GOD had called Abraham from his home, and promised to give his children the land of Canaan, and that in his Seed all the nations of the earth should be blessed. This was renewing to Abraham the great promise of the Seed of the woman that had been made to Eve; and Abraham believed, and was glad. But though his children were to have the land, none of it was his; and he went up and down in it a stranger, living in his tent, without house or home, only trusting in faith to God's promise to his children. His son Isaac lived like him, with no home, but looking on in faith to what God promised.

Isaac had two sons; and as Esau was the eldest, he had the first right to these promises. But Esau did not care enough about them; he did not seem to get anything by them, and he liked what he could get at once better than what was a long way off. He had no faith.

One day he came home half dead with hunger, and saw his brother Jacob making soup over the fire. He said he would give all these rights for a meal of the soup; for if he died of hunger, what good would his birth-right do him? So for a mess of pottage he sold his right to the land of Canaan, and to be the forefather of our Saviour.

A time was to come when he would be sorry for what he had done. His father was old and blind, and thought he was going to die; so he bade Esau, whom he loved the best, bring home some meat and make a solemn feast—which was the way then of giving a blessing. Esau went, and in time brought home the meat to his father; but when he came in, Isaac cried out, and trembled! His brother Jacob had come in his stead, and Isaac had taken him for Esau, and given to him the blessing that gave the right to the promised land, and to all God's promises!

Then Esau cried out with an exceeding bitter cry, and asked if his father had but one blessing! Isaac was grieved for him, and blest him with all his heart; but there was no changing back, no taking away what Jacob had won and Esau had lost.

Esau did not know what he was doing when he took the pottage at once, rather than wait patiently for the glorious inheritance that was to come. This was the reason that he was allowed to be so cruelly disappointed. This is a warning to us. We have the inheritance of the kingdom of heaven promised to us; but we are tempted not to care about it when we want something here in this world, whether play, or dress, or anything that seems a great deal to us now.

But if we trifle away our right to these great promises that God made us at our baptism, there will come a time of bitter grief, when it is too late. And when we are dead, it will be too late to change! Therefore, now while we are alive, we must have faith, and show it by taking care that the things we like here on earth do not make us lose the better things in heaven.

QUESTIONS.

1. What were the names of Isaac's two sons? 2. What had God promised Isaac? 3. Which son had the first right to the promise? 4. But which cared about it most? 5. What did Esau want? 6. So what did he give up for the sake of the soup? 7. Could he get it back again? 8. What are you an heir of? 9. How could we lose the inheritance of the kingdom of heaven? 10. Shall we be able to change after we are dead? 11. Then what must we care about most? 12. Why could not Esau get his father's blessing? 13. What did he like better than waiting for what he could not see? 14. Can we see heaven? 15. But when we get there, will it not be better than anything we can see here?

SECOND READING.

"This is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven."—Genesis 28:17.