Miriams Schooling and Other Papers | Page 6

who prophesied
the fall of Eli and his house. Still I served, although He gave no sign of
His presence, for my mother visited me continually, and she kept me
strong and pure. One night, when I had lain down to sleep, I suddenly
heard a voice, which I took to be the voice of Eli, and it called me by
name. This it did thrice, and each time I went to Eli and asked him
what he wished with me, but he had not called. When the voice had
come again and again, I answered, "Speak; for Thy servant heareth,"
and then for the first time was I bidden to execute a command from the
Lord; and I, Samuel, a boy, was ordered to tell Eli, the high priest from
the Lord, whose minister he was, that a deed was about to be done
which should make tingle the ears of every one who heard it, and that

for the iniquity of his sons, and because he did not restrain them, no
sacrifice should avail to protect him from judgment. Such was the
message given to me; to me, Samuel the child, and thus was I honoured
even then. I had never heard the voice before that night, and I lay
awake till the morning, fearing to tell Eli what had been said to me, and
I went out and opened the doors. But Eli sent for me, and when he saw
me he perceived that the Lord had been with me, and he directed me to
hide nothing from him of what had been said to me. I told him the
vision every whit, and from that day forth I have been at the Lord's
bidding, and have interpreted His will to Israel.
Although I had never heard the Lord's voice before, and it came with
no sign nor miracle, I did not doubt that it was His, for there was that in
it which proclaimed Him. Nevertheless I wondered what His judgment
would be, and in what manner it would come to pass. Soon afterwards
the Israelites went out to battle against the Philistines in Aphek, and
were smitten with great slaughter. Then the elders of Israel, thinking
that the Ark of the covenant would save them, sent to Shiloh and
brought it thence, and when it came into the camp they all shouted with
a great shout, so that the earth rang again. Fools to believe that the Ark
was anything if the Living God was not with it! When He was with it,
and the men of Bethshemesh did but look at it, they died; but without
Him it is nothing. The Israelites were greatly heartened when the Ark
came, and the Philistines were afraid, believing, idolaters as they were,
that God must be in it. But the Israelites were defeated; thirty thousand
of them fell; the very Ark was taken; Hophni and Phinehas were also
slain. When Eli heard the news he fell backward and died, and his
daughter-in-law, who was in travail, died also. Thus was the word
delivered to me fulfilled suddenly in one day, and for the sins of the
priests even the Ark whereon were the cherubim was permitted to
depart to the Philistines and keep company with Dagon. After that day,
when Eli died and I looked into the empty sanctuary, could I hesitate to
believe and obey the Lord's word?
The Lord had no mind that the Philistines, who were His scourge for
the Israelites, should vaunt themselves over Him, or should believe that
of their own strength they had prevailed. Wonderful is He! He takes the

wicked to punish His people, and the wicked are but tools in His hand,
and He uses them for His own designs. The Ark came to Ashdod, and
was put in the house of Dagon; but when the men of Ashdod arose
early on the morrow, behold Dagon was fallen upon his face to the
earth before the Ark. They took Dagon and set him in his place again;
and when they arose early on the morrow morning, behold Dagon was
fallen upon his face to the ground before the Ark, and the head of
Dagon and both the palms of his hands were cut off upon the threshold.
Furthermore, the men of Ashdod were destroyed with a secret and
dreadful disease. They thereupon determined to get rid of the Ark, and
they sent it to Gath. When it came to Gath the pestilence fell upon the
men of Gath also, and they sent it away to Ekron, and the pestilence fell
also upon the men of Ekron. Then the wise men of the Philistines were
called together, and they counselled that the Ark should be returned
with a trespass-offering to Israel, and