succeeding, however complacently she might have regarded it, that mischief and anguish heralded even the birth of the child; followed the son that God at length mercifully gave to herself, through the persecution of Ishmael; and made his posterity bitter adversaries of those who were born to Abram, under the promise in Isaac. Here is confusion and every evil work, brought by the great enemy, through this successful temptation, into a family, where a little while before, all was peace and holiness, and domestic love. "How great a matter a little fire kindleth." Watch we, then, and that with unslumbering perseverance of godly jealousy over the commencements of interruption to family concord. And be it ever in our remembrance, that as faith, even a simple reliance on God in his word, is the builder up of family peace, so will the impatience of unbelief always be found one of the strongest and most efficient of all those disturbing forces, which exert their mischievous leverage to overturn the fabric of family love and joy.

Sarah's sense of wrong is now as clamorous, as her previous unbelief had been importu

1 James iii. 5.

nate. According to her own desire, the promised Father of nations, and Redeemer of human kind, is probably to be born of Hagar; yet her wounded feelings make all for which she had prayed, waited, nay sinned, appear as a despised thing compared with the pride of Hagar, and her own pride, which it wounded. How many rooms does sin find, wherein to lodge, when one sin hath opened the door of the heart. "All this availeth me nothing, so long as I see Mordecai the Jew sitting at the king's gate." Other result was hardly to be expected, than that which happened: yet now Sarai's rage is even greater than her former impatience. Alas, we are selfish creatures, and self is a fearful tyrant, even in the minds of those whom the love of Christ, if the heart's unbelief did not oppose it so dreadfully, should constrain to deny themselves. Sarai said unto Abram, "My wrong be upon thee: I have given my maid into thy bosom; and when she saw that she had conceived, I was despised in her eyes: the Lord judge between me and thee." Here was sad abandonment of that ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which in the sight of God is of

1 Esther v. 13.

2 Gen. xvi. 5.

great price; and the manner wherewith Sarai repaid and revenged the pride and assumption of Hagar, surpasses the provocation itself, the punishment, (all things considered) is greater than the offence. Such is ever the character of sin. It grows on to more selfishness, until the transgressor loses sight of all tenderness and regard for others. The Devil is ever busy to make even the children of God conceal their own offences, by finding fault with others whom they have tempted, as authors of the consequences that do, and that must arise, but for which they should only blame themselves.

But what is the conduct of Abram in this irritating appeal to him? It seems to prove his freedom from all unhallowed love to Hagar, and to show that his consent had merely arisen from an unwise acquiescence in Sarai's mistaken expectation, of thus perpetuating a posterity and its mighty spiritual blessings to her husband. He said unto her, " Behold thy maid is in thy hand: do to her as it pleaseth thee." A soft answer turneth away wrath: and such an answer at least did the father of the faithful return to his inconsiderate wife. It deserves a

Gen. xvi. 6.

question, however, whether his affection and loyalty to Sarai, and his love of peace were not carried to an unjustifiable extent. Was it indeed possible that Hagar should be thus about to fulfil those exceeding great and precious promises which Jehovah had made him? If so, did it not become his sacred duty to defend her from harm, and to hinder her from suffering by the ill temper and ill treatment of his wife? Every step which a believer takes from the simplicity that is in Christ, and from the exercise of faith in Christ, carries him forward in the sad employment of weaving a tangled web, wherein his own feet will probably be more and more ensnared; and from which only the mercy of an offended God can deliver him.

That mercy was not denied to any of the parties whose case is now under our considération, although I can only briefly direct attention to

III. THE CONDUCT OF GOD TO HAGAR. "When Sarai dealt hardly with her, she fled from her face." Here was a new manifestation of rebellion and pride. It was her duty to have endeavoured to disarm her offended mistress, by lowliness and obedience; remem

1 Gen. xvi. 6.

bering her own offence, and those feelings in Sarai, for which she could not be without sympathy. But no; she is too great for reproof. She will peril her own unborn child;she will peril her life ;-she will peril the consequences of leaving a family where Jehovah is known and worshipped;-she will bring sorrow upon her husband and master,-but she will not remain in subjection. She follows the blind guidance of her own haughtiness of heart. And she has had imitators without number. There have been thoughtless, spiritually insensible, or most widely misled christian servants, who, in a moment of irritation, cast away their sense of duty, and their enjoyment of privilege, and fly to a desert, where no gracious refreshments are found, because they will not humble themselves in the sight of God and man.

Is Hagar then left to eat the fruit of this tree which her own hand hath planted, and which, as it is rebellion, may end in death? No; sin hath misled, but God will restore. Sin hath brought her into misery and bondage, but God will bring her back to liberty and peace. The Angel of the Lord, unquestionably the Angel of the covenant, found her by a fountain of water in the wilderness, and said,