Page:Paradise lost by Milton, John.djvu/409

As to forsake the living God, and fall
To worship their own work, in wood and stone,
For gods! Yet him God the Most High vouchsafes
To call by vision, from his father's house,121
His kindred and false gods, into a land
Which he will shew him, and from him will raise
A mighty nation, and upon him shower
His benediction so, that in his seed
All nations shall be blest. He straight obeys,
Not knowing to what land, yet firm believes.
I see him, but thou canst not, with what faith
He leaves his gods, his friends, and native soil,
Ur of Chaldæa, passing now the ford130
To Haran; after him a cumbrous train
Of herds and flocks, and numerous servitude;
Not wandering poor, but trusting all his wealth
With God, who called him, in a land unknown.
Canaan he now attains; I see his tents
Pitched about Sechem, and the neighboring plain
Of Moreh; there by promise he receives
Gift to his progeny of all that land,
From Hamath northward to the desert south
—Things by their names I call, though yet unnamed—
From Hermon east to the great western Sea;141
Mount Hermon, yonder sea, each place behold
In prospect, as I point them on the shore
Mount Carmel: here the double-founted stream.