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A | Faith in connection with DEATH.--Abel and Enoch.
B | Faith in connection with INHERITANCE.--Noah and Abraham.
C | Faith in connection with PILGRIMAGE.--Isaac and Jacob.
D | Faith in connection with RESURRECTION.--Sarah and Abraham.
C | Faith in connection with BLESSING.--Isaac and Jacob.
B | Faith in connection with EGYPT.--Joseph and Moses.
A | Faith in connection with DELIVERANCE.--Israel and Rahab.
The diagram is based upon the fact that if a glass prism be placed before a light, it has
the power of splitting up that light into its constituent colours, as seen in the rainbow.
The suggestion is that faith in its perfectness is seen in but one Person, the Lord Jesus
Christ, but we may appreciate that perfect faith better if we can see it analyzed for us in
Heb. 11:
---Illustration---
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#59.
Faith, and the better thing (11: 32-40).
pp. 75 - 79
We have now passed in review the fourteen great witnesses to faith that is the
substance of things hoped for. We have seen faith in many aspects leading men and
women in many ways, but ever resting upon the Word of God. Each example named has
been associated with some particular aspect of faith. Before the apostle concludes, he
enumerates yet another series of seven, but this time attaches no particular example of
faith to any one of them:--
"And what shall I more say? for the time would fail me to tell of Gideon, and of
Barak, and of Samson, and of Jephthae; of David also, and Samuel, and of the prophets"
(Heb. 11: 32).
It seems that we should honour this abbreviation, and not spend time in examining the
life and doings of Gideon, Samson, and the rest. We shall only be side-tracked from our
theme if we stay to discuss the problem of Jephthae's daughter, and it would take a
volume adequately to deal with the faith of David and the prophets. Nevertheless the
very mention of these names impresses upon the mind the length of the list of witnesses
to faith found in the Word, but we pass on, with the apostle, to consider his own
summary. He gives an impressive list, the first set bring the positive acts of faith, and the
second, faith's endurance. The very tabulation of these acts of faith is solemnizing.