The record-union., 1897-06-07

oval but very much on the latter style.
When it was first dedicated to the glory
of Jehovah it, in truth, was no larger
than it is now-seven feet long, about
three feet wide and three and half
feet high.
The studious eye of the clergyman
saw how we'll every evidence pointed to
the certain nature of that unsymmetri-
cal rock.
On it's surface is a center cup, shaped
hollow, nearly foot in diameter, and
ten inches deep. This was to hold the
blood of the slain animals The local
village affairs were used mainly for sac
rifices of that kind. The blood poured
| upon the altar would be carried by
drains into the cup-shaped receptacles.
This was one of the hottest rites of
the Israelites, and always an affair of
great ceremony. They held the blood
of all domestic animals as most sacred,
and their law ordered it to be offered to
Jehovah. So strict was this law adj
hered to that when King Saul, after de-
feating the Philistines and pursuing
them from Micmash to Aijalon, saw
that his famished warriors were killing
animals to appease their hunger with
out first offering the blood to Jehovah,
| he rebuked them for their sin and or
dered a rock altar set apart on the bat
| tlefield so that the blood might be put
| upon it.
This altar, according to Scripture,
was arranged but a few miles from the
affairs just found.
| The first altar discovered by DIR.
| Greene seems to show the effect of fire,
| although flames were not much used on
affairs. The burning usually was done
| at the side
| About sixty feet to the northeast the
minister found another cup-shaped hol-
| low in the same ledge. This was, no
i doubt, an auxiliary of the chief altar,
and was used perhaps for the burning
of incense.
| The other altar was found in the
mountains to the east of Der Eyub.
Here, by the ruins of once flourishing
village, stands out an altar four feet
face and another below in a natural de-
preston of the rock. The largest of
these hollows is six inches in diameter,
and all of them are about three inches
| deep.
Those on the surface are connected
| by drains. Near this altar, as in the
case of the other, is a companion hol-
/ low. In some way the constructors of
the altar managed to cut it into shape
without violating the Mosaic law, since
on two sides-to the north and west-it
is smooth.
| Hard by this altar was a building,
now in ruins. 1t was large, with floor
| cut out of the rock and seventeen feet
square. AS the average size of dwell
| ings in the village was not over twelve
feet square, it must have been used for
an extraordinary purpose.
| Doubtless, DR.. Greene thinks, the
people held their gala festivals here and
it was used as feastroom. Often after
| the sacrifice there followed a gay time
and the village folk dined profusely off
lamb or OK or corn, wine and oil. Such
/ feasts frequently were enjoyed by a
whole village, and, as private houses
We're. too small to accommodate the
| throng, it was customary to build
houses near affairs for the occasion
| These altar houses might also have
| been used partly for the safe keeping of
holy things used in the altar service.
Later the village affairs were not in such
| active use as in the early days of Isra-
| els occupancy of Palestine.
/ Jerusalem, with its great temple,
/ came into being and worship became
centered there. The laws were changed,
too. 1t became lawful to STAY animals