LIIBRARY OF THK UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Mrs. SARAH P. WALSWORTH. Received October, 1894. Accessions No.St . Class No. S. W. BENEDICT, PRINTER, 128 FULTON ST. KRUMMACHER'S WORKS JACOB WRESTLING WITH THE ANGEL SERMONS ON GENESIS CHAPTER XXXIL JACOB WRESTLING WITH THE ANGEL, Now, by that touch, Mysterious man ! I know Thy nature's more than human ! Let thee go ! Not till thou bless me. If, through all the night, My daring, struggling limbs increas'd in might ; If thou thy strength attempered e'en to mine, If thus resisting I o'ermastered thine ; Then wilt thou too, my daring speech approve, For all thy wrestling was but tender love ! My name is JACOB thou hast made me bold, Thine arms that have repell'd me, must enfold ! Thou shall, Oh Wondrous Stranger ! e'er we part Stamp thine eternal blessing on my heart ! Thy name no more is JACOB ! Thou hast seen By faith's keen vision, what thy trials mean ! Thy name is ISRAEL ! Knighted Prince of God ! For thou with him the wrestling ring hast trod ! Nay cease ! Ask not for my peculiar name, Enough to know 'twill put thy foes to shame : Take this white stone 'tis deeply graven there, With thine, a token of prevailing prayer ! Forth to thy work thy darkest clangers brave, My name goes with thee, and 'tis strong to save ! AMERICAN EDITOK. .> OV.7 sivs JACOB WRESTLING WITH THE ANGEL. SERMON I. GENESIS XXXII. 24. -An since he has said, Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the world !' But it would also be a matter of regret, if we had such an abundance of temporal things as to render Jesus indifferent to us, because he SERMON HI. 43 no longer heals our bodily diseases, except through a medium. We all require his medical aid, his healing power, in a more important sense than the people of Gennesaret experienced it I mean with respect to our souls, whose disease is called sin ; the natural conse- quence of which, is death, eternal death. Of this we must necessarily be healed ; and may be so, although we cannot, and ought not, to accomplish it as of our- selves. Jesus is also our physician, and so full of heal- ing power, that he is at the same time the medicine. If we wish to be healed, we must at least touch the hem of his garment. * Thou art clothed with light,' says David, 'and art very glorious.' The glory of Jesus Christ is a perfect glory. The skirt of his gar- ment is his meekness and humility, which fit him to be the physician of such diseased creatures as we. His invitations and promises are the hem which we ought to touch. It is not permitted to eveiy one to approach the great and the mighty upon earth ; but the contrary is the case with the monarch of the skies. We may touch him, if we entreat him to let us do so. And we really touch him by the feeling of our wretchedness, and by our sincere longing and desire for the sanctifi- cation of our souls, by prayer, and particularly by be- lieving confidence. But what benefit was derived from thus touching Jesus? All who did so were made whole. And such is still the case. Jesus retains the reputation of being a perfect, and at the same time the only, physician of souls. Deeply feel thy need of him, and then thou wilt also say with Jacob, * I will not let thee go, except thou bless me.' 44 THE WRESTLING OF JACOB. GENESIS XXXII. 26. And he said, Let me go, for the day breaketh. And he said, I will not lei thee go, except thou Hess me. IN the remarkable event recorded in this and the two preceding verses, one wonder succeeds another. The Son of God puts Jacob's thigh out of joint ; but Jacob, so far from losing courage, throws himself upon the neck of him who had deprived him of all his strength, that he may be borne by him, since he is no longer able to stand of himself. A new wonder now occurs ; the Son of God entreats Jacob the victor the van- quishedthe strong the weak to let him go. But Jacob wisely takes advantage of the opportunity, and replies, c I will not let thee go except thou bless me.' ' Let me go,' says the 'Son of God to Jacob ; and these words belong to those wondrous expressions, of which there are many in the Scriptures to those ex- pressions which, at first sight, seem to intimate some- thing absurd, and yet bear upon them the impress of Divine wisdom. If we were desirous of producing a whole series of such paradoxes, of such seeming con- tradictions, they would be such as the following : c When I am weak,' as Paul says, 'then am I strong.' ' As sorrowful, yet always rejoicing ; as poor, yet mak- ing many rich ; as having nothing, yet possessing all things.' ( Let me go.' Was he in earnest, or did he merely dissemble ? Dissemble ? Who can think that of him SERMON III. 45 who is faithful and true. If he had been in earnest, it would have been an easy thing to extricate himself from the arms of Jacob, It was therefore a new temp- tation, into which he led the patriarch. It would have been ill for the latter, if he had let him go ; he would have miserably sunk upon the ground, the Son of God would have vanished, and with him the blessing which he obtained by holding him fast. * Let me go.' Could he not have dislocated his arms ; which is an easier matter than putting a hip out of joint ? No, his pow r er did not extend so far, because it necessarily remained within the limits assigned to it by the Divine promise, * I will do thee good.' But the dislocation of Jacob's arms, the extricating himself from them ; the hasting away without conferring a blessing, would not have been a benefit, but an injury ; and this he certainly could not inflict for his word's sake. * Let me go.' Did he need for this purpose the consent of his friend 1 Assuredly he did. He had es- tablished the covenant of grace with him, and with all the spiritual descendants of Abraham, according to which he engaged to be their shield and their defence. He has bound himself to bless them and to do them good, and cannot free himself from this obligation, which he has confirmed with an oath, without the con- sent of those in alliance with him ; and he himself has, in their regeneration, imparted such a feeling to them, that they never can nor will consent to it. f When thou saidst, Seek ye my face ; my heart said unto thee, Thy face, Lord, will I seek.' ' If we deny him, he will 5 46 THE WRESTLING OF JACOB. also deny us ; if we believe not, yet he remaineth faith- ful, he cannot deny himself. (2 Tim. ii. 12, 13) Our unbelief cannot, render the faith of God without effect.' (Rom. iii. 3) But did he really desire that Jacob should exonerate him from the obligation to do him good? Certainly not: but he wished to have the pleasure of seeing how firm, by his grace, are the hearts of his allies, even when many waters of affliction go over them ; and how the seed of God remains in his children. It was therefore uncommonly pleasing to him, when Job exclaimed, ' Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him ;' and equally so when his disciples said, * Lord, to whom shall we go ? Thou hast the words of eternal life ;' and in the same manner when his church continues to cleave firmly to him in the ex- tremity of tribulation and temptation. He himself is the author of this constancy ; and hence it is, that it is so pleasing in his sight ; for he takes pleasure in all his works. What joy it will have caused him at being unable to shake off Jacob ; when the latter held firmly by his word, and did not suffer himself to be moved away from the spot, whatever the Lord might say or do to him, after he had once engaged to do him good ; that he even threw himself upon his neck, after he had deprived him of the ability to stand alone, and con- tinued immutably firm, when it was said to him. ' Let me go !' And what pleasure it still causes him, when the Christian does not suffer himself to be dismayed by afflictions and temptations, but even then cleaves to his word and his grace, when every thing seems against him ; when he continues faithful unto death ! SERMON III. 47 1 Let me go.' The Lord said this to the Patriarch, to try him whether he really loved him who attacked him so severely, and caused him such sensible pain. That which the Lord here says to Jacob, was said to Job by his wife, < Dost thou still retain thine integrity, although God visits thee with such unheard of afflic- tions ?' Take leave of him and let him go. It is in reality no small attainment, not only to act patiently in tribulation, but even to glory in it, and not to doubt for a moment of the goodness, compassion, and merciful kindness of the Lord. And when induced to complain with the church, in Isaiah Ixiii. 15, ( Where is the sounding of thy bowels and thy mercies towards me ? are they restrained V still to say, 'Doubtless thou art our Father ;' to confess with David, ' Thy way is in the sanctuary;' and with Jeremiah, in his Lamentations, 1 Thy goodness is every morning new !' This is no easy matter. In the present season of distress, God has certainly given many of his children an opportunity of refusing to learn this lesson ; and the Tempter may have said to many, what the enemies of Jesus called out to him, when he hung upon the cross : ' He trusted in God, let him deliver him now.' * Let me go.' The Lord spoke thus to the Patriarch to put his faith, to the test, and ascertain whether he would still cleave to the promise,-' I will do thee good,' although the hostile conduct of the Son of God seemed to prove just the contrary. Faith has various gradations : at one time, it is a faith which arises from seeing, feeling, tasting, and 48 THE WRESTLING OF JACOB. from the Lord's drawing near in loving kindness and tender mercy to the pardoned soul, in such a manner that the individual is able to say, " I believe, not mere- ly because of thy word, but because I experience in myself that Jesus Christ is the Savior of the soul." This is valuable experience, sweet in the sensation, and pre- cious in the fruit. But faith, which seems in these cir- cumstances to be uncommonly strong, is in reality very weak. It supports its steps with the staff of -sensation. Sensible joy in the Lord is its strength. It has its foun- dation more in itself than in the Lord ; and often sinks down to the extreme of despondency, when the trans- ports it previously felf*diminish. A higher degree is, not to see, and yet believe ; pray according to the word, and believe that the prayer will be answered, although there is no tangible proof of it ; believe that the Lord's ways are goodness and truth, although reason does not see them to be so. But it is a step further still, wheif we believe in hope, where nothing is to be hoped for nay, even against hope, and against feeling. Thus the Captain of our salvation believed, in defiance of every thing to the con- trary, when, forsaken of God, assaulted by the visible and invisible world, he hung upon the cross for three hours together, full of pain in body and soul. God laid him in the dust of death, and yet he called him, in faith, his God. This is the highest degree of faith. He who is de- sirous of exercising it, must be established in the know- ledge of the mystery of God, and far advanced in the denial of himself; the joint of confidence in his own SERMON III. 49 strength and wisdom, must be considerably dislocated ; he must be able to look pretty deep into the heart of Jesus, and yet say with Paul, 4 We are perplexed, but not in despair.' (2 Cor. iv. 8) ' I believed, therefore have I spoken.' (Psalm cxvi. 10.) ' Let me go.' Jacob's courage was also put to the test. " Let him go," he might have thought. " Thy tears, thy prayers, have been altogether fruitless. He has put thy thigli out of joint, and what else does the pain of it tell thee, than 'that he cherishes no favorable sentiments towards thee. Who knows what injury he may still occasion thee 1 Although he sees that thou must miserably sink to the ground, and thus, without even. being able to escape from Esau, must fall into his cruel hands, yet he desires thee to let him go." But Jesus had already taken care that he should not be able to let him go, by leaving him no choice, but placing him under the necessity of cleaving to him. No, Jesus must himself repulse him, and let go. his hold of him ; but this he did not do, and rejecting is what Jesus can- not do ; for he has said, ' Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.' Hence we must exercise courage, or else give up all for lost. Jacob was con- strained to act thus. * O happy souls, whom Jesus has 'wounded in such a manner that he alone can heal them, and whom he binds to himself by the feeling of their misery ; to whom he leaves only the choice between life and death; and who are compelled to say with Hosea, * Come and let us return unto the Lord ; for he hath torn, and he will heal us ; he hath smitten, and he v\ ill 5* 50 THE WRESTLING OF JACOB. bind us up. He will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight.' (ch. vi. 1, 2) Happy is he who feels com^ pelled to continue cleaving, though he may be under the necessity of persevering in doing so, even to the end of his life, without receiving consolation ; because, unless he does so, he sees nothing but death and destruction before him ! O wait on the Lord ; though he tarry, be of good courage and undismayed, and wait, I say, on the Lord ! 6 Let me go.' What courage must this have im- parted to Jacob ! For what did the words imply ? That the Son of God was in his power, aijd that he would not depart, unless Jacob gave his consent to it ; and this he had himself rendered impossible. What a futile reason was that which he adduced, ( For the day breaketh.' " Let it break," might Jacob have replied, " what is that to me 1 I have a thousand reasons why I will not let thee go, and even the breaking of the day is one of them. A painful day is approaching. I am afraid of my brother Esau. I stand in especial need of thy blessing. Thou dost well to remind me of it, that I may cleave to thee still more closely." O how pleasing must it have been to Jesus, that his pupil stood the test so well, and "that his good work shone forth in such' a lovely manner in him ! In con- sequence of the promises which are given us, Jesus is also in our power in like manner ; and however won- derfully he may deal with us, as his name imports, yet he can deny neither himself nor his word. If he re- proaches thee with being a sinner, justify him in doing so ; but plead with him, in return, that he is the Savior SERMON HI. 51 of sinners. Confess that he is in the right, when he sets before thee thy unbelief, thy wretchedness, and and thy ilnworthiness ; arid set his word before him, ' Seek, and ye shall find ; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.' When he was an infant, he was wrapped in swaddling clothes ; and his promises are now the cords of love by which we may hold him fast. And the best of all is, he holds us fast ; otherwise timid Jacob would have taken to flight at the first attack. O how lovely ! he was afraid of his brother Esau, but not of the Son of God, even when he dislocated his thigh. * Let me go.' How wonderful, that he declared him- self vanquished at the very moment when Jacob was unable to do any thing more ! As long as Jacob, rest- ing on his feet, was able to defend himself, his antago- nist also did his best against him. But no sooner are his feet no longer of any use to him, and Jesus must be alone and entirely his support, than he becomes so wholly and solely ; and Jacob, when unable to do any thing more, can now do all things through Christ, who strengthens him; in whom he has righteousness and strength, and who himself deprived him of his own strength. In the Divine life the same thing is wont to occur. At the commencement, we are generally able to do many things ; we form noble resolutions, and expect to fulfil them faithfully, in which we succeed to a tole- rable extent. We arm ourselves with a multitude of laudable maxims and noble motives. We hear and read the word of God with unction and devotion. We 52 THE WRESTLING OF JACOB. pray much, and with fervor. If we commit a fault, we repent of it bitterly, and renew our good resolutions. But what generally happens afterwards ? The fer- vor in prayer expires, and the oppressed heart can scarcely relieve itself by sighs and ejaculations ; it can seldom shed a tear, and must experience, to its sorrow, that theWord is in the right to speak of ' stony hearts.' Gladly would the individual feel the right kind of sor- row at it ; but he seems to himself to be hardened. And if he prays, where is the fervor 1 where the faith ? And yet no prayer is heard, unless it be offered in faith. Where is devotion ? when even the reception of the holy sacrament itself cannot restrain the wander- ing mind, however much he may strive to occupy him- self only with good thoughts. And the good resolutions ? Oh, he no longer knows himself, whether they are altogether sincere! He feels, indeed, self-love, unbelief, and hardness of heart ; but how to alter it, unless the Holy Spirit does it ; and how to obtain Him, when he prays so wretchedly, is then the question. The Christian then feels like Jacob did, when his hip was out of joint. He supposes he. must irrecoverably fall a prey to the wretchedness which he fears. If Jesus does not accomplish the work entirely ; if he be not the beginning, middle, and end ; if we are not saved by grace alone ; there is at least nothing more for him to hope for. The name of Jesus alone, and the word grace, sustains him in some measure, while every other support gives way. But how does the faithful Shepherd act under these SERMON III. 53 circumstances ? This is the real time of mercy. O what does the poor man now perceive ! His Savior and his Gospel. He recognizes his supreme faithful- ness in having humbled him, although he thought his Lord and Master acted strangely, and intended evil towards him. He now finds that the Lord permitted him to succeed in nothing, although he could not con- ceive before why he did not listen to his anxious sup- plication. He now understands that the Lord hedged up his way with thorns, to make him take the right one ; and led him into the desert, that he might speak kindly to him. After having suffered the loss of his own strength, he now succeeds in the very same way in which Jacob succeeded, whilst casting himself entirely upon Him who is all to us. ' Let me go.' This is like the sporting of Eternal Wisdom in the ' habitable parts of the earth/ which she often repeats, in order to have her delights with the O