No doubt a
great conflict was going on in his breast, and he said to himself:

"What does this mean? Here I am, thirteen hundred miles away from my
own land, and surrounded by a warlike people. And not only that, but
a famine has come, and I must get out of this country."

Now, I don't believe that God sent Abram down to Egypt. I think that
He was only testing him, that he might in his darkness and in his
trouble be

DRAWN NEARER TO GOD.

I believe that many a time trouble and sorrow are permitted to come
to us that we may see the face of God, and be shut up to trust in
Him alone. But Abram went down into Egypt, and there he got into
trouble by denying his wife. That is the blackest spot on Abram's
character. But when we get into Egypt we will always be getting into
trouble.

II

Abram became rich; but we don't hear of any altar--in fact, we hear
of no altar at Haran, and we hear of no altar in Egypt. When he came
up with Lot out of Egypt, they had great possessions, and they
increased in wealth, and their herds had multiplied, until there was
a strife among their herdsmen.

Now it is that Abram's character shines out again. He might have
said that he had a right to the best of everything, because he was
the older, and because Lot would probably not have been worth
anything if it had not been for Abram's help. But instead of
standing up for _his rights_, to choose the best of the land, he
surrenders them, and says to the nephew:

"Take your choice. If you go to the right hand, I will take the
left; or if you prefer the left hand, then I will go to the right."

Here is where Lot made his mistake. If there was a man under the sun
that needed Abram's counsel, and Abram's prayers, and Abram's
influence, and to have been surrounded by the friends of Abram, it
was Lot. He was just one of those weak characters that

NEEDED BOLSTERING UP.

But his covetous eye looked upon the well-watered plains of the
valley of the Jordan that reached out towards Sodom, and he chose
them. He was influenced by what he saw, He walked by sight, instead
of by faith. I think that is where a great many Christian people
make their mistake--walking by sight, instead of by faith. If he had
stopped to think, Lot might have known that it would be disastrous
to him and his family to go anywhere near Sodom. Abram and Lot must
both have known about the wickedness of those cities on the plains,
and although they were rich, and there