The story of the book of Genesis is that of the divine I life in the soul of man, and which is distinguished from all that might be confounded with it. Thus we have every where in it those notable contrasts which must strike even the most superficial reader. Thus we have Cain and Abel, Ishmael and Isaac, Jacob and Esau, and, in only less close connection with one another, Lot and Abraham. Jacob is not only, however, contrasted with Esau, he is in still more important contrast with himself. Indeed his history may be said to be but an inspired comment upon the two names which are identified with the two characters in which he is exhibited to us as Jacob and as Israel,-names which are used in the same way all through Scripture-the one as the natural name, the other as the spiritual; the one declaring where grace found him, the other what grace made him. We are going to look at him now at that decisive point of his life at which he passed from one condition to the other,-from being Jacob the "supplanter" (rightly called so,) to his being Israel, a "prince with God."

For it was not by quiet growth that he passed from one into the other condition, but by the strokes of God's hand in discipline,-stroke upon stroke, until at last His purpose is attained. After what long labor indeed ! and how many experiences! and only when the freshness and energy of youth are gone, and Jacob is past the age when Abram got his new name and his Isaac. Solemn it is to see this. Especially when God has spread this life of Jacob, with its lessons, over so many pages of this book, for it begins in the twenty-fifth chapter-half way through the book-and only closes with the close of it. Well worthy of our attention it must surely be, when God has thus spread it out before our eyes, while a few verses give all that He cares to say of nations and mighty movements such as fill men's histories. "The world passeth away, and the lust thereof; but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever."

But who is he that doeth the will of God ? Alas! whole-heartedly and unreservedly, if we mean, how few are to be found of such ! The mass even of Christians have a limit beyond which obedience does not go. With some, it is set farther off ; and with many, nearer at hand; and with many, the entire want of exercise as to matters of the greatest importance prevents the apprehension of their condition altogether. There are so many things about which they do not mean to be troubled, that they certainly manage to secure to themselves a very easygoing life, which they call "peace," forgetting that our peace now is only with God, while "on earth" the Prince of Peace declares He has not come to send it, but rather a sword (Matt. 10:34).

This determination not to be "troubled" means only a determination not to be exercised,-not to have inconvenient questions raised,-not to have things settled according to God ; whereas the apostle speaks plainly of the need of exercise, " to have a conscience void of offense toward God and toward men" (Acts 24:16). An un-exercised conscience means only indifference and want of heart; and in this case nothing can be right. How great a mistake it is to suppose that in some self-chosen limited range one may serve God acceptably, without going beyond it!-that we may pay Him His tenth and please ourselves in the nine-tenths which remain !-that God will accept the limits we give Him, and be content with a tenth of our hearts as readily as with a tenth of our income ! Alas ! I ask again, if we speak of whole-hearted and unreserved obedience to the will of God, who, who are yielding it to Him? and the answer will surely have to be, Few, very few indeed.
And thus do we force God to be against us,-against us, just because, indeed, He is for us. The breaking of our wills must come in tribulation and sorrow, not such as that which He has ordained for His people, but bitterness which bows the spirit and shadows the inmost recesses of the soul. And there is no sanctuary in it, the abode of light and peace, which can be a citadel secure from invasion. The peace which is made with ourselves by keeping God out breaks down in alarm and consternation when it is no longer possible to keep Him out. And yet without this, the blessing-the unspeakable blessing which He brings ever with Him cannot get in.

In this way the history of Jacob is most deeply, most solemnly instructive. The " prince with God," how alone does he become so?-how late does he become so too! Driven from his kindred and his father's house by his own duplicity and evil, he finds twenty years' discipline in servitude in Padan Aram, a victim to the same duplicity in another, and returns back to the land he had left, enriched indeed, but to meet even worse distress. God, that He may not have to deliver him up into his brother's hand, must take him into His own. In what a striking way He does this ! and how graciously ! coming down as man to meet him, in that familiar guise with which we have become since then, thank God, so intimately acquainted. Yet it is in the darkness of the night, and as an antagonist He does so:-

"And Jacob was left alone; and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day. And when he saw that he prevailed not against him, he touched the hollow of his thigh, and the hollow of Jacob's thigh was out of joint as he wrestled with him."

Let us remember the circumstances of the time in which this took place. Jacob was already in the greatest distress at the news of his brother Esau being on the road with four hundred armed men to meet him. He saw himself already in the hands of his incensed brother, the acquisitions of many years, his wives, his children, and his own life in imminent peril,-God, in His righteous government, Himself against him. He had just sent over the brook all that he had:was it indeed all gone from him? he might ask, as the night fell upon him, more solitary than when twenty years before he had left his father's house. Then suddenly he was in the strong grasp of a stranger. Sought out for attack, he grappled with him as for life, and then began that strange conflict, the mystery of which evidently fell also upon Jacob's soul. Did he penetrate it? At last, he certainly did :had the truth been dawning upon him gradually? did it come in a moment, as, at the stranger's touch, his thigh-joint slipped from its socket? Then, at least, he knew in whose strong yet gentle hand he had been struggling; and so with every one who is to be an Israel, the mystery must be revealed of a struggle they have been long perhaps maintaining in the dark with One they know not, but whom they now know, and whom when they really know the struggle ceases, and with the ceasing of which the unrest passes out of their lives. For who of His own, brought to the positive conviction of with whom he is struggling, would longer struggle? Our impotence, at least, would come to our relief, as with Jacob his crippled thigh did. And on His side, when He has demonstrated to us our weakness in that in which He discovers Himself, He contends with us no more.

So the struggle ceases. There is left with us the abiding mark of it in the consciousness of nothingness; and we may indeed carry it with us even outwardly, as Jacob did. Will it not in some sense be ever manifest as to us that we have measured ourselves in the presence of God, the only place in which we get our true measure? Surely it will. A humble spirit, a chastened temper, a quiet step, such as are thus and only thus acquired will not be hidden. The more surely inasmuch as it is to such that the assurance is fulfilled, "Thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy;! dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones " (Isa. 57:15).

Nevertheless, the fullness of this blessing is not realized at once, as we shall see in Jacob. It is here indeed he gets his name of Israel, though needing to have it confirmed to him before it is fully his:-

"And he said, 'Let me go; for the day breaketh.' And he said, 'I will not let thee go, except thou bless me.' "

Oh, mighty power of weakness over strength ! Oh, blessed God, that canst thus be constrained by the need of Thy creatures ! Jacob can no longer struggle, but he can cling. The strength which is gone from his loins is thrown into his arms, and there he hangs, strong arid desperate in his need, with the tenacity of one who will drown if he lose hold of his refuge. Did you ever know what it is so to lay hold of God and not find blessing? None ever did. But first we must confess ourselves what we are:-

"And he said unto him, 'What is thy name?' And he said, ' Jacob.' And he said, ' Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel; for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed.'"

This is a simple lesson, yet a great one. It is the principle that the apostle proclaims when he says (2 Cor. 12:9), "Most gladly, therefore, will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me."

We talk of the need of power. We lament the lack of it. We covet for ourselves the revival of what seems is to have passed away. Well, here is the sure way of possessing what we long for, as sure to us now as to those in the days gone by. There is no change in God. The necessities of His holiness are the same ever. The sufficiency of His grace is ever the same. He who glories but in his infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon him, shall have the power of Christ to rest upon him. Who that has known the one, but has known the other? Still, the strength of God is perfected in weakness. Still, "to him that hath no might, He increaseth strength." Yea, "the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall; but they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run and not be weary, and they shall walk and shall not faint" (Isa. 40:30, 31).

These are principles that abide through all dispensations. They are holy, for they exalt God. They are fruitful in blessing to His creatures. The present is a clay of Jacob-like activity:of Israels there are how few ! Jacob valued the blessing of God:this is evident in his worst actions; but his means were all his own. " The end justifies the means " seems to have been practically, if not avowedly, his motto. And with how many who similarly value God's blessing is it so to-day! They would be careful not to avow the motto; nay, they would not like to carry it out to any thing like its full extent, yet after all, look at their methods, listen to their frequent plea, "But it is for a good purpose ! " and can you doubt that the Jesuit maxim really controls them ? that their morality is but diluted Jesuitism?
Do you not even hear in the mouths of Christian people even, what they believe they have apostolic authority for, that "being crafty, I caught you with guile " ? Nay, is it not indeed there in 2 Cor. 12:16 ? Have we not chapter and verse for such a principle ? Well, then, shall we say that the Scriptures positively commend cunning and deceit? Where are the consciences of those who can so argue? If you will look only a little more closely, you will see that it is manifestly the quotation of an adversary's argument-a thing not at all uncommon with the apostle- and that he takes particular pains to appeal to them for its refutation in the next two sentences. But it shows what lurks under the surface, that such a principle should be even for a moment thought to have divine sanction.

(To be continued.)