dence. (1 Sam. i. 19.) Her sorrow and comfort were all from Him, as her song expresses it, verses 4-8. Be this our conviction in all our griefs and joys, that our God is in them all.

From the hymn we learn

I. Charity. How often do men, like Peninnah, or Eli, do what even Balaam would not do, curse whom GOD had not cursed, and defy whom He had not defied! (Numb. xxiii. 8;) insult a neighbour's misfortunes, and account them faults! value themselves for distinctions made by GOD alone, instead of glorifying GOD for them! (1 Cor. iv. 6, 7.) The pride of birth, wealth, person, talent, is the spirit of Peninnah, claiming as merit God's free gift, and insulting others for GOD's Providential dispensations. The pride of righteousness, how ignorant, how inconsistent, how conclusive against the very existence of the quality! How many, with Eli, censure as sin what God is accepting as holiness! and this too, when, like him, they forget their own plainest duties! And, let it be remembered, Eli was no presumptuous sinner, but even a holy man, who warned his sons against the sins his misplaced indulgence had fostered. Let us look into our own hearts, not our neighbours' affairs. Let us fear vengeance for pride, unkindness, uncharitableness. (2 Sam. ii. 3, 9, 10.) God knows all, where we know little, and may acquit the accused, and condemn the accuser. Pride is not for man. (Ecclus. x. 7, seqq.)

II. Humility. The history of Hannah preaches the promise, Lam. iii. 31, 32. The taunts of enemies taint not the heart, if they sometimes wound it; the

unkind suspicions of those whom we would fain respect and love, touch us, indeed, nearer; doubts and fears of the displeasure of GOD, distress us the most deeply. Yet we have Hannah's refuge. She was never desolate. He was with her; and He sustained her infirmity with human affection too. And this is the more observable, because, according to the popular feeling, her rival was likely to enjoy most of her husband's favour. But GOD laid no more on her than she could bear. Perhaps Elkanah had been unjust to Peninnah, and this may have been the cause of Hannah's barrenness. (Gen. xxix. 31.) Hannah's resignation did not give way. Revilings and surmises drove her to her refuge. "If she should have had both issue and love, she had been proud, and her rival despised." "GOD knows how to dispense His favours so, that every one may have cause both of thankfulness and humiliation; while there is no one that hath all, no one but hath some. If envy and contempt were not thus equally tempered, some would be over haughty, and others too miserable; but now every man sees in himself that which is worthy of contempt, and matter of emulation in others; and, contrarily, sees what to pity and dislike in the most eminent, and what to applaud1 in himself; and out of this contrariety arises a sweet means of contentation." (Bp. Hall's Contemplations on the Old Testament, xi. 5.) She experienced the promise, 1 Sam. ii. 9. When her humility had been tried and grounded, mercy was bestowed. (Ecclus. iv. 17, 18.)

III. Devotion. The character of Hannah greatly 1 That is, What to be pleased with in his own condition.

resembles that of the "Blessed among women," (See Illustrative Scriptures) whose Son too appears prefigured by Samuel. (1 Sam. ii. 21; iii. 19; S. Luke ii. 40.) Prayer was her refuge from calumny; prayer gave her hope amid her apprehensions of committed sin. And this was public as well as private. Awful is their sin who forsake their Church for personal differences with the minister! Eli had offended Hannah grievously-but she forgot neither his office nor her duty. And when men committed the deadly sin of abhorring the offering of the LORD (1 Sam. ii. 17) for what might seem more plausible, the enormous guilt of the priests, Hannah did not so foolishly and wickedly. The character of the priests, she knew, could not affect her, but abhorring the offering of the LORD must ruin her. Others might cloak their sin beneath the sin of the minister; she was content to enjoy the blessing of the ministry. "For the people to abhor the offering of the LORD was to add their evil to the priests', and offend GOD because He was offended. There can no offence be justly taken, even at men, much less at GOD, for the sake of men. No man's sins should bring the service of God into dislike; this is to make holy things guilty of our profaneness; it is a dangerous ignorance not to distinguish between the work and the instrument; whereon it often comes to pass that we fall out with GOD because we find cause of offence from men, and give GOD just cause to abhor us, because we abhor His service unjustly." (Bp. Hall's Contemplations on the Old Testament, xi. 7.) Let us moreover imitate Hannah by praying in the resolution of self-sacrifice.

Earnestly as she desired a child, she yet resolved from the first to give him to the LORD. When we thus desire and determine in prayer, then it is that our countenance is no more sad. Then may we be safely intrusted with His gifts.

IV. The supremacy and dominion of CHRIST. Hannah evidently had a glimpse of these: at least, the SPIRIT Who spake by her predicted them, (verse 10, where His anointed is in.) "Who doth not see,' saith S. Austin, (De Civ. Dei, xvii. 4,) that the spirit of this woman (whose name was Anna, which signifies grace) prophesied of the Christian religion, the city of GOD, whose King and founder is CHRIST; and of the grace of GoD, from which the proud are estranged, that they may fall, but the humble are filled with it, that they may rise?' which is the chief import of this hymn. And indeed this is the first time that the name of MESSIAH (or anointed) is found in Scripture . . . . . . Kimchi, upon these words, ingenuously acknowledges the king here mentioned as the MESSIAH." (Bp. Patrick in locum.) Amidst our best consolations, never let us forget the judgment, and that our only strength to meet it is in that King, and our only exaltation in His. All that Hannah saw dimly, we see plainly. We live in the noon-she saw but the early streaks of dawn. Her child was not even the ancestor of the MESSIAH. But the most drooping mourner of us can say, Isa. ix. 6, and he, perhaps, the most emphatically. In CHRIST let all our hearts and all our hopes centre. Let us say with a greater than Hannah, S. Luke i. 46, 47.

XLV I.

Fourth Sunday after Trinity.

Subject. The Mote and the Beam. Text. S. Luke vi. 41. 66 is in thy brother's eye, but own eye?''

Illustrative Scriptures.

'Why beholdest thou the mote that perceivest not the beam that is in thine

Rom. ii. ; xiv.

Illustrative Texts. Ps. 1. 16-21; S. Matt. vii. 1-8; S. Luke xxiii. 40; S. John viii. 7; 1 Cor. iv. 3-5; S. James iv. 11, 12. Principal Words. κάρφος, δόκον.

THE more we study the words of CHRIST, the more we acknowledge, "Never man spake like this man.” (S. John vii. 45.) Three or four of His words often require a discourse to unfold them. Such is the text. A mote-an exceedingly minute splinter. A beam, embracing it millions of times. Weak is the strongest exposition we can give-diminutive faults-incalculably greater sins. Yet perhaps the deepest meaning lies in the why. At first we read it, With what consistency? With what propriety? For what good purpose? And, no doubt, rightly. Yet its force includes very much more. It is more than an appeal to sense and reason-it is an inquiry. Why? that is, Why should 1 Κεραία ξύλου λεπτὴ, ξύλον λεπτὸν καὶ ξηρόν. Hesych. in voc. VOL. I. FF