these
words; many a one who may be tempted to bemoan himself that the younger
son's portion, the lot of toil and struggle, has fallen to him in life.
Well! if it be so, bless God for it. If the lot of the younger be toil
and struggle, if it falls to them mainly to open new paths, not without
peril and pain, to win by earnest and patient effort strength and
wisdom, and to take the leader's place in the battle-field of life,
don't moan over it if it has fallen to you, but again I say bless God
for it. The nobler, the richer, the lordlier inheritance, is yours.
Pity, do not despise, but pity the elders who sit clothed in purple and
fine linen, faring sumptuously every day. It would be a strange history
if it were fairly written out, the history of younger sons, with a just
estimate of what they have done in comparison with the elder for the
service and progress of mankind. The eldest born, the heirs, with the
inheritance which the past has lazily left to them; the younger sons,
with the domain of wisdom, strength, and influence, which their own
right hand, God helping them, has won. If Jacob seems to you the petted
child of fortune, the chosen favourite of heaven, and Esau the wretched
reprobate outcast, spurned alike of man and of God, then take Jacob's
inheritance; take it, it is fairly yours. Spurn Esau's, which the devil
is putting into your hand. Be your choice the pilgrim's toils and
struggles, the name of renown, the everlasting portion; and with the
words of the pilgrim's hymn upon your lips pass on your way.

"Contented now upon my thigh
I halt, till life's short journey end;
All helplessness, all weakness, I
On Thee alone for strength depend;
Nor have I power from Thee to move;
Thy nature and Thy name is Love.

Lame as I am, I take the prey;
Hell, earth, and sin, with ease o'ercome;
I leap for joy, pursue my way,
And, as a bounding hart, fly home;
Through all eternity to prove
Thy nature and Thy name is Love."

VI.

NO PLACE OF REPENTANCE.

"He found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully
with tears."--HEB. xii. 17.

We have shown in the last discourse that a close examination of the
question of the birthright lightens some of the deeper shadows which lie
upon it. Comparing the outward and visible aspect of the two men--the
man who sold the birthright and lost the blessing, and the man who won
them both--