all this is before us, and our hearts bleed for that loving mother, whose only son is about to perish by his father's hand.

For two days the little train sped on their way, and on the third day the hill of Moriah, on which the temple was afterwards built, with its surrounding elevations, came in sight. Whatever the feelings of Abraham may have been, no outward sign betrayed them. Commanding his attendants to remain where they were, he took his son, together with the wood for the burnt-offering, and went forward to Moriah, where the sacrifice was to take place.

"My father," says the unsuspecting Isaac, "here is the fire, and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt-offering?"

What a question for a father's heart, and coming too from the beloved and innocent victim! But Abraham replies without hesitation, "My son, God will himself provide a lamb for the burnt-offering."

At length they reach the appointed spot, and strong in the power of faith the father builds an altar, binds his unresisting son upon it, and raises the fatal knife to consummate

the sacrifice. Just then the voice of God stays his uplifted hand, and forbids the blow. "Lay not thy hand upon the lad, neither do any thing unto him."

Joyful, blessed prohibition! With what trembling alacrity must Abraham have unbound and embraced the son given to him a second time, and whose obedience even unto death, rendered him if possible, still dearer than before.

Commended and blessed of God, as no other mortal has ever been, the patriarch, after offering up a ram on the altar he had

The sacred writer does not inform us whether Sarah ever knew on earth the real facts of that memorable journey, and we see not how the mother's heart could have borne the knowledge.

She lived peacefully in the bosom of her family until Isaac had reached his thirty-seventh year, then quietly yielded her spirit to Him who gave it, and slept the sleep that knows no earthly waking.

Mourned by her husband as only a woman of superior excellence could have been mourned by such a man, she was buried in the cave of Machpelah, purchased of the children of Heth for a family burial-place; and there, side by side, the ashes of this illustrious pair repose until the morning of the resurrection.

void she had left could never be filled. But in his age and loneliness, one anxious thought was always present-What was to be the future. of his beloved Isaac, on whose welfare such

vast interests were depending? Not for worlds would he have him take a wife from the daughters of the surrounding Canaanites; and yet he could scarcely consent to his visiting Mesopotamia, where his own kindred still dwelt, as he might be persuaded to take up his residence there, and thus forfeit his inheritance in the promised land.

In this emergency the patriarch called to his presence Eliezer, the steward of his household, a man of singular intelligence and piety, who had charge of all his possessions, and understood perfectly his wishes in regard to his son. Having made him swear with the utmost solemnity to obey implicitly his instructions, he sent him to Mesopotamia, directing him to obtain, if possible, a wife for Isaac from the family of Laban, his mother's brother, who dwelt in Haran, east of the Euphrates.

With a train of camels and servants suited to the dignity of his master and the importance of his errand, Eliezer departed from Hebron, and journeyed to the north-east until he reached Haran, called the city of Nahor. Here, by a well of water just without the city,