"
* * * * *
Will she really leave him? Will she consent to part from her treasure
and joy--her only one? What a blessing he has been to her! Seven years
of peace and overflowing happiness has that little one purchased for her
burdened and distracted spirit. Can she return to Ramah without him, to
solitude and loneliness, uncheered by his winning ways and childish
prattle? Surely this is a sorrow which will wring her heart, as never
before. Not so. There she stands again on the spot where she once knelt
and wept and vowed, but no tears fall now from her eyes--no grief is in
her tones. She has come to fulfill her vow, "to lend her son to the Lord
as long as he liveth." Again she prays as she is about parting from him.
What a prayer!--a song of exultation rather. Listen to its sublime
import. "My heart rejoiceth in the Lord; mine horn is exalted in the
Lord." How did we wrong thee, Hannah! We said thy son had purchased
peace and joy for thee. Our low, selfish, doting hearts had not soared
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.
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