living Church of the living God, no eye can see, no hand measure, no imagination conceive, in their extent of grace, mercy, peace, hope, and joy. Walk then consistently with the liberty, wherewith Christ hath made you free. You are no more servants; but sons. Regulate your conversation accordingly. Your blessings are all in Christ, all from Christ, all by Christ. Give God in Christ then all the glory. The bondservants abide not in the house; they must be cast forth; but the son abideth for ever. Do the great master of that house such service, as becomes his children. Bear testimony to the greatness of his love, and to the happiness of his family. Bear testimony to the holiness which becometh his house. "Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven." 1

1 Matt. v. 16.

SERMON XXXI.

HAGAR'S FINAL EXPULSION.

GENESIS XXI. 14.

AND ABRAHAM ROSE UP EARLY IN THE MORNING, AND TOOK BREAD, AND A BOTTLE OF WATER, AND GAVE IT UNTO HAGAR, PUTTING IT ON HER SHOULDER, AND THE CHILD, AND SENT HER AWAY: AND SHE DEPARTED, AND WANDERED IN THE WILDERNESS OF BEERSHEBA.

THE path of human life is traced through an intricate and tangled labyrinth, wherein men wander up and down, walking in a vain shadow and disquieting themselves in vain, unless faith in the word and truth of Jehovah be the golden thread to guide their footsteps along the proper paths, and to lead them safely, though often mysteriously, towards the rest that remaineth for the people of God. The way will frequently appear to run in directions entirely contradicting the dim sight and unbelieving suggestions of sense but He who is light, and in whom

dwelleth no darkness at all, leads his confiding people "by the right way, that He may bring them to a city of habitation. And when the faith, whereby their varied pilgrimage is trodden, shall be swallowed up in vision, they shall look back upon its darkest and most painful portions, with adoring gratitude to Him, whose wisdom appointed them, whose love illumined them, and whose sovereignty overruled them for good.

By this safe directory of faith was Abraham conducted, through the long and eventful pilgrimage, between the time when he went forth, at God's bidding, from Ur of the Chaldees, to that in which he slept the sleep of the blessed, a hundred years afterwards. It overruled his affections supremely; it guided him securely; it upheld him mightily, throughout the painful transaction, whereof the text forms a part. The whole history has a strong claim upon our regard and prayerful contemplation, as one of those instructive instances, which exhibit the sovereignty of the Most High overruling the ordinary transactions of family life, by mysterious influences. It is written for our instruc

1 Psalm cvii. 7.

tion, that we also may look, and learn how absolutely, although not so visibly, He who ordereth all things, both in heaven and earth, dispenses our common and every day concerns with a wisdom that cannot err, and a love that never fails those children of his grace who desire to be directed by the one, and supplied by the other. The fountains of both are opened, and their streams are poured forth from the exhaustless fulness that dwells in Jesus Christ.

We have before us a threefold subject of consideration.

I. THE CONDUCT OF ABRAHAM.

There is a simplicity of touch, combined with a breadth of effect in the slightest sketches of the Bible, whereby the pictures which it sets before us, are stamped with the incontestible proofs of his divine hand, who gave them to the Church, for its edification, its furtherance, and joy of faith. Such is eminently the case in the representation before us. It is an exhibition of the most yearning natural tenderness, breaking forth into most affecting sorrow, when it was so severely wounded, by Sarah's demand for the expulsion of Hagar and Ishmael. And yet, that tenderness is restrained; it is not permitted for one moment to lift up a voice of

complaint against the dealing, or of opposition to the will of God.

"The thing was very grievous in Abraham's sight, because of his son."1 Abraham had long clung with fondness to his first born; and seems almost to have in this instance also hoped against hope, that the God of his mercies, the God of truth, would alter the thing that had gone out of his lips, by transferring the promised spiritual blessings, from a son yet unborn, (and whose birth, except by the interposition of some stupendous miracle was impossible,) to the child whom God had already bestowed upon him. "O that Ishmael might live before thee." This natural and becoming sorrow fills the heart of Abraham, and bows it to the dust in heaviness. Is it not then wonderful, that there should be no utterance of a similar but far mightier feeling,-no record that any such emotion existed towards that awful command of God, which afterwards laid upon him the burden of sacrificing his son Isaac, whom he loved, and in whom he looked for the coming of the Son of man, on the errand of a world's salvation? How shall we explain this paradox? How are

Gen. xxi. 11.

2 Gen. xvii. 18.