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to forsake their usual dwellings, and to live for a season in tents. Levit. xxiii. 40. This command is still observed by the Jews in their Feast of Tabernacles.

"Tents are made of various materials. Many consist of only a coarse cloth of goats' hair, suspended on a few sticks, not better than many which are common among us."

"You mean the tents of the Gipsies, father?”

"Yes, Harry; according to the accounts of travellers, many tents in the East are not superior, and many even worse, than these. But not a few, on the contrary are very superb. Travellers speak of some. which have been three or even four years in making. That of Nadir Shah was covered over with scarlet broadcloth, lined with satin of a violet colour, and adorned with figures of animals and flowers, which were all formed of pearls and precious stones.

"To show the entire ruin which should fall on Bab

Levit. xxiii. 40. And ye shall take you on the first day, the boughs of goodly trees, branches of palm trees, and the boughs of thick trees, and willows of the brook; and she shall rejoice before the Lord your God seven days.

What did God command the Israelites to do? When is this command observed by them? Of what were tents made? What do travellers say of them? Of what was the tent of Nadir Shah made ?

ylon, the prophet said, 'Neither shall the Arabian pitch tent there; neither shall the shepherd dwell there; that is, it shall be utterly forsaken: and the prediction has been minutely fulfilled."

"I wonder, father, that preachers do not more often notice the customs of the East, as they throw so much light on Scripture ?"

CLIMATE.

IN the day the drought consumed me, and the frost by night.' This is the complaint of Jacob. With us, the days and nights bear a considerable resemblance to each other; but there is a much greater difference at some seasons in the East. 'In lower Asia, in particular,' says Sir J. Chardin, the day is always hot; and as soon as the sun is fifteen degrees above the horizon, no cold is felt in the depth of winter itself. On the contrary, in the height of summer the nights are as cold as at Paris in the month of

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What did the prophet say of Babylon? Has the prediction been fulfilled? Do the customs of the East throw much light on Scripture? What complaint does Jacob make in Genesis? How do the seasons differ here from those in the East? What does Sir J. Chardin say?

March. It is for this reason that in Persia and Turkey they always make use of furred habits in the country, such only being sufficient to resist the cold of the nights."

FIRE.

"OBSERVE Leviticus vi. 13. The fire shall ever be burning upon the altar; it shall never go out.'"

"I recollect, father, the Romans had a fire that was never to go out. I read of it, the other day, in Goldsmith's Roman History. It was kept up by the Vestal Virgins."

"It was. And without doubt had its origin from this fire mentioned in Leviticus. Sir W. Jones tells us, in the Asiatic Researches, that the priests in Persia, when they enter on their office, kindle a fire with two hard pieces of wood, and keep it lighted through their lives. So Q. Curtius, narrating the particulars of the march of the army of Darius, says, 'The fire, which they called eternal, was carried before the sol

What does Leviticus say? Who kept up the Roman fire? What does Sir W. Jones tell us? What does Q. Curtius say?

diers, on silver altars; the Magi came after it, singing hymns in the Persian manner; and three hundred and sixty-five youths, clothed in scarlet, followed, according to the number of the days in the year.""

"It must have been a very pretty sight, father. But why did God command the fire to be always kept burning on the altar in the Temple ?"

"That is a very proper question, Harry. No doubt, to intimate to the worshippers, that their gratitude for the divine mercies should be perpetual. And not only so, but to be a constant emblem of the awful justice of the Most High, and of the never-failing efficacy of the atoning merit of the great Messiah, who, in the fulness of time, was 'to be cut off,' as the prophet Daniel says, 'but not for himself; to make an end of sin, and to bring in everlasting righteousness."

BOTTLES.

"OUR Lord speaks of putting new wine into old bottles; and says, we ought not to do so. But are not old bottles as good as new?”

Why did God command the fire to be always kept burning on the altar in the Temple? What does the prophet Daniel say?

"With us perhaps they are; but this was not the case in the East. They were made of various materials; principally of skins of animals. The people in the East keep their milk, wine, water, and other liquors,' says Sir J. Chardin, in leathern bottles, made commonly of goat-skins. When the animal is

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killed, they cut off its feet, and its head, and so they draw it out of its skin, without cutting open the belly. They afterwards sew up the places where the legs were cut off, and the tail; and when it is filled they tie it about the neck. These nations, and the country people of Persia, never go a journey without a small

What were bottles inade of in the East? How were they made?

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