the souls they had gotten in
Haran, and they went forth to go into the land of Canaan."--Gen. xii: 5.

All the ancient Jewish writers of note, and Christian commentators
agree, that by the "souls they had gotten in Haran," as our translators
render it, are meant their slaves, or those persons they had bought with
their money in Haran. In a few years after their arrival in Canaan, Lot
with all he had was taken captive. So soon as Abraham heard it, he armed
three hundred and eighteen slaves that were born in his house, and
retook him. How great must have been the entire slave family, to produce
at this period of Abraham's life, such a number of young slaves able to
bear arms.--Gen. xiv: 14.

Abraham is constantly held up in the sacred story, as the subject of
great distinction among the princes and sovereigns of the countries in
which he sojourned. This distinction was on account of his great wealth.
When he proposed to buy a burying-ground at Sarah's death, of the
children of Heth, he stood up and spoke with great humility of himself
as "a stranger and sojourner among them," (Gen. xxiii: 4,) desirous to
obtain a burying-ground. But in what light do they look upon him? "Hear
us, my Lord, thou art a mighty prince among us."--Gen. xxiii: 6. Such is
the light in which they viewed him. What gave a man such distinction
among such a people? Not moral qualities, but great wealth, and its
inseparable concomitant, power. When the famine drove Abraham to Egypt,
he received the highest honors of the reigning sovereign. This honor at
Pharaoh's court, was called forth by the visible tokens of immense
wealth. In Genesis xii: 15, 16, we have the honor that was shown to him,
mentioned, _with a list of his property_, which is given in these words,
in the 16th verse: "He had sheep, and oxen, and he-asses, and
men-servants, and maid-servants, and she-asses, and camels." The
_amount_ of his flocks may be inferred from the _number of slaves_
employed in tending them. They were those he brought from Ur of the
Chaldees, of whom the three hundred and eighteen were born; those gotten
in Haran, where he dwelt for a short time, and those which he inherited
from his father, who died in Haran. When Abraham _went up_ from Egypt,
it is stated in Genesis xiii: 2, that he was "_very rich_," not only in
_flocks_ and _slaves_, but in "_silver_ and _gold_" also.

After the destruction of Sodom, we see him sojourning in the kingdom of
Gerar. Here he recei