The sheep watered, and before he made himself known, he stepped up to the bewitching shepherdess, and kissed her. This story of Rachel, the pretty shepherdess of the plains of Mesopotamia, who took with a glance the heart of the loving, homesick Jacob, and held it to the end of her days, has always had a peculiar interest, for there is that in it which appeals to some of the deepest feelings of the human heart. The beauty of Rachel, the deep love with which she was loved by Jacob from their first meeting by the well of Haran, when he showed to her the simple courtesies of the desert life, and kissed her and told her he was Rebekah’s son; the long servitude with which he patiently served for her, in which the seven years “seemed to him but a few days, for the love he had to her;” their marriage at last, after the cruel disappointment through the fraud which substituted the elder sister in the place of the younger; and the death of Rachel “in the way to Ephrath, which is Bethlehem,” when she had given birth to Benjamin, and had become still more endeared to her husband; his deep grief and ever-living regrets for her loss--these things make up a touching tale of personal and domestic history which has kept alive the memory of Rachel through all the long centuries down to the present time. Her untimely death has been likened to a “bunch of violets pulled up by the roots, with the soil clinging to them--their exquisite perfume reminding one of the leafy nook in which they grew.” What a mystery is love! We can not define it. It can only be unlocked by the key of experience. Love is not a product of the reason. It is the free play of the spiritual sensibilities in the possession of its object. And if human love is inexplicable, divine love is an ocean too deep for the plummet of man, and by far too broad to be bounded by the thought of the loftiest intelligence in the universe. Chaste human love is a beautiful thing, by which conjugal love is afterwards more and more strengthened and confirmed. And, in this scene at the well, we have emphasized the fact that virtuous maidens do not need to attend large, exciting assemblies or popular resorts, to get husbands. If they are true to themselves, they can safely trust God, who is able to give them pious, honorable and upright husbands. As soon as Rachel learned that Jacob was her father’s nephew, and that he was Rebekah’s son, “she ran and told her father.” When Laban heard Rachel’s story, he hastened to meet Jacob, and brought him to his house.