[Whilst Abraham was in Ur of the Chaldees, God ap- peared to him, and said, " Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land which I will shew thee ^" Whether this was done in a vision, or by a voice, we are not informed : but it is clear that it was done in such a way as not to leave the smallest doubt upon Abraham's mind, that the command proceeded from Jehovah, the only true and living God. It was a command which re- quired much self-denial : for every man naturally feels attached to his country, and his kindred, and his possessions; and, unless induced by the prospect of some great advantages, is averse to leave them. But the self-denial was the greater, because he was not informed whither he was to go : it was to a land which should afterwards be shewn him. What would all his friends and relatives think of him, when he told them that he was about to forsake them all, and did not so much as know whither he was going ? Would they not account him mad ? Yet did he obey, without hesitation, and without a murmui". God, at the same time that he issued this command, had engaged to " make of him a great nation," and to raise up from his loins the promised " Seed, in whom all the nations of the earth should be blessed'':" and of God's power or fidelity he had no doubt'': he therefore went forth, wilHngly renouncing all present comforts in obedience to his God, assured that, however despised or ridiculed his conduct might be, it would prove in the issue to be the path of happiness and wisdom.]
2. His sojourning in the land of promise as in a strange country —
[When he went forth from his own country, he took with him Sai-ah his wife, and Terah his father, and his nephew Lot. But though he went towards Canaan, he stopped short of it in Haran ; and there abode five years, till his father's death : when he proceeded to Canaan^, where, except when driven from it by a famine, he abode during the remainder of his days. But did he then merely change one inheritance for another? No ; he had not there the smallest inheritance, " no, not so much as to set his foot on." He had not even a stationary abode ; but dwelt in tents, which were moved from one place to another, as occasion required : thus avowing himself to be a mere pilgrim and sojovirner there, and to be " looking for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God." The city which he had left in his native land, and those which were in the land of promise, had their foundation in the dust, to which they would all in time be reduced : but the heavenly
a Gen. xii. 1. and Acts vii. 3. ^ Gen. xii. 2, 3.
'= Rom. iv. 18—21. "^ Acts vii. 4.
2322.1 Abraham's life a pattern for ours. 391
city, which God had formed for his own habitation and the eternal residence of his saints, would continue for ever : and to that he looked as his home ; content to have no abiding place here, if onl}' he might attain to that as his eternal rest^. Nor was it for himself only that he chose this unsettled mode of life, but for his children also, even for " Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise :" for what he desired for himself, he desired for them also, the enjoyment of the Divine favour, and the possession of an unseen, but everlasting inheritance.]
But whilst we contemplate his conduct in these respects, it will be proper to shew,
II. How far his example is a pattern for us —
It is evident that the whole catalogue of saints here enumerated is intended to illustrate the nature and efficacy of faith. Yet in considering the conduct of the individuals, we must make due allowance for the difference of circumstances, and rather mark the principle by which they were actuated, than the particular acts in which it was displayed. If, for instance, we should imagine that we were called to forsake our country and kindred in the way that Abraham did, we should greatly err. But I con- ceive, that, in the two following respects, all will confess we are bound to follow him :