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an angel, called on him from the heavens, "Abraham! Abraham!" "Here am I," replied the aged

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patriarch. Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou any thing unto him; for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me. Because thou hast done this thing, in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed, as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies, and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because thou hast obeyed my voice." So you perceive, my love, there was no occasion for your alarm and sorrow. But if you could feel so deeply for poor Abraham, and his son Isaac, will not your dear little heart ache when you hear, that God reserved this suffering and heavy affliction which you had supposed would fall on Abraham, for himself to endure? "O Mamma! did God indeed shed the blood of his only Son, and accompany his own dear Son through such sufferings?" Yes, my love, and much greater. "And why, Mamma?" To give us an inheritance in heaven, my love. To take away the sufferings and the curse to which the earth was sentenced, my child, God bore all our sins and sufferings for us; otherwise you and I were sentenced to every

trouble and to death; by his stripes, which he even received on our account, our wounds are healed. "Oh, Mamma! Mamma! did God do all this for us ?" He did, indeed, my child; you will find it revealed in the New Testament: the account of Abraham and his son is to be found in the Old, and prefigured what God intended in his mercy to do for us. tr But, Mamma, I want to know about the second Adam. I can't help crying, to hear the mournful account of the agonies of God's poor Son. And why, Mamma, do you cry?" Because, my love, it raises all my ingratitude to that holy Being into my remembrance. After all his rich mercies, which he has rendered to me, that I should be so unworthy as to return nothing but sin and rebellion. But God have mercy upon me, and soften the obduracy of my wicked heart. “O, Mamma, mamma ! do not say so! God will forgive us, I hope !" Yes, my child, in him is forgiveness, longsuffering, and our only hope. But, my love, to proceed with my story: Abraham returned home, and just before his death, he sent a faithful servant into his native land, the city of Nahor in Mesopotamia, to obtain for his beloved Isaac, a wife, where was found Rebecca, a damsel very fair to look upon, and who was united to Isaac. Now Isaac and Rebecca were the father and mother of Jacob, in whom the children of God were chosen,

who were to be multiplied as the sand of the sea shore. So you perceive, my love, there must have been some reason, why God intended, by the sufferings of Joseph, to prefigure those of his Son, and the house of Israel, who are called Jews to this day. "Was that the reason, Mamma, why God permitted poor Joseph to be so ill used? I was astonished that God, who you said, Mamma, had the power to do all things, had not prevented a good child from being ill used." I am delighted, my love, to find you have been so attentive; for that is a question which many a wise, worldly character, would not have put, as they think it unanswerable. It was the reason, and all God's children have to endure the sufferings in a measure, which prefigure those of the Son of God. It is to prevent our hearts being set on this wicked world, that we may be made meet for the second paradise, and to go to the second Adam. "O, Mamma, I would suffer any thing for that." Now, my love, Joseph was taken down into Egypt, despised, and sold for twenty pieces of silver. He then became a servant, was tempted, and falsely accused, bound and imprisoned; he was humbled, and finally exalted; he delivered Israel in their distress, and absolved them, by free pardon, from their sins. Now, my child, all these sad reverses prefigured the sufferings of the Israelites, which you will find de

scribed in the Bible.

Egypt, and suffered

They were taken down into slavery and ill-usage from hard task-masters. God brought them out of the land of Egypt and the house of bondage, and through the Red Sea, which opened on each side to let them pass; for the Egyptians pursued them: and when the children had cleared the sea, and reached in safety the shore, God let go the sea, which covered and swept away in a torrent all the Egyptians. After this, God brought the Israelites into the wilderness, where he delivered to Moses a law contained in the Ten Commandments, and appeared to them in à flame of fire on mount Sinai, and ordained a number of ceremonial laws, and commanded sinofferings and peace offerings to be made for the sins which their evil nature was hourly committing. Of these offerings, that of the blood of the lamb was the greatest atonement offered. They were then in the wilderness, and were conducted towards Ca⚫ naan, the promised land, which flowed with milk and honey. And while thus on their way, during forty years, God fed them daily with manna from heaven, and on the evening before the Sabbath they received a double portion, that they might not gather their food on the Sabbath, that being a holy day, in which no work was to be done; for those who broke the Sabbath, were sentenced to be stoned to death. God

also gave them water from the rock of Horeb, and guided them by a pillar of fire by night, and a cloud of glory by day; thus was he in close communion with them, and showed them many wonders, miracles, and rich mercies, and finally brought them into Canaan, the land of promise, where they had peace, the fat of the land, and all nations were subdued and made subservent to them. "How they must have loved and adored God, Mamma!" So any one would have supposed, my child, except those who know the iniquity of the human heart. Instead of loving, adoring, and being grateful, my love, they worshipped other gods, even the wicked serpent, and defied God by their wickedness,-nay, even sacrificed his only Son, by nailing him to the cross. This was all the return that God received for his gracious goodness to this stiff-necked and rebellious race; so that in this the conduct of Joseph's brethren prefigured the conduct of the twelve tribes of Israel toward the Son of God, whom Joseph in his sad reverses typified. For He, my love, left the bosom of his Father to redeem Israel; for they were lost: he went down to Egypt, he was bound, imprisoned, and sold for thirty pieces of silver. "Then, Mamma, the same sins appear to be in the children that were in their fathers." God declared, my love, in one of his commandments, that he would visit the sins of the

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