" The land was not able to bear them"-Abraham and Lot. " Go from us; thou are mightier than we," said the Philistines to Isaac. " The land wherein they were strangers could not hold them, because of their cattle "-Esau and Jacob.

Why should that land which held without being burdened the teaming populations of David and Solomon's time be unable to support two men ? Doubtless, they did not do much in the way of cultivating the soil, and its natural yield of grass might be exhausted by the numerous number of cattle they kept. This is said to be so in the case of Jacob and Esau, and intimated in that of Abraham and Lot. But spiritually the meaning for us is plain. Abraham was the man of faith; Lot, the man of sight. Jacob, with all his follies, prized the birthright of God's blessing, while Esau despised the one and really did not care for the other. With Isaac the case is plain. There was, then, nothing in heart common between these men, and so their ways of necessity parted.

So it is to-day. The spiritual and carnal Christian can no more walk together than could Abraham and Lot. There will be abundant opportunity for this heart-divergence to crop out. One cause is as good as another. "How can two walk together except they be agreed ? " Here is the root of much schism among Christians. Some are spiritual and some walk as men.

Nor can the flesh and spirit be welded together, whether it be the rough self-will of Esau, or the professed obedience of the Philistine. One must give place to the other :which shall be master ?

But the land, thank God, will bear all who have the heart to live on it. Its hills and valleys will yield the " finest of the wheat," its very rocks give honey. If there are partings and separations, let us be sure the cause is in ourselves, not in the Christian position.

The Lord give us one heart to prove the fertility of the land He has given us to sustain all His people.