which awaited his progeny, while at the same time he was assured of the ultimate fulfilment of the Promise, and the actual boundaries of the lands of his inheritance were marked out from the river of Egypt to the distant Euphrates; and in this confidence Abram was content to _possess his soul in patience_ (Lk. xxi. 19). As yet, it will be observed, it had not been expressly said that his wife Sarai was the destined mother of the long-promised son. As the prospect, therefore, of her contributing to the fulfilment of the Promise became more and more remote, she seems to have concluded that this honour was not reserved for her, and accordingly persuaded her husband to take her handmaid, HAGAR, an Egyptian, as a secondary wife, that by her he might obtain what was denied herself. Abram complied with her suggestion, and Hagar conceived; but the consequences did not tend to increase the patriarch’s happiness. In a moment of elation Hagar mocked her mistress, and Sarai dealt hardly with her, till she fled from her into the southern wilderness, on the way that led to her native land. There, as she halted near a fountain of water, an angel of the Lord met her, and bade her return and submit herself to her mistress, assuring her at the same time that she should give birth to a son, whom she was to call ISHMAEL (_whom God hears_). Though the _son of a bondwoman_ (Gal. iv. 22, 23), no mean future lay before him; he should become the ancestor of a numerous seed, who, like himself, would be true roving sons of the desert, _their hand against every man, and every man’s hand against them_. In remembrance of this incident Hagar named the fountain _Beer-lahai-roi_, (_the well of the God that appeareth_), and returned to the tents of Sarah, where, in process of time she gave birth to Ishmael, when Abram was 86 years old.