the Spirit of God instructed those favoured with this mystical revelation so that they were enabled to detect the meaning symbolically conveyed. It was not consistent with the plan of God's dealings with this earth, that clear and undisguised notices should be given of redemption, whilst the time of the Redeemer's appearance was yet far removed. But neither would it have consisted with the Divine mercy, that the patriarchs should have been left wholly ignorant of the deliverance to be wrought out in the fulness of time, or with no information but that derived from early tradition. And in order to answer both these ends, the keeping the plan concealed and yet the making its nature sufficiently known, God was pleased to vouchsafe visions and command typical actions, by and through which, as we have cause to believe, He communicated to His saints such portions of truth as it most concerned them to know. There seems no reason to doubt, that Abraham's offering up his son was a significative transaction, appointed and employed by God to teach the father of the faithful how the world would be redeemed. It is probable also that Jacob's wrestling with an angel, on the night which preceded his meeting with Esau, was an instance of information by action, the patriarch being hereby taught generally what prevalence earnest prayer has with God, and assured moreover of the happy issue of the dreaded interview of the morrow. We think it fair to suppose that, in like manner, the vision granted to Jacob, as he fled from his home, was designed to represent some great spiritual truth, and was itself a revelation of some portion of the purposes of God. If nothing had been intended beyond the assuring Jacob of Divine favour and protection, the ladder, with its attendant circumstances, seems unnecessarily introduced, for the words spoken by God would have sufficed to console and animate the wanderer. It is therefore in strict conformity with the general character of the patriarchal dispensation, and in accordance with the peculiar circumstances of Jacob, that we should suppose the vision itself emblematical, so that, over and above the encouraging things which were said, there was a great truth taught by that which was seen. Hence the question now is as to the meaning of the vision itself, as to the truths represented by the mystical ladder. It has often been affirmed that nothing more was designed than the informing Jacob of the ever-watchful providence of the Almighty. We are not prepared to deny that the image of a ladder, reaching from earth to heaven, God Himself appearing at its top and angels passing up and down in rapid succession, may be accommodated to the workings of Divine providence, inasmuch as a constant communication is thus represented as kept up between this globe and higher places in creation, and God is exhibited as carrying on, through the instrumentality of angels, unwearied intercourse with the human population. And yet, at the same time, we feel that the figure, if this be its import, scarcely seems distinguished by the aptness and force which are always characteristic of scriptural imagery. The ladder appears to denote an appointed channel of communication: it can hardly be said to figure that universal inspection of the affairs of this earth, and that universal care of its inhabitants, which we are accustomed to understand by the providence of God. Besides, as we have already intimated, if the vision taught nothing but that Jacob was the object of Divine watchfulness and protection, it did not add to the declarations with which it was accompanied, and the patriarch could gather no truth from what he saw which he might not have equally gathered from what he heard. And this, to say the least, is not usual in God's recorded dealings with His people certainly, every part of these dealings is generally instructive, and none can be shown to have been superfluous. We seem bound, therefore, to apply the vision to other truths besides that of the providence of God. And when you observe, that one great object of the celestial manifestation was the renewing with Jacob the promise made to Abraham and Isaac, you will be quite prepared to expect in the vision a revelation of the Messiah Himself. Jacob had just secured the distinction of being the progenitor of Christ; and God is about to assure him, in the words of the original covenant with his fathers, that in his seed should all nations be blessed. How natural then that some intelligence should be communicated in regard of the Christ; so that, whilst the patriarch knew himself the depositary of that grand promise in which the whole world had interest, he might also know, so far as consisted with an introductory dispensation, what the blessings were which the promise ensured. It must be fair to suppose that what Jacob saw had an intimate connection with what he heard, and that the vision was intended, either to illustrate or be illustrated by the subsequent discourse. But there is nothing in the discourse, except that promise which had reference to Christ, on which it can be said that obscurity rests. The other parts have to do with that guardianship of which Jacob should be the object, and with the greatness of that nation of which he should be the ancestor. Hence the likelihood, if we may not use a stronger expression, is considerable that the vision should be associated with the promise of the Christ, and that, as the one assured Jacob that the Mediator should arise from his line, the other emblematically informed him of this Mediator's person and work. "1 We would add this, that our Saviour, in His conversation with Nathanael, used language which seems undoubtedly to refer to the mystic ladder on which the patriarch gazed. "Verily, verily, I say unto you, Hereafter ye shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man." Here the Redeemer appears to identify Himself as the Son of Man with the ladder: the angels are to ascend and descend on the one even as they did on the other. We may find occasion, in the sequel, to recur to this saying of Christ, and to examine it more at length. At present, we simply adduce it as corroborating the opinion that the ladder represented the Mediator; and that, as Abraham had been symbolically taught that the world should be redeemed. through the sacrifice of a substitute, so was Jacob now symbolically instructed in regard of that substitute's nature and dignity. But, of course, the great point remains yet to be examined, namely, whether the vision in question furnished an accurate representation of the promised Deliverer. And here we affirm at once, that, if the ladder seen by Jacob be regarded as a type of the Mediator, there is an appositeness in the figure which must commend itself to all thinking minds. Cut off by apostasy from all intercourse with what is yet glorious and undefiled in the universe, the human race lies naturally in wretchedness and loneliness; and, though it may cast eager looks at the bright heaven which is above, has no means of holding communion with the tenants, or gaining admission to the gladness, of domains which may be privileged with 1 John i. 51. special manifestations of Deity. Who of all our fallen line is possessed of a power, or can frame an engine, through which he may ascend from a planet which labours beneath the provoked curse of God, and climb the battlements of the sky, and achieve entrance into that city into which is to enter nothing that defileth? Who is there, if the Almighty had dealt with this world according to its iniquities, and left it in the ruin threatened to transgression, that could have so found out God by the might of his reason, and so propitiated Him by the might of his virtue, as to have renewed the broken friendship between the human and the divine, and opened a clear way for the passage of the earthly to the heavenly? All of you, if believers in revelation, know and admit that the direct consequence of our forefather's sin was the suspension of all intercourse, except that carried on through the ministry of vengeance, between God and man. Up to the moment of rebellion there had been free communion earth and heaven seemed connected by a path which the very Deity loved to traverse; for He came down to the garden where our first parents dwelt, and held with them most intimate converse. But in rebelling man broke up, as it were, this path, rendering it impracticable that any should escape from the heritage on which evil had gained footing, and mount to bright lands where all was yet pure. And we know of no more striking and accurate representation of the condition of our race, in its alienation from God, than that which should picture the earth as suddenly deprived of every channel of communication with other sections of the universe, so that it must wander on in appalling solitariness, a prison-house from which nothing human could soar and which nothing divine could visit. Ay, this was the earth so soon as Satan had seduced man from allegiance-a lonely : |