Putting aside the various traditions which describe his prolonged stay at Damascus, and his supposed rule

there, we learn from Scripture that Abram entered the land of promise, as many years afterwards his

grandson Jacob returned to it, leaving on his right the majestic Lebanon, and on his left the pastures of

Gilead and the mountain -forests of Bashan. Straight on he passed over hills and through valleys, till he

reached the delicious plain of Moreh, or rather the spreading terebinth-tree of Moreh, in the valley of

Sichem. Travelers have spoken in the most enthusiastic terms of this vale. "All at once," writes Professor

Robinson, "the ground sinks down to a valley running towards the west, with a soil of rich, black vegetable

mold. Here a scene of luxuriant and almost unparalleled verdure burst upon our view. The whole valley was

filled with gardens of vegetables, and orchards of all kinds of fruits, watered by several fountains, which

burst forth in various parts, and flow westward in refreshing streams. It came upon u s suddenly, like a scene

of fairy enchantment. We saw nothing to compare with it in all Palestine."

Another traveler 31 says: "Here there are no wild thickets; yet there is always verdure, always shade, - not of

the oak, the terebinth, or the garoub-tree, but of the olive-grove, so soft in color, so picturesque in form, that

for its sake we can willingly dispense with all other wood."

Such was the first resting-place of Abram in the land of promise, in the plain, or rather in the wood of Moreh,

which probably derived its name from the Canaanitish proprietor of the district. For, as shown by the remark

of the sacred writer, "and the Canaanite was then in the land," the country was not tenantless, but occupied

by a hostile race; and if Abram was to enter on its possession, it must once more be by faith in the promises.

Here it was that Jehovah actually "appeared" unto Abram, under some visible form or other; and now for the

first time in sight of the Canaanite was the promise conveyed, "unto thy seed will I give this land." It is

added that Abram "there builded an altar unto Jehovah who appeared unto him." Thus, the soil on which

Jehovah had been seen, and which He had just promised to Abram, was consecrated unto the Lord; and

Abram's faith, publicly professed in the strange land, grasped Jehovah's promise, solemnly given.

From Shechem, Abram removed, probably for the sake of pasturage, southwards to a mountain on the east

of Bethel, pitching his tent between Bethel and Ai. This district is, in the words of Robinson, "still one of the

finest tracts for pasturage in the whole land." In the glowing language of Dean Stanley: "We here stand on

the highest of a succession of eminences, . . . its topmost summit resting, as it were, on the rocky slopes

below, and distinguished from them by the olive-grove, which clusters over its broad surface above. From

this height, thus offering a natural base for the patriarchal altar, and a fitting shade for the patriarchal tent,

Abram and Lot must be conceived as taking the wide survey of the country . . such as can be enjoyed from

no other point in the neighborhood." What met their astonished gaze from this point will be described in the

following chapter. Meantime, we note that here, also, Abram "builded an altar unto Jehovah;" and, though

He does not seem to have visibly appeared unto him, yet the patriarch called upon the name of Jehovah.

After a residence, probably of some time, Abram continued his journey, "going on still toward the south," -

a pilgrim and a stranger "in the land of promise;" his possession of it only marked by the altars which he left

on his track.

A fresh trial now awaited the faith of Abram. Strong as it always proved in what concerned the kingdom of

God, it failed again and again in matters personal to himself. A famine was desolating the land, and, as is still

the case with the Bedouin tribes under similar circumstances, Abram and his family "went down into Egypt,"

which has at all times been the granary of other nations. It does not become us to specula te whether this

removal was lawful, without previous special directions from God; but we know that it exposed him to the

greatest danger. As we must not underrate the difficulties of the patriarchs, so neither must we overrate their

faith and their strength. Abram "was a man of like passions with us," and of like weaknesses. When God

spoke to him he believed, and when he believed then he obeyed. But God had said nothing as yet to him,

directly, about Sarai; and, in the absence of any special direction, he s eems to have taken the matter into his

own hands, after the manner of those times and countries. From Genesis 20:13 we learn that when he first set

out from his father's house, an agreement had been made between the two, that Sarai was to pass as his