furthest from the entrance, being the narrowest, measuring about 15 feet, the other two respectively 25 and 30 feet. On the floor of the mosque and of adjoining buildings are six large cenotaphs, which are not the actual tombs of the personages whose names they bear, but are supposed to stand vertically over their graves. Each is inclosed within a separate chapel, guarded by doors inlaid with brasswork, and they are covered with richly embroidered silk hangings, and have cloths hung as canopies above them. The shrines of Abraham and Sarah occupy octagonal chapels in the double porch or narthex before the doors; those of Isaac and Rebekah are within the church; those of Jacob and Leah are placed in chambers near the north end of the Haram. But these cenotaphs are of comparatively little interest. The most important feature is the great cave beneath the floor of the inclosure, which contains the real sepulchres of the patriarchs and their wives. This, which is the veritable cave of Machpelah, has never been beheld by Christian eyes, at any rate in modern times, or trodden by Christian feet. No firman of Sultan could authorize the intrusion of infidels into this thrice-hallowed spot. What has been discovered hitherto is this. The cave below the pavement of the mosque is said to be double, as the versions always call it, and as it was termed in the Middle Ages, spelunca duplex. There are only three known entrances to it, which are never now opened, and could only be reached by breaking up the flags of the flooring, a proceeding which would be considered sacrilege by the Moslem custodians. One entrance is closed with stone slabs clamped with iron, and covered with a small cupola supported on four slender pillars. This entrance is supposed to lead into the western cave, where-or in the inner cave-the remains of the patriarchs are reputed to lie. The entrance to the eastern cave is a little to the north-east of the other just mentioned, and is also covered with flagging forming the floor of the church. The third opening is close to the west wall of the building, and is different from the others, being a kind of shaft rising above the floor, and closed with a stone like a native well. The hole in this stone cover is about a foot in diameter at the mouth, but becomes larger as it descends, and would probably be found to be of sufficient dimensions to admit of a man being lowered through it by a rope. At the last visit of our English princes, a lamp was let down, by means of which a

f

partial view of the chamber below was obtained. It is about 12 feet square, and its floor is some 15 feet beneath the roof; but whether the walls are of solid rock could not be ascertained, as they were covered with plaster. On the south-east side is a square-headed doorway, which seemed to be the only visible access to the chamber, and which from all appearances opened originally into the cave, to which this room formed the antechamber. Captain Conder's verdict is this: The cave probably resembles many of the rock-cut sepulchres of Palestine, with a square ante-chamber carefully quarried, and two interior sepulchral chambers, to which access has been made at a later period through the roofs. It is, however, possible that the antechamber may be a later addition, and partly built of masonry. Colonel Wilson believes that the original entrance was opposite to the doorway in this chamber, and that it is now concealed by the wall of the building known as Joseph's Tomb,' which was erected about the end of the fourteenth Christian century. The only visitor to the cave who has left a credible account of his examination is Benjamin of Tudela, mentioned above, who, A.D. 1163, during the Christian occupation of the Holy Land, inspected the whole building. He writes that the Gentiles have erected six cenotaphs here, which Christian pilgrims are told are the sepulchres of the three patriarchs and their wives. But Jews, on the payment of an additional fee, are admitted to a further view. Furnished with a lighted candle, they pass by an iron door into a first cave which is empty; traverse a second in the same state, and at last reach a third which contains six sepulchres-those of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and of Sarah, Rebekah and Leah, one opposite the other. scriptions in Hebrew characters, such asAbraham our father; upon him be peace." are probably of no great antiquity.) In the burns continually night and day, and there are numbers of tubs or arks (osteophagi), filled with the bones of Israelites, brought there by pious friends to be at rest in this sacred spot. All this account may be only hearsay, but in the absence of other information, it may be taken for what it is deemed worth. For six or seven centuries no one is known to have entered the When modern curiosity is satisfied, it is far from improbable that, although no vestiges of five of the bodies there "Survey Memoirs," iii. 346.

cavern.

66

All these bear inThis is the tomb of (These inscriptions inner cave a lamp

interred may be found, the embalmed mummy of Jacob may exist in a state of as perfect preservation as that of any Pharaoh in Egypt of like, or even greater antiquity.

Was this care of the earthly remains of the departed dictated by any belief in the resurrection of the body? That Abraham believed in the life beyond the grave cannot be doubted for a moment. The writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews (chap. xi) testifies that no transitory promises satisfied the aspirations of the old patriarchs; they looked for a city which hath foundations laid by God; they desired a better, that is, a heavenly country; they had respect unto the recompense of reward. The tradition of Enoch's translation had been handed down by Shem to his posterity. The story of Abel's death must have had a lesson to teach on this subject. God would never have permitted one who was acting with His express approval to suffer a cruel death, while his murderer was allowed to live and prosper, if body and soul were not to be compensated by a future life. No reflective mind could have conceived that such special dealings with God as had been the privilege of Abraham, could be bounded by this short earthly life. The oft-repeated expressions of "going to his fathers," "being gathered unto his people,” imply a belief in the continual existence of the soul-not merely that the mortal frame was consigned to the common tomb of a man's ancestors; for Abraham, of whom the latter phrase is used (Gen. xxv. 8), was buried far from his native place, in the cave of Machpelah, where none but his wife Sarah lay. And though the expression may be attributed to Moses, yet we have no reason to believe that he had had any special revelation concerning the future life which was denied to his great forefather. In Egypt Abraham found a people, sunk in idolatry, yet believing in a life beyond the grave where souls were judged, and received reward or punishment. Here, too, he saw that regard for the dead body, which led to its careful embalming, and to the solicitude shown to make it retain the outward appearance of the living form, arising from the notion that it should one day receive again the vital spark. Abraham could not have been inferior to the Egyptians in his knowledge of the immortality of the soul, and the re-animation of the body. What the Jews in later days believed on this great subject, without any further revelation, that the patriarchs held. When our Lord, in proof of the immortality of the soul and the resurrection of the body, alleged

the fact that God called Himself the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, He was using an argument in accord with Jewish thought; He was appealing to a truth which the Hebrew Scriptures taught, viz., that after death the souls of the faithful were in God's keeping still, and that in some way He would in good time perfect their personality. The man is not soul only, or body only; he is body and soul united in one person; and if God is the God of Abraham and of the patriarchs, long dead, He is the God of their whole selves, which must look forward to a restoration "to their complex condition." Abraham had full confidence in God's power, and, when he laid his son on the altar, accounted that the Lord, whom he trusted, could raise the dead. We may conclude, that in depositing the body of his beloved wife in the grave, he trusted her soul to God, and looked for a joyful resurrection.

CHAPTER XIV.

ISAAC'S MARRIAGE,

Choice of wife for Isaac-The steward's mission-His promise and oath ; arrival at Haran; simple faith-The sign-Rebekah-Laban-Consent obtained-Rebekah accompanies the steward-Bethuel-Meeting of Isaac and Rebekah-Marriage--Esau and Jacob born-Contrast of the twins.

THE gap in the home circle made by Sarah's death was not quickly filled. Her son's loving, gentle spirit felt deeply the loss of his tender mother, and the third year found him still nursing his quiet sorrow, and dwelling with tender melancholy on her virtues. Then Abraham thought it time to rouse him to new interests. Isaac was now forty years old, and yet had never contemplated marriage, or considered how the great promise made to his father's seed was to be fulfilled. Abraham, however, was not forgetful of this, and he cast in his mind how he could find a fitting wife for his cherished heir. The choice was, in his view, limited. He could not ally his family to any of the idolatrous tribes around him; religious motives forbade such contamination; while the strong prejudices of his country and his race disposed him to find a bride for his son in some member of his own family. The ties of clanship are to this day maintained among the nomads of the desert by the intermarriage of blood relations. Abraham had had tidings of the settlers in Haran some time ago; his brother Nahor had twelve sons, and one of these sons, Bethuel, was the father of a daughter named Rebekah. Thinking then of this family growing up in his old home, Abraham determines to seek for his son's wife in that quarter. The sacred history gives a full account of this, trans