LECTURE VIII.

GENESIS XVIII. 1.

"And the Lord appeared unto him in the plains of Mamre.”

AFTER the remarkable vision which formed the subject of the last discourse, we are informed by the inspired historian, that Sarai, Abram's wife, growing impatient for the long-postponed, though promised seed, prevailed upon Abram to unite himself, in a secondary marriage, to Hagar, Sarai's handmaid. This was doubtless the effect of sinful impatience on the part of Sarai, and was agreed to with what cannot be considered as an innocent acquiescence upon the part of Abram. Like most other sinful compliances, this act of the patriarch was succeeded by vexation and punishment. Insolence and contempt soon took possession of the handmaid; jealousy and discontent assailed her mistress; while, for nearly fourteen years, all personal manifestations of the Almighty to his faithful, but in this instance erring, servant were suspended. We do not mean to assert that the long intermission of the delightful manifestations with which Abram

was favoured by the great Jehovah, was intended as the punishment of this offence; but it appears neither unscriptural nor unreasonable to conclude that it was so, when we remember how often, in all ages, similar conduct has been followed by similar results, and men's "sins have separated between them and their God, and hid as it were his face from them."

My brethren, do you ever complain that in your own case, communion with the Most High is more than usually difficult; that it is not with you as in times past; that your intercourse with Heaven is impeded; that (as the apostle expresses it) your prayers are "hindered;" that your very praises appear to have lost their wings, and to be unable to rise through the clouded atmosphere which surrounds you? This is a state of mind not absolutely unknown, we believe, to any among the children of God; when meditation becomes irksome, prayer wearisome, and all intercourse with heaven cold, dead, and unprofitable: it is, we believe, consonant with the painful experience of most Christians, when we say that such feelings are neither unknown nor infrequent; when the spiritual life is so deadened within us, that the slightest heavenward motion is an effort, and real inward com

munion so little felt and enjoyed, that we are almost tempted by our spiritual enemy to forego the mockery of the external form. This is usually termed the hidings of God's face, and too often and too hastily attributed to the mere sovereignty of God, while a little careful self-examination would frequently enable us to discover that the cause is not in God, but in ourselves; that if the gracious visitings of the Spirit of God to the soul of the believer have been intermitted; if the promise of our divine Master, "We will come unto him and make our abode with him," appear to remain unfulfilled, some secret sin, some unrestrained temper, some unholy compliance, some unchecked and unchastened desire, like the Achan in the camp of Israel, is suffered to be undetected in the heart, and to rob us of the promised blessing.

While it is thus in judgment, it is also in mercy, in great and distinguishing mercy, that, under circumstances such as these, the Lord withdraws himself from us for a season. If we suffered the due reward of our deeds, He would withdraw himself from us, not for a season, but for ever. How infinitely then does our gracious Redeemer magnify his love to you, if you are a child of God, when in the very act of chastening! He well knows, that

although, while He was with you, you far too little estimated his presence, yet if you have once truly experienced his love, you will never be happy, never be at peace, under a conviction of his absence. It is therefore by this temporary withdrawal that He teaches you to "examine yourselves whether ye be in the faith," to "judge yourselves that ye be not judged of the Lord," and, above all to look and long and pray for his return. It is thus that He produces those exercises of faith and love so often referred to by the church of old, when she says, "By night on my bed I sought Him whom my soul loveth; I sought Him, but I found Him not ;"-those mourning exercises, the most painful, but perhaps amongst the most profitable of the Christian life, which, while sorrow and wo occupy the heart and compel you to "sow in tears," enable you, in the issue, by the return of the light of God's countenance, to "reap in joy."

After fourteen years had elapsed, during which, as we have observed, Abram had been debarred from all extraordinary communings with the Most High, we find the Almighty again appearing to him, urging him to a more perfect walk with God: “I am the Almighty God; walk before me and be thou perfect;" repeating the assurances of the

unalterable nature of the covenant which he had made with him, and instituting the rite of circumcision, that "sign," or "seal," as the apostle to the Romans expresses it, "of the faith which he had, yet being uncircumcised," and by which alone he had long before been justified, "not in circumcision, but in uncircumcision."

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It was at this period of the patriarch's history that the Almighty made that remarkable change in the name both of Abram and his wife, which should convey to their remote posterity the remembrance of the honour which they had received from the Lord. Neither shall thy name any more be called Abram, (a high father,) but thy name shall be called Abraham, (the father of a numerous progeny ;) for a father of many nations have I made thee." "And as for Sarai thy wife, thou shalt not call her name Sarai, (my princess,) but Sarah (a princess,) shall her name be." "She shall be a mother of nations, kings of people shall be of her." This was the manner in which the Almighty, from of old, distinguished those whom the Lord delighted to honour. This is the manner in which the kings of the earth have in all ages, by title of distinction and names of renown, adorned their favourites and elevated them above their