WHEN Noah's grandchildren and great-grandchildren came to be more and more, and the world was being filled with people again, they still were not all good, and the longer time went on the worse they grew.
At last God called to a very good man, whose name was Abram, and told him that if he would come away from his home to a land God would show him, then God would bless him and lead him, and by-and-by give the land to his children, and that their children after them should be more in number than the grains of sand on the sea-shore, or than the stars in the sky: and that in his seed—that was, in a Son of his—all the nations of the earth should be blessed.
It was strange to hear all this about Abram's children, for he was growing old, and he and his wife Sarai had no children at all. But he believed in God. He knew that God is Almighty, and can do whatever He will; so he only did just as God told him, and went away from his home, where God told him. He was obliged to take all his cattle with him—quantities of cows, and goats, and sheep, and camels; and he had many servants to drive them.
ABRAM SEES THE PROMISED LAND.—Gen. 12:3-7.
When they came to a piece of grass and a fresh spring of water, there they would stop. They had no houses—only tents, which were great curtains woven of goat's hair and fastened up with poles, so that they could be set up or taken down, and carried about. All his life Abram lived in a tent, instead of staying at home in a city, and being at his ease.
By-and-by he came to a beautiful country. There were high hills rising up, and green valleys between, full of grass for the sheep and cattle; and the wide sea spread out far away towards the sunset, all blue and glorious. God told him to look at the land, for that was the place which his children should have for their own; but in the meantime Abram had not one bit of it, and was a stranger there; and he had no child either.
