redemption do we see the reign of grace, and that, too, on the principle of righteousness. Now, we have in the person of Jacob a most striking exhibition of the power of divine grace; and for this reason, that we have in him a striking exhibition of the power of human nature. In him we see nature in all its obliquity, and therefore we see grace in all its moral beauty and power. From the facts of his remarkable history, it would seem that, before his birth, at his birth, and after his birth, the extraordinary energy of nature was seen. Before his birth, we read, "the children struggled together within her." At his birth, we read, "his hand took hold on Esau's heel." And, after his birth,--yea, to the turning-point of his history, in Chap. xxxii., without any exception,--his course exhibits nothing but the most unamiable traits of nature; but all this only serves, like a dark back-ground, to throw into relief the grace of him who condescends to call himself by the peculiarly touching name, "the God of Jacob,"--a name most sweetly expressive of free grace. Let us now examine the chapters consecutively. Chap. xxvii. exhibits a most humbling picture of sensuality, deceit, and cunning; and when one thinks of such things in connection with the people of God, it is sad and painful to the very last degree. Yet how true and faithful is the Holy Ghost! He must tell all out. He cannot give us a partial picture. If he gives us a history of man, he must describe man as he is, and not as he is not. So, if he unfolds to us the character and ways of God, he gives us God as he is. And this, we need hardly remark, is exactly what we need. We need the revelation of one perfect in holiness, yet perfect in grace and mercy, who could come down into all the depth of man's need, his misery and his degradation, and deal with him there, and raise him up out of it into full, unhindered fellowship with himself in all the reality of what he is. This is what scripture gives us. God knew what we needed, and he has given it to us, blessed be his name! And be it remembered that in setting before us in faithful love all the traits of a man's character, it is simply with a view to magnify the riches of divine grace and to admonish our souls. It is not by any means in order to perpetuate the memory of sins forever blotted out from his sight. The blots, the failures, and the errors of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, have been perfectly washed away, and they have taken their place amid "the spirits of just men made perfect;" but their history remains on the page of inspiration for the display of God's grace, and for the warning of God's people in all ages; and, moreover, that we may distinctly see that the blessed God has not been dealing with perfect men and women, but with those of "like passions as we are;" that he has been walking and bearing with the same failures, the same infirmities, the same errors, as those over which we mourn every day.