The daily banner. (Cambridge, Md.) 1897-2008, 1913-02-15
International SuOdaQ School Lesson.
FIRST QU&RTER. LESSON Z. GEN.
ID: 9. Feb. Is, 1913.
The Call Of Abram
The Story.

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The Story.
-Four centuries and a quarter have
passed since the Flood. Noah him
self had been dead only seventy-five
years. Yet the new race seemed as
deeply sunken In sin as the old. The
goodness and severity OF God in the
Deluge appeared to have been In
vain. The race was in revolt against
God. It had built it's defiant tower,
whose lofty stories were to be a
refuge in case OF a second flood.
1t seemed to have learned nothing
by the sudden judgment which con-
founded its language and scattered
it abroad. The first chapter OF the
Epistle to the Romans gives faith
full portraiture of the moral condi-
ton of the race at this period. AL
though they knew God, they glori-
fled him not as God, were thankless,
and changed his glory into an i'm
age. The remains of these eldest
cities of the Euphrates Valley, now
being dug up, show the people Civ
en- to those gross immoralities usu-
ally attendant upon heathenism. At
this crisis Providence stepped in to
meet the emergency. He let the
stream of human life flow on, not
arresting it by any further judg-
ments. But from the great torrent
he took aside a little stream COM
paratively pure, and had It run in
a channel he had prepared for it,
much as water is taken aside in the
race to turn the mill. Here was
no capricious favoritism. The de-
sign was to bless all humanity by
blessing one of its families. The
proverb, What God does, is well
done," has no finer exemplification
than in the selection of the progeni-
tor of the new race. His very name
is gnificant-Abram, exalted ia
ther." Physically, intellectually,and
spiritually, he was Gods man for
the hour. His phenomenal virility
has survived in his descendants for
forty centuries. So has his intel
lectuality. He was ready for the
glorious appearance that approached
him. Then, as ever, the prepared
message cam eto the prepared mind.
Abram was the first of pilgrim ia
theirs, the first emigrant impelled by
religious motives. He undertook
his journey for conscience sake.
He left lovely land-marvelously
rich-the home of the wheat-grain,
pomegranate, apple, and CRAZE. He
left the highest civilization OF his
day, and libraries with their title
page volumes. He left country Kin
dred, fathers house, 49, become
henceforth a pilgrim and stranger.
Well may his name be engraven
high upon that tall obelisk, the elev-
enth chapter of tn Epistle to the
Hebrews, among the immortal he
roes of faith-for 1t was with faith
that he heard the Divine call, and
by faith he obeyed, going out. not
knowing whittier he went. It pleas
ed 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 make
him a blessing; to make his cause
his own, so that his friends should
be Gods friends, his enemies Gods
enemies. He should be the first
link in that long chain of genera
lions of which, in the fullness OF
time, the Messiah would be born.
Three verses suffice to describe the
call; the fourth narrates the obedi-
ence. So Abram departed. A bless
ed adventurer, he voyaged across
the sea of sand upon his ship of the
desert. As Columbus 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 prom
Use, built an altar and dedicated the
land and its inhabitants to Jehovah.
The Teachers Lantern.
The genesis of anything has Pc
culiar fascination. We never tire of