fully understood by Abram, is not quite so evident. Be this, however, as it may, the patriarch made no delay in obeying God. He took with him his wife, his nephew, their servants, cattle, and goods, and abandoning Haran, proceeded at once towards the land of Canaan, where his first halting place was near the plain of Moreh, not far from the city of Sichem. Here he built an altar to God, and offered to him the supplications and prayers of a grateful heart; and here he was again favoured with fresh assurances of God's favour, and fresh promises of prosperity to himself and his family.

From Sichem Abram removed into the mountainous district which lies between Beth-el and Hai, where, as his ordinary custom was, he again erected an altar; but in his progress further south, he was arrested by a famine, which at that time grievously oppressed the whole country. Under these circumstances, he determined to visit Egypt, attracted, as Josephus says, by a desire to converse with the priests, but more probably incited to the movement by rumours of its fertility; yet the movement was not made without considerable apprehension that it might endanger, if not his life, at all events his domestic peace. Sarai, it appears, was an extremely beautiful woman, a quality which her advanced age had not impaired; and Abram, apprehensive that her charms would attract the notice of the Egyptians, to his own hurt, fell upon a device to obviate its consequences, for which no excuse is to be made. He persuaded Sarai to deny that she was his wife, and to represent herself as his sister, "that it might be well with him for her sake; and that his soul might live because of

her."

We are not ignorant that of this, and of a similar proceeding in the afterlife of the patriarch, some use has been made by those who read the Scriptures only for the purpose of detecting in them errors; whilst a hardly more justifiable course has been pursued regarding it, by such as are unwilling to see a fault in the most illustrious of all the Scripture characters. Now the truth appears to be, not only that Moses never designed to represent Abram as an absolutely perfect being, but that he records this undeniable act as folly, to call it by no harsher term, because he is too faithful a chronicler to conceal the weaknesses of his hero. It was, doubtless, extremely foolish in Abram to suppose, that the Deity, who had already shown so great a parti

ality towards him, would fail to carry him safely through the dangers which might attend him in Egypt; whilst there was still less excuse for the weakness which could tempt him to seek for personal security in the practice of falsehood, or, at best, of deceit and guile. Yet such are the facts recorded in Holy Writ; and however they may weigh against the virtue or good sense of Abram, they are to be admitted. On the other hand, it is the height of absurdity to contend, that because Abram's faith failed him in two memorable instances, he was therefore unworthy of the favour which God showed towards him, and the blessings which he received. Abram, like other characters in history, can be justly compared only with the men with whom he was contemporary; and, if we except Melchizedek, he was undeniably the most faithful, the most upright, the most religious, and the most just of all the persons with whom he came into contact. Besides, as Abram was chosen, not for his own sake, but to serve a particular purpose, having reference to the benefit of all mankind, and not to be accomplished till after many generations, a few blemishes in his moral character, would not, in any respect, affect the end of his adoption; which as it could be served only by one, out of the millions of men then alive, might just as well be served by Abram, as by any other person.

The dangers which Abram had foreseen, previous to his entrance into Egypt, soon began to environ him after he crossed the border. The extreme beauty of his wife became a topic of conversation in all circles, and was speedily made known to the king, who immediately caused the woman to be removed into his harem, for the purpose of adding her to his list of concubines. That this was done without any design on Pharaoh's part to injure Abram is proved by the circumstance that "he entreated the patriarch well for her sake, giving him sheep, and oxen, and asses, and men-servants, and maid-servants, and she-asses and camels, as the dowry of his sister." Yet Abram saw, when too late, that by acting deceitfully he had fallen into the very snare which it was his object to avoid. God, however, whom he had presumed to distrust, did not forsake his servant. He caused a heavy plague to fall upon Pharaoh and his house, so peculiar in its nature, as to point at once to the circumstances which had produced it; and the king discovering that Sarai was the wife, not the sister of the stranger, made haste to remedy the fault which he was pre

paring to commit. He sent for Abram, gently rebuked him for his conduct, and having restored to him his wife exactly as he had taken her, desired that a free passage should be granted to him beyond the boundary-line of his kingdom.

These matters were no sooner adjusted, than Abram, having heard that the famine was ceased in Canaan, set forth out of Egypt, and returned to his former settlement between Beth-el and Hai. Up to this moment Abram and Lot had lived together; but now their flocks were so greatly multiplied, and their followers so much increased in number, that it was found impossible, without trenching upon the possessions of the inhabitants of the country, to keep the two establishments any longer together. Some differences, likewise, having arisen between the herdsmen respecting a well, of all things the most valuable in eastern countries, the two patriarchs came to the wise determination of separating; and as this was done in the most perfect good humour, Abram requested that Lot would make choice of his new settlement. In consequence of this arrangement, Lot struck off towards the east, being attracted thither by the remarkable fertility of the valley of the Jordan, whilst Abram continued to inhabit the land of Canaan, and pitched his tent toward Sodom. There he was again favoured by a Divine vision, which promising that the whole of the region round about should in due time become the possession of his children, required him to make a sort of tour or journey throughout it, in obedience to which he once more removed his tent, and came and dwelt in the plain of Mamre, which is in Hebron."

Abram's first proceeding here was, as it had been elsewhere, to build an altar unto the Lord; after which he entered into an alliance or bond of friendship with Mamre, Aner, and Eshcol, three of the kings or princes of the country. Why this was done we are not told; though we may suppose it to have been brought about, if not by a direct admonition, at all events by the especial guidance of the Most High; but whether this was the case or not, one fact appears undeniable, that it proved in the issue to be attended with the happiest results both to Abram and to his kinsman.

It happened about this time that five petty princes, of whom the King of Sodom was one, rebelled against Chedorlaomer, king of Elam, who for several years had held them tributary and dependant. He marched against them

with a numerous army, and defeating them in a great battle fought in the valley of Sodom, put numbers to the sword, and compelled the rest to take refuge in the mountains. Chedorlaomer immediately proceeded to sack and plunder the cities, carrying away captive all whom he found in them; and as Lot dwelt at this time in the city of Sodom, he shared the fate of his fellow-countrymen. No great while elapsed, however, ere Abram was made aware of the calamity which had befallen his friend and relative. He lost no time in calling upon his allies to assist him with troops; and arming his own servants to the number of three hundred and eighteen, he set out in rapid pursuit of the victorious Elamites. These he overtook, after a march of nearly seventy leagues, and attacking them at night in several quarters, he threw them into such confusion, that they fled without striking a blow, leaving all their booty behind them.

Returning in triumph, and loaded with spoil, Abram was met by the king of Sodom, who congratulated him on his success; and freely giving up to him all the property, requested only that his subjects might be set free. But Abram was too generous to take advantage of the weakness of one, whom he had voluntarily assisted. He refused to retain a single article of the plunder which had been secured, beyond what would recompense his allies for the expense and trouble which they had undergone, and cheerfully restored not his subjects only, but his goods and treasures to the king. Nor did his virtue end here. When Melchizedek, king of Salem, had entertained him and his followers, and blessed them in the name of Jehovah, whose priest he was, Abram as a mark of reverence to the Deity, no less than of respect towards the man, presented him with a tenth part of the spoil which he had taken. This done, he dismissed the soldiers whom his confederates had lent him, and retired with his own people to his abode in Mamre.

He had not long resumed his ordinary occupations, when it pleased God again to cheer him with fresh and more remarkable assurances of his favour and protection. With these, as well as with the promises which had preceded them, Abram was of course greatly delighted; but having no children of his own, and seeing no probability that any would now be granted to him, he began to inquire of God whether the blessing would be fulfilled through Eliezer, the steward of his house. It is now that God explicitly inform

ed him that his heir should be the fruit of his own body; and desiring him to look up into the skies, assured him, that as the stars were numberless, so should his offspring be. We are distinctly assured that "Abraham believed God, and that God imputed it to him for righteousness:" yet in the spirit of the age in which he lived, he requested of God some sign by which his faith, should it at any time become weak, might be strengthened. God did not refuse to comply with his wish; a solemn sacrifice being offered, and Abram having sworn steady obedience to the Divine will, God caused a deep sleep to come over him, during which a vision passed by him, and revealed that he must not look for an immediate accomplishment of the prediction, for that though he himself should return to his fathers in peace, his posterity must suffer oppression during a period of four hundred years. At the end of that time, however, God promised to judge the nation that afflicted them, and that finally he would bestow upon them the whole of those regions in which Abram was a stranger. This was no sooner said than darkness closed in, and an awful manifestation of the Divine presence was afforded. A smoking furnace and a burning lamp were seen to pass between the divided victims, which they consumed in testimony that God's part of thé covenant was ratified.

During ten long years Sarai had vainly looked for the performance of God's promise, and judging now that the seed was to come of some other stock besides hers, she requested that her husband would accept at her hands, as a concubine or secondary wife, her own maid, Hagar. It is to be observed here, that the practice of polygamy seems to have been universally prevalent in ancient times, without any mark of reprobation being set upon it by the Most High. Why that was permitted in the patriarchal ages, which is so strictly forbidden now, it is, perhaps, needless to inquire; but that the case was so, Scriptur abundantly assures us. There are indeed travellers, among others Mr. Bruce, who assert, that nature itself points out the lawfulness of the custom in eastern countries, by producing females in the proportion of two or three to one male, and if such be the case now, we are fully justified in supposing that at least an equal provision would be made in the infancy of the world for an increase of population. But whatever force may be allowed to this argument, it is sufficient for us to know, that God, in all his dealings with mankind, has acted