be ready at all times to submit to any pain or inconvenience, if we can be useful to others. We should be kind and obliging to those especially, who are of the same household as ourselves. We should help them when they are in want; we should comfort them in their sorrows, and never regard any trouble to ourselves, if we can only be of service to them. Thus shall we be loved and honoured by men on earth, and approved by God himself, our Father in heaven.

SAMUEL CALLED TO BE A PROPHET. (1 Sam. i. to iv.)

HANNAH, the wife of Elkanah, had no children. This caused her much bitterness of soul; and she prayed to God, and made a vow, that if He would let her have a son, she would give him to the Lord, and he should serve Him all the days of his life.

And God granted Hannah's prayer. He gave her a son; and when she had weaned him, she took him up to the tabernacle, and presented him to Eli the high-priest, saying, that the Lord had granted her what she asked, and that she came to lend the child to the Lord as long as he lived. So Samuel remained with the high-priest, and when he was old and strong enough, he helped him to perform the services of the tabernacle; and every year, when his mother came up to offer sacrifice, she brought him a little coat. He was a good child, and in favour both with God and man.

While he was still a boy, one night, after he had laid himself down in his bed to sleep, he heard a voice which cried, "Samuel!" He answered, "Here am I;" and thinking that it was Eli who called him, he rose up and ran to him, and said, "Here am I, for thou calledst me." Eli said, "I called not; lie down again." And he went and lay down.

Presently Samuel heard a voice the second time, calling "Samuel!" And he went to Eli as before; but Eli said that he had not called him, and bid him go and lie down again. Then the third time Samuel heard a voice calling to him, and he went to tell Eli. Then Eli perceived that it was God himself who had called the child; and he told him to go and lie down again; and that, if he heard any one call, he should say "Speak, Lord! for thy servant heareth."

So Samuel went and lay down in his bed, and soon he heard the voice again, saying, "Samuel! Samuel!" And he answered," Speak, for thy servant heareth." Then God told Samuel that He was going to do a thing which would make every body that heard it greatly afraid, for that He was going to punish the family of Eli, because his sons had committed shameful wickedness, and because Eli had not restrained them as he ought to have done.

After Samuel heard this, he lay still till the morning; and when he saw Eli he was afraid to tell him what God had said, because he knew that it would make him very sorry; but when Eli entreated that he would tell him what the Lord had said, he told him all, and hid nothing from him. And Eli said, "It is the Lord; let Him do what seemeth to Himgood."

And it came to pass as Samuel had said, for the sons of Eli were slain in battle; and when their aged father heard of this, and that the ark of God was taken by the Philistines, he fell from his seat backwards, and his neck brake, and he died. Thus did Samuel's words prove true, for God was with him, and gave him wisdom; and all Israel knew that the Lord had made him his prophet.

God spake to Samuel, and called him by his name; and He put the spirit of wisdom in his heart, and told him be

forehand many things which were to happen. And so too has God spoken to us by His beloved Son: He has given us the gospel of Jesus Christ to teach us what is right, and his excellent example to shew us how we ought to behave. He has encouraged us to repent of our sins, and he has invited us to enter into that heavenly rest, which is promised to those who truly love and serve Him.

And shall we not listen to the voice of God? Shall we not come when He calleth, and say, "Here I am, Lord, prepared to do thy will"? Yes, we will cleave unto the Lord our God, and Him only will we serve. We will live in His fear and love; and then we shall be happy in our lives, and happy in our deaths, and still more happy in the world

to come.