were to gain the whole world, and yet lose their interest in the Lamb slain from its foundation? What will it profit you, if you abound to overflowing with this world's goods, and yet have not the blood of Christ sprinkled upon your conscience, his love and his Spirit within your heart? Abram's remonstrance entered into the ears of the Lord God of Sabaoth. For "behold the word of the Lord came unto him, saying, This (speaking of his servant Eliezer) shall not be thine heir, but he that shall come forth out of thine own bowels shall be thine heir." And having said this, the Lord led Abram to the door of his tent, and pointing to the apparently innumerable stars which were yet glittering in the firmament-for this manifestation of the Almighty was made before the dawn of day"Look now towards heaven," said God," and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them; and he said unto him, So shall thy seed be. And he believed in the Lord, and He counted it to him for righteousness."

It was thus that the Almighty listened to the anxious desire of his faithful servant, and again pledged himself more strongly than ever to the fulfilment of it; and it was thus that Abram was accepted before God by a simple reliance upon his promise, and

obtained the name which has distinguished him in all ages of the world as "the father of the faithful." "He believed God," utterly improbable, considering his advanced age and the advanced age of Sarai his wife, as such a declaration must have appeared; he believed at once and unhesitatingly in the promises of the Lord, and God" counted it to him for righteousness." He believed that he should possess an innumerable progeny, that in his seed, i. e. Christ, as the apostle tells us, all nations of the earth should be blessed; he believed therefore in the Messiah who should come, and so believing, his faith was, as the homily expresses it," the hand which put on Christ," and therefore instrumentally justified him before God.

My Christian brethren, it is of essential importance that you should understand the method by which Abram was thus accounted righteous before God, not as a matter of mere historical research, or even of doctrinal inquiry, but as a matter of the deepest personal interest. The way of salvation has been one and the same from the creation of the world; "justification by faith only," is as evidently a doctrine of the Old Testament as it is a doctrine of the New, or an article of the Church of England. Our Lord himself tells us, "Abram rejoiced to see his day, and he saw it and was glad;" by which he

can only mean that Abram rejoiced to foresee the coming of Christ Jesus our Lord in the flesh, a crucified and glorified Redeemer, and the unspeakably great and blessed consequences of it. It was thus that Abram and all the patriarchs and prophets and spiritual worshippers of God under the old dispensation, believed, with the fullest assurance of faith, on the person of the Messiah who should come, as every spiritual worshipper now believes on the Messiah who has come. The object of faith is in both cases the same,-and the effect of faith is in both cases the same-justification and peace, acceptance and holiness," Being justified by faith we have peace with God," and the faith by which we are justified being a living and an operative faith, daily evinces its fruits in "all holy conversation and godliness."

Earnestly, therefore, would I beseech you to inquire of your own hearts, whether you have been led by the Spirit of God to receive this most important and deeply influential truth. How can I be accounted righteous before God? is the first great question of the awakened sinner's heart. Has it ever been-is it at this moment, the inquiry of yours? If it be, the words of the text are the answer which God himself has given to it-Abram "believed in the Lord, and He counted it to him for

righteousness." Do you, according to the in creased light and means of obtaining it in the dispensation under which you live, "believe in the Lord," believe that his sinless sacrifice alone can atone for your sins, his righteousness satisfy God for your unrighteousness, his Spirit sanctify you from all uncleanness and infirmity, and lead you to glorify God in your day and generation? So believing with a true, a living, an obeying faith, the object of your belief, the Lord Jesus Christ, will be made unto you "wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption;" so believing, you also will be justified before God; and "whom He justifies, them He also glorifies." Therefore, as the apostle says, "there is now no condemnation"there will be none hereafter-to you "who are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit."

LECTURE VII.

GENESIS XV. 17.

"And it came to pass that when the sun went down and it was dark, behold a smoking furnace and a burning lamp that passed between those pieces."

WE considered, in the last discourse, the testimony borne by the Spirit of God to the faith of Abram, with respect to the promised seed and to the Messiah who should spring from his loins. "He believed God, and He counted it to him for righteousness.

There was yet, however, another subject upon which the faith of the patriarch was to be exercised, which had been already revealed to him by the Almighty, and which was now briefly but strikingly reiterated. This was the promise of the territory which his future progeny should inherit. The Lord said unto Abram, "I am the Lord that brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldees, to give thee this land to inherit it."

It is worthy of observation, with what a beauti