CHAPTER IV. THE HEBREWS. PECULIARITY OF THE HEBREWS.--While the rest of the nations worshiped "gods many and lords many," whom they confounded with the motions of the heavenly bodies, or with other aspects of nature, there was one people which attained to a faith in one God, the Creator and Preserver of the universe, who is exalted above nature, and whom it was deemed impious to represent by any material image. More than is true of any other people, religion was consciously the one end and aim of their being. To bring the true religion to its perfection, and to give it a world-wide diffusion and sway, was felt by them to be their heaven-appointed mission. The peculiarity of their faith made them stand alone, and rendered them exclusive, and intolerant of the surrounding idolatries. The mountainous character of their land, separated by Lebanon from Phoenicia, and by the desert from the nations on the East and South, was well adapted to the work which they had to fulfill in the course of history. THE PATRIARCHAL AGE.--The Israelites traced their descent from _Abraham_, who, to escape the infection of idolatry, left his home, which was in _Ur_ on the lower Euphrates, and came into the land of Canaan, where he led a wandering life, but became the father of a group of nations. According to the popular narrative, _Isaac_, his son by _Sarah_, was recognized as the next chief of the family; while _Ishmael_, Abraham's son by _Hagar_, became the progenitor of the _Arabians_. Of the two sons of Isaac, _Esau_, who was a huntsman, married a daughter of the native people: from him sprung the _Edomites_. _Jacob_ kept up the occupation of a herdsman. Of his twelve sons, _Joseph_ was an object of jealousy to the other eleven, by whom he was sold to a caravan of merchants on their way to Egypt. There, through his skill in interpreting dreams, he rose to high dignities and honors in the court of Pharaoh; and, by his agency, the entire family were allowed to settle oh the pasture-lands of _Goshen_ in northern Egypt (p. 40). Here in the neighborhood of _Heliopolis_, for several centuries, they fed their flocks. From Israel, the name given to Jacob, they were commonly called _Israelites_. The name _Hebrews_ was apparently derived from a word signifying "across the river" (Euphrates); but the original application is quite uncertain.