Article April 10, 1965 Issue

The Oil of Consecration

ISRAEL PICKENS

The student of Christian Science finds great interest in tracing the appearing and reappearing of the light of the Christ in the thought of men and women, as it is recorded in the sacred Scriptures. This light came to the receptive thought of Jacob as he was wending his way from Beersheba to Haran. At nightfall he tarried at a certain place and gathered some stones for a pillow and lay down to sleep.

In his dreams he saw a ladder which reached from earth to heaven, and he beheld angels of God, ascending and descending on it. Then he awakened from his sleep and exclaimed (Gen. 28:16,17): "Surely the Lord is in this place; and I knew it not. ... This is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven." We read, "And Jacob rose up early in the morning, and took the stone that he had put for his pillows, and set it up for a pillar, and poured oil upon the top of it." And he said, "This stone, which I have set for a pillar, shall be God's house."

Many years later, Jacob prevailed over the workings of evil in his own thought and was transformed. It was at this time that he wrestled "until the breaking of the day" (Gen. 32:24), until the light of Truth shone on him in its effulgence. In this experience his thought became illumined in great measure with the light of the Christ.

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