, and his hands and his head
broken to pieces. Who had done
this? God did it, to show the
Philistines how powerful He was,
and that their idol god could not
stand before His holy ark. God
punished the people too of Ashdod
with a dreadful plague; and they
were very much frightened, and said,
the ark should not stay with them
any longer, because it hurt them
and their god Dagon.

Many people say in their hearts,
“We do not want God: we do not
like to pray, and ito think of Him,

 

 

and to serve Him; we like our
pleasures best, we like the world
best.” These people are like the
Philistines, who sent away the holy
ark, because they liked to serve
Dagon better than the true God.

Where did the ark go? The
Philistines sent it to Gath; but
there God punished the people with
the plague, and then they sent the
ark to Ekron. When the people of
Ekron saw it coming, they were
frightened, and cried, “'Take the
ark away; we fear a plague will
come with it; send it back to its
own country.” The ark was seven
months in the Philistines’ country,
and many people died of the plague
which God sent.

At last, the Philistines said, they
would send the ark home: for they
saw that the God of Israel was
stronger than they, and they could
not resist His power. So they made
a new cart, and put the ark into it;
two kine drew the cart. They took
the right road to go to the land of
Israel’: they did not stand still; they
went straight on, without turning to
right or left.