people of God," and the language of your heart will be, in all meekness and humility, "Lord, send me away, that I may go to the place and to the country" which Thou hast prepared for me, through the love of thy dear Son.

LECTURE IV.

GENESIS XXXII. 11.

"Deliver me, I pray Thee, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau."

ENGAGED as we have now been for some time past, in considering the important passages in the life of Jacob, we cannot help experiencing feelings of disappointment, that we have never yet beheld him in any situation, of which we could truly say, "This is happiness." We commenced his life with the prophetical assurances that God should give to Jacob" of the dew of heaven, and the fatness of the earth, and plenty of corn and wine;" that cursed should be every one that cursed him, and blessed every one that blessed him; and yet, throughout the whole period of which we have hitherto spoken, although more than fourscore years had passed over him, we have found him still a dependent, enjoying, indeed, much of the protecting presence and guidance of his God, but by no means distinguished for worldly affluence or prosperity.

We are now, however, to behold him in a new character, as a wealthy man, accompanied by his wives and numerous family, surrounded by his oxen and his asses, his men-servants and his maidservants, and returning to his own country and his own place.

If we have, in the former part of Jacob's history, had occasion to observe how little cause there is for repining, although our lot be placed among the poor and the destituto, so long as we possess a well-grounded hope that the Lord is our God, and we are his people, we shall now have equal reason to remark, how little cause there is for exulting, although the highest worldly advantages be our own, unless accompanied by the same blessing, the continual presence, and abiding influence of our Heavenly Father, reconciled by the blood of his Son.

We learn, from the beginning of the 32d chapter, that Jacob, having entirely freed himself from Laban, and about to return to his father's house, was obliged to pass through the country of Edom, which was in the possession of his brother Esau. The last tidings which we heard of Esau, were, that deeply exasperated at the duplicity of Jacob, he had resolved to take away his life. It was to

escape this peril that Jacob had been so long an alien and an outcast from the parental roof; while, therefore, we feel how striking an evidence it offers of Jacob's implicit trust in the Almighty, that, at the command of God, he should thus venture unarmed through the territories of one so hostile and so powerful as his unreconciled brother, we cannot help feeling considerable anxiety as to the manner in which he will be received. Will Esau, now that the hour of vengeance, for which he had so long waited, has arrived-will he fulfil the threatening, which has been for twenty years in abeyance, and destroy the helpless Jacob, his wives, and his little ones, and possess himself of the prey? Or will the natural sympathies of our nature be awakened within his bosom, and induce him to meet his enemy and his supplanter, as a brother and a friend?

If we, my brethren, cannot but feel some interest in the result of these inquiries, what must have been felt by Jacob? It requires but little knowledge of the human heart, to be assured that a time of intense anxiety and trial was approaching him, and that the possession of all the worldly advantages with which the Almighty had so lately blessed him, would rather tend to increase, than

diminish those anxieties, by holding out only a richer booty to the sword of Esau and his followers.

During his years of servitude, doubtless Jacob had often thought-If these weary years were over-if I had but obtained Rachel for my wife, and the affluence which the Almighty has promised me for my worldly portion, how perfect would be my happiness; how utterly beyond the reach of any outward circumstances to affect or trouble it! Both these desires had now been granted; Rachel had become his wife, and the wealth of Laban had, by the remarkable interpositions of the Almighty, passed into Jacob's hands; but where was the unruffled happiness for which he had panted? Like the horizon, it had fled from his approach!

And is it not thus, my brethren, with many among yourselves? Have you not often placed some wished-for object before your eyes; some darling scheme; some eagerly anticipated connexion; some expected aggrandizement of wealth or station, with the acquirement of which, you confidently believe, that all your desires will be fulfilled, and your worldly happiness be unspeakably promoted? It is in vain we tell you that you will as