_The Abrahamic Gospel_-- +I. Recognised the principle that righteousness is only by faith.+--"Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness" (ver. 6). The promise to Abraham contained the germ of the Gospel and was the only Gospel known to pre-Christian times. Though dimly apprehending its vast import, Abraham trusted in God's Messianic promise, and his unfaltering faith, often severely tried, was in the judgment of the gracious God imputed to him as rectitude. "In this mode of salvation there was after all nothing new. The righteousness of faith is more ancient than legalism. It is as old as Abraham. In the hoary patriarchal days as now, in the time of promise as of fulfilment, faith is the root of religion; grace invites, righteousness waits upon the hearing of faith." +II. Was universal in its spiritual provisions.+--"The Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed" (ver. 8). Twice is Abraham designated "the friend of God." The Arabs still call him _the friend._ His image has impressed itself with singular force on the Oriental mind. He is the noblest figure of the Old Testament, surpassing Isaac in force, Jacob in purity, and both in dignity of character. His religion exhibits a heroic strength and firmness, but at the same time a large-hearted, genial humanity, an elevation and serenity of mind, to which the temper of those who boasted themselves his children was utterly opposed. Father of the Jewish race, Abraham was no Jew. He stands before us in the morning light of revelation a simple, noble, archaic type of man, true father of many nations. And his faith was the secret of the greatness which has commanded for him the reverence of four thousand years. His trust in God made him worthy to receive so immense a trust for the future of mankind (_Findlay_).