BIBLE HISTORY OF THE JEWS.

CHAPTER III.

Saviour of men, Incarnate Word !
By whom the worlds were made,
Whose spirit o'er the waters stirred
And earth's foundations laid.

Man, in the image of his God,
Fair Eden's brightest flower,
Found that, by THEE, her paths were trod,
In evening's cool, still hour.

Now, outcast from those bowers of bliss,
He takes his thorny way;
Through the waste howling wilderness
Thou art his guide and stay.,

AND now the promises of God were renewed to Abram more fully than ever, and the Almighty condescended to enter into covenant with him. Treaties were made in various ways. Some were ratified by a simple joining of hands. (Prov. xi. 21; Ezek. xvii. 18.) Others by erecting a heap of stones, to which a name was given, referring to the subject of the covenant. (Gen. xxxi. 52, &c.) They were accompanied with festivities and sacrifices. Isaac and Abimelech feasted when they made a covenant. Jacob offered sacrifice upon the mount, and called his brethren to eat bread, when he made a covenant with Laban. And, on some occasions, the contracting parties were sprinkled with the blood of the victim, which it was customary to cut into two parts, placing each half upon two different altars, in order that those who entered into covenant might pass between them.

Repeatedly had the voice of God proclaimed that to the children of Abram the land of Canaan should be given-that his seed should

be a blessing to the nations; and yet Abram was now far advanced in years, and childless, and had he died so, Eliezer of Damascus, his steward, next in rank to himself, would become head of the tribe. But God appears before him in a vision, and he makes his complaint, "Behold I go childless, and one born in my house is mine heir." In answer, he was told to look to the stars of the firmament, for even so numerous should be his descendants, who should one day possess the land. This promise was ratified by a covenant, in which the Almighty God condescended to observe the simple form of compact just described.

Abram was commanded to take an heifer, a she-goat, and a ram, each of three years old, a turtle dove, and a young pigeon. The heifer, the she-goat, and the ram he divided in the midst; the birds he divided not. Through the day did he watch the sacrifice he had been ordered to prepare, driving away the fowls of the air when they came down upon his offering. Still no answer came. At length, just before the going down of the sun, a deep sleep fell upon Abramsomething more than common sleep it seems, for we are told that "an horror of great darkness fell upon him." Then were revealed to him the things which were to be: the childless man's children should be captive in a land that was not theirs, where they should serve strangers for 400 years: God's judgments were foretold upon their oppressors, and also their return to Canaan with great substance. As the sun set, the symbol of the Deity, "a smoking furnace and a lamp of fire, passed between the pieces," and ratified the

covenant.

Here it may be well to say a few words about that "mysterious angel of Jehovah, who is so often mentioned in the Old Testament as visiting, protecting, and delivering the people of God,' called the Angel of the Covenant, To Hagar by the fountain To Abram in Mamre

To Abram on Mount Moriah

To Isaac as he went to Beersheba.
To Jacob at Beth-el

To Jacob at Peniel.

To Jacob at Beth-el again
Who guided the Israelites

Stood in Balaam's path

who appeared

Gen. xvi. 7.

Gen. xviii. 1.

Gen. xxii. 11, 12.

Gen. xxvi. 24.

Gen. xxviii. 16,17.

Gen. xxxii. 24,&c.

Gen. xxxv. 13.

Ex. xiv. 19. Com

pare Num. xx. 16; Is. lxiii. 9.

Num. xxii. 22.

Appeared to Joshua as captain of the host Josh. v. 13.

To Israel at Bochim

To Gideon under the oak tree

To Manoah's wife

To Manoah

In the fiery furnace

Judg. ii. 1.
Judg. vi. 11, &c.
Judg. xiii. 3, &c.
Judg. xiii. 11, &c.
Daniel iii. 25.

Separated from the idolatrous nations around them, called to be a peculiar people, the children of Abraham for many centuries had no earthly king. God himself was their leader, from whom they received their laws. Jehovah alone was their king. That the mysterious messenger so often spoken of as the angel of the Lord, who guided them under all circumstances, and who even went before them to battle as captain of the hosts, could be none other than the Son of God, we may reasonably conclude from many passages of Scripture, which declare, "that He was with the Father from the beginning; "that without him was not anything made that was made." John the Baptist says of him, "He that cometh after me is preferred before me, for He was before me." We need only refer to John viii. 42; iii. 13; vi. 38; vi. 62; xvi. 28; Gal. iv. 4: Heb.

x. 5-7, to prove that when, after his resurrection, he ascended into heaven, he merely returned to the place whence he came; that since, when he was born, a body was prepared for him, it follows that, before his birth, before his incarnation, he was with God in heaven. That this angel of the Lord was none other than God, we cannot fail to see. Hagar called the name of the place where he met with her, "Thou God seest me.". Abraham repeatedly calls him Lord! When he spake to Jacob in a dream, he said, "I am the God of Beth-el, where thou vowedst a yow unto ME," When he called unto Moses out of the burning bush, he spake in the character of God, and said, "I AM THAT I AM;" and we have from our Lord's own lips an identification of himself with this title of Jehovah, in his declaration to the Jews, "Verily, verily I say unto you, before Abraham was, I AM. Now we are expressly told that no man hath seen God at any time; "the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him." When, therefore, we read in the 63d chapter of Isaiah, words which can apply to none but Jesus, "who trod the wine-press alone;" when we read there, that " he was their Saviour;" that "in all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them: in his love and in his pity he redeemed them; and he bare them and carried them all the days of old," we are led to conclude that this angel of the Lord was the Messiah, called by the Prophet Malachi "the messenger of the covenant!"

Time passed on, and no child gladdened Abram's heart. Sarai, despairing of having any child of her own, gave her bond-maid, Hagar, an

Egyptian, to Abram, as a wife-a custom still known in the East. But not thus was the word of the Lord to be fulfilled. Hagar, frightened at some harsh words from Sarai, left the tents of her tribe, and fled into the wilderness. There she was found by the angel of the Lord, the messenger of the covenant, faint and weary, by the side of a fountain. fountain. "Hagar, Sarai's maid, whence comest thou? and whither wilt thou go?" Outcast, and alone, the Divine presence entered into her soul, and she said, "Thou God seest me!" He bid her return to her mistress, and submit to her commands. But he spoke words of kindness. The child of promise was not to be hers, but she should have a son, and call him Ishmael (which means, "God shall hear "). And this was the destiny foretold of him. "He will be a wild man; his hand will be against every man, and every man's hand against him and he shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren." For more than 3,000 years have his descendants, the Arabs, proved the truth of this remarkable prophecy. In the words of Gibbon, they are "armed against mankind." Plundering is their profession; their alliance is never courted, for there is no security in it. Nor does the prophecy hold to them in their native deserts only; they have gone forth and conquered other peoples; but, "whether in the land of Shinar, or in the valleys of Spain, on the banks of the Tigris or the Tagus, in Araby the blessed or Araby the barren, the posterity of Ishmael have ever maintained their prophetic character.” *

* Keith.