The Children For Christ by Andrew Murray

often unconsciously bow to the stronger will, and makes it happy in
doing so.
The blessing of such parental faithfulness is sure and large. God says:
‘That the Lord may bring upon Abraham that which He hath spoken
concerning him.’ It was in the way of a godly education that the
blessings of the covenant were to come true. God’s faithfulness and
man’s in the covenant are linked by indissoluble ties. If Abraham was to
be blessed, and his seed with him, and all nations again in his seed, it
was only thus — he must, as a faithful parent, pass on to others what he
knew himself of God. It is only as the children become partakers of the
parent’s spirit that they can share his blessing. The child is to be
identified with the parent, not merely in an imputation in which God
looks on it for the parent’s sake, but in a similarity of disposition and
conduct; so, and not otherwise, would God bring upon Abraham what
He had spoken. As it is written: `Thou seest that faith wrought with his
works, and by works was faith made perfect, and he was called the
friend of God.’ In a way that passes all comprehension, but that fills us
with adoring wonder at the place given to His servants in the fulfilling
of His counsel, the faithfulness of God and man, each in his
performance of the covenant obligation, are inseparably and eternally
interwoven.
The solemn responsibility may well make us tremble. But God’s word
meets us with Divine comfort. The power is provided in the purpose of
God. The words of the text are most remarkable: `I have known
Abraham, to the end that he may command his children and his home.’
It was with this very purpose that God had chosen him and revealed
Himself; God Himself was the security that His own purposes should be
carried out. It was because God had known, and he truly known God,
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