So he set himself to educate his countrymen in the great truths which
appealed to the inner life,--to the heart and conscience. This he did,
first, by rousing the slumbering spirits of the elders of tribes when
they sought his counsel as a prophet, the like of whom had not appeared
since Moses, so gifted and so earnest; and secondly, by founding a
school for the education of young men who should go with his
instructions wherever he chose to send them, like the early
missionaries, to hamlets and villages which he was unable to visit in
person. The first "school of the prophets" was a seminary of
missionaries, animated by the spirit of a teacher whom they feared and
admired as no prophet had been revered in the whole history of the
nation since Moses.

Samuel communicated his own burning spirit wherever he went, and the
burden of his eloquence was zeal and loyalty for Jehovah. Before his
time the prophets had been known as seers; but Samuel superadded the
duties of a religious teacher,--the spokesman of the Almighty. The
number of his disciples, whom he doubtless commissioned as evangelists,
must have been very large. They lived in communities and ate in common,
like the primitive monks. They probably resembled the early Dominican
and Franciscan friars of the Middle Ages, who were kindled to enthusiasm
by such teachers as Thomas Aquinas and Bonaventura. Like them they were
ascetics in their habits and dress, wearing sheepskins, and living on
locusts and wild honey,--on the fruits which grew spontaneously in the
rich valleys of their well-watered country. It did not require much
learning to arouse the common people to new duties and a higher
religious life. The Bible does not inform us as to the details by which
Samuel made his influence felt, but there can be no doubt that by some
means he kindled a religious life before unknown among his countrymen.
He infused courage and hope into their despairing hearts, and laid the