Abraham said yet again, Perhaps there may be forty found there.

The Lord said, I will spare it for forty's sake.

Abraham said, Let not the Lord be angry when I speak, but perhaps there shall thirty be found there. And the Lord said he would spare it for thirty's sake.

And Abraham said, Perhaps twenty will be found there. And He said, I will spare it for twenty's sake.

And Abraham said, O let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak but this once. Perhaps ten shall be found there.

And He said, For the sake of ten good men will I spare it. And the Lord went his way, and Abraham went back to his

tent.

Lot sat in the gate-way of that city. And when Lot saw them he rose up to meet them, and bowed down before them. And he said, Enter, I pray you, into your servant's house, and

stay all night, and wash your feet, and ye shall rise up early and go on your ways.

But they said No; they would stay in the street all night. And he urged them so strongly that they went in his house, and he brought them food to eat. And they told Lot to take all he had out of Sodom, for they had come to destroy that

city. So Lot made haste to warn his family, and to get them to a safe place.

And he said to his sons-in-law, Up, get you out of this place, for the Lord will destroy the city. But his sons-in-law laughed with scorn at his fears.

In the morning the angels urged Lot to hurry and take his wife and two daughters out of the city, lest they should be destroyed. And as Lot did not move fast enough, the men took him and his wife and his two daughters by the hand, and brought them outside the city. And they said, Flee for thy life; look not behind thee, nor stay thou in all the plain. Flee to the mountains, lest thou be burnt up in the flames.

But Lot said to them, Oh! not so, my lord, but since thou hast been so merciful as to save my life, bid me not go to the mountains, lest something evil happen to me, and I die! There is a little city near at hand. Oh! let me escape to that, and my soul shall live.

And the angel said to him, Haste then to that place, for I can do nothing till thou art there. Therefore the name of the city was called Zoar: which means Little.

The sun was well on its way when Lot entered the city of Zoar. Then the Lord rained fire and brimstone out of heaven on Sodom and Gomorrah, and destroyed those cities, and all the plain, and all the people, and everything that grew out of the ground.

And Lot's wife-who was sorry to leave the city of Sodom -looked back, and she immediately became a pillar of salt. And Lot went up out of Zoar, and dwelt in the mountains, and took his two daughters with him, for he was afraid to live in Zoar.

Abraham got up early in the morning, and went out to the place where he had stood before the Lord. And he looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the plain, and lo, the smoke from the country went up as the smoke of a furnace,

CHAPTER VIII.

ABRAHAM AND ISAAC.

ABRAHAM was a man of great wealth. God had been good to him all his life, and his heart was full of praise and gratitude. But there came a time when God wanted to try Abraham's faith, and see how he would bear up under losses and trials.

So God spoke to him one day, and said, Abraham! And Abraham said, Here I am.

And God said, Take now thy son, thy only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and go into the land of Moriah, and offer him as a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of.

And Abraham rose up early in the morning, and saddled his ass, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac son, and cut the wood for the burnt offering, and set out for the place of which God had told him.

his

On the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place afar off. And he said to his young men, Stay ye here with the ass; and I and my son will go yonder and worship, and then come back to you.

And Abraham took the wood and laid it on Isaac's back; and he took the fire in his hand, and a knife, and they went both of them together.

And Isaac spoke unto Abraham, and said, My father. And he said, Here am I, my son. And Isaac said, Here is the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?

And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering.

When they came to the place which God had told them of, Abraham built an altar there, and laid the wood in order, and bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar on top of the wood.

And Abraham stretched out his hand and took up the knife to slay his son.