The News-Herald. [volume] (Hillsboro, Highland Co., Ohio) 1886-1973, 1894-03-01
THE SUNDAY SCHOOL.

and the body is more than raiment Luke 1928.
THE SECrIoN OF HISTORY includes chapters
23-2T
PROGRESS OF THE HISTORY.
1895 Birth Of Abraham.
1896 Birth of Isaae-Abrahsm one hundred
years old
1857 Marriage OF Isaac 20 Rebekah; Isaac
forty years old
1888 Birth Of Jacob and Esau
1921 Death of Abraham.
1905 Sale of the birthright-Jacob and Esau
thirty-two years old
1880 Jacob gains the birthright blessing
Jacob fifty seven years old
i7ie Death of Isaac, aged one hundred and
eighty
T1ME.-B C. 1888 to 1906.
PLACE.-Beersheba, forty five miles south OF
Jerusalem.
LESSON NOTES.
Abraham Abraham lived to the
good old age of 175, quiet and restful
in his later years, growing in faith and
piety and guiding with his counsels
and his example his son and his grand
sons, Jacob and Esau. with whom he
lived till they were fifteen years old,
showing them that best portion of a
good mans life, his little, nameless,
aforementioned acts of kindness and of
love"
/ He was buried in the cave of Mach
pelah at Hebron with his beloved wife
Sarah. ''In this cave of Machpelah
lie treasured the remains of Abraham
and Sarah, of Isaac and RebelIah, of
Leah also, and the embalmed bodies
of Jacob and perhaps Joseph. No
other spot in the Holy Land holds so
much precious dust as thus. The site
=. H.,
Mahomedan sanctuary. Since the
Moslem rule, it has not been accessi-
BILE to either Christian or jew"
1 Isaac was a man of faith, but in
many respects great contrast to his
father. He was patient, but not en-
terprising and powerful. He was de-
vout and submissive, but not active
and organizing in God 'srservice His life
was uneyentful, almost monotonous.
! lie has been called the Wordsworth of
the Old Testament" Isaac was
dwarfed and weakened by growing up
, under the shadow of Abraham" But
all this tends, as in lsaac's case, to the
stunting of the man himself. Life is
, made too easy for him" Many a son
OF rich man or of strong man con-
! ducting large business, has been
greatly injured by not having respon-
sibilities thrown upon him. Still
Isaac was Industrious and prosperous.
The Twin Brothers.-Vs. 81, 2S.
Twenty years after the marriage of
Isaac, two sons, twins, were born.
Esau, the elder was a cunning hunt
er. betosening his wild, restless, self
indulgent character, and leading him,
probably, to society with the heather
Canaanites round about. "a man of
the field:' This is antithetic to what
follows, "a dweller in tents" Instead
of spending his time in the society of
his family, returning to his tent at
night after his days labor, he roamed
over the country like the uncivilized
hunter in half savage lands. Jacob
was a plain man." This is an inade-
quate rendering of the word, trans
lated perfect" in meaning upright,
man of general integrity. He
had great force of charac-
ter, and capacity for strong
and enduring affection, which is close
ly allied to deep religious nature.
The Sale of the Birthright.-Vs.
1884. The two boys grew up into
young men, developing their ten
denotes, and determining in this period
their entire future. Be careless, if you
will, in old age, or even on the brink
of the grave; but it is the sunremest
folly, almost the objectionable sin, to
be thoughtless in the golden hours of
youth. They were about thirty-two
years old when occurred the transac-
tion of to-days lesson.
The birthright was the headship of
the family. Esau was, by right of
birth, the head of the family, its
prophet, priest and king; and no man
can renounce such privileges, except
as sacrifice required by God, without
despising God, who gave them. But
more than this: he was the head of
the chosen family; on him devolved
the blessings of Abraham, that in his
seed all families of the earth should be
blessed; and, in despising his birth
right, he put himself out of the sacred
family, and SO became a profane per-
son, His sin must not be overlooked
in our indignation at the fraud of
Jacob, which, as we shall see present
ly, brought its own retribution as well
as its own gain.
Winning the Birthright. About
twenty-five years Tor, as some think,
forty-tive) pass away. Very probably
Esau had forgotten his bargain, or at
any rate had no intention of carrying
it out. But Isaac, feeling the infirmi
ties of age. though he lived many
years after this, wished to devolve the
care of his family upon his eldest son
and proposed at a feast to bestow upor
him the birthright blessing, which
would have made Esau the head of the
family. Jacob remembered his pur
chase, and Rebekah the prophecy
Jacob was her favorite son. The two
were afraid that the desired boon wal
slipping away from them. They die
not trust God, but took the matter int
their own hands, and conspired to
gether to palm Jacob off upon hi
blind and aged father as Esau, thu
elder son Tins nv fraud he obtained