will raise thy name to a place above all other earthly names, so that it shall be known over all the earth; and with that name there shall be associated a character for faith, and daring, and devotedness, and self-sacrifice, such as is linked with no other name on earth." How truly has this been exemplified! What name has been honoured like Abram's? not even that of Moses or Solomon. What character stands before us more perfect, more excellent, more exemplary, as a man of God, than Abram's! His name was to be made great. True son of Shem. True possessor of a name which God was to exalt and make honourable among all the nations of the earth.*

4. "Thou shalt be a blessing." Far beyond himself was the blessing of God towards him to flow out. That fulness of Divine love and favour shed down upon him was not to be confined to himself. It was to communicate itself to others through him. Out of him were to flow rivers of living water. He was to be made a cistern for others, nay, for the whole earth. How largely does God bless when once He begins! He makes to overflow. He delights to honour those whom He loves, by making them centres of blessing, lights in the world. Of some this may be more true than others, but of each believing one it is certainly true in a measure. One of God's reasons for filling us is to impart blessings to the circle around us. Do we remember this? Do we keep before our eye continually this purpose of God, so that when praying to be made useful we ask not only for a thing which seems to us most desirable, but for the very thing which God wants and purposes to bestow?

5. "And I will bless them that bless thee." Here is yet a wider manifestation of benevolence to Abram. So greatly does God love him that He will bless others for his sake, and bless others in proportion as they bless him. Love like this is the deepest and truest of all. It is love which looks on all others in their connexion with the beloved one; which judges of them, thinks well or ill of them, in proportion as they think well or ill of him who is the first beloved. Is it not here that we get the first glimpse of the Divine love to us in Christ Jesus? Do we not see here, though in a faint degree, what it is to be loved and blessed for another's sake? Learn, then, that it is the very nature and tendency of strong love thus to extend itself. Learn how truly God can love us for the love He bears to His

* God's promise to make Abram's name great does naturally suggest to us his connexion with Shem, which, as we have seen, signifies "name," or

renown.

Son. Learn that the fact, "The Father loveth the Son," is the great foundation-fact on which we are to build our certainty of being blessed by God. Learn what it is to be accepted in the Beloved, and to say, "Bless me for the blessing with which Thou hast blessed Thine own Son; shew Thy love to Him by loving and pardoning me."

6. "I will curse him that curseth thee." This is yet a wider overflow of love; like that which we see in the passage, "Touch not mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm; "He that toucheth him toucheth the apple of his eye." Not only will God account every favour shewn to Abram a favour shewn to Himself, but He will count every injury done as an injury to Himself. To Abram and to his nation was this promise verified, age after age, so that an European king of the last century is said once to have exclaimed-" Meddle not with these Jews; no man ever touched them and prospered."

7. "In thee shall all families of the earth be blessed." This concluding sentence gives a fuller insight into the purpose of God respecting Abram and his calling. It intimates that the Messiah, the woman's Seed, was to spring from him. All families of the earth were to be blessed in him; and only in one way has this been verified. As the ancestor of Messiah, he may called one of the fountainheads of blessing to earth and all its families. Out of him God meant His eternal blessings to flow wide and far over all nations and families.

be

Have we been blessed in Abram? God's desire is that it should be so, whether Jew or Gentile. He did not call Abram in vain. He had us in His eye in calling him; our sins, our wants, our helplessness, our sorrows; He saw all these, and He raised up Abram for the purpose of providing for us blessings to supply all these necessities. There has been no lack of blessing, no straitness of love on the part of God. Time has not dried up the mighty river of blessing which we see thus taking its rise in Ur of the Chaldees. It is rolling on in its fulness. It presents blessings to us in these last days, as truly as in the past. It invites us to stoop down and drink. The whole inexhaustible abundance of Abram's blessing is presented to us. Which of us will turn away and refuse what is so freely, so largely given?

In the different parts of this promise let us observe, also, how Jehovah takes to Himself the fulfilment of the whole-" I will do it." He is the purposer, the promiser, and the doer of all. Infinite wisdom is in the purpose, infinite faithfulness is in the promise, and infinite power in the execution. Which part of it can fail? Must not all of it come to pass? Let us learn the

wisdom, the faithfulness, the power engaged for us, and looking to that God in whom these are, let us trust Him for everything, let us trust Him with soul and body, let us Him trust now not merely for a day but for eternity!

Ver. 4.-"So Abram departed, as the Lord had spoken unto him; and Lot went with him."

This verse seems more naturally connected with what precedes than with what follows. It seems the close of the historian's statement respecting Abram's leaving Ur of the Chaldees. What follows concerns his departure from Haran, and commences a new section of the narrative, or rather goes back to the end of the previous chapter, where mention had been made of Terah's death in Haran.

"So Abram departed, as the Lord had spoken unto him." He made haste and delayed not to obey the Divine commandment. He lingered not a day in Chaldea, but went forth, not knowing whither he went. This prompt obedience was the manifest fruit of faith. He believed, and therefore acted, Faith made him decided and unhesitating. Faith shewed

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him that there was but one course for him,-to follow the Lord. And so is it still; our obedience is in proportion to our faith. A feeble faith produces but poor obedience. An uncertain faith can be the root of only a wavering, languid, hesitating obedience. It is thus that we are to follow the Lord. Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth;" am I, send me." Faith will nerve and animate us. Faith will quicken us for labour, or for conflict, or for sacrifice. According to our faith we shall be decided, fearless, simple-hearted, and single-eyed. Nay, more, our faith will lead us to draw others along with us in the path of obedience. Abram drew Lot with him, as we read here; and so let our faith seek to lay hold of others. A faith that never goes beyond self is not like the faith of Abram. Faith that does not yearn over others is not like the faith of him who said, "Rivers of waters run down mine eyes for them who keep not thy law." Ver. 4, 5.-" And (or now) Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran. And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother's son, and all their substance that they had gathered, and the souls that they had gotten in Haran; and they went forth to go into the land of Canaan; and into the land of Canaan they came."

How long he remained in Haran is not said. It is not likely that he tarried long here when his face was toward Canaan; and Haran was but an inn by the way. Nay, it is not likely that he would have tarried at Haran at all, had there not been some special cause for it; perhaps Terah's illness and death.

When leaving Haran he was just seventy-five years old, and would no doubt, even in these days, be counted an old man; much too old to undertake so hazardous and uncertain a journey. In going out of Haran, Abram now acts as head and father. In coming out of Ur, Terah was the head, even though it was Abram that was called; but now that Terah was dead, Abram takes the guidance of the pilgrim-band. He takes Sarai with him, it is said; he takes Lot with him, as he had done in quitting Ur; he takes all the substance which they had gathered, for the Lord blessed him there, and prospered him; he took the souls which they had gotten in Haran, that is, all the additions made to his household; and with these they set out again upon their pilgrimage. They set their faces towards Canaan, and at last reached it.

In all this we see faith still working, simple but decided faith; faith that takes God at His word, and gives the believing man no rest till he has carried out God's commands to the full. It does not allow us to sit down contented so long as any part of God's work lies unfinished. Its eye is upon the accomplishment of all that God has promised. It knows that God will not fail on His part, and it stirs up the soul not to fail on its part. It stretches out its arms too, and embraces kindred and friends, that it may carry them all together; wife, nephew, household; all within reach; not one must be left behind. Nor is this faith slothful as to the needful business of earth. It is evident that Abram was not slothful in business, while he was fervent in spirit, serving the Lord. He was diligent to know the state of his flocks, and looked well to his herds. He did not neglect temporal things. He laboured at his calling, and he prospered, so that during the short time he was in Haran, he had acquired much substance, God having already begun to make up to him even in this life for what he had left behind in Chaldea. Faith does not turn a man into a sluggard. It makes him diligent in his business, that so he may honour God with his substance, and give no occasion to the adversary to speak reproachfully. It teaches him that whatever his hand findeth to do, he is to do it with his might.

Haran may do

Faith turns the eye and step to Canaan. for a season, but not always. We may sit down for a season in our weariness, or take shelter till some desert-blast have spent itself; but as soon as we have rested, or as soon as the blast is over, we must gird ourselves anew for our journey, and press onwards, "Čanaan" is our watchword; nothing but the land of promise can content us. With our back to

Chaldea, and our face to Jerusalem, we press forward, eager to reach the land that floweth with milk and honey, the land on which the eye of God is ever resting. Yes; faith sets our affection on things above; it teaches us to have our conversation in heaven.

And faith accomplishes what it undertakes. Nothing really undertaken in faith can truly fail. It must in the end prosper. Faith not only turned Abram's feet towards Canaan, but it brought him to that land at last. "Into the land of Canaan they came." Faith cannot be disappointed. Sight and sense may, but faith cannot, for faith has the pledge of God, the God who cannot lie. How certain are the issues of faith! How blessed to have faith as our guide! How sure the hope to which faith turns the eye! It never grasped a shadow yet; nor shall it ever do so, as long as Jehovah is the God of truth, the faithful, promise-keeping God!

Ver. 6.—“ And Abram passed through the land unto the place of Sichem,* unto the plain of Moreh.+ And the Canaanite was then in the land." He does not halt at its frontiers,

Abram reaches Canaan.

but goes right into its centre. He comes to Sichem (or Shechem), and there for a season he rests, though with enemies on every side, for the Canaanite was then in the land. He has now taken possession of his promised inheritance, marching into the very heart of it, and encamping there, in the calm assurance that he was now entering upon what was his own, in a sense in which nothing else had hitherto been. Even his possessions in Chaldea were not so truly his as those which he now came to inherit by the call of Jehovah. A thing gotten by faith is doubly ours, and is doubly sure, So, doubtless, did Abram feel when encamping under the terebinth trees

of Moreh.

Yet with all this there was something to remind him that his life of faith was not ended; that he was still a stranger. The presence of the Canaanite told him that he was not yet to enter upon the full possession of the inheritance. He was treading upon his own soil; yet it was in the hands of enemies. Nor did these enemies flee before him. They remained in their possessions, doubtless looking upon him as an intruder

*

Sichem or Shechem. They are both the same place. It is a place of note in the history of Jacob, for his well was there; in the history of Israel as a nation, for there were Ebal and Gerizim; in the history of Samaria, for there was the centre of the kingdom of Jeroboam; in the history of our Lord, for in that neighbourhood He met with the woman. (John iv.)

The plain of Moreh; or, as some think, the oak or terebinth tree of Moreh.