o they took it from the holy
place to the camp of Israel. Then the Philistines fell upon the camp
and scattered the men of Israel. They also took the Ark of God, and
the two sons of Eli were among the thousands slain.

Eli, who trembled for the Ark of God, sat outside the city gate, by the
wayside watching. He was nearly a hundred years old, and his eyes were
dim, but when a messenger came with the bad news, he fell backward in
his seat and died. His heart was broken.

Where was Samuel? Perhaps he was praying in the temple for the return
of the Ark of the Covenant.

Wherever the Ark went among the Philistines, there went also trouble
and death. When they put it in the temple of their fish-god Dagon, the
great idol fell down before it and was broken. And when it was taken
to another city, the people were smitten with sickness, until at last
the Philistines said:

"Send away the Ark of the God of Israel, and let it go to its own
place."

After seven months they sent it with gifts of gold to the Israelites.
They placed it on a new cart drawn by two cows, and the cows, guided by
the Lord alone, took a straight way into the land of Israel. How glad
the people were when they looked up from their reaping in the fields,
and saw the Ark coming safely back to them. The Philistines watched it
from afar to see if it would be guided of God to its own place or not
and then they returned to their city.

Samuel gathered the people to the Lord after this, and though they had
sinned greatly, and had gone after the gods of the heathen around them,
they repented and returned to the faith of their fathers, and were
faithful all the days of Samuel. He went from year to year on a
journey to three cities of Israel, and judged the people in those
places, but his home was in Ramah, the city where he was born, and
where Hannah had brought him up for the Lord.

CHAPTER XVIII.

THE MAKING OF A KING.

When Samuel was old he made his sons judges in his place, but they were
not holy men like their father.

They loved money, and would judge unjustly, if money were given to them
as a bribe. So the people came to Samuel at Ramah and said,

"Give us a king to judge us."

And Samuel prayed to the Lord, and the Lord told him to do as the
people had asked him to do, for they had not rejected him as judge, but
the Lord as their King, and now they must learn what kind of a king
would reign over them. So Samuel told them what t