deviate from truth, they will very commonly get through with it; but if a good man think to do so, he will as commonly find himself mistaken. If once he leave the path of rectitude, he is entangled, and presently betrays himself. The crooked devices of the flesh are things in which he is not suf

ficiently an adept, and conscience will often prevent his going through with them. God also will generally so order things that he shall be detected and put to shame at an early stage, and that in mercy to his soul, while sinners are left to go on in their evil courses with success.-A. Fuller.

But God came to Abimelech in a dream by night, and said to him, Behold, thou art but a dead man, for the woman which thou hast taken; for she is a man's wife.

If all adulterers were dead men in this Christian land, how would it decrease our numbers; and especially

how would it thin the ranks of the superior orders in the community!— Scott.

4 But Abimelech had not come near her: and he said, Lord, wilt thou slay also a righteous nation? 5 Said he not unto me, She is my sister? and she, even she herself said, He is my brother: in the integrity of my heart and innocency of my hands have I done this. And God said unto him in a dream, Yea, I know that thou didst this in the integrity of thy heart; for I also withheld thee from sinning against me: therefore suffered I thee not to touch her. Now therefore restore the man his wife; for he is a prophet, and he shall pray for thee, and thou shalt live; and if thou restore her not, know thou that thou shalt surely die, thou, and all that are thine. 8 Therefore Abimelech rose early in the morning, and called all his servants, and told all these things in their ears: and the men were sore afraid. 9 Then Abimelech called Abraham, and said unto him, What hast thou done unto us? and what have I offended thee, that thou hast brought on me and on my kingdom a great sin? thou hast done deeds unto me that ought not to be done. 10 And Abimelech said unto Abraham, What sawest thou, that thou hast done this thing? 11 And Abraham said, Because I thought, Surely the fear of God is not in this place; and they will slay me for my wife's sake. 12 And yet indeed she is my sister; she is the daughter of my father, but not the daughter of my mother; and she became my wife. 13 And it came to pass, when God caused me to wander from my father's house, that I said unto her, This is thy kindness which thou shalt shew unto me; at every place whither we shall come, say of me, He is my brother.

There is a moral truth and uprightness which we may call a field-flower, because it may be found growing in the wilds and wastes of nature. It cannot be denied but one that hath not a dram of sanctifying, saving grace, may show some kind of uprightness and truth in his actions. God Himself comes forward as a witness for

Abimelech I know thou didst this in the integrity of thy heart;' that is, thou didst mean honestly as to this particular business, and didst not intend any wrong to Abraham. Many such instances may be given of men that have been great strangers to a work of grace on their hearts; but this is not the uprightness that God re

quires. Methinks, I hear the Lord saying concerning such, as once He did to Samuel of Eliab, Look not on their countenance,' so as to think these are they which He accepts. No, He hath refused them, for the Lord seeth not as man seeth.' God's eye looks deeper than man's. This uprightness has two great defects; first, it grows not from a good root, a renewed heart. This is a hair on the moral man's pen, which blurs and blots his copy when he writes fairest. It is like the leprosy of Naaman; that same, but he was a leper,' took away the honour of his greatness at court and prowess in the field; so here, it stains the fairest actions of a mere moral man,' but he is a Christless, graceless person.' Second,

this moral uprightness falls short of the chief end necessary to make a person upright indeed; this is the glory of God. (1 Cor. x. 31.) The archer may lose his game by shooting short as well as shooting wide. The gross hypocrite shoots wide; the upright moralist shoots short.-Gurnall.

God often manifests Himself to men in a way of preventing grace. A man shall see that it is God alone who keeps from all sin. Until we are tempted, we think we live on our own strength. Though all men do this or that, we will not. When the trial comes, we quickly see whence is our preservation, by standing or falling. So it was in the case of Abimelech : 'I withheld thee.'-Dr. Owen.

14 And Abimelech took sheep, and oxen, and menservants, and womenservants, and gave them unto Abraham, and restored him Sarah his wife. 15 And Abimelech said, Behold, my land is before thee: dwell where it pleaseth thee. 16 And unto Sarah he said, Behold, I have given thy brother a thousand pieces of silver: behold, he is to thee a covering of the eyes, unto all that are with thee, and with all other: thus she was reproved. So Abraham prayed unto God and God healed Abimelech, and his wife, and his maidservants; and they bare children. 18 For the Lord had fast closed up all the wombs of the house of Abimelech, because of Sarah Abraham's wife.

Look ye to it, in whose heart dwells the Spirit of grace, that you be not put to shame by those that are graceless. Many among them there are that would scorn to lie. Shall a saint be taken in an untruth? Except your righteousness exceeds their best, you are not Christians; and can you let them exceed you in those things which, when they are done, leave them short of Christ and heaven? It is time for the scholar to throw off his gown, and disclaim the name of an academic, when every school-boy is able to dunce and pose him. And for him also to lay aside his profession, and let the world know what he is, yea, what he never was, that can let a mere civil man, with his weak bow, only backed with moral principle, outshoot him that pretends to Christ and His grace. I confess it

sometimes so falls out that a saint under a temptation may be outstripped by one that is carnal, in a particular case; as a lackey that is an excellent footman may, from some prick or present lameness in his foot, be left behind by one that at another time should not be able to come near him. We have too many sorrowful examples of moral men's outstripping even a saint at a time when under a temptation. We have a notable passage here in Abimelech's speech to Sarah (v. 16). Mark the words: Thus she was reproved.' How? Where lies the reproof? Here are none but good words, and money to boot. He promises protection to her and to Abraham: none should wrong him in wronging her; and he tells her what he had freely given Abraham. Well, for all this we find a sharp reproof, though lapped up in

these sweet words, and silvered over with his thousand pieces. First, she was reproved by the uprightness of Abimelech in that business wherein she had sinfully dissembled. Again, Abimelech, in calling Abraham her brother, not her husband, did give her

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a smart rebuke, putting her in mind how, with that word, he had been deceived by them. O Christians! take heed of putting words into the mouths of wicked men to reprove you withal; they cannot reprove you, but they reproach God.-Gurnall.

CHAP. XXI.

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ND the LORD visited Sarah as he had said, and the LORD did unto Sarah as he had spoken. 2 For Sarah conceived, and bare Abraham a son in his old age, at the set time of which God had spoken to him. 8 And Abraham called the name of his son that was born unto him, whom Sarah bare to him, Isaac. And Abraham circumcised his son Isaac being eight days old, as God had commanded him. 5 And Abraham was an hundred years old, when his son Isaac was born unto him. 6And Sarah said, God hath made me to laugh, so that all that hear will laugh with me.

Our joys take their measure from our mercies. Sarah's mercy in receiving a son was so great that it would serve a whole world to make merry with; vide Luke xv. 6.

As some afflictions are so big that all

our own sorrows are not enough to weep and mourn over them, so some blessings are so big that they call for more than our own affections to rejoice over them.-Caryl.

7 And she said, Who would have said unto Abraham, that Sarah should have given children suck? for I have born him a son in his old age. And the child grew and was weaned: and Abraham made a great feast the same day that Isaac was weaned.

Mothers may learn from the example of Sarah that it is their duty to nurse their own children. The good women of those days thought it their duty to do so, and dry breasts were reckoned a great reproach. Sarah was a person of quality, of great eminence, had a large family, and many cares. She had 318 servantmen, besides women, and yet thought that no excuse. It is a refinement of this last age for women to consign that work to strangers, which is a very cruel and barbarous practice, and shows the mind to be almost destitute of natural affection. The Lord

Himself says this. (Lam. iv. 3.) It is a practice directly contrary to the dictates of nature and the clear intention of Providence. Neither quality, nor bu

siness, nor difficulties, nor inconveniences, will excuse for the neglect of this plain duty, and what God has made a duty we may hope He will give strength to perform, as multitudes would experience if they would but try. Nothing but evident necessity can vindicate so unnatural a custom.

These were the sentiments of Archbishop Tillotson, who says: 'It is a natural duty, and, because it is so, of more necessity and obligation than any positive precept of revealed religion, such as baptism, or the like, and the general neglect of it is one of the great and crying evils of this age and nation, and the world is not likely to be better till this great fault is mended.' -Orton.

'And Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, which she had born unto Abraham, mocking.

God's favourites are the world's laughing-stocks.-M. Henry.

10 Wherefore she said unto Abraham, Cast out this bondwoman and her son: for the son of this bondwoman shall not be heir with my son, even with Isaac. And the thing was very grievous in Abraham's sight because of his son. 12 And God said unto Abraham, Let it not be grievous in thy sight because of the lad, and because of thy bondwoman; in all that Sarah hath said unto thee hearken unto her voice; for in Isaac shall thy seed be called. 13 And also of the son of the bondwoman will I make a nation, because he is thy seed. 14 And Abraham rose up early in the morning, and took bread, and a bottle of water, and gave it unto Hagar, putting it on her shoulder, and the child, and sent her away: and she departed, and wandered in the wilderness of Beer-sheba. 15 And the water was spent in the bottle, and she cast the child under one of the shrubs. 16 And she went, and sat her down over against him a good way off, as it were a bowshot: for she said, Let me not see the death of the child. And she sat over against him, and lift up her voice, and wept. 17 And God heard the voice of the lad; and the angel of God called to Hagar out of heaven, and said unto her, What aileth thee, Hagar? fear not; for God hath heard the voice of the lad where he is. 18 Arise, lift up the lad, and hold him in thine hand; for I will make him a great nation.

The Arabians are the immediate descendants of Ishmael, and are to this day an exact accomplishment of this prophecy. They are numerous, powerful, and distinct in almost every respect from the nations around them. In them we see the race of the wild man whose hand

should be against every man. That an acute and active people, surrounded

for ages by polished and luxurious nations, should, from the earliest to the latest times, be still found a wild people, dwelling in the presence of all their brethren, unsubdued and unchanged, is indeed a standing miracle, one of those mysterious facts which establish the truth of prophecy.-Sir R. K. Porter.

19 And God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water; and she went, and filled the bottle with water, and gave the lad drink.

Be thankful, Christian, for the spiritual refreshments you have already received. Bless God that such merciful provision is made in the Gospel for the relief and comfort of necessitous creatures; and, above all, be thankful that you have been engaged to seek and to prize it, while so many are, as it were, dying for thirst in the midst of these overflowing streams.

It is said of Hagar that, when she was almost perishing in the wilderness, 'the Lord opened her eyes, and she saw a fountain of water.' So it is in your case; the Lord hath opened your eyes, and therefore you have seen this fountain. You should also, like Hagar, be solicitous that others may taste those refreshments which have been imparted unto you.-Doddridge."

20 And God was with the lad; and he grew, and dwelt in the wilderness, and became an archer. 21 And he dwelt in the wilderness him a wife out of the land of

of Paran: and his mother took Egypt.

As great an archer as he was, however, Ishmael did not think he took his aim well in the business of his mar

riage if he proceeded without his mother's advice and consent.-M. Henry.

22 And it came to pass at that time, that Abimelech and Phichol the chief captain of his host spake unto Abraham, saying, God is with thee in all that thou doest: 23 Now therefore swear unto me here by God that thou wilt not deal falsely with me, nor with my son, nor with my son's son: but according to the kindness that I have done unto thee, thou shalt do unto me, and to the land wherein thou hast sojourned. 24 And Abraham said, I will swear. 25 And Abraham reproved Abimelech because of a well of water, which Abimelech's servants had violently taken away. 26 And Abimelech said, I wot not who had done this thing: neither didst thou tell me, neither yet heard I of it but to day. 27 And Abraham took sheep and oxen, and gave them unto Abimelech; and both of them made a covenant. 28 And Abraham set seven ewe lambs of the flock by themselves. 29 And Abimelech said unto Abraham, What mean these seven ewe lambs, which thou hast set by themselves? 80 And he said, For these seven ewe lambs shalt thou take of my hand, that they may be a witness unto me, that I have digged this well. 1 Wherefore he called that place Beer-sheba; because there they sware both of them. 32 Thus they made a covenant at Beersheba: then Abimelech rose up, and Phichol the chief captain of his host, and they returned into the land of the Philistines.

The behaviour of believers may be so undeniably excellent, and the Lord's favour to them so manifest, as to convince observers that God is with them in all they do;' and this conviction is often the means of their conversion. How important, then, is it that we walk in wisdom towards

those that are without!'-Scott.

Common prudence might suffice to teach men that it is advantageous to be connected with those whom the Lord blesses, did not the enmity of the carnal mind counteract its influence.-Scott.

84 And Abraham

33 And Abraham planted a grove in Beer-sheba, and called there on the name of the LORD, the everlasting God. sojourned in the Philistines' land many days.

Good men should not only retain their goodness wherever they go, but

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do all they can to propagate it, and make others good.-M. Henry.

CHAP. XXII.

ND it came to pass after these things, that God did tempt Abraham, and said unto him, Abraham: and he said, Behold, here I am.