was his, there can be no doubt and naturally it would turn him against her. How can a son have confidence in a parent that he knows has deceived him? Sometimes I have wondered what some parents will say at the Judgment. They make a profession of religion, but their lives are so contrary to their profession that their sons and daughters turn with disdain from the salvation that Jesus offers-and why do they turn away? Simply because they think salvation only amounts to what they see in the lives of their parents and that, they turn from in disgust. We know what we are saying is true. Again and again have we found such to be the case. Is it to be wondered if such sons and daughters are hard to reach or care nothing for salvation? Is it to be thought strange if they come to some bad end? Is it to be wondered at that the parents lose all restraint over them? We say no. "Shall I be deprived of you both in one day?" asked Rebekah. If Esau did not leave at that time he did soon after and so far as we can ascertain from the Scriptures the new plot of Rebekah's cost her Jacob also, for the Bible narrative mentions her no more, only to say where she was buried but gives no date of her death. She schemes and plans and looses all by so doing. "I am weary of my life because of Her plan carried all right, for with the opening of the next chapter we read that Isaac called Jacob and bade him to go to Padan-aram to his mother's kindred and take a wife for himself. The record says: "And Isaac sent Jacob away." The plan carried all right. She succeeded in getting Jacob out of danger but in doing so she lost him to herself. We may plan and scheme and may succeed in carrying our plans through, but it will be our own loss if those plans are out of harmony with God. It will be far better to wait on God and allow him to direct us in all things. Some years ago while we were conducting Evangelistic Services in a large church in an eastern state, the following took place. A young man had been attending the services for several He evenings, always sitting in the same seat. seemed to be deeply interested. One evening he was approached by one of the brethren and asked "Are you a Christian?" "No sir." "Don't you wish to be?" "I can hardly answer that question," he replied. "Do you not believe in Christianity?" "Well, I don't know. If I believed what the preacher says is Christianity, then I think I would like to enjoy it, but if I take the actions of those two women who sit there just a few seats ahead of me to be a type of Christianity, then, sir, I would not want to live such a life at any cost." "Why what has the actions of those women to do with the question?" "Well, to me it has much to do with it. They are both members of this church. They have been in attendance each night that I have been here. They have not once bowed their heads in time of prayer, though the Evangelist had repeatedly requested all to do so. On the contrary they watch and take items of all that is done, of the words and actions of the Evangelists and others who may speak or pray and then the following day at home endeavor to act it out, mimicking the Evangelist and others in what they have said, either in their testimonies or prayers. They laugh and jeer and make a burlesque of all that takes place, yet sir, they are both members of this church. If that is Christianity I never want it, nor would I want to be a Christian." "Why," said the astonished brother, "you seem to know all about those women; who are they pray?" "One of them is my mother and the other is her sister," he replied, as he rose, swinging his overcoat over his arm, he started to leave the building. "Do not go now," said the brother, but with a pale face and trembling lips, he replied, "Excuse me, sir, but I shall be going." And out he went, and he did not return though the meeting continued for some time. That mother by her own words and actions stood squarely in the way of her son's salvation. What will she say when at the judgment bar she is confronted by that son? 1 i ( CHAPTER VIII. A BLESSING FOR THE HEART-BROKEN. And when Esau heard the words of his father, he cried with a great and exceeding bitter cry and said unto his father, bless me, even me, O my father.-Gen. 27:34. Before going further, we feel that we would like to have a few words regarding Esau whose actions, to our way of thinking, have been far more honorable than those of Jacob. True, under great pressure he sold his birthright but as Adam Clarke says: "There are those who are apt to take everything by the wrong handle." It was a mistake, an awful mistake, and one that he greatly regretted, “and shall we curse what God hath not cursed?" Can we find nothing good about him? He heard his father bless Jacob and command him to go take his mother's niece for a wife and seeing that pleased his father, Esau goes and takes his father's niece for a wife. Does that not look as if he was trying to please them the best he could? And yet there are those who can find no good in him but to confine him to the pit of |