Sermons on Selected Lessons of the New Testament

² The Lord said, “Because I said unto you, I saw you when you were under the fig-tree, do you marvel? You shall see greater things than these.” What are these greater things? And He said, “You shall see heaven open, and the Angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.” Let us call to mind the old story written in the sacred Book. I mean in Genesis. When Jacob slept at a certain place, he put a stone at his head; and in his sleep he saw a ladder reaching from earth even unto heaven; and the Lord was resting upon it; and Angels were ascending and descending by it.

This did Jacob see. A man's dream would not have been recorded, had not some great mystery been figured in it, had not some great prophecy been to be understood in that vision. Accordingly, Jacob himself, because he understood what he had seen, placed a stone there, and anointed it with oil. Now ye recognise the anointing; recognise The Anointed also. For He is “the Stone which the builders rejected; He was made the Head of the corner.” He is the Stone of which Himself said, “Whosoever shall stumble against This Stone shall be shaken; but on whomsoever That Stone shall fall, It will crush him.” It is stumbled against as It lies on the earth; but It will fall on him, when He shall come from on high to judge the quick and dead.

Woe to the Jews, for that when Christ lay low in His humility, they stumbled against Him. “This Man,” say they, “is not of God, because He breaks the sabbath day.” “If He be the Son of God, let Him come down from the cross.” Madman, the Stone lies on the ground, and so you deride It. But since you deride It, you are blind; since you are blind, you stumble, since you stumble, you are shaken; since you have been shaken by It as It now lies on the ground, hereafter shall you be crushed by It as It fails from above. Therefore Jacob anointed the stone. Did he make an idol of it? He showed a meaning in it, but did not adore it. Now then give ear, attend to this Nathanael, by the occasion of whom the Lord Jesus has been pleased to explain to us Jacob's vision.