By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac, etc. Our subject naturally divides itself into two branches.

I. FAITH SORELY TRIED. The supreme trial of Abraham's faith will appear if we consider the sacrifice which be was summoned to make. He was commanded:

1. To offer up as a burnt offering his only and much-loved son, Isaac. "Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of." "By faith Abraham, being tried, offered up Isaac; yea, he that had gladly received the promises was offering up his only begotten son." Isaac was called his "only son" because Ishmael had been finally sent forth from the paternal home, and because Isaac was the only son which Sarah the wife of Abraham bare unto him. He was now a young man, and inexpressibly dear to the hearts of his parents; and his father is commanded by God to offer him up as a sacrifice. Being a human sacrifice, Abraham's conviction of the sacredness of human life would rise up against the fulfillment of the command. Can such a behest proceed from him who had so solemnly asserted the sacredness of human life (Genesis 9:5, 6)? Being his own son, his only son, his Isaac, the laughter of his heart, his deep and pure and strong paternal instincts would rebel against the dread summons. Is it possible that the holy and Divine Father can make such a demand upon any human father?

2. To offer up his son who was in a special sense the gift of God to him. Isaac was the child of Divine promise, and he was born when his parents were far advanced in years, and when in the ordinary course of nature his birth was impossible (cf. vers. 11, 12; Genesis 17:16-19; Genesis 18:10, 14; Genesis 21:1-3). For twenty-five years Abraham had waited for the fulfillment of the promise; twenty-five years more had elapsed since the birth of Isaac, during which he had been growing ever more and more precious and beloved; and now God is asking back the gift so long waited for, and which had become so inexpressibly dear. Can such a demand proceed from that God whose "gifts are not repented of"? Can it be that he should try his servant thus?

3. To offer up his son upon whose life the fulfillment of the hopes which God had inspired seemed to depend. Isaac was not only the son of promise, but the other promises made to Abraham were connected with him as to their fulfillment. The promise that he should inherit Canaan, that he should be the father of a countless posterity and the founder of a great nation, that in his posterity all nations should be blessed, - all these were to be fulfilled in Isaac. "To whom it was said, In Isaac shall thy seed be called." Only the descendants of Isaac were to be known as Abraham's seed, and only in them were the promises to be fulfilled (cf. Genesis 17:19, 21; Genesis 21:12). These promises the patriarch "had gladly received." "He had as it were with open arms accepted and taken to himself each and all of the promises;" he had drawn from them assured hopes - hopes which he had cherished during many years. But if Isaac be sacrificed as a burnt offering, how shall these hopes be realized? - nay, how shall they not each and all expire, leaving the soul of the patriarch in dark disappointment? It seems that God is asking him to give back the promises which he had made to him, and which had so long sustained and cheered him. But is it possible that "the faithful God, which keepeth covenant with them that love hint and keep his commandments to a thousand generations," should make a demand like this? Can it be his voice that summons to the terrible sacrifice?

4. And there is a sore aggravation of this trial. Abraham is himself to be the sacrificing priest. He is to kill and to present this precious and awful offering. The knife that was to slay the victim must be driven into the heart by the hand of his own father, and the same hand must kindle the fire for the consumption of the sacrifice. When Ishmael seemed near unto death in the wilderness of Beersheba, his mother laid him "under one of the shrubs. And she went, and sat her down over against him at the distance as it were of a bowshot: for she said, Let me not see the death of the boy. And she sat over against him, and lifted up her voice, and wept." But for Abraham there is no such relief. He must "see the death of " his beloved son; and more terrible, himself must strike the death-inflicting blow. Can it be God, the good and the holy One, that commands this? And is it possible that any loving father can comply with the terrible requirement?

II. FAITH SUBLIMELY TRIUMPHANT. Abraham made the awful sacrifice. "By faith Abraham, being tried, offered up Isaac... his only begotten son." Virtually he as fully offered Isaac as if he had sheathed the knife in his heart and consumed his body on the altar. And he did it by faith. The triumph was the triumph of faith.

1. Faith in the righteousness and supremacy of the authority of God. Abraham believed that God had a right to his obedience in this also; that "the Judge of all the earth" would not command what was wrong. The reason of the command to offer up Isaac as a burnt offering was dark and utterly mysterious to the patriarch; moreover, it pierced his inmost soul with sharpest and bitterest sorrow, and convulsed his being with fierce agony; yet God was supreme and righteous, therefore he would obey him. Faith was victorious.

2. Faith in the unlimited power of God. "By faith Abraham offered up Isaac,... accounting that God is able to raise up, even from the dead." How extraordinary and astonishing was this faith in that early age!

3. Faith in the unchanging fidelity of God to his word. Abraham believed that God would fulfill his promises, however unlikely or even impossible that fulfillment might appear to him. How he would do so after Isaac was sacrificed the patriarch knew not. But he felt assured of the fact. And so by faith he obeyed the dread command, and offered up to God his only begotten son. Faith in God triumphed over doubts and fears, the questionings and reasonings of the intellect, and the pathetic pleadings and passionate appeals of the heart. And how God honored this sublime and conquering faith! Isaac was truly offered to God, yet he was untouched by the sacrificial knife. He was given by his father to God, and then given back by God to his father unhurt, and inestimably more beloved and more sacred. And high is the encomium given to Abraham: "Now I know that thou fearest God," etc. (Genesis 22:12). We know what it was that God required of Abraham. It was not the sacrifice of Isaac, but the complete surrender of himself to God. When that was made the Divine purpose in this awful trial was accomplished, and" the last and culminating point in the Divine education of" the patriarch was attained. And still God requires this from us. He demands the unreserved surrender of ourselves to him, "Whatever is dearest to us upon earth is our Isaac." And when God summons us to give that Isaac up to him, his object in so doing is to lead us to present ourselves wholly and heartily to him as "living sacrifices." "He that loveth father or mother more than me," etc. (Matthew 10:37-39). - W.J.

Isaac was a devout man. Mention is made in his history of positive acts of worship by which devotion is expressed; and in his walking out to meditate at eventide, we have a beautiful picture of an act by which devotion is sustained. The good man left his tents, and forsook his associates, and walked out, thoughtful and alone, to admire the affluence of Providence, and to look upon the works and the wonders of nature. His faith was sometimes overcome by the force of temptation, but it speedily acquired its wonted ascendancy; it was, at others, darkened by defects in his character; but upon the whole, the life of Isaac was marked by comparative simplicity and innocence; that at last he slept with his fathers in a good old age; that he died with confidence in the promise, amid the tears and the benedictions of his household. In the text the apostle specifies one particular act in which the faith of Jacob was shown, "He blessed Jacob and Esau concerning things to come."

1. The first thing to be noticed is the faith displayed by Isaac in his readiness and desire to bless his children at all, to bless them in the name, and according to the previous communications of Jehovah. This was a pious determination, resulting from continued confidence in God — from the practical persuasion of his truth — from reliance upon the consistency of His moral character; or, in one word, from faith, properly so called — that sentiment of the heart which leads a man to feel the absolute certainty of whatever he knows to be the sayings of God. In this, therefore, Isaac's faith was right though his feeling was wrong. He intended the chief blessing for the elder son, and he pronounced it with the thought that he was thus actually conveying it. But the time was now come for him to be corrected upon the .point which he had either not known, or had neglected to keep sufficiently in view.

2. The second circumstance, therefore, which it becomes us to observe, is the obedience of faith which he manifested in respect to this point, when the Divine will was clearly and fully revealed in relation to it. In blessing Jacob, though he might be prompted to the act simply by the devout determination of principle, he felt himself, while performing the act, to be under the direction of a Divine impulse. When Esau afterwards approached and informed him of the actual state of the case, the whole truth seemed to flash at once upon his mind. What he had been led to do, though unconscious of it at the moment, revealed to him the purposes of God, and the direction of the promises with respect to his sons. "I have blessed him, and he shall be blessed"; as if he had said, "I have been the unconscious instrument of imparting to myself a knowledge of the will of Him whom I serve; to that will I bow with ready and voluntary obedience. 'I have blessed him,' and I cannot bless another to the same extent; I have been the medium through which the God of our fathers has now repeated and enlarged His promises, and these, I believe, will assuredly be fulfilled. He has declared the line in which they are to pass, and that line He had a right to select; I approve of what He has done, and I confide in what He has said, as I have often approved and confided before. The things which my lips have uttered are as certain and immutable as are all the intentions and purposes of God; I have blessed him, yea, and he shall be blessed! " Let us now make a remark upon the last clause of the text; Jacob and Esau were blessed respecting " things to come." They were both blessed, for both of them, as men, were objects of pre-determined benediction in the Divine mind; though previous to their birth, that the purpose of God according to election might stand — it was declared that the younger should be the greater Of the two. The expression "things to come," is intended to signify things which were so emphatically future that they related not so much to the individuals themselves as to the posterity to descend from them. Both were to be the founders of nations; these nations were to be remarkably distinguished from each other; and in them were to be realised the circumstances — the prosperity, and the vicissitudes — which had been so clearly and so copiously described in the language of Isaac.Looking at the two prophecies pronounced over Jacob and Esau respectively, they appear to include the following things.

1. In the first place, they may be said either to presuppose, or to predict, the separate existence of the posterity of the two brothers as nations. Jacob is as a field which the Lord hath blessed; in him were to be fulfilled the promises given to Abraham. Esau is represented as living by his sword. The one expression describes a people organised and religious: the other a people of habits and manners rude and predatory; and such, in fact, was the case — the Jews descending from Jacob, and the Edomites from Esau.

2. The second circumstance is, that both nations were to possess very nearly the same local and physical advantages, which was at first also the fact.

3. The third thing is, the reduction, by the other branch, of the posterity of Esau to submission and servitude. This, after frequent advances towards it, was fully accomplished by David.

4. But the fourth and last particular to be observed is, that at length this yoke should be broken off from the neck of the degraded race, when they should obtain dominion, that is, when they should steadily range themselves under a leader, as a strong and united people. This, too, actually occurred; it took place in the reign of Jehoram.After making these observations explanatory of the text, we propose in the second place to deduce from them a few others of a practical character.

1. In looking at the comparatively calm and unruffled history of Isaac you may learn that the life most favoured of Providence is still required to be a life of faith. In prosperity, faith will render us grateful, moderate, and cautious, as under other circumstances it will inspire fortitude and prompt acquiescence: it will take the form of filial confidence in the continuance of good, so long as that good shall be seen to be consistent with higher purposes. Above all, since the most distinguished lot can never adequately meet the. demands and capacities of our spiritual nature, faith in a future world must be ever felt by the devout man to be the only means by which he can endure, so to speak, even the highest happiness of this.

2. You learn from the history of Isaac the propriety of seasons of retirement for collected and serious thought.

3. From the history of Isaac you may learn the pernicious consequences of parents pursuing a system of favouritism with respect to their children.

4. By the nature and the circumstances of the fact to which the text refers — the blessing pronounced by Isaac upon Jacob and Esau — we are reminded of the variety of the proofs that may be adduced in support of the Jewish and Christian Scriptures. There are two connected with the present subject.(1) The first is, the obvious and honest impartiality of the historian in describing the faults and vices of the most distinguished men whose lives he records.(2) The second, the fulfilment of prophecy.

5. In the last place, from a comparison of the portions of the two brothers let us learn to aspire after the best blessings which God can confer. It will be of no lasting advantage to us to have the portion of Esau, unless we have the portion of Jacob along with it.

(T. Binney.)

I suppose it was natural and right that Isaac should take his place next to Abraham in this record of men of faith; he stands next in the historical line of patriarchs who handed on the promise from one to another. And yet we cannot help feeling that in passing from Abraham to Isaac we are descending to a lower level. He seems to have possessed a timid, yielding disposition — a nature calculated to obey rather than to command — to follow rather than to lead. Wherever he comes before us in history we see a character just the opposite to that of Abraham — quiet, meditative, shrinking from everything like individual action, and timorously yielding to every pressure put upon him. Here was poor material, one might think, for faith to work with; such a man seems ill-calculated to sustain the tradition of faith so gloriously begun in Abraham, and to play a worthy part in handing on the covenant of Divine promise. And yet he is unhesitatingly placed in this glorious line of believers — he also was a man of faith, in his own measure loyal to God and to His covenant. The stream of faith flowed on through him to his successors unchecked and unpolluted. Just as a stream, when flowing through a mountainous and rocky country, is broken into swift-flowing rapids and dashing cataracts, harmonising in their picturesque grandeur with the surrounding features, but on reaching the plain below flows quietly along through green pastures where flocks are peacefully grazing, so the faith, which in Abraham's rugged character comes out in striking and impressive scenes, in the quiet life of Isaac assumes the form of an unobtrusive principle, giving an air of calm assurance and peace to his whole life. Faith now, as then, has to work through a variety of temperaments. The trees, the flowers, the corn, the grass, all are different manifestations of the same life; it assumes various forms, according to the nature of the organism through which it works; so the life of God takes hold of the constitution of a man, and develops results in harmony with the nature God has given him. Some of the most beautiful effects of faith have often been wrought out in retiring characters like Isaac's. There are some delicate forms of spiritual beauty that require a reposeful spirit to blossom in, just as there are flowers growing in sheltered retreats that would perish on the rough mountain-top. We should learn to admire the grace of God in all its manifestations. To return to Isaac. We have no record in his case of any great feats of faith accomplished, any striking deeds done, as in the case of some of the other patriarchs. His faith never rose to that white heat of enthusiasm which leads a man to do immortal deeds. There was an even tenor about his life which was never broken by any special crisis of any stirring event. It is significant of the character of the man that he is celebrated in this chapter by an act of blessing. The most that could be said of him was that he held fast by the faith of his father, that he cherished the heavenly covenant as a precious heirloom which he had faithfully to preserve, and when his failing strength warned him that he would soon have to pass away, his chief thought was to transmit the promise to his posterity. And in many lives to-day faith manifests itself in the same fashion. The most that some men do is to cherish their faith as a source of strength and joy in their own hearts and their own homes, and seek to pass it on as a spiritual legacy to their children. There are many who have neither the opportunity nor the gifts to do great and bold things for God in the world; their efforts must be confined within a narrow circle; if their faith is to be useful at all, it must be in the influence it exerts in the home. And this is not the least fruitful kind of religious life. Some of the most blessed work that has ever been done for God and humanity has been done in the home circle, by those who have never made any great stir in the world or done any great thing in the Church. Quiet, unobtrusive lives have often been blessedly useful in fostering that choicest fruit of faith — family religion. Let every Christian man set this before him as a sacred ambition — to leaven his family with his own faith and leave it as a legacy to those who shall come after him. The blessing which Isaac pronounced upon his sons was something more than the ordinary form of blessing — something more than a pious wish or prayer that prosperity and peace and the favour of heaven might attend them. It was a blessing in which prophetic insight was blended with holy desire and intercession; the illumination of the Spirit enabled him to pronounce an effectual benediction which remained as a permanent good upon the head of him who received it. And every human life ought to end like Isaac's — with a blessing. Some lives end with a curse; they leave behind them a baneful influence which goes on blighting the lives of those that come after. A man's real legacy to posterity is the influence of his character. The bit of parchment which disposes of his material accumulations is not half so important as the distribution of that influence which has been silently accumulating through all the years of his life. In how many hearts there is a memory more cherished than the richest earthly possession — the memory of one who still lives to bless and influence them, to restrain from evil and incite to good I This is the kind of legacy we should strive to leave behind. And if we would do this we must begin to lay up the sacred treasure now. Such wealth is not accumulated in a day. It is the work of years; it is the product of "patient continuance in well doing."

(J. T. Hamly.)

I. FAITH UNDIMINISHED BY ADVANCING YEARS.

1. The worth of a man's creed fully tested at the close of life.

2. The blessedness of that, our confidence in which increases with increased experience.

3. The continuance of spiritual energy when the physical powers fail. God's people die "full of life."

II. FAITH HANDING ON THE BLESSING TO THOSE THAT COME AFTER.

1. The Divine word qualifies all God's people to be prophets of blessing.

2. It is only by faith in God that we can impart a blessing to others.

3. Thus we can leave blessings on those we love when we are dying. Faith's legacies are surer than any.

III. FAITH TRIUMPHING OVER LIFE'S UNFULFILLED HOPES.

1. Promises so far unfulfilled.

2. The strongest possible assurance, even in death, of the things hoped for.

3. Thus faith enables the saint to enter with eager anticipation into the unseen world.

4. As we look back on the subsequent history of the descendants of the patriarchs we see how abundantly their faith was justified. We judge of God's faithfulness too soon. Time will prove Him true.

(C. New.)

Abel, Barak, Cain, David, Egyptians, Enoch, Esau, Gedeon, Gideon, Hebrews, Isaac, Israelites, Jacob, Jephthae, Jephthah, Joseph, Noah, Pharaoh, Rahab, Samson, Samuel, Sara, SarahEgypt, Jericho, Jerusalem, Red SeaBless, Blessed, Blessing, Blessings, Connexion, Esau, Faith, Future, Invoked, Isaac, Jacob, News, Regard, Regarding1. What faith is.
6. Without faith we cannot please God.
7. The examples of faithfulness in the fathers of old time.

Hebrews 11:1-39

     5763   attitudes, positive to God
     8412   decisions

Hebrews 11:1-40

     8020   faith

Hebrews 11:4-28

     5714   men

Hebrews 11:4-38

     8428   example

Hebrews 11:20-21

     1335   blessing

Hebrews 11:20-22

     8021   faith, nature of

October 15. "Faith is the Evidence of Things not Seen" (Heb. xi. 1).
"Faith is the evidence of things not seen" (Heb. xi. 1). True faith drops its letter in the post-office box, and lets it go. Distrust holds on to a corner of it, and wonders that the answer never comes. I have some letters in my desk that have been written for weeks, but there was some slight uncertainty about the address or the contents, so they are yet unmailed. They have not done either me or anybody else any good yet. They will never accomplish anything until I let them go out of my hands and …
Rev. A. B. Simpson—Days of Heaven Upon Earth

April 26. "Strangers and Pilgrims" (Heb. xi. 13).
"Strangers and pilgrims" (Heb. xi. 13). If you have ever tried to plough a straight furrow in the country--we are sorry for the man that does not know how to plough and more sorry for the man that is too proud to want to know--you have found it necessary to have two stakes in a line and to drive your horses by these stakes. If you have only one stake before you, you will have no steadying point for your vision, but you can wiggle about without knowing it and make your furrows as crooked as a serpent's …
Rev. A. B. Simpson—Days of Heaven Upon Earth

February 3. "He Went Out, not Knowing Whither He Went" (Heb. xi. 8).
"He went out, not knowing whither He went" (Heb. xi. 8). It is faith without sight. When we can see, it is not faith but reasoning. In crossing the Atlantic we observed this very principle of faith. We saw no path upon the sea nor sign of the shore. And yet day by day we were marking our path upon the chart as exactly as if there had followed us a great chalk line upon the sea; and when we came within twenty miles of land we knew where we were as exactly as if we had seen it all three thousand miles …
Rev. A. B. Simpson—Days of Heaven Upon Earth

January the First the Unknown Journey
"He went out not knowing whither he went." --HEBREWS xi. 6-10. Abram began his journey without any knowledge of his ultimate destination. He obeyed a noble impulse without any discernment of its consequences. He took "one step," and he did not "ask to see the distant scene." And that is faith, to do God's will here and now, quietly leaving the results to Him. Faith is not concerned with the entire chain; its devoted attention is fixed upon the immediate link. Faith is not knowledge of a moral …
John Henry Jowett—My Daily Meditation for the Circling Year

The Illusiveness of Life.
Preached June 9, 1850. THE ILLUSIVENESS OF LIFE. "By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went. By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise: for he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God."--Hebrews xi. 8-10. Last Sunday we touched upon …
Frederick W. Robertson—Sermons Preached at Brighton

The Pilgrim's Longings
Now, our position is very similar to theirs. As many of us as have believed in Christ have been called out. The very meaning of a church is, "called out by Christ." We have been separated. I trust we know what it is to have gone without the camp, bearing Christ's reproach. Henceforth, in this world we have no home, no true home for our spirits; our home is beyond the flood; we are looking for it amongst the unseen things; we are strangers and sojourners as all our fathers were, dwellers in this wilderness, …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 18: 1872

Rahab's Faith
I do think this triumph of faith over sin is not the least here recorded, but that if there be any superiority ascribable to any one of faith's exploits, this is, in some sense, the greatest of all. What! faith, didst thou fight with hideous lust? What! wouldst thou struggle with the fiery passion which sendeth forth flame from human breasts? What! wouldst thou touch with thy hallowed fingers foul and bestial debauchery? "Yea," says faith, "I did encounter this abomination of iniquity; I delivered …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 3: 1857

Faith
This is an old law; it is as old as the first man. No sooner were Cain and Abel born into this world, and no sooner had they attained to manhood, than God gave a practical proclamation of this law, that "without faith it is impossible to please him." Cain and Abel, one bright day, erected an altar side by side with each other. Cain fetched of the fruits of the trees and of the abundance of the soil, and placed them upon his altar; Abel brought of the firstlings of the flock, and laid it upon his …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 3: 1857

Noah's Faith, Fear, Obedience, and Salvation
We may take pleasure in thinking of Noah as a kind of contrast to Enoch. Enoch was taken away from the evil to come: he saw not the flood, nor heard the wailing of those who were swept away by the waterfloods. His was a delightful deliverance from the harvest of wrath which followed the universal godlessness of the race. It was not his to fight the battle of righteousness to the bitter end; but by a secret rapture he avoided death, and escaped those evil days in which his grandson's lot was cast. …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 36: 1890

The Best Strengthening Medicine
THOSE WHO OUT OF WEAKNESS were made strong are written among the heroes of faith, and are by no means the least of them. Believers "quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong." Who shall tell which of the three grand deeds of faith is the greatest? Many of us may never have to brave the fiery stake, nor to bow our necks upon the block, to die as Paul did; but if we have grace enough to be out of weakness made strong, we shall not be left out of …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 37: 1891

The Obedience of Faith
"Is there a heart that will not bend To thy divine control? Descend, O sovereign love, descend, And melt that stubborn soul! " Surely, though we have had to mourn our disobedience with many tears and sighs, we now find joy in yielding ourselves as servants of the Lord: our deepest desire is to do the Lord's will in all things. Oh, for obedience! It has been supposed by many ill-instructed people that the doctrine of justification by faith is opposed to the teaching of good works, or obedience. There …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 37: 1891

The Call of Abraham
I. First, let us LOOK AT ABRAHAM. Abraham's family was originally an idolatrous one; afterwards some beams of light shone in upon the household, and they became worshippers of the true God; but there was much ignorance mingled with their worship, and at least occasionally their old idolatrous habits returned. The Lord who had always fixed on Abraham to be his chosen servant and the father of his chosen people upon earth, made Abraham leave the society of his friends and relatives, and go out of Ur …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 5: 1859

Go Back? Never!
"And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned. But now they desire a better country, that is an heavenly...city."--Hebrews 11:15, 16. ABRAHAM left his country at God's command, and he never went back again. The proof of faith lies in perseverance. There is a sort of faith which doth run well for a while, but it is soon ended, and it doth not obey the truth. The Apostle tells us, however, that the people of God were …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 61: 1915

The Gaze of the Soul
Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith.--Heb. 12:2 Let us think of our intelligent plain man mentioned in chapter six coming for the first time to the reading of the Scriptures. He approaches the Bible without any previous knowledge of what it contains. He is wholly without prejudice; he has nothing to prove and nothing to defend. Such a man will not have read long until his mind begins to observe certain truths standing out from the page. They are the spiritual principles behind …
A. W. Tozer—The Pursuit of God

The Christian Faith
Scripture references: Hebrews 11; Matthew 9:29; 17:20; Mark 10:52; 11:22; Acts 2:38; 3:16; 10:43; 16:30,31; Romans 1:17; 5:1; 10:17; Galatians 2:20. FAITH AND PRACTICE Belief Controls Action.--"As the man is, so is his strength" (Judges 8:21), "For as he thinketh in his heart so is he" (Proverbs 23:7). "According to your faith be it unto you" (Matthew 9:28,29). "Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life" (Proverbs 4:23). The Scriptures place stress upon the fact that …
Henry T. Sell—Studies in the Life of the Christian

The Voices of the Dead
"And by it he being dead yet speaketh." Hebrews xi. 4. Much of the communion of this earth is not by speech or actual contact, and the holiest influences fall upon us in silence. A monument or symbol shall convey a meaning which cannot be expressed; and a token of some departed one is more eloquent than words. The mere presence of a good and holy personage will move us to reverence and admiration, though he may say and do but little. So is there an impersonal presence of such an one; and, though …
E. H. Chapin—The Crown of Thorns

The Practice of Piety; Directing a Christian How to Walk that He May Please God.
Whoever thou art that lookest into this book, never undertake to read it, unless thou first resolvest to become from thine heart an unfeigned Practitioner of Piety. Yet read it, and that speedily, lest, before thou hast read it over, God, by some unexpected death, cut thee off for thine inveterate impiety. The Practice of Piety consists-- First, In knowing the essence of God, and that in respect of, (I.) The diverse manner of being therein, which are three persons--Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. (II.) …
Lewis Bayly—The Practice of Piety

Testimonies.
"Without faith it is impossible to please God."--Heb. xi. 6. In order to prevent the possibility of being led into paths of error, faith is directed, not to a Christ of the imagination, but to "the Christ in the garments of the Sacred Scripture," as Calvin expresses it. And therefore we must discriminate between (1) faith as a faculty implanted in the soul without our knowledge; (2) faith as a power whereby this implanted faculty begins to act; and (3) faith as a result,--since with this faith (1) …
Abraham Kuyper—The Work of the Holy Spirit

The Being of God
Q-III: WHAT DO THE SCRIPTURES PRINCIPALLY TEACH? A: The Scriptures principally teach what man is to believe concerning God, and what duty God requires of man. Q-IV: WHAT IS GOD? A: God is a Spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable, in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth. Here is, 1: Something implied. That there is a God. 2: Expressed. That he is a Spirit. 3: What kind of Spirit? I. Implied. That there is a God. The question, What is God? takes for granted that there …
Thomas Watson—A Body of Divinity

Abraham and Isaac. Genesis xxii.
1.--"After these things." What things? See verse 33 in preceding chapter. After Abraham had given himself to prayer. It often happens that grace is given for grace. God prepares his own for trial and suffering by revealing Himself. "GOD DID TEMPT."--Like a workman who is conscious the work is well done, fears not the scrutiny which waits his labour. When the smith has put good work into the iron cable, he does not then fear the strain of the test put upon it, and God knew what He had done to …
Thomas Champness—Broken Bread

Enoch, the Deathless
BY REV. W. J. TOWNSEND, D.D. Enoch was the bright particular star of the patriarchal epoch. His record is short, but eloquent. It is crowded into a few words, but every word, when placed under examination, expands indefinitely. Every virtue may be read into them; every eulogium possible to a human character shines from them. He was a devout man, a fearless preacher of righteousness, an intimate friend of God, and the only man of his dispensation who did not see death. He sheds a lustre on the …
George Milligan—Men of the Bible; Some Lesser-Known

Faith an Assurance and a Proof.
"Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the proving of things not seen. For therein the elders had witness borne to them. By faith we understand that the worlds have been framed by the word of God, so that what is seen hath not been made out of things which do appear."--HEB. xi. 1-3 (R.V.). It is often said that one of the greatest difficulties in the Epistle to the Hebrews is to discover any real connection of ideas between the author's general purpose in the previous discussion and the …
Thomas Charles Edwards—The Expositor's Bible: The Epistle to the Hebrews

A Cloud of Witnesses.
"By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau, even concerning things to come. By faith Jacob, when he was a-dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph; and worshipped, leaning upon the top of his staff. By faith Joseph, when his end was nigh, made mention of the departure of the children of Israel; and gave commandment concerning his bones.... By faith the walls of Jericho fell down, after they had been compassed about for seven days. By faith Rahab the harlot perished not with them that were disobedient, …
Thomas Charles Edwards—The Expositor's Bible: The Epistle to the Hebrews

The Faith of Moses.
"By faith Moses, when he was born, was hid three months by his parents, because they saw he was a goodly child; and they were not afraid of the king's commandment. By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter; choosing rather to be evil entreated with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; accounting the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt: for he looked unto the recompense of reward. By faith he forsook …
Thomas Charles Edwards—The Expositor's Bible: The Epistle to the Hebrews

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