The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1907-04-13
IN THE RELIGIOUS WORLD.
What the Church Folks Are Thinking About and Doing
Religious News From Everywhere

forgotten the vengeance vow of the
man whom he had so sorely defrauded.
Conscience doth make towards Of us
ALL" and 1t made a particularly fearful
coward of Jacob. Jacob was greatly
| afraid" He knew that Esau was q
fighting man and that he himself was
| an especially tirnorous mortal.
Jacob believed in letting his head
save his hide. On the assumption that
| Esau personffying trouble, awaited him
| ahead. The first went merely to an
nounce Jacobs prosperity, and to sue
for favor. These brought back dis
| quieting reports that Esau was coming
Jacob to the bone. With the prudent
self-interest which never forsook him,
| he first divided his company into two
sections SO the one at least might
escape. Then he fell to the ground in
| prayer. It takes trouble to make many
man look up. In this prayer. which
| Is quite a model, Jacob showed that he
was coming to a realizing sense of his
own unworthiness. Especially noticeable
is this petition in the way 1t pleaded
the promises of Jehovah and relied
upon the covenant. Evidently Jacob
was growing.
After prayer, activity. with calmer
spirit, Jacob arranged to appease Esau
He sent ahead rich presents in five in
stallments. These were to come upon
Esau cumulatively, to soften the wrath
which Jacob supposed he entertained.
Then by night he sent his wives and
children over the ford of the Jabbok,
having done all in his power to avert
calamity. As a matter of fact, the
whole experience was borrowed trouble.
Esau had not come with evil intent.
His nature was too simple and shallow
to harbor resentment long, and he met
his brother with kiss. But before the
meeting, which was accomplished by a
deal Of formalIty and kow-towing,
Jacob had a memorable experience
which forms the central theme of the
present lesson.
A Strange Struggle by Night.
In his hours Of loneliness, amid sur
roundings and circumstances which
made their appeal to the deeps of his
nature, nearly every man has eKper-
fences which shape his character. The
setting of this event, which proved to
be the turning point in Jacobs career,
was lonely, desolate, dramatic. Family
and followers had gone on ahead. He
was alone, as every mortal must be in
his soul crisis. The noise of the brook
upon the stones, the shadows of the
night, the multiform sounds Of the
darkness to which every faculty was
alert, graved vivid impression upon
the consciousness of the pilgrim, made
sensitive by fear.
Then a strange, unforeseen reality
happened. Jacob was gripped by a
ESau, but which proved more powerful |
than that of his wilderness brother. |
straightway followed a struggle with
out a parallel. one which has stamped |
itself in the memory of hundreds of
generations of mankind. Through the /
without decision. ''Wile baffled vile, |
and strength encountered strength
unprevailingly, until the first faint gray |
Of dawn was upon the eastern horizon. |
M +Ia &C
the man who wrested with him. In |
fact, it was, not as Jacob might at |
first think, an emissary of Esau, but the |
real champion of the land. who first |
must be met before Jacob found en-
trance into Canaan. He had made his |
arrangements as If Esau alone had to |
be propitiated; he finds that there are |
more formidable persons than Esau /
concerned in the matter; God always |
appears as the champion of the wrong |
ed party. But Jacob is confident that |
he is sufficient for all corners and |
wrestles on, till at last the wrestler |
touched the hollow Of his thigh. By |
mere touch Jacob finds himself Grip |
pied. This suddenly discloses to him |
the real nature of his antagonist. And |
now his whole attitude changes, from
a confidence, which had got many
heavy falls during his past life, but |
was still vigorous and hearty, he pass
ed to dependence on another. No longer
ted. the clever tripper-up in wrestling
who depended on his own skill and
toughness, he hangs now on his antagon-
list and cries, will not let thee go, ex-
cept thou bless me. From wrestling he
passes to praying, and so his self-con-
hdence and his name Jacob pass away
together.
A New Home.
Except when woman marries-
and not always then. in these new
fashioned times-there is very little
changing of names in the western
world In the east It is common.
Probably the custom of affixing a
Christian name" or ''given name" at
ba ptisnn, or in infancy, may be traced
back to Jacobs changed name at
he had become new man; just so the l.
redeemed in heaven are given new
names when they enter the new life.
When by his great surrender Jacob
won a great success, he attained a
new character as we'll as a new name. |,
It is to be observed that it was not his
wrestling that triumphed, but his Civ
Ing in: he received the blessing when
he ceased to struggle.
On the verge of his transformed
career the Sunday school lessons leave
Jacob, to take up the study of his son
Joseph Two truths stand out strong
ly in Jacobs career. The first is his
force. He was a personality; nobody
ever described his as a zero character.
He belonged in the class OF prevailers,
men who bring things to pass. But,
secondly, he never reached his height
until he let Jehovah be the dominant
factor in his life.- He gave into God
before he became a prince among men.
His imperious will had to be brought
into subsection to the divine will be-
fore he won to the place which Je-
novah designed for him from the first.
NEWS AND NOTES.
|
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