6 BATTLES OF THE BIBLE.

little could have been known then by any one of any
country except the one they lived in. We know much
even of the countries most distant from our own, and there
is easy communication now between all parts of the world;
but it was not so then. Abram’s wife went with him,
and his nephew Lot ; they all lived together in a country
where they were strangers, called the land of Canaan.

“ Now Abram and Lot were both rich ; they had many
cattle and servants, and although they could agree to-
gether, their herdsmen could not, so they saw that it
would be better to separate. Abram was the elder, and
the chief, for he was the head of the family, and he had
been specially chosen by God, so he had a right to
choose where he would go; but he left the choice to Lot,
for those who are really pious consider the pleasure of
others more than their own.

«<The land is before thee,’ he said, ‘choose : if you
go to the right hand, then I will go to the left; if you
go to the left hand, I will go to the right.’

«“ Lot looked abroad, and saw that the plain of Sodom
was very fertile and well watered. He might have pre-
ferred that his kinsman should have the richest pasture,
but Lot did what most men would have done, consulted
what seemed to him his own interest. He went to live
in Sodom, and the consequences shew what a short way
we can see before us, and how little we know what is
for our good even in worldly things.

«“ For twelve years the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah
had been tributary to a king of Elam or Persia, called in