with Eupl

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གང 11ཀྱང ad also descended into their Aphaxad seems to have dwelt ve a district of country bore s posterity had migrated southward, Abraham's birth, was resident

- the shy of Ur.

more prominent than any other in to the rank polytheism and The heavenly bodies were worLand Bel or Belus, with their and Shamas and Sau,

themon-god, who was esteemed Merodach, Nergal, Ishtar,

ties too numerous to mention. se caprice and the evil notions selves, and a base and

aced the Noahic faith in the and the ante-diluvian hope of a Los of the Chaldean literature

sss of formula for warding

***** for bewitching people or for

L

As on omens and divina~NENtions Long hymns for sect for public and private use d a base and sensual

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As re still retained in the

in, the Assadar and Semitic records alike CONCOUNTEN A, sir, and of its guilt, a fear of ature punishment, an appreciation of righteous- afer hamness found constant expression, would prouts ze de food as a great proof of God's

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of which cl.

per and angels and the existence of a

observance of the Sabbath, and, above all, a recognition of the value of vicarious sacrifice. The nearer we draw to the days of Noah, the clearer do all such allusions become. They had even some notions of resurrection, though these latter were hazy. All the truth they retained was, however, smothered by corruption, superstition, and error.

Whatever Abraham's after life, we must picture his earlier years therefore as spent in a renowned and much-venerated city, where was the then magnificent temple of a popular faith, the seat of a flourishing commerce, and which was moreover a garrison town, the frontier walled fortress of the empire on the western side of the Euphrates. It seems to have been also a sacred burial city, where the dead in innumerable multitudes were gathered round the walls, as at the present day around the sacred cities of the Mohammedans and Jews.

It used to be a matter of vague conjecture as to whether Abraham was acquainted with the art of writing, but, as we have seen, modern research has shown that it was in familiar use in his native place. In the daily transactions of business, in loan and sale contracts, and indeed in all important transactions, duplicate memoranda on terra-cotta tablets or on papyrus were preserved. Multitudes of these exist, and such multitudes more have perished that immense heaps of fine powder-like dust are composed of their remains. Libraries and stores of records were common, so that Terah's family registers were doubtless preserved in this permanent form, and Abraham himself may very probably have left similar memorials of his own life, to be subsequently utilised by Moses. Abraham was doubtless trained in military exercises, as is proved by his ability and promptness in undertaking the expedition for the rescue of Lot; and he was probably accustomed to river navigation on the great Euphrates, as well as to seafaring customs and to the sight of fore brought in the sh of Ur" to his native

Egypt had already become mighty and grossly idolatrous; the Hittite power had developed into an extensive empire, and together with the Hamitic races occupying Southern Babylonia and Palestine, had also sunk into unblushing polytheism. Traditions of the creation and fall of man, of the flood, and of Babel, existed in all lands, and were recorded on monuments and tablets, on papyri and mummy cases, which we can still read and study after four thousand years. But they were all more or less distorted and corrupted. Gleams of the light of revelation were retained in different lands, and backed by the teaching of nature and by conscience-the voice of God in the soul of man-they saved some from the almost universal apostasy of deifying the heavenly bodies, the elements, and the passions, together with men and animals, reptiles and vegetables, and even stocks and stones.

This corruption had not in Abraham's day become as universal as the wickedness of man before the flood, when one righteous man alone remained on earth, for there were such men as Melchizedek here and there-true priests of God. Yet even in the elect line of Shem, and in the chosen family of Terah, idolatry prevailed. As the Lord said to Joshua, "Your fathers dwelt on the other side of the flood (or Euphrates) in old time, and they served other gods; and I took your father Abraham from the other side of the flood, and led him throughout all the land of Canaan."

Terah's home, UR of the CHALDEES, was the name both of a city and of a country. The former is now identified with Mugheir, which stands about six miles from the Euphrates on its right bank. In Abraham's day it was a large, busy maritime place on the Persian Gulf, the capital and the port of Southern Babylonia. The beautiful region around was the natural home of the wheat plant, which would produce two and even three hundred-fold in the soil of which classic writers speak as the richest in all Asia. .

Shady palm groves embowered the country laden with their golden clusters; and Professor Rawlinson says that the region was amongst the most productive on the face of the earth, yielding spontaneously some of the best gifts of God to man, and capable under careful management of being made one continuous garden. Sir Henry Rawlinson supposes that the Garden of Eden was in this neighbourhood. The situation of the ruins now was not the situation of the ancient city, for the alluvium brought down by the Tigris and Euphrates encroaches very rapidly on the Persian Gulf. Geologists consider that the increase of the land in that direction has been at the rate of a mile in thirty years on an average all through the historic period, so that the ruins which now stand considerably inland mark the site of a city which was a seaport town in Abraham's days.

The patriarch was, it would seem, a citizen of no mean city. Ur was the residence of a great monarch called Urukh, remains of whose immense idolatrous temple are still in existence, as also the ruins of his palace. The walls which once defended his city are traceable as low sandy mounds surrounding an oval space some two miles in extent, in the midst of which the temple mound still rises seventy feet above the plain. Several of the Assyrian and Babylonian monuments allude to this country of UR. Contracts between citizens, transfers of land duly attested by witnesses and preserved in duplicate, astronomical and political records as well as royal inscriptions relating to this place and kingdom, exist in abundance; its traffic by land and its commerce by ships are described, and its monarch, Urukh, must have had ample resources to have been able to erect the buildings he describes, the ruins of which still attest the truth of his accounts. The people were-as in all seaport towns-a mixture of various races and nationalities. The merchants of Ur traded with countries in Arabia and on the African coast, the Chaldeans themselves being a Cushite or Hamitic

people, though Semitic tribes had also descended into their country. Terah's ancestor Arphaxad seems to have dwelt on the borders of Armenia, where a district of country bore his name; but some of his posterity had migrated southward, and Terah, at the time of Abraham's birth, was resident either in the country or the city of Ur.

The one fact which is more prominent than any other in all the inscriptions of the period is the rank polytheism and idolatry which prevailed. The heavenly bodies were worshipped, and the great gods Ra and Bel or Belus, with their respective wives, together with Vul and Shamas and Sau, and especially Hurki, or the moon-god, who was esteemed the leading protector of the land, Merodach, Nergal, Ishtar, Nebo, and a host of other deities too numerous to mention. They attributed to their gods the caprice and the evil notions of which they were conscious in themselves, and a base and degrading superstition had replaced the Noahic faith in the justice and mercy of God, and the ante-diluvian hope of a mighty coming deliverer. Most of the Chaldean literature which has been deciphered consists of formula for warding off disease and sorcery, charms for bewitching people or for exorcising evil influences, treatises on omens and divinations, and records of business transactions. Long hymns for ritual worship and prayers both for public and private use show that the popular religion was of a base and sensual type, and that it must have had the effect of degrading rather than of elevating its adherents.

Yet many fundamental truths were still retained in the minds of men, and the Akkadian and Semitic records alike prove that a consciousness of sin and of its guilt, a fear of death and of future punishment, an appreciation of righteousness and a yearning after holiness, found constant expression, together with allusions to the flood as a great proof of God's justice, to the fall of men and angels and the existence of a tempter, a belief in a future life and judgment to come, an