Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow.Isa. i. 17.

...This people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honour me, but have removed their heart far from me....Isa. xxix. 13.

Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and shew my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins.-Isa. lviii. 1.

Yet they seek me daily, and delight to know my ways, as a nation that did righteousness, and forsook not the ordinance of their God: they ask of me the ordinances of justice; they take delight in approaching to God.-2.

Wherefore have we fasted, say they, and thou seest not? wherefore have we afflicted our soul, and thou takest no knowledge? Behold, in the day of your fast ye find pleasure, and exact all your labours.-3.

Behold, ye fast for strife and debate, and to smite with the fist of wickedness: ye shall not fast as ye do this day, to make your voice to be heard on high.-4.

Is it such a fast that I have chosen? a day for a man to afflict his soul? is it to bow down his head as a bulrush, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? wilt thou call this a fast, and an acceptable day to the Lord ?—5.

Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose

the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke ?-Isa. lviii. 6.

Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh ?—7. For I the Lord love judgment, I hate robbery for burnt offering...Isa. lxi. 8.

To what purpose cometh there to me incense from Sheba, and the sweet cane from a far country? your burnt offerings are not acceptable, nor your sacrifices sweet unto me.-Jer. vi. 20.

Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, Amend your ways and your doings... Jer. vii. 2. ...Put your burnt offerings unto your sacrifices, and eat flesh.-21.

For I spake not unto your fathers, nor commanded them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices:-22.

But this thing commanded I them, saying, Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and ye shall be my people and walk ye in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well unto you.-23.

When they fast, I will not hear their cry; and when they offer burnt offering and an oblation, I will not accept them...Jer. xiv. 12.

For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.— Hos. vi. 6.

And rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the Lord your God...Joel ii. 13.

I will sacrifice unto thee with the voice of thanksgiving; I will pay that that I have vowed.-Jonah ii. 9.

Wherewith shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before the high God? shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves of a year old?Micah vi. 6.

Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten thousands of rivers of oil? shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul ?—7.

He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?-8.

...That they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness.-Mal. iii. 3.

TRIALS ARE FOR OUR GOOD, AND

TO PROVE OUR FAITH IN GOD.

And it came to pass,...that God did tempt Abraham, and said unto him, Abraham: and he said, Behold, here I am.-Gen. xxii. 1.

And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of.-2.

And Abraham rose up early in the morning, and saddled his ass, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son, and clave the wood for the burnt offering, and rose up, and went unto the place of which God had told him.-3.

And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering, and laid it upon Isaac his son; and he took the fire in his hand, and a knife; and they went both of them together.-6.

And Isaac spake unto Abraham his father, and said, My father: and he said, Here am I, my son. And he said, Behold the fire and the wood: but where is the lamb for a burnt offering ?-7.

And Abraham said, my son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering: so they went both of them together.-Gen. xxii. 8.

And they came to the place which God had told him of; and Abraham built an altar there, and laid the wood in order, and bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar upon the wood.-9.

And Abraham stretched forth his hand, and took the knife to slay his son.-10.

And the angel of the Lord called unto him out of heaven, and said, Abraham, Abraham: and he said, Here am I.-11.

And he said, 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.-12.

And when his (Joseph's) brethren saw that their father loved him more than all his brethren, they hated him, and could not speak peaceably unto him.-Gen. xxxvii. 4.

And when they saw him afar off, even before he came near unto them, they conspired against him to slay him.-18.

And they said one to another, We are verily guilty concerning our brother, in that we saw the anguish of his soul, when he besought us, and we would not hear; therefore is this distress come upon us. -Gen. xlii. 21.