IN view of the interest now being aroused in the coming celebration of the three hundredth anniversary of the landing of the Pilgrim fathers on Plymouth Rock, it is well worth while for Bible students to trace the history of the pilgrims of ancient days and to note how each footstep of freedom paved the way for a larger, more practical vision of the ever-present Christ.
If it be true that "the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church," then it is not too much to say that the faith of the pilgrims is the rock of national life. Abraham was a pilgrim. He was called of God to depart from his father's house and from the lethargy and limitations of old traditions into a more spiritual consciousness of Life and Love, — a veritable land of promise. "And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing," was God's promise to him. His obedience proved that he loved Spirit more than matter, loved God and desired truth above all else, and was willing to sacrifice everything for this.
In the epistle to the Hebrews we find this eloquent tribute to the father of pilgrims: "By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went. By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise: for he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God." Respecting this patriarch and others the record says: "These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. . . . And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned. But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city."
