JEGAR-SAHADUTHA—GALEED.
By Milton C. Wilcox
"AND Laban call it Jegar-sahadutha; but Jacob called it Galeed." Gen. 31:47. But both terms, that used by the Chaldean as well as that used by the Hebrew, mean one and the same thing, namely, "The heap of witness." And yet to two parties not exactly understanding the meaning of the terms, one party remembering one name, the Chaldean, and the other remembering the Hebrew term, how easily a dispute might arise, which, uniting with itself other elements, would grow into a bitter controversy. We believe that differences among brethren and friends often arise in some such way as this. They may have been educated in different parts of the country or different countries, and thus they have come to use different terms to express the same idea. They both hold the same faith as regards the Scriptures of truth, but they use different words to express the same idea. One perhaps is naturally of a combative nature, and he picks up a word used by the other, invests it with his own meaning instead of endeavoring to ascertain the meaning of his brother, utters a sharp criticism which wounds his brother's pride, and the battle begins, to end in a relentless and wearing war. Many others are brought into the strife, and friends mourn, and foes rejoice. How much better it would have been if these brethren had tried to ascertain each other's real meaning. These meanings would probably have proved to the edification of both Jegar-sahadutha and Galeed. Thus doing, the seeming difference might prove a bond of union, and the heap of witness would become a Mizpah, ever delightfully and gratefully remembered by both. Gen. 31:49. Sometimes difference arises between men engaged in the same cause, who love as brethren, because one looks at and emphasizes one side of a truth and the other the other side. One has studied it from one standpoint, and he thinks that nothing can be so clear and beautiful, and so thinks the other looking at the same truth from392another point of view. There is one doctrine which furnishes a good example of this, namely, that of conversion, or, more properly speaking, the work which changes a man who has loved and practiced sin to one who hates sin and loves righteousness and is fitted for a home in the kingdom of God. A part of this work is God's, a part of the work is man's. God does his part, ever faithful; man must do his part. The Scriptures speak very distinctly on both aspects, often laying down positive injunctions to men without referring to God's part in the work; often positively declaring what God will do without referring to man's part. He for whom God has done great things, who has been plucked as a brand from the burning, will very probably magnify God's part; while he who has to some extent prided himself on his good character, will be more inclined to magnify man's part. One will dwell on one class of scriptures, the other on the other class, and yet at heart and in life, so far as character is concerned, they are agreed. They are like the knights who fought over the color of a shield which they had seen. They were traveling in different directions, one had seen one side of the shield by the way, and it was white, the other had seen the other side, and had found it black. The shield was both white and black. Both were right so far as they had seen. And so it is in regard to the above-named doctrine many times. Men are right so far as they have seen, but they have seen but one side. Keeping these common difficulties in mind, remembering how short-sighted is man, and how liable to be mistaken, seeking to know a brother's meaning rather than making him an "offender for a word," studying God's word prayerfully, faithfully, diligently, with a desire to know and do the truth, brethren may arrive at the unity of the faith, and find that it takes both sides to make a perfect whole; that each has lost nothing and gained much. By thus doing, the doctrine which has been a bone of contention may become a bond of union, even as poor sinners through the grace of Christ "out of weakness" may be "made strong." M. C. W.