cause he was acquainted with the prescribed Levitical ritual; for he is said to have been of the tribe of Judah. That it was considered fortunate to obtain possession of such a private chaplain, is implied by Micah's remark: "Now I know the Lord will do me good, seeing I have a Levite to my priest." Yet Moses would have "stoned him with stones till he died;" for he was priest to "a graven image and a molten image."

At that time the tribe of Dan were looking about to seize land wherever it best suited them to dwell. Hebrew Sacred Books tell us that when their messengers came to Laish, they found that the inhabitants thereof dwelt quiet and secure, had no commerce with other men, were too far from the Sidonians to be protected by them, and had no magistrate in the land to put strangers to shame for anything they might do. These were deemed suitable reasons for seizing on their possessions for the tribe of Dan. Accordingly, when the pioneers went back and gave information concerning the state of things, their brethren mustered six hundred men, with weapons of war, and went to attack Laish. Their ancestors had slaughtered men, women, and children, because Moses and Joshua told them it was the divine command that they should utterly exterminate idolaters. But these warriors were impelled by no such zeal in the service of one invisible God. For when they came to Mount Ephraim, and passed the house of Micah, the messenger, who had previously been sent to spy out the land, said: "Do ye know there is in these houses an ephod, and teraphim, and a graven image, and a molten image? And they came in thither and took the graven image, and the molten image, the ephod, and the teraphim. Then said the priest unto them, What do ye? And they said, Hold thy peace; lay thine hand upon thy mouth, and go with us. Is it better for thee to be a priest unto one man, or that thou be a priest unto a tribe and a family in Israel? And the priest's heart was glad; and he took the ephod, and the teraphim, and the graven image, and went in the midst of the

people. When they were a good way from the house, Micah and his neighbours overtook them. And Micah said, Ye have taken away my gods which I made, and the priest and ye are gone away; and what have I more? And the children of Dan said unto him, Let not thy voice be heard among us, lest angry fellows run upon thee, and thou lose thy life, with the lives of thy household. And when Micah saw they were too strong for him, he turned and went back to his house. And the children of Dan went their way, and came unto Laish, unto a people that were quiet and secure, and they smote them with the edge of the sword, and burnt their city with fire. And they called the city Dan, after the name of their father, who was born unto Israel. And they set up Micah's graven image, and Jonathan and his sons were priests to the tribe of Dan." The people publicly resorted thither, to worship and consult the teraphim of Micah, until the tribes of Israel were carried away captive.

We are told that, in the days of the Judges, "every man did that which was right in his own eyes;" and some of their recorded transactions certainly prove a very savage state of society. There is a story related in Hebrew Sacred Books, concerning a young Levite, who was bringing home his concubine from his father's house in Bethlehem-Judah. In the course of their journey, they came among the Benjamites, who had not sufficient hospitality to offer them a shelter for the night. An old man of Mount Ephraim, seeing them in the street, invited them to his house. In the course of the night, some Benjamites came and beat at the door, and made indecent demands concerning the traveller. Frightened by their violence, he at last agreed to let them have his concubine. The poor woman died in the hands of the brutal multitude, and in the morning her corpse was found at the door. Her husband cut her in pieces, and sent a fragment to each of the tribes of Israel, calling upon them to revenge the wickedness done by some of the Benjamites. In obedience to this summons, the tribes came up to battle against

Benjamin; but they were defeated, with twenty-two thousand slain. Phineas, the priest, a descendant of Aaron, stood before the Ark of the Covenant, where oracles were received from God. There "he asked counsel of the Lord, saying, Shall we again go up to battle against the children of Benjamin our brother? And the Lord said, Go up against them." Accordingly, they went forth the second day, and were defeated, with eighteen thousand slain. The priest again inquired at the Ark whether the children of Israel should go to battle against Benjamin. And the Lord answered, "Go up against him." They attacked the Benjamites a third time, and destroyed twenty-five thousand and a hundred of them. The sequel of the story implies that the women of Benjamin, though not implicated in the offence, were slaughtered almost to extermination. "The men of Israel had sworn in Mizpeh, saying, There shall not any of us give his daughter unto Benjamin to wife." But after the Benjamites were nearly destroyed, "the people wept sore, saying, O Lord God of Israel, why has this come to pass, that there should be one tribe lacking in Israel? They repented them for Benja min their brother, and said, How shall we do for wives for them that remain, seeing we have sworn by the Lord that we will not give them of our daughters for wives?" In this dilemma they concluded to send twelve thousand valiant men to attack Jabesh Gilead, and destroy all the men, and all the married women. They did so, and brought away captive four hundred maidens, and gave them to the Benjamites for wives. But the number did not suffice them. And "the elders of the congregation said, How shall we do for wives for them that remain? There must be an inheritance for them, that a tribe be not destroyed out of Israel. Howbeit, we may not give them wives of our daughters; for the children of Israel have sworn, saying, Cursed be he that giveth a wife to Benja min." The people of Shiloh annually observed a festival, and came forth with songs and dances in honour of some deity; and it happened that the time for this festival was

near at hand. The elders of Israel advised the Benjamite widowers to wait for this opportunity, and hide themselves in the vineyards, in order to catch the young women as they came out to dance. "And the children of Benjamin did so, and took them wives of them that danced, whom they caught."

In such unsettled and marauding times, the priesthood could not have been in a very flourishing condition. The only mention made of them is in connection with Eli; and his children are described as 'sons of Belial, who knew not the Lord." "It was the priests' custom with the people, that when any man offered sacrifice, the priest's servant came, while the flesh was in seething, with a flesh-hook of three teeth in his hand; and he struck it into the pan, or kettle, or caldron, and all that the flesh-hook brought up the priest took to himself." But when any of the Israelites went up to Shiloh to sacrifice, the sons of Eli, who were priests by hereditary right, sent their servant to say: "Give flesh to roast for the priest; for he will not have sodden flesh of thee, but raw." And if the sacrificer asked him to wait till the fat was first burned on the altar, a sacrifice to the Lord, he answered: "Nay, thou shalt give it to me now; if not, I will take it by force." Such conduct made the people abhor to offer sacrifices to the Lord; and their aversion to the young priests was increased by the charge brought against them, that "they lay with the women who assembled at the door of the Tabernacle."

Hebrews, in common with most nations of antiquity, had the custom of dedicating their children to the service of a Deity, by vows made in some peculiar emergency. Hannah, the wife of Elkanah, was exceedingly grieved because she had no children. She went up to Shiloh to worship, and wept before the Lord, saying: "If thou wilt give unto thine handmaid a man-child, then I will give him unto the Lord all the days of his life." She afterward gave birth to Samuel. As soon as he was weaned, his parents took him up to the house of the Lord, in Shiloh, VOL. I.-36

and offered three bullocks, and an ephah of flour, and a bottle of wine; and they left the little boy with Eli the priest, saying: "As long as he liveth, he shall be lent to the Lord." "And the child was girded with a linen ephod, and ministered before the Lord. Moreover, his mother made him a little coat, and brought it from year to year, when she came up with her husband, to offer the yearly sacrifice." Hebrew Sacred Writings declare that God chose him, and appointed him to an especial mission, even in his childhood. One evening, when he lay down to sleep, he heard a voice calling him; and he rose and went to Eli, saying: "Here I am; for thou didst call me.” The aged priest made answer: "I called thee not, my son. Lie down again." And "the Lord called yet again. And Samuel went to Eli and said, Here am I. And he answered, I called thee not, my son. Lie down again. The Lord called Samuel the third time. Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord, neither was the word of the Lord yet revealed to him. And he went to Eli and said, Here am I; for thou didst call me. And Eli perceived that the Lord had called the child." He told him to lie down, and when he again heard the voice, to answer: "Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth." He did so; and the Lord informed him that he would visit the family of Eli with heavy judgments, "because his sons made themselves vile, and he restrained them not."

As Samuel grew to manhood, he spoke boldly against the evil practices he witnessed, and became famous, as "a prophet to whom the Lord had revealed himself." At that time, the Israelites renewed their attacks on the Philistines. No reason is assigned for it; but it probably arose from their abiding conviction that they had a divine right to take possession of their neighbour's land, on account of the promise made to Abraham. According to custom, the army took with them the Ark of the Covenant, that the presence of God might ensure to them the victory. But the event proved disastrous. A messenger came to Eli and told him that Israel fled before the Philistines, that his