Notable Women of Olden Time | Page 7

a right (the right then claimed by the parent)
thus to dispose of her handmaid; and a marriage with her master was
the highest honour which could be bestowed on Hagar. She was given
to Abraham to be his wife, and, the relation was--according to the
usage then prevailing--as legal as that sustained by Sarah, although the
station was inferior. No injury was intended to Hagar. No higher
distinction could have been conferred upon her, and, strong in love to
both Hagar and Abraham, Sarah doubtless supposed she might be able
to welcome and love their children, though denied offspring of her
own.
But such departure from the law, precept, or institution of God,
involves a long train of sin and sorrow, no matter what the
intention--and the union of Abraham with Hagar was a direct violation
of the institution of marriage in all its principles and intentions, and it
could not but bring confusion and strife to the tent of the patriarch.
It was merely a marriage of interest and convenience, unhallowed by
love. The heart of Abraham never departed from the wife of his youth,
nor could Sarah ever have intended to relinquish her hold upon his
affection. It is the last claim a woman foregoes. And on the other hand,
Hagar could have felt no love for her master, so much her superior in
age and station. Unholy pride and rank ambition were all the feelings
which such an alliance could awaken in the heart of Hagar. Yet Hagar
was the least blameworthy, and, perhaps, not eventually the greatest
sufferer. By the customs of society, she had no voice in the disposal of
herself. Her heart was never consulted. She was only allowed to receive
the husband allotted to her--to acquiesce in the decision of others.
The natural results of such a union followed. The exaltation of Hagar
excited her pride and led to arrogance; and when she knew that she
should become a mother, her childless mistress was despised.
It is hard to bear contempt from those upon whom we have lavished
kindness; to feel that we have exalted those who despise us: and all the
indignation of Sarah was roused by the assumption and ingratitude of
Hagar; and, with the quick instinct of the woman, she retorted upon her

husband, "My wrong be upon thee."
A stranger indifference could not have been manifested than that
showed by Abraham towards the youthful wife who should have now
received his protection and kindness. "Behold thy handmaid is in thy
hands." He recognised no tie--he felt no obligation. What was Hagar,
that she should occasion strife between him and the wife of his youth,
the partner of his life, the daughter of his own people!
Hagar was from this hour abandoned by Abraham to her mistress.
When Sarah resumed the authority belonging to her station, she
assumed with it a power never before exercised. Forgetting all the love
of past years, all the claims of the present hour upon her kindness and
forbearance, she treated the unhappy Hagar with such intolerable
harshness, that the wretched woman fled from the face of her mistress
and from the tents of her master, and sought refuge in the wilderness.
We can conceive what bitter, despairing thoughts, what a keen sense of
injustice and injury may have pressed upon her, as she sat alone by the
fountain in the desert. Probably a little spot of green herbage denoted
the presence of water, while, all around, lay the sandy, rocky desert.
The stars, in the brightness of an oriental night, were looking down on
her as she sat alone, her face buried in her hands, unheeded, there to die.
Then came the visions of her youth, the remembrances of her childhood,
the sound of her mother's voice, the dream of her smile--then the tent of
Sarah--then the alliance with her master, the excitement of her pride,
the flush of hope, the exultation of a fancied triumph over the childless,
but still honoured wife; succeeded by the cold withdrawal of all the
kindness of the patriarch, and the entire abandonment of her whom he
had taken to his bosom, to the implacable resentment of her former
mistress!
The temper of Hagar, the feelings thus excited--dark, sullen, bitter,
revengeful--when she fled from all, may have been impressed upon her
offspring, and thus marked the future character of her race.
Still, Hagar was not alone. The wanderer was not forgotten. In the hour
of darkness and of desolation, there is One nigh even to those who

forget him. "And the angel of the Lord found her by the fountain in the
wilderness, and he said: Hagar, Sarah's maid, whence camest thou?
And whither wouldst thou go?"
She was not addressed as the wife of Abraham. The conventional usage,