The highest of all companionship is that of kindred minds and of characters that partake of the same virtues and graces and spiritual tastes. Jesus found a centurion that requested healing for his servant, and when Jesus offered to go to the man's house and heal the invalid, the centurion responded, "I am not worthy for Thee to enter my house; but speak the word only, and my servant will be healed."� Then Jesus said He had not found such faith anywhere among the people of Israel, and then said that many shall come from the east and west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of Heaven. (Matt. 8:11.) The reason for this word was because here was a Gentile, an officer in the Roman army, and yet in his spirit he had the same kind of faith that Abraham had, and was more truly kindred to the patriarch in his moral and spiritual character than were the descendants of Abraham. The words also contain a prophecy that the time is coming at the end of the age, when there will be a great banquet of the saints of all the ages, when they shall sit down with their Lord and partake of the great feast at the end of the harvest, and when those who are kindred spirits with Christ and the patriarchs and prophets and apostles will be assembled in companies of holy fellowship, according to their spiritual relationship.

Abraham is a special sample of great faith. And hence all those who are his type of faith will have special fellowship with him, regardless of their race or nationality, or of their time of life in the world's history. Faith is that which generates or begets all the Christian graces, for out of faith comes love, and obedience, and peace, and all the fruit of the Spirit. Just as truly as it is written that Abraham begat Isaac, so it can be written that faith begets sonship and peace with God. Abraham was an emigrant, and left his father's house at the call of God to go into a new country, not knowing whither he went. And this is a picture of true faith. It leaves the old past, and travels with God and His Word into new scenes, and new experiences, without knowing what the end may be, or without understanding all the details of the journey. It keeps its eye on the Lord, and relies on His guidance through all the changing scenes, and trusts Him for air the results at the end of the way. Those who have true faith will find themselves companions of each other in all those things which make up a life of trust.

In a special way Isaac sets forth the life of sonship, and is perhaps the most perfect embodiment of ideal sonship to be found in the Scriptures, next to that of Jesus, of whom he was a most beautiful type. As a son he was perfectly submissive and obedient to his father, even to the point of death, and being willing to be offered up in sacrifice, and also trusting his father to provide him a wife, and to arrange the details of his life. His entire history is pervaded with the one great, beautiful thought and spirit of sonship. He never had a break with his father, but manifested the most perfect obedience, and proved himself worthy to be the true heir, and inherited all his father's property. In all these points he sets forth a type of the sonship of Christ to His Heavenly Father. Those who have in them that beautiful spirit of filial love to God, that obedient affection of sons of God, will find most perfect companionship with Isaac in the coming kingdom, when all character will be adjusted in most perfect union and relationship.

Jacob in a very special way sets forth the life of service. This trait is mentioned by one of the prophets, when he speaks of Jacob as going into Syria, and serving for a wife, and for his sheep. The faithfulness of his service to Laban, his father-in-law, has a pathetic touch in it, when Laban's severity is referred to, and that he changed Jacob's wages ten times. And then his service to God after his return to Canaan, and then in the end of his life, his service under Joseph, his own son, who was virtually a king in the land of Egypt, and a type of Israel serving the Lord Jesus in the coming days. Jacob's life was more variable and contained more sharp contrasts than the life of either Abraham or Isaac, and in this respect it sets forth the great variety of labors and experience, and the checkered fortunes in the outworking of true faith and sonship.

Abraham is faith, and Isaac is sonship, but in the joys and sorrows, the lights and shadows, the struggles and victories of Jacob, we see the outworking in the practical details of life, and in the changes of domestic relations, and the testings of the graces, and the working of the faith of Abraham, and the sonship of Isaac. Thus we shall have companionship with Jacob in those things which are specially connected with a life of service. There may be less poetry and theology in the life of service, but it is that thing which puts to the highest test all true doctrine and all sentiments of the heart. It is a singular fact that the prayers of Jacob are mentioned in Scripture far more than the prayers of Abraham and Isaac. And how natural all this is in our lives, for is it not true that all real faith and loving sonship find the highest expression in prevailing prayer? And there will be our Bethels and our Peniels to mark as milestones the progress of Abraham's faith and Isaac's sweet filial devotion.

What a gathering that will be, when the saints of all ages shall meet together, in the presence of Jesus, and be arranged in various circles of companionship, and cordial ties based on an inward fitness of graces and mental and spiritual makeup. Such companionship will be far stronger than that of flesh and blood, for inasmuch as the spirit is stronger than the flesh, so in the life to come all relationship will be adjusted according to the spirit, and from all nations there will be gathered great throngs of Abrahams, Isaacs, and Jacobs, who shall sit down together in unbroken concord and sweetest fellowship, with no misunderstanding, with no envies, or jealousies, nor criticisms, but they will be found in one harmonious whole at the Marriage Supper of the Lamb.