THE SHEER 



MENTION is made of this animal shortly after the ex- 

 pulsion of Adam from Paradise. " Cain," it is said, 

 " brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto 

 the Lord ; and Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of 

 his flock and of the fat thereof." Gen. iv. 3, 4. Thus 

 the latter, in the exercise of faith, presented the ap- 

 pointed type of " the Lamb of God, which taketh away 

 the sins of the world," and through whom alone all who 

 believe in him, from the days of the patriarchs to the 

 end of time, shall be saved. 



So numerous were the sheep as well as cattle of 

 Abraham and Lot, that there was not sufficient pasture 

 for their united possessions. The Scriptures often 

 speak of the immense flocks of sheep with which some 

 parts of Palestine abounded. They were, in patriarchal 

 times, the chief riches of the people. Sheep husbandry 

 was then exceedingly simple. It consisted in a con- 

 stant change of pasture, so far as it could be arranged, 

 towards the north from winter to summer, and towards 



