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Get ye up from the wrath of God's terrible day!
Ungirded, unsandaled, arise and away!

'Tis the vintage of blood-'tis the fulness of time,
And vengeance shall gather the harvest of crime!
Hark! the growl of the thunder- the quaking of earth!
Woe woe to the worship, and woe to the mirth!
The black sky has opened there's flame in the air-
The red arm of vengeance is lifted and bare!

And when the morning arose, then the angels hastened Lot, saying, Arise, take thy wife, and thy two daughters, which are here; lest thou be consumed in the iniquity of the city. And while he lingered, the men laid hold upon his hand, and upon the hand of his wife, and upon the hand of his two daughters; the Lord being merciful unto him: and they brought him forth, and set him without the city. And it came to pass, when they had brought them forth abroad, that he said, Escape for thy life; look not behind thee, neither stay thou in all the plain; escape to the mountain, lest thou be consumed.

Then linger not in all the plain;

Flee for thy life-the mountain gain;
Look not behind; make no delay;

Oh, speed thee, speed thee on thy way;
Haste, traveller, haste!

And Lot said unto them, Oh, not so, my lord: behold now, thy servant hath found grace in thy sight, and thou hast magnified thy mercy, which thou hast shewed unto me in saving my life; and I cannot escape to the mountain, lest some evil take me, and I die: behold now, this city is near to flee unto, and it is a little one: Oh, let me escape thither, (is it not a little one?) and my soul shall live. And he said unto him, See, I have accepted thee concerning this thing also, that I will not overthrow this city, for the which thou hast spoken. Haste thee, escape thither; for I cannot do any thing till thou be come thither. Therefore the name of the city was called Zoar.

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Guided by her, along the mountain road,
Far through the twilight of the morn,
With hurrying footsteps from the accursed abode
He sees the holy household borne:

Angels, or more, on either hand are nigh,

To speed them o'er the tempting plain,

Lingering in heart, and with frail, sidelong eye,

Seeking how near they may unharmed remain.

The sun was risen upon the earth when Lot entered into Zoar. Then the Lord rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven; and he overthrew those cities, and all the plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew upon the ground. But his wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt.

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

The last throb of anguish was fearfully given;

The last eye glared forth in its madness on heaven!

The last groan of horror rose wildly and vain,

And Death brooded over the pride of the Plain!

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CHAPTER XVI.

THE HEIR AND THE EXILE.'

O ALL-PREPARING Providence divine!
What mortal sense is able to define
Thy mysteries, Thy counsels to unfold!
It is Thy wisdom strangely that extends
Obscure proceedings to apparent ends.

ND the Lord visited Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did unto Sarah as he had spoken. For Sarah conceived, and bear Abraham a son in his old age, at the set time of which God had spoken to him. And Abraham called the name of his son that was born unto him, whom Sarah bare to him, Isaac. And Abraham circumcised his son Isaac, being eight days old, as God had commanded him. And Abraham was a hundred years old, when his son Isaac was born unto him.

Mystery! mystery! holy and strange;
What a life-history, fruitful of change,
And endless of range,

Is folded here, sweet within sweet, like a blossom!

And Sarah said, God hath made me to laugh, so that all that hear me will laugh with me. And she said, Who would have said unto Abraham, that Sarah should have given children suck? for I have borne him a son in his old age. And the child grew, and was weaned and Abraham made a great feast the same day that Isaac was weaned.

And Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, which she had borne unto Abraham, mocking. Wherefore she said unto Abraham, Cast out this bondwoman and her son: for the son of this bondwoman shall not be heir with my son, even with Isaac. And the thing was very grievous in Abraham's sight because of his son. And God said unto Abraham, Let it not be grievous in thy sight because of the lad, and because of thy bondwoman; in all that Sarah hath said unto thee, hearken unto her voice; for in Isaac shall thy seed be called. And also of the son of the bondwoman will I make a nation, because he is thy seed. And Abraham rose up early in the morning, and took bread, and a bottle of water, and gave it unto Hagar, putting it on her shoulder, and the child, and sent her away: and she departed, and wandered in the wilderness of Beer-sheba. And the water was spent in the bottle, and she cast the child under one of the shrubs.

She looked above- the heavens shone still

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Unclouded bright and clear;

She listened, but no fount nor rill

Poured music on her ear.

Then once again her child she eyed

His cheek wore death's pale hue;
"Alas! and is it thus," she cried;
"Doth God forsake me too,
And with my earthly foes combine
To work such ill for me and mine?"

And she went, and sat her down over against him a good way off, as it were a bowshot: for she said, Let me not see the death of the child. And she sat over against him, and lifted up her voice, and wept.

Injured, hopeless, faint and weary,
Sad, indignant and forlorn,

Through the desert wild and dreary,
Hagar leads the child of scorn.

Who can speak a mother's anguish,
Painted in that tearless eye,

Which beholds her darling languish,

Languish unrelieved, to die!

And God heard the voice of the lad; and the angel of God called to Hagar out of heaven, and said unto her, What aileth thee, Hagar? fear not; for God hath heard the voice of the lad where he is. Arise, lift up the lad, and hold him in thine hand; for I will make him a great nation. And God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water; and she went, and filled the bottle with water, and gave the lad drink.

She stood beside the well her God had given
To gush in the deep wilderness, and bathed
The forehead of her child until he laughed
In his reviving happiness, and lisped

His infant thought of gladness at the sight
Of the cool plashing of his mother's hand.

And God was with the lad; and he grew, and dwelt in the wilderness, and became an archer. And he dwelt in the wilderness of Paran: and his mother took him a wife out of the land of Egypt.

CHAPTER XVII.

THE GREAT TRIAL AND TRIUMPH OF ABRAHAM S FAITH.

PRUNE thou thy words, the thoughts control that o'er thee swell and throng;
They will condense within thy soul and change to purpose strong.
Faith's meanest deed more favour bears, where hearts and wills are weighed,
Than brightest transports, choicest prayers, which bloom their hour and fade.

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ND it came to pass after these things, that God did tempt Abraham, and said unto him, Abraham: and he said, Behold, here I am. And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for 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 his son, and clave the wood for the burnt offering, and rose up, and went unto the place of which God had told him. Then on the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes, and saw the place afar off. And Abraham said unto his young men, Abide ye here with the ass; and I and the lad will go yonder and worship and come again to you. And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering, and laid it upon Isaac his son; and he took the fire in his hand, and a knife; and they went both of them together. And Isaac spake unto Abraham his father, and said, My father: and he said, Here am I, my son. And he said, Behold 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: so they went both of them together. And they came to the place which God had told him of; and Abraham built an altar there, and laid the wood in order, and bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar upon the wood. And Abraham stretched forth his hand, and took the knife to slay his son.

The childlike faith, that asks not sight,
Waits not for wonder or for sign,
Believes, because it loves aright,

Shall see things greater, things divine.
Heaven to that gaze shall open wide,

And brightest angels to and fro

On messages of love shall glide.

And the Angel of the Lord called unto him out of heaven, and said, Abraham, Abraham: and he said, Here am I. And he said, Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou any thing unto him: for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me. And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold behind him a ram caught in a thicket by his horns: and Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his son. And Abraham called the name of that place Jehovah-jireh: as it is said to this day, In the mount of the Lord it shall be seen.

He rose up, and laid
The wood upon the altar. All was done.

He stood a moment — and a deep, quick flush
Passed o'er his countenance; and then he nerved

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