The point of interest is her being, notwithstanding her previous position and history, one of the few instances in which heathen were brought into Israel. The _Epistle to the Hebrews_ and _James_ both refer to her. We now consider her story as embodying for us some important truths about faith in its nature, its origin, its power. I. Faith in its constant essence and its varying objects. Her creed was very short and simple. She abjured idols, and believed that Jehovah was the one God. She knew nothing of even the Mosaic revelation, nothing of its moral law or of its sacrifices. And yet the _Epistle to the Hebrews_ has no scruple in ascribing faith to her. The object of that Epistle is to show that Christianity is Judaism perfected. It labours to establish that objectively there has been advance, not contradiction, and that subjectively there is absolute identity. It has always been faith that has bound men to God. That faith may co-exist with very different degrees of illumination. Not the creed, but the trust, is the all-important matter. This applies to all pre-Christian times and to all heathen lands. _Our_ faith has a fuller gospel to lay hold of. Do not neglect it. Beware lest people with less light and more love get in before you, 'who shall come from the east and the west.' II. Faith in its origin in fear. There are many roads to faith, and it matters little which we take, so long as we get to the goal. This is one, and some people seem to think that it is a very low and unworthy one, and one which we should never urge upon men. But there are a side of the divine nature and a mode of the divine government which properly evoke fear. God's moral government, His justice and retribution, are facts. Fear is an inevitable and natural consequence of feeling that His justice is antagonistic to us. The work of conscience is precisely to create such fear. Not to feel it is to fall below manhood or to be hardened by sin. That fear is meant to lead us to God and love. Rahab fled to God. Peter 'girt his fisher's coat to him,' and lost his fear in the sunshine of Christ's face, as a rainbow trembles out of a thunder-cloud when touched by sunbeams. We have all grounds enough to _fear_. Urge these as a reason for _trust_. III. Faith in its relation to the previous life. It is a strange instance of blindness that attempts have been made to soften down the Bible's plain speaking about Rahab's character. In her story we have an anticipation of New Testament teaching. The 'woman that was a sinner.' Mary Magdalene. 'Then drew near all the publicans and sinners for to hear Him.' She shows us that there is no hopeless guilt. None is so in regard to the effects of sin on a soul. There is no heart so indurated as that its capacity for being stirred by the divine message is killed. There is none hopeless in regard to God. His love embraces all, however bad. The bond which unites to Him is not blamelessness of life but simple trust.