from thy servant." And Abraham provided refreshment for his guests, "and he stood by them under the tree, and they did eat;" and when they had partaken of the repast, they said, "Where is Sarah thy wife? And he said, Behold, in the tent." Then the superior visitor addressed Himself to Abraham, as Jehovahpromising him a son by his wife, whose name had been changed, by the command of the Lord, to Sarah, (or the mother of nations.) "And the men rose up from thence, and looked toward Sodom: and Abraham went with them to bring them on the way. And Jehovah said, Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do; seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him? for I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment." Then did Jehovah communicate to Abraham the righteous purpose of His will, in the awful punishment that awaited the reprobate inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah, and the neighbouring cities of the plain; "because the cry of them" was "great, and their sin" was "very grievous.". Then the two attendant angels "turned their faces from thence, and went towards Sodom;" but the superior Angel, who was himself Jehovah, continued to converse - with Abraham, and to permit him to intercede for the devoted city; which Jehovah graciously declared He would spare, if only ten righteous could be found within it. "And Jehovah went His way, as soon as he had left communing with Abraham; and Abraham

returned to his place." Then, as the sacred narrative proceeds, we have striking evidence that the righteous "Judge of all the earth" graciously regards those who fear His name, for He "delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked;" and his special care over his faithful servant Abraham is indicated by the record, that "It came to pass, when God destroyed the cities of the plain, that God remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow."

CHAP. XVIII.-And Sarah bare Abraham a son, and Abraham called his name Isaac, according as the Lord had commanded him. And when the child was grown, it pleased God to try the faith of Abraham, by commanding him to offer up his son Isaac, as a burnt sacrifice unto the Lord. Abraham obeyed this command: and he took his darling son, with two of his young men who conveyed the wood and the fire for the sacrifice, and went, as he was directed by God, to a mountain in the land of Moriah; and there he "built an altar, and laid the wood in order, and bound Isaac his son upon the altar; but, as he was about to slay his son, "the angel of the Lord called to him out of heaven, saying, Abraham, Abraham, lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou anything unto him, for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing that thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, from me." And Abraham beheld a ram that was "caught in a thicket by his horns"-and Abraham offered up the ram instead of his son-and he "called the name of

that place Jehovah-Jireh; (i. e., The Lord will provide.) Thus, "by faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac, and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, of whom it was said, In Isaac shall thy seed be called: accounting that God was able to raise him up even from the dead; from whence also he had received him in a figure." And when Abraham had become advanced in age he commanded the eldest servant of his house, that ruled over all that he had, to go to the land of his nativity and to his kindred, to take a wife unto his son Isaac: and the servant went to Mesopotamia, unto the city of Nahor, Abraham's brother. The descendants of their father, Terah, were worshippers of the everlasting Jehovah; whilst the Canaanites, amongst whom Abraham dwelt, had apostatized from him, and were of the nations who were to be cast out before the posterity of Abraham, according to the promise of the Lord. And the servant being divinely guided, went to the family of Bethuel, Abraham's nephew, and took Rebecca, the daughter of Bethuel, to be the wife of his master Isaac, who met her on the way, by the well La-hai-roi, as he walked in the field to meditate at eventide.

Shortly before this event Sarah died in Kirjath Arba, which was afterwards called Hebron, in the land of Canaan; and Isaac and Rebecca inhabited Sarah's tent. And Abraham took to wife Keturah, by whom he had six sons, who each became heads of tribes; and "Abraham gave gifts to them," and "sent them away from Isaac his son, while he yet lived,

eastward unto the east country; and from them, and from the children of Ishmael, we trace different nations and kingdoms in Arabia and the adjoining countries. Several of them became the enemies and oppressors of the children of Israel, both before and after their settlement in the promised land.

"And

CHAP. XIX.-After the death of Abraham, Isaac and Rebecca had two sons, Esau and Jacob. the Lord appeared unto Isaac," and said unto him, "Sojourn in this land, and I will be with thee, and will bless thee; for unto thee and to thy seed will I give all these countries, and I will perform the oath which I sware unto Abraham thy father, and I will make thy seed to multiply as the stars of heaven." This promise had reference to the future increase and prosperity of the people who should descend from him, and who, in the lines of both his sons, became possessed of the territories eastward of the Jordan, extending far into Arabia, and westward to the Mediterranean, or "Great Sea," and to Egypt-from the Euphrates on the north, to the Red Sea southward. But the words of the Most High God, which follow this promise of external greatness, have clearly a far more important significance; being a renewal of that assurance, which had been vouchsafed to Abraham, of the Redeemer who was to come: "In thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed."

And Isaac dwelt at Gerar in the land of the Philistines; but the men of Gerar stopped up the wells which Abraham had digged; therefore Isaac removed

thence into the valley of Gerar, and digged other wells; but the herdmen of the Philistines strove with Isaac's herdmen for these wells also. Then Isaac removed again, and digged another well; and the king of the Philistines made with him a league, which was confirmed by oath; therefore Isaac called the place Beer (i. e., the well) Sheba (i. e. of the oath) and he there founded a city called Beersheba.

Esau, his eldest son, took to wife two Canaanitish women, who "were a grief of mind unto Isaac and to Rebecca."

"And Esau seeing that the daughters of Canaan pleased not Isaac his father, he went unto Ishmael, Abraham's son, by Hagar, and took unto the wives which he had Mahalath (elsewhere called Bashemath,) the daughter of Ishmael, and sister of Nebajoth, to be his wife."

And it came to pass that Jacob, instructed by his mother, obtained by subtlety the blessing of primogeniture; and, for this cause, Esau hated him, and purposed to kill him. The Apostle, in writing to the Hebrews, speaks of Esau as a "profane person, who, for one morsel of meat, sold his birthright." The right of primogeniture was, at that early period, attended by many advantages. The eldest son was heir to the lands of his father, and was considered the patriarch of the family. Isaac was, like Abraham, only a sojourner in a strange country; in which he had no "inheritance; no, not so much as to set his. foot on," save the burying-place which Abraham had bought of the Hittites: and it is obvious that Esau

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