these were very terrible to this peaceful man,--as it
was his own sin in days long past, which now met him again, and seemed to
frown upon him from the darkness before him. In vain did he strive to
look on and see whether God would guide him there, for his sin clouded
over the light of God's countenance. It was as when he strained his eyes
into the great sand-drifts of the desert through which he had passed:
they danced and whirled fearfully before him, and baffled all the
strivings of his earnest gaze.

But the time of trial was drawing very near. And how did it end? Instead
of falling upon him and slaying him and his; instead of making a spoil of
the oxen, and the asses, and the camels, and giving the young children to
the sword, Esau's heart melted as soon as they met; he fell upon his
brother's neck and kissed him; he looked lovingly upon the children who
had been born to him in the far land; he spake kindly of the old days of
their remembered childhood, of the grey-haired man at home; and he would
not take even the present which his brother had set apart for him.

Jacob knew who it was that had turned his brother's heart, and he felt
more than ever what a strong and blessed thing prayer and supplication
was. Nor did he forget his childhood's sin against his God. It had
looked out again upon him in manhood, and reminded him of God's holiness,
of his many past misdeeds, and made him pray more earnestly not to be
made to "possess the iniquities of his youth."

* * * * *

_Father_. What should we learn from this account of Jacob's meeting
Esau?

_Child_. That God remembers and often visits long afterwards the sins of
our childhood.

F. Does not God, then, forgive the sins of children?

C. Yes, He does forgive them, and blot them out for Christ's sake.

F. Why, then, do we say that He visits them?

C. Because He often allows the effects of past sins to be still their
punishment, even when He has forgiven them.

F. Why does He do so?

C. To shew us how He hates sin.

F. What should we learn from this?

C. To watch against every sin most carefully, because we never can know
what may be its effects; to remember how God has punished it, often for
years, in His true servants; to pray against sin; to think no sin little.

F. What should we do, if we find the consequences of past sin coming
upon us?

C. Take our chastisement meekly; humble ourselves under God's hand; pray
for deliverance,