ABRAHAM AND THE THREE ANGELS.

"AND the Lord appeared unto Abraham in the plains of Mamre: and he sat in the tent-door in the heat of the day; and he lift up his eyes and looked, and lo, three men stood by him and when he saw them, he ran to meet them from the tent-door, and bowed himself toward the ground."* Abraham was seated at the door of his tent, in order, most probably, to observe if any strangers should pass, that he might extend to them the rights of hospitality; a practice universally observed in those primitive times, especially in a country where travelling at noon day, under a vertical sun, is extremely distressing. Whilst he was thus benevolently engaged, the Schechinah poured a flood of visible glory around him, by which he instantly knew that the Lord was at hand. In order to prepare with becoming reverence for the divine communication, he immediately prostrated himself, and upon lifting up his eyes, after having performed this act of devout homage, he beheld three angels standing before him. They announce to him the joyful intelligence that his wife shall bear a son in her old age. Sarah is seen within the tent looking at the strangers with a stealthy caution, from behind the drapery; as if hesitating to appear in the presence of the celestial delegates. Two camels are ruminating on one side of the tent, signifying that Abraham was at this time rich in flocks and herds, as camels could be possessed only by the more wealthy of the early patriarchs. The three angels are grouped together, within a circle of celestial radiance, as representing the Holy Trinity, which some of the ancient fathers, who have been followed by many modern divines, imagine to be indicated in this mission of the three angels to Abraham, since he addresses them as one person. St. Cyrill, a learned patriarch of Alexandria in the fifth century, maintains this argument in his first book against Julian the Apostate.

THE DESTRUCTION OF SODOM.

HERE we behold a most awful manifestation of divine retribution. The fearful overthrow of the cities of the plain is now going on. In the distance, Sodom is represented under the influence of the burning deluge, which descends from Heaven in streams of liquid flame. Towers are falling, palaces are overthrown, the habitations of the great and little are overwhelmed in one indiscriminate ruin. Whilst the multitude are rushing towards the principal gate, the fiery flood rolls through it from without, thus terminating the last hope of escape. It quickly overspreads the whole town, in which there remains not a living tongue to tell the tale of horror. Lot, his wife, and two daughters, have escaped from the appalling conflagration. He has just reached the little town of Zoar, which was a short distance from Sodom, and whither he was permitted to find a refuge from the anger of Omnipotence. "The sun was risen upon the earth when Lot entered into Zoar. Then the Lord rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven; and he overthrew those cities, and all the plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities and that which grew upon the ground."* Lot's eldest daughter bears a vessel upon her head, containing the wine which was afterwards applied to a most unholy purpose. The mother stands at some distance behind the fugitives, having probably tarried in expectation of rescuing her daughters' husbands, and remaining too long she became an awful monument of the divine displeasure. It is supposed that some of the sulphurous shower, which was at that moment overwhelming the city, fell upon her as she stood, in defiance of God's prohibition, bewailing its overthrow, and covered her with a saline crust which quickly became so hard that she remained fixed upon the spot in an erect position, thus resembling a pillar of salt.