MRS. M. A blessing so extensive could mean no less. But it is not to be supposed that it was clearly intelligible to Abram, who, at that time, had no child, and both he and his wife were old. Yet he did not hesitate to believe Him who he knew certainly, would find means to make good his promise.

Some years before his death, Terah had come with his family from Chaldea to Haran, in Mesopotamia, and died there. After his death, Abram, and Lot, the grandson of Terah, proceeded to the land of Canaan; and pitched their tents first, at a place called Sichem (in our day, Neapolis) and afterwards farther south at Bethel. At each place we observe, they left an altar, the monument of their piety.

A famine which greatly afflicted Canaan, in the following year, (B. C. 1920) obliged Abram to go with his family into Egypt for subsistence.* When they arrived at the border of that country, forgetting for a moment his accustomed confidence in divine Providence, Abram requested Sarai, his wife, to call herself his sister; lest her beauty might be fatal to him, she consented to this de-. ception. When they came into Egypt, and resided near the court, the princes saw her, and spoke of her, in admiration before the king. This was enough to determine her fate; she was immediately conducted to the palace, according to the still prevailing custom of oriental despots, whom no law restrains from seizing all the beautiful women within their reach. Her supposed brother was respectfully treated for her sake. But great afflictions fell upon

*From this period the 430 years bondage of the Israelites is reckoned.

the royal family, and Pharaoh, who seems not to have been ignorant of a superintending providence, understood that they were the punishment of his injustice to the strangers. He ordered Abram therefore into his presence, and very properly reproved him-" Why hast thou brought these evils on me? Why saidst thou," she is my sister," so I might have taken her to be my wife. She is thine; take her and go thy way;" and he charged his servauts to dismiss them honourably with all their possessions.

The same year, after the famine had ceased, Abram with his wife and his nephew, returned to their former residence near Bethel. But their flocks were become so numerous, that they could no longer remain together. The ground they occupied was insufficient for their support, and disputes frequently arose between their herdsmen. That they might not themselves be involved in contention, these primeval shepherds separated. Lot departed to the south, and settled on the plain of Jordan, a fertile valley, watered by the celebrated river of that name. He was still in the territory of the Canaanites, the descendants of Ham, who, as I hinted just now, were by this time abandoned to vices of every description. Exemplary judgments had been denounced against them, and the sovereign Avenger began now to execute them. But the virtue of Lot was regarded with singular favour. Two angels, in the character of travellers, were commissioned to tell him, that Sodom, the city of his residence, would be consumed by fire from heaven; and to direct him to repair with his family to the mountains! He obeyed; and thus with his two daughters, was preserved; whilst his wife, heedless of an express command, "not to look back," lingered. Bewailing perhaps, her unworthy city, and friends,

she forgot the injunction, and "was turned into a pillar of salt."

CHARLES. Is that metamorphosis supposed to be literally true?

MRS. M. The words of Moses are often metaphorically understood by infidels to serve their own impious ends, but as his history was written for the instruction of the common people, and all classes were commanded to teach it to their children, we can seldom admit of figures beyond their comprehension. In this case, however, commentators have found several interpretations to explain the difficulty. It is enough for us to know, that she was punished for disobedience; and let us remember the example of Lot's wife, whenever we are tempted to transgress a known command!

Five populous cities with all their inhabitants were utterly destroyed by this judgment, and a remarkable lake now covers the soil where once they flourished—the lasting monument of that tremendous event!

CATHERINE. You mean, I suppose, the lake Asphaltites; or in more modern language, the Dead Sea. But why do you call it a remarkable lake?

MRS. M. Because its appearance and properties are really so, independently of the fables to which it has given rise. It has been called the Dead sea, for example, because its waters were supposed to have a fatal influence on animal and vegetable life. Modern travellers have detected the fallacy of this opinion.

CATHERINE. How is it ascertained that it flows where Sodom once stood?

MRS. M. The site is described with sufficient precision by Moses: the Arabs who dwell on its borders acknow

ledge it, and according to some writers, call it "the sea of Lot." Mr. Maundrel, who has written an account of A Journey to Aleppo, was even told by two aged persons of probity, that they had actually seen pillars, and other fragments of buildings, in the water near the shore, but he could not discover them.

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Abram having removed his tents from Bethel to the plain of Mamre, in the mean time receives more explicit confirmation of the promises. His name is changed to Abraham, and that of his wife to Sarah.* "I will bless her," said the divine oracle, " and give thee a son of her, and thou shalt call his name Isaac, and she shall be a mother of nations, and kings of people shall be of her. Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river Euphrates; they shall be strangers in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them, and they shall afflict them four hundred years. And also that nation whom they shall serve will I judge, and afterwards shall they come out with great substance." (B. C. 1897).

CHARLES. Had the natives been acquainted with these prophecies, they would not have suffered this distinguished stranger to remain among them.

MRS. M. Perhaps not.

But his character and im

mense riches procured him respect. He must have been an eminent person at this time, for we read of his taking three hundred and eighteen trained servants, born in his house, to rescue his kinsman Lot, who had been seized

* Hebrew names, unlike ours, which are entirely arbitrary, were significant. Abraham and Sarah, our philologists translate, "the heads or progenitors of a multitude," according with the spirit of the annexed prophecy,

with all his, at the sacking of Sodom in a quarrel amongst the petty princes of the vale of Siddim.

Journeying still farther south, Abraham came into Philistia on the border of the Mediterranean, and halted near Gerar, the residence of the king. Again he was tempted to represent Sarah as his sister, and a second time she was taken to the palace; but Abimelech, yet unconscious of the wrong he had done, was warned in a dream-" Thou art but a dead man for the woman whom thou hast takenfor she is a man's wife," was the appalling sentence. With unfeigned horror the terrified prince received it, and appealed to Omniscience-" In the innocency of my heart have I done this. Said he not unto me, she is my sister; and she even she herself said, he is my brother. Lord, wilt thou slay a righteous nation ?" "Restore the man his wife," said his just Judge," for he is a prophet and shall pray for thee, and thou shalt live. But if thou restore her not, thou shalt die, thou and all thy house." the morning early, therefore, Abimelech collected his servants and related his dream, and sent for the strangers and reprehended them both; enquiring wherein he had offended, that they should lead him into such imminent danger; or what evil disposition they had seen in him to justify their suspicion of his integrity?" Because I thought," replied the timid husband, "surely, the fear of God is not in this place, and they will slay me for my wife's sake; and yet indeed she is my sister, the daughter of my father, but not the daughter of my mother."

In

CATHERINE. I hope Abraham was not really married to his sister!

MRS. M. Not his sister, as we understand that appella