i886.] 
Stay ill Garenganze. 
THE GOD OF JACOB. 
In what a hopeless condition Jacob was, expecting his brother 
Esau with his four hundred men — doubtless bent on wreaking 
vengeance, and himself with only a few women and children, his 
cattle, and their herdsmen. A weaker travelling party could not 
be imagined. His very weakness compelled him to lay hold 
upon God, who weakened him still more, so that his cUnging was 
intensified, and he said, " I will not let thee go." " Thou hast 
power with God and with men,'' was God's gracious answer. 
Jacob was now no longer in Esau's power as a lamb before a 
wolf, but Esau was in his, so that his heart was turned as the 
rivers of water. Jacob's Hfe is a favourite study of mine. There 
is so much in faltering, feeble Jacob (I don't speak of Israel) so 
like me; so much in God's treatment of me so like God. Oh, 
the magnitude of God's grace and mercy ! Who can know it ? 
It would be far from the truth to suppose that the Lord still 
suffers aught at the hand of God for sin, for He "hath once 
suffered." Still, our present sins, and the grievous state of 
Christ's Church, can be no joy or comfort to Him ; but very 
much the opposite. Was there not somewhat of pain in that 
look that He gave fallen Peter, and an intenseness of desire in 
the thrice-spoken question, "Lovest thou Me?" "I will not 
drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God shall 
come," is full of meaning, and speaks of the day in which His 
Church shall be presented to Him without spot or wrinkle. 
There is an unfathomable depth of earnestness in the intercessory 
prayer of John xvii. that makes one say, Who can know the 
costliness of that grace, and mercy, and love, showered upon us 
— daily, hourly? When I remember how my sin afflicted Him, 
and brought on Him the pressure of the garden, and the agony 
and curse of the cross, how unutterably sweet His — and not 
another's — forgiveness is. The thought of His continual interces- 
sion is the sweetest joy on earth. 
THE BLESSINGS OF RAIN. 
November Gth. — ^Q have had heavy rains lately, to the joy of 
everyone. It is in such a place, and at such a time, that one 
realizes the blessings of rain. Six months of drought under 
