HOMILETICS. Ver~. 1-9.-A bride for the heir.-1. Abr.aluim. and_Eliezer, or the mission for tlte bride. I. THE TRUSTY MESSENGER. 1. His designation. (1) From official posi- tion, n servant. (2) From venerable age, the old man or ancient of the house. . (3) Pro~ su~erior dignity, _the steward or ruler over Abraham's property. 2. His qualification. (1) Obedient, as became a slave or servant. (2) Faithful, as was required of a steward. (3) Prudent, as might hnve been expected of oge. II. THE IMPORTANT COMMISSION. 1. The purport of it. "To take a wife for Isaac." A step of g,-eatest moment for the happiness of Isaac, the fulfilment of the promise, and the onward development of the Church. 2. The reason of it. (1) Abraham's advancing years. The patriarch was "gone into days," and had no time to waste if he desired to see Isaac well married before he followed Sarah to Machpelah. (2) Abraham's prosperous estate. "The Lord had blessed him in all things," left nothing that his soul could desire to complete the cup of his terrestrial happiness, except the wedding of his son to a godly partner. (3) Isaac's obvious disinclination to seek a wife for hiruself, his placid and pensive temperament disposing him rather to cling with mournful tenderness to the memory of a beloved mother than to anti- cipate the felicities of conjugal affection. (4) Eliezer's admirable fitness for the contemplated mission. III. THE SOLEMN ADJURATION, 1. The form of the oath. "Put, I pray thee, thy hand under my thigh." For the significance of this ancient ceremony consult Exposition. 2. The power of the oath. This was derived from the character of the Divine Being-the Lord God of heaven and of earth-in whose presence it was taken, to whose witness it appealed, and whose wrath it invoked in cnse of failure to per- form what waij vowed. 3. The tenor of the oath. (1) NegaLive-not to mnrl'y Isaac to a daughter of the Cannanites, an already doomed race; nnd (2) positive-to seek a wife for Sarah's son among his kinsmen in Padan-aram, amongst whom ns yet the knowledge of the true God wns retained. IV. THE REASONADLE APPREHENSION, 1. Natural. A priori there was little pr.:,. bability that a modest girl would consent on the invitation of a stranger to leave her J,orne and kindred, accompany him into a distnnt land, and wed a man (even though a relative) whom she had never seen; nnd in a similar way reason cnn make out n case against almost every step in the distinctly Christian life as being unlikely, improbable, imprudent. 2. Unbelieving. The aged ambassador's anxiety wns not sliared in by the patriarch, whose fail~ _had already reas~ne~ out the _su~cess.ful termination of the contemplated expedition. And so agam m the Clmst11m hfe, difficulties which to sagacioua reason appe~r insurrnount~ble, to simple-min~ed faith cease to exist. 3. UnneceJJBaTlj, When discovered and mterrogated, the ma1d_en was quite willing to become Isaac's bride. Many of the saint's fears are of lus own making, like this of Abraham's servant, and in the end are found to ho.vo been superfluoUB. V. THE RESOLUTE PROHIBITION. " Beware that thou bring not my son thither ngain." To do so would be-1. To reverse the Divine call which had brought the patriarch from Mesopotamia. 2. '1.'o endanger the inheritance by exposing Iso.ac to tb f.emptation of reL:i.aining it: Mesopotamia, should his wife prove unwilling to return. en. XXI\', 1-9.] 'l'IIE BOOK OF GENESIS. 200
Loarn-1. The interest which shoulcl be tnken by pious parents in the marriage of their children. 2. The care which shoulcl be exercised by those who marry to secnre pious pnrtners. 3. The lo.wfulnees of imposing nnd taking oaths on important occasions, nnd for sufficient reasons. 4. The clearer sight which belongs to faith than to sense o.nd reason. 5. The folly of nnticipating difficulties that may never arise. 6. The danger of to.king an}' step in life without Divine guidance or instruc- tion. 7. The sin of renouncing one's religion for the sake of a wife.