The Pulpit Commentary — Hebrews — Section 334

accepted the Divine testimony and nobly acted upon it, and as a consequence Goel accepted him as righteous. "Even as Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned unto him for righteousness." And he who believes in God now will accept his Son whom he hath sent. "This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath eent/' 3. The salvatim of himself and his family. While all other human beings were destroyed by the flood, he and his wife, his three sons and their wives, were saved in the ark which he had built. Many are the lessons which our subject suggests. We mention a few of them. 1, That there is ;'ustice as well as mercy, severity as well as kindness, in God. 2. That it is foolish, and it may be ruinous, to refuse to belieue a thing because it seems to us improbable, or is to us incomprehensible. 3. The sacred Scriptures announre the coming of events of stupendous importance and solemnity-the destruction of the world, the ;udgment of mankind, etc. Let us believe the announcement. 4 . .A secure Refuge i.~ provided for man in view of thfse coming trials, and it is adequate for all, open to all, and free for all-even Jesus Christ. Let us enter in by faith, and eternal security and blessedness will be ours.-W. J. Vers. 8-10.-The faith of .Abraham. "By faith A.braham, when he was called," etc. Abraham was a good and a great man. " He was calle,I the friend of God.'' E\·en amongst the heroes of religious faith he is conspicuous as a believer in God. St. Paul speaks of him as" the father of all'' the faithful. Let us consider the exhibition of his faith which our text presents. We discover it- I. IN HIS OBEDIENCE TO THE DIVINE CALL. "By faith Abraham, when he was :alled to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed," etc. 'l'he summons here mentioned is recorded in Gen. xii. 1-5. This call was (1) of Divine origination. It was not solicited from God by Abraham, but addressed by God to Abraham. The initiative was Divine, not human. Every summons to the true and good is from above. Every aspiration and effort after holi:cess and usefulness is the result of Divine influence. This call was (2) a Divine communication. How it was addressed to Abraham, whether through his bodily senses or direct to his spiritual consciousness, we know not. But we know the fact that the summons came to him, and was felt by him to be a sacred and Divine command. A mysterious and mighty impulse came upon him, and be felt that it was from God. The call was to depart from his country and kindred to a fand whither God would lead him. And it seems that either then or formerly he was called to a truer and higher life. Whether he was ever an idolater we cannot tell; but if such were the case, he was summoned from polytheism to monotheism. Most glorious and animating was the destiny which wlts set forth for him and his posterity (Gen. xii. 2, 3). But at present we have to do with his call to leave his home in Ur of the Chaldees, and to follow whithersoever the unseen hand might lead him. In his prompt and pious obedience to that call we have a:i impressive illustration of his faith. 1. He obeyed, notwithstanding the fact that his obedience involved considerable sacrifices. Unto a man like Abraham it could not havll been a light thing to depart "from his country, and from his kindred, and from his father's house." It must have been a trial to him to go forth from places which were hallowed by precious and sacred memories, to sever many close and tender social associations, and without any prospect of returning to these cherished friends and. familiar scenes again. Yet he obeyed the heavenly call. His faith in God was mightier than his strongest human feelings. 2. Be obeyed, notwithstanding his ignorance of his destination and rf the way by wliich it was to be reached. Abraham must, we think, have had some idea as to the direction and destination of his journey. But be was called, not to any country which is named in the call, but" unto a land that I will show thee." "And he went out, not knowing whither he went." The distance he might have to travel, the difficulties and dangers he might have to encounter, the scene and circumstances in which his journey would end, he knew not. Yet he went out, obedient to the voice which faith alone could hear, and guided by the hand whieh faith alone could see. The Divine call is addressed at some time or other to every man. The summons from carnal existence to spiritual life, from selfish pursuits to generous eympathies and services, from the local a~d temporn.1 to the universal_ and_ eternal, from sin to holiness,-the call to God by Christ Jesus sounds at some time rn the soul of  326 THE EPISTLE TO 'l'HE HEBREWS. [cH. Xl, 1-4.0