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him, and charged him, and said unto him; Thou shalt not take a wife of the daughters of Canaan.

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Arise, go to Padan-aram, to the houseof Bethuel thy mother's father; and take thee a wife from thence, of the daughters of Laban thy mother's brother.

And God Almighty bless thee, and make thee fruitful, and multiply thee, that thou mayest be a multitude of people."

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And Jacob went on his journey, Aud he lighted upon a certain place, and tar.. ried there all night, because the sun was set and he took of the stones of that place, and put them for his pillows, and. lay down in that place to sleep.

And he dreamed; and, behold, a ladder set upon the earth, and the top of it reached to Heaven; and, behold, the angels of God ascending and descending, on it.

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And, behold, the Lord stood above it,. and said: I am the Lord God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac ;the land whereon thou liest to three will I give it, and to thy seed.

And thy seed shall be as the dust of the. earth; and thou shalt spread abraod to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south; and in thee, and in thy

seed, shall all the families of the earth be blessed.

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And behold I am with thee; and will keep thee in all places whither thou goest, and will bring thee again into this land; for I will not leave thee, until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of."

When Jacob was a very old man, and drew near his end, he related this circumstance to his son Joseph.

And Jacob said unto Joseph; God Almighty appeared unto me at Luz in the land of Canaan and blessed me; and said unto me; Behold I will make thee fruitful; and multiply thee, and I will make of thee a multitude of people; and will give this land to thy seed after thee, for an everlasting possession.

And now thy two sons Ephraim and Manasseh, they shall be mine.' And he said, likewise unto Joseph, I had not thought to see thy face; and, lo, God hath shewed me also thy seed.'

And when Jacob blessed the children of Joseph, the prevailing wish and prayer for them is the same.

And Israel stretched out his right hand,and laid it upon Ephraim's head who who was the younger, and his left hand upon Manasseh's head. And he blessed

Joseph and said; God before whom my Fathers Abraham and Isaac did walk, the God which fed me all my life longun to this day; the Angel which redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads; and let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth.'

And that particular in which the blessing of Ephraini, excelled that of Manasseh, was, that he was to become more numerous than his brethren.

And Joseph saw Ephraim's children of the third generation; the children also of Manasseh were brought up upon Joseph's knees.'

The recital of such things as these seems trifling to those who are unacquainted with a father's feelings; but, when your children shall have learnt to say, ' Grand-papa, and Grand-mamma,' you will then have the opportunity to observe, that a new source of pleasure is opened to your dear father and mother in their declining years.

It is true, that our manners and customs are greatly altered, from those of the good people of old; but the genuine feelings of human nature are the same in all ages, and in all places.

Thus the benevolent people of Israel expressed their best wishes for Boaz,

when he married Ruth:-The Lord make the woman that is come into thy house, like Rachel and like Leah, which two did build the house of Israel; and do thou worthily in Ephratah, and be famous in Bethlehem.

And let thy house be like the house of Pharez, whom Tamar bare to Judah, of the seed which the Lord shall give thee of this young woman.'

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And thus they congratulated Naomi when Ruth bare a son; And the women said to Naomi, Blessed be the Lord that has not left thee this day without a kinsman, that his name may be famous in Israel.

And he shall be unto thee a restorer of thy life, and a nourisher of thine old age; for thy daughter in law, which loveth thee, which is better to thee than seven sons, hath borne him.

And Naomi took the child, and laid it in her bosom, and she became nurse unto it.

And the women, her neighbours, gave it a name; saying there is a son born to Naomi; and they called his name Obed, he is the father of Jesse, the father of David.'

Children, my dear Sir, were considered of old time, as a great honour to a

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Lo, children are an heritage of the Lord, and the fruit of the womb is his reward.

'As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man, so are children of the youth.

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Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them: they shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate.'

I cannot express the pleasure I have enjoyed in tracing these ancient records. I have had such a feast, in pursuing the history of those worthy men, from which I have made these extracts, that I know not how to describe it.-I suppose it to be something like what they must have enjoyed, when visited by angels; or when God appeared unto them in a dream.

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When I leave those heavenly guests, and return to mix with the modern world, and to describe our customs, I seem to be among another race of beings. Yet even now, notwithstanding the awful practice, of oppressing the hireling in his wages; and other grievous oppressions, which almost amount to forbidding to marry,' we often see the old saying fulfilled; A wise son maketh a glad father.' And a virtuous daughter, is often,

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