15 Be ye mindful always of his covenant; the word which he commanded to a thousand generations;

The Abrahamic faith and hope

... there can be no dispute that Abraham believed and hoped for all the things which God promised him...

1. That God promised to give to Abraham himself the very land which he saw with his own eyes, lying between the Euphrates and the Nile, for an inheritance—though not in his present life-time, as he was then to be only a sojourner in it.

2. That this inheritance should be an everlasting possession.

3. That a promised resurrection to eternal life was here implied, because it would be impossible to have everlasting possession in a mortal body.

4. That he should have a seed, or son, in whom all the nations of the earth would be blessed, because he was the Lamb of God, to take away the sin of the world, and thereby bless all nations.

5. That this son should also inherit this same Land of Promise as an everlasting possession—and hence it is called "Immanuel's land," "the Lord's land," "the Holy land," "the glory of all lands," &c., &c.

6. That his seed should possess the gate of his enemies—involving the authority, power, majesty and dominion of the seed, the Christ.

7. That he should also have a spiritual posterity, which should share with him in the same promise.

8. That his seed, spiritually and naturally, should be numberless as the stars of heaven.

9. That he should be the father of not one, but "many nations."

10. That the Land of Promise should become a heaven-like country.

11. That Abraham and his seed should then possess it "as the days of heaven upon the earth."

12. That God would prepare for them a city in that land, which hath foundations, a "city of habitation," whose great architect is God himself.

Now, that this same Land of Promise, with its "Jerusalem, the City of the Great King"—its Mount Zion, "beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth"—when the Lord of hosts shall reign in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, before (Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and all) his ancients gloriously"—when

"many from the east and west shall sit down with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, in the Kingdom of God"

—when that kingdom comes, and the

"will of God is done on earth as it is in Heaven"—when "the whole earth is filled with the glory of the Lord," and "this land, which is now desolate, shall be like Eden, and its wilderness like the garden of the Lord"

—I say, that this same Land of Promise, the territory of the Kingdom of God, with its metropolitan city, when these faithful sayings of the sure word of prophecy are accomplished, will be that heaven-like country and city for which Abraham looked, no spiritual son of Abraham can doubt for one moment!

But it is worthy of remark that the Abrahamic faith has passed through many editions, "enlarged and improved." Most of the promises, especially that concerning the land, were reiterated by covenant to Isaac and Jacob, "the heirs with him of the same promises," and the sweet singer of Israel sings,

"Be ye mindful always of his covenant, the word which he commanded to a thousand generations, even of the covenant which he made with Abraham, and of his oath unto Isaac, and hath confirmed the same to Jacob for a law, and to Israel for an everlasting covenant, saying—unto thee will I give the land of Canaan, the lot of your inheritance".

Bro L. Edwards

Herald of the Kingdom and Age to Come, May 1857