of the flood," or of Euphrates, "served other gods;" and we can readily understand what influence their

surroundings must, in the circumstances, have exercised upon them. It was out of this city of Ur that God

called Abram. Previously to t his, Haran, Abram's eldest brother, had died. We read, that "Terah took Abram,

his son, and Lot the son of Haran his son's son, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, his son Abram's wife, and

they went forth with them from Ur of the Chaldees, to go into the land of Canaan; and they came unto

Haran, and dwelt there." The words which we have italicized leave no room for doubt, that the first call of

God had come to Abram long before the death of Terah, and when the clan were still at Ur.(Comp. Acts 7:2)

From the circumstance that Haran is afterwards called "the city of Nahor," (Genesis 24:10; comp. 27:43) we

gather that Nahor, Abraham's brother, and his family had also settled there, though perhaps at a later period,

and without relinquishing their idolatry. It is a remarkable confirmation of the scriptural account, that,

though this district belongs to Mesopotamia, and not to Chaldea, its inhabitants are known to have for a

long time retained the peculiar Chaldean language and worship. Haran has preserved its original name, and

at the time of the Romans was one of the great battle -fields on which that power sustained a defeat from the

The journey from Ur, in the far south, had been long, wearisome, and dangerous; and the fruitful plains

around Haran must have held out special inducements for a pastoral tribe to settle. But when the Divine

command came, Abram was "not disobedient unto the heavenly vision." Perhaps the arrival and settlement

of Nahor and his family, bringing with them their idolatrous associa tions, may have formed an additional

incentive for departing. And so far, God had in His providence made it easier for Abram to leave, since his

father Terah had died in Haran, at the age of two hundred and five years. The second call of Jehovah to

Abram, as given in Genesis 12:1-3, consisted of a fourfold command, and a fourfold promise.

The command was quite definite in its terms: "Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from

thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee;" leaving it, however, as yet undecided which was to be

the place of his final settlement. This uncertainty must have been an additional and, in the circumstances, a

very serious difficulty in the way of Abram's obedience. But the word of promise reassured him. It should be

distinctly marked, that on this, as on every other occasion in Abram's life, his faith determined his

obedience. Accordingly, we read, "By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he

should after receive for an inheritance, o beyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went."(Hebrews

The promise upon which he trusted assured to him these four things: "I will make of thee a great nation;" "I

will bless thee," with this addition (in ver. 3), "and thou shalt be a blessing, and I will bless them that bless

thee, and curse him that curseth thee;" "I will make thy name great ;" and, lastly, "In thee shall all families of

the earth be blessed."

When we examine these promises more closely, we at once perceive how they must have formed yet another

trial of Abram's faith; since he was not only going, a stranger into a strange land, but was at the time wholly

childless. The promise that he was to "be a blessing," implied that blessing would, so to speak, be identified

with him; so that happiness or evil would flow from the relationship in which men would place themselves

towards Abram. On the other hand, from the peculiar terms "them that bless thee," in the plural, and "him

that curseth thee," in the singular, we gather that the Divine purpose of mercy embraced many, "of all

nations, kindreds, and tongues." Lastly, the great promise, "In thee shall all families of the earth be blessed,"

went far beyond the personal assurance, "I will make thy name great." It resumed and made more definite the

previous promises of final deliverance, by fixing upon Abram as the spring whence the blessing was to flow.

Viewed in this light, all mankind appear as only so many families, but of one and the same father; and which

were to be again united in a common blessing in and through Abram. Repeated again and again in the

history of Abram, this promise contained already at the outset the whole fullness of the Divine purpose of

mercy in the salvation of men. Thus was the prediction to be fulfilled: "God shall enlarge Japheth, and he

shall dwell in the tents of Shem," as is shown by St. Peter in Acts 3:25, and by St. Paul in Galatians 3:8, 14.