The Garden of Eden 15

The Garden of Eden 15

how she might bring it to pass. And one day she called Ruth and thus and

so she said to her, and Ruth, who thought that everything that Naomi

said was right, promised to do as she was told. And that night the wind

was blowing and the moon was shining, and Boaz was working late,

winnowing barley in the threshing-floor, he and his men, and after

supper he lay down on the floor at the end of the heap of barley and

went to sleep. And in the middle of the night he waked and turned over

to sleep again, and there was Ruth.

 

And Boaz said, “Who is this?”

 

And she said, “I am Ruth. My husband’s father was your cousin.”

 

And he said, “You have done well, my daughter, to come to me. I will do

whatever you wish. Only there is a kinsman nearer than I. We must first

see him. Lie down now and sleep.” So she lay down and slept, and the

next morning, before the day was light, she rose up and went home.

 

And that day Boaz sat by the city gate, and the kinsman passed. “Ho!”

called Boaz, “turn aside and sit down here.” And Boaz called ten men to

sit beside them. “Now,” said Boaz, “Naomi has some land to sell which

belonged to our brother Elimelech. Will you buy it?”

 

“Yes,” the kinsman said, “I will.”

 

“But wait!” said Boaz. “Whoever buys the land must take Naomi with it,

and Ruth her daughter.”

 

“That is too much for me,” said the kinsman, and he took off his shoe to

show that he would not buy.

 

“Then the land is mine,” said Boaz. And the next day he married Ruth

amidst the rejoicings of all the people of Bethlehem. And by and by

there was a little boy named Obed, and he became the father of Jesse,

and Jesse became the father of David.

 

 

 

 

XXVI

 

“SAMUEL! SAMUEL!”

 

 

One time, in the hill country, among the mountains of Ephraim, there

lived a farmer named Elkanah. He and Hannah his wife were comfortably

rich. They had fields of wheat and vineyards of grapes, and flocks and

herds, and plenty of hay in the barn; but in one way they were

poor,--they had no children. Sometimes Hannah cried because the house

was so empty and still, and there were no voices of children in it.

Sometimes she was so sad and lonely that she could not eat, and though

her husband tried to comfort her, and said, “Hannah, am I not better to

you than ten sons?” still she was full of grief. For children are the

best gift which God gives to man, and all the cornfields and vineyards

and sheep and oxen in the world are not to be compared with them.

 

One day, Hannah went in to town, to Shiloh; and as she passed the church

she stopped and knelt down on the steps and prayed with all her heart

that God would give her a son. And Eli, the minister, was sitting on a

bench by the church door. Eli was an old man, and his two sons, Hophni

and Phinehas, who had become ministers in his place, were not only bad

ministers, but bad men, so that many people had stopped going to church.

In those days, when people went to church, they carried sheep with them,

or other animals, to offer to God. This they did that they might show

God that they truly loved Him: they gave Him the best they had. But when

they came with their sacrifices, and the meat was in the pot cooking

over the church fire, Hophni and Phinehas would send their servants,

each with a great three-pronged fork in his hand, and they would thrust

their forks into the pot, and whatever they brought up they would carry

away to their masters. “Give us meat,” they said, “for the priests.” And

if anybody objected, the servants answered, “If you will not give it, we

will take it from you by force.” Thus Hophni and Phinehas had plenty to

eat, and grew rich, and became more wicked day by day, but the number of

persons who came to church grew less and less. So when Eli saw Hannah

praying at the church steps he was surprised. Nobody had been to church

to pray for a long time. He could not believe, at first, that she was

really praying; her lips moved, but she made no sound. And because he

was old and his eyes were bad so that he could not see well, he thought

that she was some drunken person.

 

[Illustration: THE LAD SHALL BELONG TO THE LORD]

 

“Come, come,” he said at last, “how long wilt thou be drunken?” But she

said, “Sir, I am not drunken. I am praying my prayers.” And she told him

what she was praying for. And Eli said, “My daughter, go in peace. May

the God of Israel grant thy request.”

 

And the God of Israel did grant her request. God sent a little son to

Hannah and Elkanah, and they named him Samuel. And when the child was

two years old, they went one day to the church in Shiloh, and there was

Eli sitting by the door. And they said, “Sir, do you remember the woman

who was here praying for a son? Here she is, and here is her son with

her. And we have promised that the lad shall belong to the Lord. Take

him now and bring him up to be a minister of the church.” And they went

away, leaving the child behind them. And Eli took care of the little

boy, and because his own sons had turned out so badly, he took the

greater pains with Samuel, and taught him to be obedient and honest and

to tell the truth. And every year his mother came to see him and brought

him a little coat which she had made with her own hands.

 

At last, one night when Eli was so old that he could hardly see, and

Samuel had grown to be a sturdy lad, they were both asleep in the same

room. There was a great box in the room called the Ark, and in it were

the two tables of stone on which the Ten Commandments were written, and

over it hung a lamp which was kept burning every night.

 

And Samuel heard a voice calling his name, “Samuel!” and he answered,

“Here am I,” and ran to see what Eli wanted. But Eli said, “I did not

call, my son; lie down again.”

 

So Samuel went and lay down, and again there was a voice, “Samuel!

Samuel!” And again Samuel ran to Eli, saying, “Here am I,” and Eli said,

“I did not call.” And this happened a third time.

 

Then Eli perceived that the Lord had called the child. Therefore Eli

said to Samuel, “Go lie down, and if you hear the voice again, say,

‘Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth.’” And pretty soon he heard the

voice again, “Samuel! Samuel!” and he said, “Speak, Lord, for thy

servant heareth.”

 

Then the Lord spoke and said, “Behold, I will do a thing in Israel at

which both the ears of every one that heareth it shall tingle. I will

punish Eli and his sons for all the evil that is done, for they have

behaved themselves wickedly and he did not stop them.” Then there was

silence, and by and by the lamp burned out, and the sun rose and it was

light, and Samuel got up and opened the doors and let the morning

breeze blow in. And Eli said, “Samuel, what did the Lord say?” And

Samuel did not like to tell, but Eli urged him, and he told. And Eli

said, “It is the Lord, let him do what seemeth him good.”

 

 

 

 

XXVII

 

THE BATTLE OF THE ARK OF GOD

 

 

Well, things went on from bad to worse. One day a stranger came to Eli

and stood before him as he sat on the bench by the church door. And the

stranger said, “Hear what the Lord God says to you, Eli. I chose your

father to be my priest, to minister at my altar, to burn incense before

me, and to offer the sacrifices of my people. And now you honor your

sons more than you honor me, and they are making themselves rich by

stealing the offerings which the people bring. Therefore it shall come

to pass that your two sons shall die both of them in one day, and your

grandchildren shall be so poor that they shall stand begging at the

church steps, saying, ‘Give me a little money and a bit of bread, for I

am hungry.’” But it was too late. The time to teach people to be good is

when they are young, and Eli had let that time go by. He had allowed his

sons to do whatever they pleased when they were small boys, and now he

could not stop them.

 

Then the Philistines, the neighbors and old enemies of Israel, began to

be troublesome again. The Philistines lived in the long plain by the

sea, and the Israelites lived among the hills, and a river ran from the

hills into the plain, making a deep valley. Up this valley climbed the

Philistines, till they came to a town of the Israelites called

Beth-shemesh. And in a field beside the town was a great rock called

Ebenezer. And there they had a battle, the Philistines against the

Israelites, and the Israelites ran away. And that night the Israelites

held a council and said, “What can we do? for the Philistines are

mightier than we.” And they said, “Let us go to the church in Shiloh and

get the Ark of God. If we have that among us, it may save us out of the

hand of our enemies.” For they remembered how when their fathers crossed

the Jordan, at the beginning, the Ark was carried at the head of the

host; and how it was borne by the priests, with blowing of trumpets, at

the siege of Jericho. So they took the Ark out of the Shiloh church, and

Eli’s sons, Hophni and Phinehas, carried it, one at one end and the

other at the other. And when the Ark came into the camp, all Israel

shouted with a great shout, so that the earth rang again with the echo

of it. “Let God arise,” they cried, “and let his enemies be scattered.

Let them also that hate Him flee before Him!” For that was the battle

cry of Israel.

 

Now the Philistines in their camp heard the noise of the shout, and

they said, “What is the meaning of the noise of this great shout in the

camp of the Hebrews?” And they sent men to find out, and the men came

back and said, “God is come into the camp! The God of Israel who smote

the Egyptians with plagues, and who has won the men of Israel so many

victories over their enemies, is in the camp. Woe unto us! Such a thing

has never happened since the Philistines became a nation. Woe unto us!

Who shall deliver us out of the hands of this mighty God?” And they held

a council to determine what to do. It was plain that they must make a

choice between two things: either they must run away as soon as they

could and as fast as they could, or else they must fight harder than

they had ever fought. Of these they chose the second, like brave men.

They said one to another, “Be strong, O ye Philistines, and quit

yourselves like men, that ye be not servants to the Hebrews as they have

been to you: quit yourselves like men and fight.”

 

So the battle came on again, and the Philistines fought like heroes, and

the Israelites were beaten worse than ever. They ran lik