Founded the Schools of the Prophets

Thus this man of God, guided by the spirit of prophecy, led the whole nation from idolatry back to the true God, and to national freedom from all their oppressors. Who can adequately estimate the value of this service for the people and cause of God? The spirit of prophecy, if followed today, will accomplish like results for the church of God, for with God there is no difference in time.AGP 65.5

Perhaps the greatest service rendered by Samuel during his long and eminent leadership in the nation was the founding of the institutions known as “the schools of the prophets.”AGP 65.6

“From the earliest times, prophets had been recognized as teachers divinely appointed. In the highest sense the prophet was one who spoke by direct inspiration, communicating to the people the messages he had received from God. But the name was given also to those who, though not so directly inspired, were divinely called to instruct the people in the works and ways of God. For the training of such a class of teachers, Samuel, by the Lord’s direction, established the schools of the prophets.AGP 66.1

“These schools were intended to serve as a barrier against the widespreading corruption, to provide for the mental and spiritual welfare of the youth, and to promote the prosperity of the nation by furnishing it with men qualified to act in the fear of God as leaders and counselors. To this end, Samuel gathered companies of young men who were pious, intelligent, and studious. These were called the sons of the prophets…. In Samuel’s day there were two of these schools,—one at Ramah, the home of the prophet, and the other at Kirjath-jearim. In later times others were established…. These schools proved to be one of the means most effective in promoting that righteousness which ‘exalteth a nation.’ Proverbs 14:34. In no small degree they aided in laying the foundation of that marvelous prosperity which distinguished the reigns of David and Solomon.” Education, 46-48.AGP 66.2

Such spiritual and temporal prosperity as is here portrayed was the fruitage of believing and following the counsels of the prophets of God, who in turn received their instructions from the living God. Such is the unalterable law of the spiritual universe.AGP 66.3