Properties
- end_line
- 635
- extracted_at
- 2026-01-26T19:09:15.287Z
- extracted_by
- structure-extraction-lambda
- start_line
- 600
- text
- 419 Little Samuel
420
421 By M. M. Taylor
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423 # LITTLE SAMUEL
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425 
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427 HEN I was a little boy of about six years old I was accustomed to be taken to church regularly by my parents on the first day of the week. I cannot say that I definitely remember any direct instruction received at this date from the pulpit. I learned, no doubt, to sit quietly, so as not to disturb other people, and grew into habits of attention. But one memory stands vividly out before me still. My mother had a Bible, which I have now in my hand, not like other Bibles of the period, but one which she had taken out in numbers, and had bound for church use. It was about five inches long by three broad and two thick, with gilt edges, and finished with a flap, on the inner side of which was her name in gold letters; but what charmed me most was the fact that
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430 it had six engravings of Bible scenes, which I never wearied looking at, and the study of which did more for me, I verily believe, than any sermons heard by me at that time.
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432 The first of these pictures was a wood-cut from Sir Joshua Reynolds’s painting of “Little Samuel,” representing a little boy in his night-dress, apparently just risen from his first sleep, and kneeling on the floor with hands uplifted and an eager look upon his countenance, while beneath were the words, “Speak, for Thy servant heareth.” There was for me a fascination in this simple picture which held me like a spell, and I have never seen it since without emotion. It brings before me the whole story of Samuel, and as I look at it now I am a child again, sitting by my mother’s side in the old pew.
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434 One immediate result of all this was to make me very eager to read the history of Samuel, that I might know all about him; so I became familiar with the details of his story—how his birth was in
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435 SAMUEL AND ELI
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439 answer to his mother's prayer; how, out of gratitude to God, she consecrated him from his infancy to the Tabernacle service; how he grew up there into the favor of the aged Eli; how his mother came every year to see him, bringing him a new coat; and how, on the occasion to which the picture refers, the Lord called him, and gave him a message full of terrible forecast to the venerable High Priest. But that which interested me most was the statement that “Samuel ministered before the Lord, being a child girded with a linen ephod”; and as I go back upon that now, I think it may fitly suggest the topic of early religion.
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441 For one thing, it tells us that it is possible for a child to serve the Lord. It is not uncommon for young people to put off the matter of religion until they have grown older; but over and above the danger thereby incurred, there is no need for such delay. True, we cannot expect that piety will show itself in a child in the same way as it does in those who are
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