every wind of doctrine, but grown up to the full stature of a man. And as the body of which Christ is the head makes its increase, so does it build itself up in love. There is, then, one body and one Spirit; and in the appropriation of this we find one Lord putting every enemy under His feet, and one God the Father of us all, "of whom the whole family in Heaven and earth is named, who is above all, and through all, and in you all."

X.

GENESIS xii. 4.

"So Abram departed as the Lord had spoken unto him.".

ONE, if not the most important, of the Old Testament characters now invites our contemplation. Whether we regard Abraham as having his name in the covenant formula, being at the head of that family whose history the Bible records, and to which Christ belonged, or as the friend of God, or for his own true faith, he is, indeed, the most remarkable and distinguished in the sacred record.

We proceed, then, firstly, to show how Abraham reveals the Father, whose type he is; secondly, the principles necessary not only to that revelation, but to be of the covenant; and thirdly, how Abraham did, as all men may, hallow this holy name in the possession of those principles.

The confusion of tongues-the origin of the various languages of the earth-is an abiding witness to sin in its hostility to the paternity of God. Yet, despite of which, the scattering of men to replenish the earth is a witness to it.

Men would build themselves a city, a tower, a name. They know not that there is a city which hath foundations, whose maker and builder is God. They trusted in themselves; they understood not that Jehovah is a rock, a fortress, a deliverer, a tower of salvation, and that the righteous running into it are safe, are set aloft. They would get themselves a name; for this they laboured: it is all their toil; for this the world continually struggles after. It ignores the one name revealed throughout the word of God,-a name that was upon the

children of Israel, that the Father might "bless them, and keep them, and make His face shine upon them, and be gracious unto them, lift up His countenance and give them. peace" (Numb. vi. 25).

It was to this, the everlasting covenant in its fulness made with all flesh, that Abraham witnessed: how that God was not the God of one city, but of heaven and earth; that all the families of the earth were blessed in Him; that the teeming multitudes attested Him the author of life, the Father of many nations, the Father of the spirits of all flesh. Abraham, therefore, is bound to no earthly city, no earthly kindred, no earthly father.

We are now speaking of the patriarch as revealing the Father. When he is called, he comes forth, leaving all. He severs, so to speak, the social ties of kindred and of friends. His father must die before he enters upon the promised inheritance. The soul that attests the universal Parent must be unfettered by every earthly tie. It is the language of the covenant to all: "Hearken, O daughter, and consider, and incline thine ear; forget also thine own people, and thy father's house; so shall the King have pleasure in thy beauty, for he is thy Lord God, and worship thou Him" (Ps. xlv. 10). Two distinct acts of Abraham testify to this. He obeys the call, and comes with his father out of Ur of the Chaldees unto Haran, where he rests; for he cannot enter upon the promised inheritance, the everlasting paternity, until the earthly parent is removed. Abraham, then, as the head of a great nation, is the type of the true Father whose name he possesses; therefore, his name is great, and he is a blessing. They who bless Abraham are blessed, and they who curse him are cursed; into which two classes the whole human family is divided, for by our lives we practically bless

or curse the everlasting Father. It is this honoured distinction that placed Abraham at the head of the family of Terah, though, doubtless, the last son born.

Of whom can it be said but of the everlasting Father, "In Thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed"? He has revealed Himself, and in this revelation of Himself all the families of the earth are blessed. Every earthly father is a call to know the heavenly; and they who scripturally know the blessed One are blessed; but they who do not, turn the truth into a curse, and reap the fruit of their own doing. That Abraham is a type of the true Father is shown in the teaching of the Lord. In the parable of Dives, or the rich man, the true Jew, who is separate from the world, and regards not its treasures, honours, or favours, is carried into Abraham's bosom. What is this to a spiritually-minded Jew but the bosom of the everlasting Parent, as being near to him at the spiritual banquet above, where the prodigal's return is consummated after he has here on earth returned home to the embrace of the Father? Again, Jesus said of Zaccheus : "This day," this very day, when he received Christ, the Son of God, is salvation come to this house, for He also is a son of Abraham. He received him-the Son of the true David, the Son of the true Abraham; and to receive the uncreated, the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth, is to have power to become the son of God. Thus Zaccheus also is a son of Abraham, son of the true Father, who was pleased to reveal Himself in the name of Abraham; for He is no exclusive Father, but the Father of a multitude. The Jews would limit His mercy, even as orthodox Christians would limit His love, and make it, the law of His nature, partial.

Abraham, then, is indeed the type of the true Father. It is the Lord's ground in His controversy with the hostile Jews.

He shews them that there are but two classes, two great fami"which I have seen with my

lies. "I speak that," He says, Father, and ye do that which ye

have seen with your father."

Their father was the devil, whose works they did. They, however, claimed to be Abraham's children; but they were told, "If they were, they would do the works of Abraham." The drift of this they rightly perceived, and at once claimed to be born of God, saying, "We have one Father, even God" (John viii. 40, &c.)

Abraham, then, reveals and represents our heavenly Father, who is the promised inheritance to which Abraham was called. He went forth from his fatherland, not knowing whither he went, and into the land of Canaan he came. He sought not to build himself a city and to get him a name, but he sought a city that hath foundations, whose maker and builder is God.

Of the patriarchs it is written: "They all died according to faith, not having received the promises." They dwelt in Canaan, the promised inheritance, typical of the spiritual,but as yet possessed it not; yet they all died according to faith, and embraced the promises. They confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth, and sought a fatherlandthe true fatherland, for they might have returned to that from whence they came out; but, being dead according to faith, God was not ashamed to be called their God.

The Canaanite was in the land even as Ham was in the ark. God is the Father, not only of those who obey the truth, but of the spirits of all flesh,-not only of Abraham, but also of the Canaanite. The inheritance, however, is given to the seed of Abraham, and the other is cursed. The works of Abraham show who the seed were. He built an altar, and called upon the name of Jehovah. The two principles indispensable to the knowledge of the Father are.