“ From these facts, which comprise, in some degree, English word facts, unquestionable facts, is intended; the history of the East, it may be inferred that civiliza- | in other cases, authority, influence, promise, or power. tion is only possible by means of marriage, because in “The word logos imports simple speech; that by marriage alone women are called upon to exert their which the party hearing it may be instructed, also intellectual and moral power. European Society has written information, that by which the reader may be entirely arisen from the power of the wife over the edified, (Acts 1. 1,) 'The former treatise (logou) I have husband, and that of the mother over the child. made. Also commandments, (John 8.55; Rom. 13.

“At the beginning of the world God created only one 9; 1 Thess. 4. 15, et al.,) prophecy, promises, disputes, man and one woman, and ever since the two sexes have threatenings, evil speakings and, in short, whatever is been born in about equal numbers. Thus each man the subject of words, whether good or bad. Hence ought to have his companion, it is the law of nature; teaching in all its branches; hence teacher, instructor, all the rest is only barbarity and corruption." A. wisdom; hence heavenly wisdom, the heavenly teacher,

the heavenly instructor, &c. And hence this word logos

is personified, and personal actions are attributed to it." WOMB. The fruit of the womb is children, (Gen. Bruce mentions that at the court of Abyssinia there is 30. 2,) and the Psalmist describes them as the greatest “an officer named Kal Hatzé, who stands always upon blessing a man can possess. (Psalm 127. 3-5,) “Lo, | upon the steps at the side of the lattice window, where children are an heritage of the Lord, and the fruit of the there is a hole covered on the inside with a curtain of womb is his reward. As arrows are in the hand of a green taffeta; behind this curtain the king sits. Formighty man, so are children of the youth. Happy is merly his face was never seen, nor any part of him, the man that hath his quiver full of them, they shall not excepting sometimes his foot. He sits in a kind of be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the balcony, with lattice windows, and curtains before him. gate.” A.

Even yet he covers his face on audiences, or public WONDER. Anything which causes surprise by

occasions, and when in judgment. On cases of treason,

he sits within his balcony, and speaks through a hole in its strangeness. “It expresses,” says Mr. Cogar, “an

the side of it, to an officer called Kal Ilatzé, 'the voice embarrassment of the mind after it is somewhat recovered

or word of the king,' by whom he sends his questions, from the first percussion of surprise. It is the effect

or anything else that occurs, to the judges, who are produced by an interesting subject which has been sud

seated at the council table.” denly presented to the mind, but concerning which there

In the New Testament Jesus Christ is called the are many intricacies, either respecting the cause or man

Word. The Evangelist John, more expressly than any ner in which the event has taken place, or the motives of

other, has opened the mystery of this Word, when he extraordinary conduct.” (See MIRACLE.) A.

tells us, “ In the beginning was the Word, and the Word

was with God, and the Word was God. The same was WOOD. The wood of the land of Israel, being;

in the beginning with God. All things were made by from very ancient times common, the people of the vil

him, and without him was not anything made that was lages which, like those about Aleppo, had no trees grow

made.” (John 1. 1.) Christ is called the Word. 1. ing in them, supplied themselves with fuel out of the

In respect of his person, he being the express image of wooded places of which there were many anciently, and

the Father, as we are told in Heb. 1. 3. 2. In respect several of which still remain.

of his office, because the Father made known his will to This liberty of taking wood in common, the Jews

the Church in all ages by him, as we declare our minds suppose to have been a constitution of Joshua, of which

one to another by our words. (John 3. 34.) 3. Bethey give us ten; the first giving liberty to an Israelite

cause the Messiah was called the Word of God by the

Jews. to feed his flocks in the wood of any tribe; the second that he should be free to take wood in the fields any

The Chaldee paraphrasts, the most ancient Jewish where. But though this was the ancient custom in

writers extant, generally make use of the word Memra, Judea, it was not so in the country into which they were

which signifies the “ Word,” in those places where Moses carried captive; neither with those who continued in

used the name Jehovah. And it is generally thought their own country for a while under Gedaliah, for Jere

that, under this term, the paraphrasts would intimate miah, (in Lamentations 4. 4,) complains, “We have

the Son of God, the second Person of the Trinity. Now drunken our water for money, our wood is sold unto us;"

their testimony is so much the more considerable as, hence we infer that their conquerors possessed themselves

having lived before Christ, or at the time of Christ, they of their woods, and would allow no fuel to be cut down

are irrefragable witnesses of the sentiments of their without receiving money for it. It is certain that after

nation concerning this article, since their Targum has the return from the captivity, timber was not to be cut

always been, and still is, in universal esteem among the without leave. (See FUEL.) A.

Jews. And as they ascribe to Memra all the attributes of the Deity, it is concluded from thence that they

believed the divinity of the Word. They say that it WOOL. The fleece of the sheep, and the most

was Memra, or the Word, which created the world; common material from which articles of clothing were

which appeared to Moses on Mount Sinai; which gave manufactured in ancient times. See APPAREL, CLOTHES,

him the Law; which spoke to him face to face; which GARMENTS, DRESS, &c. A.

brought Israel out of Egypt; which marched before the people, which wrought all those miracles which are

reeorded in the Book of Exodus. It was the Word that WORD. Mr. Taylor has the following remarks appeared to Abraham in the plain of Ma on the different applications of the terms rima and logos, seen by Jacob at Bethel, to whom Jacob made his vow, both of which are translated “word” in the New Testa- and acknowledged as God. (Gen. 28. 30,)“ If God will ment:

be with me, and will keep me in the way that I go, then “We do not find that rima is ever personified, or that shall the Lord be my God.” A. personal actions are attributed to the term, but, generally speaking, when relating to events, the force of our

Deity, it inity of the which created; which catch

vas

WO

WORLD. The whole system of created things, 1 7. the urine; 8. intestines; 9. Omepua; 10. abscess: but-particularly belonging to the earth. (See CREATION.) | 11. sores (generally); 12. leprosy; 13. itch; 14. cancer: In some places it is used to designate all its rational inha- | 15. mouth; 16. teeth; 17. scull; and 18. the air.' Is it bitants, or more distinctively, that great body of them not a fact that the medical men of England have only of who are not really Christians, whether Gentiles or Jews, late years discovered that animalcules exist in some of profligate or sober, profane or devout. This distinctive these parts alluded to? And perhaps they may do well use of the term is very frequent in the language of Our to inquire whether old Agalliyaz be not correct in some Lord and of St. John. (John 7. 7; 14. 17; 15. 17,18; of his other opinions." A. 17.9,23.)

It is taken also for a secular life, the present state of existence, and the pleasures and interests which steal

WORMWOOD, guys laana, ayvēlov, apsinaway the soul from God. In this last sense the Greek thion. The Artemisia absinthium, or common wormterms kosmos and aion are used indiscriminately; though | wood, is a plant well known among modern and ancient properly the first relates rather to place, and the last to duration.

The love of the world does not consist in the use and enjoyment of the comforts God gives us, but in an inordinate attachment to the things, to time, and sense. “1. We love the world too much," says Dr. Jortin, “ when for the sake of profit or pleasure, we wilfully, knowingly, and deliberately transgress the commands of God. 2. When we take more pains about the present life than the next. 3. When we cannot be contented, patient, or resigned under low and inconvenient circumstances. 4. We love the world too much when we cannot part with anything we possess to those who want, deserve, or have a right to it. 5. When we envy those who are more fortunate and more favoured by the world than we are. 6. When we honour, and esteem, and favour persons purely according to their birth, fortunes, and success, measuring our judgment and approbation by their outward appearance and situation in life. 7. When worldly prosperity makes us proud, vain, and arrogant. 8. When we omit no opportunity of enjoying the good things of this life, when our great and chief business is to divert ourselves, till we contract an indifference for rational and manly occupations, deceiving

Wormwood. ourselves, and fancying that we are not in a bad con- | writers for its intense bitterness, though the wholesome dition because others are worse than we."

nature of the herb when used as a stomachic, might almost lead us to doubt whether it be the plant intended

by the sacred writers, did we not find the ayırtlov WORM. The general name of little creeping (apsinthion,) “ wormwood,” treated as the emblem of insects. Several kinds are spoken of in Scripture. the bitter potion of misery in the Revelations, (8. 11.)

I. Those that breed in putrefied bodies, 1727 rimmah, Indeed, from the passages in Scripture where this plant (Exod. 16. 20-24; Job 7. 5; 17. 14; 21. 26; 24. 20; | is mentioned, something more than the bitterness of its 25. 6; Isai. 14. 11; and oxwing, skoler, (Eccles. 7. 17;

qualities seems to be intimated, and effects are attributed 10. 13: Macc. 2. 62; 2 Macc. 9. 9; Judith 16. 15; to it greater than can be produced by the wormwood of Mark 9. 44,46,48; and Acts 12. 23.

Europe. The Chaldee paraphrase gives it even the chaII. That which eats woollen garments, DD sas, (Isai. racter of “the wormwood of death." It may, therefore, 51.8;) and ins les, (Matt. 6. 19,20; Luke 12. 33.) mean a plant allied perhaps to the absinthium in appear

III. That which perforating the leaves and bark of ance and taste, but possessing more nauseous, hurtfu, trees causes the little excrescences called “kermes,“ | and formidable properties. whence is made a crimson dye, 1700 thola. (Deut. Wormwood of some kind is found wild in all parts of 28. 39; Job. 25. 6; Psalm 22. 6; Isai. 14. 11; 41. 14;

Europe. The Absinthium judaicum is a native of Pales65. 24; Ezek. 16. 20; Jonah 4. 7.)

tine, and was found by Hasselquist on Mount Tabor. IV. The worm destructive of the vines referred to in Some have supposed erroneously that the worm wood of Deuteronomy 28. 39; such was the Pyralis vitanæ, or

Scripture is our southernwood, a plant more fragrant but Puralis fasciana of Forskal, the vine-weevil, a small | less bitter, therefore less fit for the use to which the insect extremely hurtful to the vines.

sacred writers have put it, namely, the comparison of its The Orientals are of opinion that worms exist in the bitterness with sin and its consequences. skin and all parts of the body, and that they principally In Deuteronomy 29. 18, Moses solemnly invites the cause death. Roberts says, “They say the life is first | people to assemble and take an oath to keep the " destroyed by them, and afterwards the body. A man while he is still with them, “ lest there should be among who is very ill often exclaims, “Ah! my body is but a you a root that beareth gall and wormwood." nest of worms; they have paths in all parts of my ! Solomon warns the young man that the strange frame.' "Ah! these worms are continually eating my | women “whose lips are as the droppings of the honey Aesh. In the ancient medical work called Kurru- | comb, will have an end bitter as wormwood." (ftur. Natich-Sooteram, written by the celebrated Agalliyaz, 5. 3,4.) it is said, "The human body contains eighteen kinds Jeremiah denouncing the disobedience of the sens of worms:-1. the skin; 2. the flesh; 3. the bones; / threatens them with being condemned to eat wormwood 4. the blood; 5 (producing) wind; 6. the excrement; / and, in his Lamentations, he makes the faithful say, “ de

WORMWOOD-WRESTLING.

1381

hath filled me with bitterness, he hath made me drunken 1. 18.) The objects of God's anger or wrath are the with wormwood.” (Lam. 3. 15.)

ungodly, whom He has declared He will punish. His The prophet Amos, in one of his finest chapters, wrath is sometimes manifested in this life, and that in exhorting the wicked to repentance, especially addresses an awful degree, as we see in the case of the old world; the corrupt judge, who turns “judgment to wormwood.” of Sodom and Gomorrah; the plagues of Egypt; the (Amos 5. 7.) And in Revelations 8. 11, we read that at punishment and captivity of the Jews; and the many the sound of the third trumpet, in the Apocalypse, when striking judgments on nations and individuals. But a the star whose name was Wormwood fell and mingled still more awful punishment awaits the impenitent in with the waters, many men died.

the world to come, for the wicked, it is said, shall go Such are the remarkable passages in which the qualities away into everlasting punishment, (Matt. 25. 46;) of wormwood, rather than the plant itself, are named. where the worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched.

Among the ancients wormwood was esteemed as a valu (See Rom. 2. 8,9.) A. able medicine, peculiarly efficacious in epilepsy, and it continued in repute till of late years. The modern

WREATH. See GARLAND. Italians indeed still continue to distil a pleasant bitter spirit from it, which they consider an excellent stomachic. With us it is mostly burnt on account of the quantity of WRESTLING. “The games of the lower orders, potash it yields, from which the salt of wormwood is and of those who sought to invigorate the body by active prepared. A.

exercises," says Wilkinson, “consisted of feats of agility and strength. Wrestling was a favourite amusement;

and the painting of the grottoes at Beni Hassan presents WORSHIP, cultus Dei, amounts to the same with what we otherwise call religion. This worship consists

all the varied attitudes and modes of attack and defence

of which it is susceptible. in paying a due respect, veneration, and homage to the

And in order to enable the Deity, under a sense of an obligation to him. And this

spectator more readily to perceive the position of the internal respect is to be shown and testified by external

limbs of each combatant, the artist has availed himself acts, as prayers, thanksgivings, &c.

of a dark and light colour, and even ventured to introPrivate worship should be conducted with:-1. Reve

duce alternately a black and red figure. It is not, rence and veneration. 2. Self-abasement and confession.

however, necessary to give an instance of every position 3. Contemplation of the perfections and promises of God.

indicated in those varied subjects; and a selection of 4. Supplication for ourselves and others. 5. Earnest

the principal groups will suffice to convey some idea of desire of the enjoyment of God. 6. Frequent and

their mode of representing the combatants, and of their regular.

general system of attack and defence.

“It is probable that, like the Greeks, they anointed the Some who have acknowledged the propriety of private worship have objected to that of a public nature, but

body with oil when preparing for these exercises, and without any sufficient ground. For Christ attended

they were entirely naked, with the exception of a girdle, public worship himself, (Luke 4;) he prayed with his

apparently of leathern thongs. disciples, (Luke 9. 28,29; 11. 1;) he promises his

“The two combatants generally approached each other presence to social worshippers. (Matt. 18. 20.)

holding their arms in an inclined position before the It may be argued also from the conduct of the

body, and each endeavoured to seize his adversary in

the manner best suited to his mode of attack. It was Apostles, (Acts 1. 24; 2. 4; 24. 1,4; Rom. 15. 20;

allowable to take hold of any part of the body, the head, 1 Cor. 14; Acts 21; 2Thess. 3. 1,2; 1Cor. 11;) and from general precepts, (1Tim. 2. 2,8; Heb. 10. 15;

neck, or legs; and the struggle was frequently continued Deut. 31. 12; Psalm 100. 4.)

on the ground, after one or both had fallen, a mode of “The scriptural obligation of public worship," says

wrestling common also to the Greeks.

“I do not find that they had the same sign of Mr. Watson, “is partly founded upon example, and

acknowledging their defeat in this game as the Greeks, partly upon precept; so that no person who admits that authority can question this great duty without manifest

which was by holding up a finger in token of submisand criminal inconsistency. The institution of public

sion; and it was probably done by the Egyptians with

a word. worship under the law, and the practice of synagogue worship among the Jews, from at least the time of Ezra,

“ They also fought with the single-stick, the hand cannot be questioned, both of which were sanctioned by

being apparently protected by a basket, or guard, prothe practice of Our Lord and his Apostles. The pre

jecting over the knuckles; and on the left arm they ceptive authority for our regular attendance upon public

wore a straight piece of wood, bound on with straps, worship, is either inferential or direct. The command

serving as a shield to ward off their adversary's blow. to publish the Gospel, includes the obligation of assem

“They do not, however, appear to have used the bling to hear it; the name by which a Christian society

cestus, or to have known the art of boxing; nor was is designated in Scripture is a church, which signifies an

throwing the discus, or quoit, an Egyptian game.” See

Wilkinson's Ancient Egyptians. assembly for the transaction of business, and, in the case of a Christian assembly, that business must necessarily

The Greeks, in their combats, were generally matched be spiritual, and include the sacred exercises of prayer,

two against two; but sometimes several couples conpraise, and hearing the Scriptures." (See arts. CHURCH,

tended at the same time. In case the whole aim and CHRISTIANITY. A.

design of the wrestlers was to throw their adversary

upon the ground; both strength and art were employed WRATH. Great and permanent anger.

for this purpose; they seized each other by the arms, See

drew forward, pushed backward, used many distortions ANGER, ATONEMENT,

and twistings of the body, locking their limbs in each

other's, lifting from the ground, dashing their heads WRATH OF GOD, is his indignation at sin and together, and twisting one another's necks. In this punishment of it. “For the wrath of God is revealed manner the athlete wrestled standing, the combat from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness ending with the fall of one of the competitors. To this of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness.” (Rom. combat the words of Eliphaz seem to apply: “For he

stretcheth out his hand against God," like a wrestler chal- ! Of these four methods, the most extraordinary, at lenging his antagonist to the contest, and “strengthening such an early age, is that which to moderns would himself," rather, vaunteth himself, stands up haughtily appear the easiest, that is, “the simple writing” as a and boasts of his prowess in the full view of “the record in a book. The oldest books, properly so called, Almighty," throwing abroad his arms, clasping bis were made either of the leaves of such vegetables as the hands together, springing into the middle of the ring, papyrus, or the leaves or bark of trees; and at a later and taking his station there in the adjusted attitude of on linen and the skins of beasts. Parchment was not defence, “he runneth upon him, even on his neck," or known until a period subsequent to the age of Alexander with his neck stretched out, furiously dashing his head the Great, when it is said to have been invented by against the other; and this he does even when he per- Eumenes, king of Pergamus, as a substitute for papyrus, ceives that his adversary is covered with defensive when the exportation of that vegetable substance from armour, upon which he can make no impression: “He Egypt was prohibited by the Ptolemies. runneth upon the thick bosses of his bucklers.” (Job In the age of the Jewish prophets, the materials used 5. 25,26.) A.

for writing were rolls either of skins or of linen; for me WRITING. Like all the Semitic nations, the

find Ezekiel directed to “take a roll of a book and write Hebrews began their writing at the right-hand side of

therein;" but when it was desirable that the writings the page, and continued it to the left, instead of writing

should be immediately read, they were recorded on a as we do, from left to right. Among the earliest Hebrew

tablet, or plain piece of board, the letters being most prowritings which have been preserved, we find some very

bably laid on with paint. Thus we read the following beautiful specimens of calligraphy, great care having

direction given to the evangelical prophet: been obviously bestowed both upon the formation and

Go now, write it before them on a tablet, the ornamenting of the letters. The origin of the art

And record it in letters upon a book,

That it may be for future times of writing is lost in remote antiquity, but there is a

For a perpetual testimony.—Isaiah, 30. 8. general tradition in the East that it was divinely revealed

The second mode of writing mentioned by Job is, that to Adam. All our existing information points out inscriptions on stone as the earliest form of writing, and

on the tablet. It is well known that the Romans made

their tablets of smooth boards, smeared over with war, similar impressions were subsequently made on bricks while in their soft state. The forms of the ancient

on which they traced inscriptions with an iron pen of alphabets, which usually have their letters formed of

| stylus, which was nothing more than a pointed piece of

metal, the blunt end of which was employed in erasures straight lines and angles, very clearly indicate their monumental origin. It will, therefore, be advisable to

if necessary. There is no allusion to any tablets of this

kind in the Sacred Scriptures; the nearest approach to treat this subject in the next article, for ancient writings varied according to the materials on which they were

them appears to have been thin plates of lead on which inscribed. See, also, BIBLE, Book, LANGUAGE, SCRIP

characters were sculptured by a sharp-pointed tracer

made of some hard substance. A very distinct allusion TURE, SCRIBE.

to tablets of this kind is found in the writings of the WRITING MATERIALS. The patriarch Job is Pos

prophet Jeremiah: the most ancient describer of the materials used for

The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron,

With the point of a diamond it is engraved recording events in the earliest ages. He exclaims,

Upon the tablets of their heart,
O that even now my words were recorded !

And upon the horns of their altar.–Jeremiah 17. 1.
O that they were engraven on a tablet,
With a pen of iron upon lead,

Tablets of prepared wood, on which letters were
That they were sculptured for perpetuity on a rock. written with a kind of ink which could be easily endelig

Job 19. 3, WEMYss' Trans. | were introduced among the Jews after their return from

Kaam. All out as the earliest nely made on ancient

straightental origin. It wist article, for ancienthey were

WRITING MATERIALS-XYLOPHORIA.

1383

the Babylonish captivity; the knowledge of them was, this was the form in which the Book of the Law was probably derived from the nations of Central Asia, preserved from the earliest times. The pens employed where similar contrivances for memoranda continue to to write on the linen or parchment, were formed from be used at the present day. It was on a “writing-table” reeds like those of the modern Persians, and the ink of this kind that Zecharias wrote the name of his son used approached the consistency of paste. It is said, John the Baptist. (Luke 1. 63.) Tablets of ivory were that the ink used for writing on linen was different used by the rich instead of these “ writing-tables” of from that employed for skins or parchments, but we wood, for the wooden plates were both clumsy and incon | possess no certain information respecting the composition venient.

of either.

Sculptured rocks abound in the East, and this mode of writing was probably mentioned last by the patriarch, on account of its being a more, laborious and difficult process, as well as a more permanent memorial than any of the others. We need not add, that the implements for cutting monumental inscriptions on rocks have scarcely varied from the most ancient times.

It is curious to find that traces of the most ancient writing materials still exist in the ordinary terms applied to modern writings. Thus, volume properly signifies “a roll,” and preserves the memory of the ancient rolls of linen or parchment; library is derived from liber, the inner bark of a tree, which was anciently used for books,

and the paper on which we write preserves in its appelOriental Writing Materiais.

lation the memory of the time when the papyrus-plant The modern Jews have always a roll of the Pentateuch was the principal source from which writing materials in their synagogues, and they assign as a reason, that I were obtained. C.

FRXES I was hold there shalındı Darius, souther in Daniel Herman (Cyrus, a versenyebugl his richiesta. Bet

Hydaspes,) andand by his strength floreece."

Xerxes I. Gerter

XERXES I. was the “ fourth" king prophesied of Xerxes was murdered in his bed at Ecbatana by in Daniel 11. 2. “Behold there shall stand up yet three Artabanus, a Hyrcanian, and captain of his guard, B.C. kings in Persia, (Cyrus, Cambyses, and Darius, son of 464, according to most chronologers, but 473 according Hydaspes,) and the fourth (Xerxes,) shall be far richer to some. He was succeeded by his second son Artathan they all; and by his strength through his riches he xerxes, surnamed Longimanus, (the Ahasuerus of shall stir up all against the realm of Greece.” Xerxes I. Esther,) the elder son, Darius, having been also murwas the son of Darius, (son of Hydaspes,) and Atossa, dered by Artabanus. Artaxerxes was succeeded by his daughter of Cyrus. He was declared heir to the king- son Xerxes II., who reigned only two months. M. dom of Persia a short time before his father's death, who preferred him before his elder brother Artabazanes, because the latter was born while Darius was a private L XYLOPHORIA, Europopela, the name given individual; but Xerxes was born after his elevation to by Josephus to the festival of bringing in wood for the the throne. Xerxes, on his accession, (B.C. 485,) keeping up of the perpetual fire in the Temple. There showed himself very friendly to the Jews of the cap- is no mention of it in the Pentateuch, or early Scrip. tivity, and confirmed all the favours granted to them by ture, but it is alluded to in Nehemiah 10 and 13. Among his father; indeed Josephus (Ant. book xi., chap. 5,) the later Jews this festival was one of much solemnity ascribes to Xerxes the letter in behalf of the returning and rejoicing. Jews, given in Ezra 7. 11-26. He began his reign by There were several days for the people to hew the conquering Egypt; and rapidly subdued the Phænicians, wood, but the twenty-second day of the month Cilicia, Pamphylia, Pontus, Pisidia, Lycia, Caria, Myria, Ab (July) was the day for bringing it in, and offerTroas, Bithynia, the Hellespont, and the Isle of Cyprus. ing it; and on that day, Maimonides says, it was He then fulfilled the prophecy of Daniel above quoted, not lawful for any to work, to mourn, or to fast. Neheby marching against Greece with the prodigious army of miah (10. 34) says: “We cast lots among the priests, 5,283,220 men, exclusive of suttlers, women, attendants, the Levites, and the people, for the wood-offering, to &c.; and a fleet of 1200 ships. The check given to this bring it into the house of our God, after the houses of multitude at Thermopylæ by Leonidas with his 300 our fathers, at times appointed, year by year, to burn Spartans, and the grand defeat of the Persian army at upon the altar of the Lord our God, as it is written in Salamis, are well known. After the return of Xerxes the Law;" whence it appears that it was determined by from his unsuccessful campaign, he ordered the demo- lot how much each person should bring in for himself. lition of all the Grecian temples in Asia; that of Diana The Rabbins say that the wood was prepared with great at Ephesus alone being spared. He had been instructed care, and made very clean, and no mouldy or rotten in the religion of the magi by Zoroaster, and was inspired pieces permitted to be amongst it. with a horror of idolatry; wherefore he also destroyed According to the Mishna, the first gate on the all the idols in Babylon; thus fulfilling the prophecies of south side of the great court of the Sanctuary was Jeremiah 6. 2, and 51. 44-47, “ Babylon is taken, Bel is called the Gate of Burning, because the wood was confounded, Merodach is broken in pieces, her idols are brought in through it, to be laid up in store, for use confounded, her images are broken in pieces.” “I will in the Temple. Each family, as they brought in their punish Bel in Babylon;” “I will do judgment upon the contributions, sacrificed an offering called the corban of graven images of Babylon.”

wood. M.