Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

2 “THE HOUSE OF GOD—THE GATE OF HEAVEN” Genesis XXVIII: 10-20 Wednesday Night Bible Lecture by Rev. Len G. Broughton, D.D., of Christ Church, London REPORTED FOR THE GOLDEN AGE BY M. I. H.—Copyright Applied For. o F1 I I }<. <7 M 1 ! ■ 3U_ fi f. ' WR ■ : wSWfkJ ; ’ 'WiiR .. - -- * CHRIST CHURCH, LONDON. Special Text —“And Jacob awaked out of his sleep, and he said, Surely Jehovah is in this place, and I knew it not. And he was afraid and said, How dreadful is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.” Our last study closed with Jacob receiving his father’s blessing. Our present study begins with his experience at Bethel which he called the house of God. The section is divided into 6 parts, and I want that we shall observe them separately. I—His Departure from Home.—V. 10. There are at least two persons that are par ticularly interested in his departure, and they are interested from the same standpoint —they are sad, and disappointed as Jacob turns his face toward the world, and his back upon his home. Emily Taylor, describing Rebecca’s feelings as she sent Jacob away, says: “My youngest born, my pride of heart, Thou must, thou must away; Thy brother’s wrathful hand is raised; And here thou canst not stay. Oh, I have deeply sinned for thee! The chastisement be mine; And I will bear it all, my son, The blessing shall be thine!” Then Jacob himself had a sad, disappointed heart. We may fancy him turning his back up on his home, and starting out in obedience to the will of his father and of his mother, toward the home of his uncle Laban in Haran. We may fancy him straining his eyes, looking back for a last sight of the old home, as he starts out ‘Lo face a new world, and in it a new expe rience. In my imagination I have seen him as he suddenly turns his eyes to the future, with all that it may involve (with home and mother behind—for there has been great devotion be tween Jacob and his mother. Now and then as he journeys down the road I have seen him in my imagination, stop and turn round to get another view of the old home, and perhaps, as he looks at it and its environment he is looking also for the face of his mother. Finally he is out of sight. No more vision of home and no more sight of the face of his mother. Out there into the cold world he has to go. The Golden Age for May 1, 1913 II. —His Journey and Arrival at Bethel.—V*. 11. All he had with him was his shepherd’s staff. Every step was taken in fear of Esau who had vowed to take his life. And so, as Jacob jour neys along the road he is constantly expecting to come into contact with his infuriated broth er. What a journey <hat must have been! An unknown road; and at every turn he is ex pecting to meet his brother who has sworn to take his life; and behind every bush and tree he is expecting that Esau will spring upon him. On the second or third day he arrives at Bethel, a place already famous in the history of his grandfather Abraham, near which he erected an altar after his return from Egypt. Geikee says of Bethel: “It is one of the most desolate looking places I ever saw. Sheets and shelves of rock everywhere unrelieved by any trees. Such is Bethel.” Marcus Dods says, speaking of Jacob’s jour ney and arrival at Bethel: “As the sun was sinking, he found himself toiling up the rough path which Abraham may have described to him as looking like a great stair-case of rock and crag, reaching from earth to sky. Slabs of rock piled one upon another, form the whole hillside, and to Jacob’s eye, accustomed to the rolling plains and pastures of Beer-sheba, they would appear almost like a structure built for superhuman uses, Avell founded in the valley below, and intended to reach to unknown heights. ” ll.—His Dream. —V. 12-15. It was perfectly natural that he should have such a dream. Dreams are usually woven out of material which our waking thoughts sup ply. They usually occur just as the mind in its state of semi-wakefulness endeavors to con nect the past with the present, and thus bridge the chasm of sleep. Many people talk to us about dreams as if they dreampt any and every minute of the night. It is a very big mis take. We do not dream in the early hours of sleep, we always dream in the very last mo ment of sleep when we are scarcely asleep at all. The true philosophy of a dream is that it is the first effort of the mind as it begins to approach consciousness to reach back across the chasm of sleep, however brief or long that chasm may be, and get hold of past thoughts in the hours of wakefulness, and, if possible, connect the two together. Now in this particular case, Jacob’s mind had been dwelling upon the very things sug gested by the dream; anxiety for his life; a heavy heart; a guilty conscience. Above all, he wanted rest, and peace. This is the way he dropped asleep. But when I say it was natural for him to have such a dream, I do not mean that there was nothing supernatural in it; I think there was. While it was perfectly natural for him to dream as he did. it was also supernatural— for the supernatural simply operated on the I’ne of the natural, to do things and to bring to pass results that could not have been done through any other means. And as I see it in this particular case, the purpose of God in coming to Jacob as he did in this dream, was that he might teach a three fold lesson. first, it was to teach that what he needed w r as not so much knowledge of God, as consci ousness of the presence of God. This is seen in the first utterance of Jacob upon waking— ‘ ‘ Surely the Lord is in this place, and I knew it net;” The vision did not bring the Lord near; it only led Jacob to realize his nearness. The reason why he failed to realize the nearness of God—and thus made necessary such an ex perience—was doubtless his recent conduct; he had cheated his brother out of his birthright, and had not yet had forgiveness. Now this failure to realize the presence of God at this time of great need, is also true of many of us during times of our great need. It is easy for us to realize the presence of God when everything is going well, but it is very hard when everything seems to be going wrong. It is easy for us to realize his presence in mo ments of exalted spiritual privileges; but it is hard to realize his presence when we are conscious of disobedience. Second, the dream was also intended to be a revelation in prophecy, of three essential prin ciples in obtaining peace. 1. The mediation of Christ. 2. The ministry of angels. 3. The providential oversight of God in the affairs of life. This is seen by the exclaimtion “Behold!” at the three turning points in the dream. First, “Behold a ladder set up on the earth and the top of it reached to heaven.” Second, “Behold the angels of God ascend ing and descending upon it.” Third, “Behold the Lord standing above L.” Let us Look at each of these three essential principles in obtaining peace. First, the fore shadowing of the mediation of Christ. Those of you who are familiar with your New Tes taments will remember that in John 1:51 Jesus says to Nathaniel. “Henceforth ye shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.” This language is clearly borrowed from our present narrative. It speaks of angels “ascending and decending on Son of Man.” using the same term as is here employed of the ladder which Jacob saw. The ladder which Jacob saw, is Christ in the New Testament. He brings God near to us, and us near to God, and is the med iation between man and God. God, in Christ, brings God near man —even within man; and Man, in Christ, (or to make the figure com plete) the Man in God, brings man near God — even incorporating man with God. There are two ways in which we may regard Mediation —we may think of it as removing obstacles to heavenly intercourse —bring God near to us. Or we may think of it as specially facilitating intercourse with heaven—bring us near to God.- In this case it clearly embraces both. Christ is both these things to us. He removes hin- (Continued on Page 14.) Mrs. O. S. Pay ne’s beauti fully bound, fascinating story and The Golden Age one year, $2.2£8. Write to day. Address 13 Moore Bldg., Walton Street, Atlanta, Ga.