Page:Legends of Old Testament Characters.djvu/159

XXIV. three years, according to others ten, and according to others thirteen, he left the cavern and stood on the face of the desert. And when he saw the sun shining in all its glory, he was filled with wonder, and he thought, "Surely the sun is God the Creator!" and he knelt down and worshipped the sun. But when evening came, the sun went down in the west, and Abraham said, "No! the Author of creation cannot set." Now the moon arose in the east, and the stars looked out of the firmament. Then said Abraham, "This moon must indeed be God, and all the stars are His host!" And kneeling down he adored the moon.

But after some hours of darkness the moon set, and from the east appeared once more the bright face of the sun. Then said Abraham, "Verily these heavenly bodies are no gods, for they obey law: I will worship Him who imposed the law upon them."

The Arab story is this. When Abraham came out of the cave, he saw a number of flocks and herds, and he said to his mother, "Who is lord of these?" She answered, "Your father Azar (Terah)." "And who is the lord of Azar?" he further asked. She replied, "Nimrod." "And who is the lord of Nimrod?" "Oh, hush, my son," said she, striking him on the mouth; "you must not push your questions so far." But it was by following this train of thought that Abraham arrived at the knowledge of the one true God.

Another Rabbinical story is, that Abraham was only ten days in the cave after his birth, and then he was able to walk, and he left it. But his mother, who visited the grotto, finding him gone, was a prey to anguish and fear. Wandering along the bank of the river, searching for her child, she met Abraham, but did not recognize him, as he had grown tall; and she asked him if he had seen a little baby anywhere.

"I am he whom you seek," answered Abraham. "Is this possible!" exclaimed the mother. "Could you grow to such a height, and be able to walk and talk, in ten days?" "Yes, mother," answered the youthful prodigy; "all this has taken place that you might know that there is but one living and true God who made heaven and earth, who dwells in heaven and fills the earth with His goodness." "What!" asked Amtelai, "is there another god besides Nimrod?"