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times speaks unadvisedly. The Church is a fire to try the Church.

Ignorance can see nothing but misery in such a process : and malice stands ready, like' Penninah," to insult and provoke the desolate. God hath forsaken her : persecute and take her, for there is none to deliver.'

But, 'understand, ye brutish among the people; and, ye fools, when will ye be wise ? Doth he not sit by his gold as a refiner, while ye stand by it misconceiving or mocking ?-Doth he not sit by it to watch over the furnace, to regulate the heat, to determine the time of of trial, and to bring his gold out of it seven times purified. A proof of this is before your eyes in the text. This

out of weakness was made strong. She looked beyond her difficulties, and wrought through them :perplexed, but not in despair : persecuted, but not forsaken ; cast down, but not destroyed.' She teaches us, as I said, what religion is, and what is its value.

We have thus seen true religion to be a divine life, and we have seen it tried. Let us, in the next place, observe it owned and honoured of him who gave it; ' for, them that honour God, he will honour.'

The servants of God, like Hannah, may have to pass through many trying dispensations to those good things which God hath prepared for them that love him ;' but, though weeping may endure for a night, joy’ will certainly come in the morning. The night was past : the precious seed of faith, prayer, and patience had been sown weeping: and now the Lord removes the error from Eli's mind, and puts comfor-, table words into his mouth. · Eli said, Go in peace, and the God of Israel shall grant thee thy petition that thou hast asked of him.'

The life of faith can take comfort from a word, and rest a world upon a promise. God, who sent her a

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token for good, enabled her to receive it, and to rest on it. And she said, Let thy handmaid find grace in thy sight. So the woman went her way, and did eat, and her countenance was no more sad.' Her affairs without the Sanctuary actually remained in the same state as before; but a transaction had passed within it, which placed them in a new point of view. The favourable aspect of God, gives a new aspect to every thing besides.

The time for God to honour the faith which he had tried, was now fully come. Hannah had left the temple, cheered and satisfied. And they rose early, and worshipped before the Lord, and returned and came to their house-and the Lord remembered Hannah-and she bare a son, and called his name Samuel, saying, Because I asked him of the Lord.'

The Lord not only honours the work which he has proved, but he often does so 'beyond all that we can ask or think.' Hannah had asked for a man-child; but it was not in her contemplation to ask for a SAMUEL that light of Israel-that Prophet mighty in word and deed before God-that blessing and pattern to the world in every age. She returns, in due time, with this child; and, in presenting him to Eli with a heart overflowing at the recollection of the place, time and circumstances of her trial, she says, "O my Lord, as thy soul liveth, my Lord, I am the woman that stood by thee here praying unto the Lord. For this child I prayed, and the Lord hath given me my petition,' and to him I dedicate the gift for ever." They, that sow in tears, shall reap in joy;' and the testimony of such witnesses is the soul of history. Let us mark the state of her mind by its grateful acknowledgments.

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She brought the child to Eli, and said, 'O my Lord, I am the woman that stood by thee here praying." "You recollect," as if she had said, "a poor broken-hearted creature-drunk, indeed, with grief,

though not with wine. You saw me here reduced to the one help and hope of the comfortless. I am the woman whom you sent away with a word of encouragement, and here is the answer to my prayer: for this child I prayed; and I am come this day to give him up to that God, who is all my salvation and all my desire.' For, thankful as I am for the child, yet 'my heart rejoiceth in the Lord: there is none holy as the Lord; neither is there any Rock like our God.' I have been cruelly scorned and reproached, but talk no more so exceeding proudly: let not arrogancy come out of your mouth: for the Lord is a God of knowledge, by Him actions are weighed:' I stand a living witness to this truth. "The Lord killeth, and maketh alive: He maketh poor and maketh rich: He bringeth low and lifteth up.' Surely I am a witness for God, that He will keep the feet of his saints' for, as for me my feet were almost gone, my steps had well nigh slipt:' but he led me with his hand, and quieted me in himself. The wicked may proudly boast, and the righteous for a time seem forsaken; but God 'abideth faithful; he cannot deny himself.' Yet a little while, and the wicked shall be silent in darkness, for by strength shall no man prevail.' No: 'the adversaries of the Lord shall be broken in pieces: out of heaven shall he thunder upon them. The Lord shall judge the ends of the earth.' He shall give strength unto his King, and exalt the horn of his anointed" " (or Christ.)

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Thus have we seen, my dear hearers, a divine life in the soul tried and honoured.

But am I to presume that all before me this day are, like Hannah, 'alive unto God through Jesus Christ,' and maintaining a communion with him in their sorrows and in their joys? Are not many of you, on the contrary, 'living without God in the world? Let conscience speak; and let it be heard when it speaks. Does not conscience declare that

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you live like men in general, without repentance? without faith in Christ? without that heart-felt religion and that secret prayer, which mark the character of those who are alive to God?' Compare the sorrows and the joys of this woman with your own. How do you need reproaches ? How do you answer, when unjustly accused? Whither do you go in trouble? Is it to your

Bible ? Is it to your Saviour? or is it to some broken cistern of human power or carnal pleasure? Examine, I pray you : who are your chosen companions? what are your oracles? where are your expedients ? Are they like those of this woman? Are they not the very reverse ?

You may regularly attend the public worship of God: you may contend warmly for revealed truth: you may protest against the conduct of the ignorant and profane, and may appear religious at certain seasons. Thus, perhaps, Penninah, the adversary of Hannah, appeared. But beware of putting the mere picture of religion for the substance. If your friend is dead, you find it but a small comfort that

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retain his picture. How wretched do you esteem the emigrant, who wanders over Europe with an assumed title, a star, or a plan of an estate;

but who possesses neither rank nor property!

Examine,' therefore, yourselves, whether ye be in the faith : prove your ownselves : know ye not your ownselves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates ?

God is witness, and your own souls are witnesses, that you, whom I am now particularly addressing, “have not the life of God within you.'

Brethren, his word declares, that to be carnally minded is death : that the carnal mind is enmity against God:' that they that are in the flesh cannot please God:' and that ‘if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.' And if none of his. whose are they?

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Trouble is that dreary path, which every one, soon or late, must tread: but, to enter into it without a guide, to faint in it without a comforter, to meet death at the end without a prospect:-If any man, however gay or great, is reduced to this, 'I say that an untimely birth is better than he.'

What then must be the consequence of dying in such a state? What language must, at length, proceed from such lips? Will not one say, I am the man, who once stood praying before the Lord; but the world kept possession of my heart: I talked of religion; but had none. I see, too late, that religion is a divine life, which I once despised, and have now lost for ever!"

Will not another reply, "I am the woman, who stood, not praying, but trifling before the Lord. I heard, indeed, the truth: I felt some convictions; but I lost them among the giddy. I recollected them in death; and now meet them in eternity, as 'the worm that dieth not?" ""

May the Holy Spirit awaken you from such a fatal delirium, before it be too late. It is not too late, as yet. The ordinances of this day are the call of Christ to your hearts. He ceaseth not to complain, 'Ye will not come unto me, that ye might have life.’ -Turn ye, for why will ye die?" Lift your hearts to him in reply, Lord to whom shall we go, but unto thee?" Give us the life which thou requirest; and which, when tried, thou wilt bring forth as gold."

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I turn to you, who need not to be informed that true religion is a divine life. You feel it to be something very distinct from the flighty speculations of some men, or the graver forms of others. You know what it is to take your cares, like Hannah, to one who careth for you. You have felt a sympathy with her, as we have passed on: for there is something common in the exercises and experience of every living branch in the True Vine.