Abraham.

ABRAHAM. REV. JULIUS LLOYD, M.A.

" Now the Lord had said unto Abram, (let tliee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father s house, unto a land that I will shew thee." Genesis xii. I.

WE are introduced in these words to the history of that great patriarch, who was to be known for all future ages as the Father of the Faithful. What we read of him, before we become acquainted with his character, is that he migrated from his home, leaving his kindred behind, and after many journeys found a new home in another land. This migration of his, we are told, was at the Lord s bidding. His own wish in the matter was governed by an inspiration of the Lord Jehovah, who said to him, " Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father s house, unto a land that I will show thee."

If we take a wide survey of the history of the world, we shall observe that Abraham s example, though illustrious beyond others, does not stand

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alone. At certain periods, with long intervals between, there has sprung up a restless spirit of movement among men, they know not how. It has come to pass on a sudden that large tribes and even nations have felt themselves impelled to strike their tents, to put their flocks and herds in motion, and to migrate to some new land, previously unvisited. There is much reason to suppose that the passage of Abraham into Canaan was part of a more extensive migration westward of the pastoral tribes of Chaldsea. The hieroglyphic inscriptions of Egypt have been so far deciphered as to record a great invasion of Shepherd-Kings about this period : and we have a confirmation of the fact

in the list of nations mentioned in Scripture as bordering on the Holy Land : Moabites, Ammonites, Midianites, Edomites, Ishmaelites, all tracing their descent from the family stock of Abraham, and leaving their home in Ur of the Chaldees.

Of similar national migrations, the most notable took place about two thousand years later. When the Empire of Ancient Rome began to decay, there came an incursion of tribes from the north, rushing onward like the successive waves of a stormy sea when the tide

28 ABRAHAM.

is rising. Goths and Huns, Vandals and Lombards, followed one another tumultuously, each impelled by an invisible power which had its origin in God s will. Secondary causes no doubt there were, but so far as human eyes

could discern, that vast movement of nations was spontaneous. It was as when a frozen river melts, and the packed ice is borne im petuously down the stream. The normal state of mankind over vast regions changed from a state of rest to a state of motion. Men rose up, day by day, equipped for a journey, no longer accounting any place their settled habitation. By degrees this human deluge subsided, not until many centuries had elapsed : and, strange to say, the restlessness of the northern races found its limit on the shores of the same Holy Land where the eastern race of Abraham had found a home. The Crusades mark the close of a period of wandering, to be followed by a period of comparative rest.

Yet now once more, within the memory of young men, a new mysterious impulse of move ment seems to spread itself over the face of the whole earth. Almost every nation is stirred more or less by the influence of this spirit, but it is felt most of all in Great Britain. We may

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reckon in our own acquaintance families, in which one member has gone to the far East, another to the far West. One, it may be, is keeping sheep, like Jacob, on the wide pastures of an Australian colony; another, like Esau, is leading the life of a hunter, in American forests ; another, like Joseph, is giving prudent counsel, at the court of some Asiatic prince. Such is the spirit of the age ; and though we can trace the effect upward a little way towards the source, we must acknowledge a Divine power at the fountain-head. It is the breath of God which has set the nations in movement, as the summer sun, shining upon the Alps, thaws the snow fields and fills the mountain torrents.

The restless love of movement is chiefly shown in emigration. We have only to com

pare a recent map of North America with one of half a century ago, to see the enormous movement of our race to the West. There, above all, it appears as if the Lord had said to . our brethren, " Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father s house, unto a land that I will show thee." But the westerly tide of emigration is only one of many. It spreads in all directions and cannot be restrained. Our rulers have endeavoured in

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vain to set limits to its progress, warning men that if they cross certain frontiers, they do so at their own peril. Intrepid men are still found crossing the border, either for adventure, or else in the nobler cause of humanity ; and thus we find ourselves drawn by a strong chain of sympathy to lands more and more remote. A few years since, the public interest in a heroic

Missionary prompted an expedition, which opened to the world the resources of the Zambese and the Congo. And more lately the manhood of Great Britain was hastening in the track of another hero, to unexplored regions of the Nile.

Nearer home, and on a smaller scale, the national movement of which I speak is illus trated by the English colonies which have been formed on the Mediteranean, as winter resorts for invalids. Altogether, the habit of foreign travel, both for business and for pleasure, shows the same disposition. It used to be said formerly that men travelled to learn languages or for some other studious purpose. But this is really the exception, not the rule. Travelling has become a fashion. Men scale difficult mountains, and cross deserts, undergoing the extremity of hunger and thirst, not so much for

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gain, or for any definite good to be accom plished, as for a desire urging them on, forbid ding them to be still. There is in the air a passionate spirit of inquiry, which leaves no stone unturned, if it may possibly hide some fragment of an inscription, some unfamiliar plant, or reptile, or fossil, however insignificant. Besides, there is a modern sentiment of fellow ship with Nature, a contemplative mood which delights to observe the sublime beauties of mountain, cloud, and sea, in their varied aspects ; so that scenes which used to be the terror of travellers in former times are now the chosen haunts of tourists. There is also a spirit of human brotherhood, which rejoices in breaking down the barriers of language and custom, and in learning to recognize man as man under a foreign garb. While motives like these actuate the more intelligent sort of travellers, there is a crowd who follow the fashion blindly, treading in the steps of their fellow-countrymen, and so

much attached to the usages of their life at home, that change of place brings to them no change of mind.

The modern parallels to which I have referred may serve, perhaps, to throw a fresh light on the story of the migration of Abraham, and to

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associate with it some practical lessons. Whether the spirit of movement be shown in emigration, or in voyages undertaken for commerce, or in foreign travel, I have no doubt that it is a vital force which God has given, and which has a good use. God s gifts are open to be used well or ill, by those to whom He entrusts them. When we say that God causes the wind to blow, that does not mean that He bids us to sail in the direction of the wind ; it is a power from God which brings welfare to the wise, and

calamity to the foolish. So also the restless spirit of inquiry and adventure, which impels men to leave their home, is for good or evil, according to the control which is applied to it. There is a quaint wisdom, worth laying to heart, in the saying of an old writer, that travellers are like the ships of Solomon s fleet, as mentioned i Chronicles ix. " Some bring home gold and silver; others bring home peacocks and apes." It rests with each whether he brings home solid treasure from experience of foreign lands; or whether he has nothing to show but self-conceit and a degraded manhood. There are certain advantages which accompany foreign travels, and also certain dangers. It is well to set both before our eyes. Although the impulse to leave

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home may be at first a blind impulse, like the instinct which drives the young bird from its

nest, the subsequent effect must be greatly determined for better or worse by the objects which we propose to ourselves, and the turn which we give to our thoughts.

The advantages of travel, speaking not from a commercial or political point of view, but from a spiritual point of view, may be summed up under two heads. Experience of foreign countries enlarges our view, first, of the universal Fatherhood of God, and, secondly, of the universal Brotherhood of mankind. To a reverent mind those truths are deeply impressed by what we see and hear abroad. Narrow, partisan, and selfish ideas of every kind give way under experience of institutions and societies unlike our own. We learn to recog nize the God of our fathers as God of all the earth, the Maker and Preserver of everything that lives, the Ruler of the winds and the sea. Thus it is said by the Psalmist :

" They that go down to the sea in ships,

And occupy their business in great waters, These men see the works of the Lord, And His wonders in the deep. "

And so many a lonely traveller, far from home,

D

34 ABRAHAM.

wakes up to a sense of God s fatherly care such as Abraham and Jacob and Joseph felt. When separated from friends and from the forms of public worship which we have cherished as means of communion with God, we learn to understand that even in the wilderness there is a way from earth to heaven, like the ladder of Jacob s vision. The all-powerful mediation of Christ gains a new importance for us.

Secondly, experience of foreign countries

teaches us the brotherhood of mankind. The dullest and most heedless of observers cannot but feel the kinship of his fellow-men more for associating with them. Natural prejudices of race and manners melt away with more intimate acquaintance, and thus travel prepares us to realize the great truths, that God has " made of one blood all nations of men," and that in Christ "There is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond or free : but Christ is all and in all." Travel gives a largeness of mind, which the Holy Spirit develops to a more extended Christian charity than is bred in the circle of home life; and this enlargement of mind has also the effect of raising us above petty aims and sordid cares, to a more generous view of things.

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These are some of the advantages to be gained by foreign travel. On the other hand there are dangers, both numerous and manifest. We have an instance in the history of Abraham in Egypt, where he was found guilty of a base deception at the court of Pharaoh. Elsewhere he was the most magnanimous of men, but there he seemed to lose the dignity of his character. So to this day, under the seductive influence of foreign cities, men are tempted to forget God s presence, as if they were heathens and had left their gods behind them. Another danger is selfishness. Those who voluntarily break the ties of home to dwell among strangers, may be moved by God s Spirit to form new ties in their adopted home. But if they form no fresh ties, and take to wandering to and fro in self-indulgent luxury, wherever climate or scenery or society is most delightful, they become hard hearted.

We are hardly aware to what extent we are upheld, both in religion and in virtue, by the

pressure of public opinion around us. A man dares not, for shame, set at nought the praise and blame of his neighbours, if they are neigh bours among whom he has to spend his life. He may at heart be irreligious, but he conforms

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to the religion of his country ; he may at heart be immoral, but he behaves himself so as not to cause scandal ; and the habit of doing right becomes a second nature, so long as he remains at home. All this is changed when he goes abroad. There, moving from place to place at will, he need not care what his neighbours think of him. He will find among foreigners a standard of right and wrong different in many respects to that of his fellow-countrymen. Under such circumstances the principles which are founded on mere custom give way, and a man s soul is exposed unprotected to all the

temptations of the world, the flesh, and the devil. Experience of foreigh travel is thus a test of the good and the bad in us. Sound faith is strengthened : weak faith which has no root is withered away.

Let us refer again to the history of the patri arch Abraham for a practical lesson. It is related of him that when he came to a restingplace at Bethel and at Hebron, " he built an altar to the Lord, and called on the name of the Lord." By the reverent acknowledgment of God s presence, and the offering of sacrifice to Him, he set God always before his face. Following in his steps three generations later,

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Joseph was enabled to remember in Egypt that God was with him. Those who dwell in foreign lands, and especially among the heathen, have

peculiar need of daily prayer, united or private. By frequent communing in spirit with the Lord Jesus Christ, even if outward means of grace be wanting, we shall be guarded by His constant fellowship. The Eternal God will be with us, Father, Son and Holy Ghost, like the three Angels who visited Abraham under the tree at Mamre, and condescended to his repast, and showered blessings on him and his posterity.

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