FIRST COMMUNION.

HE old old story of Jacob's ladder, carrying us back to the picture Bibles of our

childhood, wherein with mystery and delight we surveyed the sleeping form under the stars at Bethel, and traced the golden staircase linking earth and heaven, and wished that such dreams might be ours also. And we saw not then that which the ladder of glory showed forth; nor knew then that the vision is still accomplished in the sight of strangers in the land and of wayfaring men that turn aside to tarry for a night; nor understood that, secretly and unseen, monuments are even now raised beside life's pathways, marking, as mile-stones, the road which leads onward, and at last, by however long a course, to the Father's house.

Not on Israel's individual history, but beside his memorial pillars, would we linger; nor seek to recall the story of those earlier days of his which less concern ourselves. And first, beside the stone from among "the stones of that place which marked the spot consecrated in one night house of God and the gate of heaven."

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It is not revealed to us whether he, the possessor of the patriarchal birthright, as he lay alone after "the sun was set," recalled how that in other days this ground had been trodden by his ancestral feet who had come forth from the far country whither now his own way was tending. We know not whether, under the shadow of the mountain "having Bethel to the east and Hai to the west," he lifted up his eyes to the place where, a century and a half before, Abram, having received the charter and the covenant conveying to him and to his seed for ever the title to the land, had built an altar and called upon the name of the Lord. We know not whether the heir to that royal inheritance, now about to become an alien and a stranger in a strange land, realised that he, the successor of Abram and future lord of the soil,

trod the territory whereof the birthright conferred the title-deeds, and whereof the choice had first been made from hence. We know not whether with any special significancy this spot, whence from among the idolatries of Canaan the flame of sacrifice had by the father of the faithful been made to ascend, was chosen as that where the promise should be handed down to the third generation of a Seed in whom all families of the earth should be blessed, and Who in each sacrifice was evidently shown forth.

Coincidences

These things may have been. of locality, brought about by no chance circumstances, suggest to the thoughtful student of the word of God many a connecting link in His operations and dealings with men which lie not. on the surface of its sacred pages. At least we know that at Bethel God for the last time proclaimed Himself the God of Abraham and of Isaac alone. After the "I am with thee" wherewith the thread of Jacob's life was taken up into the covenant-hand of the Almighty, his name was solemnly appended to that grandest of family archives which for ever associated the names of three men with that of their Maker. The procla

Not on Israel's individual history, but beside his memorial pillars, would we linger; nor seek to recall the story of those earlier days of his which less concern ourselves. And first, beside the stone from among "the stones of that place" which marked the spot consecrated in one night as "the house of God and the gate of heaven."

It is not revealed to us whether he, the possessor of the patriarchal birthright, as he lay alone after" the sun was set," recalled how that in other days this ground had been trodden by his ancestral feet who had come forth from the far country whither now his own way was tending. We know not whether, under the shadow of the mountain "having Bethel to the east and Hai to the west," he lifted up his eyes to the place where, a century and a half before, Abram, having received the charter and the covenant conveying to him and to his seed for ever the title to the land, had built an altar and called upon the name of the Lord. We know not whether the heir to that royal inheritance, now about to become an alien and a stranger in a strange land, realised that he, the successor of Abram and futu lord of the soil,

trod the territory whereof the birthright conferred the title-deeds, and whereof the choice had first been made from hence. We know not whether with any special significancy this spot, whence from among the idolatries of Canaan the flame of sacrifice had by the father of the faithful been made to ascend, was chosen as that where the promise should be handed down to the third generation of a Seed in whom all families of the earth should be blessed, and Who in each sacrifice was evidently shown forth.

Coincidences

These things may have been. of locality, brought about by no chance circumstances, suggest to the thoughtful student of the word of God many a connecting link in His operations and dealings with men which lie not on the surface of its sacred pages. At least we know that at Bethel God for the last time proclaimed Himself the God of Abraham and of Isaac alone. After the "I am with thee" wherewith the thread of Jacob's life was taken up into the covenant-hand of the Almighty, his name was solemnly appended to that grandest of family archives which for ever associated the names of three men with that of their Maker. The procla