sure of revelation vouchsafed to them
was given for their personal salvation, as well as to prepare the way
for further revelations. The promise made to Abraham--"In thy seed shall
all the nations of the earth be blessed"--was fulfilled in Christ. In
this respect Abraham "received not the promise." Nevertheless, it was a
promise made for his benefit, as well as for that of future ages. Into
the bosom of the patriarch it brought light and joy and salvation. "Your
father Abraham," said Jesus, "rejoiced to see my day; and he saw it, and
was glad." John 8:56. "He believed in the Lord," says the inspired
record, "and he counted it to him for righteousness." Gen. 15:6. The
deliverance of Israel from Egypt typified the redemption of Christ; and
it was, moreover, one of the grand movements that prepared the way for
his advent. But it was neither all type nor all preparation. To the
covenant people of that day it was a true deliverance; and to the
believing portion of them, a deliverance of soul as well as of body.
"The law," says Paul, "was our school-master to bring us unto Christ,
that we might be justified by faith." Gal. 3:24. But while it had this
preparatory office, it was to the Israelitish nation a true rule of
life; and under it many, through faith, anticipated its end. The
prophets prophesied for the men of their own age, as well as for distant
generations. The sweet psalmist of Israel, while he foreshadowed the
Messiah's reign, sung for the comfort and edification of himself and his
contemporaries; and Solomon gave rules of practical wisdom as valid for
his day as for ours. The revelation of the Old Testament was not
complete, like that which we now possess; but it was sufficient for the
salvation of every sincere inquirer after truth. When the rich man in
hell besought Abraham that Lazarus might be sent to warn his five
brethren on the ground that, if one went to them from the dead they
would repent, Abraham answered: "If they hear not Moses and the
prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rose from the dead."

7. There is another practical error against which Christians of the
present day need to be warned. It is the idea that the full revelation
of the New Testament supersedes in a great measure the necessity of
studying the previous revelation contained in the Old Testament. Few
will openly avow this, but too many inwardly cherish the delusion in a
vague and undefined form; and it exerts a pernicious in