One is a characteristic teaching of the Bible.
That power springs from seeing the unseen In a brilliant passage in Hebrews the author, writing of the faith of Moses, says: "He endured, as seeing Him who is invisible." Contemplating the unseen the old prophet's courage grew strong and he rose above the realm of sight. This is invariably ime of rare and exalted devotion. It was seen in France in June. "In Dunkirk harbour," wrote the New York Times, "in such a hell as never blazed on earth before, at the end of a lost battle, the rags and blemishes that had hidden the soul of democracy fell away. There, beaten but unconquered, in shining splendour, she faced the enemy, this shining thing in the souls of free men which Hitler cannot command. It is the great tradition of democracy. It is the future. It is victory Man conquers when like one who. sees the King Invisible, he does not flinch.
Eternity has ever been in traffic with History. It is for this reason that such a story as that of 'Jacob's, ladder' appeals so much to the religious mind. Jacob, when fleeing from Esau, chances on a place and lies there for the night with a stone for his pillow. He dreams of a ladder reaching from earth to heaven, with the angels passing up and down upon it. In terror he recognizes that this is God's house, earth's entrance into heaven. That ladder is a symbol of the experience and conviction of spiritual men of all ages—that God speaks to humanity, that communion is possible between heaven and earth—and not just in this place or in that, in this rite or in that This ladder is everywhere where men awake to the reality of the world of the spirit; angels of God' are ever "ascending! and descending' upon it. It is a ladder', pitched', as Francis Thompson saw, betwixt Heaven and Charing Cross'.
But (when so sad thou const not sadder) Cry;—and upon thy so sore loss Shall shine the traffic of Jacob's ladder Pitched betwixt Heaven and Charing Cross.
In the infancy of humanity heaven' is always thought of as up there'—'up above the bright blue sky' of the children's hymn. With the advance in mental moral, and spiritual enlight tenment the symbol of a place above has remained—only, now, the symbol is seen to be but a symbol. Such a symbol, therefore, of a ladder' is peculiarly appropriate to express the belief that there is relationship between earth and heaven, between history and eternity, between man and God: This ladder' has never been removed. It is pitched' betwixt the hearts of men and Heaven. It is in the office, the shop, the factory; it is in the trenches, in the air, on the seas. Jesus Christ Himself is this ladder'. The Incarnation was the entrance into history of new spiritual forces from above.
If we cannot see the ladder' and the bright winged angels who ascend' and descend', it is not because it is not there, it is because like the man with the muck-rake in his hand we can look no way but downwards. "There stood also one over his head, with a celestial crown in his hand, and proffered him that crown for his muck-rake; but the man did neither look up, nor regard, but raked to himself the straws, the small sticks, and dust of the floor" Many there are in this world who prefer the straws, the small sticks and dust to the crown of life'.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.