was to attend upon the priests. They had forty-eight cities assigned them in different sections of the country, with the suburbs thereof for tillage, but they paid to the priests a portion of the increase of the fields adjoining those cities. The people supported them by tithes of their harvests and their flocks. Common Levites were often objects of charity. Moses said: "Take heed to thyself that thou forsake not the Levite, as long as thou livest upon the earth; for he hath no inheritance with thee. The Levite, the stranger, the fatherless and the widow, which are within thy gates, shall come and eat and be satisfied." Levites carried the Tabernacle and the Ark whenever they were removed, guarded the temple, took charge of ecclesiastical funds, and performed the sacred music. Persons not of the tribe of Levi, if they were remarkably skilful, were permitted to join the instrumental bands, but only Levites were allowed to unite their voices in religious. service. In David's time, there were thirty-eight thousand of them. They came in and went out of the temple by set numbers, in twenty-four courses; thus each course served but one week in twenty-four, except on great festivals. When exempted from temple-service they were employed as lawyers and judges to decide controversies, as scribes, or writers, to copy the Sacred Books, and keep exact genealogies of the tribes, and as teachers to instruct the people in moral, ceremonial, and judicial portions of the Law. They were required to read the whole Law once in seven years to the people. Sometimes they were counsellors of state, and generals of armies. Schools of the prophets were generally established on hills or mountains; for there was such a fixed habit of worshipping on high places, that it was deemed judicious to have holy men stationed at such localities, to instruct the people, and bless their sacrifices. These seminaries were under the government of Levites. Some prophet, venerable for age or piety, presided. The pupils, who were called sons of the prophets, sat at his feet, listened to his instructions, and wrote down his prophecies. They were generally

The laws of Moses permitted and regulated polygamy, merely providing for the interests of children, by ordaining that a man should not set the son of a beloved wife above a first-born son by a wife that was hated. A previous contract was made with parents, and legal ceremonies performed. Poor women, who had no dowry, were taken as concubines, or inferior wives. Their children received such gifts as the father chose to bestow, but the children of his superior wives succeeded to the inheritance. Taking a concubine implied nothing disreputable to either party. Wives themselves often promoted such connections, when they had no children. Jacob married two sisters, and they gave him two of their servants for concubines. Abraham took Hagar at the request of his wife, though she afterward made the poor foreigner a victim of her jealousy. Gideon had many wives, and seventy sons. Samuel's father had two equal wives. Only one wife and one concubine is mentioned as belonging to Saul, the first king. But David had at least eight wives. Solomon had seven hundred wives and three hundred concubines. Rehoboam had

eighteen wives and sixty concubines. Rabbinical expounders of the Law limited the number of wives to four, by way of counsel. The general tendency was not to have more than one. The condition of Hebrew women, both married and unmarried, was, at all periods of their history, very honourable and free, compared with other nations where polygamy prevailed. Something of this might perhaps be owing to impressions Moses had received in Egypt. For the Egyptians married but one wife, and their customs awarded a singular degree of respect and freedom to women. The entire absence of voluptuous rites or customs in Hebrew worship was likewise favourable to the same. result. In many countries, votaries gave women as donations to the temples, in the same spirit that they offered doves, or sheep, or golden vases; and the money obtained by a sale of their persons was put into the sacred treasury. But all such customs were excluded from Egyptian temples, and they were also an abomination unto the

Hebrews. It was expressly ordained by Moses: "There shall be no whore of the daughters of Israel. Thou shalt not bring the hire of a whore into the house of the Lord thy God, for any vow." When the daughters of Zelophehad complained to Moses that their father's estate had passed away from his descendants, because he had died in the wilderness without sons, he immediately made a law: "If a man die and have no sons, then he shall cause his inheritance to pass unto his daughter." Women never belonged to the priesthood, but they are often mentioned as prophets. Deborah was both a prophetess and a judge in Israel. Hulda the prophetess dwelt at the college in Jerusalem, and Anna the prophetess lived in the temple. Men and women always worshipped apart. Women had seats by themselves in the Synagogues, and an outer court provided for them at the temple.

Moses forbade the descendants of Israel to marry any woman out of their own tribes. The general violation of this law was a source of great grief to Ezra. He said sorrowfully: "The people, the priests, and the Levites have not separated themselves from the people of the lands. For they have taken of their daughters for themselves and for their sons; so that the holy seed have mingled themselves with the people of those lands. Yea, the hand of princes and rulers hath been chief in this trespass. And for our iniquities have we, our kings, and our priests, been delivered into the hand of the kings of the lands, to the sword and captivity." Ezra rent his garments and plucked the hair from his head and beard, and fell on his knees, and spread out his hands in prayer to God. And the people came to him and wept very sore, and offered to put away all their wives of foreign extraction, and all the children that had been born of them. He ratified a covenant with them to that effect. The foreign women were sent away with their children, and sacrifices were offered to the Lord for the trespass that had been committed.

Strangers were allowed to live within the gates of Jewish cities, without conforming to Mosaic ceremonies, provided

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they renounced idolatry, and observed what were called the seven precepts of Noah, viz.: "To worship one God; not blaspheme holy things; not murder; not steal; not commit adultery; to deal justly; and not to eat flesh with the blood in it;" by which they meant flesh cut from any living creature. Jews believed the observance of these moral precepts was all God required, except of their own nation. Therefore they allowed such to live among them, under the name of Sojourning Proselytes, or Proselytes of the Gate. Being uncircumcised, they were deemed unclean, and therefore not permitted to enter the temple, or to dwell in Jerusalem.

There was another class of foreigners, called Proselytes of Righteousness, who were thorough converts to the Jewish system, and regularly adopted among them by the initiatory rites of circumcision, baptism, and sacrifice. The proselyte was not deemed sufficiently purified, if any of his hair, or even the tip of his finger, remained unwashed. When he came out of the water, he recited a prayer that he might be clean from Gentile pollution, and become a sound member of the Jewish church. Children were likewise admitted by immersion in water, generally at the same time with their parents; but they had liberty to retract, if they chose, when they were old enough to judge for themselves. This class of proselytes were bound by the same obligations as Jews, and shared all their privileges, except that some of them were forever excluded from intermarrying with Israelites, and those of other nations were not permitted to intermarry for several generations.

When the promised land was divided among the children of Israel, descendants of Levi had no portion assigned them. They were set apart for religious services, and were scattered through all portions of the country to prevent each tribe from setting up an independent priesthood for itself. None of them were priests, except the families descended from Aaron. Descendants of all the other families of the tribe were called Levites, whose business it

was to attend upon the priests. They had forty-eight cities assigned them in different sections of the country, with the suburbs thereof for tillage, but they paid to the priests a portion of the increase of the fields adjoining those cities. The people supported them by tithes of their harvests and their flocks. Common Levites were often objects of charity. Moses said: "Take heed to thyself that thou forsake not the Levite, as long as thou livest upon the earth; for he hath no inheritance with thee. The Levite, the stranger, the fatherless and the widow, which are within thy gates, shall come and eat and be satisfied." Levites carried the Tabernacle and the Ark whenever they were removed, guarded the temple, took charge of ecclesiastical funds, and performed the sacred music. Persons not of the tribe of Levi, if they were remarkably skilful, were permitted to join the instrumental bands, but only Levites were allowed to unite their voices in religious service. In David's time, there were thirty-eight thousand of them. They came in and went out of the temple by set numbers, in twenty-four courses; thus each course served but one week in twenty-four, except on great festivals. When exempted from temple-service they were employed as lawyers and judges to decide controversies, as scribes, or writers, to copy the Sacred Books, and keep exact genealogies of the tribes, and as teachers to instruct the people in moral, ceremonial, and judicial portions of the Law. They were required to read the whole Law once in seven years to the people. Sometimes they were counsellors of state, and generals of armies. Schools of the prophets were generally established on hills or mountains; for there was such a fixed habit of worshipping on high places, that it was deemed judicious to have holy men stationed at such localities, to instruct the people, and bless their sacrifices. These seminaries were under the government of Levites. Some prophet, venerable for age or piety, presided. The pupils, who were called sons of the prophets, sat at his feet, listened to his instructions, and wrote down his prophecies. They were generally