for
the first time was I bidden to execute a command from the Lord; and I,
Samuel, a boy, was ordered to tell Eli, the high priest from the Lord,
whose minister he was, that a deed was about to be done which should
make tingle the ears of every one who heard it, and that for the
iniquity of his sons, and because he did not restrain them, no
sacrifice should avail to protect him from judgment. Such was the
message given to me; to me, Samuel the child, and thus was I honoured
even then. I had never heard the voice before that night, and I lay
awake till the morning, fearing to tell Eli what had been said to me,
and I went out and opened the doors. But Eli sent for me, and when he
saw me he perceived that the Lord had been with me, and he directed me
to hide nothing from him of what had been said to me. I told him the
vision every whit, and from that day forth I have been at the Lord's
bidding, and have interpreted His will to Israel.

Although I had never heard the Lord's voice before, and it came with no
sign nor miracle, I did not doubt that it was His, for there was that
in it which proclaimed Him. Nevertheless I wondered what His judgment
would be, and in what manner it would come to pass. Soon afterwards
the Israelites went out to battle against the Philistines in Aphek, and
were smitten with great slaughter. Then the elders of Israel, thinking
that the Ark of the covenant would save them, sent to Shiloh and
brought it thence, and when it came into the camp they all shouted with
a great shout, so that the earth rang again. Fools to believe that the
Ark was anything if the Living God was not with it! When He was with
it, and the men of Bethshemesh did but look at it, they died; but
without Him it is nothing. The Israelites were greatly heartened when
the Ark came, and the Philistines were afraid, believing, idolaters as
they were, that God must be in it. But the Israelites were defeated;
thirty thousand of them fell; the very Ark was taken; Hophni and
Phinehas were also slain. When Eli heard the news he fell backward and
died, and his daughter-in-law, who was in travail, died also. Thus was
the word delivered to me fulfilled suddenly in one day, and for the
sins of the priests even the Ark whereon were the cherubim was
permitted to depart to the Philistines and keep company with Dagon.
After that day, when Eli died and I looked into the empty sanctuary,
could I hesitate to believe and obey the Lord's word