Tammuz, the Babylonian "Dumuzi," was the god of spring vegetation, who dies, going down to Hades, and revives again with each returning summer. The worship of this god became identified with Phoenicia, and from there this wicked cult came to Greece, where Tammuz was known under the name of Adonis. The weeping woman celebrated the death of the god, an emblem of the decay of earth's productive powers. With it were connected some of the vilest, immoral ceremonies and licentious habits. Thus we see how false worship and immorality are closely, yea, inseparably, linked together. In our days the increase of licentiousness is but the result of having rejected the Truth of God. IV. The Greatest of all Abominations: Sun-Worship. And he brought me into the inner court of the Lord's house; and, behold at the door of the temple of the Lord, between the porch and the altar, were about five and twenty men, with their backs toward the temple of the Lord, and their faces toward the east; and they worshipped the sun toward the east. Then he said unto me, Hast thou seen this, O son of man? Is it a light thing to the house of Judah that they commit the abominations which they commit here? for they have filled the land with violence, and have returned to provoke me to anger: and, lo, they put the branch to their nose. Therefore, will I also deal in fury; mine eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity; and though they cry in mine ears with a loud voice, yet will I not hear them" (verses 16-18). The twenty-five men, who stood between the porch and the altar with their backs to the house of the Lord and their faces towards the sun, worshipping the sun, were the twenty-four priests, who constituted the appointed courses. Their attitude was one of defiance. They practiced the abominable cult, openly showing by the turned backs against the temple that they had wilfully rejected Jehovah and His worship. What else was connected with sun-worship? One mysterious sentence appears at the close of verse 17. "And, lo, they put the branch to their nose." This phrase is very obscure. Jewish commentators claim that the words conceal some shocking and wicked rite; and this may be the correct meaning. Sun-worship and its attending lusts of the flesh are not unknown in our own times. A few months ago a great sun-festival was held in Paris.[10] Thousands participated in it. Hymns to the sun were sung and sun-dances held, while the nights were given over to all kinds of immoralities. Bahaism, whose deceitful leader is a sun-worshipper, has hundreds of thousands of followers in the English speaking world. They turned their ears from the Truth and have been turned to fables. [10] This was three months before the war.