of Judah, the most considerable of the twelve tribes, and the only one that remained after the Captivity and lastly, the Holy Land, from being the scene of the birth, miracles, death, and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Olympas. It is well repeated, and I presume you have traced these lines accurately upon the map. How many names had this land according to the description and history which you have heard?

William. No less than six-Canaan, Palestine, Land of Israel, Land of Judea, Land of Promise, and the Holy Land.

Olympas. The Land of Promise was then the family estate of Abraham in virtue of this divine charter. It was, however, his as yet only in promise for at that time seven nations called it their own country. When, James, was Abraham called to go and sojourn in this land?

James. When he was seventy-five years old.

Olympas. He left Haran at that age; but the question is, At what time was Abraham called to forsake his native land, his kindred and home?

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William. We are not informed at what time, only that the Lord at some previous time had said." This phrase allows even years to have intervened. He was, indeed, seventy-five years old at the time of his departure from Haran; but how long before that time he was called, we cannot tell.

Olympas. But as Paul says, "Abraham, when called, obeyed and went out not knowing whither he was going," are we not allowed-nay, constrained to think that as soon as he was called he obeyed?

William. If the call was to do it immediately, he could not have obeyed the call but by immediately rising up and commencing his journey. But the words seem to indicate that at some previous time to his departure the Lord had intimated to him his views and will, and that now the time was come to comply with them.

Olympas. True, the style so intimates; and we are allowed to infer that before he came to Haran, and while he was yet in Ur of the Chaldees, this call had been given to the Patriarch. We may have use for this distinction again, and whether or not, I would have you always to note dates accurately, for often much depends upon them. This is one of the most remarkable passages in the life of any man, and I would have you mark it with all care. Tell me, Thomas, how would you understand and classify the blessings promised to Abraham, the belief of which induced him to forsake all; and to follow the guidance of the Sheckinah, or divine manifestation ?

Thomas. There appears to me but two distinct promises in this transaction-the one special, the other general-the one personal, the other national-the one temporal, the other spiritual.

Olympas. Some might say there are six promises. Does it not read, 1st. "I will make of thee a great nation; 2nd. I will bless thee; 3rd. and make thy name great; 4th. and thou shalt be a blessing; 5th. and I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee; 6th. and in thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed."

Thomas. These are but the amplification or detailing out of the contents of two distinct

promises; for example, your 1st., 2nd., 3rd., and 5th. make one; and your 4th. and 6th. make another. "I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee and make thy name great, and I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee," are all personal, special, and temporal. These might have been and were all fulfilled, in Abraham as a prince and renowned ancestor of nations. But I will make thee a blessing, and in thee shall all nations be blessed," are general and spiritual, and concern all mankind as much as the natural offspring of Abraham.

Olympas. So far you are correct: but might it not be said that in making Abraham a blessing no more was intended than temporal advantages —as, for instance, in the case of Joseph who was made a blessing to Egypt?

Thomas. Had it never been explained, it might, perhaps, have been doubtful; but its connexion with all families being blessed in the seed or son of Abraham, and especially Paul's speaking of the blessing of Abraham coming on the Gentiles through faith, determine its acceptation to be spiritual and not temporal.

Olympas. Well, Reuben, what do you learn from these remarkable verses not already stated?

Reuben. Nothing, sir, not embraced in what has been said. I see that Abraham is treated as "the friend of God." He is a root of two sorts of blessings; and these two include all things temporal and spiritual. Abraham's flesh and Abraham's faith are the stocks on which are grafted the scions of all good. Temporals are conveyed by fleshly relation, and spirituals by spiritual relation. Flesh and faith in the father,

and flesh and faith in the offspring, constitute the connective principle and reason of inheritance.

Olympas. Abraham, then, is truly a grandfather. Nations descended from his flesh are accounted honourable for his sake; and they of all nations who believe in God, and obey through faith, are reckoned his spiritual progeny. Two Covenants, two Wills, two Testaments, and two Dispensations, are based on these two classes of promises, Gen. xii. 2, 3. Other, indeed, numerous arrangements, special providences, and peculiar covenants-such as the priesthood in one of Abraham's natural descendants-the royalty in another, grew out of these grand promises, just as the blessing of Abraham through faith included justification, sanctification, adoption, salvation, resurrection, immortality. Still as these two promises are the basis and root of all blessings, they ought to be distinctly marked, understood, and remembered by all students of the Bible. I will, therefore, endeavour to place them before you in the various forms and under a variety of circumstances as we proceed.

Eliza. Did you not say, father, when we last read through Genesis, that the two Testaments, called the Old and the New, grew out of these two verses, or the two blessings contained in these promises?

Olympas. Yes, this subject may be so viewed. The nation of Israel in the Old Testament, Jesus Christ and the New Testament, equally sprang from these two covenants or promises. And hence they ought to be a most memorable epoch; and they are in truth made so. Sarah, how old was the world when these two promises were first made?

have no children in my own person, I may, by such a marriage, have children by her who is my own property."-That this is not an inference founded on this solitary passage, I need but to mention the cases of Zilpah and Bilhah, the female slaves of Rachel and Leah, who were given to Jacob by his Rachel and Leah as Hagar was to Abraham by his beloved Sarah.

Thomas. But is there not in the very idea of property itself a variety of meaning? A husband has property in a wife; parents have property in their children; masters have property in their servants; and landlords have property in their farms and their live stocks. But no two of these is property in the same sense, or on the same terms and conditions. Consequently the property in persons and the property in things are not of the same nature, nor do they exist under the same conditions, stipulations, and agreements.

Olympas. Certainly there is a great difference in the application of the word property, and it is a great error in our reasoning to allege that because it is applied to so many subjects, they must be homogeneous. But it is enough to our understanding the lesson of the morning, to know that while Abraham had sheep, and cattle, and he-asses, and men-servants, and maid-servants, and sheasses, and camels, as property, they were not held under the same laws nor subject to the same conditions; nor was there any thing either grievous or immoral under the servitude in which his servants lived.

Reuben. May I ask a question before you dismiss this subject? I read in a book at school, that the