"dead, yet speaketh."--Come hither, ye who are tempest-tossed on a sea
of vexations. Learn from her how to gain the ornament of a meek and
quiet spirit. Come ye who feel that God hath judged you, and that you
suffer affliction from his displeasure. Learn that you should draw
nearer to him, instead of departing from him. Come with Hannah to his
very courts. "Pour out your soul" before Him; keep back none of your
griefs; confess your sins; offer your vows; multiply your prayers; rise
not till you also can go forth with a countenance no more sad. He is
"the same yesterday, to-day, and forever." Come hither, ye who long to
know how your children may assuredly be the Lord's. Strive to enter into
the spirit of Hannah's vow, remembering, meantime, all it implied as she
afterwards fulfilled it. Appreciate, if you can, her love and devotion
to her God; and when you can so entirely consecrate your all to Him, be
assured he will care for what is His own, and none shall be able to
pluck it out of his hand. Come hither, ye who are called to part with
your treasures; listen to Hannah's song as she gives up her only son, to
call him hers no more--listen till you feel your heart joining also in
the lofty anthem, and you forget all selfish grief, as she did, in the
contemplation of His glories who is the portion of the soul. "_My heart
rejoiceth in the Lord._" Alas! alas! how does even the Christian heart,
which has professed to be satisfied with God, and content with his holy
will, often depart from him, and "provoke him to jealousy" with many
idols! Inordinate affection for some earthly object absorbs the soul
which vowed to love him supremely. In its undisguised excess, it says
to the beloved object, "Give me your heart; Jehovah must be your
salvation, but let me be your happiness. A portion of your time, your
attention, your service, He must have; but your daily, hourly thoughts,
your dreams, your feelings, let them all be of me--of mine." Oh for such
a love as she possessed! We should not then love our children less, but
more, far more than now, and with a better, happier love--a love from