pursue it eagerly. At all events, the measure adopted by Abraham is open to us all. We may pray for those whom we have injured. We may beg of God to obliterate from their minds any bad impression, which either by our words or actions we have made upon them. And, if we find in them a kind forgiving spirit, we should so much the more redouble our exertions, to obtain for them the blessings of salvation, which will infinitely overbalance any evils which they may have suffered through our means.]
Gen. xxi. 9, 10. And Sarah saw the son of Hag ar the Egyp- tian, which she had borne unto Abraham, mocking. Where- fore she said unto Abraham, Cast out this bond-woman and her so?i : for the son of this bond-woman shall not be heir ivith my son, even with Isaac.
SIN, even in this world, almost always brings its own punishment along with it : and not unfrequently the sin itself is marked in the punishment that follows it. We can have no doubt but that Sarah erred when she gave Hagar into Abraham's bosom, in hopes of having the promised seed by her. And scarcely had her device been carried into execution before she began to suffer for it. As soon as Hagar had a prospect of becoming a mother, she began to despise her mis- tress. Her contempt excited vehement indignation in the breast of Sarah ; insomuch that she made Abraham himself also a party in the quarrel, and accused him of encouraging Hagar in her insolence. When Abra- ham, to ^ indicate himself, empowered her to use her own discretion with respect to Hagar, she began to retaliate on her contemptuous bond-maid, and to treat her with excessive severity. Thus was domestic harmony interrupted by those very means which Sarah had adopted to increase her happiness. Hagar, unable to bear the unkind treatment of her mistress, fled from her face ; and returned to her only in con- sequence of being commanded to do so by an angel of the Lorda. We cannot suppose that her forced
a Gen. xvi. 3 — 9.