1 Samuel 1

4. Be often upon your knees, pray with life and fervency: the same Spirit that fills the heart with sighs, fills it with joys; the same Spirit that composes the prayer, seals it. When Hannah had prayed, her countenance was no more sad (1 Samuel 1:18). Praying Christians have muc…

It is still music; for want of this a Christian is in continual fear; he does not take that comfort in ordinances. Hannah went up to the feast at Jerusalem, but she wept and did not eat (1 Samuel 1:7). So a poor dejected soul goes to an ordinance, but does not eat of the feast;…

Healing words are fittest for a broken heart; but that is a cruel, unmerciful tongue which speaks such words to the afflicted, as cut them to the heart (Psalm 69:26). They talk to the grief of those whom you have wounded. Hannah was a woman of a troubled spirit (1 Samuel 1:10).…

Quest. 3. What are the several sorts of prayer? Resp. 1. There is mental prayer, in the mind (1 Samuel 1:13). 2. Vocal (Psalm 77:1).

Do you not have enough in him? As Elkanah said to Hannah, (1 Samuel 1:8). Am not I better than ten sons?

Secondly, the Paschal Lamb when it was killed and eaten, had no bone of it broken, so was it commanded, Exodus 12:46, and Numbers 9:12; signifying, that Christ when he was crucified, should not have a bone of him broken, as Saint John applies the former Texts, John 19:36. Thirdl…

Lord in trouble have they visited you, they poured out a prayer when your chastening was upon them. 1 Samuel 1:15. I am a woman (says Anna) of a hard spirit: that is, a troubled soul, and have poured my soul before the Lord. Hence it appears, that the ordinary prayers of most me…

Prayer is the golden fleet the saints send out to heaven, which comes home richly laden with mercy. Sometimes God gives his people the same mercy in kind that they beg (1 Samuel 1:27). For this child I prayed, and the Lord has given me my petition.

So that the staff of her age, on whom she leaned was broken: she had now none left to comfort or assist her in her helpless comfortless state of widowhood; which is a condition not only void of comfort, but exposed to oppression and contempt. Indeed, and being a widow, the whole…

Now to open this a little; First, you shall discern the will of God by the breathing of the Spirit, first when the Spirit helps us to pray feelingly, and sensibly for those blessings that we stand in need of, when the Spirit does lift up our hearts, and reach after those mercies…

And this is often and usual, when the soul makes use of God's ordinances, and privileges which himself has granted, that surely God has heard our requests, he never refuses to grant that prayer which he stands to hear. For this purpose is that you read of the good woman Hannah (…

And in God's answering our prayer we have experience of the comforts of the Spirit, and those spiritual solaces which he secretly gives to his people. Hannah when she had prayed went away and her countenance was no more sad (1 Samuel 1:18). In praying we put forth the groans of…

The observableness of the mercy enhances the rates of it; tending more to the Christian's comfort, example to others, encouragement to right worshippers, and glory to God: All these things might take up much time, but I shall only hint what is that open reward that God gives to…

And therefore I say, (1) That many (it may be) are esteemed Holy and Sanctified, who indeed are not so. Though I will judge no man in particular, yet I had rather pass this Judgement on any man, that he has no Grace, than that on the other hand, Grace does not change our Natures…

Thus Mordecai and Hester took all care to perpetuate the memory of that signal deliverance from the plot of Haman, by ordaining the feast of Purim, as an Anniversary throughout every generation, every family, every Province, and every Ciy, that those days of Purim should not fai…

(1.) What a mercy was it to us, to have Parents that prayed for us before they had us, as well as in our Infancy, when we could not pray for our selves? Thus did Abraham, Genesis 15:2 and Hannah, 1 Samuel 1. 10, 11. and some here likely are the fruits and returns of their Parent…

And so we are said often in Scripture to speak to God in our hearts, when the mouth does not speak at all, as Moses (Exodus 14:15) is said to cry to God — that was nothing but the directing or actual intending of such and such secret desires to God; that was a crying to God. So…

The names given to prayer import violence. It is called wrestling (Genesis 32:24), and pouring out the soul (1 Samuel 1:15), both of which imply vehemency. The affection is required as well as the invention.

Those wives wanted a meek and quiet spirit, that covered the altar of the Lord with tears (Malachi 2:13) — not tears of repentance for sin, but tears of vexation, at the disappointments they met with in their outward condition. Hannah's meekness and quietness was in some degree…

The Scripture every where notes them for infamous, and most abominable persons. When Eli supposed Hannah to be drunken, Count not your hand-maid a daughter of Belial, said she, 1 Samuel 1:16. Now a Son or daughter of Belial is, in Scripture-language, the vilest of men or women.…

The Troubles of the Saints are sanctified to them, but mine are fruits of the Curse. They have spiritual Consolations to ballance them, which flow into their Souls in the same height and degree, as Troubles do upon their Bodies, 2 Corinthians 1:5. But I am a stranger to their Co…

From which I gather, that her husband observing her to be a godly, wise, faithful, and industrious woman, gave her power and liberty to do in the household affairs, what she thought good, (he being a public magistrate, for he was known in the gates, sitting among the Elders of t…

2. Though she ought cheerfully to entertain whatever guests he brings into the house, yet ought not he to be grievous and burdensome therein to her: the greatest care and pains for entertaining guests lies on the wife: she ought therefore to be tendered therein. If he observe he…

The duty which on a father's part in this respect is required, is that he encourage his wife, and help her with all needful things for the performance of this duty. It is noted of Elkanah, that he suffered his wife to tarry at home while she gave suck to her son, and would not f…

If we had but this fixed with us; what gift or grace I seek, what comfort I seek, it shall no sooner be mine, but it shall all be yours again, and myself with it; I desire nothing from you but that it may come back to you, and draw me with it to you, this is all my end, and all…

Job 16:20: My friends scorn me; but my eye pours out tears to God. When we have a great burden upon us, to go aside and open the matter to God, it gives ease to the heart, and vent to our grief; as Hannah in great trouble, falls to praying to God, and then was no more sad (1 Sam…

Look as in an earthquake, when the wind is imprisoned in the bowels of the earth, the earth heaves, and shakes, and quakes, until there be a vent, and the wind be got out, then all is quiet: so we have many tossings and turmoilings in our minds, till we open and unbosom ourselve…

6. The Lord writes down the prayers of his People, Ionah 2:7. Prayer, though it be not Vocal, only Mental, is Recorded, 1 Samuel 1:13. Hannah spoke in her Heart.

It is no small ease that we have a God to go to, to whom we may freely open our minds. Prayer has a pacative virtue, as Hannah (1 Samuel 1:18) prayed to the Lord, and wept sore; and mark the event, the woman went her way, and did eat, and her countenance was no more sad, etc. An…

An oven stopped up is hotter within: so the more close we are, the more we keep our own counsel, the greater is our burden. Look as wind when it is imprisoned in the caverns of the earth, it causes violent convulsions and earthquakes; but if it find vent, all is quiet; so it is…

Who ever repented of his repentance? (1 Samuel 1:18): Hannah went her way, and did eat and drink, and her spirit was no more sad. Prayer gives ease, but sensual pleasures leave remorse, and a sting.

We are to love God for hearing our prayers for others as well as for ourselves. Eli gave thanks and solemnly worshipped God for Hannah's sake, because he had before prayed for her, and therefore praised God for her, who had heard his prayers in her behalf: compare (1 Samuel 1:28…

Therefore the Lord to commend his favors to us, and to set a price upon them, will have us pray much and long. 1 Samuel 1:27: For this child I prayed, and the Lord has given me the petition which I asked of him. 3. God does it, to prove and exercise our faith.

A good Christian gives God the inwards; when he prays his heart prays. 1 Samuel 1:13: Hannah prayed in her heart. In his thanksgivings the heart is the chief instrument of praise (Psalm 111:1).

Take faith in any thing else, and you shall see, so much faith, so much quiet in you. For example, Hannah, in 1 Sam. 1:18. when her petition was granted, that she beleeued it, says the Text, she went away, and tooke meate, and looked no more sad. That was an argument that she be…

Those that never felt anything of this nature may call it a fancy, but the Lord's people are abundantly satisfied of the reality thereof. Their very countenance is altered by it (1 Samuel 1:18). The sad and cloudy countenance of Hannah cleared up — there was fair weather in her…

Is it a light thing for you to have God for your Father, Christ for your elder brother? Am not I better to you, says Elkanah to Hannah (1 Samuel 1:7-8), than ten sons? And is not the immortal God, the Father of mercies, and God of all consolations, better to you, than anything e…

And it is therefore the greatest, because it is the loss of the parents in most bowels; it is the loss of the chiefest comforts of their greatest hopes. But you say, The loss of some husband or some wife would be more grievous than the loss of a child: was not Elkanah better to…