Olympas. Did this expedient greatly benefit the Patriarch?

Edward. She was, as expected, much admired by the Egyptians, and commended to Pharaoh, who took her to his house. But the Lord having plagued the king and his house because of Abraham's wife, the king restored her to her husband.

Olympas. Thomas, how old was Sarah at this time?

Thomas. I conclude she was about sixty-five years old.

Olympas. How do you prove this?

Thomas. I learn she was ninety when Abraham was one hundred. This makes her ten years younger than Abraham, who was certainly seventy-five years old at this time.

Olympas. Would not a lady of sixty-five appear somewhat faded, think you, William?

William. Yes; but when ladies lived to one hundred and twenty-seven, as did Sarah, they were just in the prime of life and beauty at sixtyfive. She was

Olympas. True, very true, William.

as young and beautiful at sixty-five as the American ladies are at twenty-five or thirty.

The Lord saved Abraham's life and wife according to his promise, and Abraham was put to shame for his want of confidence in his Lord: he was like many of his children, who can trust the general covenants and promises of God, but cannot commit their present business, protection, and property into his hands. This was a great weakness in father Abraham, and demonstrates that the best of men are only men at the best.

It is

the grace of God that makes and keeps a man holy, good, and greatly noble. Without this they are frail as other men. Truly, it is hard to learn the lesson which our blessed Saviour taught his disciples, saying, "Without me ye can do nothing." You will observe, my dear children, that the knowledge of God and the primeval institutions of religion and morality were not yet forgotten in Egypt, else the plagues laid upon Pharaoh would not so soon have convicted him of sinning against those sacred ordinances of God.

William. Did the same family of Pharaoh continue on the throne of Egypt from Abraham to Moses?

Olympas. All the kings of Egypt were called Pharaoh, from the days of the Cushite shepherdkings till the Grecian monarchy.-Afterwards they were called Ptolemies.

William. When did they commence ?

Olympas. About the time of Abraham's birth. The earliest origin that tradition gives these shepherd-kings is about seventy-two years before Abraham went down into Egypt. The meaning of the word Pharaoh in Hebrew is radically a free-booter-a pilgrim plunderer; but its Egyptian signification is most probably sovereign, or king. Josephus in his Jewish Antiquities says, "The title of Pharaoh was applied to the kings of Egypt from Menas to Solomon's time, but not afterwards, and that it is an Egyptian word signifying king. But it is found later than Solomon's time in other records; and it is also affirmed by some historians that there were not less than three hundred and forty-one kings who wore the name of Pharaoh during the period of fourteen hundred years.

The Egyptian mythologists say that Egypt was under three different dynasties of kings. The first, was the immortal gods, of the highest class; the second, demigods, or heroes; and the third, mortal kings-the Pharaohs.

William. Why so much more said in Genesis about Abraham than Adam?

Olympas. Six chapters record creation and the antediluvian age, while nineteen are chiefly employed in the history of Abraham. The reason I presume is that with Abraham commences the history of the Jews, and the special history of the ancestry of the Messiah. Abraham was a person of the highest renown, a prince, the progenitor of the Israelites, the father of the faithful, the friend of God, and the benefactor of the world. We must then, my dear children, study with great care the history of Abraham. Its details include both law and gospel; faith and works; circumcision and baptism; a temporal and an eternal inheritance.

As the land of Canaan was the grand theatre of Abraham's renown, and as its position is most conspicuous in the Bible, I will require of the senior class that they repeat the description of it at our next lesson so far as its geographical position is concerned, as you will find it in Stackhouse's Introduction.

CONVERSATION XIV.

THE twelfth and thirteenth chapters of Genesis being read, Olympas called upon Reuben for a description of the Promised Land.

Reuben. It lay between the Mediterranean sea and the mountains of Arabia, and extends from Egypt to Phenicia. It is bounded on the east by the mountains of Arabia; to the south, by the wilderness of Paran, Idumea, and Egypt; to the west, by the Mediterranean, called in Hebrew the Great Sea; and to the north, by the mountains of Libanus. Its length from the city of Dan, since called Cesarea Philippi, which stands at the foot of these mountains, to Beersheba, is about seventy leagues, or two hundred and ten miles; and its breadth from the Mediterranean sea to the eastern border, in some places thirty leagues or ninety miles. This country, though small, lying in the very midst of the the known world, was chosen by God wherein to work the redemption of mankind. It was first called the land of Canaan, from Canaan the son of Ham, whose posterity possessed it. Afterwards it was called Palestine, from the people whom the Hebrews called Philistines, and the Greeks and Romans corruptly Palestines, who inhabited the sea coasts, and were first known to them; the Land of Promise from God's promise to Abraham of giving it to him;-the Land of Israel, from the Israelites, who afterward possessed it;-the Land of Judah, or Judea, from the tribe

of Judah, the most considerable of the twelve tribes, and the only one that remained after the Captivity:-and lastly, the Holy Land, from being the scene of the birth, miracles, death, and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Olympas. It is well repeated, and I presume you have traced these lines accurately upon the How many names had this land according to the description and history which you have heard?

map.

William. No less than six-Canaan, Palestine, Land of Israel, Land of Judea, Land of Promise, and the Holy Land.

Olympas. The Land of Promise was then the family estate of Abraham in virtue of this divine charter. It was, however, his as yet only in promise for at that time seven nations called it their own country. When, James, was Abraham called to go and sojourn in this land?

James. When he was seventy-five years old. Olympas. He left Haran at that age; but the question is, At what time was Abraham called to forsake his native land, his kindred and home?

William. We are not informed at what time, only that the Lord at some previous time “had said." This phrase allows even years to have intervened. He was, indeed, seventy-five yearsold at the time of his departure from Haran; but how long before that time he was called, we cannot tell.

Olympas. But as Paul says, "Abraham, when called, obeyed and went out not knowing whither he was going," are we not allowed-nay, constrained to think that as soon as he was called he obeyed?