(6) And the LORD called yet again, Samuel. And Samuel arose and went to Eli, and said, Here am I; for thou didst call me. And he answered, I called not, my son; lie down again. (7) Now Samuel did not yet know the LORD, neither was the word of the LORD yet revealed unto him.
This last verse explains wherefore Samuel was unconscious who it was that called him: he did not yet know the Lord. But how very precious are the first views of God! How delightful, when the visions of God begin! Here might Samuel look back, in the after stages of life, when any circumstances of trial, or trouble should arise, and say, Did the Lord my God call me, when I was a child; did he reveal himself to me then, when I had no consciousness of the Lord, and will he leave me now? Is he not the same God still; and is not his mercy towards me the same? Reader! if there be similar circumstances in your life, will you not make, through grace, the same use of them?