choice. But we may so far anticipate the future narrative as to
point out that it affords a plain instance of the great truth that
the sure way to lose the world as well as our own souls, is to make
it our first object. He would have been safe if he had stopped up
among the hills. The shadowy Eastern kings who swooped down on the
plain would never have ventured up there. But when we choose the
world for our portion, we lay ourselves open to the full weight of
all the blows which change and fortune can inflict, and come
voluntarily down from an impregnable fastness to the undefended
open.

Nor is this all; but at the last, when the fiery rain bursts on the
doomed city, Lot has to leave all the wealth for which he has
sacrificed conscience and peace, and escapes with bare life; he
suffers loss even if he himself is 'saved as dragged through the
fire.' The world passeth away and the lust thereof, but he that
doeth the will of God abideth for ever. The riches which wax not
old, and need not to be left when we leave all things besides, are
surely the treasures which the calmest reason dictates should be our
chief aim. God is the true portion of the soul; if we have Him, we
have all. So, let us seek Him first, and, with Him, all else is
ours.




ABRAM THE HEBREW


'And there came one that had escaped, and told Abram the