Notable Women of Olden Time | Page 8

so opposed to the positive institution, was not recognised and thus
hallowed by Him who had established marriage; and while Hagar was
pitied, she was reminded of her real condition. "And she said, I flee
from the face of my mistress, Sarah. And the angel of the Lord said
unto her, Return unto thy mistress and submit thyself under her hands.
And the angel of the Lord said, Thou shalt have a son, and shalt call his
name Ishmael, because the Lord has heard thy affliction. He shall be a
wild man. His hand will be against every man, and every man's hand
against him--and he shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren. And
she called the name of the Lord that spake unto her, Thou God seest me,
for she said, Have I also here looked after him that seeth me?" implying
a recognition of the unexpected interference, protection and blessing of
God.
The promises of God are always preceded by his commands, and the
faith which clings to the promises is to be tested by the obedience
which alone can make them availing. And when the words of the angel
came to the desolate soul of the woman in the desert, there were
admonition, reproof, and command mingled with promise and blessing.
"Return to thy mistress." Return to thy duty, is the first requirement
made of those God seeks out.
And Hagar humbled herself and obeyed the voice of the Lord. She
returned to her mistress. Trying as it must have been to one so
aggrieved, she submitted to her authority, and again became a member
of the household of Abraham. Had she disobeyed the angel, she and her
child had doubtless perished in the wilderness; but in yielding her
proud and arrogant temper, she secured the future blessing to her race,
and insured the safety of her child, while her submission and gentleness
must have won back Sarah to a kinder temper, to a more forbearing
treatment.
After the birth of Ishmael, there intervened years--long years--in which

Hagar tasted the bitterest cup ever presented to the lips of woman. A
wife unloved, neglected--a mother disregarded--a woman held in
bondage by one who had made her a rival--dwelling in the presence of
him who had put her from him! Her very presence brought reproach
and sorrow to Sarah and Abraham--the violation of the divine
institution ever entailing its penalty.
The wife deserted, neglected, whose hopes have been crushed, ever
turns to her offspring for comfort and sympathy; and ardent was the
love, strong were the ties, which bound the Egyptian mother to the son
of the patriarch; and in Ishmael must all the hopes and affections of
Hagar have centred. Could she, indeed, have penetrated the future,
could she have seen her race, the seed of her son, filling the desert and
dwelling as princes; while the seed of Sarah and of Abraham were held,
as if in retribution of her own sufferings, in bondage in her own native
land,--could she have passed through the intervening ages and seen the
children of Ishmael issuing from their desert and setting their feet upon
the necks of the proudest and mightiest, imposing their faith upon a
world, while they marched forth conquering and to conquer--could she
have contrasted the triumphant warriors of Arabia, the caliphs of the
east and the west, with the wandering, desolate, persecuted,
trodden-down tribes of Israel--the proudest expectations of the woman
and the mother would have been all answered. Could she have
penetrated the meaning of the words she must have so often pondered,
she would have found that the loftiest dreams of the rankest ambition
were to be more than realized.
But dimly and faintly must she have apprehended the meaning of the
mysterious prophecy, even while she trusted the accompanying
promise. As she saw Ishmael, the only child in the tent of the patriarch,
and loved by the father, she perhaps allowed herself to hope that he was
yet to be the heir, and that in his future honours she was to find a full
recompense for all the trials of her blighted youth.
After long years of waiting, Sarah embraced a son, and the event, so
joyous to the parents, awoke afresh the bitter remembrances of Hagar,
while it roused her to the consciousness of her present lot and of all the

injuries inflicted upon her.
In all the trials and sorrows through which she had passed, she had had
none to sustain or sympathize with her. Her child remained her only
earthly hope; and now she felt that another was to supplant him, and
thus disappoint all her expectations.
Her spirit rose in pride and wrath, and she infused her own bitter
feelings into the heart of her child. When Isaac was