ing that we hang as it were between earth and heaven, and may be thrown by a moment's carelessness headlong to the ground; the completeness and singleness of the salvation which is in Jesus, so that if we adhere to it it is sufficient, but there are no modes which meet in it or branch off from it-swerve a single inch, and you have no footing, but must be hopelessly precipitated: all these particulars seem indicated under the imagery of a ladder, and could not perhaps have been equally marked had some other emblem been given of the connecting of earth and heaven by the Mediator Christ. And now as I stand upon the earth, the child of a fallen and yet redeemed race, and examine how I may escape the heritage of shame which is naturally my portion, and soar to that sky which woos me by its brightness, oh, I read of “entering into the holiest by the blood of Jesus,"1 and of "laying hold upon the hope set before us," 2 and of "following on to know the Lord," 3 and of being "raised up, and made to sit together in heavenly places in Christ," 4-expressions which prove to me that if I would reach heaven it must be through fastening myself to the Mediator, and yet straining every nerve to leave the world behind; leaning incessantly upon Christ, and yet labouring to diminish by successive steps my distance from God; being always "found in Christ," 5 and yet "led by the Spirit,' "6 to be always on the advance. But when I consider these scriptural combinations of believing and working, trusting in another and labouring for one's self, always having hold on Christ and always mounting to greater nearness to God, always supported by the same suretyship and always pressing upward to the same point, I seem to have

"2

1 Heb. x. 19.
4 Eph. ii. 6.

2 Heb. vi. 18.

5 Phil. iii. 9.

3 Hos. vi. 3.
6 Gal. v. 18.

So as

before me the exact picture of a man who, with a steady eye and a firm foot and a staunch hand, climbs by a ladder some mighty precipice: he could make no way, whatever his strivings, without the ladder, and the ladder is utterly useless without his own strivings. May we not therefore contend that, through the vision vouchsafed to the patriarch Jacob, God not only revealed the person and work of the Mediator, but gave information, and that too in no very equivocal shape, how the working out salvation will be combined with the being saved "freely through the redemption that is in Christ," whenever any of the children of men are raised from earth and elevated to heaven?

But it will be right that, before leaving this portion of our subject, we recur to our Lord's speech to Nathanael, which has already been quoted. It is easy to decide that Christ designed a reference to Jacob's vision, but not to determine the precise meaning of His words. "Hereafter ye shall see Heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man."2 The words are prophetic, but there is nothing to inform us what time may be intended by "hereafter." We cannot, however, but think, that however ingenious may be the interpretations which authors have advanced, nothing has yet happened which quite fulfils the prophecy. We doubt whether there were any occurrences during Christ's residence on earth which could be said to bring to pass the visible opening of Heaven, and ascent and descent of angels on the Mediator. Christ had not indeed wrought miracles when He held His interview with Nathanael; and He may have referred to the demonstrations of almightiness which He was about to put forth, and which 1 Rom. iii. 24. 2 John i. 51. 3 See King's Morsels of Criticism.

would as much prove His Divine majesty as though He were surrounded with troops of angels. But it can hardly be said that such an explanation as this is commensurate with the passage. We know not what to call far-fetched, if we may not so designate the statement, that those who saw Christ work miracles, saw Heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Saviour. We may add that there were circumstances attending the Crucifixion, Resurrection, and Ascension of Jesus, which may be considered as having partially accomplished the words under review. Angels appeared in connection with these several events, and the firmament was at length opened to receive the ascending Conqueror. But here we must again say, that the interpretation comes manifestly so far short of the scope of the passage that nothing but inability to find another meaning can make us content with one so contracted.

For our own part, then, we cannot but believe that the prophecy has not yet received its full accomplishment. We refer it onward to times of which indeed our apprehensions are indistinct, but not on that account less animating. We have abundant reason for believing that days are to break on this creation such as never yet visited it since man rebelled against his Maker. We read of "new heavens and a new earth," "1 as though the whole material system were to be splendidly renovated; and of the creature itself also being "delivered from the bondage of corruption,"2 as though animate and inanimate were to reach one general jubilee. And when there shall have been effected this magnificent rebuilding of all that has been shattered, this hanging with new majesty, and enamelling with fresh beauty the creation wherein we 2 Rom. viii. 21.

1 2 Peter iii. 13.

dwell; and when, in its every department, our globe shall be tenanted by "a holy priesthood, a peculiar people ; ;"1 then, for anything we can tell, may such intercourse be opened between the earth and other sections of the universe, as shall give an ampler meaning than has yet been imagined to the vision of Jacob, and the words of Christ. It is a fine saying of the Psalmist, "God setteth the solitary in families."2 And it may be one of the verifications of this saying, that worlds which have hitherto moved, each in its own orbit, each left in its solitariness, shall have channels of communication the one with the other, so that one mighty family shall be formed of orders of being which have never yet have been brought into visible association. We cannot pretend to speak with any certainty of events and times of which we have only obscure intimations. But at least, unable as we are to apply the words under review to anything that has already occurred, we may lawfully connect them with what is yet future, and, by associating them with other predictions, gain and give additional illustration. And by following this plan in the present instance, we seem warranted in stating the high probability, that in glorious days when Christ's kingdom will be visibly reared on the wreck of human sovereignty, there will be open and brilliant intercourse between dwellers on this earth and higher ranks of intelligence. Then may it come to pass that Jacob's ladder will be shown to have represented the bringing into blessed communion all the ends of creation; and then may the Mediator, in some manner unimaginable now, appear as the channel through which communion is maintained. Ay, and then in some stupendous unveiling of the secrets of the universe, and in some sublime manifestation of 1 1 Peter ii. 9. 2 Psa. lxviii. 6.

Himself as the connecting link between all departments of the unlimited household, may Christ explain, and make good the yet mysterious saying, "Hereafter ye shall see Heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.”1

But we turn now from the vision to the vow of Jacob; from the considering what the Patriarch saw and heard, to the examining the effect thereby wrought upon his mind. We have no intention of entering at length into all that is related of the conduct of Jacob when he awakened out of sleep. We wish to confine ourselves strictly to his vow; for it is against this that objections have been urged by infidel writers. Jacob sets up for a pillar the stone which had served him as a pillow; and, having poured oil upon it so as to dedicate it to God, vows a vow,"If God will be with me, and will keep me in the way that I go, and will give me bread to eat, and raiment to put on, so that I come again to my father's house in peace, then shall the Lord be my God."2 He adds-but it is not necessary that we touch on this-that the erected stone should be the house of the Lord, and that of all which God gave him he would consecate the tenth.

Now it is urged there is something very mercenary and selfish in this: Jacob is represented as making a kind of bargain with God, so that he will serve Him only on condition of a recompense. If my bodily wants be all supplied, the Lord shall be my God; as much as to say, if I am left in destitution I will abandon all religion. We hold it exceedingly unfair and disingenuous thus to wrest Jacob's vow. We are sure that no candid mind can put on it the interpretation that Jacob was a time-server, careful of religion only so far as it seemed likely to promote 1 John i. 51.

2 Gen. xxviii. 20.