the record is, “he was afraid and said, How dreadful is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.” The ladder stretching upward, its foot resting beside him and its top in the heavens, the open door far in the sky through which the angels seemed to come and go; the voice of the Lord himself and withal uttering such words――ah indeed, the whole effect was as if God and heaven had truly dropped down upon him, and this was God’s dwelling-place and heaven’s door was there! The scene was entirely too precious to be suffered to pass into oblivion; so Jacob’s thought turned to some memorial of the scene and to a moral adjustment of his future life to this heavenly call. First, he took the stone which had served him for a pillow and set it up for a _pillar_ and poured oil upon the top of it――a sacred unction.――――To the place he gave the significant name “Bethel”――house of God――by which it was ever after known. Then, by a solemn vow, he gave himself to the Lord who had thus called and comforted him with promise. We read, “Jacob vowed a vow, saying, ‘If God will be with me and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat and raiment to put on so that I come again to my father’s house in peace, then shall the Lord be my God, and this stone which I have set for a pillar shall be God’s house; and of all that thou shalt give me, I will surely give the tenth unto thee.’”――――If we press the word “_if_” at the head of this sentence so as to make it thoroughly conditional, and withal suggesting some shades of doubt whether God would prove faithful, we shall wrong Jacob, imputing to him what manifestly he could not have meant. His words must be taken thus:――_Inasmuch as_ God has so kindly promised to be with me in all my otherwise doubtful way, and to bring me back despite of all peril to my father’s house again, I accept him as in very deed my God; and out of all my accumulated wealth, I will surely give one tenth to him.――――The spirit is that of one drawn by God’s promised mercy――not of one who stands in grave doubt whether God will come up to the full height of his promise. These are the words of one who has _no_ doubt on that point and who refers to that promise only to say that because of it, under the joyful assurance of it, he gives himself to God in full, prompt, and perpetual consecration. A reverent soul brought so near to God, impressed with a sense that heaven and God are verily here, does not tempt and provoke God by expressing the fear that he will not prove faithful to his promises!――――Late into the morning Jacob lingered in this hallowed spot as one loth to close such an interview with God and break the charm of such sacred associations. And when at length he must go on his journey, it was with far other heart than in his solitary journey of the day before. * * * * *