[Illustration:  Building the tower of Babel.]

LOT’S FLIGHT FROM SODOM.

In Palestine, the land in which Jesus dwelt when He was upon earth, there is an inland sea, called the Dead Sea.  Its waters are very salt, and no trees grow upon its shores.  Many long years before the birth of Jesus Christ, two cities stood upon the plain which the waters of the Dead Sea now cover.  These cities were named Sodom and Gomorrah.  Their inhabitants were very wicked, so God destroyed their cities by raining brimstone and fire upon them.

Before God destroyed these cities, He sent two angels to Lot, Abraham’s nephew, who dwelt in Sodom, commanding him to flee from it, taking his family with him.  The angels hastened him, saying, “Arise, take thy wife, and thy two daughters, which are here; lest thou be consumed in the iniquity of the city.”  Then the angels took all four by the hand and led them out, and said to Lot, “Escape for thy life; look not behind thee, neither stay thou in all the plain; escape to the mountain, lest thou be consumed.”

Lot pleaded that he might take refuge in a little city, named Zoar, not very far distant; and having obtained the angels’ permission to do so, he took his wife and daughters, and hastened away.  In our picture we see him and his daughters entering Zoar, and Sodom burning in the distance—­but what is that strange figure standing on the plain?  Alas! that is Lot’s wife; the angel had commanded them that none were to look back, but she did so, and was turned into a pillar of salt.

Lot did wrong in dwelling in such a wicked city as Sodom, and lost all his property when he escaped for his life.

[Illustration:  Lot entering Zoar.]

ABRAHAM AND ISAAC.

Abraham feared God and obeyed His commandments; and God promised to bless Abraham very greatly.  He gave him riches in cattle, and silver, and gold; and said that the land of Canaan should belong to him and his descendants.  God also gave him a son in his old age, whom he loved, very dearly and named Isaac.  But God intended to try Abraham, to see if he loved Him above all else.

One day God told Abraham to take his son Isaac, and to journey into the land of Moriah; there to build an altar and offer Isaac as a sacrifice upon it.  It was a strange command, but Abraham knew that God would not bid him do what was wrong, and believed that even if he slew his son, God was able to raise him to life again.  So he rose early in the morning, saddled his ass, took two of his young men, and wood for the fire; and then, accompanied by Isaac, started on his journey.  On the third day they came near the place God had pointed out, and Abraham left the young men with the ass, while he and his son journeyed up the mountain alone.  As they went along, Isaac—­who carried the wood, while his father carried the knife and the fire, said:  “My father.”  And Abraham replied, “Here am I, my son.”  Then Isaac said:  “Behold the fire and the wood:  but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” Abraham answered:  “My son, God will provide Himself a lamb for a burnt offering.”