very great; no greater insult, indeed, could be offered to a conquered nation, than to throw down its altars, or pollute them. The prophet Ezekiel dwells very forcibly on this circumstance, in his denunciation of Divine vengeance against the idolatry of Israel. "Ye mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord God; Thus saith the Lord God to the mountains, and to the hills, to the rivers, and to the valleys; Behold, I, even I, will bring a sword upon you, and I will destroy your high places. And your altars shall be desolate, and your images shall be broken: and I will cast down your slain men before your idols. And I will lay the dead carcases of the children of Israel before their idols; and I will scatter your bones round about your altars. In all your dwelling places the cities shall be laid waste, and the high places shall be desolate; that your altars may be laid waste and made desolate, and your idols may be broken and cease, and your images may be cut down, and your works may be abolished. And the slain shall fall in the midst of you, and ye shall know that I am the Lord," Ezek. vi. 3-7. This feeling was common to all European nations. Hence, when a nation was engaged in defensive war for the protection of religious worship and family comforts, this motto was assumed, Pro aris et focis; "For altars and firesides."

The expression, "horns of the altar," is constantly met with in the Bible. Whether these were really horns of animals, or merely the, projections at the corners of the altar, is not certain; the use of them is,

however, clear-victims might be bound thereon. Thus the psalmist sings, "Bind the sacrifice with cords, even unto the horns of the altar," Psa. cxviii. 27. But horns, in the east, were emblems of authority and power; hence some have concluded, that they shadowed forth the greatness of Him to whom the altar was dedicated.

It may be mentioned, that the altars of Greece and Rome had horns to which animals were fastened, and to which those who fled thither for protection used to cling. This latter circumstance illustrates the conduct of Joab, who "fled unto the tabernacle of the Lord, and caught hold on the horns of the altar," when he feared the wrath of king Solomon, 1 Kings ii. 28, 29.

ARK, NOAH'S.

ARKS are chests, or coffers; and the vessel in which Noah was saved was so named, from its supposed resemblance to such. Great diversity of opinion, however, exists with reference to the form of Noah's ark. Common figures represent it as adapted to progressive motion, but the idea given of it in the sacred text is, that of an enormous oblong wooden house, divided into three stories, and having a sloping roof. Various opinions are also maintained respecting its size, there being a smaller and a larger cubit. Taking that which is the most probable for the ark, namely, the smallest,

which is about eighteen inches, it has been found that it must have been of the great burden of fortytwo thousand four hundred and thirty-two tons; by far the largest vessel ever constructed.

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The history of Noah's ark is deeply interesting. In the days of this righteous patriarch, mankind had become so lamentably corrupt, so proof against warnings and threatenings, that the Almighty, after bearing long with them, resolved to destroy them by a flood. But the righteous were not to perish with the wicked, and therefore Noah received a command from God to build him an ark, to the "saving of his house." The command ran thus: "Make thee an ark of gopher wood," (a species of cypress of an incorruptible nature;) rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch. And this is the fashion which thou shalt make it of: The length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits, the breadth of it fifty cubits, and the height of it thirty cubits. A window shalt thou make to the ark, and in a cubit shalt thou finish it above; and the door of the ark shalt thou set in the side thereof; with lower, second, and third stories shalt thou make it. And, behold, I, even I, do bring a flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh, wherein is the breath of life, from under heaven; and every thing that is in the earth shall die. But with thee will I establish my covenant; and thou shalt come into the ark, thou, and thy sons, and thy wife, and thy sons' wives with thee. And of every living thing of all flesh, two of every sort shalt

thou bring into the ark, to keep them alive with thee; they shall be male and female. Of fowls after their kind, and of cattle after their kind, of every creeping thing of the earth after his kind, two of every sort shall come unto thee, to keep them alive. And take thou unto thee of all food that is eaten, and thou shalt gather it to thee; and it shall be for food for thee, and for them," Gen. vi. 14-21.

Nothing doubting, the patriarch had no sooner received the command, than he commenced the work; and in one hundred and eighty years it was completed. During the period of its erection, Noah, without doubt, was employed in warning the world of the forthcoming wreck of nature. But he was not heeded. By some, we may suppose, he was treated as a visionary, by some pitied for his folly, and by others despised for his weakness. When the ark was finished, however, they had to rue their own folly and wickedness. After the animals destined to be preserved had entered the ark, which, at the Divine command, they did as by instinct, Noah and his wife, his three sons and their wives, entered, and, to use the sacred historian's own emphatic words, "the Lord shut him in," Gen. vii. 16. Then it was that the awful judgment commenced. The heavens grew black, the winds howled, torrents of water descended from above, and the fountains of the great deep were broken up, and let forth their watery treasures, to aid in the destruction of a guilty world.

The waters continued to increase forty days: at the end of that time, they had reached their greatest height,

and soon after they began to abate.

But their

decrease was slow; for Noah, on sending forth first a raven, and then a dove, at the end of nine months,

saw them return; by which he was assured that the waters still continued to cover the earth. At length, about the day twelvemonth on which he had entered the vessel, (which, according to the Hebrew chronology, was November 27, A.M. 1656,) he received permission to leave it; and he did so with thanksgiving. Grateful for the mercies of God, he erected an altar, and took of every clean beast, and every clean fowl, and offered an offering of praise for his miraculous preservation, and an atonement, both for his own sins, and the sins of his family; see Gen. viii. 15-20. The site on which the ark rested was the Mount Ararat, which lies in Armenia.