66 "He saith not, And to seeds, but, And to thy seed," the singular number, as of one, which is Christ." You see, the addition of the mere letter s, in our version, would have been important. Abraham was therefore a foreshadow and a representative of Christ; and to be a child of Abraham now by lineal descent, is to be cast out, but to be a child of Abraham by faith in Christ, is to be the true Jew, and to be taken into the kingdom of heaven. The ancient race have been thrust out because they would only cleave to the lineal descent from Abraham, and we, the wild olive tree, now graffed in, because we believe in Christ, and through him are the true seed of Abraham. Thus Christianity, as preached and proclaimed unto us, is to be the great blessing of all mankind. It is not only the great eternal, but it is the greatest temporal blessing. Take a comparative view of all the nations of the earth, and consider which are, at this moment, the most peaceful, prosperous, and advancing nations in the whole globe. Where is the home most happy, freedom most secure? where are the rights of the poor and the duties of the rich most felt, respected, and inculcated? Just where Christianity has struck its deepest roots, and spread furthest its glorious and majestic boughs. Where the Bible is opened, and no man dare shut it, because he that hath the key of David has opened it; where the pulpit gives no uncertain or equivocal sound, where the truth of the gospel is openly taught there, at this very moment, speaking of temporal effects only, the poor man feels the ennobling fact that his hut, however poor, is his castle, and that wherever the winds and rains may penetrate. Majesty cannot enter without that poor man's permission; and the rich man feels that his wealth is his stewardship, and that he is made richer in order that they who are poor, may share in his wealth; and in every sphere all the duties, and privileges, and responsibilities of society are felt in their largest possible extent. Are not these the effect of Christianity? Are not England and America the two greatest nations of the world, and are they not, at this moment, the distinctive witnesses to the truth? A moral thermometer might be constructed, and you might determine by it as men determine heat and cold, that where Christianity is purest, and weightiest, and highest, there social prosperity is greatest; and that where it melts into Paganism, it is at its lowest ebb, till you come to Paganism and heathenism itself, where the right of the people is merged in the tyranny of the sovereign, and where neither right, nor privilege, nor freedom, nor prosperity is. Of our country I would say, in a temporal sense, "Our country's strength, our country's strength, It is not in her soil; For her hardy sons their substance gain "Our country's strength, our country's strength, For her snow-flakes rest, like hoary locks, "But firm upon her ground alone Our Christian churches stand; The bulwarks of our nation's strength, "Beneath the fir and oak tree's shade Such is the secret of the moral strength and prosperity of our land. This promise thus addressed to Abraham will soon be actualized. All nations will soon be blessed in him. Jew and Gentile, rich and poor, civilized and barbarian, Africa, and Asia, and Europe, and America, all will be blessed in his Seed, that is, Christ, and shall call that Seed blessed. Christianity was designed for all; it is destined to overflow all. Has it been a blessing to us? Are we children of Abraham? Are we blessed with the forgiveness of sin? Are we blessed with regeneration of heart by his Spirit, with adoption into his own happy family, blessed with the sunshine of a hope of glory incorruptible and undefiled, with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places? If so, let us give the glory to Abraham's Seed, even unto Christ, and rejoice that we are Abraham's sons by being renewed by the Holy Spirit, and adopted into the family of Christ. CHAPTER II. THE PATRIARCH'S SHIELD. "And when I view both regiments, The world's and thine; Thine clad with simpleness and sad events, The other fine." "After these things the word of the Lord came unto Abram in a vision, saying, fear not, Abram: I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward." GEN. xv. 1. GOD addresses words of comfort to his people only when necessity demands it. Abraham must have been laboring under a depressing sense of fear, or God would not have addressed him in the words, "Fear not, Abram." Worldly men would be exceedingly perplexed to say why the patriarch should have been so very much depressed. He was rich in silver and in gold; he had returned a conqueror, covered with victory; he had all that he could possibly require to make him happy in life, or prosperous and successful in the enterprises that lay before him. Why, then, was Abraham depressed? Why did he need this prescription, "Abram, fear not"? Perhaps the excitement of his recent victory had passed away, and corresponding depression had occupied its place. Nobody emerges from great excitement without having a reaction of corresponding depression it is morally and physically true. Another reason in the case of Abraham may have been, that feeling of dissatisfaction in all that is enjoyed or tasted, which is still widely felt. Everybody is more or less conscious of it. 66 99 66 We need not a text to tell us, "This is not our rest." Every one feels a state of unrest, a yearning for a satisfaction that grows upon no earthly tree, a sense of depthsunsounded depths—in the heart that no ocean in the world can fill; a longing after perfection, which is a prophecy of its ultimate possession, which nothing upon earth can gratify, which grows in intensity, the more we attempt to remove it by the opiates or the supplies of this present life. Abraham was, what the apostle calls him, a pilgrim and a stranger - he found no city on earth, he looked for one to be. He was not yet in the country of his hope, he was expecting a house not made with hands," "a city that hath foundations," a better country." While this explains one part of his depression, it may also have been true that his faith faltered. Abraham was not perfect. He had sinned, and his faith, like that of all, had also faltered, and although in one special instance he staggered not, yet in other and succeeding events he may have done so. He had left the home of his youth, the friends of his boyhood, the relations of his family, and set out upon a course, the issues and the contingencies of which he had not calculated; he may have, like others, oscillated between deep depression and great excitement. Who that knows his own heart, and has watched its faltering, varying phases, does not know how rapid and how frequent are our transitions, from resting upon Pisgah, amidst the sunshine of the better land, to sinking in the valley of Achor, or dwelling in the tents of Mesech and in the tabernacles of Kedar? But especially do Christians fear, as Abraham very probably feared, when they look into the future. We have all a taste for divination, we all like to prophesy, if we only think we can succeed; we delight in constantly turning our backs upon the past, and penetrating the depths of the future, if we can there gather some hint or some sketch of |