“Look unto Abraham your father, and unto Sarah that bare you.” Isaiah li. 1, 2. WE have been reading for several Sundays in church the history of the Patriarchs. The words of the Prophet which I have taken for my text give us the key to that history. We all know the value of the graces and gifts we derive from our families. Who is there that does not recognise in himself or in those about him what has come to him and them from father, mother—nay, it may even be grandfather or great-grandfather, uncle and aunt—or what may be breathed again into him by brother, sister, cousin. These, if anything in the world, are gifts to us from without. These, if anything, are gifts from God. What we drink in, as we say, with our mother’s milk our mother’s tongue, our mother’s faith and prayers, it may be, our mother’s character; what we have had impressed upon us of our father’s spirit, of our “fatherland,” of our father’s blood—the innocent joys, the tragical sorrows of home and household;—these are the materials out of which our souls and spirits are fashioned. We may have our own personal character besides, but without these our characters would not be what they are. [Picture: View of Harbour from the upper Church-yard, 1822] Now, what is thus true of the family in respect of individuals, is true of races of men in respect both of nations and individuals; and this is one lesson which those early chapters in the Book of Genesis impress upon us. They tell us of the family. But, over and above this, they tell us of the race; they tell us of the immense importance to the Israelites, and through them to us, of the fact that they sprang from no ignoble or commonplace nation, but from those whom God had specially selected for His work on earth—from the tribe of Jacob, from the seed of Abraham, from the race of Shem. This is the true “predestination” of God’s counsels; this is the true “election” of the chosen vessels. Race and nationality, as well as family, are the precious gifts of God, to be used and recognised and taken account of as amongst the mighty moving powers of the world. If we wish to see what work we or others are called to do, we must not forget to look back to the ancient rock from whence we are hewn, and the deep pit from whence we are digged.