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40 manners, ready courage, he disappeared in the wilderness; he lived a wandering sheik of the desert; he left no mark in history;” he fought no battle for any good cause. Poor Esau! He did not frankly abandon the flesh and take up with the spirit; he could not “scorn delights to live laborious days,” and was *rejected*, as all such men are. For men of the spirit always, in the long-run, beat men of the flesh in making their way to fame, or fortune, or the Promised Land, or handing down a covenant blessing. Abraham prayed, as Matthew Arnold said, “that Ishmael might stand before the Lord”—that is, succeed him. But no. Not the brilliant and audacious Ishmael, but the homely and humble Isaac is the child of promise, continues the good work, and is the favorite of God; for Ishmael was a man of the senses, but Isaac a man of the soul. So Isaac loved Esau, and would have preferred him; but God gave the blessing to Jacob, for, with all his faults, he was a