BOYS OF THE BIBLE. 157

How pleasantly the story is told of Hannah’s visits to
Shiloh, of the little broidered coat, stitched with love, wept
over, sung over, prayed over! Worth more than the purple
robes of royalty was this simple garment wrought by the
Jewish mother for her son. But the mother’s work jis largely
done, and she passes from the history, but not from the
heart of the world; for while the world honors the grand
career of Samuel, the prophet-statesman of the ancient Israel,
the story of the praying mother and the little broidered
coat and her grand psalm of praise will be remembered.
Samuel went on year after year trimming the lamps of the
temple of God and guarding its altar fires.

The house of Eli passed’ away, Samuel grew, and the Lord
was with him; and all Israel, from Dan even to Beer-sheba,
knew that he was established to be a prophet of the Lord.

Tow could such a boyhood lead to anything but a
noble manhood? And it is safe to say, that in the whole
history of the world, there have been very few men as
great, as honorable, and as useful to their age, as Samuel
the son of Hannah. He was the first of the great prophets
of Israel; he was the founder of the School of the Prophets;
he was one of the great educators of the early world; the last
of Israel’s Judges, and the greatest of them all.

Remember that it was in the sanctuary of Shiloh that
Samuel spent his boyhood. And it is to our sanctuaries,
and to the sons of Christian mothers—praying mothers like
Hannah—that we look to-day for the successors of Samuel.

Hushed was the evening hymn,
The temple courts were dark,

The lamp was burning dim
Before the sacred ark;

When suddenly a voice Divine
Rang through the silence of the shrine.