blessings were not designed for Ishmael, but for a child of his hitherto barren wife, whom he should name Isaac ; that Ishmael should, indeed, be blessed, and become the father of a great nation; but that Isaac alone should be entitled to the covenant of promise.

B. C. 1897.

God had no sooner departed, than Abraham obeyed the divine command relative to himself and the other males of his family, and was, soon afterward, honored with another visit, more remarkable than the former. Sitting one day under the umbrage of a tree near his tent, he beheld three persons, whom he supposed to be travellers, at a distance, and going toward them, invited them to partake of some refreshi ments. Having obtained their consent, he ordered a repast to be prepared, and in this interview received a fresh assurance that Sarah should bear a son, within the year. Sarah, who appears to have listened at the tent door, burst out into laughter at this declaration; and the stranger demanded the reason of her ill-timed mirth in such a serious manner, that she was overwhelmed with confusion, and attempted to deny it; but her Divine Guest convinced her, that it was impossible to hide any thing from his observation, and reminded her that nothing was impossible with God.

The heavenly visitors now rose up to pursue their journey, and Abraham accompanied them, till one of them, whom Moses calls the Lord, gave him to understand that the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah had ascended to heaven, on account of the extreme depravity of their inhabitants, and that he was going down with a resolution to destroy them, if upon enquiry their wickedness should be found equal to the report of it. Abraham was no sooner apprised of this circumstance than the

recollection of his nephew Lot, and a lively compassion for his fellow mortals, emboldened him to plead on behalf of such righteous persons as might possibly be found amongst the ungodly, and his humble solicitations were crowned with such success, that God declared, if but ten just men were found in the place, he would lay aside his indignation for their sake.

Toward the cool of the evening, two angels, who appear to have been charged with the execution of the divine judgment, approached Sodom, and were invited to the house of Lot, whom they found sitting in the gate. They had scarcely, however, accepted his proffered hospitality, before a crowd of citizens assembled before the house, and demanded, in a tumultuous manner, that the strangers should be brought out to them. Lot, who was no stranger to their base intentions, endeavoured to appease them by rational and persuasive arguments, and even proposed to sacrifice his own daughters to their licentiousness for the preservation of his guests: but as this offer was rejected with disdain, and Lot himself was threatened with violence, the angels suddenly drew their kind host into the house, shut the door, and struck the riotous multitude with blindness; by which means their nefarious designs were rendered abortive. The angels next acquainted Lot with the nature of their commission, and exhorted him so earnestly to provide for the safety of all his friends and relatives, that he went, before day-break, to his sons-in-law, and warned them of the impending danger; but they either disbelieved or contemned the news as unworthy of their notice, and positively refused to quit the city.

The orient clouds were no sooner tingel with the rays of morning light, than the angels reminded Lot of

C

his perilous situation, and, on his appearing rather dilatory, laid hold on him, together with his wife and daughters, and brought them out of the city, urging them to flee with all imaginable precipitation to the mountains, and warning them not to look back, lest they should be involved in the general destruction. Lot considering his extreme danger, and fearing lest he should be unable to reach the mountains, which were yet far distant, earnestly requested permission to retire to a small city, in the vicinage of Sodom, then called Bela, but afterward distinguished by the appellation of Zoar, This petition was mercifully granted, and he was commanded to take refuge there immediately, as the divine judgment should not be executed till he had reached his asylum. Immediately after sun-rise, Lot entered Zoar; and the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah were all destroyed by a dreadful shower of fire and brimstone which God is emphatically said to have rained down from hea ven. Lot's wife, also, having violated the angel's injunction, and turned her eyes toward her former habitation, was instantly deprived of her existence, and changed into a pillar of salt, as an object of terror to the disobedient and unbelieving.

Shortly after this memorable occurrence, Lot quitted Zoar, and took up his abode, with his two daughters, in a cave situated among the mountains on the east of the dead sea, or Lake Asphaltites. In this sequestered dwelling, the young women, dreading lest they should die childless, which in that age was accounted the greatest reproach, laid a plan by which their father was deceived into the crime of incest, and they became the mo thers of two children, from whom sprang the warlike nations of the Moabites and Ammonites, against whom

the Israelites fought, under Moses, Joshua, and other leaders, with various success.

Abraham, having learned the sad fate of Sodom, from the smoke of the country which is said to have ascended like the smoke of a furnace, removed from Hebron into the land of the Philistines, where the same adventure happened to him as he had, on a former occasion, met with in Egypt; for Abimelech, king of the Philistines, supposing Sarah to be the patriarch's sister, took her into his house, and secured her for his own bed. In consequence of an alarming dream, however, he returned her untouched to her husband, and loaded her with several considerable presents, after mildly rebuking Abraham for his want of confidence in the people among whom he had come to sojourn.

B. C. Some time after this transaction, Abraham, 1896. who had now attained to the hundredth year of his age, received the accomplishment of his Maker's gracious promise, by the birth of Isaac, in whom God had predicted that all the families of the earth should be blessed. The child of promise, having received the rite of circumcision, and been suckled by his exulting mother, was weaned at the customary time; a feast was made to all the household on the joyous occasion; and the venerable parents appear to have been in the zenith of happiness. This exquisite felicity was, indeed, damped, for some time, by Sarah's resolving to cast out Hagar and her offspring, who had both acted disrespect

This promise was fully acccomplished in the person and expiatory sufferings of JESUS CHRIST, who, as touching his manhood, was lineally descended from Isaac.

fully toward the young heir, but who were still dear to the patriarch. At length, however, God having con firmed Sarah's proposal, and promised to provide for the welfare of Ishmael, the patriarch consented to send his bond-woman and her son away, that they might have no opportunity of disputing the inheritance with Isaac.

Hagar, having received a supply of bread and a bottle of water from her affectionate master, departed with her son, and wandered about in the wilderness of Beersheba, till the water being spent, and her own strength probably exhausted, she laid the object of her anxious solicitude under a shrub, or small tree, and sat down, at a considerable distance from him, expecting that he must soon die for want. While this supposition bedewed her cheek with tears, and she exclaimed in an agony of grief, "Let me not see the death of my child!" an angel of God called to her out of heaven, assuring her of the divine protection on behalf of her son, and repeating the former declaration that he should become the father of a great nation. He also directed her attention to a well of water, and thus obviated her cares and inquietudes. After this period Ishmael is said to have dwelt in the wilderness, and to have become an expert archer as he advanced to years of maturity. The inspired historian has likewise informed us, that Hagar took a wife for him out of the land of Egypt; and it appears from many concurring testimonies, that he eventually became the father of that warlike but extraordinary people, anciently known by the appellation of Ishmaelites, but now called Bedouins, or Arabs of the Desert, who, notwithstanding the various revolutions that have happened in the world, still seem to retain the disposition