Whosoever, then, desires to know what was the faith of Father Abraham, the Friend of God, let him diligently read the Torah of Moses, so strongly borne testimony to in the above verses of the Qur'an; and there he will find the blessed promise given him by the Almighty, that the one Divine Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, was to come of the descendants of Abraham and of his son Isaac. The Patriarch accepted the the promise, and believed in the coming Messiah, as we see in a passage of the Torah where God spoke thus to Abraham:— And God said, Sarah thy wife shall bear thee a son indeed; and thou shalt call his name Isaac: and I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his seed after him.¹ The same promise is repeated again in the Book of Genesis to Abraham:— And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because thou hast obeyed my voice.² And Jesus himself refers to this promise when he said to the Jews:— Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day; and he saw it and was glad.³ The Apostle Paul also makes mention of the same expectation:—To Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, — And to seeds, as of many; but as of One; And to thy seed, which is Christ; and again:— If ye be Christ's then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to promise.⁴

May the gracious and compassionate Lord, who hath in his infinite mercy fulfilled this his eternal covenant, grant that the humble Writer and the Kind Reader

¹ Genesis xvii. 19. ² Genesis xxii. 18. ³ John viii. 56. ⁴ Galatians iii. 16 and 29.

of these pages, may, along with the blessed Patriarch, be made partakers of the heavenly inheritance thus promised through our Saviour Jesus Christ. And to his name be glory.

Amen, so let it be!