"Moreover his mother made him a little coat, and brought it to
him from year to year, when she came up with her husband to
offer the yearly sacrifice."--I SAMUEL 2:19.
The stories of Deborah and Abigail are very apt to discourage a
woman's soul. She says within herself: "It is impossible that I ever
can achieve any such grandeur of character, and I don't mean to try;"
as though a child should refuse to play the eight notes because he
cannot execute a "William Tell." This Hannah of the text differs from
the persons I just now named. She was an ordinary woman, with ordinary
intellectual capacity, placed in the ordinary circumstances, and yet,
by extraordinary piety, standing out before all the ages to come.