The Knowledge of God 39 But every man must for himself make answer to that argu ment. Each for himself, must fight his way into the truth. It is like the grapple which Jacob had with an unseen antagonist at the brookside. As the night wore on he came to understand that Omnipotence had laid hold upon him. Then came a sudden wrench and Jacob fell, disabled. God had thrown him! He sank a helpless man, but, clinging still, cried, “I will not let Thee go except Thou bless me!” And thereupon the blessing was given, a blessing which God had waited through the weary years to bestow upon him: “Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, ‘the Supplanter’, but Israel; for as a prince hast thou prevailed with God”. Then and there he received his guerdon of knighthood and entered into the higher life. At the close of that conflict the light of morning was glowing on the hills of Edom: how significant the words, “And the sun arose upon him!” The new life had begun; the long quest was over; Jacob had found God. And he went his way limping on his shrunken thigh, to bear through all the after years the token of that struggle until he came to heaven’s gate, at peace with God. I t is thus that every man finds God; in a close grapple that ends in self surrender, an utter yielding to the beneficent power of God. So true life begins with knowing God. I t begins when a man, oppressed by doubt and uncertainty, hears His voice saying, “Reach hither thy hand and thrust it into My side!” It begins when, standing under the cross, he realizes, as Luther did, “He died for me, for me!” Then the day breaks and the shadows flee away. Love conquers doubt, and the soul, be holding the unveiling of the Infinite in the passion of Christ, cries out, “My Lord and My God!”
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