ould 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