earth's fairest and brightest things. Even in the midst of their bloom, the hand of time is there which is brushing that bloom away. But though infirmity and age had now robbed even Sarah of her surpassing and long-continued beauty, she still possessed fairer and more precious charms over which they had no control, except to increase their brightness and to exhibit their worth. Implanted, and well cultured in her immortal nature, were all those attractive virtues which had made her what she was, which had rendered her life useful and happy, and secured to her the favour of God, and the honour, the affection, and admiration of mankind. Those spiritual attractions, those divine and heavenly charms, which neither age nor death can impair, are to constitute her yet more resplendent beauty, and the sources of a far higher felicity, beyond the narrow limits of life, and in a world where death shall be unknown. Then let the end come, it can do her no harm. Sweet and pleasant as life is, when in lowly faith, and with a good conscience, and in deeds of piety, it is occupied as hers was, yet to such in our present state, death is the most precious boon of life, it is the perfecting of the soul, and its entrance into a world of perfection. Such had life been to Sarah, and therefore, to her, such also must death be. She had believed in and obeyed her God, she had found in her experience every gracious promise more than fulfilled, she looked forward with confidence to a coming Redeemer, in whom the promise was to be complete, and therefore, peacefully and sweetly could she repose on him her trust for the future without fear or reserve. The lamp of life burns feebly and dimly now, till at length, suddenly as it seems, yet calmly it goes out. The Journey is ended, the weary pilgrim is at rest. "And Sarah died in Kirjath-arba; the same is Hebron in the land of Canaan, and Abraham came to mourn for Sarah, and to weep for her."

The fond husband, it appears, being absent from his home, probably attending to his numerous flocks in some distant pasturage, in the providence of God was spared the agony of witnessing the last faint breathings of a life that was so dear to him. When, however, the melancholy tidings of her death are received, he hurries to his home. Oh! how sad and desolate that home is now! Over the pale, cold form of the beloved dead, he pours the tribute of his bitter lamentations and his gushing tears. There, seated on the ground, he mourns for days that loss which time can never restore. At length, religion breathes its consolations in his soul. Feeling that he is himself but "a stranger and sojourner" on earth, that his long-cherished and warmly-loved companion has only gone before him to their home, where he will join her soon, he recovers from the shock of a grief so deep and overwhelming, and rising from before that cold but sacred corpse, he proceeds to the last sad office he can pay the dead. For this purpose he buys of "Ephron, the Hittite, the cave of the field of Machpelah," which was also in Hebron, where Sarah died, and having it made sure to him as a possession for a buryingplace, there" Abraham buried Sarah." And there too, at last, was Abraham himself buried by the side of his faithful and beloved Sarah; and there was their son Isaac, and his son Jacob buried. Thus were their graves together within the land of Canaan- the land of promise-the land to which Abraham and Sarah his wife had gone forth in simple obedience to the word of God, from the land of their birth the land of error, idolatry, and vice. Striking and beautiful indication of the yet more certain, and the joyous reunion which awaited them, and which awaits all the believing and obedient servants of God, in that brighter world, of which the land of promise was but a faint and shadowy type.

REBEKAH'S FAREWELL TO JACOB.

"Upon me be thy curse, my son."-Gen. xxvii. 13.

MARY J. REED.

AND thou must go, my darling son, light of thy mother's eyes, Her brightest hope of future bliss, her dearest earthly prize. How many thoughts at this sad hour are thronging in my mind,

To draw more tight the cords of love about my heart entwined!

For thou wert ever by my side, a comfort and a stayThy brother, like the roaming deer, a wand'rer far away; And I had thought in death's dark hour to know that thou wert near,

To have thy softly falling tones breathe sweetly in my ear, To cheer me through the darksome road which leadeth to the

grave,

And that thy hands should lay me down in lone Machpelah's

cave.

But thou must go-no more my ear shall hear thy gentle

tone,

And I must live through weary years, sad, childless, and alone. No light from thee shall dissipate death's dreary, fearful gloom, And stranger hands may coldly lay the mother in the tomb.

Nay, shrink thou not, my darling one nor tremble as it dread,

The blessing only rests on thee, the curse is on my head, Mine is the sin and punishment, God's benison is thine. "O'er thee will heaven's soft dews descend, earth yield her corn and wine.

Nations and tribes before thy feet shall bend the humble knee; Thy brethren thine own father's sons-be bondsmen unto

thee."

This have I gained for thee my son, "who blesseth thee is blest,

And he who dares to curse thy soul on him shall curses rest."

Go, haste thee my own childhood's nome, shall be a home for thee,

And welcome to my brother's heart, Rebekah's son shall be: From Haran's daughters seek thee out a loving gentle one, True to our God, and fit to share the blessing with my son. Then, when thy brother's rage is cooled-his anger turned

away

An alien from thy father's house, no longer thou shalt stray. What though I ne'er may see thy face or hear thy loving

tone;

One comfort still is left for me,-I bear the curse alone.

REBEKAH.

REV. H. HASTINGS WELD.

No other wife, and no handmaiden, is mentioned in the scriptures as rivalling Rebekah in the affection of Isaac. The children of no bond-woman marred her comfort; and thus secure from the disadvantages which afflicted other women of per era, her life promised happiness, and her death peace Her betrothal and marriage were deemed worthy of a special miracle in their direction; her husband welcomed her as the gift of God; and she was at once recognised in his affection as his comforter, and in his respect as his counsellor. But with all these happy circumstances offering promise, we find the details of her life, after a brief space, those of domestic unhappiness; and respecting her death, the scriptures preserve a silence which is more painfully eloquent than words. The error which embittered the lives of Isaac and Rebekah is still far too prevalent; and is as prolific in evil now, as Isaac and Rebekah and Jacob and Esau found it: the preference of parents for one child over another.

In the frank conduct of Rebekah previous to her marriage— in her maiden modesty as she met Isaac-in her trust in God