9 Is not the whole land before thee? Separate thyself, I pray thee, from me: if thou wilt

k ch. 20. 15. & 34. 10. 1 Rom. 12. 18. Heb. 12. 14. Jam. 3. 17.

take the left hand, then I will go to the right; or if thou depart to the right hand, then I will go to the left.

and generous spirit which reigns in the bosom where the love of God has taken up its abode. It was on this try

the same faith and the same mode of worship; and as disciples of a religion breathing love and peace, good will and good offices, it could not but be attend-ing occasion that the practical nature ed with the worst consequences were they now to fall out with each other, and present the sad spectacle of a divided brotherhood. Indeed, if one of the laws of our adoption into the family of God is, that we become in all things brethren to each other, and bound to study each other's interest, how little does that sacred relation effect, if it does not avail to extinguish our mutual animosities? When we look around us in the world, who would believe that the same relationship, and therefore the same powerful motive for peace, still exists among its inhabitants? When we see the quarrels and the coldnesses, the lawsuits and the strifes, between those who are not only bound by the common tie of Christian fraternity, but by the closest bonds of affinity and blood, are we not tempted to inquire, can these men be indeed 'brethren? Can they all be trusting to the same hope of salvation, and expecting, or even desiring to dwell together in the same heaven? Indeed, is it possible to conceive that with such divisions of heart, with such bitterness of feeling, the same eternal mansions could contain them? Would not the tranquillity of heaven be disturbed if they were admitted there? Would heaven be heaven, if it were a place where so many differing brethren, under the influence of alienated affections, were to be congregated for ever together?

of Abraham's religion most strikingly developed itself; and that we may place this in its strongest light, let us for a moment consider the manner in which a man of the world would have acted upon such an emergency, and then mark the instructive contrast. Would not he have argued thus ?— 'There can be no question that if the land will not maintain our whole company, it will at least maintain me and all that belong to me. Let not my nephew therefore seek to appropriate to himself what has been in so peculiar a manner promised to me. I have both the right to claim the country, and the power to enforce that right, and though I would not do any thing that is not equitable and kind, it cannot be expected that the elder should yield to the younger, or that I should undervalue the promises or the gifts of God, by being so unnecessarily ready to transfer them to another. If strife or hostility be awakened, the peril be to him who awakens it; I have wherewithal to defend myself and to punish my opponents.' Such would have been unquestionably the opinion of nine tenths of mankind, and so prevalent is this selfish mode of reasoning and acting, that we scarcely feel that there would have been any thing objectionable, had this been the language and conduct of the patriarch himself. But how different was the fact! Abraham's conduct 9. Is not the whole land before thee? throughout was worthy of his exalted Separate thyself, &c. It would be dif- character. It was (1) eminently con ficult to point out a finer exemplifica- descending. As the elder of the two, tion of the truly noble, disinterested, as standing in the superior relation of

10 And Lot lifted up his eyes, | destroyed Sodom and Gomorand beheld all the plain of Jor-rah, even as the garden of the dan, that it was well watered LORD, like the land of Egypt, as every where, before the LORD thou comest unto P Zoar.

braced it. Had not selfishness deaden- | selves and their families in places where sabbaths and sanctuaries are unknown, and where they are constantly exposed to the most pernicious influences. Alas, at how dear a price are such worldly advantages purchased! Well will it be for them, if their goodly plains and fields do not finally yield such a harvest of sorrow as was gathered by hapless Lot.- ¶ Beheld all the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered every where. Heb. pwn that it was all a watering; i. e. abundantly watered, or a region that shewed the fertilizing effects which the irrigation of the Jordan would naturally produce. 'This river, being the principal stream of Palestine, has acquired a distinction much greater than its geographical importance could have given. It is sometimes called 'the river' by way of eminence, being in fact almost the only stream of the country which continues to flow in summer. The river rises about an hour and a quarter's journey (say three or three miles and a quarter) northeast from Banias, the ancient Cæsarea Philippi, in a plain near a hill called Tel-el-kadi. Here there are two springs near each other, one smaller than the other, whose waters very soon unite, forming a rapid river, from twelve to fifteen yards across, which rushes over a stony bed into the lower plain, where it is joined by a river which rises to the northeast of Banias. A few miles below their junction the now considerable river enters the small lake of Houle, or Semechonitis, (called 'the waters of Merom' in the Old Testament). This lake receives several other mountain-streams, some of which seem to have as good claim to be regarded as forming the Jordan as that to which it is given in the previous statement; and it would perhaps be safest to consider the lake formed by their union as the real source of the Jordan. After leaving the lake, the river proceeds about. twelve miles to the larger lake,

ed the finer feelings of his nature, he
would have returned the compliment
and given to Abraham the first choice.
Or, if he had accepted his offer, he
would at least have endeavoured to
make an equitable division of the lands,
so that each might have a fair portion of
the more fertile country. But instead
of this, he casts a wishful eye over the
well-watered plains of the Jordan, and
in the spirit of a grasping worldling
leaves nothing unappropriated. If he
escapes the charge of adding field to
field, it is by seizing the whole at once.
Nothing less than all will satisfy his
inordinate lust of land. How palpa-
ble the sordid selfishness of such a con-
duct! How clear the evidence that
worldly considerations had obtained the
ascendancy, and were the governing
principles of his heart. His conduct,
(2.)
was culpable because it argued
too little regard to the interests of his
soul. He can hardly be supposed to
have been ignorant of the character of
the people of Sodom, for they declared
their sin in the most open and unblush-
ing manner, as if in defiance of heaven
and earth; nor could he but have been
aware of the tendency of evil commu-
nications to corrupt good manners.
But as he seems to have left Abraham
without regret, so it would appear that
he approached Sodom without fear.
What benefits he was likely to lose,
what dangers to incur, by the step,
seem not to have entered his mind.
His earthly prosperity was all that en-
gaged his thoughts; and whether the
welfare of his soul was promoted or
impeded, he did not care. This con-
duct no one hesitates to condemn, yet
how many are there that practically
pursue the same heedless and perilous
course in their great movements in life?
With the single view of bettering their
worldly condition, they often turn their
backs upon the means of grace, and
reckless of consequences plant them-

ley, in a bed the banks of which are fourteen or fifteen feet high when the river is at the lowest. The banks are thickly beset by tamarisks, willow, oleander, and other shrubs, which conceal the stream from view until it is approached very nearly. These thickets, with those of the lower plain, once afforded cover to lions and other beasts of prey, which, when driven from their shelter by the periodical overflow of the river, gave much alarm to the inhabitants of the valley, Jeremiah 49. 19. Besides this passage, there are others, Josh. 3. 15; 1 Chron. 12. 15, in which an overflow of the Jordan is mention

called by various names, but best known as the Sea of Galilee; after leaving which, it flows about seventy miles farther, until it is finally lost in the Dead or Salt sea. It discharges into that sea a turbid, deep, and rapid stream, the breadth of which is from two to three hundred feet. The whole course of the river is about one hundred miles in a straight line, from north to south; but, with its windings, it probably does not describe a course of less than one hundred and fifty miles. Burckhardt says that it now bears different names in the various divisions of its course: Dhan near its source; Ordan lower down, near the Sea of Gal-ed, occasioned doubtless by the periodfilee; and Sherya between that lake and the Dead sea. As now understood, the valley or 'plain of Jordan,' through which the river flows, is applied to that part between the lake of Houle and the Dead sea; but as understood in the text, it must have comprehended that part of the valley which the Dead sea now occupies. From the accounts of different travellers, it seems to vary in breadth from four to ten or twelve miles in different parts. It is now in most parts a parched desert, but with many spots covered with a luxuriant growth of wild herbage and grass. Its level is lower, and the temperature consequently higher, than in most other parts of Syria. The heat is concentrated by the rocky mountains on each side, which also prevent the air from being cooled by the westerly winds in summer. This valley is divided into two distinct levels: the upper, or general level of the plain; and the lower, which is about forty feet below it. The preceding statement refers to the former; the latter varies in breadth from a mile to a furlong, and is partially covered with trees and luxuriant verdure, which give it an appearance striking in contrast with the sandy slopes of the higher level. The river flows through the middle of this lower val

ical rains or the melting of the snows on Lebanon. The river seems then to have overflowed its inner banks to a considerable extent about the commencement of spring. Modern travellers who have visited it at that season, have not noticed such an inundation: whence we may infer that the stream of the Jordan has diminished, or that it has worn itself a deeper channel. It has much perplexed inquirers to determine what became of the waters of the Jordan previously to the formation of the Dead Sea. This difficulty seems to have been resolved by Burckhardt, who, in his 'Travels in Syria and the Holy Land,' considers that the valley or plain of the Jordan is continued, under the names of El Ghor and El Araba, to the Gulf of Akaba; demonstrating that the river discharged its waters into the eastern gulf of the Red sea, until its course was interrupted by the great event which the nineteenth chapter of Genesis records.' Pict. Bible.- -T Like the land of Egypt, as thou comest unto Zoar. As Zoar was not in Egypt, but at the southern extremity of the plain of Jordan, the latter clause is to be connected with the first part of the verse, and the clause, 'before the Lord had destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah,' to be

11 Then Lot chose him all the plain of Jordan; and Lot journeyed east and they separated themselves one from the other. 12 Abram dwelled in the land of Canaan, and Lot dwelled in

q ch. 19. 29.

read in a parenthesis. Or we may
adopt the equivalent construction of
Houbigant who translates the verse;
'Before the Lord had destroyed Sodom
and Gomorrah, it was all, as thou goest
to Zoar, well watered, even as the gar-
den of the Lord, and as the land of
Egypt.' This gives the correct idea.
Zoar is here so called by anticipation,
as its name at this time was Bela,
ch. 14. 2, 8, and 19. 22.

11. Separated themselves the one from

aman איש מעל אחיו .the other. Heb

abode in it. From this he would doubtless be deterred by the well known abandoned and profligate character of its inhabitants. We may suppose that he fully intended to keep at a safe distance from that scene of abominations, but having once come within the perilous vicinity of the tents of sin, he is im perceptibly drawn onward. So treacherous is fallen nature in its weakness, that having once been persuaded to tread the borders of forbidden ground, we are easily induced to proceed a little farther, to take one more step, till at length every restraint is broken through and we are borne forward into the vortex of sin. So with Lot. The next that we hear of him he has actually planted himself in Sodom. Righteous Lot, a servant of God, seated in the very sink of corruption! 'Let him that standeth take heed lest he fall.'

from his brother; a common Hebrew idiom for expressing the idea conveyed in our translation. As nature, affection, religion, affliction all conspired to unite them, no doubt the prospect of separation was a severe trial to the feelings of Abraham. But it was a friendly parting; and whatever blank was made by it in his happiness, it was speedily and abundantly compensated by renewed manifestations of favour from that Almighty Friend' who suck-78 3 wicked and sinners to Jeeth closer than a brother.'

12. Abram dwelled in the land of Canaan. In its widest sense the land of Canaan included also the plain of Jordan, where Lot chose his residence; but it seems to have been occasionally used, in a more limited sense, to designate the mountainous country lying between the Mediterranean and the Jordan, exclusive of the valley through which that river runs. -T Pitched his tent toward Sodom. That is, continued to remove his tent from place to place, gradually approaching towards Sodom, though not perhaps with the design of actually entering and taking up his

13. Wicked and sinners before the Lord exceedingly. Heb. D-8D77 0191

hovah exceedingly. Chal. 'Unrighte ous with their mammon, and most vile in their bodies before the Lord exceedingly.' A very emphatic mode of expression, implying not only the depra. ved character common to all mankind in their unrenewed state, but the most vile, unblushing, abominable, and awful exhibitions of that character. They were not only wicked, but desperately wicked; they were not only sinners, but high-handed and heaven-daring sinners. Their city was polluted to its centre, and the iniquities which abounded in it were even now calling aloud for the vengeance of heaven. It had filled up