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communion with him? You must early cultivate this habit. You must acquire the art of meditation and abstraction, and learn to reflect much upon the works and ways of God to man, as displayed in nature, in his providence, and especially in the greatest of all his works-the redemption of men from sin, and death, and ruin.

CONVERSATION XXII.

GENESIS XXII.

ABRAHAM'S TEMPTATION.

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Olympas. THE Lord tempted Abraham; yet, saith James, God tempteth no man to evil.' How then, Thomas, did God tempt Abraham? Thomas. He tempted him by trying him-by trying how far he would obey God.

Olympas. God uses strong arguments, and therefore strong temptations. To what points in Abraham's character was the temptation addressed? Reuben. To his parental affection. Abraham

loved Isaac, and he loved God: and God seems to have designed to test which of the two he loved most.

Olympas. True; Abraham had great parental affection for Isaac, and much filial affection for God. Now the question was, Which of the two were the stronger-his parental or his filial affection? But was there nothing more in it than this, William ?

William. Abraham was a great man, and his example would be influential, and the Lord took this way of making it so.

Olympas. We had better take up the incidents in order. Let us have the commandment of God to Abraham in this case.

William.

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And God said, Take now thy son, thy only son Isaac whom thou lovest, and get thee to the land of Moriah, and offer him there for a

burut-offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of."

Olympas. Now observe how strong the trial is made by the very words of the precept―"Take thy son, thine only son, whom thou lovest."

Olympas. How old was this only son at this time, Eliza?

Eliza. According to the margin he must have been about twenty-four years old. This happened in the year of the world 2132, one hundred and twenty-four years after Abraham's birth. Now as Isaac was born in the hundredth year of his age, Isaac must have been in his twenty-fourth.

Olympus. This, then, shows how long children were subject to their parents in the Abrahamic family and in the East in those ancient times. Was he his only son, Reuben?

Reuben. He was his only son by Sarah his proper wife; and, since the exile of Hagar and Ishmael, he was his only son and heir at home.

Olympas. To what place was he sent, James, to offer this burnt-offering?

James. To Mount Moriah in the East.

Reuben. Did not Abraham live in the East? What means "the East" in this place?

Thomas. Abraham's home at this time was Beersheba, which was West of the land of Moriah some fifty miles.

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Olympas. Describe this land of Moriah, Thomas. Thomas. It is in the Septuagint called the High Lands"-the high lands of Canaan. In Judea it must have been because the high lands East of Beersheba were there. It is also called the Land of Vision" in my Latin Vulgate, and that farther indicates its height; for persons

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ascend mountains when they desire to extend their vision.

Olympas. It is also in the Chaldee called "the Land of Worship," not only because worship was usually performed on hills and mountains, rather than in plains and valleys; but because it was afterwards made the place of worship. Indeed, we know that the land of Moriah included Jerusalem and the hills around it, and that the spot where the Lord appeared to David, and where Solomon built the Temple, is called Moriah by high authority. By whom, can any of you tell? All silent! James, read the first verse of the third chapter of second Chronicles.

James. "Then Solomon began to build the house of the Lord at Jerusalem, on Mount Moriah, where the Lord appeared unto David his father, in the place that David had prepared in the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite."

Olympas. The place is certainly identified; and as Mount Moriah included the whole eminence, Mount Zion, Mount Calvary, and the Mount of Olives were all parts of Mount Moriah. The spot selected for this burnt-offering was either where the Temple stood and the altar of burntofferings, or Mount Calvary.

Thomas. I have heard vague references to this place before; but I know not on what authority. It does, indeed, seem that the question must stand between Calvary and the Temple Mount for the site of this mysterious and sublime event.

Olympas. Our notions of congruity prefer Calvary; but there is room for a doubt which of the two; and we ought not to suffer our notions of ongruity to supply the place of divine testimony.

Either spot is apposite enough for this symbolic scene, and sufficiently connects it with New Testament incidents and developments. Did any one, Susan, accompany Abraham and Isaac on this

occasion?

Susan. Yes; Abraham rose up early in the morning and saddled his ass, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son, and clave the wood for the burnt-offering, and rose up and went to the place appointed.

Olympas. When did he arrive, Susan?
Susan. On the third day.

Olympas. How, William, did Abraham proceed after the Lord signified to him the spot?

William. He left his ass and his servants; and, taking his son, departed to the spot preordained for this solemn and significant event.

Olympas. Who carried the wood, now the ass and the servants both being left behind, Susan ? Susan. Abraham laid it upon Isaac; and, taking fire and a knife, they went both of them together.

Olympas. What an awful and solemn scene! Abraham with a knife in one hand and a torch in the other; Isaac, the son of many promises, the darling of his hoary hairs, with a bundle of cleft dry wood upon his shoulder, climbing the hill by his side; and, in mute astonishment and contemplation, slowly ascending to its summit, to the identical spot marked out by the finger of God. At last, breaking silence, Isaac said, "My father, behold the fire and the wood; but where is the lamb for a burnt-offering?" Abraham not fully comprehending his own words, as a relief to his own soul and the solicitude of his beloved son, said, "My son, God will provide himself a lamb

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