fore Pharaoh; nothing of the
wonderful faith that enabled him to pray with uplifted hands on the brow
of the hill whilst the people were fighting God's battle in the valley;
nothing of the faith with which, on the top of Pisgah, Moses died
without receiving the promise. Evidently it is not the Apostle's purpose
to write the panegyric of a hero.

Closer examination of the verses brings out the thought that the Apostle
is tracing the growth and formation of the man's spiritual character. He
means to show that faith has in it the making of a man of God. Moses
became the leader of the Lord's redeemed people, the founder of the
national covenant, the legislator and prophet, because he believed in
God, in the future of Israel, and in the coming of the Christ. The
subject of the passage is faith as the power that creates a great
spiritual leader. But what is true of leaders is true also of every
strong spiritual nature. No lesson can be more timely in our days. Not
learning, not culture, not even genius, makes a strong doer, but faith.

The contents of the verses may be classified under four remarks:--

1. Faith gropes at first in the dark for the work of life.

2. Faith chooses the work of life.

3. Faith is a discipline of the man for the work of life.

4. Faith renders the man's life and work sacramental.

1. The initial stage in forming the servant of God is always the
same,--a vague, restless, eager groping in the dark, a putting forth
feelers for the light of revelation. This is often a time of childish
mistakes and follies, of which he is afterwards keenly ashamed, and at
which he can sometimes afford to smile. It often happens, if the man of
God is to spring from a religious family, that his parents undergo, in a
measure, this first discipline for him. So it was in the case of Moses.
The child was hid three months of his parents. Why did they hide him?
Was it because they feared the king? It was because they did not fear
the king. They hid their child by faith. But what had faith to do with
the hiding of him? Had they received an announcement from an inspired
seer that their child would deliver Israel, or that he would stand with
God on the top of Sinai and receive the Law for the people, or that he
would lead the redeemed of the Lord to the borders of a rich land and
large? None of these sufficient grounds for defying the king's authority
are mentioned. The reason given in the narrative and as well by
Stephen[2