look upon his wife whose son he had the greatest darkness and distress. He murdered? How could she entertain the may not come to our help at the moexecutioner of Isaac, or believe that such ment that our impatient minds. may dean order emanated from God? In all these sire. On the contrary, he may tarry respects it is easy to see with what a long till we are ready to cry, 'The Lord strength of reason his faith had to wres- hath forsaken us, and our God hath fortle, to say nothing of the still sorer con- gotten us.' But he has wise and graflict with affection. But faith had taught|cious purposes to answer by such de Abraham not to argue, but to obey. lays. He makes use of them to stir us u He knew that what God commanded to more earnest importunity; to render was good, and what he promised, infal- us more simple and humble in our delible; and therefore went forward with-pendence, to display more gloriously the out wavering in absolute submission to riches of his power and goodness when the will of the Most High. Such was he does appear; and to teach both us the triumph of Abraham's faith. And and others the wisdom of waiting his now, do we desire to form an estimate time. Whatever, then, our unbelieving of the reality and strength of our own fears may say, let us be assured that faith? Let us place ourselves for a mo- God is no inattentive observer of our ment in a situation similar to that of the condition, and that at the critical mopatriarch. Let us think of that person, ment, when his succour shall be most of that object, which is the dearest to welcome, it shall come. And where is us of any on earth; and let us imagine the christian heart that hath not had the breath of the destroying angel wither- engraven upon it many precious rememing it, like Jonah's gourd, at our feet, brances of the fulfilment of this proits beauty fled. and the grave about to mise? In temporal and in spiritual difshut it for ever from our view; and let ficulties; in the day of sorrow, and on us ask ourselves whether we could re- the bed of sickness; in the hour of danceive such a visitation without a mur-ger to ourselves or to those we have mur from the hands of our heavenly loved, the Lord has most unexpectedly Father? Could we say with the Shu- appeared in our behalf, and enabled us namite, in answer to the prophet's mes-to exclaim Jehovah-jireh' in view of sage, 'Is it well with the child?' that the joyful deliverance. What then . child which had just expired in her arms -could we say with her, 'It is well.' This is the office of faith, and one of its most difficult works. Yet it has been achieved by thousands, and must be achieved by us ere patience shall have had her perfect work. The most valuable of the gifts of heaven, the dearest of our earthly delights, must all be held as Isaac in his father's arms, ready at the slightest bidding to be laid and to be sacrificed on the altar of God. ought to be the effect of these repeated interferences of divine mercy in our behalf? Surely to teach us never to doubt, never to despair, never to despond. If called to give up our dearest possession, the wife of our bosom, the children of our love, let us bow even amidst our keenest sufferings, to kiss the rod and him who hath appointed it. He that hath been with us in six troubles will not leave us in seven; and it will only be adding ingratitude to un(2) The certainty that God will inter-belief, to rob ourselves of the comfort pose for his people in the hour of their of this delightful assurance. Nor is it necessity. This is the plain import of in life only that we are to sustain ourthe proverb, 'In the mount of the Lord selves by cleaving to this confidence. it shall be seen.' We may therefore | In nature's final conflict, when our faith confidently trust in him in seasons of may be expected to meet its severost CHAPTER XXIII. 2 And Sarah died in a Kirjath AND Sarah was an hundred arba ; the same is and seven and twenty years land of Canaan: old: these were the years of the life came to mourn for weep for her. of Sarah. shock, then shall these cheering words stand out in letters of light, which even the closing eye can read and the fainting heart can dwell upon. CHAPTER XXIII. 1. And Sarah was an hundred and seven and twenty years old. Heb. yihyu haye Sarah, the lives Hebron in the and Abraham Sarah, and to a Josh. 14. 15. Judg. 1. 10. ch. 13, 18. ver. 19. them the more to the select circle in which they move, and which alone can duly appreciate their unobtrusive amiableness and worth, is adverse to their gaining eclat. The traits of character which best entitle them to celebrity, are the very ones which prevent their attaining it. 2. Sarah died in Kirjath-arba. The patriarch, after having enjoyed the tenderest of all relationships during a longer period than that of which a whole life, at the present day usually consists, is at length called to feel the pang of separation. Sarah pays the debt of nature, and is removed to that world where they neither 'marry nor are given in marriage Although there is always something in the breaking of this tie more affecting, perhaps, than in the disruption of any other which unites us to our kind, yet the bitterness of the bereavement was enhanced to Abraham by peculiar circumstances. Sarah had been his companion in tribulation.' They had shared together in a series of trying dispensations through a long course of years, and their union had at length been cemented by a pledge, such as had never before, and but in one instance since, gladdened the heart of a The stroke therefore could of Sarah were, &c. according to the Heb. idiom which always employs the plur. for life;' a usage designed, according to Calvin, to intimate the various events of life, its numerous and often rapid vicissitudes, which seemingly divide it into several different lives. Another solution, however, of a physiological character, is given Gen. 2. 7. It is somewhat remarkable that Sarah is the only female mentioned in the scriptures, whose age, death, and burial are distinctly noted. She was 65 at the period of Abraham's departure from Haran, lived with him in his pilgrim state 62 years, and died 33 years before him. She is always spoken of in the sacred writings as the pattern of conjugal fidelity and love, and her example is held forth by the apostle, 1 Pet. 3. 6, as the highest model for christian women, and the title of her daughters' as their most honorable distinction. The very fact | parent. that so few of the incidents of her his- not but be one of deep affliction to tory are recorded speaks strongly in the survivor, and the sequel clearly her favor; for there is little in the even informs us that he felt it as such.tenor of female life, when that life is Kirjath-arba. T passed in the retired and noiseless path lit. the city of the four; so called, if we of devotedness to God, and in the peace- may believe the Jewish tradition, from ful round of domestic duties, which can the circumstance of the four illustrious or ought to form the subject of the his- men, viz. Adam, Abraham, Isaac, and torian's pen. The very privacy of the | Jacob, being buried there, as also the christian graces, manifested in such a four distinguished women, Eve, Sarah, walk and conversation, while it endears | Rebekah, and Leah. All these persons were certainly buried there, except except and winding. The adjoining district, Adam and Eve, whose place of inter- which is no doubt the valley of Hement is nowhere mentioned. But as to bron,' is an oblong hollow, or valley, dithe origin of this name, see Josh. 14. 15. | versified with rocky hillocks, groves of Whoever built the city, it must have fir, and some plantations of vines and been one of the most ancient in the world. olive trees.- T Abraham came to mourn Egypt was one of the first countries set- for Sarah, and to weep. Heb. tled after the deluge, and its inhabitants livkothah, to weep her; i e. to bewail or made much boast of the antiquity of their lament her. Mourning for the pious cities; yet we are informed in Num. 13. | dead is but a suitable tribute to the me22, that Hebron was built seven years mory of their living worth. Abraham before Zoan, or Tanis, the ancient capi- was sensible of his loss, and gave vent tal of Lower Egypt. At the conquest to the natural expressions of sorrow. of Palestine by the Israelites Hebron was possessed by the Anakims, and was taken by Caleb, whose possession it became, being in the allotment of the tribe of Judah. It was afterwards assigned to the Levites, and became a city of refuge. David kept his court there in the first seven years of his reign, before Jerusalem was taken. Afterwards Absalom raised the standard of rebellion in Hebron. During the Babylonish captivity, the Edomites appropriated Hebron when they invaded the south of Judah, and it became the capital of a district which continued to be called Idumæa long after the territory of the Edomites had been incorporated with Judæa. Wells think it became the site of a bishopric in the early times of Christianity, and it was certainly made such when the Crusaders conquered Palestine. Hebron is now merely a village, called Habroun and El Khalyl, His religion was not of that sort which values itself on doing violence to nature. He knew nothing of that philosophy which affects to deny what it feels. Neither had an old age of one hundred and thirty years, extinguished in his heart those tender emotions which such an event was calculated to awaken. He who does not weep on such an occasion, is something more or less than a man. From the example of our Lord himself, who wept over the bier of Lazarus, we are taught that there is nothing abhorrent from true wisdom or manly virtue in grave and temperate lamentation for our departed friends. But the Christian is not to mourn as those that have no hope, nor is his mourning to be allowed to interfere with the grand duties of life.-In what sense Abraham is said to have 'come' to mourn for Sarahı, is not clear. Harmer thinks that, according to a custom among the Syrians and Greeks, i. e. the friend, from its having been the of mourning at the door within which a residence of Abraham, the friend of dead body lay, the patriarch came from God. It is situated about 27 miles south his own tent to sit mourning on the of Jerusalem, eastward of a chain of ground at the door of Sarah's, which hills which intersects the country was distinct from his own. Gen. 24. 67. from north to south. It stands on the But as it is common for those that lead slope of an eminence, at the summit the nomade mode of life, for the conof which are some mis-shapen ruins venience of feeding their numerous of an ancient castle. It has some small flocks, to have several places of temmanufactures of cotton, soap, glass-porary residence, we should rather inlamps, and trinkets, which render it the fer that he was absent from Hebron at most important place of the district. It the time of her death, but hastened is rather a neat town, with unusually thither to perform the last duties when high houses; but the streets are narrow he received the intelligence. 3 ¶ And Abraham stood up of a burying-place with you, that from before his dead, and spake I may bury my dead out of my unto the sons of Heth, saying, sight. 5 And the children of Heth an er with you give me a possession swered Abraham, saying unto him, 3. Abraham stood up from before his king of Israel, makes the same confesdead. Or, Heb. yakom, rose up; sion, Ps. 39. 11, 'For I am a stranger an expression denoting the moderation with thee, and a sojourner, as all my of his grief, and the comparative ease fathers were.' But Abraham's confes with which, from a principle of piety, sion, though true at all times, was pe he was enabled to subdue his emotions, culiarly true and striking when thus ui and to rise up and engage in the active tered at the grave of Sarah. So w duties of life. As there is a time for all feel it to have been with him, and s weeping, so there is a time to refrain with ourselves. Never does the im from weeping; and it is well there is. pression of this great truth come upor The necessary cares connected with our us with such force, never do we fee condition in this world are a merciful the ties that bind us to the earth sc means of raising us from the torpor of loosened, so nearly rent asunder, as melancholy.- ¶ Spake unto the sons of when we stand by the grave of those Heth. The descendants of Heth, the we love. However at other and hap son of Canaan, and grandson of Ham, pier times we may forget the frail te elsewhere called Hittites. He was now nure by which we hold this earthly tab sojourning in their country. ernacle, we are strongly impressed with 5. A stranger and a sojourner with you. the conviction then. We then, indeed, We have now been tracing the history'know the heart of a stranger,' and of Abraham through the space of near- wonder that we have ever felt domesly one hundred years, during the great- ticated here on earth, where there is so er portion of which the promise of God much sin and suffering, so little stability was pledged to him that all the land of and peace. Would that we could carCanaan should be his; and here we find ry this abiding conviction along with us him, at the close of a long and toilsome into the daily business of life. How life, obtaining his first inheritance in it, little influence would its trials and disand that—a sepulchre for his wife. In appointments possess over us. How all this time he was, and he felt himself much internal peace would it bestow, to to be, a stranger and a sojourner.' It is feel that we were 'strangers and pilto the acknowledgment that he here grims' on earth, and that soon, amid makes to the sons of Heth, that Paul so the comforts of our Father's house, we expressly refers in Heb. 11. 13, They should smile at the little disquietudes of confessed that they were strangers and the way.— ¶ Give me a possession of pilgrims on the earth.' Abraham, how- a burying-place, &c. That is, sell me. ever, did not sustain this character He did not ask it as a gift, as is clear alone Israel, when put in possession of from v. 9. He wished to purchase a the land, were taught to view themselves burying-place for the interment of his in the same light; Lev. 25. 23, 'The dead in general, not of Sarah in parland shall not be sold forever; for the ticular; and in making this proposition, land is mine, for ye are strangers and so- he exhibited a striking evidence of his journers with me.' Even David, when faith in the promise of the future pos e 6 Hear us, my lord; thou art 7 And Abraham stood up and a mighty prince among us: in bowed himself to the people of the the choice of our sepulchres bu- land, even to the children of Heth. ry thy dead: none of us shall 8 And he communed with them, withhold from thee his sepulchre, saying, If it be your mind that I but that thou mayest bury thy dead. should bury my dead out of my ch. 13. 2 & 14. 14. & 24. 35. session of this land by his posterity; God is frequently affixed to words to for the procuring a sepulchre of one's give intensity of meaning, or to denote own was regarded as a sign of the con-excellence of the superlative degree in firmation of a man's right and title the subject spoken of. Thus, Ps. 36. 6, to the land in which it is situated. This Great mountains; Heb. Mountains of doubtless is the import of the following God. Gen. 30. 8, Great wrestlings;' passage; Is. 22. 16, What hast thou Heb. Wrestlings of God. 1 Sam. 14. 15, here, and whom hast thou here, that Very great trembling; Heb. Trembling thou hast hewed thee out a sepulchre of God. Ps. 80. 10, Goodly cedars ;' here, as he that heweth him out a se- Heb. Cedars of God. Acts 7. 20, (Moses) pulchre on high, and that graveth a hab- was exceeding fair;' Gr. 'Fair to God. itation for himself in a rock;' i. e. hast So in 1 Chron. 24. 5, the priests who in taken possession as though the land of our translation are termed 'governors of Israel were thine own.——— Bury my the house of God,' are in the original dead out of my sight. An expression called 'princes of God i. e. eminent that forcibly reminds us of the triumphs of death. The faces which once excited the strongest sensations of pleasure, now require to be buried out of our sight. The beauty which conjugal affection doated upon, has disappeared; and those who were but so recently the desire of our eyes, have now become a loathing unto all flesh! Abraham cannot now endure to look upon her whom he once keber, sepulchre, is derived by a comshuddered to think the eyes of another mon transposition of letters, the German might regard with too much desire, and Grab,' (Kereb, Kreb, Greb, Grab,) and he is now as anxious to remove her from this comes our Eng. 'Grave.' The from his presence as he formerly was predominant import of the original is a to retain the possession of her wholly subterranean vault or grotto, generally exto himself Let the beautiful, the gay, cavated by human art, used as a place of the vain, the valued, think of this and deposit for the dead. Tombs of this desdismiss their self-complacency. Dust scription were almost universally made thou art, and unto dust shalt thou re-use of as places of interment for the turn. 6. Thou art a mighty prince amoug us, Heb. nesi Elohim MEN DSX NID) attah, a prince of God art thou. Gr. βασιλευς παρα Θεου συ ει εν ημιν a king from God art thou among us. Chal. A prince before the Lord.' The name of and honorable rulers. The term however does not imply the exercise of any authority or dominion on the part of Abraham, but simply his enjoyment of the blessings of heaven in a pre-eminent degree of worldly prosperity. ¶ In the choice of our sepulchres. That is, in the choicest or best of our sepulchres, or in any that thou shalt choose. From the Heb. קבר rich and noble, while the inferior classes were usually buried in the public cemeteries, which resembled the grave-yards of modern times. A more particular account of the ancient mode of burial will be found in a note below, v. 19. 7. Abraham stood up and bowed him |