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outward, and that he ought not to put himself too much in

Others think that religion, and Jacob

Esau's power, lest he should betray him. Esau, being a man who did not profess being a Christian, ever building an altar where he pitched his tent, Jacob felt that he ought not, although he was his brother, to be unnecessarily mixed up in his fellowship in the sight of the world. But, at all events, Jacob did excuse himself, and said that he was not prepared to go so fast as Esau might go; and therefore he ought to have such time as the flocks, the cattle, and the mothers big with young, rendered necessary.

Jacob went onward to Shalem, and there he pitched his tent; and it is said that where he pitched his tent he erected an altar; that is, wherever you have a home, there you ought to have a recognized God. Wherever man builds a house, he ought to recollect he should have in it an oratory; wherever man is, whatever man does, a sense of a present God and a recognition of his sovereignty ought to be his duty. Wherever, therefore, there is a family, there ought to be family worship. How can we expect family blessings, unless, as a family, we ask them? As individuals, we ask individual blessings in prayer; as a family, we should ask family blessings in prayer; as a nation, we ought to ask national blessings in prayer. In all the associations in which man is cast, either by nature, or by grace, or by Providence, or by fact, there he ought to try to hallow them by asking the blessing and the presence of God.

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I may just explain, at the close of the nineteenth verse, what is meant by he bought the land for "an hundred pieces of money." The words translated "an hundred pieces of money," might be translated, "an hundred lambs of money - a very singular expression; but you will easily understand it, when you remember what I said before, that Latin for money comes from the Latin word for cattle; hence, pecunia, pecus, cattle; and, hence, these might have been an

hundred pieces of money, with a figure of a lamb in alto relievo struck upon them, to show what money originated from; and we know that in early Greek and Roman times coins bore a similar impression, as we may see in ancient coins preserved at this day.

CHAPTER XXX1V.

SHECHEM'S AND DINAH'S SIN- SHECHEM'S SUBSEQUENTLY HONORABLE CONDUCT SIMEON AND LEVI'S VENGEANCE JACOB'S GRIEF.

It is not every portion of sacred writ that is instructive to all. Some records of the sins of men are better read in private than in public or in the family. Dinah evidently was in the habit of going out to see and be seen. This led to her loss of that which is the highest natural excellence and virtue. No daughter should go beyond the range of a mother's eye, or indulge desires and passions which are holy only within the limits God has assigned. Shechem acted afterwards in such a way as was fitted to repair as much as possible the wrong he had done. In most similar cases possession leads to entire alienation. In his case it did not. If we except his first act, his conduct was generous and noble. ought to have been last. Dinah's brothers not only were grieved, as they ought, but they cherished feelings of deep revenge. Shechem's proposals were most proper; his affection for Dinah most deep; his readiness to suffer rather than lose her most praiseworthy; and so far he did all that man could do to compensate for the wrong. Simeon and Levi, the brothers of Dinah, acted an atrocious part. Their conduct was indefensible. It was not love to a sister whom Shechem loved, and desired to make his wife, but a bitter, unforgiving, and unchristian spirit of revenge.

But that which was first

Jacob felt it bitterly, and saw that his name, and character, and family, were seriously injured; not so much by Dinah's

first fall as by her brothers' subsequent ferocity in avenging what Shechem was ready to repair.

Passion indulged has no limits. It is as letting forth Lord, lead us not into temptation, but deliver

of water.

us from evil.

24

CHAPTER XXXV.

JACOB'S FORGETFULNESS IMAGES AND IDOLS-DEVOTION AND FASH-
ION A CONSECRATED PLACE THE NURSE'S DEATH - MASTERS AND
SERVANTS JACOB CHANGED TO
ISRAEL DEATH OF BELOVED
RACHEL ISAAC'S DEATH HIS CHARACTER RECONCILIATION AT
THE GRAVE'S MOUTH.

JACOB, having forgotten the vows that he had made in his earlier days, is here reminded by God what those vows were, and called upon to return and go back to Beth-el, and there fulfil the vows that he had so spontaneously and so heartily made.

It appears that at this time, and even in this land, and notwithstanding all the lessons they had learned, and the mercies they had tasted, there were idols, or strange gods, in the midst of them, as well as earrings in their ears. It does not imply that it was sinful to wear these if they were proper in themselves; but it was the custom to have earrings in their ears, and, having idols upon them, and also images upon their nose jewels, to look to these, not merely as ornaments, but as objects of adoration. I saw, myself, almost a combination of this, last autumn, when I strayed into the church of the Madeleine, in Paris. I saw what was meant to be a bracelet for ornament, on an apparently devout lady's arm, made use of as beads, by which she offered her prayers in the sanctuary; thus combining devotion and fashion, prayer and ornament, in a way that perfectly illustrates the ancient patriarchal custom, that of having their earrings for idols, and their ornaments for images, that they were in the habit of worshipping.

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