g him this comfort in his old age.

Ther may no man love bettyr his childe,
Than Isaac is lovyd of me;
Almyghty God, mercyful and mylde,
ffor my swete son I wurchyp the!
I thank the, Lord, with hert ful fre,
ffor this fayr frute thou hast me sent.
Now, gracyous God, wher so he be,
To save my sone evyr more be bent.

'To save my sone'--that is the petition of his full heart on the eve of
his trial. Almost at once the command comes, to kill the well-beloved as
an offering to his Giver. And Abraham bows low in heartbroken obedience.
Well may the child say, as he trots by the old man's side with a bundle
of faggots on his shoulder, and looks up wonderingly at the wrinkled
face drawn and blanched with anguish, 'ffayr fadyr, ye go ryght stylle;
I pray yow, fadyr, speke onto me.' At such a time a man does well to
bind his tongue with silence. Yet when at last the secret is confessed,
it finds the lad's spirit brave to meet his fate. Perhaps the writer had
read, not long before, of the steadfastness with which children met
persecution in the days of the Early Christian Church. For he gives us,
in Isaac, a boy ready to die if his father wills it so, happy to
strengthen that will by cheerful resignation if God's command is behind
it. At the rough altar's side Abraham's resolution fails him; from his
lips bursts the half-veiled protest, 'The ffadyr to sle the sone! My
hert doth clynge and cleve as clay'. But the lad encourages him, bidding
him strike quickly, yet adding sympathetically that his father should
turn his face away as he smites. The conquest is won. Love and duty
conflict no longer. Only two simple acts remain for love's performance:
'My swete sone, thi mouth I kys'; and when that last embrace is over,
'With this kerchere I kure (_cover_) thi face', so that the priest may
not see the victim's agony. Then duty raises the knife aloft, and as it
pauses in the air before its fearful descent the Angel speaks--and
saves.

The moving character of the opening, leading up to the sudden
catastrophe and, by its tragic contrast with what follows, throwing a
vivid ray into the very centre and soul of that wonderful trial of
faith; the natural sequence and diversity of emotions, love, pride,
thankfulness, horror, submission, grief, resolution, and final joy and
gratitude following each other like light and shadow; the little
touches, the suggestion to turn the face aside, the last kiss, t