The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-04-15


 And Jacob loved Rachel; and Jacob served seven years for Rachel; and they seemed unto him but few days, for the lave he had to her."-Genesis 29:1S-2C.
 As read these words I uncover my head at the memory and stand in rev. erence in the presence of this man Ja- cob. Hitherto I Lave not stood uncov- cred before him. When I read of his purchase of the birthright from his hungry brother for a dinner of pottage, l despise his greed and dishonesty; when l read of his deception of his aged father to obtain a blessing, ab- hor his mendacity and his probable justification of the same on the prin- ciple that the end justifies the means; when l read of his dream at Bethel and his VOW to give God a portion of his wealtGl l recognize the religion ele- ment in his nature, but perceive it's worldly quality in his conception of God as chiefly the giver of material good and his own worship as material in form; but when I read the record of his love for Rachel, see in him a passion and a power by which he may be redeemed and made noble How shall a man be redeemed from selfshness, appetite, lust, avarice and that attitude of mind towards his fellowmen which may issue in forgetfulness or in unkindness and cruelty? Change his environment, says the modern sociologist. Give him clean streets and an ample dwelling; flood his house with sunlight and i'll 1t with pure air; hang pictures before him and let sweet music speak to his soul. Yes, environment may do something. But King David looking from the roof of his palace upon Bathsheba in an ad- joiningcourtyard and sending an invi- tation to his neighbours wife that he may seduce her; Nero surrounded by all that imperial Rome could give in beauty and in music and living a beastly life; Henry the Eighth of Eng land denying that the pope is head of the church and claiming for himself headship of a portion of the church that he may make religion serve as an instrument in divorcing and beheading his wives that he may marry others; and numberless other men of similar advantages, deny the potency of physi- cal or social environment to purify the heart or perfect the life. How shall a man be redeemed from that appetite which would eat what it desires, from that lust which would gratify it's long ing, from that avarice which would call the world it's own and from that am- bition which would rise by casting oth- CTS down? Educate his mind, say some Train the mind to think and fill it with information. Yes, education will do something for men. But arr lists who have seen beauty and poets who have had visions of truth and honor and countless others of cultiva- ted mind but of debased morals. deny l the power of education to redeem. How shall a man be redeemed from | selfishness, the source and fountain of sins? Make him lover, says the Bi- ble. Love is of God. Every one who l loveth knoweth God. Love is q pas sion, a sentiment a principle, and men in every station of life, Jocob the shep- | herd, Raphael the artist, Dante the poet and Jonathan Edwards the preacher, all witness to the power of a pure love. If passion is not saturated with sentiment and exalted into a prin- l ciple to control conduct 1t becomes a fire to consume. Nothing is sadder than to see passion which should be sacrificed burning itself out and leav- ing only the dead ashes of what should | have been flower radiant with beauty and fragrant with sweetness. But love, if it be pure, redeems. Hitherto Jacob | has lived for himself; henceforth he learns to live for others. He has trav- eled on foot some hundreds of miles over the rough and rocky mountains of Judea along the valley of the Jor- dan, across the wide, dreary plain tc Mesopotamia, and at last, foot-sore
 weary and dusty, he halts near Haran | by well where certain shepherds have gathered their flocks. Know ye a man named Laban?" he tsks the shepherds Yes they reply. And wonder comes his daughter with his flock. "And NIGtl JeiCOD SdW RdCllel III lllG lHIlO' cence of childhood, the grace of youth the charm of budding womanhood
 with the flush of life's morning in hel cheek and the light of tender love ir her eyes, new passion awoke in his breast, "and he rolled the stone from the wells mouth and watered the flock of Laban,' and, so far as the re. cord shows, for the first time in his life, rendered a service not for himself but for another. This man who hither. to would deceive his father, accept the service of his mother, defraud his brother and even look upon God witt reference to what God might give him learns for the first time to think wha
 he may do for another and to live no
 unto himself. A little later, when La
 ban asks him the wages for which hC will serve he answers, q will serve thee seven years for Rachel, thy daughter" And they seemed untt him but few days, for the love h, had to her" Any man who can lov, like that, reverently, chastely, patient ly, purely, has in him the possibility of a great manhood. Out of sexua
 love, perverted and debased, hay, sprung many of the sins and suffering
 and sorrows of mankind. Out of thu
 same love, purified and perfected, hay,
 come the sweetness and strength ant
 sanctity of human life. Such was tn
 love of Jacob. He breathed after Ra
 chel,' say the Hebrew scriptures; bu
 he learned to breath for her in that h
 lived for her. In this he is a type O 1 the race, The savage man makes tn,
 woman his slave; the barbarous mal
 lays on her the heavier burden; bu
 the course of civilization, which is tn
 broad current of human history, il