Jacob's pillar at beth-el.
Gen. xxviii. 16 — 19. And Jacob awaked out of his sleep ; and he said, Surely the Lord is in this place ; and I knew it not. And he tuas afraid, and said, How dreadful is this place ! this is none other but the house of God ; and this is the gate of heaven. And Jacob rose up early in the morning, and took the stone that he had put for his pillows, and set it up for a pillar, and poured oil upon the top of it. And he called the name of that place Beth-el : but the name of that city was called Luz at the first.*
ON whatever side we look, we see abundant evi- dence that " God's ways are not as our ways, nor his thoughts as our thoughts." With us, there are laws of equity prescribed for the regulation of our conduct in the whole of our intercourse with men ; and on our strict observance of them the welfare of society depends. But God is not restrained by any such rules in his government of the world : men having no claims whatever upon him, he has a right to dispose of them, and of all that pertains unto them, according to his own sovereign will and plea- sure. This right too he exercises in a way, which, though inexplicable to us, is manifest to all. In the conversion of St. Paul we see this in as striking a point of view as it can possibly be placed. St. Paul,
* Preached at the chapel erected and endowed by the Rev. Lewis Way, in Stansted Park (Sussex), on the day previous to the conse- cration of it by the Right Rev. Lord Bishop of St. David's, and the Hon. and Right Rev. Lord Bishop of Gloucester, on January 24th, 1819 : the day on which is annually commemorated the Conversion of St. Paid.