we live, in order that, after we have departed hence and have returned home, we may from things of familiar occurrence receive a reminder of what has been said. 6. Prayer is a strong piece of armour and a great security. You heard yesterday how the three children, fettered as they were, destroyed the power of the fire; how they trampled down the blaze; how they overcame the furnace, and conquered the operation of the element. Hear to-day again how the noble and great Isaac overcame the nature itself of bodies through prayer. They destroyed780 the power of fire, this man to-day loosed the bonds of incapacitated nature. And learn how he effected this. “Isaac,” it says, “prayed781 concerning his wife, be- cause she was barren.” This has to-day been read to you; yesterday the sermon was about prayer; and to-day again there is a demonstration of the power of prayer. See how the grace of the Spirit has ordered that what has been read to-day harmonises with what was said yesterday. “Isaac,” it says, “prayed concerning Rebecca his wife, because she was barren.” This first is worth inquiring into, for what cause she was barren. She was of a life admirable and replete with much chastity—both herself and her husband. We cannot lay hold782 of the life of those just ones, and say that the barrenness was the work of sin. And not only was she herself barren, but also his mother Sarah, who had borne him; not only was his mother barren and his wife, but also his daughter-in-law, the wife of Jacob, Rachel. What is the meaning of this band of barren ones? All were righteous, all living in virtue, all were witnessed to by God. For it was of them that He said, “I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” Of the same persons Paul also thus speaks. “For which cause God is not ashamed to call himself their God.”783 Many are the commendations of them in the New, many the praises of them in the Old Testament. On all sides they were bright and il- lustrious, and yet they all had barren wives, and continued in childlessness until an advanced period. When therefore thou seest man and wife living with virtue; when thou seest them beloved of God, caring for piety, and yet suffering the malady of childlessness; do not suppose that the childlessness is at all a retribution for sins. For many are God’s reasons for the dis- pensation, and to us inexplicable; and for all we must be heartily thankful, and think those only wretched who live in wickedness; not those who do not possess children. Often God does it expediently, though we know not the cause of events. On this account in every case it is our duty to admire His wisdom, and to glorify His unspeakable love of man. 7. Well,784 this consideration indeed is able to school us in moral character, but it is necessary also to state the cause for which those women were barren. What then was the 780 κατ™λυσαν, de-struo, to take to pieces, pull down, a building. 781 ἐδεετο. Denotes continuance in prayer. Comp. Matt. vii. 7, 8. 782 ἐπιλαβ™σθαι, as in wrestling. 783 Heb. xi. 16. 784 'Αλλ€. This adverb is not always adversative. It is sometimes, as here, connective; denoting a transition in treating the subject. Comp. Aristophanes Acharn. 377–383. 328 Against Publishing the Errors of the Brethren.