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."

Students of Christian Science have proved for themselves in multitudinous ways the value of what is here presented, but perhaps we do not often enough make use of the ladder "let down from the heaven of Truth and Love" and apply the angelic messages to all that we undertake. Strictly speaking, we cannot ourselves begin to ascend the ladder until after we have applied the truth in many ways, and proved to ourselves as well as to others our entire sincerity and the diligence which is inseparable from all true effort. If Jacob had merely spent the following years in telling others of his wonderful vision, his problems would have been waiting indefinitely, and little would have been accomplished. We read that he went among people who had not risen above idolatry, who had their household gods even as so many have to-day who yet claim to be Christian people; but because Jacob was not disobedient to the heavenly vision another and greater one came to him at Peniel, when mortal sense struggled against the spiritual ideal, and its powerlessness was shown. This later experience brought such a spiritual transformation that he was able to declare he had "seen God face to face." Immediately after this he was reconciled to his brother, and fraternal love took the place of long-time hate and jealousy.

We must not forget that through the years which intervened between Jacob's first vision and that of Peniel he had toiled diligently among the flocks and herds until he had acquired great wealth; but it is clear that he never forgot the vision of the ladder, or failed to apply it to the best of his understanding in the working out of all his human problems. As we gain the spiritual sense of the Scriptures, we see how limitless are the blessings which follow obedience to the truth spiritually understood; and while Jacob's sons as a whole caught only a small measure of their father's spiritual understanding, yet in the case of Joseph there was the princely nature which came with Jacob's own transformation at Peniel, and through which Joseph was never subject to sensuality or the tyranny of evil, but quickly rose to victory over it at every step of the way. We cannot too often remember that the demand rests upon us to make practical all the divine messages which come down the ladder "from the heaven of Truth and Love;" for, as a poet has said,—

Annie M. Knott.