vengeance which God was about to take upon the place. Lot, who, with all his weakness and his love of wealth, was at heart a man who feared God and believed His word, instantly went out to call the men who had married his daughters to flee with him; but they laughed at him for his credulous folly. With the earliest dawn Lot then left the place, urged by the angels to the utmost speed, and accompanied only by his wife and his two daughters.

That morning Sodom and Gomorrah, and the whole surrounding country, were destroyed by a flood, not of water, but of fire. God spared neither man, nor woman, nor child, nor plant, nor beast of the field. One overwhelming conflagration blotted them out from the face of the earth. From the heavens above, and from the ground below, the flames burst forth; and when Lot looked back again from the hills upon the country below, he beheld ashes, fires, and smoke, as if the whole valley had been changed into a raging furnace. His own wife also had been involved in the awful punishment. Disobeying the words of God, which bade her flee without tarrying to look behind, she turned, and lingered, and watched the destruction of the scenes she had left. But the same judgment which smote Sodom smote her. Wrapped in the furious storm of fiery salt, her life was instantly destroyed; and she sunk on the ground, or stood petrified, no longer a human being, but a "statue of salt." And to this day the country where Sodom and Gomorrah stood is the most fearful place in the entire world. A large lake, called the Dead Sea, thrown up by the convulsions of the earth, fills the spot where the guilty cities sunk; the air is oppressive, and often so intolerably hot and poisonous, that it can scarcely be approached; the waters are heavy, from being mixed with nauseous salts and bitters; and though it is possible to sail upon the lake for a short time, to live upon it would be impossible for man or bird. The country all round bears the marks of an appalling visitation of fire; the springs that trickle down the rocks into the sea are fœtid and sulphurous; and its bottom,

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when examined by soundings, shews that it was originally a level plain and dry land.

CHAP. XI. The Birth of Isaac. Abraham's Sacrifice of his Son.

In due time the promise of God to Sara was fulfilled, and Isaac her son was born. Ismael, however, refusing his younger brother due respect, she urged her husband not to suffer him to remain in the house, and to dismiss the child and his mother to wander forth into the world. Harsh and cruel as it seemed to the father thus to banish his own son from his presence, and wretched as was the lot inflicted upon Agar, God enjoined Abraham to follow his wife's counsel, and Abraham obeyed. Agar departed with her child and a little store of provisions into a desert place, where hunger and thirst speedily seemed about to end their sufferings, and the mother, heart-broken, laid her boy down, and turning away that she might not see him die, lifted up her voice and wept. Then she saw that God, who had commanded her to be driven forth from Abraham's home a houseless wanderer, was Himself watching over her and guarding her, while all seemed most desolate. An angel called aloud to her from heaven, and bade her lift up her eyes, and shewed her a well of water, commanding her to give the child to drink, and renewing God's promise that he should live and become the father of a mighty people. And her child revived; and in after-time married a woman of Egypt, and became renowned as an archer, and as the father of the Ismaelites.

Isaac, the favoured and chosen son, grew up meanwhile in his father's house. But it was not many years before the faith of Abraham was tried by a trial far more severe than any that God had yet laid upon him. On a sudden he received an order from the great God of justice, truth, and mercy, to offer up his own child Isaac as a burnt-offering. That very son, the son of his old age, from whom God had promised to raise up

the great people that was to be born of him, was himself to be slain as a victim in his childhood, and consumed by fire upon an altar as an offering to God. Yet Abraham's faith never failed. With his heart torn and bleeding, and his understanding struck with amazement and terror at the awful methods by which God was working out His own holy yet mysterious purposes, he took his child and led him to the mountain which God had pointed out for the sacrifice. On the way there the innocent boy inquired the meaning of these strange preparations. "Behold, my father," he said, "here is the fire and the wood, but where is the victim to be sacrificed?" And Abraham said, "My son, God will provide Himself a victim." And they came to the place which God had appointed, and Abraham built an altar, and laid the wood in order upon it; and he bound Isaac's hands and feet, and laid him upon the altar, as a lamb prepared for the sacrifice; and he stood in the presence of God with a sword in his hand, ready to slay his son.

Then was the sacrifice complete. It was not the intention of God that the father should take his son's life; it was his own will that he was to sacrifice; and that he had now offered, strong in faith, and persuaded that, even if Isaac died, God could yet raise him up children from the dead. There was to be but one human sacrifice ever offered up to God, and of that sacrifice Isaac was a figure or type. At the moment, therefore, when Abraham stood prepared to strike his beloved child, an angel called to him from heaven, and bade him stay his hand, for that his trial was ended, and the Almighty God was satisfied. Lifting up his eyes, Abraham then saw a ram caught among the brambles, and he took it and offered it instead of his son. And once more God spoke to him from heaven, and renewed His ancient promise, that in his seed all the nations of the earth should be blessed. Near this very spot, eighteen hundred years afterwards, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ offered Himself upon the cross, a true and allperfect sacrifice for the sins of men.

The days of Abraham and his wife were now drawing to their close. At the age of 127 years Sara died, and Abraham buried her in a cave which he purchased from the inhabitants of the country. His name had already become so great among them, and was regarded with so much respect and affection, that the people of Heth, to whom he applied for a spot wherein to bury his dead, besought him to accept it as a free gift. Probably, however, because he would do nothing whatever that might seem like a mingling of his own family with those of the neighbouring tribes, Abraham courteously refused the offer, and paid for the cave and the field where it was situated, and there he buried Sara.

Hastening also himself to the same grave, he now made arrangements for the marriage of Isaac; and again we see the care with which Abraham preserved his own chosen stock from intermixture with any blood but his own. He called his chief servant Eliezer, and making him a kind of guardian to his young son, he bade him swear that he would never suffer Isaac to marry a wife from the families of the alien and idolatrous Chanaanites among whom they were dwelling, and despatched him to seek a bride for Isaac from among his own relations in Mesopotamia. This oath was confirmed by a singular ceremony, in which the servant placed his hand under his master's thigh, and declared that he would be faithful to his word.

Eliezer then departed with camels, and presents for the bride whom he should choose. He journeyed straight to the place where Abraham's brother Nachor was living, and there, standing by a spring where he saw that the damsels of the town would come to draw water, he prayed to God to grant him a sign to shew who it should be whom he should choose for Isaac's wife. He prayed that whatever maiden should offer water for himself and his camels when he asked for it, she should be the bride whom he was to seek at her relations' hands. Scarcely had he ended his prayer, when Isaac's cousin Rebecca, the granddaughter of Nachor, a young and beautiful virgin, came forth to the spring

and filled her pitcher. And Eliezer ran and entreated her to let him drink. She instantly lowered her pitcher from her head and gave him to drink, and offered him water for his camels also. And Eliezer's mind was filled with doubt, joy, and surprise; and he pondered in himself what to do. At length he asked the maiden her name; and when he found that she was of the very family of his master's brother, all his fears passed away, and he felt convinced that God had heard his prayer, and that Rebecca was the chosen bride for Isaac. Then he offered her earrings and bracelets of gold, and begged her to take him to her father's house. And she ran and told her family all that had happened. And her brother Laban came out and welcomed Eliezer gladly; and when they had all heard his story, they recognised the hand of the Lord in what had taken place, and Rebecca's father and brother agreed that she should become Isaac's wife. The day was ended with feasting and rejoicing; and Eliezer presented the gifts he had brought for Rebecca and her kindred. In the morning he prepared to depart, though they would fain have detained him a few days; but Rebecca herself begged no delay, and they returned to Isaac. It was evening on the day when they reached the dwelling-place of Abraham, and Isaac was in the fields meditating. As they drew near he saw the camels approaching; and Rebecca catching sight of Isaac, asked who it was; and when she heard that it was her future husband, she wrapped herself, as the maidens do in the East, with her mantle, and was presented to Isaac as his bride. She dwelt in Sara's tent, and Isaac loved her, and was comforted in her love for his mother's death.

At the age of 175 years Abraham died, and was buried by his wife's side in the cave he had bought of the children of Heth.

CHAP. XII. Jacob and Esau.

It was not until twenty years after their marriage that any children were born to Isaac and Rebecca. At that