The Adventures of Lot, the Nephew of Abraham, page 29 by William Andrus Alcott
<< Return to Title Details & Download30
the sky is probably designed to heighten the contrast; and with Lot, if not others, to render the judgment of Heaven more striking. There stands Lot, I say, now looking back, no doubt; but from a point of comparative safety. What must be his feelings! Except these two weeping daughters, now clinging to his arms, yonder vale, wide spreading to the north, with all its beautiful cities and villages, contains all that is dear to him. There is his mansion; there his sons-in-law; there his neighbors, his goods, his everything. Between this spot and the vale, is the petrified body of his wife, it is true; but he derives no consolation from reflections on a subject so unutterably painful.
Conflicting sentiments now begin to distract his mind. Will the threatened judgments of Heaven be executed? Will Sodom, and Gomorrah, and Admah and Zeboim, and all that inhabit the beautiful vale, be destroyed? Can it be? Must there not be some mistake? Who can think it possible that such awful destruction should ensue, when the morning sun arises us as usual, and the day is so uniformly fair and beautiful?
If not, however, whence the terrible judgments that just now befell the partner of his bosom, in climbing yonder hill? Could men of such singular and such almost almighty power have been deceiving him? What motive could they have had for so doing?
With sentiments, conflicting like these, we can readily imagine Lot's mind and heart to be agitated, imagine Lot's mind and heart to be agitated, as we stand unobserved, and watch his motions and countenance. Now he almost ventures to think of going back. Now again he remembers he cannot go back, as before. One of the company will avoidably be missing. Now, once more, he thinks, of the judgments of God; and rejoices that he and his two daughters have escaped them.
But presently the scene changes. The clear sky begins to be overcast with clouds. The wind rises. A damp midnight chill comes on. The clouds thicken, and grow black and threatening. Soon, to add to the