bright and perfect that it is represented as the foundation of religion
itself, without which it is impossible to please God, and with which one
is assured of divine favor, with its attendant blessings. If I were to
analyze it, I should say that it is a perfect trust in God, allied with
obedience to his commands.

With this sentiment as the supreme rule of life, Abraham is always
prepared to go wherever the way is indicated. He has no doubts, no
questionings, no scepticism. He simply adores the Lord Almighty, as the
object of his supreme worship, and is ready to obey His commands,
whether he can comprehend the reason of them or not. He needs no
arguments to confirm his trust or stimulate his obedience. And this is
faith,--an ultimate principle that no reasonings can shake or
strengthen. This faith, so sublime and elevated, needs no confirmation,
and is not made more intelligent by any definitions. If the _Cogito,
ergo sum_, is an elemental and ultimate principle of philosophy, so the
faith of Abraham is the fundamental basis of all religion, which is
weakened rather than strengthened by attempts to define it. All
definitions of an ultimate principle are vain, since everybody
understands what is meant by it.

No truly immortal man, no great benefactor, can go through life without
trials and temptations, either to test his faith or to establish his
integrity. Even Jesus Christ himself was subjected for forty days to
the snares of the Devil. Abram was no exception to this moral
discipline. He had two great trials to pass through before he could earn
the title of "father of the faithful,"--first, in reference to the
promise that he should have legitimate children; and secondly, in
reference to the sacrifice of Isaac.

As to the first, it seemed impossible that Abram should have issue
through his wife Sarah, she being ninety years of age, and he
ninety-nine or one hundred. The very idea of so strange a thing caused
Sarah to laugh incredulously, and it is recorded in the seventeenth
chapter of Genesis that Abram also fell on his face and laughed, saying
in his heart, "Shall a son be born unto him that is one hundred years
old?" Evidently he at first received the promise with some incredulity.
He could leave Ur of the Chaldees by divine command,--this was an act of
obedience; but he did not fully believe in what seemed to be against
natural law, which would be a sort of faith without evidence, blind,
against reason. He requ