THERE are two stories in the Old Testament which excite our sympathy by their description of purely human sorrow and suffering : the story of Hagar and Ishmael, and the story of Esau. Who has not felt for the poor bondwoman when, as the Bible tells us, * she went and sat down over against him a good way off, as it were a bowshot ; for she said, Let me not look on the death of the child'? The water in the bottle was spent, and they were wandering in the desert of Beersheba. Then followed the angel's miraculous aid, and the promise of God : ' I will make him a great nation - And God was with the lad, and he grew ; and he dwelt in the wilderness, and became an archer.'