oxen, or sheep were generally, and those of asses and camels frequently employed. The vessels were carried on the back or shoulder, as may still be seen in many parts of Asia.

But Hagar lost her way in the trackless desert; and her provisions were exhausted before she had reached her destination, or had arrived at an inhabited place. And now her trials, severer even than those encountered at her first flight from Abraham's house, began anew; on the former occasion she does not seem to have suffered any physical want; she was sitting at a well of water, when the angel of God appeared to her, and ordered her to return to her mistress (xvi. 7); the reason of this command was, that Ishmael should be born under the sacred roof of the pious patriarch, that he might participate in the covenant of circumcision (xvii. 25), and thus be included in the blessings of the race from which he was descended. But this time she was tormented by thirst, the most fearful of all privations in the desert; a horrible death stared in her face; her pangs were a thousandfold multiplied by the distressing sufferings of her son, whose vital powers began to fail; and lest her heart should break at the sight of his death, she put him under a shrub, and sat down at some distance, whence she mingled her accents of despair with his cries of agony. That this awful visitation was intended as a punishment, is undoubt

ed; if happiness and wretchedness are at all under the control of Providence, this enormous calamity of the mother and the son cannot have been accidental or unmeaning. However, their guilt is obvious; it was similar, like their suffering;- both had insulted those who ought to have been to them objects of respect and veneration; Hagar despised Sarah, Ishmael sneered at Isaac; the former boasted of her conception, the latter of his primogeniture; the one forgot the dignity of a prophet's wife, the other the higher promises vouchsafed to her son. Yet p.1ority of birth establishes no truly higher claim; thus Cain, the first-born son of Adam, was less acceptable to God than Abel; and Esau was subordinate to Jacob. Not physical, but spiritual birthright constitutes the greater blessing; primogeniture may secure greater worldly possession, but it does not command that true felicity which is accessible to every man according to his virtue. This important truth, which a nation with an agrarian constitution, like that of Mosaism, easily forgets, is with great power embodied in Ishmael's history, every part of which is truth, and life, and instruction. "Touch not my anointed, nor harm my prophets" (Ps. cv. 15); this warning, received and heeded by Pharaoh and Abimelech, was neglected by Hagar and her son; and they endured the consequences of their stubborn pride.-But Ishmael was yet Abraham's son: when, therefore, an

grew,

guish of death seemed nearly to overwhelm him, God sent His angel to rescue him; He had waited till all natural hope was passed, in order to show more clearly His immediate regard, and His miraculous aid. He opened Hagar's eyes, and she saw a fountain, which had before escaped her searching looks. As the wild desert was destined for Ishmael's unbounded home, he was not led back to Abraham's house, from which he was henceforward separated; but he took up his abode in the wilderness of Paran, became skilled in the art of the bow, in which many Bedouin tribes greatly excelled; and, in order to complete the estrangement from Isaac and his progeny, he took a wife chosen for him by his mother from Egypt, the land of her birth and the land of superstition.

22-34. Nobody had learnt more strikingly the preternatural care with which Abraham was guarded by God, than Abimelech, the king of Gerar (xx.). Expediency, therefore, not less than piety, urged him to seek a closer alliance with the patriarch; he was, no doubt, supposed to have heard and believed the promises received by Abraham regarding the possession of Canaan; and he was, therefore, anxious to secure the integrity of his own territory; he had a right to appeal to Abraham's sense of justice, and even to his gratitude (xx. 14-16); and he requested him to swear by that God, who was his hope and his protection. Abraham readily complied,

and offered a solemn assurance. We may hence infer the historical fact, that, for some time at least, the southern part of Philistia was not attacked by the Hebrews. But, though the Philistines were never subjugated by them, it is certain that almost incessant hostilities were carried on between both nations. Thus, immediately after the conclusion of the alliance, a contention arose, which threatened to result in bitter enmity. Abimelech's servants had violently seized a well dug by Abraham. A more serious injury can scarcely be inflicted on a nomad chief rich in flocks and herds. The possession of a well in arid regions not unfrequently causes strife and warfare between whole tribes; and the protection of his wells is a prominent object of solicitude to an Arab sheikh. Abimelech, therefore, perceived fully the force of Abraham's complaint; he was indignant at the injustice of his slaves, of which he had never before been informed. But the patriarch, desirous of obtaining a guarantee which might, in future, shield his property against Abimelech's subjects also, conducted him to the well; and here concluded with him a treaty, by dividing animals, and passing between the dissected parts; but, in order to impart still greater solemnity to the ceremony, he gave besides seven lambs to Abimelech, to serve as a proof and a witness that the well belonged to himself.

Both when Abraham promised to Abimelech the safe possession of his land, and

when Abimelech swore to Abraham undisturbed occupation of the well, the Philistine king was accompanied by the chief commander of his troops. This circumstance gives to the transactions a political character, and a more extensive scope. The alliance was not to be personal, nor should it depend on the individual virtues and inclinations of the two contracting parties, but was to be inherited to their descendants as a part of their political and social obligations.-The locality of Beersheba is evidently treated with peculiar interest, not in this passage only, but in several other parts of the Pentateuch. Here God appeared to Isaac, who built an altar to commemorate the vision (xxvi. 24, 25); the name is again explained by an occurrence similar to that related in our chapter (xxvi. 26-33); and here God gave encouraging promises to Jacob when he was on the point of leaving the territory of Canaan (xlvi. 1-4). From the latter passage, the significance of Beersheba is especially evident; it was the boundary-town of Canaan in the south; the point which separated the Holy Land from profane ground, not standing under the same immediate protection of God. It was, therefore, important, that the patriarch should in this place own property guaranteed to him by the heathen king; from this southern part, his descendants should spread northward till they reached Dan, at the foot of the Lebanon; and hence it was, in the time of Samuel, a place

of public jurisdiction (1 Sam. viii. 2). But Beer-sheba acquired later another less desirable celebrity; it was, in the time of the prophet Amos, one of the chief seats of Hebrew idolatry; it is, in this respect, mentioned together with Samaria, Gilgal, and Bethel (Am. v. 5; viii. 13, 14); and we have here, therefore, the same admonitory anticipations, which have been noticed in almost all places connected with the patriarch's history. And lest there be any doubt, the text adds, that Abraham planted in Beer-sheba a tamarisk, and here "invoked the name of the Lord, the everlasting God." Nor is this notice without dogmatical importance; for the patriarch's example shows, that worship under "a green tree" is not under all circumstances criminal and objectionable, as might later have been wrongly deduced from the exhortations of the prophets; but only if it is addressed to idols, and not to God: we have here a practical instance of the doctrine: "In all places where I shall let my name be mentioned, I will come to thee, and I will bless thee" (Exod. xx. 21). The town Beer-sheba existed not only after the exile, but in the time of Jerome and Eusebius; and even at present, about thirty Roman miles south of Hebron, ruins of houses are found at a place called Bir-es-Seba, with two deep wells of clear and abundant water.The tamarisk especially was, besides the oak and the terebinth, employed to commemorate historical events; and on the

most vehement fervour. He believed in the promise of a son to be born to his old age; and by faith silenced the doubts raised by nature and experience. And when Sarah, at last, gave birth to a son, he considered himself as the progenitor of a great and happy nation; he looked through the wide vistas of time into the sunny future, when the whole earth would be blessed with truth through his seed; and a sublime joy uplifted his soul. While he was absorbed in these glorious thoughts, and saw that son, by whom they should be realised, growing up and blooming in youth, God commanded him to offer up that child of his love and his hope, that sun of his existence, as a burnt sacrifice on a mountain which He would show him. Who can describe the unspeakable pangs of the father? The whole history of Abraham had tended to this event, as the culminating point of his faith. God had shown preternatural love towards the patriarch; and the patriarch was required to make a superhuman effort to deserve it. He had more than once proved that his spirit was stronger than his human affections; it remained now to show that he avowed himself to be an instrument in the hand of a higher power, whose glory alone he desired. The readiness of Abraham to sacrifice his son has always been considered as the greatest deed of faith on record, and as an act of self-control at which the mind stands amazed. It became the basis on which the Israelites founded their claims

of election among the nations, and the later Jews their hopes of atonement; it served the Christians as a type of redemption and salvation through faith; and it is in the religion of Mohammed glorified as the highest example and model of piety. It has, indeed, exercised a powerful and ennobling influence upon almost all nations and all times.

God tried Abraham. He proved him whether he was worthy of being the hope of mankind. Man learns the disposition of his heart best by its manifestations; for though the will may be virtuous, it often lacks the energy to mature into deed. This effort is the merit of man, and constitutes a chief part of his earthly task. God, therefore, sends trials to those He loves: He tried the Israelites immediately after they left Egypt at the waters of Marah, that they might convince themselves whether they were worthy of the miraculous redemption (Exod.xv.25); He tried them by the edict concerning the daily gathering of the manna (Exod. xvi. 4); by the proclamation of the Decalogue (Exod. xx. 17), and by not extirpating all the heathens in Canaan, that they might show the strength of their belief by keeping aloof from contamination (Judg. ii. 22; iii. 1, 4, etc.); He sent even sometimes false prophets, performing miracles but preaching false gods and idolatrous doctrines, to try their fortitude in adhering to the Law (Deut. xiii. 4). But all such trials are sent only when weakness and sin preceded; although they may