ran to them and entreated that they should abide under the tree,
while he would have refreshment prepared for them; they did so, and when
about to depart one of them said, "shall we keep from Abraham that thing
which I do (God come down again), seeing he shall surely become a great
and mighty nation, _for I know he will command his children and
household_ after him, _and they shall keep the way of the Lord_;" that
is, keeping Adam's race pure--a mission the Jews are to this day
fulfilling. And they told Abraham of the impending fate of these cities.
Abraham interceded for them, and pleaded that the righteous should not
be destroyed with the wicked. God ultimately promised him, that if there
were ten righteous in all these cities that he would not destroy them.
What strong foundation have we people of the United States in God's
mercy and _forbearance_ in this incident? Will we prove worthy? The
angels went to Sodom and brought out _all_ the righteous, being only Lot
and his two daughters (and their righteousness was not in their
morality), his wife being turned into a pillar of salt. This done, God
rained fire upon these cities and literally burnt up their inhabitants
alive, and everything they had, and then sunk the very ground upon which
their cities stood more than a thousand feet beneath, not the pure
waters of the deluge, but beneath the bitter, salt, and slimy waters of
Asphaltites, wherein no living thing can exist. An awful judgment! But
it was for the most awful crime that man can commit in the sight of God,
of which the punishment _is on earth_. Exhaust the catalogue of human
depravity--name every crime human turpitude can possibly perpetrate, and
which has been perpetrated on earth since the fall of Adam, and no such
judgment of God on any people has ever before fallen, on their
commission. But one crime, one _other_ crime, and that crime the same
for which he had destroyed every living thing on earth, save what was in
the ark. But now he destroys by fire, not by water, but by fire, men,
women and children, old and young, for the crime of miscegenating of
_Adam's race with the negroes_. Noah was a preacher of righteousness to
the antediluvians, yet he got drunk after the flood. Lot too was a
preacher of righteousness to the cities of the plain, and he too not
only got drunk but did so repeatedly, and committed a double crime of
incest besides. Then we ask, what _righteousness_, what _kind_ of
righteousness was i