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CHAPTER XIII.

ABRAHAM.

MOST men, during the bustling period of human life, indulge ideas of retreat and tranquillity, as they draw near to the close. Abraham had arrived, through much tribulation, at that period when nature wishes for repose; all that a wise and good man could reasonably propose to himself, he had, through the blessing of Providence, now attained. Religion crowned his multiplied temporal comforts, and opened the celestial paradise to his view. Isaac, the joy of his joy, is grown up, and is become amiable; his eyes have seen the salvation of God, and he can depart in peace whenever the summons comes. But how vain is it to think of rest, till the scene be closed! All the trials which Abraham had hitherto endured, are merely superficial wounds, compared to the keen stroke of that two edged sword, which now pierced him, even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow.

To suffer banishment from his country and friends; to be chased by famine from the land of promise; to have the companion of his youth, his affectionate partner, repeatedly forced from him ; to have his domestic peace disturbed, and his life embittered, by female jealousy and resentment; to be reduced to the necessity of expelling his elder son from his house, with the slender provision of a little bread and water: these, it must be allowed, exhibit a lot of severity and hardship; but they are lost in the severity of the greater woe yet behind. For it came to pass, after all these things, in addition to all foregoing evils, and apparently to the defeating of the great design of Omnipotence, that God tried Abraham in this manner: "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 of fering, upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of."

A person of humanity, like Abraham, might naturally be supposed to revolt from the idea of a human sacrifice, had the meanest slave of his household been demanded, and had the choice of a victim been left to himself. What then must have been the emotions of his mind, from the moment its darling object was required! But Abraham hesitates not, argues not. He who before

staggered not at the promise, staggers not now at the precept, through unbelief. As a proof of his being in earnest, he rises early, and having saddled his ass; for it was in this simple style, that these great men of the east used to travel; having summoned two of his young men to attend and assist in the preparation; having called Isaac, and cleft the wood for a burnt offering, they proceed together from Beersheba to the land of Moriah. Being arrived at the foot of the mountain which was pointed out, the servants are left behind, and Abraham, armed with the fire and the knife, ascends, attended by Isaac, bearing the wood destined to consume the victim. And now had his faith been capable of failing; could his purpose have changed, the question which Isaac, in the simplicity of his heart, proposed, must have triumphed over his resolution: "And Isaac said, Behold the fire and the wood! but where is the lamb for a burnt offering? And Abraham said, my son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering."

The heart that feels not this is lost to sensibility. Every endeavour to illustrate or enforce it, would be as idle as an attempt to perfume the rose; to paint the tulip into richer tints; or to burnish the sun into a brighter lustre.

The mighty secret which had hitherto laboured in the anxious paternal breast, must now be disclosed; the lamb for the burnt offering must be produced. It is not the sacrifice of a bullock, or a sheep, which is unable to make resistance; nor of a child unconscious of its situation.

Josephus makes Isaac at this time to be twenty-five years of age, and represents him, with much appearance of truth, as a young man of singular accomplishments, both of body and of mind; who might by argument, by entreaty, by speed or by force, have delivered himself; but we find he submits to be bound, and to be laid a victim upon the wood. And now, behold a sight from which nature shrinks back, and stands confounded! A father lifting up his hand, armed with a deadly weapon, to slay his own son! The voice of God is again heard, and he receives his Isaac a second time from the Hand that gave him at first.

How welcome is the language! "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." Abraham prophesied without being conscious of it, when he said: "My son, God will provide himself a

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lamb for a burnt offering." For lo! "behind him, a ram caught in a thicket by his horns; and Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his son."

We know but in part, and we prophecy in part; but God sees the end from the beginning. "He is the rock, his work is perfect, for all his ways are judgment; a God of truth, and without iniquity; just and right is He."

With what different feelings does the patriarch descend from the mountain! His Isaac lives, and yet his sacrifice is offered. Who ever sacrificed to God and was a loser? Who ever hardened himself against God, and prospered? Who cannot but perceive, through the whole of this wonderful history, the mystery of redemption shadowed forth? Is the Divine conduct, in this trial of Abraham, dark and inexplicable to human reason? Angels desire to look into the plan of gospel salvation, and are unable to comprehend it.

Was Abraham ready, at God's command, to offer up his only son for a burnt offering? God so loved the world that he gave his only begotton son, that whosoever believeth on Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. God had

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