HARPER'S NEW MONTHLY MAGAZINE. NO. XXIX.--OCTOBER, 1852.--VOL. V. MEMOIRS OF THE HOLY LAND.[1] BY JACOB ABBOTT. THE DEAD SEA. SODOM AND GOMORRAH. How strongly associated in the minds of men, are the ideas of guilt and ruin, unspeakable and awful, with the names of Sodom and Gomorrah. The very words themselves seem deeply and indelibly imbued with a mysterious and dreadful meaning. [1] Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1852, by Harper and Brothers, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Southern District of New York. The account given in the Sacred Scriptures of the destruction of these cities, and of the circumstances connected with it, has, perhaps, exercised a greater influence in modifying, or, rather, in forming, the conception which has been since entertained among mankind in respect to the character of God, than any other one portion of the sacred narrative. The thing that is most remarkable about it is, that while in the destruction of the cities we have a most appalling exhibition of the terrible energy with which God will punish confirmed and obdurate wickedness, we have in the attendant circumstances of the case, a still more striking illustration of the kind, and tender, and merciful regard with which he will protect, and encourage, and sustain those who are attempting, however feebly, to please him, and to do his will. We are told elsewhere in the Scriptures, didactically, that God is love, and also that he is a consuming fire. In this transaction we see the gentleness and the tenderness of his love, and the terrible severity of his retributive justice, displayed together. Let us examine the account somewhat in detail. * * * * * "And the Lord said, Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous, "I will go down now, and see whether they have done altogether according to the cry of it, which is come unto me; and if not, I will know."--_Gen._ xviii. 20, 21. * * * * *