for a burnt-offering." At length they arrive at the spot which God had told him of, and there Abraham with his own hands erects the altar, lays the wood in order, binds his son, and lays him in full length upon the altar and upon the wood, and, stretching forth his hand, seizes the knife to slay his son. Just as he lifted up his hand to heaven to strike the fatal blow, the angel of Jehovah calls to him out of heaven, saying with great energy of voice, “Abraham! Abraham! lay not thine hand upon thy son, neither hurt him in the least; for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thy only son, from me." And what next occurred in this soul-subduing scene? Tell us, Reuben.

Reuben. The venerable patriarch, lifting up his eyes, descried a ram caught in a thicket by his horns, which he took and offered for a burntoffering in the stead of his son.

Olympas. And what afterwards became the name of that memorable spot where this mystical transaction occurred?

Thomas. Abraham called it JEHOVAH-JIREH, which continued to be its name till the time of Moses-till Israel obtained the Land of Promise. Olympas. And what, Eliza, means the words Jehovah-jireh?

Eliza. The margin says, "The Lord will provide," "In the Mount of the Lord it shall be seen." Olympas. "In the Mount of the Lord it shall be seen." What a singular, and apparently dislocated phrase! Can any of you explain it ?

All silent again! It is, indeed, a singular phrase; and very great and learned critics have debated its meaning, both as respects the Mount

of God," and the phrase, "It shall be seen." Houbigant and other interpreters and critics read it, "In this Mount the Lord shall be seen.' According to the Septuagint which I now hold in my hand, it reads, "And Abraham called the name of that place, 'The Lord hath seen,' that at this day they might say, on this mountain, the 'Lord was seen.' The difference between Houbigant and the Seventy is not so easily decided. The latter, indeed, is more consonant to the general construction and idiom of the Hebrew, and certainly with the New Testament allusion to this passage.

Abraham both heard and saw the Lord on that Mount; and as certain was the Lord Jesus both heard and seen on the same Mount. God pro

vided for Abraham on that Mount a lamb for a whole burnt-offering, instead of his son; and on the same Mount, in after times, in the seed of that same Isaac, God provided a whole burntoffering in the sacrifice of his Son, instead of the seed of Abraham. Abraham's son was ransomed by a lamb which God provided, and Abraham's seed by faith are now ransomed by the Lamb of God, whom most emphatically God did providewho suffered in their stead, as Mount Moriah's Lamb suffered in the stead of Isaac. The type is all fulfilled in the antitype.

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Thomas. We wish to know what portion of the New Testament authorises the trauslation, In this Mount the Lord was seen ;" and we desire to understand why Isaac submitted so voluntarily to the hand of his father. Indeed, there are several questions we desire to ask on this most interesting narrative.

Olympas. Say on. But in regard to the allusion to the New Testament, which seems to me to justify the view that I have expressed of the Mount of Vision, our Lord's own words, following the Septuagint, seem to authorise the opinion, and to explain the difficulties which I expected to rise, and which I now see are rising in your minds. Abraham believed that God would bless the world in his son Isaac in some way. He greatly desired to understand in what way. Though not comprehending it at its first intimation, he rejoiced that one day he would understand it. To this transaction he alludes in a conversation with the infidel Jews in Jerusalem, saying, "Abraham rejoiced that he should see my day, and he did see it and was glad." This doubtless is the true and natural version of the passage. He saw it on this occasion for it was in this trial of his faith, and in this Mount Moriah, that the Lord revealed to Abraham what he desired to understand,-first, in the silent voluntary resignation and submission of his son to death; then, in his figurative resurrection to life; for Paul is here our guide, when he says, By faith Abraham offered up" his only begotten son Isaac, concerning whom it was said, "In Isaac shall thy seed be called;" accounting in his own mind that "God was able to raise him from the dead, from which indeed he received him in a figure." Thus the Lord was seen in the person of Isaac, in at least nine very essential points. 1st. Isaac and Jesus were both the children of promises preceding their birth. 2nd. They were both born supernaturally, or by miracle. 3rd. They were the only offspring of the same parentage; and consequently, 4th. the only heirs

of their inheritance. 5th. They were both in the prime of life doomed to die; but neither of them on his own account-Isaac, as a proof of his father's faith in God and love to him; Jesus, as a proof of God's faithfulness and of his love to us. 6th. Each of them carried the wood of his own offering, and voluntarily submitted to the will of his father without the least resistance. 7th. They were both respited and raised from the dead-the one in figure and the other in fact. In the 8th place, not a little remarkable, each rose on the third day from the pronunciation of the sentence of death upon him. Aud in the 9th place, each after he rose from the dead returned to the place where he was before, to his father's house, and afterwards became the father of many nations. Do you, Reuben, now comprehend these nine capital points of typical coincidence between Isaac

and Jesus our Saviour?

Reuben. I do not know that I can repeat them, but I will try-1st. They were both the children of prophecy and promises. 2nd. They were both of supernatural birth. 3rd. They were only begotten sons. 4th. They were only heirs. 5th. They were, though both innocent and unoffending in any one point, in the prime of life doomed to die, not for their own sake, but for the sake of others. 6th. Each of them voluntarily resigned his life. 7th. They were both released from death, and raised from the dead. 8th. They rose on the third day from the time of the sentence of death. And 9th. After they returned to their father's house, they each became the father of nations-Isaac, of the Jewish people; and Jesus, of the nation of the elect, gathered out of all nations,

kindreds, tongues, and people.

But I do not see the proof that Isaac voluntarily offered himself. Thomas. It must have been so for Abraham being one hundred and twenty-five years old, and Isaac twenty-five, in the prime and vigour of life, he could have escaped either by violence or flight. And had there been any resistance in the case, it would doubtless have been recorded, inasmuch as it would have been a still more illustrious display of Abraham's obedience, as it would have called for a greater effort to have compelled the death of his son.

Olympas. It is certainly fairly deducible from all the premises, from the whole narrative, that Isaac acquiesced in the matter; and hence in this transaction was exhibited as perfect obedience to the will of an earthly father as Abraham displayed to his heavenly Father.

Eliza. What was meant by his leaving his servants and his ass at the foot of the hill?

Olympas. As no creature can effect any thing in the great work of redemption, neither angels nor ministering spirits, the Father and the Son by themselves alone accomplished this great work, the Father resigned and spared not his own Son, and the Son gave his life in obedienee to the will of his Father; for, said he, I have power to lay down my life, and power to resume it; therefore no one forces it away from me."

As human reason is both stupid and blunt in the things of redemption till irradiated from above, as it cannot ascend to the Mount of God, there have not been wanting some who imagined that they saw this pourtrayed in the ass on which Abraham rode to the foot of the hill, but no