Elkanah came bringing
sacrifices, and the young child was with them. Hannah told Eli that
she was the woman whom he saw praying in the temple.

[Illustration: Samuel speaking to the Lord]

"For the child I prayed," she said, "and the Lord has answered my
prayer. Therefore I have lent him to the Lord; as long as he lives he
shall be lent to the Lord." Eli was very glad and gave thanks to the
Lord, and took the little boy to help him in the service of the temple.
Every year his father and mother came to bring offerings to the Lord,
and his mother always brought him a little coat which she had made.

Over it was a linen garment called an ephod, such as the priests wore.
Eli was an old man, and his sons, though they were priests, were not
good men, and he believed the Lord had sent him one who would be good,
so he loved little Samuel as if he were his own.

One night when Eli was laid down to sleep, and Samuel also, while the
light was still burning in the golden candlestick before the Ark,
Samuel heard a voice calling him, and he answered, "Here am I," and ran
to see what Eli wanted. But Eli said that he had not called, and
Samuel lay down again. When the voice called again, Samuel went again
to Eli's bed, but Eli told him to lie down again, for he had not called
him. When the voice called the third time, Samuel said: "Here am I,
for thou _didst_ call me."

Then Eli told the boy to lie down once more, but if he heard the voice
again to say,

"Speak Lord, for thy servant heareth."

And when the voice called again, "Samuel, Samuel," the boy answered,

"Speak Lord, for thy servant heareth."

Then the Lord told Samuel that the sons of Eli had become very wicked,
and their father had not kept them from the evil, and therefore He
could not accept their offerings.

When Eli asked Samuel what the Lord had said to him, the boy told him
all and hid nothing from him, and Eli bowed his spirit before the Lord,
and said:

"It is the Lord, let Him do what seemeth Him good."

After this all the people of Israel knew that the Lord had called
Samuel to be a prophet. And as he grew up the Lord was with him, and
he was a judge over his people all his life.

As for Eli and his sons, the word of the Lord soon came true. When the
Philistines came against the Israelites in battle, the Elders of Israel
said:

"Let us bring the Ark of the Lord out of Shiloh to us, that it may save
us out of the hand of our enemies." And s