156 BOYS OF THE BIBLE.

to know the worst, and charged Samuel to tell all that God
had said; and Samuel told him every word. And this was
the sad message he had to tell:

“And the Lord said to Samuel, Behold, I will do a thing
in Israel, at which both the ears of every one that heareth
it shall tingle. In that day I will perform against Eli all
things which I have spoken concerning his house: when I
begin, I will also make an end. For I have told him that
I will judge his house forever for the iniquity that he knoweth;
because his sons made themselves vile, and he restrained them
not. And therefore I have sworn unto the house of Eli,
that the iniquity of Eli’s house shall not. be purged with sacri-
fice nor offering forever!”

What a scene that must have been! A simple and art-
less child standing before a venerable man of nearly one
hundred years—perhaps ten times older than himself—and
delivering divine denunciations on his hoary head!

. But Samuel was a modest, unassuming child. For a
long time there had been no open vision, and the word of
the Lord was precious in those days. When that word was
revealed to Samuel he did not assume any airs of importance,
but went quietly about his usual duty of opening the Coors
of the house of the Lord. It was no pleasing task to him
to bear this burden of the Lord and deliver it upon the head
of the venerable priest, whom he loved and reverenced as
his own father.

Eli, too, loved the child, and called him ‘My son.”
The docility with which Samuel received instruction, and his
willing obedience in all things, were no doubt a comfort and a
joy to Eli, whose chief failing, as first magistrate in the land,
was, that he did not execute impartial justice on his offending
sons in punishment of their public and flagrant iniquities.