continuation of Jacob's servitude, with all its accumulation of riches and consequence.

The proposal which avarice made without a blush, love accepted with perhaps too much precipitation. We are not framing an apology for Jacob's conduct, but delivering the features of his character, and the lines of his history, from the sacred record. But this much we may venture to affirm, that Jacob, left to himself, and to the honest workings of a heart inspired by the love of an estimable object, would never have dreamt of a plurality of wives; much less of assuming the sister of his beloved Rachel, to be her rival in his affections. It does not appear, that the solemnization of Jacob's marriage with Rachel, was deferred till the expiration of the second term of seven years. Provided Laban got sufficient security for performance of the agreement, it was indifferent to him when the other got possession of the bride. It is probable, therefore, that he gave way immediately to Jacob's wishes; and the more so, that his business was likely to be executed with greater fidelity and zeal, by a servant and son gratified, indulged and obliged, than by one soured by disappointment, dissatisfied and irritated by unkindness and deceit. Behold then Jacob, at length, at the summit of his hopes and desires. After much delay, through many difficulties, which have strengthened, not extinguished affection, Rachel is at last his wife.

But alas, human life admits not of perfect bliss! The seeds of jealousy and strife are sown in Jacob's family. The wife who enjoyed the largest share of the husband's affection, is doomed to sterility; the less beloved, is blessed with children. Thus a wise and gracious Providence, by setting one thing against another, preserves the prosperous from pride and insolence, and the wretched from despair. Twenty years did Isaac and Rebekah live in wedlock without a child, though the inheritance and succession of all Abraham's wealth and prospects depended upon it; whereas the family of Jacob, a simple shepherd, earning his subsistence by the sweat of his brow, the servant of another man, is built up and increases apace. The good things of life seem, to the superficial and discontented, to be unequally divided; but there is no balance so exact as that in which all conditions and all events are weighed. The great Governor of the world does not indeed conform himself, in the dispensations of his providence, to the misconceptions and prejudices of short-sighted, erring men; but he is affording ignorant, erring men, if they will but be attentive, perpetual cause to adore and admire his wisdom and justice, his mercy and faithfulness. Leah bears to Jacob, as fast as the course of nature permitted, four sons one after another; and, what is remarkable, not only is the hated wife first honoured with being a mother, but with being the mother of the two tribes destined to the priesthood and to royal dignity; nay, the mother, remotely, of the chosen seed; a dignity after which every mother, since the first dawning of the promise, eagerly aspired.

The fruitfulness of her sister violently excites Rachel's envy. The partiality of Jacob to her, and all his profusion of tenderness, avail her nothing. She is unable to suppress her chagrin and mortification; and, in the bitterness of her heart, forgets both the respect which she owed her husband, and the submission she ought to have paid to the will of God. "And she said unto Jacob, Give me children or else I die."* How odious, how pitiable are the sentiments, the looks and the language of passion, to the calm and dispassionate; nay, to the passionate man himself, when the fit is over and passion has spent itself! "And Jacob's anger was kindled against Rachel: and he said, Am I in God's stead; who hath withheld from thee the fruit of the womb ?"+ What! and can the anger of Jacob be kindled against his

Rachel, his first, his only love! to obtain whom he cheerfully served fourteen years! My fair hearers, presume not too far on the fondness of the men who love you. Be calm, be moderate, be unassuming, be reasonable, be submissive, and ye are every thing. Be arrogant, impetuous, self-sufficient, imperious, unreasonable, and ye sink into nothing. I tremble to think of the dreadful length a woman will go to gratify her own spleen, and to mortify a rival. In truth, she ceases to be a female, where certain feminine points are to be carried; and the leading, distinguishing characteristics of the sex are lost and sunk in the feelings of the individual. What! the jealous, envious Rachel, who found her beloved husband had already one wife too many, to think of throwing another into his bosom! But her too happy sister and rival is to be mortified; and she cares not what pangs it costs her own heart. O, my gentle friends, you are yourselves the framers of your own fortunes. Be yourselves, and I will answer for my own sex. But quit the ground on which God and nature have placed you, and you are indeed to be pitied. If I might venture to hazard an opinion, not altogether unwarranted by the history, and which I am convinced by experience to be well founded-you much oftener lose your object by over eagerness than by inattention. You may, now and then, suc ceed by address, or vehemence, or force; but you will succeed more certainly, and much more pleasantly with God and with man, by meekness, and gentleness, and submission.

Thus was Jacob most grievously wounded, there, where he was most vulnerable; most violently disturbed, there, where he promised himself perfect repose. Thus, our heaviest crosses arise out of our dearest comforts; and the pursuits of "vanity," issue in "vexation of spirit." Thus, all things conspire to give full assurance to the children of men, "that this is not their rest;" and invite them to seek "another country, that is an heavenly," where there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, nor pain,” and “God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes."

Vol. ti.

HISTORY OF JACOB.

LECTURE VIII.

GENESIS XXX. 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30.

And it came to pass when Rachel had borne Josesph, that Jacob said unto Laban, Send me away, that I may go unto mine own place and to my country. Give me my wives, and my children for whom I have served thee, and let me go for thou knowest my service which I have done thee. And Laban said unto him, I pray thee, if I have found favour in thine eyes, tarry, for I have learned by experience, that the Lord hath blessed me for thy sake. And he said, appoint me thy wages, and I will give it. And he said unto him, Thou knowest how I have served thee, and how thy cattle was with me. For it was little which thou hadst before I came and it is now increased unto a multitude; and the Lord hath blessed thee since my coming: and now when shall I provide for mine own house also?

THERE is no subject of contemplation more pleasing, more instructive, more composing to the mind, than the wisdom and goodness of the Divine Providence, in adapting and adjusting, with such consummate skill, the understanding, the dispositions, and the exertions of men, to their various and successive situations, relations, employments and fortunes. What so feeble, so helpless, so necessitous as a new-born infant? But its proper aliment has accompanied it into the world. Its first cry has awakened ten thousand fond affections in one, who, at the hazard of her life, brought it forth, and at the hazard of her life, is ready to preserve it. What so giddy, rash, inconsiderate as youth? But the father is proportionably thoughtful, serious, and attentive. Man, of all animals, stands longest in need of support and protection; therefore natural affection in man is more intelligent and of greater duration than in any other creature. Instinct and reason unite their force, in aid of the lengthened infancy and childhood of the human race. Parents often, and unjustly, complain, that their care and tenderness meet not with reciprocal returns of attachment and affection from their children; not considering, that this current sets continually downward, and that the love which we bear to our offspring nature has intended they should repay, not to us, but to their offspring. Do our children grieve and vex us with their levity, and thoughtlessness, and folly? Let us have a little patience. By and by they shall become fathers and mothers; and then shall they be cured of what now gives us so much uneasiness; and then shall they be grieved, vexed, and mortified, in their turn.

The anxieties which Jacob's dissension with his brother occasioned to their fond parents are now thickening upon his own head. In the last period of his life, we saw the honest shepherd following his simple employment with cheerfulness and joy; drinking delicious draughts of love from the approving eyes of his amiable shepherdess; and beguiling the tedious months of servitude in converse with his Rachel, and with the prospect of that bright hour, which was to crown his hopes, and to reward all his toil. But those soft moments have passed away, and vanished like a dream; their flight was not perceived;

their value is understood and prized after they are forever gone. The cares, and troubles, and apprehensions of a father now occupy his mind. Jealousy and strife disturb his repose. Why multiply elaborate arguments against the practice of polygamy? Look into the wretched disorder and discord of those families which have been built upon that unnatural system, and be assured it is not, it cannot be, from Him, who loves the children of men, and all whose institutions aim at making them happy. The rival sisters, rather than not mortify each other, voluntarily mortify and degrade themselves, by raising their handmaids to a participation of their husband's bed. Envy and revenge, if they can but hurt an adversary, regard not the wounds which they inflict at home. Unhappy Jacob! my heart bleeds for him. His time, and labour, and strength, are at the disposal of a selfish, hard-hearted, insatiable father-in-law; his very person and affections are insolently settled, disposed of, and transferred at the pleasure of two jealous, wrangling sisters: while, behold a family rising and increasing upon him, without the power or means of making any provision for it. The mind of his beloved Rachel, whom he had earned at the hard price of fourteen years painful service, is soured and chagrined by the want of one blessing. The labours of the field through the day, are not relieved at night by the tenderness of sympathy and love, but embittered and aggravated by womanish altercation and strife. What could have supported him but religion?

Leah has, at various intervals, borne Jacob six sons and a daughter: and Rachel's grief and despair are at their height, when God, whose counsels move not, nor stand still, in complaisance to our desires or caprices, thinks meet to remove her sorrow and reproach; and she becomes the joyful mother of a son. What ingenious pains the silly mothers take, to perpetuate the memory of their jealous sentiments and contentions, in the names which they impose upon their children; impiously presuming to drag in Providence as a party to their quarrel: foolishly and wickedly transmitting their contemptible hatred and animosity to the disturbance and distress of their posterity; and madly sowing the seeds of a plague, which might one day break out and consume them! O how different the jealous spirit which at first dictated the names of the twelve heads of the tribes of Israel, from that prophetic spirit which foresaw and predicted their future characters and situations, as it breathed from the lips of their dying father; and, from the mind of God, who was employing female spleen and passion, to declare his own purposes and designs.

About the time of Joseph's birth, it would appear, the term of Jacob's servitude had expired. He now therefore naturally thinks of the home which he had left so long before, and of the obligations which he lay under, to exert himself in the maintenance and provision of his numerous family. He therefore modestly applies to Laban for his dismission. That greedy kinsman, well aware of the advantages which had accrued to him from Jacob's diligence, fidelity and zeal, expresses much regret on hearing this proposal. But, it is not regret at the thought of parting with his daughters and grandchildren: it is not the tender concern of bidding a long farewell to a near relation and faithful servant. No, it is regret at losing an instrument of gain it is the sorrow of a man who loves only himself.

He

Hitherto, the profits of Jacob's industry had been wholly his uncle's. had most ungenerously taken advantage of his nephew's passion for his daughter, to reduce him into a mere drudge for his own interest. From a sense of shame as well as a regard to interest, he is at length constrained to consent to Jacob's sharing the fruits of his own labour with him. Laban's craftiness had proved too hard for Jacob's candour and integrity; but the wisdom of Heaven, at last, proves more than a match for even the cunning of a

Laban. Jacob, whether prompted from above, or instructed by natural sagacity, aided by experience, proposes as his hire, such a part of the flocks which he fed, as should be, in future, produced of a certain description, "the ringstraked, speckled, and spotted,"-which were so few in number, that they might rather be reckoned the sportings than the regular productions of nature. Laban acquiesces without hesitation in this proposal; wondering in himself, I doubt not, that Jacob should be so simple as to make it. An entire separation is accordingly made, without delay, between the cattle of the description which had been stipulated, and the rest of the flock. They are removed to prevent all occasion of suspicion and complaint, to the distance of a three days journey; and delivered into the custody of Laban's sons, men too like their father to throw any thing into Jacob's scale, either through good-will, neglect or carelessness. Jacob continues to tend the remainder of the flocks, pure from all mixture, and they were by far the greatest part of the flock, for his father-in-law.

The device which he employed, and which seems to have been suggested to him in a dream, is well known to all who read the scriptures. It has been disputed, whether the success of it was in the ordinary course of natural cause and effect, or was entirely produced by a miraculous interposition in favour of our patriarch. Indeed, there seems in it a great deal of both the one and the other. That the female, in the moment of conception, should be more than usually susceptible of strong and extraordinary impressions, and capable of transmitting that impression to her young, so as clearly to mark and distinguish it, is too fully proved by experience to be denied. But this happens too seldom in the usual walk of nature, to permit us to suppose that the extraordinary increase of Jacob's cattle was in the mere current of things aided a little by human sagacity and skill. That one lamb, or kid, should be marked with "the streaks of the poplar, hasel, and chesnut rods," or, that one here and there through the flock should be thus distinguished, we can easily believe to happen without a miracle. But, that the great bulk of the young should bear this signature; that, as the impressing object was exhibited or withdrawn, the dams should conceive uniformly and correspondently, is, on no principle of nature or of art, to be accounted for. The finger of God is therefore to be seen and acknowledged in it. Thus was the condition of Jacob speedily and wonderfully changed to the better: "And the man increased exceedingly, and had much cattle, and maid-servants, and men-servants, and camels and asses." And thus, the world is instructed that he who fears and follows God, will sooner or later find his reward.

But it seems determined of Providence, that Jacob should never find a place of rest. Lately, he was poor and dependent, and thence anxious in his own mind, and liable to insult, and unkindness, and oppression from others. Now, he is rich and prosperous, and thence exposed to hatred and envy. And envy, like a plague or a torrent, sweeps every thing before it. We may easily conceive with what watchful jealousy Jacob's carriage and his charge were observed by such men as Laban and his sons. With what astonishment and indignation did they behold the best and most beautiful of the ewes and shegoats bringing forth nothing but "speckled and spotted!" Their rage and discontent are, for a while, expressed by sullen looks and secret murmurs only. At length they become too violent to be suppressed, and break forth into open scurrility and abuse. The tongue of the gloomy father indeed says nothing-What can he say? But his averted looks, his glaring, dissatisfied, indignant eyes, fully declare the anguish that preys upon his heart. I confess I am malicious enough to enjoy it. I love to see the envious man goaded

* Gen. xxx. 43.