from that God whoRe "~ifts are not repented of"? Can it 110 that he should try his ~ervant thus? 3. To offer up his son upon wltose life the fulfilment of the h1Jpes wl1ich God had inspired seemed to depend. Isaac we.s not only the son of promise but the other promises made to Abraham were connected with him as to their fulfilme~t. The promise the.t he should inherit Canaan, tbe.t he should be the father of a countless posterity and the founder of a great nation, that in bis posterity all nations should be hlessed,-all these were to be fulfilled in Isaac. "To whom it was said, In Isaac shall thy seed be called." Only the descendants of Isa.ac were to be known as Abraham's i;eed, and only in them were the promises to be fulfilled (cf. Gen. xvii. 19, 21; xxi. 12). These promises the patriarch " bad gladly received." " He had as it were with open arms accepted and taken to himself each and all of the promises;" he bad drawn from them assured hopes-hopes which he had cherished during many years. But if Isnac be sac:ificed as a burnt offering, how shall these hopes be realized ?-nay, how shall the~· not each and all expire, leadng the soul of the patriarch in dark di8appointment? It seems that G.xl is asking him to give back the promises which he had made to him, nnd which had so long sustained and cheered him. Bnt is it possible that "the faithful God, which keepeth covenant with them that love him and keep his commandments to n thousand generations," should make a demand like this? Can it be his voice that summons to the terrible sacrifice? 4. .And there is a sore aggravation of this trial. Abraham is himself to be the sacrificing priest. He is to kill and to present this precious and awful offering. The knife that was to slay the victim must be driven into the heart by the hand of his own father, and the same hand must kindle the fire for the consumption of the sacrifice. When Ishmael seemed near unto death in the wilderness of Beeilibeba, his mother le.id him "under one of the shrubs. And she went, and sat her down over against him at the distance as it were of a bowshot : for she said, Let me not see the death of the boy. And she sat over against him, and lifted up her voice, and wept." But for Abraham there is no such relief. He must" see the death of" hie beloved son; and more terrible, himself must strike the death-inflicting blow. Can it be God, the good and the holy One, that commands this? And is it possible that any loving father can comply with the terrible requirement? II. FAITH SUBLIMELY TRIUlilPHANT. Abraham made the awful sacrifice. "By faith Abraham, being tried, offered up Isaac, . . . his only begotten son." Virtually he as fuliy offered Isaac as if he bad sheathed the knife in his heart and consumed his body on the altar. And he did it by faith. The triumph was the triumph of faith. 1. Faith in the righteousness and 61J¥emacy of the au,tltority of God. Abraham believed that God had a right to his obedience in this also; that "the Judge of all the earth" would not command what was wrong. The reason of the command to offer up Isaac as a bumt offering was dark and utterly mysterious to the patriarch; moreover, it pierced hie inmost soul with sharpest end bitterest sorrow, and convulsed his being with fierce agony; yet God was supreme and righteous, therefore he would obey him. Faith was victorious. 2. Faith in tl,,e 11,nlimited power of God. " By faith Abraham offered up Isaac, . . . accounting that God is able to raise up, even from the dead." How extraordinary and astonishing was this faith in that early age! 3. Faith in the unchanging jidelify of God t,o hi, word. Abraham believed that God would fulfil his promises, however unlikely or even impossible that fulfilment might appear to him. How he would do so after Isaac was sacrificed the patriarch knew not. But he felt assured of the fact. And so by faith he obeyed the dread command, and ·offered up to God his only begotten son. Faith in God triumphed over doubts and fears, the questionings and reasonings of the intellect, and the pathetic pleadings and passionate Rppeals of the heart. And how God honoured this sublime and coaquering faith I Isaac was truly offered to God, yet he was untouched by the sacrificial knife. He was given by his father to God, and then given back by God to his father unhurt, and inestimably more beloved and more sacred. And high is the encomium given to Abraham: "Now I know that thou fearest God," etc. (Gen. xxii. 12). We know what it was that God required of Ahrahnm. It was not the sacrifice of Isaac, but the complete surrender of himself to God. When that was made the Divine purpose in this awful trial was accomplished, and" the last and culminating point in t!ie Divine education of" the patriarch was attained. And still God requires this from us. He demands the unreserved surrender of ourselves to him. " Whatever is drarest to us upon earth i~ OH, XI, 1-10.J THE EPISTLE TO THE IIEBREWS. ?,31
ou: Is~ac." And when God summons us to give that I~aac up _to him, his object in so dorng 1s to lead us to present ourselves wholly and heartily to him as" Jiving sacrifices.,., "He that loveth father or mother more than me," etc. (Matt. x. 37-39).-W. J.