The name of King Urukh is found impressed upon the bricks of the buttresses which supported the great central edifice, the tower, 200 feet square, called Buwariyya. Through a country whose soil was a tenacious clay, crossed by many canals and aqueducts, fifty miles' journey would bring them to the neighbourhood of Calneh, the Cul-unu of the Inscriptions, and the modern Niffar. At one time the capital of this part of Chaldæa, the town had now sunk into comparative insignificance, its place being taken by Ur, and the worship of the god Bel being superseded by that of the Moon, who is called the eldest son of Bel. A modern traveller writes thus of the place: "The present aspect of Niffar is that of a lofty platform of earth and rubbish, divided into two nearly equal parts by a deep channel, apparently the bed of a river, about 120 feet wide. Nearly in the centre of the eastern portion of this platform are the remains of a brick tower of early construction, the débris of which constitutes a conical mound rising seventy feet above the plain. This is a conspicuous object in the distance, and exhibits, where the brickwork is exposed, oblong perforations similar to those seen at Birs-Nimrud, and other edifices of the Babylonian age. At the distance of a few hundred yards, on the east of the ruins, may be distinctly traced a low continuous mound, the remains, probably, of the external wall of the ancient city." Thence sixty miles more conducted them to Babylon, a city which is identified by an uninterrupted tradition with the extensive mounds and ruins on the Euphrates above Hillah, 150 miles from their old home. This city had not attained the eminence which it reached in after years, and was probably at that time inferior to Ur in extent and population. But the great temple was already in existence, and the wonderful building at Borsippa, which moderns call Birs-Nimrud, on the western side of the river, though already in ruins, showed its huge proportions and massive architecture, as they passed it at some fifteen miles' distance. Sepharvaim, afterwards named Sippara, and now Mosaib, would next be reached, about twenty miles from Babylon. Here, the legend tells, Xisuthrus buried the records of the antediluvian world, which were recovered by his posterity. The plural form of the city's name is explained by its division into two portions by the river on which it stands. G. Smith, "History of Babylonia," p. 70. Loftus, "Travels in Chaldæa,' pp. 101, 164 ff. Leaving now the rich alluvial plains of Shinar, the pilgrims *would reach a wide region of upland country, dependent for water on the rains of heaven, and consequently often suffering from drought. Ivah or Ava, the modern Hit, with its copious springs of bitumen, and Hena, the modern Anat, whose ruins show it to have been a large city, some hundred miles further, would successively be passed. Next they would enter upon a high plateau, far above the Euphrates, which, no longer calm and sluggish as in Lower Chaldæa, where it falls only three inches in the mile, now rushed along with strong current, battling with the many islands which impeded its course; then they would descend to the lower plain, crossed by valleys, which were rich in pasture wherever they felt the effects of the refreshing river, but otherwise stony, barren, and treeless. Before proceeding northwards they had to cross the river Habor—the Chaboras of Ptolemy, and the modern Khabur, which joins the Euphrates where in later times stood the town Circesium. To find a ford across this stream they would have to ascend its left bank for some days' march, leaving the familiar Euphrates, and entering on a verdant and beautiful region, bounded by a range of gentle hills. The travellers might then follow the western branch of the Habor, which led in the direction of Haran, where the increasing infirmities of Terah caused them to end their wanderings. Haran, a city whose name has remained attached to the spot up to this day, lay upon the river Balikh (the Balikhi of the Inscriptions, and the Bilichus of the Classics), an affluent of the Euphrates, in Upper Mesopotamia. The word Haran is probably the Accadian Kharran, “a road,” and would point to the town being situated on the great high-road from east to west. The Greek form Charran2 is identical. Standing where it did, and with many roads radiating from it to the great fords of the Tigris and Euphrates, it formed an important commercial station, and is naturally mentioned in Ezekiel (chap. xxvii, 23), as one of the places which supplied the marts of Tyre.3 It was dedicated to the same deity as the one honoured at Ur, the Moon-god, whose symbol was a conical stone with a star above "Fresh Light from the * Prof. Sayce, "Monthly Interpreter," iii. 462. Monuments," pp. 46, 47. 2 Gen. xi. 31; xxvii. 43, Sept.; Acts vii. 44. 3 Kitto, "Cyclopædia," ii. 229, ed. 1864. it. All this district from very early times had belonged to the rulers of Babylonia, of whose kingdom Haran was the frontier town, commanding the high-road that led to Syria and Palestine. It was a region shut in by mountains and rivers, and offering a great variety of soil and climate depending upon elevation and water supply. Haran itself lay in the centre of a rich, alluvial plain of marvellous fertility. One who visited the country a few years ago writes thus: "At every step from Oorfa on the way to Haran, the hills on the right and on the left of the plain recede farther and farther until you find yourself fairly launched on the desert-ocean—a boundless plain, strewed at times with patches of the brightest flowers, at other times with rich and green pastures, covered with flocks of sheep and of goats feeding together, here and there a few camels, and the son or daughter of their owner tending them. One can quite understand how the sons of this open country, the Bedaweens, love it, and cannot leave it ; no other soil would suit them. The air is so fresh, the horizon is so far, and man feels so free, that it seems made for those whose life is to roam at pleasure, and who own allegiance to none but to themselves. .. The village of Haran itself consists of a few conical houses, in shape like beehives, built of stones laid in courses one over the other, without either mud or mortar. These houses let in the light at the top, and are clustered together at the foot of the ruined castle, built on the mound that makes Haran a landmark plainly visible from the whole plain around. The principal inhabitants of the place are the Bedaween tribes, which haunt the neighbourhood in search of pasture. One of these tribes, the Anazeez, had spread their tents of black goat's-hair at the foot of the mound, between that and Rebekah's well; and I pitched my tent among them. That same day I walked at even to the well I had passed in the afternoon, coming from Oorfa ; the well of this, the city of Nahor, at the time of the evening, the time that women go out to draw water.' There was a group of them, filling no longer their pitchers-since the steps down which Rebekah went to fetch the water are now blocked up-but filling their water-skins by drawing water at the well's mouth. Everything around that well bears signs of age and of the wear of time; for, as it is the only well of drinkable water there, it is much resorted to." ... Some time after that Abram and his father had taken up their 'Malan, "Philosophy or Truth,” p. 93 ff. abode in Haran, the brother who had been left behind at Ur removed to their new settlement. The cause of his migration and the date of his arrival are not given in the sacred record; but it is altogether in accordance with the habits of these Eastern tribes, and, indeed, with all roving nations who are not fixed to one spot by physical peculiarities or the possession of great cities, that an advance of one portion of the people should be followed by another section. The report of the discovery of an advantageous locality, with plenteous pasturage and undisturbed occupancy, quickly awoke the desire of change. Nahor and his wife Milcah followed the steps of Terah, and arrived at Haran, bringing with them the superstitions of their old home, and only half weaned from the idolatry which Abram had spurned at so great a sacrifice. Here they met with much worldly prosperity; their substance greatly increased; numerous sons were born to them. They became a powerful clan, from which wives were sought in after years for the heirs of the chosen race. Thus the re-united family remained for a time at Haran. The connecting link seems to have been their father Terah. As long as he lived Abram had duties to perform which he could not relinquish; but when Terah's long life of two hundred and five years came to a close, this reason no longer operated, and the two branches of the clan again divided— the one remaining where it had settled, the other accomplishing its destiny by seeking a new home. Was it because the God of Nahor (Gen. xxxi. 53) was not the same divinity as the God of Abram, that the latter separated himself from his brother's family? Secular history, looking at the matter from an external point, would call this simply a second migration, produced by the causes that occasioned the former movement. Holy Scripture, describing the world as God's world, gives the hidden actuation of events, and shows behind the apparent fact the finger of an overruling Providence. CHAPTER III. SECOND CALL. The second call with its promise-Departure from Haran; Necessity of this movement-Route to Canaan; Tadmor; Kuryetein; Damascus -Arrival in Canaan-Encampment at Moreh-Shechem described. IT was after his father's death that a second and more definite call came to Abram with a magnificent promise attached to it. And this was the Divine intimation (Gen. xii. 1, 2): "Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto the land that I will show thee; and I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and be thou a blessing; and I will bless them that bless thee, and him that curseth thee will I curse : and in thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed." Here was a threefold blessing promised-partly temporal, partly spiritual. He was to be brought unto a land where he should make his home; he was to become a great nation; and in and through him all the families of the earth should be blessed. The full meaning of this announcement time alone could develope. How much of it Abram understood we cannot tell; but he must from it have learned a new lesson concerning God. He now saw in the Lord, not merely the great Creator, but also a moral Governor; he recognized His ruling Providence; he knew that it was God's will that he should settle in the land to which he was directed, that in this new home he and his posterity should receive some extraordinary blessings, and that from his seed should spring some wonderful good to all mankind. This solemn promise filled his soul, directed all his conduct, made |