THE K I N G ' S B U S I N E S S disposed, submitting ourselves to the light and power of it.—Henry. v. 10. Thy servant heareth. Happy is the one who like Samuel hears and recognizes the Divine voice in early childhood. It may he an audible voice as with Samuel, or a voice so still and small that only the soul can hear it.— Torrey. v. 11. The Lord said. There are some single moments in our lives which make us old. Look at Samuel, for the first time hearing God. Is it not a sol emn moment when we get our first no tion of the Infinite? After such a mo ment a man can never, if he has made right use of it, fall back into the lit tleness and contemptibleness of the life that thinks the world is a nutshell.— People’s Bible. I will do a thing. It is a child upon whose ear this awful mes sage breaks. It would have driven some men mad. God adapts His com munications to those to whom they are addressed.— Parker. v. 13. I will judge him. Eli fathers will be punished for, and made to suf fer in, Eli sons.— Cook. Iniquity which he knoweth. He who tolerates evil is an accomplice in it.— Sel. No doubt Eli loved his sons and wanted to see them grow up in righteousness, but like some preachers today, he was too busy with sermons and meetings and looking after others, and neglected to father his own sons. (1 Tim. 3 :5 ) : —K. B. God’s min isters must nourish a holy sensitiveness to sacred things or callousness will lead them to some sin eventually that will bring reproach upon the cause.— C. H. M. Sons made themselves vile. Their portrait in a phrase of five words is in I Sam. 2:12. They were given over to beastly lewdness. The father feebly protested but never restrained. God holds the father responsible for the con duct of his children while members of his household. There are many Eli fathers in the land.-^Haldeman. V. 19. None of his words fell to the ground. God has appointed elsewhere child prophets unexpected interpreters of His heart and will.— Parker. It is prayer that puts the preacher’s message into the preacher’s heart, his heart into the message and the message into the people’s hearts. It is easier to fill the head than the heart. That is why many preachers prepare sermons instead of hearts.JgBounds. v. 20. All Israel knew. A new pe riod in the history of the kingdom had
481 commenced. Israel knew that there was a new link between them and their God, a living center o’f guidance and fellowship.— Anno. Bible. Samuel was established. God had to pass by the ordained priesthood and men of note to use a lad as a mouthpiece. (Matt. 21:16; 11:25; 1 Cor. 1:27).— Eliott. Teachableness and consecration count more with God when He would reveal His truth than age or experience. Bet ter that children be lent to the Lord (1 Sam. 1:28) than disowned of the Lord. — Cook. Samuel has not to fight his way to public recognition or wait long till it come. All Israel shall know that he has been established by the Lord Himself.^-Blaikie. The Child Samuel in God’s House. 1 Sam. 1:10-28; 2:11, 18, 19, 26; 3: 1 - 10 . Memory Verse: “ Serve the Lord with gladness.” Psalm 100:2. Approach: Secure a picture if pos sible of a father and mother in a home, or draw on board, or if class is small gathered around a table draw on a sheet of paper. Prayer. Lesson Story: Now we are going to have a story from the blackboard this morning, and you will have to watch closely. (Draw simple outline of a little home.) Children BEGINNERS what is this the pic- AND PRIMARY ture of? Yes, a Mabel L. Merrill house, and we will call it the home of a man and his wife whom we are going to hear about in our story this morning. We see it is a real nice little home with its trees and pretty flowers in the yard, and we will leave the door wide open, for they have nice weather in the land where these people lived, just like the lovely weather we have here in Cali fornia, and then we can see in the home, and I wonder what kind of peo ple live in this home. Here „is a scroll (draw as you talk) which was the form the Bible was in at the time these peo ple lived, and as we watch these peo-
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