Hannah's profound grief and earnest prayer in 1 Samuel 1 illustrate the power of seeking God in times of deep personal trial. Despite facing barrenness and provocation from Peninnah, Hannah's vow to dedicate her child to the Lord led to the birth of Samuel. The sermon contrasts Hannah's inner adornment of a meek and quiet spirit with worldly ornamentation, emphasizing that true value lies in spiritual graces pleasing to God. Ultimately, it calls believers to trust God's timing and purpose, even when desires are unfulfilled, finding ultimate reward in faithfulness.
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Would you read with me, please, in the first book of Samuel, first book of Samuel, chapter one. Now there was a certain man in Ramesses, Ophim, of Mount Ephraim, And his name was Elkanah, the son of Geroham, the son of Elihu, the son of Tahu, the son of Zaf, and Ephesus.
And he had two wives, and the name of the one was Hannah, and the name of the other, Penina. And Penina had children, but Hannah had no children. This man went up out of his city yearless to worship and to sacrifice unto the Lord of hosts in Shiloh. The two sons of Eli, Hosni and Sinehas, the priests of the Lord were there. When the time came that Elkanah offered, he gave to Phenina his wife and to all her sons and her daughters portions.
But unto Hannah he gave a worthy portion, for he loved Hannah. But the Lord had shut up her womb. And her adversary also provoked her for to make her fret, because the Lord had shut up her womb. Now he did, as he did so year by year, when she went up to the house of the Lord, so she provoked her. Therefore she wept and did not eat. Then said Elkhana, her husband, to her, Hannah, why eatest thou?
Why eatest thou not? Why is thy heart grieved? Am I not better to thee than ten sons? So Hannah rose up after they had eaten in Shiloh. and after they had drunk. Now Eli the priest sat upon a sleep by a post of the temple of the Lord. He was in bitterness of soul and prayed unto the Lord as wet sore. She vowed a vow and said, O Lord, a post that thou wilt indeed look on the affliction of thine handmaid and remember me. And not forget thine handmaid, but will give unto thine handmaid a man-child.
Then I will give him unto the Lord all the days of his life. There shall be no razor upon his head. It will come to pass, it came to pass as she continued praying before the Lord. But Eli marked her most. Now Hannah, she spake in her heart. Only her lips moved, but her voice was not heard. Therefore Eli thought that she had been drunken. Eli said unto her, How long will thou be drunken? Put away thy wine from thee. And Hannah answered and said, No, my Lord. I am a woman of a sorrowful spirit.
I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink. but have poured out my soul before the Lord. Come not thine handmaid for a daughter of Delilah, for out of the abundance of my complaints and my grief have I spoken hitherto. Then he lay answered and said, Go in peace, and the God of Israel grant thy petition, but thou hast asked of him. He said, Let thine handmaid find grace in thy sight. So the woman went her way, and did eat, and her countenance was no more than that.
They rose up in the morning early and worshipped before the Lord and returned, and came to their house in Reina, and Elkanah knew Herna his wife, and the Lord remembered her. Wherefore it came to pass when the time was come. after Hannah had conceded that she bare a son, and she called his name, Samuel saying, Because I have asked him of the law, and the man else Hannah and all his hosts went up to offer unto the Lord the yearly sacrifice. And he vowed that Hannah went not up, for she said unto her husband I will not go up until the child be weaned, and then I will bring him, that he may appear before the Lord and there abide forever.
Elkanah, her husband, said unto her, Do what fever see good, carry until thou have weaned him. Only the Lord established his word. So the woman abode and gave her son sat until she weaned him. When she had weaned him, she took him up with her, with three bullets, one equal of flour, and a bottle of wine. He brought him unto the house of the Lord in Shiloh, and the child was young. And they flew a bullet and brought the child to Eli, and she said, Oh, my Lord, as thy soul liveth, my Lord, I am the woman that stood by me here praying unto the Lord.
For this child I pray. The Lord has given me my position which I ask of him. Therefore, I also have lent him to the Lord as long as he liveth. He shall be lent unto the Lord and thy worship the Lord then. The Lord will bless you with his word. The chapter before us presents to us two different ways. One steps onto the page of the Word of God with an abundance of prominence, and she goes off just as quickly, leaves not a trace of herself to be continued in the divine record.
The other comes onto the page of the Holy Scriptures as a woman filled with grief. Her character in the scriptures is one that is absolutely sublime. She leaves upon the page of the divine record a man of God, outstanding in his love. So first of all, we are going to ask ourselves about these two women. I want you to notice, first of all, their name. Tenina and Tenna.
And Tenna means coral and pearls. And Tenna is the name that means great. So their names tell us of women of entirely opposite character, the one from the other. One was bedecked externally, and the other one was bedecked internally. One wore ornaments outside, and the other wore her ornaments inside.
So the New Testament takes up the idea. when First Timothy chapter two is talking about the women who consort with men who lift up holy hands without wrath and with doubting. We read not with gold or pearls or costly arise, but as becometh women professing godliness adorned with good work. When I go over to Peter's epistles, Remember Peter writing on the very same subject, adorned with a meek and a quiet spirit.
My dear sisters, there are things that are of value in heaven that may not necessarily sparkle before the eyes of the world or before the eyes of worldly Christians. and they are inner graces that are pleasing to the Lord. You see, when Paul wrote to Timothy, he had in mind the temples that had to do with pagan idolatry. There within those temples there were the temple maids, there in order that there might be indulged in gross sin.
And these temple-maids were scantily, garishly dressed, and their ornamentation was beguile. Says Paul, the women that consort with men who go into the temple of God, men who are holy men, Without them you will find an absolute absence of the garish ornamentation of temple maids. For their lives will be filled with good work. Their hearts will be full of grace.
Their spirit will be bleak and quiet. They said today I was a lady's man. The first time I ever knew that. my wife wouldn't believe it. But I want to pray to you women folks this evening and ask you in the presence of God whether you long to be a peniner or whether you long to be a Hannah. Particularly would I address that question to my younger sister. We live in a day of worldly, garish, ornamentated.
We live in a day when young women begin to look more and more devilish in the way in which they make up their faces. I want to ask you, are you seeking to dress? in a way that conforms to the world, or are you seeking to dress in a way that will please the Lord? Heaven looks down upon you, dear women, folks, in the meeting tonight, and heaven appreciates minds that are holy, minds that are pure.
heart for the good, spirits that are gracious and soft. Heaven appreciates women whose deportment and character, whose influence and life is an adornment to the gospel of God. So you can be a canine again, or you can be a and again. Here in this man's household, there were these two women possessing opposite things.
And in many of our assemblies, we have women both possessing opposite things. To be grand, dear all thought in this way that pleased the Lord. But I want you to notice that the woman whose very name spells ornamentation, that in her life there was no disappointment. In her life, Her desires were all gratified, for it was in Israel a thing of shame for a woman to be barren, and a thing to be boasted to be the mother of many kids.
And here this woman of ornamentation, she had that which naturally she could boast. It seemed that life was shining on all her ambitions, for her husband must love her, seeing that she had so many children, mind you. With the other woman whose name means right, she's a woman who's disappointed. She's a woman upon whose ambition the son has not gone.
That says the chapter not only that she was bound, but the Lord had got her home. Here surely was one of the great problems of that home that the Lord had allowed Penina to be the mother of many children. The Lord had restrained Hannah from this. Here is one of the problems that often faces not only Christian men but Christian women in human life.
I think of young women in this meeting to die and somebody dared to say I was going to talk on bachelor's in Princeton. I wouldn't dare. Well, the girl could do that better than me. that there will be dear sisters in this meeting that evening, and you have thought since you came to know Christ as Savior to live a life that leads him, you have thought to adorn yourself with a meek and quiet spirit, And by everything you can do in your life, you have sought to adorn the doctrine of God our Savior.
No doubt secretly in your heart you trusted that the Lord would bring into your life a young Christian man who would appreciate those Christian virtues in your life. and would seeing you a desirable partner, the guy you are unmarried. And you look round and you may become embittered in spirit, as you see maybe other young women who were not harshly concerned about pleasing the Lord.
not harshly concerned about walking in the ways of God. They're married. They've got lovely families. Their hearts are filled with joy and you are led. You say, is this air of God? Is this the kind of God we got? When people walk with him, he leaves them disappointed. When Christians are carnal, they get things all their own way. Some has got even the same dilemma.
He said, When I look on the wicked, they prosper. He said, My feet at all, Moshe. My steps is well, my gone. Till I got into the sanctuary, then I understood therein. But David could think of the ungodly, and when he got into the sanctuary, he knew that the end of such people was perdition. That's what he's thinking, right. He thought to himself, well now, the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us.
And so he would suffer now, knowing that glory lie before him and perdition lie before the ungod. But you can't reason like that, Ken. You might think like that. But when you get into the sanctuary and think about our new Christians who have all everything going their own way, do you say to yourself, well, now, in the sanctuary I learn they're in? Well, they're in heaven. And they'll walk on the streets of gold. Is there any gold streets up there? They'll be with the Lord forever. That makes it more difficult, doesn't it?
because carnal Christians and spiritual Christians will eventually arrive in the same place. And that doesn't make it easy. But when you get into the sanctuary and you have seen carnal Christians prospering, Carnal Christians getting everything they want in life and Jews seeking to walk with God, and he seemed not to be answering your prayers. Get into the sanctuary. And remember that we must all one day stand before the judgment seat of Christ.
And there will be rewards at the judgment seat of Christ, my sister, for a meek and quiet spirit. There will be rewards at the judgment seat of Christ for an adornment that pleases the Lord. There will be rewards at the judgment seat of Christ for the development of spiritual graces and spirituality in your life. Yes, look on to the end. The end of unspiritual Christians will be to suffer last at the beamer of Christ. the end of spiritual Christians will be to get his well done in that day.
You know there's not a single thing that you are instructed to do within the Book of God, but what there will be reward for it at the beamer of Christ. So first of all, If you feel that you have walked with God and he has not answered your prayers and given to you the desire of your past, get into the sanctuary and things are going to be rectified up long after. There will be abundant reward for obedience to the word of God and for putting the things of God first in your life.
You dear young women, if you walk with God, it does not necessarily follow that He will grant to you all those desires that are so correct in the lives of young Christian women. Let me say something to the young men here. I have noticed in my years of ministering the word of God, Many young men arise who were very dogmatic about the way in which women should dress, very dogmatic about the way in which women folks should deport themselves.
And they had an awful lot to say about it. But one day a doll with all her tinsel passed by, and they married a young Christian that was a very negation. of all that they ever contended for. And after that, I never heard them talking about those things again. My dear young man, if by reading your Bible you have learned that young Christian women should develop Christian braces and have a Christian deportment and dress, then it is your found and duty. From among those young women, to choose your partner in life.
And if you dare to do anything else, you should be ashamed of yourself. Well, now this dear woman, she had married. She was not one of the spinsters. She had married. Of course, in those days you could have more than one wife, and that would solve many a problem. Or maybe it would make many problems more. But here was this dear woman in that home. And though she was a woman whose name meant she possessed the grace of divine people, yet she was denied by God.
the one thing she desired in life. Maybe I'm talking to some married woman here today. The one thing you long for in life which is completely natural and right, that God should put into your arms an instant career for him. Your home still quiet. And it's never been disturbed with the cries of an ego. You feel that life is empty and life is a difficult. Do you like it?
Sometimes it's that's why you're asking. Or it may be I'm talking to some Christian and it doesn't touch the subject of marriage and children. that it is the ordinary ambitions of life. And you set your heart on something you would like to be for God. And you sought to prepare yourself for that something you would like to be for God by walking to please him. And tonight, your ambitions have never been gratified. It seems that God has left you, you feel almost alone.
And he hasn't answered your prayers, and he hasn't rewarded. And I think every man and every woman in the meeting tonight who's known God for any time at all will agree with me that all of us have experiences like that in love. And the problem of ungratified desires by men and women who walk with God is one of these big problems in Christian life. Am I talking to a dear man and woman, and you have a family, and you're walking with God, and you have longed that your family would be born of God and be used for Him, and today they're all not served.
That seems to me to be somewhat common in Northern Ireland. People telling me of their families still not there. Yet there are men, women who walk in God. Neither think we can't understand. Some of the greatest men amongst us, their families have turned up in such a way as to break their heart. some of the problems that we'll only know the answer to when we stand before the beamer of Christ. But in spite of that, here was a woman who not only had seen that the Lord had failed to give her the desire of her heart, but she lived in circumstances where she was not allowed to forget unanswered desires.
For there was Penina there to annoy her, there to mock, there that she might be a thorn in the side of this more spiritual woman. The circumstances in which she found herself were completely uttered. Now I don't say that there are Christians who will mock you if you do not find a suitable partner in life. I do not say that there are Christians who will mock women who the Lord does not give children to.
I do not say that there are Christians who will mock if those who are spiritual do not get the desires of their heart in life. Yes. For a woman who has walked with God to remain unmarried, and see women who have not walked with God married, there's that to annoy. There's that to cause to fret. There's that that can't be understood. or married folk with no family looking on others that God blesses.
There's that aching in the heart, that wondering why. And God blesses in business and in other spheres of life, men who are unspiritual, women who are unspiritual. How we question. And it is so easy for us in the circumstances of life for us to pray and to worry and even to rebel against the ways of God in our lives. Rebell against the ways of God in our lives? You say, can Christians do that? I tell you many a time I've rebelled against the ways of God in my life.
Many a time I stood in John Riches in Kilmarnock and rebelled against the fact that he ever took me there. Why couldn't I be out in the work ministering God's word to God's people instead of tied to a place like that? Rebelled against the ways of God I must confess. I suppose almost in every Christian life there comes a time when we rebel against the way of God, seek to stand against the way he wants to face. How blessed it is then to remember that it was Jacob not striving against God that brought the blessing, but Jacob wounded Unable to struggle anymore, he just clung, passive, submissive, broken.
It was then that God could bless us. My dear Christian, it is when you and I learn not to struggle and rebel against the ways of God in our lives. that lie placid in his hands, allowing him to control and form our knowledge. It is then we shall find blessing in God and the newness of his presence in all others. It added to that I find in this chapter there was a misunderstanding husband.
Of course, you women folk will agree with me. All husbands are like that. Think of this man. And when his dear wife was barren and she was being taunted by the other woman in the house, he had the audacity to turn to the dear woman and say, And I better to you than ten sons put together. My word had a good opinion in them. I meant well, for it says he loved us, he loved us. But he didn't understand there was an emptiness in her life that her husband couldn't kill, that only obeyed in her arms, isn't it?
Maybe in Christian life we have found, The ways of God with us have not just turned out as we should like it, and the prosperity and blessing that others enjoy may vest ourselves in. We may find that our nearest and our dearest fail to understand, and their words of supposed comfort are like to offer. You know, I meet men sometimes with very glib sounds.
And I find that in all circumstances, whatever type of God's people they make, they've always got plenty to say. If it's bereavement, boy, texts blow off their lips, bad lips. If it's poverty, well, another lot of texts. If it's some catastrophe, why these men can talk for it. But I wonder sometimes how much their words mean, how much they mean to the folks that listen to those words, for they can be found in grass and sheeply sheep.
Words are cheap. Words are empty often, and words often well meant can mock the minds of Christians who suffer rather than hope. Remember the story of Great Queen Victoria when she came to one of our Scott villages after she had lost Prince Albert, and there was in the village the dear woman who had been bereaved. So the good queen, she went down the road to meet and to have a reward with the dear woman who, like herself, had lost her husband.
When it was vile, the village was a god. What did the queen say? The old body said, well, she grasped And I grabbed. And we both grabbed together. That is to say, she wept. And I wept. And wept. And we both wept together. Otherwise, they didn't speak, you say. They understood. And how often is it in our Christian lives? that there's a lack of those that really understand.
And even the best words that are stated in all years come as empty company. You'd almost turn away from the positive way. She couldn't be like that. Her husband loved her, but he didn't understand. And I wonder if there's anyone feeling here that nobody's just passed through the trial that you were passing through. And all the comforts that hear saints of God try to pour in your ears is all meaningless an empty. For you realize they don't understand, though they knew that.
This woman was just like that. This woman, if I may spiritualize for a moment, was living in a day when it was a great need for there to be amongst God's people a deliverer. She doubtless not only had an exercise that she might have a child to nurse, but she had an exercise that she might have a child to nurse the God who would be used of the Lord. And because of that, because that was Denolda, she wept and would not sleep.
And is it not true that we may have the highest and spiritual ambitions in our lives to use our homes if God should give us one, real families if God should give them to us. to use the ambitions that we arrive at in life for the glory of God. But he doesn't do it. And he leaves us sometimes disappointed and feeling so upset. We feel that there's nothing in life worth living for. And like Elijah, we long did that.
Has it been like this? I want you to notice this. This woman doubtless had heard of Sampson. Sampson's mother, as I know, she had no exercise about the birth of Sampson. I don't read of any anxiousness that she had in order that she might bear a child for God. though she was living in a day when there was great need for a deliverer. The angel of the Lord appeared to her and said, thou shalt bear a son, see to it that you produce Nazarite conditions in your own life and see to it that he is a Nazarite from his birth.
My Lord's wife had to receive have a child in that place.
Hannah, this opposes woman who had a loving that she might have a child, careers or God. She didn't wait for the divine promise that she would be among. But while she was still bitterly disappointed, she produced in her life a matter of truth. What does she say? When the priest thought he was drunk, she says, I have not indulged in wine or stronger.
Here was a woman whose sobriety, whose temperate mass, Who, if you like, to spiritualize it, who's saying no in her own life to the joys of her had made her a success for the bringing in of a man of joy. May I spiritualize that? It may be that we in our lives, speaking spiritually now, We are like Hannah unproductive for God.
And in spite of our seeking to walk with him, there does not seem to be much likelihood in the near future that God may move in our lives in our circumstances with his life. Let us not wait until we get some signal that he is about to bless. let us not wait until he makes it clear to us that he is going to answer all the while but let us prepare for coming let us prepare us for the answers to our place the gratifications of our love by producing in our lives pastor that will flee to you.
You want to be a blessing? You want to be blessed of God? You want to see the answer to your prayers, though they be delayed by? Is your duty in mind to walk step by step with God, shutting out of all eyes things that belong to the world, and that would be solely calculated to grieve the Lord. Let us become Nazarite Christians and say no to the joys of them. Very likely, you know, that as the people of God, we would go and go against Nazarite ship and touch the defiling things of them.
There are those that got into moral sin. But there are so many more who walk with God and who keep themselves away from the defiling influence of us. And it's unclean. But we are living in days when the joys of us and the pleasures of the world are finding their way into many of our lives. while we would abhor the unclean things of earth.
How near the joys of earth are coming to us to die and stealing from us the finding of all our joys in front. Let that sink in, shall I? Where do you get your pleasure from now? Do you sing now? No, none but Christ can fall apart?
Or when a fellow Christian visits your home, are you anxious to go to get the money to the door? so that you can enjoy the pleasures of the world. Good morning. While we are all perfectly clear that our Nazarites should demand not touching the defiling, evil thing of earth, how many Christians are having their Nazarite vowed by indulging in the pleasures of the earth.
You want blessing in your life? Put out the wine and the strong drink. Enjoy the rest. Would you notice please that when she prays in the presence of God, she says two things about the child that she desires of the Lord. One thing positive, the other thing negative. Positively, she says, I'll lend him to the Lord all his life. Negatively, she says, a razor shall not come upon it.
Negatively, her child would typify one who takes the place of shame. Well, it's a shame for a man to have long hair. One who takes the place of shame along with a rejected son. That's the negative side. The positive side is to live entirely for the Lord. My dear sister, God has given to you a family. Have you both negative and positive desires for your offspring that you might rear them to daily take the cross and follow Christ?
The man who takes the cross have said goodbye to the world. The man who takes the cross takes upon himself shame with a rejected son. Will you like Moses, mother, rear your family to recognize that they belong to a rejected Jesus? that their lives must be associated with a man of shame. Or is it that you try and link your children up with every worldly organization that you have, in order that your children might prosper in the world.
And because of that you don't say much about the things of God and the things of Christ. because they would hinder your children's progress? On us, our children must be reared to recognize that they're associated with men and women that carry daily the shame of the God. No razor, I'm here. How grand to be able to rear children for God giving them to the Lord. I'm not talking about dedication, please. Some folks indulge in dedicating infants these days, just as if you can dedicate unconverted place to God.
He doesn't want unconverted place. So I don't believe in dedication. But I do believe that Christian parents should get down in the presence of God and pray together constantly for their children, that they might be men, women of God. Did you notice please that this dear woman, she went to the temple. What a meeting that was in the temple. For here in the temple there was a man and a woman.
He was a high priest. But what a difference there was between the man in the temple and the woman in the temple. The man was old, old. Quite candidly I don't like the word old in the Bible. When you get the idea in the scriptures of a man being old, it quite often means far more than being old in age. It means that a man has once known the smile of God, but now it's hard in his eyes.
Remember in the scriptures there's an old prophet. an altar. I don't know how many years it was since God had spoken to him. I don't know how many years it was since God had used the man. He was an altar. He was a hazel. He was an old. And here was an old priest. Living in days when there was no open vision. An old priest too tired to minister he sat down and if you read in the revised version it says he sat down but on his seat by his post you see he had been sitting there that long that they all knew it was where he sat he'd been leaning on that post so long that he all knew it was his place Scripture says every priest and a sailor.
But he is an old man. The days of his functioning in acceptance in the sanctuary were a thing of the past and old. But he was taxed as a scripture. Or if you like, he was heavy with a lot of flesh about him. He was an old priest. His powerful days of intercession were far. He was a seated priest when he should have been standing.
He'd been indulging himself so much that there was a great deal of death. Again he lost his sins. He couldn't tell a spiritual praying woman from a daughter of the Lord. That's the kind of man that was in the temple. But here was a woman who comes into the temple. She's a contrite heart before the Lord. And she's so deeply moved in her cold about her own need.
And the need of God be. That her lips move as she cries. She pulls out a cold of water. I wonder, tell me, so was the place in the temple that time. Was it her man? Or the woman? The man was the official thing. The woman was what he was saying. You know what kind of folk come to your prayer meeting? Please don't misunderstand me. I'm not saying all the brethren are like Eli.
Nor am I suggesting either that all the sisters are like Hannah. But I notice in the second chapter of Paul's first epistle to Timothy that there is a type of man who should be at the prayer meeting. And there is a type of woman who should be at the prayer meeting. What type of man? Not an Eli character. Please, my dear brethren, when you read that chapter, remember that chapter has got some very hard things to say about men. Before you expatiate on the hard things it's got to say to women.
It has even harder things to say to men. First of all, the men must lift up holy hands. Without wrath, and without reason. That's the type of man who must pray in the prayer meeting. And listen, that will rule out a lot of brethren from praying. All the men should cry, but my dear brother, you must possess certain qualifications before you dare to get up to lead the same people.
First of all, your hands must be holy. Listen, if your hands are not holy, the Lord doesn't want to hear you. Let me tell you this, if your hands are not holy, the saints don't want to hear either. There's a doubt. Man that has anything questionable about his life, never leave the saints of God in prayer in the public meeting. That word holy goes further than that, and it leaves a man whose mind and whose life is brought into accord with the mind of God.
Brethren, who would leave the saints in prayer at the prayer meeting or any public meeting, must be men whose lives are difficult. in accord with the mind of God. And if you are deliberately disobeying the scriptures, my dear brother, in your life, keep quiet in the prayer meeting, please. It's not good, man. Again, lift up holy hands without wrath. That word wrath is not that quick kind of wrath that just chisters up and goes down just as quick. It's moldering anger. That kind of smoldering anger that we carry in our breath against a brother or sister may be for many years.
It's a sin of Edom, a sin that will not forgive. And if you are carrying within your breath, a hard feeling, a smoldering anger, against any brother or sister, you have no right to lead the faith in public prayer. You should be quiet. Then without reasoning means less. It's without your mind being torn into the left. That is the sign. It is no good getting up in the prayer meeting and making prayers that are in line with the mind of God when you haven't brought your own mind and spirit into a place where you agree with the mind of God.
That is to say, I might well pray certain things on my lips, but within I've got a mental reservation because I'm not prepared to bow to the will of God. So my praying is pulling one word. And my rebellious spirit is pulling the other. If you are distracted in that way, my dear brother, you have no right to stand in a public meeting. The rest of the chapter tells me the kind is in. My wonder, wouldn't it just go along to a prayer meeting? And of course, like Hannah, you don't hear their voices.
Oh, but somebody says, One Corinthians chapter eleven, teaches that sisters can take part in the prayer meeting. Well, doesn't he say, nor do I. Some folks think that, you know. Things that sisters can take part in the prayer meeting and in the morning meeting. They say One Corinthians chapter eleven teaches that because it talks about women praying and prophesying and well, they must pray and prophesy from you. Will you notice, please, at the end of that section, right in the middle of the chapter, Paul says this, if any man is contentious on this subject, remember this, we have no success, neither the churches of God.
You see, Paul had been asked the question, when a woman prays or prophesies in the Assemblies, Should she have a hat on or not? Says Paul, I'll answer you that question. But then when he finished, he says, you know, this is a hypothetical question. This is a question that never ought to have arisen. Because while in Corinth, your sisters do pray and prophesy in the assembly, they didn't ought to do it. So the question doesn't arise anyone. We don't have such a custom as women praying and prophesying in the public meeting to the assembly.
So, says Paul, if anybody's contentious about that, remember that we don't have the custom of men and of women praying publicly in the assembly. So the question as to whether they should have had one or not when they pray publicly doesn't really arise. Well now, when our sisters come to the prayer museum, I wonder, do they come to pray or do they just come to listen to the brethren pray? My sisters, you don't come to pray ordinarily, but I tell you this, the assemblies of God's people owe a great deal to the silent prayer.
of the sisters in your house. Here was a woman who prayed silently, though her lips moved. And as a result of her prayer, she brought in a deliverer, a ruler, a judge, a prophet, a minister. Your prayers, my dear sister, in the assembly may be far more effective than the prayers of the brethren, though they use all the correct terminology of brethrenized phraseology.
You know, don't you? I do wish we could abandon brethrenized phraseology in praying and get down to praying instead. I don't mean by that calling God you. I believe that in calling God thee and thou. I believe in respect for God. But I believe in calling the Lord, the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm not familiar with a lot of that brethrenized phraseology has entered gardens from the past century and means just now.
And our prayers present would be far and far more to the point, and far more real, if we got on this train to God instead of trying to be clever in our phraseology before our fellow dead. I was hurried because I remember my cousin kept me here along while I was here, and I think so did I, somehow. We'll try and finish now as quickly as we can. I want you to notice that when God answered the prayer of this dear woman, after she had weaned the child, and the womenfolk weaned their children in those days, far later than our womenfolk do incidentally, possibly three or five years old, and maybe older still.
That is why you have then the family going up to the temple and Hannah not going up until she had weaned the child. It was a longer thing. The weaning of the child would indicate, not weaning from the world, then. But the weaning of the child was the weaning of the child away from its mother. away from the bonds of natural affection, that the affection of young Samuel might be only for God.
It is well to wean our children from the world. But have we learned, my dear sisters, my dear brethren, to tear our children from our own bosoms? in order that we might deny our own affections, that our children might be only and all of us. Was it not the Lord's mother who stood at the outside of the crowd and they said, Thy mother and thy reverence is there?
And the Lord had to say no to maternal affections. so as many are saying that God had to say no to me. Let me tell you. The man who's been ministering divine truth to God's people now for over thirty years, the most difficult thing in spiritual life in serving God is to say no to human affairs and to determine that one's service will be absolutely devoted to Christ, not held back in any way by the dear soul or not, and need to glean our children from our own affectionate again.
This dear woman comes to the temple. When she comes to the temple, she brings three more people. She brings flowers. She brings why, whatever you may like to make of those things, there is an eloquent picture of a threefold appreciation of the death of Christ, an appreciation of the mere offering aspect of the life of Christ, and an appreciation of the drink offering, the pouring most of the life.
to bring with that which is a great volume of worship. And she brings it to the heart of God. Here I'm in close. My dear sister, I wonder what is your relationship with Christ? When you gather with the saints on Lord Day morning, For while it is the privilege of the men folks to open their mouths, it is equally the place of men and women to remember the Lord and to work.
Not all the blessed, but in all. And Hannah brought three people. What an appreciation of Christ. in his head. And Hannah brought now an appreciation of Christ in the moral experience of his life. Hannah brought a drink after him appreciating the pouring oath of Christ. And listen to chapter finishes with this. And they worship him there.
My dear sisters, what do you bring on Lord say morning? As you gather with the dear saints of God in your local assembly to remember the Lord Jesus, my sister, what do you bring? For the Lord's appreciation of Christ in his death and appreciation of Christ in his life, what he brings? How many assembly is listed to the very door of heaven, not by the exercises of men, but by the spiritual appreciation of Christ that Godly sisters bring you.
My dear young sisters, Lord's Day morning meeting, how do you come? You don't need to take part. You don't have to. You couldn't order that. In those quiet moments, what do you bring? In the moment when the brethren lead the company in worship, can you follow intelligently the way in which they talk about your Lord? not only follow intelligent land, but is your heart moved and from God that he gets?
Three bullets? Who, Lord? What is this? For it should be the business of those brethren and sisters when they come into the presence of God. to remember the Lord Jesus, to come with hearts full of Christ, and a full, rich appreciation of his sublime person and his wondrous life. Maybe our assemblies are beginning to suffer today from a lack of spiritual wisdom.