than the black perpendicular rocks around it, 'cast their lengthened shadows on the waters of the Dead Sea.'"

Reland, in his account of lake Asphaltites, after inserting copious extracts from Galen, concerning the properties and quality of the water and its natural history, proceeds to account for the strange fables that have prevailed with respect to its deadly influence, by showing, that certain of the ancients confounded this lake with another bearing the same appellation of Asphaltites (which signifies nothing more than bituminous) near Babylon; and that they attributed to it properties which properly belonged to the Babylonian waters. Among the numerous assertors of the remarkable specific gravity of the water, almost every ancient author may be included, by whom the lake has been mentioned; this is noticed by Aristotle; and it can hardly be doubted but that their testimonies have some foundation in reality. Maundrel, (Autoptes,) as he is emphatically styled by Reland, is entitled to implicit confidence in this, as in all other matters where he speaks from his own practical observation. “Being willing,” says he, "to make an experiment of its strength, I went into it, and found that it bore up my body with an uncommon force. But as for the relation of some authors, that men wading into it were buoyed up to the top as soon as they got as deep as the navel, I found it, upon experiment, not true. Its water, although limpid like that of the sea of Galilee, and resulting from the same river Jordan, instead of being as that is, sweet and salutary, is, in the highest degree, salt, bitter, and nauseous."

Such is the lake that covers the spot of ground upon which the devoted cities are supposed to have stood, extending in length about twenty-four leagues, and in breadth about six or seven. That there is nothing impossible in the supposition, which has universal tradition at least to support it, the following considerations may show :-In the first place it is to be observed, that the vale of Sodom abounds in veins of bitumen, which are to be found, not only on the surface, but to a great depth in the soil. In the next place it is worthy of notice, that bitumen whether in a liquid or solid state, is exceedingly combustible; that a thunderbolt falling upon it would no more fail of setting it on fire, than the flash from the steel and flint fails to ignite gunpowder. Now the account given by Moses is, that "the Lord rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven;" by which, according to the Hebrew idiom, is to bederstood

and

flaming brimstone, in other words lightning. It is true that Moses, though he adds, "that God overthrew those cities, and all the plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew upon the ground," does not explain how this overthrow took place; but a knowledge of the above facts at once leads to the following as at least a probable conclusion. The lightning falling upon the bitumen would instantly set it on fire, and the fire would not only skim the surface but penetrate deep into the soil, sweeping along, as it does in a coal-pit, with the vein of combustible matter. The consequence would be that a terrible earthquake would take place, followed, as such a convulsion always is, by a subsiding of the ground; and the waters rushing into the hollow thus created, would, by mixing with the bitumen, form a small lake, where, previous to the awful visitation, a fruitful valley lay, Thus would perish the cities and their polluted inhabitants; whilst the lake would remain as a lasting memorial of God's power to punish as well by fire as by a deluge of water.

Of the transformation of Lot's wife during the escape of the patriarch to Zoar, we have already said as much as appears necessary in a work like this. If she lagged behind till the shower of brimstone overtook her, there can be little doubt of the fate which she underwent. Being incrusted in a coat of burning bitumen, she would not only perish, but a heap of saline matter would remain standing where she did; and this seems to be all that is implied in the original Hebrew, by her being changed into a pillar of salt. Nor is there any necessity why we should delay in order to give a detailed account of Melchizedek, over whose condition the language of St. Paul alone has thrown any degree of mystery. Melchizedek seems to have been a pious and upright man, who, as was then universally done, discharged the double office of king and priest to a petty tribe in Palestine, and Abraham seems to have presented him with a tenth part of his plunder, as an acknowledgment of respect and deference. As to St. Paul's expressions, they refer simply to the distinction which existed between the Patriarchal and Levitical priesthood; the one being universal, and of universal continuance; the other exclusive, and of temporary duration; whilst our Saviour is said to be "a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek," in reference to the abolition of that exclusive priesthood which existed under the Mosaic dispensation. But it is high time to return to the order of our narrative.

CHAPTER VIII.

Isaac's marriage.-Births of Esau and Jacob.-Their history.—Objections stated and answered.

A. M. 3398 to 3526.-B. C. 2013 to 1885.

Ar the death of Abraham, Isaac, as a matter of course, succeeded to the wealth which the great patriarch left behind him, as well as to the far more valuable possession of God's special favour and protection. Of a gentle and peaceable, if not an indolent disposition, he appears to have passed through life, subject to fewer trials than befell almost any other of these ancient worthies. Yet even Isaac's career was not absolutely free from annoyances, of the nature and causes of which, a few words will suffice to give a description.

Isaac was forty years old when he took to wife Rebekah, the daughter of Bethuel, the Syrian of Padan-aram. According to the Jewish tradition, she was then a mere girl, not more than fourteen years of age; and though we can hardly believe her to have been so youthful as this, it is evident from a consideration of certain occurrences in their after history, that she must have been a great deal younger than her husband. Be this as it may, we learn that during the first twenty years after their marriage, she was barren, and we know that of all calamities this was accounted, in patriarchal times, the most distressing. But though God thus tried the faith of his servant, his own designs remained unaltered, and at last he listened to the prayer of Rebekah, and granted her request. She proved with child, and as she suffered severely during pregnancy, it was Divinely communicated to her, that the burden which she bore was of no common kind. "Two nations," said the Lord, "are in thy womb, and two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels; and the one people shall be stronger than the other people; and the elder shall serve the younger." This was an announcement clearly implying that the children which she should bring into the world were destined for some remarkable ends; and the very aspect of the infants themselves, as well as the peculiar manner of their birth, could

hardly fail of throwing some light upon the purport of the prophecy.

When her days were accomplished that she should be delivered, Rebekah gave birth to twins, the first of whom was covered with a sort of red hair, whilst the second, as if jealous of his brother's pre-eminence, came into the world grasping the heel of his relative. To the elder was given the name of Esau, a word signifying red; to the younger that of Jacob, implying one who supplants; and as the children differed in their personal appearance from the womb, so in all their future career they bore no similarity the one to the other. As they grew up, Esau "was" to use the language of Scripture, “a cunning man, and a man of the field," whereas Jacob "was a plain man, and dwelt in tents."

The first occasion on which we find Jacob acting up to the character implied in his name, was as follows: It happened that Esau, having been long abroad in the exercise of his favourite occupation, hunting, returned home one day spent with fatigue and hunger; and seeing his brother feasting upon a mess of lentile pottage, he eagerly requested a portion. It were vain to offer any palliation for the conduct of Jacob under such circumstances. Aware of his brother's natural impatience, and covetous of his birthright, he stipulated with him, before he granted his request, that he would resign that great privilege in his favour; and Esau, careless of future good when brought into comparison with an immediate gratification, readily closed with the terms.

Soon after this there arose a famine in the land, upon which Isaac prepared to do, as his father had done before him, by retiring into Egypt; but he had proceeded no further than Gerar, when a divine vision met him, and directed him to remain where he was, because God was with him. At the same time the promises so repeatedly made to Abraham, were graciously renewed to him. He was informed that his seed should be numerous as the stars of heaven; that the whole of the surrounding country should become their inheritance, and finally that "in his seed all the nations of the earth should be blessed." That Isaac, himself an antetype of the great Deliverer, perfectly understood the import of this promise, there is no room to doubt, and he was too pious to refuse obedience to the command which preceded it.

It is somewhat remarkable, that Isaac should have fallen into the very same error here, which was formerly committed

by his father Abraham. Unaccountably distrustful of the power or will of God to defend him from every species of danger, he caused Rebekah to represent herself as his sister; and when the fraud was detected by Abimelech, the King of Gerar, he frankly owned that it had been practised through fear. But Abimelech was by no means disposed to treat him as he had apprehended. On the contrary, he issued a proclamation prohibiting any of his subjects from molesting the man or his wife; and for some little time Isaac and the people of the district dwelt amicably together.

This state of things, however, was not of long continuance. The favour of God so manifestly followed Isaac, and all his affairs flourished so abundantly, that the Philistines became envious of his growing prosperity; and insults and wrongs were put upon his followers such as they deemed it impossible to endure. Wells which they had dug for their own use, were seized and filled up; aggressions were daily made upon their settlement, and at last Isaac was arbitrarily directed by Abimelech to quit the country. He did so, and removed first to a place which, because he was no longer straitened, he named Rehoboth; and next to a more permanent abode, Beer-sheba, where Abraham had dwelt before him. Here he built an altar to Jehovah, and caused the ancient wells to be cleared out; and here the gracious promise was again renewed to him, by the God whom he ceased not to worship. Nor were these the only benefits which attended him here. Abimelech, either ashamed of his past misconduct, or made aware that Isaac was under the especial care of heaven, followed him with a large company to Beer-sheba, and, apologizing for what had happened, entered with him into the same league which had originally subsisted between himself and Abraham.

The sons of Isaac being now grown up to manhood, the elder took to himself wives from among the Hittites; Judith, the daughter of Beeri, and Bashemath, the daughter of Elon. This was a source of extreme regret to the patriarch and his wife; more especially to the latter, whose affections appear to have been entirely alienated by it from her first-born; and no great while elapsed, ere an opportunity offered of indulging that excessive partiality for Jacob, which she had all along nourished. It happened on a certain occasion, that Isaac, being oppressed with weakness and old age, felt a violent desire to bestow upon his son the solemn blessing which