



Produced by Annie R. McGuire








[Illustration: HARPER'S YOUNG PEOPLE

AN ILLUSTRATED WEEKLY.]

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VOL. II.--NO. 56. PUBLISHED BY HARPER & BROTHERS, NEW YORK. PRICE FOUR
CENTS.

Tuesday, November 23, 1880. Copyright, 1880, by HARPER & BROTHERS. $1.50
per Year, in Advance

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[Illustration: LITTLE SAMUEL.--[SEE NEXT PAGE.]]

THE BOYHOOD OF SAMUEL.

BY THE REV. BRADFORD K. PEIRCE, D.D.


A long time ago--more than three thousand years--a little boy was born
to a loving mother. She was a Jewess, and in those days it was the
custom to be called by only one name. Her name was Hannah, or Anna. She
lived with the father of her little boy in a mountain village six or
eight miles north of the city of Jerusalem.

Hannah was a tender-hearted woman, and as good as she was gentle. She
longed to have a little boy who might grow up and be trained to be a
teacher of the true God among the people around her, who were very
ignorant and wicked in those days. So she prayed, and God heard her
prayer. Upon the birth of the little fellow she named him Samuel, which
means _Asked of God_. So happy and grateful to God was this Jewish
mother that she wrote a wonderful song, which has been preserved all
these years, and may be still read in the Bible.

When her boy was two or three years old she carried him to the place
where the people of the country met to worship God, where was the great
tent called the Tabernacle, with its different coverings, of which we
are told in the second book of the Bible, and where the priest of God
and those that assisted him lived. Here she left him, with many warm
kisses and tears, that he might be taught by these religious men, and be
fitted to become in after-years a prophet or teacher of the true God.
His school had no vacations; but once a year regularly his mother came
to see him, bringing him a new, rich mantle as a gift of love, and a
proper robe for one who assisted in public worship, although a child, to
wear.

Every one saw that he was a remarkable boy. The old priest loved him as
a son. The blessed God in heaven also loves children, and knows how to
express His love to them so that they will understand it. He sometimes
intimates to them, when He is about to call them to some great work,
that they are by-and-by to become His ministers. Many a little fellow as
young as Samuel has felt in his mind, he hardly knew how or why, that he
would some time be a preacher of the Gospel.

When Samuel was about twelve years of age this wonderful thing happened
to him. He had a little room by himself within the great tent where the
people worshipped. The aged priest, whose name was Eli, had another
quite near to him. In the night, while the lamps were still burning in
the Tabernacle, and he had fallen asleep on his bed, he was suddenly
awaked by a voice calling him by name. He supposed, of course, it was
Eli calling, and he hurried to the old man's chamber, saying, as he
entered, "Here am I."

"I did not call you," said Eli; "go, lie down again."

He had hardly dropped into slumber once more, when the same voice awaked
him again: "Samuel, Samuel," it said.

He ran again to the room of Eli, and said, "Here am I; for thou didst
call me."

The old man thought, probably, that he was disturbed by terrifying
dreams, and said to him, "I called not, my son; lie down again."

A third time the voice called. It is wonderful that the lad was not
affrighted. But if one loves God and does right, there is nothing that
can harm him. The open-faced child of the Tabernacle, obeying without
hesitation, although answering twice in vain, hastened to the chamber of
Eli with his ready and filial response, "Here am I; for thou didst call
me."

The aged minister then knew that it was not a human voice, but the voice
of God. He said to the child, "Go, lie down, and if the voice is heard
again, say, 'Speak, Lord, for Thy servant heareth.'"

He went alone to his chamber and to his bed in the silence of the night,
and once more the voice