STORY XV.

THE PRAYING YOUTH.

THE name of this youth was Samuel.

very kind and pious mother.

He had a

She prayed for him very often, and the Lord heard her prayer.

When he was yet but a child, she brought him into the temple, and he worshipped the Lord there. It must have been a fine sight to have beheld him lifting up his little hand, and asking God to bless him. There are still very many dear children and youth who call on God, as Samuel did. Each should ask himself, Do I do so? Happy is the child who can say, I do; and, by God's grace, I ever will:'

"My heart resolves, my tongue obeys,
And angels shall rejoice:

To hear their mighty Maker's praise
Sound from a feeble voice."

Samuel was under the care of Eli, the High Priest; and there was a little room near the temple in which he slept. Now one evening, when he had prayed God to bless him, he laid down to rest. But before sunrise, when the light in the golden lamp used to be put out, Samuel was awake, and he heard a voice, and it said, "Samuel !" So he thought that Eli called him; and he got up and went to him. When parents or friends call us, we should go to them as soon as we can.

Eli bade him go and lie down again, as he did not call him; and he did so. And he heard the same voice call him again and again, and he went to Eli; and Eli saw that the Lord had called him ; and he said, Go and lie down again, and when you shall hear the voice, say, "Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth;" and he did so, and the Lord sent him with a message to Eli.

And does God ever call to youth now? Yes. How I should like to hear his voice! Should you? Then you may, if you will but listen. God has put something within every person which tells him

when he does good or bad.' When you have got up in the morning, or laid down in the evening, and have not thanked God for his goodness, nor asked God to bless you; when you have not minded what your parents and teachers said; when you have spoken bad words, or what was not true; did not something within you say, you had done wrong? Well, that was the voice of God, and it called to you.

Perhaps your dear father or mother has died, and they were taken from their home, and laid in the cold grave. That was God's voice to you; and it said, My dear youth, will you not now cry unto me, My Father! be thou the guide of my youth.*

You read in the Bible, that unless the heart is changed by God's Holy Spirit, and made sorry for its sins; and unless we trust alone in the merits of the Lord Jesus, and love and serve him, we shall be lost; now this is God's voice speaking to every one, and it says, Henry, William, Mary, or Ann, —or whatever their names may be,-you will be

lost, unless you are sorry for your sins; and trust in, and love, and serve the Lord Jesus. And are you doing so?

We should pray for grace, that we may hear, and mind the call of God to-day; we are not certain that we may be spared to hear him calling to us

to-morrow.

He

If we do, indeed, wish to meet with God, we should go alone, and think of him, and lift up our heart to him, and say, O Lord, I beseech thee, for Christ's sake, come and bless and save me." has said in his holy word, "Draw nigh unto me, and I will draw nigh unto you;" and we are sure that he will fulfil his promises.

He knows when we go to some secret place to pray to him, and to praise him. When Nathaniel went under the shade of the fig-tree to do so, his eye was on him for good; and he is the same now as he was then."

When you go into the house of God on the Lord's day, you should say, "Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth!" Bless thy holy word, which I

am about to hear, for the good of my soul, both in this world, and in that which is to come.

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When you open the blessed Bible, you should lift up your heart to God, and say, "Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth!" Let me not read it in vain. "Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law." Write its great truths, I pray thee, by thy Spirit, on my memory heart."

and on my

When you kneel down to pray, then say, "Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth!" Teach me to know, and help me to do, all thy holy will. So I shall be a child of thine, and be owned and blessed by thee for ever.10