that family that should be countless as the sand on the seashore and the stars in the firmament. This word Eliezer, I pause to observe, is the original form of the name which we call Lazarus; and I do think that in the beautiful and instructive parable of Lazarus and the rich man, which I have elsewhere explained, there is something like an allusion to the incident and the name recorded in this chapter. This Eliezer, the steward in Abraham's house, born in his house not an imported slave, but born in it, was an especial favorite with the patriarch, raised to a high position, exercised great influence in his household, and occupied a prominent place; and, therefore, there may have been an under-current, if I may use the phrase, of allusion to Eliezer in Abraham's house, in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, especially when we read that Lazarus was in Abraham's bosom - a yet closer, though kindred relation, than that which we read Eliezer or Lazarus occupied as steward in Abraham's house. I do not mean that it proves any doctrinal or practical truth; all it shows is the unity of holy Scripture, and the authenticity and genuineness, so far at least, of its records.

God's promise to Abraham is then made in much more explicit terms: “And he brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them; and he said unto him, So shall thy seed be." If one were introduced for the first time, in a frosty night, to a starry sky, and if one were never to see it again, I think that the splendor of so magnificent and majestic a vision would never be forgotten. I know nothing more beautiful, nothing more grand, nothing that seems to set forth in more bold and brilliant colors the greatness, and the majesty, and the providential presence of Deity, than the starry sky, when those sentinel stars which we see, and which are but the outposts of the vast army encamped in infinite plains, come forth to give only an idea of the yet greater, and brighter, and more

multitudinous hosts that lie and repose beyond, waiting for, and ever obedient to, God's behests. Abraham was now brought forth, and bidden to gaze upon this magnificent and glorious sky, and then he was assured that those stars that he saw were for a pledge of the number of his descendants. After all, the number of stars that we see is not so very great, and, therefore, it is not an absurdity, as some have alleged, that his children should be countless as the stars. Probably the stars in the firmament are the nearest in approach to the infinite in number, because we cannot conceive any space in which there are not some bodies, and some created things; we believe that there are no empty chambers in the universe. that no space is left desolate; and believing that, the stars that are vastly exceed the children of Abraham, but the stars which are visible to the naked eye do not exceed the children of Abraham. And, after all, this very promise seems only to be gloriously fulfilled in the passage on which I shall comment in the evening: "I saw a great

multitude that no man could number " like the stars in the firmament" out of every kindred, and people, and tongue."

Abraham believed God, and God counted it to him for righteousness. We have a reference made to this very fact in the fourth chapter of the epistle to the Romans, at the eighteenth verse: "Who against hope believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations, according to to that which was spoken, So shall thy seed be. And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sarah's womb. 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 promised he was able also to perform. And therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness. Now it was not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him; but for us

also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead; who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification.” Now, I do not think that it is meant to be conveyed, either in this passage in Genesis, or in the reference to it in the epistle to the Romans, that Abraham's belief of God's promise was the righteousness that justified Abraham in the sight of God; for we read, in the eleventh chapter of the epistle to the Hebrews, that Abraham was a Christian long before this, and therefore previously justified. He became a Christian the moment he took a footstep to leave Ur of the Chaldees; for it was by faith that he left it, looking for a city that hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God. I believe, therefore, that this righteousness counted unto Abraham was an isolated and very special and prominent act in Abraham's biography, and that the apostle's comparison is not between Abraham's ground of justification and the Christian's; but what he says seems to me to teach, that just as Abraham, without anything but God's word, believed that word, and expected the result would be what God said, so a Christian, with nothing but God's word, believes that, resting upon Jesus, we shall be saved, -in other words, believes on Christ, and is sure that he will be saved. The faith that Abraham exercised in this instance is a perfect fac simile illustration, or counterpart of the faith that we exercise in a yet higher matter, if possible, and in reference to an ulterior and yet more glorious destiny.

Abraham also asked the question, "Whereby shall I know that I shall inherit it?" At first this looks like impertinent curiosity; and yet it was not so. Some questions are impertinent, as was the question of Zacharias, in Luke 1: 18: "And Zacharias said unto the angel, Whereby shall I know this? for I am an old man, and my wife well stricken in years," when he was struck dumb. Another of an oppo

site character, as in the case of the Virgin Mary, in Luke 1:34: "How shall this be, seeing I know not a man?" which was a question of a perfectly pertinent nature, and which was accordingly answered. Again, Peter's question, "What shall this man do?" was impertinent, and therefore the answer was, "What is that to thee? follow thou me." Therefore we are not to look at this question of Abraham's as the expression of weakness of faith, but as the expression of curiosity, which in some cases may be sinful, but in others perfectly right in the sight of God; and, in his case, it was evidently proper.

God then convinces Abraham, or, rather, makes more impressive his promise, by a sacrifice. The ancient mode of confirming a promise was to slay an ox, and to divide it across the spine, and the persons then passed between the halves of the victim, and made their covenant in the middle of them; and the meaning of it was, that if they failed in keeping their covenant, they imprecated from their God utter destruction, in the same manner as that animal had been destroyed. This was used on this occasion to show that all truth comes through sacrifice, that all God's promises hav reference to the one grand sacrifice. And more vividly to impress upon his heart the act, and the certainty of what God would do, God confirms his covenant by a promise and an oath, not because it needed it, but because we need it, in order to be more confident and assured.

We next see that the impressive sign passed before Abraham, indicative of the presence of God. powered and deeply impressed by it. that when the sun went down, and it

Abraham was over"It came to pass, was dark, behold a

smoking furnace, and a burning lamp that passed between those pieces; " and also it is stated in the twelfth verse, "And when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and lo, an horror of great darkness fell upon him."

As in the case of Job (42: 5, 6), when God passed by; as in the case of the apostle Peter, when Jesus wrought a special miracle; as in the case of Isaiah (Is. 6), of Daniel (Dan. 10: 8), and of John, in the Apocalypse, the sight of Deity producing such overpowering impressions.

The only difficulty in this chapter is where it is said that they "shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years." Now it is stated in the book of Exodus, that this period should be four hundred and thirty years; and therefore it looks as if one prophecy contradicted the other, and as if both could not be true. But the answer to that is, and it is perfectly clear, if you calculate the period from Isaac's birth, it is exactly four hundred years; if you calculate the period, as is here done, from Abraham's departure from Ur of the Chaldees, it is exactly four hundred and thirty years. In the one book it is calculated from the birth of Isaac, and in the other from the exodus of Abraham. By looking at the different points from which each of the writers dates, we see that there is perfect harmony between the two prophecies, and that these incidental apparent discrepancies are only stronger proofs of the truth of the historians who gave the accounts.