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1
C# 10 Pocket Reference
Instant Help for C# 10 Programmers
With Early Release ebooks, you get books in their earliest form—the author’s raw and unedited
content as they write—so you can take advantage of these technologies long before the oﬃcial release
of these titles.
Joseph Albahari and Ben Albahari

2
by Joseph Albahari and Ben Albahari
Copyright © 2022 Joseph Albahari and Ben Albahari. All rights reserved.
Printed in the United States of America.
Published by O’Reilly Media, Inc., 1005 Gravenstein Highway North, Sebastopol, CA 95472.
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January 2022: First Edition
Revision History for the Early Release
2021-12-07: First Release
See https://oreil.ly/c10prERR for release details.
e O’Reilly logo is a registered trademark of O’Reilly Media, Inc. C# 10 Pocket Reference, the
cover image, and related trade dress are trademarks of O’Reilly Media, Inc.
e views expressed in this work are those of the authors, and do not represent the publisher’s
views. While the publisher and the authors have used good faith eﬀorts to ensure that the
information and instructions contained in this work are accurate, the publisher and the authors
disclaim all responsibility for errors or omissions, including without limitation responsibility for
damages resulting from the use of or reliance on this work. Use of the information and instructions
contained in this work is at your own risk. If any code samples or other technology this work
contains or describes is subject to open source licenses or the intellectual property rights of others,
it is your responsibility to ensure that your use thereof complies with such licenses and/or rights.
978-1-098-12204-1
[LSI]

3
C# is a general-purpose, type-safe, primarily object-oriented programming language, the goal of
which is programmer productivity. To this end, the language balances simplicity, expressiveness,
and performance. C# 10 is designed to work with the Microso .NET 6 runtime (whereas C# 9
targets .NET 5, C# 8 targets .NET Core 3, and C# 7 targets .NET Core 2 and Microso .NET
Framework 4.6/4.7/4.8).
NOTE
e programs and code snippets in this book mirror those in Chapters 2 through 4 of C# 10 in a Nutshell
and are all available as interactive samples in LINQPad. Working through these samples in conjunction
with the book accelerates learning in that you can edit the samples and instantly see the results without
needing to set up projects and solutions in Visual Studio.
To download the samples, click the Samples tab in LINQPad and then click “Download more samples.”
LINQPad is free—go to www.linqpad.net.
A First C# Program
Following is a program that multiplies 12 by 30 and prints the result, 360, to the screen. e double
forward slash indicates that the remainder of a line is a comment:
int x = 12 * 30; // Statement 1
System.Console.WriteLine (x); // Statement 2
Our program consists of two statements. Statements in C# execute sequentially and are terminated
by a semicolon. e ﬁrst statement computes the expression 12 * 30 and stores the result in a
variable, named x, whose type is a 32-bit integer (int). e second statement calls the WriteLine
method on a class called Console, which is deﬁned in a namespace called System. is prints the
variable x to a text window on the screen.
A method performs a function; a class groups function members and data members to form an
object-oriented building block. e Console class groups members that handle command-line
input/output (I/O) functionality, such as the WriteLine method. A class is a kind of type, which we
examine in “Type Basics.”
At the outermost level, types are organized into namespaces. Many commonly used types—
including the Console class—reside in the System namespace. e .NET libraries are organized
into nested namespaces. For example, the System.Text namespace contains types for handling text,
and System.IO contains types for input/output.
Qualifying the Console class with the System namespace on every use adds clutter. e using
directive lets you avoid this clutter by importing a namespace:

4
using System; // Import the System namespace
int x = 12 * 30;
Console.WriteLine (x); // No need to specify System
A basic form of code reuse is to write higher-level functions that call lower-level functions. We can
refactor our program with a reusable method called FeetToInches that multiplies an integer by 12,
as follows:
using System;
Console.WriteLine (FeetToInches (30)); // 360
Console.WriteLine (FeetToInches (100)); // 1200
int FeetToInches (int feet)
{
int inches = feet * 12;
return inches;
}
Our method contains a series of statements surrounded by a pair of braces. is is called a
statement block.
A method can receive input data from the caller by specifying parameters and output data back to
the caller by specifying a return type. Our FeetToInches method has a parameter for inputting feet,
and a return type for outputting inches:
int FeetToInches (int feet)
...
e literals 30 and 100 are the arguments passed to the FeetToInches method.
If a method doesn’t receive input, use empty parentheses. If it doesn’t return anything, use the void
keyword:
using System;
SayHello();
void SayHello()
{
Console.WriteLine ("Hello, world");
}
Methods are one of several kinds of functions in C#. Another kind of function we used in our
example program was the * operator, which performs multiplication. ere are also constructors,
properties, events, indexers, and ﬁnalizers.
Compilation

5
e C# compiler compiles source code (a set of files with the .cs extension) into an assembly. An
assembly is the unit of packaging and deployment in .NET. An assembly can be either an
application or a library. A normal console or Windows application has an entry point, whereas a
library does not. e purpose of a library is to be called upon (referenced) by an application or by
other libraries. .NET itself is a set of libraries (as well as a runtime environment).
Each of the programs in the preceding section began directly with a series of statements (called
top-level statements). e presence of top-level statements implicitly creates an entry point for a
console or Windows application. (Without top-level statements, a Main method denotes an
application’s entry point—see “Symmetry of predefined types and custom types”.)
To invoke the compiler, you can either use an integrated development environment (IDE) such as
Visual Studio or Visual Studio Code, or call it manually from the command line. To manually
compile a console application with .NET, first download the .NET 6 SDK, and then create a new
project, as follows:
dotnet new console -o MyFirstProgram
cd MyFirstProgram
is creates a folder called MyFirstProgram, which contains a C# file called Program.cs, which you
can then edit. To invoke the compiler, call dotnet build (or dotnet run, which will compile and then
run the program). e output will be written to a subdirectory under bindebug, which will include
MyFirstProgram.dll (the output assembly) as well as MyFirstProgram.exe (which runs the
compiled program directly).
Syntax
C# syntax is inspired by C and C++ syntax. In this section, we describe C#’s elements of syntax,
using the following program:
using System;
int x = 12 * 30;
Console.WriteLine (x);
Identifiers and Keywords
Identifiers are names that programmers choose for their classes, methods, variables, and so on.
Here are the identifiers in our example program, in the order in which they appear:
System x Console WriteLine
An identifier must be a whole word, essentially made up of Unicode characters starting with a
letter or underscore. C# identifiers are case sensitive. By convention, parameters, local variables,
and private fields should be in camel case (e.g., myVariable), and all other identifiers should be in
Pascal case (e.g., MyMethod).
Keywords are names that mean something special to the compiler. ese are two keywords in our
example program, using and int.

6
Most keywords are reserved, which means that you can’t use them as identifiers. Here is the full list
of C# reserved keywords:
abstract
as
base
bool
break
byte
case
catch
char
checked
class
const
continue
decimal
default
delegate
do
double
else
enum
event
explicit
extern
false
finally
fixed
float
for
foreach
goto
if
implicit
in
int
interface
internal
is
lock
long
namespace
new
null
object
operator
out
override
params
private
protected
public
readonly
record
ref
return
sbyte
sealed
short
sizeof
stackalloc
static
string
struct
switch
this
throw
true
try
typeof
uint
ulong
unchecked
unsafe
ushort
using
virtual
void
volatile
while
Avoiding conflicts
If you really want to use an identifier that clashes with a reserved keyword, you can do so by
qualifying it with the @ prefix. For instance:
class class {...} // Illegal
class @class {...} // Legal
e @ symbol doesn’t form part of the identifier itself. So @myVariable is the same as myVariable.
Contextual keywords
Some keywords are contextual, meaning they can also be used as identifiers—without an @
symbol. e contextual keywords are as follows:
add
alias
and
ascending
async
await
by
descending
dynamic
equals
from
get
global
group
init
into
join
let
managed
nameof
nint
not
notnull
nuint
on
or
orderby
partial
remove
select
set
unmanaged
value
var
with
when
where
yield
With contextual keywords, ambiguity cannot arise within the context in which they are used.

7
Literals, Punctuators, and Operators
Literals are primitive pieces of data lexically embedded into the program. e literals we used in
our example program are 12 and 30. Punctuators help demarcate the structure of the program. An
example is the semicolon, which terminates a statement. Statements can wrap multiple lines:
Console.WriteLine
(1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 + 6 + 7 + 8 + 9 + 10);
An operator transforms and combines expressions. Most operators in C# are denoted with a
symbol, such as the multiplication operator, *. Here are the operators in our program:
= * . ()
A period denotes a member of something (or a decimal point with numeric literals). Parentheses
are used when declaring or calling a method; empty parentheses are used when the method accepts
no arguments. e equals sign performs assignment (the double equals sign, ==, performs equality
comparison).
Comments
C# offers two different styles of source code documentation: single-line comments and multiline
comments. A single-line comment begins with a double forward slash and continues until the end
of the line. For example:
int x = 3; // Comment about assigning 3 to x
A multiline comment begins with /* and ends with */. For example:
int x = 3; /* is is a comment that
spans two lines */
Comments can embed XML documentation tags (see “XML Documentation”).
Type Basics
A type defines the blueprint for a value. In our example, we used two literals of type int with values
12 and 30. We also declared a variable of type int whose name was x.
A variable denotes a storage location that can contain different values over time. In contrast, a
constant always represents the same value (more on this later).
All values in C# are an instance of a specific type. e meaning of a value, and the set of possible
values a variable can have, is determined by its type.
Predefined Type Examples

8
Predefined types (also called built-in types) are types that are specially supported by the compiler.
e int type is a predefined type for representing the set of integers that fit into 32 bits of memory,
from −231 to 231−1. We can perform functions such as arithmetic with instances of the int type as
follows:
int x = 12 * 30;
Another predefined C# type is string. e string type represents a sequence of characters, such as
“.NET” or “http://oreilly.com”. We can work with strings by calling functions on them, as follows:
string message = "Hello world";
string upperMessage = message.ToUpper();
Console.WriteLine (upperMessage); // HELLO WORLD
int x = 2022;
message = message + x.ToString();
Console.WriteLine (message); // Hello world2022
e predefined bool type has exactly two possible values: true and false. e bool type is
commonly used to conditionally branch execution flow with an if statement. For example:
bool simpleVar = false;
if (simpleVar)
Console.WriteLine ("is will not print");
int x = 5000;
bool lessanAMile = x < 5280;
if (lessanAMile)
Console.WriteLine ("is will print");
e System namespace in .NET contains many important types that are not predefined by C# (e.g.,
DateTime).
Custom Type Examples
Just as you can build complex functions from simple functions, you can build complex types from
primitive types. In this example, we will define a custom type named UnitConverter—a class that
serves as a blueprint for unit conversions:
UnitConverter feetToInches = new UnitConverter (12);
UnitConverter milesToFeet = new UnitConverter (5280);
Console.WriteLine (feetToInches.Convert(30)); // 360
Console.WriteLine (feetToInches.Convert(100)); // 1200
Console.WriteLine (feetToInches.Convert
(milesToFeet.Convert(1))); // 63360
public class UnitConverter

9
{
int ratio; // Field
public UnitConverter (int unitRatio) // Constructor
{
ratio = unitRatio;
}
public int Convert (int unit) // Method
{
return unit * ratio;
}
}
Members of a type
A type contains data members and function members. e data member of UnitConverter is the
field called ratio. e function members of UnitConverter are the Convert method and the
UnitConverter’s constructor.
Symmetry of predefined types and custom types
A beautiful aspect of C# is that predefined types and custom types have few differences. e
predefined int type serves as a blueprint for integers. It holds data—32 bits—and provides function
members that use that data, such as ToString. Similarly, our custom UnitConverter type acts as a
blueprint for unit conversions. It holds data—the ratio—and provides function members to use
that data.
Constructors and instantiation
Data is created by instantiating a type. You can instantiate predefined types simply by using a literal
such as 12 or "Hello world".
e new operator creates instances of a custom type. We started our program by creating two
instances of the UnitConverter type. Immediately aer the new operator instantiates an object, the
object’s constructor is called to perform initialization. A constructor is defined like a method,
except that the method name and return type are reduced to the name of the enclosing type:
public UnitConverter (int unitRatio) // Constructor
{
ratio = unitRatio;
}
Instance versus static members
e data members and function members that operate on the instance of the type are called
instance members. UnitConverter’s Convert method and int’s ToString method are examples of
instance members. By default, members are instance members.
Data members and function members that don’t operate on the instance of the type can be marked
as static. To refer to a static member from outside its type, you specify its type name rather than an
instance. An example is the WriteLine method of the Console class. Because this is static, we call
Console.WriteLine() and not new Console().WriteLine().

10
In the following code, the instance field Name pertains to an instance of a particular Panda,
whereas Population pertains to the set of all Panda instances. We create two instances of the Panda,
print their names, and then print the total population:
Panda p1 = new Panda ("Pan Dee");
Panda p2 = new Panda ("Pan Dah");
Console.WriteLine (p1.Name); // Pan Dee
Console.WriteLine (p2.Name); // Pan Dah
Console.WriteLine (Panda.Population); // 2
public class Panda
{
public string Name; // Instance field
public static int Population; // Static field
public Panda (string n) // Constructor
{
Name = n; // Instance field
Population = Population + 1; // Static field
}
}
Attempting to evaluate p1.Population or Panda.Name will generate a compile-time error.
The public keyword
e public keyword exposes members to other classes. In this example, if the Name field in Panda
was not marked as public, it would be private and could not be accessed from outside the class.
Marking a member public is how a type communicates: “Here is what I want other types to see—
everything else is my own private implementation details.” In object-oriented terms, we say that the
public members encapsulate the private members of the class.
Creating a namespace
Particularly with larger programs, it makes sense to organize types into namespaces. Here’s how to
define the Panda class inside a namespace called Animals:
namespace Animals
{
public class Panda
{
...
}
}
We cover namespaces in detail in “Namespaces.”
Defining a Main method

11
All of our examples so far have used top-level statements, a feature that was introduced in C# 9.
Without top-level statements, a simple console or Windows application looks like this:
using System;
class Program
{
static void Main() // Program entry point
{
int x = 12 * 30;
Console.WriteLine (x);
}
}
In the absence of top-level statements, C# looks for a static method called Main, which becomes
the entry point. e Main method can be defined inside any class (and only one Main method can
exist). Should your Main method need to access private members of a particular class, defining a
Main method inside that class can be simpler than using top-level statements.
e Main method can optionally return an integer (rather than void) in order to return a value to
the execution environment (where a nonzero value typically indicates an error). e Main method
can also optionally accept an array of strings as a parameter (that will be populated with any
arguments passed to the executable); for example:
static int Main (string[] args) {...}
NOTE
An array (such as string[]) represents a fixed number of elements of a particular type. Arrays are
specified by placing square brackets aer the element type. We describe them in “Arrays.”
(e Main method can also be declared async and return a Task or Task<int> in support of
asynchronous programming—see “Asynchronous Functions”.)
Top-level statements
Top-level statements (from C# 9) let you avoid the baggage of a static Main method and a
containing class. A file with top-level statements comprises three parts, in this order:
1. (Optionally) using directives
2. A series of statements, optionally mixed with method declarations
3. (Optionally) Type and namespace declarations
Everything in Part 2 ends up inside a compiler-generated “main” method, inside a compiler-
generated class. is means that the methods in your top-level statements become local methods
(we describe the subtleties in “Local Methods”). Top-level statements can optionally return an

12
integer value to the caller, and access a “magic” variable of type string[] called args, corresponding
to command-line arguments passed by the caller.
As a program can have only one entry point, there can be at most one file with top-level statements
in a C# project.
Types and Conversions
C# can convert between instances of compatible types. A conversion always creates a new value
from an existing one. Conversions can be either implicit or explicit: implicit conversions happen
automatically, whereas explicit conversions require a cast. In the following example, we implicitly
convert an int to a long type (which has twice the bit capacity of an int) and explicitly cast an int to
a short type (which has half the bit capacity of an int):
int x = 12345; // int is a 32-bit integer
long y = x; // Implicit conversion to 64-bit int
short z = (short)x; // Explicit conversion to 16-bit int
In general, implicit conversions are allowed when the compiler can guarantee that they will always
succeed without loss of information. Otherwise, you must perform an explicit cast to convert
between compatible types.
Value Types Versus Reference Types
C# types can be divided into value types and reference types.
Value types comprise most built-in types (specifically, all numeric types, the char type, and the
bool type) as well as custom struct and enum types. Reference types comprise all class, array,
delegate, and interface types.
e fundamental difference between value types and reference types is how they are handled in
memory.
Value types
e content of a value type variable or constant is simply a value. For example, the content of the
built-in value type int is 32 bits of data.
You can define a custom value type with the struct keyword (see Figure 1):
public struct Point { public int X, Y; }

13
Figure 1. A value type instance in memory
e assignment of a value type instance always copies the instance. For example:
Point p1 = new Point();
p1.X = 7;
Point p2 = p1; // Assignment causes copy
Console.WriteLine (p1.X); // 7
p1.X = 9; // Change p1.X
Figure 2 shows that p1 and p2 have independent storage.
Figure 2. Assignment copies a value type instance
Reference types
A reference type is more complex than a value type, having two parts: an object and the reference
to that object. e content of a reference type variable or constant is a reference to an object that
contains the value. Here is the Point type from our previous example rewritten as a class (see
Figure 3):
public class Point { public int X, Y; }

14
Figure 3. A reference type instance in memory
Assigning a reference type variable copies the reference, not the object instance. is allows
multiple variables to refer to the same object—something that’s not ordinarily possible with value
types. If we repeat the previous example, but with Point now a class, an operation via p1 aﬀects p2:
Point p1 = new Point();
p1.X = 7;
Point p2 = p1; // Copies p1 reference
p1.X = 9; // Change p1.X
Figure 4 shows that p1 and p2 are two references that point to the same object.

15
Figure 4. Assignment copies a reference
Null
A reference can be assigned the literal null, indicating that the reference points to no object.
Assuming Point is a class:
Point p = null;
Console.WriteLine (p == null); // True
Accessing a member of a null reference generates a runtime error:
Console.WriteLine (p.X); // NullReferenceException
NOTE
In “Nullable Reference Types” we describe a feature of C# that reduces accidental
NullReferenceException errors.
In contrast, a value type cannot ordinarily have a null value:
struct Point {...}
...
Point p = null; // Compile-time error
int x = null; // Compile-time error
To work around this, C# has a special construct for representing value-type nulls—see “Nullable
Value Types”.
Predefined Type Taxonomy

16
e predefined types in C# are:
Value types
Numeric:
— Signed integer (sbyte, short, int, long)
— Unsigned integer (byte, ushort, uint, ulong)
— Real number (float, double, decimal)
Logical (bool)
Character (char)
Reference types
String (string)
Object (object)
Predefined types in C# alias .NET types in the System namespace. ere is only a syntactic
difference between these two statements:
int i = 5;
System.Int32 i = 5;
e set of predefined value types excluding decimal are known as primitive types in the Common
Language Runtime (CLR). Primitive types are so called because they are supported directly via
instructions in compiled code, which usually translates to direct support on the underlying
processor.
Numeric Types
C# has the following predefined numeric types:
C# type System type Suffix Size Range
Integral—signed
sbyte SByte 8 bits –27 to 27–1
short Int16 16 bits –215 to 215–1
int Int32 32 bits –231 to 231–1
long Int64 L 64 bits –263 to 263–1
nint IntPtr 32/64 bits
Integral—unsigned
byte Byte 8 bits 0 to 28–1

17
C# type System type Suffix Size Range
ushort UInt16 16 bits 0 to 216–1
uint UInt32 U 32 bits 0 to 232–1
ulong UInt64 UL 64 bits 0 to 264–1
unint UIntPtr 32/64 bits
Real
float Single F 32 bits ± (~10–45 to 1038)
double Double D 64 bits ± (~10–324 to 10308)
decimal Decimal M 128 bits ± (~10–28 to 1028)
Of the integral types, int and long are first-class citizens and are favored by both C# and the
runtime. e other integral types are typically used for interoperability or when space efficiency is
paramount. e nint and nuint native-sized integer types (introduced in C# 9) are sized to the
match the address space of the process at runtime, and can be useful in helping with pointer
arithmetic. We describe these in detail in Chapter 4 of C# 10 in a Nutshell.
Of the real number types, float and double are called floating-point types and are typically used for
scientific and graphical calculations. e decimal type is typically used for financial calculations,
where base-10-accurate arithmetic and high precision are required. (Technically, decimal is a
floating-point type, too, although it’s not generally referred to as such.)
Numeric Literals
Integral-typed literals can use decimal, hexadecimal, or binary notation; hexadecimal is denoted
with the 0x prefix (e.g., 0x7f is equivalent to 127), and binary is denoted with the 0b prefix. Real
literals can use decimal or exponential notation such as 1E06. Underscores may be inserted within
(or before) a numeric literal to improve readability (e.g., 1_000_000).
Numeric literal type inference
By default, the compiler infers a numeric literal to be either double or an integral type:
If the literal contains a decimal point or the exponential symbol (E), it is a double.
Otherwise, the literal’s type is the first type in this list that can fit the literal’s value: int, uint,
long, and ulong.
For example:
Console.Write ( 1.0.GetType()); // Double (double)
Console.Write ( 1E06.GetType()); // Double (double)
Console.Write ( 1.GetType()); // Int32 (int)
Console.Write (0xF0000000.GetType()); // UInt32 (uint)
Console.Write (0x100000000.GetType()); // Int64 (long)

18
Numeric suffixes
e numeric suffixes listed in the preceding table explicitly define the type of a literal:
decimal d = 3.5M; // M = decimal (case-insensitive)
e suffixes U and L are rarely necessary, because the uint, long, and ulong types can nearly always
be either inferred or implicitly converted from int:
long i = 5; // Implicit conversion from int to long
e D suffix is technically redundant in that all literals with a decimal point are inferred to be
double (and you can always add a decimal point to a numeric literal). e F and M suffixes are the
most useful and are mandatory when you’re specifying fractional float or decimal literals. Without
suffixes, the following would not compile, because 4.5 would be inferred to be of type double,
which has no implicit conversion to float or decimal:
float f = 4.5F; // Won't compile without suffix
decimal d = -1.23M; // Won't compile without suffix
Numeric Conversions
Integral to integral conversions
Integral conversions are implicit when the destination type can represent every possible value of
the source type. Otherwise, an explicit conversion is required. For example:
int x = 12345; // int is a 32-bit integral type
long y = x; // Implicit conversion to 64-bit int
short z = (short)x; // Explicit conversion to 16-bit int
Real-to-real conversions
A float can be implicitly converted to a double because a double can represent every possible float
value. e reverse conversion must be explicit.
Conversions between decimal and other real types must be explicit.
Real-to-integral conversions
Conversions from integral types to real types are implicit, whereas the reverse must be explicit.
Converting from a floating-point to an integral type truncates any fractional portion; to perform
rounding conversions, use the static System.Convert class.
A caveat is that implicitly converting a large integral type to a floating-point type preserves
magnitude but might occasionally lose precision:
int i1 = 100000001;
float f = i1; // Magnitude preserved, precision lost
int i2 = (int)f; // 100000000

19
Arithmetic Operators
e arithmetic operators (+, -, *, /, %) are defined for all numeric types except the 8- and 16-bit
integral types. e % operator evaluates the remainder aer division.
Increment and Decrement Operators
e increment and decrement operators (++, --, respectively) increment and decrement numeric
types by 1. e operator can either precede or follow the variable, depending on whether you want
the variable to be updated before or aer the expression is evaluated. For example:
int x = 0;
Console.WriteLine (x++); // Outputs 0; x is now 1
Console.WriteLine (++x); // Outputs 2; x is now 2
Console.WriteLine (--x); // Outputs 1; x is now 1
Specialized Integral Operations
Division
Division operations on integral types always eliminate the remainder (round toward zero).
Dividing by a variable whose value is zero generates a runtime error (a DivideByZeroException).
Dividing by the literal or constant 0 generates a compile-time error.
Overflow
At runtime, arithmetic operations on integral types can overflow. By default, this happens silently
—no exception is thrown and the result exhibits wraparound behavior, as though the computation
were done on a larger integer type and the extra significant bits discarded. For example,
decrementing the minimum possible int value results in the maximum possible int value:
int a = int.MinValue; a--;
Console.WriteLine (a == int.MaxValue); // True
The checked and unchecked operators
e checked operator instructs the runtime to generate an OverflowException rather than
overflowing silently when an integral-typed expression or statement exceeds the arithmetic limits
of that type. e checked operator affects expressions with the ++, −−, (unary) −, +, −, *, /, and
explicit conversion operators between integral types. Overflow checking incurs a small
performance cost.
You can use checked around either an expression or a statement block. For example:
int a = 1000000, b = 1000000;
int c = checked (a * b); // Checks just the expression
checked // Checks all expressions
{ // in statement block
c = a * b;

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be neglected, the duties or services cannot be fulfilled." And the
good pleasure of God, or His revealed and dispensed wisdom, varies
in changing and advancing ages. Noah, in a few generations before
Abraham, would have avenged the blood of one made in the
likeness or image of God, in the same spirit of faith, as Abraham
allowed one army of confederate kings to slay another. It is neither
the "sword" nor the "garment," as the Lord speaks in Luke xxii., that
must needs be the due instrument of service, or symbol of faith; but
either of them, according as it severally expresses the dispensational
good pleasure of God at the time.
This is much to be observed; for the distinguishing of things
that differ, and the rightly dividing of the word of God or of truth, is
expected, among other virtues, in the life of faith. Abraham was
endowed with this fine faculty. He walked in the light of that day, as
God was in the light. He knew the voice of the silver trumpet; when,
as it were, to gather to the tabernacle, and when to go forth to the
battle.
But there is more than this in our patriarch at this time. Two
victories distinguish him--one over the armies of the kings, and one
over the offers of the king of Sodom.
The first of these Abraham gained, because he struck the blow
exactly in God's time. He went out to the battle neither sooner nor
later than God would have had him. He waited, as it were, till "he
heard the going in the mulberry trees." Victory was therefore sure;
for the battle was the Lord's, not his. His arm was braced by the
Lord; and this victory of Abraham's was that of an earlier sling and
stone, or of the jaw-bone of an ass, or of a Jonathan and his

armour-bearer against a Philistine host; for Abraham's was but a
band of trained servants against the armies of four confederated
kings.
The second, still brighter than the first, was achieved in virtue
of fellowship with the very springs of divine strength. The spirit of
the patriarch was in victory here, as his arm had been before. He
had so drunk in the communication of the King of Salem--had so fed
on the bread and wine of that royal, priestly stranger--that the king
of Sodom spread out his feast in vain. The soul of Abraham had
been in heaven, and he could not return to the world.
That was his blessed experience in the valley of Shaveh. Happy
soul indeed! Oh for something more than to trace the image of it in
the book! Zaccheus, in his day, was a son of Abraham in this
generation, or according to this life and power. Zaccheus so drank in
the joy and strength that are to be known in the presence of Christ,
that the world became a dead thing to him. He had sat at table with
the true Melchizedek, and had eaten of His bread and drunk of His
wine. Jesus had spread a feast for His host at Jericho as He had in
other days for Abraham in the valley of Shaveh; and, strengthened
and refreshed, this son of Abraham, like his father of old, was able
to surrender the world. Behold, Lord, says he, the half of my goods I
give to the poor, and if I have wronged any man of anything by false
accusation, I restore him fourfold. He could give Abraham's answer
to the king of Sodom, for he had had Abraham's refreshment from
the King of Salem.
Surely, beloved, this is the way of victory in all the saints. The
springs of strength and joy are found in Jesus. May you and I be
able to look at Him and say, "All my fresh springs are in thee." "This

is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith." And what
are all conquests in God's account but such?--
"'Tis within
The fervent spirit labours. There he gains
Fresh conquests o'er himself, compared with
which
The laurels that a Cæsar wears are weeds."
Such, then, are the victories of faith.
But we have more still; and in the next scene, in chapter xv. we
see faith's boldness.
And let me ask, for our common comfort, what more precious
with God Himself than this? The intelligence of faith is bright, and its
victories glorious; but in the accounting of the God of all grace, its
boldness surpasses all.
After Abraham's victory over the world, or over the offers of the
king of Sodom, the Lord comes to him with some great pledges and
promises. After these things the word of the Lord came unto Abram
in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abram: I am thy shield, and thy
exceeding great reward. xv. 1. After the heat of the preceding day, it
was meet, in the ways of grace, that Abraham should be owned
again, and encouraged again. But faith is bold, very bold, apparently
aiming higher than the purposes and undertakings of grace. And this
is a wonderful moment to contemplate. Abraham seems to throw
back the words of the Lord. "I am thy shield, and thy exceeding

great reward," says the Lord. "What wilt thou give me?" Abraham
replies--"What wilt thou give me, seeing I go childless, and the
steward of my house is this Eliezer of Damascus?"
This was bold; but, blessed to say it, not too bold for the ear of
the Lord who finds His richest joy in the language of faith like this.
Good it is to have a portion; but Abraham sought an object, an
object for the heart; something far more important to us. Adam
found it so. Eden was not to him what Eve was. The garden with all
its tributes did not do for him what the helpmeet did. Eve opened his
mouth; she alone did that, because she alone had filled his heart.
Christ finds it so. The Church is more to Him than all the glory of the
kingdom--as the pearl and the treasure were more to the men who
found them, than all their possessions, for they sold all to get them.
The strayed sheep, the lost piece of silver, the prodigal son, are
more to heaven--to the Father, to the Shepherd, to the Spirit, and to
angels--as occasions of joy, than all else; just because the heart has
got its object--love has found its answer. This is the mind of Christ.
Affection puts the heart on a journey; and it cannot rest, in the
midst of all beside, without its object; and it says even to the Lord
and His pledges, "What wilt thou give me, seeing I go childless?"
But bold faith this was indeed, appearing thus to throw back the
words of God. But it was precious to Him. Yea, it was precious to
Him on the highest kind of title; for faith, acting thus and craving
after this manner, spoke the way and the taste of the divine mind
itself. For God Himself looks for children, as Abraham did. It is not
the spirit of bondage that is to fill His house, but that of adoption; it
is not servants but children He will have round Him. He has
"predestinated us unto the adoption of children, by Jesus Christ, to

Himself." He has found in His children an object for Himself; and
Abraham was, therefore, but telling out the common secret of his
own heart, and of the bosom of God. And at once his desire is
answered; and the sight of the starry heavens is made to pledge to
the patriarch something better than all portions and all conditions;
for the Lord says to him, "So shall thy seed be."
How truly may we say, never does faith aim more justly than
when it aims high, and draws with a bold hand. Never is the mark it
sets before it more God's own purpose. "Ask thee a sign of the Lord
thy God," says the prophet to the king, "ask it either in the depth, or
in the height above;" range through the divine resources, and use
them. What king Ahaz would not do, wearying the Lord by his
reserve, and unbelief, and slowness of heart, Abraham does and
continues to do. His soul continues in the same power of faith to the
end of this action. He holds on in the same track. "I'll give thee this
land to inherit it," says the Lord to him shortly afterwards. "Whereby
shall I know that I shall inherit it?" is his reply to the Lord. This is of
the same fine character; and being so--bespeaking the boldness of
faith--it is still infinitely acceptable with the Lord. Abraham seeks
something beyond a promise. Not that he doubted the promise. He
was sure of it. It could never fail. Heaven and earth would pass
away, ere it could pass away. But "oath and blood" to seal it were
desired by Abraham. He loved covenant title, and his faith sought it;
but sought no more than grace and purpose and sovereign good-
pleasure had already designed to give him.
And there lies the richest, fullest consolation. Faith is never too
bold to please the Lord. In the days of His flesh, He often rebuked
the reserves and suspicions of little faith, but never the strength and

decision of a faith that aimed as at everything, and would not go
without a blessing. So, the very style in which, in this fine chapter
(xv.), He answers the faith of His servant, tells us of the delight with
which He had entertained His servant's boldness. The very style of
the answer speaks this in our ears; as afterwards in the case of the
palsied man in Luke v.; for there the words, "Man, thy sins be
forgiven thee," tell how the heart of the same Lord, the God of
Abraham, had been refreshed by the faith which broke up the roof
of the house without apology, in order to reach Him. And it is the
same here. When a fine, bold, unquestioning faith sought for a child,
the Lord God took Abraham forth that very night, and, showing him
the starry heavens, said to him, "So shall thy seed be." When like
faith would have the land secured by something more than a word
of promise, the same Lord pledges the covenant by the passage of a
burning lamp between the pieces of the sacrifice.
This style, as I said, is full of meaning. It eloquently (may I
say?) bespeaks the divine mind. The Lord does not content Himself
by merely promising a child, as by word of mouth, or by merely
giving some other assurances to Abraham that the land shall be the
inheritance of his seed; but, in each case, He enters on certain
actions, and conducts them with such august and striking
solemnities, as lets us know instinctively, the delight with which He
had listened to these demands of faith.
Would that we knew our God as He is to be known, for His
praise and our comfort! Love delights to be used. Love is wearied
with ceremoniousness. It is, in its way, a trespasser on love's very
nature, and on its essential mode of acting. Family affection, for
instance, puts ceremony aside all the day long. Intimacy is there,

and not form. Form would be too cumbrous for it, as Saul's armour
was for David. It has not proved it, and cannot therefore wear it.
Love is doing the business of the house in one and another, and the
common confidence of all allows it to be done in love's way. So will
the Lord have it with Himself. The intimacy of faith is according to
His grace, and ceremony is but a weariness to Him.
Grace, as we sing at times, is "a sea without a shore," and we
are encouraged to launch forth with full-spread sails. The pot of oil
would have been without a bottom, had the woman's faith still
drawn from it; and the king of Israel's victories would have been in
quick succession, till not a Syrian had been left to tell the tale, had
his faith trod the field of battle as one who knew it only as a field of
conquest. 2 Kings iv. and xiii. But we are straitened. The boldness of
faith is too fine an element for the niggard heart of man that cannot
trust the Lord: though, blessed to tell it, it is that which answers, as
well as uses, the boundless grace of God.
The believing mind is the happy mind; and it is the obedient
mind also, the God-glorifying mind. It is the thankful and the
worshipping mind; the mind too that keeps the saint the most in
readiness for service, and in separation from pollutions. We may be
watchful, and it is right; we may be self-judging, and it is right; we
may be careful to observe the rule of righteousness in all that we do,
and it is right: but withal, to hold the heart up in the light of the
favour of God, by the exercise of a simple, child-like, believing mind,
this is what glorifies Him, this is what answers His grace, this is what
above all proves itself grateful to Him with whom we have to do.
"We have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand." It is not
attainment, it is not watchfulness, it is not services or duties, which

entitle us to take that journey, that gives the soul entrance into that
wealthy place of the divine favour--by faith we have access into this
grace wherein we stand.
But we go onward still in this history, and find it rich in other
instructions and illustrations of the life of faith.
Sarah now comes forth for the first time in independent action.
Chapters xvi. xvii.
The famine had already, as we saw, tempted Abraham to seek
the land of Egypt, and he got the resources of that land, with shame
and sorrow, and a wearisome journey back again to Canaan. Sarah
now tempts him to seek the bondmaid of Egypt.
We know what this Egyptian bondmaid is, from the divine
teaching of the epistle to the Galatians. She is the covenant from
mount Sinai, the law, the religion of ordinances; and Sarah, in her
suggestions to Abraham, that he should take this Egyptian,
represents nature, which always finds its relief and its resources in
flesh and blood, finds its religion there also, as well as everything
else.
The Spirit had not as yet dealt with Sarah's soul. At least, we
have had no manifestation of this. She was an elect one surely; but
our election goes long before we become the subject of divine
workmanship; and, as yet, spiritual life, the life of faith, the
operation of the truth on Sarah through the Holy Ghost, had not
been witnessed. She had not as yet been spoken of by the Lord. She
had not been the companion of her husband in the exercise of his
spirit before God, nor his fellow-disciple in God's school. She was not
called out with Abraham to number the stars, or to watch the
sacrifice. She was still, I may say, in the place of nature; and

accordingly she invites her husband to give her seed by her Egyptian
handmaid.
That is her place in this action; and Abraham becomes the saint
betrayed by nature, led in nature's path, surprised by a temptation
from that quarter now, as he had been before by the pressure of
famine.
But all this is unbelief and departure from God. It is the way of
man, the way of nature; not of faith or of the Spirit. We naturally
resort to the law, the bondwoman, the religion of ordinances, when
the soul feels its need; as we naturally go down to Egypt, or seek
the world, when our circumstances are needy. It is unbelief and
departure from God, as is seen even in Abraham; but to leave God
and the restorings of His grace, when the soul has need, is a more
grievous offence and wrong against Him, than to seek help as from
Egypt, when our circumstances have need. My poverty may tempt
me to use shifts and contrivances, which is bad enough; but if my
conscience want healing, if breaches within need repairing, that I
may walk again in the enjoyed light of His countenance, and I go to
mere religion, or to ordinances, or to anything but the provisions of
His own sanctuary, this is still worse.
The Hagars and the Pharaohs, the bondmaids and the wealth of
Egypt, are poor resorts for the Abrahams of God. But so it has been,
and so it is, through the working of nature. But Abraham (we will
now see for our comfort) is under God's eye, though led by Sarah's
suggestions. God has His place in him as well as nature; and He will
assert it for his restoring. He rises on his soul in a fresh revelation of
Himself, demanding of His saint the fresh obedience of faith. "I am
the almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect." For

Abraham's soul had lost this truth, the almightiness or the all-
sufficiency of God. He had gone in to Hagar; he had taken up
confidence in the flesh; he had left the ground he had stood upon in
chap. xv.; but the Lord will not and cannot allow this; and therefore
rises, in a renewed revelation of Himself, on the spirit of His saint;
and it is a rising "with healing in its wings;" for Abraham falls on his
face, convicted and abashed, and the soul is led again in paths of
righteousness.
Surely there are to this hour such moments in the history of
"them that believe," as well as of their "father Abraham." Abraham
had not fallen on his face, when the Lord appeared to him and spoke
to him in chap. xv. There he stood, conscious that he was in the light
with the Lord. But darkness had now come over his soul, and he is
not ready for the Lord. He is on his face, silent and amazed. He is
not standing, urging the suits of faith, as there; but on his face,
silent and confounded. The change in his experience is great; but
there is no change in the Lord; for it is the same love, whether He
rebuke or comfort. If we walk in the light, we have fellowship with
Him; if we confess our sins, we have forgiveness with Him; if we be
able to stand before Him, He will feed and strengthen us; if we must
needs fall convicted in His presence, He will raise us up again.
This is a fine, earnest path of the spirit of a saint. There is a
deep reality here. Departure from God proves itself to be bitterness;
but God proves Himself to the soul to be restoration and peace; and
under His gracious hand faith is afresh emboldened, and Abraham
plies his suit, as one that was again in the vigour of chap. xv., and
seeks of God that Ishmael might live before Him.

How one longs to have one's own soul formed by these blessed
revelations of grace, and the inwrought work of faith which answers
them. The scene changes; but God and the soul are together still.
There is reality--reality in the sadness and in the joy, in the light of
the divine countenance and in the hiding of our own face as in the
dust.
All this may be said of the life of faith, as seen in chapters xvi.
xvii. But on entering upon the next scene of action, in chapters xviii.
xix., I would observe, that in the life of Abraham we get something
beside these exercises and illustrations of faith. We get exhibitions of
certain divine mysteries also.
All the facts in this history are simple truths. They happened just as
recorded. But there is this twofold design in them: either to give
samples of the life of faith in a saint, or to give illustrations of some
great ways and purposes of God.
And such illustrations of the divine counsels and mysteries is the
common way of divine wisdom throughout Scripture. What was the
tabernacle or the temple but a place for the constant rehearsal of
mysteries, such as atonement and intercession, and the varied order
of God in the worship and services of His house, or in the ministry of
grace? For such were the sacrifices and the services there, the
feasts, and the holy days, and the jubilees. What, in like manner,
were the exodus, and the journey through the wilderness, and the
entrance into Canaan, the wars there, and then the throne of the
peaceful one? Were not all these, whether institutes of the
sanctuary, or facts in the history, exhibitions of the hidden, eternal
counsels of the divine bosom?

Now chapters xviii. xix. of this history suggest this recollection.
These chapters are to be read together, and afford us a large and
vivid exhibition of certain great truths, which concern us at this
moment, in as full a sense as ever the facts themselves, which
convey them to us as in a parable, concerned Abraham and his
generation.
Sodom, in that day, was the world. It had been warned, but had
refused instruction. It had proved incurably departed from God, and
beyond correction. Sodom had been visited and chastened in the
day of the victory of the confederated kings--as we saw in chapter
xiv.; but it was Sodom still, and was, at this time, in advanced
iniquity, in a state of ripened apostasy, her last state worse than her
first.
Sodom was the world in this day. The Lord Jesus, in His
teaching, gives it morally that place, just as another generation had
been the world in Noah's day. See Matt. xxiv.; Luke xvii. They are
like figures, presenting to our thoughts "this present evil world,"
which is ripening itself for the judgment of God.
At such a crisis, however, in this day of the judgment of Sodom,
or the overthrow of the cities of the plain, as in every other like day,
there are two incidental matters to be deeply pondered by our souls;
there is deliverance out of the judgment, and there is separation
before it come. There is Lot, and there is Abraham. Lot is delivered,
when the hour of the crisis comes; Abraham is separated before it
comes.
All this is much to be weighed in our thoughts. Judgment,
deliverance, separation--these are the elements of the action here,

and these are full of meaning, and of application to our own history
as the Church of God, and to the world around us.
Before this action opens, Abraham had been in a heavenly
place. He was a stranger on the earth, having his tent only, and
wandering from place to place without so much as to set his foot on;
and now, when the judgment comes, he is apart from it altogether,
like Enoch, the heavenly Enoch, in another and earlier day of
judgment. Each of these, in the day of visitation, was outside,
beyond, or above the scene of the ruin; not merely delivered out of
it when it came, but separated from it before it came.
Abraham had already stood with the Lord Himself on an
eminence which overlooked Sodom, as he and the Lord had walked
together from the plain of Mamre; and now, when the judgment
spends itself on that apostate, polluted city, Abraham is again, in
that high place, beholding the desolation afar off. He was (in the
spirit of the place where he stood) in company with Him who was
executing the judgment. But Lot is only rescued. Lot is a delivered
man, Abraham is a separated one. As Abraham is the Enoch, Lot is
the Noah of this later day, and is drawn forth from the devoted city.
What mysteries are these! What solemn realities, in the
counsels of God, are here rehearsed for our learning! Do we know
what we are looking at in all this? Do we not see great purposes of
God, as in a glass, in this varied and eventful action? Have we to
ask, Where is this mystic ground, on which we are here standing?
Surely, beloved, we ought to know it. In this action, the world, as
Sodom, is typically meeting its doom; the righteous remnant, as in
Lot, are delivered in that hour of wrath; and the Church, as in
Abraham, already separated and borne above, looks afar off on the

scene of the mighty desolation. Surely these mysteries are before us
in this action at Sodom. "Known unto God are all His works from the
beginning of the world." The world, the Church, and the kingdom,
are here in mysteries or types; the thing that is to be judged; the
thing that is to be separated to heavenly glory; the thing that is to
be delivered, and thus reserved for the earth again after the
purification. Enoch, Noah, and the deluged creation are again here in
Abraham, and Lot, and the doomed cities of the plain.
These are mysteries of which the Book of God is full. And thus is
it again and afresh witnessed to us, what we are and where we are,
though travelling on, to all appearance, in the common track of
everyday human life, with a generation, in the spirit of their mind,
still, as ever, saying, "Where is the promise of His coming? for since
the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the
beginning of the creation."
Many incidental things might occur to the mind in this, as in
other sections of this wonderful history; such as the visit of the Son
of God to Abraham; Abraham's intercession for Sodom; the angels'
reserve towards Lot; and the contrasted characters of the two
saints--the saint of the tent, and the saint in Sodom. But my
purpose, in this little book, does not take in such details. But I would
ask, in closing this action in chapters xviii. xix. Are we, beloved,
apprehensive of the moment in which we are living? Is "man's day"
brightening up to its meridian before us, ascending to its noontide
splendour? And what think we of that? Are we joining in the
congratulations of man with his fellow, that thus it is? Or is all this
brightness suspected and challenged by us, as the sure precursor of
God's judgment? Do we know that the god of this world finds a

house "swept and garnished" as thoroughly a scene for his evil and
destructive energy as a Sodom? Do we judge, with our generation,
that this cannot be? Or do we hold it in mind, that it is in such a
house that he will work at the closing of Christendom's history? And
are we waiting for the Son of God to take us up to that mystic
eminence where of old He took His Abraham? The Lord give us
grace to occupy such ground! And we shall the more easily and
naturally do so, if, like Abraham, we are saints of the tent and not of
the city--such saints (again like Abraham) as rejoice, "in the heat of
the day," to hold communion with the Lord of glory.
After this we go, with our patriarch, into the land of the
Philistines, where he sojourns during the times of chapters xx. xxi.
The old compact between Abraham and Sarah is acted on
again, after so long a time--acted on now at Gerar, as before it had
been in Egypt. It had been made between them ere they left their
native country. It was brought out with them from the very place of
their birth. It was, I may say, in them older than anything of God;
and after many changes and exercises it is in them and with them
the same thing still.
It was a very evil thing--both subtle and unclean. It was false
and yet specious, and savoured strongly of the serpent, of him that
is a liar and the father of lies. Abraham was forced to betray it, vile
as it was, to the king of Gerar. "It came to pass, when God caused
me to wander from my father's house, that I said unto her, This is
thy kindness which thou shalt show unto me: at every place whither
we shall come, say of me, He is my brother." This was worse than
we might even have feared. There was not a principle in the life of
faith that was not gainsaid by so vile a compact as this, brought

from the very place of their nativity with them. And such is the flesh,
the inbred corruption. Its way, whenever taken, is shame and deep
dishonour. It degrades a saint even before men. It is that which will
confound and expose an Abraham before an Abimelech. And it never
changes, or improves, or ceases to be. It is the same in Egypt, and
at Gerar. It lives in us still, and follows us everywhere. We get it at
our birth from the loins of Adam; and we are, for the common
consistency of our way as the called of God, to mortify and refuse it.
Wretched indeed it is to have to see such a thing as this. But
the Spirit of God hides nothing. There it lies before us, this vile and
wicked thing, in the pathway of the recording Spirit. We have,
however, other happier objects.
The progress of Sarah's soul, under the light and leading of the
Lord, is to be tracked in its own peculiar and instructive path. Under
the influence of the flesh she had, at the outset, joined Abraham in
this unclean compact, of which I have just spoken. In unbelief, she
had afterwards, as we also saw, given Hagar to her husband; and
then, in the haste and rebellion of the heart, she resented the
effects of that unbelief, and cast out the bondwoman, whom she had
adopted and settled in the family. But at the command of the Lord,
Hagar had gone back to her; and now, at the time of this action, she
had borne with her in the house for fourteen years. There was,
however, no manifestation of the renewed mind, or the life of faith,
in her. It was even during these years, that in unbelief she had
laughed at the promise, behind the tent-door. But still, I may say,
she had, during this time, in one sense, been at school; and she
seems to have learnt a lesson, for she submitted patiently and
unresistingly, to the presence of the bondwoman and her child in the

house of her husband. We hear of no fresh quarrels between them.
This was something. This was witness of her being in the hand of
God, till at length, as we know, she was given faith to conceive seed.
Heb. xi. A great journey, however, after all this, is now about to be
taken by her spirit. She is to take the lead even of her husband. And
happy this is--common enough, too, among the saints--but happy,
very happy. And were we of a delivered heart--a heart given up to
the desire of Christ's glory only--we should rejoice in these
discoveries, made in the regions of the Spirit, though we ourselves
would have to be humbled by them. "The last shall be first, and the
first last." These are among the ways of "new-born souls," and to be
discerned still by those who "mark the steps of grace." Paul could
say of some, "Who also were in Christ before me;" but we may be
bold to add, in that case, though he did not, "The last were first."
And the generous liberty of the redeemed soul will but glory in these
sovereign actings of the Spirit.
Sarah's elevation above Abraham in the things of the kingdom
of God is now to appear in illustration of all this. In obedience to the
command, Abraham calls the child that was born, Isaac. But Sarah
interprets that name: and this is a finer exercise of soul over the gift
of God. To obey a word is good; but to obey it in the joy of an
exercised heart, and in the light and intelligence of a mind that has
entered into the divine sense of that word, is better. Abraham called
the child that was born to him, Isaac: but Sarah said "God has made
me to laugh; and all they that hear it will laugh with me." The oracle
of chapter xvii. 19 was made more to her than a command to be
observed. It had springs of refreshing in it, and kindlings of soul. It
was full of light and meaning to the opened understanding of Sarah.

And this leads to strength and decision. This Deborah of earlier days
will brace the loins of Barak. "Cast out this bondwoman and her
son," says Sarah to Abraham; for she was happy in the liberty of
grace and promise, while he was still lingering amid the claims of
nature, and the desires which his own loins had gendered. "Cast out
this bondwoman and her son; for the son of this bondwoman shall
not be heir with my son, even with Isaac." And this was Scripture, as
we read in Gal. iv.; this was the voice of God. This decision of faith,
in the liberty of grace, gets its sealing at once under God's own
hand. "Stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made you
free," says the Spirit. And what met the mind of the Lord, in the
days of His flesh, like the faith which was bold and free, after this
manner? the faith which would use Him without ceremony, which
reached Him through a crowd, which pressed in through the silent
reproaches of a misjudging Pharisee, or through the injurious
whispers of a self-righteous multitude! And how much of the energy
of the Spirit in St. Paul is engaged in giving the sinner this precious
boldness, this immediate assurance of heart in Christ, in spite of law,
conscience, earth, and hell!
This boldness of faith in Sarah, this challenge of the
bondwoman, this demand (in her own behalf too) that she might
enjoy her Isaac all alone, is Scripture. Gal. iv. 30. She spake as "the
oracles of God." But in Abraham nature now acts. He would fain
retain Ishmael. This is no strange thing. Nature now acts in
Abraham, and faith in Sarah; as, on an earlier occasion, which we
noticed, nature had acted in Sarah and faith in Abraham. But nature
in Abraham must submit. He must not let Sarah be entangled any
longer as with this yoke of bondage. The house must be freed of

Ishmael, for it is to be built only in Isaac. "The son of the
bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman."
But all this quickly bears its fruit. Hagar being now gone, and
the house settled in Isaac according to this demand of faith, glory is
therefore quickly ready to enter. For this is the divine order. Having
"access into this grace wherein we stand, we rejoice in hope of the
glory of God." Such is the order of the Spirit in the soul of such a
saint; and such is the order now in the mystic house of our
Abraham.
Abraham is sought by the Gentile. This is full of meaning. In the
days of stress and famine, Abraham seeks the Gentile, whether in
Egypt or in Philistia; but now, the Gentile seeks Abraham. This is a
great change. Abraham's house, as we have seen, is now
established in grace. Ishmael is dismissed, and Isaac is gloried in. In
mystic sense, Israel has turned to the Lord, the veil is taken away,
Jerusalem has said to Christ, "Blessed is He that cometh in the name
of the Lord," her warfare is therefore accomplished, and she is
receiving the double. The Gentile seeks Israel. Abimelech and
Phichol, the king and his chief captain, come to Abraham.
This is a great dispensational change. Israel is the head now,
and not the tail. The skirt of the Jew is now laid hold on by the
nations; for the Jew has, by faith, laid hold on the Lord, and the
nations say, God is with you. Chap. xxi. 22; Zech. viii. 23.
This is full of meaning; and Abraham on all this (led of the
Spirit) is full of thoughts of glory or of the kingdom. And rightly so.
Because, when the Jew is sought by the Gentile, instead of being
trodden down or degraded by the Gentile, the kingdom is at hand.
Accordingly, on the king of Gerar seeking him and suing him, our

patriarch raises a new altar; not the altar of a heavenly stranger, as
in chapter xii., but an altar to "the everlasting God;" not an altar in a
wilderness-world, but an altar beside a grove and a well; the one
being a witness that the solitary place had been made glad, and that
the wilderness was rejoicing; the other, that the peoples of the earth
were confederate with the seed of Abraham.11
All this bright intelligence of faith in Abraham is very beautiful.
We have already seen other actings of it in him. He knew a time of
peace and a time of war, and acted accordingly in the day of the
battle of the five kings with four. So, again, he knew his heavenly
place, and took it, when the fire of the Lord was judging the cities of
the plain. So, again, as this chapter xxi. very remarkably shows us,
he also knew when to suffer wrong and when to resent, when to be
passive and when to assert his rights. For now, in the time of this
chapter, when the Gentile seeks him, he reproves Abimelech for a
well of water which Abimelech's servants had violently taken away.
But he had not complained of this injury until now; for Abimelech
said to him, "I wot not who has done this thing; neither didst thou
tell me, neither yet heard I of it, but to-day." And this is exceedingly
beautiful. It is perfect in its generation. Abraham had till now
suffered, and taken it patiently, because till now he had been a
heavenly stranger on the earth; and such patient suffering in such
an one is acceptable with God. But now, times are changed. The
heavenly stranger has become the head of the nations, sought by
the Gentile; and rights and wrongs must now be settled, and the cry
of the oppressed must be heard.
All this has great moral beauty in it. I know not how sufficiently
to admire this workmanship of the Spirit in the mind of Abraham. He

was an Israelite who knew the seasons of the year--when to be at
the Passover, and when at the Feast of Tabernacles. He knew, in
spirit, when to continue with Jesus in His temptations, and then
again, when the day arrived, how to surround Him with hosannahs
as He entered the city of the Son of David. All such various and
blending lights shone in the spiritual intelligence of his soul. God, by
the Spirit, communicated a beautiful mind to Abraham. In other
days, he would not have so much of this earth as to set his foot on--
he would surrender the choice of the land to Lot--he would leave the
Canaanite where he found him--he would refuse to be enriched by
the king of Sodom even in so little as a thread or a shoe-latchet--he
would wander up and down in his tent here, a stranger from
heaven--but now, in a day signified and marked by the hand of God,
he can be another man, and know his millennial place, as father of
the Israel of God, and their representative as head of the nations.
He can keep the Feast of Tabernacles in its season. His rebuke of
Abimelech--his entertaining him--his enriching him--his giving him
covenant pledges--and all this in such easy, conscious dignity--and
then his new altar or his calling on God in a new character, and his
planting a grove, all bespeak another man, and that a
transfiguration, if I may so speak, had taken place in him, according
to God.
All this I judge to have a great character in it. But I will not any
longer stay here; for there is still more in this fine life of faith which
our father Abraham, through grace, tracked to the very end, holding
still the beginning of his confidence.
And here let me say, this life of faith is, in other words, life
spent in the power of resurrection. It is the life of a dead and risen

man. It is a lesson, if one may speak for others, hard indeed to be
learnt to any good effect, but still it is the lesson, the practical lesson
of our lives, that we are a dead and risen people. At the outset
Abraham, in spirit, took that character. He left behind him all that
nature or the world had provided him with. He left what his birth
introduced him to, for that which faith introduced him to. And as he
began, so he continued and ended, with failings by the way indeed,
and that too again and again, but still to the end he was a man of
faith, a dead and risen man.
As such an one he had received Isaac, some twenty years ago,
not considering his own body now dead, neither yet the deadness of
Sarah's womb; and as such an one he now offers him on the altar at
the word of the Lord. The promise was God's--that was enough for
him. For faith is never overcome. It has divine, infinite resources.
The believer fails again and again; but faith is never overcome, or
comes short of its expectation. xxii.
This is the way of faith, when Isaac was demanded.12
And the
same overcoming faith we trace in the very next scene, the burial of
Sarah. This was the same faith, the faith of a dead and risen man,
the faith which had already received Isaac, and offered Isaac, now
buries Sarah. Abraham believed in resurrection, and in God as the
God of resurrection, the God who quickens the dead, and calls those
things that be not as though they were. The cave of Machpelah tells
us this. "Earth to earth, dust to dust, ashes to ashes, in sure and
certain hope," was the language of Abraham's heart there. His
purchase of that place, with all his care to make it his own, to have
it as his possession, while beyond it he cared not for a single acre of
the whole land, tells us of his faith in resurrection. His treaty for it

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