JACOB IN CANAAN-ISAAC'S DEATH.

"And Jacob journeyed to Succoth, and built him an house, and made booths for his cattle: therefore the name of the place is called Succoth.

"And Jacob came to Shalem, a city of Shechem, which is in the land of Canaan, when he came from Padan-aram; and pitched his tent before the city." "And Jacob came unto Isaac his father unto Mamre, unto the city of Arbah, which is Hebron, where Abraham and Isaac sojourned. And the days of Isaac were an hundred and fourscore years. And Isaac gave up the ghost, and died, and was gathered unto his people, being old and full of days: and his sons Esau and Jacob buried him."-GENESIS XXXiii. 17, 18; xxxv. 27-29.

L. I think, papa, that Jacob was a very fortunate man, because he escaped from the anger of his uncle Laban and of his brother Esau.

P. I would rather say something else of him: I should say that he was wise. Was it not wise to ask for God's guidance? If you remember the last lesson, you may think of the strange effect Jacob's presents must have had upon Esau!

Just imagine Esau marching to meet Jacob at the head of 400 men! Perhaps, filled with hot and angry feelings, he would say to himself, "Here comes my brother, who has taken away my birthright; I dare say, now, that he wants to take away my property, which I have received from my father: he shall not do this! No! he shall not take any of my goods!"-when he would suddenly meet a number of fine-looking hegoats and she-goats, sheep, and other cattle. And, when he asked the men who were driving them, "Whose are these before thee?" their reply would be, "They are thy servant Jacob's; this is a present sent unto my lord Esau; and behold he also is behind us."

W. Perhaps he would not feel quite so angry then!

P. No; his anger would be wounded-it would be weaker. He would go on, and presently would see more cattle. To his inquiry the drivers would give the same answer as before-"They are thy servant Jacob's; this is a present to my lord Esau."

Ion. Now his anger would be weaker still; it would begin to vanish; and he would not think of quarrelling, perhaps.

P. No. And, as he proceeded, he would soon meet a third drove, and men bringing the same message, "This is a present to my lord Esau." Now his anger would be more than wounded, it would be killed. It

could not live any longer in the presence of such kindness. His four hundred men were useless now; and as he advanced nearer to Jacob, and then met other droves, even a new feeling of kindness would rise up in the place of the anger. He would still hurry on to meet Jacob, but the hurry would be caused by love, not by anger. No! he would not hasten to punish his brother, but to embrace him.

This was

Was not Jacob a wise man to ask guidance from God? God's victory-to overcome evil with good. Jacob learned this from God. You, too, may learn from God to gain such victories. Would you not like to do so?

Although we may call Jacob wise for thus depending on God, as I am to tell you the exact truth, I must say that he does not seem to have been so good a man as his father Isaac, or his grandfather Abraham: His conduct when he lived with Laban, and when he left him, was not in every way just. We find, too, that after he and Esau had become good friends, he deceived his brother. He secretly wished to live apart from him, so, instead of saying to him boldly, "Esau, I think we had better not live together for fear we should quarrel," he begged him to go on before him unto the land of Seir, saying, "I will lead on softly according as the cattle and children may endure, until I come unto my lord unto Seir." Then, instead of following Esau he went in another direction.

I am sure that you would admire Jacob's character much more if you could read that he spoke out the plain truth to his brother, and said, "I am going another way."

Ion. Yes; he told a story because he was afraid to tell the truth.

P. Thus you may remember that courage is often wanted in order to keep the truth. You may copy Jacob's wisdom, but do not copy his foolishness. Have courage! and do not, from "compliment" to any one, avoid or hide the truth.

Ion. And it is paying a very bad compliment to the truth, to hide it! The truth is more worthy of compliment than any man in the world.

P. I have not much of Jacob's history to add to-day. You may look on the map for Succoth, the place where Jacob stopped. After he had remained there for about six months, he removed to Shechem, which you may see is on the opposite side of the Jordan. When he had thus crossed the river Jordan he was again in Canaan.

We read

that he bought the land in which he settled for a hundred pieces of silver; or, as we read in the margin of the Bible, for a hundred lambs,

for it appears that there are no traces of "coined"

money having been

used, until more than a thousand years after Jacob's time.

Jacob remained at Shechem for eight years, becoming very prosperous, and being respected by the Shechemites, when he received the Divine command to remove to Bethel, his former sleeping-place, where he had dreamed of the ladder to heaven. Here, according to the vow he had then made, he built an altar to God, and put away all the idols which his wives or servants had, hiding them under an oak-tree.

During all this time, Jacob had not seen his father Isaac; he therefore soon removed from Bethel to Mamre, near Hebron, the place where Abraham had sojourned, and where Isaac was now living.

On his way there, his beloved wife Rachel gave him another son, and then died. This son Jacob called Benjamin. In much grief he buried his wife, placed a stone pillar over her grave, and went on his journey.

He lived with his father for about sixteen years-but the Bible does not give us any history of this time. We only know that at the end of the period, Isaac died, being "full of days;" for he was a hundred and eighty years old. Esau was with Jacob at the time of their father's death. Together they closed his eyes in peace, and united also in the solemn duty of his burial. His remains were deposited in the cave of Machpelah, with those of Abraham and Sarah; his wealth they divided between them; and, as the land was then, of course, too small to sustain their increased flocks, they again separated peaceably.

LINES

WRITTEN AFTER ATTENDING DIVINE SERVICE
IN A SCHOOL-ROOM.

No gorgeous robe-no empty form,
The sinner's stony heart can warm;
No fretted roof-no chanted strain,
Can call the wand'rer back again.
"Tis not the sounding organ-peal
That makes the hardened rebel feel;
Not all the pride and splendour there
Can bend his stubborn knee to prayer.
The heart-the simple heart-alone
Has access to the Father's throne;
And neither language, time, or place,
Can hide the Saviour's smiling face.

J. BURBIDGE.

JACOB'S SONS.

"And Jacob dwelt in the land wherein his father was a stranger, in the land of Canaan. Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his children, because he was the son of his old age: and he made him a coat of many colours. And when his brethren saw that their father loved him more than all his brethren, they hated him, and could not speak peaceably unto him."-GEN. xxxvii. 1, 3, 4.

P. Let us look back to-day, and remember how many people we have talked about.

Ion. Perhaps I can count them, papa: Adam, Eve, Cain, Abel, Seth, Enoch, Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japhet-Abraham, Isaac, Esau, and Jacob.

P. Yes; we have ended the history of all but the two last. How did all their histories end?

W. They ended in death, papa, except the history of Enoch.

P. And how surely DEATH comes to all men! If you go, Willie, and stand amidst a large crowd of children-you may look at all of them, and think, "When a hundred years more have rolled by, perhaps every one will have passed away from this earth; and myself also! All will have changed to dust, and a new generation will stand in our places."

How surely King Death comes! How short a time do we stay here! Death visited Adam when he was 930 years old. He came for Noah when he was 950 years old; and he fetched Abraham when he was 175 years old. When Isaac was 180 years of age, him also he took away; but now, few people are allowed to live longer than 70 years. King Death often takes them away before then.

Ion. Yes. He sometimes carries little children away before they are one year old.

P. And yet we do not think much of Death! Suppose, now, that he were only allowed to visit the earth once in 180 years, how differently we should think of him then! How would all people look forward to the day of his coming! When the morning of that day came, how would all men watch! Ten thousand times ten thousand-all the world, would be looking out, and each would ask, "Is he coming for me?" All the people of Europe, of Asia, of Africa, and America,