God's Representative: Abraham
              Youth’s Instructor--March 4,1897

         Abraham was a bright and shining light. His faith, his piety,
         his devotion, were to keep the knowledge of God alive in the age
         in which he lived. "The Lord had said unto Abram, Get thee out
         of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's
         house, unto a land that I will show thee: and I will make of
         thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name
         great: and thou shalt be a blessing." Abraham would have greater
         influence with strangers than with those who were connected with
         him. He was therefore required to leave his kindred, and the
         Lord's promise to him was, "I will bless them that bless thee,
         and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families
         of the earth be blessed."

         Abraham obeyed the voice of God. No sooner did he have an
         indication of God's will than he was ready to obey. He did not
         stop to consider whether it would be for his financial advantage
         to do this. In faith, putting his confidence in the guidance of
         God, he left his home and his kindred, and "went out, not
         knowing whither he went."

         Abraham's unselfish life made him indeed a "spectacle unto the
         world, and to angels, and to men." And the Lord declared he
         would bless those who blessed Abraham, and that he would punish
         those who misused or injured him. Through Abraham's experience
         in his religious life a correct knowledge of Jehovah has been
         communicated to thousands; and his light will shed its beams all
         along the path of those who practise the piety, the faith, the
         devotion, and the obedience of Abraham.

         Abraham had a knowledge of Christ; for the Lord had enlightened
         him in regard to the world's Redeemer. And he made known to his
         household and his children that the sacrificial offerings
         prefigured Christ, the Lamb of God, who was to be slain for the
         sins of the world. Thus he gathered converts to believe in the
         only true and living God.

         As Abraham and other holy men of old were a light in their
         generation, so must God's people be a light in the world. The
         beams of heaven's attractive loveliness are to shine forth from
         us, showing the only good and right way, and ever showing the
         superiority of God's law above every human enactment. Bible
         religion is not to be hidden away in the dark. It delights to be
         examined. Every additional ray of light that shines upon our
         pathway is, in God's plan, a fresh element of strength, an added
         power by which to draw the world to God.
                                                                                         Mrs. E. G. White.



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