The Portland daily press., 1873-11-06
'ERMS $500 PER ANNUMIN ADVANCE
The "Biue BlOOdo of Canaan.
BY GAIL HAMILTON.

eousness as the news papers do. We are con-
vulsed at some fragrant misdemeanor; but
the sacred historians take it as coolIy as DOS
sibe. The Bible is full of sound moral pre-
cepts and bad practical examples. You can
not teach your Sunday-school class the les
son of Jacobs ladder without striking snags
in all directions. What family it was, to
begin with-a doting, partial father, de-
cettul, partial mother, and two spoiled chill
drenl Isaac loved Esau-because he did eat
OF his venisOn! But Rebekah loved Jacob.
Whether she had an equally creditable rea-
SON for her preference we are net told. Esau
seems to have been rash, headlong sort OF
a boy, quck-tempered, but generous and for
giving, relinquishlng his birthright in a mo-
ment of passionate impatience, but capable
OF lifelong regret; bitterly reSentful of his
defrauded blessing yet gentle and magnani-
nous; a vigorous, manly character. No
wonder his father loved him. The wonder
is he was not his mothers favorite, too; for
it is such men as he who captivate women.
But the mothers pet was Jacob-a quiet
boy, content to stay at home and boil the
pot, while Esau was gathering strength and
skill from the chase; a docile, stupid boy,
without wit enough to plan deceit, or will
enough to prevent it, and only just enough
OF both to carry it out. 1t was Rebekah who
IT.
then another fraud to save Jacob from the
richly merited consequences; fer even the
man seems tied as closely to his mothers
apron-strings as the child had been. But
Esau, too, with all his breezy, outdoor life,
was not ndocile. He humored his fathers
ruling passion for venison with as much
alacrty as Jacob humored their mothers for
deception. He went out for his prey is
readily as Jacob went in for his. When he
saw that his wives did not please his father,
he cheerfully took some more. Since the
daughters ofCanaan did not suit, what more
natural than to try the daughters OF Ish.
mael? When Jacob came back from Padan-
Aram, fearing the wrath OF Esau, and depre-
eating it with crafty forethought, with gifts
and servie words, hale and hearty Esau
seems quite to have forgotten their little tiff,
and to have been entirely at loss to know
what all this ado was for. In short, and
speaking after the manner of men, we should
say that Esau was far the more agreeable,
interesting and gifted person; and that
Jacob, with his sly ways and mean-spirited
willingness to work seven years longer for
tine man who Lad cheated him out of one
wife end into another, instead of rising up m
virile wrath and love, and taking the one he
wanted out of hand, will you mill you, as
Esau would have done-was not man to be
hela in esteem of gods, or men, or women.
Yet il was Jacob and not Esau that God
| chose for the transmission OF his word. Nay,
more, ii was when Jacob was fleeing from
| the just and natural wrath of Esau, 1t was
| when Jacob hal just concluded a more bares
faced, unprovoked and successful scheme OF
perfidv against his own brother, when he had
| just made that brothers kindness and their
| fathers blindness an opportunity for high
| handed cheating, that the Lord met him and
said-what? 'The blessing that thou didst
obtain b. sacrilege shall be turned into curses.
Instead of lording it over the brother whom
] thou hast cruelty and repeatedly wronged,
| thou shalt be his servant of servants. What
thou has gained by fraud thou shalt lose by
| force, that men may know that am God
| hating iniquity and that will by no means
| clear the guilty ?" Not at all. Nor did God
| even say, as Isaac did, with sore regret: II
have blessed him, yea, and he shall be bless
ed, though he came with subtity," recog-
nizing the irrevocable word while bitterly la
menting the false pretenses upon which it
was obtained; for Isaac, at least, never held
that fraud vitiated election. 1t was by treach-
cry of the most outrageous kind-treachery
| to an innocent brother, absent on an errand
| of filal love; treachery 10 the blindness OF
dying father; treachery in the name of the
Most High God. "How is it that thou hast
found it so quickly, my sonT because the
| Lord thy God brought it to me. replies he,
whom the New York Tribune, if it were re-
porting the case, would call the hypocritical
viIlain-by such treachery had Jacob gained
the blessing; and for all Esau's great and ex-
ceeding bitter cry, for all his pathetic en-
treaty, 4sIIast thou but one blessing, my fa-
! ther? Bless me, even me also. o my father!'
Isaac could not take back promised suprema-
| cy.
| But God did more than this. He met this
false, cruel, heartless man on his way to Pa
dan-Aram, with his sins still hot within his
heart and, instead of rebuking, he repeats
and confirms and intensifies the pundered
blessing. Without even an implied censuIe,
without so much as a reference 10 his past,
he assures the guilty man: "The land where
ON thon lest, to thee will i give it, and TO
thy seed. And bahold L am with thee,
and will keep thee in all places, .--- fol L
will not leave thee until l have done that
which L have spoken to thee OF"
Surely, it would have seemed more impair
tial and fatherly in the Great Father to APP
pear in vision to poor, cheated Esau, to
comfort him. Was it quite fair that Esau
should suffer all his lite, through all his gem
erations, for one sudden moment of self in
dugence, and that Jacob should not suffer at
all, but be cherished and encouraged tor a
ld-blooded outrage of every honorable in
stinct and every fial and fraternal obligation
Is yielding to quick temptation worse than
partnership in deliberate vice? AT any rate,
Jacobs treason seems not to have alienated
God from his cause. And in practical actual
life it is equally true that momentary sins are
often more severely punished than lifelong
sins. There are sins which in themselves are
no sins-which are sinful only by reason of
circumstances; which have their root in in
nocence, and spling side by side with every
virtue, grace and charm, yet in one moment
spread and shadow life, And across the way
a fatal selfishness blghts every fair thing it
touches, and scatters disappointment and
misery through the odor of sanctity. Esaus
one lapse from virtue forfeited his birthrght
forever; and jacobs smoothfaced vile and
sanity guile sealed his inheritance and
crowned him with glory ard honor.
1t has happened to this generation to be
disturbed because persons who have retired
from public life with shadow upon their
fair fame have been received at home with
formal respect and rejoicing. Those who be-
lieve that the shadow was a stain are indig-
nant that a mans fellow-townsmen who do
not believe it, should publicly testify their un-
belief, and should welcome their respected
friends with music and festyity. What
safeguard for public virtue, we cry,
when public opinion and sentiment is
thus undiscriminating of right and wrong7
But human judgment is not infallible
| and it is to be set down to a mans cred
| it il the community in which ne lives he
lieves him innocent, though all other men
speak evil of him. But here is a case which
admits of no doubt. Jacob had lied and
cheated in the most abominable, the mosi
contemplate, and the most successful man
ner Yet it was when he was fleeing from
the natural consequences Of his unnatural
crime that he had a reception which show:
t all other receptions into the shade. For the
angels came out OF heaven to honor him
and the Lord God, who could have made no
mistake about the nature of the at, appear
, ed to him in The skies, and blessed him ex-
ceedngly: If he mad been hero, saint and
MARTYR he could not have been more distin-
guished by the divine condescension. And
in all the comfort and reinsurance was min
gled no word of rebuke.-IndepeRdent