ate of heaven." And Jacob rose up early in the morning, and took the
stone that he had put for his pillow, and set it for a pillar, and
poured oil upon the top of it. "And he called the name of that place
Bethel." And Jacob vowed a vow, saying "If God will be with me, and will
keep me in the way that I go, and will give me bread to eat, and raiment
to put on, so that I come again to my father's house in peace, then
shall the Lord be my God, and this stone, which I have set for a
pillar, shall be God's house, and of all that thou shalt give me I will
surely give the tenth unto thee."

The future life of Jacob was not free from the infirmity of human
purpose--the imperfection of human nature. Yet from this time he walked
with God, and all his deportment was marked by deep and humble piety. We
doubt not that at this period he passed through that transforming change
by which, in every age, and under every dispensation, the human soul has
been enabled to enter into the mysteries of the spiritual life and enjoy
communion with the Author of its existence, through that Spirit which
breathed the first breath of life by which man became a living soul.

[Illustration]

THE RIVAL SISTERS--LEAH AND RACHEL.

[Illustration]

There are two characters, which by some associations of memory, or
caprice of fancy, are ever blended in our recollections--the one of
ancient, the other of modern days--the one of sacred, the other of
profane history. Catharine of Arragon, the unloved consort of the King
of England, and Leah, the daughter of the Syrian shepherd, the hated
wife of the Hebrew patriarch. There may seem to be as little
assimilation of character and destiny, as there is of condition, between
the daughter and the wife of a Syrian shepherd, and the daughter of one
of the proudest monarchs of Spain and the wife of the haughtiest king of
England; but they were both women, and both wives of those who loved
them not; and this fact, whatever the condition of woman, stamps her lot
as one of wretchedness. The wife neglected and despised is a woman
sorrowful, whether she be the inmate of a tent or the dweller in a
palace--whether she tend the flock or grace the throne.

Catharine of Arragon, the daughter of Isabella and Ferdinand, seems a
truth-loving, devout woman, well prepared to welcome the great
principles advanced by the Reformers, had she not been placed in
circumstances most adverse to their influence. Had Henry embraced t