ABRAHAM AND THE THREE ANGELS.
ABRAHAM'S VISIONS.
Angels of life and death are His;
Without his leave they pass no threshold o'er;
Who, then, would wish or dare, believing this,
Against his messengers to shut the door.
—Longfellow.
One night Abram went out beneath the sky and looked up at the stars. Then God's voice spoke and said, "Thy descendants shall be in number like the stars."
Now, Abram had no children, and had his faith been less firm he might have doubted the words he heard. But he had never forgotten the promise that in the Land of Canaan a child should be born to him, and that from him should descend a nation.
And that same night God spoke again to Abram in a vision. He showed him an altar with a burning lamp. And he said to Abram, "For four hundred years your descendants shall journey in a strange land and suffer affliction; but, at the end of that time, they shall again come into Canaan and possess the land."
Then the Lord changed the name of Abram to Abraham, which means Father of a People. And his wife's name he changed to Sarah, which means a Princess. And again God said unto Abraham and Sarah, "A child shall be born to you; and he shall be great among the nations of the earth."
A third time God came to Abraham; and he told him that the destruction of Sodom was near at hand, because of its wickedness.