The purchase showed his faith in God's truth; one of the branches of Adam's tempt• ation (Gen. iii. 4). It had been promised that his seed, aftor dwelling in n land not theirs, should return nnd possess that whereon he stood (cf. Jer. xxxii. 14, 15). Type of entrance into rest nfter pilgrimage (cf. 2 Cor. v. 1 ). It showed also his faith inn resurrection ( cf. Ps. xvi. 10), The desire that he and his family should lie in the same sepulchre speaks of a life beyond the present. Parted by death, they were one family still. Sarah was to him '' my dead." There was n link between them still. The Ii v.ing ,md dead etill one family. Doctrine of communion of saints (cf. Matt. xxii. 32). Death was the gate of life (cf. 1 Thess. iv. 16). Canaan a type of the rest which remaineth ; Abraham of the "children of the kingdom," pilg·rims with n promise. No rest here. Life full of uncertainties. One thing sure, we must die. But- I. \V& ENTER THE IIEAVENLY REST THROUGH DEATH; 'l'HE CITY OF Goo THROUGH THE VALLEY OF BACA. Here we walk by faith. Great and glorious promises for our encouragement, that we may not make our home here ; yet we know not whai we shall be, Sight cannot penetrate tbe curtain that separates t.irne from eternity. Thus there is the trial, do we walk by faith or by sight? We instinctively shrink from death. It is connected in our mind with sorrow, with interruption of plans, with breaking up of loving compnni-onship; but faith bids us sorrow not as those without hope. It reminds that it is the passing from whnt is defective and transitory to what is immortal. Here we are trained for the better things beyond, and our thoughts are turned to that sepulchre in which the victory over death was won; U1c-nce \\·e see the Lord arising, the pledge of eternal life to all who will have it. II. TIIE SEPULCHRE WAS MADE SURE TO ABRAHAM. In time he should enter it ae c,ue of the company gathered there to await the resurrection day; but meanwhile it was his. And if we look upon this as typical of our interest in the death of Christ, it speaks of comfort and trust. He took our nature that he might " taste death for every man." His grave is ours (2 Cor. v, 14). We are "buried with him," 11 planted together in the likP.ness of his death." The fact of his death is a possession that cannot be taken from us (Col. iii. 3, 4). He died that we might live. If frail man clings to the tomb of some dear one; if the heart is conscious of the link still endur- ing, shall we not rejoice in our union with him whose triumph makes us also more than conquerors? III. THE FIELD AND CAVE. How small a part did Abraham possess in his life- time, but it was an earnest of the whole; he felt it so, and in faith buri~d his dead (cf. Gen. l. 25; Heh. xi. 22). An earnest is all we possess here, but still w~ have an earnest. In the presence of the Lord (John xiv. 23), in tho peace winch he gins, in the spirit of adoption, we have the "substance of things hoped for," n real fragment and sample of the blessedness of heaven.-M.
EXPOSITION. languages employed as a title of honour,-• CHAPTER XXIV. cf. sheikh, aenatus, yipwv, presbyter, signor, Ver. 1.-And Abraham was old, an<l well seigneur, seiior, sir (Gesenius, p. 252),---:and stricken in age :-literally, gone into days is probably to be so understood here. Ehezer (cf. eh. xviil. 11), being now about 140 of Damascus, upwards of half a century (1Yide eh. xxv. 20)-and the Lord-Jehovah,· previous regarded as heir presumptive to nol l,ecause the chapter is the exclusive Abraham's house (eh. xv. 2), is commonly composition of the J chovist (Tuch, Bleck, considered the official meant, though the Kalisch), but because the writer aims at point is of no importance - Put, I pray ~howiug bo,v the Go<l of redemption p1_-o- thee, thy hand under my thigh : and I will vi<led a bri<le for the heir of the promise make thee swear. This ancient form or (Hengstenberg)-had blessed Abraham in adjuration, which is mentioned. ng:dn o~ly all thinga. in chap. xlvii. 29, and to which notlung Vera. 2-4.-And Abraham said 11nto hie analogou~ can elsewhere be discoverod,-the eldest servant of hie house, that ruled ever practice alleged to exist among the mo<lern all that he l;.ad,-literally, to ltis se,-vant, J,;gyptian Bcdouins of placing the band upon the old man, ai,cient or ehler, qf kia house, the membrum virile in solemn forms of the ruler over all which (sc. Lelouged) to asseveration ·not forming an exact pare.l_lel,- 1,i11i, The term Ji?.t (an old man) is in most was probably originated by the patriarch, ell. XJ:l'I'. 1-!J.] TUE nooK OF GF,NESIS