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of unabating, growing animofity and hatred? "As he went up year by year, when he went up to the houfe of the Lord, fo the provoked her." In female bofoms can fuch malignity dwell? Ah, what fo bad as the good corrupted, perverted! Behold a rancour which no time could enfeeble, no fense of shame reftrain, and which the facrednefs of the fanctuary ferved only to embitter and inflame! Can it be poffible, merciful Father, can it be poffible, that fuch a fell fpirit fhould ever have accompanied any of us to thy houfe of prayer? Can "the fame tongue utter bleffing and curfing?" Dare we fay "we love God, whom we have not feen, while we hate" or despise "a brother" a fifter "whom we have feen?" "Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts and fee if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting."*

It is greatly to the honour of Hannah, that all this cruel and infulting treatment drew from her no indecent return. Though grieved in spirit, provoked, fretted beyond all enduring, we hear of no furious appeal to the partial tenderness of her husband, no railing for railing, no rafh malediction, no furious threatening of revenge. It is not eafy to govern the fpirit; it is not always poffible to command the temper under offence and infult; but the tongue is in every one's power, improper words admit of no defence, and rage is but a poor apology for abuse and blafphemy. But the pines away in filent forrow. "She wept, and did not eat." These feafons of rejoicing before the Lord, these times of refreshing to every other daughter of Ifrael, were to her days of heaviness and woe. What fignifies a large portion to one who has no appetite? What is the profperity of her people, to one, who, like a dried branch, is cut off from all intereft in pofterity, who fees the name and honours of he. beloved husband paffing away to the children of another, the children of one who hated

* Pfalm cxxxix. 23, 24.

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her? Alas, the fpirit of devotion itself is checked and repreffed by the inceffant, unrelenting ftings of envy and jealousy; life is become a burden to her.

The deep affliction with which fhe was overwhelmed could not efcape the attentive eyes of Elkanah. Though her tongue faid nothing, her eyes, her tears, her dejection, her abstinence, her fighs betrayed abundantly the anguifh of her foul. "Then faid Elkanah her husband to her, Hannah why weepeft thou, and why eateft thou not, and why is thy heart grieved? Am not I better to thee than ten fons ?" To what dif trefs has the good man reduced himself? Now he feverely feels the effect of his own imprudence, and laments his having tried the dangerous experiment, which robbed him of all domeftic quiet, disturbed the feftivity of the folemn rendezvous at Shiloh, and threatened to produce one day fome tragical event in his family.

Sympathy, if it does not wholly dispel our miseries, pours at least a temporary balm into the wound, and "foothes pain for a while." Hannah becomes compofed, and the feaft is concluded. There is ftill one refuge left for the miferable, one remedy against defpair, one friend able and ready to help in every time of trouble; and our eyes with complacency follow the mourner, not into her fecret retirement, to spend her forrow in unavailing tears, or to curfe the day in which fhe was born; not into the round of giddy diffipation, to drown reflection and anxiety, in the poifoned chalice of intemperate mirth and jollity; but to the place of prayer, but to the door of mercy, but to the dawn of hope.

We fhall presently find, that what related to the externals of God's worship was at that time but badly conducted in Ifrael, the "fons of Eli were fons of Belial," they "knew not the Lord." But be the minister who he will, the word and fervice of God cannot be rendered of none effect. Not only the fpirit of piety, but a fense of common decency was

now

now loft in the Levitical priesthood: when it pleased God to make this very afflicted woman, the means in his hand, to restore the dignity, purity and importance of the facred function, to revive the decayed interests of religion, and to bring forward the great events which are fo intimately connected with the things which belong to our everlasting peace.

When we look into human life, whether as exhibited on the hallowed page of inspiration, or by our own obfervation and experience, we fhall find that most of the "ills which flesh is heir to" may easily be traced up to fome imprudence, heedlefsnefs, or tranfgreffion of the man himself, who, before he was aware, found himself involved in difficulties and diftreffes the native effects of his own misconduct, but which he forefaw not, apprehended not, and which he never could intend. I know how poor a confolation it is, to tell a man, "you have nobody but yourself to blame," and to upbraid him with the warning which you gave him, and he would not take; but it is not, for that, useless for one to discover the fource, cause and progress of his calamity. The cafe must be bad indeed, or his eyes must have been opened very late, or his "heart hardened through the deceitfulness of fin," if he cannot turn to fome good account the reflections of maturer judgment, the admonitions and chastisement of experience, the pain and remorfe of an ill conscience, or the mistakes and wanderings of a good one.

-There are steps in conduct which are irretrieveable, and therefore ought not to be tampered with. The exceffive ufe of the most wholesome food, will at length overwhelm the strongest constitution; the occafional application of what is doubtful or unwholefome may undermine or wafte it, but poifon is certain death; and the fagacity of a brute, the understanding of a child, is fufficient to diftinguish between poison and food, perhaps not between poifon and medicine.

-To how many gracious, focial, civil and moral purposes, may not the wife and proper ufe of religious VOL. VI. fervices

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fervices be applied? The man who has performed with understanding and feeling the devotions of the clofet, will iffue from it in a higher state of preparation for every duty of life. Filled with veneration for his heavenly Father, "who feeth," and with whom he has been converfing "in fecret," he breathes good will to man. The emotions of every unkind, ungentle, unjust affection are ftifled, extinguifhed, forgotten. The principles of benevolence and benignity have acquired new life and energy. He is difpofed to meet the ills of life with more firmnefs and fortitude, and to enjoy its bleffings with a more exquifite relifh. Hannah having poured out her foul to God, "went her way, and did eat, and her countenance was no more fad." The devotion of the morning will prove the best affiftant toward conducting the business of the coming day; and that of the evening, the happiest review and-improvement of the past. From him who habitually begins and ends every thing with God, you may reasonably expect, the fruits of a good and honeft heart, "speech alway with grace, feafoned with falt," and order in conduct, more than from other men: more works of mercy, more fair dealing, more fteadiness in friendfhip and lefs of the rancour of oppofition, lefs of the felf-fufficiency of pride, lefs of the malignity of envy; for the love of God abforbs all these baleful, malignant fires.

The devotions of the family, in like manner, produce the happiest effects within that fphere. How foothing, how cementing, how conciliating they are! Does common calamity prefs? It is alleviated, it is fanctified, it is done away, when the" care is caft upon God," when the burthen is transferred to a Father in heaven, who ftands engaged to remove it, or to render it a bleffing. Is domeftic profperity abounding, increafing? What an additional luftre, value, fweetnefs does it derive from union, from piety, from a common sense of obligation and dependence? Have offences come? Has peace been disturbed? Are the bonds which united

hufband

husband and wife, parent and child, brother and brother, master and fervant, unhappily broken? The moment that the healing addrefs, "Our Father who art in heaven," reaches the ear, every foul is peace, the fpirit of love pervades the whole, and the voice of difcord is heard no more. When pardon is implored from him whom all have offended, the ftony heart relents, melts, forgives, for he needs to be forgiven.

The influence of public worship likewife, where it has not degenerated into mere form, is the ftrongest cement of fociety. It ferves to confolidate men of various ranks and conditions, with their feveral talents and abilities, into one compact, efficient, well-organized body, ready to act with one heart and one foul, in the cause of God and their country. Little fhades of difference, in men truly good, will unite inftead of disjoining. Our great national affemblies are obliged, by law, to open their fittings for public bufinefs, by acts of public devotion. The reafon and intention of the law, and of the practice founded upon it, are abundantly obvious. If the effect does not follow to the extent that might be wifhed-it must be concluded, that the devotional part of the fitting is neglected; that formality has extinguished the flame; or that difference of religious fentiment, or what is ftill worse, indifference to all religion, mar and weaken, and diftract the whole. The prevalency of a worldly fpirit must at length prove fatal to piety, and when piety is gone, public fpirit is on the decline, and will not long

furvive.

-But we have in the hiftory under review, a melancholy inftance of what frequently happens to this day, and under a happier difpenfation of religion-feafons and places of devotion perverted into the inftruments of kindling and exercifing the ungracious, the unfocial, the unkind affections. How often is the fanctuary of God profaned, by being made the fcene of dif playing the rivalship of beauty, drefs, equipage, rank and affluence? The humbling fervices of the meek

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