Lord, with an offering of a bullock, and of flour and wine. Then she gave the child to Eli the high priest, and said that it was the child for whom she had prayed four years before, and that she had come to give him to the Lord to serve before Him as long as he should live, because the Lord had heard her prayer. Samuel was three years old at this time'; and he worshipped the Lord there. And Hannah prayed and praised God, and her heart rejoiced in the Lord. Then she left the child Samuel with Eli the priest, and returned to her own home.

The child Samuel dwelt with Eli the high priest, near the Tabernacle of the Lord; for there were tents around the court of the Tabernacle, where the priests lived. And he ministered unto the Lord before Eli the priest; for he was of the tribe of Levi, and therefore it was lawful for him to assist the priests while they offered sacrifice before the Tabernacle.

"When Samuel ministered before the Lord he

1 Compare 1 Sam. i. 22 with 2 Maccabees vii. 27.

with

was girded with a linen ephod." His mother made him every year a little coat for common use, and she brought it to him when she came up her husband Elkanah to the Tabernacle of the Lord at the feast of the Passover. But when he ministered before God he did not wear this, but a linen ephod, or garment; like that which the priests were appointed to wear when they offered sacrifice and burnt incense.

"And the child Samuel grew on, and was in favour both with the Lord and with men." And the Lord blessed Hannah his mother, and He gave her three other sons, and two daughters.

1 Samuel, ch. i. ii.

A petition, is a request or prayer.

To vow, is to promise solemnly to the Lord, or to call upon God to be witness to the truth of a promise. A vow, is a promise made to God.

To minister, is to serve or wait upon a person. To minister unto the Lord, is to serve Him by acts of worship; to assist in offering sacrifices, or solemn prayer and praise to Him.

E

Chapter XCVI.

THE SIN OF ELI, AND THE CONSEQUENCES OF HIS SIN.

ELI the high priest had two sons, Hophni and Phinehas. They were priests of God, because they were of the family of Aaron, and they ministered before the Lord in His Tabernacle, and offered sacrifices for the people, and burnt incense. But they were lawless and wicked men; they neither loved the Lord nor feared Him. And when the children of Israel came up to the Tabernacle to offer their sacrifices to the Lord, the sons of Eli took from them other portions of their offerings besides those that were appointed for the priests; and when the people would not give them for themselves the fat of the sacrifice, which God had commanded to be burnt upon His altar, they came and took it by force. Therefore the sin of Hophni and Phinehas was very great before the Lord; for they made the people shrink from coming up to offer their sacrifices, as the Lord had commanded. And they did other things yet

more wicked, and tempted others to sin with them.

Now Eli was very old, and he heard of all the things which his sons did. Then he said to them, "Why do ye such things? for I hear of your evil Nay my sons; for it is

doings by all this people. no good report that I hear: ye make the Lord's people to transgress. If one man sin against another, the judge shall judge him: but if a man sin against the Lord, who shall entreat for him?” "Notwithstanding, they hearkened not unto the voice of their father, because the Lord would slay them."

The sons of Eli had so long and so greatly sinned against the Lord, that their hearts had grown hard in sin: and God now purposed to. punish them for their wickedness before the eyes of all His people, that all might know that there is a God that judgeth the earth, and that the wicked shall not go unpunished.

Eli had reproved his sons when the people told him of their evil doings; but when they would not hearken to his words, he did not punish them.

He reasoned with them, and advised them well; but he did not restrain them. Perhaps he loved them so weakly, that he could not bear to punish them; perhaps he feared them, for they were violent and lawless men. So he suffered them to remain in the priests' office notwithstanding their sin, and to go on in their evil way, sinning against the Lord, and making others to sin also. Thus the name of the Lord and His holy worship were dishonoured among His people; His people; and Eli showed that he loved his wicked sons more than God, or that he feared them more than he feared God.

It was a great sin in Eli to let his wicked sons go on unpunished in their wickedness. To suffer others to dishonour God, was to dishonour God himself; and the sins of his sons became his sins, because when they sinned he did not restrain them. Eli was a judge in Israel, as well as high priest of God; and therefore he had the power, and it was his duty, to punish every one who broke the commandments of God, or dishonoured His holy name; and much more when his own children sinned, should he have punished them.