Editorial August 31, 1918 Issue

Jacob's Ladder

Annie M. Knott

In the twenty-eighth chapter of Genesis we read the story of Jacob's departure from his home, when he went out into an unknown world, as so many must to-day, in order to work out his human problems and to learn man's possibilities as a child of God. He was leaving behind him the tender love and watchful care of an earthly father and mother, but happily for him they had not neglected to teach him that in the divine fatherhood and motherhood he could find the verity of that of which human affection at its best is but a reflection. All Bible students have read of Jacob's lying down to sleep, far from any human abode, with stones for his pillows, and also of his dream in which he beheld "a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven: and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it." This was truly a wonderful vision, and it is in no wise strange that when morning came Jacob was moved to say, "This is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven."

Throughout all the years spiritually minded people have been gathering lessons from this story of Jacob's ladder; and many have seen that because it may at any time come into their own experience, the thing for them to do is to be ready always to receive the angelic message. Too many have taken the lessons of the ladder in an easy sort of way, and felt that a temporary uplifting was a grand thing, and so it truly is, but the experiences of the uplifted hour remain to be put into practice even in the very lowliest ways on the plane of daily duty. Strictly speaking, Jacob had not begun to climb when the vision came to him; but when the vision of Truth comes to us we must either follow its leadings or fail utterly in all that we attempt on the human plane. It matters not how humble to human sense any duty may be, it will not do to argue that it is material and that therefore we can pass it by. If we bravely take up any task which comes to us, we may make it a sort of slate and pencil with which to work out the great problem of being, namely, to show that inasmuch as perfection is a perpetual demand of divine law we can obey it, since man as God's idea has unlimited possibilities and capabilities.

Mrs. Eddy has a wonderful lesson for us on page 85 of "Retrospection and Introspection," where she speaks of the methods which are necessary for the advance of humanity at this period. After speaking with commendation of the present need for students' associations and church organizations, as well as "any other organic operative method that may commend itself as useful to the Cause and beneficial to mankind," she adds, "Of this also rest assured, that books and teaching are but a ladder let down from the heaven of Truth and Love, upon which angelic thoughts ascend and descend, bearing on their pinions of light the Christ-spirit."

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