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fell on her, and crusted over her body, so that she became like a pillar of salt.

"There was not very much harm in only looking back, grandfather," I said, "why was she punished so very much ?"

"In looking back she disobeyed a positive command of God, and in looking back from behind Lot she shewed that she had more regard to her husband's approbation than to the approbation of God. She did not wish Lot to know that she was doing wrong; she did not care though God knew it. The fate which befel her teaches us to fear God rather than man.

"Then the Lord rained fire and brimstone upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah, so that fertile plain, where many people and many cattle had dwelt, was changed into a place where nothing could live."

"What like is the place now, grandfather?" George asked.

"It is a lake called the Dead Sea, a large lake about forty miles in length and eighteen in breadth. The waters of it are very salt, as some one says they taste like fire. Nothing that lives or breathes is to be found in them, and they are the only waters in the world of which that can be said. Travellers have told that they could see pillars and fragments of buildings under the clear waters, but that is not necessary to prove the truth of the story I have told you. Some have supposed that the soil of the fertile plain of Sodom was partly composed of a very combustible material; that it rested on

a mass of subterranean water, and that lightning kindling the ground, the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah fell into the abyss. Others have thought that there was an earthquake caused by fire underneath the ground, which attracted the lightning, and so consumed the cities. But whatever the soil may have been, we know for certain that the Cities of the Plain, for their sins, were destroyed by fire from heaven, and that their destruction is a type of the everlasting destruction of the wicked in the 'lake that burneth with fire and brimstone.' We are warned to flee from the wrath to come.' The fate of Lot's sons-in-law teaches us not to neglect that warning. The fate of Lot himself teaches us to choose for our friends and associates those that fear God. He that walketh with wise men shall be wise, but the companion of fools shall have poverty enough.""

Grandfather then asked us some questions, to see if we had remembered the lessons we were to draw from what he had been telling us. These are the questions he asked: :

"What do we learn from Abram leaving to Lot the choice of his abode?

"What do we learn from the blessing with which Melchisedek blessed Abram?

"What does Abram's conduct to his three friends teach us?

"When Abraham prayed for the people of Sodom, what did he teach us?

us?

"What does the granting of all his requests shew to

"What are we shewn from the promise given by God to spare the city if ten righteous could be found in it? "What does the fate of Lot's wife teach us?

"Of what is the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah a type?

"What are we taught by the fate of Lot's sons-inlaw?

"What do we learn from the fate of Lot himself?"

THE WILDERNESS.

"When Israel, of the Lord belov'd,
Out from the land of bondage came,
Her father's God before her mov'd,
An awful guide, in smoke and flame.
By day along the astonish'd lands
The cloudy pillar glided slow;
By night Arabia's crimson'd sands
Return'd the fiery column's glow.
There rose the choral hymn of praise,
And trump and timbrel answer'd keen;
And Zion's daughters pour'd their lays,
With priests' and warriors' voice between."

Sir WALTER SCOTT.

THE next morning the first thing George and I did was to get our grandfather's Bible, and read the account of the battle with the kings, and the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. We went to church with grandfather, and we had to leave very early, for we had a good way to go, and grandfather was not very able to walk. When we came home again we learned catechism and verses, and said them to grandfather. George was grumbling at having that to do, but not aloud, for he would not have liked grandfather to hear him; but grandfather explained them so nicely to us, that he made even them interesting. George then asked grandfather to tell us

about another battle.

Grandfather said he would, but

first would ask us some more questions about the one he had told us of the day before. We were able to answer all that he asked us; so he said he was pleased, and would go on to the next. I asked if Abraham had fought any more battles?

It

"We do not hear of any more fought by him. was many years after his death that the next one mentioned in the Bible was fought. It was two thousand five hundred and thirteen years after the creation of the world, one thousand nine hundred and twenty-one years before the Christian era. The Lord had brought out of Egypt the children of Israel, the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. They were brought out with many miracles; signs and wonders were done in the land of Ham."

"What was the land of Ham ?" Johnnie asked. "Egypt, to be sure," said George.

"Was Ham the king of Egypt?" Johnnie next inquired.

"No, Pharaoh was the king of Egypt."

"Who was Ham then ?" said Johnnie.

But George could not answer that, nor could I, although I was sure that I had heard of Ham before.

"He was the youngest son of Noah," grandfather said, "and Egypt was called the land of Ham because the Egyptians were descended from him. The Israelites were now freed from the tyranny of Pharoah-they were in the wilderness."

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