course, he is still living somewhere; but he is remarkably quiet. We never hear a word of him. He must be pretty bald by this time, unless he has taken to using Mrs. Allen's Hair Restorer. Having known Abraham, he could possibly tell me the year in which that patriarch was born, and how he contrived to lose the 60 years out of his life and managed to be only 75 when he should have been 135 years old. This Melchisedek had no genealogical tree. Be where he may, no portraits of his ancestors adorn the walls of his dining room. He had neither father nor mother. Some people manage to do with little or no father; your own son, for instance, had only a ghost for a father, and the fathers of some others I wot of are exceedingly hazy and dubious. But this Melchisedek, King of Salem, priest of the Most High God, had no mother! This beats Baxter. This Melchisedek of yours, O Lord, seems to have been a sort of circle without either a centre or a circumference. Where is he now? I should go a long way barefooted to see him. How interesting to have a chat with one who has had a chat with Abraham! Some of your Gospel-shops, O Lord, are in low funds. You should raise the wind by hiring out this Melchisedek of yours to deliver a series of lectures on the steppes of Tartary, or some such place that would hold his audience. Lecture No. I. might be—"How I contrived to get born without having a father."
No. II.—"How I contrived to get born without having a mother."
No. II.—"How I managed to have no beginning of days."
No. IV.—"How I manage to have no end of life."
No. V.—"How I manage to draw my salary as Priest of the Most High God."
No. VI.—"How I managed to be King of Salem long before there was a Salem on the face of the Earth."[1]
No. VII.—"Chats with Abraham and Sarah, and general reminiscences of the world before the Flood."
I am interested, O Lord, in this Melchisedek of yours, and it passeth my understanding to conjecture why you
- ↑ Cf. Genesis xiv. 18 with Judges xix. 10.
