by the desire of worldly riches and power. His righteous soul was vexed from day to day with the conversation of the wicked; yet he did not resolve to leave all and come out from among them. The passage-" God remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow"-gives us reason to believe that the intercession of Abraham saved him from being involved in the ruin of his guilty fellow-citizens. When the angels led him forth from the city, the comment of the sacred historian is-" the Lord being merciful unto him ;" and his own acknowledgment testifies "Thou hast magnified thy mercy, which thou hast showed unto me in saving my life;" thus implying a consciousness of having deserved to suffer the penalty escaped. The family of Lot consisted of several persons; but the sacred "They call, They call you, rover, back again! There is a mound beneath your village spire, Where, touched by love, your tears would fall like rain; It shields a holy man, your aged sire, Who sought in life to curb your youthful fire, Hear his death call! "In vain! Alas! you heard not e'en that call; Proudly you stand upon the red man's ground, Slighted, from your resolved breast rebound, "Farewell For ever, roamer of the wild! God, whom you can forget, his own will see; His sun still shines upon his erring child, His breezes fan you with their current free, record gives no ground to believe that any of the members, except the head, partook of the true spirit of religion, or had any love to God. His wife, whom some think he had married in Sodom-his residence having been there for more than twenty years—was evidently strongly attached to the luxuries of her home, and showed reluctance to quit it, even at the command of the messengers of Divine vengeance. The two maiden daughters who escaped the destruction of Sodom, had not the fear of God before their eyes, as their after-conduct manifested. His sons-in-law, who had probably married others of his daughters-not particularly mentioned in Scripture-paid no heed to his alarmed announcement of impending destruction, but treated his words with derision. What a situation for the parent whose sensibilities were alive, to be surrounded by the thoughtless and hardened, even of his nearest and dearest! The feeling in Lot's nature may have been blunted by much care, and desire of gain; but many moments of bitter anguish must have been his, as he saw the gradual corruption, from the contagion of evil example, of the youthful hearts he would fain have moulded to piety; as he saw his precepts disregarded, and contemplated the moral prospect opening before them. He could not, however, resolve to flee from the contamination of the grievous iniquity around him, the cry of which had gone up to heaven. His abode was fixed in Sodom, and he could not abandon the substance he had gathered. He remained; till the purpose of God was ripe for accomplishment, and the day of retribution came. At the close of even, the patriarch sat in the gate of the city, having, perhaps, been occupied in business during the day, or in conversation with some of the principal inhabitants. He saw two strangers enter, whose appearance engaged his attention. Not yet aware of their supernatural character, and eager to show the hospitality deemed so sacred a duty in ancient times, he arose to meet them, and, with a reverential obeisance and with courteous deference of manner, saluted them, and entreated as a favour that they would accept the shelter of his roof for the night. They declined, saying they would abide all night in the street; but Lot felt this answer a reproach on his hospitality, and pressed them so earnestly to partake of entertainment, that they entered his house and sat down to the feast prepared for them. At a late hour, amidst the clamorous cries and frantic uproar of the wicked multitude without, the strangers bade Lot assemble his family, and gather together whatsoever he would carry with him in immediate flight. The iniquity of the place is full: its cry "is waxen great before the face of the Lord ;" and the new-comers are the commissioned messengers of destruction. Lot is not disobedient to the heavenly warning. He hastens to call his sons-in-law, informs them of the impending calamity, and urges them to lose no time in escaping from the devoted city; but he seems to them as one that mocked," and they refuse to credit the appalling words his lips utter. As they were not of the number who escaped, it is reasonable to conclude that they disregarded altogether his entreaties to save themselves-convinced only when it was too late, of the truth of his prediction-and that they perished in the wide-spread desolation. 66 The remaining hours of night passed in vain remonstrances and solicitations, and in preparations for their hurried flight. As the dawn glimmered in the east, the celestial visitants warned the fugitives that no time must be lost. The command to Lot to take his wife and the two daughters that were under his roof, might imply that the others, if living, dwelt in homes of their own, and shared the stubborn incredulity of their husbands. Still as the father lingered, reluctant to leave those who staid to certain death, his companion seized his hand, and the hand of those who followed him, and drawing them with merciful force from the scene of struggle, led them forth, stopping not till they were without the gate. "Escape for thy life," they cried: "look not behind thee, neither stay thou in all the plain; escape to the mountain, lest thou be consumed." Lot feared to flee to the solitude of the mountain. Accustomed to live in the midst of human companionship, he clung, in lack of full confidence in God, to the protection of his own kind. A city was near at hand; he might be saved the necessity of a long and perilous flight; while unknown evils might await him, should he plunge into the dreary recesses of those primitive forests. Even in the haste and agitation of escape, he turns to the angel to entreat that the small city in which he desired to seek refuge may be spared."Is it not a little one?" the inhabitants are few, and the burden of their iniquity cannot be so grievous as here; it is but a small thing to be saved, when so many are overwhelmed! let me escape thither, and shun the dangers of an abode, shelterless and defenceless, upon the distant mountain! His pleading prevails; the voice of the avenger, which had pronounced the doom of Sodom and Gomorrah, in gracious condescension assures him that his petition is granted, and bids him hasten the departure of his family to the spared city. As the first beams of the sun kindle the eastern sky, the fugitives are hastening at their utmost speed-not once daring to look back-across the cultivated plain. Brimstone and fire descend in torrents from the heavens, as poured out from the hand of the Infinite Avenger himself. The soil, undermined with veins of bitumen and sulphur, is kindled and broken up by the streaming flames; thunders and a terrible quaking of the earth shake the foundations of the overthrown cities, while the fiery flood swallows up the habitations of men; and amidst the awful convulsion of nature, the fierce uproar of the elements, and the wail of the dying that goes up as the inundation sweeps the valley-the rivers overflow their banks, and the waters, rushing together, fill the desolated plain. The rich and blooming vale becomes a sullen lake, whose heavy and unwholesome waters are impregnated with the bitterness of the soil, and overhung by murky fogs; a scene of gloomy desolation; a monument to after-ages of the tremendous catastrophe described in Holy Writ. Malte Brun says of the valley of the Jordan-"It offers many traces of volcanoes; the bituminous and sulphurous waters of Lake Asphaltites, the lavas and pumice thrown out on its banks, and the warm-bath of Tabariah, show that this valley. has been the theatre of a fire not yet extinguished. Volumes of smoke are often observed to escape from Lake Asphaltites, and new crevices are found on its margin." The wife of Lot lingering behind in unwillingness to leave their possessions in Sodom, or, as some expositors think, attempting to return, which opinion is favoured by the reference of our Saviour to the event, (St. Luke xvii. 31, 32,)—was suffocated by the saline and sulphurous vapours that loaded the atmosphere, andin the picturesque language of Scripture, "became a pillar of salt." The father and daughters remained not in Zoar; for he feared to dwell there. Probably the wickedness of the place, and its situation near the stagnant lake which covered the district once so beautiful and populous, were sufficient grounds for fear; and it is not unlikely that the remembrances of the terrific catastrophe, kept vivid by the locality, were to the last degree painful. He sought refuge, with the remnant of his family, in a cave on the mountains. Early on that fateful morning arose the pious Abraham, and betook himself to the elevated place where, the evening previous, he had stood before the Lord interceding for the doomed cities. So gracious had been the assurance that for the sake even of ten righteous persons Sodom should be spared, if they were found therein that some hope lingered in his heart that the city in which dwelt the family of his beloved kinsman might have escaped the general destruction. With anxiety strongly mingled with fear, but tempered by a pervading trust that the Judge of all the earth would do right, he hastened to the spot commanding a view of all the land of the plain. What a sight met his gaze! The level F |