Jew is ready to return, and the land is ready prepared, the present keepers of the house- the present temporary tenants will be dismissed; and God's royal priesthood will show that the promise to Abraham is real: "Canaan shall be to thee for an everlasting possession.” - In the tenth verse he says, "This is my covenant, which ye shall keep, between me and you, and thy seed after thee; Every man child among you shall be circumcised." You have here a striking proof of the sign of the thing being called by the thing itself. It says, "This is my covenant; " that is, circumcision is my covenant; but circumcision was not the covenant, it was merely the sign of it. And so you will see throughout the Scripture, repeatedly, that the sign of the thing is called by the thing itself. Thus, for instance, the passover was the angel passing through Egypt, and destroying the first-born of every family where there was no blood upon the lintel, and sparing the first-born where there was. But the flesh of the roasted lamb eaten by the family is called “the Lord's passover." For instance, the ancient Jew, when he commemorated the passover, which was the angel in his flight, said of it, "This is the Lord's passover." And now, by the same usage, the same language is transferred to the Lord's Supper: "This is my body," not meaning literally that this is the body of Christ, but the symbol or the memorial of it. Just as the Jewish celebrant said, "This is the passover," while he did not mean, "This is an angel flying through Egypt, and killing the first-born," but merely, “This is the memorial of it;" so anybody, guided by the analogy of Scripture, would never dream of the monstrous dogma of transubstantiation, or conclude that when our Lord said, "This is my body," he used an expression different, materially different, from that used by the ancient Jewish celebrant when he said, "This is the Lord's passover." Abraham laughed when God made the promise to him in the seventeenth verse; for it is said, "Then Abraham fell upon his face, and laughed." But this is not the language of scorn or unbelief; for it is plain throughout the Scripture, in many passages, that laughter is used in the sense of joy. Thus: "Our mouths were filled with laughter "—that is, with joy. It is not implied that Abraham laughed in incredulity, but it may be translated, he leaped or danced for joy at the admiration, the wonder-the unexpected and wondrous fact that a child should be born to him at such an advanced age as is specified in the text. And when we read in the Gospels that "Abraham rejoiced to see my day, and he saw it, and was glad," I have not a doubt that there is in that very text some allusion to Abraham's laughing. Abraham, when he heard that Isaac was to be the promised seed, to be born of Sarah, and to be the father of many kings, and of the promised Messiah, concluded that Ishmael would now be cast off, or slain, showing that rashness and hastiness of judgment which he had exhibited in more instances than one. We saw his besetting temper in the instance when God gave a promise, and when Abram and Sarai could not believe how God could bring it about; and here we see it again, when God promises that Isaac shall be the progenitor of the promised seed, and that Ishmael shall not; and especially when, again, Abraham offers up a prayer for Ishmael, saying, that he hoped that he would not be cut off, but that he should be spared, and blessed, and become a blessing, and God then blesses Ishmael also. Each parent may still pray, in a loftier than Abrahamic sense: "O; that my child may truly live before God; live to God, and live with God forever!" The Holy Spirit is the Lord and Giver of this life. DULITY OF SARAH EXCELLENCES IN SARAH — OF ISAAC-INCRE- A JEWISH story is related of Abraham, probably apocryphal, but not uninstructive as a lesson of toleration. It is as follows: "When Abraham sat at his tent door, according to his custom, waiting to entertain strangers, he espied an old man, stooping and leaning on his staff, weary with age and travel, coming towards him, who was a hundred years of age; he received him kindly, washed his feet, provided supper, and caused him to sit down; but, observing that the old man eat and prayed not, nor begged for a blessing on his meat, asked him why he did not worship the God of heaven? The old man told him that he worshipped the fire only, and acknowledged no other God; at which answer Abraham grew so zealously angry that he thrust the old man out of his tent, and exposed him to all the evils of the night and an unguarded condition. When the old man was gone, God called to Abraham, and asked him where the stranger was. He replied, I thrust him away because he did not worship Thee. God answered him, I have suffered him these hundred years, although he dishonored me, and couldst thou not endure him one night, when he gave thee no trouble? Upon this, Abraham fetched him back again, and gave him hospitable entertainment and wise instruction. Go thou and do likewise; and thy charity will be rewarded by the God of Abraham." We learn that this appearance of the Lord to Abraham, recorded in the first verse of the chapter, was after a considerable interval of some twelve or thirteen years. Apparently, this manifestation or apocalypse of God to the patriarch had been suspended just because of the sins of unbelief and precipitancy by Sarah and Abraham, into which we have fully entered on a previous reading. Sins separated then between God and man, just as they separate now. This chapter is a beautiful combination or collection of pictures-a sort of picture gallery. It opens with one truly ancient and Eastern in its aspect. It is mid-day; the sultriness of the sunbeams is intolerable; the air within the tent is heated and almost unfit for being breathed. The aged patriarch, gray with the snows of a hundred years, is seated on the threshold of his Arab tent, enjoying the fresh breeze that swept by; and, no doubt, also, prepared to show the rites of hospitality, according to ancient habits, to all strangers and pilgrims who might pass by. Whilst he sat there, three men - apparently so; two of them really angels passed by, or, rather, drew near to his tent. That two of them were angels is plain from the declaration of the apostle Paul, in the thirteenth chapter of Hebrews, where he says that some have entertained angels unawares, evidently alluding to this incident; but that one of these personages was the Son of God, in that previous form or manifestation in which he frequently appeared to his saints of old, is, I think, unquestionable, from the language that follows in the sequel of this chapter. Some have tried to make out that these were the three persons of the Trinity. I think that there is no foundation for this interpretation. Two of the three were unquestionably angels, and the third was no less, as I shall prove from the sequel of the chapter, than the Son of God. Whilst Abraham was thus seated, he saw these three strangers approach, apparently weary and way worn, and, as his heart dictated, he bade them come in and share the comforts of his tent. He addressed them with offers of cordial hospitality, and with feelings of great liberality; and, in order to show that he did not attach very great importance to what he gave them in the exercise of his hospitality, he calls it a "little water" and a "morsel of bread;" as much as to say, the favor of your partaking will be a favor conferred upon me. In offering such an hospitality, it will not be I who am offering a service to you, but you that will oblige me. So it is that real courtesy always exists wherever there is real Christianity. The formula under which it is expressed may vary, but the principle is the same. The coins in France bear the image of a president, a monarch, or an emperor; in Austria, of a monarch; and in England, the image of a queen; but it is the same gold in all the countries. The currency is variable, evanescent; the substance is always and everywhere the same. Wherever there is real Christianity, there must be real courtesy; in other words, the highest Christian must be essentially the most accomplished gentleman. Abraham addressed one of these personages plainly as if he saw that he was one who was entitled to very special respect; for, while he saw three, he particularly addresses one as My Lord, if now I have found favor in thy sight;" language which we cannot suppose Abraham would have employed if he had not been aware that some personage of loftier than angelic dignity was present in the midst of the three. He offers, first of all, a little water to wash the feet. was one of the ancient Eastern rites of hospitality. Shoes This sandals only for the soles of or boots were not then worn the feet were in use; and travelling over the hot sands under a burning sky, in those countries, the feet of course were covered with dust, and the traveller weary and fatigued; and hence the first act of hospitality, and the most welcome, was |