The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1906-01-28
Jacob At Iabbock.

| N''SiSSeC0 lOI lIlo liiiiSS-iD'oposSA'i
And He said Thy name shall be called
no more Jacob, but Israel: For ns n
prince hast thou power with God and
men. and hast prevailed. And Jncob
asked Him, and said, Tell me, pray
Thee, Thy name. And He said Where
fore is 1t that thou dost ask after my
name? And He blessed him there"--
Gen. xxi: %, 20.
Twenty years before Jacob had been
guilty OF deliberate sin. Ho had
grossly deceived his old blind father and
ovorreached his twin brother Never
during all those long years had he seen
the man whom he had so cruelty wrongcd.
But now. on tho point OF returning home.
news Is brought which made meeting
inevitable. Jacob prepared himself for
the worst. He sent his family across
the brook JabbocR. whlo he was left
alone In the still. dark night.
1t was q moment when crisis was
felt to be at hand. All had been done
that foresight could devise, and the hour
of action being past, tho instant of re-
action had come Tho soul was left
passive and helpless. gazing face to face
upon the approaching and. fateful future.
1t Is In moments like these that there
comes n strange and nameless dread. n
humble feeling OF insecurity, which
forces us TO grope into the yawnng
abyss for something stronger than flesh
and blood upon which to lean.
In thnt dread hour Jacob felt as never
before the dark deceit and mystery of
existence. This was not the first time
that Jacobs soul had found itself face
to face with God Twenty years before.
when fleeing from his home, he had seen
in vision ladder reared against the
sky, and angels ascending and descend
ing upon 1t. Fresh from his sin God had
met him In tenderness and forgiveness.
Jacob then bound himself to serve his
fathers God, and vowed to consecrute
his heart and life to Jehovah.
But that was In the long ago. and now
after all these years God met him vlsibly
again, but oh. how different. 1t was no
longer God. the Forgiven, the Protector.
the God OF Love that met Jacob, but God
the Awful. the Unnamable at whose
touch the mortal shrinks and shrivels
up. We would naturally expect first the
storm-struggleyo Fthe soul and then the
vision of peace. But 1t was exactly the
reverse.
And this is proved true by our own
experience. The awful feelings about
life and God are not those which char
acterize our earliest years. Joy attends
us in our childhood. and even sin is not
that crushing thing In youth which 1t
becomes in later life. 1t is. as life ma
lures, that the weight of life and its
burden and mystery are felt and op.
press us.
The end and aim of Jacobs struggle
was to know the name of God. This
desire seems strange to us on such an
occasion. Jacob is alone; his past rises
up before him in condemnation; his
Justly angered brother is coming on
apace to meet him. His soul is in
agony about 1t, and we should expect
that would be the subject and burden
of his prayer. No such thing
Not word about Esau or his long
forgotten sin. nor even his own personal
danger. MOI No! No! To be blessed by
God. to know Him and what He is. THAT
was the battle of Jacobs soul from sun
set until the dawn Of day. And this is
~. ~ olJ 70
1t was revealed by awe. Out OF the
darkness and mystery and terror He
spoke to Jacobs soul. In that solitary
hour, In the silent vague darkness, the
Awful One drew near
Jacob had requested two things. lie
asked for a blessing and he prayed to
know the name of God And God gave
him the blessing. but, refused to tell HIS
name Why? Names have a power a
strange power of sometimes hiding God.
If Jacob had got a word that word.
might have satisfied him, and yet tho
mystery would be as great as before.
In the education OF n child the wise
plan is to deal with him as God dealt
with His pupil, tho chlld-mnn Jacob.
Gods plan was not to give a name or
words, but n truth. That night Jacob
felt the Infinite, who is moro truly felt
when least named. Words would have
reduced that 10 finite. For OH! to know
about God. Is one thing; to know the
living God is quito another. A long,
long life will not exhaust tho meaning
of the name of God. Feel Him but once.
and then moro and pore all else is but
Tho effect of this revelation was to
change Jacobs character utterly. His
name was changed because henceforth
he was an altered man, There had been
something cunning and crafty about him.
| which now forever Disappeared, He be-
-came real at once when brought into
/ contact with the living God There IL