seed for ever. Arise, walk through the land, in the length of it and in the breadth of it: for I will give it unto thee."1

Again, after Abram had long sojourned in the land, the repeated promises of the Lord assumed the form of a covenant, confirmed by visible signs, by which, as it were, the Lord pledged himself to their fulfilment; and He set the bounds of the destined inheritance of his seed. "The Word of the Lord came unto Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abram; I am thy shield and thy exceeding great reward." Already had he shown his faith by his works; he had left his own country at the divine command, not knowing whither he was to go, but as the Lord would show him; and when the aged and childless pilgrim was told that his own son, and no other, should be his heir, and that his seed should be numerous as the stars of heaven, he believed in the Lord, and He counted it to him for righteousness. A Chaldean, dwelling in the midst of idolaters, had been called by the Lord, and had left his country, his kindred, and his father's house, at his command; he had gone childless for many a year, till hoary hairs were upon him, a wandering pilgrim in a land of strangers; and the steward of his house was Eliezer of Damascus. Had not the Almighty otherwise decreed, his name, in a few short years at the farthest, would have been blotted out from under heaven. But when the word of the Lord came to him, saying, "This shall not be thine heir; but he that shall come forth of thine own bowels shall be thine heir," he believed. And when "the Lord brought him forth abroad and said, Look now towards heaven and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them," the childless man lifted up his aged head, and, in a pure and cloudless atmosphere unknown in

Gen. xiii. 14, 15, 17.

2 Ibid. xv. 1.

gloomy regions, he looked upon the untold and numberless stars that thickly studded the whole firmament of heaven; and when the Word of the Lord said unto him, so shall thy seed be, he believed in the Lord; and He counted it to him for righteousness. And He said unto him, I am the Lord, that brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldees, to give thee this land to inherit it. It was enough for Abram that the Lord had spoken. It was counted enough by the Lord that Abram believed. And the time was come when the Lord made a covenant between himself and Abram.

Believing the promise, and not distrusting the power of God, but knowing that all things were possible unto him, "Abram said, Lord God, whereby shall I know that I shall inherit it?" He was commanded to take a heifer, a goat, a ram, a turtle dove, and a young pigeon; and he took them and divided them in the midst, and laid each piece over against the other. All that Abram could farther do, was to drive away the fowls from the carcases till the going down of the sun. Then a great horror of darkness fell upon him. "And when the sun went down, and it was dark, behold a smoking furnace, and a burning lamp, that passed between those pieces. In the same day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed will I give this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates," &c.

Finally, when Abram was ninety years old and nine, a year before the birth of Isaac, and when Ishmael was thirteen years old, the covenant was renewed with Abraham, called Abram no more, but destined to be, as designated, a "father of many nations." The boundaries of the promised land having been fixed by the covenant, the perpetual duration of the inheritance, as previously

1 Gen. xv. 1-7.

2 Ibid. 7-12, 17, 18, &c.

promised, came also specially within its bonds :--" I will establish my covenant between me and thee, and thy seed after thee, in their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee. And I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God."

At the same time, circumcision was instituted as a perpetual token of an everlasting covenant, which it was also called: "This is my covenant which ye shall keep, between me and you, and thy seed after thee: Every man child among you shall be circumcised; and it shall be a token of the covenant betwixt me and you: He that is born in thy house, and he that is bought with thy money, must needs be circumcised: and my covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant.”

After the death of Abraham, and after Esau had sold his birth-right to Jacob, a famine arose again in Canaan, and Isaac, once in his life, purposed to leave the land of promise. And once, too, at that very time, the Lord appeared unto him and said, "Go not down into Egypt; dwell in the land which I shall tell thee of. Sojourn in this land, and I will be with thee, and will bless thee: for unto thee and unto thy seed, I will give all these countries; and I will perform the oath which I sware unto Abraham thy father, and I will make thy seed to multiply as the stars of heaven, and will give unto thy seed all these countries; and in thy seed shall all nations of the earth be blessed, &c.3

Jacob abode not always, like his father Isaac, in the land of Canaan. His mother Rebekah, alarmed for his life, because of the fury of his brother, and

Gen. xvii. 7,

8.

2 Ibid. 9-13.

3 Gen. xxvi 1-4.

his father, fearful lest he should take a wife of the daughters of Canaan, charged him to go to Padanaram to the house of Bethuel. "God Almighty bless thee," said Isaac to his departing son,-" and give thee the blessing of Abraham, to thee, and to thy seed with thee; that thou mayest inherit the land wherein thou art a stranger, which God gave unto Abraham." Stranger in the land as he was, Jacob left it not without far more than a paternal and patriarchal blessing. "He went out from Beersheba, and went toward Haran:" but he did not rest the first night on his journey, nor reach the borders of the land, till the God of Abraham and of Isaac gave him to know that He was also the God of Jacob. And, when stones were his pillow and the earth his bed, the destined father of the twelve tribes of Israel received the promise that the land should be theirs. "I am the Lord God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac: the land whereon thou liest to thee will I give it and to thy seed: And thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth; and thou shalt spread abroad to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south: and in thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed. And, behold, I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places whither thou goest, and will bring thee again into this land: for I will not leave thee, until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of."

God did not leave Jacob; but did bring him again into the land, and appeared unto him a second time when he came out of Padanaram, and blessed him, and said, The land which I gave Abraham and Isaac, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed after thee will I give the land.3

And when Jacob, in extreme old age, took his journey, with all that he had, to go down to Egypt to his son

1 Gen. xxviii. 4.

2 Ibid. 13-15.

3 Ibid. xxxv. 9-12.

Joseph, to return no more, as a living man, to Canaan, the Lord at the last, as at the first, suffered him not to reach the border of the land, without a renewal of his promise and re-assurance of its truth. "And God spake unto Israel in the vision of the night, and said, Jacob, Jacob; and he said here am I. And he said I am God, the God of thy father; fear not to go down into Egypt; for I will make thee there a great nation. I will go down with thee into Egypt; and I will also surely bring thee up; and Joseph shall put his hand upon thine eyes."

Israel, full of faith, before his eyes were closed in death, charged all his sons, and made Joseph swear unto him, not to bury him in Egypt, but to carry him out from thence, and bury him in the field of Machpelah in the land of Canaan, in the burying place of his fathers: and he recounted the promise of the Lord: "Behold I will make thee fruitful and multiply thee, and will make of thee a multitude of people; and will give this land to thy seed after thee, for an everlasting possession."3

Joseph also, dying in the faith, "said unto his brethren, I die and God will surely visit you, and bring you out of this land unto the land which He sware to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob; and Joseph took an oath of the children of Israel, saying, God will surely visit you, and ye shall carry up my bones from hence.”

Such is the heaven-chartered right of the seed of Israel to the land of Canaan. And such is its confirmation, by the clear promises, attested covenant, and repeated oath of the Lord God, as recorded in the first book of the Bible.

1 Gen. xlvi. 1-4.

3 Gen. xlviii. 4.

2 Ibid. xlvii. 29, 30; xlix. 29–32.

Ibid. 1. 24, 25.