s very soil by erecting a family altar, first in the
plain of Moreh, and again on the summits that catch the smile of morning
near the hamlet of Bethel.

Months stepped away, rapidly as silently, old associations wore off, and
Abram was a wealthy and happy man in the luxuriant vales of Canaan. His
flocks dotted the plains, and his cattle sent down their lowing from
encircling hills. But more than these to him was the affection of his
beautiful wife. Her eye watched his form along the winding way, when
with the ascending sun he went out on the dewy slopes, and kindled with
a serene welcome when at night-fall he returned for repose amid the
sacred joys of home.

At length there came on a fearful famine. The rain was withholden, and
the dew shed its benediction no more upon the earth. He was compelled to
seek bread at the court of Pharaoh, or perish. Knowing the power of
female beauty, and the want of principle among the Egyptian princes, he
was afraid of assassination and the captivity of Sarai which would
follow. Haunted with this fear, he told her to say that she was his
sister--which was not a direct falsehood, but only so by implication.
According to the Jewish mode of reckoning relationship, she might be
called a sister; and Abram stooped to this prevarication under that
terrible dread which, in the case of Peter, drove a true disciple of
Christ to the brink of apostacy and despair.

[Illustration: Results of Prevarication. Peter denying his Master.]

But his deception involved him in the very difficulty he designed to
escape. The king's courtiers saw the handsome Hebrew, and extolled her
beauty before him. He summoned her to the apartments of the palace, and
captivated by her loveliness, determined to make her his bride. During
the agonizing suspense of Abram, and the concealed anguish of Sarai in
her conscious degradation, the hours wore heavily away, until the
judgment of God upon the royal household brought deliverance. Pharaoh,
though an idolater, knew by this supernatural infliction, that there was
guilt in the transaction, and called Abram to an account. He had nothing
to say in self-acquittal, and with a strange magnanimity, was sent away
quietly, with his wife and property, followed only by the reproaches of
Pharaoh, and his own wakeful conscience.

Abram returned to Palestine, became a victor in fierce battles with a
vastly outnumbering foe, and was in possession of a splendid fortune.

Whether in