Produced by Colin Bell, Nigel Blower and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive)
_Italic words_ have been enclosed in underscores.
As the oe ligature cannot be included in this format, it has been replaced with the separate letters in "manoeuvre" and "Phoenician".
A few minor typographical errors have been silently corrected. Some inconsistent hyphenation has been retained.
The Table of Contents refers to original page numbers.]
AUTHOR OF "ISRAEL'S IRON AGE," "THE PARABLES OF OUR LORD," "THE PRAYER THAT TEACHES TO PRAY," ETC.
NEW YORK: A. C. ARMSTRONG AND SON 714, BROADWAY.
CHAPTER IX. LOT'S SEPARATION FROM ABRAM 108
CHAPTER XIV. ABRAHAM'S INTERCESSION FOR SODOM 172
CHAPTER XV. DESTRUCTION OF THE CITIES OF THE PLAIN 186
CHAPTER XXII. JACOB'S FLIGHT AND DREAM 279
CHAPTER XXVIII. JOSEPH'S ADMINISTRATION 369
CHAPTER XXIX. VISITS OF JOSEPH'S BRETHREN 383
CHAPTER XXXI. THE BLESSINGS OF THE TRIBES 415
If any one is in search of accurate information regarding the age of this earth, or its relation to the sun, moon, and stars, or regarding the order in which plants and animals have appeared upon it, he is referred to recent text-books in astronomy, geology, and palæontology. No one for a moment dreams of referring a serious student of these subjects to the Bible as a source of information. It is not the object of the writers of Scripture to impart physical instruction or to enlarge the bounds of scientific knowledge. But if any one wishes to know what connection the world has with God, if he seeks to trace back all that now is to the very fountain-head of life, if he desires to discover some unifying principle, some illuminating purpose in the history of this earth, then we confidently refer him to these and the subsequent chapters of Scripture as his safest, and indeed his only, guide to the information he seeks. Every writing must be judged by the object the writer has in view. If the object of the writer of these chapters was to convey physical information, then certainly it is imperfectly fulfilled. But if his object was to give an intelligible account of God's relation to the world and to man, then it must be owned that he has been successful in the highest degree.