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tribe of Levi He took, instead of the first-born, to wait upon the priests and do the service of the tabernacle (Numb. iii. 5). For their maintenance, He made a special and ample provision, that they might give themselves wholly to the service of the Lord. They were to have cities to dwell in, with suburbs for fields and gardens; and though they were only one-twelfth of the people, they were to have one-tenth of the national income, besides the sacrificial perquisites and the free will offerings of the people. The priesthood of the head of the family was not entirely abrogated. Rather, the priesthood was extended to the whole nation, which God declared to be "A kingdom of priests and an holy nation" (Ex. xix. 6). The rite of admission into the covenant might be performed by any Israelite; in the Passover, and in other religious acts, the father acted on behalf of the household; the father authoritatively gave God's blessing to his children.

The people did not readily concur in the appointment of Moses as the minister of the theocracy, as one whom all the princes of the tribes should implicitly obey; and in the supercession of their hereditary priesthood by the appointment of Aaron as high priest; and the malcontents broke out in rebellion against Moses and against Aaron (Numbers xvi.). They accused Moses of making himself a prince over them, and Aaron of taking too much upon himself, seeing that God had pronounced all the congregation holy. The earth opened and swallowed up Dathan and Abiram, and their adherents; and the 250 Levites who ventured, in assertion of their usurped priesthood, to approach God to offer incense, were burnt by the sacred fire, the Shechinah, which broke forth from the holy place upon them, and slew them; and their censers were made broad plates for a covering of the altar, to be a memorial that none but the sons of Aaron should come near to exer

cise the priest's office before God. But while the service of the intruders was rejected, the reality of Aaron's priesthood was illustrated in the most striking way. On the morrow of the events just related, the congregation gathered against Moses and Aaron, and accused them of causing the death of their brethren, and the Lord sent a plague among them. "Then Aaron took a censer, and put fire thereon from off the altar, and put on incense, and ran and stood between the living and the dead, and made an atonement for the people ;" and God accepted his intercession, and the plague was stayed (Numbers xvi. 46, 47, 48). And yet another miracle God vouchsafed to show to all the people that He had indeed chosen Aaron to be His priest. He commanded that the heads of the tribes, who had an hereditary claim to high-priesthood, should bring each a rod, and that all the rods should be placed in the tabernacle ; and on the morrow the rod of Aaron, for the house of Levi, was budded, and brought forth blossoms and almonds, and it was laid up in the most holy place for a token.

CHAPTER XXV.

THE SERVICE OF SONG.

It is uncertain to what extent any vocal prayer or praise was used in the earlier ages of the history of the ancient Church. It is possible that the worship consisted entirely of the offering of the sacrifice and the other prescribed ceremonies, totally unaccompanied by any form of words to proclaim and illustrate its solemn significance. But it is certain that under the influence of David, acting not without Divine guidance (1 Chron. xxviii. 19), a great development of the Divine worship took place, and a service of song became a prominent feature of the daily morning and evening service and of the worship of the festivals. To this end the Levites were diligently trained in singing and the playing of instruments of music; certain families of them became famous as composers of the prayers and praises which were to be sung. David himself was the author of many of these compositions. Some of the national hymns already existing were incorporated, others were gradually added, and the Book of Psalms is the ultimate form of the liturgical Prayer Book of the Jewish Church. The popular notion that the Psalms are all songs of praise obscures the true view of the meaning of the Book; it contains confession of sin, and prayer, and intercession, as well as praise and thanksgiving; ¿.e., it contains all the parts of complete vocal worship. The performance of this worship must have been imposing. The Levite choir, divided into semi-choirs, stood in ranks in their white ephods on each side of the open

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court, while the priests stood about the altar, and the smoke of the sacrifice ascended towards heaven. The effect of their chanting, trained as they were from childhood upwards, must have been very grand. On festivals, when all the courses of Levites were present, and no doubt the number of performers was only limited by the amount of space, the effect of such a choir of human voices must have been wonderful. The tradition of the Jews is that it could be heard as far as Jericho -at least it could probably be heard far and wide over the city, and from the neighbouring hill-tops.

CHAPTER XXVI.

THE SCHOOLS OF THE PROPHETS-THE SYNAGOGUE.

GOD had raised up prophets from time to time, from the days of Moses downwards, but Samuel introduced among the institutions of the ancient Church a permanent and numerous order of prophets, which continued to exist and to exercise a considerable influence down to the captivity. Young men were gathered together in bodies, who lived in community under the care and instruction of elder prophets. Their life seems to have been ascetic; they wore a peculiar habit; their studies were chiefly in the law and in the writings of previous prophets, and also in poetry and music; their office consisted apparently in the singing of sacred compositions, and in preaching to the people. The style of their preaching may be inferred from that of the great prophets whose writings have descended to us; their teaching was spiritual and practical; they brought out the spiritual meaning of the law and the ritual; they rebuked sin and called men to repentance. It was an occasional, and as it were accidental, feature of their office, when the message which a prophet had to convey contained a prediction of the future.

THE SYNAGOGUE.

In the days of the Jewish monarchy the pious Jew rested on the Sabbath day according to the commandment, and probably on that day exercised some of the functions of his patriarchal priesthood, teaching his children the

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