pay the cost. The Hebrew word (yakar) signifies `heavy in price'. The word of Jehovah

was rare in those days, because the cost of observing it was too great.

Against such a background it seems hardly possible that there should be a family

sufficiently loyal to God to dedicate a son to Jehovah's service, even before he was born.

Yet the devotion of Elkanah and Hannah to Jehovah was of sufficient strength and

character, and their perception and discernment clear enough for them to see the urgency

of the need for one man completely committed to God.

The situation in the world today comes close to that of Samuel's day. Many gather for

worship; but how many worship in spirit and in truth? The Word of God is `precious',

rare, so that in many churches and chapels it is at a discount. There are many who should

be leading others in the way of God, who are, in fact, misleading them. How great is our

need of loyalty to the Word of God.  How great is our need of perception and

discernment lest we should be led away by the attitude of so many who `profess and call

themselves Christian'. Moreover, perhaps particularly with the example of Samson in

mind, it is incumbent upon every believing parent to have special care in training their

children in the ways of God, and to love His Word.

Samuel was probably about twelve years of age before he was taken to the House of

the Lord. Can it be doubted that in such a home as his, he had been taught the things of

God to prepare him for his life's work? We are not told how long he was under the

instruction of Eli, nor is there certain evidence to show that such training was all it should

have been.

Samuel had no personal knowledge of Jehovah, although he must have had knowledge

about God. To be brought up in a godly home is no alternative to a personal commitment

to God. His father was a Levite, and evidently of rare and habitual devotion. "This man

went up out of his city yearly to worship and to sacrifice unto the Lord of Hosts in

Shiloh" (I Sam. 1: 3). The word translated `yearly' is literally `from days to days' perhaps

implying that Elkanah went, not only `yearly', but with regularity to all the feasts of

Jehovah. Yet,

Perhaps part of the significance of this statement is that he did not fully understand

what he had been taught, and needed a personal confrontation by Jehovah to enlighten

him. We recall Paul's prayer in Eph. 1:, for the spirit of wisdom and revelation.

Then came the time when God spoke to Samuel, and perhaps there is more to it than

meets the eye in the words "and ere the lamp of God went out in the temple of the Lord".

Jeremiah prophesied at a time when the Word of God had been lost in the Temple! We

have drawn attention before to the fact that frequently the times of apostasy were

countered by God by His man either called before birth (as in the case of Jeremiah, 1: 5),

or, as in the case of Samuel, by one dedicated to His service before birth. More than once

in the history of the people of God, of more than one dispensation, the lamp of God has