Genesis 12:9

And Abram Journeyed, going still toward the south.

He journeyed by repeated encampments, as the necessities of pasturage required, partly, we fancy, to survey the land which he saw by faith occupied by. great nation of his descendants.

PRACTICAL AND SUGGESTIVE.

Prompt, unquestioning, unconditional obedience to God is the fruit of faith. No man who dallies with the word of the Lord, puts off obedience, or seeks to modify his ordinances, can claim to be. believer.

Faith justifies, but the faith that justifies is. faith that moves to action. The faith of Abraham, which secured the divine favor, was strong enough to carry him from Ur of the Chaldees to Canaan.

The man of faith, at God's command, will go forth where God tells him, even not knowing where his steps will lead. Thus did Abraham. Thus did Paul and all the ancient saints. Thus did Luther. Thus does every one who surrenders himself to God. He walks henceforth by faith and not by sight.

A man must love God and his work better than father and mother and kindred. "If. man love father and mother, etc., more than me he is not worthy of me," says Christ. If kindred will not go with us when we start to seek an abiding city we must leave kindred and go.

ABRAHAM'S DISTINCTION.--Abraham was called to be the head of. great family; the founder of. great nation; the representative of the family covenant and its first and Illustrious exemplar; the progenitor of the Desire of all nations, the Hope of the world, the Messiah; and coupled with his lineal posterity, the repository of God's truth and promises--his offspring were the people with whom God dwelt and by whom he was publicly worshiped for ages in the presence of the idolatrous nations of the earth; over whom God became their earthly sovereign, their recognized King and God.-- Cowles.

ABRAHAM'S FAITH.--In him was most distinctly manifested the gift of faith. In him, long before Luther, long before Paul, was it proclaimed in. sense not less clear and universal than the preaching of the apostles, that man is justified by faith.. *. His faith, in the literal sense of the word, is known to us only by his works. He and his descendants are blessed, not as the Koran states, because of his adoption of the first article of the creed of Islam, but because he had " obeyed the voice of the Lord, and kept his charge, his commandments, his statutes and his laws. " Genesis 26:5; Genesis 18:19.--Dean Stanley.

Every family of worshipers, wherever it abides, whether at Shechem, Bethel, Hebron, Beersheba, London, or Canton, should rear its family altar like Abraham, and every head should officiate at that altar as the family priest.

POINTS FOR TEACHERS.

1. Point out the geography, the home in Ur of the Chaldees, the abiding place in Haran, the long march to Canaan, the stopping places in Canaan. 2. Describe the family and surroundings of Abraham, his life as. shepherd chieftain,. dweller in tents, moving with flocks and tribe from pasture to pasture, or journeying across the desert. 3. Emphasize the call of God, why made, God's great purposes, why Abraham was chosen, because of supreme fitness. 4. Show how the call was obeyed, the demonstration that Abraham was. man of faith, how faith shows itself, why Abraham is called "father of the faithful." 5. Note the revelation of God at Shechem, its purpose, the erection of the altar and why. 6. Point out the character of the Abrahamic worship, the altar under the open sky, the father-priest. 7. Especially note, the climax of interest in this lesson, the Messianic promise. Show how each promise to Abraham was fulfilled, and especially how "in him all the families of the earth are blessed." 8. Inculcate the duty of building altars to Jehovah everywhere. Every family hearthstone and every closet can be one, and every man and woman and child. priest to offer incense.