seems fair to conclude from this hint that, in the district once occupied by the tribe which had looked. up to Isaac with special reverence, there were am. pler traditions of him than were known in the rest of the land. There his personality remained clear and impressive, while beyond that region it faded out into indistinctness and comparative insignificance - his glories being eclipsed in the obscuration of Simeon. One other curious matter may be referred to before taking up the narrative. All through the story of Isaac there runs a series of plays upon the meaning of his name-The Laugher. This looks like the relic of some very ancient legend or myth, that had become inwoven with the tradition of the patriarch; whose key-word lived on after its meaning had become lost, calling forth such various interpretations as are offered in the narrative,

Chapter twenty-four tells the tale of that most solicitous of cares to the parental heart in all lands and in all ages-the concern of Abraham as to a wise marriage of his beloved son. With exquisite grace is this love story told. How fine is the picture of the faithful steward who is so anxious to discharge his errand well! Noble type of the trusted servant! How life-like is the touch that brings out Laban noticing "the earrings, and bracelets on his sister's hands," and saying to the man who could bestow such princely gifts-" Come in, thou blessed of the

Lord!" How simple, yet how graphic the whole narrative! Forever sacred in our dearest associations stands that pair of wedded lovers, of whom, at the moment that makes us supremely happy, we hear in the solemn prayer-" that as Isaac and Rebekah lived faithfully together, so these persons may surely perform and keep the vow and covenant betwixt them made, and may ever remain in perfect love and peace together."

Under this story of Abraham's concern that Isaac should not marry into the surrounding tribes, there probably lies the traditional expression of the exclusive spirit of the Hebrews-their opposition to intermarriages with the Canaanites. That feeling, like most human feelings, was partly noble and partly ignoble. Out of the very strenuousness of the national character grew the aversion to those interminglings which it was rightly felt would weaken the moral earnestness of the people, and would endanger their fidelity to Jehovah and to the higher thought of God which was bodied in his worship. But this noble feeling easily passed into the narrow and insulated attitude of the people who became known as "the haters of men." Thus easily does a

virtue shade off into a vice! Ever constant must be our care lest religion itself come to separate us from our fellows who differ from us; lest it sunder us from the great world that lies outside our creeds and institutions, but not outside of God.

This story also preserves for us the record of the continuance of inter-tribal relationships between the tribe of Abraham, which had gone out from the paternal home, and the ancestral Terahites.

Much light on the customs of the early Hebrews is shed by this story. We have a picturesque view of the life of these simple tent-dwellers, abounding in attractive colorings, but not without its shadows. Among other facts we may notice that a young woman's consent was not so much as asked to her own marriage. Throughout these stories of the patriarchs we are ever being reminded of the contrast between the position of woman in modern society and her position in those good old days; a contrast that tells a significant tale of the gradual emancipation by which she is acquiring the right to her own person and property. Yet are we reminded, also, that under all disabilities the true woman can make herself the centre of every human story.

There is a curious mixture of piety and superstition in the good steward's manner of finding out the destined bride of Isaac-methods not wholly obsolete yet. Rightly did he feel that God must guide him in such a momentous step; but wrongly did he look to some outward chance-the reception given him by the daughters of the tribe, as they came out to the well-for an indication of the divine will. Slow of heart are we indeed to learn that not in self-appointed, arbitrary omens, the mere play of chance,

as we say, but in the intelligent use of the reason given us, are we to receive the guidance from on high.

Chapter twenty-five opens with the account of another branch of Abraham's family, giving us the relationships of certain Arabian tribes to the Hebrews. The last days of Abraham are then simply told.

With verse twelve the eighth original chapter of Genesis begins: "Now these are the generations of Ishmael." In this genealogical table we have another ethnographical chart, in which the inter-relationships of the various peoples of Arabia are outlined.

CHAPTER VII.

THE TRADITIONS OF JACOB.

THE ninth original chaper of Genesis opens in verse nineteen of our chapter twenty-five, with the words -"And these are the generations of Isaac "—and reaches down to the end of our chapter thirty-five (xxv. 19-xxxv.).

It gives us The Traditions of Jacob. We rarely find traditions of Jacob among other peoples, while we meet many traditions of Abraham outside of Israel. Abraham, in fact, as the Genesis stories show, was regarded as the ancestor of the various peoples who were recognized by the Hebrews as allied with themselves. Jacob, on the contrary, was viewed as the founder of a separate people the ancestral head of the House of Israel. He was plainly the favorite Father of the people. His story is told in great detail, and with touches of realism that show hands fondly lingering over the picture. The national consciousness of the people found in this composite character-gifted with high spiritual powers, yet delighting in smartness-the type of its own double nature. They called themselves, not after Abraham, but after Jacob. Abraham shrank into the background of tradition through