does to His saints and other faithful servants, to prove their virtue, as it were, and see how real it is, just as gold is tried in the fire. God then called to Abraham, and said, "Abraham, Abraham;" and he answered, "Here am I;" and God said to him, "Take thy only - begotten son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and go into the land of vision; and there thou shalt offer him for a holocaust (or sacrifice) upon one of the mountains which I will show thee." We may think what must have been the grief of Abraham at this command: how much he and his wife Sarah had wished for this son; how God had sent him to them when they were old and had given up all hopes of having children; and how God had made wonderful promises to Abraham, which were to be fulfilled in this little boy alone. Thus he was in a certain sense an only son, notwithstanding Ismael's birth; and we all know how dear every child is to a parent's heart, and an only child especially. The words of Scripture show us, too, that God measured the full extent of the sacrifice He demanded of His servant's heart when He said, "Take thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest." But Abraham, believing most entirely and with all his heart, that God could and would, in His own time and way, fulfil the promises which He Himself had made, did not hesitate one moment in his obedience. God it was who had given him his son, and to God he felt Isaac belonged. Although it was night, Abraham at once arose and saddled his ass; then he took with him two young men and his son Isaac, and some wood to burn for the sacrifice. They walked along, no doubt in sad silence; for though the faith and love of Abraham for his God would not allow him to defer his obedience a minute, his love for his little son was very great, and he was stricken to the heart with the grievous duty he had to do. For two days they

travelled, and on the third day they came to the place at which God had desired Abraham to offer up his son. Now it seems that Abraham did not tell his attendants, the two young men, what he was going to do with his son, but left them to believe that he was going to offer a sacrifice to God, as was his custom at other times, of a sheep or lamb perhaps. So he said to his young men, Stay you here with the ass; I and the boy will go with speed as far as yonder, and after we have worshiped will return to you." And he took the wood for the holocaust, and laid it on the shoulders of Isaac, and he himself carried a light to set fire to the sacrifice, and the sword with which he was to kill his

son.

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And as they walked along together, the child Isaac (who was now about, twelve years old) began to wonder that he did not see any sheep or ram provided, as was usual when sacrifices were offered to God, and he said to his father, "My father, behold here is fire and wood, but where is the victim for the holocaust ?" This question from his dear son, whom he had been commanded to make the holocaust, or victim, must have pierced the heart of Abraham as if the very sword he carried had entered it; but he replied with the same firm and unshaken faith in God's promises and perfect love, even though it should cost him the earthly life of his child, "God will provide Himself a victim for a holocaust, my son." So they went on together and came to the place God had shown him, and there he built an altar, and laid the wood in order upon it; and he bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar upon the pile of wood. And then Abraham took the sword, and stretched forth his hand to sacrifice his son. Isaac, thus bound and lying on the wood for a sacrifice, is a lively image of the real sacrifice which

God the Father required of His Son stretched on the cross for the sins of the world.

But while his hand was actually uplifted for the blow, the voice of God's angel from heaven called to him, "Abraham, Abraham, lay not thy hand upon the boy, neither do thou any thing to him. Now I know that thou fearest God, and hast not spared thine only-begotten son for My sake." God had accepted the entire submission of Abraham's heart to His will; for it is this He requires of His creatures, the conformity of their hearts to His divine decrees; and when He sees that they are so conformed, He will permit them afterwards to keep that which they only love and hold in Him and for His sake; it was thus He acted towards this His faithful servant. Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw behind him a ram among the briers, sticking fast, caught by the horns, which he took and offered for a holocaust instead of his son Isaac. And God now repeated His former promises, and added yet more blessings to Abraham for his readiness to offer up his son to God at His command. And some time after this Sarah died, at the age of a hundred and twenty-seven years.

ISAAC AND REBECCA.

AND Abraham was now very old, and he was anxious before he died to see his son Isaac married to a good and pious woman. The land in which they lived was surrounded with idolaters, people who knew not nor loved the true God, but who worshiped gods of wood and stone, and had no true knowledge of right and wrong. So Abraham made his chief servant promise that he would seek a wife

for his son from amongst his own kindred. The servant, therefore, went into the country, of Mesopotamia, where a brother of Abraham lived, called Nachor, whose daughter, Rebecca, used to go out, as was the custom in those countries, to draw water from the wells outside the city where she lived, with other women, her companions. And Abraham's servant had with him camels, on which he journeyed and carried his goods and the presents he had brought for the future wife of Isaac; and he made his camels lie down outside the city where Nachor lived, close to the well of water, where he knew the women of the city would come to fill their pitchers, and he knelt down and prayed to God to grant that he might find amongst these women the maiden whom God designed should be the wife of Isaac. And he said in his prayer, "O Lord, the God of my master Abraham, meet me to-day, I beseech Thee, and show kindness to my master Abraham, and let the maid who shall give water to me and to my camels from this well be the same whom Thou hast chosen to be the wife of Thy servant Isaac."

And he had hardly finished his prayer when Rebecca came to the well to draw water, and the servant asked her to give some to himself and his camels, which she did, and then he asked her her name and the name of her father; and when he found she was Abraham's niece, he did not doubt she was the wife intended by God for Isaac, and he knelt down and thanked God for having heard his prayer. And then he asked Rebecca if there was any place at her father's house where he and his camels could be lodged; and she took him up to her father and mother, to whom the servant told all his history how he was the trusted servant of Abraham, who was anxious to get a wife for his son, Isaac who should believe in the true God and be a

holy and pious woman, and how Abraham had therefore desired him to go and seek one amongst his own kindred. And Nachor and his wife Melcha treated the servant very kindly, and promised that Rebecca should go back with him to Abraham and Isaac if she pleased. And they made a grand feast for him that evening, and the servant brought forth his presents for Rebecca, vessels of gold and silver and beautiful robes, and gave them to her; and in the morning he was anxious to return to his master, but Rebecca's mother and her brother Laban wanted to keep her a little longer. Let the maiden stay at least ten days with us, said they, and she shall depart. But the servant begged them not to detain him, because, he said, the Lord had blessed his journey with success, and he now desired to return to his master. And when Rebecca was asked, she consented to go; and she and her nurse and her maids were placed on the camels, and Abraham's servant and his attendants, and they all travelled back to Abraham. And as they came near his dwelling Isaac saw them approaching, for he had gone out to meditate in the field, it being towards evening. We may observe how constantly these holy men, whose histories are related in the Old Testament, prayed to God and thought about Him; and how those about them even took no great step without fervent prayer, as Abraham's servant when he prayed God to show him how to find her who was to be the wife of Isaac. And Rebecca asked the servant who it was whom she saw coming towards them, and he said it was his master, Isaac; and she alighted off her camel and went to meet him. And Isaac married her; and his affection for his wife Rebecca was so great that it comforted him for the loss of his mother very much.