mean time, be introduced great improvements into the public worship. Trampets were the only instruments prescribed by Moses; but David, who was himself a skilful player on the harp, introduced into the service of the Tabernacle trained bands of singers and musicians, who performed on harps, pealteries, cymbals, and an instrument with small tinkling bells. He encouraged the cultivation of sacred poetry, and himself composed religious songs, which breathed devout aspirations in some of the sublimest language of lyric poetry.

This illustrious monarch, the object of so much pride and reverence to Hebrews, is called in their Sacred Writings, "a man after God's own heart." The ideas men formed of God at that period are therefore indicated by the prominent points of his character. He was a man of great energy and powerful passions; fierce and revengeful toward his enemies, but endowed with susceptibility of feeling, which made it natural for him to weep over a fallen foe. He was constitutionally ardent, with the devout tendency which usually belongs to such temperaments; hence he rushed into sins, and then "humbled himself before the Lord," with repentance as earnest as his crime. The generosity of his character, and the strong attachment he inspired, are implied by the following anecdote related of him: During one of his severe campaigns among the Philistines, being sorely afflicted with thirst, he expressed a longing for some water from the well of Bethlehem, his native town. Three of his followers, who heard the wish, forced their way through the enemy's host, at peril of their lives, and brought the water he so much desired. Touched by this proof of their affection, he refused to drink it. Famishing as he was, he poured it out a libation before Jehovah, saying, Be it far from me, O Lord, that I should do this. Is not this the blood of the men who went in jeopardy of their lives?" By his wise policy he cemented the tribes together in strong bonds of union. His success flattered their pride; and his constant habit of attributing all good fortune to Jehovah, greatly strengthened their re

liance on that powerful God, who had chosen them for his especial favourites. The reverential tendencies of the royal Psalmist are abundantly indicated by his forbearing to kill Saul when he was in his power, because he was "the Lord's anointed," by the tone of his grand old temple-songs, by his careful observance of religious ceremonies, and by the frequency with which he sought counsel of God, through the agency of oracles and prophets. But his devout aspirations and pious resolutions were far above his practice. He prayed like a saint, and poured forth sublime poetry like an inspired prophet, and he did so sincerely and earnestly; yet in many things he acted like an ambitious politician, and a ferocious man of blood. During the conflict between his followers and the adherents of Saul, Jonathan, the beloved friend of David, and son of Saul, had a child of five years old who was lamed in both his feet; for his nurse let him fall when she was fleeing from the horrors of civil war. It was not till the royal house of Saul were entirely subdued, and David had nothing further to fear from them, that he inquired whether any of the descendants were left, to whom he could "show kindness for Jonathan's sake." The lame, disinherited boy had by that time grown to manhood, and become a father. He was proffered a seat at the royal table all the days of his life, and received back the estate which belonged to his grandfather. After the war occasioned by Absalom's rebellion, there was famine in the land. This might very naturally arise from neglect of crops during civil commotions; but David, according to the prevailing ideas of his time, believed it to be the direct vengeance of God, in punishment for some sin. Accordingly, he inquired of the Lord what was the cause of the famine. And the Lord answered: "It is for Saul and his bloody house, because he slew the Gibeonites." It seems the Israelites had sworn not to molest the Gibeonites; but Saul, for some unmentioned reason, had slain a number of them. He had been thirty years in his grave, when David was informed that the Lord was punishing all the

people for his old transgressions. He went to the Gibeonites and asked what atonement would satisfy them. They refused to take gold or silver as a ransom for their slaughtered brethren, and demanded seven of Saul's descendants, that they might "hang them up unto the Lord;" in other words, offer them as a human sacrifice. David spared the descendants of Jonathan, on account of an oath he had sworn to his early friend. But he gave up two of Saul's sons by a concubine, and five sons of Michal, Saul's daughter. "And the Gibeonites hanged them on the hill, before the Lord." Michal had loved David in his days of comparative obscurity, and had been the first wife of his youth. Afterward, when there was civil war between Saul and David, her father gave her in marriage to another man, by whom she had these five sons. When David became king, he demanded her again, though he then had two other wives. Perhaps he thought his regal power would be more securely established, as the acknowledged son-in-law of Saul. Michal's second husband seems to have loved her tenderly, for when she was carried away from him, "he followed her weeping," until the king's messengers ordered him to turn back. From what is recorded, she and David do not appear to have lived on good terms after this forced reunion. Still worse was his conduct to one of his generals, named Uriah. Having accidentally seen his beautiful wife, while she was bathing, he fell in love with her, and caused her to be brought to his palace, while Uriah was absent fighting his battles. When she afterward informed him that she was likely to be a mother, he sought to shield himself from disgrace, by bringing Uriah home. Failing in that attempt, he caused him to be slain, and afterward married the beautiful widow. His acts of cruelty were not always of a kind to be excused as hasty impulses of a zealous temperament. A fierce spirit of retaliation often marked his conduct and his writings, and in some cases it seems to have been cherished by him for years. When he conquered the Moabites, he caused the inhabitants of all their cities to be executed by various

modes of torture, described as "putting them under saws, and under harrows of iron, and passing them through the brick-kiln." On his death-bed, when he was a very old man, he charged his successor not to let the hoary head of Joab go down to the grave in peace. Joab had brought odium on David's administration by some unauthorized acts of military zeal against the house of Saul; he had likewise slain Absalom, the beautiful son of David, in the days of his rebellion. At that time, Shimei, who belonged to the same tribe as Saul, cursed David, and expressed his gratification that one of his own sons had risen against him, as he had formerly risen against Saul, his benefactor. Shimei afterward humbly asked forgiveness, and David solemnly promised, before all the people, that he would do him no injury. But ten years after, when he was dying, he charged Solomon to "bring down the hoary head of Shimei to the grave with blood;" saying that he himself could not do it, because he had sworn to him by the Lord that he would not put him to death. Yet Hebrew Sacred Records, after recounting all these things, declare David did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, and turned not aside from anything he commanded him all the days of his life, save only in the matter of Uriah the Hittite."

Solomon fulfilled the sanguinary injunctions of his dying father, and likewise put to death a brother, whose priority of birth gave him a claim to the throne. These transactions do not seem to have made him too much "a man of blood" to be a fitting instrument in building the projected temple. In the fourth year of his reign he began this great work, on which an army of labourers are said to have been employed. He numbered the foreigners in Israel, who were probably made bondmen by conquest. Hebrew Sacred Records inform us that eighty thousand of these were employed to hew and work stone, and seventy thousand to bear burdens, under the control of three thousand six hundred overseers. Thirty thousand Israelites cut timber in Lebanon, by courses; ten thousand in

each month, while the others rested. The ornamental work was done by skilful artificers from Tyre. Notwithstanding the number of workmen, it was seven years before the temple was completed. The wrought stones were so fitted to their places before they were brought to Jerusalem, that they were put together without noise. Hebrews had a tradition that they were not hewn or smoothed by any instrument, but a worm called Samir was created by God on purpose to do that business; and the stones, thus miraculously prepared, moved to the temple of their own accord, where angels laid them in their places.

A mass of buildings for the priests, and various other religious purposes, was enclosed within a wall. In the centre, and overlooking them all, was the famous temple. It had an outer court surrounded by a wall, and an inner court separated from the outer by colonnades with brazen gates. Sacrifices and prayers were offered in the inner court, which contained a brazen altar for burnt-offerings, and an immense tank, or basin of brass, supported on the backs of twelve brazen oxen. This was for the convenience of the priests, who were required to perform ablutions before they entered the temple. A pipe supplied it with water from a well, and it contained enough for two thousand baths. There were likewise ten large lavers of brass, supported on small pillars, and engraved with likenesses of bulls, lions, and eagles. These were for washing portions of the animals offered in sacrifice.

The temple was an oblong building of white stone. According to the dimensions given, it must have been about the size of a small European cathedral. On three sides were corridors rising above each other to the height of three stories, supported by stately pillars, and containing apartments in which sacred utensils and treasures were kept. The fourth and front side was open, with a portico at the entrance supported by two brazen pillars, highly ornamented with representations of palm trees, lilies, and pomegranates. The body of the temple, separated and veiled from the porch, was called the sanctuary, or holy