The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1894-03-26

nice prayers, and sd TO myself, WISH
/ could pray like they do.'" He said That
they prayed pretty pious prayers, and ne
Just thought, " IL i could only pray IKE
that there might be some help Tor me-, me,
pray. just said, Jesus, can you help
me -" And he rose up saved man;
And l said, 4" What did the woman say
" Well, she Just said oh, God, have
lost my place, and fear will never get
back aud tho Lord saved her."
o that we might realize that God wants
transparent people, people whom he can
see right through There is no sort OIL
use--nay, il is an awful blasphemy and
crime. to go TO God with cry that is not
honest. do not mean 10 say that II was
not right for Jacob to turn 10 COG IN MS
fear, he ought TO turn TO God for an things.
lt was right TO turn TO God when lear
struck his heart, and il was because he
sought God at that time that God SAID, -
will give YOU something better than de-
liverance from Esau. 1 will not only give
you deliverance from Esau, but Will de-
liver YOU from Jacob" And God met him
and wrestled with him.
And then noticed that Jacob at last
realized his weakness. have heard this
account described as Wrestling Jacob"
lam sorry to say that that is somewhat
accurate account Of what took place.
have heard some people speak OF this as
though it was very notorious thing 10
wrestle with God. There is a sense in
which (as IL was with the man with the
unjust judge) by our very shamelessness
(for that is the very meaning OF the word
" importantly ~ we may lay hold OF all
that there is in God and draw ourselves
nearer and nearer to Him. But that vas
not what Jacob was doing in his wrestling.
Jacobs wrestling was criminal one. lie
could not have done worse thing. The
idea OF God wanting anyone to resist His
Will The idea OF trying TO keep God from
having His own way! This is the story OF
wrestling with Jehovah. 1t was not until
Jacob was cripple that the blessing OF
God could come to him. So long as Jacob
had any idea OF defending himself and ap
peasing the heart of Esau, the blessing of
God could not come TO him. IL was only
when his thigh was out of joint that the
blessing came to him. God did not want
to put his thigh out OF joint. He would
rather have blessed him when every faculty
and every physical power was in Its full
est development, but He had to put
Jacobs thigh out OF joint before he was
willing to receive what God wanted to
give him. The idea of a poor cripple
wrestling with God (! This was not a
strong man that wrestled with God, and
said, f" must have my way" And then
God replied, You cannot have
your way, Jacob" But Jacob said,
q God, must have my way" And then
God replied, Well, l will give up
now. You may have your way, Jacob"
That isn't the way to tell this story. This
is the story of a man who, when God met
him in response to his prayer, tried TO re-
sist God and had TO be discounted ana
come to the place where he could realize
that he must depend only upon God.
When his thigh was put out OF joint, even
so far as Esau was concerned, he hsd to
depend only upon God. III Esau should
come now and lay his vengeful hands
upon his enemy he could not even run.
He was in just the place, and his prayer
had just the spirit OF the hymn,
"other vefuge have none;
Hangs my helpless soul on Thee"
And Oh how God tries to bring us into
that place where we will depend only
upon Hint " My soul, wait thou only
upon God" What is there better pro-
vided for than little child? You are oil
the baby's servants and it is because the
weakness of the little one takes hold upon
our strength. Oh, / would to. God that
we might realize without having our
thighs put out Of joint! That we might
realize that We are nothing separated
from God and that with Him we may
be all il only we will let Him have His
way.
And then ! notice in the next place that
Jacob confessed his sin. There were two
things that used to puzzle me about
Jacobs interview with God. One was
how God could bless him without his
confessing his sin, for Jacob had sinned.
We read: |" He that covereth his sin
shall not prosper" Jacob had been
terrible sinner. / tried hard to find any
thing that you could call really "good"
about Jacobs life mp to this time. He
did seem to have some spasmodic transit
tory impressions that led him
~f.ft ed IN ft1rt ~
God for help. The other thing that
used to puzzle me was what tho angel
asked Jacob his name for. III he had
asked him when he first met him, IT might
have been an easy explanation. He said,
"What is thy name? Did he think that
possibly he had lain hold of Esau when
he meant to meet Jacob, or was he out on
a wrestling expedition and did not care
much who he wrestlod with? Why did he
wrestle with him all night and then say,
ssTell me thy name?n i think that both
these things that puzzled me are ex-
planned by the same fact, and that is that
the name among the Orientals indicates
character. The name of Jacobs father
was ''Isaacn, which meant "laughter," and
that name was given him because his
mother had said, "God hath made me TO
laugh" The name Jesus was given the
Saviour. ellis name shall be called Jesus,
because he shall save his people from their
sln." The simple hearted people OF our
own forests called members OF their tribes
by names that indicated some act sug-
gestive of their real character. And
Jacobs name was nota an accident. IL was
"a divincly given name, and described what
the man really was" Literally it meant
''Supplanter," or, in our vernacular,
"Swindlcr.v That exactly described him.
He had swindled his brother out of his
birthright and blessing. He had made a
good many vows, and one very serious
vow, that he had never kept. He went
and lived with his uncle and swindled
him. He practically stole from his uncle
his herds and fiocks by his miserable sub
terfuge. And at last when he ran away
from his unclc's house, although he did not
know at this time about his uncle's wife's
sin, he seems TO be practically protecting
her. never understood the character OF
Jacob until ] thought him as the typical
Israclitc. lie was "A man with marvellous
spiritual capacity, and yet he considered
the end without the means, as though the
end would always justify the means. lie
was a man who had in him the spiritual
qualities that could afterward produce
David, an Isaiah and a Paul, and yet he
was so mean that we find him swindling
almOat evorvhOdv wit "A whom he On mo i'm