I. We shall first look towards Abraham that we may see in him THE ORIGINAL OF GOD'S ANCIENT PEOPLE.

1. The founder of God's first people was called out of a heathen family. Abraham, the founder of. the great system in which God was pleased to reveal Himself for so long a time, and to whose seed the oracles of God were committed, was a dweller in Ur of the Chaldees, the city of the moon-god. We cannot tell to what extent he was actually engrossed in the superstition of his fathers, but it is certain that the family was years afterwards tainted with idolatry; for in Jacob's day the teraph was still venerated, and Rachel stole her father's images. Abraham, therefore, was called out from the place of his birth, and from the household to which he belonged, that in a separated condition, as a worshipper of the one God, he might keep the truth alive in the world. Why, then, might not the Lord, if the cause of truth were this day reduced to its utmost extremity, again raise up a Church out of one man? "Ah," you say, "but men are not called now, as Abraham was, by miraculous calls from heaven." Where ordinary means are so plentiful wisdom resorts not to signs and wonders. The same Spirit who called Abraham by a supernatural voice can call others by the word of truth. "Ah," say you, "but Abraham was naturally a man of noble mould. Where do you find such a princely spirit as his?" I answer, Who made him? He that made him can make another like him.

2. Look again, and observe that Abraham was but one man. If we should ever be reduced, as we shall not be, to one man, yet by one man will God preserve His Church, and work out His great purposes. Think of the power for good or evil which may be enshrined in a single human life.

3. This one man was a lone man. He had no prestige of parentage, rank or title. The fulfilment of his calling rested on his loneliness; for he must get away from his kindred, and wander up and down with his flocks, even as the Church of God now does, dwelling in a strange land, and feeding her flock apart. "I called him alone, and blessed him, and increased him." If in the town or district where you live you seem to lose all your helpers; if they die one by one, and it seems as if nobody would be left to you, still persevere, for it is the lone man that God will bless.

4. He was a man who had to be stripped yet further. He must come away from his kindred and his father's house, and must dwell in Palestine till the promised seed was born. But how long he waited for the expected heir! What a feast there was that Isaac was born, filling the house with laughter. But he must die! The grand old man is sure that even if he should actually slay his son at God's command the promise would somehow be kept. Look, then, to Abraham your father, and say is he not the grandest human representative of the great Father God Himself, who in the fulness of time spared not His own Son, but freely delivered Him up for us all? If in all these trials Abraham was yet blessed, and God s purposes were accomplished in him, can we not believe that the same God can work by us also, despite our downcastings and humiliations! Here is the sum and substance of this first head of my discourse: in looking to the rock whence we are hewn, we have to see the Lord working the greatest results from apparently inadequate causes. This teaches us to cease from calculating means, possibilities and probabilities, for we have to deal with God, with whom all things are possible.

II. THE MAIN CHARACTERISTIC OF THIS CHOSEN MAN. The text says, "Look unto Abraham your father, and unto Sarah that bare you," and it must mean — consider him and see what he was, that you may learn from him. His grand characteristic was his faith. Abraham's faith was such that it led him to obedience. The man of faith is God's man. Why? Because faith is the only faculty of our spirit which can grasp God's ideal. Faith, too, has a great power of reception, and therein lies much of her adaptation to the Divine purpose. Then, again, faith always uses the strength that God gives her. Faith, too, can wait the Lord s time and place. God loveth faith and blesseth it, because it giveth Him all the glory.

III. OUR RELATIONSHIP TO THAT ONE MAN. "Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham." Something, surely, is expected of the children of such a man as Abraham. Because we are the seed of Abraham, the apostle declares that the blessing of Abraham has come upon us also." What is it? It is a covenant favour that belongs to all who are the servants of God by faith. Here is the substance of it: "Surely blessing, I will bless thee, and in multiplying, I will multiply thee." The blessing is attended with multiplying. The blessing of the Church is the increase of the Church. The success of truth is the battle of the Lord, and the increase of His Church is according to HIS own promise; therefore in quietness we may possess our souls.

IV. OUR POSITION BEFORE ABRAHAM'S GOD. "Look to Abraham, but only as to the rook from which the Lord quarried His people:" your main thought must be Jehovah Himself. "I, I called him alone, and blessed him." Let us joyfully recollect that the Lord our God has not changed, nay, not in one jot or tittle. "His arm is not shortened that He cannot save," etc. The covenant of God has not changed. Read the covenant words, "In blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven," etc. But there is this also to be added, that this work which we desire the Lord to do is in some respects even less than that which He has done with Abraham. What ask we? Not that He should begin with one man to build up a nation, or create a Church? No, but that Zion being builded, He should comfort her, and cause her waste places to rejoice. What marvellous things hath God done on the face of the earth sines Abraham's days! — the stupendous marvel of incarnation; the wondrous work of redemption, the highest, grandest, Divinest achievement of the Deity — all this is done; what may we not expect after this? You know more of God than Abraham could know. Trust Him, at least up to the level of the patriarch. How shall we forge an excuse if we do not?

( C. H. Spurgeon.)

     1305   God, activity of
     1335   blessing
     6620   calling

Isaiah 51:1-2

     4354   rock

Isaiah 51:1-6

     9165   restoration

January 26. "I Called Him Alone and Blessed Him" (Isa. Li. 2).
"I called him alone and blessed him" (Isa. li. 2). When we were in the East we noticed the beautiful process of raising rice. The rice is sown on a morass of mud and water, ploughed up by great buffaloes, and after a few weeks it springs up and appears above the water with its beautiful pale green shoots. The seed has been sown very thickly and the plants are clustered together in great numbers, so that you can pull up a score at a single handful. But now comes the process of transplanting. He first …
Rev. A. B. Simpson—Days of Heaven Upon Earth

The Awakening of Zion
'Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the Lord; awake, as in the ancient days, in the generations of old.'--ISAIAH li. 9. 'Awake, awake; put on thy strength, O Zion.'--ISAIAH lii. 1. Both these verses are, I think, to be regarded as spoken by one voice, that of the Servant of the Lord. His majestic figure, wrapped in a light veil of obscurity, fills the eye in all these later prophecies of Isaiah. It is sometimes clothed with divine power, sometimes girded with the towel of human weakness, sometimes …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

Hearken and Look; Or, Encouragement for Believers
THE second verse contains my actual text. It is the argument by which faith is led to look for the blessings promised in the third verse. It is habitual with some persons to spy out the dark side of every question or fact: they fix their eyes upon the "waste places," and they study them till they know every ruin, and are familiar with the dragons and the owls. They sigh most dolorously that the former times were better than these, and that we have fallen upon most degenerate days. They speak of "shooting …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 27: 1881

A Prospect of Revival
THE pedigree of God's chosen nation Israel may be traced back to one man and one woman--to Abraham and Sarah. Both of them were well stricken in years when the Lord called them, yet, in the fulfilment of his promise, he built up of their seed a great nation, which, for number, was comparable to the stars of heaven. Take heart, brethren; these things are written for our example and for our encouragement. His Church can never sink to so low an ebb that he cannot soon build her up again, nor in our …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 62: 1916

"Sing, O Heavens; and be Joyful, O Earth; for the Lord Hath Comforted his People. " -- Isaiah 49:13.
"For the Lord shall comfort Zion; He will comfort all her waste places; and He will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the Lord; joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving, and the voice of melody." -- Isaiah 51:3. "Sing, O Heavens; and be joyful, O Earth; for the Lord hath comforted his people." -- Isaiah 49:13. A living, loving, lasting word, My listening ear believing heard, While bending down in prayer; Like a sweet breeze that none can stay, It passed …
Miss A. L. Waring—Hymns and Meditations

Of Inward Silence
Of Inward Silence "The Lord is in His Holy Temple, let all the earth keep silence before him" (Hab. ii. 20). Inward silence is absolutely indispensable, because the Word is essential and eternal, and necessarily requires dispositions in the soul in some degree correspondent to His nature, as a capacity for the reception of Himself. Hearing is a sense formed to receive sounds, and is rather passive than active, admitting, but not communicating sensation; and if we would hear, we must lend the ear …
Madame Guyon—A Short and Easy Method of Prayer

Of Rest in the Presence of God --Its Fruits --Inward Silence --God Commands it --Outward Silence.
The soul, being brought to this place, needs no other preparation than that of repose: for the presence of God during the day, which is the great result of prayer, or rather prayer itself, begins to be intuitive and almost continual. The soul is conscious of a deep inward happiness, and feels that God is in it more truly than it is in itself. It has only one thing to do in order to find God, which is to retire within itself. As soon as the eyes are closed, it finds itself in prayer. It is astonished …
Jeanne Marie Bouvières—A Short Method Of Prayer And Spiritual Torrents

Lii. Manna. Exodus xvi. 4.
I.--Manna like salvation, because undeserved. The people murmured at the very first difficulty. If they had been grateful they would have said, "The God who brought us out of Egypt, and through the Red Sea, will not allow us to die of hunger." But instead of this they accused Moses of being a murderer. And in answer to this God said, "I will rain bread from heaven." What an illustration of Romans v. 8. II.--Manna like salvation, because it saved the people from perishing. Nothing else would …
Thomas Champness—Broken Bread

Early Battles
Six months of joyous service amongst the Welsh miners was cut short by a telegram announcing to the sisters the serious illness of Mrs. Lee. Taking the news to their Divisional Commander, they were instructed to Headquarters. It was found that the illness was due to shock. The income from investments of the little estate left by Mr. Lee had dwindled; it now had disappeared altogether. Captain Lucy faced the matter with her usual practical decision. 'Mother, darling, there are two ways out. Either …
Minnie L. Carpenter—The Angel Adjutant of "Twice Born Men"

Stedfastness in the Old Paths.
"Thus saith the Lord, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls."--Jer. vi. 16. Reverence for the old paths is a chief Christian duty. We look to the future indeed with hope; yet this need not stand in the way of our dwelling on the past days of the Church with affection and deference. This is the feeling of our own Church, as continually expressed in the Prayer Book;--not to slight what has gone before, …
John Henry Newman—Parochial and Plain Sermons, Vol. VII

An Appendix to the Beatitudes
His commandments are not grievous 1 John 5:3 You have seen what Christ calls for poverty of spirit, pureness of heart, meekness, mercifulness, cheerfulness in suffering persecution, etc. Now that none may hesitate or be troubled at these commands of Christ, I thought good (as a closure to the former discourse) to take off the surmises and prejudices in men's spirits by this sweet, mollifying Scripture, His commandments are not grievous.' The censuring world objects against religion that it is difficult …
Thomas Watson—The Beatitudes: An Exposition of Matthew 5:1-12

Ci. Foretelling his Passion. Rebuking Ambition.
(Peræa, or Judæa, Near the Jordan.) ^A Matt. XX. 17-28; ^B Mark X. 32-45; ^C Luke XVIII. 31-34. ^b 32 And they were on the way, going up to Jerusalem [Dean Mansel sees in these words an evidence that Jesus had just crossed the Jordan and was beginning the actual ascent up to Jerusalem. If so, he was in Judæa. But such a construction strains the language. Jesus had been going up to Jerusalem ever since he started in Galilee, and he may now have still be in Peræa. The parable …
J. W. McGarvey—The Four-Fold Gospel

The Work of Jesus Christ as an Advocate,
CLEARLY EXPLAINED, AND LARGELY IMPROVED, FOR THE BENEFIT OF ALL BELIEVERS. 1 John 2:1--"And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous." By JOHN BUNYAN, Author of "The Pilgrim's Progress." London: Printed for Dorman Newman, at the King's Arms, in the Poultry, 1689. ADVERTISEMENT BY THE EDITOR. This is one of the most interesting of Bunyan's treatises, to edit which required the Bible at my right hand, and a law dictionary on my left. It was very frequently republished; …
John Bunyan—The Works of John Bunyan Volumes 1-3

Thirdly, for Thy Actions.
1. Do no evil, though thou mightest; for God will not suffer the least sin, without bitter repentance, to escape unpunished. Leave not undone any good that thou canst. But do nothing without a calling, nor anything in thy calling, till thou hast first taken counsel at God's word (1 Sam. xxx. 8) of its lawfulness, and pray for his blessings upon thy endeavour; and then do it in the name of God, with cheerfulness of heart, committing the success to him, in whose power it is to bless with his grace …
Lewis Bayly—The Practice of Piety

Death Swallowed up in victory
Then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory! D eath, simply considered, is no more than the cessation of life --that which was once living, lives no longer. But it has been the general, perhaps the universal custom of mankind, to personify it. Imagination gives death a formidable appearance, arms it with a dart, sting or scythe, and represents it as an active, inexorable and invincible reality. In this view death is a great devourer; with his iron tongue …
John Newton—Messiah Vol. 2

Isaiah
CHAPTERS I-XXXIX Isaiah is the most regal of the prophets. His words and thoughts are those of a man whose eyes had seen the King, vi. 5. The times in which he lived were big with political problems, which he met as a statesman who saw the large meaning of events, and as a prophet who read a divine purpose in history. Unlike his younger contemporary Micah, he was, in all probability, an aristocrat; and during his long ministry (740-701 B.C., possibly, but not probably later) he bore testimony, as …
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament