In many respects this covenant made Abraham and his posterity a peculiar people, discriminating broadly between them and every other nation, and accumulating the blessings of God upon them in no stinted measure. It might be apprehended that such exclusiveness would beget bigotry, national pride and self-righteousness; but, with wisest forethought, the Lord put into this covenant one counteracting element of great power, viz. that _he ordained them to be a blessing to all the nations of the earth_. “In thee and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed.” It was never the thought of God that the Hebrew people should live to themselves and for themselves――should garner their own store-house full of heavenly blessings and leave all other peoples to shift for themselves as best they might. No; God’s plan contemplated the culture in their souls of the broadest benevolence, and this, pressed into service by a sense of largest responsibility to meet the revealed purposes of God as to their work. Into this great system which made them his peculiar people, he put, openly and clearly, the germinal idea of a salvation to be provided for the wide world――this covenant people to be the almoners of all these blessings to the otherwise benighted and perishing nations. Properly understood and duly regarded, this germinal idea would have developed in their hearts and lives the true missionary spirit, would have given at once both breadth and depth to their piety, would have made them feel that God had great thoughts of mercy for the whole race of man, and had honored them as his ministers in giving this salvation to every creature. At the very least here was opened a thoroughly rich field for prayer, the broadest scope for real sympathy with the benevolence of the Great Father of all the nations and a powerful antidote against the narrow exclusiveness which might otherwise have shrunk and shriveled their piety and narrowed their aspirations to themselves and their land. How often in the heart of the good men of later times――the men like Moses, Samuel, David, Isaiah,――must the kindling thought have been sprung by this great germinal promise――_When shall these things be?_ When shall the full fruitage of these great promises be realized? What have we to do to hasten the coming of that sublime consummation? * * * * * It remains to speak more definitely of the promises made to Abraham _as including the great Messiah_. In this as in most other Messianic prophecies, the argument is threefold; (1) The language obviously _admits_ the Messiah, _i. e._ may be construed without violence to apply to him, or at least to _include_ him: (2) Its meaning is so broad that it _must_ include him; the blessings are too great to be supposed possible without him――apart from him: and (3) The inspired writers of the New Testament found the Messiah in this prophecy.