86 BOYS OF THE BIBLE.

probably soon asleep; for youth bears trouble lightly, and
among all common gifts, God has bestowed few blessings
which are more to be prized than His great gift of sleep.
Jacob slept, and as he slept he dreamed.

Never forget that God who is God of the day is also
God of the night. The God of our sleep is also the God of
our dreams. God took the hand of the sleeping wanderer
and led him gently into the world of dreams. What a
dream Jacob had! He had seen at home probably, or in his
wanderings, mountains rising slope on slope till their loftiest
crests seemed to touch the very heavens. Or he had seen
at sunset, as we may often see, clouds of burnished gold, or
of fleecy, filmy beauty, rising like a grand august stairway
to the sky. Some such vision as this crowded in on the
young sleeper’s brain, and he saw passing up and down this
grand highway of light and splendor, the gracious forms of
tall, white angels, coming and going, ascending and descend-
ing the glittering stairway; and above them all he saw a
radiant form in matchless light and awful splendor, and from
that mysterious presence, the presence of the Lord, a voice
was heard—for it is quite as easy to hear as to see when
once you are in.dreamland—and the voice said:

“Tam the Lord God of Abraham thy father,
And the God of Isaac.
The land whereon thou liest,
To thee will I give it, to thy seed.
And thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth;
And thou shalt spread abroad to the West,
And to the East, and to the North andthe South,
And in thee, and in thy seed
Shall all the families of the earth be blessed.
And behold, I am with thee,
And will keep thee in all places whither thou goest,
And will bring thee again to this land,

For I will not leave thee
Until I have done that which I spoke to thee of.”