savoury meat, and then be blessed before he (Isaac) died. But Rebekah, called her younger son, and bid him prepare savoury meat for his father, and so obtain the first blessing. God did thus use her as an instrument to carry out His divine purposes and plans, Jacob being the chosen one whose seed henceforth and forever He intended to bless. So when Esau approached his father's couch with the savoury dish of venison, and sought the blessing, Isaac said unto him, "Who art thou?" Esau said, "Thy firstborn Esau." At these words Isaac trembled, and said, Who? Where is he that hath taken venison and brought unto me, and I have eaten, and have blessed him? yea, and he shall be blessed. When Esau heard these words, he cried with a great and bitter cry, saying, "Bless me, even me also, O my father," and Isaac blessed him. But Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing, seeing he was a second time supplanted, forgetting that the first, out of weakness, was his own desire. So, having held his first birthright cheap, he was not deemed worthy to receive the second blessing. His worldly proud spirit was to be humbled, for by his sword had he to live and serve his younger brother. Therefore he hated Jacob, saying in his heart, when the days of mourning for my father are ended, then I will slay my brother.

But these words were told to his mother, and she communed with Isaac, who called Jacob and blessed him, and sent him to Padan-aram to seek a wife from amongst the daughters of his mother's brother. So went Jacob out from Beer-sheba, and the Angel of the Covenant went with him. Tarrying at a spot on the wide plain, and possessing no tent to cover him for the night, he made a pillow of stones, and lay down to sleep. During his midnight slumber, he dreamed, and behold a ladder reaching from the earth into heaven, and angels of God ascending and descending it. The "Lord stood above it, and said, I am the Lord God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac: the land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed." And, Oh, child of faith, mark, for thy encouragement, God said, “Behold, I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places whither thou goest, and will bring thee again into this land; for I will not leave thee, until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of.” These, dear reader, are the words He says unto us now; He will not leave us, but in all our wanderings He will watch over and comfort us; and, like Jacob, when we awake fully to recognise it is the Lord, trembling with awe, we shall exclaim, surely the Lord is in the midst of me, and I knew it not; this is none other than the house of God,

and the very gate of heaven. Like Jacob, let us commemorate the time, the place, by giving it a name, and vow with him, and say, "If God will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat, and raiment to put on, so that I come again to my father's house in peace, then shall the Lord be my God; and this stone, which I have set for a pillar, shall be God's house and of all that Thou shalt give me, I will surely give the tenth unto Thee." See what gratitude, what humility is here displayed.

:

example for us.

What an

After this, he journeyed on until he came to where his mother's brethren dwelt, and received a warm welcome from Laban, the father of Rachael, and abode with them the space of a month; after which he served Laban seven years as husbandman over all his cattle, and all that Laban possessed, receiving no wages for his hire, with a promise at the end of that time he should receive Rachael from the hand of her father; but the latter deceived him, by giving his elder daughter Leah, whom he loved not; Laban's excuse was it being not customary to give the younger before the elder; but if Jacob would stay and serve him yet seven more years he would give him Rachael. To me there seems to have been

But

a crafty design all through on Laban's part; he saw in the trusting humble Jacob a valuable servant, and that God was with him and prospered him in all he did, so that Laban was becoming rich under his servitude. So to secure him for his own selfish ends he thus treated him. we read in space of time when Joseph was born, Rachael's first, Jacob then having served Laban twenty years, that Jacob humbly asked permission to take his wives and little ones, and depart into his own country; but Laban's craftiness would increase his wages rather than he should go; so he bid Jacob say what wages would satisfy him, to encourage him to stay. See the contrast of these two men, one mean and selfTo the question

ish, the other noble and just. what shall I give thee, Jacob's indignant reply was, "Thou shalt give me nothing, only if thou wilt do this thing for me I will again feed and keep thy cattle, I will pass through all thy flock to day, removing from thence all the speckled and spotted cattle, and all the brown cattle among the sheep, and the spotted and speckled among the goats, and of such shall be my hire. So shall my righteousness answer for me in time to come, when it shall come for my hire before thy face, that is when the day of reckoning comes

between thee and me." Thou shalt see I have dealt with thee fairly; for hitherto Jacob had been unable to make provision for his own house all the twenty years he had spent in hard labour for his father-in-law, getting neither reward or thanks for his valuable services.

We have many Labans amongst us now, mean, selfish, crafty, and subtle in all things, if they can but obtain the very cream of the whole for themselves. Mark, reader, the humbleness of Jacob's request; he did not want the best of Laban's cattle, he would only select the spotted ones, imperfect to the sight, and, perhaps, not as healthy as the unspotted ones. Nevertheless he would be content, and Laban seems willingly to have granted this request, for he gave them to him, but bid him remove them a distance of three days journey, and he continued to feed his father-in-law's cattle and his own; but the Lord was with him, and blessed and increased his flock so abundantly that the sons of Laban became jealous and complained to their father, seeing that their cattle were not increasing, but waxing more feeble, whilst Jacob was getting all the glory out of cattle once theirs. Then Jacob seeing their faces against him called his wives unto him in the field, and said, "I see your father's countenance