cated his nature, ever ready to trip and defraud others, and thus will we see it springing out and showing itself in all his life, until it was overcome and removed by the power of God. Thus the very name of Jacob suggests to us the selfishness and the deceitfulness of the carnal mind. It shows itself at his birth and oh, what a picture it gives us as we study his life. God marking out for us a picture of that selfish, deceitful nature wherein we were all born. In his first epistle to the church at Corinth Paul tells us, "That in Adam we all died," i. e., lost the divine nature, and if you want to get a good picture of the carnal mind just watch the antics and struggles of that six or eight months old babe as its mother undertakes to do with it contrary to its wishes or listen to its screams when its wants are not at once complied with. A young calf will lay still all the day long in the tall grass or thicket where its mother has left it, or the young birdling will remain quiet in the nest, patiently waiting the home-coming of its parent with food, but not so with a child, a human being. It struggles and screams, no matter who goes without or if the neighborhood is aroused, it will

have its wants supplied. It is selfish in the extreme. It will have the last apple or the last piece of meat in the dish. Father or mother could be starving but that young piece of humanity with the carnal nature in it will have its wants supplied if all the house must do without. We repeat it is selfish in the extreme.

CHAPTER IV.

THE BIRTHRIGHT.

Sell me this day thy birthright.—Gen. 25:34.

Following the description of the birth of the two boys, the Bible states that Esau became a hunter, a man of the field, one who loved hunting and took delight in the chase, but Jacob was a plain man. Isaac loved Esau, because he brought him venison, but Rebekah loved Jacob. What a pity that this must be written here, but do we not see it still being carried out today. Isaac still prefers Esau and Rebekah prefers Jacob. That is, the father has his favorite, and the mother has her favorite. This should not be so, but each parent sould have the same love and affection for each of their children and where it is not thus, trouble will brew. One day Esau comes home weary, tired, and hungry, from the chase. We would judge from the narrative that he had been unsuccessful that day and had secured no game, anyway he was faint and hungry and Jacob had a mess of lentiles cooking

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and the warm savory stew aroused the appetite of the tired hungry brother and he said:

"Feed me, I pray thee, with that same red pottage for I am faint." One would naturally suppose that anyone would indeed be glad to give his tired hungry brother something to eat, a welcome seat at his table, and that too without paying for it, but not so with this heel-grasper, called Jacob; not he. If anyone gets anything from him they will pay a good price for it. The warm loving brotherly affection is not in his nature. His very name implies the absence of a desire to help anyone, even if it is his brother unless he gets well paid for it, and with his hungry fainting brother pleading for something to eat he sees an opportunity to get ahead, to get for his own possession what rightfully belong to his elder brother; so true to his grasping nature, quick to see the hunger of his brother, and the opportunity before him he says: "Sell me this day thy Birthright."

Commentators are somewhat divided as to just all that is meant by the Birthright, but among other things, the eldest son would have a double portion of his father's goods and succeed his

father in the family government or kingdom. The far-seeing, cunning, Jacob could see what the Birthright contained, and with born selfishness, after it he went. "Sell me this day, thy Birthright; or sell me first of all, this day, thy Birthright." (Revised Oxford Edition).

This selfish, greedy spirit is seen everywhere these days, not only in home affairs, but abroad in the business life about us. Men will trample over each other and grind each other to the wall in their mad endeavor to "get ahead" and accumulate the goods of this world. Often the papers are full of accounts of a family broil and law suits over the worldly possessions left by the father. I have before me an account of the dividing of the property left by a will and becoming exasperated in the way the division was to be made, a struggle began which resulted in a general melee, costly vessels were broken and beautiful tapestries and hangings wers torn into shreds, neither wishing that the other should have their part. What a discord the Devil often makes of that which is left by dying relatives. We see the carnal mind playing havoc and de