ABRAHAM OFFERING ISAAC.

GOD sometimes visits those he loves with suffering, that he may prove their faith in him; and for this reason he put the good Abraham to a severe trial. The patriarch dearly loved his son Isaac, who had grown to be a noble youth; and the Lord commanded him to take the lad into the land of Moriah, and sacrifice him there upon one of the mountains. This command was a heavy blow to the heart of the father; but it was God's will, and he prepared submissively to obey it.

Having arrived at the mountain, the unhappy Abraham revealed to his son the command of the Lord, and the dreadful fate which awaited him. The brave and loving boy submitted without repining; and the father, having bound his son, laid him upon the wooden altar erected to burn his tender limbs to ashes, and raised in the air the gleaming weapon which was to shed his innocent blood.

But God did not intend so terrible a sacrifice; he had proved the heart of the father, and found him indeed faithful; and before the knife descended, he sent an angel to arrest the hand of Abraham. Then the patriarch raised his eyes, and found a ram caught in a thicket by its horns, and he offered up the ram as a sacrifice instead of his son. And the Lord blessed Abraham for his faithfulness, and promised that his descendants should be as numerous as the stars of heaven, or the sands upon the sea-shore. Let this affecting incident teach you, in the saddest hours and darkest misfortunes, to place your trust in the mercy of an all-powerful and ever-present God.