mother.

"And it came to pass, when Jacob saw Rachel the daughter of Laban his mother's brother, and the sheep of Laban his mother's brother, that Jacob went near, and rolled the stone from the well's mouth, and watered the flock of Laban his mother's brother." He recollected that Rebekah his mother went through on her journey to meet Isaac before. He recollected that he was the favorite of his mother; that she loved him, while his father preferred and loved Esau. And whilst the beautiful and tender recollections of home, and of her who was the pillar, the ornament, and the glory of home, rushed into the wandering patriarch's heart, he associated all he saw with a "mother," as the uppermost thought, feeling, and affection, in his long sorrowing and depressed heart.

After this we see something very touching in Jacob. In the overflowing exuberance of the moment, a thousand recollections and associations, thrilling, as it were, and making his heart-strings vibrate, the patriarch, in the expression of the most pure and beautiful humanity, which shows that under all Jacob's sins there was a real, feeling, human heart, "kissed Rachel, and lifted up his voice, and wept." I know not a more eloquent and beautiful text in the whole Old Testament history.

Then "Jacob," it is said, "told Rachel that he was her father's brother." I may mention that those words father and brother are very often used in the Old Testament Scriptures simply in the sense of kinsmen. Jacob said that he was her father's kinsman, "and that he was Rebekah's son," and, therefore, her cousin; "and she ran and told her father."

"And it came to pass, when Laban heard the tidings of Jacob his sister's son, that he ran to meet him, and embraced him, and kissed him, and brought him to his house. And he told Laban all these things. And Laban said to him, Surely

thou art my bone and my flesh. And he abode with him the space of a month. And Laban said unto Jacob, Because thou art my brother, shouldst thou therefore serve me for naught?" This seems a fragment of a dialogue. I suspect that Jacob had heard from home that he must not venture to come back; that Esau's hand was still lifted up against him, and that he must try to live, if he could earn anything, with Laban in the country of his mother's relatives and friends; and, therefore, we read that Laban spoke of his serving him; and, with his characteristic reference to price, he told him that he must serve him; but, though he was his kinsman, he should not serve him for naught, and, therefore, he should have wages.

“And Laban,” it is said, "had two daughters," Leah and Rachel; the one being the less beautiful, the other being "beautiful and well-shaped," as it might be rendered. "And Jacob loved Rachel, and said, I will serve thee seven years for Rachel, thy younger daughter." Now, still in Eastern countries it is the general custom, and in ancient times it was the universal custom, for the husband to give the dowry to the wife. Hence, when a man had many daughters, he was accounted very rich; for every man who married a daughter gave a large dowry in exchange for the daughter. Jacob had no estates, but he had. that which is the poor man's capital—his thews, his sinews, his health and strength; and he said, “I will give you what is all my stock in hand; that is, my strength, my energy, my service. I will give you seven years' labor," which would amount to a very considerable sum in wages. He did so; and then we read how Laban, with a deceit that was scandalous, and a wickedness that indicated the depravity of his heart, gave him Leah instead of Rachel. And this is easily explained by the fact, that in ancient times, and according to Eastern habits, at the close of the wedding-day the bride was conducted to the husband

veiled; and, in the darkness of the night, as we are told, he could not see whether it was Leah or Rachel.

When he discovered the deception, as he soon did, thus practised upon him, he remonstrated with Laban, and Laban said that it was the custom of the country to marry the firstborn before the younger. He should have told him that before; but he did not do so. "It must not be so done in our country, to give the younger before the firstborn." And, on reading some Indian sketches, I find that this is very much the custom still that scarcely will a father give his second daughter in marriage till the eldest daughter has been previously married.

Jacob's love, however, was too real to be easily put off, and he served other seven years to get Rachel for his wife. Always recollect that there were secondary wives tolerated by God,

as he himself has said of divorce, - for the hardness of their hearts. Polygamy was then existent, and in this case there was something like bigamy. It was tolerated; but, whilst the fact is stated, its baneful results to mankind and to the honor of God are recounted also. Its sinfulness is developed in history, in the Old Testament. It is declared in the New in words. Because it was suffered, it was not therefore applauded. God suffers in this world what he does not approve of. War, sickness, famine, sin, murder, all these things are, and yet God reigns. The reason is, this is not the promised rest, this is not the millennial state that is to be; this is the era of warfare and probation; and these things are suffered under the providence of God, whilst they are condemned in themselves by the Law, and in the Word of God.

CHAPTER XXX.

PORTRAITS OF HUMANITY - VARIOUS USES OF THE BIBLE JACOB'S DECEPTION.

Ir must be confessed that the picture of much of patriarchal life is a very humbling one. One is constrained to admit that the morality of some of these patriarchs, in many instances, was of the lowest possible character, whether from ignorance or otherwise. One can only account for the record of what they were, being thus minutely given, and what they did, being thus specifically written, upon that ground which I have so often endeavored to explain that God presents in his Word, in giving the history of men, not a profile view of humanity, that is, the best side of the face, but a full portrait of humanity, just as sin has left it, and Satan frequently inspired it; and, alas! how much evil yet remains, even in good men. At the same time, you will recollect that the history of the sins of these men does not imply that God applauded their conduct, or presents these sins for our imitation, or does anything else than what a faithful historian does tell truths, and what a true witness is bound to doassert facts just as those facts were and are. If we wish to know what God's estimate of conduct is, we must read his holy law. If we wish to see what man is, when left to himself even for a little, read some of the miniatures and portraits that are contained in the lives of the patriarchs. And I must say, one is sometimes puzzled and perplexed, when Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, are set before us as the

fathers of the faithful, and as saints, as one discovers so much alloy and guilt, so much sin mingling with their purity, and so much and so painful acts of immorality in many of th sketches that are given of those who derived all their tain. from Adam, and all the excellence that neutralized and overcame it through Christ the Saviour, in whom, in spite of all, they yet believed, and to whom they strove to be conformed day by day, amid difficulties and trials we have not.

Let us recollect this, also, that those histories which to us sound least delicate have their own distinct and important uses. Every part of the Bible is not equally edifying to every person, nor is every portion of the Bible equally suitable even for being publicly read, — not from being bad, or suggestive of what is bad, but from altered phrases and usages, and from the mixed ages and relations of a public assembly. It does not imply that because we accept a whole Bible, in all its integrity and inspiration, that every part is fitted for every scene, and for all places, and for every person. Parts of the Bible that are least useful to the individual are most important as links in history, as illustrations of otherwise hidden, obscure, and unknown circumstances -as evidences of what man's heart is, and what man's nature was; and portions which are instructive to the aged are not suited to the young; parts for men are not equally for women; and others that are suited for the young are not equally instructive to the aged. Portions that are fit for private reading are not so fit for public reading. At the same time, God's solemn records of human sins read before all, are very different from private confessional conferences. God's holy word is just like a collection of medicines' of various kinds; one medicine is for one purpose, another for another. It does not imply, that because one part may not be instructive and personally useful for me and you to-day, that it had no profit for instruction in other circumstances, or that it will have no efficacy