"The garment also that the plague of leprosy is in, whether it be a woollen garment, or a linen garment, whether it be in the warp or woof, of linen or of woollen, whether in a skin, or in any thing made of skin, and if the plague be greenish or reddish in the garment ... it is a plague of leprosy, and shall be shewed unto the Priest, and the Priest shall look upon the plague and shut up it that hath the plague seven days; and he shall look on the plague on the seventh day; if the plague be spread in the garment, either in the warp, &c. ... the plague is a fretting leprosy, it is unclean. He shall therefore burn that garment ... wherein the plague is, for it is a fretting leprosy; it shall be burnt in the fire. And if the Priest shall look, and behold, the plague be not spread in the garment ... then the Priest shall command that they wash the thing wherein the plague is, and he shall shut it up seven days more: and the Priest shall look on the plague, after that it is washed: and behold if the plague have _not_ changed his colour, and the plague be not spread, it is unclean; thou {41} shalt burn it in the fire; it is fret inward; whether it be bare within or without. And if the Priest look and behold the plague be somewhat dark after the washing of it, then he shall rend it out of the garment ... and if it appear still in the garment either in the warp or the woof ... it is a spreading plague: thou shalt burn that wherein the plague is with fire. And the garment ... which thou shalt wash, if the plague be departed from them, then it shall be washed the second time and shall be clean."--Chap. xiii. 47-58. Again in Deuteronomy. The curse for disobedience: "The Lord shall make the pestilence cleave to thee until he have consumed thee from off the land.--The Lord shall smite thee with a consumption, and with a fever, and with an inflammation, and with an extreme burning, and with the drought, and with blasting, and with _mildew_, and they shall pursue thee until thou perish.--The Lord shall make the rain of thy land _powder_ and _dust_: from heaven shall it come down upon thee until thou be destroyed." It may be said, and I doubt not will be said, all this is unnecessarily dragging the sacred volume into an enquiry totally foreign to its general tenor; on the contrary, however, I maintain by that Book we are to learn the ways of God to man, and further, that no study can impress mankind with so awful, so terrific an idea of his responsible position, as that which leads him into the investigation of the causes {42} by which the Almighty, doubtless in His wisdom, has thought fit at various epochs of this world's history, to place man face to face with pestilence, famine and sudden death.