God, and in the stead of the person or persons who offered; hence it is evident that they had their origin in the appointment of the Most High; for had not the institution been divine, the sacrifice could not have been efficacious."

"Do you recollect any instance in profane history, in which offerings were made of victims, similar to the sacrifice of Abel ?"

"Homer and Virgil often speak of victims being offered to propitiate or appease the gods."

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They do; and the ancient Goths believed that the effusion of the blood of animals appeased the anger of their deities, and that their justice turned aside upon the victims those strokes which were destined for men. And as they imagined that the influence of the sacrifice would be in proportion to the value of the

victim, they devoted human beings to bleed upon their altars."*

"And, father, do you not recollect that Rollin tells us, in his history of the Carthaginians, that when the state was in great danger, they offered two hundred children of the best families to their god Saturn ?"

"Yes, I well recollect it. How thankful ought we to be that we need no other offering than that which God himself has provided!

6

By this one offering,' says the Apostle Paul, referring to the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus, He hath for ever perfected them that are sanctified.'"+

*Mallet's North. Antiq. vol. i. p. 7.

+ Vide Magee on the Atonement, passim.

IN NS.

“I THINK, father, you said, the other day, that there were no inns in the East ?"

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No, Harry; you must have mistaken me. I said, if I recollect rightly, that there were no inns such as there are in our country."

"But it is said, in Gen. xliii. 21. that Joseph's brethren, when they came to the Inn, found their money in their sacks; and in the second chapter of St. Luke's Gospel, we are told, that there was no room for the infant Saviour and his parents in the Inn."

"You are right, Harry; but still, it is true, that the inns in the East were and are very different from ours. They are called caravanseras; and are of different kinds. Some are simply resting-places by the side of a fountain;