84 BOYS OF THE BIBLE.

came a time when Esau would have bought back that birth-
right, but it was too late. He sought, but found not.
He found no place of repentance, though he sought it dili-
gently and with tears. ‘There are some stern facts that we
should be brave enough to face like men, and here is one:
You can never buy back the sacred things you sell. If for
the delight of an hour we are fools enough to sell some
golden opportunity, we can never buy it back; not with a
mint of gold, or a whirlwind of sighs, or a river of tears!
Once gone, gone forever! Though we may search diligently
and with tears, the crooked can not be made straight. ‘The
golden hours of time squandered upon folly can never be
recalled, though, like the dying queen, we should offer
millions of dollars for a moment of time. We can not turn
the sunshade back upon the dial, the water that is spilt on
the ground God will take care of, but we can never gather
it up again. The young man who sells health for dissipa-
tion, and barters the birthright of a noble manhood for the
painted bubbles of passing pleasure, may go tottering on to
a gray old age, searching with tears for his lost treasures,
but his search will be all in vain.

And now we turn again to Jacob. He had the birth-
right and the blessing; he had also the fixed, firm hatred of
Esau. His only safety was in flight, and so the supplanter
became a wanderer and a fugitive. In fear and terror he fled
from his father’s house, and as he went he heard the voice of
his father Isaac for the last time, and happily the last words
were words of blessing. And this was the parting benediction
that Isaac breathed upon his wandering son

“And Isaac called: Jacob, and blessed him, and charged
him, and said unto him, Thou shalt not take a wife of the
daughters of Canaan. Arise, go to Padan-aram, to the house