THE OX. 



MAN is more indebted to the ox than to any other 

 animal. The general utility of this creature appears to 

 have been discovered at a very early period, and hence 

 we trace its domestication to a remote date. Jabal 

 lived before the flood, and he is described as " the 

 father of such as have cattle ;" and in every part of the 

 earth the ox has been held in high estimation. 



The writers of Greece are eager to secure the honour 

 of training the ox, and yoking him to the plough, but 

 they ascribe the work to many gods and goddesses, he- 

 roes, and other great men. With the Bible in our 

 hands, we may trace it to the first descendants of our 

 common father, one of whom was "a tiller of the 

 ground." Even beyond them we must go, as not origi- 

 nal instructors, but taught from above. Isaiah bears 

 to us the charge and the inquiry, " Give ye ear, and 

 hear my voice ; hearken, and hear my speech. Doth 

 the ploughman plough all day to sow ? doth he open 

 and break the clods of his ground ? When he hath 



