The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-04-22
HOW JACOBS BECOME ISRAELS, WAS THEME The Modern Business World is
 Full of Jacobs SUPPLANTERS OF PEOPLE I've Want a Revival Which Will Convert Men in Their Business Methods" Says pr. Dick
 nson.
SUPPLANTERS OF PEOPLE

The Rev. Dr. A. J. Dickinson preached at the First Baptist church yesterday morning on the subject of How Jacobs Get To Be Israels." taking his text from the twenty-eighth verse of the thirty second chapter of Genises, as follows:
 Thy name shall be called no more Jacob (supplanter), but Israel God s Struggler); for thou hast struggled with God and man, and hast prevailed"
 pr. Dickinson spoke in part as fol- lows:
 The first seventy-five years of the life of Jacob was spent getting for himself mission in life worthy of his pious am' bition. In his day there was no higher position in life than to be the heir to the promise to Abraham and his de- scendants, and here Esau by a mere &C., cident of birth stood in his way.
 So the problem of his first seventy-1ve years was to supplant Esau, who was showing himself both unappreclative and unfit for the high calling. He spent more than half of his life getting the oppor- tunity to be somebody in the world's s history. Then after he had gotten his right to the position he coveted, he spent twenty years fitting himself for 1t in the land of Harran by getting himself a family and q fortune.
 He was about 96 years old when he fed from his father-in-law, Laban, to enter upon his llfe's mission in the promised land of Canaan as the head of the clan and sheikdom of Abraham.
 When he returned he found Isaac still living at the old age of 156. Esau had left the land of Canaan, and migrated to Seir to live with the Horite tribes, into which he had married; and was living the wild life of the Bedowin with his band of 400 men. The boy hunter has rlpened into a land pirate, and is both unfit and unwilling to head a clan whose life mis- sion was the growing of a civilized and religious society for the blessing of itself and all humanity.
 Esau's Lack of Appreciation.
 Two things must be kept in mind as you read these narratives concerning Esau and Jacob contending over the heritage of the Abrahamic clan. First that Esau did not appreciate it nor want it. but sold it for a mess of pottage, and finally went off and left it. Secondly, that Jacob valued it very highly wanted 1t and finally paid Esau all he asked for it and more. Esau the hunter was not willing to go through the struggle to fit himself for it, as prince before God and men; but Jacob the shepherd was.
 It is the old struggle of the fit to sup plant the unfit In the possession of the opportunities of life. and the Attest comes out victorious.
 But it takes more than a family and a fortune to administer the affairs Of clan which has in trust the culture of society which shall grow into nation blessing both itself and all other nations. It takes more than a Jacob to be the heir to the father of the faithful and his successor in the culture of life which should bless the world with the blessings wherewth 1t Is itself blessed. No mere supplanter and money getter can do that Material possessions and so- cial position cannot suffice for work like that. It takes more man than money for such a work in the world In strug- gle like that one must grapple with prob lens human and divine. and be able to come out victor.
 Thus it seemed to Jacob as he stood on the banks of lubbock, with his face to- wards the promised land of Canaan. Across that brook he saw the problem of meeting Esau the angered Bedowin broth er and appeasing his wrath; the problem of getting a foothold in the promised land which Isaac had deserted because of the preference for the more fertile and well watered oasis at Beersheba; the problem of re-establishing the worship of Jehovah at Bethel as he had vowed. It will take the bravery, shrewdness, tact and talent of the most princely man to do all this.
 The opportunity has come, but is the man equal to it? To meet this situation requires one who can prevail with God and with men. No mere Jacob is equal to such an occasion and Its opportunities. Such was his prospect as he stood on the banks of the Jabbock looking towards the land to which Jehovah had bidden him come in the discharge of his life mission. and trembling with fear and dis tress over the coming of his piratical Be- down brother with his band.
 | He resolved that he would take up the matter with God of his clan, to whose work he had devoted himself and thrust all to his leading. So he prayed over the l situation, and then marshalled all his l manly resources and good common sense and provided for the coming contests. Having mapped out his progress and sta | toned his droves of cattle to appease the wrath of Esau ere he came face to face with him. he fell asleep by the Jabbocs. Jacobs Dream.
 1 In his dreams there came an athlete | who personified the forces in the strug- gle of life. human and divine, and grap- | pled with him to subdue him. All night | long they wrestle without an issue until | day began to dawn, when the antagonist | asked for release ere the day break. But Jacob did not permit any struggle of life to be tie, nor be stopped until he had won the victory. So when the athlete said let me go for the day is breaking. he replied that the only con- dition upon which he would stop the con | language of the game unless his antag- onist surrendered and gave him the vic | tors blessing.
 | So the athlete said, What is thy I tIA TAx i,, thA al 11a,