However, it is well to see that God confers a signal honor upon us when he thus tests our hearts. We never read that "the Lord did tempt Lot." No; Sodom tempted Lot. He never reached a sufficiently high elevation to warrant his being tried by the hand of Jehovah. It was too plainly manifest that there was plenty between his heart and the Lord, and it did not, therefore, require the furnace to bring that out. Sodom would have held out no temptation whatever to Abraham. This was made manifest in his interview with Sodom's king, in Chapter xiv. God knew well that Abraham loved him far better than Sodom; but he would make it manifest that he loved him better than any one or any thing, by laying his hand upon the nearest and dearest object. "Take now thy son, thine only son, Isaac." Yes, Isaac, the child of promise; Isaac, the object of long-deferred hope, the object of parental love, and the one in whom all the kindreds of the earth were to be blessed. This Isaac must be offered as a burnt-offering. This, surely, was putting faith to the test, in order that, being more precious than gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, it might be found unto praise, and honor, and glory. Had Abraham's whole soul not been stayed simply on the Lord, he never could have yielded unhesitating obedience to such a searching command. But God himself was the living and abiding support of his heart, and therefore he was prepared to give up all for him. The soul that has found _all_ its springs in God, can, without any demur, retire from _all_ creature streams. We can give up the creature, just in proportion as we have found out, or become experimentally acquainted with the Creator, and no further. To attempt to give up the visible things in any other way, save in the energy of that faith which lays hold of the invisible, is the most fruitless labor possible. It cannot be done. I will hold fast my Isaac until I have found my all in God. It is when we are enabled by faith, to say "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble," that we can also add, "therefore will we not fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea." (Ps. xlvi. 1, 2.)