tant that this should be realized, for it strengthens the foundations of our argument. The promises and predictions we have to consider were, as we hold, given to Abraham two thousand years before Christ, as we have them embodied in the books of Moses. But is the story that they were so given authentic? Any argument derived from fulfilment clearly depends on this previous inquiry; that is, on the date of the predictions and on the general trustworthiness of the narratives in which they arc embodied.

Some "Studies on the Times of Abraham" have lately been published by a member of the Society of Biblical Archæology, who devoted five years to the work of elucidating the relation between three chapters only of Abraham's story and the results of recent research. The investigation of even this small portion of the narrative makes a volume. It is illustrated with photo-tint cuts of buildings, idols, statues, engraved seals and cylinders, portraits of various carved heads of Egyptian, Chaldean, Hittite, and Arab heroes, and of hieroglyphic inscriptions, and enriched by full references to the original oriental sources from which the facts are drawn,-enabling even readers who are unlearned in archæological lore to judge for themselves as to the nature and value of the light thrown on the life of Abraham by existing monuments, and inscriptions of antiquity. These studies have profoundly impressed their author with the close connection between facts in the Bible biography and facts of the times as learned from other sources.

The story of Lot's rescue, for instance, given in the fourteenth chapter of Genesis, mentions some fifty facts of geography, history, and chronology; it gives the names of Museum, of Professor Sayce, Lieutenant Conder, Captain Warren, Layard, Lenormant, and many more; "The Records of the Past" (Bagster), "The Inscriptions of Western Asia," published by the Trustees of the British Museum, the "Transactions" of the Society of Biblical Archæology, and many similar works, conspire to throw a flood of light on the environment of the patriarch and the history of his times.

fourteen kings, chiefs, and other individuals living at the time; of eight different tribes and peoples, and of no less than twenty-three different places. It has, moreover, three notes of chronology, and several statements of number. Now most of these become possible points of contact with ancient contemporary records, or else with existing facts as to present names, sites, and distances. We do not pause to remark on the à priori evidence of truth and authenticity offered by the very existence of such a narrative so full of statements which if false would be easily proved so. But we ask, Is this remarkable narrative of the first great organized military expedition recorded in history-a narrative which bristles thus with biographical, historical, local, and chronological notices confirmed or contradicted by comparison with extraneous authorities? It is most amply confirmed. “All that is hitherto known tallies in the most remarkable manner with the firm, strong outline in the Book of Genesis of facts which, as M. Lenormant justly pronounces, have a historic character the most striking;' and when we estimate at its true value the decisive interposition of Abraham in his only recorded act of warfare, we do not wonder at the honourable acknowledgment of the sons of Kheth, 'A prince of God art thou among us.'" 1

This expedition against the king of Elam and his confederates seems to have been a far more important affair than one would have judged from the fifteenth of Genesis, though the native inscriptions of Babylonia and Assyria amply confirm the main and most surprising facts contained in that story. Canon Rawlinson says:—

"A certain amount of light is thrown on the narrative contained in Genesis xiv. by the inscriptions of Babylonia and Assyria. We learn from that narrative that in the time of Abraham (about B.C. 2100-1900) an important monarchy was established in Elam, under a king named

Tomkins' "Studies on the Times of Abraham" p. 203 (Bagster: 15, Paternoster Row).

Chedor-laomer (more properly Kedor-Lagomer), to whom Babylonia and other adjacent countries were subject, and who was powerful enough to carry his arms into Syria, and to exercise dominion for the space of twelve years over the more eastern parts of Palestine. The position of Elam is well marked by the Greek and Roman geographers, who place it between Persia proper and Babylonia, to the east of the Lower Tigris. In classical times and in oriental history as made known to us by the classical writers, the country appears as insignificant; it is never independent, and though it has a line of native kings, they at no time show themselves of much importance, even among vassal princes. Till recently the passage of Genesis stood alone in representing Elam as a great kingdom, one capable of exercising for a time the chief authority in Western Asia, of establishing her supremacy over Babylonia, and making expeditions to the distance of a thousand miles from her proper frontier. But the later Assyrian inscriptions have now shown that from the time of Sargon (B.C. 722) to nearly the close of the empire, Elam was the second power in Western Asia, that she sturdily maintained her independence, and long resisted the utmost efforts of Assyria to bring her into subjection.

"Documents, probably fourteen hundred years older, found in Babylonia itself, establish the fact that at least one king of the country held his crown as a fief under an Elamitic monarch, who had placed and maintained him on the throne. Kudur-Mabuk, whose probable date is about B.C. 2100, and who is distinctly called 'king of Elam,' established his son, Ardu-Sin, in Babylonia, and names him with himself in his inscriptions, invoking the blessing of the gods upon him. Similarly Ardu-Sin mentions and invokes blessings on his father, Kudur-Mabuk, lord of Elam.' It is further remarkable that this same Kudur-Mabuk, lord of Elam,' calls himself also 'lord of Syria,' thereby implying that his dominion reached from the mountains of Luristan on the one side to the Mediterranean upon the other, which is exactly what Scripture implies of Chedor-laomer.

"The native inscriptions of Babylonia and Assyria tell us, therefore, three things concerning this early period; namely-first, that there was a powerful dynasty established in Elam about B.C. 2300-2000; secondly, that this dynasty exercised authority over Babylon; and thirdly, that it had carried its arms into Syria; thus confirming three of the main and most surprising facts contained in the narrative of Genesis xiv.” 1

The Bible, and especially the Book of Genesis, passes rapidly over long intervals of time during which no special advance was made in the work which it is written to record -the redemption of the human race. It presents only one 1 Canon Rawlinson, “The Bible Educator," vols. i. and ii. pp. 67, 68.

incident and two genealogical tables as bridging over the interval between the death of Noah and the call of Abram. The story of Babel is narrated and the subsequent dispersion of mankind, and "the generations of the sons of Noah in their nations," which we have considered in our last section, follows. The generations of Shem-that is, of the son of Noah in whose race the knowledge of God was to be preserved, and in which deliverance for a ruined race was destined to arise—are given very fully, "the generations of Terah," the father of Abraham, coming last. These are all comprised in the tenth and eleventh chapters of the Book of Genesis, from which we may also gather some passing indications of the state of things in the early post-diluvian earth, though it would have been beside the purpose of the book to deal with facts having only a remote connection with its main subject. From later scriptures we may glean a few other particulars as to this period, while from classical authors, and especially from the most ancient oriental sacred classics, some of the earliest hymns and prayers of which go back nearly to Noah's days-such as the Zend Avestas of Persia, the Brâhminic Vedas of India, the She-king of China, and The Book of the Dead, or funeral ritual, of ancient Egypt-and, above all, from the monumental remains and nscriptions still extant and deciphered by modern research, we can, as we have seen, to a great extent fill up the outline.

Combining the rays of light proceeding from these different sources, we learn that during the early centuries after the flood a very rapid development of the race had taken place, leading to extensive colonization of even distant regions; that the earth had been already in the days of Peleg divided into nations, and that the international strifes which have characterized all subsequent time had at once arisen; wars and fightings had become common; and though the wide world lay open before the young human race, and though their utmost fruitfulness and multiplication could not.

have replenished it, they nevertheless fought for territory and for supremacy, displaying the same lust of conquest and of power that all subsequent nations have done. Hence there arose empires, with all their concomitant slavery, cruelty and pride, inordinate pomp and luxury on the part of some, with cruel toil, suffering, and oppression on the part of others. The original unity of speech and of religious faith which had prevailed in the family and immediate descendants of Noah, and of which distinct traces abound in all the most ancient writings of every land, was gradually lost in these altered circumstances, and a great variety of idolatries sprung up in the earth, especially the worship of the host of heaven. The primitive monotheistic faith-the worship of one invisible God, the maker and judge of alllingered on in certain families and in a few spiritual oases, but the desert waste of an idolatrous world was evermore encroaching even on these, and threatening towards the close of the period to swallow them up.

It is not easy for us to conceive the condition of the world four thousand years ago, when neither the Christian Church nor the Jewish nation were in existence, when men possessed neither the Old Testament nor the New, when tradition and conscience were the only sources of religion, and when the fathers of the race-who had known something of the antediluvian world, been eye-witnesses of the deluge, and recipients of the gracious revelations that followed it-had passed away. No line of special witnesses for God had as yet been selected or invested with responsibility for the maintenance of the true faith. The family of Shem retained apparently more of piety and morality than the descendants of his two brothers, but even Shem's posterity had for the most part lapsed into creature worship. The adoration of the sun and moon were common, as also the worship of Jupiter and Saturn, Mercury and Venus, and idolatry was fast spreading in the earth.