a wild and universal cry, ascended from Sodom, and was echoed with added shrillness from the neighbouring city. The people rushed in frantic terror and despair to the temples, but the lightnings followed them thither, notwithstanding the closed doors and windows. An ashy sulphurous smell mingled with the sacrifices which the affrighted priests hastily prepared to offer to their idols, and the flames were driven back into the faces of those who kindled them. Presently the booming thunder arose, and fiery hail descended thick and fast from heaven. The massy roofs of the temples crashed and groaned. The foundations shook; the walls were rent; and the blue and scorching lightning played on the impious multitudes collected to celebrate their own obsequies with heathen rites. Yells of agony, oaths, curses, prayers, and entreaties, were blended in one frightful outcry. Palace and cottage tottered and fell before the desolating storm. Throughout Sodom and throughout Gomorrah, and in the neighbouring plains, there was not one building left standing, nor one living person to be found, when the howling tempest ceased. The destroying angels had swept away man and his works, together with the green trees, the flowers, and the herbs of the field; and the place where Sodom and Gomorrah had stood, was thenceforth covered by the lake, which has ever since been called, from the bituminous

qualities of its water, the Lake Asphalte.

The Syrian traveller still sees, or fancies he sees, beneath the sluggish waves, the ruins of the cities which were overthrown for their manifold wickedness, by the divine vengeance.

Lot and his family, meanwhile, journeyed towards Zoar; but his wife, disregarding the command of the Almighty, looked back upon Sodom, and was instantly stricken by the hand of the Lord, and became a pillar of salt; an awful example of the anger of God against disobedience. Lot and his daughters, after sojourning for a time in Zoar, departed thence and dwelt in a cave among the mountains.

Abraham had arisen early in the morning of the day when Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed, and going up to the place where he had stood to intercede for the wicked inhabitants, he looked towards those cities and the surrounding plain, and lo, the smoke of the country went up as the smoke of a furnace. So Abraham, having seen the sublime work of the one true and only God, journeyed from that place towards the south and abode between Kadesh and Shur.

77

PATRIARCHAL LIFE OF ABRAHAM.

ABRAHAM had two wives. The name of the one was Sarah, a kinswoman of her husband, and the other's name was Hagar, who was an Egyptian bondwoman. In the early ages of the world it was common for men to have several wives, and this was not then esteemed sinful. Hagar had a son named Ishmael, who was born when Abraham his father was fourscore and six years old. The Lord had said concerning Ishmael, that he would be "a wild man, whose hand would be against every man, and every man's hand against him; but that he should nevertheless be blessed, and fruitful, and become a great nation." And Hagar grew proud and vain because of her son, and because Sarah her mistress was childless.

When Abraham was a hundred years old, however, the Lord fulfilled his promise to Sarah, and she also had a son, whose name was called Isaac, because of the joy which he brought to his father's household. And when in due course of time the child was weaned, Abraham made a great feast for his herdsmen and servants, and for the strangers in whose country