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I.

JACOB'S DREAM;

OR,

THE SOLUTION OF A MYSTERY.

"And he dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven: and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it."

GEN. xxviii. 12.

THIS chapter contains an account of the most important crisis in the life of Jacob. He was yet comparatively a young man, his experience of life was necessarily limited, the world was to him an unexplored region. How could it be otherwise, when we consider the manner in which he had been brought up? His manner of life, and that of his brother Esau, presented a striking contrast-a contrast which serves to explain the great divergence of their characters. "Esau was a cunning hunter, a man of the field; and Jacob was a plain man dwelling in tents." Esau was a brave, rough, fearless character, who loved bold adventures, and delighted in dangerous pursuits. His home was in the desert, among the wildest scenes of nature, where for

days and nights together, with no other companions than his bow and his quiver, he found congenial employment in hunting game, enduring by day the greatest fatigue, and resting at night under the blue sky. Jacob, on the contrary, seems to have been a domesticated character, who loved the tranquillity, the comfort, the ease of the family hearth. Such life as his had some advantages, but it had also its disadvantages; it favoured certain virtues, but it also led to certain vices; while it gave him greater refinement than his sturdy brother, it also deprived him of his manliness, and made him deceitful, treacherous, mean. This difference of taste and habits in the two brothers had made one the favourite of the father and the other the favourite of the mother, for it is said that "Isaac loved Esau, because he did eat of his venison ; but Rebekah loved Jacob." Isaac, the man of peace and meditation, found in his elder son the daring and activity which he himself lacked; moreover, he relished the savoury dishes with which the hunter frequently supplied him; therefore, his heart lavished upon him an extra share of affection. Rebekah, the doting mother, was charmed by the pleasing manners of her younger son, who made it his business to be useful about the house, and gave her much of his company, and attended to her daily wants.

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