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made the most profound submission to Esau, and then he breaks out in fervent prayer to the God of his fathers: “O God of my father Abraham, and God of my father Isaac, the Lord which saidst unto me, Return to thy country and to thy kindred and I will deal well with thee. I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies and of all the truth which thou hast showed to thy servant; for with my staff I have passed over this Jordan, and now I am become two bands. Deliver me, I pray thee, from the hand of my brother, from the hands of Esau, for I fear him lest he come and smite me and the mother with the children. And thou saidst I will surely do thee good and make thy seed as the sand of the sea which cannot be numbered for multitude.” How earnestly he pleads God’s prom- ise and its fulfillment! But he did not content him— self with this earnest and humble address at the throne of mercy. He sent his wives, his children and servants over the brook Jabbok for safety, and being left alone he gave himself to extraordinary prayer: “And there wrestled a man with him until the break of day, and when he saw that he prevailed not against him, he touched the hollow of his thigh; and the hollow of Jacob’s thigh was out of joint as he wrestled with him. And he said, let me go for the day breaketh; and he said, I will not let thee go except thou bless me.” Let us notice

First, What the man who wrestled with Jacob said: “Let me go, for the day breaketh.” Now who was it that wrestled with Jacob? It was some one in

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