for ever. And it shall come to pass, that every one that is left in thy house shall come and crouch to him for a piece of silver and a morsel of bread, and shall say, Put me, I pray thee, into one of the priests' offices, that I may eat a piece of bread.'

It was from the lips of Samuel that Eli was to hear this mournful message repeated and confirmed; for, when still very young, Samuel received a Divine revelation, and was endowed with that peculiar gift of God's grace which raised him at once from the priest to the prophet. It was night or early morning, and the Tabernacle was dimly illumined by the soft light from the lamp that burnt there from sunset to sunrise. Eli, who had been rapidly growing weaker and more infirm, was lying down in his place. Samuel also was sleeping within the sacred dwelling, when a voice, calling his name, aroused him. He sprang up, and running to Eli, said, Here am I;' for he thought Eli had called him. But Eli answered, 'I called thee not; go back and lie down again.' Samuel obeyed. But again the same voice was heard, and again Samuel hastened to Eli, saying, 'Here am I.' Eli bade him return as before, and lie down. It was the voice of the Lord, but the child knew it not. It came to him a third time, and again thinking that it was Eli who called, he hastened to him. Now Eli became aware that it was the Lord's summons, and he said to Samuel, 'Go, lie down; and if it happens that thou art called, thou shalt say, "Speak, O Lord, for Thy servant hears." So Samuel went, and the Lord addressed him as before, Samuel, Samuel!' Then Samuel answered, 'Speak, for Thy servant hears.' And the Lord said to Samuel, ‘Behold, I will do a thing in Israel, at which both ears of every one that hears it shall tingle. In that day I will perform against Eli all the things which I have spoken concerning his house; I shall begin and finish. For I have told him

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that I will punish his house for ever, for the offence that he knew that his sons made themselves accursed, and restrained them not. And therefore I swear to the house of Eli that the iniquity of Eli's house shall not be purged with sacrifice nor offering for ever.' Samuel lay quietly in his place until the morning. He was afraid to relate the vision of the night. But Eli called him, and bade him tell all fearlessly. After hearing the awful announcement, the old man said humbly, 'It is the Lord, let Him do what seems good to Him.'

The Biblical historian appears to linger fondly on the picture of the child-priest in the Tabernacle; he tells us repeatedly how the Lord blessed and how the people loved him. Strengthened by the spirit of God, intelligent and high-minded, full of earnest faith and energy, Samuel grew up to become a prophet of the Lord, and the greatest, as he was the last, of the Judges of Israel.

77. CAPTURE AND RETURN OF THE ARK.

[1 SAM. IV. VI.]

The word of solemn warning had gone forth, and the day of sorrow was at hand. The evil deeds of the people and their priests were to meet with a speedy retribution.

The Philistines, who had so constantly molested and troubled the Hebrews, invading their territory, seizing their harvest fruit, and making raids on their flocks and herds, now reappeared to carry on their usual aggressive warfare. This struggle came to a decisive issue in a hardfought battle between Aphek and Eben-ezer, in the south of Palestine, where the Israelites were defeated with a loss of four thousand men. Now the elders of Israel remembered that in the days of Joshua the Ark of the Lord had been triumphantly carried at the head of the army, and

had always ensured success. Why should it not again prove their aid and rescue? So they went to Shiloh, and demanded that the Ark should be brought to them out of the Tabernacle. Hophni and Phinehas, the two priests, came themselves to the camp, bearing the sacred shrine between them. Its presence wonderfully restored the drooping courage of the Israelites. As soon as they beheld it, they raised a great cry, so that the earth rang and seemed to tremble. The Philistines heard the shouting and divined the cause. They were sorely afraid, and exclaimed, 'Woe unto us! Who shall deliver us out of the hand of this mighty God? This is the God who smote the Egyptians with all the plagues in the wilderness.' Yet they ventured out in battle, and fought with desperate courage. The Israelites were again routed: this time thirty thousand of their soldiers were slain, and the rest fled in wild confusion to their tents. Hophni and Phinehas were among the dead, and the pride of Israel, the Ark of the Covenant, was in the hands of their heathen enemy. The people, assembled at Shiloh in a torture of suspense, were awaiting news of the battle. At last, towards the evening, there came swiftly running from the camp to the city a Benjamite, with his clothes rent and earth upon his head. Eli sat watching by the wayside as the messenger entered the gates of the town; he heard a loud wail arise. 'What does the voice of this tumult mean?' the old man asked, full of evil forebodings. His failing sight would not let him perceive the messenger's rent clothes and his sand-covered head, which told their own tale. Then the Benjamite approached him and said, 'I come out from the battlefield, and I have fled to-day from the battlefield.' Eli, anxiously interrupting him, enquired, 'What is there done, my son?' Then the messenger related fully his sad tidings: Israel is fled before the Philistines, and there has been a great slaughter

among the people, and thy two sons also, Hophni and Phinehas, are dead, and the Ark of God is taken.' When Eli heard of the fate of the Ark, over which he had watched so many years as the holiest treasure of Israel, he fell backwards from his seat, overcome with an agony of grief, and died where he fell, ninety-eight years old, after having judged the Hebrews for forty years. At the same hour, the wife of Phinehas gave birth to a son, and with her dying breath she called him Ichabod (No-honour), saying, "The glory is departed from Israel.' The shame that had fallen on the people had also broken her heart.

Meanwhile the Philistines carried the Ark of the Covenant exultingly to Ashdod, and placed it in the temple of their god Dagon. On the following morning, they found the image of the idol fallen prostrate upon his face before the Ark. They lifted up the statue, and replaced it; but on the next day, Dagon had fallen again before the Ark; this time his head and hands were broken off, and were lying upon the threshold. From that day, the threshold of Dagon's temple in Ashdod became a sacred spot, on which neither the priests nor the people of the Philistines dared to tread.

But greater trials were in store for the people of Ashdod. They were severely afflicted with boils and ulcers; and they knew that this was their punishment for trying to keep the Ark of the Lord. Therefore they sent it from Ashdod to Gath; but it had scarcely arrived, when the people of Gath were smitten with the same diseases. It was next taken to Ekron, another great city of the Philistines. The inhabitants of Ekron, warned by the troubles of Ashdod and Gath, were terrified when they saw the Ark. They anxiously desired to send it away at The hand of the Lord was heavy upon the people, and they cried bitterly. When the Philistines had been

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in possession of the Ark for seven months, and had been visited with calamities and misfortunes, they called their priests and their diviners together for counsel. They determined to restore the Ark to the Israelites. But the heathen priests, eager to appease the Divine wrath, which they had so severely felt, feared to send back the Ark without an offering of atonement. In accordance with their advice, the people made ready a trespass-offering of five golden emerods, together with five golden mice, representing the destructive plague by which they had been afflicted, one for each of the Philistine cities-Ashdod, Gaza, Ashkelon, Gath, and Ekron. The jewels were put in a chest, and laid by the side of the Ark. This was then carried out, and placed upon a new cart drawn by two milch cows, which had never borne the yoke before. The priests ordered their countrymen to let the kine go on by themselves if the animals went eastward towards Beth-shemesh into the land of the Israelites, then the Philistines would know that it was the Lord who had smitten them; but if they went in any other direction, they might believe that their misfortunes were not caused by any sin of theirs. The kine proceeded, lowing as they went, taking the straight road to Beth-shemesh, never turning to the right or to the left. The chiefs of the Philistines followed after them. The wheat-harvest had commenced, and the reapers of Judah, who were at work among the corn, saw the procession as it came winding from afar. As they beheld the Ark, they were full of rejoicing; it was as if the glory of their God were returning to them. The beasts stopped in the field of Joshua, a Bethshemite. The Levites lifted the Ark from the cart, and placed it on a great stone that was in the field, together with the chest and the golden offerings. They speedily prepared a sacrifice, breaking up the cart for fuel, and slaughtering the kine as a burntoffering. When the Philistine chiefs had witnessed all