Genesis 20:18

REFLECTIONS

READER! let not the greatness of Abraham's character tempt you to overlook Abraham's infirmity. Alas! what is man in his highest attainments! Had not the Patriarch lost sight that Jehovah himself was his shield and his exceeding great reward, he need not have condescended to such a pitiful resource for the safety of his wife. God forbid, that this weakness of the Patriarch should ever be made a pretence for the sins of others, when we see how it displeased the Lord!

Surely the Holy Ghost causeth the infirmities of the faithful to be recorded, in order to teach his people that most unquestionable truth; that there is not a just man upon earth, that doeth good and sinneth not; and to constrain the heart into the love of Jesus; whose perfect righteousness is the alone cause of justification before God. Dearest Lord! how increasingly sweet and interesting, in every renewed instance of human infirmity which I feel in myself, or meet with in others, is thy finished salvation to my view. Oh! Do thou establish my soul in it more and more. Give me to see, and know that I am thine in an everlasting Covenant, which cannot be broken: that from having committed my soul-concerns into thy hands; all my earthly interests I may safely leave at thy disposal; and that the fear of man, as in the case of the Patriarch, may not bring a snare.