3. Next, after his magnanimous bearing toward Lot (13: 7–9, 14–18) in which he seemed ready to waive all claim to any territory Lot might choose to occupy. The Lord bade him lift up his eyes toward every point of the compass, all round about and reiterated his grant of the whole――“All the land which thou seest to thee will I give it and to thy seed forever.” Also, that his seed should be as the dust of the earth. His generous magnanimity toward Lot in nowise damaged his standing with God or his rights in the goodly land of promise. 4. A yet richer scene of divine manifestation followed Abram’s rescue of Lot from the plundering horde of the great Eastern kings (Gen. 15). The first words were significant and precious: “Fear not, Abram; I am thy shield and thine exceeding great reward.” Abram knew enough of human nature and of the resentful, lawless spirit of those warlike kings to see that he was exposed to their vengeance and that they might return any day with more military force than his household could muster. It was therefore at once timely and kind in the Lord to meet him at this point with this comforting assurance: “Fear not; I am thy shield”; I stand between thee and those vengeful foes: my strong arm shall be a wall of fire round about thee. Moreover Abram had nobly refused to appropriate to his personal use even a thread or a shoe-latchet of the booty brought back from his routed enemies――whereupon the Lord said, “I will be thine exceeding great reward.”――――Truly when a man’s ways please the Lord, he not only keeps his enemies at peace with him but makes all things go well.――――On this re-appearance the Lord promised him a son more distinctly than ever before, and posterity as the stars in number. Here it is said definitely――“Abraham believed God and God counted it to him for righteousness.” His faith pleased God, and because of it, God accepted him and he stood as one who is “_all right_ before God.”――――Remarkably the Lord at this time identified himself to Abraham as the same God who had appeared to him in his fatherland and called him forth into Canaan and said, This is the very land I then promised to give thee; to which Abraham replied (v. 8), “Whereby shall I know that I shall inherit it”? At once the Lord proceeded to ratify his covenant in the usual Oriental manner. A heifer, a she-goat and a ram――one from each species commonly used in sacrifice――are brought forward; each is cut into two parts; the parts are laid asunder; a turtle-dove and a young pigeon, also used for sacrifice in certain contingencies, were added but not cut in two. Then when night came on, a deep sleep fell upon Abraham and the Lord gave him in vision certain prophetic views of his posterity; and ratified the covenant by passing (in the symbol of fire and smoke) between the severed parts of the sacrificial animals. Of this method of ratifying covenants we have historical traces in Jer. 34: 18–20. We have also early and decisive