CHAPTER XVII.

GOD'S APPEARANCE TO ABRAM ABRAHAM'S IDEA OF ISHMAEL COVENANT WORSHIP CHANGE OF NAME

THE

ABRAHAM'S

Ir appears that this vision of God to Abram, proclaiming himself "the Lord, the all-sufficient One," occurred about thirteen years after the birth of Ishmael, and when Ishmael must have been, therefore, about thirteen years old. It would seem that by this time Abraham had settled down into the absolute conviction that Ishmael was really the promised seed; and that, through him and in him, as the progenitor of the Messiah, the nations of the earth should be ultimately blessed. He did not expect that any other son would be born to him; and, therefore, he believed that God would fulfil his promise made to him of old in and by Ishmael, and by him only. At this very time, however, God appears to Abram, and makes to pass before the eyes of the patriarch another vision, and indicates, at the same time, the birth of that son in whom and through whom the promises should be fulfilled. The expression in the second verse, "I will make my covenant between me and thee," might be translated rather, "I will fix my covenant between me and thee;" for, in truth, this is the fifth time in which God had given a promise of this covenant. It was, therefore, not the creation, on this occasion, of a new covenant that had not been revealed, but the fixture of a former, or the assurance of Abram of the absolute certainty of the economy of that covenant which God had revealed to him on a previous occasion.

When God thus appeared to Abram, Abram fell upon his face before him. All visions of God manifested in the Old Testament Scriptures seem to have produced upon the specta tor of the vision this deep and solemn impression; and only did Moses escape, apparently, this subduing influence when he was "hid in the rock," and all God's glory passed before him, and God proclaimed himself "the Lord God, merciful and gracious." The falling on the face was falling on the knees and the two hands; it was the position of absolute prostration adoring worship, homage, or reverence of God. When he did so, God condescended to talk with Abram "God talked with Abram." He was called the friend of God, and as such God talked with him, we are told friend speaks to a friend.

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He told him on this occasion, in the fifth verse, that his name should be changed. The original composition of his name was, ab, father; and ram, high or eminent. The first syllable of the word hamon, which means a multitude, seems to have been incorporated into the original name, and to have produced the word Abraham- that is, Abram-hamon, by contraction reduced into Abraham. The old name was “high father;" the other and new name was "father of a multitude," produced by incorporating the word hamon, a multitude; and thus showing that Abraham was to be the father of a great multitude. This change of name frequently occurs in Scripture; and one cannot understand it, except it be as a memorial or a memento of the special event which occurred when that change took place, or of the great truth which that change was meant to shadow and show forth. In every age, God has not been satisfied with merely revealing to man an abstract truth,— He has always incorporated with it some material, visible, or palpable memento. Thus, when they crossed the river, the stones erected were to be a memorial. Then in the New Testament Church, in which we worship in

spirit and in truth, two sacraments, or symbolical rites, have been established, not only because God saw that more were not necessary, and that less would not do, but also that these two were suggestive, commemorative, and instructive to man. We read, on a subsequent occasion, that " Jacob," or "Yacob," was changed into “ Israel," because he was a man that had power with God. We read, in the New Testament, of Cephas turned again into Petros; and we read of Saul the persecutor changed into Paul the apostle; evidently to bring before those individuals the events, or the facts, out of which the change of their names originated, and to be constantly before them, a pledge of what they should be. Hence it is a very beautiful trait, I think, that when our children are baptized, we give a name to them. The meaning of baptism, however, be it observed, is not giving a name to a child. Sometimes ignorant parents have asked me to come and name our child." I have answered, "That is not my duty; it is yours." Naming a child is the parent's duty, not mine; and whether the parent gives that name when young or old, it is a civil arrangement,— it is not a Christian thing at all; yet it is very beautiful that the name should be associated by baptism with serving God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost the true God; so that, whenever a person in future years remembers his Christian name, he may always be reminded of Christian obligations not be reminded that he was regenerated in baptism, which would be to remind him of a falsehood, but be reminded that he was dedicated in baptism to the worship and service of the living and the true God. Therefore the association of the name with the sacrament of baptism is in full harmony with those scriptural instances which I have already cited, to indicate that wherever that name is subscribed to a document, or sounded, or named, there may be heard the under-tone of our early devotion to God, our unabjured responsibility before him.

We read, in the next place, of the promise made to Abraham : "I will make thee exceeding fruitful, and I will make nations of thee, and kings shall come out of thee." Abraham was the patriarchal forefather of the twelve tribes of Israel. This promise is fulfilled in the fact that the ancient kings of Edom were all sprung from him; and, at this moment, the kings of Babylon, Egypt, and Arabia, and the Saracens of modern times, all trace their origin to Abraham; and kings literally, in superstition or in enlightenment, look back to Abraham as the father of a royal and illustrious lineage.

"For

God says to Abraham, “ I will make with thee an everlasting covenant." That covenant commemorated and pledged everlasting blessings. The mode of the covenant was changed; the things pledged in the covenant continue. Paul reminds us of the covenant, in the epistle to the Hebrews: when God made promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, he sware by himself, saying, Surely blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thee. And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise. For men verily swear by the greater; and an oath for confirmation is to them an end of all strife. Wherein God, willing more abundantly to show unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath; that by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us: which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which entereth into that within the vail; whither the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus, made an high priest forever after the order of Melchizedec." For finding fault with them, he saith, "Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah; not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I

took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people; and they shall not teach every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord; for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest. For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more. In that he saith, A new covenant, he hath made the first old.

Now that which

decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away." The covenant was the same; the mode of its administration is only changed. And why does God promise, or swear, or covenant to man what he will do for man? Why does he, in the language of Scripture, covenant to give man certain things? Not surely that God needs to do so, but that man's confidence is strengthened by God doing so. God gives the promise, not for his own sake, but for our sake. We are so much the creatures of sense and sight and feeling, that we need something to remember-something to see or to touch -in order that we may heartily and thoroughly believe.

He says that part of this covenant, as far as the Jews were concerned, was, that he would give them this land of Israel for an everlasting possession: “I will give thee this land for an everlasting possession." Now, what does this mean? Can we any way figuratively translate this? I cannot conceive that we can. God says that all the land of Canaan shall be for an everlasting possession. It is at this moment the Jew's estate- his patrimony; it is his property. The nations are merely there to keep the empty lodging till the Jew is ready to return. The Turk, the Frank and Arab, are mere housekeepers to the ancient dynasty of God; and as soon as the