The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-10-05

faith in Him. The great characteristic of Abraham was faith in God. lie did not walk by sight. His life was one of con tinual unfolding and of enlarging knewl- edge He left his native land by talth' By faith he sojourned. etc" By faith he offered Isaac.
 Faith Is absolute trust in one whom we know and on whose wisdom, love and power We implicitly rely. We do not see the end or understand beforehand the processes but we believe in Him who commands and guides. It Is intelligent yet 1t goes beyond knowledge of ways and events. Abraham knew and trusted God-events could take care of them- selves rather God would take care of them. Here is the intelligent ground of faith. Knowing God he was ready to obey. Thus the child trusts the parent, the soldier his leader.
 Personal Love. Christ first attached His disciples to himself. He said little about events. Let not your hearts be troubled" "Come un- to me" Believe in me" Paul said, "f know whom l have believed etc." Yet he '1xnew not the things that awaited him." He was willing to leave them to Christ.
 This is faith. It does not have to be assured about this or that. It simply asks, Docs He commando" It finds all things in God.
 II. God would have us love Him above all things else, and would have us sure of 1t. Our love must be personal love, just as faith demands person to trust. This is impossible without realization of Gods personality. He was real 10 Abra- ham. Without this Abraham could never have trusted and loved Him as he did. He had to become a person to Jacob be- fore his creed became vital. lie must be real to us We must touch consciously on Him.
 When we thus love, service becomes real Religion Is not a sentiment only it is a life. power; we may be assured of it in our lives. God would have Abra- ham assured of his perfect devotion to Him. He would not have him see oth- CTS devoted to what they loved and serv- ed and Abraham uncertain of himself. So God demands of us a real service. "The children of this world give a real service to what they love- Our religion would evaporate into airy nothing if it had not a way to express Itself in deeds, Feed my lambs" etc
 g. By obedience God teaches us to distinguish between what is real service and what it not. Abraham thought to offer Isaac as a dead sacrifice. God taught him to offer him as a living sacri- flee. Abraham thought piety consisted in his giving to God; God taught him that 1t was in making a way for God to give to him.
 We look too much on the side of sacri- flee surrender. That is only the prepar- atory step to what is better. Religion is life but it is life hrougf death; riches by surrender It k l by the death of the lower love that W. come into possession of the higher. W. can never live the higher life while VI cling to the lower. And when we q, come to live unto God it is "abundan life" Isaac henceforth was Gods an, he was Abraham's too, more fully thal ever.
 Through Sacrifice.
 4 They who would know the fullnes of this life of faith must reach it througl sacrifice: 'In the Mount of the Lord 1 shall be provided": or fin the Mount o the Lord He shall be seem Only here | can we reach this knowledge. Theories are tested by experiment. It is so in or. dinary life. and in religion; we fear the | demands of God upon us; they look fierce and hard. If we stop there without obey ing we become confirmed In our unbeief. But if we only obeyl Abraham found how blessed 1t was to obey fully. He had Isaac now by an inalienable title. He would never have enjoyed his son had | he disobeyed.
 God demands our all We fear He Is going to take it from us. He only wants to make it ours fully. We steal joys and are guilty Why should we try to hold back from God? "All things are yours ' | We do not know how completely the world becomes ours until we surrender fully to God.