considered as the elder brother. Esau was so hungry, that he did not care at that moment about his birth-right; so he sold it to Jacob for the mess of pottage.

When Jacob saw his brother so faint with hunger and fatigue, he ought to have given him something to eat without asking any thing in return; for we ought always to be ready to relieve those who are in any kind of distress, and especially when they are our brothers and sisters. But this young man, instead of assisting his brother, wickedly took advantage of his situation, and obtained from him his birth-right. This was very wrong conduct; but he did something worse than this afterwards, for he knew that it would be of little use to have the birth-right, unless he had his father's blessing also. He determined, therefore, to obtain this, and we shall see by what wicked means he succeeded.

When Isaac was old, and his eyes

C

were dim, so that he could not see, he called Esau, his eldest son, and desired him to take his bow and his quiver full of arrows, and to go into the fields, and shoot a deer, that he might make him a very savoury dish of it; and then he would bless him before he died.

Now Rebekah, Isaac's wife, heard what he had said to Esau; and as she loved Jacob more than Esau, and wished to procure for him his father's blessing, she thought that this would be a good time to do it. So she prepared a dish of very savoury meat, such as she knew that her husband would like, and she persuaded Isaac to dress himself up in his brother's clothes, and to put goat-skins upon his neck and his hands, that he might appear to his father likę Esau, who was a hairy man.

And when the meat was ready, Rebekah gave it to Jacob, and he went and took it to his father; and when his father asked him " Who he was?" he said that

he was Esau, his first-born, and that he had brought him the venison, as he had desired. Isaac was surprised that he had procured it so soon, and he was almost sure that the voice of the young man who spoke to him was Jacob's: so he asked him again, whether he was really Esau. Jacob again said that he was; and his father, believing what he said, ate of the meat which he brought him, and gave him his blessing.

Just after this, Esau came in from hunt

ing; and when he found what a trick had been played him, he was very angry, and he declared that, as soon as ever his father should be dead, he would slay his brother Jacob. Now it was very wicked in him to say this; for, although Jacob had done wrong in seeking to obtain his father's blessing by such unjust means, this was no reason why Esau should do wrong also, by trying to revenge himself; for.Christ, our Lord, has told us that we should "Bless them that

curse us, do good to them that hate us, and pray for those who despitefully use us and persecute us."

When Jacob heard what Esau said he would do to him, he was afraid, and he fled away into another country, where he, in his turn, was used deceitfully by his uncle Laban, just as he had himself deceived his father. Here he lived a long time, and had many children, and many flocks and herds. At last, not liking to live near Laban any longer, he fled away from him with all his family and his property. Now he knew that he should have to pass near the place where his brother Esau lived; and this made him very much afraid, for he recollected how ill he had behaved to him, and how his brother had said that he would be revenged. So he sent messengers and presents to Esau, that he might persuade him to be friendly to him; and he also prayed to Almighty God that he would deliver him from the hand of his brother.

But Esau did him no harm. Though he had been very angry, and had determined to have his revenge, when first he discovered how Jacob had injured him, he had now put away all his angry feelings, and as soon as he saw him coming, he ran to meet him, and fell on his neck, and kissed him. And from that time these two brothers were good friends, and never tried to injure each other again.

This story teaches us, that if we do wrong we shall certainly suffer for it. Jacob obtained his father's blessing in a deceitful way, and this obliged him to fly from his home into another country, where he suffered much from the injustice of his uncle Laban; and, when he had escaped from him, he again feared the anger of his brother Esau. So it must always be with those who try to cheat and to deceive. They are soon found out, and then they are never safe