Arabia jointly with their kindred, the sons of Keturah and Ishmael. The Hebrews in the promised land were almost surrounded by their kindred. The Book of Genesis spread out before them in detail the pedigree of these peoples. The genealogy of Nahor is recorded in Gen. xxii. 20-24; that of Lot, in xix. 36-38; that of Keturah, in xxv. 2-4; Ishmael's, in xxv. 12– 16, and Esau's, in chap. xxxvi. These registers settled for the Israelites in Canaan every question of importance which could arise touching their relations to the inhabitants of the borderlands. The practical lessons embodied in these environments are sufficiently obvious.

The immense and powerful tribes grouped around the land of Canaan, twenty-nine in number, with their sheiks and castles and towers, all of them the offspring of Abraham, made good God's promise to him, "Thou shalt be a father of many nations;" although in a higher sense the promise looked forward to the kingdom of David and Solomon, and will receive its consummation in the ingathering of all nations into the kingdom of Christ. The moral lessons were such as these: First, the Israelites were admonished by these memoirs not to despise their neighbors. Moab and Ammon proceeded from the family out of which Abraham came; Ishmael and Keturah's six sons were Isaac's half-brothers; and Esau was the twinbrother of Jacob. The antipathy between the Israelites and their neighbors might have been better controlled if they had remembered their common origin. Next, such of the Jews in after-ages, as looked for salvation because they had Abraham for their father, ought to have learned from the condition of the rejected races, that those only who follow the steps of faithful Abraham are counted for his seed. And further still, the family pride and arrogance of the Hebrews were severely rebuked by the degradation of their kindred in Padan-aram, in the mountains of Moab, in Mount Seir, and in Arabia. And, once more, the Israelites should have recognized the affinities which bound them to their kindred, and through their kindred to the human race as a whole, and should have remembered that the chosen seed were appointed to be not only the subjects

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of God's blessings, but channels also through which the same blessings should go forth to all nations. They should have behaved themselves, not as if they were the sole heirs of the covenants, but as the servants of God holding these blessings in trust for all mankind. These observations furnish a sufficient explanation of the large space which Moses afforded to the genealogies of the rejected races. It is surely a mistake to treat them as so much surplusage encumbering the record. They are indispensable to its sufficiency.

The Israelites accepted eagerly their position as the heirs of the promises, and repudiated vehemently their position as the channels of salvation to the outlying peoples. This was the cardinal vice in their way of thinking. They and their posterity were to be, so they flattered themselves, the sole heirs of the covenant down to the end of the world; and all other races were to be outcasts forever. Their own Dead Sea, receiving all the waters of the Jordan, and parting with none of them to refresh the neighboring deserts, fairly represented their conception of Judaism. But in the Divine intention Judaism was explained by Ezekiel's vision. A stream issued from the threshold of the sanctuary, flowed near by the altar of atonement, and made its way down the mountain slopes towards the east. The waters swelled as they flowed, until they were waters to the ankles, then successively waters to the knees, waters to the loins, waters for swimming, a river which could not be passed over. The river poured its floods into the Dead Sea until the sea overflowed its banks. Its desolate waters were healed. They were soon alive with fish of many kinds, like the fish of the Mediterranean Sea, "exceeding many." The fishermen spread their nets from En-gedi on the western shore, to En-eglaim near the borders of Moab. The Valley of Salt put on tropical beauty and luxuriance. Wherever the river went, every thing sprang into life. On its banks were many trees. They bore their fruit every month. Their leaf did not fade, nor their fruit fail, for the waters issued out of the sanctuary; and the fruit was for food, and the leaves were for healing (Ezek. xlvii. 1-12). The Old-Testament kingdom of God was

like these temple waters. Salvation, which was of the Jews, should come forth from the house of the Lord, should take its efficacy from atoning blood, and should spread from family to family, from nation to nation, gathering strength and fulness from the increasing multitudes of the saved. The moral deserts should be made glad. Regions of corruption, putrid masses of humanity, should put on incorruption; death and the curse should give place to life and blessing; and the trees which bear their fruit every month, whose leaves are for healing, and their fruit is for food whereof if a man eat he shall never hunger, should be planted by all waters.

One might reverently imagine that he stood at the east gate of the temple, and heard the singers with their instruments, surrounding the altar, accompany the outflow of the waters with the Psalm of David:

1. God be merciful unto us, and bless us,

And cause his face to shine upon us; Selah.
2. That thy way may be known upon earth,
Thy saving health among all nations.
3. Let the peoples praise thee, O God;
Let all the peoples praise thee.

4. O let the nations be glad, and sing for joy:
For thou shalt judge the peoples with equity,
And govern the nations upon earth. Selah.
5. Let the peoples praise thee, O God;

Let all the peoples praise thee.

6. The earth yielded her increase :

God, even our own God, shall bless us.

7. God shall bless us:

And all the ends of the earth shall fear him.

(Ps. lxvii.)