his side, and go in and out from gate to gate throughout the camp, and slay every man his brother, and every man his companion, and every man his neighbour. And the children of Levi did according to the word of Moses; and there fell of the people about three thousand men. For Moses had said, Consecrate yourselves to-day to the Lord, even every man upon his son, and upon his brother; that he may bestow upon you a blessing this day." The firstborn of all cattle were set apart to be sacrificed to the Lord; but the first-born of human beings were redeemed by consecrating an equal number of men to the religious services of the Tabernacle. This substitution was the origin of the order of Levites. Moses counted the whole tribe of Levi, and then counted all the first-born of the Israelites, from a month old and upward. The first-born of the people exceeded the tribe of Levi, by two hundred and seventy-three; and these were redeemed by paying five shekels each to the priests. The same sum continued ever after to be paid for all first-born children. All the tribe of Levi were consecrated to the service of God; and this was considered in the light of an atoning sacrifice for the sins of the whole people. But as they were not put to death, and as it was supposed God required blood for atonement, two bullocks were sacrificed in their stead. The Levites laid their hands upon the heads of these victims, that the sins, which the whole nation laid upon the tribe of Levi, might be transferred to the beasts, whose blood was shed as an expiation. God said to Moses: "The life of the flesh is in the blood; and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls; for it is the blood that maketh atonement for the soul."

In the writings ascribed to Moses, nothing is said concerning the immortality of the soul, nor is there any record by which his opinions on that subject could be ascertained. The rewards promised to the Israelites, and the punishments threatened, are altogether of a temporal nature. It is declared that "God will visit the sins of the fathers upon the children, unto the third and fourth gen

eration." "If thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe and do all his commandments, the Lord shall make thee plenteous in goods, in the fruit of thy body, and in the fruit of thy cattle, and in the fruit of thy ground. The Lord shall cause thine enemies that rise up against thee to be smitten before thy face: they shall come out against thee one way, and flee before thee seven ways. Thou shalt lend unto many nations, and thou shalt not borrow. And the Lord shall make thee the head, and not the tail. But if thou wilt not hearken unto the Lord thy God, to observe and do all his commandments and statutes, cursed shall be thy basket and thy store. Cursed shall be the fruit of thy body, and the fruit of thy land, the increase of thy kine, and the flocks of thy sheep. The Lord will smite thee with consumption, and fever, and inflammation, and extreme burning, and with the sword, and with blasting, and mildew. And the Lord shall cause thee to be smitten before thy enemies thou shalt go out one way against them, and flee seven ways before them. The Lord will smite thee with the botch of Egypt, with the emerods, with the scab, and with the itch, whereof thou canst not be healed. The Lord shall smite thee with madness, and blindness, and astonishment of heart. Also every sickness, and every plague, which is not written in the book of this Law, them will the Lord bring upon thee, until thou be destroyed. As the Lord rejoiced over you to do you good, and to multiply you, so the Lord will rejoice over you to destroy you, and to bring you to naught."

That the policy of Moses was illiberal toward foreigners, is to be attributed to the circumstances in which he was placed. He appears to have been a wise and far-sighted man, greatly in advance of the age in which he lived; but he had to deal with ignorant and barbarous tribes, incapable of appreciating his motives, or understanding the high destiny marked out for them. All the energies of his great soul were employed to form them into a distinct nation, and raise their religious ideas above the worship

of images. To promote these objects, it was necessary to forbid marriage with other nations and tribes, to inculcate detestation of their worship, to discourage commerce, to avoid foreign literature and the arts, with all of which the worship of images was intimately connected. In preserving themselves a distinct and peculiar people, the Hebrews necessarily became narrow and exclusive. In all their regulations, there was a marked distinction between themselves and foreigners. At the end of every seven years, all debts due from one Hebrew to another were released; but debts due from a foreigner might be exacted. If a Hebrew became very poor, he might sell himself, and one of his own nation might buy him for a term of years; "not as a bondservant, but as an hired servant." At the end of every seven years he might go out free, if he wished, and the master was enjoined to supply him liberally with grain, wine, and flocks. The Lord said to Moses: "They shall not be sold as bondmen. Both thy bondmen and thy bondmaids shall be of the heathen that are round about you. Of the children of the strangers shall ye buy. And ye shall take them as an inheritance for your children after you, to inherit them for a possession; they shall be your bondmen forever. But over your brethren the children of Israel ye shall not rule with rigour." Though it was not allowable for one Hebrew to sell another to a person of any other nation, a poor Hebrew might sell himself as a servant to a rich sojourner, who dwelt in the midst of them; but he had the privilege of being redeemed at any time, either by himself or his relatives. There were gleams of a kindly spirit even toward foreigners. Moses ordained: "If a stranger dwelleth with you in your land, ye shall not vex him. He shall be unto you as one born among you; and thou shalt love him as thyself; for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt." In all that related to their own internal policy, great liberality is manifested. All the regulations tended to promote equal distribution, moderate abundance, respect for domestic institutions, and unstinted kindness to the poor. VOL. I.-35

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If a man had built a new house and not dedicated it, or planted a vineyard and not eaten of it, or married a wife and not taken her home, he was not required to go forth with the tribes to battle, lest he should die without a taste of his promised happiness. To prevent the land from passing into the hands of strangers, or becoming accumu lated in large estates belonging to a few of the wealthy, there was a great Jubilee appointed every seven times seven years. If any Hebrew had sold his estate, and been unable to redeem it, the land was returned to him, or his heirs, at the Jubilee. All Hebrews who were sold as servants, either to their own people, or to sojourners, became free at that joyful festival. The Lord said: "Thou shalt hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land, and unto all the inhabitants thereof. Ye shall return every man unto his possessions, and unto his family." "The land shall not be sold for ever; for the land is mine, saith the Lord." "Thou shalt not make clean riddance of the corners of thy field, when thou reapest the harvest of thy land, neither shalt thou gather any gleaning of thy harvest. If thou hast forgot a sheaf in the field, thou shalt not go again to fetch it. Thou shalt leave them unto the poor and the stranger. When thou beatest thine olive tree, thou shalt not go over the boughs again; it shall be for the stranger, for the fatherless, and for the widow. When thou gatherest the grapes of thy vineyard, thou shalt not glean it afterward; it shall be for the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow." In addition to these benevolent provisions for every year, a portion of the proceeds of every man's land was set apart for the poor every third year. Six "Cities of Refuge" were provided, where he who had killed a man might remain in safety, till the matter was fairly investigated by established tribunals. The purity of women was carefully guarded from such customs as contaminated the worship of many neighbouring countries. For these humane and equalizing regulations, for teaching the same religion to priests and people, and for holding up the doctrine of one Supreme

Being, in the midst of most discouraging obstacles, our gratitude and reverence are due to Moses. Deservedly he stands conspicuous among the agents, whom God has chosen in all ages, and from all nations, to bring the world gradually out of darkness into light.

After the death of Moses, Joshua led the people over Jordan, and conquered many of the tribes of Canaan. He taught the Israelites, as his predecessor had done, that they were the chosen agents of Jehovah, to exterminate idolaters and take possession of their lands. But tribes, who had cities and vineyards thus violently wrested from them by foreign invaders, naturally viewed the subject in another light. Procopius, a Greek historian, native of Cæsarea, in Palestine, supposed to have died six hundred and fifty years after our era, speaking of a nation in Libya, says: "They were the Gergesites, Gebusites, and other nations, who were driven out of Palestine, by Joshua the son of Nave." [Nun.] He testifies that he himself saw the following sentence, engraved in Phoenician characters, near a fountain in Libya: "We are they who fled from the face of Joshua the robber, the son of Nave." The author of Ecclesiasticus calls Joshua the "son of Nave," that being a change in the name by Jews who spoke Greek.

When Grecians represented their deities as conniving at falsehood, and assisting to break solemn treaties, their perfidy was sanctified to popular imagination, by its being always done in favour of the Greeks, who believed themselves especial favourites of the gods. In a similar spirit, Hebrews represented Jehovah as commanding his chosen people to steal from the Egyptians, and to kill by thousands, men, women, and infants, from whom they had received no injury; and when the bloody work was accomplished, they devoutly thanked the Lord, because he had given them "vineyards they had not planted, and harvests they had not sowed."

Hebrew Sacred Books declare that Joshua was "full of the spirit of wisdom; for Moses had laid his hands upon