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Signs of the Times, Vol. 27, No. 30.

The Gods of To-day
Earlier text: THE CULMINATING BATTLE OF THE AGES

THE MISSION OF THE PANSIES.

By Mrs. Florence Booth Miller

The warm August day was slowly drawing to a close. The heat had been oppressive, the flowers had drooped upon their stems, and the leaves of the trees were hanging lifeless, while weary toilers hoped and prayed for rain.
Lying wearily upon a narrow bed in a great hospital in one of our Western cities was a dear Christian woman whose faith was being severely tested, and who for a moment, as it were, was tempted to rebel against God, who had permitted the present circumstances. For many weeks she had lain in the same little bed in the same room, with not much cheer or comfort, and not a familiar face to look into her own. During the sultry day she had turned her face toward the wall, and cried out in agony, “Has God forgotten to be gracious? O my boys, how mama wants to see your bright faces!”
Mrs. Lee was indeed nearly discouraged. Failing health had compelled her to leave her home and family, consisting of her husband and three sons, the oldest about twelve years of age, and go to the hospital for necessary treatment. Mr. Lee was a Christian man, who toiled early and late to support his family, but from lack of means Mrs. Lee had been obliged to go alone and remain alone. She was naturally very courageous; but the intense suffering of the past few weeks, together with the thought that many more must pass ere she could return to her family, caused her to feel somewhat rebellious. Then, too, the heat was so great it seemed to be taking what little strength she had left.
Twice each week came loving, cheery letters from Mr. Lee and the boys; but to-night she was thinking of home and the flowers, especially the pinks and pansies, and the faces of her husband and children came before her so vividly that again she turned her face and wept.
Soon she heard footsteps approaching, and raising her tear-stained lids she saw a picture that seemed to cool the air and bring encouragement at the first glance. The white-capped nurse softly stepped up to her bed, followed by a handsome lad who reminded her so much of her Charlie at home. His hat had been left outside, and in each hand he carried a large basket of beautiful cultivated pansies, which were made up into separate bouquets, with a pretty floral card containing a verse of Scripture and an appropriate quotation, tied upon each one.
Said the nurse, quietly, “It is against the rules to admit a caller at this hour; but the matron said that such a fresh young face with beautiful flowers would cheer a whole roomful of sufferers after a day like this, and she said he could come to St. Luke’s ward to distribute his blossoms.” As the boy stepped forward, he said to Mrs. Lee cheerily and without a trace of embarrassment, “Mama said she thought the patients in this hospital ought to have something sent to them to remind them of the goodness of God and to encourage them to trust in Him, so she has sent you some pansies and perfume, and I am happy to bring them, too”; and taking out a most lovely bouquet, he presented it to Mrs. Lee, together with a bottle of the rarest perfume, which had been hidden beneath the pansies. Tears nearly blinded her eyes as she whispered to the boy, “Come back here after you distribute your flowers.”
One by one the bouquets were handed to the sick ones, and finally he came back to Mrs. Lee. The nurse had remained sitting by her, and arising from her chair she told the boy he could remain five minutes; “for,” said she, “Mrs. Lee has boys too, and she will love to look at you.”
So he sat down and taking her hand in his own, he said, “Mama said that perhaps some mother would be here who was hungry to see her boy, and that maybe she would be glad to see me.” Then telling her of his mother and their greenhouse filled with flowers, and receiving her thanks for the gifts, he arose to go; but suddenly he stopped, and said, “O nurse, I have something else to give them. Mama made several powders which she thought might do the patients good, and she said for you to look at one and see if you were willing for me to leave them.”
Stepping to the window, the nurse examined one of the powders, and with a peculiar smile upon her face, she replied, “Yes, they are good for our patients; you may pass them, and then you must say good night.” Leaving four or five with each patient, he said, “Mama wants you to keep these until the flowers have withered, then take one at three in the afternoon and at eight in the evening, and in a few days I will come with some more flowers.” Then bowing and saying “good night,” the manly little fellow went from the room.
Not until then did Mrs. Lee take up her bouquet to really drink in its beauty; and as the bright-faced pansies looked at her as if to say, “Have faith in God,” she felt to reproach herself for asking if God had forgotten; then turning the flowers around, she saw the card tied on with narrow white ribbon, and as if in answer to the thought which had been uppermost in her mind through the day, she read what was written below a little bouquet of lilies-of-the-valley: “I will never leave thee nor forsake thee”—while below was a quotation:—
“Fearest thou that sometimes the Father hath forgot? When the clouds around thee gather, doubt Him not.”
The question of the day was answered. God had not forgotten, and He had promised never to leave her, and her lonely heart was comforted. Then as she was growing very weary, and as the nurse had returned to arrange her duties for the night, she thought of the little bottle of perfume and wondered what kind it was, when upon the bottle she read, “French Carnation.” Strange, the very perfume she had longed for during the day. Then again she thought of the providence of God in sending the comfort of the evening, and with the thought, “He will never leave thee nor forsake thee,” she fell asleep.
The following morning how refreshing it seemed to Mrs. Lee, after the nurse had made her as comfortable as possible, and the pansies had been brought in from a cool place where they had been taken for the night, to smell the odor of the carnation, to look at the pansies, and more than all, to meditate upon the scripture on the card. As she was slowly turning her pansies around, she saw a name written upon the back of the card which she had not seen before: “From Mrs. Dr. Schuyler.”
When the nurse returned, she questioned her regarding the lady, and found she was a wealthy woman who had drunk the cup of sorrow to its dregs, yet whose life was filled with good deeds and little acts of kindness, especially to hospital sufferers. “She has never sent flowers here before,” said the nurse, “altho she has to many other hospitals. She has lately added this hospital to her list, so we can expect to hear from her again.”
The pansies did not last nearly long enough, they thought; and after a short time, they were taken away; but the sweet fragrance of the kindly act would live as long as memory lasted; and the floral card was carefully laid away as a choice keepsake.
Still another day passed without rain, and at three in the afternoon some one remembered the powders. “Why, ’tis not medicine at all,” said one. “Our powders are verses of Scripture and wise counsel.” “Better than medicine for me,” said another.
Wearily Mrs. Lee reached out and picked up one of her powders, and upon opening it saw beautifully written:—
“Tribulation worketh patience; and patience, experience; and experience, hope.”
“Why should I start at the plow of my Lord, that maketh deep furrows on my soul? I know He is no idle husbandman. He purposeth a harvest.”
“Indeed, better than medicine,” murmured Mrs. Lee, with a little whispered prayer that God would reward Mrs. Schuyler for her thoughtfulness. Over in another corner was an orphan girl, who read with quivering lips:—
“When my father and my mother forsake me, then the Lord will take me up.”
Near the orphan was an erring one, who had left home and mother, and had found, from a bitter experience, that the way of the transgressor is hard. Was it chance, you ask, when with moistened eyes she read:—
“If any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.”
“My mistakes His free grace will cover; My sins He will wash away; And the feet that shrink and falter, Shall walk through the gates of day.”
“Our Friend,” she whispered, “in this unfriendly world”—while a ray of cheer was given Singing Jessie, who was the joy of the room in spite of her pain, and who often sang a little song to try to help some one worse than herself, as she read:—
“Then nestle your hand in your Father’s, And sing, if you can, as you go; Your song may cheer some one behind you, Whose courage is sinking low; And if your lips do quiver, God will love you the better so.”
The basket of flowers, perfume, and powders did its work well, and that evening, as the clouds grew dark with the approaching storm, when the thunder pealed and the lightning flashed, the patients in St. Luke’s ward found sweet comfort in thinking of the great Father who would care for His own; and when the storms of life were raging, and when the billows of temptation and trial were dashing high, the sweet voice of the Master could be heard, saying, “’Tis I, be not afraid.”
Many were the lessons of patience and trust which were learned during those weeks of suffering; and once a week Charlie Schuyler came with his basket of different kinds of flowers, and messages from his mother.
Slowly the weeks wore away, and one beautiful morning in the fall, when the earth was covered with a variegated carpet of delicately-tinted autumn leaves, Mrs. Lee started for her home. The thought of the loving faces awaiting her gave her strength. And as the train drew in at the home station, and she saw her husband and the boys standing on the platform, she whispered to herself, as her eyes filled with tears, “God is faithful; He did not forget.” And as she would relate her hospital experience from time to time, she never forgot to mention the mission of the pansies and powders, and how plainly the pansies reproved her for not having more faith in God. And months afterward, when she had grown stronger, many beautiful pansies found their way to sick ones from her little garden, and lonely hearts were cheered by the silent language of the flowers.
“An early flower bestowed unasked, A light and cautious tread, A voice to softest whispers hushed To spare an aching head,— O, things like these, thou little things, The purest love disclose, As fragrant atoms in the air Reveal the hidden rose.”
MRS. FLORENCE BOOTH MILLER. Sidney, N. Y.

THUS TO PRAY.

By Jane Haskell

Hail, ye sons of toil, whose altars are The burden of the pregnant, upturned clod; From the first morn of earth until the far, Faint gleam of heaven’s last, lingering star, The worshipers of earth, and pride of God! Hail, ye lovers of the early morn, Fathers of the garnered harvest-field! A pride that eve shall view thy labors done,— O, joy shall flame the leaves of laurels won In gleaming billows of the golden yield. May sword and shield and bayonet rust away, And bright, ye sickles, gleam each harvest day!
Up, lad of rosy cheeks and dusky brow! Free wash thee in the sparkles of the morn. Hence! train thy sturdy limbs behind the plow; Ambrosia pluck from trailing, laden bough, And sleep thy nooning nap ’neath shades of corn; Then up, and worship in full work, until Rest seems most sweet, and in the lulling west The eye of day sleeps in the purple hill; Then home thee to thy own nest with a will, And dream thee as upon thy mother’s breast. Ah, such full worship may a famine stay; O hearken, fellow-mortals, thus to pray.
JANE HASKELL.

GOOD LUCK.

THE old doctor had been away for a fortnight on one of his fishing trips, and now loitered in the drug-shop, listening to the news of the village.
“And Sam Vance,” said the druggist, Phelps, “has had his usual hard luck. He bought a whole ticket in the lottery with part of his grandmother’s legacy, and it has turned out a blank.”
“Good!” said the doctor. “Now he will take up his saw and go to work.”
“Well, it was hard luck,” said Phelps. “The prize was $200,000, and Sam had the very next number to the winning ticket, and drew nothing.”
“He has the bent of his family toward laziness and drink,” said the doctor. “You know that. With money he would be a sot in a year. Without it he has a chance to be a good carpenter and a useful man.”
He paused, and presently went on: “I tell you, Phelps, bad luck is usually the best of our good angels. The things that we don’t have in this world are the ones that help us most.”
“What do you mean?” asked the druggist.
The doctor looked at him.
They were both old men. They had grown old together in the village, and both of them knew all of its histories of human life, both tragic and comic.
“Well,” he said, “there is the squire. If he had married the woman he loved—I need not mention any names—he would have been a miserable man. She had a small, mean nature. She was greedy and full of petty malice. She married another man, and presently died, and the squire makes out of her memory a noble, fine impulse, that perpetually lifts his whole life.
“And there are the Randalls, both husband and wife. They never have ceased to mourn for their only son, who died when he was ten years old. There is no good quality which they do not give him. They talk of him incessantly, of his talents, his piety. If they hear of a great discovery or a noble deed, they fancy Tom would have done it if he had lived. I was the boy’s physician. He was weak in body and mind. He was cruel and vicious. If he had lived to develop his real nature, he would have broken their hearts.
“And look at me!” he continued, with an uneasy laugh. “If I had become the great specialist I aimed to be, if I had won fame and money, I should have been hard and grasping. You needn’t wag your head; it’s in me. It is my ill luck, poverty, and lack of success, that have given me any good, kindly feelings that I may have.
“Yes, Phelps, at the end of the long day, when we reckon up our blessings to thank God for them before we go to sleep, we shall see that it was the things that He refused, the things that He took from us, which helped us most.”—Youth’s Companion.

FRUIT AND THE LIQUOR APPETITE.

A WRITER in a European temperance journal calls attention to the value of fruit as an antidote to the craving for liquor. He says:—
In Germany, a nation greatly in advance of other countries in matters relating to hygiene, alcoholic disease has been coped with successfully by the adoption of pure diet and natural curative agencies. I have said that the use of fresh fruit is an antidote for the drink craving, and this is true. I have met workingmen who have told me that fruit has often taken away the craving for drink. I met a clergyman recently who assured me that a diet consisting largely of fruit had taken entirely away an hereditary craving that had troubled him for years.
It may be asked, How can fruit and pure diet do all this? The explanation is simple. Fruit may be called nature’s medicine. Every apple, every orange, every plum, and every grape is a bottle of medicine. An orange is three parts water—distilled in nature’s laboratory—but this water is rich in peculiar fruit acids medically balanced, which are specially cooling to the thirst of the drunkard, and soothing to the diseased state of his stomach. An apple or an orange eaten when the desire for “a glass” arises would generally take it away, and every victory would make less strong each recurring temptation. The function is not so much to provide solid nourishment as to supply the needful acids and salines for the purification of the blood. Once get the blood pure, every time its pure nutrient stream bathes the tissues of the body it will bring away some impurity, and leave behind an atom of healthy tissue, until in time the drunkard shall stand up purified, in his right mind.

ABRAHAM A MISSIONARY.

By W. N. G.

ABRAHAM was called of God to be a missionary to the world, and, like Abel, “he being dead yet speaketh.” He lived in the midst of a people and was of a family who, in the face of the light of God’s truth, were fast departing from the true worship, descending into the mire of idolatry. Even Terah and Nahor, Abraham’s father and brother, “served other gods.” Joshua 24: 2.
But God would not suffer the true faith to become extinct. That would be equivalent to giving up the idea of saving the sinful race. It would have been practically saying that probation was ended. Men are saved by grace, through faith; they are sanctified through the truth, which is the Word of God. To this end it was necessary that there be always a remnant at least who would maintain the true faith, that would have an understanding of God’s will, manifest obedience to His law, and thus witness for God. So with all these qualifications God endowed Abraham; for God bore this witness: “I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment.” Gen. 18: 19.
What the Lord meant by these words is shown in His charge to Isaac, where He says, “Abraham ‘obeyed My voice, and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes, and My laws.” As all apostasy is a result of departing from the commandments of God, so all true reformation must manifest a turning to the Word. So the Lord chose one whom He knew would be an example of faith, as well as a preacher of the Word.
According to Stephen, Acts 7: 2–4, God appeared to Abraham in Mesopotamia, and afterward he went to Charran (or Haran). From Genesis 11 we learn that the particular place of his residence and that of his father’s family was the city of Ur. The remains of this city, now called Mugheir, are six miles west of the Euphrates near its junction with the Tigris, 120 miles above its entrance into the Persian Gulf, and about the same distance southeast of Babylon. Some explorers maintain that the gulf extended to this point at that time. Ur was one of the most ancient towns of older Chaldea. Haran was 500 miles north of Ur. Haran was a large commercial place, and Professor Sayce says, “A native ‘of Ur would have found himself more at home in ‘Haran than in any other city in the world.”
Whether Terah “took” Abraham to Haran as Gen. 11: 31 seems to imply, is of no particular moment; it was the Lord’s doing; for Abraham “went out, not knowing whither he went.” Heb. 11: 8. That is, he did not know his eventual destination. He was thenceforward a sojourner, going wherever the providence of God led him. Moreover, Terah was now 200 years old, and the purpose of the Lord in separating Abraham from his country and kindred would not be materially hindered by his aged father’s remaining with him a few years longer. Terah’s life was prolonged but five years after the removal from Ur, and then Abraham was led on to Canaan. The fact that he was not sooner directed to move on is evidence that his stop there until his father died was in the providence of God.
However, there is other evidence of God’s providence in the sojourn at Haran. Abraham did practical missionary work there, and souls were rescued from idolatry. So this roundabout route to Canaan, the destination which God had marked out for His missionary, and the tarry of five years at Haran, were not in vain. When Abraham departed thence, he “took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother’s son, and all their substance that they had gathered, and the souls that they had gotten in Haran.” Gen. 12: 5. All that joined themselves to Abraham were reckoned as belonging to his household, and they worshiped the true God.
There was one thing of which Abraham seems to have been sure,—he was not to return to his native country. The Lord had determined to establish a new missionary center, from which the light of truth should radiate to the world, and He had chosen Abraham to be His pioneer in the great enterprise. The life-work of His chosen vessel was the establishing and maintaining of the true faith in the land of Canaan, then a dark heathen land, but geographically destined to be the great center of travel and communication between the East and West and the North and South. The magnitude of the work laid out for Abraham, and the dangers and temptations before him, are little appreciated in these days of great facilities.
Yet Abraham’s strength and courage and success were due to the fact that he was in a position where he had no alternative but trust in the guidance of the One whom he served. He was not sent out by a large body of sympathizers with the cause which he had espoused, and with the visible assurance that he would have material backing in case of emergency. It was not understood that if he was threatened with any serious hindrance or unfortunate circumstance, the cause would pay his way back to Ur. No, Abraham was a missionary; he knew that he had a call from God before he went. He did not go because some of his brethren urged him to go; he did not go with the prospect that in a little while some one else would come to take his place.
God had said, “Get thee out of thy country, and ‘from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto ‘a land that I will show thee.’” “So Abraham departed, as the Lord had spoken unto him.” Here was the secret of Abraham’s call, the secret of his dependence upon God in his great and arduous mission. As far as men were concerned, he was self-supported; but in faith, and consequently in visible reality, he was God-supported.
Now we do not place any discount on the setting apart of missionaries by councils; God does indicate His will to men in charge of His work. But councils are not infallible, and their judgment alone is not sufficient. And the individual who has no other evidence of his call than the judgment of a council, would better stay at home. A council was told by the Spirit to set apart Barnabas and Paul to a certain missionary work, but it was to a work to which the Spirit had called Barnabas and Paul personally. The word was, “Separate Me Barnabas and Saul ‘for the work whereunto I have called them.” In the days of the apostles, as also in our day, there was safety only in the double call—the conscious, personal call of the individual by the Lord, and the indication by the Spirit to the brethren to recognize the call. If the council and the individual are both in close touch with the Spirit, there will be no conflict of judgment regarding the call. But if, as in Abraham’s time, there is none of like faith who can see the importance of missionary work, the Lord must needs make the call personally only.
Nor is there any discount on the support of missionaries by the brethren. God has shown that they who stay at home should sacrifice as well as those who go; that if one gives his time and his energy and his talent to the work, another should at least give liberally of his means. All these things are God-given, and in His providence He would support His missionary workers through the instrumentality of their brethren. But in Abraham’s case there were no brethren in sympathy with his work excepting those who went with him.
So Abraham went on his way, trusting implicitly in the guidance of the Spirit of God, not only as to destination but as to support. Wherever he made a halt, he erected his altar, and the people were given an object-lesson in the worship of the true God. It was not all sunshine with Abraham; if it had been, there would have been no refreshing showers. Had there been no reverses, no trials of faith, there would have been no victories. Not long after his arrival in Canaan, he was confronted by a famine. Ah! was not now the time for Abraham to go back to Haran or to Ur?—Not so in the mind of the missionary who had been promised the land to which he had been led. Instead of going back, this apparent reverse only pushed him further on. Egypt also needed the Gospel message which God had entrusted to Abraham, so the circumstance of a famine in Canaan was the opportunity for a missionary tour in the South.
In the case of Abraham God has demonstrated that His missionaries should be liberally supported. He was dealing with Abraham direct, and gave him a good business talent. Because he was honest, and consecrated all to the Lord, he was prospered. The Lord was looking after Abraham’s support, and whatever the Lord does, He does right royally. So when Abraham came back from Egypt, he was “very rich in cattle, in silver, and in gold.” Besides the influence which Abraham wielded wherever he went, he gathered an immediate following of about a thousand souls that were dependent upon his material prosperity for support. His generosity and hospitality, as well as his self-denial and faith in God, stand out as an example for all who would be counted as “Abraham’s seed, and heirs ‘according to the promise’ made to him, that he should be ‘heir of the world.’” W. N. G.

LESSON V.—AUGUST 3.—THE FIRST ANGEL'S MESSAGE.

[Note to the Student.—These lessons are not designed to be exhaustive, but suggestive. In references to the “Desire of Ages,” in the lessons, the subscription edition is referred to. Those who have only the trade edition will find the matter in chapters 1, 4, 11, 27, 71, 77, 78; also read “Patriarchs and Prophets,” chapters 4, and 30. “Christ Our Advocate,” Bible Students’ Library No. 120 (price, 10 cents), and “Looking unto Jesus” (price, $1.00) will be found a great help. The SIGNS OF THE TIMES will have an article on the subject of each lesson this quarter by J. O. Corliss. Read these articles in connection with the study of the lesson. We have not space to print all the scriptures. Let the student study them carefully from the Bible. Those printed are from the Revised Version.]

Rev. 14: 6, 7.

6 “And I saw another angel flying in mid-heaven, having an eternal Gospel to proclaim unto them that dwell on the earth, 7 and unto every nation and tribe and tongue and people; and he saith with a great voice, Fear God, and give Him glory; for the hour of His judgment is come; and worship him that made the heaven and the earth and sea and fountains of waters.”

Rev. 10: 1-9.

1 “And I saw another strong angel coming down out of heaven, arrayed with a cloud; and the rainbow was upon his head, and his face was as the sun, and his feet as pillars 2 of fire; and he had in his hand a little book open; and he set 3 his right foot upon the sea, and his left upon the earth; and he cried with a great voice, as a lion roareth; and when he 4 cried, the seven thunders uttered their voices. And when the seven thunders uttered their voices, I was about to write; and I heard a voice from heaven saying, Seal up the things which 5 the seven thunders uttered, and write them not: And the angel which I saw standing upon the sea and upon the earth 6 lifted up his right hand to heaven, and sware by Him that liveth for ever and ever, who created the heaven and the things that are therein, and the earth and the things that are therein, and the sea and the things that are therein, that there 7 shall be time no longer: but in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he is about to sound, then is finished the mystery of God, according to the good tidings which He declared to His servants the prophets. And the voice which I 8 heard from heaven, I heard it again speaking with me, and saying, Go, take the book which is open in the hand of the angel that standeth upon the sea and upon the earth. And I 9 went unto the angel, saying unto him that he should give me the little book. And he saith unto me, Take it, and eat it up; and it shall make thy belly bitter, but in thy mouth it shall be sweet as honey.”

Rev. 11: 15, 19.

15 “And the seventh angel sounded; and there followed great voices in heaven, and they said, The kingdom of the world is become the kingdom of our Lord, and of His Christ; and He shall reign forever and ever.” 19 “And there was opened the temple of God that is in heaven; and there was seen in His temple the ark of His covenant; and there followed lightnings, and voices, and thunders, and an earthquake, and great hail.”

Dan. 7: 9, 10, 13.

9 “I beheld till thrones were placed, and One that was ancient of days did sit. His raiment was white as snow, and the hair of His head like pure wool; His throne was fiery 10 flames, and the wheels thereof burning fire. A fiery stream issued and came forth from before Him: thousand thousands ministered unto Him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before Him; the judgment was set, and the books were opened.”
13 “I saw in the night visions, and, behold, there came with the clouds of heaven One like unto a son of man, and He came even to the Ancient of Days, and they brought Him near before Him.”

SUGGESTIVE QUESTIONS.

1. In the type, what was to take place ten days before the cleansing of the sanctuary? Ans.—“A blowing of trumpets, an holy convocation.” Lev. 23: 24.
2. What announcement began to be made to the world about ten years before Christ began to cleanse the heavenly sanctuary? Rev. 14: 6, 7.
3. What message is found in Rev. 10: 1-6?
4. What did the angel have that would indicate whence he received his message? Verses 2, 3.
5. What commands were given in reference to this little book? Verses 8, 9. Then from what book would the church at that time get great light?
6. What was the burden of the message proclaimed from that little book? Verses 5, 6.
7. What was to follow immediately at the close of this time message? To whom had God declared this fact? Verse 7.
8. What had God declared “to His servants the prophets” should take place at the end of the 2300 days? Ans.—The cleansing of the sanctuary. Dan. 8: 14. Then what two great facts are identical?
9. At what time was the mystery of God to be finished? Rev. 10: 7.
10. What other event takes place at the same time? Rev. 11: 15, 19.
11. How does Daniel describe the scene which took place at the opening of the temple in heaven? Dan. 7: 9, 10, 13.

NOTES.

LESSON 4.—JULY 28.—GOD CALLS ABRAHAM.

Lesson Scripture, Gen. 12:1-9, R.V.
Golden Text.—“I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing.” Verse 2.
1 “Now the Lord said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto the land that I will show thee: and I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and 2 be thou a blessing; and I will bless them that bless thee, and him that curseth thee will I curse; and in thee shall all the 3 families of the earth be blessed. So Abram went, as the Lord had spoken unto him; and Lot went with him; and Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed out of 4 Haran. And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother’s son, and all their substance that they had gathered, and the souls that they had gotten in Haran; and they went forth to go into the land of Canaan; and into the land of Canaan 5 they came. And Abram passed through the land unto the place of Shechem, unto the oak of Moreh. And the Canaanite 6 was then in the land. And the Lord appeared unto Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land; and there builded he an altar unto the Lord, who appeared unto him. 7 And he removed from thence unto the mountain on the east of Bethel, and pitched his tent, having Bethel on the west, and Ai on the east; and there he builded an altar unto the 8 Lord, and called upon the name of the Lord. And Abram journeyed, going on still toward the South.”

SUGGESTIVE QUESTIONS.

(1) What command had the Lord given Abraham? Verse 1. (2) Where was Abraham when he was first called of God? Heb. 11:8; Gen. 11:27-32. Note 1. (3) What promise was made to Abraham at this time? Verse 2. Note 2. (4) How was God’s care to be manifested to Abraham? Verse 3. (5) Whose direction did Abraham follow? How old was Abraham when he left Haran? Verse 4. (6) Whom did Abraham take with him? To what land did he come? Verse 5. Note 3. (7) At what place in Canaan did Abraham first stop? What people was in that land? Verse 6. Note 4. (8) Who appeared to Abraham at this place? What definite promise was made to him here? Then what did Abraham do in recognition of the Lord’s presence? Verse 7. Note 5. (9) To what place did he remove his camp? What did he do there? Verse 8. Note 6. (10) In what direction did he afterward journey? Verse 9.

NOTES.

1. Apostasy after the Flood.—Altho Noah lived till two years before Abraham’s birth, and Shem till Abraham was 150 years old, the world had again become very wicked in Abraham’s day. Abraham was a direct descendant of Shem, being of the tenth generation. By this time, however, the world had become so corrupted, and the truth of God so perverted by false worship, that Abraham was called out from his country and people, in order that he might be a repository of the truth, and raise up a family and a nation that would obey it. The first call came to Abraham while he was yet in Mesopotamia. Acts 7:2.
2. God’s Blessing.—No one ever received the blessing of God for himself alone. “Freely ye have received, freely give,” is the principle of God’s dealing with His creatures. So Abraham received the blessing that he might impart it to others; and so it is with us.
3. It seems strange at first thought that God would bring Abraham away from his country and kindred because of idolatry, and then plant him right in the midst of the grossest kind of heathenism. But it was because in the former land they had had the light of truth and were rejecting it, and there was more danger of Abraham’s becoming contaminated by his fast-apostatizing friends than by the heathen who knew not God. Then Abraham was a missionary to those who were in total darkness, just as the apostles turned from the Jews to preach to the Gentiles. Acts 13:46. See, also, article “Abraham a Missionary,” following this lesson.
4. The Canaanites were the descendants of Ham (Gen. 10:6), who bore the curse of his father, Noah, and was doomed to be a servant of his brethren (ch. 9:20-27). And now the land is given to Abraham, a descendant of Shem. Ch. 17:8.
5. Abraham had left his country and friends at the command of the Lord, and now the Lord gave him sojourn in another country, no doubt better suited to his secular calling, and where he could enjoy a closer relationship to his heavenly Friend, and promised him even the whole earth, because of his obedience. Abraham counted himself but a sojourner in the earthly land, and looked for a better country, that is a heavenly. Heb. 11:8-16; Matt. 19:29.
6. The encampment between Bethel and Ai was about twelve miles north of Jerusalem. Bethel and Ai were about five miles apart. It was at Ai where Israel, Abraham’s seed, met their first defeat in the land of promise, because they did not seek counsel of God in the faith of Abraham.

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By C. H. Tyrrell

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Fancy Black Langshans, White Wyandottes and Barred Plymouth Rocks
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C. H. TYRRELL SIOUX RAPIDS, IOWA
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