JACOB AND ESAU.

IN the 27th chapter of Genesis we have the wellknown story of Rebekah helping her favourite son to deceive his old father, who was nearly blind.

We continually read in the Bible of the great value that was set, amongst the Jews, on being the first-born. All sorts of blessings were supposed to be his, and Esau was Isaac's eldest son; but Jacob was the son that their mother loved best. So when his father requested Esau to go out into the field to take some venison, and to make him savoury meat such as he loved, Rebekah persuaded Jacob to pretend to be Esau, and to bring Isaac savoury meat. As Esau was a hairy man, she covered Jacob with the skin of a kid, in case his blind father should touch him. They were very nearly found out. When Jacob brought him the "savoury meat such as he loved," his father felt him, and said, "The voice is Jacob's voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau ;" and " he said, Art thou my very son Esau ? " And Jacob was wicked enough to answer, "I am."

Then he received his father's blessing, as the eldest son. Deceit may answer for the moment, but not in the long-run. Rebekah must have often repented of that day's work. Esau was so angry, that he threatened to kill his brother. And Jacob had to run away to his uncle Laban, and to leave the mother who loved him so much and so foolishly.

Laban had two daughters. One of them, Rachel,

was "beautiful and well-favoured." The other, Leah, was "tender-eyed." Jacob loved Rachel so much that he offered Laban to serve him for seven years, if he would give her to him. But he who had deceived his father was himself cheated; for Laban managed to make him take Leah instead. When they had been married a week, Laban agreed to let him marry Rachel also, for in those days people used to take two or more wives.

After living in this land for twenty years, he went back to see his father once more, but was terribly frightened at meeting his brother Esau. He knew, too well, how ill he had used him, so he took presents with him, to induce him to forgive him. But Esau treated him better than he deserved, and was very kind to him. Isaac was still alive, and he and Jacob dwelt in Mamre till Isaac's death, at the age of one hundred and eighty years.

JOSEPH.

He

JACOB Continued to live in the land of Canaan. had seen his favourite wife Rachel die, when his youngest son Benjamin was born. Joseph and Benjamin were the only children he had by Rachel, and they seem to have been great favourites with their father. He had ten other sons, who were older, and who did not like to see the younger ones made more of than themselves. This often happens now; but elder children should remember how

much more care little ones require than they do. It is quite natural that their parents should pay

them most attention.

A coat of many colours, given to Joseph by his father, seems to have made his brothers very envious. Do you remember having been already told what it is to be envious or jealous? Cain was envious of Abel. Perhaps Joseph may have talked too much of his father's love for him, and of two wonderful dreams which he had. One was, that he and his elder brothers were in the field, binding sheaves of corn. A sheaf is a bundle of corn, tied together. Joseph dreamt that his sheaf stood upright, and that his brothers' sheaves bowed down to his. Next he dreamt that the sun, moon, and eleven stars made obeisance to him. All which he thought meant that he was to be master over all his brothers. His father rebuked him; that is, he found fault with him, for fancying he was to be such a great man.

Joseph and Benjamin stayed at home with their father, while the elder brothers went to work in the fields. One day they saw Joseph coming towards them alone, and their hatred of him made them say, "This dreamer cometh. Come now, Come now, therefore, and let us slay him." They were perhaps afraid that he would get more than his share of his father's property at his death. They resolved to 'tell a lie to their father, and to say that an evil beast had eaten him up. Reuben seems to have been a little less cruel than the others, and said, "Shed no blood, but cast him into this pit." He intended to take him out of it, but he did not dare to

say so. So, when Joseph arrived, dressed in his beautiful coat, they stripped him, and threw him into the well, or pit. It was dry, or he would have been drowned; but, if left there, he was sure to die from starvation. When they had thus got rid of him, they sat down "to eat bread.”

Do not you wonder that the food did not choke them? Could you have eaten your dinner, if your little brother were calling to you out of a pit, into which you had thrown him? Perhaps their hearts began to soften when they saw a company of Midianites (men from the land of Midian) travelling towards them.

In that country there were no roads, or villages, or inns, or shops, and they had no way of sending what they had to sell, from one city to another, except on the backs of camels. You have seen a picture of a camel, perhaps you have seen a live one at the Zoological Gardens, and know what it is like. Its long neck and curiously shaped hoofs, the hump on its back, and its hair, so soft that it is made into brushes for painting, distinguish it from other animals. In its stomach is a bag, into which it can take water enough, in a quarter of an hour, to supply itself for five or six days while crossing the sandy desert. It has been called the ship of the desert.

These Midianites were coming from the land of Midian, on the borders of the Red Sea, with their goods, spices, balm, and myrrh, to carry to Egypt. Judah, on seeing them, thought that to make money by selling his brother for a slave, was better than leaving him to die in the pit, and pretended that as

he was his brother, he should like to save him; so they drew him out of the pit, and sold him to these merchants for twenty pieces of silver. Reuben must have been absent when this was done, for finding the pit empty when he returned, he was very unhappy, and tore his clothes, as the people in that country do now, when they are miserable. "The child is not," he said, "and I, whither shall I go?" His brothers soon settled that matter for him, by killing a kid, dipping Joseph's coat in the blood, and then they took it to their father, and asked him whether he knew whose coat it was. Poor Jacob knew it but too well, and said, "It is my son's coat; an evil beast hath devoured him; Joseph is without doubt rent in pieces. And Jacob rent his clothes, and put sackcloth upon his loins," a sort of rough black cloth, worn by people who had lost their relations, or when they were in great trouble. " And all his sons, and all his daughters rose up to comfort him; but he refused to be comforted, and he said, for I will go down into the grave unto my son mourning. Thus his father wept for him." What hypocrites his sons must have been, to pretend to be sorry, when they knew that it was owing to their wicked hatred of their brother, that their father was so wretched!

JOSEPH IN EGYPT.

THE Midianites, on arriving in Egypt, sold Joseph to Potiphar, a captain of the guard belonging to