A SHEPHERD WITH IDEALS

About the time of Hammurabi's reign, if we follow the account related
in the book of Genesis, there lived among the nomads on the plains
west of the city of Ur a man named Abraham. If Hammurabi ever heard of
him, which is improbable, he looked down upon him as of no account.
Yet Abraham wielded a greater influence for the future welfare of
humanity than all the princes of Babylon. For, discontented with
Babylonian life, he was the earliest pioneer in a movement toward a
civilization of a different and better type. And the sons of Hammurabi
have yet to reckon with Abraham and his ambitions.

=Discontent among the shepherds.=--Many of Abraham's people, no doubt,
were discontented in Babylonia. A shepherd's life is monotonous and
hard. When they went to market they saw comforts and luxuries on every
hand. Yet the money they received from the wool merchants of Ur gave
no promise of larger opportunities in life for any shepherd boy. So,
at length when Abraham said to them, "Come, let us leave this
country," they were ready to answer, "Lead on, and we will follow!" So
it came to pass that Abraham's clan set out northwest, toward Haran,
in what is now called Mesopotamia, and finally after some years of
migration found themselves camping on the hillsides of Canaan,
southeast of the Mediterranean Sea.

=Ideals represented in Abraham.=--But it is not as a leader of fortune
hunters that Abraham is pictured in the Bible. No doubt he and his
clansmen hoped to better their condition. But Abraham was a dreamer
and a man of deep religious faith. He believed that he was being