78 The Brothers.

 

“Surely no one ever heard such a terrible
command as this, and we might expect to
hear it answered with a prayer to the Lord
to take anything but this—any sacrifice but
this.

“But Abraham made no answer; he knew
the Lord knew best; he would leave it all—
just a—to Him.

“And he did not wait; the Lord had
spoken, His servant should obey at once, and
when the morning light returned he rose up
very early and prepared for his journey. The
land of Moriah was many miles from the part
where Abraham lived, and he saddled his ass,
called two of his servants and his son Isaac to
go with him, and cut up some wood and took
it with him to be ready for the burnt-offering.

“Then he started on his strange, dreadful
journey, travelled for nearly three days, till on
the third day Abraham looked up and saw the
mountain of which the Lord had told him
lying before him.

“ All this time Abraham had said nothing to
his child of the object of his journey ; perhaps
he felt as if he could not tell him—perhaps he
thought to spare Isaac the terror of such news.

“ At any rate nothing was said, and when
the mountain was in sight, Abraham told his