Old Testament heroes

Foreword

L ELF-RESPECTING persons, young as well as old, dislike being talked down to, especially in words of one syllable. There are of course, many matters beyond the comprehension of children, which no language can make intelligible. But much of the zest of the game of reading comes from the effort to use the tools of grown-ups. Children do not wish to descend to baby-talk but to learn the language of men. And, therefore, there is no baby-talk in this book. Nor is there any lecturing or moralizing. There are only stories, stories that have been told more often than any others in our part of the world, — and for a very good reason. As the source of these stories is the Bible, the sacred book of Jews and Christians, it has always been a problem what details to include or omit. But why tell stories except in so far as they are interesting? Ought not that to be the main test? Each story should stand on its own feet and hold the attention of the reader by virtue of its own dramatic power. We are confident the stories in this book will do so.

A. L.

Contents

CHAPTER PAGE

I Noah 1

II Abraham 8

II

It was some time after this that God appeared to Abraham as he sat in his tent door in the heat of the day, Abraham raised his eyes, and there were three men approaching. He ran to meet them and bowed to the ground, saying to the foremost of them:

"My lord, if you will favor me, pray, stop and let me have some water fetched that you may wash your feet and rest yourselves under the tree. I will bring a bit of bread and after you have refreshed yourselves, you may go on."

They replied: "Do as you have said."

Abraham hastened into the tent to his wife Sarah and asked her to bake some cakes. Then he brought meat, butter and milk and stood by them under a tree while they ate.

And after they had eaten they arose and turned towards Sodom. Abraham went with them to set them on the right way.

Then the leader of the three said to Abraham : "Because of the great rumor of the wickedness of Sodom and Gomorrah I am going now to see whether they have really done all that is said of them."

The other two had already started in the direc-

ABRAHAM 11

tion of Sodom, but Abraham remained standing with the leader.

"Will" you also destroy the good with the bad?" he asked. " There may be fifty good men in the city, will you not spare the place for the fifty righteous that are therein ? You would not slay the righteous with the wicked! Far be it from you, that the righteous should be treated as the wicked ! Shall not the judge of all the earth do right?"

The Lord, for it was He, replied :

"If I find in Sodom fifty good men, I will spare the city for their sakes."

Abraham continued: "Lo, I have taken upon me to speak to the Lord, who am but dust and ashes ! But there may lack five of the fifty good men; will you destroy the city for lack of five?"

And God said :

"If I find there forty-five, I will not destroy it!"

But Abraham continued to plead ; what if there were forty, thirty, twenty, ten, good people in Sodom, would the Judge of all the earth destroy them with the wicked?

And God said: "I will save the city for the sake of ten."

Abraham dared plead no more. But in all Sodom there was but one good man, and he was saved.