Is your own conscientious conception of your duty to be considered as God's command to you? Does he give any other command? Does a high stage of civilization ennoble character or tend to degrade it? _Subjects for Further Study_. (1) Abraham in Late Jewish Tradition. Hastings, _Dict. Bib_. I, 16, 17, Ginsberg, _The Legends of the Jews_, I, pp. 185-308. (2) The Geological History of the Dead Sea Valley. Hastings, _Dict. Bib_. I, 575-7; _Encyc. Bib_. I, 1042-6; Kent, _Bib. Geog. and Hist_., 45-54; Smith, _Hist. Geography_, 499-516. (3) The Original Meaning of Sacrifice. _St. O. T_., IV, 238; Hastings, _Dict. Bib_. IV, 329-31; _Encyc. Bib_. IV, 4216-26; Smith, _Relig. of the Semites_, 213-43, 252-440; Gordon, _Early Traditions of Genesis_, 212-16. (4) A Comparison of the Motives that Inspired the Migrations of the Ancestors of the Hebrews and our Pilgrim Fathers. Cheyney, _European Background of American History_; Andrews, _Colonial Self-Government_. STUDY VI THE POWER OF AMBITION. JACOB, THE PERSISTENT.--Gen. 28, 10-33, 20. _Parallel Readings_. _Hist. Bible_ I, 101-21. Hastings, _Dict. Bible_ II, 526-535. _Prin. of Politics_ Ch. II. Now as the boys grew Esau became a skilful hunter, but Jacob was a quiet man, a dweller in tents. And Isaac loved Esau--for he had a taste for game--and Rebekah loved Jacob. Once when Jacob was preparing a stew, Esau came in from the field, and he was faint; therefore Esau said to Jacob, Let me eat quickly, I pray, some of that red food, for I am faint. (Therefore his name was called Edom, Red.) But Jacob said, Sell me first of all your birthright. And Esau replied, Alas! I am nearly dead, therefore of what use is this birthright to me? And Jacob said, Swear to me first; so he swore to him, and sold his birthright to Jacob. Then Jacob gave Esau bread and stewed lentils, and when he had eaten and drank, he rose up and went his way. Thus Esau despised his birthright.--_Hist. Bible_. Charles Darwin when asked for the secret of his success said, "It's dogged as does it." Oh well for him whose will is strong! He suffers, but he will not suffer long; He suffers, but he cannot suffer wrong: For him nor moves the loud world's random mock, Nor all Calamity's hugest waves confound, Who seems a promontory of rock, That, compasst round with turbulent sound In middle ocean meets the surging shock, Tempest-buffetted but citadel-crowned. --_Tennyson_. Life is comic or pitiful, as soon as the high ends of being fade out of sight and man becomes near-sighted and can only attend to what addresses the senses--_Emerson_. Who rises every time he falls Will sometime rise to stay. I. THE TWO BROTHERS, JACOB AND ESAU.