The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1907-04-04
Jacobs Vision and Gods Promise.

Esau's prowess could easily undo
Jacobs plotting. Mother and son
seem not to have duly appreciated
the risk of exciting the rage of the
hunter used to striking deadly
blows. The Edomite, like another
elder brother, and with more cause
than he, was at once inhamed
with murderous enmity. The
mothers wit was not long in
seeming the danger, and she babe
her favorite fly. Jacob
was heir apparent to the chieftain-
ship of a tribe growing with phe-
nomenal rapidity; the successor of
a vast Oriental estate; but he must
needs take his departure in the
most ignominious plight; no cara
van or escort; not so much as
single servant; nothing but the
stick in his hand. Out he goes, a
shelterless fugitive, a'tramp, with
four hundred and fifty miles and
forty years of exile ahead of him.
The odds seem against him; for he
has been enervated by tent-life,
while his pursuer is used to chas-
ing game. One can not but con-
trast the grandson's sorry exit
with the grandfather's happy and
stately entrance to the land.
The man who was so used to the
sweets of domesticity was getting
further and further from home,
his sorrows inceasing all the way.
He must needs keep far from the
dwellings of men. He starts at
every sight and sound. Bitter
are his tears, fervent his prayers.
But the Lord delays his coming,
as He did to His disciples, storm
tossed on Gennesaret. For two
nights, probably, the fugitive
must lie down in the cleaning un-
Comforted. On the even
ing of the third day (probably)
Jacob lighted Oh 1iterally) the
place-likely one of his grand
fathers camping places. The
very sight of the altar may have
strengthened his faith. Doubtless
he began there the wrestling
which made him Israel forty years
later at the Jabbok. The king
dom of heaven suffered violence
that night, as Jacob laid his head
on a stone from Abraham's altar.
The last object left on the
dimming vision of the patriarch
may have been the jagged stair
case, the receding rocky lodges
opposite, and family revealed in
the starlight. In his dream the
steps rise to heaven, are illuminat-
ed by all unearthly radiance, and
peopled by angel forms. But all
this is but by way of approach to
the inefable person of Jehovah,
who stands above it. The
mere vision would have been in
describably comforting, but the
spoken word is added. The fugi-
tive is assured that the very
ground on which he lies he shall
possess; and that his progeny shall
be so numerous that they can not
be confined IN narrow limits, but
shall break out toward the four
points of the compass. Jehovah S
protective company is assured.
Jacob, on waking, cries:
Jehovah was here, though l had
forfeited all claim upon Him, and
had no right to expect His COM
ing" A holy awe fills the dream
er's soul. He cries again: "Why,
this lonely place proved the very
portal to Tehovah's palace! E.
He converts his pillow into a pill
lar, and makes an oblation upon it
from his scanty cruise. He names
the place blouse of Cod" He
enters into sacred treaty of re-
ciprocity: "Since God has made
his assuring promises, l will make
mine. This spot shall be a per-
manent places of worship, and
will 1.-THE my income"
Analysis and Key.
I. Possibility and danger of Esau' S
rage overlooked.
Mother advises FIGHT