A brief history of the father of the Jewish tribe will tend to illustrate and indicate the character of the whole nation, as children usually inherit the qualities of their parents.

1. We will first notice the great promise which Jehovah made to Abraham with respect to the boundless extent of his future dominion. His seed were to be as the dust of the earth or the sands of the sea for multitude (Gen. xiii. 16). And how has this promise been fulfilled? Why, after a faithful compliance with the command to "multiply and replenish the earth" for more than three thousand years, his whole tribe only numbers about six million souls, which is less than one in two hundred of the entire population of the globe. It would take but a few handfuls of dust to furnish the particles to represent the number, instead of all the dust of the earth as promised or predicted.

2. Jehovah promised Abraham, in the second place, all the country "from the river of Egypt to the great river,—the River Euphrates" (Gen. xv. 18). And yet, after the lapse of three thousand years, we do not find many occupying a foot of it. Another failure to execute his promise.

3. "To thee will I give it [the promised land], and to thy seed for ever" (Gen. xiii. 15). It will be observed here, that the title and possession was to be perpetual,—to the end of the world, "for ever." And yet it has been in the possession of other nations five or six times; and now not many of the Lord's holy people can be found there. Another signal failure.

4. Jehovah promised Abraham all the land "from the river of Egypt to the River Euphrates;" but they have never had possession of the country within two hundred miles of the river of Egypt (Nile). A writer quaintly suggests that Jehovah could never have previously seen the country he selected for his holy people, or he would not have chosen it; for all modern travelers agree in describing it as being a poor, mountainous, rocky, barren, and desolate country. One writer says, "It is a country of rocks and mountains, stones, cliffs, bounded by vast, dreary, and uninhabitable deserts." St. Jerome describes it as being "the refuse and rubbish of nature." And this is the country, let it be remembered, that Jehovah promised his people as the chosen spot of the earth. How little he knew of geography!

5. Jehovah and Abraham appear to have been very intimate friends, as they ate and slept together; and the "Judge of all the earth" was often a guest in the little, narrow, mud-built hut of the patriarch to eat veal, parched corn, and griddle-cakes with him, and have his feet washed also by the old man (Gen. xviii. 18). From such circumstances it would appear that Jehovah traveled over the country in the character of a foot-pad or "tramp," and got into the mud occasionally. It is strange that Christians can read their Bible without noticing this disparaging caricature of their God.

6. Abraham's conduct towards his servant-girl Hagar is both I disgraceful and inhuman, as he first destroyed her character and virtue by criminal intimacy, and then turned her and her child into the wilderness to starve (Gen. xxi.). Such conduct is certainly very reprehensible.

7. And this is the man who is represented as being chosen by a God of infinite wisdom, infinite purity, and infinite holiness, to stand at the head of the moral regeneration and salvation of the whole human race. Such a conception is derogatory to the divine character, and demoralizing to those who read and believe it.

8. Among other immoral and disgraceful acts of "God's chosen servant," "the righteous patriarch," "the Holy man of God," was that of uttering the most shameful and unblushing falsehood. He is charged with intentional lying on two different occasions, in representing his wife as being his sister,—once to Pharaoh, and once to King Abimelech; and his wife indorsed \ his falsehood. (See Gen. chap. xii. and xx.)

9. And yet, in the face of all these immoral deeds, God is represented as saying, "Abraham kept all my commands, all my statutes, and all my laws." (See Gen. xxvi. 5.) Hence the inevitable conclusion that Abraham was living up to the commands, statutes, and laws of God, while committing these crimes and outrages upon humanity. What a moral, or rather immoral lesson, is this to place before the heathen of foreign countries, and the children of our own, who read the Bible! It must have a tendency to demoralize them, and encourage them in the commission of similar crimes, as certainly as they are beings endowed with human frailties. Note these facts.

10. And we find other disgraceful, as well as incredible, deeds charged to the father of "the faithful." The account of the surrender of his manhood, and the obliteration of every impulse parental feeling required to obtain his consent to butcher his son Isaac upon the altar, imparts a humiliating moral lesson (Gent. xxii.). It matters not that he did not commit the deed. He consented to do it, and was ready to do it; which proves a state of mind calculated to make humanity shudder. The New-Zealanders have been known to point the missionaries to this example as a justification of their cruel practices of slaughtering human beings. If a father in this age of civilization should do such a thing, or even attempt it as Abraham did, he would be looked upon as a monster in human shape, or perfectly insane, even if he should claim that God called upon him to perform the act. It would have been infinitely better to disobey such a God than to disobey and outrage every parental and kindly im-pulse of his nature. But the case furnishes prima-facie evidence that Abraham was under a religious delusion in supposing God required the performance of such an inhuman deed. To assume that he did would make him more of a demon than a God. Any man or woman is to be pitied whose education has misled him or her, and blinded them so that they can not see that the reading of a book teaching such lessons must prove morally injurious to the mind.

11. The injunction on Abraham to slay his son is said to have been imposed upon him to try his faith. His faith in what? I would ask. Faith in his own humanity? faith in his love and affection for his son? Nothing of the kind! but faith in his susceptibility of rendering himself an inhuman monster. Let us suppose a father says to his son, "Richard, I want you to draw a knife, and cut your brother Robert's throat;" and afterwards explains the matter by telling him he issued this order to try whether he would obey him. But his son would evince more manhood, and a better moral character, by refusing to obey him. It is much better to obey the dictates of conscience, humanity, and mercy, than to obey a father or a God in a case like this.

12. And Jehovah is represented as saying, through an angel, "Now I know that thou fearest God" (Gen. xxii. 12); equivalent to saying, "If I had not tried this experiment, I should not have known any thing about it." What blind mortals human beings can become, to suppose that a God of infinite wisdom, who "searcheth the hearts of all men," must resort to cruel and shocking experiments to find out the the state of their minds!

13. But the history of the case discloses the fact that it did not effect the end desired,—that of proving Abraham's faith,—not in the least, unless we assume that Abraham lied in the case. For he said to the young men while on the road to the altar, "Abide here until we [myself and son] go yonder and worship, and come again to you." Here is evidence that Abraham knew he would bring his son back alive; that is, that Isaac would return with him, or that he told a falsehood in order to deceive. The reader can seize which horn of the dilemma he prefers. If he knew what the issue of the case would be, it would, of course, be no trial of his faith whatever. And yet Paul and other New-Testament writers laud the act as being one of great merit and a proof of his faith.

14. We must hasten on. We can only give a passing notice of a few other acts of this illustrious patriarch, in whom "all the nations of the earth were to be blessed." Jehovah is represented as saying to Abraham, on a certain occasion, "I will go down now, and see whether they [the Sodomites] have done according" to my desire. "If not, I will know" (Gen. xviii. 21). This is one of several cases in which "the Judge of' all the earth" is represented as abandoning the throne of heaven, and coming down to learn what was going on below. What a contracted and ignorant being was the Jewish Jehovah!

15. The mission of Jehovah at one time, when he called upon Abraham, was to inform him that his gray-headed wife, approaching a hundred years, was to be blessed with a son in her old age. Has it never occurred to Bible admirers that this and other similar cases represented the Almighty, whom "the heaven of heavens can not contain," as traveling over the country in the character of a fortune-teller, notifying old women that the laws of nature would be suspended long enough to allow them to be blessed or cursed with the care and perplexity of children in their old age?

16. It should be noticed that Abraham's God never reproved him for any of his misdeeds; while, on the other hand, the heathen King Abimelech called the man of God to account for his moral defects (Gen. xx.).

17. One of the most dishonorable acts recorded in the history of Abraham's God was that of bringing a plague upon Pharaoh and his household for receiving, Abaham's wife, when it was brought about wholly through his treachery and misrepresentation, and when it appears that Pharaoh treated her in the most respectful manner.

18. But, with all these moral stains upon the character of Abraham, it becomes a pleasant task to record one good act in his life. He seems to have presented the practical proof that he was a better man than his God; for, when Jehovah threatened the destruction of Sodom for her wickedness, Abraham remonstrated, and suggested that it would be an act of injustice to destroy the righteous with the wicked. It appears that this moral consideration had escaped the mind of Jehovah. What an inconsiderate, reckless being Bible writers represent the Almighty as being!

19. Abraham, according to his history, was a man of valor, and achieved some great exploits. For instance, with the assistance of his regiment of one hundred and eighteen servants, he chased at one time four great kings, with their mighty hosts,—the King of Babylon, the King of Persia, the King of Pontus, and the King of Nations (Gen. xiv.). He drove them, we are told, more than a hundred miles, and recovered his brother Lot from their grasp. A few such daring heroes could have put down the American Rebellion without a battle.

20. We will only observe further, that this "true servant of the Lord" was both a polygamist and an idolater; at least we have the authority of the Jewish writer, Philo, for saying that his father was a maker of images, and that Abraham worshiped them? Such is a brief outline of the character of the man who is held up as an example for us to imitate, and through whom "all the nations of the earth are to be blessed," and the man who stands at the head of that nation through which, we are told, a revelation has been given to the world which is to effect the moral regeneration and salvation of the whole human race. Whether the means are adapted to the ends, the reader is left to judge.

II. CHARACTER OF ISAAC.

1. In accordance with the adage, "Like father, like son," we find Isaac carrying out the same spirit of fraud and deception practiced by his father. When "the men of the plain asked him about his wife, he said, she is my sister" (Gen. xxvi.); "and this man Isaac was another of the faithful servants of the Lord."

2. If the statement is true that the Lord struck Ananias and Sapphira with sudden death for telling a falsehood, as related in Acts v., the question naturally arises, Why did Abraham and Isaac escape the same fate, as they were guilty of the same sin? Why this partiality? Manifestly, this is a bad lesson in morals.

III. CHARACTER OF JACOB, MORAL DEFECTS OF.

1. "Like father, like son," is again verified in the practical life of Jacob. We find this patriarch excels, in moral defects, both his father and his grandfather.

2. His conduct toward his brother Esau, in robbing him of his just and inherited rights, is an act which stamps an eternal stigma upon his character. When Jacob's father, old and blind, asked him, "Art thou my son Esau?" he replied, "I am" (Gen. xxvii. 24), thus telling a base falsehood, and deceiving his old father; and this deceptive and underhanded act caused his brother "to cry an exceedingly bitter cry" (Gen. xxvii. 34 ). What an unfeeling brother was this "true servant of the Lord"!

It appears that Isaac and Jehovah both intended that Esau should inherit the blessing; but Jacob outwitted them by the aid and connivance of his mother. This is but a sample of the character and conduct of the family throughout their whole history.

3. Jacob seems to have entertained very singular and selfish ideas in regard to his religious obligation to serve and worship his God. He made it entirely a question of bread and butter, or, rather, of bread and raiment. He proposed to strike up a trade with Jehovah relative to his future allegiance to his government, and to fix the terms of the contract himself (Gen. xxviii.). He kindly and condescendingly told Jehovah, that if he would provide him with food and raiment, and be his constant companion in the future, "then shall the Lord be my God, and this stone shall be God's house; and I will give one-tenth to the Lord of what he giveth me" (Gen. xxviii. 20). Here is the attempt to drive a bargain with Jehovah on the quid-pro-quo principle. We are not informed how Jehovah appreciated this kindly offer. This is an unfortunate omission, as every reader must feel interested in knowing whether he accepted the proposition; and henceforth he whom "the heaven of heavens can not contain" took up his abode in the patriarch's little stone hut. We are led to infer, that, if Jehovah refused to accept his terms, Jacob would henceforth refuse to be a subject of God's kingdom, and thus bring him to grief. This is a sample of the childish conception entertained by the whole Jewish nation of "the God of the universe," if we may presume their God was any thing more than a family or national deity.

4. The proneness of the Lord's holy people to falsify, and deceive is well illustrated in the case of Laban, who, after Jacob had by a fair contract, labored seven years for him for his daughter Rachel, would not let him have her, but forced his older daughter Leah upon him; and, when Jacob complained he told him he must serve seven years more if he got Rachel; and his love for her prompted him to accept the terms. But he seems not to have been well compensated for his fourteen long years of toil for these two sisters. Their subsequent conduct indicates that he "paid dear for the whistle;" and one month's labor ought to have paid for both, even at ten cents a day, for they both turned out to be failures. They were, however, a fair specimen of the race. Rachel stole her father's images; and, when pursued and overtaken by him, she hid them, and told him a falsehood to conceal the act. The circumstance of her father having images, and of her stealing them, is an evidence that both were idolaters (Gen. xxxi.).

5. It is easy to see, from the foregoing facts, from what source the Jewish proclivity to idolatry and also to falsehood was derived. The latter was practically manifested by four hundred prophets at one time. It is true the Lord was charged with putting the lie in their mouths (1 Kings xxii. 22).

6. We are told, that, on a certain occasion, "the sons of Jacob answered Shechem, and Hamor his father, deceitfully" (Gen. xxxiv. 13); by which it appears the spirit or propensity to fraud and deception was still transmitted to their posterity.