But Sarai bare him no children; and that she might help heaven fulfill its promise, she forsook the divine law of marriage, and gave to Abraham her handmaid, Hagar, to be his wife. Would that man could grasp at least the beginnings of the possibilities of God! Untold suffering was the out-growth of that one step of unbelief. Not one, not two people, but generations then unborn, had their destinies marred by this lack of faith. Hagar, sitting over against her dying child, and weeping because of the bitterness of her fate, is a constant portrayal of an attempt to live by sight.[17] Again, the approach of the angel and the rescue of the child records in burning characters the longing of Him who pities our blindness, and awards us far above what we can ask or think. [Sidenote: Birth of Isaac] Ninety-nine years passed over the patriarch’s head, and still the voice of heaven’s messenger was greeted with a laugh when the promise was repeated. Sarah turned within the tent door when the angel guest, whom they had fed, repeated to Abraham the promise concerning his wife. But she bare to Abraham a son whom God named Isaac, in whom the nations of the earth were blessed. Joy untold filled the heart of the mother and father as they beheld the babe. This was the joy of sight. Twenty-five years before, the thing was just as true, and Abraham might lawfully have worked upon the basis of its truth; but the stubborn human heart requires many lessons. Twenty-five years after this, the strength of Abraham’s faith was tested at the altar of sacrifice. Leaving home early one morning, he carried fire, laid wood upon the young man’s shoulders, and journeyed toward Mount Moriah. “Behold the fire and the wood; but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” asked the son. “God will provide himself a lamb,” answered the man who had at last learned to believe God. It is but the simple story of an ancient patriarch; but the word of God bears record that “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness.” And “if _ye_ be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed and heirs according to the promise.” Herein lies the value of this lesson to us. We are his heirs if we link ourselves to the power of the Infinite by that cord of faith. Only by a life and an education such as his can the kingdom of Christ be set up within. Such lessons made Abraham a successful teacher. [Sidenote: Abraham’s school] Those who wished to worship the true God gathered about the tents of Abraham, and became pupils in his school. God’s word was the basis of all instruction, as it is written, “These are the commandments, ... which the Lord your God commanded to teach you, that ye might do them in the land whither ye go to possess it.”