(3) Do not sacrifice the warmth of faith for the coldness of scepticism. — You are advocates of what is known by a much- abused word, " free-thought." You have been reading or hearing specious arguments against Christianity ; and you begin to talk of the vital truths of religion as only so many exploded super- stitions. You are enjoying the luxury of absolute independence of thought, and for that "morsel of meat" you are selling the birthright of the Christian faith that has been handed down to you from a godly ancestry.
^ In my university days there was no man for whom I entertained a profounder admiration than Professor George Wilson, of Edinburgh. He was then a man under forty years of age, and destined, I am convinced, had his life been spared, to stand in the very foremost ranks of the scientists of this age. His mind, unlike his body, was of a peculiarly healthy order ; he was a worshipper of truth, and an ardent student of nature. In a letter to a well-known and Christian man of science in London, bearing date January 1859, Dr. Wilson wrote (I give you his words at length, for they are very striking) : " I rejoice to hear of your success with the young men. God bless you in your work ! It is worth all other work, and far beyond all Greek or Roman fame, all literary or scientific triumphs; and yet it is quite compatible with both. Douglas Jerrold's life is most sad to read. In many respects it gave me a far higher estimate of him morally than I had before. But what a pagan outlook ! What a heathen view of this world and the next ! He might as well have been born in the days of Socrates or Seneca as in these days, for any good Christ's coming apparently did him. There is some- thing unspeakably sad in his life, and it was better than that of many a litterateur. The ferocity of attack on cant and hypocrisy, the girding at religion, which they cannot leave alone ; above all, the dreary, meagre, cheerless, formal faith, and the dim and doubtful prospect for the future, are features in that litterateur life most saddening and disheartening. And the men of science, »re they better ? God forbid that I should slander my brethren in study, men above me in intellect, in capacity, and accompliah- » i. TLiiTi I>»7id«oiL
GENESIS XXV. 34 215
ment. But recently I have come acroas four of the younger chemists, excellent fellows, of admirable promise and no small performance. I was compelled to enter into some religious conversation with them, and found them creedless, having no * I believe ' for themselves : standing in that maddest of all attitudes — namely, with finger pointed to this religious body and that religious body, expatiating upon their faults, as if at the Day of Judgment it would avail them anything, that the Baptists were bigoted, and the Quakers self-righteous ! " ^
^ J. Thain DaTldson.
Jacob's Vision.
Literature,
Austin (G. B.), The Beauty of Goodness, "74.
Barton (G, A.), Christian Teaching as found in the Old Testament, Hi
Brown (C), The Birth of a Nation, 66.
Davies (E. C), in Congregational Preachers, i. 21.
Hart (H. G.), Sedbergh School Chapel Sermons, 81.
Hiley (K. W.), A Year's Sermons, iii. 94.
Hook (W. F.), Sermons on Various Subjects, 152.
Krause (W. H.), Sermons in Bethesda Chapel, Dublin, ii. 108.
Lambert (J. C), in Great Texts of the Old Testament, 1.
Lightfoot (J. B.), Cambridge Sermons, 300.
„ Contemporary Pulpit Libra/ry, v. 1.
Macgregor (W. M.), Some of God's Ministries, 22. Macmillan (H.), Gleanings in Holy Fields, 198. Mozley (J. B.), Sermons Parochial and Occasional, 28. Parker (J.), Studies in Texts, iii. 177. Percival (J.), Sermons at Rugby, 96. Rankin (J.), Character Studies in the Old Testament, 30. Selby (T. G.), The God of the Patriarchs, 125. Spurgeon (C. H.), Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, vii. No. 401. Stewart (A.), Opening Services, University Chapel, St. Andrews, 13. Thomson (W.), Life in the Light of God's Word, 94. Westcott (B. F.), Words of Faith and Hope, 185. Christian World Pulpit, v. 268 (Roberts) ; li. 104 (Macmillan). Churchman's Pulpit (Second Sunday in Lent), v. 445 (Bonnej) Homiletic Review, xvi. 357 (Sherwood). Freaclier's Magazine, xiv. (1903) 36 (Carter).
Ml
JACOB'S Vision.
And Jacob awaked out of his sleep, and he said, Surely the Lord is in this place ; and I knew it not. And he was afraid, and said, How dreadful is this place ! this is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven. — Gen. xzviii. i6, 17.
At two periods of his life Jacob passed through crises of spiritual experience, both of which received symbolical expression, here at Bethel, and later at Pjaaiel. Though, if we take the indications of time literally, it was in his manhood rather than in his youth that he left his father's house from fear of his brother Esau and went into the long exile at Eadanwaram, we can scarcely, if we set the narratives side by side, avoid the conclusion that the one is intended to represent the conceptions which may come to youth, immaturity, inexperience, while the other reveals the tried and battered warrior in life's battle, humbled* disa-p^ijinted, Bojnewhat embittered^.and altogether perplexed.