and a safeguard.
And its exhortation is supported by the respect and admiration you feel
for any one who has the courage to stand alone in such a case, true to
his rooted convictions.

Another word may be added. We met, a great many of us, this morning at
that table to which men do not come unless they entertain the purpose of
treading in the footsteps of Christ, and of nursing His Holy Spirit in
their hearts. As we lifted up our hearts there, as we ate of that bread
and drank of that cup, as we prayed to be kept safe from the sins that
most easily beset us, as we sealed in each other's presence the
resolutions which are to direct our steps in safe paths, it was not of
circumstances or places that we were thinking--it was the vision of
Christ our Saviour that was before our eyes, and we pray that this vision
may remain with us. When we think of all our diverging paths as we
separate just now, and of the uncertainty how many of us may meet again
in that far horizon, and how many may have wandered out of the way in the
wilderness, we do not doubt that we shall often need the strengthening
influence of this vision of Christ, if we, too, hope to inherit the
blessing which is reserved for those who are faithful under all
circumstances, and who sow beside all waters.

X. THE PRESENCE OF GOD.

"And Jacob awakened out of his sleep and said, Surely the Lord is in
this place; and I knew it not."--GENESIS xxviii. 16.

These words indicate the beginning of a new life in the patriarch Jacob.
They tell us of the moment when, as it would appear, his soul awoke in
him. And they surprise us in some degree, as such awakenings of
spiritual capacity often do; for Jacob's recorded antecedents were not
exactly such as to lead us to expect the dream and the vision, and the
awakening which are described in this passage.

He had cheated his brother out of his father's blessing; he was leaving
his father's house in consequence, to avoid this brother's threatened
vengeance; and as he slept at Bethel he dreamed his dream of the ladder
set up on earth and reaching to heaven; and he saw the angels ascending
and descending, and the Lord standing above it, and he heard the Divine
voice charged with promise and with blessing: "I am with thee, and will
keep thee in all places whither thou goest." This, taking it in all its
parts, is a very surprising narrative; and the point in it on which I
desire to fix your attention for a