The heroes of faith: a series of discourses on the names immortalized in the eleventh chapter of Hebrews

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THE

HEROES OF FAITH:

% Scries ai glistcmrsts

THE NAMES IMMORTALIZED

ELEVENTH CHAPTER OF HEBREWS.

REV. D. T. PHILLIPS,

Port Chester, N. Y.

ttcui |)orh :
RUSSELL BROTHERS, PRINTERS AND PUBLISHERS,

17, 19, 21, 23 Rose Street.

1881.

Copyright, 1881, by D. T. Phillip

TO

imt. ft. f . latms.

With pleasure I dedicate to you this literary effort.
Hailing from the parish of your ancestors, I am some-
ivhat familiar with your pedigree, and, am intimately
acquainted with your kinsfolk, still residing near that
antiquated spot. Though virtue is not hereditary, yet I
believe that the sterling, religious character of your worthy
progenitors has contributed to shape your life and con-
duct. I have watched your public career with special
interest, and rejoice to know, that every advancement has
been, the result of honest and, faithful service. Your pains-
taking task in exposing political corruption, and maintain-
ing political economy, receives the nations approval. You
have tJw sympathies and prayers of the best men in our
Republic,

Be specif idly yours,

D. T. PHILLIPS,

Port Chester, N. Y.
October It, 1881.

SYNOPSIS.

CIIAPTEE I.— Faith.

PAGB

Faith in its comprehensiveness— Distinction between faith and fanat-
icism— What constitutes faith— The recipients of faith — Unseen
things classified— Spiritual, historical, and future realities— The
elders' good report — Distinction between faith and belief— What
is evangelical faith ?— Devils' belief— Faith practically exempli-
fied— The apprehension of faith — The Divine Architect — Scepti-
cism's flimsy pretexts — The English traveller well answered —
The Creator— The fool's creed 17

- CHAPTER 11.— The Faith of Abel.

An appropriate title — Faith essential to right conduct — What God
first demands— Superiority of Abel's offering — The principle
which prompted the offering — Cain's presumption — Envy — An
unmeaning offering — Abel's foresight — Divine approval and dis-
approval— IIow sacrifices received Divine favor — Possessors and
professors— The true theory of giving — The influence of Abel's
offering — Cain's offering held in lasting contempt— God's people
more renowned after death — Execrable memory of the unright-
eous— A fitting epitaph 29

CIIAPTEE HI.— The Faith of Enoch.

A suggestive memoir— Attractiveness of Enoch's life— New Testa-
ment allusions— Walking with God— What it involves— Har-
monious agreement— Communion with God — Progress in the
Divine life — Old experiences — Enoch's translation — Divine
sovereignty— Enoch's faith rewarded — Believers' conversation
and treasure in Heaven— Resembling the aerostat— Earthly at-
tractions and tendencies— The anxious search — From the altar
to the throne — Enoch's commendation — Agreeableness of his
society— Pleasing God— The subject illustrated— Happy end. . 39

VI SYNOPSIS.

CHAPTER IV.— The Essentiaas of Faith.

PAGE

Beliet of the Divine existence— First principles In religion— Dis-
astrous results of unbelief— Atheists more consistent than Deists
— Testimony of conscience— Half of life composed of faith— Il-
lustrations of the fact — Atheism not originated in the intellect —
Where infidelity begins — Voices testifying of God's existence
in every department of life— The moral government of God —
The fool's mission— Prayer and its reward— Faith the soul of
prayer — Faith inspiring its subject with triumphant joy. . . 4(J

CHAPTER V.— The Faith of Noah.

A profitable exercise— Household names— Faith not clamorous for
physical or mathematical demonstrations — Accepting God's
testimony — Prompt obedience under strange circumstances—
The deluge— Was it partial or universal ?— Traces of the deluge
— Universal tradition of the deluge — The book that Noah
studied— A determined faith— Not easily discouraged— The ark
completed— The crisis arrived— Locked in the ark— A terrific
night — Blessedness of obedience— Faith exalting its subjects-
Warning to unbelievers 57

CHAPTER VI.— The Faith of 'Abraham, the Pilgrim.

Abraham's pedigree — Faith does not exempt us from trials — Abra-
ham's first trial — Leaving home — In a foreign country — A sore
bereavement— Worthy of emulation— The future dark— Faith
as guide and companion — Heaven — Where is it?— Ignorance of
the invisible world — What is known is gratifying — The
patriarch's inconveniences — Stephen's address before the San-
hedrim—Faith sustained— Not left forlorn— A happy illustra-
tion—Hopeful expectancy — It pays here — The household of
faith— What believers can afford to do— The Divinely built city
-Leaving the city of destruction— An illustrious gathering. . 6'7

CHAPTER VII.— The Faith of Sarah.

A genuine faith— A significant change— Peter's reference to Sarah as
an exemplary woman — Her former incredulity — An effectual re-
proof—God's unlimited power— Faith triumphing over doubt—
A needed lesson— Secret of failure— What is essential— Deceived

SYNOPSIS.

PAGE

by shadows— Recognizing the agency of supernatural power—
An unstaggering faith— The Divine faithfulness— Still greater
miracles — Work of conversion supernatural — The sphere of
prayer— Word to mothers— Faith wonderfully rewarded— Barren
Zion encouraged — Moral beauty f«

CHAPTER VIII.— Dying in Faith.

Faith an active principle— Praises of faith celebrated— What is it to
die in faith ? — Trusting God — Recognizing the Divine sov-
ereignty and mercy— Not a leap in the dark— Examples of those
dying in faith— Fuller's grand experience— No compromise-
Bearing witness to the truth— Spurious faith— The promises—
The saints' attitude toward the promises— Seeing, believing,
and greeting the promises — The aspirations of believers —
Emptiness of the world— Living above crosses— No retraction—
The better country — Transcendent status of Heaven-bound pil-
grims—The Apocalyptic portraiture of the city of God— Wel-
come home. . 85

CHAPTER IX.— The Faith of Abraham, the Tried.

The sharpest test known— What meant by God tempting Abraham
— Why was Abraham thus " tempted?" — The circumstances of
the trial—" After these things" explained — The nature of the
offering demanded — Tried as father and saint — The only son —
The tragic scene — The angelic interposition— Offering virtually
made— God's " only begotten Son" — Believers still tried in the
loss of their loved ones — Sorrow and submission in harmony —
The son of promise — The courage of faith — A melting colloquy
— The grand example of faith — Faith in God's resurrection
power — Enparabole — Seeing the prefigured Jesus — Abraham's
unconscious prophecy fulfilled — Ram caught in the thicket-
Lessons 95

CHAPTER X.— The Faith of Isaac

A son of Abraham in a twofold sense — In what Isaac's faith con-
sisted— Its parental relationship — The twin brothers — Domestic
discord — Foolish distinctions — A lesson of warning to parents
— Jacob's meanness — Esau's covetousness — Their descendants
still in the world — A fratricidal attack designed— Interposition

Vlll SYNOPSIS.

PAGE

of Providence— Jacob's deception meets retribution— A life of
calamities— Prophetic cbaracter of Isaac's faitb — Both predicted
blessings literally fulfilled— Eebekak's good intentions, but
mistaken ideas — Isaac's unshaken faith — The best legacy. . 105

CHAPTER XL— The Faith of Jacob.

A changed story— The meeting at Peniel — A misapprehended pas-
sage of Scripture— The change of name— Fervent prayer effect-
ual— Faith displayed in Jacob's dying blessing— Manasseh and
Ephraim— A touching sight— Old people— Recognition of God's
goodness— The value of a saint's dying blessing— A cheering
faith — Jacob's dying posture— The oriental bed— The old staff
—The Douay version— An old believer— The sublimest picture
— Thaddeus Stevens and Thurlow Weed— Old in years, but
young in heart— Title of 0. P 113

CHAPTER XII.— The Faith of Joseph.

An exquisite narrative — Trials converted into blessings — A sug-
gestive life — Joseph's remarkable dreams — His brothers' be-
havior— A murderous hatred— An infamous consultation— Sold
to the Ishmaelites— Reuben's remorse — Moral worth appreci-
ated and recognized — Joseph appointed overseer — His fiercest
temptation — Slander — Its curse— Joseph in prison— Divine in-
terposition— Joseph appointed governor — Our late President —
Solomon's words — The predictions of Joseph verified — A melt-
ing incident— Joseph's command — His death and burial— Im-
mortalized by faith— The evidence of immortality— What alone
is worthy of ambition 121

CHAPTER XI1L— The Faith of Moses' Parents.

A remarkable child— Concealment of birth— Confidence of Divine
interposition— Amram and Jochebed— The surpassing beauty
of their babe— Alarming symptoms— Consultation by the parents
—The ark of bulrushes— The threatened danger— Thermuthis
— Miriam — The thrilling drama — Engaging a mother as nurse —
Not put to confusion— Fearlessness of human threats— Pharaoh's
cruel edict — A critical moment — A noble princess — Faith saving
from danger— A greater enemy than Pharaoh— Need of cautiom 131

SYNOPSIS. IX

CHAPTER XIV.— The Faith of Moses.

PAGE

The Land of Providence— An eventful life — "What Moses saarifleed
— Princely honors — Palatial pleasures — Egyptian wealth — True
manhood — Real riches — What Moses preferred — Affliction with
God's people — Religious reproach — Taking up the cross— Badge
of honor — An example worthy of imitation— Glorying in the
cross of Christ — Prospects of future blessedness — The recom-
pense of the reward — Believers' shining day to come — What
Moses accomplished — The flight from Egypt — The establish-
ment of the passover — The sprinkling of the blood — The blood
of Christ— Triumphant passage through the Ked Sea — Pre-
sumption punished — Death's narrow sea 139

CHAPTER XV.— Faith vs. Walls of Jericho.

The city of palm trees— Signification .of Joshua's name — Instruc-
tions fulfilled— Insignificant instruments — Nothing impossible
unto God — Discouragements — Dauntless perseverance — Rams'
horns — Divine trumpets — Earthen vessels — Overthrow of the
besieged city — Faith absolutely necessary — The Gospel trumpet
— Stubbornness of the human heart — The Gospel the power of
God — God and the Church acting in concert — The reason of non-
success — What is really noeded — The importance of repeated
efforts — Victory certain — Lessons to be learned — No failure in
faithful labor 151

CHAPTER XVI.— The Faith of Rahab.

The foundation of love— The source of good works — Transforming
power of faith— Meaning of the term " harlot "—Rahab's con-
dition not hopeless — Her conversion — The adventurous spirit of
faith — Its fearlessness — The two spies — Faith a heroic grace —
The compensating quality of faith— Safety of Rahab's house-
hold— Faith saving whole families — An Antinomian spirit — A
merited rebuke— Saving faith illustrated by a remarkable dream
—Mercy for all— Simplicity of faith 159

CHAPTER XVII.— The Faith of Gideon.

Man a cipher— Gideon with God irresistible— Faith recruiting by
prayer — Seeking a sign — Divine approbation— Overthrowing

SUGGESTIVE EXTRACTS.

Invisibilia non decipiunt.

Faith without works is like a bird without wings.— Beaumont.
The two hymns of the Apostolic epistles are the hymn of faith
(Hebrews xi.) and the hymn of love ( 1 Corinthians xiii.), both making
flights of impassioned rhetoric.— Alford.

Instead of faith being a difficult thing, a man has to throw the dead
wood of logic and of scepticism right across the current of his life, to
prevent him from exercising it. — Beecher.

The Scripture hath laid a flat opposition between faith and sense. We
live bv faith, saith the Apostle, and not by sight, or by sense. They
are two buckets ; the life of faith and the life of sense. When one goes
up, the other goes down ; the higher faith rises, the lower sense and
reason ; the higher sense and reason, the lower faith.— Bridge.

So faith without works is worthless, for it has in it no saving quality.
Such faith is a mere intellectual assent to the truth, or rather, to some
parts of the truth, leaving the heart unmoved, and, therefore, creating
no motives to action.— J. M. Pendleton.

There will be works with faith, as there is thunder with lightning ;
but just as it is not the thunder, but the lightning that strikes the tree,
so it is not the works which justify. Put it in one sentence— faith alone
justifies, but not the faith which is alone. Lightning alone strikes, but
not the lightning which is alone, without thunder; for that is only sum-
mer lightning, and harmless.— P. W. Robertson.

O faith is a busy, lively, active thing ! It is impossible for it not to be
ceaselessly working good. Whoso doeth not such works, is an un-
believing man. It is as impossible to separate works from faith, as to
separate burning and shining from fire.— Luther.

Whatever faith touches it turns to gold, that is, into our good. It is a
sword to defend, a guide to direct, a staff to support, a friend to comfort,
and a golden key to open Heaven to us. Without it, it is impossible to
please God. There is something very stimulating in the thought that

XIV SUGGESTIVE EXTRACTS.

we can do. that which shall actually please God ; it throws a light of
glory on all duty. — Brooks.

Faith is like the magnetic needle, often trembling, yet ever true ;
swayed amid the tempest's wildest tossings, by the invisible, mysterious
spell, which never fails to direct it right. It is computed that there are
about fifty thousand voyages [in his day ] always upon the ocean. Who
can describe the obligation these arc under to this constant, unerring
guide ? — Bowes.

Faith believes what it sees not; for if thou seest/there is no faith : the
Lord has gone away, so as not to be seen. He is hidden that He may be
believed ; the yearning desire by faith after Him who is unseen, is the
preparation of a Heavenly mansion for us ; when He shall be seen, it shall
be given to us as the reward of faith. — Avovstine.

Faith is the nail which fastens the soul to Christ, and love is that
grace which drives it to the head. Faith takes hold of him, and love
helps to keep the grip. Christ dwells in the heart by faith, and he
burns in the heart by love ; like a fire melting the heart. Faith casts
the knot, and love draws it fast.— Erskike.

But what is faith good for \ It is good for every good purpose ; the
foundation and root of all graces. All the prayers made by devotion ;
all the good works done by charity ; all the actual expressions of holi-
ness ; all the praises sounded forth by thankfulness, come from the root
of faith, that is the life of them all. Faith doth animate works, as the
body lives by the soul. — Spencer.

James, in making faith with works, and not faith without works, the
condition of justification, is only in seeming contradiction with Paul.
Neither made faith in one's own works the condition of justification,
and thus one's own works the meritorious cause of justification. Both
made faith in Christ the condition, and both insisted that it should be a
genuine, and hence a working faith. — Pepper.

A lion in conflict with the powers- of hell, faith lies down like a lamb
at the feet of her Lord. It returns and rests in quietness and in con-
fidence. The calm resting upon God iriakes it victorious over all beside.
In truth, it is He who fights for the believer, with the believer, in the
believer. Faith does nothing alone, nothing of itself, but everything
under God, by God, through God.— Stoughton.

Faith is something more than the assent of the understanding to testi-
mony. It is something more than the gush of sentiment, or the outflow
of emotion. It is something more than an isolated act of the will. It

SUGGESTIVE EXTRACTS XV

is that which is comprehensive of them all. The faith which receives
Christ, is a principle which draws upon all the constituents of our being.
— Palmer.

While reason is puzzling herself about the mystery, Faith is turning it
into her daily bread, and feeding on it. While Reason is applying the
tests of her earthly chemistry, threatening to dissolve the very cross of
Calvary in her crucibles, Faith has quietly set the holy doctrine to the
music of her joy, and is singing it as her hymn of Benedictus or Magni-
ficat in unquestioning peace. — F. D. Huntington.

Reason stands in the valley gazing upward to distant heights, as the
traveller looks up to Mount Washington from Jefferson, or to Jungfrau
from Interlachen, while faith climbs each summit to bring back tran-
sporting views, and flower, or fern, or gem. Reason represents the feet,
and faith the wings. — Dennen.

Sight is the noblest sense ; it is quick ; we can look from earth to
Heaven in one moment: it is large: we can sec the hemisphere of the
heavens at one view : it is sure and certain ; in hearing we may be de-
ceived ; and lastly, it is the most affecting sense. Even so, faith is the
quickest, the largest, the most certain, the most affecting grace : like an
eagle in the clouds, at one view it sees Christ in Heaven, and looks
down upon the world ; it looks backward and forward : it sees things
past, present and to come. — Sibbes.

The Apostle speaks of being justified by faith, that is, not by our own
righteousness, but by the righteousness of another; of living by faith,
that is, not by our own earnings, so to speak, but by the generosity of
another; of standing by faith, that is, not upon our own legs, as we
should say, but upon those of another; of walking by faith, which is as
much as if He had said, " We walk, not trusting in our eyes, but the
eyes of another ; we are blind, and cannot guide ourselves ; we must
therefore rely upon God for direction and instruction." — And. Feeler.

Faith always goes before, Hope follows after, and may in some sort be
said to be the daughter of Faith, for it is as impossible for a man to hope
for that which he believes not, as for a painter to draw a picture in the
air. Faith is the Christian's logic ; Hope his rhetoric. Faith perceives
that which is to be done ; Hope gives alacrity to the doing it. Faith
guides, advises, rectifies ; Hope courageously encounters with all ad-
versaries ; therefore faith is compared to a doctor in the schools ; Hope
to a captain in the wars. Faith has for its objects, things past, present,
and future ; Hope only respects and expects things to come.— Tut has
Adams.

XVI SUGGESTIVE EXTKACTS.

Faith is a certain image of eternity ; all things are present to it ; things
past, and things to come are all so before the eyes of faith, that he in
whose eyes that candle is enkindled beholds Heaven as present, and
sees how blessed a thing it is to die in God's favor, and to be chimed to
our grave with the music of a good conscience. Faith converses with
the angels, and antedates the hymns of glory. Every man that hath
this grace is as certain that there are glories for him if he persevere in
his duty, as if he had heard and sung the thanksgiving song for the
blessed sentence of doomsday. — Jeremy Taylor.

From that union ( faith and works ) have sprung up a glorious pro-
geny. All the mighty deeds which have ennobled and elevated human-
ity own that parentage. Faith and action have been the source under
God, of everything good, and great, and enduring in the Church of Christ:
the very Church itself exists through them. Its model men were men
of faith and action. A faith sound as that of the Assembly will not
save the dying world around us unless it flows out into action. — Cuyler.

"What is now most wanted in the Christian world is more faith. We
too little respect faith ; we too much dabble in reason ; fabricating Gos-
pels, where we ought to be receiving Christ ; limiting all faith, if we
chance to allow of faith, by the measures of previous evidence; and cut-
ting the wings of faith, when laying hold of God, and bathing in the
secret mind of God, it conquers more and higher evidence. — Bushnell.

Some people suppose that if you have faith you may act like a fool.
But faith makes a person wise. It is one of the notable points about
faith that it is sanctified common sense. That is not at all a bad defini-
tion of faith. It is not fanaticism ; it is not absurdity ; it is making God
the grandest asset in our account, and then reckoning according to the
soundest logic. It is not putting my hands into boiling water with the
impression that it will not scald me; it is not doing rash and absurd
things. Faith is believing in God and acting toward God as we ought
to do. It is treating Him, not as a cipher, but as a grand overtopping
numeral in all our additions and subtractions. It is sanctified reason,
enlightened from on high. — Spirgeon.

Nothing but Christian faith gives to the furthest future, the solidity and
definiteness which it must have if it is to be a break- water for us against
the fluctuating sea of present cares and thoughts. — Maclarex.

Without faith it is impossible to please Him. — Paul.

This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. — John.

Yc believe in God, believe also in me. — Christ.

THE HEROES OF FAITH.

CHAPTER I.

Her XI. 1-3.

1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of
things not seen.

*2 For by it the elders obtained a good report.

3 Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by th e
word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of thing s
which do appear.

"Faith lights us through the dark to Deity;

Whilst without sight, we witness that she shows
More God than in His works our eyes can see ;

Though none but by those works the Godhead knows."

— Davenant.

Faith ! What a comprehensive principle ! It
grasps, so to speak, 'two eternities — the eternity of
the past and the eternity of the future. It lays hold
of Him who is from everlasting to everlasting. In
the words of our text, and the examples introduced
in this chapter, the inspired writer teaches how faith
has ever been the means of the saints' perseverance
in grace. Various interpretations have been given
to these passages by hermeneutical scholars, but
they all amount substantially to the same idea. The
faith here so graphically described refers exclusively
to believers. It is that comprehensive principle by

1

18 THE HEROES OF FAITH.

which they live, and which, in the hour of distress
or trial, assuages grief and invigorates virtue.

We must, however, distinguish between faith and
fanaticism. Faith must have substantial rations to
feed upon. It must have living bread, and enduring
meat. Fanaticism receives any dogma as truth, as a
babe takes his sop from his mother's spoon. There
is an antipodal difference between an intelligent faith,
and blind infatuation.

THE COMPREHENSIVENESS OF FAITH.

I. What constitutes faith.

Two elements are mentioned here as entering into
its composition.

1. It is the substance of things hoped for.

The word translated "substance" is one of the
archaisms of the New Testament. Modern inter-
preters give the words "ground," "confidence,"
"assurance," as the nearest approximation to the
meaning of the original. Faith is the ground, con-
fidence, or assurance of things hoped for. None can
feel the force of these words but such as live by
faith. To them faith gives reality to things hoped
for. Faith to them is not an empty shadow that flits
across the firmament of their mind. It is the reality
of a sun, whose golden light may be seen, and whose
glowing rays may be" felt. It is not a bubble on the
stream, which vanishes in a moment. It is as the
ocean in its service, conveying unnumbered thou-

THE COMPREHENSIVENESS OF FAITH. 19

sands on its mighty bosom to the port of eternal
safety.

The "things hoped for" include all that can be
enjoyed consistently with the Divine will on earth,
and all we expect to enjoy in Heaven.

The believer's faith confidently expects daily for-
giveness for sins committed, and opportunities for
improvement neglected ; spiritual strength to subdue
tendencies and habits of evil; continued grace to
fulfil the will of God ; Divine presence in public and
private worship; Divine aid in temptation; Divine
support in the season of affliction, and in the hour of
death ; and at last, a blessed realization of all that
God has promised in the life to come; namely, a
glorious resurrection, a union with the redeemed
triumphant church, the conscious attainment of per-
fect holiness, and the everlasting possession of perfect
happiness. The believer hopes for all this, and faith
assures him of their realization; yea, faith makes
them realities to him now. He has the antepast in
his soul of the choice feast of love he is to enjoy
hereafter. He experiences so much of Heaven in
his soul here that he is frequently led to exclaim :

" My willing soul would stay
In such a frame as this;
And sit and sing itself away
To everlasting bliss."

2. It is tJw evidence of tilings not seen.

The word " evidence " is a logical term, signifying
"conclusive demonstration." It is here applied to
objects invisible to the naked eye, or matters that

20 THE HEKOES OF FAITH.

cannot be subjected to human sense. The mind of
faith is so convinced of the reality of things unseen,
that it has equal weight with the believer as though
they were under his actual observation.

" Faith is the evidence or conviction of things not
seen."

Of these unseen realities there are three classes.

1. Spiritual realities.

Such as the being of God, with His attributes and
perfections. His justice, truth, holiness and mercy.
His eternity, immutability, omnipotence, omniscience
and omnipresence. Faith conceives of God as a
revelation; not as an hypothesis demonstrated by
reasoning, but as a truth established by testimony.
Faith supplies the room of reason. Not that these
things are unreasonable, but . are, as Finney said of
the Trinity, " above reason."

2. Historical, realities.

Namely, all that the Scriptures testify as to past
events. The creation of the universe we did not
witness, yet by faith we readily admit that it had its
genesis, and that its originator was one God — the
true and living God. On the testimony of the same
revelation, we believe in the formation and fall of our
first parents ; the destruction by deluge of the world,
and other facts recorded in Old Testament history ;
also in the incarnation of the Son of God ; His im-
maculate life ; His miraculous works ; His atoning
death ; His triumphant resurrection ; His glorious as-

THE COMPREHENSIVENESS OF FAITH. 21

cension to the right hand of the Father; in short,
the entire substance of the mediatorial economy.
By faith we rely on the unshaken testimony of Reve-
lation in relation to these truths.

3. Future realities.

By this I mean the universal spread of Christian-
ity ; the resurrection of the dead, the general judg-
ment ; the everlasting destiny of the righteous and
wicked. We are fully persuaded in our mind con-
cerning these stern realities of the future. Though
not the objects of our observation, yet by faith we
accept them as facts on the testimony of God's word ;
just as we believe on human testimony that there are
such cities as London, Rome and Pekin. " Faith in
the Divine Revelation answers all the purposes of a
convincing argument, or is itself, to the mind, a con-
vincing argument of the real existence of those things
which are not seen."* "Faith is the evidence of
things not seen."

H. Whom faith commends.

"For by it the elders obtained a good report."
These elders are the patriarchs whose names are em-
blazoned in this chapter. In succeeding discourses,
we shall refer to the distinctive features of their faith,
by which they were immortalized. Surely what hath
faith wrought through these renowned saints of the
Most High ! Yea ! how indebted to this inspiring
principle is the world. Martin Tupper sings :

* Binney's " Practical power of faith." Sermon 1.

22 THE HEKOES OF FAITH.

u Faith worketh wonders;
Never was a marvel done upon the earth, but it had sprung of faith ;
Nothing noble, generous, or great, but faith was the root of the achieve-
ment ;
Nothing comely, nothing famous, but its praise is faith.
Leonidas fought in human faith, as Joshua in Divine.
Xenophon trusted to his skill, and the sons of Mattathias to their cause ;
In faith Columbus found a path across the untried waters.
The heroines of Arc and Saragossa fought in earthly faith.
Tell was strong, and Alfred great, and Luther wise by faith.
Margaret by faith was valiant for her son, and Wallace mighty for his

Faith in his reason made Socrates sublime, as faith in his science

Galileo.
Ambassadors in faith are bold, and unreproved for boldness.
Faith urged Fabius to delay, and sent forth Hannibal to Canse."
Caesar at the Rubicon, Miltiades at Marathon, both were sped by faith.
I set not all in equal spheres; number not the martyr with the patriot.
I class not the hero with his horse, because the twain have courage;
But only for example and instruction, that all things stand by faith."

The faith which the elders inherited achieved ex-
traordinary feats, because it involved unwavering
confidence in God, and entire dependence on God.
On account of such faith, they received the highest
commendations from Heaven. Being dead, they yet
speak through their faith. The good report they
have received through faith has not yet ceased, nor
shall it ever cease.

If we would obtain with them this " good report,"
we must first obtain " the like precious faith through
the righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus
Christ." That faith that will lead us to lean on God,
and trust in Him.

We must beware of confounding faith with belief.

THE COMPREHENSIVENESS OF FAITH. 23

It is possible to believe all that is written of God in
His word, and yet be destitute of faith. Faith em-
braces belief, but belief does not necessarily include
faith. Devils are not infidels in this latter sense.
They believe all that the Scriptures teach concerning
God, but it is not that belief which leads them to ex-
ercise faith in God. It is not an evangelical, trust-
ful, fruit-bearing faith ; but a cold, heartless, intel-
lectual assent. The faith which the elders embraced
and which all true believers possess, is that which
leads them to place their full confidence in God, and
to trust Him where they cannot trace Him.

To believe that the Lord Jesus Christ died on the
cross is not significant in itself, more than the belief
that He lived, unless we have faith in the atoning
sacrifice of His death, and trust in that atonement
for salvation. This is the faith that reports favorably
of its subjects, before the highest throne in the uni-
verse.

The question is, Have we this trusting, life giving,
Heaven-commending faith ? We know what it means
theoretically, but do we know what it means experi-
mentally ? To know it in the heart is infinitely better
than to apprehend it by the intellect. In fact, we do
not truly know what faith is, unless we experience it
in the heart, and express it in our lives.

Suppose a Laplander were to visit one of the
West India Islands, and some one there attempt to
describe a delicious fruit growing in those parts. He
might inform his visitor that the fruit grew on a tree
of glossy green ; that it was of a globular shape ; of a

24 THE HEROES "OF FAITH.

deep yellow tint, approaching to a beautiful light red
color ; that it belonged to the genus citrus, and so
forth ; but we question whether the Laplander would
gain a very definite idea of what an orange is. But
let him be led to an orange grove, and assured that
he is welcome to lay hold of the fruit for himself —
one moment's seeing and tasting will teach him more
about an orange than an hour's botanical lecture.
So we must lay hold of Christ, and taste the sweet-
ness of His forgiving love, if Ave would find out the
nature of true faith.

III. IV hat faith apprehends. Verse 3.

Faith ascribes the formation of the universe to the
word of God — that is, the oral word of God, not the
personal word. The original word is derived from
Rhema, not Logos. " He spake, and it was done ;
He commanded, and it stood fast." Nothing was
made without the Logos, the Son of God. It was the
fiat of His word that caused countless worlds to leap
into existence. Oh, what a wonderful framework has
the word of our God produced !

" 0 thou eternal One, whose presence bright

All space doth occupy, all motion guide,
Unchanged through Time's all-devastating flight,

Thou only God ! there is no God beside.
Being above all beings ! Mighty One !

Whom none can comprehend and none explore,
Who fillest existence with Thyself alone ;

Embracing all — supporting — ruling o'er.
In its sublime research, philosophy

May measure out the ocean deep — may count
The sand, or the sun's rays— but, God ! for Thee

There is no weight nor measure: none can mount

THE COMPREHENSIVENESS OF FAITH. 25

Up to thy mysteries ; Reason's brightest spark,

Tho' kindled by thy light, in vain would try
Thy counsels, infinite and dark ;

And thought is lost ere thought can soar so high,
E'en like past moments in Eternity.

Thou from primeval nothingness didst call
First chaos, then existence : Lord ! on thee

Eternity had its foundations*; all
Sprung forth from thee ; of l^ht, joy, harmony,

Sole origin; all life, all beauty thine.
Thy word created all, and doth create:

Thy splendor fills all space with rays Divine.
Thou art, and wert, and shalt be! Glorious! Great!

Life-giving, life-sustaining Potentate!" *

Faith teaches that there were no pre-existing
materials employed in the uprearing of the universe.
He resorted to no material means. He merely spoke,
and out of chaos emerged cosmos. " In the begin-
ning God created the heavens and the earth." In
the beginning, when there was neither matter nor
time. Faith teaches that God framed and fitted up
the whole planetary system in the unsurpassed order
they are at present. Never was there an architect
or builder like Him. Others are guided by certain
plans and specifications, but God's plan was mapped
out in His own infinite mind, and a word from His
omnific lips gave immediate execution to that plan.

It is as astonishing as it is unaccountable, how
some men are inclined to dispute the Divine existence,
on the flimsiest pretexts. Nelson, in his work on
"Infidelity," mentions the case of an English traveller

* From Derzhavin's Russian poem on "God."
1*

26 THE HEROES OF FAITH.

by the name of Brydone. In describing the particu-
lars of Mount Etna, he speaks of a stream of lava,
which he discovered on the mountain's side. He
thought it must have been thrown out by an erup-
tion, which was mentioned perliaps by Polybius as
having occurred 1,700 years ago. There was no soil
on it. The particles of dust floating through the air
had not fallen there, so as to furnish hold for vegeta-
tion, and these vegetables had not grown, and decayed
again and again, thus adding to the depth of the soil.
Such a work had not even commenced. He adds,
that on some part of that mountain, near the foot, if
you but sink a pit, you must pass through seven dif-
ferent strata of lava, with two feet of soil between
them. Upon the supposition that 2,000 years are req-
uisite for the increase of earth just named, he asks
how seven different layers could be formed in less
than 14,000 years ? The chronology of Moses makes
the world not half as old. He was jocular over his
discovery, as it is natural for those who are prej-
udiced against the Scriptures, while hundreds were
delighted with what seemed a confutation of the
Bible. Though the traveller only conjectured that he
had found lava mentioned by the ancient writer, and
simply thought what he said, still it was enough for
the frantic men who were wild over this analogical
theory. Supposition was strong enough to rivet
their unbelief. Moses was altogether wrong ; Brydone,
the traveller, was right. Another learned English-
man wrote in answer to this wild theory. He said
that as Brydone's admirers seemed fond of arguing

THE COMPREHENSIVENESS OF FAITH. 27

from analogy, he would give them an additional
illustration. He reminded them that the cities of
Herculaneum and Pompeii, Avere buried by the erup-
tion in which the elder Pliny perished 1,700 years
since. Those cities have lately been discovered, and
in digging down to reach their streets, six different
strata of lava are passed through, with two feet of
earth between them. And the famous Watson tells
us, that if six different soils near Vesuvius could be
formed in 1,700 years, perhaps seven might be made
elsewhere in 5,000 years.* The geological calcula-
tions of some men are unsafe things to depend on.
" The fool hath said in his heart, No God." Atheism
does not begin in the head, but in the heart. It
wishes there were no God, for the doctrine interferes
with its carnal desires. As we gaze thoughtfully on
this stupendous fabric, and all those million rolling
worlds suspended above, pendulous in fluid ether,
we exclaim with adoring lip and heart, "My Lord
and my God ! Thou hast out of things which do not
appear, made the things that are seen."

"The fool hath said, 'There is no God: '

No God ! Who lights the morning sun,
And sends him on his 'heavenly road,

A far and brilliant course to run?
Who, when the radiant day is done,

Hangs forth the moon's nocturnal lamp,
And bids the planets, one by one,

Steal o'er the night vales dark and damp ?

* Nelson on " Infidelity," pp. 19-21.

28 THE HEROES OF FAITH.

No God ! "Who gives the evening dew,

The fanning breeze, the fostering shower?
Who warms the spring morn's budding bough,

And paints the summer's noontide flower?
Who spreads in the autumnal bower,

The fruit tree's mellow stores around;
And sends the Winter's icy power,

T' invigorate the exhausted ground?

No God I Who makes the bird to wing

Its flight, like arrow through the sky;
And gives the deer its power to spring

From rock to rock, triumphantly ?
Who formed Behemoth, huge and high,

That at a draught the river drains ;
And great Leviathan to lie,

Like floating isle, on Ocean's plains?

No God ! Who warms the heart to heave

With thousand feelings soft and sweet,
And prompts the aspiring soul to leave

The earth we tread beneath cur feet,
And soar away on pinions fleet,

Beyond the scene of mortal strife,
With fair ethereal forms to meet,

That tell us of an after life ?

No God ! Who fixed the solid ground

On pillars strong, that alter not?
Who spread the curtained sky around,

Who doth the ocean bounds allot?
Who all things to perfection brought

On earth below, in Heaven above?
Go, ask the fool of impious thought

That dares to say — There is no God."

CHAPTER II.
Heb. xr. 4.

4 By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than
Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testify-
ing of his gifts: and by it he being dead yet speaketh.

* * * "The unjust the just hath slain,
For envy that his brother's offering found
From Heaven acceptance; but the bloody fact
Will be avenged, and the other's faith, approved,
Lose no reward, though here thou see him die,
Rolling in dust and gore." — Milton.

With peculiar propriety has this chapter been
designated "the chapter of faith." Here we have
suggestive references to all the leading patriarchs of
the old dispensation. The several illustrations ad-
duced are intended to demonstrate the wonderful
achievements of faith, together with the utter im-
possibility of accomplishing anything worthy, suc-
cessfully and permanently, without it. This distin-
guished principle immortalized the elders. As they
. lived by faith, so they died in faith.

The first character claiming our attention .is Abel.
"By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacri-
fice than Cain." In Genesis 4, we have a brief but com-
prehensive account of the circumstances of his life
and death. We learn from that chapter that " Cain
brought the fruits of the earth as an offering unto the
Lord." As an offering it was selfishly convenient,
impiously insulting, and shamefully inferior. He

30 THE HEROES OF FAITH.

gave what first came to hand, thus imagining that
any offering, irrespective of principle, was good enough
for Him. Abel, however, " brought the firstling of
his flock and of the fat." He offered the best he had.
He examined carefully, and selected the " firstling of
his flock." " And the Lord had respect unto Abel
and his offering." God gazed with satisfaction on
him. Ah ! there is something significant in God's
look. " He seeth not as man seeth ; the Lord looketh
on the heart." His gazing pleasingly on Abel and
his offering, proves that the offerer's heart was right
before God, and that his offering was worthy.

Let us also learn, that God expects the firstling
from us — the first and best of our lives, and not the
worthless remnant of them. Nor will he accept any
offering of ours, until we have, first of all, given Him
our heart. His language is not, " Give me thy money,"
but, "My son, give me thy heart." Having first given
the heart, then He expects us to consecrate our ener-
gies and means for the promotion of His glory. He
claims the heart in all that we do. If we so act,
there can be no peril of the wily serpent of jealousy
creeping into our bosom, as in Cain's case, and strik-
ing into us its deadly, venomous fangs.

THE FAITH OF ABEL.

1. It ivas shown in the excellency of his offering.

" By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent
sacrifice than Cain." There has been considerable
speculation as to why Abel's sacrifice was superior to

THE FAITH OF ABEL. 31

Cain's. Men like F. D. Maurice affirm that the offer-
ing of one was quite as proper as the other, and that
the whole difference lay in the state of their hearts.
There are others who maintain that the excellency
was in the nature of the sacrifice offered. It is not a
" question, they say, as to the men, but only as to their
sacrifice ; it is not a question as to the offerer, but as to
the offering." Now it strikes my mind, that the charac-
ter of the men, as well as the nature of their offerings,
have something to do with this subject. Abel was a
man of faith, and consequently his sacrifice was a
superior one ; and his sacrifice was a superior one,
because he was a man of faith. It was Abel's faith
that led him to sacrifioe the firstling of his flock.
" Without faith it is impossible to please God."
Abel's sacrifice was well pleasing to God, for there
was faith found in him who presented it. Cain's
contemptible offering was displeasing to God. It
was the offering of a faithless, Godless, and bloody
assassin ; and as an offering it was as improper as it
was inferior. " O envy, the corrosive of all evil minds,
and the root of all atrocious actions ! It should have
been Cain's joy to see his brother accepted ; it should
have been his sorrow to see that he had deserved re-
jection; his brother's example should have animated
and directed him in the same path of godliness."*

We learn, then, that unless faith be the principle
which actuates us in religious service, our actions
will not be acceptable unto God. WTe must pray in

* Bishop Hall's Scripture History, p. 18.

32 THE HEEOES OF FAITH.

faith, preach in faith, contribute in faith, and live by
faith, if we would die in faith, and receive the Divine
approval.

When the sainted Abel offered the firstling of his
flock in sacrifice, he exercised unwavering faith in the
covenant which Jehovah made in Eden, "that the
seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent's head."
He believed that the battle would be fought, and that
the victory would turn in favor of the Captain of our
salvation. That the "serpent's bead," the devil,
would be mortally wounded by the "seed of the
woman," Mary's son. When Abel offered his " more
excellent sacrifice," he foresaw by faith the Divine
sacrifice which was to be offered on Calvary. In the
anticipation of that wonderful sacrifice he offered his
sacrifice. He confidently believed that the Messiah
would voluntarily offer Himself at the appointed time
as a sacrifice for sin, and that that sacrifice would
yield the fullest satisfaction to God, while at the same
time it would efficaciously wipe away the foulest
guilt.

Had Cain possessed Abel's faith, he would have
been taught by that faith, that " without shedding of
blood there is no remission of sins." Like Abel, he
would have offered a sin-offering in bloody sacrifice.
In his faithless and contemptuous offering there is no
recognition of the truth that he was a fallen sinner,
and that he needed an atoning Saviour. Abel's sacri-
fice was therefore superior to that of Cain, for the
reason that it was offered and was prompted by a higher
principle than Cain's. Cain's bloodless sacrifice was

THE FAITH OF ABEL. 33

a repudiation of Christ's own bloody sacrifice. Abel's
" more excellent sacrifice" was a grand testimony to
the still more excellent sacrifice of the Son of God.
It was a sacrifice in accordance with the reyealed will
of God ; a sacrifice offered by a genuine heart and
generous hand ; a sacrifice befitting sinful man ; a
sacrifice presented in faith in view of the atoning
sacrifice of the Lamb of God, on which he entirely
trusted for salvation.

2. Its offering received tJie Divine approval, vhicJi
Cains did not receive.

Cain did a disreputable act when he offhandedly
presented his inferior offering to God. He imagined
that any kind of an offering would do for God, and
was therefore an unrighteous, dishonorable man.
Had he faith, he would not have acted so unworthily.
This is why God was wroth with him, and rejected
his oblation. Abel, on the other hand, obtained the
testimony that he was righteous, God testifying of his
gifts. How God manifested His approval of Abel's
sacrifice we cannot exactly tell. Neither Moses nor
Paul informs us. Some entertain the idea that fire
descended from Heaven to consume Abel's sacrifice,
leaving Cain's untouched. This is a very natural
supposition, inasmuch as a similar phenomenon oc-
curred on subsequent occasions. Doubtless, the of-
fering received public approval, as the offerer himself
received practical testimony that he was righteous.
Gideon's sacrifice was consumed by fire. Manoah's
sacrifice was burnt on the rock, and in its flame the

34 THE HEROES OF FAITH.

angel returned to Heaven. The first sacrifices of Aaron
were consumed by holy fire from Heaven. When
Elijah prayed on "Mount Oarmel, he was confident
that God would answer by fire. It is certain that
Abel was encouraged in some public and tangible
manner, that God was pleased with his sacrifice.
This public testimony was a favorable and indubita-
ble proof of its excellency, and of Abel's righteousness.

There are myriads still in this glorious land of civil
and religious freedom, who have the blessed assurance
in their hearts that their large sacrifices and muni-
ficent offerings are acceptable unto God. They know
by happy experience the truth of the philosophy
which teaches that " it is more blessed to give than
to receive." Is it not an incontrovertible fact, that
the more we do for God and His cause, the more
happy and blessed we feel ? We are rewarded here
in the satisfaction we feel that God is graciously
pleased with us, and graciously accepts our offerings
of faith.

But while there are those who received public and
justifying testimony that they are righteous, God
testifying of their gifts, there are those, alas ! who, like
Cain, demonstrate by their parsimonious and indiffer-
ent conduct that any offering may do for God. What
they contribute is what they can easily spare. Their
inquiry is not : " How much can I give to God, or do for
Him ?" but, " How little can I give or do ?" And, like
Cain, they are envious of those men who act more
generously. It is related of a church member, that
he was in the habit of boasting that he had been a

. THE FAITH OF ABEL. 35

member of a Christian Church twenty -five years, and
that it never cost him more than twenty-five cents
during the whole period of his membership. Such
admission was too much for the good minister who was
his pastor, and he very fittingly replied : " And may
the Lord have mercy on your poor, stingy soul." May
we not earn the reputation of soul close-fistedness !
May our anxiety ever be, " Hcrw much can I give, or
do for Him who gave Himself for me ?" What we
have given conscientiously and cheerfully for God
and His cause shall never be missed, while at the
same time we shall receive the happy testimony that
our persons and offerings are acceptable unto God.
God forbid that we should be under Cain's brand.
God grant that we may be of Abel's stamp.

3. It bears the impress of immortality.

"And through it, he, being dead, yet speaketh."
Abel's body has been buried more than 5,000 years
since, but his gifts still live. He and his offering will
be remembered as long as the earth stands. There
is not the slightest intimation of Cain's death, nei-
ther of his offering, only that which is discreditable.
His death was not worthy of record, nor his obla-
tion worthy of commendation ; but of his brother it
is expressly and emphatically stated that his sacrifice
was a more excellent one than Cain's, and that by it,
" he, being dead, yet speaketh." How forcible are
the Psalmist's words : " The righteous shall be had
in everlasting remembrance." Also the words of his
son, Solomon : " The memory of the just is blessed,

36 THE HEROES OF FAITH. .

but the name of the wicked shall rot." Abel's name
is more popular to-day than ever it was. His mem-
ory is stamped with an immortal fame. The name of
Cain has putrified many ages since, and his memory
is despised. Abel yet speaks through his sacrifice.
Cain is dumb these generations, and his offering
doomed to everlasting contempt. Abel's offering-
speaks highly of his faith, and his faith speaks
highly of his offering, and God speaks highly of
both. These significant words may be fitly applied
to tens of thousands of the illustrious departed.
Though dead, their names emit the richest fra-
grance. Abel and Abraham, Joseph and Joshua,
David and Daniel, Peter and Paul, are more popular
to-day in the estimation of the Church and the
world, being dead, than they were upon earth ; while
the names of Cain and Ham, Ahab and Jezebel,
Hainan and Nebuchadnezzar, Herod and Judas, are
buried in shame and everlasting contempt. The
names of Martin Luther and his associates, Melanc-
thon and Zwinglius, Wesley and Whitefield, William
Knibb and William Carey, John Bunyan and John
Knox, Rowland Hill and Roger Williams, are ever
embalmed in the sacred shrine of memory, while
the names of Nero and Diocletian, Henry VIII. and
Judge Jeffreys, King John and Queen Mary, Tom
Paine and Voltaire, are remembered with unmiti-
gated disgust.

As of Abel and the illustrious men spoken of, so of
every true believer who has entered into rest it may
be said, "He, being dead, yet speaketh." He speaks

THE FAITH OF ABEL. 37

through his example, deeds, and words. His holy
life and consistent walk, his wise counsels and faith-
ful warnings, his religious fidelity and sweetest
resignation, still live and speak in the memory of
multitudes, though his body moulders in the ashes
of corruption. "He rests from his labors, and his
works do follow him."

How shall it be with us ? When we have passed
away to the land whence no traveller returns, shall it
be said of us, "He, being dead, yet speaketh"?
Should the hands of love rear a tombstone over our
mortal remains, may we have so lived as to deserve
the epitaph, "He, being dead, yet speaketh."

" Life's labor done, as sinks the clay,
Light from its load the spirit flies,
While heaven and earth contrive to say,
How blest the righteous when he dies! "

CHAPTER III
heb. xr. 5.

5 By faith Knoch was translated that he should not see death; and
was not found, because God had translated him: for before his trans-
lation he had this testimony, that he pleased God.

" The only righteous in a world perverse,
And therefore hated, therefore so beset
With foes, for daring single to be just,
And utter odious truth that God would come
To judge them with his saints : him the Most High
Rapt in a balmy cloud with winged steeds,
Did, as thou saw'st, receive, to walk with God
High in salvation and the climes of bliss,
Exempt from death, to show thee what reward
Awaits the good, the rest what punishment." — Milton.

Enoch's biographical memoir is condensed into
few but comprehensive words. Gen. v. 21-24. There
is one statement, however, made by the sacred his-
torian that is worth a thousand volumes. "And
Enoch walked with God." It is no exaggeration to
affirm that there are volumes of recommendation in
this single phrase. The historian Moses having men-
tioned about Adam, his wife, and two sons, he proceeds
with the generations, ages, and deaths of the patri-
archs till Noah, but when he arrives at the subject of
our text he suddenly pauses. There is something in
Enoch which attracts attention. It lays hold of the
historian's mind. All that is said of Seth, Enos, and
Mahaleel, and others, is that they begat sons and
daughters, and died. And that is all that may be

40 THE HEROES OF FAITH.

said of many in our day and generation, so aimless
and useless are their lives. But when the writer
reaches the case of Enoch, and states that he was
sixty-five years when he begat Methuselah, he stops
to particularize on his character. It demands more
than a passing word. "And Enoch walked with God,
after he begat Methuselah, three hundred years, and
begat sons and daughters." If we bear in mind the
number of days in the year, we shall be reminded
of Enoch's years on earth. As a fitting conclusion
to the sacredness of Enoch's memory, the historian
reiterates his statement of his character with the
appended distinction conferred on him, "And Enoch
walked with God, and was not, for God took him."
Gen. v. 24.

We have a brief reference to him in the Epistle of
Jude, or Judas (not Judas Iscariot, but the brother of
James, and cousin of our Lord Jesus Christ). Hem
we learn the prophetic character of his mission.
Jude 14, 15. The author of the Epistle to the
Hebrews passes a high encomium on Enoch's charac-
ter, and places him among the ancient celebrities of
faith. He speaks of him as having " pleased God."

THE FAITH OF ENOCH.

I. Enoch's walk of faith.
n. Enoclis escort by faith.
IH. Enoclis commciudidion through faith.

I. Enoclis walk of faith.

Enoch was a man of faith. "He walked with

THE FAITH OF ENOCH. 41

God." We embody these words from Genesis in onr
text, as it is necessary to explain how he exercised
his faith, and thus have an intelligent idea what
walking with God means. He did not walk literally
with God, for God was in Heaven and he on earth.
God, too, is an invisible spirit, and possesses no cor-
poreal parts. He has no flesh and bones, as we
have. How could Enoch, then, a man in the flesh,
walk with God, who is an invisible spirit ? Our text
introduces a word which solves the problem. That
word is "faith." "We walk by faith, not by sight."
In this sense believers to-day walk with God.
Enoch's walk of faith with God implies three things.

1. That they were harmoniously agreed.

"How can two walk, except they be agreed?" is an
ancient inquiry. It is an interrogative way of sup-
posing the impossibility of the thing. It is rather
an amusing, though no desirable spectacle, to witness
two enemies meet. One is seen this side of the
street, the other in the opposite direction. What
occasions such estrangement and dislike? Dissen-
sion and disunion. They have neither the desire to
walk together, nor to talk to one another. They wish
themselves far away from each other. On the other
hand, when we see two walk together, linked arm in
arm, we naturally conclude that they are in perfect
unison. So it was with this pious patriarch. He
walked, as it were, arm in arm with God, thus teach-
ing how mutually agreed and closely united they
were.

2

42 THE HEKOES OF FAITH.

2. That Enoch held constant commxvnion with God.

His walk was not in vain. It was not an aimless
peregrination. Some hallowed fellowship must have
been carried on between them. Friends do not
usually walk together without engaging in some con-
versation. A friendly walk means a friendly talk.
Whether profitable or unprofitable, friendship will
find some topic for conversation. The fact that
Enoch walked with God, suggests the heavenly na-
ture of their communion. Enoch would open his
heart, and tell all its secrets ; God would open His
heart and tell Enoch His, "for the secret of the
Lord is with them that fear Him, and He will show
them His covenant."

There were other distinguished persons on earth
at this epoch, such as kings, senators, nobles, and
bards, but he found no opportunity of associating
with these men, nor did he desire the opportunity,
for he enjoyed the society of an infinitely superior
associate, "the King of kings and Lord of lords."
Multitudes of believers still have no prospect of as-
sociating with the so-called dignitaries of earth, nor
do they particularly desire it, for one is their Friend
who is high above all, God blessed forever. As long
as they enjoy the fellowship of "the high and the
lofty One who inhabiteth eternity," this is all that
their aspiring soul desires. "Whom have I in
Heaven, but Thee, and on earth I desire none other
beside Thee. My flesh and my heart faileth, but
God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for
ever."

THE FAITH OF ENOCH. 43

3. That Enoch progressed in (lie Divine life.

No figure can describe the idea of progress better
than walking. If, after we have decided on a jour-
ney, we would reach our destination, we must keep
constantly on our way. We must not dawdle on the
road, or retrace our steps, or we cannot reach it. So
of the way that leads to God's right hand. If we
loiter, or drag along slowly and indolently, or turn to
look back, we may never reach the blissful station.
Let us, then, not be spiritual loafers. Like Enoch,
may we cease not to walk with God till we are safely
lodged in His everlasting embrace. Zion's pilgrims
go from strength to strength ; every one of them in
Zion appeareth before God. Each step we make
in the Christian life brings us nearer to God. "We
are nearer our home in Heaven to-day than ever
we've been before. Let us make further advances
in the Divine life. Let us not live on old experiences,
but seek fresh tokens of good. Daily and hourly
may we walk with God by faith, that we may at last
walk eternally with him by sight.

H. Enoch's escort by faith. "He was translated that
he should not see death."

Some try to persuade us that Enoch actually died,
but was so suddenly translated to Heaven that he did
not feel the effects of death. This supposition can-
not be correct, inasmuch as the original word, Mete-
tethi, was never employed of the departure of any
save Enoch and Elijah, which indicates that they
went to Heaven in a different way from others. Un-

44 THE HEROES OF FAITH.

doubtedly Enocli underwent some important change
in his condition before his removal, but that he did
not die is evident. He might have undergone some
transformation like that taught in 1 Cor. xv. 51. He
was translated without tasting death. He left nothing
behind him of his nature but his sins, and they were
buried in the ocean of God's unfathomable love. He
had seen death in various forms prior to his own
triumphant exit from this world, but though he saw
death in this sense, he never tasted its bitterness.
He knew not what it was to suffer the pangs
of dissolution. And why? For two reasons at least.
To N show the sovereignty of Jehovah, and to reward
Enoch's faith. In consequence of his faith "he was
translated that he should not see death." For three
hundred years he had lived in Heaven in spirit and
affection, and finally he was altogether absorbed
there. The conversation of believers is still in
Heaven. There their affections are set. There their
treasure is, their God, their all. Sometimes faith
lifts them to the very threshold of Heaven; there
seems but one step between them and the interior
of the palace, but then certain circumstances subse-
quently attract their attention again to earth. They
resemble the aerostat (balloon) which ascends through
the influence of gas. When that gas is consumed,
the power of attraction or gravitation draws it back
again. Scientists tell us if it were possible to de-
stroy this power, that the aerostat would ascend to
heights unutterable, never to return any more. So may
we declare in reference to the believer. His jubilant

THE FAITH OF ENOCH. 45

spirit sometimes lifts him high above earth, until he
feels, with the Apostle, a desire to depart, and to be
with Christ in the ererlasting heights of glory. But
there are subtle influences at work in this world,
which draw him back again, viz., domestic cares,
worldly trials, business difficulties, an evil heart,
temptations of the flesh; but when these obstruc-
tions are removed, the soul shall then untrammelled
wing its flight to the regions of everlasting day, and
there, on the treetop of celestial bliss and blessed-
ness, the spirit bird shall warble forth his song of un-
dying melody. It so happened with Enoch. He
was delivered from every influence which bound him
to earth, and safely landed in God's own immediate
presence, where there is fulness of joy, and pleasures
for evermore. Thus was his faith gloriously acknowl-
edged. "And was not found, for God took him."
They had searched for him, but could not find him.
We can imagine his devoted wife crushed with grief,
sitting on the desolate hearth unable to conceive
what had befallen her husband. The children come
in from play, or return from school. She inquires
of them concerning their father, but no tidings. The
men-servants arrive from their work, and she anx-
iously inquires of them whether they had seen or
heard of their master, but no tidings still. Intimate
friends of the family drop in on a visit. She inquires
of them if they knew anything about Enoch. They,
too, had no satisfactory reply. So they all resolve to
search for him. Not one stone is left unturned. They
avail themselves of every means to discover his

46 THE HEROES OF FAITH.

whereabouts, but with all their efforts they cannot
find him, because "God had translated him." He
was conveyed from the altar to the throne.

III. Enoclis comniendation through faith.

"Before his translation he received this testimony
that he pleased God." God assured him before his
removal that his conduct had pleased Him. This is
the desirable state of mind that we all love to pos-
sess. We are glad to know that men are pleased
with us, the servant his master, the maid her mis-
tress, the mechanic his employer, the tradesman his
customers, the physician his patients, the attorney
his clients, the teacher his pupils, and the pastor his
people. But, oh, what joy to know that we please
God ! Such was the testimony Enoch received. Let
us illustrate this subject. A young man having filled
faithfully and honestly, and with great credit to him-
self, some subordinate position in his employer's
office, his superior privately expresses his great
gratification and entire satisfaction with his services,
and promotes him to the highest position in the
firm. He is made chief clerk, or manager of the
establishment. We see, therefore, that before his
translation from a lower sphere to a higher one, he
received the testimony that he pleased his employer.

Some years ago there was an agriculturist in Eng-
land, the tenant of a 150 acre farm. He was always
punctual in his payments, industrious in his habits,
and particularly careful of the farm, cultivating some
of the best land in the regions around. One day his

THE FAITH OF ENOCH. 47

landlord visited him, and spoke as follows : " Henry,
such a farm will be vacant next Christmas, which has
500 acres of land. I love that farm more than words
can tell, for there I was born. I want a man to take
it in whom I have the fullest confidence. Now, you
are the man I have chosen, for I have every confi-
dence in you." Before his removal from the smaller
to the larger farm he received testimony that he
pleased his landlord. So Enoch, the servant of God,
prior to his translation from earth's labors to Heaven's
reward, received this testimony that he pleased God.
If we are Enoch's descendants by faith, we, too, in
our bosom, shall have the happy testimony that we
please God. And in our translation by death from
this lower sphere to dwell eternally in a higher one,
the Master shall testify, " Well done, good and faith-
ful servant ; enter thou into the joy of thy Lord."

CHAPTER IV.

Hkb. XI. 6.

6 But without faith it is impossible to please him : for he that
cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of
them that diligently seek him.

" True faith and reason are the soul's two eyes.
Faith evermore looks upward and descries
Objects remote ; but reason can discover
Things only near — sees nothing that's above her."

— Quarks.

In our last discourse we showed how Enoch pleased
his God. In the words of our text, we learn the im-
possibility of pleasing God independently of faith.
According to our text there are two features essen-
tially necessary to true faith. The first is, a firm
belief in the existence of God, and second, a firm
belief in the moral government of God.

THE ESSENTIALS OF FAITH.

I. That faith consists in the belief of the existence of
God.

"He that cometh to God must believe that He is,"
i. c, that He exists. Faith receives the testimony of
revelation concerning God. It has no desire to see
literally in order to believe. It is as satisfied with
the reality of the object as though it were under per-
sonal observation. God, who is a spiritual being,
is not perceivable by the bodily senses, yet the mind

2*

50 THE HEROES OF FAITH.

of faith accepts the doctrine of the Divine existence.
"The King immortal, eternal, invisible, whom no eye
hath seen, nor can see," is apprehended by faith alone,
and a belief in His existence and character is one
of the first principles of revealed religion. This is,
in fact, the fundamental doctrine in our religion. If
there be no God, then we have no rational explana-
tion to offer for our religions conduct. If there be
no God, there can be no true religion, no moral gov-
ernment, no atonement, no salvation, no spiritual
state, such as Heaven and hell. If we deny the being
of God, we may as well deny all. In this matter the
Atheist is certainly more consistent than the Deist.
We cannot conceive of a being like God, to whom the
formation of the universe is attributed, withdrawing
Himself to some mysterious distance, leaving the
worlds accidentally to govern themselves by what
Deists call the "law of nature." Now, while we be-
lieve that these countless worlds are governed by
certain specific laws, yet we insist that the idea of
law implies a lawgiver, who sets the stupendous ma-
chinery in motion, and that lawgiver is the Creator,
God. If, as infidels assert, there is no such being, no
such lawgiver, no such moral agent, then we may as
well burn our Bibles, shut up our Sunday Schools,
stop the preaching of the Gospel, dispense with
prayer meetings, and not trouble ourselves about the
salvation of souls. We may live as epicures do, for
we have no account to render for our conduct. If
there be no God, we have no immortal spirit ; we may
eat, drink, sleep, and perish' as the beast. Indeed, it

THE ESSENTIALS OF FAITH. 51

is no marvel that men who disbelieve the Divine ex-
istence, deny the doctrine of an immortal spirit.

But is there no God? Will conscience endorse
Atheism? Shall we give credence to the sophistry
of Godless sceptics? Because we have never per-
sonally or literally seen God, shall we conclude that
He is not? Heaven forbid! We shall fall back on
our "precious faith," which does not demand scien-
tific or physical proofs of the Divine existence.
Faith is the evidence itself of things not seen. The
believer has never personally seen God, but by the
medium of faith, his Heavenly companion, he ac-
cepts the inspired testimony concerning God. The
half of life, if not more, is made up of faith. We be-
lieve much more than we have ever seen. We have
never, perhaps, seen Melbourne, Bombay, or Hong-
Kong, but we are not such fools as to deny their ex-
istence. We never saw Constantine the Great, Wil-
liam the Conqueror, Oliver Cromwell, Christopher
Columbus and Roger Williams, but we would not
question their existence. What proofs have we of
their having lived? Nothing but history. A large
portion of the Bible is composed of history — in-
spired history — where we have information concern-
ing God and His marvellous works. We have never
seen Jesus Christ, but what reason have we for re-
jecting the historical testimony concerning Him and
the Father, more than any other history?

But let us remember, atheism does not begin in the
intellect. It exists previously as a rule in the heart and
life. "The fool hath said in his heart, No God." There

52 THE HEROES OF FAITH.

is nothing that leads to formal atheism more surely
than impurity of conduct or imagination. "The
heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately
wicked." The carnal mind, which is at enmity
against God, wishes Him out of existence. There is
nothing that embitters the cup of sinful pleasure so
much as the thought of a God. This is the poison-
ing ingredient in the cup of damnation, and the
"No God" of the unbeliever simply means, "I wish
there were no God, and if there be such a being, we
don't want Him. "We do not desire to know His
ways." Many, if they had it in their power, would
act to-day as the Eoman soldiers did of old to the
Son of God, pierce God to the very heart with the
spear of their malignant hatred. In Psalm xiv. the
secret of atheism is graphically set forth. That se-
cret is the badness of men's lives. "They have gone
aside from his ways, they are altogether become
filthy. They are corrupt, they have done abominable
works, there is none that doeth good." Thus they
cannot afford to believe in the God of holiness and
righteousness. Such doctrine interferes with their
profligacy and ungodliness. The rottenness of their
lives will not allow them to tolerate such a doctrine.
There are none so blind as those who will not see.
If men would open their eyes, they would see the
manifestations of God on every hand. There are
sights and voices on every side loudly proclaiming
the Divine existence. Nature, providence, history,
the constitution of the human mind, the structure of
human society, all bear harmonious testimony. "The

THE ESSENTIALS OF FAITH. 53

heavens declare the glory of God, the firmament
showeth His handiwork." "The invisible things of
Him from the creation of the world are clearly mani-
fest, being understood by the things that are made,
even His eternal power and Godhead, so that we are
left without excuse." Thus His presence is mani-
fested to the most untutored, and the eye of reverent
science sees Him in glowing colors. He is manifest
in the heavens, to the astronomer ; in the rocks, to
the geologist ; in the organization of matter, to the
chemist ; in the various forms of animal and vegeta-
ble life, to the naturalist ; in the constitution and
laws of the human mind, to the psychologist; in
providence, to the student of history ; and in beams
of unparalleled splendor His glory shines on the be-
liever in the face of Jesus Christ, "the. brightness of
the Father's glory and the express image of his per-
son."

" The stony arch proclaims His power;

His pencil glows in every flower ;

In thousand shapes and colors rise

His painted wonders to our eyes,

While beasts and birds with babbling throats

Teach us a God in thousand notes.

The meanest pin in Nature's frame

Marks out some letters of His name.

Where sense can reach, or fancy rove
. From hill to hill, from grove to grove,

Across the waves, around the sky,

There's not a spot, or deep, or high,

Where the Creator has not trod

And left the footsteps of a God."

We must see God in His works, if we do not wil-
fully shut our eyes. The Psalmist significantly in-

54 THE HEROES OF FAITH.

timates that if we do not seek God, it is nothing
strange that we do not find Him. To approach God
aright, we "must believe that He is." It is absurd
to approach the spiritual presence of One in whom
we do not believe. This is the first element in faith,
a firm conviction in the existence of Deity.

H. That faith consists in the belief of the moral gov-
ernment of God.

"And that he is a rewarder of them who diligently
seek Him, or seek after Him." To believe in His
moral government, especially that part of it which
makes Him the hearer of prayer, is as necessary as
to believe in His existence. Unless we have faith
that God can, and will, answer prayer, we may well
ask, "What is the Almighty that we should serve
Him, or what profit shall there be if we pray to Him ?"
If He be not a rewarder of those who seek after
Him, then our praying breath is spent in vain. We
need not seek, for we shall never find. If there be
no God, as the atheist insinuates, then there is no
rewarder, for there is no ' Being to pray unto. Such
a thought is most revolting and heartrending. There
are those who find prayer the very balm; and joy,
and strength, and blessedness of their being. They
cannot live without it. They know that prayer has
prevailing power. They know that on the wings of
faith it ascends unto God, and calls His Almightiness
to our relief, as the cry of a child enlists the help of
his parent. And what a volume of prayer is ever-
more rising from earth to Heaven, "uttered or unex-
pressed," conscious or unconscious. The child's lisp,

THE ESSENTIALS OF FAITH. 55

just learning to say, "Our Father, who art in
Heaven ;" the gentle breathing of penitent and be-
lieving hearts ; the loud cries of distress ; the inar-
ticulate groanings of the tried and tempted ; the fer-
vent requests made known with thanksgiving; the
feeble whisper of dying lips that can only stammer,
"Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly! Father! receive
my spirit." Now, as I understand it, the atheistic
fool's mission is to go round among men, and wher-
ever he hears the faintest whisper of prayer, to say,
"Be silent! It is all bosh;" to go to the penitent
with his deep-hearted cry, " God be merciful to me a
sinner ;" to the broken hearted mother praying for her
wandering child ; to the aspiring saint breathing after
higher holiness; to the dying man scarce able to
clasp his hands, and look up ; to go to all these and
say, "Hush! Be silent, there is no listener; your
words die in the air. There is no Divine Being to
appeal to, or lean upon, in the whole universe !" Oh,
horrible, blasphemous, and barbarous thought! Un-
worthy of civilization ! It is so natural for frailty to
flee to Omnipotence ; for misery to appeal to Mercy ;
for the creature to invoke the Creator.

Let us not forget this feature in faith — the belief
that "He is a re warder of those who diligently seek
Him." "Rewarder," not as one discharging a debt,
but as one who favors us according to His own free,
sovereign, and unmerited grace.

Have we the faith spoken of? Without it, it is im-
possible to please God. It matters not what we
have, we cannot please God, unless we have faith.
When we pray, we must pray in faith, or He will not

56 THE HEROES OF FAITH.

hearken unto us. We must "ask in faith, nothing
wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the
sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that
man think that he shall receive anything of the
Lord." James i. 6-7. Yea! what we need to-day is
that faith which is pleasing to God, and that shall
feed our soul with abounding satisfaction. If this
faith be ours it will lift us up, when others would
cast us down. When we shall "walk through the
valley of the shadow of death," we shall find light
at eventide, for faith will shed an irradiating gleam,
and unveil to our enraptured gaze the unutterable
glories of eternity. In the prospect of the day of
judgment, faith takes her stand upon the ruins of a
dissolving universe, and while the elements are wrapt
in flames around her, and the pillars of earth give
way beneath her, and planets, and systems, start-
ing from their orbits, are hurled into ruin through
immeasurable space, she, with uplifted countenance
and eyes immovably fixed on God, stands unmoved
and undaunted, maintaining an unshattered trust
and unshaken confidence in His everlasting faithful-
ness and love.

"As some tall mount, whoso towering head aspires.
And, stretching heavenwards, reaches to the clouds,
Though the fierce tempest scowls along the sky,
And raging billows, with impetuous force,
Beat with tremendous fury on its sides,
"While pealing thunders shake the world around.
Firm and secure it stands, defying alike
The tempest's fury and the ocean's rage — so faith,
Calm and unmoved, beholds the awful scene ;
Loolcs with complacency on Nature's ruin,
And smiles upon the ashes of a burning world."

CHAPTEE V.

Heb. XI. 7.

7 By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet,
moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the
which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness
which is by faith.

4 'At length a reverend sire among them camo,
And of their doings great dislike declared,
And testified against their ways : he oft

Frequented their assemblies^ whereso met

Triumphs, or festivals ; and to them preached
Conversion and repentance, as to souls
In prison, under judgments imminent;
But all in vain ! And now the thickened sky

Like a dark ceiling stood; down rushed the rain
Impetuous ; and continued till the earth
No more was seen : the floating vessel swum

Uplifted, and secure with beaked prow

Rose tilting o'er the waves : all dwellings else

Flood overwhelmed, and them with all their pomp

Deep under water rolled." — Milton.

No exercise can possibly be more profitable than
the thoughtful perusal of the patriarch's history as
written by Moses in the book of Genesis. Enoch, of
whom we last spoke, was greatgrandfather to the
subject of our present thoughts, from whom a noble
race descended — Methuselah, Lamech, Noah. These
household names shine with undiminished lustre be-
fore the throne of God. The historical reference to
Noah extends from Genesis v. to x., and is full of valu-
able instruction. The most remarkable event in his

58 THE HEEOES OF FAITH.

life is that which is mentioned in the text — the pre-
paration of an ark for the saving of his house, in
obedience to Heaven's command. His faith in God
preserved him and his from a destructive deluge.

THE FAITH OF NOAH.

From Noah's faith we learn three lessons :

I. That faith in God demands no external proof of His
determined purpose.

" By faith, Noah being warned of God concerning
things not seen, moved with fear, prepared an ark for
the saving of his house."

Faith accepts as true all that God has declared.
It needs no physical evidence or syllogistic argu-
ment to confirm the divine declaration. He speaks,
and it is enough. Whether it be a promise or threat-
ening, faith credits the unquestionableness of its
fulfilment. It is the evidence or conviction of things
not seen. Faith does not require material observa-
tion or mathematical demonstration. These would
cripple its power and strip its glory. In fact, it
could no longer be considered faith, for that which is
actually seen or demonstrated is absolute certainty.
They are not the sons of faith who persist that see-
ing alone is believing.

Where the force of Noah's faith is felt and its
beauty seen is in the reception of God's testimony,
without any outward sign, that the threatened catas-
trophe would really occur. He believed that the
stern threatening of Jehovah would culminate in a

THE FAITH OF NOAH. 59

stern reality. The incredulity of others led them to
scoff the idea of such a calamity. Their sensual
lives demanded sensual evidences. They looked on
Noah's faith in the same light as the scoffers of the
present day look on Christian faith, viz., as fanati-
cism. He, however, whom they taunted and ridi-
culed, foresaw by the eye of faith the distant future
and the terrible judgment of an offended God de-
scend upon them in a destructive flood, and " moved
with fear, he prepared an ark for the saving of his
house." " Verity the Lord knoweth the way of the
righteous, but the way of the ungodly shall perish."
Such as will not receive by faith the divine testi-
mony must suffer the fatal consequences of their
unbelief.

II. That faith in God leads its subjects to obey promptly
the will of the Almighty, in spite of apparent contradictory
appearances.

Noah was divinely admonished of things not seen
as yet, things that did not seem likely to occur, yet
by faith he was assured of their ultimate fulfilment.
He could distinctly see by the eye of faith the flood
of divine wrath sweeping all over the world. Now,
as "All scripture is given by inspiration, and is
profitable for reproof," etc., it may be well for us to
examine this question of the deluge. The results of
my reflections and calculations lead me to take the
universal aspect of it. It is not so much that the
deluge has left evidences of its existence in the fos-
sils and rocks composing the crust of the globe that

60 THE HEROES OF FAITH.

convinces my mind as the evidence of the universal
tradition of the deluge. In poetry, legends, mythol-
ogy, and philosophical speculations among all nations
we find traces, as it were, of the deluge. In these
traditional and mythological fables we find several
particulars mentioned : for instance, that the people
of the antediluvian world had grown fearfully wicked
and degenerate ; that the gods were excited with
hottest anger, and were resolved to drown all man-
kind by an appalling deluge. One point, in particu-
lar, is exceedingly interesting, showing the singular
uniformity of these traditions, viz., the escape of a
few individuals. They all agree in stating that the
escaped were saved in a vessel of some kind. And
then the strong language employed by the sacred
historian is enough to convince us of its universality.
"All the high hills that were under the whole heaven
were covered," etc. Gen. vii. 19, 20.* The highest of
these mountains was Ararat, on whose brow the ark
rested, and which was seventeen thousand feet above
the level of the sea. Professor Hitchcock, with all his
learning and erudition, utterly fails to establish the
"partial deluge theory," which, however argumenta-
tively and plausibly set forth, is totally unscriptural.
Noah, when warned of God in relation to this" ca-
lamity, immediately heeds it, and the directions laid
down by the Divine Architect as to the erection
of the ark the pious carpenter instantly obeys. He
doesn't stop to reason with God concerning the wis-

* See Bush on Gen. vii. 19, 20.

THE FAITH OF NOAH. 61

dom or desirability of the thing, but obeys at once.
"According to all that God had commanded him, so
did he." "He was a just man and perfect in his
generation, and walked with God." God apprised
him of what must happen, and however contradic-
tory present appearances might seem, he resolved to
believe, and arose to build. That there were many
things to try his faith is manifest. He might have
felt how unlike God was such a proceeding ; but he
casts no slur, nor does he express any surprise. Be-
sides, there was no visible sign of such a catastro-
phe, no appearances in nature that justified such an
expectation. There was not an angry ripple on the
bosom of the lake, nOr a heaving billow on the
mighty deep, nor the slightest indication of a distant
storm hovering across the skies. All was placid ;
never was there finer weather. The pages of the
book of Nature hinted nothing, said nothing of God's
righteous retribution. But there was another book,
a revelation made to Noah, which he believed, for
God made it. Though one hundred and twenty years
nearly passed with noiseless revolution, his faith
foresaw it all, discerned it clearly, and knew that
these invisible things would inevitably occur. His
" faith was the evidence of things not seen." Noah's
intellect reposed on the omnipotence of God as able
to cause such a calamity, and his affections reposed
on the faithfulness of God, who promised him safety.
And so he begins to build. Faith enables him to
grasp the work with confidence and accomplish it
triumphantly. Despite the difficulties and discour-

62 THE HEROES OF FAITH.

agements which beset him on every hand ; despite
the unlikelihood of the deluge ; despite the reason-
ings of philosophers against the possibility of the
event ; despite the ridicule and sneers and con-
temptuous epithets cast upon him, such as fanatic,
alarmist, and wild projector; despite the infamous
ballads composed on him by commonplace rhyme-
sters, as a doting and crackskulled enthusiast, his
faith enabled him to hold on. He outlived all the
raillery and satire, contempt and low jesting, as well
as the philosophy of scientific men, and according to
the plan laid down by the Divine Architect, the pious
shipbuilder brought the undertaking to a successful
issue. And, lo ! the sequel. The ark is completed.
Noah and his family enter in. It is an eventful day.
The graceless outsiders gather in immense numbers
to jeer at him, shouting defiance to his warnings,
taunting him that "soon he would be obliged to
leave his romantic retreat and return to the scenes he
had doomed to destruction. Look at him sailing on
dry land ! ah ! ah ! " But see ! " The Lord shuts
him in." What an expression! "The Lord shuts
him in." Once the Divine Doorkeeper has fastened
the ark, none of Noah's persecutors can break into
it, as they surely would have done when overtaken
by the flood. " When God shutteth, no man open-
eth ; when God openeth, no man shutteth." Divine
genius invented the fastening, and no human inge-
nuity can unlock it. It was Heaven's own patent
fastening.

Lo ! the heavens darken ! The threatening clouds

THE FAITH OF NOAH. 63

begin to gather. The winds begin to howl. Tht
storm begins to rage. Heaven's artillery are ready
for their work of desolation. The lightning flashes
forth its destructive glare, and the thunder rolls in
terrific claps across the sky. The windows of heaven
are at last flung open. The fountains of the deep
are broken up. The rain comes pouring down in
Niagaran torrents, and, panic stricken, the scoffing
unbelievers cry for help, but they cry in vain, for
they cry too late. Before judgment begins, repent-
ance is in order ; after the judgment has come, ap-
peal for help is in vain. One by one the once scoff-
ing voices are hushed in the silence of death. In
vain can those fly whom God pursues. The faithless
are doomed to everlasting ruin, but the man of God
is protected and saved. His prompt obedience to the
command of God is rewarded. His preaching and
praying and believing are divinely recognized.

III. That faith in God exalts its subjects to ineffable
Jionor, while its strangers are involved in guilt and ruin.

It did so in Noah's case. "By faith he became
the heir of righteousness." It was not an heredi-
tary distinction. He was " made the heir of right-
eousness." As Abraham's faith was counted to him
for righteousness, so it counted to Noah. The faith
of Noah, as indeed the faith of every saint, is a
justifying grace. Noah's faith was not specifically
directed to Christ as its object ; it was simply faith
in the Divine warning in regard to the flood. Faith
in its generic nature is always the same. By its ex-

64 THE HEEOES OF FAITH.

liibition in his conduct lie condemned the world ;
i. e., the godless men who despised rather than re-
spected his faithful warnings.

Unbeliever ! there is yet a more terrible day ap-
proaching. That day will see, not a deluge of water,
but a deluge of fire. Fire from above and from
beneath will set the universe in a blaze ! The ele-
ments shall melt with fervent heat. Let us then flee
for refuge to the ark of safety, Jesus Christ. If
found in this ark we are forever safe. It matters not
how furiously the waves of life's stormy main or the
billows of death's cold flood may foam and dash
against us, safe in the ark, Jesus Christ, we shall
escape unhurt, and find ourselves at last on the
peaceful shores of immortality. The only friend that
can introduce us into this ark is " faith." " Believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved."
If we have this saving faith, then we are in the ark,
and shall float securely on the Red Sea of redeeming
blood into the haven of eternal peace. If this faith
be not ours, then we are still in the gall of bitter-
ness, and must be wrecked on the shoals of eternity.
Believer ! be of good cheer ! Thy faith in God has
made thee an "heir of righteousness," and if once
an "heir of righteousness," never more an heir of
wrath. And as sure as thou art an " heir of right-
eousness," thou shalt ere long inherit thy celestial
possessions. Thine is the "inheritance incorrupti-
ble and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved
in Heaven for you who are kept by the power of God
through faith unto salvation."

THE FAITH OF NOAH. 65

' Faith builds a bridge across the gulf of death
To break the shock blind uature cannot shun,
And lands thought smoothly on the farther shore.
Death's terror is the mountain ; Faith removes
That mountain barrier between man and peace!
Tis Faith disarms destruction and absolves
From every clamorous charge the guiltless tomb.''

3

CHAPTEE VI

Heb. xr. 8-10.

8 By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place
which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed ; and he went
out, not knowing whither he went.

9 By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange
country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with
him of the same promise :

10 For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder
and maker is God.

The subject of our thoughts was a descendant of
Sliem. He was born three hundred and fifty years
after the deluge. The magnanimity of his life and
character justifies the great distinction conferred
upon him. His trials being characterized by greater
severity than others, the measure of his faith was
larger. The more severely his faith was tried, the
more resplendently it shone. Gracefully indeed does
the title sit upon him, " the father of the faithful,"
for we are but children compared with him in this
principle of faith. Yea ! his faith is so pre-eminent
that it is represented as eclipsing the faith of all
other notable worthies. What indeed are we but
dwarfs beside this giant in faith ?

THE FAITH OF ABRAHAM, THE PILGRIM.

We learn two lessons from his exhibition of faith.
I. That faith does not exempt its subject from trials.
We have two sharp trials recorded in the text.

68 THE HEROES OF FAITH.

1. There ivas the command to forsake ones native
home.

This first trial must have naturally awakened the
most painful emotions in his mind. The very thought
of leaving his father's house with all its early asso-
ciations was indeed a bitter one to contemplate, yet
by faith he cheerfully obeyed the Divine voice. See
Genesis xii. 1-5.

We learn from the account given by the sacred
historian, that Abraham's family were gross idola-
ters. In fact, the whole country round about was
full of idolatry. In the midst of this prevailing ten-
dency, Jehovah appeared unto the patriarch in Meso-
potamia, demanding him immediately to abandon his
country, and his home with its idolatrous supersti-
tions. Under the guidance of faith he promptly
obeyed the call. He collects his flocks and herds
and goods together, and starts with his family on a
journey toward an unknown land across the Eu-
phrates. He leaves the familiar scenes of his child-
hood and the home of his youth, and commits
himself wholly to the care and guidance of the
mysterious Being who appeared to him there. De-
spite every disadvantage, such as his ignorance of the
country, its customs, its inhabitants, and its peculiar-
ities, and although he is obliged to march through
unsettled and perilous tracts in obedience to the
Divine will, he pursues his onward way, never re-
penting of his course. " He was called to go out into
a place which he should after receive for an inherit-
ance." That place was the land of Canaan, his-

THE FAITH OF ABRAHAM. 69

ciously described as " the land flowing with milk and
honey." Leaving the IJr of the Chaldees, he arrives
with his family at Haran, where they remain for a
while. While there, he is called to experience
another sore trial. His father dies at the advanced
age of two hundred and fifty years. Having com-
mitted his mortal remains with filial sorrow to the
care of mother earth, he renews his journey Canaan-
ward. He does not hesitate one moment, nor does
he linger to question the propriety of his pilgrimage.
Doubtless, as in the case of Noah, he was tantalized
by the scoffing and unbelieving as to where he was
tramping, and when he intended to return; if he
knew anything of the geography of the country, and
so forth. It was enough for Abraham to know that
He who commanded him to leave his native home
would guide him safely to the promised land. Abra-
ham's obedience of faith is well worthy of our imi-
tation. We, too, are visited by a command from
Heaven to arise, and journey under the guidance of
an invisible leader and protector. We are to go
forth, not knowing whither we go. On the earth the
way is often dark and unintelligible. It often hap-
pens that the first step in the religious life plunges
us into great affliction. It sometimes occurs that the
believer feels compelled to renounce his secular occu-
pation in obedience to the Divine call, if that occu-
pation be one which conscience condemns. Nor do
we know what lies before us. Let us therefore, like
Abraham, make much use of our guide and com-
panion, faith. Let us continue to tread the Heavenly

70 THE HEROES OF FAITH.

path, clinging tenaciously to God by faith, as a child
in his father's hand.

The language before us serves to give a higher
idea of the strength of Abraham's faith, " He went
out, not knowing whither he went." Were he well
informed respecting the land of Canaan, or had some
acquaintance with the country, there would have been
nothing extraordinary in his faith ; but being entirely
ignorant of the country, it makes his faith shine out
the brighter and stronger.

We, as believers, like Abraham, are ignorant of the
Canaan to which we are bound. We know not posi-
tively in what direction it lies, though instinctively
led to conclude that it is upward. We are verily
ignorant of the invisible region toward which we
are daily advancing. Scarcely a few rays of the ris-
ing sun gild the distant mountain tops of that king-
dom which lies "beyond the swelling flood." We
know next to nothing of the many mansions promised
us. What we do know is that Jesus is there, prepar-
ing a place for us ; that sinless angels and sanctified
souls are there ; that it is a magnificent country be-
yond the conceptions of the highest intellect. We
thank God for that piece of information. "But it
doth not yet appear what we shall be." We know
not what it is to be there. No one has ever returned
to furnish us with the faintest description of its
scenes and pleasures and engagements. But, as
when Abraham approached nearer and nearer the
confines of Palestine, the crest of Hermon, and the
mountains of Galilee, began to reveal themselves

THE FAITH OF ABRAHAM. 71

more clearly to his naked eye, so the called of God
still, as they draw nearer and nearer the end of
their pilgrimage, discern Beulah land shining from
afar, and the faith of a lifetime is rewarded by the
brightening gleamS of the everlasting hills of glory,
and of the sunlit city of our God. And all those
who have left their Chaldea of idolatry, or who have
forsaken their carnal desires, and have torn themselves
from every entanglement to follow their Lord, shall
be graciously permitted to enter the Canaan of ever-
lasting rest.

2. There was the extraordinary inconvenience to which
he was exposed.

"By faith he sojourned in the land of promise,
as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with
Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same
promise." 9 v.

When he departed from Chaldea into Canaan, it
was with the' promise of being shown another land.
Genesis xii. 1. There was no specific promise then
made of giving the land. But after a short sojourn
in that land, God spoke to him, saying, " Lift up now
thine eyes, and look from the place where thou art,
northward, and southward, and eastward, and west-
ward : for all the land which thou seest, to thee will
I give it, and to thy seed for ever." Genesis xiii. 14
-17. Here we have the most explicit promise that
God would give Abraham the land of Canaan for an
inheritance, yet we read that he never possessed any
land in that country, " No ; not so much as to set his

72 THE HEROES OF FAITH.

foot on." Acts vii. 5. He journeyed from place to
place in a strange land, dwelling in tents, now giving
way to a lieadstrong nephew, and presently to a rival
chief. He was literally a pilgrim and a stranger.
Nothing could have tried his character more thor-
oughly than this migratory mode of living. He
travelled along without the realization of the promise
down to the death of Sarah. He who had been
promised the land of Canaan has not yet received it.
It is still in the hands of foreigners. There is some
reason for delay. The delay continues ; and the
long delay gives exercise to the patriarch's faith.
Here on this point we may read the emphatic ha-
rangue of Stephen in his address to the Jewish
Sanhedrim. Acts vii. 2-6. Yet despite this incon-
venient mode of living, the patriarch's faith sustained
his spirit in the most magnanimous manner.

If we are the children of Abraham by faith, we too
are sojourning in a strange land. This world is not
our home. We are pilgrims and strangers on earth.
Heaven is our home. We sojourn here, as it were, in
earthly tents. We are always on the move. We are
subjected to many inconveniences. We meet with
numerous disappointments and trials. As that prince
of preachers, Spurgeon, says, " To-day I may want for
nothing. To-morrow I may be like Jacob, with noth-
ing but a stone for my pillow, and the heavens for
my curtains. But what a happy thought it is, though
we know not where the road winds, we know where
it ends. It is the straightest way to Heaven, to go
round about. Israel's forty years wandering were,

THE FAITH OF ABRAHAM. 73

after all, the nearest path to Canaan. We may have
to go through trial and affliction. The pilgrimage
may be a tiresome one, but it is safe. We cannot
trace the river upon which we are sailing, but we
know it ends in floods of bliss at last. We cannot
track the roads, but we know thnt they all meet in the
great metropolis of Heaven, in the centre of God's
universe."

What was not fulfilled in Abraham's day was ac-
complished five hundred years afterward in his de-
scendants. His faith anticipated the ends of those
years, and made future events as present.

II. That faith docs not leave its possessor* destitute of
encouragement.

" For he looked [by faith] for a city which hath
foundations, whose builder and maker is God." That
is, a city which is firmly built or well founded. His
faith

1. Looked forward with hopeful expectancy to an endur-
ing city. "A city which hath foundations."

Abraham looked by faith for a permanent home
somewhere in God's universe. Faith assured him of
a safe arrival in that home ; buoyed up his soul in
seas of trial ; prompted him to follow the Divine
counsel, and suffer the Divine will, and eventually
landed him in the pilgrim's city. When anticipating
that city of immovability and immortality, he could
well afford to dwell in tents in this passing world.
But even in this present life he received manifold
more than he left behind in Chaldea. Everything he

3*

74 THE HEROES OF FAITH.

laid his hand on prospered. His riches multiplied
wonderfully. He required whole territories for his
encampments and demesnes. The hills of Hebron
were covered with his flooks. When he and they
moved, it was like the grand march of an army. Yet
notwithstanding all this, he viewed all these posses-
sions as transitory and fading. His j:>rmcipal riches
consisted in nobler treasures than earth can afford,
and more durable. "He looked for a city which
hath foundations." That city ultimately became his
everlasting possession. Before his earthly remains
were consigned to the cave of Machpelah, his. soul
ascended upward, a fullgrown inheritor of celestial
riches. Well could he have afforded being a stranger
and sojourner on earth, for whom was reserved so rich
an appanage as Paradise itself.

So can we, if we belong to the "household of faith."
We can well afford to submit patiently and cheer-
fully to the changes and chances of this mortal life,
when faith encourages us to foresee the grand reali-
ties that loom vast and glorious, beyond this fleeting
world of shadows, in the everlasting city of our God.
Let trials come. Let the world gnash its savage
teeth at us. Let seas of persecution dash their bil-
lows in fury against us. Let disease and death come
to drink the lifeblood of our heart, and pull the
temple of our body in ruins to the earth, we can afford
it all. " For we know 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." His faith,

THE FAITH OF ABRAHAM. 75

2. Looked forward with liopefid expectancy to a Di-
vinely prepared city. " Whose builder and maker is
God."

A sufficient guarantee of its durability. The de-
signer and builder is God. We have some idea of
the solidity and durability of God's work in the
formation of our mighty planet, and the innumerable
worlds that twinkle in the everlasting stars above.
But heaven and earth must pass away. They shall
perish. As a vesture shall they be folded up, and be
changed. But the city to which we are bound shall
never perish, or grow old, or be folded up, for its
builder and maker is also its head. As the lamented
Guthrie says, " A city never built with hands, nor
hoary with the years of time ; a city whose inhabi-
tants no census has numbered ; a city through whose
streets rushes no tide of business, nor nodding hearse
creeps slowly with its burden to the tomb ; a city
without griefs or graves, without sins or sorrows,
without births or burials, without marriages or mourn-
ings ; a city which glories in having Jesus for its king,
angels for its guards, saints for citizens ; whose walls
are salvation, and whose gates are praise." "The
city," as the apocalyptic seer says, " which had no
need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it :
for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is
the light thereof." Shall this divinely prepared city
be ours to inhabit ? Have we the title for it ? Can
we produce our certificate qualifying us for the place ?
Shall it be said of us : " These pilgrims have come
from the city of destruction, for the love which they

76

THE HEROES OF FAITH.

bear to the King of this place;" and then be able
with the pilgrims to hand our certificate of faith in
the Lord Jesus Christ.

Would we be where Abraham is, we must peregri-
nate by faith through the wilderness of this life, to
the Canaan of celestial rest above. It is said that
" many shall come from the east and from the west,
and from the north and from the south, and shall sit
down with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, in the
kingdom of Heaven." To be able thus to sit, we
must like them walk thither by faith.

" Abraham obeyed the Lord's command,
From his own country driven;
By faith he sought a promised land,
But found his rest in Heaven.

Thus through life's pilgrimage we stray,

The promise in our eye;
By faith we walk the narrow way

That leads to joys on high."

CHAPTEE VII.

Heb. XI. 11-12.

11 Through faith also Sarah herself received strength to conceive
seed, and was delivered of a child when she was past age, because
she judged him faithful who had promised.

12 Therefore sprang there even of one, and him as good as dead, so
many as the stars of the sky in multitude, and as the sand which is
by the sea shore innumerable.

Feeble as Sarah's faitli may have been, it was of a
genuine stamp, and though perhaps at first it was
not larger than a grain of mustard seed, it grew
stronger and greater, and proved mighty enough to
hurl mountains of obstacles into the sea.

As the companion of Abraham, she deserves honor-
able mention. She is deemed entitled to occupy a
place among the galaxy of illustrious names immortal-
ized in this chapter.

Even as in the case of Abraham, her name was
signalized with a characteristic change. Her original
name was "Sarai," which signifies "my princess,"
or " my lady," but when her husband was sub-
sequently apprised that his seed should be as
numerous as the stars, "the burning blazonry of
heaven," her name was changed to " Sarah," which
means "princess of a multitude," while his own
name was changed from "Abram," which signifies
"-prince," to "Abraham," which means "father of
many nations." Her name, too, is honored by Peter,
as an example of deferential wives, and as worthy of

78 THE HE110ES OF FAITH.

the distinction of spiritual motherhood. In address-
ing Christian women, the apostle, in speaking of
Sarah, says, " Whose daughters ye are."

THE FAITH OF SARAH.

I. It tvas exhibited under the most improbable circum-
stances.

They were briefly as follows : Three angels visited
her distinguished husband, assuring him that Sarah
would be blessed with a son, from whom was to
spring a great nation. She, happening to be nigh,
overheard the colloquy. No sooner did she hear the
strange tidings, than she laughed within herself.
She could not comprehend that such an event in the
nature of things could be possible, " seeing that they
were both old, and well stricken in age." Jehovah,
detecting her incredulous laugh, said to Abraham,
"Wherefore did Sarah laugh, saying, Shall I of a
surety bear a child, which am old? Is anything too
hard for the Lord?" Significant language ! "What
is impossible with men is possible with God." He
who formed woman out of a human rib, and caused
the "holy child Jesus" to be born of a virgin, could
give power to Sarah in her old age to conceive, and
bring forth the son of promise.

Though Sarah denied that she gave way to her
risibilities, we have no intimation of her incredulity
after this. Unlikely as were the circumstances, she
was thoroughly convinced by this conversation that
God's power was unlimited — that He was able to
fulfil all that He had promised. Her faith strength-

THE FAITH OF SARAH. 79

ened and increased, so that it triumphed over doubt,
and overcame every difficulty. The promised bless-
ing was faithfully performed. "She was delivered
of a child when she was past age."

How often have we exhibited the same incredu-
lous deportment which Sarah at first manifested. Pro-
fessing faith in God's Almighty power, how often
have we in life and action contradicted our profession.
We acted as though we felt that there were some
things too hard for the Lord. The grand struggle is
to exercise faith, not when the firmament of our joy
is unclouded, or when everything appears favorable,
but when events are adverse to its exhibition. We
remember the lamentable failure of the disciples in
their efforts to relieve that distressed man tormented
with a devil. Mortified with their failure, they anx-
iously inquire the secret of their non-success. What
was the Master's reply : "Because of your unbelief,
for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain
of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain,
Eemove hence to yonder place, and it shall remove ;
and nothing shall be impossible unto you." It is for
the lack of faith that we as churches and as Chris-
tians are so often frustrated in our efforts for God.
While we attempt great things for God, we must not
forget to expect great things from God. Between
the faith that expects, and the will that works, suc-
cess in Christian endeavor is ours. We are prone to '
look too much on the human side, and to trust too
much in our own schemes, and so, when we fail, we
are apt to grow despondent. What we need is to

80 THE HEROES OF FAITH.

" have faith in God," to believe that His purposes
will be consummated, despite improbabilities and
difficulties and opposition. We need to direct up-
ward the eye of faith. He who sitteth in the hea-
vens knows nothing of improbabilities or impossi-
bilities. He speaks, and it is done. He commands,
and it stands fast. Heaven and earth shall pass
away, but His word shall not pass away.

Did we but exercise that faith in God we ought,
we should soon discover that these terrible lions of
difficulties we dreaded in the path of duty were after
all but harmless lambs. What we imagined a huge
mountain will turn out to be an empty shadow. We
are told of William Jay, of Bath, that he once
dreaded, on a foggy clay, a tall figure that seemed to
approach him. The nearer it drew the more it mag-
nified, and the greater was his dread ; but, lo ! when
they came together, it turned out to be his own
brother John.

The faith of our heroine ultimately overcame all
difficulties. It shone forth as the sun through the
cloudy curtains of the sky. What faith enabled our
illustrious mother to achieve, it is yet capable of
doing. "Only believe, and it shall be done." The
faith which gave power to Sarah to conceive still

" Laughs at impossibilities
And cries, it shall be done."

II. It recognize* I (he agency of supernatural 'power.
This extraordinary circumstance in Sarah's life is
only an evidence of the Divine Almightiness and

THE FAITH OF SARAH. 81

faithfulness. It is a practical exemplification of the
words, that "nothing is too hard for the Lord." In
our text Sarah is represented as acknowledging
God's faithfulness to His covenant. "She judged Him
faithful who had promised." She placed in the word
of His covenant unlimited confidence. And of Abra-
ham it is emphatically declared by the Apostle Paul
"That he staggered not at the promise of God through
unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God ;
and being fully persuaded that, what he had prom-
ised he was able also to perform." Romans iv.
20-21. What was to all human appearance a mat-
ter of impossibility, this sainted couple believed was
within the limits of God's power. They felt perfectly
persuaded that God's promise would be literally ful-
filled. God's faithfulness was nothing new or strange
to Sarah. While she sojourned with her family in
the land of promise, she experienced His unchanging
faithfulness ; and when the hour of her dissolution
arrived, He did not forsake her. She piously recog-
nized the agency of the Divine power. By faith in
that power she was enabled to carry out the Divine
purpose in the birth of Isaac.

This miraculous interposition has not since been
repeated; nevertheless, myriads of mothers have re-
joiced over the spiritual birth of their children ; chil-
dren that seemed to have wandered too far into the
wilderness to be restored ; that seemed to have sunk
too deep in vice to be rescued ; whose hearts seemed
closed against religious influences; yet before and
after death they have blessed the grace which regen-

82 THE HEBOES OF FAITH.

erated them, and made them the children of God by
faith, in Christ Jesus. Many a mother, in view of
her child's conversion, has exclaimed with good old
Simeon : "Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in
peace, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation." Yea,
many a mother in Paradise has had her joy aug-
mented in seeing her offspring brought to God. The
work of conversion is supernatural. No power save
God's can regenerate the human soul. Let us hum-
bly acknowledge it, and judging Him faithful who
has promised to answer prayer, let us bear our chil-
dren in the arms of faith to the mercy seat, that they
may be born again.

III. It witnessed an astounding plienomenon.

"Therefore sprang there even of one, and him as
good as dead, so many as the stars of the sky in mul-
titude, and as the sand which is by the seashore in-
numerable." Our American Bible Union and the re-
cent revision of the New Testament gives us sub-
stantially the same version. The signification of this
is that Abraham was dead as to the power of pro-
creation. Neither he nor Sarah possessed any longer
those energizing, vital powers characteristic of youth,
which makes 'the event referred to quite marvellous
and miraculous. To all human appearance, it seemed
as improbable for Abraham and Sarah to have a son
at their time of life, as for the very dead to produce
children. Yet, on account of their faith, God made
what was humanly speaking impossible, to come
within the range of His power. As the reward of
her faith, she received the fulfilment of the Divine

THE FAITH OF SARAH. 83

promise, and became the mother of a mighty nation.
Jehovah was resolved to keep His covenant, even
though it should call forth His miraculous interpo-
sition and power. So let our faith be such as Sarah's,
that will lead us to put our trust in God's power and
faithfulness, and he may perform wonders for us.
We have reason to lament the barrenness of Zion.
But while we thus deplore her condition, let us plead
that the power of the Holy Spirit mig] it overshadow
her, for "when Zion shall travail, she shall bring
forth her sons and daughters." From the conversion
of one soul may spring the spiritual birth of myriads.
Sarah-like, let us "judge Him who hath promised,"
and we may rest assured that we shall not be doomed
to disappointment.

To women especially would I commend the char-
acter of Sarah. She was as beautiful in principle as
she was in person. Hers was physical beauty, and,
what is infinitely better, hers was moral beauty.
Physical beauty may not be yours to possess, which,
after all, is but skin deep. But if you have faith in
Sarah's God, a higher type of beauty may be yours,
which is soul deep.

"What is woman, what her smile,
Her look of love, her eyes of light?
What is she if she in her heart deride
The blessed Saviour? Love may write h«s
Name upon her marble brow,
Or linger in her curls of jet,
The light spring flower may scarcely bend
Beneath her step ; and yet, and yet,
Without this choicest, grace,
She is a lighter thing than vanity."

CHAPTER VIII.

Heb. XI. 13-16.

13 These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but
having seen them afar oil, and were persuaded of them, and embraced
them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the
earth.

1 4 For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a
country.

15 And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence
they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned.

16 But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly :
wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath pre-
pared for them a city.

That faith is not an idle or inactive principle is
clearly established in this chapter. By it the elders
or patriarchs of old obtained a good report. Their
names and deeds have been immortalized, for the
reason that faith was the root-principle whence their
good works sprang. Thus " Abel by faith offered a
more excellent sacrifice than Cain." Under the in-
spiration of faith, Noah, being warned of God con-
cerning the approaching deluge, "prepared an ark to
the saving of his house." Under the guidance of
faith, he who was called Abraham, went to the place
promised as his inheritance, " not knowing whither
he went." Moved by this heroic principle, Moses re-
nounced his worldly prospects, preferring a life of
suffering with God's family to a life of luxury with
God's foes. We have graphic illustrations of the

86 THE HEROES OP FAITH.

activity and attainments of faith in the persons of
Enoch, and Joseph, and David, and Samuel, and
others, who are described in glowing terms as having
" subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, stopped
the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire,
escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were
made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to night
the armies of the aliens."

Our text, though partly applicable to all these
illustrious saints, bears direct reference to Abraham
and Sarah, Isaac and Jacob. Enoch did not die,
therefore it cannot have reference* to him. The
promises of the text were first made to Abraham
that he should be given the land of promise, and be
the father of a mighty nation. These same promises
were renewed to his posterity. These ancient
worthies not only died believers, but they died in the
very exercise of faith. As they lived, so they died in
the same sweet frame, leaning upon the same glorious
principle, hugging the promises, and venturing their
whole dependence with confidence upon them. God's
promises and power, His covenant love and grace,
were as strengthening and j>recious to them in their
dying hour as in the hour of life and health.

DYING IN FAITH.

I. What is it to die in faith ?
1. To die trusting God.

This is familiar language ; a stereotyped phrase it
may be, nevertheless it is an all important one. To

DYING IN FAITH. 87

die mistaken in this matter is to die mistaken for
ever. We must feel as well as know what trusting in
God means — realize it experimentally as well as know
it theoretically. Faith implies trust. To die in faith
means to die trusting in God. To die in faith is not
to make a leap in the dark, hut to leap into the arms
of Omnipotence, and to find ourselves in the land
of light.

This is how Abraham and Sarah died ; Isaac and
Jacob ; Kebekah and Eachel ; when they reached the
end of life's pilgrimage, their souls rushed to the
everlasting arms of an ever faithful and ever keeping
covenant God.

Turning from the Old Testament to the New, the
noblest example of one dying in faith is the Lord
Jesus Christ. That Father whose face is hid from
Him, till He is constrained to cry, " Eloi, Eloi, Lama
Sabacthani," into His hands He breathes His spirit
in fullest assurance of acceptance. The first Chris-
tian martyr, Stephen, when perishing beneath the
merciless shower of stones, imbibing the spirit of his
Master, and seeing Him standing on the right hand
of God, cries, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." He
commits his spirit to One abundantly able to preserve
it. This is how the apostle died, whose maxim was
" For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain." Hear
him exclaim, " For I know whom I have believed, and
am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I
have committed unto Him against that day." This
is the spirit in which our Puritan fathers died, and
that "glorious army of martyrs," who welcomed the

OS THE HEROES OF FAITH.

most barbarous death rather than deny Him who
bought them by His blood. They could sing "Halle-
lujah," and leap with joy in the midst of devouring
flames. And why ? Because they died trusting God.
They saw by faith that Saviour who bled and died
for them, ready to receive them in His Almighty
arms.

2. To die recognizing God's sovereign and unmerited
grace.

Thus Abraham and the patriarchs, Paul and the
Apostles died ; and thus all true believers die. When
Andrew Fuller was told on his dying bed by a Chris-
tian brother, that he knew of no man in a happier
situation than Mr. Fuller was, a good man on the
verge of immortality, he lifted up his feeble hands,
and exclaimed, "I am a great sinner, and if I am
saved, it must be by great and sovereign grace — by
great and sovereign grace. I know whom I have be-
lieved. My hope is such that I am not afraid to
plunge into eternity. I feel satisfaction that my times
are in the Lord's hands. I have been importuning
the Lord, that whether I live, I may live to Him, or
whether I die, it may be to Him. Flesh and heart
fail, but God is the strength of my life and my por-
tion for ever. I have done a little for God, but all
that I have done needs forgiveness. I trust in sover-
eign grace and mercy alone. God is my soul's eternal
rock, the strength of every saint. I am a poor sin-
ner, and my only hope is in the Saviour. My mind
is calm ; no raj)ture, no despondency. I am not dis-

DYING IN FAITH. 89

mayed. My God, my Saviour, my Eefuge, to Thee I
commit my spirit. Take me to Thyself ; bless those
I leave behind." This is what I call dying in faith ;
the only sound way of dying. To venture one's all
on God ; to cast ourselves on His sovereign love and
mercy. Just like a swelling river, which, after many
turnings and windings, pours itself at last with a
central force, a mighty, rapid stream, into the bosom
of the ocean ; so the believing soul, after the turn-
ings and windings of life, pours itself by faith into
the ocean of God's unfathomable love and unmerited
grace. Empty :'ig all its trust on Jehovah, it is hid
with Christ in God.

If ever we are saved, it must be through the same
sovereign and unmerited grace ; and if we are by
faith His, we shall not desire to compromise the
Divine glory. He who saves us by His grace we
shall gladly crown Lord of all.

3. To die bearing wltTiess to the truth.

To die in an outward, barren profession, is not to
die in faith. To die nominal church members, is not
to die in faith. Many a good-for-nothing church
member will find his mistake, when he draws near to
the swellings of Jordan. To die in faith, we must
live a life of faith, and bring forth the fruits of faith.
" Hail, Master !" will not suffice in the judgment
morning. " Not every one that saith unto me, Lord,
Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of Heaven ; but
he that doeth the will of my Father, who is in Heav-
en." Unless there has been entire consecration to

4

90 THE HEROES OF FAITH.

God's service, all our empty profession will be of no
avail. The Judge shall say, " Depart from me ; I
know you not, ye workers of iniquity." If we would
die in faith, we must die with religion in our hearts,
as well as in our heads ; yea, with religion in our
lives, as well as on our lips. We must Avork while it
is day, and be faithful unto death, if we would re-
ceive the crown. With our last laboring breath,
our lisping, stammering tongues must testify of God's
faithfulness, and the value of God's truth. As one
of old said, " As a dead man cannot inherit an estate,
no more can a dead soul inherit the kingdom of
God."

II. What supports the faith of dying believers ?

" The promises."

" Not having received the promises," that is, their
fulfilment, "but having seen them afar off," that is,
their realization. The patriarchs, to whom these
words were primarily addressed, did not actually re-
ceive in their lives the fulfilment of the promises in
the bestowal of the land of Canaan and in the bless-
ing of a numerous posterity. Notwithstanding this,
they were confident that every promise made by God
would be verified. Their faith was a tried one, and
on its foundation they could venture into eternity.
Let us observe their attitude toward these promises.

1. They saiv their entire fulfilment in the distant future.

Seeing them by faith "afar off," they were sus-
tained and cheered. They could die peacefully,

DYING IN FAITH. 91

trusting in the honor and fidelity of God. They be-
held, by the eye of faith, the blissful day when He
would substantiate in their posterity what He had
faithfully promised them. Faith is not easily cast
down. She has a penetrating eye, and can peer into
the far off future, and see every word and promise of
God fulfilled.

2. They helieved in their reality. "And were per-
suaded of them."

The best ancient manuscripts, and the recent
revisions of the New Testament, omit this sentence.
Yet we have no doubt that the patriarchs were fully
persuaded of the reality of God's promises. They
trusted in the veracity of God, and relied on His
faithfulness to perform all that He had promised.

So may we believe, and trust, and rely, " for all
the promises of God are yea, and Amen, in Christ-
Jesus."

3.- They greeted, or saluted them.

Not " embraced them," as in King James' author-
ized version. The figure is probably taken from the
incident of two intimate friends, who, after a long
separation, affectionately salute each other, and wel-
come one another in the arms of friendship ; so by
" embracing the promises," we are to understand a
warm salutation to them, and a cordial welcome of
them. The dying believer by faith clasps the prom-
ises of God to his soul, and they are more precious to
him than words can describe. Though all the prom-
ises are not fulfilled here, he loves them, and lives on

92 THE HEROES OE FAITH.

tliem as though they were present realities. As he
wends his way along through the wilderness of life,
and wades at last through "Jordan's stream and
Death's cold flood," he jubilantly sings :

" By faith 1 see the land,

The port of endless rest ;
My soul ! thy sails expand

And fly to Jesus' breast.
0 may I reach the heavenly shore
Where winds and waves distress no more."

III. What the subjects of faith aspire after.

Confessing themselves strangers and pilgrims on
earth, they live as those born from, and for a higher
sphere. Nothing here satisfies their longing desires.
" They desire a better country, that is, a heavenly."
Are we characterized by the same aspirations ? Or
do we live as the worldly and carnal, suckling all
our pleasures from the barren paps of this empty
world? May God forbid. Nothing short of God and
immortality can satisfy the longings and desires of

our souls.

Had Abraham and his family been mindful of that
country whence they came, they might have had
opportunity to return. But they had no desire to
return, once God commanded them to forsake it.
Nor have we, if called of God, any disposition for re-
turning to the country of our follies, and idols, and
vanities. Our backs are forever set against it ! As pil-
grims, we are travelling onward and heavenward.
We have left the city of destruction, where there is
nothing but death and destruction. Our faces are
directed toward Mount Zion, the city of the living
God, where there is life for evermore.

DYING IN FAITH. 93

If we are heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Jesus
Christ, let us live above the crosses of life. What-
ever obstacles meet us in our pathway, may they be
helps, and not hindrances in our advances in the pil-
grim life. Though a frowning world thunder their
anathemas against us ; though the tongue of slander
try to injure us ; though hypocritical dissemblers,
Judas-like, betray us ; though hell's artillery fire their
malignant volleys upon us ; shielded by faith, we shall
be able to quench the fiery darts of the wicked, and,
"more than conquerers through Him who hath
loved us," we shall march into the everlasting city of
our God, while the harps of Paradise shall strike
their welcome strains of congratulation. Let us, then,
take fresh courage, and press on our way. "No
weapon formed against us shall prosper." Our God
is faithful ; our Eedeemer liveth. His word is a sure
covenant of faith, and an anchor of life and hope in
death. He will never leave us nor forsake us."

Mark the character of the country to which ice are bound.

"A better country." It is better in every respect;
better in its atmosphere ; better in its activities ; better
in its enjoyments ; better in its associations ; better
in its durability. The inheritance there is "incor-
ruptible, and undefiled, and that facleth not away." It
is better, because it is a heavenly country.

Mark, .finally, the transcendent status of the aspirants
of faith.

" Wherefore, God is not ashamed to be called their
God, for He hath prepared for them a city." Surely,
"blessed are they whose God is the Lord." Exalted
beyond description are all those who aspire for

94 THE HEROES OF FAITH.

nothing short of that better country, which is a
heavenly one. It is for this reason that God is not
ashamed to be called their God. He is delighted to
acknowledge such, and they shall be gathered home
as His jewels. For such aspiring spirits He hath
prepared a city. It is a city "prepared in God's
eternal counsels, by the progressive acts of redemp-
tion ;"* and by Divine intercession and power. Would
you know its description ? The best given is that by
John, in his Apocalypse. He says, that even the
" street of the city was pure gold, as it were trans-
parent glass," and that the " foundations of its walls
were garnished with all manner of precious stones."
Kev. xxi. 10-23. It is worthy in every respect of
its Architect and Builder. It is worthy of our highest
aspirations to become its citizens.

'• Our home is a land where the echoes are ringing,
Through'groves by the feet of the Seraphim trod ;
Where the fountain of life eternally springing,
Roll on its bright streams through the city of God.

" There, there, we shall seize on our heavenly treasure,
And nought from our souls shall their happiness sever ;
We'll dwell on the banks of the river of pleasure,
And drink of- its waters for ever and ever.

" There the sorrows of parting no more shall affright us.
When past are the griefs of this time-wasting story ;
Nor the grave shall divide, nor >hall disunite us,
Eternally joined in the fulness of glory.

" What, then, is the grave, though so wild and uncheering,
To us its dim vale speaks of triumphs to come ;
We hail with delight the dark portal appearing —
That grave is Earth's limit, and Heaven is our home."

* Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown in loco.

CHAPTEE IX.

Heb XI. 11-19.

17 By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac: and he
that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son,

18 Of whom it was said, That in Isaac shall thy seed be called :

19 Accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the
dead; from whence also he received him in a figure.

" Far in that sunny eastern land,

Beneath the bright unbending skies,
We see the noble veteran stand,

Preparing a strange sacrilice.
His eyes are summer-heavens of faith ;

No shade of hesitation throws
A dimness on their grand repose,

Assured that love is lord of death.

" He takes his well-beloved son,

He clasps him in one still embrace,
The lad is fair to look upon —

He has his mother's eyes and face.
And he must slay him ! Is it true ?

Will he be guiltless of his blood?
And if unstained, what end of good

From such an offering can ensue ?"

The test to which Abraham's faith was subjected
was assuredly the sharpest ever imposed on any man,
while the deportment he evinced under it has fairly
earned him the distinction, " the father of the faith-
ful." The whole transaction is recorded by Moses
in Genesis xiii. There we learn that " God tempted

96 THE HEB0ES OF FAITH.

Abraham." The term has two significations, viz.,
" solicitation to sin," and the " trial of character for
one's moral development." We have no difficulty
in deciding in which of these senses " God tempted
Abraham." In the former sense, He tempts no man,
i. e., solicits none to sin ; in the latter sense, He
tempted or tried Abraham. Why did God tempt or
try Abraham ? is a question which naturally arises.
Was it that He might know what was in Abraham ?
or needed to gauge the depth of his devotedness ?
Nay, but for the development and strengthening of
his faith, and that the Church through future ages
might have a standing memorial of what great things
faith could attempt; what precious things faith could
surrender, and what painful things faith could go
through, "that we might become the children of
Abraham by faith," leaving all we love behind, facing
all we fear before, for the sole reason that God com-
mands us. We behold in Abraham, faith's severest
test, and grandest illustration.

THE FAITH OF ABEAHAM, THE TEIED.

I. In Abraham ice have the severest trial of faith.

1. If ice consider the painful circumstances muter which
it ivas tried.

It is said that " after these things did God tempt
Abraham." What things ? The words are most preg-
nant with meaning. It was after patiently waiting
twenty-five years for the fulfilment of the Divine
promise ; after having actually received the fulfil-

THE FAITH OF ABRAHAM, THE TRIED. 97

ment of that promise ; after having parted with one
whom he passionately loved ; after the other son had
attained mature age, and become the object of absorb-
ing affection; after having entered into treaties of
amity with the neighboring chiefs, seeming to enjoy
peace with the Philistines, peace with God, and
probably thinking all his trials over, and looking in-
tently forward for admission into the promised rest.
It was " after all these things " that the greatest of
his trials came. When his hopes are highest they
are suddenly overthrown, and tumble down as by a
breath from Heaven. There might have been a time
when he would have willingly foregone the promised
Isaac in favor of the present Ishmael ; but now,
after having enjoyed twenty-five years of Isaac's
life — the pleasantest epoch in his life — to have him
suddenly demanded for a burnt-offering; this was
intensifying the furnace of affliction with sevenfold
heat. What fiery trial could have been as hot ? The
spirit of man may sink under any great or protracted
affliction, but the effect is incalculably worse when,
after seeming to have recovered well, he finds him-
self thrown back again by an unexpected relapse.
" The want of any blessing, however much desired,
may be borne at least without pain, but when we
first wait for it till the soul almost faints under
hope long deferred ; when we then possess it, exult
in the enjoyment of it, and taste the pleasures we
had otherwise known ; and when, after this, it is to
be given up, and we are to go back again to our
former state of entire destitution, then it is that the

4*

98 THE HEROES OF FAITH.

mind experiences the pangs of hopeless and compli-
cated calamity."*

2. If we consider the nature of the offering lie ivas called
to surrender.

(A.) It ivas to sacrifice his only son.

Abraham was tried both as father and saint. We
have no trial parallel to it. His love was tried, inas-
much as Isaac was his only son ; his faith was also
put to the severest test, inasmuch as Isaac was the
" son of promise." There was a double test, so to
speak, in this trial. The first being to sacrifice his
only son, and the son of his old age, whom he must
have passionately loved. One who was the joy of
his heart — yea, whose name was joy itself. It was,
indeed, a fiery trial. The manner in which the
command was given must have struck deeper and
deeper into the sensibilities of the heart. " Take
thy son, thine only son, thine only son Isaac, thine
only son Isaac whom thou lovest," The narrative
does not portray the patriarch's feelings on this
occasion. Facts simply are related. But is it to be
supposed that there was no inward struggle ? a father
like Abraham not feel keenly the smart ? Surely,
the words must have fallen like molten lead on his
heart. " Take now thine only son Isaac, whom thou
lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah, and offer
him there for a burnt-offering upon one of the
mountains which I will tell thee of." (Gen. xxii. 2).

* See Binney's " Practical Power of Faith." Page 181.

THE FAITH OF ABRAHAM, THE TRIED. 99

Ishmael, liis other beloved son from Hagar, the
bondwoman, is gone. Now, the only one left is de-
manded as a burnt-offering. Strange immolation !
To slay an only son ! How does our illustrious saint
act? Does he manifest any doubt or hesitancy?
Nay ! In the dim light of the early morning we
behold the mournful procession. Abraham, and two
of his servants, with Isaac, direct their steps to the
land of Moriah, where Jehovah commands him to go.
After a journey of two days, we come to the closing
scene of the drama, where the uplifted knife gleams
for one terrible moment over the head of its innocent
victim, and the fatal blow would have been inflicted,
had not the angelic voice restrained the deed. The
pointed blade, flashing with destruction, would have
been buried in the heart of his only and endeared
child, but for the paralyzing effect of that voice from
Heaven. I can imagine, when Abraham heard his
name twice repeated, his arm dropped powerless, the
victim was spared, and his severely tried faith nobly
rewarded. The offering was virtually made. So far
as intention, and obedience, and feeling were con-
cerned, it was complete. Jehovah, being fully satis-
fied with Abraham's conduct, interposes, and returns
his son to his bursting and bleeding heart, with the
gracious repetition of the promise He had previ-
ously made. (Genesis xxii. 15-18). God tries His
people still, though perhaps not precisely in the
same way as He tried Abraham. We are not called
upon to slay in bloody sacrifice our attached Isaacs,
or those who are dear to us by nature's tie. He has

100 THE HEROES OF FAITH.

expressed Himself thoroughly satisfied in the sacri-
fice of His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ.

Yet we must remember, when by the ' dispensation
of death He commands us to deliver up the objects of
our strongest love, we are expected to obey promptly
and nnmurmuringly. Not curse Him as some have
done, but bless Him, knowing that "He doeth all
things well." He does not expect us to relinquish
our loved ones without deep emotion — that would be
unnatural for us to do, and unlike God to expect. He
who has implanted those tender sensibilities within
us, does not demand that we should surrender them
without the deepest emotion, but he expects us to do
so without a murmur. We may sorrow, but in the
midst of that sorrow there must be humble submis-
sion. We must know that faith that shall enable us
heartily to exclaim, " The Lord gave, and the Lord
hath taken away ; blessed be the name of the Lord."

3. It was to sacrifice the son of promise.

When Abraham was obliged to part from Ishmael,
his son from the bondwoman, he had merely to send
him away. Moreover, God graciously condescends
to assign his reason for such a course, viz. : that he
was not the son of promise. "Not in him, but in
Isaac, shall thy seed be called." But now he is com-
manded, not simply to send Isaac away, but to sacri-
fice him. He is not to see him sicken and die, but in
the ripeness of his ruddy health, he is himself to
strike the fatal blow. God does not choose to as-
sign any reason for such a command. Now, if Isaac,

THE FAITH OF ABRAHAM, THE TRIED. 101

" the son of promise," be slain, where is the hope of
a numerous and distinguished progeny ? In him all
the families of the earth were to be blessed. From his
loins the Saviour of the world was to descend, and yet
he must be sacrificed. Is it possible for faith not to
stagger before such seeming incongruity ? Does not
the promise and the command appear a flat contra-
diction ? Has Abraham faith enough to comprehend
all this ? Has his faith strength and courage enough
to endure it all? We may judge by the course he
pursues. Without the slightest hesitation he pro-
ceeds to the spot, with the determined resolve of
obeying the Divine instructions. The colloquy be-
tween father and son is most pathetic. "My father,"
says the lad of loving sensibilities. " Here am I, my
son," responds the trembling lips of a fond and dis-
tressed father. " Behold the fire and the wood, but
where is the lamb for a burnt-offering ?" replies the
son, little knowing that he was the designed lamb.
" My son," says the father, " God will provide Him-
self a lamb for a burnt-offering." So on they journey
together till they reach the appointed place. The
sequel is well known. The altar is built, the
wood laid in order, the only son bound, and laid
upon the altar, the father's knife is uplifted, ready for
its work of destruction. What accounts for such
heroism '? The secret is explained in the text by a
syllable of five letters, "faith." Nothing is impossi-
ble to him who believes, for faith is not simply the
assent of the understanding, but the exercise of an
unbounded trust in God, who is our refuge and
strength, a very present help in trouble.

102 THE HEROES OF FAITH.

II. In Abraham we have the grandest example of faith.

Accounting tli.it God was able to raise liim up, even
from the dead, i. e., lie believed that in case Isaac
should be sacrificed as a burnt-offering that " God
could raise him up even from the dead." It required
more than ordinary faith to believe this. It was an
unbounded expression of confidence in God. He
who gave Abraham his Isaac, when human probabil-
ity was utterly opposed to such a phenomenon, was
equally able to restore Isaac to life again, after having
been slain. This the patriarch thoroughly believed.
His confidence rested on one solid pedestal — none
less than God Himself. He accounted none other
able. His heart believed God was able, for his eye
was fixed on Him as the God of resurrection power.
Abraham had every reason to conclude that God
could raise Isaac, for He had already done what was
equivalent to it. He had done this ev 7t(\paf3o\if,
i. e., in a parable, so that Isaac, being raised from the
dead, might be compared with his being born from
her who was dead to the power of procreation. Abra-
ham was convinced that there was no limit to Divine
power. He believed that what God did against all
human probability in Isaac's creation and birth, He
was yet able to do in the restoration and resurrec-
tion of Isaac. Moreover, Abraham at this juncture
saw by the eye of faith the day of Christ. He saw
Him who was prefigured by Isaac — saw Him raised
from the Arimathean sepulchre by that same Al-
mighty power as was able to raise Isaac. That same
power in the last great day will quicken our mortal

THE FAITH OF ABRAHAM, THE TRIED. 103

bodies. Oh, for an Abrahamic faith in the God of the
resurrection ! Let us as humble children learn from
this " father in faith." Let us as loyal subjects bow
in submission to this king in faith, and pray to be
governed by the same heroic principle. May we
know that faith, which admits no doubt, and which
prompts to cheerful obedience to the Divine will,
whatever that will might be. May we possess that
faith that can stand the test of the hottest trial, and
come out unsinged. The more Abraham's faith was
tried, the more resplendently it shone, and when it was
put to its sharpest test, and reached its culmination,
then the angel of the Lord interposes. The struggle
is over, the mystery solved. " The ram caught in the
thicket" is the fulfilment of Abraham's unconscious
prophecy. "My son, God will provide Himself a
lamb for a burnt offering."
Let us learn in conclusion :

1. That faith in God can stand the test of the severest
nature.

2. That faith in God sees nothing too much to do in
obedience to Him.

3. That faith in God knows that there is nothing im-
possible unto God.

4 That faith in God introduces us into Abrahams
fun ily and privileges.

CHAPTER X.

Heb. XI. 20.

20 By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau concerning things to
come.

Whatever may have been Isaac's defects, lie was
as truly a child of Abraham by faith as he was his
son according to the flesh. While the image of his
saintly father was discernible in his countenance, the
image of his father's God was stamped in his soul.
He was Abraham's n< ablest son and Heaven's saintli-
est favorite. He is embraced in that glorious trio
who are represented as God's in a peculiar sense —
" the God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob."
In order to ascertain wherein the faith of Isaac con-
sisted, it is necessary to refer to Genesis xxvii. 27-40.
In those verses he foretells the future condition of
his sons. His physical vision had become dimmed,
yet by the eye of faith he could peer into the distant
future, and bless both his sons accordingly. Though
practised deception upon by Rebekah and Jacob,
yet it did not interfere with the prophetic character
of his faith. His faith was as solid as it was sub-
lime, and the base deception of mother and son was
overruled by an inscrutable Providence to the exe-
cution of the Divine purposes.

THE FAITH OF ISAAC.

I. Ill its parental relationship.

"By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau." These
men were twin brothers. Esau, the firstborn, is de-

106 THE HEROES OF FAITH.

scribed as being "red all over, like an hairy gar-
ment." Jacob, the youngest, is represented as hav-
ing his hand on Esau's heel when following him into
the world. The first was a "cunning hunter," the
latter " a plain man, dwelling in tents." Both were
well developed children. They had expressive brows
and manly forms. One thing, however, marred the
domestic peace of the parents, viz., the invidious dis-
tinctions they made between their sons. Esau Avas
his father's favorite ; Jacob, his mother's. " Isaac
loved Esau, because he did eat of his venison."
What a selfish reason ! having its seat in the stom-
ach. Surely human nature is weak. The pandering
to one's appetites has much to do in the present day
with partialities and distinctions. "But Kebekah
loved Jacob." She assigns no reason for her prefer-
ence, nor does the Scripture assign any reason. Per-
haps Jacob flattered her more than Esau did, and
that her vanity was the cause of it. The indiscre-
tion of this aged couple proved the source of much
unpleasantness. It doubtless plunged them into
many a family broil.

It would be well for parents to avoid the folly of
creating distinctions in their families, if they would
keep away the serpent of jealousy. Children should
all have the impression that they are equally re-
garded. As might have been expected, the partiality
respectively shown by Isaac and Bebekah created
discord and distress between the entire family. Esau
must have felt elated to know that he was his father's
choice, and Isaac must have felt equally elated to

THE FAITH OF ISAAC. 107

know that he was his mother's pet. Soon the folly
of the parents developed itself in the lives of their
offspring. Jacob proved himself to be a trinity of
the foulest crimes — a liar, deceiver, and thief. He
took advantage of his brother's weakness, when he
was faint and hungry, just returned from his hunting
expedition. He bribed him to sell his birthright for
a mess of pottage, thereby evincing the spirit of the
Evil One, who tempted our first parents to sin by eat-
ing the fruit of the forbidden tree. He also lied
unto his blind father, as well as defrauded Esau of
his blessing. This was the blackest day in Jacob's
life, and the foulest blot in his character. Esau, too,
acted most contemptibly. By his impatience and
appetite, he committed the detestable act of selling,
for a mess of pottage, the most valuable privilege he
possessed, even his birthright, which gave him every
senior advantage.

Alas ! we have the descendants of these brothers
still — Jacobs in chicanery, and bribery, and decep-
tion, and Esaus in rashness, and greed, and madness.
There are thousands to-day who barter their soul's
eternal interest, for the mere gratification of their
animal passions. For " the pleasures of sin for a
season," they sell their birthright of everlasting dig-
nity— pleasures that are a mere mess of pottage.
Esau, who had the right of primogeniture, and Jacob,
who was the son of promise, though natural brothers,
never became true friends after this discreditable
transaction. Esau was heartbroken at the reflection
of his forfeited blessing. "He lifted up his voice

108 THE HEROES OF FAITH.

and wept." It was the bitterest trial of his life.
Never was a meal so dearly bought as this broth
bought by Esau. He would have perpetrated the
crime of fratricide, in the excitement of the moment,
had it not been his regard for the feelings of his
aged father, for " Esau said in his heart", the days of
mourning for my father are at hand, then will I slay
my brother Jacob " — an oriental fashion in speaking
of one's death. Through the interposition of an all-
wise and overruling Providence, this murderous pur-
pose was not executed. Nor did Jacob escape the
penalty of his wrongdoing. He was chastened sorely
by his Heavenly Father. He had but little comfort
through life after the surreptitious manner in which
he obtained his father's blessing. He was murder-
ously hated by his brother Esau ; cruelly deceived
and harshly treated by his uncle Laban ; his dearest
wife Rachel dies, and leaves him in an agony of
sorrow ; he never saw his fond mother after he was
sent away to escape Esau's bloody revenge ; his own
children, the staff of his old age, wound his soul to
the very quick ; Reuben and Judah become the basest
fornicators ; Simeon and Levi become traitors and
murderers ; Joseph is mourned after as one that is
dead ; Simeon is missed ; Benjamin, his idolized
child, he trembles for, and is loath to let him go ;
and, last of all, he is forced by famine in his de-
clining days to visit Egypt, where he knew the people
considered it an abomination to eat with men like
himself, and there he dies in a strange land. Verily
he could mournfully exclaim, " Few and evil have

THE FAITH OF ISAAC. 109

the days of the years of my life been." None of the
patriarchal race suffered as he did. Let us, then, as
parents, beware to form absurd distinctions in our
families, lest the folly of our conduct develop itself
in the unhappy lives of our children and children's
children.

II. In its proplieticcd character.

"By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau concerning
things to comer What were those things? They re-
fer to the blessings specified in Genesis xxvii. 27-29,
also the thirty-ninth and fortieth verses of the same
chapter. To Jacob, who personated Esau, but who
nevertheless was the son of promise, he said, "Come
near now, and kiss me, my son. * * * See, the
smell of my son is as the smell of a field which the
Lord hath blessed : therefore God give thee of the
dew of heaven, and the fatness of the earth, and
plenty of corn and wine : let people serve thee, and
nations bow down to thee : be lord over thy brethren ,
and let thy mother's sons bow down to thee : cursed
be every one that curseth thee, and blessed be he
that blesseth thee." To Esau he said, "Behold, thy
dwelling shall be the fatness of the earth, and of the
dew of heaven from above ; and by thy sword shalt
thou live, and shalt serve thy brother ; and it shall
come to pass when thou shalt have the dominion,
that thou shalt break his yoke from off thy neck."
These divers blessings were literally conferred. Isaac
felt perfectly persuaded that Jehovah would verify
all that he had predicted. It was under this convic-

110 THE HEROES OF FAITH.

tion that he was moved to pronounce these respect-
ive prophetic blessings. Each of his sons was im-
mensely rich, and fully answered the descriptive
blessings foretold by him. Esau, the founder of the
Edomitish nation, lived by the sword, and "had
more riches than he and his family could well man-
age, while Jacob, on the other hand, followed his
agricultural pursuits, and was abundantly prosper-
ous. Isaac speaks under the guidance of faith, as
though the treasures of the world were at his dis-
posal."" True, he was about to make a grievous mis-
take— even of moving contrary to the counsel of
God ; still he knew God, and took His place accord-
ingly, dispensing blessings in all the dignity and
power of faith. "I have blessed him: yea, and he
shall be blessed." "With corn and wine have I sus-
tained him." It is the province of faith to rise above
one's own failings and its effects, into the place God
would have us to occupy.

With all Esau's complaints, who had voluntarily
abdicated his birthright, Isaac would not, could not
recall the blessing conferred on Jacob. "Isaac would
unjustly bestow on Esau that which was Jacob's.
Eebekah, with equal injustice, teaches Jacob to per-
sonate Esau. The mother, who should have trusted
the whole matter in the hands of God, cheats her
firstborn, and beguiles her husband, rather than the
father shall beguile the chosen son of his blessing.
Her desire was good ; the means employed to accom-

* C. H. M. on Genesis, page 2G6.

THE FAITH OF ISAAC. Ill

plisli it were unlawful. God often accomplishes His
purposes by means of our infirmity ; yet neither is
our weakness justified nor His unerring justice im-
peached.*

Isaac's faith was firm, though he himself was im-
posed upon. He felt confident that all was right.
When blessing his sons, he had faith enough to be-
lieve that God would verify those blessings. Having
trusted in God so long, he would not mistrust Him
on this occasion. His faith in God's promises was
his support through youth and manhood, and now in
the decrepitude of old age he was not going to make
a shipwreck of it.

This is the spirit which should characterize all
parents. They should exercise unhesitating confi-
dence in God, that he can exceed their highest de-
sires. Believing God to be the hearer of prayer, let
us cry to Him in faith. We, too, may bless our
children. We may do it effectually by presenting
them to God in the exercise of prayer. He never
treats with silent contempt the petitions of those who
put their trust in Him.

Parents ! If you would have your children blessed
of God, remember to pray for them without ceasing.
Let them see that you are in earnest concerning their
soul's spiritual welfare. Emulate the example of the
patriarchs of old, who prayed earnestly for their pro-
geny. Like the parents who brought their children
to the Saviour that He might bless them by his all-

* Bishop Hall's Scripture History, pages 35, 3(5.

112 THE HEROES OF FAITH.

healing touch ; so may we bring our loved ones to the
same Saviour, that He might touch their hearts by
His Holy Spirit, and heal them with the balm of
salvation. Oh ! the mighty influence that is exerted
by the counsels of a pious father, and the prayers of
a sainted mother ! Tens of thousands have been con-
verted by their instrumentality, long after they were
committed to their silent tomb. When, like Isaac,
we shall be summoned home by the pale messenger,
let us not forget to leave our blessing behind to our
children ; the blessing of an earnest prayer for their
salvation; the blessing of a holy example for their
emulation; the blessing of a faithful counsel that
may sink into their hearts, and be the means of lead-
ing them to the God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and
of Jacob. These are the best legacies that we can
possibly leave behind. They will speak when our lips
are sealed in the silence of death.

CHAPTEE XI.

. Heb. xr. 21.

21 By faith Jacob, when lie was a dying, blessed both the sons of
Joseph ; and worshipped, leaning upon the top of his staff.

Jacob, though not a perfect man, is represented in
this text as one of the celebrities of faith. Several
events that transpired in his life entitle him \o the
first rank of faith's dignitaries. The memorable meet-
ing at Peniel, where an angel wrestled with him until
the break of day, is sufficient in itself to entitle him
to this distinction.

It is necessary to correct a general misapprehen-
sion of the Scripture in Genesis xxxii. 24. Jacob is
generally represented as wrestling with the angel,
whereas the words teach that the angel wrestled
with Jacob. The angel struggles to extricate him-
self from the grasp of the venerable saint. Seeing
he cannot prevail, he resorts to the measure of dis-
jointing the patriarch's thigh, saying, "Let me go,
for the day breaketh." Heeding not the voice, Jacob
grasps him still the more firmly, exclaiming, "I will
not let thee go, except thou bless me." What deter-
mined faith! Through the innumerable ages shall
this hero at the throne of grace be recognized, not as
Jacob, but as Israel, "for as a prince had he power
with God and with man, and prevailed."

It is only as we are determined to succeed in
prayer, even as Jacob did of old, that we may" expect

114 THE HEROES OF FAITH.

to prevail. It is the fervent prayer which proves an
effectual one, and avails much. It is as true now
as ever, that the " kingdom of heaven suffereth vio-
lence, and the violent take it by force."

THE FAITH OF JACOB.

I. As manifested in Ids dying benediction.

"By faith he blessed both the sons of Joseph."
The account given by the inspired historian is truly
touching. Genesis xlviii. 8-22. Having placed his
right hand on Ephraim's head, and his left hand on
Manasseh's, he thus proceeds, "God," etc. Genesis
xlviii. 15, 16. 'The richest bequest Ephraim and
Manasseh could possibly receive was the parting
blessing of their sainted grandfather. What an affect-
ing sight! To see the venerable patriarch, on the
verge of eternity, blessing his grandsons. Some old
people die with a heart withered and dry as leather ;
all sensibilities gone. Not so Jacob. It is beautiful
to see him with his large heart expanding in warm-
est sympathies for posterity, while his tottering frame
trembles beneath the weight of years, and the chilly
hand of death upon him, his own personal infirmities
lost in the concerns of his race.

In the blessing he pronounces, what an acknowl-
edgment of God's past goodness and unfailing
mercy ! What a glowing exhibition of faith, when
he blesses the sons of Joseph with regard to their
future destiny ! What emotions of rapture must have
electrified the souls of those favored brothers!

THE FAITH OF JACOB. 115

When it is said that "by faith he blessed both the
sons of Joseph," it is well to remember that he
could not distinguish Joseph's sons by sight, but dis-
tinguished them by faith. This accounts for the
transposition of his hands, when he purposely laid
his right hand on Ephraimand his left onManasseh.

By faith also he conferred his prophetic blessing.
The touch of that hand they never forgot. The
blessing foretold they literally realized. Believers
can do nothing worthier in the article of death, when
about to commend their spirit into the hands of an
ever keeping covenant God, than to bless those inti-
mately related to them. Who can compute the num-
ber of conversions that have occurred through the
dying blessing of parents and grandparents? Ah,
yes ! Many a wayward son and thoughtless daughter
has been brought to their parents' God by means of
the dying counsel and parting blessing.

Jacob's last exercise was to bless his sons and
grandsons. Faith enabled him, in the feebleness and
decrepitude of old age, to perform the task. The faith
which distinguished him in life did not forsake him
in death. It blazed forth an inextinguishable flame,
however fiercely the cold winds from the caverns of
death blew upon it. It supported him from sinking
when the billows of death rolled over him. It illu-
mined the dark valley as he plunged into it, and in
its cheery light he was ushered into the nightless
and deathless world. What faith did for him, it can
do for us.

116 THE HEROES OF FAITH.

II. As manifested in his dying posture.

"And worshipped, leaning upon the top of his staff."
There has been some difficulty felt in reference to
this part of our text. The historian in Genesis says
that "Israel bowed himself upon the bed's head."
And when Jacob was informed of his son's visit, it
is said that he "strengthened himself and sat upon
the bed." Here in the text it is stated that he "wor-
shipped, leaning upon the top of his staff." There is
nothing conflicting in these different testimonies.
When it is said that he "worshipped, leaning upon the
top of his staff," it alludes to his custom for many
years. Jacob, whose thigh had been disjointed by the
angel, had been obliged for years to have the support of
this prop. And it is quite probable that this is
a distinct transaction from the other. It cannot be
shown, that "leaning upon the top of his staff"
accompanied his dying blessing. The seventy trans-
late the words as we have them in our text.

It seems probable, however, that Jacob, who at
this time is represented as sitting on the bed, had
his old staff with him to lean his feeble hands and
wearied head upon. It is not likely he would do
without his pilgrim staff. Time had stolen strength
from his frame. He was a dying man, shivering upon
the border of the grave, and his staff served to sup-
port his tottering body. In this attitude he seems
to have been when Joseph swore that he would
comply with his dying request in regard to his
burial. "Lo, I die," etc (Genesis 1. 5). Joseph's
pledge was so gratifying to him that he instantly

THE FAITH OF JACOB. 117

offered praise to God. " He worshipped, leaning upon
the top of his staff." The Douay version renders it,
" He adored the top of his staff." Jerome and other
substantial authorities repudiate such an interpreta-
tion. A moment's reflection is sufficient to discovej
its absurdity. Jacob was no idolater, no worshipper
of wood. He worshipped and adored that God whose
mercies the old staff brought to memory. He remem-
bered the God of his fathers, and felt mightily the
inspiration of reverence, gratitude and praise. His
dying breath was spent in praising the God of
Heaven.

Of thousands it may yet be said, " They worship
God, leaning upon the top of their staff." Their
feeble, tottering frames have rendered it necessary to
have staff support. Could those staffs speak, how
loudly they would ring forth the praises of Jehovah,
for the soul support their owners have received from
above. What sight so heavenly and affecting on earth
as to witness an old pilgrim, with his antiquated staff
in hand, dragging along slowly but surely into that
"rest which remains for the people of God." I
venture to affirm that the grandest sight on earth is
to see an old pilgrim spending his last days in the
service of his God, and drawing near to the end of
his pilgrimage, ripe for immortality.

Some years ago the government was smitten with
amazement and admiration when they saw the vener-
able Thaddeus Stevens come forward when on the
brink of the grave, to denounce tyranny and oppres-
sion, and defend his country's constitution. An

118 THE HEROES OF FAITH.

when lie charged the President with high treason,
and defended the claims of the Senate, you could see
the old fire that formerly flamed in his eyes. It is
said that the scene was most affecting — to see the old
senator, while on the "borders of eternity, spending
nis last hours to serve his country ; so, also, Thurlow
Weed, whom I heard recently, speaking loyal words
for his nation. But infinitely more enchanting .is it to
see an old servant of God, when almost in the valley
of the shadow of death, laboring for his Lord, pleading
to the last moment the claims of the cross ; persuading
men to flee to the refuge that is in Christ Jesus. His
head is white with the snows of winter ; his eyes are
become dim by the advance of years ; his back bends
with the weight of old age ; his face is wrinkled in
the service of his Master ; his hands are trembling
and his limbs are shaking, as if about to fall in the
embrace of death. Yet, with it all, his heart is as
warm as ever in its love for the cause, and his desire
as intense as ever to dwell in the house of his God
all the days of his life.

My dear friends, to be an old pilgrim we must
commence to travel heavenward while we are young.
Some there are in the Church who are younger in
years, but they are older as Christians. My dear
brethren, if, like Jacob, you are pilgrims on earth,
there awaits for you above the pilgrim's rest. Talk
about titles ! Here is a diploma worth receiving — a
title eclipsing those of earth's universities. To
be an O. P. I heard a fellow student once say

THE FAITH OF JACOB. 119

ho would like to be a P. P.* Old Huntingdon
used to say lie couldn't buy a D. D., but preferred
being S. S.t The title I covet, my brethren, is O. P.
(old pilgrim), like Jacob, or O. D. (old disciple), like
Mnason. The glittering titles of earth are con-
temptible in comparison with them.

•' Heavenward ! our path still goes,

Sojourners on earth we wander,
Till we reach our blest repose

In the Land of Promise yonder.
Here we must stay a pilgrim band,
There must be our fatherland !

"Heavenward! my soul, arise,

For thou art a Heavenly being ;
Thou should'st seek no earthly prize

When from this world thou art fleeing.
Hearts with Heavenly wisdom blest
Can in Heaven alone find rest.

" Heavenward ! Death's mighty hand
Guides me there to joy and gladness;

There within that blessed land,
Victor over pain and sadness,

Christ himself has gone before;

Can I dread an unknown shore ?

" Heavenward ! oh Heavenward !

There shall be our lot and treasure —
Let me strive my heart to guard

From each vain and worldly pleasure.
Heavenward ! my thoughts must tend,
Till in Heaven my cares shall end."

* Popular preacher. \ Sinner saved.

CHAPTEE XII.

Heb. XI. 22.

22 By faith Joseph, when he died, made mention of the departing
of the children of Israel; and gave commandment concerning his
bones.

The narrative which contains the history of Joseph
is one of the most exquisite and pathetic in the
whole inspired volume. Every portion of it is fraught
with profoundest interest, and cannot fail to electrify
us in its thoughtful perusal. That our subject was a
hero in faith, none will dare dispute. He completely
filled the glowing prophetic representation made by
his father. " Joseph is a fruitful bough, even a fruit-
ful bough by a well ; whose branches run over the
wall : the archers have sorely grieved him, and shot
at him, and hated him : but his bow abode in
strength, and the arms of his hands were made
strong by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob;
(from thence is the shepherd, the stone of Israel : )
even by the God of thy father, who shall help thee ;
and by the Almighty, who shall bless thee with
blessings from above, blessings of the deep that lie
under, blessings of the breasts, and of the womb :
the blessings of thy father have prevailed above the
blessings of my progenitors unto the utmost bound
of the everlasting hills : they shall be on the head
of Joseph, and on the crown of the head of him
that was separate from his brethren." God over-

122 THE HEROES OF FAITH.

ruled for good all the trials of Joseph. What were
intended as curses were transmuted into blessings.
They co-operated for good in the temporal and spir-
itual welfare of Joseph.

THE FAITH OF JOSEPH.

I. hi its relation to the exodus of Ids brethren.

It was by faith that he foretold this extraordinary
circumstance. "And Joseph said unto his brethren,
I die : and God will surely visit you, and bring you
out of this land unto the land which he sware to
Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob." They were now
in Egypt, well provided for, yet Canaan was their
destination. Joseph firmly believed that God, who
had promised his forefathers the land of Canaan for
their inheritance, would eventually lead his people
into the promised land. He who brought them by
so remarkable a providence into Egypt would lead
them therefrom into Canaan. This providential so-
journ naturally recalls the earlier part of Joseph's
eventful life. He had spent about two thirds of his
days in Egypt. The direct cause of this was the
hatred and envy of his brethren ; the indirect cause,
his significant dreams ; the overruling cause, the
providence of God. In consequence of his agricul-
tural and astronomical dreams, they hated him with
the hatred of assassins. Espying him in the dis-
tance on the road that leads from Shechem to
Dotham, they conspire to kill him. The fratricidal
suggestion of the majority of his bloodthirsty kins-
men is to slay him, cast him into a pit, and then

THE FAITH OF JOSEPH. • 123

fabricate a false representation to their father. Reu-
ben, with more humanity about him than the rest of
his brethren, suggests a milder treatment : that he
be simply cast into a pit, in the hope " that he might
rid him out of their hands, and deliver him again to
his father." Soon they meet a company of Ishmael-
ites from Gilead, with their laden camels, on their
way to Egypt, when Judah suggests that he be sold
unto them. He prefers to act the part of Judas
Iscariot, who sold his Lord for thirty pieces of silver,
than the part of the Roman soldier who pierced the
Lord. To this infamous proposal they unanimously
agree. Midian merchants lift Joseph out of the pit,
and he is sold to the Ishmaelites for twenty pieces,
or shekels of silver, or less than thirteen dollars.
Barbarous bargain ! selling their own brother for
less than thirteen dollars ! But, O my soul ! a still
greater marvel, to sell Jesus, our elder brother, who
is the antitype of Joseph, for only three dollars
more ! Joseph being thus sold and taken as a slave
into Egypt, Reuben returns distractedly to the pit,
and remorsefully cries, " The child is not : and I,
whither shall I go ? " Conscience ever condemns us
when we perpetrate wrong. Joseph is subsequently
sold to a distinguished officer in Pharaoh's court,
whose name is Potiphar. Appreciating the slave's
moral worth, he appoints him lord chamberlain, or
" overseer over his house." All that Potiphar had
he put under his charge. Nor was his confidence
misplaced, or his trust betrayed. Everything flour-
ished under Joseph's care. The sorest trial soon

124 THE HEROES OF FAITH.

confronts him. It springs from a source lie least
suspected. Intense, however, as is the temptation,
he bravely resists it, and magnanimously replies,
" Behold, my master knoweth not what is with me in
the house, and he hath committed all that he hath
into my hands ; there is none greater in this house
than I, neither hath he kept back anything from me,
but thee, because thou art his wife : how then can I
do this wickedness, and sin against God ? " Yet,
notwithstanding his gentle remonstrance, this in-
famous woman devises a most villanous falsehood,
by which the innocent one is unceremoniously thrust
into prison.

'• 'Twas slander filled her mouth with lying words,
Slander, the foulest whelp of sin."

Alas ! to fall into the clutches of such a woman.
Well may we pray, " From the tongue of female slan-
der, good Lord, deliver us." Spenser, in his "Faery
Queen," writes thus of the slanderous woman :

" Her face was ugly, and her mouth distort
Foaming with poison round about her gills,
In which her cursed tongue full sharp and short
Appeared like asp, his sting that closely kills,
Or cruelly does wound whomso she wills."

Jehovah, however, was with Joseph, even in the
dungeon. With the King of kings for companion,
prison becomes a palace. "With Christ in the ves-
sel, we may smile at the storm." Through Divine
interposition, our sublime youth was promoted in
prison. He was made superintendent, or chief war-
den, of all the incarcerated. By the same overruling

THE FAITH OF JOSEPH. 125

Providence lie was released. Pharaoh was troubled
by his dreams, and on account of their interpreta-
tion by Joseph he was appointed Governor over the
Egyptian domains. Though but thirty years of age,
he filled his exalted position with distinction and
success. Prosperity attended all his plans and pur-
poses. All his movements were in the right direction.
What a grand model for young men ! Where piety
reigns, it will come out of pit, prison and palace un-
corrupted. Nor will it degenerate in its exaltation
to earthly thrones and powers. Our beloved Garfield
was a noble illustration of this, as was Joseph in
Egypt, and Daniel in Babylon. Let us remember
the words of the royal sage, " Exalt her, and she
shall promote thee." Next, we have Joseph's pro-
phetic dreams substantiated. The eleven sheaves
are obliged to bow to his sheaf. The famine has
overtaken them, and Jacob with his sons must travel
to Egypt to buy corn or perish. One can scarcely
read what follows without a melting heart and tear-
ful eye. Oh, the tender love of a deserted brother !
Oh, the completeness of a brother's forgiveness ! Oh,
the generosity of an illtreated brother ! It is a spec-
tacle worthy of an angel's attention ! In after years,
the Governor pays his aged parent a visit, accompa-
nied by his two sons Manasseh and Ephraim. Soon
after the visit, the venerable father dies, and is
buried by the hands of filial devotion in the cave of
Machpelah. Joseph then returns to his official duties
in Egypt, where he spends the remnant of his days.
At the time of his death, he attained the age of one

126 THE HEROES OF FAITH.

hundred and ten years. He thus lived in Egypt be-
tween eighty and ninety years, being eighty years by
Pharaoh's appointment the Prime Minister or Gov-
ernor of Egypt. But the time has arrived when he
too must die. Though nigh unto death, the immor-
tal principle that burns within his breast enables
him to speak with confidence concerning the depar-
ture of the children of Israel, and he feels certain
that his prediction will come to pass.

II. In its relation to the burial, of his body.

"He gave commandment concerning his bones."
This is another illustrious exhibition of his faith.
He is confident that his deceased body will be
conveyed from Egypt. Though he has spent the
greater part of his life there, and knows that he will
die there, yea, be "put in a coffin there," he is fully
persuaded that he will not be interred there. Sus-
tained by this "full assurance of faith," he gives com-
mandment concerning his bones. " And Joseph took
an oath of the children of Israel, saying, God will
surely visit you, and ye shall carry up my bones
from hence." Genesis 1. 25. His faith is immovably
fixed in the God of his fathers, and he is confi-
dent that his mortal remains will be borne to the
land of his fathers. His instructions were obeyed,
his prediction verified. In Joshua xxiv. 32, we read,
" And the bones of Joseph, which the children of
Israel brought up out of Egypt, buried they in
Shechem, in a parcel of ground which Jacob bought
of the sons of Hamor the father of Shechem for an
hundred pieces of silver."

THE FAITH OF JOSEPH. 127

Perhaps the events referred to in our text may not
appear particularly interesting in themselves ; yet
they are of special interest as they set forth the
principle which has made his name and fame imper-
ishable. He was was a large hearted saint of deep
rooted faith. That faith gloriously recompensed
him even in this life, and triumphantly bore him to
the pinnacle of celestial honor and blessedness.
" How did he know that his people would ever quit
Egypt?" We reply, by faith ; not faith in a written
word, for Joseph had no Bible ; rather, faith in that
conviction of his own heart, which is itself the sub-
stantial evidence of faith. For religious faith ever
dreams of something higher, more beautiful, more
perfect, than the state of things with which it feels
surrounded. Ever, a day future lies before it, the
evidence for which is its own hope. Abraham, by
that creative faith, saw the day of Christ, and was
glad. Joseph saw his family in prosperity, even in
affluence, but he felt that this was not their rest. A
higher life than that of affluence ; a nobler destiny
than that of stagnant rest, there must be for them in
the future, else all the anticipations of a purer earth
and a holier world, which imagination bodied forth
within his soul, were empty dreams, not the intui-
tions of God's Spirit. It was this idea of perfection,
which was the substance of things hoped for, that
carried him far beyond the period of his own death,
and made him feel himself a partaker of his nation's
blessed future. And that is the evidence of immor-
tality. When the coffin is lowered into the grave,

128 THE HEROES OF FAITH.

and the dull, heavy sound of earth falling on it is
heard, there are some to whom that sound seems but
the echo of their worst anticipations ; seems but to
reverberate the idea of decay forever in the words,
"Earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust."
There are others to whom it sounds pregnant with
the expectation of immortality, the sure and certain
hope of a resurrection to eternal life. The difference
between these two feelings is measured by the differ-
ence of lives. They whose life is low and earthly,
how can they believe in aught beyond the grave,
when nothing of that life which is eternal has yet
stirred within them ? They who have lived as Joseph
lived, just in proportion to their purity and unselfish-
ness, must believe it. They cannot but believe it.
The eternal existence is already pulsing in their
veins, the life of trust and high hope, and sublime
longings after perfection, with which the decay of
the frame has nothing at all to do. That is gone, yes ;
but it was not that life in which they lived, and when
it finished, Avhat had that ruin to do with the de-
struction of the immortal ? For what is our proof of
immortality ? * " * The life of the spirit is the
evidence. Heaven begun is the living proof that
makes the Heaven to come credible — Christ in you
the hope of glory. It is the eagle eye of faith which
penetrates the grave, and sees far into the tranquil
things of death. He alone can believe in immor-
tality who feels the resurrection in him already."*

* See Robertson's sermon on Genesis 1. 24-60.

THE FAITH OF JOSEPH. 129

He who died in Egypt, knew that he would be
buried in Canaan, and that he would rise in immor-
tal glory before the throne. I care not where I am
buried. I have no scruples as to my resting place.
Nor am I ambitious for a costly monument over my
mound. All I ask is, " Let me live the life of the
righteous, that my latter end may be like his."

CHAPTEE XIII

Heb. XL 23.

23 By faith Moses, when ho was born, was hid three months of his
parents, because they saw he was a proper child ; and they were not
afraid of the king's commandments.

The name of Moses is a household word. He was
remarkable in his birth, life, death and burial. From
infancy to manhood, what a life of eventful history !
In the words of our text, the faith of Moses' parents
is pointed out. It was this principle which fearlessly
led them to conceal their child in the ark of bul-
rushes, feeling certain that 'Heaven would interpose.
It is the first case of concealment of birth we have
any record of, but one that was sanctioned by the
Supreme Court of the Universe. It was not blind
chance that conveyed Moses to the banks of the Nile,
nor led the Princess of Egypt for her morning's bath
just in time to save the infant. Divine providence
was in the movement, and in that providence Amram
and Jochebed trusted.

THE FAITH OF MOSES' PARENTS.

There are two elements combined in these parents'
faith.

I. Confidence in Divine interposition.

Amram and Jochebed are illustrious names— names
enrolled in the registry of Heaven. Both were link-
ed to Jehovah by faith. It was this faith that

132 THE HEROES OF FAITH.

guided them in every step: It was an enterprising
faith. It made them fearless of Pharaoh's com-
mandment, and led them to hide their infant son
three months, for he was such a "proper" or beauti-
ful child. In Exodus ii. 2, it is written, " he was a
goodly child," i, e., he was peculiarly attractive. He
surpassed all other children in beauty of expression.
Jehovah had a special purpose in view when he
formed this noblest specimen of infantine comeliness,
as the sequel will demonstrate. As a rale, every
mother thinks her own child to be the sweetest little
creature, whether it be so or not ; but in this instance
it is no hyperbole to declare that the child Moses
was truly handsomer than other children. Had there
been such an institution as the baby show in those
days, and he taken into them, I have not the slightest
doubt that the prize and certificate would be awarded
to Amram and his wife for the handsomest specimen.
At last the trial has come ! This babe of match-
less beauty must be shifted from his present quarters.
The rippling smile of that dimpled cheek, and the
brightsome twinkle of those laughing eyes of unriv-
alled fascination, which had struck their penetrating
force into the parents' hearts, must now be* dispensed
with. They can enjoy the company of their little
cherub no more. They can hide him no longer.
In fact, he will not be hid. He mil be seen and heard.
That tiny frame has gathered strength, and conse-
quently that music peculiar to babes has attained a
louder volume of sound than formerly. They cannot,
therefore, retain him any more without imperilling

THE FAITH OF MOSES' PARENTS. 133

his life, and risking their own. The detectives would
discover them, and then the terrible consequences —
the slaughter of their child, and perhaps the impris-
onment of themselves. The parents, early one morn-
ing, meet for consultation and prayer. They had
suffered a very uneasy, anxious time the night previ-
ous. Oh ! how they trembled in their bed lest the
shrieking sound of that piercing little cry might
reverberate outside, and thus involve them all in
trouble. Finally, they agree to put the child out,
not to be nursed, unless the gentle zephyr acts the
kind mother by its plaintive wail, or the rustling bul-
rushes sing their lullaby over him. They construct
an ark or cradle of bulrushes — faith's patent bascinet !
There they place their precious little idol, beside the
river's brink in the flags or tall grass. Will that little
basket boat with its valued freight prove to be the
infant's coffin ? Or will he be devoured by voracious
crocodiles which infest the Nile ? It is an anxious,
exciting crisis ! The parents feel that their child is
placed in a convenient spot. They had faith in God,
that He would eventually provide a way of escape.
They indulge the hope- that some sympathetic friend,
having influence with the barbarous monarch, might
see the child, and thus be smitten with his beauty,
and rescue him from danger. In this happy assur-
ance they deposit him among the flags by the Nile.
Nor was their faith in vain. The savior of their child
is at hand. Who happens first to come along but
Pharaoh's daughter. Hark ! what means this sound?
1 hear a babe's cries. She approaches the ark, and,

134 THE HEROES OE FAITH.

opening it, discovers the "goodly child." O sweet
countenance ! O thrilling mnsic ! The royal heart
melts with loving tenderness at the touching sight.
She falls in love with the little innocent, and wants
to become his adopted mother. He is adopted by
the daughter of the very king who cruelly decreed
that all the Hebrew male children should be slain,

" With what compassion — angelic sweetness,
She bends to look upon the infant's face.
She takes his little hand in hers — he wakes;
She smiles upon him. Hark ! alas, he cries.
Weep on, sweet babe; weep on, till thou hast touched
Each chord of pity, wakened every sense
Of melting sympathy, and stol'n her soul."

Then comes the thrilling sequel. Miriam, Moses'
thirteen year old sister, intimates to Miss Pharaoh
that she knew of a woman who would be willing to
nurse him for her. Little suspected Thermuthis that
Miriam had her own mother in mind. Nothing was
ever more romantic than this skilfully laid scheme.
Miriam's suggestion being approved, she hastens to
her anxious mother with the delightful orders. She
receives her own child back again, and although she
nurses him for Pharaoh's daughter, she secretly en-
joys the pleasure. " Take this child away and nurse
it for me, and I will give thee thy wages." Little
knew the royal princess that the luxury of nursing
her own child was all the wages she desired. Tims
the faith of Moses' parents was nobly rewarded. Con-
fidence in God insured unmistakable success. None
who exercises such confidence shall ever be put to
confusion.

THE FAITH OF MOSES' PARENTS. 135

II. Fearlessness of human menace.

The parents of Moses realized the sentiments of
the Psalmist. "Because thou hast been my help,
therefore under the shadow of thy wings will I re-
joice. I will not fear what man can do unto me, for
Jehovah is my strength and redeemer."

The first edict of the cold blooded tyrant was, that
the Hebrew midwives should be the executioners of
Hebrew boys. This, however, was a vain requisition.
The Hebrew women were not made of the stuff Pha-
raoh expected. They would die themselves, before
they would stain their hands with the innocent blood
of their Hebrew baby boys. The first edict failing,
the devil suggests to his hellish mind another plan.
" And Pharaoh charged all the people, saying, Every
son that is born ye shall cast into the river, and every
daughter ye shall save alive." This damnable edict
was successful. Enraged Egyptians, who hated the
Hebrew race,hastened to their dwellings, and snatching
the children from their mothers' sheltering bosoms,
threw them into the cruel tide. Oh, sickening sight !
Angels must have wept when they beheld hundreds
of these dear helpless little ones borne away by the
current to the jaws of crocodiles, or to become food for
fish in the dread depths of the distant Mediterranean, or
when they heard the piteous wails of these precious
children, the frantic shrieks of heartbroken mothers,
and the awful groans of agonized fathers. We won-
der sometimes how such monsters were allowed to'
live. Shortly after the brutal edict was issued,
Moses was born, as though determined to come in

136 THE HEROES OF FAITH.

spite of the edict. When the mother heard that her "
newly born was a son, I imagine how saddened she
felt. Must he too be torn from her, and cast into the
dreadful Nile ? It shall not be. So the parents man-
aged with peculiar adroitness to secrete him for three
months. At the expiration of that term, there was
danger brewing. They cannot keep him one day
longer. Moved by faith, they prepare an ark of bul-
rushes, daub it with pitch and slime, place the child in it,
and lay it in the flags by the river's brink. Miriam,
with beating heart, anxiously watches. She wonders
whether any carnivorous creature in the river will
swim to the brink, and crawl to the spot where her
little brother lies. She prays that such might not
be the case. Fortunately, the first creature that
detects the ark and its occupant is a royal, noble
hearted maid, even the king's daughter Thermuthis,
whose name will ever stand high in the records of
eternity as the humane deliverer of him who proved
to be one of the most illustrious heroes and saints.
Though brought up in idolatry, we cannot but hope
that she embraced the God of her adopted son.
"Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain
mercy." We read of Pharaoh's wickedness and
cruelty, but we have nothing discreditable in the
afterconduct of his daughter. This single act of
hers entitles her to universal admiration. God em-
ployed her to give his servant Moses the best educa-
tion in the land.

And what more can we say of these parents' faith ?
Only that it was firm. It enabled them to remain

THE FAITH OF MOSES' PAKENTS. 137

imperturbable. Had it not been for such faith they
would have always been in a state of nervous ex-
citement. The threatening edict of Pharaoh might
have so terrified them as to implicate them, and the
consequence would be the destruction of their little
one, and perhaps of their own lives. Their faith,
however, was of the right stamp. It sustained them
unfalteringly. It gloriously triumphed.

Parents! there is a power even more malignant
than Pharaoh's that seeks the ruin of your children.
" Your adversary, the devil, goeth about as a roaring
lion, seeking whom he may devour." Every oppor-
tunity he sees to snatch your children from your in-
fluence, under his soul destructive sway, he will em-
brace. He lays all manner of baits to entrap them.
Sse to it that you train them up aright. Bring them
up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Nurse
them for God, and you shall receive your wages in the
conversion of your children, in the consciousness of
fulfilled parental duty, and in the commendation of
your Lord, "Well done, thou good and faithful ser-
vant : thou hast been faithful over a few things, I
will make thee ruler over many things ; enter thou
into the joy of thy Lord."

6

CHAPTEE XIV.

Heb. XI. 24-29.

24 By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be
called the son of Pharaoh's daughter;

25 Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than
to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season ;

26 Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treas-
ures in Egypt: for he had respect unto the recompense of the re-
ward.

27 By faith lie forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king :
for he endured, as seeing him who is invisible.

28 Through faith he kept the passover, and the sprinkling of blood,
lest he that destroyed the firstborn should touch them.

29 By faith they passed through the Red Sea as by dry land:
which the Egyptians assaying to do were drowned .

We cannot thoughtfully read the history of this
remarkable character without gathering several val-
uable instructions. The hand of Providence is clearly
seen from his cradle to his grave. As in his birth he
was hid from the enemy three months, so in his
burial no man was allowed to dig or see his grave,
and "no man knoweth of his grave to this day."

'• With unabated natural force,

His life's rich day no evening knows,
But like an Eastern sunset sinks

At once into the night's repose.
No twilight deepening into night,

No slow decay of ripening power ;

Eull-orbed he melts from Israel's sight,

And in the splendor of full flower.

140 THE HEROES OF FAITH.

. " Like one who, having gained the day,
From the dim field of battle goes
To meet the herald of his king,

While everywhere the trumpet blows :
So Israel's captain climbs the mount,

With Canaan's hills before his eyes,
Brave-hearted goes to meet with death,
And then in solemn silence dies.

" Dies there alone, like the great sun,

And wrapt in no Egyptian balms,
But folded into dreamless sleep,

Clasped in the everlasting arms.
So rest, fair form and kingly brow,

In thy great God-built sepulchre ;
The thunders are thy requiem,

And stars the only watchers there."

It was the spirit of tliis saint, with that of Elijah's,
that was honored by accompanying Jesus Christ to
the Mount of Transfiguration, when Peter, in his
enthusiasm and ecstasy, desired to erect them each a
tabernacle.

The blessedness of the heavenly state is repre-
sented by the singing of "the song of Moses and of
the Lamb." The incidents of his life are of the
most dramatic nature. How he grew up to be learned
in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, "mighty in
words and deeds." How, when he arrived at mature
age, "he refused to become the son of Pharaoh's
daughter ;" how he retired alone into the mount-
ains and into the desert for holy communion and
Divine counsel ; how the Lord appeared to him in
the flaming, yet unconsumed bush ; how he was
trained by the discipline of solitude. Then we find

THE FAITH OF MOSES. 141

him returning to Pharaoh's court, and shortly after
we see him by the shores of the Bed Sea, through
which he passes as on dry land. Reaching the other
side in safety, we behold him as leader, lawgiver,
judge, prophet, and king of the people. Forty years
he led that people through the wilderness, into the
land promised by Jehovah, and just as he was about
to enter his long-expected country, death put an end
to his laborious life, and ushered him into a " better
country, which is a heavenly one." He was one hun-
dred and ten years old when he died. " His eyes
were not dimmed, neither his natural strength
abated." And such was his mysterious departure,
that "no man knoweth of his sepulchre unto this
day."

THE FAITH OF MOSES.

I. What faith enabled him to sacrifice.

1. Princely honors. "He refused to be called the
son of Pharaoh's daughter." We can conceive of no
worldly distinction worthy to be compared with that
which gratuitously offered itself to him. As the
adopted son of Pharaoh's daughter, he was doubtless
entitled to all the advantages of a royal court. As
a prince he had the prospect of succeeding Pharaoh
as king, he having but an only daughter, whose whole
soul had been captivated by Moses. It was a most
tempting opportunity. The crown and throne and
sceptre of Egypt awaited him. The wealthiest, and
most refined, and oldest monarchy then in existence
was his, with all its trappings and honors, if he chose.

142 THE HEROES OF FAITH.

But how did lie act? Did lie entertain the golden
dream of future worldly glory? Nay ! he refused point
blank to entertain for one moment the thought of
such honor. " He refused to be called the son of Pha-
raoh's daughter," the richest, noblest, kindest, and
most tender princess in all the world. He must have
loved such a lady with the love of a child, yet he de-
clined the worldly advantages which such relation-
ship proffered him. There was nothing in the shin-
ing diadem that could captivate his heart, though it
might dazzle his eyes. He was an heir of faith, the
son of a higher power, and, therefore, anticipated a no-
bler kingdom than those of earth — a kingdom which
cannot be moved— a kingdom that shall stand when
all others shall have crumbled into dust.

2. Palatial 'pleasures.

Were Moses profligately inclined, this was just his
opportunity. Every conceivable pleasure was at his
command. To pursue a carnal life, he had access to
as much money as he might desire. It is not neces-
sary to specify the pleasures in which he might have
freely indulged, had he been so disposed, for every
lust to which a carnal heart is heir might be compre-
hended in the catalogue. Our subject, too, at this
time, was in the midst of his youthful vigor, when he
would be more easily assailed than at any later
period. He was unmarried, and beset by snares on
every hand, but having the " root of the matter in
him," and knowing Him who is invisible, he con-
quered the flesh, with all its carnal appetites. He

THE FAITH OF MOSES. 143

yielded not to temptation ; lie made temptation suc-
cumb to him. He was fully aware that the " pleas-
ures of sin were only for a season," and that the
baneful fruits of sin would be everlasting in their
effects. Verily, " the wages of sin is death," while
its pleasures are only for a season ; they are evan-
escent. Like bubbles on the face of the water, they
vanish in a moment. The pleasure of this transi-
tory world is but a phantom, holding forth a golden
apple ; but when we put forth' an eager hand to seize
it, lo ! it vanishes, and instead of the luscious fruit,
there is nothing but tainted gas, offensive to the
sense.

Earthly pleasure is an enticing cup ; the lips of
anticipation burn to taste the nectar, but, ere the
hand can grasp it, the effervescence dies out, and dis-
appointment stains the dregs. Earthly pleasure is a
rainbow, beautiful with prismatic rays, but when we
seek its smile, it melts into the cloud, and we find it
all a delusion.

True pleasure is a prize, to be won only on one
condition, viz., " Godliness, which is profitable unto
all things, having the promise of the life that now is,
and of that which is to come." Moses could not be
allured by the pleasures of this sinful life. His
faith led him to seek pleasures more substantial and
abiding.

" This world is all a fleeting show,
For man's illusion given ;

The smiles of joy, the tears of woe

Deceitful shine, deceitful flow.
Tiiere's nothing true but Heaven.

144 THE HEEOES OF FAITH.

" And false the light on Glory's plume
As fading hues of even ;
And Love, and Hope, and Beauty's bloom,
Are blossoms gathered for the tomb.
There's nothing bright but Heaven.

" Poor wanderers of a stormy day,
From wave to wave we're driven ;
And Fancy's flash, and Reason's ray,
Serve but to light the troubled way.
There's nothing calm but Heaven."

3. Egyptian optdence.

The riches of Egypt were immense, but could not
bribe Moses. He knew that material wealth did not
constitute manhood, much less sainthood. He as-
pired for something higher than earthly riches to
make him great. Earthly riches are not in them-
selves objectionable. "When wisely applied, they are
desirable ; but to make of them a golden calf to be
worshipped, this is where the mistake lies. The
word of God does not teach that money is the root of
all evil. That would not be correct. It simply
teaches that the "love of money is the root of all
evil." This unholy passion was not experienced by
this man of God. He sought riches of a superior
character, "treasures which neither moth nor rust
can corrupt — an inheritance incorruptible, un defiled,
and that fadeth not away." When he was come to
years, he refused Egypt with all its glittering wealth
and honors. He breathed in a higher atmosphere,
and sought higher objects. Faith enabled him to see
the vanity of things below, and the reality of things

THE FAITH OF MOSES. 145

above ; and, therefore, lie could cheerfully sacrifice
his worldly prospects for his Heavenly anticipations.

II. What faith enabled, him to prefer.

1. Afflict inn with God! 8 people. " Choosing rather to
suffer affliction with the people of God."

He preferred a life of suffering with God's people,
than a life of pleasure with tho devil's family. By
the telescopic aid of faith, he could see the proxi-
mate end of believers' afflictions. He saw that the
"light affliction" of God's people was but for a
moment, and would work for them a far more exceed-
ing and eternal weight of glory. He could, there-
fore, "rejoice in tribulation." The pleasures of the
worldly terminate in death; the afflictions of the
faithful, in life— life for evermore. Far better is it,
indeed, to put on a garment of mourning in this
fleeting world, and to wear the white robe of bridal
purity and blessedness in the Heavenly and eternal
world. Far better, I say, to be afflicted in life, and
then to be restored in death to health and life
immortal, than to live in sinful ease, and be afflicted
in death's hour with the worm of remorse, that shall
eternally gnaw at our very vitals, till we cry agoniz-
ingly for relief, and nothing but the tormenting
echo to repeat the wail of anguish.

To suffer affliction with God's people here, means
to enjoy with them hereafter the " far more exceed-
ing and eternal weight of glory." To enjoy with the
ungodly the "pleasures of sin for a season," means
to suffer hereafter the weight of Divine wrath, which

6*

146 THE HEROES OF FAITH.

shall crush us down in everlasting despair. Who,
then, will not commend Moses' choice ?

2. Religious reproach.

"Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches
than all the treasures of Egypt." How deeply re-
ligion was imbedded in the strata of his soul ! How
near his heart's affection were the saints of the Most
High ! Moses was an unhesitating believer in the
coming Messiah. He knew that He would have to
endure the contradiction of sinners, and be perse-
cuted in the most malignant spirit. He knew that
He would be contemptuously spat upon, mercilessly
buffeted, derisively taunted, and ignominiously slain.
Having faith in the promised Christ thus to be
treated, he felt that he could suffer reproach for
Him. He deemed it an infinitely greater privilege
to share Christ's reproach than to receive the bland-
ishments of the world. Many generations before the
injunction was given, "If any man serve me, let him
take up his cross and follow me," he had literally
obeyed. He took up his cross. It was his badge of
honor. He was more proud of it than if the Egyptian
crown decked his brow. Shall we not emulate this
illustrious saint — this man so much like an angel?
Is not the prayer burning with holy passion, ready to
fire the soul, "Lord, make me such as Moses was.
Enable me, as he did, to reject the tempting offers of
a flattering, treacherous world, and to choose the ob-
jects which attracted his attention. Especially may
the cross, or the reproach of Jesus, Thy Son, be my

THE FAITH OF MOSES. 147

choicest treasure." " God forbid that I should glory
save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ " ? May
God grant us that faith that will enable us to adopt
the choice of Moses. To bear the "reproach of
Christ " here, is to reign with Him hereafter. Un-
willingness to do this will expose us to the reproach
of devils.

3. T lie prospect of future blessedness.

" He had respect unto the recompense of reward."
The faith of Moses enabled him to look forward
and upward. It soared as on eagle pinion upward to
its celestial treasure, and having obtained a glimpse
of it, he had no desire for worldly honors. He knew
that his reward would be glorious, worthy of infinite
love, and wisdom, and of the riches of Divine grace.
Why is it that so many have turned their backs
upon the world, with all its vanities ? They are actu-
ated by the same principles which governed Moses.
Why is it they prefer to suffer affliction with God's
people, rather than enjoy the pleasures of sin ? Their
faith enables them to foresee the future. They have
"respect unto the recompense of reward." Their
shining day is to come. By faith they have already
been permitted to stand on the sunny peaks of Pis-
gah, and through the vista they have descried the
glowing crowns, the gushing fountains, and the ver-
dant plains of the promised land. And having seen
the King in His beauty, and the land that is afar off,
their own great desire is to " be with Christ, which
is far better." Who would barter awav his soul's

148 THE HEROES OF FAITH.

glowing prospects of everlasting glory, for the mo-
mentary gratification of the flesh ?

TTT. What faith enabled Mm to accomplish.

Three events are specified :

1. To forsake Egypt.

This was no mean performance. It required a
magnanimous faith to do this. He must have seen
Him who is invisible, or he could not have endured
such trial. That sight strengthened him. To leave
Egypt, the land of grandest pyramids, and temples,
and colleges, and palaces in all the world; Egypt,
the highest seat of learning, and science, and art,
and refinement ; Egypt, the most fertile and culti-
vated, the richest and fairest land on earth ; Egypt,
with all its beautiful surroundings and prospects,
where Moses might be "monarch of all he sur-
veyed "—to leave such a country and to abandon
such prospects, to become an humble shepherd in
the land of Midian, and a wandering pilgrim with
the afflicted Hebrews, required strong faith. When
I see him leading 600,000 men on foot, beside their
families and others, through intricate and unfamiliar
paths, carrying unleavened dough on their shoulders
from Barneses to Succoth, where they baked their
dough into unleavened cakes, and then from Succoth
to Etham, and then turning from Etham to Pihahi-
roth before Baal Zephon, and tabernacling in Migdol,
and from thence to the Bed Sea, through which they
passed on dry land— when I see all this, and know
how luxuriously he might have lived in Egypt, I see

THE FAITH OF MOSES. 149

in him the hero of faith and a worthy example to
follow. If we have his faith, we, too, will leave the
Egypt of sinful ease, with all its attractions, for a
Heavenly pilgrimage.

2. To establish the passover and sprinkling of blood.
See Exodus xii.

Moses and the children of Israel acted rjromptly
to the Divine command, and were spared. "He
that destroyed the firstborn did not touch them, for
he found blood on their lintels and on their side-
posts." If we would escape the Divine displeasure,
we must be under the sign of the blood of the cove-
nant. If the blood of Jesus be visible on our hearts
and in our homes, God will spare us as He did the
children of Israel, and we shall live forever.

3. To triumph over the enemy.

Never was there a clearer manifestation of God's
providential interposition than this event. That faith
which moved Moses to risk his life carried him safely
over. That presumption which led Pharaoh and his
host to pursue Moses and his people buried the
enemy in the depths of the sea. Well might Moses
and the redeemed people praise God for their deliv-
erance, for it was complete. Ex. xv. 1-4. We must
pass through the Dead Sea before we reach the
shores of life eternal. Have Ave that faith that can
bear us safely over ? It is presumptuous to live with-
out it, as it is fatal to die without it. If this faith
be ours, our foes shall come no further than death's
narrow sea, for, like the Egyptians of old, they shall
be buried out of our sight forever.

CHAPTEE XY.

1 1 eh. XT. 30.

30 By faith the walls of Jericho fell down, after they were com-
passed about seven clays.

The circumstances which led to the fall of Jericho
may be found in the 'sixth chapter of Joshua. Jeri-
cho was a city belonging to Benjamin, twenty miles
northeast of Jerusalem and six miles from the river
Jordan. It was designated, by Moses, "the city of
palm trees." Deut. xxxiv. 3. Josephus states that
the balsam tree grew within the territory of this city.
This was the first citadel which Joshua and his men
besieged and captured, after having led the Israelites
across the Jordan into Canaan. While renowned for
its profligacy, Jericho has been immortalized on ac-
count of the supernatural exploits performed there.
Joshua, the principal character in this thrilling drama,
descended from Ephraim, and was the son of Nun
and the grandson of Cush. Eor several years he had
been the zealous servant and faithful companion of
Moses, and after the decease of that distinguished
patriarch, he assumed the leadership of the children
of Israel. His original name was " Oshea." He was
one of the spies sent by Moses into the land of Ca-
naan. We have an interesting account of that cir-
cumstance in the twelfth chapter of Numbers. The
meaning of his original name "Oshea" is a savior.
Subsequently Moses called him Joshua, i. e., "he

152 THE HEROES OF FAITH.

shall save," or the salvation of Jehovah, referring to
the deliverance which Jehovah would effect for them.

The instructions on this eventful occasion are as
follows : " Pass on and compass the city, and let him
that is armed pass on before the ark of the Lord."
To the priests he speaks thus, " Take up the ark of
the covenant and let seven priests bear seven trumpets
of rams' horns before the ark of the Lord." With
these instructions they unanimously complied. He
then commands the people that they " shall not shout
nor make any noise with their voice, neither allow any
word to proceed out of their mouth until the day he
bids them shout, then shall ye shout." The follow-
ing morning the priests commence operations. They
blow with their trumpets, yet are the walls unmoved.
This they do seven successive days, and at the seventh
blast on the seventh day, the people shouted when
they heard the blast of the priests' trumpets, and
the well-fortified walls of Jericho fell.

The text represents faith as the medium by which
all this occurred. Faith has accomplished a thousand
wonders, and not the least is the one specified in the
words of our text.

FAITH VS. WALLS OF JERICHO.

I. In what tins faith consisted.

It consisted in this fact, that there was no tendency
in the instruments employed to bring about such a
result ; there was, in short, improbability of every
such a revolutionary occurrence. Neither their na-

FAITH V8. WALLS OF JERICHO. 153

tive sagacity nor past experience would suggest that
mere breathing through rams' horns could level those
massive walls ; and the faith of these illustrious men
consisted in the belief that God could in some myste-
rious manner bless these humble instruments in the
accomplishment of his purposes. These men believed
that the Almighty could from the most unlikely in-
strument perform that which was supernatural. Their
faith was of the genuine stamp, and bore the impress
of Omnipotence. It was that faith described by the
poet, which "laughs at impossibilities, and cries, it
shall be done."

Then again, there was everything to discourage
their faith — the scoffs of the enemy. "We can imagine
how the eyes of the natives gloated as they bent over
their lofty battlements, and ridiculed those poor
Jews as they walked round the city day after day,
blowing through those horns. There was enough to
discourage them in the prosecution of their work,
and they would have been crushed by despair but
for the invincible character of their faith. That faith
is seen in the dauntless perseverance of their work,
despite the improbable nature of their instruments,
and their continued obstacles. It was a severe trial
of their faith. It stood the test. It had an unflinch-
ing hold on Deity, and finally overthrew the ap-
parently impregnable fortress of Jericho. Faith made
rams' horns Divine trumpets. It is indispensable
that we too should exercise faith in the weapons of
our warfare, which are not carnal, but spiritual, and
mighty through God in the pulling down of strongholds.

154 THE HEROES OF FAITH.

Though we are but as earthen vessels ourselves,
weak and feeble, we must remember that the excel-
lency of the power is of God, not of us. We are as-
sured that if we unceasingly blow in the Gospel
trumpet, the Jericho of sin must surrender and all its
barricades be overthrown. What faith did in Joshua's
days it can still accomplish.

II. Faith in God is absolutely necessary to secure suc-
cess in any good work.

It was not the rams' horns after all that demolished
those fortifications, for if others blew in them they
would have stood as erect and defiant as ever. Nor
did the walls fall of themselves. It was that faith
which laid hold of a higher power that accomplished
the work. This teaches that faith in God is indis-
pensable to the fulfilment of any worthy achievement.
Without faith we can accomplish no great spiritual
results. With it, we may hurl pyramids of difficulties
into the sea, and triumphantly perform the work God
has assigned us. What levelled to the dust those
massive structures that seemed to defy penetration ?
Not the instrument itself, but the power of God laid
hold of by faith. For seven days did they persevere
in their laborious undertaking, and " on the seventh
day they encompassed the city seven times," and at
the seventh blast of the trumpets on that day the
walls fell with a terrible crash. So complete was the
overthrow, "that they fell down flat, so that the
people went up into the city, every man straight be-
fore him, and they took the city." Again we ask,

FAITH VS. WALLS OF JERICHO. 155

what was the secret of their success ? A syllable of
five letters furnishes the answer, "faith." Faith not
only can seize mountains of difficulties, and cast them
into the sea as though they were small pebbles, but
it can penetrate the strongest fortresses and bring
them crumbling unto tjie ground. With faith, nothing
is impossible.

Ministers may blow loud and strong in the trum-
pets of salvation Sabbath after Sabbath, yet the
strong citadel of the human heart will not yield to
the sound, unless we exercise unwavering faith in
God, that He will accompany the message with His
blessing. If with an unstaggering faith we still " lift
up our voice and spare not," in due time the defiant
walls of the citadel shall totter and fall. God can as
easily, by our instrumentality, overcome the stub-
bornness of the sinful heart as He did by His ancient
people strike down the walls of Jericho. The Gospel
is still the power of God unto salvation. "The arm
of the Lord is not shortened, that it cannot save."
Let us then awake, put on our strength, shake our-
selves from the dust, loose the bands from off our
necks, and boldly go forth in the name of the Lord
to do battle against the mighty ; then He will come
forth out of His pavilion, and make men feel that
there is a God in Israel. God is ready to do his part
if we are ready to do ours. The sword of the Spirit
is as keen as ever, and the Gospel trumjiet as musical
as ever.

It is a grand error we often commit, when we sur-
miss as to the want of greater success in the service

156 THE HEROES OF FAITH.

of our Lord. Considering how half-hearted we often
are, the wonder is that we have any success at all.
Sometimes we say, if the Church were only moved
to another location, or if it were altered a little, the
good work would go on much better. Sometimes we
say, if we had a different minister we would be surer
of success. Now it has often happened that such
changes have proved detrimental to the Church.
Sometimes we say, if we had a different set of officers
in the Church, and better Church government, we
should be more prosperous. Now that may be some-
times true, but not often. We want something
greater than all these changes. We need more of
that faith that admits no doubt, and that overcometh
the world. We see a locomotive engine on the rail-
way which will not move. The company dismisses
the old driver and enrploys a new one in his place ;
still it does not budge. They try another, and ano-
ther, but with no better result. Finally, one sug-
gests that such a wheel should be altered, or replaced
by another, or the cylinder needs repairing, and a
little different arrangement elsewhere. Still it will
not proceed. While others are discussing as to the
changes necessary, some one steps forward, and says,
"Friends, you are all mistaken. The engine is all
right; what you need is steam. It cannot move, be-
cause you have no fire under the engine, nor water
in its boiler. It may want a little paint here and
there, but that is all. What you need is to get up
the steam."

So with the Christian Church. Whatever changes

FAITH VS. WALLS OF JERICHO. 157

we might make, though the house be fixed ever so
attractively ; though we alter the windows, make the
ceiling higher or lower, put in a new organ, and make
other improvements ; though we change the minister
and officers, and effect a general transformation, yet
will the Church not progress a tittle unless we have
something more than that. To alter this, that, and
the other, will be of no avail, unless we have faith,
propelling like steam, in the Church. We must ex-
ercise unshaken faith in God and His machinery, if
we would push the cause of Christ forward.

Let us, then, work as those who mean to prosper.
Let faith inspire us to unremitting zeal in the service
of our Lord. Let us toil on in faith, and success will
be ours. We shall have the satisfaction of knowing
that our " labor is not in vain in the Lord," and dying
with the wreath of unfading honor encircling and adorn-
ing our brow, we shall ascend to our throne on high,
amid the thundering acclamations of rejoicing angels
and the rapturous plaudits of ransomed souls, while
the Master's voice of welcome, sweeter than the harps
of Paradise, shall ring with Heavenly symphony in
our wondering ears, " Well done, thou good and faith-
ful servant, enter thou into the joy of thy Lord."

Let us in conclusion learn :

1. That faith is indispenscMe to the overthrow of sin.

2. That repeated efforts must be made, to its overthroiv.

3. That sin toiU eventually be overthrown and its cap-
tives delivered.

158 THE HEROES OF FAITH.

Jericho mvst surrender. Sin shall be doomed. The
mouth of the Lord hath spoken it. " Even the cap-
tives of the mighty shall be taken away, and the prey
of the terrible shall be delivered ; for I will contend
with him that contendeth with thee, and I will save
thy children." Let us, then, be encouraged. There
is no such thing as failure in Christian work. Suc-
cess is ours if we have faith enough to believe it.

CHAPTEK XVI

Hub. XI. 81.

31 By faith the harlot Rahab perished not with them that believed
not, when she had received the spies with peace.

"'Tis faith that purifies the heart,
'Tis faith that works by love,
That bids all sinful joys depart,

And lifts the thoughts above." — Watts.

Love has usually been recognized as the Queen of
the Christian graces. Yet without faith there can
be no love. Faith is the very foundation of love.
Unless we believe in God, we can entertain no love
toward Him. We have already seen how this
heavenborn principle is the fountain, where the
streams of good works flow. No service is accepta-
ble unto God but that which is the outcome of faith.
It is the prayer of faith which is answered; the
work of faith which is rewarded; the fight of faith
which is crowned ; and the offerings of faith which
are accepted. We are justified by faith; sanctified
by faith ; and saved by faith. By faith we stand ; by
faith we walk ; by faith we live ; by faith we conquer,
for "this is the victory which overcometh the world,
even our faith." Upon her conversion to God, such
was the faith imparted to Rahab, and which ac-
counted for her moral heroism.

160 THE HEROES OF FAITH.

THE FAITH OF EAHAB.

From it we learn three lessons :

I. Tlie transforming power of faith.

We see this to a wonderful degree in the case be-
fore us. When faithless, this woman was an aban-
doned character. When faith-blessed, she became a
chaste and honorable woman. In her former condi-
tion, she was a child of the devil ; a rebel against
God ; a bane to society ; and lost her womanhood in
her harlotry. In her changed state, effected by faith,
she was made a daughter of the Most High ; retrieved
her character; and became a blessing to the chosen
people of Israel. There has been considerable con-
troversy concerning Eahab's position and reputation.
Some have contended that she was not a lewd
woman; that the term "harlot" simply means
"hostess," namely, one who entertains boarders.
The most reliable authorities, however, have satis-
factorily shown that she was an abandoned charac-
ter, their chief argument being that the Hebrew and
Septuagint versions exactly correspond, and that the
word for "harlot" in both dialects means what is
ordinarily understood by the term in the present
day.* She may have been a hostess who boarded
strangers travelling from place to place. But that
she was a notorious sinner, there can be no room for
doubt, and it is probable enough that she had kept
a house of ill-repute. The sentiment that it is not

* See Olshausen, Ellicott, Stuart and Scott on Hebrews xi. 31.

THE FAITH OF EAHAB. 161

likely that Eahab, if she had been a bad woman,
would have been chosen as an ancestor of our Sa-
viour, is absurd, for others were his progenitors, who,
in their converted state, perpetrated fouler crimes
than ever this woman did in her unconverted condi-
tion. The man after God's own heart did that which
was after the devil's mind.

Yet, fallen as she was, she did not sink so low in
the pit of degradation but the arms of mercy could
reach her. With all her vileness, her reformation
and conversion were not hopeless. By grace, through
faith, she was immediately transformed from the
worthless wretch into a useful servant. She was
probably converted a short while before the arrival of
the spies, and it was in consequence of that saving
faith which she had received that she entertained so
spontaneously and generously her, strange visitors.
What faith accomplished for her, it can still accom -
plish. There is no character this side of perdition
but Almighty grace can convert, and saving faith
transform. A host of sinners, as vile as Rahab or
Mary Magdalene, have experienced the converting
grace of God, and the transforming power of faith,
and have led lives of Christian usefulness. The mo-
ment that the soul is converted, that very moment it
believes, and the moment it believes, that moment it
cries, "Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?"
The whole current of life is changed, just as we
have seen streams made to flow in other directions.

162 THE HEKOES Q¥. FAITH.

II. The adventurous spirit of faith.

It surmounts every difficulty and danger in the ac-
complishment of its mission. We have a forcible il-
lustration of this in the example before us. Eahab
imperilled her life by the course of conduct which
she pursued. She would have never ventured on
that course, but for that faith which saved her. It
was this faith that inspired her with dauntless cour-
age to face the danger, and confront the difficulty.
If we turn to Joshua ii., we shall discover the danger
to which she exposed herself, and learn how narrow
was her escape. It was this deep-rooted principle
of faith, that prompted her to such heroism. By the
eye of faith she recognized the two spies from Shittim
as God's messengers, and under the inspiration of
this principle, she was led, at the peril of her life, to
screen them so dexterously. " She had brought them
up to the roof of the house, and hid them with the
stalks of flax, which she had laid in order upon the
roof." Joshua ii. (>. True, she uttered a falsehood on
this memorable occasion ; but we cannot indorse the
statement of that grand, but mistaken preacher,
the late James Wells, of the Surrey Tabernacle,
London, "that God sanctions lies to carry out His
purposes." This part of her conduct only demon-
strates the weakness of the flesh ; her daring exhi-
bition of faith shows her moral prowess. Failings
belong to the best of the children of men.

What faith enabled this woman to undertake and
accomplish, it can still do and dare. As there is
"nothing too hard for the Lord," so there is nothing

THE FAITH OF RAHAB. 163

too difficult for faith to undertake and overcome.
It lias stood the test of the hottest fires, without
losing a shade of its illustrious brightness ; it has
slept in a den of lions, without receiving a single scar
on its seraphic countenance ; it has danced upon the
edge of the gleaming cimeter, without a solitary
bruise ; it has extinguished the fury of the angriest
flames, without the slightest injury; it has scaled the
highest peaks of danger, and sang the song of tri-
umph over its vanquished foes. Though a host en-
camp around him who possesses this faith, he need
not fear. There is no cowardice about this princi-
ple. It is a heroic virtue. It makes its subjects irre-
sistible. It risks with fearless intrepidity upon any
mission enjoined by Heaven, despite a thousand
dangers. It makes us the heroes of a God-hating
world.

III. The compensating quality of faith.

"By faith Rahab perished not with them that
believed not." The unbelieving, refers to the idola-
trous citizens of Jericho, who treated the claims of
the Israelites to the land of Canaan with contumacy,
and discredited what Jehovah had said concerning
them. Not only did her faith save her, but her
whole family, consisting of her aged parents, brothers
and sisters— yea, " all that she had, and she dwelleth
in Israel even unto this day; because she hid the
messengers, which Joshua sent to spy out Jericho."
(Joshua vi. 25.) The scarlet line arrangement, was
faithfully kept. While all the unbelievers in Jericho

164 THE HEROES OF FAITH.

were destroyed, she and hers were saved. She
might have betrayed the spies, and thus exposed
them to a cruel death. She, however, befriended
them, and for this act of faith she was remembered
and rescued by God, and all that she had.

Faith has not only saved individuals, but families.
It has preserved many a household, not only from
temporal, but eternal destruction. In response to
the Philippian jailer's awakening cry, the Apostle
said, " Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou
shalt be saved, thou and thy house." The faith of
one member in the family may influence favorably
the whole household, and lead them to enjoy the
blessing of salvation. If truly we have faith in the
Son of God, it will lead us to exert ourselves for the
spiritual welfare of our kindred and friends. None
can be selfish, or indifferent, who knows this saving
and generous grace.

There was a man in England who walked seven
miles every Sunday to a place where alone, in his
opinion, the Gospel was truly preached. He was ex-
ceedingly jealous for the " purity of the doctrine,"
and declared that he " could not sit under religious
instruction elsewhere." The spirit of his religion,
however, was not such as marked Him " who went
about doing good," for it consisted in an evil temper,
self-conceit, carnal security, and an uncharitable,
selfish disposition. One day he was met and inter-
rogated by a friend : " Wli3re is your wife V" " Wife,'j
he replied, and not one word more. "What!"
inquired his friend, "Does she not go with you?"

THE FAITH OF RAHAB. 165

" O no ! she never goes anywhere," was the hus-
band's answer. " Well, but don't you try to get her
along, and the children ?" said the friend. " No !
The fact is, I think if I look to myself, that is quite
enough." "What!" said the other, flashing with in-
dignation, " and do you believe you are God's elect?"
"Yes." "Well, I don't think you are, because you
are worse than a heathen man and a jjublican, for
you don't care for y our own household ; therefore, I
cannot believe that you give much evidence of being
God's elect, for they love their fellow creatures."

The rebuke was proper. Selfishness is not the
characteristic of the truly elect. Electing grace is
not neglecting grace. Saving faith is not a selfish
faith. It expands the whole being. It makes a man
generous, whatever may have boen his former ex-
clusiveness. It makes him intensely anxious for the
salvation of his own family and connections. As in
Kahab's case, who was profoundly interested in the
safety of her house, so will it be with us. Have we
this faith '? We must know it personally, ere we can
interest ourselves in others. A man whose mind
was greatly perplexed on the subject of " saving
faith," had a dream, which seemed to explain it
clearly to his mind. He said, " I thought I stood on
some desolate spot, on the very edge of a steep cliff.
Below, at a great depth, the sea was dashing vio-
lently against the bottom of the cliff. I stood with
only half a footing on the edge, when, in a moment,
something, I know not what, could not imagine what,
whirled me over the precipice, and I felt myself fall-

166 THE HEROES OF FAITH.

ing and falling down into the sea beneath ; bnt,
suddenly, how I cannot tell, I thought I caught
hold of a crag on the side of the cliff as I was falling
past it, and there hung with one hand, grasping a
small piece of rock. I hung a few seconds, and then
I felt that the crag was crumbling in my fingers, or
breaking away from the sides. What was I to do ?
The next second I must fall, and be dashed to atoms.
All at once I turned and looked behind me, and I
saw a figure coming toward the cliff and walking on
the water. He came nearer and nearer, till he stood
just underneath where I was hanging, and although
the distance downward was great, yet I thought I
could see the expression of his countenance — that it
was a kind and gentle one ; I could even see that our
eyes met, and instantly I heard him whisper softly
to me, 'Let go, let go.' I let go, and I fell into his
arms, and was saved." He understood the dream
thus : " That crag was self-rightedusiless, and every
false refuge that crumbles in the grasp of the sinner.
He who came walking to him on the water was Jesus
Christ, the Son of God. The words " Let go," Were
the same as the words " Believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ, and thou shalt be saved." Faith, then, is the
letting go of every false refuge, and dropping into
the arms of an Almighty Deliverer. What a simple
act, yet how sublime ! Such faith we may instantly
experience. Eternally we shall not lose it.

Art thou a Kahab, or an Ahab ? There is mercy
even for you. The vilest may find a welcome in
Jesus Christ. " Him that cometh unto me, I will in

THE FAITH OF EAHAB. 167

no wise cast out." Only believe, and the past is for-
given. Only believe, and the past is forgotten. Only
believe, and the past is obliterated. Only believe,
and yon pass from death unto life. Only believe,
and you. become the family of a household that can
never be torn asunder. Only believe, and Omnip-
otent power is pledged to protect and preserve you,
through faith unto salvation. Only believe, and
yours will be the " abundant entrance into the ever-
lasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus
Christ."

'• 0 how unlike the complex works of man,
Heaven's easy, artless, unincumbered plan!
No meretricious graces to beguile,
No clustering ornaments to clog the pile:
From ostentation, as from weakness free,
It stands like the cerulean arch we see,
Majestic in its owu simplicity.
Inscribed above the portal from afar,
Conspicuous as the brightness of a star,
Legible only by the light they give,
Stand the soul-quickening words, ' Believe, and live.' "

CHAPTEE XVII.

IIeij. XI. 32.

32 And shall T more say? for the time would fail me to tell of
Gedeon, and of Barak, and of Samson, and of Jephthae; of David
also, and Samuel, and of the prophets.

Man is a mere cipher in liimself, but if lie lias God
to champion his cause, he is stronger than ten thou-
sand times ten thousand. God and His Gideon are
mightier than the universe. More is implied than
language intimates in the assurance of the Angel of
the Covenant, " The Lord is with thee, thou mighty
man of valor." Was it not this same Angel who, in
His last commission, assured the disciples, "Lo, I
am with you alway, even unto the end of the world " ?
It was this that made Peter bold, James strong, John
valiant, and Paul courageous. They could do all
things through Christ, who strengthened them.

Though brief, the biography of this heroic servant
is of exciting interest. He was no less a hero in
faith, than he was in war.

THE FAITH OF GIDEON.

I. His faith recruiting.

Before Gideon marshals his forces together to en-
gage in bloody conflict, he flies for direction and help
to the throne of grace. Deeply conscious of his
utter inability, he trembles at the undertaking. He

7*

170 THE HEROES OF FAITH.

appeals for an encouraging token. God graciously
responds. The flesh and unleavened cakes which he
laid on the rock were consumed by fire that burst
forth from that rock. This was the first favorable
omen. He was shortly after this endowed with fear-
less courage. He overthrew the altar of Baal, which
Joash, Jiis father, had raised. The daring act cre-
ated terrific consternation. When it was inquired,
"Who did this thing? " the people replied, " Gideon,
the son of Joash, hath done this thing." The con-
sequence was, the Midianites and the Amalekites
and the children of the East were greatly infuriated.
Of course, war was declared, which generally is the
offspring of anger. "But God's Spirit was upon
Gideon." Faith's propelling power was in his soul.
Having charged his messengers to go throughout all
Manasseh, to Asher, Zebulun, and Naphtali, and
having 'succeeded in bringing his men together, he
turns again to God, and thus pours out his soul : " If
thou wilt save Israel by mine hand, as thou hast
said, behold, I will put a piece of wool in the floor,
and if the dew be on the fleece only, and it be dry
on all the earth beside, then shall I know that thou
wilt save Israel by mine hand, as thou hast said."
Some might be disposed to censure Gideon for this
conditional petition, yet we must remember he makes
it with reverence. Under the guidance of faith, he
appeals to the right source, and the result is, the ap-
pearance of that mysterious and favorable phenome-
non. His prayer was granted.

Let us learn from this circumstance not to enter

THE FAITH OF GIDEON. 171

upon any great undertaking without first laying the
matter before God in prayer. " If ye shall ask any-
thing of the Father in my name, it shall be done
unto you, that the Father may be glorified in the
Son." Gideon is further encouraged to seek another
phenomenal and favorable sign. "Let not thine
anger be hot against me, and I will speak but this
once. Let me prove, I pray Thee, but this once
with the fleece ; let it now be dry upon the fleece,
and upon all the ground let there be dew." This de-
sire, too, is gratified that same night. Faith never
fails. It always succeeds. While it often seeks
modestly, it never seeks doubtingly, and conse-
quently never seeks unsuccessfully. There are none
so strong as those who have transactions with the
old throne ; none so mighty as those who have
dealings with Omnipotence. Clad with Divine power,
the man of faith is invincible. He is a terror to
devils. The tallest giants in iniquity quake at his
approach. Divinity is stamped on the countenance
of such a man. Heaven beams through his eyes.
The stability of the Rock of Ages marks his charac-
ter. Yea,

" Satan trembles when he sees
The weakest saint upon his knees."

A life of faith, means a life of prayer ; a life of
prayer, means a life of power. The worst men are
awestruck in the presence of such a life.

II. His faith triumphing.

Having consulted his God by prayer, Gideon was
almost almighty to confront the enemy. He meets

172 THE HEROES OF FAITH.

them without the slightest perturbation. With his
three hundred men he vanquishes a host represented
as " laying along in the valley like grasshoppers for
multitude," while two of their princes, Oreb and
Zeeb, are slain.

With his valiant three hundred, he again pursues
the Midianites, and having slain the two kings of
Midian, Zebah and Zalmunna, they are completely
subdued. So decisive is the victory, that with only
three hundred men, he slays one hundred and twenty
thousand trained warriors, not one of his little army
missing. Amazing exploit ! Surely he could not have
so triumphed but for his alliance to God by faith. It
was the " sword of the Lord and of Gideon " that ac-
complished the feat. Gideon was shielded by faith,
fought under the direction of faith, sustained by
the power of faith, and conquered through the
medium of faith. The sword of the Lord, wielded
uy the hand of faith, achieved the victory. So
permanent in its result was this victory, that the
enemy "lifted up their heads no more, and the
country was in quietness forty years in the days
of Gideon." Without his God he could have done
nothing. He and his three hundred would have been
but as babes in the hands of the enemy, but with
his God, he and his little army were mightier than
the one hundred and twenty thousand whom they
slew. Independently of God, the sainted heroes of
the Old Testament would have been as helpless
reeds in the hands of trained and tried warriors ;
but linked to God by faith, nothing could stand be-

THE FAITH OF GIDEON. 173

fore tliem. "Who through faith subdued kingdoms
* * * out of weakness were made strong, waxed
valiant in fight, put to flight the armies of the
aliens."

Let Gideon's God be our God ; let his faith be in-
herited by us, and we shall triumph over deadlier
foes than those of Gideon and his men. " We shall
overcome the world, the flesh, and the devil." The
devil shall flee from us, the flesh shall lose its power,
and the world be crushed under foot. " The weapons
of our warfare are not carnal, but spiritual," for the
destruction of spiritual foes. We may not be sum-
moned to fight on the battle field as Gideon and
others were. We may not have the opportunity of
distinguishing ourselves in blood red war, as Nelson
in Trafalgar ; Wellington in Waterloo ; Havelock in
Lucknow ; Garibaldi in Italy ; Yon Moltke in France,
or Grant in Virginia ; but we are summoned to en-
list in a nobler warfare, "the good fight of faith."
We may earn higher distinctions, and fame more last-
ing than can be won in the sanguinary contests of
earth, namely, the commendation of the King of
kings and Lord of lords.

III. His faith instructive.

1. Teaching that nothing can be successfully done apart
from God.

Taking it for granted that Gideon wielded a sword
on this memorable occasion, yet it would not have
served better than a common pin in the presence of
such mighty foes, but for the Divine encouragement.

174 THE HEEOES OF FAITH.

"The Lord is with thee, thou mighty man of valor;"
and the inspiring promise, "Surely I will be with
thee, and thou shalt smite the Midianites as one
man ;" and the favorable tokens given by Jehovah of
his triumphant success. Such ma/ be said of other
historical events in the Old Testament. The rod of
Moses would have been absolutely worthless but for
the command of God. It was this command that
gave it its penetrating force. The serpent of brass
would have been utterly inefficacious, but for the
ordinance of God. The jaw bone in Samson's
strong hand could not have achieved the exploits
attributed to it, but for the truth of the testi-
mony, that "the Spirit of the Lord came mightily
upon him." The ram's horns could have accom-
plished nothing, but for "the word of the Lord."
The pebble in' David's sling tells a tragic tale in " the
name of the Lord." We read of no sword in the
hands of Gideon's band, but simply "trumpets, with
empty pitchers, and lamps within the pitchers."
They were to blow in those trumpets, and say, " The
sword of the Lord and of Gideon." This they did,
and in response God interposed, so that the enemy
was slain. Gideon and his three hundred, were made
mighty through God. In the strength of the same
God alone, can we overcome our spiritual adversaries.

2. Teaching that God alone is entitled to all the glory.

We observe how careful God is of His own glory.
The day of battle is come, and we behold the people
encamping beside the well of Harod 32,000 strong.

THE FAITH OF GIDEON. 175

"There are too many," says the Almighty, "lest
Israel vaunt themselves against me, saying, ' My own
hand hath saved me.'" The result is the return of
more than two thirds of the people. Though only
10,000 are left, the number must still be reduced, and
another experiment must be tried. " Every one that
lappeth of the water with his tongue, as a dog lap-
peth, him shalt thou set by himself : likewise every
one that boweth down upon his knees to drink." Out
of these ten thousand, only three hundred brought
up the water with their hand and lapped. These
were the elect and chosen. The question now is,
" How is it possible for so few to vanquish so many,
'who lay along in the valley like grasshoppers for
multitude'?" The reply is at hand, "By the three
hundred men that lapped will I save you, and deliver
the Midianites into thy hand."

It was God who interposed. It was God who
fought for them and through them. It was God who
gave them the victory. It was He, therefore, who
was entitled to the glory. Here we are reminded of
the characteristic language of the Egyptians prior to
this event, " Let us flee from the face of Israel ; for
the Lord fighteth for them against the Egyptians."
It was this truth which inspired that pean of victory
from the lips of Moses and the children of Israel, "I
will sing unto the Lord, for He hath triumphed glori-
ously : the horse and his rider hath He thrown into
the sea. The Lord is a man of war : the Lord is His
name. Pharaoh's chariots and his host hath He
cast into the sea : his chosen captains also are

176 THE HEROES OF FAITH.

drowned in the Bed Sea," Exodus xv. 1-4. David, in
his twenty-fourth Psalm, sings in triumph, "The
Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle."
Gamaliel understood somewhat the philosophy of
this subject, when he warned the Jewish authorities,
" Refrain from these men, and let them alone ; for if
this counsel or 'this work be of men, it will come to
nought : but if it be of God, ye cannot overthrow it :
lest haply ye be found even to fight against God."
Oreb and Zeeb, Zebah and Zalmunna, the princes
and kings of the Midianites, are but as lapdogs before
the King of kings and the Lord of hosts; and
120,000 Midianites are but as ciphers to contend
with that God, before whom " all nations are as noth-
ing, and are counted to Him less than nothing and
vanity. Who bringeth the princes to nothing ; who
maketh the judges of the earth as vanity." We are
unconquerable if God is on our side. "No weapon
formed against us shall prosper." Whatever victories
we win on earth, we must ascribe to Him. In our
triumph over the last enemy, death, our language of
grateful acknowledgment shall be, "Thanks be to
God Avho giveth us the victory through our Lord
Jesus Christ."

CHAPTER XVIII.

Heb. XT. 32.

32 And what ^hall ] more say ? for the time would fail me to tell
of Gedeon, find of Barak, and of Samson, and o/Jephthae; o/David
also, and Samuel, and o/the prophets.

" In his face

Terror and sweetness labored for the place :
Sometimes his sun-lright eyes would shine so fierce,
As if their pointed beams would even pierce
The soul and strike the amaz'd beholder dead ;
Sometimes their glory would disperse and spread
More easy flame, and like the star that stood
O'er Bethlehem, premised and portend seme good:
Mixt was his bright aspect, as if his breath
Had equal errands both of life and death :
Glory and mildness seemed to contend
In his fair eyes." — Quarks.

Men in olden time had a fabled giant who could
not be subdued. Whenever he fell, the earth, his
mother, infused into him such agility and power, that
he instantly sprang up at the moment of contact, and
slew his antagonists. Finally, Hercules, discovering
the secret, grappled and upheld him, and not permit-
ting him to touch the ground, he crushed him. It is
contrariwise with the giant of faith. The earth is
not his mother. He is a child of Heaven. If he
descends to settle on the ground, his strength van-
ishes. He is helpless in the world's clutches.

Notwithstanding Samson's twofold defeat by the

178 THE HEEOES OF FAITH.

weaker vessel, and that a broken one, his physical
strength was prodigious. Despite his failings, he
was a child of God, raised up to break the power
and tyranny of the Philistines, and to humble their
pride and obstinacy, who persisted to oppress his
countrymen.

THE FAITH OF SAMSON.

I. It was the channel of his. physical strength.

Four times in the history of this muscular believer,
his strength is attributed to the Spirit of God. God's
Spirit was instilled into him. Almighty influences lay
imbedded in his soul. Some ridicule the idea of Sam-
son performing the feats ascribed to him, but when
the philosophic truth is borne in mind that "All
power belongeth unto God," and hence derived from
Him, we may easily account for Samson's extraor-
dinary exploits, whose soul by faith was linked to
Omnipotence.

" A first glance at this most truly human character,
may, perhaps, convey the impression that it is
altogether unlike that of any other man ; as if its pos-
sessor belonged to some other family of beings, and
had strayed upon our planet by mistake ; just as an In-
dian butterfly is to be seen, once or twice in a century,
flying in Hyde Park, the question being unsolved as
to the means by which it could have arrived there.
But deeper reflections will obliterate such an impres-
sion, and will lead us to the conclusion that the
strangeness of the character of Samson arises not so
much from its bein£ unlike that of other men, as from

THE FAITH OF SAMSON. 179

its being cast in a more gigantic mould."" Yet there
was tins great distinction between Samson and his
coadjutors, that he was endowed with special power
from on high. He was one of those Titanic men,
whose physical qualities under God were specially
adapted for a work which needed to be accomplished.

The first astounding feat performed by this man of
faith is that recorded in Judges xiv. 6. It was at
Timnath. ' 'A young lion roared against him. ' ' Under
a sudden impulse of supernatural energy, he grapples
the ferocious animal, takes him on his brawny,
sinewy arms, and " rent him as he would have rent a
kid," though nothing was in his hand. The Spirit
which descended on David when he slew the lion and
the bear, descended on him. A short time before
this event, we read " the Spirit of the Lord began to
move him at times in the camp of Dan, between
Zorah and Esthaol." #The Vulgate renders it : "the
Spirit of the Lord began to be with him." The Sep-
tuagint version, "began to go forth with him." The
Targum of Jonathan, "began to sanctify him." A
distinguished French writer says, " began to strike
him like the iron on the anvil." One of those re-
markable times visited him on this memorable occa-
sion.

Although opposed to making types of nearly every
character in Old Testament history, I cannot refrain
from making this extract :• " Taking into account the
entire history of Samson and his peculiar calling, the

* Wiseman's " Men of Faith," p. 280.

180 THE HEROES OF FAITH.

killing of the lion cannot be dismissed with mere
astonishment as an unsurpassed feat of strength.
Samson, as a Nazarite, was a living parable. The
Nazarite was to be a living type and image of holi-
ness, a symbol of entire consecration to the Lord. It
was no mere ascetical institution, as if the outward
self denial in meat and drink was in itself pleasing to
the Lord ; such a spirit was as foreign to Judaism as
it is to Christianity. The Nazarite was an actual
symbolical lesson in a religious and moral aspect ; a
kind of priest by his manner of life, as the priests,
by the duties of their office, acted the part of a sym-
bolical light and teacher to Israel. It is thus that
Samson has been regarded as a type of Christ, and
his victory over the lion as a figure of Him who goes
forth conquering and to conquer ; who among the
wild beasts in the wilderness, in the power of the
Spirit overcame the devil, that roaring lion ; and
who, in the language of the Psalmist, " treads upon
the lion and the adder, and tramples the dragon
under His feet.""

Jerome says, "We also are Nazarites in Christ,
and are able to conquer the lions through His power."
A higher authority declares, "I can do all things
through Christ who strengthened me."

Samson's next exploit was the slaughter of thirty
men of Ashkelon, whose foul hands were stained with
the blood of the murdered ftmocents. This he did, not
as an act of private revenge, but as the commissioned

* Fairbairn's "Typology of Scripture," vol. 2, p. 391.

THE FAITH OF SAMSON. 181

avenger and deliverer of his people. "We are next
introduced to a deed performed in a revengful spirit.
Being denied admittance into his wife's presence, he
retaliates. Having caught three hundred foxes, or
jackals, which still abound in the glens around Bath-
shemesh, he tied them in couples, tail to tail, with a
lighted torch between, and drove them into the Philis-
tines' cornfields, and vineyards, and olive grounds,
where they made terrible depredations. This so
exasperated the Philistines that they malignantly
burnt to death Samson's wife and father-in-law.
This led to another bloody affray. Samson smites
the Philistines " hip and thigh with a great slaughter."
This revengeful deed was not without its accompany-
ing blessing. It proved a most auspicious beginning
in the subjection of the Philistine power. Yet we
must remember, that this event in Samson's life
does not justify us in making " Lex talionis" the law
of our life and conduct. The Gospel injunction is to
" overcome evil with good." The scene which next
arrests our attention is the extraordinary feat re-
corded, " the cords that were upon his arms became
as flax that was burnt with fire, and his bands loosed
from off his hands." Surely the Spirit of God must
have descended on him in mighty power. We are
aware how slender a burnt rope of flax is. The
rope retains its form, but the slightest touch crum-
bles it into dust. ' With the same ease, as though
it were a burnt rope, did this hero snap asunder the
new cords.

We cannot fail to see a strong resemblance be-

182 THE HEEOES OF FAITH.

tween this incident in the life of Samson, and that in
the life of Samson's Saviour, who, when betrayed
into the hands of the enemy, as Samson was by his
own countrymen, snapped the bands of death asunder
with the same ease, as when He lifted His hand over
the turbulent Galilean lake, and said, "Peace, be
still."

We are now introduced to another unparalleled ex-
hibition of physical prowess and power, " the slaying
of a thousand men with a new jawbone of an ass."
Imagine this Hercules just liberated from the cords
which bound him fast, seizing so insignificant an in-
strument for his weapon, and pursuing the terror-
stricken Philistines, smiting one heap after another,
till a thousand had fallen dead at his feet.

"With the jawbone of an ass, heaps upon heaps,
With the jaw of an ass have I slain a thousand men."

As an expression of his devout gratitude to God,
he called the scene of slaughter Ramath-lehi, which
signifies "Jawbone height."

Bishop Wordsworth, endorsed by Wiseman, inti-
mates that Samson did not acknowledge God in this
wonderful feat. I cannot sympathize with their view.
Whatever may have been Samson's failings, he was,
notwithstanding all, a child of God, and always
acknowledged a higher power in all his achieve-
ments. Soon after this, when "sore athirst," he
acknowledges God for this very deliverance, and is
encouraged to lift up his heart in prayer. " Thou
hast given this great deliverance into the hand of

THE FAITH OF SAMSON. 183

thy servant : and now shall I die for thirst and fall
into the hands of the uncircumcised." His distress-
ful cry was not in vain. " God clave a hollow place
that was in the jaw, and there came water thereout ;
and when he had drunk, his spirit came again, and
he revived ; wherefore he called the name thereof
Enhakkore, which is in Lehi unto this day." This
fully justifies Dr. Kitto's remark on this passage : " It
is a strong presumption in favor of the genuineness and
vitality of his faith that he did so. Not many would
have had such strong persuasion of the Lord's provi-
dential care as would lead them to cry to Him for
water to supply their wants in the like exigency.

* * * The incident shows what manner of man
essentially he was, and indicates the kind of spirit in
which his great operations were conducted." *

I shall pass by the next sad event in his life, when
he fell into a grievous sin, simply referring to his
marvellous escape from Gaza at midnight, when he
"took the doors of the gate of the city, and the
two posts, and went away with them, bar and
all, and put them upon his shoulders, and carried
them to the top of an hill that is before Hebron."
Though he betrayed himself into the hands of Deli-
lah, and God had withdrawn his strength from him,
yet, at death's threshold, with eyes plucked out,
was he not altogether forsaken. He had still
faith enough to commit himself into Jehovah's
hands, and in answer to his importunate prayer, su-

* Vide " Kitto's Illustrations " in loco.

184 THE HEROES OE FAITH.

perhuman strength returned, and lie toppled the
building upon the lords and the people who had
gathered to make sport of him. They little dreamed
that they were sporting on the brink of destruction,
and that in making sport of Samson, they were
touching the apple of God's eye. " The Nazarite, in
the moment of his own death, gained the greatest of
his victories — a victory of Jehovah, the God of Is-
rael, against Dagon, the idol of the Philistines.
Baing enticed, he had sinned; sinning, he had suf-
fered ; suffering, he had repented ; repenting, he had
prayed, and waited upon the Lord ; waiting upon the
Lord, he had renewed his strength."* "The dead
which he slew at his death were more than they
which he slew in life." All these feats he accom-
plished by faith which conveyed Divine strength
into his person. The secret of his marvellous
power was not in himself, but in God, who worked
by him.t Faith in God accomplishes wonders still.
It sustains the soul, and nerves the arm of the
Christian soldier, and makes him invincible. He
who leans on finite power cannot fight the battles of
life successfully, and is already a conquered man.
The nearer we are to God, the greater our strength,
and the surer our success.

Come with me, and I will show you one who, if he
cannot accomplish the feats of Samson, can accom-
plish something even higher. It is the youth, who,

* Wiseman's " Men of Faith," p. 353.
f Bruce's " Biography of Samson," p. 4.

THE FAITH OF SAMSON. 185

without illustrious pedigree, or emblazoned heraldry,
careless of the hollow flatteries of smooth-tongued
hypocrites, or the cruel criticisms of an unchar-
itable world; who, having no cringing cowardice,
or shrinking timidity, reposes with noble dignity and
dependence on Almighty power. There is sublime
grandeur in the towering mountain, that looks down
with becoming loftiness on the lowly valley beneath ;
in the foaming cataract, that dashes with such tre-
mendous velocity over the rugged precipice into the
agitated waters below ; in the majestic thunderbolt
launched from the Divine hand, and sent rolling
along the heavens; in the roaring billows,
lashed by the fury of the tempest, and rising in
mountain piles one upon the other. These are
sublime spectacles. But sublimer far, the young
man emerging out of obscurity with a cool, clear
intellect, with a stout heart, steady nerves, flashing
eyes, and determined feet, allying himself with the
Almighty, a victor over his passions, controlling the
elements, grappling the foes of God and humanity,
dashing to the earth every obstacle that obstructs the
way to fame ; crushing with unflinching determina-
tion under foot all manner of oppression, gracefully
lifting up and helping the downtrodden, deserving
poor, and trampling in everlasting contempt, every
giant temptation and seductive Delilah. This is
sublimity surpassing all others. God enrolls such
feats in the Registry of Glory.

8

CHAPTER XIX.

Heb. xr. 32.

32 And what shall I more say ? for the time would fail me to tell
of Gedeon, and of Barak, and of Samson, and o/Jephthae; of Da-
vid also, and Samuel, and of the prophets.

Barak, the son of Abinoam, is historically asso-
ciated with the most illustrious woman of the day.
Her name is Deborah, the wife of Lapidoth, who
was not only a prophetess, but also a judge over Is-
rael. So beautifully did her excellencies blend in
her character, that she was deemed by Heaven
worthy of filling the most responsible position. To
her, Barak was under lasting obligations. His faith
was materially strengthened by his intercourse with
this model woman, and especially by his fellowship
with Heaven.

THE FAITH OF BARAK.

I. In its military triumph.

It was a victory over a mighty host, both numeri-
cally and physically. Well might the sons of Israel
cry unto the Lord, for they had been oppressed forty
years, while the enemy on this occasion was fully
equipped for the fight. They had nine hundred iron
chariots, and were to all human appearance masters
of the situation. Jabin was king. Sisera was cap-
tain. The foe was legion. Barak at first dreads to
encounter them. He declines to engage in the war-

188 THE HEROES OF FAITH.

fare, though assured by our heroine "that the Lord
would give Sisera into his hands," unless she accom-
panies him. She assents, and proceeds with him to
Kedesh-Naphtali. Barak's men being ready, they
march to Mount Tabor, ten thousand strong, strong
in muscle, but stronger in faith. Sisera pursues
them with his immense army, feeling confident as to
the supposed issue. Doubtless the enemy considered
it but mere child's play, to make a clean sweep of
Barak and his ten thousand. Being unbelievers,
however, they misplace their confidence when they
place it in themselves. Man at best is but vanity.
Vain indeed is the help of man in such conflicts as
these. Barak, whose faith had taught him better
sense, trusts not in himself, nor does he build his hope
of success in his army, who were considerably in the
minority, but he relies on God's almighty power, and
pursuing the enemy in His strength, they are com-
pletely demoralized and defeated, so that every man
in Sisera's army was slain.

Seeing his utter discomfiture, and fearing the dis-
astrous results of the defeat, Sisera, who is sprightly
and athletic, takes to his heels. Poor, deluded mor-
tal ! He escapes from one death to meet it in another
form. Fleeing for protection to Jael's tent, the wife
of Heber the Kenite, he lies down to rest. She re-
freshes him with some milk, and places a covering
over him, so that he resigns himself to sleep in the
blissful consciousness of security. It is a sleep, how-
ever, from which he awakes not. Taking a nail or
pin, which fastens the tent rope on the ground, and a

THE FAITH OF BAEAK. 189

hammer, she treads lightly to his side, and with one
fatal blow she strikes the nail through his temple
into his brain, and he dies.

This is what I call the sleep of self-delusion — a
sleep that never awakes in life, but terminates in
death. Such is the sleep of every infatuated sinner.
Vainly dreaming of an escape from the wrath to
come, they awake, like the rich man in torment, and
find that they are held with chains of everlasting
darkness, so that they cannot move or pass from
thence.

This victory of Barak was comparatively an easy
one, and we need not wonder, for the Lord of hosts
was in the fight. " The Lord discomfited Sisera and
all his chariots, and all his hosts, with the edge of the
sword before Barak." Judges iv. 15.

It was not so much Barak's military expertness
and adroitness which won for him this signal victory,
as it was his unflinching faith in God. United by
that faith to the Almighty and everlasting God, there
could be no other than a triumphant victory. Barak's
faith was divinely rewarded. By faith his minority
became a majority.

If this faith be ours, we, too, shall overcome at
last, not a nation, but a world. " For this is the vic-
tory that overcometh the world, even our faith."
" The whole world is against you," said an uncon-
verted friend, to a well tried soldier of the cross.
There was scarcely a moment's pause, when he calmly
but firmly replied : " Then I am against the whole
world."

190 THE HEROES OF FAITH.

The Christian warfare is an aggressive one. We
make onslaught on the kingdom of darkness, and
faith does not suffer us to relax our efforts. It urges
us on and on, until the enemy can defend his position
no longer, and the kingdom of sin is overthrown. We
can conquer a frowning world, and a threatening
hell, if, with Barak and Deborah, we have unshaken
faith in the Lord Jehovah.

II. In its grateful song.

It recognizes God's hand in the conflict and con-
quest. It attributes the praise entirely to Him who
rules over all, whose Spirit makes giants of striplings
and lions of lambs.

We cannot enlarge on the features of this trium-
phant composition. It is one of the finest odes ever
sung by mortal tongues. It is full of the sublimest
poetry. It has seraphic flights. Like a mighty hy-
draulic, this song winds us up to God. True, poetry
is soul-inspiring and heaven-exalting. Imagination,
sanctified, lifts its subjects into the third heaven, sets
them down at the foot of the throne, whence streams
into their beatific vision floods of divine glory, whence
strains of such transporting music greet their en-
chanted ears, that, with all their power of description,
they are constrained to exclaim : " The half cannot
be told."

Oh, what an extatic burst of symphony must have
been struck when Barak and Deborah came to the
strain, " Awake, awake, Deborah ; awake, awake, utter
a song : Arise, Barak, and lead thy captivity captive,

THE FAITH OF BARAK. 191

thou son of Abinoam. Then He made him that re-
maineth have dominion over the nobles among
the people : the Lord made me have dominion
over the mighty." And yet that other strain,
"They fought from heaven ; the stars in their
courses fought against Sisera. The river of Kishon
swept them away — that ancient river, the river
of Kishon. O my soul, thou hast trodden down
strength. Then were the horsehoofs broken by the
means of the prancings, the prancings of their mighty
ones." They must have sang as though they had
learned their notes from an angel. And I have often
thought with what terrible solemnity they must have
sang those strains of condemnation, "Curse ye
Meroz, said the angel of the Lord ; curse ye bitterly
the inhabitants thereof, because they came not to
the help of the Lord, to the help of the Lord against
the mighty." These were a people who preferred
their own self-ease and indulgence to the glory of
God. When Barak and Deborah were making despe-
rate efforts for the deliverance of Israel, in bondage
under Jabin, the Canaanitish king, the inhabitants
of Meroz would not march with them into the con-
flict, but cowardly stayed at home. They took no
part in the engagement, and hence shared not the
laurels of victory.

Alas ! how many are there yet of this stamp who
will not come up to the help of the Lord! The
citizens of Meroz are typical of a large pro23ortion of pro-
fessed citizens of Zion. It matters not how often, or
how urgently you press them to interest themselves

192

THE HEROES OF FAITH.

in God's cause, they will not respond. They are
spectators, not soldiers; idlers, not workers. Pre-
ferring their own self-ease, they desist from fighting
the battles of the Lord ; and, though they do abso-
lutely nothing themselves, they are not backward in
growling against those who try to be of some service
to the Master's cause. Let us examine ourselves
where we stand in reference to this subject. Do we
fight the good fight of faith? Do we, like Barak,
come up to the help of the Lord against the mighty ?
Or are we Merozian cowards, over whom the curse
of Jehovah hangs ? It is all very well to send flam-
ing reports to the association, that our church num-
bers one thousand in membership, or five hundred,
or one hundred, as the case may be, when the one-
half are seldom found at communion and never seen
in the prayer meeting. It is sad that it should be
said, that at least one-half of our church members
are but honorary members, or rather, as Spurgeon
fitly said, " dishonorary members." How distressing
the thought, when we consider the foes we have to
battle with ! How mighty is sin in the world, and
how little is done by professed Christians to counter-
act its damning influence ! In order to see with how
much power sin reigns in the world, it is but neces-
sary to observe, that the vast majority of the human
race still groan beneath its iron fetters. Sin is the
root of all evil — the source of every crime. Were
there no sin, there could be no drunkenness or dissi-
pation, no profanity or prostitution, no malice or
murder. "Were there no sin, there would be no need

THE FAITH OF BARAK. 193

of hospitals or almshouses, prisons or scaffolds,
coffins or graves. But for sin, we should never have
heard of those incarnate devils, Wilkes Booth and
Guiteau. Aye ! sin is a hideous monster. It is the
fountain whence all the breams of iniquity flow.
To know its mighty sway over the masses, consider
how intemperance, for instance, one of its legitimate
offspring, fills the world with distress, disgrace, and
destruction.

From the results of our investigation, we learn that
strong drink creates an annual expense of 1,491,-
865,000 dollars, besides other losses and expenses
aggregating 1,250,000,000 dollars. It causes annually
600 murders, 400 suicides, and 100,000 prisoners for
various offences. It clothes unnumbered families in
rags ; sends 200,000 to poorhouses, hospitals, and
other charitable institutions. It causes the annual
deaths of 60,000 drunkards, including 570 deaths by
delirium tremens, and 3,700 by other forms of insanity,
making simultaneously 30,000 widows and 9,000
orphans. It wields such tremendous power in this
country, that it can boast of 3,000,000 tipplers and
drunkards. But worse than all, this evil is mighty
in hurrying millions along the putrid stream of
iniquity, over the tremendous precipice, into the gulf
of irreparable ruin. While its votaries trample in
the dust every sacred law, this hideous monster shuts
out the means of grace, sears the conscience, and
prepares the spirit for everlasting wretchedness.

Surely, then, we have a terrible foe to fight against,
more terrible than Sisera's army. How, then, can we

8*

194 THE HEROES OF FAITH.

suffer the enemy to make such havoc without offer-
ing resistance ? The true soldier does not, will not
suffer it.

Art thou a citizen of Zion, or a citizen of Meroz ?
If the latter, the Divine curse hangs over you. Be-
ware, lest suddenly it may fall on you. It is not
necessary to perpetrate some foul crime in order to
be visited by God's judgment. Not to do good, is
enough to provoke His displeasure. The people of
Meroz were not cursed for what they did, but for
what they did not, and would not do. To receive the
Divine approval, we must not only " cease to do evil,
but learn to do well." The curse which befell Meroz,
was the utter destruction of the city, and the eternal
damnation of its worthless inhabitants. " God's woe
is yet on all those " who are at ease in Zion," and
unless there be repentance and reformation, He will
say unto them one day, " Depart, ye cursed," etc.

Hast thou been indifferent and indolent in the
past, pray for divine mercy, and seek God's grace to
revive you, for all your 'help must come from Him.

" And when the conflict's past

On yonder peaceful shore,
Wo shall repose at last

And see our foes no more,
The fruits of victory enjoy

And never more our arms employ."

CHAPTER XX.

Heb. XL 32.

32 And what shall I more say? for the time would fail mo to tell of
Gedeon, and of Barak, and of Samson, and of Jephthae; of David
also, and Samuel, and of the prophets.

"Remember, if He guard thee and secure,
Whoe'er assails thee, thy success is sure :
But if He leave thee, though the skill and power
Of nations, sworn to spoil thee and devour,
"Were all collected in thy single arm,
And thou could'st laugh away the fear of harm,
That strength would fail, opposed against a push
And feeble onset of a pigmy rush." — Cowper.

Though the son of a concubine, Jephthah was a
favorite of Heaven. From the record given, we learn
that he was " a Gileaclite, a mighty man of valor, and
the son of an harlot." His half brothers served him
a discourteous act. Visiting the iniquity of the
father upon the inoffensive child, they unceremoni-
ously thrust him out of the family. Thus forsaken,
the " Lord takes him up." He is not left to fight the
battle of life alone. The Lord of hosts is with him.
He is not suffered to sink into the slough of despond,
for underneath him are the everlasting arms. In
process of time, these very brethren, with others,
were only too glad to obtain his services, and were
only too willing to occupy subordinate stations under
him. A war was threatening. The Ammonites had
already defeated the Gileadites, and were likely to

196 THE HEROES OF FAITH.

beat tliem again, unless some special providence in-
terposed. A message is dispatched to Jephthah, be-
seeching him to come, and command the fight against
the children of Amnion. Not only so. He whom
they so contemptuously banished cut of the family,
they now invite to become the " head over all the in-
habitants of Gilead." Verily God was with him, vin-
dicating, protecting, encouraging, rewarding him.

He who exercises faith in the God of Jephthah, no
matter what his earthly relationship, or how insig-
nificant in the estimation of the world, God will be-
friend and bless him even in this life. His name at
present may be despised, but his praise may yet be
trumpeted ; they who now look down on him with
contempt, may yet look up at him with admiration.

THE FAITH OF JEPHTHAH.

1. His preliminary exercise is to consult God by prayer.

Having been appointed head and captain over the
Gileadites, we learn that " he uttered all his words
before the Lord in Mizpeh." He began at the right
source. His first step was not a false one. He first
sought the Divine guidance. It was granted. He
sought God's companionship. God fought with him.
Divinity stirred within him. He proved himself a
hero at the throne of grace, and having conquered
there, there was no earthly power that could over-
throw him.

How many conquests have been won by the power
of prayer ! not only on fields of battle, but over self,
and Satan. Who knows but prayer has had consul-

THE FAITH OF JEPHTHAH. 197

erable to do with some of our most brilliant triumphs
on the battlefield, not only in patriarchal days, but in
modern times— with Wellington in Waterloo; Nel-
son in Trafalgar; Washington in the Ee volution ;
Havelock in Lucknow ; Garibaldi in Italy; Grant
and others in the late rebellion. My mind revolts
against the idea of war as the means of settling dis-
putes, yet it is no presumption to believe that some
of the grandest victories on earth have been achieved
in answer to prayer.

When Ethelred, the Saxon king of Northumber-
land, invaded Wales, and was about to give battle to
the Britons, he observed near the enemy a number
of unarmed men. He inquired who they were, and
what they were doing. Being informed that they
were monks of Bangor, praying for the success of
their countrymen, the heathen prince replied, " Then
they have first begun against us ; attack them first"
Here we see the prayer of faith a stimulus to the
one, a terror to the other. Mary, Queen of Scots,
dreaded the prayers of John Knox more than an
army of ten thousand soldiers. If we would succeed
in any new enterprise, let us learn from Jephthah's
conduct, to commend our cause to God. " In every-
thing by prayer an£ supplication with thanksgiving,
let our requests be made known unto God."

2. He is moved to make every honorable effort to effect a
treaty of peace.

He who is under the guidance of faith is not rash.
Moved by this principle, he will do all he can to avert
the calamity of a war. Jephthah dispatches several

198 THE HEROES OF FAITH.

messages to the Ammonitisli king for this very pur-
pose. These messages failing, there was no other al-
ternative than to fight. Jephthah was no proud puffed
Napoleon, or an arbitrary Bismarck. He did not fight
because he wanted to fight, as is the spirit which
marks most of our bloody contests. It is truly awful
to reflect on hundreds of battles that might have
been averted, but for the spirit of the Ammonitisli king
which manifested itself in proud, haughty, ambitious,
blood-thirsty rulers and leaders. Hundreds of the
fiercest battles have had their origin in trifling
causes. Five of the worst battles have occurred on
account of commercial controversies ; twenty -two
through jealousy toward those in higher stations ;
twenty-four in revenge ; twenty-eight have been re-
ligious wars ; thirty under the guise of friendly inter-
position ; forty-four through covetousness ; forty-four
on account of disputed titles to the throne ; fifty -five
from civil wars ; beside those of more recent times in
Asia, for reasons that are scarcely discernible, unless
it is greed and oppression. And we have it on sub-
stantial authority, that some of the most 'cruel battles
fought in the eleventh century by the republics of
Bologna and Modena, originated in a stolen bucket,
not worth more than a dollar. The cruel rebellion
of our own country originated in the spirit of seces-
sion, and cost a thousand million dollars, beside a
million of precious lives. This sum would have sup-
ported a missionary to every 300 pagans in the world
— all swallowed up in blood. Most, if not all of these
wars might have been prevented, if reason had its
sway. The war between the Gileadites, under Jeph-

THE FAITH OF JEPHTHAH. 199

tliah, and the Ammonites, was unavoidable, for Jeph-
thah had made repeated efforts to come to an ami-
cable understanding, but all in vain.

3. He is made the recipient of resistless power.

He has prayed. He has tried hard to effect an
amicable settlement of the difficulty, but to no pur-
pose. The Almighty Spirit now descends upon him.
He is nerved for the conflict. That Divine Spirit
enters his soul by faith, and he is made invulnerable.
Thus shall we feel if the Spirit which descended on
Jephthah come down on us.

Not only so ; under the influence of this power, he
realizes a most brilliant victory. "He smote them
from Aroer, even till thou come to Minnith, even
twenty cities, and unto the plain of the vineyards, with
a very great slaughter. Thus the children of Ammon
were subdued before the children of Israel." Judges
xi. 33.

This was his first great victory, his second being
over the Ephraimites ; and as we contemplate both,
we are constrained to exclaim, "What hath faith
wrought ! " So by faith in Jephthah's God we shall
be made victors over all the combined forces of earth
and hell. When Antigonus was preparing for a sea-
fight, and was apprised of the number of the enemy,
he replied, "Tis true, they surpass us in numbers,
but for how many do you value me?" He proved a
host in himself. Our foes may be numerous and
mightier than us, but "if God be for us, who can be
against us?" Greater indeed is He who is with us,
than all they who can be against us.

200 THE HEROES OF FAITH.

4. He sacredly eooecutes his voics.

This was a noble trait in this man of faith. Haying
made a certain vow unto the Lord, he faithfully per-
formed it, however painful its execution. This vow
has given rise to considerable discussion. Some*
maintain that Jephthah actually offered his daughter,
and only child, as a burnt-offering unto the Lord ;
others t that it simply means her banishment to per-
petual virginity. "Where doctors differ, who shall
decide?" It is not likely, however, that the Lord
would suffer him to destroy his daughter in this
manner. The case cited of Abraham offering his
only son, Isaac, is no parallel case, for that offering,
though virtually, was not literally made. That cir-
cumstance was simply to test the patriarch's faith,
and to let the ages see what it could do. The fact
that Heaven restrained the deed is conclusive proof
that God does not sanction child-murder to appease
or please Him. Nowhere in the inspired record do
we learn that God countenances or encourages such
thank-offerings, or burnt-offerings. It has been ably
shown, that the conjunction "and" at the close of
Judges xi. 31, should be replaced by the disjunctive
word "or." It is so rendered in the margin, and a
reference to the original will justify the correction.
Besides, the succeeding verses of that chapter clearly

* Junius, Grotius, Leclerc, Saurin, Waterland, Adam Clarke,
Bishop Hall, Selden, Weslejs Gill, Bush, Kiel, Heugstenberg, and
others.

\ Chrysostom, Tertullian, Jerome, Augustine, Luther, Lightfoot,
Calvert, Henry, Warburton, Edwards, Scott, Kitto, Stanley, and
others.

THE FAITH OF JEPHTHAH. 201

demonstrate that "perpetual virginity," or a life of
celibacy, is intended. Let every one be fully per-
suaded in his own mind. "The vow, whatever it
may have been, was faithfully kept. How many vows
have we made to God, but how few have we kept!"

5. He triumphantly ends Ms career.

Having judged Israel six years, he was buried with
honors in one of the cities of Israel. By faith in
God he lived, and in faith he died. By faith in God
he fought ; by the same faith he conquered ; by its
support he met "the last enemy" without a shudder;
and on its 'eagle pinion he soared to his celestial
home, where the boom of cannon and the thunder of
artillery are never heard.

Have we the faith of Jephthah ? that faith which
makes us prayerful, honorable, brave, faithful, tri-
umphant. We cannot be crowned as heroes, unless
we have this personal faith. In Jephthah's army,
every man had his own weapon ; in Gideon's camp,
every soldier had his own pitcher ; and among Solo-
mon's men of valor, every man wore his own sword ;
and these were they who achieved the victory. If
we would gain the victor's crown, we must "fight
the good fight of faith."

'• 0 that each, in the day

Of His coming, may say,
' I have fought my way through;
I have finished the work thou didst give mc to do ;'
0 that each from his Lord
May receive the glad word,
' Well and faithfully doce;
Enter into my joy, and sit down on my throne.' "

CHAPTER XXI.

Heb. XI. 32.

32 And what shall I more say : for the time would fail me to tell of
Gedeon, and of Barak, and of Samson, and of Jephthae ; of David
also, and Samuel, and of the prophets.

"The glories of our birth and state

Are shadows, not substantial things ;
There is no armor against fate :
Death lays his icy hands on kings ;
Sceptre and crown
Must tumble down,
And in the dust be equal made
With the poor, crooked scythe and spade.

" Some men with swords may reap the field,
And plant fresh laurels where they kill ;
But their strong nerves at last must yield ;
They tame but one another still :
Early or late
They stoop to fate,
And must give up their murmuring breath,
"When they, pale captives, creep to death.

" The garlands wither on your brow,

Then boast no more your mighty deeds ;
Upon death's purple altar now,

See where the victor victim bleeds !
All heads must come
To the cold tomb ;
Only the actions of the just
Smell sweet and blossom in the dust." — Shirley.

Volumes might be written on the distinguishing
traits in David's character, and on the marvellous

204 THE HEROES OF FAITH.

achievements of his life. Every particle of his his-
tory is fraught with the highest interest, and replete
with the most profitable instruction. From youth to
manhood and old age, what an extensive scene opens
before us! Over that scene we cannot travel by
means of a solitary discourse. Who can peruse care-
fully and thoughtfully the seventeenth chapter of the
first book of Samuel, without feeling the heart glow
with excitement and admiration at its dramatic repre-
sentation ? That chapter is sufficient of itself to cor-
roborate the fact of David's faith. Through it he
literally escaped the edge of Goliath's sword, and
"out of weakness was made strono-."

THE FAITH OF DAVID.

I. As seen in Ms ivonclerful acldevements.

The most remarkable achievement recorded is that
over Goliath, the champion of the Philistines. The
youngest of the family, and only a "raw youth," he
seemed the most unlikely of Jesse's sons to achieve
such triumph. A lad combating with a giant ! A
mere stripling, daring to face and fight so prodigious
a foe. The like was never heard, or seen, or known.

Ehab, his eldest brother, by his mean insinuations,
had said enough to daunt a taller, and stronger, and
older lad than David, his fourteen year old brother.
He insolently and angrily inquires, "Why earnest
thou down hither, and with whom hast thou left
those few sheep in the wilderness? I know thy
pride and the naughtiness of thine heart, for thou
art come down that thou mightest see the battle."

THE FAITH OF DAVID. 205

The sequel, however, proves the falsity of Eliab's
upbraiding words, for he came down not to see the
battle, but to win it. There he is, the rustic, rosy-
looking shepherd lad. He has never been drilled
like his brothers in military science. He has never
been taught how to kill men successfully, by killing
them wholesale. Notwithstanding all this, he has
something which is more than a substitute for lack
of military preparation. He has faith. Trained in
Nature's school, he has received his tuition from
(rod. Ho has been trained by Heaven for this occa-
sion. See ! lie arrives on the battlefield in the valley
of Elah. What a crisis ! The first thing that greets,
or rather grates on his ears, is the defiant challenge
of the giant from Gath. His nature is aroused. His
spirit is stirred as he contemplates his people's op-
pression. Quick as the lightning's flash he asks,
"Who the uncircumcised Philistine was that he
should defy the armies of the living God?" It
seems that the children of Israel, at this time, were
in a sorrowful plight. They had been completely
demoralized by the Philistine host. They were so
sorely beaten, that they were utterly helpless and
hopeless as far as they were concerned. It seemed
as though they could never rally again. All their
weapons were taken away, and there was no prospect
of securing fresh supplies. So politic were the op-
pressors, that every one was either put to death, or
removed far away, who dared to follow Vulcan's call-
ing. The ring of the hammer and anvil, the roar of
the forge and the squeak of the bellows, were sounds

206 THE HEROES OF FAITH.

unheard in Israel. Every Jew who needed imple-
ments for agricultural purposes, were obliged to ap-
ply to the Philistines for them.

When their tools became blunt by reason of active
service, they were only allowed a file for sharpening
them, and when such means were unavailing, they
were obliged to take them to their despotic masters,
to have their smiths set them fit for service. This
arrangement was made, that there might be no pos-
sible chance of having anything that would resemble
a weapon. " Now there was no smith found through-
out all the land of Israel : for the Philistines said,
Lest the Hebrews make them swords or spears."
1 Samuel xiii. 19-21.

There was an overruling Providence, however, in
all this. When they could not obtain weapons of
war, they exercised their skill in other ways, which
subsequently proved advantageous. Though they
had no opportunity of learning the art of wielding
the sword, or poising the spear, they nevertheless
trained themselves in the art of slinging. We learn
that the Benjamites had become famous in this art.
" Among all this people there were seven hundred
chosen men lefthanded ; every one could sling stones
at an hairbreadth and not miss." Judges xx. 16.
This probably accounts for David's extraordinary
skill in slinging. He knew no other weapon.

Saul hears of the adventurous youth, and sends for
him. The interview is most interesting and thrilling.
The shepherd lad cheers the king, from whom he
had on a previous occasion charmed away the evil

THE FAITH OF DAVID. 207

spirit, and assures him that there was no cause for
faintheartedness, and offers to take up the giant's
challenge. Because of his extreme youth, and the
giant's superior advantages, the king questioned the
propriety of accepting his proffered service. The
answer we shall furnish in David's own language :
" Thy servant kept his father's sheep, and there came
a lion, and a bear, and took a lamb out of the flock :
And I went out after him, and smote him, and deliv-
ered it out of his mouth : and when he arose against
me, I caught him by his beard, and smote him, and
slew him. Thy servant slew both the lion and the
bear : and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be as
one of them, seeing he hath defied the armies of the
living God. The Lord that delivered me out of the
paw of the lion, and out of the paw of the bear, He
will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine."
In God's name, and by Saul's consent, David goes
forth to meet Goliath. He has no need to trouble
the Philistines for his missiles. A brook flows near
by, where he may help himself to as many as he de-
sires. He selects five smooth stones, and is ready
for work. With his sling and stone the athletic lad
faces the monster. Goliath is disgusted. A mere
stripling daring to confront him ! His disgust soon
gives way to passion : "Am I a dog, that thou comest
to me with staves? and he cursed David by his gods."
" Come to me, and I will give thy flesh unto the fowls
of the air, and to the beasts of the field." Miserable
lubber ! He under-estimates his match. " Thou
comest to me," replies the dauntless youth, " with a

208 THE HEROES OF FAITH.

sword, and with a spear, and with a shield : but I
come to thee in the name of the Lord of hosts, the
God of the armies of Israel, whom thou hast defied.
This day will the Lord deliver thee into my hand ;
and I will smite thee, and take thy head from thee ;
and I will give the carcases of the host of the Phi-
listines this day to the fowls of the air, and to the
wild beasts of the earth ; that all the earth may know
that there is a God in Israel. And all this assembly
shall know that the Lord saveth not with sword and
spear : for the battle is the Lord's, and He will give
you into our hands." 1 Samuel xvii. 45-47.

David is not in the least terrified, fo* he is moved
by faith, and nerved by Divine power. See the up-
lifted sling ! A moment, and the well directed stone
sinks into the enemy's head. Under the Divine
blessing the first aim is a successful one. The mon-
ster falls helpless to the earth, and his head is
snatched off in the twinkling of an eye. Brave shep-
herd boy ! thou hast proved thyself a warrior bold,
and hast immortalized thyself as the champion of
thy people. Yea ! thou hast proved thyself to be
"more than conqueror," for thou hast in thy shep-
herd-bag the materials to slay four more giants if
necessary.

II. As the secret of Ms extraordinary success.

We must bear in mind that the secret of David's
wonderful achievement was not in his own strength
or skill, helpful as they might have been. His skill
would have utterly failed, and his courage gone, but

THE FAITH OF DAVID. '209

for his faith in the God of Omnipotence. Divorced
from faith, and he would have been but a small mor-
sel for the roaring enemy, who sought to devour
him. Faith in God conveyed calmness to his soul ;
that calmness helped to make his arm steady, and
his aim sure. By this same unconquerable principle
he gained other victories, and subdued kingdoms.
Verily, "nothing is impossible to. those who believe."
A faith like that of David knows how to "keep the
powder dry," and place its entire trust in Jehovah.
Separate from God, the most dwarfish foe will con-
quer us, and the most insignificant temptation over-
come us. Linked to God by faith, the fiercest temp-
tation assails us in vain, and the tallest giant shall
quail before us. Yea, by faith in David's God we
may slay foes more terrible than the giant of Gath ;
foes that will surely crush us, unless we crush them.
The combat of this man of faith with the Phil-
istine giant, reminds lis of the skirmish between
"Christian and Apollyon." The immortal dreamer
represents the latter as a hideous monster, "with
scales like a fish, which were his pride ; had wings
like a dragon, and feet like a bear, and out of whose
belly came fire and smoke, and whose mouth was as
the mouth of a lion." He looked disdainfully at
Qhristian, as Goliath did at David, and began to tan-
talize him, and to speak meanly of his Prince. Then
Christian replies, "Apollyon, beware what you do,
for I am in the King's highway, the way of holiness ;
therefore, take heed to yourself." Then Apollyon
straddled quite over the whole breadth of the way and

9

210 THE HEROES OF FAITH.

said, "I am void of fear in this matter; prepare thy-
self to die ; for I swear by my infernal den that thou
shalt go no further; here will I spill thy soul," and
with that he threw a flaming dart at his breast, but
Christian had a shield in his hand, with which he
caught it, and so prevented the danger of that ; then
did Christian draw, for he saw it was time to be stir-
ring, and Apollyon as fast made at him, throwing darts
as quick as hail ; by the which, notwithstanding all
that Christian could do to avoid it, Apollyon wounded
him in his head, his hand and foot. This made Chris-
tian give a little back ; Apollyon, therefore, followed
his work amain, and Christian again took courage, and
resisted as manfully as he could. This sore combat
lasted for above half a day, even till Christian was
almost quite spent; for you must know, that Chris-
tian, by reason of his wounds, must needs grow
weaker and weaker.

Then Apollyon, espying his opportunity, began to
gather up close to Christian, and wrestling with him,
gave him a dreadful fall, and with that, Christian's
sword flew out of his hand. Then said Apollyon, "I
am sure of thee now ; and with that he had almost
pressed him to death, so that Christian began to de-
spair of life : but, as God would have it, while Apol-
lyon was fetching his last blow, thereby to make a
full end of this good man, Christian nimbly reached
out his hand for his sword, and caught it, saying,
"Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy; when I fall
I shall rise " (Micah vii. 8), and with that he gave
him a deadly thrust, which made him give back, as

THE FAITH OF DAVID. 211

one that had received his mortal wound. Christian
perceiving that, made at him again, saying, "Nay,
in all these things we are more than conquerors,
through Him that loved us ;" and with that Apollyon
spread forth his dragon wings, and sped away, that
Christian saw him no more. *

Let us learn from David's faith the wisdom of
trusting in God. Let us learn from Goliath's pre-
sumption, the folly of trusting in an arm of flesh.

Who can read of the faith of David, and other Old
Testament saints, without feeling the indomitable-
ness, the unconquerable, and all-conquering charac-
ter of these men of God? Who can read of Bunyan
and Baxter, Cyprian and Carey, Huss and Howard,
Jerome and Judson, Knox and Knibb, Luther and
Latimer, Menno and Midler, Ridley and Rogers,
Tyndale and Tennent, Wycliffe and Whitefield,
without feeling that they were sustained by an un-
faltering faith in God?

"Triumphant Faith !
Who from the dust of earth looks up to Heaven ;
Seeing invisibility, suspending
Eternity upon the breath of God.
She can pluck mountains from the rooted throne
And hurl them into ocean ; and from pain
And prison and contempt extort the palm
Of everlasting triumph. She doth tread
Upon the neck of pride, like the free wind
On angry ocean. So with step erect
She walks o'er whirlpool waves, and martyr fires,
And depths of darkness and chaotic voids;

♦Bunyan's "Holy War."

212 THE HEROES OF FAITH.

Dissolving worlds, rent heavens, and dying suns,

Tea, and o'er Paradise of Earth's glory ; all these pave

Her conquering path to heaven — all these she spurns

With feet fire-shod, because her hand is placed

Immortal in God's ; her eye doth rest

Unchanging on His, nor will she stop,

Till having crossed the stormy waves of pain,

And fiery trial, she may lay her head

Upon her Father's breast, and take the crown

From Love's rejoicing hand."

CHAPTEB XXII

Heb. XL 32.

32 And what shall I more say ? for the time would fail me to tell of
Gedeen, and of Barak, and of Samson, and of Jephthae; of David also,
and Samuel, and of the prophets.

" Rest, prophet, rest! thou hast fulfilled thy mission !

Loud was the lamentation; tears unfeigned

At Eamah, o'er his tomb long time deplored

Him, last of those who righteous ruled the land,

Ere man sat throned in Israel. All deplored

The Nazarine, to whose unmingled cup

The grape ne'er lost its flavor. Tears unfeigned

Wept him, a holy vessel, set apart

An offering from his birth." — Sothtby.

Samuel is the last patriarch mentioned by name in
the eleventh chapter of Hebrews. Though last, he
is far from being least. His birth was a most inter-
esting circumstance. His mother named him Samuel,
" Because I have asked him of the Lord."

None can describe the profound gratitude and joy
that swelled the hearts of Elkanah and Hannah, when
they received this gift from the Lord.

His subsequent conduct gave them still greater
cause for thankfulness and praise, for a nobler youth
never breathed, and a godlier man was not found in
his day. He truly fulfilled that section of the text
which relates to those who have "wrought righteous-
ness." There are several interesting features in

214 THE HEROES OF FAITH.

THE FAITH OF SAMUEL.

1. He icas prompt in his obedience.

When the Lord called, he immediately' — I put par-
ticular emphasis on that word — he immediately obey-
ed the voice, and did whatsoever the Lord com-
manded him. Thrice did the Lord call unto him,
"Samuel," and thrice did he respond to the call,
though on each occasion he mistook it for Eli's call.

o

Finding, however, that he was mistaken, and feeling
that it must have been the Lord's voice, Eli kindly
instructs him as to the next course he should pursue
on the repetition of the call.

The fourth time Jehovah appears, and salutes Sam-
uel's ears in the same strain, "Samuel, Samuel," and
before the echo dies away, he replies, "Speak; for
thy servant heareth."

Mark, he did not wait to be called four times be-
fore returning an answer. Nay, he replies each time.
Though on three successive occasions he conceived
the voice to be Eli's, yet. he did not slight it. He
felt it a privilege to respect the patriarch's voice ;
much more readily (had it been possible) would he
have responded to the Divine call, had he known it
as such. How gladly, how heartily did he reply to
God's call, when he realized it was His. How often
has God called upon us, and we have returned no
answer. We have treated his calls with unmerited
contempt. Some He has called times without num-
ber, who have yet not listened to Him. O ! the
mercy and patience of God ! He deals with us as we

THE FAITH OF SAMUEL. 215

would not with our fellow men upon whom we may
have claim.

2. He was eminent in prayer.

It was in reply to his prayer of faith that the chil-
dren of Israel defeated the Philistine enemy at Miz-
peh. They had faith in the prayers of this holy man,
so that they besought him " not to cease crying unto
the Lord his God, that he would save them out of the
hands of the Philistines." Samuel concurred with
their desire, and laid the matter before God. The
Lord heard him. The prayer of faith was not offered
in vain ; it pierced the distant clouds, and reached
Jehovah's ears, and touched His heart. The blessing
sought for was obtained, and they proved the success-
ful victors.

Having thus succeeded, Samuel takes a stone and
places it between Mizpeh and Shen, and calls the
name of it "Ebenezer," saying, "Hitherto hath the
Lord helped us." To Samuel's prayers may be at-
tributed the triumph on this occasion.

We may well apply this to the spiritual Israelites
who may be indebted to their ministerial Samuels
for many of the blessings they have enjoyed. How
often have they been prayed for, and their welfare
occupied the deepest interest of their leaders.

3. He was an irreproacliable jwlje.

We have no account that Samuel himself fought.
He served as judge, and filled his office most satisfac-
torily. So perfect was he in this respect, that " he
judged Israel all the days of his life." He verily
wrought righteousness.

^16 THE HEROES OE FAITH.

Samuel was an upright and godly judge. There
is danger of divorcing the official, from personal char-
acter, and whenever this is done,- the individual is
seriously injured. There have been good men who
have been bad judges, and bad men who have made
respectable judges. There have been those who
failed to carry out in public business, the sentiments
and principles which guided them in private life, and
have thus left a blot upon their profession. Like
Eli, they were weak and afraid to offend. There have
also been those who defended the majesty of law and
decreed righteous judgment, who were, nevertheless,
reckless in their personal conduct. There is another
danger to which a judge is exposed, when he is
tempted to indulge personal feelings where impartial
judgment should be given. It is recorded of Aris-
tides, one of the brightest names in ancient Greece,
and a man to whom his contemporaries awarded the
title of "the Just," that when he was a judge between
two private persons, "one of them declared that his
adversary had greatly injured Aristides." He thus
hoped to awaken the personal feelings of the judge
against his opponent, and secure a verdict favorable
to himself. But the just judge replied, "Relate,
rather, what wrong he hath done to thee, for it is thy
cause, not mine, that I now sit judge of. " Private feel-
ings may, however, sometimes be tried severely.
When Brutus had to occupy the seat of justice, and
his two sons were placed at the bar charged with
treason against the State, it was trying for the patriot
to set aside the parent, and for duty to act against

THE FAITH OF SAMUEL. 217

affection. But the majesty of law prevailed over the
emotions of kindred, and the spectators are said to
have gazed more at the judge than on the culprits on
that august occasion, and to have regarded the scene
as a most illustrious exhibition of moral heroism.
A judge should be upright, and Samuel brought to
the judicial seat a character fitted for the high office
he had to discharge. He was a man of God. His
life was consistent in all its actions. Whether he
ministered at the altar, or presided in the assembly
of the people, or spoke in the name of the Lord, or
directed his own house, he was the same. Religion
pervaded his life and occupation. This is beauti-
fully referred to in the words, "There [at Eamah]
was his house ; and there he judged Israel ; and there
he built an altar to the Lord." The altar was beside
his bench and home. The profession of his faith
was beside his robe of office. The believer was in
the judge. He connected the official with the per-
sonal so intimately, that he could not be a godly man
without also being at the same time an upright judge-
He sought to maintain a good conscience in court as
well as at home. This was the highest honor which
his official dignity could obtain, and it was the best
guarantee to the people over whom he presided, that
his decisions in all their controversies would be
accordant with the law of the Lord. This made
Samuel the father of his people, and the whole of
Israel as his family. Nor has he stood alone in judi-
cial integrity and personal piety. Sir Matthew Hale
was a man after Samuel's pattern. Under the power

10

218 THE HEROES OF FAITH.

of godliness, and familiar with the word of God, he
sought to evidence the principles of religion in the
practice of his profession. When he was an advo-
cate, he would not plead a case if convinced of its
injustice, and when he rose to the bench and was
Chief Baron of the Exchequer, he was noted for the
impartiality of his decisions. A peer of the realm,
who had a case in court, once called upon him to give
him private information, that he might have fuller
understanding of it when it was brought up for judg-
ment. Sir Matthew is reported to have said that "he
did not deal fairly to come to his chamber about such
affairs, for he never received any information of causes
but in open court, where both parties were to be heard
alike." The duke complained to the king, but his
Majesty observed, that "lie believed he would have
used him no better if he had gone to solicit him in
any of his cases." Sir Matthew feared God and
regarded man, but his integrity and righteousness
were not to be sacrificed. He loved the Lord's day
and gave a most illustrious example of its strict ob-
servance. This is his testimony : " Though my
hands and my mind have been as full of secular busi-
ness, both before and after I was judge, as it may be
any man's in England, yet I never wanted time in
six days to ripen and fit myself for the business and
employments I hacl to do, though I borrowed not
one minute from the Lord's day to prepare for it by
study or otherwise." Sir William Jones was another
illustrious example.

What a blessing to a country is a .just judge —

THE FAITH OF SAMUEL. 219

what a curse an unjust one ! Those appointed to the
judiciary, should always be men of sterling worth and
strict integrity. We thank God we have no such
monsters as Jeffreys on our judicial benches, who
would maliciously convict, and barbarously punish
those who worship the God of their fathers, accord-
ing to the dictates of their consciences. Would that
the faith and piety of Samuel were realized by all our
esteemed judges. Their honesty, integrity, and up-
rightness, we would not venture to call in question.
Some of them, too, have faith in God. Would they
may all enjoy the same blessing.

4. He ivas an exemplary preacher.

He shunned not to declare the whole counsel of
God. He preached the duty of repentance, and its
absolute necessity. This subject is not a new theme.
The preaching of repentance began early. It was
the subject of Noah's alarm-cry to the gigantic sin-
ners of the antediluvian world. It was the burden
of Elijah's prophetic message to the idolatrous Israel-
ites. It was the substance of John the Baptist's cry
in the wilderness. The whole of the Apostles en-
forced it upon an impenitent, godless people. It
rang through Germany by Martin Luther's trumpet-
tongue, and echoed among the Alpine valleys from
Zwinglius' patriotic soul. It thundered throughout
Scotland from the lips of the stern and intrepid Knox.
It was the subject of Latimer's blunt homethrusts to
the practical heart of England ; and the same might
be affirmed of Tennent and Shepherd in this country,
also of Baxter, Alleine and Flavel, and others.

220 THE HEKOES OF FAITH.

Samuel, too, was not of that class who preached to
please men, or to coax worldly applause. He preached
to awaken and benefit, Eepentance was his awaken-
ing theme. He sought fruits meet for repentance.

The people were anxious, for sin oppressed their
souls; but Samuel did not rest satisfied with the
expressed emotion. He demanded instant proof of
professed sincerity : "If ye do return unto the Lord
with all your hearts, then put away the strange gods
and Ashtaroth from among you, and prepare your
hearts unto the Lord and serve Him only." To give
up evil ways is one of the earliest signs of a penitent
soul. It is indispensable to separate from whatever
contaminates the soul. To put away idolatry was,
therefore, the first requirement which Samuel made
of the awakened people. They had been defiled by
their foul idolatries.- They had defiled the land with
their imported images. But if they would return to
God, they must remove these pollutions. " Then
the children of Israel did put away Baalim and Ash-
taroth." Their smarting souls were glad to do any-
thing which would expedite relief. Their sense of
divine purity and authority led them to put away
what they knew to be offensive to the Holy One.
This is always so. At the time of the Protestant
Keformation, when the people were awakened, they
cleared the churches and also their houses of all
images used for worship. When Christianity was
successfully introduced among the South Sea Island-
ers, the burning of the idols was the proof of their
sincere awakening. When your soul is convicted of

THE FAITH OF SAMUEL. 221

sin, and the light of God's holy law flashes upon your
guilty pursuits, the first proof of your real repentance
will be the abandonment of these indulgences. This
is the trial of conviction. You may profess anxiety
to be saved, and mourn over your sins ; but so long
as you do not give up what comes between your soul
and God, you have not sincerely repented. You may
mean well; but so long as you do not deny ungodli-
ness and worldly lusts, your soul is endangered.
" Bring forth, therefore, fruits meet for repentance."
Matt. iii. 8.

5. He consecrated his youth to God.

I mention this last, as I want to have a parting
word with the young. It is said that "Samuel minis-
tered before the Lord, being a child, girded with a
linen ephod." Seeking God early, he found Him,
and finding Him, he devoted his first and best days
to His service.

"When Samuel was young, he first knew the Lord;
He. slept in His smile, and rejoiced in His word.
So most of God's children are early brought nigh ;
Oh, seek Him in youth — to a Saviour now fly."

How is it with you, my young friends ? Have you,
like Samuel, in youth, begun to seek and to serve the
Lord? If not, you ought to. It is not too soon.
The earlier the better. God wants the flower of your
life — the bloom of your youth, and not the fading
remnant of it. Do not give your best days to Satan,
and dream that the remnant of your life is good
enough for God. Don't wait till you are a worthless
10*

222 THE HEROES OF FAITH.

and wrinkled old sinner, and think that it is time
enough then to go to God in penitence and prayer.
Of what service can you be then? Besides, if you
wait till then, it is likely enough you will be like the
rest of those hardened and stubborn, who live to old
age without God, and die at last like heathens, with-
out hope in the world. Come now and seek God as
your father. Come now and enter his service.
There is no time like youth to serve the Lord.

" Come, while the blossoms of thy years are brightest,

Thou youthful wanderer in a flowery maze ;
Come while the restless heart is bounding lightest,

And joy's pure sunbeams tremble in thy ways ;
Come while sweet thoughts, like summer buds unfolding.

Waken rich feelings in the careless breast ;
While yet thy hand the ephemeral wreath is holding,

Come and secure interminable rest.

" Soon will the freshness of thy days be over,

And thy free buoyancy of soul be flown ;
Pleasure will fold her wing, and friend and lover

Will to the embrace of the worm be gone ;
Those who now bless thee will have passed forever,

Their looks of kindness will be lost to thee ;
Thou wilt need balm to heal thy spirit's fever,

As thy sick heart broods over years to be.

" Come while the morning of thy life is glowing,

Ere the dim phantoms thou art chasing, die —
Ere the gay spell which earth is round thee throwing

Fades like the crimson from a sunset sky.
Life is but shadows, save a promise given

Which lights up sorrow with a fadeless ray ;
0 touch the sceptre I with a hope in Heaven,

Come, turn thy spirit from the world away.

THE FAITH OF SAMUEL. 223

' Then will the crosses of this brief existence

Seem airy nothings to thine ardent soul ;
And shining brightly in the forward distance,

Will of thy patient race appear the goal.
Home of the weary I where in peace reposing,

The spirit lingers in unclouded bliss;
Though o'er its dust the curtained grave is closing,

Who would not early choose a lot like this?"

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