(1.) To utilize all the best elements of the family relation, turning to fullest account parental care and affection and the facilities furnished by nature to parents for the training and culture of their offspring. The germinal idea of this great family covenant lies in the promise, so often reiterated――“I will be a God to thee and to thy seed after thee” (Gen. 17: 7, 10, 19). A marvellous wealth of significance lies in these brief words; for what can be more rich and all-embracing than this――“I will be a God to thee”――thy God; all that a God can become to man made in his image; his loving Friend, his “Shield and exceeding great reward”; his hope and joy and trust; and to crown all, his glorious salvation! Surely this cup of blessings is rich and full enough to meet the largest wants of any individual human heart. But when man becomes a father――when woman becomes a mother――a new love is born in the soul and new wants are thence begotten, for the parental heart instinctively cries out as the heart of Abraham did――“O that Ishmael might live before thee”! Even so――responds the great parental heart of God――I know the heart of a parent; therefore I said “I will be a God to thee _and to thy seed after thee_”; not to thee alone but to thee, and also, not less, to thy beloved offspring besides. * * * * * The _one comprehensive condition_ for the fulfillment of this great promise is briefly indicated in the case of Abraham, of whom God said――“I know him that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord to do justice and judgment; that the Lord may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him” (Gen. 18: 19). The Lord knew that Abraham would fulfill the conditions so conscientiously and well that he could fulfill his promise. The conditions are thus incidentally brought out――viz. parental fidelity and authority; the early culture and training of his household; consecration, the prayer and the faith which are legitimately begotten of this covenant and naturally correlated to it;――these are obviously the fitting conditions upon which the fulfillment of this covenant on God’s part must depend.――――But, O, the wealth of blessings garnered up within its bosom for those who walk in the steps of Abraham with like precious faith and like godly nurture! How wonderfully does piety become self-perpetuating in the family line from generation to generation of those who take this covenant to their inmost heart and find God in it ever faithful and ever true and evermore “mighty to save” as he hath said!