Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-10-03
CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOR HOUR
Conducted by
Mrs. GRACE LIVINGSTON HILL.

or octUbtf
Topic: 'Cr=at Men of the Bible: What Abraham
Teaches Us" Genesis, Kills; Hebrews, vii:1-1o;
Romans iy:1 8.
Genesis, Kill. Now the Lord had said unto
Abram, Get thee out of thy country and
from thy kindred, and from thy fathers
house unto land that will shew thee:
3 And l will make of thee great nation,
and l will bless thee, and make thy name
great; and thou shalt be a blessing:
g. And 1 will bless them that bless thee
and curse him that curseth thee: and in
thee shall all families of the earth be
blessed.
4. So Abram departed. as the Lord had
spoken upto him; and Lot went with him:
and Abram was seventy and five years old
when he departed out OF Haran.
5. And Abram took Sarai his wife, and
Lot his brothers son, and all their sub
stance that they had gathered and the
souls that they had gotten in Haran: and
they went forth 10 go into the land OF
Canaan; and into the land of Canaan they
came.
Z. And Abram passed through the land
unto the place of Sichen. unto the plain OF
Moreh. And the Canaanite was then in
the land.
I. And the Lord appeared unto Abram,
and sad, Unto thy seed will l give this
land: and there bu.Ided he an altar unto
:. And he removed from thence unto a
mountain on the east of Bethel. and pitched
his tent, having Bethel on the west and
Hal on the east: and there he builded an
altar unto the Lord, and called upon the
name of the Lord.
TIE Lesson.
1t is interesting to observe how across
the far cry of forty centuries the scenes
and figures seem to stand out as though
they were fresh from yesterday. The rea-
son for this lies in the fact that men were
moved by the same motives, stirred by
the same passions, in those olden days as
today. Human nature has not changed
with the progress of the race and the
process of the suns Under other skies
and totally different surroundings men are
men and women are women to the end of
time. 1t is this that give the study Of
Old Testament lives their exceeding value.
1t is of more value than a simple study of
our own times, for we are far beyond the
reach of prejudice.
Then. too, the charm of the Bible stories
themselves is so fresh and perfect Well
might Alexander Smith, the poet, say of
them that he breathed the morning air of
the world as he read and saw with his own
eyes the black tents and moving herds and
flockS, heard across the braWling centuries
of blood and the bleating of the sheep
and the tinkling bells of the camels.
We can almost in imagination go about
with Abra nam IN those days when he was
feeling that constraining word from God,
Get thee out into a country that I will
shew thee" Day after day the impression
of Gods wish for him grew in his heart
until he knew beyond question that he
must go. Just as you and l have seen
Gods will crossing our path and casting
its shadow over the place where our desires
would elect that we might stay. We know
how hard it was for us to recognize that
will supreme to ours We know we
fought against the thought. Perhaps
Abram did also. 1t may be he did not
wish to CO. and tried to think that he was
mistaken about what God had seemed to
say But still Gods word came steadily,
60"
Now the first thing we see about Abra-
ham that Is perhaps different from our
selyes-and certainly point in which most
people can learn from hints that he made
no question about whether he would obey
God He went steadily ahead and did
what he was told. He shows this wonder
full trait of obedience through the whole OF