Trying as might be the long journey, and uncertain as seemed the issue, no inferior motives were allowed to be put in competition with the perpetuity of the worship and knowledge of God.  A connection with any of the families of the Canaanites would have been at once ensnaring to the household of Abraham and injurious in its influence upon the heart of Isaac.  Had Isaac married the daughter of an idolater, irreligion and immorality would soon have pervaded the family of the patriarch, and the knowledge of the true God have departed from the earth.  Thus the beacon light of nations had been extinguished, and the last altar erected to Jehovah had been broken down:  for the other descendants of Shem were fast departing from the God of their fathers,—­and if the children of Keturah and Ishmael for a period retained the faith of Abraham, the torch which kindled the fire on their altars was lighted at that which was kept burning on those of Isaac and Jacob, and the example of their families preserved alive the remembrance and the acts of the living God in the nations around them.

With a train which became the suitor of a prince, with costly presents of gold and ornaments according to the custom of both ancient and modern days, but more particularly conforming to Eastern usage, the confidential servant of Abraham was sent on his embassy to the kindred of his master, there to receive a bride for the son of the patriarch.  We gain a delightful impression both of the piety and intelligence of the household of Abraham from the account of the messenger to whom this important transaction was intrusted.  The faith of the patriarch animated the other members of his household, and a strong chain of love encircled all.  After a long journey, the train reached the plains of Mesopotamia, and then the tents of Nahor appeared in view; and then, in the prospect of the immediate discharge of his commission, the messenger of the patriarch sought explicit direction from the God of Abraham.

While the description of the interview at the fountain, “without the gate of the city,” gives a most beautiful view of the manners of the age and the people, and an unsurpassed picture of the freshness and simplicity of pastoral life, it proves at once the piety and the clear discrimination of the agent employed.  The beauty of the youthful Rebekah caught his eye, while the test he devised afforded a safe criterion of the character of the woman.  Weary with the labours of the sultry day, after tending her own flocks, had she been indolent or inactive, selfish or sullen, she had turned from his request, and suffered his attendants to administer to his wants.  But as she looked upon them—­dusty, weary, parched by thirst, worn down by long travel—­the sympathies of a kind nature were awakened, as the servant ran to meet her, saying, “Let me, I pray thee, drink a little water from thy pitcher.”  She said, “Drink, my lord,” and she let down the pitcher upon her hand and gave him to drink;