Chapter 18

THE LEGACY OF HOLINESS

'after the death of Abraham, . . . God blessed his son Isaac' (Gen. xxv. 11).

We must die! We feel that we must live, must live for the sake of our sons, for the people of God whom we love as our own souls, and for the perishing sinners about us. We are prone to magnify our own importance, to think no one's faith is so mighty, no one's industry is quite so fruitful, no one's love quite so unfailing, no one's presence quite so necessary as ours. But after we die the blessed God will still live, His years fail not, and He will bless our sons and carry on His Work. Glory to God!

Have faith in God, brother! Trust the Lord, sister! He will bless your children after you are dead.

Be sure you have given your children to God -- given them not in order that they may be saved from hell, but that they may be saved from sin, from enmity to God, from pride and worldliness and selfishness and unbelief; saved that they may be saviors of others, and God will bless them when you are dead.

Do not choose ease and wealth and worldly power and fame for your children, but rather choose the lowly way of the Cross. Jesus was a Man of Sorrows and acquainted with grief. He was despised and rejected of men. Ask the Lord with all your heart to make your children like their Master, and to lead them in the paths He trod, and when you are dead God will remember your prayers and bless them.

Some years ago I was talking with a young lady whom God marvelously blessed and used in His work. Each of us had lost both of our parents when we were quite young. They were godly parents, who had given us to the Lord, and then, when it seemed we most needed their counsel and discipline, they died. But God took us up and blessed us. As we talked about the past we could see the hand of God, through corrections and faithful Fatherly chastenings, shaping our whole lives, and bringing blessings out of what seemed the greatest calamities, until we were lost in wonder at His wisdom and goodness, and our mouths were filled with praise. 

If our parents could have foreseen how God would tenderly care for us and bless us, how it would have softened their dying pillows!

Ah! there is the secret cause of our trouble that we cannot foresee! The more reason then why we should trust. 'We walk by faith, not by sight,' therefore we should trust. 'God is love,' therefore we should trust. 'Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee: because he trusteth in Thee. Trust ye in the Lord for ever: for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength' (Isa. xxvi. 3-4).

God may have blessed Isaac before the death of Abraham, but I am glad we are told that He blessed him after the death of Abraham. God has a memory; He does not forget. God is faithful; He breaks no promises. God is good; He delights to show mercy and bestow blessings.

Be faithful yourself. God said of Abraham, 'For 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. xviii. 1 9).

Do your part well as you know how. Search the Bible to know what God will have you do, and do it.

Pray for wisdom. 'If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, . . . and it shall be given him.' (Jas. i. 5). God will not upbraid you for your ignorance, if you want to be wise; therefore pray for wisdom.

Pray for patience. If you plant corn, it does not spring up the next morning. It lies in the ground for many days, and dies; but God's eye is upon it, and He will bless it, and cause it to bring forth fruit. And so will it be with your seed-sowing in the hearts of your children; but you must have patience. Pray for patience. If you are patient and have faith in God, and are not walking by sight, you will continue to pray in hope, and to sow 'the seed which is the word of God,' though it seems to be utterly useless. It is not useless. Glory to God! Though you may die, yet after you are dead, God will bless your Isaacs. He surely will!