n of a popular and
generally received religious belief. It was a hard struggle for Luther
to give up the ideas of the Middle Ages in reference to self-expiation.
It is exceedingly rare for any one to be emancipated from the tyranny of
prevailing dogmas.

So, if Abram was not divinely instructed in a way that implies
supernatural illumination, he must have been the most remarkable sage of
all antiquity to found a religion never abrogated by succeeding
revelations, which has lasted from his time to ours, and is to-day
embraced by so large a part of the human race, including Christians,
Mohammedans, and Jews. Abram must have been more gifted than the whole
school of Ionian philosophers united, from Thales downward, since after
three hundred years of speculation and lofty inquiries they only arrived
at the truth that the being who controls the universe must be
intelligent. Even Socrates, Plato, and Cicero--the most gifted men of
classical antiquity--had very indefinite notions of the unity and
personality of God, while Abram distinctly recognized this great truth
even amid universal idolatry and a degrading polytheism.

Yet the Bible recognizes in Abram moral rather than intellectual
greatness. He was distinguished for his faith, and a faith so exalted
and pure that it was accounted unto him for righteousness. His faith in
God was so profound that it was followed by unhesitating obedience to
God's commands. He was ready to go wherever he was sent, instantly,
without conditions or remonstrance.

In obedience to the divine voice then, Abram, after the death of his
father Terah, passed through the land of Canaan unto Sichem, or Shechem,
afterward a city of Samaria. He then went still farther south, and
pitched his tent on a mountain having Bethel on the west and Hai on the
east, and there he built an altar unto the Lord. After this it would
appear that he proceeded still farther to the south, probably near the
northern part of Idumaea.

Wherever Abram journeyed he found the Canaanites--descendants of
Ham--petty tribes or nations, governed by kings no more powerful than
himself. They are supposed in their invasions to have conquered the
aboriginal inhabitants, whose remote origin is veiled in impenetrable
obscurity, but who retained some principles of the primitive religion.
It is even possible that Melchizedek, the unconquered King of Salem, who
blessed Abram, belonged to those original people who were of Semitic
origin.