to be devoutly wished is, that each man shall give his vote as these men did, conscientiously, religiously, unselfishly, lovingly.

Better that he should support the wrong cause conscientiously than the right one insincerely. Better he a true man on the side of wrong than a false man on the side of right.

XIII

ISAAC BLESSING HIS SONS.

I

"And it came to pass, that when Isaac was old, and his eyes were dim, so that he could not see, he called Esau his eldest son, and said unto him, My son: and he said unto him, Behold, here am I. And he said, Behold now, am old, I know not the day of my death: Now therefore take, I pray thee, thy weapons, thy quiver and thy bow, and go out to the field, and take me some venison; And make me savory meat, such as I love, and bring it to me, that I may eat; that my soul may bless thee before I die.” GEN.

xxvii. 1-4.

In chapter xxv. we find Abraham preparing for death by a last will: making Isaac his heir, and providing for his other children by giving them gifts, while he yet lived, and so sending them out into the world. In this chapter, the heir himself is preparing to die. The rapidity with which these chapters epitomize life, bringing its few salient points together, is valuable as illustrative of what human existence is. It is a series of circles intersecting each other, but going on in a line. A few facts comprise man's life. A birth, - a marriage, -another birth, a baptism, a will, and then a funeral and the old circle begins again.

Isaac is about to declare his last will. It is a solemn act in whatever light we view it, if it were only for the thought that we are writing words which will not be read till we are gone. But it is solemn, too, because it is one of those acts which tell of the immortal. First, in the way of prophetic prescience. Is it not affecting to think of a human being, not sick, nor in pain, with his natural force unabated, calmly sitting down to make arrangements for what shall be when he is in his last, long sleep? But the act of an immortal is visible also, in that a dead man rules the world, as it were, long after his decease. Being dead, in a sense he yet speaketh. He is yet present with the living. His

existence is protracted beyond its natural span. His will is law. This is a kind of evidence of his immortality for the obedience of men to what he has willed is a sort of recognition of his present being.

Isaac was not left without warnings of his coming end. These warnings came in the shape of dimness of eyes and failing of sight. You can conceive a state in which man should have no warnings: and instead of gradual decay, should drop, suddenly, without any intimation, into eternity. Such an arrangement might have been. But God has in mercy provided reminders. For we sleep in this life of ours a charmed sleep, which it is hard to break. And if the road were of unbroken smoothness, with no jolt or shock or unevenness in the journey, we should move swiftly on, nothing breaking that dead slumber, till we awake suddenly, like the rich man in the parable, lifting up our eyes in heaven or in hell. Therefore God has given these reminders. Some of them regular, such as failing of sight, falling out of hairs, decay of strength, loss of memory,- which are as stations in the journey, telling us how far we have travelled; others irregular, — such as come in the form of sickness, bereavement, pain,-like sudden shocks which jolt, arouse, and awaken. Then the man considers, and, like Isaac, says, “Behold I am old, I know not the day of my death." We will consider,

I. Isaac's preparation for death.

II. The united treachery of Jacob and Rebekah.

1. Isaac's preparation for death. First, he longed for the performance of Esau's filial kindness as for a last time. Esau was his favorite son: not on account of any similarity between them, but just because they were dissimilar. The repose and contemplativeness and inactivity of Isaac found a contrast in which it rested, in the energy and even the recklessness of his firstborn. It was natural to yearn for the feast of his son's affection for the last time. For there is something peculiarly impressive in whatever is done for the last time.

Then the simplest acts contract a kind of sacredness. The last walk in the country we are leaving. The last time a dying man sees the sun set. The last words of those from whom we have parted, which we treasure up as more than accidental, almost prophetic. The winding up of a watch, as the last act at night. The signature of a will. In the life of Him in whom we find every feeling which belongs to unperverted Humanity, the same desire is found: a trait, therefore, of the heart which is universal, natural, and right. "With desire I have desired to eat this passover with you before I suffer. For I say unto you, I will not drink henceforth of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom." It was the Last Supper.

2. By making his last testamentary dispositions. Apparently they were premature, but he did not defer them partly because of the frailty of life, and the uncertainty whether there may be any to-morrow for that which is put off to-day partly, perhaps, because he desired to have all earthly thoughts done with and put away. Isaac lived thirty or forty years after this: but he was a man set apart: like one who, in Roman Catholic language, had received extreme unction, and had done with this world; and when he came to die, there would be no anxieties about the disposition of property to harass him. It is good to have all such things done with before that hour comes: there is something incongruous in the presence of a lawyer in the death-room, agitating the last hours. The first portion of our lives is spent in learning the use of our senses and faculties: ascertaining where we are and what. The second in using those powers, and acting in the given sphere: the motto being, "Work, the night cometh." A third portion between active life and the grave, like the twilight between day and night, not light enough for working, nor yet quite dark, which nature seems to accord for unworldliness and meditation. It is striking, doubtless, to see an old man, hale and vigorous to the last,, dying at his work like a

warrior in armor. But natural feeling makes us wish, perhaps, that an interval might be given: a season for the statesman, such as that which Samuel had, on laying aside the cares of office, in the schools of the prophets such as Simeon had, and Anna, for a life of devotion in the temple; such as the laborer has when, his lon days' work done, he finds an asylum in the almshouse such as our Church desires, where she prays agains sudden death: a season of interval in which to watch and meditate and wait.

II. The united treachery of Jacob and Rebekalı. was treachery in both in one sense it was the sam? treachery. Each deceived Isaac and overreached Esau. But it would be a rough estimate to treat the two sin as identical. This is the coarse, common way of judg ing. We label sins as by a catalogue. We judge of men by their acts; but it is far truer to say that w can only judge the acts by the man. You must under

stand the man before you can appreciate his deed. The same deed done by two different persons ceases to be the same. Abraham and Sarah both laughed wher informed that they should have a son in their old age. But Sarah's (Gen. xviii. 12, 15) was the laugh of scepticism: the other (Gen. xvii. 17) the result of that reaction in our nature by which the most solem thoughts are balanced by a sense of strangeness or ever ludicrousness. The Pharisees asked a sign, in unbelief many of the Old Testament saints did the same in faith. Fine discrimination is therefore necessary to understand the simplest deed. A very delicate analysis of char acter is necessary to comprehend such acts as these and rightly to apportion their turpitude and their pallia

tions.

In Rebekah's case the root of the treachery was ambition; but here we find a trait of female character It is a woman's ambition, not a man's. Rebekah de sired nothing for herself, but everything for Jacob: for him spiritual blessing, at all events, temporal distinc tion. She did wrong, not for her own advantage, but