veil in the Sanctuary, where also was the table of Shewbread and the Altar of Incense. This he did so that they should burn on without danger of their light failing through the hours of darkness.

Beyond the veil of the Sanctuary, embroidered with its cherubim in purple and scarlet, was the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord, the holiest and most precious thing in the keeping of the priests. Above it knelt its cherubim of gold, one at either end of it, their wings outstretched and over-arching it; their faces ever gazing one upon the other in the peace and silence of the holy place.

But few came now to worship in the temple. It was forsaken even of its priests. Yet Eli still forbore to banish his sons from its service altogether, and to disgrace them publicly before the people. He loved them and was weak. He trusted by prayer and sacrifice to save them from the horror and death that had been foretold, yet kept himself apart from them, and deceived his own mind with the hope they might yet repent and turn again.

There came a night when Samuel, having tended the golden lamps of the candlesticks and filled them with oil, laid himself down to sleep in the little room set apart for him in the sanctuary. He was young; and sleep came swiftly and without dream. But in the darkest hour of the night he awoke; and, still and clear, he heard a voice calling him, ‘Samuel, Samuel!

He answered: ‘Here am I,’ rose from his bed and ran to Eli and asked him what he needed. ‘Here I am,’ he said, ‘for I heard thee calling me.’

Eli turned his face towards him in the gloom.

‘I called thee not,’ he said gently. ‘Be not troubled; lie down again and sleep.’

So Samuel went and lay down again, and composed himself to sleep. And yet again he heard a voice calling him: ‘Samuel, Samuel!’

He arose instantly and returned to Eli, saying: ‘See, here I am, for indeed I heard thee calling me, and no one else is by.’

But Eli, though disquieted a little, answered him yet again: ‘Indeed I called thee not, my son. Some dream is in thy mind. Lie down again and rest.’

But no sooner had Samuel returned into the quiet and darkness of his room than for the third time he heard a voice, infinitely near and yet as if from very far, calling him: ‘Samuel, Samuel!’

For the third time he went back to Eli, and besought him to tell him what was amiss. He feared that being old and nearly blind Eli had need of him, and it might be had called him in his sleep, or in pain. And Eli perceived that it could have been no earthly voice that Samuel had heard, but the voice of the Lord, summoning him in the secrecy of his mind and heart. And in his weakness and infirmity Eli trembled at the thought that the voice of God had been heard by the child.

But he said nothing of what was in his mind, and bade Samuel not to be afraid or distressed if he should hear the voice calling him again. ‘For surely,’ he said, ‘it is the voice of God thou hast heard. Go back again, then, and lie down; and if yet again thou hear the voice, then thou shalt say, “Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth.” ’

So Samuel, as he was bidden, went back again and lay down. But sleep was now far from him. His mind was like a pool of water under the stars. And the Lord came, and out of a silence deep as the sea Samuel heard again the voice calling him by his name.

And he answered, ‘Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth.’