broad, deep, rapid river was a different thing, and meant an
irrevocable cutting loose from the past life. Only the man of faith
did that. There are plenty of half-and-half Christians, who go along
merrily from Ur to Haran; but when they see the wide stream in
front, and realise how completely the other side is separated from
all that is familiar, they take another thought, and conclude they
have come far enough, and Haran will serve their turn.

Again, the phrase teaches us the certain issue of patient pilgrimage
and persistent purpose. There is no mystery in getting to the
journey's end. 'One foot up, and the other foot down,' continued
long enough, will bring to the goal of the longest march. It looks a
weary journey, and we wonder if we shall ever get thither. But the
magic of 'one step at a time' does it. The guide is also the
upholder of our way. 'Every one of them appeareth before God in
Zion.'

3. The life in the land.--The first characteristic of it is its
continual wandering. This is the feature which the Epistle to the
Hebrews marks as significant. There was no reason but his own choice
why Abram should continue to journey, and prefer to pitch his tent
now under the terebinth tree of Moreh, now by Hebron, rather than to
enter some of the cities of the land. He dwelt in tents because he
looked for the city. The clear vision of the future detached him, as
it will always detach men, from close participation in the present.
It is not because we are mortal, and death is near at the furthest,
that the Christian is to sit loose to this world, but because he
lives by the hope of the inheritance. He must choose to be a
pilgrim, and keep himself apart in feeling and aims from this
present. The great lesson from the wandering life of Abram is, 'Set