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In my view, the Christian religion is the most important and one of the first things in which all children, under a free government ought to be instructed... No truth is more evident to my mind than that the Christian religion must be the basis of any government intended to secure the rights and privileges of a free people. Preface to 1828 Dictionary
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TO'PHET, n. [Heb. tophet, a drum.] Hell; so called from a place east of Jerusalem where children were burnt to Moloch, and where drums were used to drown their cries.
A place lying east or southeast of
Jerusalem, in the valley of Hinnom.
[Written also
Topheth.]
And he defiled Topheth, which is in the valley of the children of Hinnom. 2 Kings xxiii. 10. * It seems to have been at first part of the royal garden, but it was afterwards defiled and polluted by the sacrifices of Baal and the fires of Moloch, and resounded with the cries of burning infants. At a later period, its altars and high places were thrown down, and all the filth of the city poured into it, until it became the abhorrence of Jerusalem, and, in symbol, the place where are wailing and gnashing of teeth. The pleasant valley of Hinnom, Tophet thence | ||||||||