The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1901-07-27
THE sUNDAY-sCHOoL LESSON.
Third quarters; God Calls Abraham
Genesis, xii, ID.

ttEs 1OQ 1allS m
Genesis, xii, ID.
-Four centuries and a quarter have passed since
the nooc. Noah himself had been dead only sew
enty-hve years. Yet the new race seemed as
deeply sunken in sin as the old. The goodness
ard severity Of God in the deluge appeared TO
have been In vain. In the midnight gloom of
a general oegeneracy some few tapers. like that
OF Melchiseeec's on Zion, were yet alight; but
even these were in danger OF extinction by the
violence Of the wicked. The race was In
revolt against God. II had built its defiant
tower. whose lofty stories We're to be a refuge
la case OF a second food. 1t seemed to have
learned nothing by the sudden Judgment which
COMPOUNDED its language and scattered it abroad.
The first chapter OF the Bpistle to the Romans
gives a faithful portraiture OF the moral condi-
ton Of the race at this period. Though they
knew God, they glorihed Him not as God. were
thankless. and changed His glory into an image.
with their theoretical errors the stream OF
their practical transgressions rose 70 a fearful
height" The remains Of these eldest cities OF
the Euphrates valley. now being dug up, show
the people given to those gross immoralities
usually attendant upon heathenism. The peril
was extreme that knowledge of God would be
entirely lost, and that. too, not by accident. but
design. They did not like (wish or care) 10
retain God in their knowledge. SO the foolish
heart of the race was darkened. At this
crisis an ever-watchful Providence stepped in
meeting the emergency in a manner to excite
the admiration OF men and angels. he let the
stream Of human life flow on in its perverse
course. not ~arrestins it by any further general
But from the great torrent foaming
out its shame and casting up it's mire and dirt
He took aside a little stream comparatively pure
and had il run in a channel He had prepared
for it, much as water is taken aside in the race
- t,,ro the mill Hara no capriCiOus favor
itism. The design was TO bless all humanity by
blessing one Of its families. . The proverb,
What God does is well DONE" has no finer ex-
emplincation than in the selection OF the pro-
genitor OF the rev race. His YsTy name Is sig
n~fhcant-Abram. "exaited father" Physically,
intellectually, spiritually. he was Gods man for
the hour. Ills phenomenal virility has survived
In his descendants for forty centuries. So has
his intollectuality. He was ready for the Elori-
Gus appearance that approached him. Then, as
ever, the prepared message came to the prepared
mind. . Abram was the first OF pilgrim
fathers. the first emigrant impelled by reiigious
motives. He undertook his journey for con-
science sake. He left a lovely fundamentally
rich-the home OF the wheat-grain, pomegranate,
apple and grape. He left the highest civilization
of his day, and libraries with their tile-page vol
umes. He left country. kindred. fathers house.
to become henceforth a pilgrim and stranger.
. Well may his name be engraven high
upon that tall obelisk, the eleventh chapter of
the Epistle TO the Hebrews. among the immortal
heroes OF faith-for it was with faith that he
heard the divine call, and by faith he obeyed,
going out. not knowing whittier he went. . . .
II pleased God to encourage and sustain his
faith with exceeding great and precious promises.
God undertook to be his guide. promising to
show him the land. to make OF him a great
nation, bless him and mako ilm a blessing; to
make his cause His own. so that his friends
should be Gods friends, his enemies Gods enc
mics. He should be the first link In that long
chain of generations OF which. in the fullness of
time, the Messiah would be born. Three
verses suffice to describe the call; the fourth
narrates the obedience. So Abram departed. A
blessed adventurer. he voyaged across the sea
Of sand upon his ship Of the desert. AS Column
bus landing on the shore of the new world un-
furled the standard OF Spain and took possession
of it in the name Of his kingly patron. so Abram.
reaching at length the land of promise. built an
altar and dedicated the land and its inhabitants
to jehovah.
THE TEACHERS
The genesis of anything always has a peculiar
fascination. We never tire OF origins. This les
son brings us to the fountain-head OF the most
important racial stream that has ever coursed
its way through history: a stream to whose
bosom the oracles Of God We're committed for
twenty centuries; a stream that bore to earth
the infant Messiah, as his type once hoated on
the Nile. a birdseye view CT the winding of this
stream, and the possible important function it
may perform in the future of the kingdom of
God, will prove an attractive introduction to the
lesson. Effort should be made to portray
Abraham's exalted character and his fitness for
the purpose for which God employed him.
Crowd his career into a nutshell. Display its
salient tr~aits-faith, resolution, courage, military
tact, magnanimity, ETC.; admit its blemlshes, but
show them mere spots on the sun. Abraham
would be a good man for our age; he was super
latively good for the age in which he lived. The
Bible deals faithfully with the characters it por-
trays. 1t presents its characters not ideally, but
as they actually were. . Legends concern
ing Abraham may be used with good effect