06.4.1. Abram's Separation from His Country
I. -- ABRAM’S SEPARATION FROM HIS COUNTRY AND HIS FATHER’S HOUSE
"NOW the Lord had said to Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee. And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great, and thou shalt be a blessing. And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee; and in thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed" (Genesis 12:1-3).
Thus begins the life of faith. As Noahs, that is, in regeneration, we come from the Adam world to a new world beyond the waters. As Abrams, that is, in the walk of faith, we start from Mesopotamia, the ground between the mystic Tigris and Euphrates, that is, tradition and reasoning. (Note: Respecting these rivers, see on the seventh day.) This walk begins not of man, but of God. It is His call, wholly of grace, which leads at once to separation. For the called one was one of an apostate race, an idolater (Joshua 24:2), and the husband of a barren woman (Genesis 11:30), in Ur of the Chaldees, that is, not far from Great Babylon, the ground of false and perverted worship and self-exaltation. Still he was of Shem’s line; for the spirit of faith grows up, though amid awful confusions, out of the contemplative mind. But the fine gold of Shem ere this has changed: the contemplative mind has fallen grievously. What hopes could one of such a fallen line have of being made very fruitful and blessed in a better land? Could such a dry tree look for fruit? Yet God speaks, and, as at creation, great results follow. By this Word of God fresh life flows in and shews itself, as the sun’s heat penetrating a tree causes it to come up out of the dark earth and spread heavenward. So works the call of God, itself the spring and strength of all the faith that follows it. Babels may grow from men’s words one to another, saying, "Go to, and let us make." The walk of faith begins not from man: the Word is its author and finisher. As to the call, it was, and yet is, personal; addressed, not to the outward man, but to Abram, the fallen inner man. To this God says, "Get thee out, and I will bless thee." The prophets mark this: speaking of this act, the Lord says, "I called him alone, and blessed him" (Isaiah 51:2). For the call of God, to be of any use, must be personally felt and realised by the inner man. The flesh may hear of it; yea, as with those who went with Paul, it may be struck to the ground by the glory of the revelation: the senses may witness some of the outward circumstances accompanying the call: but as Paul says, "They heard not the voice of Him that spoke to me" (Acts 22:9). For the outward man knows not the call of God, and will prove that it knows it not, by abiding to the last far off from Canaan, on the ground of sense rather than on that of promise; while the spirit of faith goes forth, it knows not where, to stand in the strength of the Lord on the high and heaven-watered hills of promise, which flow with milk and honey. This call of God contains both grace and truth; grace in the promise, the New Covenant "I will," which said, "I will shew thee a land, I will make thee fruitful, I will bless thee;" truth in the separating word, "Get thee out," obedience to which was the proof that Abram believed the "I will." This promise was the gospel. So St. Paul, alluding to it, says, that in it "the gospel was preached to Abram" (Galatians 3:8). The gospel is -- I must repeat it -- a promise of God, a report concerning future glory and an inheritance; which men may believe or disbelieve, but which is true, because it is God’s word, and to meet which faith alone is needed. Men are slow to apprehend this. Feelings, or works, or something in us, is looked for as the ground of future blessing and salvation. But the Spirit and the Word with one voice testify that it is the Lord Himself who saves; and that to receive the salvation, faith, that is, taking God at His word, is the simple and blessed means. God is the Saviour; and faith takes God to be God, resting on Him in every fresh discovery of need and barrenness, and finding Him to be all He has promised, in His own unfailing "I will." But there is more than promise in the call. Promise is its strength; but linked with this there is the separating word, "Get thee out," calling for prompt obedience. Grace saves. It is the promise which sets the heart at rest; which brings us from idolatry and distance to happy confidence. But the faith, which rests on God’s "I will," hears God’s purpose also to separate His saved ones unto Himself. There is to be, not only peace, but separation. So the word of truth comes, commanding sanctification. Man has often divided between grace and truth, preaching God’s "I will," without the accompanying "Get thee out;" or attempting to separate men to God with a "Get thee out," without a full apprehension of God’s "I will." The result has proved that this is not God’s call. Where He calls, both grace and truth are ever found. So with the Apostles. Jesus, walking by the sea of Galilee, (Galilee of the Gentiles, the people that sat in gross darkness,) saw two brethren, Simon and Andrew, casting a net into the sea; and He called them and said, "Follow me:" -- here is separation: -- "and I will make you fishers of men:" -- here is the never-failing "I will" (Matthew 4:19). So again, "Come unto me, all ye that labour:" -- here is separation, for He was "separate" (Hebrews 7:26): then follows the promise, "I will give you rest" (Matthew 11:28). So again, in the well-known words, "I will dwell in them, and walk in them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people: wherefore come out and be separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing, and I will receive you" (2 Corinthians 6:17-18). And these two points are yet in the Lord’s call, nor can the spirit of faith afford to part with either. At times, indeed, for "the flesh is weak," even faith may shrink from all that the separating word claims for it. We are slow to believe that apostate things are to be forsaken, not improved. We would fain mend them, rather than leave them. How many, both in the world within and without, are attempting to put the evil to rights, when God’s word respecting both is only, "Get thee out." But the Lord is faithful; and where He has appeared, the way of separation or sanctification will be trodden: and, indeed; "the spirit is willing," if the flesh is weak. But this leads us to the way in which the call was obeyed. The word was, -- "Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house." Abram gat him out from his country, and even from his kindred, but not from his father’s house. He attempts to take his father, and his father’s house, with him (Genesis 11:31). He obeys, but not wholly. So is it yet. The spirit of faith in us, when called to go forth from the outward things of Ur of the Chaldeans, -- the ground of reasoning, where Babel is built up, -- is called of God to leave, not only the more outward things, such as "thy country," but the more inward also, the "kindred and father’s house." Some are more outward, as natural pleasures and affections; and some more inward, as "the old man," and "father’s house." Of these the outward things are sooner left than the inward; for nature yet is strong, and the old life is still very near and dear to us. So, like Abram of old, the spirit of faith in us endeavours to take with it into the land of promise the old man of our corrupt mind which has never truly known the call of God. But this old man, though ready to start for Canaan, never reaches it. It cares not to go so far. Nay, while it lives, even the elect, if he abides with it, cannot reach his destination. Journeying thus, Abram gets halfway to Canaan: so we read, -- "They went forth to go into the land of Canaan, and they came to Charran and dwelt there." And there they stopped until this old man died. Then Abram starts again: and now nothing stops him; for now, "they went forth to go into the land of Canaan, and into the land of Canaan they came." (Compare Genesis 12:5 and Genesis 11:31.) Stephen, alluding to Abram’s call, specially marks this: -- "The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham, when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Charran, and said, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and come into the land which I will shew thee. Then came he out of the land of the Chaldeans, and dwelt in Charran; and from thence, when his father was dead, he removed him into this land, wherein ye now dwell" (Acts 7:2-4). (Note: Ambrose gives the inward sense, Ambros. de Abr. l. ii. c. 1.)
"So Abram departed." So starts the spirit of faith. Great is the struggle to leave "country and kindred and father’s house." To go forth "not knowing whither we go" is trial enough. To go forth from "father’s house" at once seems impossible. Thus the old man of our fallen spiritual life, though it cannot really help us to Canaan, is still clung to. Indeed, at first it seems to help us. It is written, not Abram took Terah, but "Terah took Abram" (Genesis 11:31); for often some energy, which is really corrupt, is active, apparently in a good direction, when the elect is called. But Terah never passes Jordan; he can but reach Charran. Having got thus far, he has been pilgrim long enough; and so "he dwells there." (Note: This place is mentioned as Laban’s home, Genesis 27:43; as a place easily conquered by the king of Assyria, 2 Kings 19:12; and, lastly, as having an extensive trade with Tyre, Ezekiel 27:23. All this is significant.)
We are slow to learn this lesson, but it must be learnt. Even faith cannot take the old man into the place of promise. Jordan is not really passed. Often has it been tried; but the old life cannot be brought into heavenly places beyond that "stream of judgment," with its deep waterfloods. (Note: Jordan, Heb. yarden [H3383], meaning "the stream of judgment," -- if with Jerome we derive it from dan [H1777, H1835], (Hieron. Comment. in Ezekiel 47:18,) the stream which must be passed by Israel, if they would enter Canaan, is the well-known figure of that death by which we enter heavenly things. If, however, with Augustine, (Enar. in Psalm. xli. [E.V. 42,] 6,) and Gregory the Great, (Moral. in Job, l. xxxiii. c. 6, § 13,) we derive the word from yarad [H3381], to come down, and regard Jordan as the figure of that self-abasement, which is a death to self, through which every one must pass who would enter into rest, the lesson is, in substance, the same.) Thus we are in a strait. A new bond draws us heavenward, but the old one as yet has claims on us. So we start with both: we get "out of our country," and the old man for many stages bears us company; but at length he wearies of this path; Canaan is too far off: and so with him for a season faith too settles down. But in due time we are freed. The time must come at last, when we discover this much loved old man to be dead, and that he must be buried out of sight. Hitherto, spite of the call, we have acted as though the old man might be saved, or improved, or taken with us. But now the meaning of our baptism dawns upon us; the call is recollected, and we become once more pilgrims. This is no fable. Once, with the old man leading us, we went forth to go into the land of Canaan; but we only got to Charran, and dwelt there. But the old man was buried: then again we started to go into the land of Canaan, and into the land of Canaan we came. But though Terah cannot enter Canaan, Lot, another form of life, closely allied to the old man of our former conversation, and from which Abram, or the spirit of faith, has at length to be separated, goes on some stages further with him (Genesis 12:4). Our blindness makes it hard to speak of this. Few perceive that the inward man, or mind, like the body, is not one member, but many, consisting of many faculties, both of the understanding and affections, the former of which are figured by men, the latter by women, throughout Scripture. But thus it is; and Lot is one of these. As the son of Abram’s elder brother, he is the continuation and fruit of what is first and natural, the same old life, only in another form; submitting awhile to be under the direction of true faith, to shew at last its true character. Lot is the natural upright mind in us, not spiritual, yet respecting truth, and, to a considerable degree, following it; scarcely to be distinguished at first from the spirit of faith in us, but with undeveloped tendencies such as the spirit of faith never manifests; just (2 Peter 2:7), yet loving what the spirit of faith loves not, and at length resting, or seeking to rest, where the spirit of faith cannot rest; till it bears sad fruits, which faith could not produce, and which at a further stage are, like Moab and Ammon, in direct opposition to God’s elect Israel. (Note: Moab and Ammon are the children of Lot, Genesis 19:37-38.) Such a mind still dwells with us, though our old man, like Terah, is confessed to be both dead and buried. (Note: Origen alludes to this inward Lot, in his comment on John 8:39. Ambrose also, De Abr. l. ii. c. 2, and 6. In this view we should not forget that Lot’s name signifies a covering. He is not the true inner man.) But this will not be clear to all; for souls, as bodies, live in happy unconsciousness of what is working in them. And indeed though the workings of nature and grace are a sight for some, they work on as well, perhaps even better, unperceived by us.
Having thus passed Jordan, let us mark the trials into which the spirit of faith at once is introduced. Many for lack of knowing this are stumbled, even when through grace they are in the right way, finding it so unlike that which flesh and blood would have chosen. We read here of pilgrimage and difficulty and want, yet of communion with God and happy worship. And these are still some of the chief marks of the position into which true faith brings the believer.
Pilgrimage is noticed first. "Abram passed through the land, to the place of Sichem, and to Moreh; and he removed from thence into a mountain, and pitched his tent, having Bethel on the west, and Hai on the east; and Abram journeyed, going and journeying still toward the south" (Genesis 12:6-9). Nahor abides without change where his fathers dwelt before him, and builds a city, which he calls after his own name (Genesis 24:10). Abram dwells in tents to the end, possessing nothing abiding here, save a burial-place. And the spirit in us which obeys God’s call will even yet dwell in tents and be a pilgrim. The old man may rest in outward things and be settled, but the spirit of faith has here no certain dwelling-place. Its tent is often searched by rains and winds; yet by these very trials it grows strong and is kept from many snares. For the called one cannot be as Moab, "settled on his lees." "Moab hath been at ease even from his youth; he hath settled on his lees; he hath not been emptied from vessel to vessel, neither hath he gone into captivity; therefore his taste remaineth in him, his scent is not changed" (Jeremiah 48:11). Abram, and David, and Israel, have all been emptied from vessel to vessel. Pilgrimage is their appointed lot, because true life is always progressing, moving. In the course of this discipline, trials befall them which others never meet with; failures, too, are seen, such as we never see in the prudent, worldly man. When did Nahor go down to Egypt, or deny his wife? When did Saul, like David, go down to Achish, and play the madman? But in this same course God is seen, and man is learnt. Man, indeed, is abased, but God is glorified. The pilgrim "learns what is in his heart." He cannot easily forget what his pilgrimage has taught him of his own weaknesses. Once he might, like Eve, have believed the word, "Ye shall be as gods." Pilgrimage has proved that even faith is not a god, but only a vessel to receive God. Thus by trial does faith learn God; and the true discovery of Him more than compensates for all the self-despair, which has been the means of making us acquainted with Him.
Thus Abram passed from place to place; from Ur to Haran, then to Sichem and Moreh, thence to Bethel and Hai, and so on. (Note: On the mystic import of each of these places, the early Fathers have written much. See Ambrose, De Abr. l. i. c. 2. As to the "mountain on the east of Bethel," Ibid. l. ii c. 3. We may compare with this Augustine’s spiritual interpretation of Sichem, on the words, "I will divide Sichem." -- Enar. in Psalm. lix. (E.V. 60,) § 8. St. Paul’s explanation of Salem is well known, Hebrews 7:2.) He was what some now call changeable. And further, he went "he knew not whither." This is yet the common charge against the walk of faith. How often have I heard it urged against those, who, in faith and obedience to the call of God, have made no small sacrifices, that they are changeful, here to-day, and there to-morrow; that it is difficult from year to year to know where we may find them. Others, if they are snugly housed in some "city of the nations," some great or small system or polity of man’s making, may be reckoned on with some certainty. We can tell where to find them even to the end. They can boast, too, of their consistency. Where they were at first, there they are still. They have never altered a single view, because they have never taken a single step forward. But this faith, which talks of God’s having called it, is unmanageable. Men in whom such a spirit rules, however comfortably they are settled to-day, may be off, we know not where, to-morrow. And what do they get by it? Plainly nothing. One thing only is plain: a man who talks of the call of God is not the man to be trusted with the care of this world’s cities. He is a madman. So the world has judged long since: so it judges yet: nor indeed is it wholly in the wrong. A madman is one who sees, or thinks he sees, what others see not; and seeing such things, he walks accordingly. The called of God has seen what others see not, and he walks accordingly; and those who see not what he has seen must think him mad; and his failures and inconsistencies, the fruits of his unbelief in the path of faith, only make him more unintelligible. Nevertheless the Lord knoweth them that are His. And, much as there is for self-humiliation in the path of such, there are eyes which can see how these very changes, and even failures, only shew more clearly that the path trodden is one, not of sight or nature, but of faith. All this will probably appear very absurd to those who think that a walk of faith begins or is carried on from some calculations of its effects on others, or of the credit it may bring. That inward man, which hears God’s call and walks with Him, is led often it knows not whither. Scarce understanding itself, often misunderstanding its appointed way, no wonder if others misunderstand it. But the Lord knoweth the path of His elect; and when He hath tried them, they shall come forth as gold. But the spirit of faith is not a pilgrim only: Abram has an "altar" as well as a tent; in worship receiving fresh revelations. "The Lord appeared to Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land: and there he builded an altar unto the Lord, and called upon the name of the Lord" (Genesis 12:7-8). In Ur of the Chaldees God had said, -- "A land which I will shew thee:" now He says, -- "A land which I will give thee." And let it be observed, that here "the Lord appeared." Before this He had "called," and "spoken" to Adam, and Cain, and Noah, and Abram; but we never hear of His "appearing" until now; for it is to the spirit of faith, above all others, that the Lord shews Himself; for faith brings man into trial, and trial needs special revelations, and these are not withheld. Angels’ visits are only few and far between, because we so seldom are in the place really to require them. The special trials of this stage are, first, "the Canaanite," and then "a grievous famine," in the land (Genesis 12:6; Genesis 12:10). Canaan, the son of Ham, as we have seen, figures that mere outward religiousness which grows even out of the regenerate man. (Note: See above, on Genesis 9:1-29 and Genesis 10:1-32.) This is felt by the spirit of faith, when it attempts to enter into heavenly things. The famine shews how the ground on which true faith must stand is indeed a "land of promise," not of present rest. The Canaanite holds it, and famine strips it, till the spirit of faith knows scarcely where to turn itself. And this is the walk with God, with the sense of sin and want sorely pressing us. We may once have hoped through obedience to be wholly freed from such. We may yet think it strange that such fiery trial should be needed, or that the rest so surely promised should yet be kept from us by others, and they the Lord’s enemies. Yet such is the path; for the question is, -- Can we be satisfied with God? And many a weary step is trodden before we have made this attainment. In Abram’s case the trial led to failure for a while. The Canaanite and the famine drove him down to Egypt. The faith which gets on to the ground of promise at first has not strength to be steadfast there. Indeed, it requires more grace to stand on the ground to which faith brings us, than to get upon it. Peter had faith to step out on the waters, but he had not faith to walk far when there: he had faith to follow Jesus into the high priest’s palace, but he lacked faith while there to witness faithfully. Every act of faith brings us into greater trials, where greater faith will be needed. Thus it is that many who walk by faith have failures, which those know not who do not attempt so much. So it was with Abram. Two stages are marked in his failure: first, trial leads him down to Egypt, and then Egypt leads him to deny his wife. The first step led to the second; for one wrong step, like one lie, if it be not immediately retraced, requires another. The first error was walking by circumstances. Then a step is taken to avoid trial, without asking the Lord’s counsel. Then the Lord, and His counsel and care, being for the time forgotten, His promise respecting the seed is forgotten also; and the result is, Sarah is soon in Pharaoh’s house; while failing Abram is well entreated for her sake: -- "He had sheep, and oxen, and he-asses, and men-servants, and maid-servants, and she-asses, and camels" (Genesis 12:15-16).
Egypt, meaning straitness, or that straitens, (Note: Heb. mitsrayim, [H4693]. This type is very generally understood. Ambrose, De Abr. l. ii. c. 4, § 13. Augustine, Enar. in Psalm. cxiii. (E.V. 114,) § 3. Gregory the Great, Moral. in Job., l. xxvi. c. 13, § 21.) is the ground of sense; outwardly, those who are living the life of sense, that is, in seen things; as Asshur or Assyria is the type of reasoning; outwardly, of those whose life being one of reasoning, by such reasonings pervert and darken truth. (Note: Asshur, ashshur [H804], means steps. Reasoning is a series of steps.) These both are snares on the right and left for Israel; though both at length to be used and blessed, as the Lord distinctly promises (Isaiah 19:23-25). For when "the Egyptian serves with the Assyrian" both are "blessed." But here Abram, the spirit of faith, tried by the difficulties on the ground of promise, goes down to seek rest in Egypt, that is, the ground of sense; rightly called straitness, for it is indeed a narrow land, not watered as Canaan with the rain of heaven (Deuteronomy 11:10-12; Zechariah 14:18), but by its river, which one day threatens to destroy the sons of Israel. Yet not to Egyptians only is Egypt an enchanting land; it has charms which are felt even by God’s elect, treasures gathered up through years of proud empire, and a wisdom which left no room for faith. Here comes the elect, thinking to find some refuge; and here Sarah is at once denied with an equivocation. Women, in this inward view, are certain affections. Sarah is the affection or principle of spiritual truth. (Note: See below on Genesis 16:1-16) In Egypt Sarah is denied: those affections which the spirit of faith ought to defend and cherish most carefully, (for from them must spring the promised fruit,) are brought into danger of defilement from earthly things. For Pharaoh at once desires to have Sarah, and is only kept from violating her by the Lord’s immediate judgments. So does sense now seek to enter into the things of faith, and, could it do so, it would at once violate them. But the Lord saves them: Sarah is not defiled; and Abram, being reproved, turns again, and so departs from Egypt.
------------ But this will be clearer to some as seen without. In this view Abram is the type of those in whom faith is the ruling life, that is, the men of true faith. Such are found by God, when members of a fallen Church, serving idols, and barren, and nigh to Great Babylon. There the Lord’s voice is heard, and they who hear it start at once, leaving kindred and country, to go they know not whither. These are the works of Abraham, which must be done, if indeed and in truth we would be Abraham’s children: for the Truth has said, "If ye were Abraham’s seed, ye would do the works of Abraham" (John 8:39); (Note: Origen’s comment on this verse contains many very striking thoughts. See Com. in Johan. tom. xxi.) and his first work was to go forth with God, not knowing whither he went. So walk the men of faith, whose faith is believing in God, not in what others believe about God. Nevertheless, for awhile they seek to take some with them, who, never having personally heard the inward call of God, though ready to begin the course, will never be willing or able to cross over Jordan. With such even believers can only go half-way. But in due time the Terahs are found to be dead; when, leaving them, not without tears, the elect gird up their loins and go on over Jordan. Then come the first trials of the promised land, Canaanites and famine, which drive us down to Egypt. There, while seeking a little rest, Sarah is denied, that is, the spiritual principles of the New Covenant. Believers hope, by denying their true relation to this, to gain greater safety and liberty. Who knows not how common this is? Sarah, the principle of grace, is denied, that failing Abrams may have, as they say, greater liberty, a wider field of usefulness. Take an example. Circumstances of trial have brought believers off their true ground of promise into worldly things. Such love Sarah. Nothing is dearer to them than the covenant of grace. Yet Sarah is again and again denied. And as of old, so now, the thing is done with an equivocation: -- "Say thou art my sister." Words are used to Egyptians, which, though true in a sense, are not true in the sense in which Egyptians take them. So now, men called of God, who believe we are saved by grace, and that neither ordinances nor flesh can make a Christian, will so far practically give up Sarah as to lead the world to think that, as the world, the New Covenant can yet be theirs. This may be done in many ways. Meanwhile the men who know the truth and love it, and yet act thus, have an equivocation which they think clears them. They do not mean by certain words what others naturally gather from them. And though they see they are misunderstood, they still persist. According to these men, the equivocation, "Say thou art my sister," is all right. It is no harm running the risk of mixing or defiling the holy seed. According to these men, Sarah may be a mother of Egyptians; and no thanks to such if God’s grace prevents it. The consequence is, even an Egyptian can rebuke Abram. So far from a greater sphere of usefulness, the equivocation deprives the elect of all power over the other’s conscience. But Sarah cannot be a mother of Egyptians. The Lord appears to vindicate Himself and free His failing servant. "The Lord plagued Pharaoh and his house with great plagues, because of Sarai, Abram’s wife. And Pharaoh called Abram, and said, What is this that thou hast done unto me? Why didst thou not tell me that she was thy wife? Why saidst thou, She is my sister? So I might have taken her to me for wife. Now therefore behold thy wife: take her and go thy way. And Pharaoh commanded his men concerning him, and they sent him away, and his wife, and all that he had" (Genesis 12:17-20). Thus was Abram delivered: thus even now are individuals freed: thus shall the poor captive Church escape at last. The world will not have us among them, because our principles judge them: and God will not have us there. In this one thing God and the world agree. Both, at last, say to us, "Behold thy wife: take her and go thy way." (Note: Augustine, Contr. Faust. Man. l. xxii. c. 38, traces at considerable length the dispensational fulfilment of this history. In this view Sarah is the Church, or New Covenant body, which, in its way to the land of rest, gets into the world’s house for awhile, but is not suffered to be defiled there.)
Such was and is the path of faith. To not a few now living, these first stages are well known, and familiar as household words. I knew a man in Christ, above fourteen years ago, -- no question is it, whether he was in the body, -- who being called by grace, when he was serving other gods, obeyed in part, seeking to take the uncalled with him into the promised land. And I knew such a man, that, though he went forth to go into the land, yet he only got half way, and dwelt there; the old man, whom he took with him, hindering his advance, until, as days passed on, he found the old man dead; when, having buried him, he became what the men of that country called "unsettled," seeking to go further. So he went forth again to go into the land of Canaan, and into the land of Canaan now he came. Heavenly things and places, once heard of, were seen; but withal, there was trial, and ere long famine. Then Egypt was turned to, and Sarah was denied, till grace restored the wandering pilgrim. And that grace is yet as near as of old. None can look for it far off or near, and look in vain. Is a ruined world around us, with monstrous births, gigantic evils, the fruit of strange unions between the sons of God and men? -- then an ark is prepared, to admit not only the Noahs, but even for unclean and creeping things, if they will enter it; which shall take them from the world of the curse, and of the thorn, to the world of the covenant and the rainbow, beyond the waters. Is the ruin deeper still, a ruined Church, which, brought through the waters, has misused its blessings and exposed its shame; which has bred fierce hunters, or built great Babels? -- God yet remains; and His grace, if sought, is yet enough for every failure, in the world, in the Church, in our flesh, or in our ways. He cannot fail. He grudges nothing. He has freely given His Only Son. In Him are hid for us eternal countless gifts. In Him, the true Restorer of all things, we are accepted; and He waits that those things, which are hid in Him for us, may by Him be wrought in us through His Spirit. And if, to know His fulness, we need to know our emptiness, -- if our ruin is the complement of His sufficient grace, -- most gladly let us glory in our infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon us. But it is time to pass on to another stage in this path.