So with us--our ignorance of future is meant to have the effect of keeping us near God and training us to live a day at a time. God's finger on the page points to a word at a time. Each day's route is given morning by morning in the order for the day. 2. _Obedience often brings us into very difficult places._ Abram was ready to say, no doubt, 'This cannot be the land for me, peopled as it is with all these Canaanites.' We are ever ready to think that, if we find obstacles, we must have misunderstood God's directions, but 'many adversaries' often indicate an 'open door.' 3. _The presence of enemies brings the presence of God._ This is the first time we read that God _appeared_ to men. As the darkness thickens, the pillar of fire brightens. But not only does God appear more clearly, but our spirits are more eager and therefore able to see Him. We are mercifully left to feel the enemies before we see Him present in His strength. 4. _The victory for us lies in the vision of God and of His loving purpose._ How superb the confidence of 'Unto thy seed will I give _this_ land.' That vision is our true strength. And it will make us feel as pilgrims, which is in itself more than half the battle. LIFE IN CANAAN 'And he removed from thence unto a mountain on the east of Beth-el, and pitched his tent, having Beth-el on the west, and Hai on the east: and there he builded an altar unto the Lord, and called upon the name of the Lord.' GENESIS xii. 3. These are the two first acts of Abram in the land of Canaan. 1. _All life should blend earthly and heavenly._ They are not to be separated. Religion should run through everything and take the whole of life for its field. Where we cannot carry it is no place for us. It is a shame that heathenism should be more penetrated by its religion than Christendom is. 2. _The family should be a church._ Domestic religion. New Testament households. Abram a priest. The decay of family religion, worship, and instruction. 3. _The service to God should be more costly than to ourselves._ Pitching a tent cheaper than building an altar. Give God the best. We build ourselves ceiled houses and the ark dwells in curtains. Pagans build elaborate temples, but their houses are hovels. Too many Christians do the opposite. 4. _Building for God lasts, for selves perishes._ A tent is stricken, and no trace remains but embers. The stones of Jacob's altar may be standing yet. The Parthenon of Athens remains: where are the hovels of the people? 'He that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.' Permanent results of transitory deeds. THE IMPORTANCE OF A CHOICE