God will bless you for ever and ever. Consider, also, in what light you will be regarded by yourself. With what inexpressible pleasure will you, at the close of your life, whenever that may be, cast back your eyes on your early years, spent in the service of God. The joy you will derive from the retrospect of the past will be only inferior to that with which you look forward to the future.

If, my beloved brethren, you would wish to estimate correctly the vast advantages of the period of existence in which you now are, reflect, for a moment, what price he who stands on the brink of the grave, and who there looks back upon an ill spent youth, would give for a year, for a month, nay, even for a short week of that time of life which you enjoy; how gladly would he barter all his earthly advantages for a small part of your present opportunities and faculties of body and mind, for giving glory to God, and of working out your own salvation!

I cannot dwell longer on this topic, which will, I trust, suggest to you many serious reflections, and many good resolutions, but I pass on, in conclusion, to encourage you in the holy and happy enterprise of devoting your youthful energies to the service of God, by recalling to your minds the examples of those who have preceded you in this glorious career. Would you convince yourselves, that obedience to your parents, and purity of heart, are to be the proper ornaments of your youth, and will gain you the favour

of God? Look at the example of Joseph. Do you require a practical proof of the blessedness of early piety? Behold it in the person of Samuel. Can you doubt that in all your studies you should implore God's guidance, if you wish for a blessing upon them? Remember the prayer of Solomon. Can you want encouragement, if you are placed hereafter in a station of influence, to aim at the glory of God, and rely upon his aid; turn to the history of Josiah. Do you think that your youth will be any bar to your acceptance with God? Remember that David, the chosen of God, was the youngest of all the sons of Jesse, and that the beloved disciple was the least in age amongst the apostles. Consider again that of the youthful days of our great Exemplar, Jesus Christ himself: it is recorded in Scripture that He was obedient to his earthly parents, and found by them in the temple of his heavenly Father. With these patterns before you, God grant that you may be endued with power from on high, and that, having remembered your Creator, as they did, in the days of your youth, you may hereafter be joined to the blessed company of patriarchs, and prophets, and evangelists; to Joseph, and to Samuel, and to David, and St. John, before the throne of Christ!

SERMON X.

SAMUEL.

FIFTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY.

1 SAMUEL iii. 19, 20.

"And Samuel grew, and the Lord was with him, and did let none of his words fall to the ground. And all Israel, from Dan even to Beersheba, knew that Samuel was established to be a Prophet of the Lord."

OUR attention has been drawn to the history of Samuel, during the Sundays of the past month, by the portions of Scripture selected by the Church for the first Lessons of the Morning and Evening Service. It will not be an unprofitable employment, while the incidents of his life are fresh in our minds, to take advantage of this opportunity for considering such circumstances of his conduct and character as may furnish practical instruction to ourselves. shall confine myself almost exclusively to the events of his early history, because upon the foundation of his early habits, the virtues and graces of his later

I

years were raised; and because therefore, in considering the youthful disposition and habits of Samuel, we consider the source of his subsequent greatness and glory.

The circumstances of his birth are well known to you. He was, you remember, a native of Ramathaim, which seems to have been the same with Rama, (a town on Mount Ephraim) where the Prophetess Deborah had dwelt, and a few miles to the north of Jerusalem'. His father Elkanah was a Levite, and appears, from what is said of him in Scripture, to have been a person of exemplary piety and goodness. Every reader of Scripture will remember the virtues of Hannah his mother. You will call to mind the patience with which she went up to the Tabernacle, year after year, and prayed to God that He would give her a son. You will recollect the meekness with which she bore the taunts of her rival, and the accusations of Eli the priest; the joy and gratitude with which she sung praises to God, for his goodness in hearing her prayer, and the devotion with which she gave up to Him her first-born child, who had been the object to her of so many hopes, and prayers, and tears. This child was Samuel, called by that name, because he was given back to the Lord, from whom he had been obtained by supplication.

Samuel, thus given to the service of God, grew up

1 Raumer, Palæstina, 146.

under Eli the high priest before the Lord in the tabernacle at Shiloh, the place to which the tabernacle had been removed from Gilgal, the first station of the Israelites after they had crossed the river Jordan. It was situated on a lofty mountain, in the tribe of Ephraim, near Bethel, and was therefore at an easy distance from Ramathaim, where the parents of Samuel dwelt. An interval of a very few miles separated him from his father and mother, who had thus frequent opportunities of seeing him, and hearing of his welfare.

At

The evening had set in, and the child Samuel had retired to rest, near the spot where the ark of God was; Eli, too, was laid down in his place. And the Lord called to Samuel four times in succession. the fourth time, Samuel, being instructed by Eli how to answer the call, received from the Lord an announcement of the dreadful judgments which He would bring on the house of Eli, because his sons Hophni and Phinehas had made themselves vile, and he restrained them not. Having heard these words, Samuel lay until the morning; when he opened the doors of the house of the Lord. He feared, as well he might, to tell Eli the vision, but being conjured by him to do so, "he told him every whit, and hid nothing from him." And Eli said, "it is the Lord; let him do what seemeth him good." "And Samuel grew, and the Lord was with him, and did let none of his words fall to the