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Show LEGITIMACY AND ILLEGITIMACY. 365 yet he promised that he would give it to him for a possession, and to his seed after him, when as yet he had no child." Ezekiel's vision of the dry bones explains this seeming contradiction. The Lord said to him, " Son of man, can these bones live ?" etc. Who are they ? We are told, in the same chapter, that they are the whole house of Israel, and that they shall come out of their graves, bone come to its bone, and sinew to sinew, and flesh come upon them, and they shall become a living army before God, and they shall inherit the land which was given to them and their fathers before them. The measuring line shall again go forth upon those lands, and mark out the possessions belonging to the tribes of Israel. Abraham was a man who dared fear God, and do honor to His authority, which was legitimate. God tried and proved him, the same as He has tried many of us, and felt after his heart-strings, and twisted them round. When He had tried him to the utmost, He swore by Himself, because He could swear by no greater, saying, " That in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed." " And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed." Abraham obtained his dominion by legitimate authority; his priesthood was obtained from God; his authority was that which is associated with the everlasting Gospel, which was, and is, and is to come, that liveth and abid-eth for ever. And the promises made to him will rest upon him and his posterity, through every subsequent period of time, until the final winding up scene of all things. Will he ever obtain them? Yes. For we are eternal beings, and I am now talking as though we were in eternity. We shall wake up in the morning of the |