02.03. THE HOPE OF THE RESSURECTION

III . THE HOPE OF THE RESURRECTION - THE TRIAL OF ABRAHAM’S FAITH (Genesis 22:1-24) By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac.

Hebrews 11:17-19 Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar?

James 2:21-23 Tour father Abraham rejoiced to see my day; and he saw it, and was glad.

John 8:56 The temptation of our Lord in the wilderness occurred immediately after his being declared to be the Son of God by the voice from heaven at his baptism (Matthew 3:17). And all throughout, the temptation turns upon the privilege and prerogative which his being the Son of God implies. The tempter would fain persuade him to stand upon his right, as the Son of God, - to avail himself of the power belonging to him, in that character, for his own relief and his own aggrandizement, - and to snatch the inheritance to which he is entitled, as the Son whom God hath appointed heir of all things, without waiting the Father’s time and fulfilling the Father’s terms.

It is not Satan, but God, who "tempts Abraham," or puts him to the proof. So far there is a difference between the patriarch and the Saviour. The trial of the one is gracious and paternal; the other has to stand a more fiery ordeal. Abraham has to listen to God, and obey; Jesus has to encounter Satan, and resist. In other respects, however, there is a remarkable analogy between the two events. The father of Isaac is tried concerning his son, at the very time when that son has been emphatically owned from above as the heir. The Son of God is tempted upon the precise point of his sonship, just when it has been most signally and unequivocally acknowledged by the voice from heaven. Jesus is solicited to grasp impatiently the inheritance of his birthright, without passing through the preliminary stage of his deep humiliation and painful death. Abraham, again, is expected to acquiesce patiently in the putting off of the promises, even though the sacrifice of his beloved child, and the darkness of that child’s tomb, be brought in between his hope and its fulfillment In the one case, the question is, - Will the Lord Jesus anticipate prematurely the immunities and glories of the heritage ultimately designed for him? In the other case, the question is, - Will Abraham, on the part of his son, and as bound up with his son, consent to their being indefinitely postponed? In this connection, the trial of the patriarch’s faith may be viewed in two lights, as bringing out, first, the general principle of his faith, and, secondly, its more specific character and reward.

I. Let the general principle of Abraham’s faith, as here exercised, be considered.

If we look at the bare fact of a father offering up his son in sacrifice, we can see little to distinguish the conduct of the patriarch from that of too many unhappy men who, in the dismal infatuation of superstitious fear, have " given their first bom for their transgressions - the fruit of their body for the sin of their souls." We search in vain in such a work of delusion for real faith; - that meek and holy trust which alone can be either honorable to God, or saving in its influence on the soul of man. A faith indeed of a certain kind we may discover - a faith in the existence and the power of God - a faith also in the terror of his unknown judgment. But it is such a faith as the devils have, who " believe and tremble." We discover no sense of the divine love, no enlightened and manly confidence, in the severe and gloomy resolution of such a worshiper. All in his soul must be doubt and darkness; doubt inexplicable, darkness impenetrable. And in the horrid deed of blood at which we shudder, - by which the frantic parent would appease the wrath of an inexorable and implacable Deity, - we see no hopeful reliance on an unseen benefactor, but only abject and servile fear, grasping at a lie! We must look, therefore, beyond the naked fact that "Abraham offered up Isaac,’’ if we would rightly understand his faith.

Let us look, accordingly, to the occasion of the deed ; - " Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac." He made this sacrifice of parental affection at the express command of God, and sought, perhaps, to conciliate the favour of God, not indeed by the costliness of his offering, but by his ready and implicit submission to the divine will. Perhaps that may be a full account of Abraham’s views and feelings in this act, as well as of the motives from which he acted. So far it may be so. He certainly did well to submit to the declared will of his Creator, however mysterious that will might be. We see in such obedience plain evidence of faith; and of faith more enlightened in its nature than what we formerly observed in this sacrifice; - faith in the righteous authority and moral government of God, who commands, and requires obedience to his commandments, however inexplicable they may be. But we do not see faith confiding, clinging, loving; for we might conceive of the heart of the forlorn parent inwardly rebelling, while his trembling and reluctant hand was stretched out to execute the stem decree. Again, therefore, we must take into account some other circumstances of the case, if we would truly estimate either the intense severity of Abraham’s trial, or the unconquerable energy of his faith.

It was "he that had received the promised" who did all this. In full and faithful reliance on these promises, while as yet he was childless, Abraham left the land of his fathers, and "Went out, not knowing whither he went." By faith in these promises, he sojourned as a stranger in the land which his descendants were to possess. On the birth of Hagar’s son, despairing of any other child, he cries, "O that Ishmael might live before thee!" But when the long-expected heir is born at last, God, renewing the promises, expressly confines them to Isaac: - " In Isaac shall thy seed be called." And as if to cut off all room for doubt, Ishmael is expelled altogether from the patriarch’s house. All his hope now is centered exclusively in Isaac. Thus the promises which Abraham had received were all closely and necessarily bound up in the life of Isaac. And it was that " only begotten son " - in whom "his seed was to be called " - on whom the promises depended - that, nevertheless, by faith in these very promises, he was ready at the command of God to offer up ! In the light of all these past proceedings on the part of God, we can now better understand the trial and the faith of Abraham, as they are recorded with such affecting simplicity ; - " And it came to pass that God did tempt Abraham, and said unto him, Take now thy son, thine only son, Isaac, whom thou lovest. And get thee into the land of Moriah, and offer him there for a burnt offering" (Genesis 22:1-2). Was this, then, to be the end of all the patriarch’s hopes? - this the fate of that son - the heir of so many promises, the child of such persevering faith, the destined father of a mighty people - in whom all the families of the earth were to be blessed? Was it thus that the old man, who had given up to God his youth, his friends, his home, his country, was to give up even Isaac, the child of his old age, the son of his love and his tears, his last and only stay? - to give him up, too, to the God in the fond faith of whose promises he had already sacrificed so much, and sacrificed all so vainly? Were all his long-cherished expectations to be thus cruelly mocked, at the very time when they seemed to be at last realized?

Yet we read of no hesitation - no natural regret - no murmur - no thought even of remonstrance. The patriarch did not delay or deliberate an instant. He rose up early in the morning, and took Isaac his son, and went unto the place of which God had told him. Then, leaving his attendants behind, and going on with Isaac alone, he " built an altar there, and laid the wood in order, and bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar upon the wood." And these arrangements being deliberately made, ’’ Abraham stretched forth his hand and took the knife to slay his son " (Genesis 22:3-10).

Here let us pause to contemplate the patriarch at this tremendous moment. Let us observe the conflict between sense and faith. In the eye of sense, he was by one rash act casting recklessly away the tardy fruit of a long life of obedience, and sternly sacrificing on the altar of his God the very hope which that God had taught him to cherish. Visions of grace and glory which had fed his soul during the years of his weary exile were fast vanishing from his view, and his high prospects were by his own hand now dashed for ever to the ground. Henceforth he was to linger out his days, childless and hopeless; his faith turned into despair, his joy into heaviness ; since, in the excess of his self-denying devotion, he was obeying God, and yet by the very act of obedience, putting utterly beyond his reach all the blessing which he had been so fully warranted by God himself to expect.

But, in the eye of faith, the venerable patriarch was still, even in this hour of terror, looking up to God, and reposing with unshaken confidence on that goodness which, daring a long and harassed life, had never deceived or forsaken him. The same humble and holy trust in God, as his benefactor and his friend, which had thus far led him in safety, still triumphed over every doubt. Harsh as the decree might appear, he knew by much experience that God had never yet commanded him to his hurt; and he felt that the faithfulness of God must be as secure in the time to come as he had ever found it in time past. The cloud, indeed, might be dark which veiled the divine proceedings from his view ; but it was not so dark as to cast a single shadow over his heart. He still trusted in the Lord as implicitly as when first he abandoned his father’s house, casting himself on the Lord’s protection. It mattered not to Abraham that by sacrificing his only son, he was, to all appearance, sacrificing his hope of a future people and a future Saviour to spring from him through that son. It mattered not that what God commanded seemed altogether inconsistent with what God had promised ; and that, according to human judgment, by obeying the command, he was making utterly void the promise. He presumed not to question the wisdom or truth of God. He simply confided in his faithfulness and love ; being well assured that God would reconcile all difficulties in the end, and justify his own ways, and accomplish His own word.

Thus, "against hope he believed in hope."’ The language of his obedience was the language of Job: " Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him."

Such was the spirit in which Abraham, on this occasion, unreservedly obeyed God; such the principle of that faith by which he was rendered willing to offer up Isaac. He did not offer up Isaac in order that by so costly a sacrifice he might purchase or propitiate the love of God; nor in order that by so signal an instance of obedience to the divine will he might merit the divine favour. He had already received from God "exceeding great and precious promises" which, from the first, he implicitly believed, and which, from the first, warranted him in placing full reliance on the love of God as already his. He did not seek to make out, by his obedience, a claim to the favour of God; for the promises of God had already given him a claim sufficiently clear and sure. From the first and all along, his faith was altogether independent of his obedience, resting simply and solely on the promises of God ; it was not the consequence but the cause, not the result but the motive, of his obedience. It was not because he obeyed God that he felt himself entitled to trust in God ; but because he trusted in God, therefore he obeyed him. And his trust rested not on anything he had done, or was willing to do, but exclusively on the promises he had received. That was the faith which made him cheerfully consent to leave the land of his birth, and carried him safely through all his trials - even the present trial as by fire - not a vague, doubtful, contingent faith, timidly venturing to deprecate wrath, and hoping, by good behavior, to find acceptance at last; but a strong assurance of God’s faithfulness, and a blessed sense of acceptance in his sight, springing out of the simple credit which he gave to the free and gracious promises made to him. Had he not had such faith in God, he never would have taken a single step in the pilgrimage of toil and trouble which God prescribed. But God promised, and Abraham believed: God commanded, and Abraham obeyed. Long before this crowning instance of his obedience, Abraham believed ; - " He believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness ;" - a justifying righteousness was imputed to him. It could not, at that time, be on the ground of his own obedience that he felt himself warranted to believe, but simply on the ground of the promises. And still, to the last, even after this crowning instance of his obedience, his faith was of the same simple kind; resting not on any service of his own, as if that were the condition of his peace and hope, but on the promises he had long before received, and still continued to hold fast.

Such is the explanation generally of Abraham’s faith, as exemplified in the most memorable instance of its trial and its triumph. It is reliance, confidence, consent; taking God at his word; closing with his proposals; resting upon his known character and revealed will; laying hold of himself. Thus viewed, it has a double efficacy, as a bond of union and a motive of action. It unites him who exercises it to the Being upon whom he exercises it; they are one ; and the oneness implies justification, reconciliation, peace. So far faith is receptive, appropriating, acquiescing. But it is an active and moving force, as well as an acquiescent uniting embrace. It not only clings closely to the stem in which it finds its inner life; it works powerfully upward and outward, bringing forth fruit. Hence, while in one view it justifies by apprehending a righteousness not its own, - in another, it justifies by verifying and vindicating itself. It justifies, as resting upon God and receiving the promises; it justifies, also, as proving itself to be genuine, by obeying the command. By faith alone Abraham was justified as a sinner before God; by faith alone he obtained acceptance in God’s sight; he believed, and therefore he was accounted righteous. But his faith wrought by works; believing the promises, he obeyed the commandment. And by this obedience, he was justified as a believer; nor without it could he have been justified in that character. By works his faith was verified and completed; and his acceptance, as the result of that faith, sealed and secured for ever. Thus we may understand the question of the apostle James - " Seest thou how his faith wrought by works, and by works was his faith made perfect?" - in harmony with what he immediately adds - " And the scripture was fulfilled which saith, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness" (James 2:22-23). That very Scripture was fulfilled when "by faith Abraham offered up Isaac: and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, of whom it was said, That in Isaac shall thy seed be called."

II. Let the specific character and reward of Abraham’s faith be now considered. Its simplicity, viewed generally as a habit of reliance on the promises of God, and its power as a motive of implicit obedience, are sufficiently brought out in the mere narrative itself of his trial relative to the offering up of Isaac. But we seem to obtain a deeper insight into its exercise and reward on this occasion, when we look at it in the light of allusions made to it in other parts of Scripture. In particular, both the apostle Paul (Hebrews 11:19), and our blessed Lord (John 8:5-6) lead us to an understanding of the precise truths which Abraham believed, more definite than a perusal of the history, without the benefit of their commentaries, might of itself suggest. They speak to the question of the "What" as well as the How? It is not now merely, - How did Abraham believe? how strongly, unhesitatingly, unreservedly? but. What did Abraham believe? What facts and doctrines had such a hold over his convictions as to make him willing "against hope to believe in hope," and to slay his only son - "the very son " of whom it was said that in Isaac shall thy seed be called" ?

One article of his creed is not obscurely indicated as having some bearing on this act of faith. He did it, - " accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead; from whence also he received him in a figure" (Hebrews 11:19). What gave him courage for the offering up of Isaac was, as it would seem, his " accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead." ? But a question arises. Was it a return to this present life that Abraham had in his view, or a resurrection to life in the world to come? Did he contemplate the possibility of a miracle similar to that performed long after by our Lord in the case of Lazarus ? Or, was he thinking of his lost child as Martha thought of her departed brother, when, in reply to the assurance of Jesus, " thy brother shall rise again," she said, so simply - "I know that he shall rise again, on the resurrection at the last day"? It may have been upon some such event as the raising of Lazarus that Abraham reckoned. The God who commanded him, at one instant, to slay his son, was able the very next to restore him again to his arms. Abraham could not doubt that. So far, this may appear at first sight a credible and consistent enough account of his conduct.

But, on farther consideration, it will probably be felt by most men to savour somewhat of refinement; it makes the apostle’s explanation of the patriarch’s faith somewhat far-fetched and artificial. Such a raising of Isaac to life again, was not a natural idea to enter into the mind of Abraham. If it had, it would have been fitted to give rather an unmeaning character to the whole scene in his eyes. The intense reality of it is upon this supposition gone ; and a sort of theatrical stroke, or piece of stage effect, is substituted in its stead. We have the impression that God is not acting in his usual manner, or in a way altogether worthy of himself, in thus commanding a deed to be done, on the implied understanding that he is instantly to undo it. And Abraham putting his son to death upon the faith of God being able to restore him again to life, is subjected to a physical rather than a moral trial - to the mere instinctive pain of embruing his hands in kindred blood, rather than to any exercise of the higher and more spiritual faculties or affections of his soul. Surely, when having built the altar and laid the wood in order, and having bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar upon the wood, the venerable father stretches forth his hand, and takes the knife to slay his son - it is with no expectation of ever seeing him in this world again. It is a long last look of love that he casts upon that dear face, and a fond and final farewell that he sadly whispers in that eager ear, as he nerves his hand for the fatal, the irrevocable stroke! And then, on the other hand, the idea of a resurrection to life in a future state was as familiar to Abraham, as that of a return from death in this world must have been strange and inconceivable. Had any one sought to encourage him concerning his son, by telling him that it was not impossible for God to reanimate the mangled body, and recall the departed spirit; had some Eliphaz, or Bildad, or Zophar, been schooling him to patience by some such discourse on the divine omnipotence, and the abstract possibility of a dead man being restored to life; Abraham, like Job, might have winced under the commonplaces of his miserable comforters; but as to the notion they would insinuate into his imagination, - he must have rejected it as a temptation, not from God, but from Satan; he must have felt it to be a fond delusion and a dream. But it could not " be thought" by him " a thing incredible that God should raise the dead " (Acts 26:8). On the contrary, that is " the very hope of the promise made of God unto the Fathers," as Paul speaks in his defense before Agrippa; - "unto which promise," he adds, " our twelve tribes, instantly serving God day and night, hope to come" (Acts 26:7). In the very passage, moreover, in which his reference to the sacrifice of Isaac occurs, he celebrates the faith of the patriarchs generally,- and especially the faith of Abraham, - as a faith which made them feel that they were strangers and pilgrims in the land, looking for a more permanent order of things beyond the tomb (Hebrews 11:9-16). And it is in immediate connection with this explanation of the hope which animated Abraham, as well as all that went before him in the heavenly race, that the apostle introduces, as a specimen and choice example of it, the incident of the offering up of Isaac.

Surely, therefore, we may conclude, on all these grounds, that what Abraham in this instance relied on, was not generally the power of God to raise the dead, but specially his power to fulfill his promise about the resurrection, and the inheritance of the world to come. It was no vague notion of the divine omnipotence, - or of God being able to do anything, however strange, - that sustained the patriarch; but a hope far more express and unequivocal; a hope having respect unequivocally to the world to come.

Thus viewed, the trial of Abraham’s faith receives a meaning not perceived before.

He had been warned, that with respect to himself personally, the promise of "the land which God was to show him’’ (Genesis 12:1) ; - " the place which he should after receive as an inheritance" (Hebrews 11:8) ;- the very promise on the faith of which he left the country of his birth and the home of his fathers ; - was to have its fulfillmentt in the resurrection state, or in the world to come. He had been told that he should "go to his fathers in peace, and be buried in a good old age," and that several generations must elapse before the land was to be taken from its present possessors and vacated for his posterity (Genesis 15:15-16). Thus far he had been taught to abandon the prospect of his being himself put in possession of the promised inheritance on this side of time, and had been led to regard it as a hope for eternity. But he might still be clinging to the present - the seen and temporal - in reference to his seed. Contented to die himself before receiving the promised inheritance, he might still be dwelling on the bright future that stretched itself out before his children in the land. And now that Isaac was born, he might be willing to say, as Simeon said, "Now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace," - not from any spiritual apprehension of eternal things, but because he could now leave behind him one who, even in a temporal point of view, might elevate his name and lineage among the families of men. The command to offer up Isaac is the test of his faith upon this very point. Is he willing, not merely to have his own inheritance postponed till after the resurrection, but the inheritance of his seed also? Can he bear to have, not only his own expectation, but that of Isaac, deferred to the future state?

He can; for he believes in the resurrection! He accounts that God is able to raise him up, even from the dead." He can forego, therefore, all his fond imagination of being the founder of a family and father of a great nation in this present world. He can consent to the arrangement that after his decease there is to be no farther trace of him excepting only in the line of Ishmael that has been so unequivocally disowned. He is to die in a good old age ; and it may be that he is to survive the son of whom it has been said, " In Isaac shall thy seed be called." After that son’s decease, there may be no genuine representative of his house left behind; and to the end of time it may be matter of wonder and reproach that neither he, nor any child of his, has ever actually got possession of the inheritance, on the faith of which he went out, "not knowing whither he went." But none of these things move Abraham. He looks not to the things which are seen and temporal, but to the things which are unseen and eternal; being well assured that " if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens" (2 Corinthians 4:18 and 2 Corinthians 5:1).

Great indeed, in this view, is the faith of Abraham - great almost beyond our power of sympathy or insight. And yet we may partly measure it by the universal instinct which prompts men to aim at leaving a name, or building a house, that shall survive their own removal. One of the most painful thoughts connected with death is that "the place which once knew us shall know us no more ;" and one of the strongest natural desires in a parent’s bosom is to live again in his children. Not a few of us can make up our minds to our own obscurity; but we yearn after distinction in the race we are to leave behind. It is often the last weakness even of a spiritual man to cherish such prospects of posthumous renown; and it is no trifling trial of his spirituality when he must submit to his not having, either in his own person, or in his posterity, a high position in the world. But if this is trying to a man having only ordinary expectations in this life, what must it have been to Abraham? No common parent is he; nor is it any common hope that is bound up with the son for whose birth he has waited so long. The child of promise is the heir of no common birthright. A glory coextensive with the blessing of all the families of the earth is in store for his seed; a mighty nation is to hail him as their honored sire; and the whole world is to own him as the source or channel of its regeneration. And are the whole of these bright anticipations to stand over till time gives place to eternity? Is the patriarch, after having been taught to see glorious visions of temporal greatness and spiritual good hovering over the head of his dear child, - visions reaching to long ages and embracing the entire family of man, - not only to depart himself ere they are realized, but to have the realization of them made impossible in the present world, and possible only in the world to come?

Then so be it. " Lord, not my will but thine be done." Abraham believes that God is able to raise the dead; and therefore he is willing to have the entire inheritance of himself and of his seed laid up in that unseen and eternal heavenly state to which the faithful dead are to be raised. His faith in the resurrection reconciles him to the loss of all his possessions and prospects in the life that now is, and enables him to lay hold of the treasure that is in heaven.

Such, then, is the precise and specific character of Abraham’s faith, as brought out in the greatest trial it had to undergo. It embraces the doctrine of the resurrection. And it embraces that doctrine with a cordial preference of the state that is beyond the resurrection over the state that is on this side of it. There is thus plain evidence in it of that transference of the affections from earth to heaven, which a divine agency alone can effect. It obtains accordingly a suitable as well as signal reward. Being made perfect by works- having its consummation in the act of obedience which it prompted - it has its appropriate and congenial recompense also in that very act itself. He " received " Isaac " from the dead in a figure" (Hebrews 11:19). He " saw the day of Christ and was glad" (John 8:56). In the first place, "he received Isaac from the dead, in a figure." In the signal and seasonable deliverance of his son, he had a vivid representation of the resurrection which he had believed that God was able to effect. To all intents and purposes, Isaac had been dead, and was now alive from the dead. It was an emphatic rehearsal of the real and literal resurrection; nor could the patriarch, having been thus brought to feel the power of the world to come, ever afterwards lose the vivid sight and sense he had got of its eternal realities. Isaac has been spared to him; and, in acknowledgment of his obedient faith, the promises are renewed to him of a numerous family through Isaac, as well as of the Saviour in whom all the nations of the earth are to be blessed (Genesis 22:15-18). But the blessings thus graciously secured to him in time, must now have a peculiar meaning in his eyes, when viewed in the light of the resurrection and of eternity. For the lesson he has been taught is really this ; - that the promises reach beyond this present life, and have their chief fulfillment in the life to come; that, even if he should see no fulfillment of them here, this need not surprise or grieve him, since there is a greater and better fulfillment of them in reserve hereafter; and that any fulfillment of them he may see on earth is altogether subordinate to the fulfillment awaiting him in heaven. The birthright of which Isaac is the heir, is now seen to have its principal seat - not in this world, where all is change, and where, in a moment, the child of promise may be suddenly cut off - but in the world to come, where there is no more sorrow or separation, because there is in it no more sin.

Thus, in the second place, "Abraham saw the day of Christ" in this transaction, "and was glad." For we can scarcely doubt that it is to this transaction that the Lord refers in his controversy with the Jews on the subject of their boast of liberty, and their standing in the house or family of God (John 8:34-59).

It is an animated controversy. The Lord drives them back from one point of defense to another. He proves that they are the servants of sin; so that they can have no footing but that of servants in relation to God. He meets their proud boast of descent from Abraham, by an appeal to their entire want of sympathy with Abraham. He meets their still prouder boast of having God as their father, by the exposure of their family-likeness, not to God, but to Satan. And at last, in answer to their challenge - "Art thou greater than our father Abraham, which is dead?" - he announces himself as the object of Abraham’s faith : " Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day ; and he saw it, and was glad" (John 8:56).

Now, the day of Christ which Abraham " rejoiced"- or earnestly desired - to see, must be the day of which he himself speaks; " I must work the work of him that sent me while it is day." It is the day of his sojourn on earth; when he glorified his Father, and finished the work given him to do. More particularly, it is the day on which his work was finished, and he was himself acknowledged, accepted, and glorified by the Father; according to the prophecy of the second psalm - " Thou art ray Son: this day have I begotten thee." (Psalms 2:7)For " this day," as the apostle Paul expressly explains it, is the day on which God "raised up Jesus again" (Acts 13:33). That is the day of Christ which Abraham desired, and was permitted, to see. But the sight which he longed to have of it must have been something more than was ordinarily granted to the saints and patriarchs of old. They, indeed, living by faith in a Saviour yet to come, looked forward to his day, and anticipated the time when the Seed of the woman should bruise the head of the serpent. But what the Lord refers to would seem to have been the peculiar privilege of Abraham; for Abraham is very specially represented as desiring to see "the day of Christ ;" and as on some special occasion seeing it, and being fully gratified with the sight. But what occasion in the history of Abraham can we fix upon more probably than the occasion now before us? And does it not give a very beautiful significance to that most mysterious transaction, if we regard it as the appointed means of affording to Abraham that glad sight of " the day of Christ" for which he had longed and prayed? Regarded in no other light than as a trial of Abraham’s faith, the narrative of the offering up of his son Isaac is abundantly interesting and affecting. But it becomes still more so, if we look at it in the light of our blessed Lord’s commentary.

Abraham had desired to see "the day of Christ ;" and a sight of it, more full and distinct than believers of that time ordinarily had, is to be granted to him. He is to see in vivid reality the details of that event, of which the general outline alone was then communicated to others. For this end, he is to stand on Mount Moriah, which, as some think, is the very spot subsequently called the hill of Calvary. And he is to behold the scene of the atonement accomplished there.

He beholds it in a threefold figure. First of all, when he takes the knife, and stretches forth his hand to slay his son, he is made to realise the intensity of the love of him who spared not his own Son, but gave him up even to the death. Again, secondly, in the ram provided for Isaac’s release, there is a vivid representation of the great principle of the sacrifice of Christ - the principle of substitution. A ransom is found for the doomed and condemned - an acceptable victim is put in their place. But, thirdly and especially, in the reception of Isaac again by Abraham virtually from the dead, and his welcome restoration to his father s embrace ;- not, however, without a sacrifice, not without blood ; - the resurrection of the Son of God, and his return to the bosom of the Father - after really undergoing that death which Isaac underwent only in a figure - might be clearly and strikingly discerned. And in Christ’s resurrection, his own resurrection also was involved, as well as the resurrection of all his true children, to the inheritance of eternal glory.

Thus the very transaction which so severely tried the faith of Abraham showed him all that his faith longed so much to see. He saw the day of Christ - the day of his humiliation and triumph - not darkly and dimly as others then saw it, but clearly, distinctly, vividly. He saw the very way in which the salvation of man was to be accomplished, and the blessing purchased for all the families of the earth, by the atoning death and glorious resurrection of the beloved Son of God And seeing thus gladly the day of Christ, he saw Christ himself as the Living One; - dead indeed, and sacrificed once for all, yet still living, and by his very death enabled to be the author of life to the "many sons whom he bringeth unto glory" (Hebrews 2:10).

These, then, are the gracious fruits of this trial of Abraham’s faith. They are such as the trial of our faith also may yield. For we are tried in the very same way with him. "We are called to give up to God the desire of our eyes, the beloved of our hearts ; - some dear partner, or child, or friend, around whose brow, in our fond esteem, the halo of many a bright anticipation shone. It is a bitter parting ; and it is hard to acquiesce in it, - to consent to it. But it is God*s will; and we submit. And what sustains us, but our accounting that God is able to raise him from the dead? Yes ; let him depart to be with Christ - and let the once beauteous body rot in the silent tomb to which my own hand consigns it. I know he is not lost after all. My own inheritance now is not on earth but in heaven; and in heaven he will rejoin me again. For myself and for him, I place all my hope beyond the grave. It is but a little while. " This corruptible must put on incorruption." "The Lord shall appear, and all that are his shall appear with him in glory." Is my heart wrung with the anguish of that parting hour ? Is the bitterness of death felt in my desolate home, and my still more desolate heart? Ah ! do I not now enter as I never did before - with a new insight and new sympathy - into the agony of the death endured by him who bore my sins in his own body on the tree? And as I lift my thoughts from this shadowy scene to the region of realities, how does my bosom burn with adoring gratitude and love to that Saviour who has spoiled death of its sting, and the grave of its victory, - who has abolished death, and brought life and immortality to light !

He calls me to suffer with him now, that we may be "glorified together" hereafter. He would have me to be partaker of his cross, that he may make me partaker of his crown. Through his own day of suffering and shame, issuing in his return to the Father’s bosom, he summons me to the hope of that heaven where he dwells. Am I contented to have all my hope there - and there only ? Can I bear to have my portion postponed - my expectation deferred- till the hour when time gives place to eternity? Can I resign myself to the surrender of everything dearest to me here below - friendship, love, happiness, - honour, wealth, - a husband’s or a wife’s embrace, - a child’s fond smile, - a friend’s sweet counsel, - not in gloomy submission to fate ; - not in stoical and stubborn pride; - not in heartless worldly unconcern; but in firm reliance upon that blessed Redeemer, who has himself passed through much tribulation, and gone to prepare a place for me among the many mansions of his Father’s house? And he cometh again, - his risen saints all with him, - to receive me to himself, that I may be with him for ever!

Even so, come. Lord Jesus.