Page:Legends of Old Testament Characters.djvu/203

XXIV.] the decree of God, and of thee. Had the decision been thine alone, I would have obeyed."

When they reached the top of Moriah, God said to Abraham,—

"This is the place where once Adam, when driven out of Paradise, built an altar to My name. Here also Cain and Abel offered their sacrifice. Then came the Flood, and when it was passed away, Noah offered victims to Me here. When the people were scattered from the tower at Babel, then this altar was overthrown. Now it is for thee, friend of God, to set it up again!" Abraham built the altar, and Isaac brought him the stones. But, according to some authors, this was not so. Abraham hid his son in a cave, lest Satan should take advantage of the opportunity, with a stone or clod of earth, to blemish him. And when all was ready and the wood laid in order, then Isaac said to his father, "Bind me hand and foot, lest in the fear of death I start and thou wound me, and so I be blemished. Fold thy garments together, and gird thy loins, and bare thine arm, and strike me with the knife and then burn me to ashes, and lay up my ashes in a coffer, and let this coffer be preserved as a memorial of me in thy house, before my mother; and when thou passest by it, bid her remember me. But remind her not of it near a well, or on the edge of a precipice, lest she cast herself down in her grief."

And he continued, "When thou returnest home, how wilt thou console my mother?" Abraham answered, "Well I know that He who comforted us before thou camest, will comfort us after thou art gone from us."

Abraham now stood over his son, who was bound with his hands to his feet, upon the wood laid in order; and the eyes of Abraham rested on the eyes of his son. But Isaac looked up into heaven, and saw the angel hosts crowded about God's throne. Abraham saw not this, and he lifted the knife; but he trembled and the knife fell from his hand, and he cried