132 



BERTHA S VISIT TO HER 



the universal belief that sins could only be? 

 expiated by corresponding sacrifices of what 

 was most valued ; and gratitude for worldly 

 blessings and riches seemed to demand some 

 proportionate offerings. 



" Sacrifices, offerings, and ceremonies were 

 a kind of representative, or figurative worship. 

 Compared with the present state of the world, 

 the people of those days had few abstract ideas ;. 

 even their arts, and sciences, and particularly 

 their religious systems, were in a great degree 

 described by allegories, types, and hieroglyphics ;. 

 and though we can with difficulty see the con- 

 nexion now, it is probable that every outward 

 rite that was then enjoined to the Israelites, wa& 

 really typical of some inward principle of virtue, 

 or of some distinct point of faith. Taken alto- 

 gether, it is certain that their object was to dis- 

 cipline that stubborn people into obedience to 

 preserve them from the surrounding idolatries to 

 keep them separate from all other nations, as de- 

 positaries of the revealed truth to train them for 

 the reception of a new dispensation and, above 

 all, they were designed to prefigure the grea-t 

 and final atoning sacrifice of the Messiah*.* 



'30th. The weather has been so soft ami mild 

 for the last week, that it seems as if we had only 

 dreamt of frost and snow. After the thaw, the 

 ground, and even the walks, were so wet, that we 



