IF JACOB'S PILLAR WHAT THEN?

Otago Witness, Issue 2522, 16 July 1902, Page 72

IF JACOB'S PILLAR WHAT THEN?

By R. N. Adams

If indeed it were provable the Corona:.(>n ytone in Westminster Abbey is really I ; ic j-tone used by Jacob for a pillow, what ci it?

Without duo consideration this question n.-y seem to most of us of but little import.nee, if indeed not quite idle. What value, it may be asked, can possibly attach to the P'vse&iion of a mero stone, even if it was pillow to a man who had, while lying with ie under his head, a marvellous dream? A strnc ; a just a piec3 of inanimate metal — only a itone, and nothing more.

Our first impression is likely to be that nothing but absurd superstition, or at best a misguided sentimentality, could invest the old relic with any kind of significance. We are apt to reason about it after this fashiou, if we thiak about it at all: —

Supposing it be admitted that the identical Ftone^on which the fugitive from his brother's wrath lay dreaming at the place he named Bethel has by some peculiar arrangement of human care or Divine providence been preserved through all these centuries what is it after all but a piece of ct-mmon, very common, stone? If it has been carried from Bethel to London, may we not still say, imitating the speech of Naaman, the leper, Are not the stones of England better than all the stones of Palestine? Oi if we are to have some stone from that far-off country, why not prefer one from Abraham's altar at Moriah or one from Solomon's Temple? But, after all, what notice does it merit? It never was, and never can be, more than "just a stone," and there are millions of other stones that might be chosen, any one of them more shapely and better looking than the one we call "Jacob's Pillow." It is of no consequence to what use it may have been put in the ages past; we are not aware that any thing or ceremony can impart potency to an inert mass of stone. Besides, is it not a species of idolatry most reprehensible to Divine wisdom, as m ell as absurd in the sight of reasonable humanity, for men to treat a piece of stone with veneration?

All this, and even things more forcible, if not more true, might be said.

But then, may there not be another side to the argument? May we not possibly, in spite of what we hava stated, still be able to find a cogent reason for regarding this stone, with a reasonable veneration, not for it as a mere stone, but for some character that has been imposed on it?— not fo" anything intrinsic, but something accidental to it — something intentional and actual on the part of the intelligent being or being-* who selected it?

The deed which conveys a most valuable property from one owner to another is absolutely without intrinsic value to any one, oi even of characteristic; value to any person but the one who is able to prove his light to possess it.

A deed of gift may be in any language or in any form, according to the will or wish of the parties and the laws of the realm to which they belong. But the deed affects only those to whom it relates, its possession, however, being sufficient i<> prevent the success of a false claimant. Where, however, both parties to the original deed are ttill living, it is not necessary to have a formal document sufficiently self-evident to convince a third party of the genuineness of the transaction. In such a case an article of any sort may be enough to act as a remembrancer of things said and done years ago.

This may be a word, a sign, a ring, or any easily identified thing that ha« been agreed upon as a pledge of good faith — an unchangeable witness of the compact made between the giver and the receiver, the promisor and the promisee. Bud what has all this to do with reference to "Jacob's Pillow," or, more correctly, "Jacob's Pillar"? It is simply meant to convey the idea that this stone which he "bet up" was something more than, a mere stone, quite a« much so as when once a. piece of parchment has become a "deed" it is more than a. piece of parchment. It is not the fact of Jacob having used it for a "pillow," nor exactly that he set it up for a pillar," but the reason for his setting it up. While he slept he had a dream which convened to him uoi only the assurance oi

Divine favour and protection, but of vast "imperial greatness." He had just recently left his father's side, with this blessing ringing in his ears : —

"God give thee of the dew of heaven, and the fatness of the earth, and plenty of corn and wine. Let peoples serve thee, and nations bow down before thee," etc., and now in his dream he has a directs celestial confirmation and enlargement of the paternal blessing in these words: "I am the God of Abraham, thy father, and the God of Isaac. The land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed. And thy seed shall be as the dusfj of the earth, and- thou shalt spread abroad to the west and to the east, and to the north and to the south; and in thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed." /

Here we see is a divine covenant, freely, made, without one "if or "but," absolutely unconditional, in which Jacob's posterity is guaranteed to become as the dust of tho earth, and to spread abroad in all directions, until all other families of the earth should bs influenced for good by them. This was accompanied by the other more specially spiritual blessings. When, therefore, the patriarch awoke he was in a state of delighted excitement, and the first thing spoken of as having been done by him was that he "Took the stove that he had put for his j.illow. and set it up for a pillar, and poured oil upin the top of it." Here was "a, pillar of witness," set up as a remembiancer of the very memorable e\"ent.

Now, if we want to find what was in Jacob's mind when he set up the pillar, we have only to follow him a few years further in his career. When he and his Uncle Laban made a covenant of peace Jacob set; up a pillar, and Laban built a heap of stones, and they said to each other, "Let this heap be a witness," and, "Let this pillar be a witness," etc. Jacob's action in .setting- up the pillar of Bethel was not ignored by Jehovah, for when He recalled him to his father's house Ho reminded him of having set up the pillar and told him to go with his young family and live there for a period, which he did.

In this manner do we discover that although the stone was "set up" by Jacob, its purpose was acknowledged by Jehovah, and so the stone of Jacob became the witness, the tangible proof, and the incorruptible remembrancer of the marvellous* Imperial covenant entered into by God with the grandson of Abraham, the father ot Isaac, to whom tho same covenant had 1 een nride each in his turn.

This stone, therefore, became, in a manner, "The Deed of Empire" — the constant reminder of the Divine promise of vast and s,y>reading-out*posterity, a posterity like the dust of the earth, going in all directions, carrying the power of blessing wherever ito might be blown.

Having become "Tiie Deed of Empire" ifi ceased to be just in all respects like other stones. It leceived a character unique and important, such as no other stone could possibly have been invested with.

Now, in view of this argument we may perhaps better understand the import of the question with which tins paper was started.

If we as a nation really are in possession of this stone, and unconscious of its real character, have used it for centuries in the most important ceremony of State, what; then? Is it all quite without meaning or significance?

But there 3s one more characteristic idea attached to this stone, for when Jacob had made his memorable vow he said : — "And this stone which I have set up for a pillar shall be God's house." At present, however, we must Teave it in this condition :1 we may again say something on it from thafi point of view, which is perhaps no less important than the view we have been exa-> mmmg — viz., the foundation of empire.