So Jacob here is called Israel, by which name he is oftener known in after times.

Jacob said, "Tell me, I pray thee, thy name." And this Being did not tell him what his name was, to satisfy a useless curiosity; but he did what was much better, he blessed him. In the blessing he read the name of its Author. God does not always give what we ask, but he gives what is better than we ask. Paul said, "Remove the thorn from me; " but Christ replied, "My grace is sufficient for thee.” Jacob soon found out that this Being was a Divine Being, and he called the place Peniel, that is, "the face of God,”— "for I have seen God face to face." It was the common impression that for any one to see God was to be destroyed, and therefore he adds, "and my life is preserved."

As he travelled on, he halted upon his thigh. He was wounded, perhaps, to be a memento through life of that mysterious struggle, a sacramental sign and seal of communion with God. The statement in the thirty-second verse is merely the recital of a fact among the Jews, not a law, about eating the sinew of the thigh. Jacob's limb was dislocated, no doubt; and the Jews, of their own will, kept up a practice which God did not authorize, but which they practised. Remember that the Bible always states the historic facts, without always giving those historic facts as precedents for us to imitate, or as instances of principles in themselves good.

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CHAPTER XXXIII.

JACOB'S FEARS HIS MEETING WITH ESAU HIS ARRANGEMENTS NATURAL AMIABILITY CHRISTIAN CHARACTER THE ALTAR AND THE TENT-MONEY.

THOSE who were present in the course of my expository remarks of the previous chapters will recollect the cause of the bitter quarrel that broke out, and long subsisted, between Esau and Jacob. Jacob had deprived him of his birthright by stratagem, and thereby provoked a resentment, which he had experienced more than once in its most formidable aspect and intensest degree. Jacob naturally anticipated, that, having to go through the land of which Esau was the sheik, or chief governor, or ruler, he would meet, what he felt he too well deserved, opposition, and probably destruction, to himself and to all his. He, therefore, made arrangements, in the chapter which we have previously read, alike politic and proper, to give very valuable presents to Esau, in order to propitiate him. He also resolved to send messengers beforehand, using the language of the profoundest deference and respect to Esau, and of the profoundest humility in reference to himself. He also arranged to divide his whole followers into sections, so that, if Esau should be found hostile, he might fall upon one, which alone would perish; and his falling upon the first, though destructive to it, would be a signal for the second and the third to take to flight, and save themselves as they best could.

We find in the chapter, what Jacob did not anticipate, that Esau, instead of receiving him with all the hostility that

he had most justly provoked, welcomed him with a kindness, a cordiality, and an expression of brotherhood, that did Esau the highest credit, and must have made Jacob feel humbled in the sight of God, and ashamed of his suspicions, in the presence of his brother. Jacob, it is said, lifted up his eyes, and saw Esau come with four hundred men, who, he was told, accompanied him, and who he at first thought were ready to fall upon him, and destroy him; and accordingly he made arrangements to meet them. He put the handmaids foremost; then Leah and her children; then Rachel, the most beloved, and Joseph, the most cared for, last, or in the rear, that they might, if possible, escape whatever hazard might occur, or whatever destruction might overtake the rest. He then ap

proached to Esau, trying fair means first, and bowed himself seven times. I may just state, that seven is used in Scripture in a vague or wide sense: it is used in the sense of a great many times, and does not always denote the exact numeral seven. It is used here, probably, to denote several, or a good many times, and so to express the profound respect he felt. And he came near to his brother; and what must have been his amazement as he discovered that Esau, who was justly offended, who had been defrauded, whose resentment had been provoked by the most gratuitous outrage upon what was his privilege, his property, and his right, who had shown. on previous occasions the deep indignation he felt,- ran to meet him, embraced him as a brother, fell upon his neck and kissed him! And they both wept the one from excess of love, the other from a sense of sorrow, that he had acted so badly in the past, and now met with treatment so superior to what he deserved or expected in the present.

Now, recollect all along, that Jacob, with all his faults, was the Christian; and that Esau, with all his excellences, was not a Christian; and then learn this lesson that the natural man, unsanctified and unregenerate by the Holy Spirit of

God, very often displays beautiful traits of character, that must make the most eminent Christian blush, while the Christian often exhibits traits of temper most unworthy of his name. We have Esau, in this scene, who did not pretend to have any religion, showing a spirit of love and forgetfulness of wrongs that was perfectly lovely; and here we have Jacob, who was a Christian, though with great faults, and flaws, and drawbacks, exhibiting, in some parts of his life, a conduct inconsistent with what becomes the living epistles of Christianity. Some men are formed with a constitution so amiable, that none but the Searcher of hearts can see whether that amiability is the result of nature or of grace.. Other men are cast in a mould so rough, and endued with a temperament so explosive, that one often hesitates to decide that they are Christians at all, although there are reasons behind, and not seen by the outward world, that show they are, notwithstanding, under the most powerful influences and action. of the grace of God. You can conceive, when two men are brought together, one constitutionally amiable, the other constitutionally irascible and irritable, that there may be more of the grace of God in the most irritable than in the most amiable, though it appears less in the one than in the other, because grace has, in many a case, an inner work to do, in eradicating and repressing what is bad within us; and often it is so absorbingly employed and so exhausted in this weary inner labor, that it does not yet show its outer influence in whatsoever things are fair, and lovely, and just, and of good report. The more that we acquaint ourselves with the differences of human nature, and the varieties of human character, and the influences which the grace of God has to resist as well as develop, the less we shall be disposed to judge severely the more we shall be prepared to pray and wait for that great and final day, when Esau shall be seen as he is, and Jacob as he is, and we shall know just as we are known.

You will notice, again, when Jacob came up to Esau, from whom he had met so unexpected a reception,— a reception so much better than he anticipated, that they all bowed themselves before him; and Jacob, though he had the blessing, therefore the precedence, and therefore the dignity, yet, in speaking to Esau, merged his own privilege, which he had unjustly, but truly and irreversibly obtained, and gave Esau the rank, the expressions of deference and dignity, which properly belonged to himself; and therefore he said, "These are to find grace in the sight of my lord," not my brother; as if Esau, being the elder, still had the birthright, and ought to be recognized as such. Then Esau said, "I have enough, my brother." I do not want more of your money, your possessions, your property; but Jacob prayed him that he would take his blessing, that is, the presents he had brought. In Eastern countries still, it is a mark of deference from an inferior to a superior to give presents; but it is a mark of rudeness, almost of discourtesy, sometimes of hostility, to refuse the present that is thus presented to you.

In the twelfth verse, Esau says to Jacob, "Let us take our journey, and let us go, and I will go before thee." Jacob refuses, and thus apologizes: "My lord knoweth that the children are tender, and the flocks and herds with young are with me, and if men should over-drive them one day, all the flock will die. Let my lord, I pray thee, pass over before his servant; and I will lead on softly." Now, some think that this was not perfectly sincere on the part of Jacob; others think that it was justified by the circumstances of the case. Esau was so gracious, that he offered to be his guide unto Seir, and to conduct him without any trouble or inconvenience over his part of the country; but some think that Jacob suspected Esau, after all, and that, though Esau had fallen upon his neck, and shown so great kindness, yet Jacob had a lingering suspicion that it was not sincere, but was merely