(_a_) The Present _versus_ The Future.
Suppose it true that to both brothers the birthright seemed to secure
merely material advantage, yet even so the better part would have been
to sacrifice material present for material future. Even on plane of
worldly things, to live for to-morrow ennobles a man, and he is the
higher style of man who 'spurns delights and lives laborious days' for
some issue to be realised in the far future.
The very same principle extended leads to the conviction that the
highest wisdom is his who lives for the furthest, which is also the
most certain, Future.
(_b_) The Seen _versus_ The Unseen.
However material the advantages of the birthright were supposed to be,
they _then_ appealed to imagination, not sense. _There_ was the pottage
in the pan: 'I can see that and smell it. This birthright, can I eat
_it_? Let me get the solid realities, and let who will have the
imaginary.'
So the unseen good things, such as intellectual culture, fair
reputation, and the like, are better than the gross satisfactions that
can be handled, or tasted, or seen.
And, on the very same principle, high above the seeker after these--as
high as he is above the drunkard--is the Christian, whose life is
shaped by the loftiest Unseen, even 'Him who is invisible.'