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grievous in thy sight because of the lad, and because of thy bondwoman; in all that Sarah hath said unto thee, hearken unto her voice; for in Isaac shall thy seed be called. And also of the son of the bondwoman will I make a nation, because he is thy seed. And Abraham rose up early in the morning, and took bread, and a bottle of water, and gave it unto Hagar, and he put the child on her shoulder, and sent her away and she departed, and wandered in the wilderness of Beer-sheba. And the water was spent in the bottle, and she cast the child under one of the shrubs. And she went, and sat her down over against him a bowshot off; for she said, Let me not see the death of the child. So she sat over against him. And the child lifted up its voice and wept. And God heard the voice of the lad; and the angel of God called to Hagar out of heaven, and said unto her, What aileth thee, Hagar? fear not; for God hath heard the voice of the lad where he is. Arise, lift up the lad, and take him by thine hand; for I will make him a great nation. And God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water; and she went, and filled the bottle with water, and gave the lad drink. And God was with the lad; and he grew, and dwelt in the wilderness, and became an archer. And he dwelt in the wilderness of Paran: and his mother took him a wife out of the land of Egypt.

§ 10. Abraham, as we know, had a perfect faith in God. And now, as the Bible tells us, his great faith, that whatever God does must somehow be right, was to receive a strange and terrible trial. The voice of God, to which he had been wont to render unquestioning obedience, ordered him to do something which we cannot for a moment imagine God ordering us to do, even as a trial of our faith. The divine voice ordered him to take his son Isaac and to offer him up for a burnt offering. Now to Abraham and, what is still more important to remember, to the writer of the story, the command would not have appeared as impossible for God to order as it appears to us. For in those distant times many races fell under the terrible illusion that the most precious sacrifice they could offer to God was the sacrifice of their own children. The object of the order was, therefore, not merely to make trial of Abraham's faith in God (and it is good for faith to be tried, for it is strengthened in the trial), but to make him understand that God does not require or desire so terrible and unnatural a sacrifice. The purpose of the story is also not merely to draw for us a vivid

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picture of Abraham's implicit faith in God, but to teach that the God of Israel, unlike the false gods of the surrounding nations and tribes, utterly rejects and forbids the sacrifice of man by man. Further than this the writer of the story could not see: further than this God in his wisdom did not desire him to see. A later teacher was permitted to realize that even the sacrifice of animals was indifferent to God. This is what that later teacher says:

Wherewith shall I come before God, and bow myself before the high God? shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves of a year old? Will God be pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten thousands of rivers of oil? shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth God require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?

But now to come back to the trial of Abraham. This is what the Bible tells us; how vivid and touching is the tale!

And it came to pass after these things, that God did try Abraham, and said unto him, Abraham: and he said, Behold, here I am. And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of. And Abraham rose up early in the morning, and saddled his ass, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son, and clave the wood for the burnt offering, and rose up, and went unto the place of which God had told him. Then on the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes, and saw the place afar off. And Abraham said unto his young men, Abide ye here with the ass; and I and the lad will go yonder and worship, and come again to you. And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering, and laid it upon Isaac his son; and he took the fire in his hand, and a knife; and they went both of them together. And Isaac spake unto Abraham his father, and said, My father: and he said, Here am I, my son. And he said,

Behold the fire and the wood: but where is the lamb for a burnt offering? And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering: so they went both of them together. And they came to the place which LIBRARY

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God had told him of; and Abraham built an altar there, and laid the wood in order, and bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar upon the wood. And Abraham stretched forth his hand, and took the knife to slay his son. And the angel of God called unto him out of heaven, and said, Abraham, Abraham: and he said, Here am I. And he said, Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou anything unto him: for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me. And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold a ram caught in a thicket by his horns: and Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his son. And the angel of God called unto Abraham out of heaven the second time. And he said, By myself have I sworn, saith God, because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son: that I will richly bless thee, and I will greatly multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and through thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice. So Abraham returned unto his young men, and they rose up and went together to Beer-sheba; and Abraham dwelt at Beer-sheba.

§ II. Some years after this, Sarah, Isaac's mother and Abraham's wife, died. The Bible tells us how Abraham bought for himself and his family a sepulchre in which Sarah was buried. In this story the people of the land are called the children of Heth. You will notice the stately manners of Abraham and his courtesy to Ephron the Hittite chief.

And Sarah died in Kirjath-arba, in the land of Canaan: and Abraham mourned for Sarah, and wept for her. And Abraham stood up from before his dead, and spake unto the children of Heth, saying, I am a stranger and a sojourner with you give me a possession of a buryingplace with you, that I may bury my dead out of my sight. And the children of Heth answered Abraham, saying unto him, Hear us, my lord: thou art a mighty prince among us: in the choice of our sepulchres bury thy dead; none of us shall withhold from thee his sepulchre, that thou mayest bury thy dead. And Abraham rose up, and bowed himself to the people of the land, even to the children of Heth. And he communed with them, saying, If it be your mind that I should bury my

dead out of my sight, hear me, and intreat for me to Ephron the son of Zohar, that he may give me the cave of Machpelah, which he hath, which is in the end of his field; for as much money as it is worth let him give it to me for a possession of a buryingplace amongst you. Now Ephron was sitting among the children of Heth: and Ephron the Hittite answered Abraham in the audience of the children of Heth, even of all that went in at the gate of the city, saying, Nay, my lord, hear me: the field give I thee, and the cave that is therein, I give it thee; in the presence of the sons of my people give I it thee: bury thy dead. And Abraham bowed himself down before the people of the land. And he spake unto Ephron in the audience of the people of the land, saying, But if thou wilt, I pray thee, hear me: I will give thee money for the field; take it of me, and I will bury my dead there. And Ephron answered Abraham, saying unto him, My lord, hearken unto me: the land is worth four hundred shekels of silver; what is that betwixt me and thee? bury therefore thy dead, And Abraham hearkened unto Ephron; and Abraham weighed to Ephron the silver, which he had named in the audience of the children of Heth, four hundred shekels of silver, current money with the merchant. Thus the field of Ephron, which was in Machpelah, which was east of Mamre, the field, and the cave which was therein, and all the trees that were in the field, that were in all the border round about, were made sure unto Abraham for a possession in the presence of the children of Heth, before all that went in at the gate of his city. And after this, Abraham buried Sarah his wife in the cave of the field of Machpelah before Mamre (the same is Hebron), in the land of Canaan. And the field, and the cave that is therein, were made sure unto Abraham for a possession of a buryingplace by the sons of Heth.

§ 12. When you come to read the Bible for yourselves, you will find in it more stories about Abraham than I shall tell you here. I shall only tell you one more story, but that one is very beautiful. It is, however, less about Abraham than about his son Isaac. It tells how Abraham became very old, and how he wanted to see his son Isaac, who was now grown up, happily married before he died.

And Abraham was old, and well stricken in age: and God had blessed Abraham in all things. And Abraham said unto

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his servant that ruled over all that he had, Swear, I pray thee, by the Lord, the God of heaven and the God of the earth, that thou wilt not take a wife for my son of the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I dwell: but thou shalt go unto my country, and to my kindred, and take a wife unto my son Isaac. And the servant said unto him, Peradventure the woman will not be willing to follow me unto this land: must I needs bring thy son again unto the land from whence thou camest? And Abraham said unto him, Beware thou that thou bring not my son thither again. God, who took me from my father's house, and from the land of my kindred, and who spake unto me, and sware unto me, saying, Unto thy seed will I give this land; he shall send his angel before thee, and thou shalt take a wife unto my son from thence. And if the woman be not willing to follow thee, then thou shalt be clear from this my oath; only bring not my son thither again. And the servant sware to Abraham concerning the matter.

And the servant took ten camels, of the camels of his master, and departed; for all the goods of his master were in his hand and he arose, and went to Mesopotamia, unto the city of Nahor. And he made his camels to kneel down without the city by a well of water at the time of evening, the time that women go out to draw water. And he said, O God of my master Abraham, I pray thee send me good speed this day, and shew kindness unto my master Abraham. Behold, I stand by the well of water; and the daughters of the men of the city come out to draw water: and let it come to pass, that the damsel to whom I shall say, Let down thy pitcher, I pray thee, that I may drink; and she shall say, Drink, and I will give thy camels drink also: let the same be she that thou hast appointed for thy servant Isaac; and thereby shall I know that thou hast shewed kindness unto my master.

And it came to pass, before he had done speaking, that, behold, Rebekah came out, the daughter of Bethuel the son of Nahor, Abraham's brother, with her pitcher upon her shoulder. And the damsel was very fair to look upon: and she went down to the well, and filled her pitcher, and came up. And the servant ran to meet her, and said, Let me, I pray thee, drink a little water of thy pitcher. And she said, Drink, my lord and she hasted, and let down her pitcher upon her hand,