drawing, assistance or patronage, -you sin against Christ. 3. It was not done from personal interest. There were two candidates, Barnabas and Matthias. Now, if the supporters of these two had been influenced chiefly by such considerations as blood-relationship, or the chance of favor and promotion, manifestly a high function would have been degraded. In secular matters, however, we do not judge so. A man generally decides according to his professional or his personal interests. You know almost to a certainty beforehand which way a man will vote, if you know his profession. If a man be a farmer or a clergyman or a merchant, you can pretty surely guess on which side he will range himself. Partly, no doubt, this is involuntary, the result of those prejudices which attach to us all from association. But it is partly voluntary. We know that we are thinking not of the general good, but of our own interests. And thus a farmer would think himself justified in looking at a question simply as it affected his class, and a noble as it affected his caste, and a workingman as it bore upon the working-classes. Brethren, we are Christians. Something of a principle higher than this ought to be ours. What is the law of the Cross of Christ? The sacrifice of the One for the whole, the cheerful surrender of the few for the many. Else, what do we more than others? These are fine words, - patriotism, public principle, purity. Be sure these words are but sentimental, except as they spring out of the Cross of Christ. Application. I have endeavored to keep entirely unseen my own political views. I may have failed, but not voluntarily. Remember, in conclusion, the matter of paramount importance to be decided this week is, not whether a preponderance shall be insured for one of the great parties which divide the country, or the other. That is important, but it is secondary. The important thing to be devoutly wished is, that each man shall give his vote as these men did, conscientiously, religiously, unselfishly, lovingly. Better that he should support the wrong cause conscientiously than the right one insincerely. Better he a true man on the side of wrong than a false man on the side of right. XIII. ISAAC BLESSING HIS SONS. "And it came to pass, that when Isaac was old, and his eyes were dim, so that he could not see, he called Esan his eldest son, and said unto him, My son: and he said unto him, Behold, here am I. And he said, Behold now, I am old, I know not the day of my death: Now therefore take, I pray thee, thy weapons, thy quiver and thy bow, and go out to the field, and take me some venison; And make me savory meat, such as I love, and bring it to me, that I may eat; that my soul may bless thee before I die.". GEN. xxvii. 1-4. It is a solemn In chapter xxv. we find Abraham preparing for death by a last will: making Isaac his heir, and providing for his other children by giving them gifts, while he yet lived, and so sending them out into the world. In this chapter, the heir himself is preparing to die. The rapidity with which these chapters epitomize life, bringing its few salient points together, is valuable as illustrative of what human existence is. It is a series of circles intersecting each other, but going on in a line. A few facts comprise man's life. A birth, a marriage, -another birth, a baptism, and then a —a will,funeral: and the old circle begins again. Isaac is about to declare his last will. act in whatever light we view it, if it were only for the thought that we are writing words which will not be read till we are gone. But it is solemn, too, because it is one of those acts which tell of the immortal. First, in the way of prophetic prescience. Is it not affecting to think of a human being, not sick, nor in pain, with his natural force unabated, calmly sitting down to make arrangements for what shall be when he is in his last, long sleep? But the act of an immortal is visible also, in that a dead man rules the world, as it were, long after his decease. Being dead, in a sense he yet speaketh. He is yet present with the living. His existence is protracted beyond its natural span. His will is law. This is a kind of evidence of his immortality for the obedience of men to what he has willed is a sort of recognition of his present being. Isaac was not left without warnings of his coming end. These warnings came in the shape of dimness of eyes and failing of sight. You can conceive a state in which man should have no warnings: and instead of gradual decay, should drop, suddenly, without any intimation, into eternity. Such an arrangement might have been. But God has in mercy provided reminders. For we sleep in this life of ours a charmed sleep, which it is hard to break. And if the road were of unbroken smoothness, with no jolt or shock or unevenness in the journey, we should move swiftly on, nothing breaking that dead slumber, till we awake suddenly, like the rich man in the parable, lifting up our eyes in heaven or in hell. Therefore God has given these reminders. Some of them regular, — such as failing of sight, falling out of hairs, decay of strength, loss of memory, which are as stations in the journey, telling us how far we have travelled; others irregular, such as come in the form of sickness, bereavement, pain, like sudden shocks which jolt, arouse, and awaken. Then the man considers, and, like Isaac, says, "Behold I am old, I know not the day of my death." We will consider, — I. Isaac's preparation for death. - II. The united treachery of Jacob and Rebekah. 1. Isaac's preparation for death. First, he longed for the performance of Esau's filial kindness as for a last time. Esau was his favorite son: not on account of any similarity between them, but just because they were dissimilar. The repose and contemplativeness and inactivity of Isaac found a contrast in which it rested, in the energy and even the recklessness of his firstborn. It was natural to yearn for the feast of his son's affection for the last time. For there is something peculiarly impressive in whatever is done for the last time. Then the simplest acts contract a kind of sacredness. The last walk in the country we are leaving. The last time a dying man sees the sun set. The last words of those from whom we have parted, which we treasure up as more than accidental, almost prophetic. The winding up of a watch, as the last act at night. The signature of a will. In the life of Him in whom we find every feeling which belongs to unperverted Humanity, the same desire is found: a trait, therefore, of the heart which is universal, natural, and right." With desire I have desired to eat this passover with you before I suffer. For I say unto you, I will not drink henceforth of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom." It was the Last Supper. 2. By making his last testamentary dispositions. Apparently they were premature, but he did not defer them: partly because of the frailty of life, and the uncertainty whether there may be any to-morrow for that which is put off to-day: partly, perhaps, because he desired to have all earthly thoughts done with and put away. Isaac lived thirty or forty years after this: but he was a man set apart: like one who, in Roman Catholic language, had received extreme unction, and had done with this world; and when he came to die, there would be no anxieties about the disposition of property to harass him. It is good to have all such things done with before that hour comes: there is something incongruous in the presence of a lawyer in the death-room, agitating the last hours. The first portion of our lives is spent in learning the use of our senses and faculties: ascertaining where we are and what. The second in using those powers, and acting in the given sphere: the motto being, "Work, the night cometh." A third portion between active life and the grave, like the twilight between day and night, not light enough for working, nor yet quite dark, which nature seems to accord for unworldliness and meditation. It is striking, doubtless, to see an old man, hale and vigorous to the last, dying at his work like a |