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The land to which Abraham went was Palestine, or Canaan, and we conclude that this was a portion of the inheritance marked out, in the days of Peleg, for the ancestors of Abraham, the descendants of Shem. We discern from the preceeding chapter that Terah, Abraham's father, was on his way to the land of Canaan, but, like a great many people, he stopped half-way—at Haran—where he died. It was left to Abraham to carry out God's purposes respecting the location of his family. "By faith, Abraham, when he was called to go into a place, which he should afterwards receive as an inheritance, obeyed, and he went out, not knowing whither he went."
I have, so far forth, directed your attention to the Bible argument for emigration. Why? Because I hold the Bible to be the oldest, the truest, and the most interesting historical book in the world; because I hold, that, if we do what is in accordance with its dictates, we shall be doing what is in accordance with the will and purposes of God; and that, if we try to do this, God will most certainly bless us. I should like to see you emigrating, with something of the faith of Abraham; going forth to a new country, because you felt it is the right and proper thing to do, and that God would surely bless you and your children, watching over you, by sea and by land, and providing for you what you cannot procure in this country, namely, constant work and remunerative wages.
But to turn to a more general view of the subject. England has done but little, comparatively speaking, in the way of colonizing. The nations of antiquity were far ahead of us in this respect: the necessity of colonizing, with them, was deemed as urgent as is the necessity which presses on an over-stocked beehive to cast a new swarm; and they appear to have arranged their colonies with the same order, each new company having its leader, or queen bee. The Phœnicians, who inhabited the sea-coasts of Palestine and Syria, were among the first emigrants and colonizers of the earth. Carthage, as we learn from Virgil, was a colony from Phœnicia, with poor Dido as its queen bee. With what beauty does Virgil describe the founding of the colony!
Hic portus alii effodiunt; hic alta theatris
Fundamenta locant alii immanesque columnas
Rupibus excidunt, scenis decora alta futuris.
Qualis apes æstate novâ per florea rura,
Exercet sub sole labor, cum gentis adultos
Educunt fœtus, ant cum liquentia mella
Stipant, et dulci distendunt nectare cellas,
Aut onera, accipiunt venientum, aut agmine facto
Ignavum fucos pecus á præsepibus arcent
Fervet opus, redolentque thymo fragrantia mella.
—Æneid, Lib. i., 427-436.
We offer the following as a free translation:—"Some are engaged in digging a dock [ portus ]; others in laying the foundations of a theatre: others in cutting immense columns out of the solid rock,
