to the heights of thy lofty devotion. We deemed thee such an one as
ourselves. In the gift, truly thou hast found comfort; but the Giver is
He in whom thou hast delighted, and therefore thou canst so readily
restore what he lent thee, on the conditions of thy vow. The Lord thy
God has been, and is still to be, thy portion, and thou fearest not to
leave thy precious one in His house. We thought to hear a wail from
thee, but we were among the foolish. Thy soul is filled with the beauty
and glory of the Lord, and thou hast not a word of sadness now. Thou
leavest thy lamb among wolves--thy consecrated one with the "sons of
Belial"--yet thou tremblest not. Who shall guide his childish feet in
wisdom's ways when thou art far away? What hinders that he shall look on
vice till it become familiar, and he be even like those around him? The
old man is no fit protector for him. Does not thy heart fear? "Oh,
woman, great is thy faith!"

Come hither, ye who would learn a lesson of wisdom; ponder this record
of the sacred word. Hannah returned to Ramah. She became the mother of
sons and daughters; and yearly as she went with her husband to Shiloh,
she carried to her first-born a coat wrought by maternal love, and
rejoiced to see him growing before the Lord. How long she did this, we
are not told. We have searched in vain for a word or hint that she lived
to see the excellence and greatness of the son whom she "asked of God."
The only clew which we can find is, that Samuel's house was in Ramah,
the house of his parents; and we wish to think he lived there to be with
them; and we hope his mother's eyes looked on the altar which he built
there unto the Lord, and that her heart was gladdened by witnessing the
proofs of his wisdom and grace, and the favor with which the Almighty
regarded him.

But though we know little of Hannah--she being many thousand years