To me Thou hast given no seed
Abram’s fear
God had given Abram everything but a child, and therefore it seemed to him that all this flow of God’s love was running into a pool where it could only stand still.
And Abram told God his fear in plain words. How true it is that we can say things in the dark that we dare not say in the light! For a long time Abram wanted to say this, but the light was too strong: he knew he would stammer and blush in the daytime, so he hid the fear in his heart. But now it is evening tide! The shadows are about, and the stars are coming! O sweet eventide, what words we have spoken in its dewy quietness--words that would have been out of place in the glare of open day. How the voice has become low, and the heart has told what was deepest and tenderest, sending it out as a dove that would find another soul to rest in! It was so that Abram talked to God in the vision that came at star time. He said, “I have no child; all my goods are in the hands of a steward, a true enough servant, but still not a son; what is to become of all these tokens of Thy love?” and whilst he was talking the stars came out more and more, all of them--millions of silvery eyes, throng upon throng, glowing overhead, sparkling over the distant hills, glittering in the east, throbbing like hearts on the western horizon, the singing Pleiades, the mighty Arcturus and his sons, Venus and Mars, and the Milky Way (names unknown then), there they were, angels talking in light, servants watching the King’s city. It was in that the Lord said to Abram, “Look up”; and Abram looked; and God said, “Count them”; and Abram said, “My Lord, who can count that host?” And the Lord said, “So shall thy seed be.” (J. Parker, D. D.)