that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven."

In Leviticus and Deuteronomy, linen made of flax is frequently mentioned as a material for clothing, and in one place (Deut. xxii. 11) is forbidden to be worn together with woollen. In Ezek. xliv. 17, the priests are required to wear linen only on ministering in the sanctuary. "When they enter in at the gates of the inner court, they shall be clothed with linen (pishtim) garments; and no wool shall come upon them, whiles they minister in the gates of the inner court, and within. They shall have linen bonnets (paarai pishtim, headdresses of linen) upon their heads."

WORMWOOD.

Laanah; Heb. Artemisia; L. L'absinthe; Fr. Der wermuth; Ger. Alsem; Dutch. Assenzio; Ital. Ajenjo; Sp. Polin; Russ. Malurt; Dan.

THE botanical name of this plant has undergone sundry changes, owing to the diversity of opinion amongst scientific men as to the plant denoted by the Hebrew name Laanah. It is now, however, pretty generally admitted to be the Judæan Wormwood, (Artemisia Judaica), which is a somewhat ornamental greenhouse plant. It grows about eighteen inches high, with small obovate blunt lobed leaves, and shows its yellow bloom in the month of August. The flowers are stalked and panicled. The name occurs eight times in the Old Testament.

After the Mosaic law had been repeated in the hearing of all the Israelites, from the captains of tribes down to the children, and the strangers in the camp; Moses exhorted them to obedience. He then told them that the covenant, which God made with them, was not with those only who were there present, but that it would be binding upon their descendants. This he did lest there should be among them a root that bore Wormwood, Deut. xxix. 18; lest there should be any one who, when he heard the curses denounced upon the disobedient, should "bless himself in his heart, saying, 'I shall have peace, though I walk in the imagination of mine heart." Such an one would be as the root of the Wormwood, which is not very bitter in itself, but produces stem and leaves which are very bitter. Thus, his example would lead others into sin, and involve

families and tribes in the bitterness of the curses

denounced upon transgressors.

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The apostle Paul uses a similar expression, when he urges the Hebrews to follow after holiness; to see that no one fail of the grace of God; "lest any root of bitterness springing up" should trouble them, "and thereby many be defiled; lest there be any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau, who, for one morsel of meat sold his birthright." And this is in perfect harmony with the judgment of the wise king Solomon, when he warns his son against the seducing arts of the strange woman. "The lips of a strange woman drop as an honey-comb......but her end is as bitter as Wormwood," Prov. v. 3, 4. In whatever way the law of God is broken the punishment which follows is bitter as Wormwood. Bishop Patrick says on this passage, "The beginning of this love is not So sweet as the conclusion is bitter....after a short pleasure follows long pain, by the impairing men's health, strength, estates, and credit, which they cannot reflect upon without trouble and vexation, and, (if she do not quite destroy their reason), be filled with remorse of conscience and anguish of spirit; for like a sword that cuts on both sides, she wounds both soul and body; in short, leads those that follow her, to an untimely, shameful, and miserable end; to have never so little to do with her is to approach to destruction, not only here but in another world. For though thou mayest think to make a retreat in time, thou wilt be deceived, she having more ways than thou canst ever know, (winding and turning herself into a thousand shapes), to keep thee from so much as deliberating about thy return to a virtuous course of life."