vice, therefore, embraces all places, the market as well as the temple, all times, all days as well as the Sunday, all departments of activity, manual labour, mercantile transactions, professional engagements, and the pursuing and disseminating of knowledge. The text presents for our study

II. Man's LOFTIEST RESOLVE. "We will serve the Lord." That is, I will act worthy of my nature, I will be a man; more, I will be like those angels who "serve Him day and night." This resolve implies two things. First: Practically adopting HIS WILL as the supreme law of life.

Lord, what wilt thou have me to do ?" "Not my will, but Thine be done." Disagreement with His will is guilt and hell, harmony with His will is holiness and heaven. This resolve implies, Secondly: Making love

for Him the dominant motive of life. He cannot be served by any other motive. Human masters enquire not into the motive of their servants so long as they do the work required. The best servant is the man who does the most valuable work. Not so God. Labour to Him is nothing, motive is all. Were it possible for a man to conform to the will of his Maker, in every act of his life, unless he was influenced by supreme love he would be no true servant. The text presents for our study

III. Man's SUBLIMEST INFLUENCE. "As for me and my house we will serve the Lord." He speaks for his family, and herein is implied a power to bring souls into the service of the Infinite. How can the head of a family bring his domestics into His service? Not merely by what is called family worship, reading

chapters and offering prayers morning and evening. Alas, I fear this is often done in such a formal, prosy manner as to repel domestics from His service. How then? By being thoroughly and loyally and constantly in the service ourselves. He who is truly in this

grand service will speak words that shall penetrate the soul of the listener, and impregnate it with a new life, manifests a moral character SO majestic that shall not only attract. the attention but command the imitation of the whole circle in which he lives.

:

STRONG IN

"ABRAHAM WAS FAITH." ROм. iv. 20. THE New Version reads, "Waxed strong through faith." At the outset I remark three things concerning faith (1) Faith is an instinct of the soul. All rational creatures are made to believe, man is a credulous creature, he he hungers for something to believe in. From the opening years of his childhood even to old age, he is in quest

of that on which his faith can feed. Hence the curse of the human race is that it believes too much rather than too little. Another remark I make is, (2) That faith is essential to social life. Unless men believed to some extent in men there could be no social order, progress, or co-operation; nay, no social life; they might live together gregariously as herds and flocks, but not as mem

bers of a social system. Destroy all the faith that man has in man, and our markets, our enterprises, our governments would tumble to pieces. I make yet another remark, (3) That faith has a diversity of objects. All the objects of faith may be divided into two classes, the contingent and the absolute. By the former I mean, that which is fallible, uncertain and changing; by the latter, that which is infallible, immutable and eternal. Faith in the former class is enfeebling, fluctuating, imperilling; faith in the latter is strengthening, calming, and soul-securing. This is the true faith. faith in God. This was the faith that Abraham had; he believed in a supreme Personality that was absolutely perfect and all-sufficient. This made him the man of mighty faith. I select

two facts in his life to illustrate the mightiness of his faith:

In

I. His LEAVING HIS OWN HOME AND GOING INTO STRANGE SCENES for no other reason than the command of God. "By faith Abraham when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed," &c. (Heb. xi. 8-10). order to judge of the mightiness of this man's faith, we must take into account the forces with which he had to struggle. (1) There was the power of his early associations. He had to leave those scenes where he had lived seventy-five years, where he had spent the innocence of childhood, the poetry of youth, and the ripened energies of his manhood, where lived the friends of his early days, and where slumbered the dust of his ancestors. Fond memo

ries, dear friendships, secular interests, would cooperate in strengthening the spell of that country on his heart. (2) There was the power of age decreasing the inclination for change. Young life is adventurous and nomadic, its romantic impulses yearn for foreign scenes, but Abraham was getting an old man; seventy-five winters had passed over him, and advancing years make home twice dear. Old men would rather starve in the scenes of their earthly life, than emigrate to distant lands. (3) There was the power of uncertainty as to the future scenes. He "went out, not knowing whither he went." Men are tempted to leave their country for new scenes by some testimony of the advantages and beauties of the scene to which they are invited; but this man knew nothing

of his future, he was taking a step in the dark. Notwithstanding all these obstructions, his faith in God was so strong that he obeyed His voice; he broke away from all the ties that bound him to the old, he roused the warning spirit of enterprise within him, and went forth, "not knowing whither he went."

II. His SACRIFICING HIS SON ISAAC, for no other reason than the command of God. "Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac," &c. (Gen. xxii. 2-14). Now in order to estimate in some measure the might of this man's faith in exe

cuting this command,

we must consider it: (1) In relation to his affection as a father. Isaac was peculiarly endeared to him; he was not merely his son, but his only son, and a son of promise, the son whose

What

Beer

birth he had anticipated with an exultant heart. (2) In relation to the period at which it occurred. The severity of a trial is often enhanced by the time at which it occurs. When did this trial take place? "After these things." things? After he had parted with Lot, interceded for Sodom, pilgrimaged in Canaan for many years, trained his muchloved son up to manhood, settled down at sheba as an old man hoping to spend the evening of life and toil at peace. (3) In relation to the sentiment of his age. In the age in which he lived, it was considered not only a calamity, but a disgrace, to be without children; but how abhorrent would that man be to society who murdered his only child! The work he had to do was against the rolling tide of public sentiment. (4) In rela

tion to his theological creed. That in his son "all the nations of the earth were to be blessed.” This command struck at the root of this conviction. What tremendous forces opposed him in endeavouring to execute the behest of his God! Yet he did it, did it promptly. Without consulting wife or neighbours, or "conferring with flesh and blood," he rose early in the morning. He did it persistently. He did not strike the blow at once, it was not from impulse that he acted, it took him three long days. He did it completely. The son is laid on the altar, the knife is in his grasp, the fatal plunge is virtually given.

Here, then, is a man of mighty faith. It was faith in God, not in theories about God, faith in these tend to weaken men and make them