"Chairs are not used by the people in the East. They usually sit on couches, or carpets, or on skins. These also commonly serve them to sleep on, whilst they cover themselves with their garments. For this reason, a man was commanded to return the garment he had borrowed before night.-(Exod. xxii. 26. Deut. xxiv. 12.)

"The furniture of the prophet's chamber (mentioned, 2 Kings, iv. 10.) consisted only of a bed, which was most likely a sort of mattress on the floor, and ‘a table, a stool, and a candlestick."

“ "But to return to the structure of buildings. Some houses mentioned in Scripture seem to have been of a very peculiar construction; such must have been

Exodus xxii. 26. If thou at all take thy neighbor's raiment to pledge, thou shalt deliver it unto him, by that the sun goeth down.

Deut. xxiv. 12. And if the man be poor, thou shalt not sleep with his pledge.

Kings 2. iv. 10. Let us make a little chamber I pray thee, on the wall; and let us set for him there a bed, and a table, and a stool, and a candlestick.

What do the people in the East use to sit upon instead of chairs? What do they sleep upon? How do they cover themselves? What was a man commanded to do with a borrowed garment? Repeat the verses from Exodus and Deut. Of what did the furniture of the prophet's room consist? Repeat a verse from Kings. What is said of the structure of buildings in the Scriptures ?

the building which Samson pulled down on himself and his foes. In considering what this fabric was,' says Sir Christopher Wren, that could at one pull be demolished, I conceive it was an oval amphitheatre, the scene in the middle, where a vast roof of cedar beams, resting round upon the walls, centered all upon one short architrave that united two cedar pillars in the middle. The pillar would not be sufficient to unite the ends of at least one hundred beams, that tended to the centre; therefore, I say, there must be a short architrave resting upon two pillars, upon which all the beams tending to the centre of the amphitheatre might be supported. Now, if Samson by his miraculous strength, pressing upon one of those pillars, moved it from its basis, the whole roof must of necessity fall.'

"Dr. Shaw observes on this subject, that 'the Eastern method of building may assist us in accounting for the particular structure of the temple or house of Dagon, and the great number of people who were buried in the ruins of it, by the pulling down of the two principal pillars. We read that there was a multitude of persons on the roof beholding while Samson made sport; Samson must therefore have been in a court

How must the house which Samson pulled down have been built? What does Dr. Shaw observe on this subject?

1.

below them. Several palaces and courts of justice in the East are built in such a way, that on their festivals and rejoicings a great quantity of sand is strewed upon the area for the wrestlers to fall upon, whilst the roof of the cloisters round about is covered with spectators. I have often seen several hundreds of people diverted in this manner on the roof of the Dey's palace at Algiers, which, like many more of the same quality and denomination, hath an advanced cloister over against the gate of the palace, made in the fashion of a large penthouse, supported only by one or two contiguous pillars in the front, or else in the centre. In such open structures as these, in the midst of the guards and councillors, are the bashaws and other great officers assembled to distribute justice and transact the public affairs of their provinces. Here likewise they have their public entertainments, as the lords and others of the Philistines had in the house of Dagon. Upon the supposition therefore that in the house of Dagon there was a cloistered structure of this kind, the pulling down of the front or centre pillars only, which supported it, would be attended with the like catastrophe to the Philistines."

How are the palaces and courts of justice built in the East? Where do the Bashaws and other officers assemble to distribute justice? Where do they have public entertainments?

BRICKS.

66 'PRAY, father, did you ever observe the brickmakers, on the side of the hill, just as you come into the village ?"

"Yes, Harry; I have often stood for a few moments, to remark with how much diligence and cheerfulness they labour."

"What hard and dirty employment it is! I am sure I should not like it."

"We are not always to have just what we like, Harry. You would have liked, the other day, to have ridden the bay pony; but I knew you could not manage him; and perhaps had I indulged you in your wishes, you might have been thrown off and killed. You see, the brickmakers do not think their work any hardship; they seem very happy. It is a ground of thankfulness to a poor labourer, that he has plenty of profitable employment. And it is very pleasant to a benevolent mind, to observe, that such persons, though engaged in hard labour, seem to have as much enjoyment of life as ourselves. The good God has more equally diffused felicity among his creatures, than we are sometimes apt to imagine."

"But, father, I looked at them, to see if they used Do those who work hard appear to enjoy life?

any straw; you know, it is said that Pharaoh commanded the children of Israel to make bricks without straw, and that this was a great hardship."

"So it was, Harry, on many accounts, which I cannot mention now. But the bricks in Egypt were somewhat different from ours. A quantity of straw was usually mingled with the clay."

"I can't think of what use it could be, father."

"I will tell you, Harry, somewhat about it. Do you recollect the command which Pharaoh gave to the task-masters whom he set over the children of Israel ?"

"Yes; he said, 'Ye shall no more give the people straw to make brick as heretofore: let them go and gather straw for themselves.""

"Well; this was a plain proof that straw was then employed in making bricks. The Scripture account is confirmed by the statements of travellers. The eastern bricks,' says Sir John Chardin, are only clay well moistened with water, mixed with straw, and dried in the sun.' So, it seems, that walls built with them would be little better than those built with beat

How did Pharaoh command the children of Israel to make bricks? How were bricks made in Egypt? What command did Pharaoh give to the task masters? What does this command prove? What are Eastern bricks made of?