of God's saints in every age but a record of men and women who obtained a good report by faith P What is the simple' story of all from Abel downwards but a narrative of redeemed sinners who believed, and so were blessed P By faith they embraced promises. By faith they lived. By faith they walked. By faith they en- dured hardships. By faith they looked to an unseen Saviour, and good things yet to come. By faith they battled with the world, the flesh, and the devil. By faith they overcame, and got safe home. Of this goodly company the Virgin Mary was proving herself one. No wonder that Elisabeth said, ''Blessed is she that believed.^' Do we know anything of this precious faith P This, after all, is the question that concerns us. Do we know anything of the faith of God's elect, the faith which is of the operation of God P (Titus i. 2. Cdl. ii. 12.) Let us never rest till we know it by experience. Once knowing it, let us never cease to pray that our faith may grow ex- oeediDgly. Better a thousand times be rich in faith than rich in gold. Gold will be worthless in the unseen world to which we are all travelling. Faith wiH be owned in tiiat world before God the Father and the holy angels. When the great white throne is set, and the books are opened, when the dead are called £rom their graves, and receiving their final sentence, the value c^ faith will at length be fully known. Men will learn then, if they never learned before, how true are &e words, '' Blessed jare they that beEeved.'''
Notes. Lukb I. 3^-45.
89. — [A city of Judah.J It is thoucht by many that this city was Heoron» and by examining Joshua xxi. 9 — ^11, we shall see
34
EXPOSnOBY THOX76HTS.
there is considerable probability that it was. It is tbe place where Abraham, the father of the faithful, long dwelt, and the place where Sarah died. Gen. xiii. 18, and xxiii. 2. Few places in Palestine have been so highly honoured.