ant spirit at work here, as we are sometimes tempted to conceive
of it, making Esau's life wretched and broken, while Jacob's was heaped
high with all which could gladden a grasping and sensual heart; on the
contrary, the chosen son won only that which Esau would not have cared
to lift if it had been laid at his very feet. Esau lost only that which
would have been life-long a torment to his easy, jovial, sensual
nature, which he would have prayed to get rid of, which he would in some
way have got rid of, if it had clung to him, no matter at what cost.
There were some, remember, who, finding their herds of swine in peril,
prayed even the merciful Saviour "to depart out of their coasts." Jacob
seized a bitter inheritance as far as this world was concerned, by his
clever impersonation; while Rebekah, who prompted and managed it, paid a
yet heavier price for it; in this world she never saw her darling more.

What he won was power with God and with man as a spiritual prince; power
to pray, and to conquer by prayer; power to trust and to hope in God's
mercy through stern struggles and bitter miseries; and power to reach a
hand through death and lay up the hope of his soul with God on high. The
heart which could crave for a spiritual thing, which pined to be a child
of promise, which clung to the traditions of his fathers and the hope of
his house, all which Esau scorned, God trained by suffering to aim
continually at higher and yet higher things. He won, in a word, a high
place in God's high school of discipline, and a name of renown as a
spiritual hero in time and in eternity. This was practically his gain;
and it is precisely this which God places fairly within your reach. You
too may be the sons of promise; "power to become the sons of God" is the
birthright which in Christ is yours. Jacob, no doubt, and most justly,
seems to you the grander man as compared with Esau, and his life the
nobler and more glorious life. Then live it. All that he won you may
win. Make yourself a prince of God by wrestling prayer. The birthright
of broad acres and family honours may pass to your elder. The birthright
of hard work, stern struggle, strong effort, high aspiration,
disciplined power, victorious faith, eternal renown and joy, is yours.
Christ has won it, and freely bestows it--no younger son's portion, but
the birthright of the eldest, the only-begotten son, glorious through
time and eternity. It may be that many a younger son may read