Let us be careful in thinking over this story not to water down its contents by ascribing modern notions to Jacob or the writer. To the question "Where is God?" we have been accustomed from childhood to hear the answer "Everywhere," so that it is difficult for us really to enter into the thoughts of men who had no idea of such an answer, but believed that their god was only present in certain places. If we are to understand antiquity, however, we must try to place ourselves at this point of view. In the conception of the Israelite who wrote our narrative, and of all those who surrounded him, Yahweh was confined to a definite place, just like a man. He lived in heaven, and sometimes came from thence to visit the earth. He did not come down to all places alike, however, but only to some few selected spots where he revealed himself in dreams and visions, or in personal intercourse, and where he heard the prayers of the faithful, while the offerings that had been brought there, rose up to him. It is true that Yahweh sometimes sent one of his messengers or angels with those he loved, so that they were under his indirect protection everywhere, but he himself was only to be found in certain places, which were considered sacred on this account, and were often up on hills, but sometimes on lower ground. Anyone who would see him, who had a favour to ask of him or an offering to bring him, must seek him at these spots.

This seems to us a very mistaken idea, and we are ready enough to accuse those who cling to it of narrowness. We are quite right in doing so; for the idea that the deity is only present in certain places shows a want of reflection; but it may well be that it was sometimes coupled with a far greater measure of religiousness than is to be met with in those who declare without hesitation that God is everywhere.

For it is not so much the contents of our creed as the way

Nay, had not he him

by which we have arrived at our convictions that determines our religiousness; not what we believe, but how or why we believe it. If we declare that God is everywhere, only because we argue it out, as we may easily do, it proves nothing for the earnestness of our spiritual life; with this belief we may still live like heathens. On the other hand, take Jacob-to make the truth apparent in his person- -as a type! He has to leave the tent of his father. It goes to his heart to do so, for it is sad to say farewell to those whom we love, and all the little spots to which tender recollections are bound. But the heaviest blow to him is this, that he must wander away from the sacred Beersheba. There Yahweh dwelt. There he had appeared again and again to his grandfather and father. There he had received their offerings and had blessed them. self passed many hours, he could never forget, in the shadow of the sacred tree? Had he not in times of trouble felt the consoling presence of his god? Had he not been terrified by the darkness that surrounded Yahweh, and filled with awe and wonder by the consuming fire? Now he must leave that consecrated spot and wander away through regions where Yahweh was not? How would it go with him on his journey? He would have to pass through deserts, to cross rivers, to brave the fury and the cunning of wild beasts-and all this without Yahweh by to help him! Or would this god, who had been so good to his family, send an angel to accompany him? Yahweh dwelt at Beersheba and by the well Lahai-roi, but yet he dwelt by the oak at Mamre and elsewhere too; might he not have a place of revelation somewhere here? How the wanderer longed to make him an offering! It would be such a comfort to him on his journey! Amid such thoughts he lays himself down in weariness to rest. He does not fear the wild beasts now. Yahweh, he hopes, will send a messenger

to protect him. And in his sleep he sees the ladder reared between earth and heaven, he sees Yahweh standing by him, and he hears the promise of protection, and then he wakes and cries out, "Yahweh is here too! This is a house-ofgod!"

A faith which springs up in such a way as this is the fruit of religiousness; and this is the way in which the belief in holy places rose. Where the pious saw themselves particularly blessed or where important revelations were vouchsafed to them, where good thoughts rose within them or dangers were averted, there they said, "Our god is working here!" A great deal must often have taken place in the life and soul of a man then before he came to recognise a place as holy; nay, it often needed more reflection than it costs many a one to argue that since, as he has always heard, there is one almighty Being-God, this God is of course everywhere, because if he were not he would not be infinite and almighty.

For us every place is holy in which we have felt by experience that God exists, where we have mourned over our trespasses or have formed good resolutions, where holy thoughts have risen within us or some true consolation has fallen to our lot, where our vocation has become clearer before our eyes and faith in our destiny has been quickened. So we do not believe in our hearts that God is everywhere until we have found out that we can experience his presence in all places, and can receive his blessing everywhere if our heart is rightly tuned.

TWO

GEN. XXIX. — XXXII. 3.

WO reasons for the departure of Jacob to Haran are given in Genesis. We have been told already that he went there through fear of Esau's vengeance; but we find another account besides this that differs very widely from it, and is evidently by another writer. It runs as follows:1

When Esau was forty years old he took two Canaanite wives and they vexed the souls of Isaac and Rebekah. Rebekah, therefore, said to her husband, "I am grieved. about these Hethite women. If Jacob were to follow Esau's example, and marry a woman of this country, I should wish to die." Acting upon his wife's exhortation, Isaac called Jacob to him, and, after having blessed him, gave him this injunction: "You must not take one of the inhabitants of this country for your wife; but go rather to Padan Aram, to the house of Bethuel, your mother's father, and choose a wife from among your kindred. And God Almighty (ElShaddai) bless you and give you a numerous posterity, so that many tribes may spring from you! May he lay upon you and your posterity the blessing of Abraham, that you may have possession of the land in which you are a stranger, that he promised him!" Thus Isaac sent Jacob away to Padan Aram to Laban, the son of Bethuel the Aramæan (or Syrian). Now when Esau saw that his father had blessed Jacob, and sent him to Padan Aram to bring a wife thence, and had told him not to marry a Canaanite wife, he was reminded afresh of his parents' strong disapproval of his own marriage with women of the country; so he married a relative, an Ishmaelite woman, as well.

1 Genesis xxvi. 34, 35; xxvii. 46—xxviii. 9.

2 See p. 216.

It is easy to see that this story differs considerably from the one related in our last chapter but one. There Esau is the favourite of Isaac, who desires to bless him, and only makes Jacob the head of his brothers by mistake. Here, on the other hand, Isaac thinks just as Rebekah does about Esau. His marriages with Hethite wives are a thorn in the flesh of both, and induce Isaac knowingly and intentionally to call down the blessing of Abraham upon Jacob's head. There Jacob obtains the birthright and his father's blessing in an underhand manner. Here he is the obedient son, who goes to Mesopotamia to seek a wife after the heart of his parents, so as not to forfeit their favour as Esau had done. Now attempts have been made to bring these two stories into agreement with each other, by saying that Rebekah represented to Isaac how desirable it would be for Jacob to marry one of his own kindred, simply in order to gain his consent to the departure of his younger son; but there is not a single word that points to this conclusion; and if it is correct, then surely Isaac is made out a most feeble creature, for he renews, of his own free will and without a word of reproach, the blessing gained in the first instance by a fraud. Nor can we understand how Esau could determine to marry an Ishmaelite wife "because Isaac had blessed Jacob and sent him to Padan Aram to fetch a wife" if the blessing had really been stolen already.

In the account of Jacob's departure from Beersheba to seek a wife among his kindred, we have a portion of the Book of Origins before us; and here as elsewhere1 that work gives but colourless figures to the patriarchs. There were some old legends, on the other hand, that gave Jacob very characteristic features; for his name that was interpreted "deceiver" led the popular tradition to describe him as a crafty man, and in this character he actually appears