He ran again to the room of Eli, and said, "Here am I; for thou didst call me."
The old man thought, probably, that he was disturbed by terrifying dreams, and said to him, "I called not, my son; lie down again."
A third time the voice called. It is wonderful that the lad was not affrighted. But if one loves God and does right, there is nothing that can harm him. The open-faced child of the Tabernacle, obeying without hesitation, although answering twice in vain, hastened to the chamber of Eli with his ready and filial response, "Here am I; for thou didst call me."
The aged minister then knew that it was not a human voice, but the voice of God. He said to the child, "Go, lie down, and if the voice is heard again, say, 'Speak, Lord, for Thy servant heareth.'"
He went alone to his chamber and to his bed in the silence of the night, and once more the voice came, so sweet and gentle as not to terrify him, "Samuel, Samuel."
"Speak, Lord," he answered, as he sat up on his bed, "for Thy servant heareth."
Then God gave him a message to his master, and to the people, and made him at this early age a teacher and a prophet of the Lord.
It was just at this moment, when the boy sits up, solemnly, with his eyes wide-opened, listening to the Divine voice, that the great English painter Sir Joshua Reynolds, in his well-known picture, represents the prophet-child. It is at this moment that his wondering and prayerful face is caught by the artist in the beautiful picture which is given in this paper.
God does not now speak audibly in the sleeping-rooms of little fellows; but when they kneel, night by night, by their bedsides, and say, "Speak, Lord, for Thy servant heareth," He comes into their minds and leads and teaches them just as if He called them by name. There is no prayer goes up to Heaven more readily heard or answered than the simple words of a sincere, praying child.