"I must have that which without question hath [been!

Hath had existence actual,-positive being!

Give me the happy bowers that man's eye hath seen, Not those before his foot for ever fleeing.

There was a garden, man's eye once delighting,
Dreams but of which all realms enchanted are,
A spot whose shadowless beauty knew no blighting,
Till sin arose all entrance to debar.

“Whether beneath the Flood its traces perished,
Or whether bloom its groves unfading yet,
The human soul its image vague hath cherish'd,
And fables paint what man can ne'er forget.

But thou, hast thou forgotten, while remembrance
Carries thee back to Eden's forfeit bowers,
They too were but a type and fair resemblance
Of better things to come, which yet are ours?
“There is a Garden, nigh a ruinous city,
A desolate place, with aged trees o'ergrown,
Within whose bounds did infinite Love and Pity
For human guiltiness watch and weep alone.

"Mid its lone pathways,-yes,-where may be treadTo-day the footstep of the passer-by,

[ing, The God who sav'd us by His own blood-shedding, Knelt once to pray in bitterest agony.

"Upon the soil where stretches still that Garden, The drops of anguish from his forehead fell;

When worn with suffering that we might have pardon, And in a dearer paradise come to dwell.

"Oh if thou human art, and human feeling, Stirs in thy breast at grief endur'd for thee,

Through earth and heaven thou wilt seek Him who kneeling,

Once sought thy rescue in GETHSEMANE!

Macintosh, Printer, Great New-street, London.

THE JEWISH ADVOCATE.

NOVEMBER, 1845.

BIBLE HISTORY OF THE JEWS.

CHAPTER VI.

"And when his weary journey done
Calls home his beams the westering sun,

And the drooping lids of day,

Close in the meek, and dewy ray;

What time the echoing hills repeat

The peaceful camel's evening bleat."-Mitford,

ABRAHAM was now well-stricken in years, and blessed by the Lord in all things. He wished before he died, to see his son Isaac married, but not to any of the daughters of Canaan, who were idolaters. So he called his chief servant, who ruled over all his house, and made him solemnly swear that he would not take a wife for Isaac from among the Canaanites; but that he would go into Mesopotamia,* Abraham's own country, and there take a wife for him among his own kindred. Neither must Isaac go to Mesopotamia to her; but she must come back to Canaan to him; if she would not, then the servant was clear of his oath.

"Abraham's own country." Ur of the Chaldees, a country lying between the Tigris and the Euphrates. (See No. 1, p. 6.) Mesopotamia, a Greek word meaning the country of the rivers, indicates the same region.

G

So the servant swore; and departed with camels and men towards Mesopotamia. And he came to the city of Nahor, that is, Haran, where Nahor Abraham's brother had lived; and there he rested, he and his people and his camels, by a well outside the city. And he bethought himself to pray to God for this sign; that when the damsels of the city came forth, as he knew they would do at eventide, to draw water from the well, whosoever of them, when he asked for water, should say to him thus, "Drink, and I will give thy camels drink also," that she might be given to him for wife to his master's son. And before he had done speaking, lo! the damsels came out from the city to the well, and drew water and he asked for some; and one among them, a very fair virgin, said, "Drink, my lord." And when he had drunk from her pitcher, she said, moreover, "I will draw water for thy camels also," and did so. And the servant wondering "whether the Lord had made his journey prosperous or not," asked her whose daughter she was. She was the daughter of Bethuel, who was the son of Nahor, Abraham's brother. Then the man "bowed down his head and worshipped the Lord," and took out a golden earring and two bracelets of gold, and put them upon her. And she ran forward" and told them of her mother's house these things;" and Laban her brother came out to the well, and saluted Abraham's servant, and bid him to his house. There the camels were ungirded, and water brought to wash the men's feet; and meat set before them. But Abraham's servant would not taste till he had told his errand, how he was the servant of Abraham their kinsman who had sent

him thither to find a wife for Isaac; how he had rested outside the city by the well, and prayed to God for a sign; and how Rebekah had come forth and answered to the sign. "And now,"

said he, "if ye will deal kindly and truly with my master, tell me, and if not, tell me; that I may turn to the right hand or to the left." "Then Laban and Bethuel answered and said, The thing proceedeth from the Lord; we cannot speak unto thee bad or good. Behold, Rebekah is before thee; take her, and go, and let her be thy master's son's wife, as the Lord hath spoken."

Then the servant brought forth his presents; jewels of silver and gold, and raiment for Rebekah, and precious things for her kinsfolk. And they eat and drank, and tarried that night there. But in the morning he rose up and would begone home to his master. They would fain have had him tarry yet longer; but he said, "Hinder me not, seeing the Lord hath prospered me." Rebekah also was not unwilling to go; and so they departed, she and her damsels, sitting on the camels, and followed by the blessings of her family.

And as Isaac came from the way of the well Lahai-roi, in the south country, and was out in the field meditating at eventide, he looked, "and behold, the camels were coming!" "And when Rebekah heard who he was she lighted off her camel, and took a veil and covered herself." "And Isaac brought her into his mother Sarah's tent, and took Rebekah, and she became his wife."

And Abraham lived 175 years, and then died, "an old man and full of years; and was gathered unto his people," "and his sons Isaac and Ish

mael buried him in the cave of Machpelah," in the field that he had purchased of the sons of Heth; "there was Abraham buried and Sarah his wife." "And it came to pass after the death of Abraham, that God blessed his son Isaac; and Isaac dwelt by the well Lahai-roi."

And there was a famine in the land of Canaan, and Isaac went out to Gerar, in the land of the Philistines, of whom Abimelech was king. There God appeared unto him and bid him not to go down into Egypt; but to abide where he was, in that land of Gerar: and all the promises made to Abraham, should be fulfilled to him. So in Gerar Isaac abode; and sowed in the land, and received in the same year an hundred fold; and became very rich in flocks and herds, and great store of servants, "He became very great" the Bible says, insomuch that the Philistines among whom he dwelt envied him. And Abimelech their king bid him be gone away, "for," he said, "thou art much mightier than we."

Isaac struck his tent and went on further, till he came to any one of those wells which his father Abraham had dug, but which the Philistines had stopped up. These Isaac opened anew, and would tarry there, and increase, till he was again driven forward by the jealous Philistines. At length he came to Beersheba. And there the Lord appeared to him once again, and bid him be of good cheer, for his day was coming. And suddenly Abimelech came up to him with his captains; and Isaac thought it was to drive him forth again; but it was not so. Abimelech saw the Lord was with Isaac in all his goings, and he came to strike a covenant of peace and friendliness with him. This Isaac did with great