The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1918-11-22
INTERNATIONAL
SUNDAY SCHOOL
LESSON
By WILLIAM r. ELLIS.

BY WILLIAM T. ELLIS.
For November "a, is Jacob Wins
Esau," Gen. SO: lii.
When Enemies Arc Rcconciled.
Almost weekly the strange oppor-
tuneness and pertinency of these
Lessons to our times is remarked. 1t
is striking providence but puts into
the hands of twenty million Sunday
School members in the United states
and Canada these Bible teachings,
which apply SO closely to the peculiar
conditions of our own day. There is
a reason. In this new ara of democ-
the people are the decisive force in
all public events, it is essential that
there be clear and available principles
and illustrations drawn from the in.
as whole accept as their, supreme
law.
Fronting the prospect of world
wide peace and Reorganization, we
have the old story of the reconcilia-
ton of the two sons of Isaac, who
had been in deadly enmity. One had
grossly and foully wronged the other.
Jacob had sown bitterness in Esau's
heart and had reaped it in his own.
By guile he had wronged his brother.
and by guile he had in turn been
wronged by another. Men usually
perish by the same sort of sword they
take UP. After years =. exile. Jacob
cried peace to Esau, Offering indemni-
ties or propitiatory gifts. and his
brother magnanimously answered
him. We shall find word for the
world in the old tale.
Business and Matrimony.
Himself the worlds most famous
business man, and the progenitor of
the most eminent business race. ia
cob's story is mixture of trickery,
failure and success. He had fled from
Beersheba, down on the lower border
| Of Palestine, to Haran. in upper
| Mesopotamia, where dwelt his Uncle
Laban. There he had fallen in love
| with his cousin Rachel, and had made
a deal with her father that he should
receive her in marriage, he, in return.
| giving seven years Of unpaid service
to his mothers brother. The pro-
posed nuptials were celebrated by a
carouse, and Jacob woke up in the
morning to find himself the husband
of RachePs older sister, Leah, the
sore eyed.
There was rude poetic justice in
this substitution 1t was so character
istically a Jacob sort of trick. He was
| being paid back in his own coin. La
| ban was kin to Jacob on the maternal
| side; they were two of a kind. jacob
| was burdened with a wife he did not
want, his beloved's interchangeable
elder sister, and obliged to give seven
more OF servitude for Rachel.
Here we find the first noble quality
\ in Jacob. He really loved Rachel
with sincere and disinterested and un-
extinguishable affection. 1t was in
/ truth the divine passion. Romance
cherishes the passage in Jacobs rec
ord which declares. And Jacob served
seven years for Rachel; and they
seemed unto him but a few days. fol-
the love he had to her." Consistently
! this fine passion for the woman whom
he had first met as a beautiful nader
by the well-side, shines thru Jacob.
life. His devotion to Joseph and Ben
jamin was because they were the chill.
dren of the bride of his heart. Nc
man can be wholly bad, or entirely
1 alien from the God whose other name
lis love. who Is capable of such beauti-
| full and constant affection.
OF course it was a po1ygamous
household. after the general fashion
Of the time. In addition to his tive
wives, Jacob had two concubines. and
these four We're the mothers Of his
| twelve sons and one daughter. In the
narrative we have glimpses of the
exist under the system of plural mar.
| riages. ~
Afte- serving fourteen years for hi.
| two wives. Jacob made a profit-shar.
Ing arrangement with his uncle father,
in-1aw, whereby he toiled six year.
more. In this bargain. Jacob un.
scrupulously got the advantage of hi,
senior partner. He was the sort o.
| business man who would sell shoddy
| for wool, and whose devious ways have
| been followed by not few men since
At the end Of the period, Laban hat
most of the experience and Jacob mos
of the business.
Between Two Enemies.
When things got too hot for Jacot
| in Haran he started off, secretly, with
his wives and children and possession:
for Canaan. 1t was flight from the
uncle whom he had wronged, toward
the brother whom he had defrauded
There is no smooth and open road
anywhere in front of the dishones,
men. Nobody should envy the wrong.
| doer. He has paid too high for hi.
| ill-gotten gains. There occurs to me
the instance of present-day Jacob
| a professed1y pious business man, who
Is ambitious to stand high in this city
| as public man. But his private
practices in business follow him
everywhere and have already laid
him low. SO far as civic preferment il
| concerned. I have heard him called
a crook in SO many circles and by
so many men whose favor he covets
that If he knew all he would straight
way enter upon course of restitution
even tho 1t led to poverty. The Jacob
kind of business simply does not pay
There's a way that seemeth right
unto men, but the end thereof are the
! ways of death"
Hampered by his household and his
flocks, Jacob was soon overtaken by
Laban in the mountains east of the
Jordan In dream, on the seventh
| n ho n, ar-ra Il Nf (s11 -