“Balaam was afterwards also very blameable in offering sacrifice on heathen altars, in the high places of Baal, which he must have been aware was strictly prohibited.”
My uncle promised to take up this interesting subject again next Sunday; but on our way to church he told me that these events happened in the year 1451 B. C., and about two centuries and a half before the Trojan war.
27th.—Frederick asked several questions this morning about the worship of Baal, on which he had been pondering since our conversation yesterday.
“Baal,” said my uncle, “was the same as Bel or Belus. The name signifies Lord, and was originally applied to the Supreme Deity; but in after-times, when idolatry became intermixed with the true religion, several of the heathen gods, and particularly the sun, were worshipped under that name. It was not only the general appellation of the sun throughout the east, but it extended from thence over great part of the western world; and many remnants of the worship of Baal, both names and customs, are to be found at this day in the Hebrides and Western Highlands. Baal-tine, for instance, as Hertford mentioned in one of his letters, is an expression still in use—it means the fire of the sun; and several other vestiges of solar worship may be also observed there. The name given in Scripture to the temples of Baal signifies those high places inclosed within walls in which a perpetual fire was kept.”
Frederick asked why groves and high places were so positively forbidden in the Bible as places of worship? To this my uncle replied: “Because it was usual for those idolatrous nations to place their temples and altars in commanding situations, and to worship their false gods in the groves which were formed on those consecrated hills. Such places were well adapted to their mysterious rites, and the Israelites were enjoined to break their images and cut down their groves; and were farther commanded never to plant a grove near an altar dedicated to Jehovah. Peor, to which Balak took Balaam, was the most famous high place in Moab; and it was called Baalpeor, because there was a temple there dedicated to the worship of Baal.”
I asked my uncle why they selected hills for places of worship?
“Some learned men,” said he, “have fancied that it was in commemoration of the resting of the ark on the mountain of Ararat, where Noah himself, immediately after the deluge, erected an altar and offered burnt offerings as testimonies of praise and gratitude. Thus, as every sanctified high place was supposed to represent Mount Ararat, so the sacred groves were symbols of Paradise; gloomy caves became the representatives of the floating ark of Noah; and even islands acquired a sacred character, because the top of Mount Ararat had once been surrounded by the sea.”
28th.—Caroline and I have had a delightful walk to-day with my uncle, to a wild rocky valley, where the hill on one side appears as if a part had been violently torn away, and shews several layers, or strata, of different substances in the cliff. He pointed it out as a good example of stratification; and made us observe that the strata, though parallel to each other, were not parallel to the horizon, but more or less inclined to it. The angle of inclination between these strata and the horizon is called their dip.
“Now,” said my uncle, “if the strata dip in one direction, they must rise in the opposite direction; and if they continue to rise, that is, if their course is not interrupted or bent down, they must gradually approach the surface, and in some place or other they must shew themselves there. Look at that well marked stratum of reddish stone in the opposite cliff; though it is partially covered here and there by vegetation, yet you can easily trace it as it slopes upwards, till you see it actually arrive at the upper edge of the cliff. It is the same with all the strata, which lie either above or below it: you see they rise successively towards the surface; and if there be numerous other strata under the valley, and which therefore we cannot see, still they also will reach the surface further off. The place where any stratum makes its appearance on the surface is called its out-crop; and as they range themselves there in regular succession, you must at once perceive that in examining the surface, in a direction crossing the strata, you would find as complete a section of them as you now see in the face of the cliff, or as you could obtain by boring perpendicularly through them.”
He said a great deal more on this subject, and helped us to follow with our eyes several other strata to their out-crop. “This circumstance,” he added, “is of immense importance to the geologist; for if the strata were all horizontal, we should be ignorant of everything below the mere external crust of the earth. Sometimes, indeed, a deep well, or the workings of a mine, might reveal the nature of the interior for a few hundreds of feet or yards; whereas by examining the out-crop of the inclined strata, we can ascertain not only their succession, but their composition, for many miles in thickness. Another important consequence of this inclined distribution of the strata, is the variety of minerals which it enables mankind to obtain. If they were all horizontal, one country would be all marble, another all coal; but by this beautiful irregularity of nature, everything that is useful approaches the surface some where or other, and puts itself within reach of the industry of man.”