cleaves to him when every other refuge | fails. Hence, all that is known by the name of prayer, is at once the voice of nature, the result of reason, and a dictate of religion. What is the confession of the penitent, but the trembling hope of a guilty creature toward the God of mercy, fleeing from the judgment of unrelenting, unforgiving man; from the persecution of an awakened, an accusing conscience, to a proclamation of peace and pardon from Heaven? What is the resignation of the patient, but a devout acknowledgment of unerring wisdom, which does all things well, and afflicts in loving kindness? What is the cry of distress, but an appeal to omnipotence for that assistance which the powers of nature cannot bestow? What is adoration, but the faculties of an intelligent being lost in the contemplation of infinite perfection? Even the rash and impious appeals to Heaven, which are uttered by the thoughtless and profane, demonstrate, that piety and prayer are founded in the very constitution of our nature. Why does that blasphemer take the name of the Lord God in vain? why swears he by the great and terrible name of Jehovah? why is his imprecation sanctioned by that tremendous signature? why are the emotions of anger, of pain, of surprise, of joy, enforced by the names and attributes of Deity? The wretch who thus tramples on his law, insults his authority, defies his power, is in these very acts of horror paying an involuntary homage to the God of truth and justice, and obliquely confesses that divine perfection which he has the boldness to violate. We turn from the dreadful practice with holy indignation, to contemplate the desponding mourner fleeing for rest and relief in the bosom of a Father and a God; and to learn lessons of piety, and derive nourishment to hope, from the experience of others. lutary influence of this hallowed employment? The suppliant thus disburdens the mind of a load, before intolerable; the effusion of tears cools and refreshes the heart. Prayer does not always bring down the grace that is solicited, but verily it has produced its effect when the spirit is moulded into the will of the Most High. Prayer prevails not to obtain that particular blessing, but behold it is crowned with another and a greater benefit. The expected good comes not exactly at the time and in the way it was entreated, but it is conveyed at the most proper season, and in the fittest way; and how much is the enjoyment heightened and sweetened by the delay! Thus, whether the wrestler "as a prince has power with God, and prevails," or by a touch is made sensible of his weakness and inferiority, God is glorified, and the divine life is promoted in him. The memoirs of this good woman's life comprehend but a very short period, a few years at most. Herein consists one of the excellencies of the sacred writings. Other biographers drag you with them into dry, uninteresting details of events which had much better been forgotten. You are wearied out with the laborious display of childish prattle, the pretended prognostic of future eminence, or the doting, imperfect, distorted recollections of a wretched old man who has outlived himself. There are in truth very few particulars in any man's life worthy of being recorded; and of those who really have lived, a very short memoir indeed will serve all the valuable purposes of history. Every thing of importance for us to know respecting Hannah is what related to the birth of her son Samuel; and to that accordingly the scripture account of her is confined. She is the fourth, as far as we recollect, on the face of the sacred history, represented in nearly similar circumstances, and she is not the least respectable of the four. "Sarah laughed," staggering at the promise of God through unbelief. Rebekah seems to have borne her trial with listlessness and indifference; and Rachel, irritated with her's, loses all sense of shame and decency, and exclaims, “Give me children, else I die." Hannah feels her calamity as a woman, deplores it as a woman, and seeks deliverance from it as one who believed in the power and grace of God. We have seen the disorder of a family in Israel occasioned by the foolishness of man; we are now to consider that disorder rectified, and turned into a source of domestic joy and public felicity through the wisdom and goodness of God. The solemnity of the yearly sacrifice, and the cheerfulness of the feast, had been continually embittered and destroyed to Hannah by reflection on her state of reproach among the daughters of Israel, and the merciless insults of her rival and adversary. The kind attentions, and affectionate remonstrances of a beloved husband, soothe for a moment, but cannot remove the anguish that preyed upon the heart. She looks with impatience through the tediousness of the enter-assembly, which must have been very painful, tainment, to the hour of retirement; and, as soon as decency permits, she exchanges the house of mirth for the house of prayer. "If any one is afflicted let him pray." And who is not ready to give testimony to the sa3 L Observe the more delicate shades in her character. She rose not up till "after they had eaten in Shiloh, and after they had drunk." She had patience and self-government sufficient to carry her without any apparent disquietude through the formalities of a public irksome, and disgusting to her. She would rather constrain herself, than make others uneasy; and pine in secret, rather than permit her private griefs to spread a gloom over the innocent communications of society. Tell 38* me, if you will, that the remark is frivolous, it is the honest effusion of a heart filled with and the doctrine unedifying. I shall neither its object, persisting in the pursuit, and rising feel mortified nor complain, provided you gradually into confidence of success. It is a permit me to think that nothing is frivolous happy anticipation of the Saviour's doctrine, that tends to unfold the excellence and im-" that men ought to pray always and not to portance of the female character, and nothing faint:" a happy example of clearness and unedifying which serves to improve the precision in the subject matter of prayer, of better part of our species in the knowledge of confidence in, and reliance on the Hearer of the means whereby both their respectability prayer, of holy resolution to make a suitable and importance may be effectually promoted. return to prayer heard, accepted, and anI repeat it therefore confidently, that Hannah swered. is here represented as exemplifying a hard lesson, but one of high importance to all her sex. Who does not know, my female friends, that your condition and place in society necessarily subject you to many cruel privations, many mortifying constraints? What heart but sympathizes with you, obliged, as you are, to bear and to forbear, in patience and silence, and to practice painful duty, without so much as the poor reward of notice and approbation. But trust me, you have often, when you little think of it, the admiration and esteem of the more attentive and judicious; you have the sweet consolation of reflecting that you are endeavouring to act well; you can look up in humble hope to that "God who seeth in secret; who observes and records what the world overlooks or forgets. How pitiable, on the other hand, are those unhappy females, who dream of deriving consequence from vexing and disturbing all around them, by perpetually bringing forward their personal vexations, as if the world had nothing to mind but them, and their real or imaginary grievances. But this, as was said, is only a shade in the character; the great striking feature, is a fervid, importunate, aspiring spirit of devotion. Sighs and tears are the language of nature sinking under its own wo, of a "heart that knows its own bitterness;" prayer is the language of faith in, and hope toward God, the exertion of a soul struggling to get free, casting its burden upon the Lord, and acquiring strength from exercise. There is a beautiful and affecting copiousness in her expression. She addresses God as the Lord of universal nature, who "doth according to his will, in the armies of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth;" as "the Lord of Hosts," who has all creatures, all events in his hand and at his disposal. The repetition of the word "handmaid" is emphatical, and powerfully expresses her humility, submission and sense of dependence; and it is humility that lends energy to every other principle of the divine life. "From the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh," and accordingly we find her diversifying her petition into all the various modes of address: "If thou wilt indeed look on my affliction, and remember me, and not forget me." Is this the vain repetition of the hypocrite, who thinks he shall be heard for his much speaking?" O no, But what was here the expression of a devout, a praying spirit? The noise of the Pharisee, the pomp of words, the correctness that courts the applause of men? No, but the ardour of a gracious spirit which neglects forms, which never thinks of appearance, or the opinion of others, which, occupied with God, overlooks man. What need of words, to him who reads the secret recesses of the heart, who hears the half breathed sigh of the prisoner in his dungeon, who collects the falling tears of the mourner, and has already granted the pious request before it is formed in the anxious breast? Strong inward emotion will of necessity imprint itself on the external appearance. The voice may be suppressed, but the features will speak; what bushel will confine the lightning of the eye? The lips will move involuntarily; the hands will raise themselves to heaven, without an admonition from vanity, and the bosom will swell to make room for the expanding heart, though no eye is present to see it, and regardless whether there be or no. How equivocal are the signs of human passions, and how liable to mistake is the most discerning human eye? What was in the sight of God an indication of faith believing against hope, of a fervent piety which totally absorbed the senses, of a heavenly mind which wrapt the very body up to the throne of God, is, in the sight of Eli, the disorder of a distempered brain, the effect of excess, the lowest, the most deplorable, the most disgusting exhibition of degraded humanity. Alas, the good man, as we shall presently find, had "a beam in his own eye;" and thereby was led to discern "a mote" in that of another, where there was none. In reflecting on the rash judgments of men, the choice of David, when in a great strait, presses itself upon us with redoubled force; "Let me fall now into the hand of the Lord, for his mercies are great; and let me not fall into the hand of man." "If God justifieth, who is he that condemneth?" But ah! what signifies the applause of the world to him who is condemned of his own conscience, and who trembles every hour at thought of the righteous judgment of God! I like the defence of Hannah almost as well as her prayer; it argues conscious innocence and integrity. Not a single parti cle of gall enters into her reply, not even & particle of honest heat and indignation, at be improved into perfect loveliness, by affaan imputation so odious. A female charged bility, gentleness, benevolence, compassion. with a breach of decency so gross as excess and, above all, by a spirit of genuine piety, of wine, and not break out into a flame! the parent of every grace. If there be a Ah, her calmness and temper refute suffi- human being that really deserves the name ciently the infamous aspersion, infinitely of angel, a term, for the most part, most vilebetter than a torrent of intemperate abuse would have done. How calm, how beautiful, how lovely, how dignified is innocence! It seeks the light, it shrinks not from the eye of inspection, it defies calumny, and wraps itself up in its own pure mantle; but disdains not, at the same time, to satisfy the honest inquiry, and to remove the hasty suspicion of true goodness; it is always ready to render a reason, always ready to prevent its good from being evil spoken of. The conduct of Eli is estimable in two points of view. Observing, as he thought, the temple of the Lord profaned, and the female character dishonoured, he honestly speaks out his suspicion and censure to the party concerned; instead of whispering them in the ear of a third person: and thereby affords an opportunity of explanation, and of coming to a right understanding; and, once satisfied of his having been mistaken, he retracts his hasty judgment, and exchanges reprehension into blessing, and supplicates Heaven in favour of her whom he had rashly condemned. To what a happy serenity is the mind of Hannah now restored! She has poured out her soul before the Lord, and vindicated her innocence to man. The tranquillity and joy of her spirits shine in the whole of her outward deportment; her countenance brightens up, she partakes in the festivity of the season, and "is no more sad." What a different figure does the same man present to the eyes of the world, inflamed with rage, torn with envy, stung with remorse, distracted with anxiety, degraded with debauchery; or with a visage beaming benevolence, eyes animated with love, a form firm and erect from conscious integrity. Would you wish to appear to advantage before others, take care to cleanse the inside of the cup. Purify thyself "from all filthiness of the spirit." Let order and peace reign within; no artificial daubing applied on the outside, no splendour or elegance of apparel, no studied arrangement of the features will do it half so well. Looks and appearance are perhaps of inferior consequence to one sex, but they are of much to the other. With some, appearance is all in all. In that view, it is not easy to imagine the effect which the inward temper and character produce. Beauty becomes perfect ugliness, and inspires nothing but disgust, from the moment that the face begins to wear the traces of pride, contempt, envy, fury, or insolence. On the other hand, be assured, that a very homely external may ly prostituted, it is a sensible woman descending from the temple, or issuing from her closet, to enter with composedness, sweetness, and satisfaction on the employments of her humble, but important station in human life. It was through the disorder of a divided family, it was through the wo of an afflicted woman, it was amidst the corruptions of a degenerate church and a disjointed state, that God was pleased to raise up a prophet, a priest, a judge in Israel to stem the torrent, to restore the lost dignity of religion, to save a sinking nation. When events flow in an even channel, when the powers of nature produce their effect in an uniform tenor, a blind chance, an irresistible fate, or an unintelligent arrangement receives the homage, which is due only to sovereign wisdom, and all-comprehensive beneficence. For this reason, God sometimes permits the great machine as it were to stand still, that men may observe by what hand it is stopt, and by what hand it is put in motion again. Isaac, Jacob, Samson, Samuel, four of the most eminent, among the types of the great Restorer of fallen man, were introduced into the world through the agonies of desponding nature, through the exercise of undaunted faith, and the unwearied importunity of prayer and supplication. They were the successive lights of the world, each in his day; and having every one fulfilled his day, were successively extinguished. The great Light of the world has arisen, the stars disappear, the shadows are fled away. Patriarchs and prophets bring their glory, and lay it at his feet, a voice from heaven proclaims, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased, hear Him." Let not the apparently declining state of any interest preach despair; for every evil has its remedy, except despair. That cause must perish, which all agree to give up as lost; a dying cause may revive and flourish by the wisdom and honest exertions of one man. Impaired health often issues in death, embarrassed circumstances in bankruptcy, an irregular life in irretrievable perdition; because the patient, the debtor, the sinner, gave himself up too hastily, and was lost through fear of being lost. While there is "balm in Gilead, and a physician there," no wound, however grievous, is mcurable. While there is friendship, while there is compassion on earth, honest distress wil! find sympathy and relief. While the throne of grace is accessible, there is hope "for the chief of sinners." And if no cause of man be desperate, who place, but thou and thy father's house shall shall dare to despair of the cause of God and be destroyed: and who knoweth whether truth? Behold in a posterior period of this thou art come to the kingdom for such a time sacred history, the utter extirpation of the as this?" The Roman consul, whose rashposterity of Abraham determined, and the ness lost the battle of Cannæ, and endangerplans of Providence threatened, of course, ed the existence of the state, received the with defeat and disappointment. Behold thanks of the senate, "because he had not the bloody warrant signed, and "sealed despaired of the Commonwealth." The galwith the ring" of Ahasuerus, and thereby lant prince of Orange, afterwards William rendered irreversible. Behold the vengeful III. of England, when urged to submit to the Haman, like the exterminating angel, with victorious arms of France, which were rahis sword drawn in his hand ready to fall vaging the United Provinces, and when the upon his prey. What can save a devoted ruin of the republic seemed inevitable, nobly people from destruction? One obscure Jew; replied, "there is one way to secure me from one not admitted to the king's councils, but the sight of my country's destruction; I will who sat unregarded at the king's gate. He die in the last ditch." His resolution prefeels as a citizen and a man, he laments the vailed, and his country was saved from the impending doom of his country as a citizen yoke of the invader. And if confidence in and a man; but he likewise acts, and exerts a skilful, brave, and fortunate commander, himself like a citizen and a man, and leaves can carry a handful to victory through mythe issue to Him, in whose hand are the riads of foes, what has the Christian to fear, hearts of kings—and it prospered. The re- let difficulties and dangers be ever so many, monstrance of Mordecai with the queen at ever so great, while conscious he is engaged this awful crisis, is a master-piece of intre- in a good cause, and that he is following pidity, piety, and good sense, and furnishes "the Captain of Salvation?" an useful example for the conduct of both public and private life. "Then Mordecai commanded to answer Esther, Think not with thyself that thou shalt escape in the king's house, more than all the Jews. For if thou altogether holdest thy peace at this time, then shall there enlargement and deliverance arise to the Jews from another Esther iii. 8-15. We proceed to view the character and behaviour of Hannah in the hour of success and prosperity, blessed with the answer of prayer, and exulting in the enjoyment of the purest delights, and in performing the most important duties of life and religion.-May our meditation on these things be sweet and profitable! Amen. * Esther iv. 13, 14. HISTORY OF HANNAH, THE MOTHER OF SAMUEL. LECTURE CII. And they arose up in the morning early, and worshipped before the Lord, and returned, and came to their house to Ramah; and Elkanah knew Hannah his wife, and the Lord remembered her. Wherefore it came to pass, when the time was come about, after Hannah had conceived, that she bare a son, and called his name Samuel, saying, Because I have asked him of the Lord. And the man Elkanah, and all his house, went up to offer unto the Lord the yearly sacrifice, and his vow. But Hannah went not up: for she said unto her husband, I will not go up until the child be weaned, and then I will bring him, that he may appear before the Lord, and there abide for ever. And Elkanah her husband said unto her, Do what seemeth thee good; tarry until thou have weaned him; only the Lord establish his word. So the woman abode, and gave her son suck until she weaned him.-1 SAMUEL i. 19—23. THE birth of a child is an event of much importance to those who are immediately concerned in it, and of much importance to the world. It is natural for a man to wish that his family should be built up, and his name transmitted. Every child is an accession to national strength, is one more added o the number of rational immortal beings, is a new display of the great Creator's power, wisdom, and goodness. There lie dormant the precious seeds of faculties which are one day to astonish, instruct, and bless mankind. These infants, a few years hence, are to be the pillars of the state, the bulwarks of their country, the glory of the church of Christ. That young one shall by and by burst through the obscurity of his birth, and the meanness of his condition; shall become eminently useful, and purchase a name which ages to come shall pronounce with respect and esteem. But what is it to be known and distinguished among men? The period approaches, when God himself shall in the face of the universe acknowledge the least of these as his sons, and seat them on heavenly thrones. and he granted in love. How much it concerns thee, O man, O woman, to know and to believe this! What can reconcile thee to the hardships of thy lot, but the persuasion that the good thou desirest is denied in wisdom, and the load that oppresses thee laid on by the hand of a father? Trust in the Lord, and be of good cheer; the time to favour thee will come; "the Lord will provide," "the Lord will remember thee." It is natural for a man to wish his family built up, and for a good woman to wish the name and virtues of the husband of her youth preserved and propagated, even though she has not the fond desire, the flattering hope, of being a mother in Israel. But the "She bare a son, and called his name determinations of Providence do not always Samuel." Gracious is the correspondence accord with the innocent propensities of the between a devout spirit and approving, ashuman heart, much less with the insatiate senting Heaven. Behold the prayer of faith demands of pride, avarice, and ambition. ascending as on eagle's wings, and resting Even the wise, the amiable, and the virtuous on the footstool of yonder radiant throne; are visited with this sore evil, the want of behold the good and perfect gift coming children. It is sometimes the calamity of down in return from the Father of lights. those who have no other calamity. It de- Thus the vapours exhaled from the briny monstrates the imperfection of human bliss; deep, fall back in copious showers to refresh it spreads a field for the exercise of resigna- and fertilize the earth. What a holy contion to the will of God! it furnishes both a tention is here presented to us! The pious motive and a subject for prayer: for we can soul striving with God in supplication, in carry with confidence, to the throne of grace, praise, in obedience, in faithfulness; the God many a petition which we should be afraid or of mercy striving with the meek and humble ashamed of preferring to a man like our-one in showing kindness, in heaping favour selves. Happy is the man, happy the woman, who can deposit this and every other care in the bosom of a Father in heaven. She may sit down with Hannah, and "eat," and drink, "and be no more sad." upon favour. Samuel," asked and given of God," shall bear to the last hour of his life the memorial of his mother's fervent importunity at the throne of grace, and of God's hearing her in the time of need. It shall serve for ever to remind himself, that he was a gift obtained of God by prayer, and devoted to God in gratitude. Every tongue that pro shall be admonished of the union which devotion forms and maintains between earth and heaven. The mother names, the father assents, God approves, and time confirms the nomination. We are this evening presented with the history of the birth and infancy of one of those illustrious children whose fame is universally known, and shall be had in everlast-nounces, every ear that hears the sound, ing remembrance, namely, of Samuel, the prophet of the Lord, the judge of Israel, the setter up and the terror of kings; the glory of his own age and country; and the morning-star of a brighter day. The gift of this precious child was long withheld, that it might be more devoutly acknowledged, and more highly prized. Men overlook the ordinary appearances of nature, however stupendous and striking. In order therefore to rouse them to attention, and constrain them to observe the finger of God, the fiery comet is made to glare through the sky, and the earth shakes to the centre. The blessing was sweetened to Hannah by every circumstance that can affect the fond maternal heart. A child to one who had long been afflicted with barrenness, and cruelly insulted on that account; a manchild, the answer of prayer; the power of performing for her darling infant the sweetest, and one of the most important maternal duties; and the cordial concurrence of the father in all her prudent, affectionate, and pious purposes; present enjoyment, and blossoming prospects! If there be a pure and perfect bliss on earth, it is the portion of such a woman, in such a situation. "The Lord remembered her." Was he ever unmindful or unkind? No, he delayed, We find Elkanah, and all of his family, who were fit for the journey, again on the road to Shiloh, to celebrate the great yearly festival, after the birth of his son. The bounties of Providence bind more powerfully the duties of the law upon the heart as well as upon the conscience, and thereby render religion not only a reasonable, but a pleasant service. The pleasure of waiting upon God, in the ordinances of his appointment, was greatly heightened to this good man, by the company of those whom nature had endeared to him. The length and inconvenience of the road were relieved, and sweetened, and shortened, by friendly conversation, and mutual offices of attention and kindness. The bitterness of strife is heard no more. The sacrifice is offered up with greater ardour, when one flame of affection meets another in presenting it; and the feast of peace acquires a higher relish from its being eaten in the spirit, and in the bonds of love. Social worship, as has been observed, has a most blessed effect in producing, supporting, and improving social affections. The tie of duty is |