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Fig. 184.

in linen clothes." As the spices gave their flavour to the body, the pungent myrrh and the bitter aloe kept the crawling worm from the corpse. Decay was not hastened by the worm. Dissolution was gradual, and dissociated from much which in all ages has linked an unpleasant idea with the process by which the body returns to its kindred dust.

To the aloe, usually so called, was often added the produce of the sweet-scented Aquilaria-the lign-aloes of Numbers xxiv. 6. This was used as a precious perfume-"I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon," said the strange woman. This is the attar of aloes, an oily perfume obtained from decayed parts of the trunk and branches of the Aquilaria, which sells for its weight in gold. It secretes in veins of the wood, which become dark-coloured. These are cut out, bruised,

[graphic]

Socotrine Aloe.

steeped in water for a time, and distilled. The product is aloe perfume.

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ACTS.

'N the account of the remarkable outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost, Rome (ii. 10) is named as one of the localities whence strangers had come to Jerusalem-see Plate XLIII., for View of Ancient Rome.

The disciples were called Christians first in Antioch" (xi. 27). The city thus distinguished was the Syrian city of that name, situated mainly on the left bank of the Orontes, in the region where the chains of Taurus and Lebanon meet. It was founded about B.C. 300, by Seleucus, one of the captains of Alexander, who named the city after his father Antiochus. Antioch became the capital of Syria during the rule of the Seleucida, which continued more than two hundred years. It was a magnificent city, had at one time more than five hundred thousand inhabitants, and exerted a powerful influence on surrounding states. The situation was peculiarly favourable as a centre for Christian action. On this account it was much cared for by the apostles, and Christianity very soon began to assume the importance of a powerful and highly influential creed in the eyes of its inhabitants. The light has left it. Its inhabitants sit in moral darkness, and amidst ruins. The city itself is little better than a collection of miserable hovels.

"Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was stirred in him, when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry. Therefore disputed he in the synagogue with the Jews, and with the devout persons, and in the market daily with them that met with him. Then certain philosophers of the Epicureans and of the Stoics encountered him. And some said, What will this babbler say? other some, He seemeth to be a setter forth of strange gods: because he preached unto them Jesus, and the resurrection. And they took him, and brought him unto Areopagus, saying, May we know what this new doctrine, whereof thou speakest, is? For thou bringest certain strange things to our ears we would know therefore what these things mean. (For all the Athenians, and strangers which were there, spent their time in nothing else, but either to tell, or to hear some new thing.) Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars-hill, and said, Ye men of Athens, I perceive that

in all things ye are too superstitious. For as I passed by, and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you. God, that made the world, and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands; neither is worshipped with men's hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things; and hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of

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their habitation; that they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us" (xvii. 16-27). The discourse touches on questions of greatest interest. The one-blood relationship of all the tribes "on all the face of the earth," chiefly claims our attention. Paul reached Athens about A.D. 52. While he waited for Silas and Timothy, his spirit was deeply moved as he witnessed the gross idolatry of the people. In Athens especially he would meet with all those forms of sin which he afterwards set forth in the terrible picture of Romans i. 21-23. The aspects of Athenian morality with which, in his preaching in Athens, he sought

to deal, were idolatry, licentiousness, materialism, and highly-developed religious feeling of a sort.

As he passed from the Piræus to the Agora, or market-place, the heart of the city, lying in the valley formed by the three noted hills, the Areopagus, Pnyx, Acropolis, and Museum, he would soon see that the Athenians were, indeed, utterly given to idolatry. Images of the gods stood out in niches in the walls, at the corners of the streets, in all public places. Genius, no doubt, working by the cunning hand of art, had in these given material expression and permanence to ideal strength, or wisdom, or beauty, but they nevertheless told to him the sad tale of the ignorance of the living and true God. Materialism and sensual

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ism were wedded to Athenian pride; and evidences of impurity and practical atheism would not unfrequently be seen in forms that could not be named. Slavery, too, assumed aspects of the most debasing and brutalizing kind. That there were many labouring after something higher, could not be doubted. Their very progress in art, their great intellectual culture, quickened all those sentiments which lie on the threshold of conscience, thereby throwing their influence over it. In order to get rest, the people multiplied the numbers of their idols, of their feast days, and temple services. But in vain! Conscience still craved, the heart still hungered, the whole spiritual nature was still

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