Jacob ordered all these ornaments and earrings to be put away; not because they were ornaments, but because they were idols.

66

So Jacob came to Luz, which is in the land of Canaan, that is, Beth-el." You will recollect the change on this occasion. In the twenty-eighth chapter it is said that the place where the angel wrestled with him was called Luz, a word which means a place of almond-trees, where almond-trees grow; but Jacob changed its name from Luz, which. was a mere geographical name, and called it Beth-el, the house of God, a new and sacred name, in remembrance of the scene that had swept before his vision on it, and thus consecrating the place and warranting him in no more calling it by its own ancient, but by a new and more sacred name. Holy reminiscences make holy ground. God's name is a sanctu

Beth-el," implying that it was not the place that gave it sacredness, but it was the name of God that gave it its hallowing influence.

We then read "that Deborah, Rebekah's nurse, died." It is the habit in Eastern countries, and in some parts of our own country, to venerate a nurse, and properly so; but in ancient times it was especially so; so that, if you read the writings of Terence, the Latin comedian, you will find there that the nurse of the family was a very important personage. Deborah evidently accompanied Rebekah in all her wanderings; and when she died, she was sorrowed over as a loved, but now lost domestic; and so great was her loss felt to be, that the very place where she was buried was called “The oaks of weeping-Allonbachuth," on account of the great sorrow that took place at her burial. There is something very beautiful in this. Now, the servant is too much treated

as a mere machine, and the master as the mere governor of the machine ;- the servant receives so much, and the master pays so much, and thinks that he is to exact as much return as he can for his wages, and then, when they have exchanged their duties, there is an end of all the connection. The consequence of this is a great deal of depravity prevailing in both extremes of society. A family — master, and mistress, and servants-ought to be a congregation and a church; and while every one is to occupy his proper place, and to show the deference and to discharge the duties that belong to that place, yet there should not be so much of the mercenary and so little of the affectionate in their intercourse and communion with each other. There is a duty besides wages that the master owes to his servants, and there is an allegiance besides work that the servant owes to his master; and in proportion as the Christian element pervades our families, in that proportion will right feeling, true deference, and high-toned courtesy,― for that is its real character,— prevail among us. It is very beautiful to see this royal family — for Jacob was a sheik, or a prince, or a king, or by whatever royal dignity you like to call him-descending to show its true humanity by weeping over the loss of a faithful and attached domestic.

God appeared to Jacob, and said, "Thy name is Jacob, and that reminds you of something that is bad; but thy name shall be Israel, that is, one who by prayer has had success with God." God then renewed to him his covenant; "and Jacob," we are told, "set up a pillar in the place where He talked with him, even a pillar of stone; and he poured a drink-offering thereon, and he poured oil thereon. And Jacob called the name of the place where God spake with him, Beth-el." You remember that the place is called in the twenty-eighth chapter Beth-el, and also Peniel, "for I have seen God face to face." You will recollect that the being who wrestled with Jacob is called an angel; but you will

notice in this place that this angel was plainly God; for "Jacob set up a pillar in the place where he," that is, God, "talked with him;" and, therefore, that angel was not a created angel, whom he worshipped with any sort of religious homage, but God himself; and we have this told us very distinctly in one of the prophets, namely, in Hosea, where it is said that Jacob "took his brother by the heel, and by his strength he had power with God; yea, he had power over the angel, and prevailed; he wept, and made supplication unto him; he found him in Beth-el, and there he spake with us; even the Lord God of hosts, the Lord is his memorial." Now, so says the prophet Hosea, in the twelfth chapter, that the name of this angel was the Lord God of hosts, and not, therefore, a created being.

Then there is a recapitulation of Jacob's calling the name of the place Beth-el. We then read of the loss of the beloved Rachel. You remember her words in a previous chapter, "Give me children, or I die." Her wish was granted, and her death was the result of the fulfilment of her wish. It is not always the highest mercy when God grants our wishes; it is often the greatest mercy when he withholds them. We know not what is good for us. When we ask in the language of remonstrance and complaint, repining or disappointment, and obtain, we never obtain a blessing with what we ask. "Thy will be done," is our best prayer. Rachel called the name of her child Benoni, "the son of my sorrow;" but Jacob, lest the dark shadow of the death of the departed Rachel, and the deep distress that he felt for the loss of one for whom he served seven years, and so loved, should be perpetuated, as a presence ever sad and sorrowful, by the name of his son, changed his name from Benoni, which his mother had given him as expressive of her sorrow, and called him Benjamin," the son of my right hand,”. that is, who shall be a joy and a support to me, evidently a change of name to

dissociate and detach the growing son from the painful and melancholy history of his birth. "Rachel died, and was buried in the way to Ephrath, which is Beth-lehem. And Jacob set a pillar upon her grave;" a monument to commemorate one he so loved, for whom he so sacrificed, and whose sufferings for him were so great, and whose sins were forgiven while recorded, and whose excellences are still perpetuated for the instruction of the daughters of Israel.

66

We read, also, of the death of Isaac in the twenty-ninth verse, Isaac," that is, the father of Jacob, "gave up the ghost." It is very singular that we read so little of Isaac in after years. He seems to have become blind long before this, to have been detached almost from all intercourse with the world, and to have spent his declining years in perfect solitude, or in domestic quiet. "He was gathered unto his people, being old and full of days;" and it is recorded here, similarly to another case on which we commented on a previous occasion, that Esau and Jacob buried him; the two brothers, who quarrelled while their father lived, gathered together round his dead dust, and quenched all their enmities and animosities in a flood of tears, as they bore his gray hairs with sorrow to the grave.

CHAPTER XXXVI.

ESAU AND THE DUKES OF EDOM.

THIS chapter is a minute account of the descendants of Esau. It is the inspired proof of the fulfilment of prophecy. Esau enjoys the temporal prosperity which was promised, while his brother was in this respect far less favored. This is the closing description of Esau and his, in any other character than as enemies to the people of God. In this life Esau enjoyed his good things. The wealth of Esau led to Jacob's separation from him, and so far aided the fulfilment of God's promises. There is nothing in the chapter specially instructive to the ordinary reader. It is a genealogical list of great value in its own department. It forms an important part of Christian evidence. Portions of Scripture personally uninstructive are yet in another department of indispensable value. Edom is here the name given to Esau, that is, “Red,” denoting his sanguinary disposition, and it describes the character of his descendants, and their conduct toward the children of Israel. The Duke of Edom was the Dux of the Romans, and the Emir of the East in the present day. The Edomites lived under a patriarchal form of government.

The descendants of prosperous Esau sank into obscurity, and soon perished from the face of the earth. The descendants of Jacob still live in every land - disowned but deathNames are recorded here which are still read, but not

less.

loved. Let our names, O, Lord, be recorded in the Book of Life, for Christ's sake!