century. Let me impress on all such the very solemn thought, "What shall it profit a man, if he gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?" An interest in the Saviour is safety; obedience to him is peace; likeness to him is joy; faith in him is salvation. These are weighty truths that have no equivalents on earth. CHAPTER XXVI. FAMINE IN CANAANISAAC'S ORDERS -EXPEDIENCY THE ALTAR-ESAU'S SINFUL MARRIAGE. WORLDLY AND THE TENT AND In the previous portions of the book from which we are reading, Canaan was pointed out to Abraham as the promised land; and he received from God the oath, the promise, and the pledge that, as such, he should inherit that land. It must have been most discouraging to Isaac, who was an heir of the promise, when he came into this promised land, to have, as he entered and crossed its very threshold, to battle with famine, and the possibility, or rather the probability, of absolute starvation. It is stated, "There was a famine in the land." Poor pledge, surely, of the fulfilment of promise! Often God inflicts chastisement the sorest when he is about to bestow the richest blessing; and it is when the sunshine bursts through the cloud, and the day brightens after the rain, and food comes after famine, - it is, in short, in the cessation of all human means, so that man, if he saw not beyond, would despair, and in the instant and unexpected descent of blessings, that we learn to see God's hand where we did not see it before, and to bless him for making man's extremity his kind opportunity. "The Lord appeared unto Isaac, and said, Go not down into Egypt." There is a great deal of practical wisdom here. The tendency of man, when he is in extreme want, is to have recourse to improper means to relieve it. The tendency of the Israelites, on a famine occurring in Canaan, was not to trust where they should, but to go to Egypt for help; but such a plan then, and now, is found in the long-run to be the least successful way. The most successful way is to keep at the post where God has placed us, and ever to feel assured that the post of duty is, not simply the post of safety, but the place of the enjoyment of the greatest available happiness. It is always safe to remain where God has placed us; it is always perilous to set sail upon what seems expedient to us, instead of steering by the chart, the compass and the polestar that God has given us. And, therefore, God said, "Go not down into Egypt," however tempted to do so. Trust, and wait. Then he repeats, what? A promise of spiritual blessings, in order to cheer him in temporal distress: -- "I will be with thee," and if God, the all-sufficient, is with one, one need fear no evil, "and will bless thee." Even prosperity, without God, is not a blessing; whereas affliction, with God, is a blessing. God's presence, God's power, God's blessing, make the darkest nights bright; and the absence of that blessing makes the brightest days dark. And, therefore, an ancient Christian could say, "Although the fig-tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labor of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flocks shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls; yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation. The Lord God is my strength, and he will make my feet like hinds' feet, and he will make me to walk upon mine high places." Next, he assures Isaac. Unpromising as the present state is, yet, "Unto thee, and unto thy seed, I will give all these countries, and I will perform the oath which I sware unto Abraham, thy father." Therefore, do not judge of my liber ality by present appearances; do not think that I have forgotten you because a famine has overtaken you. Most thoughtless, worldly men reason thus: I am in great trouble; there is a great famine; therefore God is angry with me. A Christian reasons in a direction just the reverse. He says, God is my Father; I am in great trouble; therefore that trouble will do me good, whether I see it or not. The worldly man reasons from what he suffers, and thereby infers that God is angry; - the Christian reasons from what God is, our Father, and he infers, therefore, nothing can betide me that will not do me good. A Christian plants his foot on the rock of the fatherhood of God, and then he sees light and darkness, sunshine and shadow, adversity and prosperity,all conspiring and coöperating to bless him, and to do him good. - Then "Isaac," we are told, "dwelt in Gerar;" and here, it is recorded, a painful episode occurred in his biography, almost the same that twice occurred in the life of Abraham. He feared danger, and he did what too many still do— had recourse to a falsehood to escape it. But you have always --- that a falsehood found every school-boy can tell you told to avoid a contingent danger, is the very way to rush into a greater and a worse than you ever feared. And here, too, let us see how inveterate human nature is, and how contagious a bad precedent is. Isaac repeated what his father did, imitating his example, and forgetting his lessons. My dear friends, let every parent here learn and recollect that his child's memory may forget the lessons that it was taught, but his child's habit will not forget or give up readily the impressions from your example that it has seen. It is not a father's lesson that teaches, it is a father's life. It is not what one says, but what one is, that is so impressive in one's home. And, therefore, Abraham's good lesson was here forgotten, and Abraham's twice-seen bad example in this case was accurately copied, as if it had been a stereotype and a fixture forever. This Abimelech seems not to have been the same whom we hear of in Abraham's history. It appears to have been the name applied to the kings of Canaan, in the same way as the name "Pharaoh was applied to the kings of Egypt, and "Cæsar" to the emperors of Rome. This Abimelech discovered that Isaac had deceived him, because he saw a familiarity between Isaac and Rebekah, that indicated they were related to each other in closer bonds than those of friendship; and he rebuked him for what he had done. Isaac's sin was forgiven, and God's promise did not fail on account of it; for it is said, that "Isaac sowed in that land," where the famine had been, "and received in the same year an hundred fold." Thus God in judgment remembers mercy. He took, in this instance, God's way, and he received, in doing so, God's blessing. We read, in this chapter and elsewhere in this book, a great deal about wells. We can scarcely understand this, as inhabitants of a city, or even as inhabitants of a western or northern country. But in these eastern climes wells are more precious than wine; and to stop a well is one of the greatest acts of inhospitality, and to dig a well is one of the greatest charities that a king, even, can confer on the people of those eastern lands. And this explains what the Psalmist said (Psa. 84: 6, 7), "Who passing through the valley of Baca, make it a well; the rain also filleth the pools. They go from strength to strength; every one of them in Zion appeareth before God," - that is, through the long valley which they had to traverse in approaching the temple of God, in a sultry climate, a well of water was most refreshing, and the pilgrim who dug it bequeathed it to those who were to come behind him. So, Christian men erect schools, as wells |