TWO SCENES.
How delightful to step into the home where God is
counselor of both parent and child! How blessed
the companionship in such a home! There God counsels
in sweet, tender tones. He teaches his will and
gives the needed wisdom. God is man’s truest
and best teacher. James says, “If any of
you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to
all men liberally ... and it shall be given him.”
Be the home ever so beautiful, if it is not a house
of prayer, it is not a place of true happiness.
Parents should often commune with the Lord; especially
the mother, with her many cares and perplexities,
if she would do justice to the little ones entrusted
to her care.
A beautiful picture now comes to my mind—a
picture of an ideal mother of olden time. She
dwelt in Ramah of Palestine. Her lonely home nestled
among the lonely hills. She loved to commune with
the Lord, for deep in her bosom she carried a sorrow
that only he could help her to bear. Her home
lacked that sweet sunlight which innocent childhood
brings. She longed and prayed for a little life
to guide and direct in the ways of the Lord.
Once every year she went with her husband to Shiloh,
where sacrifices were offered, and there publicly
worshiped the Lord. When at the house of the
Lord one day, she prayed long and earnestly that God
would grant the desire of her heart. “O
Lord of hosts,” she prayed, “if thou wilt
indeed look on the affliction of thine handmaid, and
remember me, and not forget thine handmaid, but wilt
give unto thine handmaid a man child, then I will
give him unto the Lord all the days of his life, and
there shall no razor come upon his head.”
A scene like this must have been rare even to the
priest of God; for he mistook this sad woman for one
drunken with wine. She begged him not to look
upon her as such. When the man of God saw by her
modest, earnest words that she was not drunken as
he had supposed, he changed his reproof into a blessing.
“Go in peace,” he said, “and the
God of Israel grant thy petition that thou hast asked
of him.” With perfect confidence that God
had heard and answered prayer, the woman arose and
returned with her husband to their home in Ramah.
The next year she did not go up to Shiloh; for God
had granted her petition and had given her a little
son. Her husband was willing for her to remain
at home, but he cautioned her not to forget her promise
to the Lord. He feared, perhaps, that the mother
might become so attached to her child that she would
be unwilling to part with him as she had promised.
His warning was unnecessary.
As soon as Samuel (for this is what the mother named
her son) was old enough to be useful, she took him
to the house of God and presented him to the Lord.
It must have sounded to the aged priest (who soon would
have to cease his work upon earth) like a voice from
heaven, when the happy mother, pointing to her child,
said: “For this child I prayed; and the
Lord hath given me my petition which I asked of him:
therefore also I have lent him to the Lord; as long
as he liveth he shall be lent to the Lord.”
