that in temporal matters, Jacob, although the younger, should assuredly possess the pre-eminence; whether this were ever communicated to the father, we have no means of ascertaining, although we should be inclined to think, from the course of the narative, that it was not, but that Rebekah, like the blessed virgin in after ages, "kept this saying, and pondered it in her heart."

The habits of the two sons soon began to make a marked and manifest difference in their lives. Esau delighted in the sports of the field, Jacob in the more quiet and rational enjoyments of domestic life. Their father Isaac, already far advanced in life, for he was sixty years of age when they were born, appears to have felt a preference for Esau, since he was able to minister to his aged parent's appetite, by the produce of his bow and of his spear; while Rebekah naturally preferred the son whose habits and tastes led him to pass the greater portion of his time in her society.

29. And Jacob sod pottage: and Esau came from the field, and he was faint:

30. And Esau said to Jacob, Feed me, I pray thee, with that same red pottage; for I am faint: therefore was his name called Edom.

31. And Jacob said, Sell me this day thy birthright. 32. And Esau said, Behold, I am at the point to die : and what profit shall this birthright do to me?

The incident recorded in these verses places the characters of both these young men in rather an unfavourable light. Esau, returning weary and faint from hunting, finds Jacob engaged in dressing his usual meal, and, with the keenness of long fasting and exercise, cannot wait to prepare food for himself, but eagerly, and we must add naturally, asks to be partaker of what he sees before him. Jacob, apparently always alive to the great and inestimable blessing attached to a father's benediction, and the birthright dependent upon it, which usually followed the course of primogeniture, instantly seizes the opportunity thus offered to him, and instead of supplying with brotherly kindness a brother's necessity, says, in reply to Esau's request for the pottage, "Sell me this day thy birthright." Esau, hungry and faint, and evidently neither in the habit of practising much self-denial, nor of reposing, as it would seem, with much trust and confidence on the parental care of the Almighty, replies, "Behold I am at the point to die; and what profit shall this birthright do to me?"-the mere language of impatience and sensual appetite, for it is clear that he could have no dread of death by starvation in the neighbourhood of his father's tents, although he might not have found so tempting a meal as "that same red pottage." But it was

not mere impatience which this language manifested; there was a marked contempt for the birthright which he was about so carelessly to fling away, "What profit shall this birthright do to me?" This despised, contemptible possession, of what avail is it to a starving man?

True picture of the unregenerate in every age: present enjoyment always preferred to future prospects, although these prospects embrace a heaven and an eternity! "Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die;" the pleasures of to-day are too pressing, too enticing, too delightful, to be refused for the sake of the far-distant blessing. One of the first great lessons which a spiritual reception of the blessed truths of the Gospel enforces, is the preference of the future. Nothing can tend so powerfully to implant within us the Christian duty of self-denial, as this feeling it rises up in the heart when any fresh temptation presents itself, with the power that God's grace can alone impart, and helps us to resist the tempter, and throw off the temptation. It is, indeed, only while the Christian lives, and thinks, and acts under the blessed influence of this hallowed feeling, that he can enjoy either security or peace; it is then, that though all around is failing him, he faints not; it is then that the heaviest trial, the most bitter disappointment, the

sorest affliction, loses half its sting; nay, it does more; for what says the apostle? "Our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; WHILE WE LOOK not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.”*

33. And Jacob said, Swear to me this day; and he sware unto him: and he sold his birthright unto Jacob.

34. Then Jacob gave Esau bread and pottage of lentiles; and he did eat and drink, and rose up, and went his way: thus Esau despised his birthright.

Jacob would not be contented with the mere word of his brother, that he would thus easily dispose of his birthright, but required his oath. In this he was right; he who could so readily and thoughtlessly dispose of such an invaluable gift, would be extremely likely to forget the whole transaction, or treat it, in days to come, as a mere jest. Jacob therefore bound him with an oath, the recollection of which should keep him to an arrangement, so eminently beneficial to the younger brother. "Thus," emphatically adds the inspired writer, "thus Esau despised his birthright." While the apostle to the Hebrews deduces from

* 2 Cor. iv. 17, 18.

it this important spiritual lesson of careful circumspection and diligence to the Christian, “Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest there be any profane person, as Esau, who, for one morsel of meat sold his birthright. For ye know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected: for he found no place for repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears."*

[Here may be read chapter xxvi.]

EXPOSITION LIII.

GENESIS XXVii, 1-17.

1. And it came to pass, that when Isaac was old, and his eyes were dim, so that he could not see, he called Esau his eldest son, and said unto him, My son: and he said unto him, Behold, here am I.

2. And he said, Behold now, I am old, I know not the day of my death:

3. Now therefore take, I pray thee, thy weapons, thy quiver and thy bow, and go out to the field, and take me some venison;

4. And make me savoury meat, such as I love, and

* Heb. xii. 15, 16, 17.