LECTURES ON THE HISTORY OF JACOB. LECTURE I GENESIS XV. 27. "Jacob was a plain man, dwelling in tents." THERE are few subjects which so readily and so universally attract the attention of those to whom they are presented, as Biography. In general history we read of the rise and fall of nations, of the triumphs of conquerors, and the intrigues of courtiers; but all these things pass before us in such rapid succession, and are so totally irrelevant to our situations and conditions, that they seldom affect deeply the heart, or influence the life of the reader. Very different is the case when an individual, moving in the same sphere, and subject to the same trials as ourselves, is detached from the general group, and faithfully presented to us by the pencil of the biographer, in the interesting scenes so abundantly furnished by the vicissitudes of active life. In such instances as these, more especially when relating to the people of God, we are able almost to identify ourselves with the persons of whom we read; we participate in their difficulties, grieve at their sorrows, rejoice at their joys; and thus not only derive a transitory gratification, but treasure up much that is valuable for future service. Long after the history has ceased to interest us, we recollect the conduct of the holy men of whom it spake, their obedience to the commands of their heavenly Father, their meek submission to his will, their contrite acknowledgment of their own sins and infirmities, and their continual experience of his faithfulness and love; we derive fresh strength and awakened energy in the course which we ourselves are pursuing, and are oftentimes enabled, by the remembrance of such examples, to go on our way strengthened and rejoicing. It is with the full conviction of this truth, and in the hope that a connected narrative of the life of a faithful servant of the Most High, as recorded by the unerring pen of inspiration, may present us with many very valuable lessons in our Christian course, that I have been induced to select the event ful and instructive history of the patriarch Jacob, for the subject of the Thursday morning Lecture, during the ensuing season. The claims which this man of God possesses upon our attention, are indeed widely different from those of the generality of persons who form the subject of uninspired biography; he was neither a monarch, nor a warrior, nor a philosopher, nor one of the rich and noble of the earth, living in palaces "ceiled with cedar and painted with vermilion," but, as the language of the text informs us, " a plain man, dwelling in tents." Yet does this plain man possess more to recommend him to the notice and observation of the Christian, than all the sceptred monarchs of Pagan antiquity; and we scruple not to say, that no titles ever bestowed upon the proudest sovereign of the world, by the most fulsome of his flatterers, would bear a moment's competition with that honourable distinction which the Almighty himself bestowed upon Jacob, viz., the remarkable adoption of his name into the everlasting title of the "King of kings:" "And God said unto Moses, This is my name for ever, and this is my memorial unto all generations, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of JACOB." |