Genesis 16:15-16

REFLECTIONS.

What awful effects have been in all ages reduced by unlawful connections! See, how this illicit marriage, in defiance of the divine law, involved all the parties concerned in it in trouble! The unhallowed attempt to hasten the accomplishment of God's promise, in opposition to God's way, brought Sarai into distress, Abram into vexation, and Hagar into misery.

Let us again remark, how very sweet and refreshing to the soul are wilderness visits from Jesus, when for the exercise of faith and patience, his people are at any time brought there. Dearest Lord! do thou visit me when there, and then the wilderness will rejoice and blossom as the rose. Let me in every dispensation, and in every place, carry with me this memorial: Thou God, my Saviour, seest me; and the consciousness of thy presence, will comfort my heart in the most solitary desert.