any

a resting place; nor is it possible that thing like heavenly peace should be maintained, amid unruly tempers and the strife of tongues. Hence christian families are solemnly exhorted, by St. Peter, so to live, that their prayers be not hindered; the apostle thus significantly intimating, that social worship can experience no greater interruptions than such as arise from domestic disagreement, and household disturbances.

When we present ourselves before God, it should be with tempers and feelings, with a countenance and manner, becoming the divine presence. Peace and love should at such seasons especially have the ascendancy in our hearts; and a spirit of unanimity should so pervade and knit together the assemblies of the saints, and particularly the members of every separate household among them, as to render it manifest, that they are animated with one heart and one mind. To assemblies of this description the Lord hath promised his blessing, and life for

evermore.

No member of Elkanah's family appears to have felt, so keenly as Hannah, the evil of domestic dissension, or to have deplored

it so bitterly. Her faith and patience were daily brought into difficult exercise: but, amid all the efforts she could make, the severity of her trials oppressed and overwhelmed her. At length, after unsucessfully struggling in private to overcome the peculiar difficulties of her condition, and to rise above the perpetual vexations to which it exposed her, she felt herself constrained to carry her troubles before the Lord, and right humbly to spread her case at his feet, who is the Father of the spirits of all flesh. It is the privilege of every sincere worshipper to present his secret grievances before the Judge of all the earth, and to expect adequate relief at his hand. Hannah knew her privilege, and was not backward to improve it. We are informed that, on a certain occasion of public worship, while the other members of her family were eating and drinking in Shiloh, Hannah withdrew from her companions, and returned to her devotions at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.

It may not, perhaps, be superfluous in this place to observe, that, when peaceofferings were brought before the Lord, after

the appointed parts had been consumed upon the altar, it was usual for the offerers to feed upon the remains of the sacrifice. This was termed feasting before the Lord: and it was with a reference to this sacred ceremony, that we find Moses thus exhorting ancient Israel-And thou shalt rejoice before the Lord thy God, thou, and thy son, and thy daughter, thy man-servant, and thy maid-servant, and the Levite that is within thy gates, and the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow, that are among you, in the place which the Lord thy God shall choose to place his name there. It was on an occasion of this kind, that Hannah arose, and withdrew from her festive company.

There is every reason to believe, that, in her disconsolate state of mind, she judged herself unfit to partake of so sacred and joyful an entertainment. The exercise of supplication and prayer, she thought, became her better than to mingle in scenes of extraordinary rejoicing. In this frame of spirit she again approached the sanctuary, a sad and solitary worshipper, that she might without interruption pour out her whole heart before God. And being in

great bitterness of soul, she prayed unto the Lord, and wept sore. And she vowed a vow, and said; O Lord God of hosts, if thou wilt indeed look upon the affliction of thine handmaid, and remember me for good, then will I give thee the son whom thou shalt vouchsafe unto thine handmaid, to be the Lord's for ever, even all the days of his life. This solemn engagement was not made without a due sense of its vast importance, and a deliberate view of the difficulties which must necessarily attend its fulfilment. Few mothers would be disposed to act as Hannah was moved to do, on this occasion: but her purpose was unalterably fixed, to honour God in the choicest of his gifts, and thankfully to devote to his service the most precious things, with which he should be pleased to enrich her. Were such holy vows and serious purposes more frequent among the professed disciples of Christ, there is abundant reason to believe, that they would have an extensive and desirable influence upon the christian world. The orderly character of families would, in that case, be more generally secured, and the prosperity of the church more effectually

advanced. But, alas, how poor and degrading are the views of parents, for the most part, with respect to the future condition of their children! Instead of devoting them to God, and training them up to act in his name, and for his honour, in the stations which they may be called to occupy; we find even affectionate fathers and tender mothers prepared to surrender and part with them, upon any terms appearing likely to secure their credit among men, or calculated to increase the splendour of their family establishments. With these hopes they will not hesitate to dispatch their sons and their daughters to the most distant parts of the earth, cutting them off from all the sweetest enjoyments of early life, and unfeelingly giving them up to all the unknown varieties of wind and tide, time and chance. May the period speedily arrive, when the maternal example of Hannah shall be more thoroughly understood, and more generally imitated!

And it came to pass, as Hannah continued praying before the Lord, that the attention of Eli was drawn towards the woman, as he sat near a pillar hard by the tabernacle. So