the Law of Moses, thy servant: for on this day he will expiate for you, to purge you from all your sins, that you may be clean before Jehovah." This was the only occasion on which the name of Jehovah was ever uttered, and then only by the High Priest. As soon as the priests and people heard it, they prostrated themselves to the ground, saying: "Blessed be the name of his glorious kingdom for ever and ever." The goat was carried with all speed to a wilderness ten miles from Jerusalem, and being led to the top of a precipice, was thrown off, with all the sins of the people on his head. The men who performed this office were considered unclean for the remainder of the day, and went through ceremonies of purification before they approached any sacred place. When the sacrifices were finished, the High Priest took coals from the altar, placed incense upon them, and went into the holy of holies to burn incense before the Lord. This was the only day when he entered that apartment, which no other human foot was allowed to touch. He went in four times. Once to burn incense, once to sprinkle the blood of the bullock, once to sprinkle the blood of the goat, and a fourth time, to bring out the censer in which incense was burning. If he entered it a fifth time, Jewish writers say he died for his presumption. By his prayers and sacrifices on this important Day of Expiation, the whole nation believed God was reconciled to them, and all their sins forgiven.

There were innumerable other observances and ceremonies attending birth, marriage, death, and all the most interesting events of life. In addition to prescribed sacrifices and oblations, there were many voluntary ones, to avert calamities, or express gratitude for good fortune. In the Hebrew language the same word denoted peace and prosperity; therefore offerings of thanksgiving were called peace-offerings. When a man was too poor to offer beasts or birds, the priests accepted an oblation of flour, in lieu of more expensive donations.

The character and mission of the prophets differed essentially from that of the priests. The priesthood rarely

opposed the progress of any prevailing corruption. They were chiefly occupied in the mechanical routine, of lighting lamps, tending the sacred fire, replenishing the frankincense, changing the loaves of show-bread, and other similar ceremonies. They took care of the mere externals of religion, while the spirit and life of it seemed to dwell with the prophets, on whom, in degenerate times, devolved the task of preaching the ancient purity of the Law. They encouraged and threatened with promises of temporal rewards and punishments, as Moses had done. Thus Jeremiah, rebuking the people for their idolatry and impenitence, says: "There shall be no grapes on the vine, nor figs on the tree, and the leaf shall fade. Behold I will send serpents among you, which will not be charmed, and they shall bite you, saith the Lord." The power of prophets over the public mind was sustained by fervid faith in divine communication, by mysterious symbols, and by the inspiration of poetry and music. Prophecy, and the oracle of Urim and Thummim, were in fact the basis on which Hebrew theocracy, or God government, always rested. The populace did not regard Moses as their ruler. They believed Jehovah dwelt in the Holy of Holies, and told Moses, his prophet, just what he was to do. Afterward, judges, kings, and generals of armies, were supposed to be guided by God, through the prophetic voice of the High Priest, when he consulted the oracle; and likewise by a succession of inspired messengers called prophets, whom God perpetually raised up for the guidance of his people Israel. Through all their misfortunes, they constantly maintained the faith that they, above all other nations, were God's peculiar favourites, and that his word was constantly imparted to some holy men in their midst.

The priesthood was hereditary, but no man became a prophet by birth. He must have some special call to his mission. By what signs this special call was indicated, does not seem to have been certainly known; for false prophets were continually mistaken for true ones. Jeremiah constantly complains of those who are "prophets of

the deceit of their own heart; who prophesy false dreams, and cause the people to err by their lightness." "Behold I am against the prophets, saith the Lord, that use their tongues, and say, He saith; yet I sent them not, nor commanded them."

It has been common to reproach the Jews for not having believed the true prophets sent to warn and admonish them; but how kings or people could be enabled always to distinguish between false and true is not easily explained. In Hebrew Sacred Writings it is stated that God himself sent a false prophet, on purpose to deceive the king to his ruin. "The Lord said to the Spirits that stood around his throne, Who shall persuade Ahab, that he may go up and fall at Ramoth Gilead? And one said on this manner, and another said on that manner. And there came forth a Spirit and stood before the Lord, and said, I will persuade him. And the Lord said, Wherewith? And he said, I will go forth, and I will be a lying Spirit in the mouth of all his prophets. And he said, Thou shalt persuade him, and prevail also. Go forth and do so." Moses told the children of Israel, if a prophet predicted anything and it did not come to pass, that was a sign the Lord had not spoken by him, but the prophet had spoken it presumptuously. This was the only criterion he gave. Of what value would prophecy be in difficult emergencies, if there could be no certainty of its truth until after the event? Moreover, the criterion itself was a moveable one; for Moses cautioned the people that prophets who believed in false gods might arise among them, and "give them a sign or a wonder, saying, Let us go after other gods;" and he adds: "If the sign or the wonder come to pass, thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that prophet; for the Lord your God proveth you, to know whether ye love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul. And that prophet shall be put to death." This admits that believers in the gods of the Gentiles might prophesy truly. That they were sometimes conscientious with regard to their prophetic mission, VOL. II.-3*

is shown by the story of Balaam, a prophet of the Moabites, who could not be induced by offers of money or honours to please the king of Moab by speaking contrary to his own inspiration. Jewish Rabbins account for it, by saying that he prophesied in favour of the Israelites by will of their God, but did not understand what he prophesied.

The prophets themselves do not appear to have had any infallible method of ascertaining the truth of each other's inspiration. One of the Hebrew sacred writers describes a prophet of Judah sent by God to warn Jeroboam, king of Israel, concerning his idolatrous altars. An old prophet, who dwelt in Israel, hearing of this, followed the prophet from Judah, and invited him to go home with him, and eat bread. The traveller replied that he could not possibly do so, because God had expressly ordered him not to turn back in his way, and not to eat or drink in that place. The old men of Israel rejoined: "I also am a prophet, as thou art; and an angel spake unto me by the word of the Lord, saying: Bring him back with thee into thine house, that he may eat bread and drink water. But he lied unto him." It was customary for young prophets to treat the old prophets with reverence; and perhaps this habit caused the messenger from Judah to yield to the old man from Israel. He went back with him, and ate bread in his house, and drank water. While they sat at table, the word of the Lord came to the prophet who had lied to the traveller; and he began to reprove his guest, for having complied with the invitation, which he himself had given in the name of the Lord. He said: "Because thou camest back, and hast eaten bread and drank water, in the place of which the Lord did say to thee, 'Eat no bread and drink no water, therefore thy carcass shall not come unto the sepulchres of thy fathers." Accordingly, when the prophet from Judah departed, a lion met him by the way, and slew him. Messengers came and told this to the old prophet, who had induced the traveller to disobedience by lying to him. And he went and brought the carcass

back to the city, and laid it in his own grave; "and they mourned over him, and said, Alas, my brother!" And he said to his sons: "When I am dead, bury me in the sepulchre wherein the man of God is buried. Lay my bones beside his bones. For the saying which he cried by the word of the Lord against the altar in Bethel, and against all the houses of the high places in Samaria, shall surely come to pass."

If there was no way to test the truth of predictions, except by the event; if prophets of other gods could predict truly, and the God of Israel sometimes permitted them to do so, that he might test the faith of his people; and if even a true prophet, like the man from Judah, could be deceived by a lying message in the name of the Lord, how could kings and people be expected to avoid mistakes?

The popular idea was that a true prophet could bring down fire from heaven, as Moses had done. Hence when a man professed to have communication with God, the multitude were wont to say: "Show us a sign from heaven,"

Jews always assigned to Moses the highest place among the prophets; because he alone is represented as "talking with God face to face, as a man talketh with his friend." "There arose afterward no prophet like unto him, who knew God face to face." Prophets who, in a state of ecstasy, sleeping or waking, saw visions, or heard a voice speaking to them, were estimated as the next highest in degree. The prophetical influx came upon such with greatest force, when they fasted and were in complete solitude. Sometimes they fell into a trance, during which the soul was entirely abstracted from external objects. Balaam is described as "the man who saw a vision of the Almighty, falling into a trance with his eyes open." That they were sometimes in a state of religious frenzy, seems to be implied by the fact that the same word in Hebrew means to prophesy, and to be mad. They were called prophets, from Greek words meaning to foretell; men of God; angels of God, which simply means messengers of