The first words of this lesson give the keynote for its meaning. ‘Goddid prove Abraham’; the strange command was a test of his faith. Inrecent times the incident has been regarded chiefly as embodying aprotest against child-sacrifices, and no doubt that is part of itsintention, and their condemnation was part of its effect, but the…

    ‘And Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took    him.’    GENESIS v. 24.This notice of Enoch occurs in the course of a catalogue of thedescendants of Adam, from the Creation to the Deluge. It is evidently avery ancient document, and is constructed on a remarkable plan. Theformula for each man is the same. So-and-so…

    ‘And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 2. On the first    day of the first month shalt thou set up the tabernacle    of the tent of the congregation. 3. And thou shalt put    therein the ark of the testimony, and cover the ark with    the vail. 4. And thou shalt bring in the table, and set    in order the things…

          ‘Do all things without murmurings and disputings;          15. That ye may be blameless and harmless,          children of God without blemish in the midst of a          crooked and perverse generation, among whom ye are          seen as lights in the world, 16. Holding forth the          word of life.’–PHIL. ii. 14-16 (R.V.).We are told by some superfine modern moralists, that to regard one’s…

          ‘Rejoice evermore. Pray without ceasing. In          everything give thanks.’–1 THESS. v. 16-18.The peculiarity and the stringency of these three precepts is theunbroken continuity which they require. To rejoice, to pray, to givethanks, are easy when circumstances favour, as a taper burns steadily ina windless night; but to do these things always is as difficult as forthe…

    ‘And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 34. Speak unto    the children of Israel, saying, The fifteenth day of    this seventh month shall be the feast of tabernacles for    seven days unto the Lord. 35. On the first day shall be    an holy convocation: ye shall do no servile work therein.    36. Seven days ye shall offer an offering made…

          ‘Laying up in store for themselves a good          foundation against the time to come, that they may          lay hold on eternal life.’–1 TIM. vi. 19.In the first flush of the sense of brotherhood, the Church of Jerusalemtried the experiment of having all things in common. It was not asuccess, it was soon abandoned, it never spread. In…

          ‘And this I pray, that your love may abound yet          more and more in knowledge and all discernment;          10. So that ye may approve the things that are          excellent; that ye may be sincere and void of          offence unto the day of Christ; 11. Being filled          with the fruits of righteousness, which are          through Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise…

If life has a clear, definite aim, and especially if its aim is thehighest, there will be detachment from, and abandonment of, many lowerones. Nothing worth doing is done, and nothing worth being is realisedin ourselves, except on condition of resolutely ignoring much thatattracts. ‘They went forth’; Haran must be given up if Canaan is…

    ‘They embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin in Egypt.’    –GENESIS l. 26.So closes the book of Genesis. All its recorded dealings of God withIsrael, and all the promises and the glories of the patriarchal line,end with ‘a coffin in Egypt’. Such an ending is the more striking, whenwe remember that a space of…