The great gods are often all invoked one after the other at the beginning of the solemn inscriptions of the kings of Assyria. Sargon has given the names of eight of them on the gates of the city he founded. “Shamash has conferred on me all I possess,” says he in an inscription. “Bin gave me good fortune; I have named the great eastern gates after Shamash and Bin. Bel Dagon laid the foundation of my city, Bilit Taauth grinds like paint the elements of the world; I have named the great southern grates after Bel Dagon and Bilit Taauth. Oannes prospers the work of my hand, Ishtar leads armies to battle; I have called the great western gates after Oannes and Ishtar. Nisroch Shalman presides over marriages, the mistress of the gods presides over births; I have dedicated the great northern gates to Nisroch and Bilit.” Inscriptions of such and like general purport were sculptured on the palace walls of many of the kings and also upon the bodies of the winged bulls. [Illustration: THE GREAT HUMAN-HEADED EAGLE-WINGED ASSYRIAN BULL.] WORSHIP OF THE GODS AT BABYLON. The deity who was the principal object of worship at Babylon and at Borsippa was Bel Merodach, with his wife, Bilit or Myletta, the great nature-goddess, who assumed the-two opposite forms of Taauth and Zarpanit, the one austere, the other voluptuous, like the two forms of the Venus of classical mythology. Bilit had a magnificent temple in the centre of Babylon, where most infamous customs were practiced. At Ur, the god of the city, from the remote times of Ur-Hammu, was Sin, the moon-god; at Sippara and Larsam, Shamash, the sun; at Erech and Nipur, Bilit-Taauth, “Goddess of the Firmament.” The most shameful rites were connected with the worship of Nana or Zarpanit, at Cutha. The materialistic and profoundly immoral worship at Babylon, naturally excited extreme horror in the worshipers of Jehovah, and provoked their vehement invectives against the idols of Chaldæa. We quote the eloquent words of Baruch, that portray so vividly an always materialistic, and often obscene worship that was, in fact, no more than a constant employment of popular superstition for the profit of the priests.