The power of truth is irresistible. Laban, though with an ill grace, is constrained to yield to it, and matters are at length amicably settled; but with the solemnities of a sacrifice, an oath, and a monumental pillar. Laban, who had the wicked intention, and the guilty conscience, is most eager to resort to the sanction of oaths and promises. He knew that he himself needed to be bound, and therefore judges it necessary to bind another; laws are for the violent and injurious; covenants for the false and perfidious: the light of an upright heart is a law; the conscience of an honest man a faithful witness and judge.

From Laban having gods in his possession, it may be inferred, that his family had been brought up with ideas of their superintendence and protection. Rachel having become a mother, we cannot imagine an occasion in which maternal solicitude for the safety of her children, would be more excited, than when she had in prospect, not only the quitting for ever of her father's house, but her native country, and travelling into a distant land to sojourn. Anxiety for the welfare of her family would naturally induce her, at such a time, to make use of every means, which might conduce to their preserva

tion in so hazardous an undertaking. Whether she thought it necessary to carry along with her some of her father's images for protection, we are not informed; but had not this circumstance come to our knowledge, we should have wholly at a loss to account for the occasion of the charge which Jacob, afterwards, gave to his household: Put away the strange gods that are among you; arise, let us go up to Bethel; and I will make there an altar unto God, who answered me in the day of my distress, and was with me in the way which I went."

Jacob had gone to Padan-Aram that he might avoid all connexion with idolatry; little expecting, we may conclude, that he should find the house of his uncle not free from it. Considering how long he had been in it, it is rather extraordinary that he had not himself been drawn into idolatrous superstition. But to detail the varied occurrences of Jacob's life, as recorded in the Scriptures, would not consist with the design of this work; which is to bring forward those parts of history that most strikingly display Providential interposition, direction, and control. Few men experienced greater reverses of condition, than our patriarch; but we find he gathered strength from the hardships which he endured; supporting a life of unutterable afflie

tion with the greatest fortitude; suffering as a man, but enduring and overcoming as a saint.

One general remark may be applied to his whole history. His deepest distresses sprung out of his choicest comforts; his most signal successes took their rise from his heaviest afflictions. The attainment of the birth-right and blessing, drive him into banishment; the labour, watchfulness, and anxiety of a shepherd's life, conduct him to opulence and importance. The elevation he too eagerly grasped at, was the cause of his depression; the humiliation to which he patiently submitted, became the foundation of his future greatness. We cannot think Jacob attained to much practical religion in the house of his father, at Lahai-roi; but he has an opportunity of learning it in silence and solitude, in the plains of Luz. It is good for a man that he bears the yoke in his youth; at ease we forget God; in retirement and danger, we call to remembrance a long forgotten, but Almighty Benefactor; and learn to feel our dependance upon Him.

The partial fondness of Rebekah, had exposed her son to the unnatural unkindness and severity of an uncle; the jealousy and envy of malevolent, selfish brothers-in-law, drive him back to

the calm delights of his father's house. And Jacob closes the extended scene of wo with the triumph of a believer, looking forward to bright, unclouded prospects of immortality.

CHAPTER XVI.

JACOB AND JOSEPH.

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JACOB had this consolation under all his afflictions, that divine favour and regard were vouchsafed to him in a peculiar manner. sooner had he parted from his father-in-law Laban, than the angels of God met him; and when he drew near to Esau, there wrestled with him a man until the breaking of the day, whom he afterwards describes as God, and against whom he prevailed in the contest. In consequence he obtained a new and honourable name, which obliterated that less honourable appellation, commemorating a little insignificant incident attending his birth, and which recorded the infamy of his unfair dealings with his father

x A more striking specimen of self-abasement, humility and sim plicity, we shall not find, than that which is contained in Jacob's prayer: "I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies, and of all the truth which thou hast showed unto thy servant; for with my staff, I passed over this Jordan, and now, I am become two bands."

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