en long felt by her
descendants, in restraining them from the sins of those around them.

We cannot yet part with the two principal actors in these sad scenes of
treachery and deceit. We think of Rebekah, the companion of her blind
husband--deprived of the son who had shared and alleviated her cares,
and conscious of having awakened that bitter hate which would seek the
blood of a brother--still following in her thoughts the footsteps of the
wandering Jacob, feeling that by her own intrigues she had banished him
from his home and her presence.

And we may follow Jacob, as he stole from the tents of Isaac, a wanderer
like the first fugitive, with his brother's curse upon him. Until this
hour all Jacob's views and feelings seem earthly and grovelling. Until
now, there has been no indication of that trust and piety which
afterwards marked his life. He had seemed worldly, cunning, ready to
snatch any personal advantage. From this period he seems to awaken to a
higher--a spiritual life. He seems to have comprehended the deeper
meaning of promise and prophecy. We cannot tell what remorseful and
despairing thoughts filled his soul as he left his home--how strange
and inexplicable may have seemed all the ways of God toward him. Yet he
must have felt that, in punishment of his deceit and falsehood, he was
thus sent forth with but his scrip and staff, while he left Esau to
inherit the possessions of his father.

He had wandered until he was faint and weary, and then he had lain
himself down on the earth, with stones for his pillow and the heavens
for the curtains of his tent. In the silence of the night his soul was
opened to spiritual revealings--to those influences from heaven which
marked the change in his future life. He _saw_ the angels of God
ascending and descending upon him. Often before this may they have
visited him--constantly may they have hovered over him--but now he was
made conscious of the presence, watch and interposition of the heavenly
intelligences of the higher presence of the God of Abraham. From this
hour we trace a different influence pervading the heart and life of
Jacob. He was awakened to higher motives--and from this hour he entered
into covenant with God, and took Him to be his God.

And Jacob awaked out of his sleep, and said, "Surely the Lord is in this
place, and I knew it not;" and he was afraid, and said, "How dreadful is
this place! This is none other than the house of God--and this is the
g