the daughters of Lot, to whom they were married. Lot was directed to flee to the mountain, but he pleaded hard to be allowed a residence in the small city of Bela, or Zoar, at a short distance from his present abode. Implicit confidence and obedience would have better become the servant of the Lord: they would have dictated a different course, and would in all probability have led to more consistent and honourable results. The request of Lot, however, was granted, and the little city spared for his sake. Lot still lingered in his retreat; perhaps from tenderness to his remaining children, whom he could not persuade to accompany him; perhaps not without some degree of reluctance to leave behind his worldly substance.-By the way, it may be observed, that an undue respect to worldly advantages had induced Lot to take up his abode in Sodom, and for a while those interests seemed to be promoted thereby; but at length a sudden stroke stripped him of all, and left him, even in a worldly point of view, far below what he might have been, had he chosen a situation of more moderate gains, but in greater harmony with his best interests. He that will keep his life or his property when duty demands the sacrifice of them, shall lose them; but he who willingly yields what duty requires, shall never be found a loser in the end. "They that will be rich, fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition," 1 Tim, vi. 9.

Lot lingered; but the angels took him by the hand, and hastened him out of the city, with his wife and his two daughters, "the Lord being merciful unto him." It is in great mercy, when, with a hand kindly severe, Jehovah leads us away from sinful pursuits and inordinate worldly attachments, and teaches us that our home and our rest can be found in Him alone. "Haste thee; escape for thy life; look not behind thee, lest thou be consumed." But his wife disobeyed the injunction; she looked back on the city they had just left—a look expressive of unbelief of the divine threatening, and of a lingering desire to return. Immediately punishment arrested her; she was instantaneously struck dead, and remained upon the spot, a petrified victim of the divine vengeance-a visible monument to succeeding ages, and becoming, in the sacred record, an imperishable warning to the latest generations.

The sun arose upon Sodom-nature was arrayed in its usual beauty and cheerfulness-the men of Sodom arose, and went forth as usual to their worldly or their sinful pursuits; perhaps some, to whom Lot's warning and departure had been coinmunicated, scoffed and said, "Where is the threatening? for all things continue as they were;”—but, lo! on a sudden, floods of fire and brimstone, from the Lord out of heaven, descending upon this, and the neighbouring city of Gomorrah, utterly consumed them with their inhabitants; and Abraham, when he rose up to observe the success of his sup

plications, and probably to renew them, saw nothing remaining of those cities, but an awful scene of devastation and ruin, and smoke ascending" from the ashes, like the smoke of a furnace." The Dead Sea,* (or as it is sometimes called, the Sea of Sodom, the Salt Sea, the Sea of the Desert, and the lake Asphaltites, or Bitumen) has been generally understood to have been formed by the overthrow of these cities. The hollow through which the river Jordan flows, and empties itself into the Dead Sea, is said to be a region of volcanoes. The sources of this sea are bituminous and sulphureous; lava and pumice stones are thrown upon its beach; in its neighbourhood is a hot bath; clouds of smoke are said to be often seen issuing from the lake, and new crevices to be formed on its banks: all these circumstances concur to demonstrate, that this valley has been the seat of a subterraneous fire, which is not yet extinguished. It was long a prevalent opinion, that no fish, or other living creature, would exist in the Dead sea, nor even vegetable substances, and that its exhalations were fatal to birds flying over it: but though these statements are completely disproved, enough remains to mark it as a spot of stagnation, horror, and desolation.

After the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, Lot resided with his daughters, first in Zoar, and afterwards in a cave of a neighbouring mountain; from them descended Ammon and Moab, the proge*See Map of Canaan.

nitors of two great, but heathen nations, who were for many ages distinguished by their enmity against the Israelites, the people of God. The Ammonites dwelt on the mountainous parts of Gilead, and the Moabites on the river Arnon, on the east of the Dead Sea.* Abraham about the same time quitted Mamre, where he had continued about twenty years, and took up his residence at Gerar, then a royal city of the Philistines: here he was guilty of the same duplicity into which he had formerly fallen, that of misrepresenting his relationship to Sarah his wife in this instance, as in the former, and in the experience of every day, "man's wisdom led him into a pit, from which only the wisdom of God could draw him out." How strikingly was Abraham's want of generous confidence reproved by the very people of whom he had said, "Surely the fear of God is not in this place; and they will slay me for my wife's sake." Those who fear God should know no other fear: certainly they have no occasion to resort to crooked expedients, to keep them from evil : and it is sadly inconsistent, when they suffer men who do not even profess to fear God, to go before them in common integrity and honour.

* See Map of Canaan.

§ 6. The Birth of Isaac, the Dismission of Hagar and Ishmael. Gen. xxi.

B. C. 1893.

In due time the promise of God had its fulfilment, and Sarah became the joyful mother of a son. This extraordinary child was called Isaac, according to the previous direction of God; a name signifying laughter or gladness. Gladness generally attends the birth of children, but, on account of the uncertainty of their future character and circumstances, we may well, on such occasions, rejoice with trembling. In this case the joy was in a manner unmixed; for the child was born under the promise of being blessed, and made a blessing. Abraham's, however, was not that vain mirth, or noisy laughter, which unfits for obedience to God. At eight days old he circumcised his son, and doubtless offered many prayers on his behalf, and solemnly bound himself to fulfil the divine testimony concerning him, that he would teach and command his children and his household after him, and that they should keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment.

At the time of Isaac's weaning, (which was probably not until he had attained the age of three, or, as some suppose, five years,) a great feast was made, when the parents testified their grateful joy for the preservation of their child through the perils of infancy, and his advance so far towards maturity.