Jesus at the age of ninoty-five, was converted when he was but nino years old, and served his Lord and Master eighty-six years. Justin Martyr, who lived in the second centary, wrote that many of both sexes " had been made disciples to Christ from their infancy, and continued uncorropted all tbeir lives." Richard Baxter could not remember the time when he did not love God and all that was good. Matthew Henry was converted before he was eleven years old; Mrs. Isabella Graham at ten; President Edwards probably at seven; Dr. Watts at nine.

President Edwards, in his narrative of the Great Revival, gives a lengthy account of a child who was converted when but four years old, and he speaką of a number of “others whose ages ranged from nine and ten to fourteen years." Before that, it was “looked on as a strange thing when any had been såvingly wrought upon and remarkably changed in their childhood.” Within the last twenty or thirty years, however, the conversion of multitudes of young children has been one of the most remarkable features of revivals of religior. With ordinary caution as to personal intelligence, and evidence of a change of heart, and with the watch and care which the lambs of the flock should have, there is no reason to doubt the reality, and the value, and the growth of early piety in Christian homes, Sabbathschools, and churches.

These facts indicate the necessity and the means for aiming directly at the conversion of the children. The child of Christian parents has, of course, the same corrupt nature and the same evil heart as the child of Christless parents. But in everything else he was, or should bave, greater advantages for becoming a disciple of Jesus when very young. The means of grace are there—the Word of God, the family altar, Christian precepts and examples, and that Christian influezca wbich fills the house, like Mary's ointment, with holy fragrance. Besides these general and indirect influences, there are often those personal and positive agencies, which find their best expression in a gentle mother's prayers and anxieties, and in a conscientious father's care, or it may be in the warm piety of elder brothers and sisters. “The promise is unto you and to your children," and the way to inherit the promised blessings of the family covenant is to use the means for transmittipg them down to children and children's children.

NEWS OF THE CHURCHES.

The chapel at Allerton, Somerset, Leicester; the Rev. W. Wootton, (in connection with the Cheddar late of Coalville, of the church at group of churches,) has been re- Princes Risborough; the Rev. W. opened after renovation.-The me- H. King, late of Birkenhead, of the morial-stone of a new chapel has church at Highbury-hill, London ; been laid at Totterdown, Bristol.— the Rev. G. West, late of Boston, The memorial-stone of a new hall, Lincolnshire, of the church in the to be called the Melbourne Hall, Tabernacle, South Shields; the Rev. has been laid at Leicester, for the B. Binks, of the church at Workingwork and ministry of the Rev. F. ton, Cumberland ; the Rev. W. L. B. Meyer. — The foundation-stone Jones, of the church at Spratton, of a new chapel has been laid in Northamptonshire. Westoe-road, South Shields, for the ministry of the Rev. W. Hanson.— The following reports of MINISThe chapel at Holbeach, Lincoln- TERIAL CHANGES have reached us shire, under the care of the Rev. M. since the preparation of our last Mather, has been re-opened after issue :-The Rev. E. Charlesworth, renovation.--The chapel at Paul- late of Wincanton, Somerset, to ton, near Bristol, urder the ministry Bedale and Masham, Yorkshire; of the Rev. J. Kempton, has been the Rev. J. C. Brown, of Dundee, re-opened after alteration and im- Scotland, to Wynne-road, Brixton, provement.—The chapel at Lynd- London ; the Rev. J. Markham, of hurst, Hants, under the care of the St. Alban's, to Shefford, Beds; the Rev. W. H. Payne, has been re- Rev. W. R. Golding, of Liverpool, opened after alterations.

to Burley-road, Leeds; the Rev. J.

Matthews, late of Wokingham, to The Rev. A. F. Gurney has been New Barnet, Herts. The Rev. H. publicly recognised as the pastor of A. Fletcher has been compelled, the church in Lansdowne Chapel, through failing health, to resign the Bournemouth; the Rev. H. James, pastorate of the church at Applelate of Pontypool College, of the dore, Devon. church at Aberduar, Carmarthenshire; the Rev. A. Harmer, late of WE regret to announce the death Victoria Chapel, of the church in of the Rev. J. Davies, late of Porth, Chatham-road, Wandsworth Com- Glamorganshire, at the age of mon, London; the Rev. G. Plumb, twenty-nine. of the church in Harvey-lane,

SEPTEMBER, 1880.

STUDIES IN THE LIFE OF JACOB.

BY THE REV. T. GRAHAM TARN.
III.-Household Sins and Retributive Justice (Concluded).

Gen. xxvii. Jacob, after some hesitation, fell in with the scheme of his mother, and prepared to carry it out. The feeble resistance, which at first he offered, was all the more speedily overcome, because it was not rightly based. He faltered and demurred, not because his better nature revolted against the impropriety and wickedness of the deed, but because he was afraid of its proving unsuccessful and involying disastrous issues. His objections were easily brushed aside by the resolution of his mother, his pliant mind was moulded by a superior will, and his allegiance to the enterprise was gained. When once committed to the task, he entered into it as boldly and unscrupulously as his mother could have desired. He calmly said to his blind father, “I am Esau thy son;" and when questioned about his speedy return from the chase, so far dissembled as to ascribe his success to a special interposition of God, thus impiously using the Divine Providence as a cover to his falsehood. He may not have intended thus to commit himself; but one sin generally leads to another. We know not

• What a tangled web we weave,

When first we venture to deceive."

Isaac was slightly suspicious, notwithstanding these express assertions, and it was not until he had carefully felt the hands of Jacob that his suspicions were banished. He then partook of the savoury meat, and solemnly blessed the deceiver in the name of the Lord : "God give thee of the dew of heaven, and the fatness of the earth, and plenty of corn and wine ; let people serve thee, and nations bow down to thee; be lord over thy brethren, and let thy mother's sons bow down to thee: cursed be every one that curseth thee, and blessed be be that blesseth thee.”

It is of course some palliation of Jacob's offence that he committed it at the instigation and command of his unscrupulous mother; but when we consider that he was no longer a child-in fact, that he had passed beyond “threescore years and ten"-we cannot hold him guiltless. He should have met the sinful suggestion with a firm “ No," rather than with a weak and vacillating resistance. There is a tremendous power in that little word when uttered with deliberate determination; and a man who has not enough force of character or

VOL. XIII. N.S. IX.

strength of principle in him to speak it firmly, when lured aside from the right and the true by tempting voices, will often perform deeds wbich are disgraceful and ruinous. His character will be at the mercy of his circumstances. A man who cannot say "No," and mean it, and hold to it, has little chance of retaining his integrity in this sinful world, for he will yield to the influences which are most powerful and urgent, whether they are good or bad. And there are times when the whole of a lifetime tarns upon that word as upon a pivot. " My son, if sippers entice thee"-even if those sinners should be thy nearest and dearest earthly friends—" consent thou not.” Had Jacob calmly and decisively said “No;" had he started back from

the temptress, and emphatically refused to enter into the plot, say- ing, “How can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God ? ”—

then we should never have found him practising deception upon the father, whose feebleness and blindness and old age were so many calls for a ministry of tenderness and sympathy and love. We pity the man to whom the alternative is presented, either to disobey bis mother or deceive his father; bat if circumstances compel to such a dismal choice, the decision must be determined by the sense of duty. Deference to a parent's wishes, and obedience to a parent's will, are amongst the brightest adornments of youth, and even of manhood ; but if the parent be so misguided as to command the child to sin, then filial disobedience is both warrantable and necessary. The claims of God upon the human conscience are paramount and all-subordinating ; and when even the most sacred earthly claims are set up in antagonism to them, our courso is clear-we must sacrifice the human to the Divine. Jacob erred when he was confronted by an apparent collision of duties, by yielding himself to the evil influence of his mother, rather than remain. ing true to God and duty.

When Esau returned from the chase, he was vexed and mortified to find that he had once again been out-manoeuvered by his scheming brother. There is something intensely pathetic about the scene, as the stalwart huntsman, on learning that Jacob has gained the blessing, casts himself down in an agony of disappointment and desire before his trembling father, and sobs out the imploring request, “ Hast thou but one blessing, my father ? bless me, even me also, O my father!” But although we are moved with pity as we view his distress and grief, and are ready to mingle our tears with his, we have yet to pat the question, " What right bad be to expect the blessing ? When he foolishly and profanely parted with his birthright, was he not aware that it carried with it the blessing ? " Undoubtedly! And yet he fancied, that, by his father's partiality, he was about to escape the consequences of that sinful transaction, and rob Jacob of that which be had transferred to him with a solemn oath. Now the truth dawned upon him for the first time, that he could not both despise the birthright and receive the blessing, and all the passions of his impetuous nataro were tempest-tossed by the thought of his irreparable loss,

He was gaining some conception of the vast consequences of that bargain which he so thoughtlessly struck in earlier days, and when he would have evaded those consequences be found it impossible to do so. Isaac would not reverse the blessing, for he was convinced that it had been bestowed according to the will of God, and now he repented bis attempt to resist that will, and said with startling energy, “I have blessed him; yea, and he shall be blessed.” The prophetic word bad rightly fallen, even though it had fallen upon the fraudulent, and he would not recall it. There could be no doubt either as to the design of Providence, or as to the atter futility of opposing that design. “It requires to be borne in mind that even when Isaac first gave the blessing, his inmost spiritual tendency was in the right direction, and that the ray of his intention would have fallen upon Jacob, if, in passing through the dark medium of his carnal preference, it had not been broken and thus diverted from its real aim. This unhealthy divergence on the part of Isaac was counteracted by the deceit of Jacob, who placed himself where the diverted ray fell upon him. Thus wrong is punished by wrong, and the positive appears through the medium of two negatives."* When Esau found that the blessing of the firstborn was irrevocably gone, he accepted such other blessing as the patriarch felt that he could give, and went forth with a deep and burping batred towards his brother, and with a settled determination that, when the grave had closed over the lifeless body of his father, he would revenge his wrongs by the murder of the supplanter.

We pause here to learn and ponder the great lesson-that retributive justice often follows closely upon human sin. There is an eternal law of recompense from which you can no more escape than from the law of gravitation—a law which is unerring and impartial in its action, and which sooner or later lights upon transgression. Frequently the Nemesis of sin is swift, and the wrong-doing is scarcely past before its bitter fruits are tasted. A man's life often recoils upon himself even here. The " mischief of the sinner shall return on his own head, and his violent dealing shall come down on his own pate.” “With what measure yo mete, it shall be measured to you again.” “Be sure your sin will find you out." What & striking illustration does this household present of the operations of that law! Isaac displayed a sinful wilfulness, and perversely resolved to thwart the sovereign purpose of God, and he suffered the bitter humiliation and shame of being deceived by his own son. Rebekah so far forgot her wifely part, as to conceive a plan of base treachery against her husband, and the result was, that her darling son was lost to her, banished from his home, and we have reason to believe that her eyes never again rested upon the cherished object of her love, for when he returned from Padan aram, his mother was doubtless numbered with the dead. Jacob played a base and false part before his blind father, and he was rewarded by a brother's deadly hatred and by compulsory exile. And

* Kurtz, “ History of the Old Covenant."