One of the most singular and ridiculous features connected with this story is, that Jehovah, in giving instructions for the construction of the ark, told the people they must offer, among other curious things, badger-skins, goat's hair, and red ram's skins (i.e., ram's skins dyed red). What use God Almighty could have had for the hides and hair of these dead animals is hard to conjecture. Could superstition descend lower than this? As minute a description is given of the whole affair by Jehovah and Moses as if there were some sense in it. The box was hauled about by two cows; and it was enjoined that those selected by the Philistines should be cows that had never been worked or harnessed, and that their calves should be shut up and left at home. This is descending to a "bill of particulars." The calves must have suffered, as their dams were driven far away and then slaughtered. What became of the calves is not stated; but we are told that the cows kept up a continual bellowing, or "lowing." Perhaps this was designed as a kind of base or tenor for the music which accompanied them; and this accounts for the calves being left at home. It is curious to observe that the cows were not yoked to the cart on which the ark was drawn, but tied to it,--probably by their tails. The Jews did not seem to possess sufficient mechanical skill or genius to invent an ox-yoke. Another singular part of this singular story is, that the Philistines constructed six golden mice to accompany the ark; and yet we are told that the Jews were not allowed to have images of any thing (Ex. xx. 4). The most serious consideration connected with this affair was the vast destruction of human life. In the first place the Philistines, in a battle with the Lord's people, slew thirty thousand of them, and captured this box, as we must presume, with the Lord in it. It seems strange that, when Jehovah had fought so many successful battles, he would allow himself to be captured. It was some time, too, before he was recovered from the Philistines. When this was effected, as the ark was being conveyed back under the superintendence of David, with a company of thirty thousand people, while passing over some rough ground, the cart jostled, and the ark came near being thrown off, with the Lord Jehovah in it, who would probably have been considerably bruised by the fall. But a very clever man by the name of Uzzah clapped his hand upon the cart to prevent this awful catastrophe; and, although probably actuated by the best and most pious motives, he was immediately killed for it. This part of the story has a bad moral. On another occasion, on the arrival of the ark at Bethshemesh, because one or two persons attempted to gratify a very natural curiosity by looking into the ark, Jehovah became so much enraged that he killed fifty thousand of the people of Bethshemesh. Here is another of the many cases in which thousands of innocent people were punished for the sin of one man or a few persons.