Bible students are familiar with Jacob's experience at Peniel. This experience marked the critical point in the patriarch's life, and it found him in a most disquieted frame of mind. Indeed, so the Bible tells us (Gen. 32:7-11): "Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed.... And Jacob said, O God of my father Abraham, and God of my father Isaac, the Lord which saidst unto me, Return unto thy country, and to thy kindred, and I will deal well with thee.... Deliver me, I pray thee, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau: for I fear him."

Referring to Jacob's struggle which took place at Peniel shortly after this prayer, our Leader, Mrs. Eddy, writes in Science and Health (p. 308): "Then said the spiritual evangel: 'Let me go, for the day breaketh;' that is, the light of Truth and Love dawns upon thee. But the patriarch, perceiving his error and his need of help, did not loosen his hold upon this glorious light until his nature was transformed."

Jacob's name was then changed to Israel, meaning "Perseverer with God." Jacob's perseverance is not lost upon the earnest student of Christian Science, for to him it is synonymous with success in the demonstration of this Science, which has its authority in the Bible. This perseverance is the determination to carry on the battle against a false sense of self until the true likeness, manifest as God's child, sinless, pure, and whole, appears to awakened thought. This correct attitude finds its incentive in the realization that true understanding comes from God, Soul.

God, Spirit, supplies His spiritual creation of ideas with joy, wisdom, and dominion. In their experience human beings find that only as they let God govern their every motive and act can they expect to emerge from a false sense of life in matter. Christ Jesus was aware of the spiritual energies at work in him when he said (John 14:10), "The Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works."

The glimpse of Truth which transformed Jacob's experience at Peniel was recognized in its full impact by Christ Jesus. Jesus is the name of the human being; whereas Christ is "the divine manifestation of God, which comes to the flesh to destroy incarnate error" (Science and Health, p. 583). In our times the Christ, Truth, has been revealed and presented anew in the Comforter promised by Jesus himself: the Christ Science, or Christian Science.

Jacob evidenced a desire to derive the maximum benefit from his moral regeneration and spiritual rebirth. An experience similar to Jacob's may be ours at one time or another. Through a persevering acknowledgment on our part of God as ever-present good and through our own exemplification of this goodness in thought, word, and deed, our efforts to find freedom from sin and enslaving habits of thought will run parallel with the patient struggle waged by the patriarch for a measure of enlightenment. And these efforts will be rewarded.

If lack of humility or if self-will should try at times to obscure his spiritual vision, the student of Christian Science should remember that he can always walk toward the light and find his way back to the road that leads to spiritual perfection through adopting a childlike attitude of receptivity and trust in good. The desired result is most easily achieved when thought yields graciously to the gentle ministrations of the ever-active Christ, Truth.

The Psalmist sang (Ps. 71: 1-5): "In thee, O Lord, do I put my trust: let me never be put to confusion. Deliver me in thy righteousness, and cause me to escape: incline thine ear unto me, and save me.... Deliver me, O my God, out of the hand of the wicked, out of the hand of the unrighteous and cruel man. For thou art my hope, O Lord God."

"The wicked" and "the unrighteous and cruel man" may be symbolically construed as so many suggestions of so-called life in matter, including any misrepresentations about our fellow beings. These evil suggestions would mar and undermine the natural feelings of brotherliness and love which should characterize all our dealings with others. Also, these terms stand for the supposed reality of sin, disease, and death— all beliefs to be dealt with through a realization of the allness of God, good.

Jacob's wrestling with error took place when others were supposedly taking their rest. When faced with the need of doing prayerful metaphysical work, will the student of Christian Science default through the fallacious argument of the need for either rest or sleep? If God is the supplier of all good, He most certainly will strengthen His workers in times of necessity and refill the lamp of their inspiration.

Spiritual work brought to completion has a sweetness unsurpassed by any other achievement. Its consequences are immeasurable. Its reward is assured in that the student will gain an even clearer glimpse of divine Love's perpetual rule of harmony and perfection and will be able to say, as did Jacob (Gen. 32:30), "I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved."

Our Leader tells us in "Miscellaneous Writings" (p. 216), "There remaineth, it is true, a Sabbath rest for the people of God; but we must first have done our work, and entered into our rest, as the Scriptures give example."