1 Hushed was the evening hymn, the temple courts were dark, the lamp was burning dim before the sacred ark, when suddenly a voice divine rang through the silence of the shrine. 2 The old man, meek and mild, the priest of Israel, slept; his watch, the temple-child, the little Levite, kept; and what from Eli's sense was sealed, the Lord to Hannah's son revealed. 3 O give me Samuel's ear! The open ear, O Lord, alive and quick to hear each whisper of thy word; like him to answer at thy call, and to obey thee first of all. 4 O give me Samuel's heart! A lowly heart that waits where in thy house thou art, or watches at thy gates by day and night, a heart that still moves at the breathing of thy will. 5 O give me Samuel's mind! A sweet, unmurm'ring faith, obedient and resigned to thee in life and death, that I may read with childlike eyes truths that are hidden from the wise.