WHEN Jehovah blesses, He does it from His heart. There is a heartiness about the promises that shows what the Promiser is. When God made promise to Abraham, how did He do it? Sovereignly, of His grace, of His love. He called him, and the call of God separates from country, kindred, and father’s house. There is an element, an elevation, where alone the living and true God can be enjoyed. He calls to that. To Abraham it was Canaan. As though God had said, “This is the place I have in view for you.” His glory, it is true, shone on the patriarch before he left his country, but it was to guide him to the land where God would have him be. And in the land was his altar―sometimes here, sometimes there―but always in the land. To leave it unbidden for Egypt, was to step into trouble, humiliation, and rebuke; but when failure had brought difficulty beyond the power of self-extrication, Jehovah acted, the everlasting God interposes for deliverance, and the object of His choice (oh, how little well might he say, “dust and ashes”) returns to his rest, and to his altar in the land where God owns him. A pilgrim and a stranger truly, but under the divine protection―within hearing, as it were, of the divine voice―ready for the divine visits, the divine communications. Such should the Christian be all his life long; a stranger and a sojourner on earth, but risen with Christ in spirit, having only Christ as friend, guide, helper, deliverer, strength, shield, hope, object, counselor, present and eternal rest, and home.