HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS. Vers. 51-55.-Final coven,,ani between Jacob and Laban. I. ENTIRE SEPARATION FROM TEMPTATION IS TBE ONLY SAFETY. Very imperfect knowledge in the Mesopo- tamian family. Rachel's theft of the household gods a sign of both moral and ~piritual deficiency. The religion of Jacob and his descendants mast be preserved from contamination. Intercourse with the unenlightened and unsanctified, though 11ecessary for a time and in some degree, must not be suffered to obscure the higher light, or surround us with practical entanglements which hinder our faithfulness to God. I!. WHEREVER THE SPIRITUAL LIFE IS FEEBLE IT IS WELL THAT THERE SHOULD DE SOLEMN PU1!LIC ACTS OF COVENANT AND TESTIMONY. We want the Galeed and the Mizpah, the heap of witness and the watch-tower of faith. Many united together in the covenant, and thus became witnesses in whose presence the oath was taken. We are J,elpcd to faithfulness by the publicity of our vows. But the higher the spiritual life, the less we shall call in material things to support it. Jacob with Laban is not the true Jacob. A.11 dependence upon the symbol and rite is more or less compromise. !II. THE CONTACT OF THE HIGHER FORM OF RELIOION WITB THE LOWER ONE, OF 'l'HE MEANS OF PREPARING THE WORLD FOB THE '!'RUTH. Laban and hie family types of the lower order of religious knowledge and life. The covenant between the father• in-law and son-in-law in the name of the God of Abraham and the God of Nabor points to a rising light in the Mesopotamian family. We may be sure that the influence of Christianity will be supreme wherever it is brought face to face with men's religions. That influence may be embodied in matters of common life, in covenants between man and man, in laws and commercial regulations and social arrangements. IV. THE SEED OF THE DIVINE LIFE 1B PLANTED IN THE SOIL OF NATURE, BOT REVEALS ITS SUPERIORITY TO NATURE ilY BRINGING ALL THINGS AND JIIEN UilTO SUBJECTION 1'0 ITSELF. Jacob, Rachel, and afterwards Joseph, present to the Spirit of God elements of character which require both elevation and renovation. The grace is given. On a natu:al foundation inherited from others God rears by his ~race a lofty structure. The crafty and the thoughtful are often nearly allied. It 1s one of the spiri1u,i! danger~ to wLie;J, specially energetic und E:;Ubtle minds are exp06eJ, that tl.cy may so easily fall into an abuse Gf their superior mcnta,l q,niekneE~ :o the illjnry of thei1 OR. UXII. 1-~lJ.) TilE BOOK OF crn}n:sts. 389
moral purity nm! simplicity. Jac-ob ond Laban making their covenant togetl,er, and erecting their witnessing monuments, are another illustration of the homoge which even very imperfect chorocters pay to the God of truth. They appeal to him, and they do so in the presence of o world which they know will justify God, and not the sinner. The God of Abraham, the God of Nahor, the God of Isaac, judged between them. Jacob offered ·sacrifice upon the mount, and invited bis brethren to a sacrificial banquet ; and it was in that atmosphere of mingled reverence for God and human affection that the heir of tlie covenant bade farewell to all that held him in restraint, and set his face once more towards the land of promise.-R.