The Repair of Broken Ideals
H. W. Beecher. 1 Samuel 5:1-5 And the Philistines took the ark of God, and brought it from Ebenezer to Ashdod.… Because you have broken your purpose do not allow it to go unmended. Even the heathen with so base a conception of divinity as Dagon was, when Dagon fell to the ground, lifted him up again and put him in his place. When, not your idol, but your bright ideal, falls to the ground, though its head and its feet be broken, lift it up and put in its place again. Because you have broken faith and fealty to that which you meant to be, and meant to do, it is no reason why you should not swear again, and again go forward. Let your ideal stand high and bright and pure, though by it every one of you is condemned, and cast down, as it were, to the very bottom of condemnation. Save that. Even though a man forsake his purpose, though he is recreant to his ideal, though he through months and years goes knowingly wrong, let not his star set. Do not let your ideal go down. (H. W. Beecher.) Parallel Verses KJV: And the Philistines took the ark of God, and brought it from Ebenezer unto Ashdod. WEB: Now the Philistines had taken the ark of God, and they brought it from Ebenezer to Ashdod.