'But they were all I had!' cried the other. And they are both gone!'

And mine are both gone,' said the white lady, clasping the hands of her poor sister in sorrow. 'But Jesus took them. And they are with Jesus, and Jesus is with me. And by and by I shall have them again.'

From that hour the native woman sat at her white sister's feet, followed her about, hung on her words, and from her would take comfort,

Because she preached unto them Jesus and the resurrection.-ACTS xvii. 18.

-The comfort wherewith she herself was comforted of God.'

Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God,-says the apostle,-lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you.—HEB. xii. 15.

-You see the real bitterness was in Naomi herself. Those hard thoughts of God: 'The Almighty hath dealt very bitterly with me.'

Lest there should be among you a root that beareth gall and wormwood.-DEUT. xxix. 18.

-Like this: "The Lord hath brought me home again empty.' Yet the woman was left of her two sons and her husband,'-how then should not her life be empty?

Sometimes, looking at alien Moab-'at ease from his youth'-even loyal Israel grows restive. It sounds so comfortable!

Moab hath been at ease from his youth, and he hath settled upon his lees, and hath not been emptied from vessel to vessel. - JER. xlviii. 11.

-Emptied from vessel to vessel.' Yes, we are that; and it is a sharp process,-yet is no life thereby left 'empty.' It is the old vessel that is empty-not the new. For in this new life to which God has brought you (shorn and clipped as you deem it) there are endless possibilities of new work, new joy, new growth, new richness; all waiting for you to take them up. If you will not, then indeed will your life be 'empty' and useless and lost. It is said of Moab, 'settled upon his lees,' that 'therefore his taste remained in him, and his scent is not changed.' He is the same old Moab to the end of his life: never better, and generally worse. But Israel'shall go from strength to strength.' Israel, shaken and tossed, shall grow strong in the Lord,' and

Filled with the knowledge of his will.-COL. i. 9.

-Israel, emptied from vessel to vessel,' shall be

Filled with all joy and peace in believing.-ROM. XV. 13.

It is I be not afraid.

-Israel, broken off from work, and 'left' of all that was once most dear, shall still be

Filled with the fruits of righteousness.-PHIL. i. 11.

-According to the word:

I have satiated the weary soul, and I have replenished every sɔrrowful soul.-JER. xxxi. 35.

-You think the hand of the Lord is gone out against you;' and instead, the message is:

O man greatly beloved, fear not: peace be unto thee, be strong, yea, be strong.-Dan. x. 19.

-Go humbly on and claim the promise:

In the days of famine they shall be satisfied.-Ps. xxxvii. 19.

-Shall have enough, even then. And when you can do that, it will be no more: 'Call me Mara.' But rather this:

O Naphtali, satisfied with favour, and full with the blessing of the Lord.-DEUT. xxxiii. 23.

XXI.

Shiloh.

And she was in bitterness of soul, and prayed unto the Lord, and wept sore.-1 SAM. i. 10.

Down through the long ages comes to us a great representative picture. It does not so much matter what the special trouble is: it may be a possession that one has-or that one has not; and it matters nothing that the scene here has for a background the old hill of Shiloh, and that an Eastern face and an Eastern dress are in the front:

'Not from Jerusalem alone,
The path ascends to God,'—

-whether for our desires or our despair. In all countries, in all times, the picture is historically true: a woman praying in bitterness of soul, and weeping sore. Eve herself is hardly more a representative woman than Elkanah's wife Hannah. Strip off all the special circumstances of the case, and you will see this. A secret heart-longing—or heartpain; for as I said, it may be what one has as easily as what one has not; the year by year, and year after year, provocations of an 'adversary' who just wanted to make her fret. If you narrow the case down to even these two points, you will see of how wide application it is. I wish

some other details were as sure to be true.

I look at Hannah, I remember the Lord's words:

For when

Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.-MATT. v. 5.

-I think Peter may have had her in mind, when he wrote his praise of 'the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit ;' adding:

For after this manner in the old time the holy women who trusted in God, adorned themselves.-1 PET. iii. 5.

-How it shines to this day! making Hannah look 'fair as the moon.' Her adversary provoked her sore;' and yet, as it seems, no impatience dimmed the sweetness of her example, and no harshness broke the softness of her voice.

She openeth her mouth with wisdom; and in her tongue is the law of kindness.-PROV. xxxi. 26.

-For through it all, her husband loved her; which he would hardly have done to that degree, had she been peevish and melancholy. Men are not quite like women in such things. But as it was, the gentle-faced Hannah, with her heavenly decoration, was dearer to him than Peninnah, with all her sons and daughters. Yet just because he loved her he knew that she grieved. For patient as Hannah might be, the 'continual dropping' of that very rainy day wearied her.

She wept, and did not eat.-1 SAM. i. 7.

Worst of all, perhaps, was it, when-most of all-Hannah wanted a quiet mind: when the whole family went up to the yearly feasts, at the house of the Lord in Shiloh.