the wilderness. Water is a symbol of the sensuous life. "Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God" (John 3:5).

The ostensible reason for the journey of Jacob to the home of his mother's father is to escape the violence of the warlike Esau, and that he may find a suitable wife; but in truth the real reason is psychological; for in this story of Jacob's journey to "the land of the people of the east," we discover the process whereby God doth "raise him up," the process whereby his soul is made perfect. And when the time comes for Jacob to depart on his journey that meant so much to him, and to his posterity, Isaac again invokes the blessing of Heaven upon him. "And God Almighty bless thee, and make thee fruitful, and multiply thee, that thou mayst be a multitude of people. And give thee the blessing of Abraham, to thee, and to thy seed with thee; that thou mayest inherit the land wherein thou art a stranger, which God gave unto Abraham" (Gen. 28: 3, 4). The land that God gave to Abraham, and to which Jacob is now a stranger, is the land that God gives to all the faithful; it is the home of the elect; for it is in truth the Kingdom of God.

Jacob proceeds upon his journey. "And he lighted upon a certain place, and tarried there all night, because the sun was set." This was a dark and sad experience for Jacob; he sleeps with his head upon a stone; and as he thus slept, he dreamed of a ladder that extended from heaven to earth and the angels of God were ascending and descending upon it; and the Lord stood above it, and said, "I am the Lord God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac, the land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed." Jacob is

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now promised that inheritance which goes to all the just. This recalls the first sentences of Emerson's memorable essay on History: "There is One Mind common to all individual men. Every man is an inlet to the same and to all of the same. He that is once admitted to the right of reason is made a freeman of the whole estate." Jacob is now promised the guidance, the protection, and the blessings of heaven, and thus the prayers of his father are being fulfilled in him. "And Jacob woke out of his sleep . . . and 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. And Jacob vowed a vow." Jacob called the name of this place Bethel, which means "the house of God"; but this place was called Luz at the first; the word Luz means separation, or departure. Jacob has experienced a psychological change; he has attained to a state of intuition; the angels of God are ascending and descending; he is conscious of the divine presence as never before. "How dreadful is this place! this is none other but the house of God." Jacob vowed a vow; he is repentant; he is in Luz; he has determined on a separation, or departure from his past life; his life is dreadfully serious; he has turned his back upon the comforts of the world; he sleeps with his head upon a stone; he is a stranger and a sojourner on earth; he realizes that there is but one course to pursue; and that is to put his trust in the Lord God of his fathers; to be just as they were just. He knows that his fathers attained to power, and wisdom, and greatness far beyond their fellows; and why should not he follow in their footsteps, and become a "freeman of the whole estate," as did they?

The journey is continued; Jacob comes to the land

of the people of the east; he beholds a well in the field, and three flocks of sheep lying by it; and a great stone is upon the well's mouth; and they of this land are of Haran. "And Jacob said unto them, My brethren, whence be ye? And they said, Of Haran are we” (Gen. 29:4). Rachel, the daughter of Laban, came to this well with her father's sheep: "for she kept them.” A well is a symbol of knowledge; Jacob is receptive of the higher knowledge; he is inspirational; he rolls the stone from the well's mouth, and waters the flock of Laban, his mother's brother. He is a dispenser of knowledge. He found three flocks lying by the well. Three is a number indicative of perfection. Jacob, like all who are led out of Haran, and are established in the promised land, like all who attain to perfection, must undergo severe discipline; for nothing is truer than that man is made perfect by suffering. “Ye shall drink indeed of my cup, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with" (Matt. 20:23).

Laban has two daughters; the elder was Leah; and the younger was Rachel. "Leah was tender-eyed; but Rachel was beautiful and well-favoured" (Gen. 29: 17). Leah was good-hearted; but Rachel was wise. The wise are the keepers of the sheep. Rachel kept her father's flock (Gen. 29:9). And Jacob loved Rachel; and said unto Laban, "I will serve thee seven years for Rachel thy younger daughter." Jacob served seven years for Rachel, but was given Leah; and when Jacob accused Laban of deceiving him, Laban said, "It must not be done in our country, to give the younger before the first-born" the heart, the affections, the life of the individual, must undergo severe discipline, before reason attains to its own; Leah represents a disciplined heart. And Jacob served "yet seven other years" for Rachel.

Leah is the mother of four sons: Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah, and then it is said that her powers of maternity failed; then two sons are born to Jacob by Rachel's maid, Billah; Dan and Naphtali; and two by Leah's maid, Zilpah: Gad and Asher; and after the birth of the sons named, Leah's power of maternity recurs, and she becomes the mother of two more sons: Issachar and Zebulun, and lastly, of a daughter, Dinah; and after this the prayers of the beautiful and well-favored Rachel were answered; and she becomes the mother of Joseph, who became the mighty prince, and master of Egypt.

According to the narrative in chapters twenty-nine and thirty of Genesis, Jacob is the father of eleven sons and a daughter while living in Haran in Mesopotamia. Jacob is represented as living in a desert land, the dwelling-place of a shifting tribal population. It is here that Jacob's education begins, the education that is to "raise him up" out of a lower state of consciousness into a higher. "God found Jacob in a desert land, in the waste howling wilderness; he led him about, he instructed him, he kept him as the apple of his eye" (Deut. 32: 10). This story of Jacob living in a desert, and of his wives and their maids, and of his several sons and a daughter born in the order narrated, evidently has a more profound meaning than appears upon its face. This story is outwardly historic; but in its depth it is psychological. This story describes a process; and it is told in this singular way for the express purpose of showing the mode and manner whereby the soul of man is made perfect. God who made man in His own image and likeness made him capable of attaining to a high degree of perfection, through successive gradations of improvement, in an

ascending life. Paul speaks of man's development from "character to character"; and when speaking of the human soul, the inward and abiding, he says: "The inward man is renewed day by day." Character building involves an orderly process. Evolution, said Charles Darwin, proceeds by "numerous, successive, and slight modifications."

In Deuteronomy (21:15-17), it is written that if a man have two wives, one beloved and the other hated, and they have borne him children, then when he maketh his sons to inherit, the sons of her who is hated are to be preferred. The Levites, the descendants of the third son of Leah, were preferred in the days of Moses, and the descendants of Judah became a mighty power in Israel. Why are the sons of the wife who is hated to be preferred? The reason is evidently psychological. In the unfoldment of the powers of the soul of man, the heart is first to find enlargement. "God shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem, and Canaan shall be his servant" (Gen. 9:27). This we would interpret: the heart, the feelings shall find virtuous enlargement, but the heart shall be governed of the head; and the head and heart shall have absolute dominion over the lower principle of the soul represented by Canaan. A virtuous heart is forever the faithful ally of a wise head. Heinrich Heine, a thoughtful and observant Jew, who did what he could to liberalize the thought of Europe, said: "The Jews have highly civilized hearts in an unbroken tradition for two thousand years. I believe they acquire the culture of Europe so quickly because they have nothing to learn in the matter of feeling, and read only to gain knowledge." Coleridge, in his Aids to Reflection, says: "The especial aim and charac