trace the same fact in many other things. God is not the author of sin, and yet he may overrule sin to good, and to the accomplishment of his purposes. Perhaps I may address some one whose recollection may remind him that some sin in his past life, instead of descending upon him in retributive vengeance, was overruled to open out some new prospect that led him to some unexpected eminence, and ultimately to his being a better and a happier man; and yet, such is not the direct fruit of sin; it is God interposing by a power mightier than human, and, in the language of the great poet,

“Out of evil still educing good.”

So, in the same manner, it was predicted from the foundation of the world that Christ should be crucified. But who crucified him? The Jews. The Jews might have pleaded, when Peter said to them, "Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and fore-knowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain ;" and answered Peter, "It was predicted that Christ was to be crucified. We are not to blame." But they did not do so. Why did they not do so? Because their own consciences told them that they did deliberately and freely what they did; and Peter accepted that distinction when he said, "By wicked hands ye crucified the Lord of glory." Now, here is a fact, that God overruled the murder of the Jews to the completion of that atonement on which generations lean, and by which millions in every generation are made happy. So God will overrule the crescent in the East, and the tiara in the West, to great purposes. The weakness of man, and the wickedness of man, he will turn, or he will convert, or he will overrule, to the accomplishment of his own beneficent purposes. The deepest discord shall evolve the richest harmony; and sin shall be proved to be the dark foil by which

God shall show forth the glory of heaven, and the richest grandeur of his vast designs.

We must notice, however, again, how the responsibility of the creature comes into play. When the aged patriarch, who made the mistake, was told of it, did he recall it? No; but, to show how the purposes of God harmonize with our own deliberate doings, when he was told of his mistake, he said,

I have blessed him, and he shall be blessed;" uttering truth by a mysterious instinct, as did Pilate, when he said, “What I have written I have written." How strange are the doings of God! He sketches the outline, and all men step in to fill it up. And how does this humble the great men of the world! When we read of mighty generals, statesmen, geniuses, and patriots, we find that they took the credit to themselves, and said, “We did it.” They were not, however, the statuaries. They were the chisels in the statuary's hand. Not the builders, they were but the trowels. They were the humble weapons used by the Great Original. All history, when it is read rightly, will humble man, and exalt God as all and in all. The aged patriarch adhered to what he had done; Esau was bitterly disappointed in his expectations. We are told in the Epistle to the Hebrews, "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." You see, the apostle in the Epistle to the Hebrews regards it at once as Esau's sin, and not God's purpose; and then he adds, "that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected." If you will read the chapter in Genesis, you will see that he comes to his father imploring his blessing, but it could not be reversed. So, he could find "no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears." I have heard some misinformed Christians argue from this passage as if it were possible to ask God for forgiveness on earth, and yet to go away denied

it. This is not the meaning; but the repentance that he did not find here was repentance on the part of the patriarch, not on his own part; it is not, he could not obtain a penitent heart for himself, but he could not get his father to alter his mind. It does not mean repentance quoad himself, but on the part of his father, "though he sought it carefully with tears."

But it is said, "By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau concerning things to come." How was this faith shown? First, in the most unlikely circumstances he disposes of the land of Canaan amongst his sons, as if he were already in possession of it. Isaac was a stranger and a sojourner, with only a grave in the holy land, which had been bought by Abraham ; and yet, long before he enters it, with the improbabilities of ever entering it before him, he distributes it, and assumes the land to be completely his own, when he had nothing but a promise to depend on. Now, this is Christian faith. Faith treats what God promises as being just as real and substantial as if it were the thing itself. So, Isaac here took the promise of God just as if it were the fulfilment of the thing itself. And much occurred in his after life to lead him to doubt whether God would fulfil that promise; and yet his faith never wavered. Esau rose to worldly prosperity; Jacob was oppressed, and a servant to Laban; and yet, the faith that saw all this never faltered, but expected, hoped and felt, that what was promised to him would be fulfilled.

We learn also this, that the blessings which the patriarch promised we may pray for. It is a remarkable fact, set forth throughout the Bible, that the father's piety and the piety and prosperity of the children are in some way connected; so that blessings sought by the one descend and blossom upon the heads and hearts of the others. A child that is the subject of many prayers will never be a castaway. All experience tells us that this is so; and there is a promise stronger than all experience, "I will be a God to thee, and to thy

seed after thee." Let us seek such blessings for our own; and, like the patriarch of old, believe that what we ask truly, and what God has promised, he will give faithfully. Heaven and earth may pass away, but God's promises cannot fail. The pillars that sustain the universe may crash, and be reduced to ruin; but the syllables that constitute the promises of God shall endure till all be fulfilled.

The voice of Jacob is not yet spent. It breaks still in the music of growing benedictions. Dead, he speaks; silent, he teaches.

CHAPTER XIV.

THE DYING PATRIARCH.

"As one who, walking in the twilight gloom,

Hears round about him voices as it darkens,

And, seeing not the forms from whence they come,
Pauses from time to time, and turns and hearkens ;

Perhaps on earth I never shall behold

With eye of sense their outward form and semblance,
Therefore to me they never will grow old,

But live forever young in my remembrance

"Never grow old, nor change, nor pass away;
Their gentle voices will flow on forever,
When life grows bare and tarnished with decay,
As through a leafless landscape flows a river."

"By faith Jacob, when he was a dying, blessed both the sons of Joseph; and worshipped, leaning upon the top of his staff.” HEBREWS

11: 21.

THE Voice that we are now to listen to is that of Jacob; and as there are some beautiful touches in his biography, each of which is instructive, and illustrative of his faith, I will briefly allude to them.

The special instance brought before us is, that "when he was a dying, he blessed both the sons of Joseph; and worshipped, leaning upon the top of his staff." The blessing was a deposit committed to each patriarch to be transmitted to his sons and his heirs; and we shall find that here, after Isaac had blessed Jacob, he repeated it, and bade him "Arise and