plain, but it was a new life, it was another life. The Master made it plain. Seekers of God in all ages and all climes have understood the secret.

Radiant and charming was the morn that broke in upon that peaceful household, but the soul of Zamula was more radient than all nature, a vast dawn of ideas had illuminated his mind by whch was swept away the prejudices, the wraths, the fictions, and the systems which had been inculcated in his mind from infancy.

Zamula gave command and all the household, the maidens and the servants, assembled in the banquet hall, for they were to hear good news.

Zamula with glowing heart and illuminated countenance told them that the power by which Abram had been saved from the fiery sacrifice, is the creator and true King, and that his allegiance should be to Him henceforth, forever.

Furthermore, that they are all his brethren, even the little valets with their curly heads and dusky skins, and many other things he said to them, causing light to enter the darkness of their understanding.

And when they understood that they were no longer slaves, they could not refrain giving loud expression to the joy and gladness that thrilled them through and through.

After a little while Zamula stood up and signaled silence. He was instantly obeyed.

He told them that Sir Abram and Sarai were eager to depart for their home. But before leaving, their marriage ceremony would take place and that another couple would be united at the same time, himself and Lorenya, for Lorenya

had consented to become his wife, and that preparations would immediately begin.

Now, who of them would choose to remain and serve them? All, with the exception of two persons, bad tempered, who understood nothing at all, would be happy to serve the illustrious Zamula and the adorable Lorenya.

Soon each one understood what he was to do, then the hum and buzz of preparation began.

Rare taste and simple elegance characterized all preparation. The style of the cloaks, robes and veils was that of Grecian simplicity, with a touch of Oriental gorgeousness.

Sarai and Lorenya were dressed alike in shimmering white, with pearl ornaments and jeweled diadems on their hair. Their veils appeared to be woven moonbeams. Their maids wore robes of pale blue with sapphire ornaments and wreaths of flowers on their hair.

Zamula and Abram were arrayed in dark brilliant blue, with collars and epaulets of white adorned with diamonds. Their cloaks were of shimmering pearl white, they wore myrtle wreaths on their hair, their belts were of gold. The men attendants were dressed in carnation, with white collars. They wore ivy wreaths in their hair.

When the hour was come for the wedded pair of Ur to start on their journey, several camels stood at the gates. Their covering was purple and gold. The one for Sarai had a canopy draped in gold color. And there was a bodyguard waiting at the gates; this consisted of two hundred soldiers clad in armour, on superb horses, mounted and panoplied. Messengers had gone before to carry the good tidings to the

families of Abram and Sarai; and they would be gathered to receive the exiled home again.

Perfect was the day on which that marvelous procession passed through the fertile valley of the Euphrates; fanned by the gentle summer breezes, laden with aroma of sweet odors and spices, wafted by the south wind from Arabia the happy.

At length they reached their home city, and were soon at the gates of the palatial residence of Sarai's parents. At that moment the sun was resting his chin upon the silvery crest of a crimson tinted cloud, smiling as he was about to drop the curtains of night upon a scene of greeting- a greeting, the crowning joy of a perfect day.

FOOT NOTE

The story of Abram in conflict with sun worship is based only upon tradition, but it serves to characterize the nature of despotic government of that day, and the clash of principles that existed then and always, even to the present hour.

It also portrays the integrity of Abram which made it possible for him to fill the high commission to which he was subsequently called of God. His name being changed to Abraham.

CHAPTER V.

THE EMPIRE FOUNDED BY NIMROD EIGHT HUNDRED YEARS LATER

"Nimrod's ambition was continued by others in that day, and has been continued to the present hour. But it was a task; it cost a mighty and long continued struggle for imperial power so to fix and establish itself as to reign in undisputed

sway.

"Nimrod began it and after him others continued it in Assyria, Egypt, later Assyria and Babylon. It required the exercise of all the power of all these dominions in succession to establish recognized imperial sway.

"It required the imperial hammering of all these in succession to subdue the native love and assertion of individual God given freedom in mankind that it would at last submit unresisting to imperial sway. Yet they all continued it for eight hundred years reducing the people to the condition presented in the Bible in the Assyrian's own boast, that he was enabled to gather the riches of the people as one gathers eggs from under a sitting hen when she is so subdued that she neither 'moved the wing nor opened the mouth nor peeped.' And so it continued until the Empire of Assyria was finally broken down by a concerted revolt of Babylon, Egypt and Media.

"Then came Nebuchadnezzar, 'the terrible of the nations,' and the conquests made by this 'terrible of the nations' was

indeed so terrible, after this so long and so severe pressure that had been put upon them by Assyria, that at last they were so worn by the perpetual hammering which was now heavier than all in the strokes of this 'hammer of the whole earth,' that they yielded.

"They practically acecpted the situation as one which could not be escaped, and sat down in sullen submission to one single world power.

"Then began the second phase of history. The ambition for empire had now triumphed; and now it was to be demonstrated just what empire in full and undisputed sway would do.

"What Babylon did in undisputed sway of empire was, through luxury and vice, to sink herself in everlasting ruin, in only twenty-three years from the death of Nebuchad

nezzar.

"Then worldly empire in undisputed sway fell to Media and Persia.

"In one hundred and ninety-six years, this power from exemplary temperance and sobriety, fell to such luxury and vice that she, too, must sink forever: to be succeeded by the world empire of Grecia in undisputed sway. She, too, pursued the same course to the end; to be in turn succeeded by the world empire of Rome in undisputed sway. And this in turn, to pursue the same course in the same way and to the same end —annihilating ruin.

"Thus world empire in undisputed sway had demonstrated in the fullest possible measure and in intense degree, precisely what it would do, and only what it could do, when exercised