towards man, reminding them that Jehovah was Lord of the soil, and that they held it only from his bounty. In 2 Chron. xxxvi, 21, the neglect of this law is mentioned particularly among the national sins which caused the captivity; and the length of the captivity, seventy years, is stated as compensating the land, by giving it a period of rest equal to that during which the Jews had defrauded it of its Sabbaths. If we calculate by the whole term of this period, it would lead us to conclude that the observance of the Sabbatical year was wholly neglected soon after the land was governed by kings. Samuel, indeed, expressly told the people, that their desire for a king was a direct renouncing of Jehovah as their King and Ruler; and we may conclude, that all institutions which especially regarded the Lord as their immediate Sovereign would then be neglected. Another date, however, is assigned by Prideaux. He reckons only the fifty-two years which elapsed between the destruction of Jerusalem and the return of the Jews, during which period the land was wholly desolated. This gives a period of 364 years, and goes back to an early part of the reign of Asa.

After the return from captivity the Sabbatical years were better observed, although this was rendered more difficult by the insecurity of property, and the foreign tribute the land was then under. However, Josephus mentions, that exemption from taxes during the Sabbatical years was obtained from Alexander, and afterwards from the Roman emperors.

The seventh year was a year of release from debts, or at least they were not then to be collected; and the personal servitude into which any Hebrew had fallen then ended. The laws respecting this freedom are very remarkable, showing the kind and merciful spirit of the Mosaic law, and taking away the most severe features of the slavery at that time generally prevalent. Nothing can be more opposite in spirit than the servitude permitted to exist among the Hebrews, and that of modern slavery. It is indeed time that every nation, professing to be Christian, should follow the example of England, and abolish that slavery which is among the worst remains of heathenism, and which especially is opposed to every principle of the New Testament. It is not quite certain whether servitude among the Jews

ended in every Sabbatical year, or whether the service terminated at the end of six years from its commencement. But an express law directed that servants should not be sent away without some provision from the produce of the soil, or the cattle they had assisted to raise; and another law, providing for the continuance of their servitude during life, if such was their own wish, further shows that the bondage was not intended to be bitter or severe. The remarkable laws respecting this servitude, and the release from it, will be found in Exod. xxi; Lev. xxv; Deut. xv; and the reader is particularly recommended to examine these passages carefully. It has been well asked, Could there be an infidel in such a land, or a sinner against God and his own soul, with such proofs before his eyes of God and his attributes, as one Sabbatical year afforded?

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The solemnity of the year of release was marked at its conclusion by the public reading of the law, from a kind of pulpit in the court of the women, during the feast of tabernacles. The Jewish traditions relate the ceremonial with which this was accompanied; and that, in thẻ later times, the whole law was not read by the ruler, but the following portions: Deut. i to vi, 4; xi, 13–22; xiv, 22; xxix, 2. Seven prayers were then recited. It is related, that when Agrippa read the passage, Deut. xvii, 15, forbidding the setting a stranger as king over the people, his eyes were filled with tears on remembering that he was of Gentile extraction, but the people comforted him, calling out that he was their brother.

The year of jubilee was connected with the Sabbatical year. It was celebrated every fiftieth year, and was to be observed by letting the land rest in that year also; consequently, at the jubilee there would be two years following, in which the people would depend for support upon the especial provision promised by Divine Providence, Lev. XXV, 20-22. The only passage of Scripture which is supposed to refer to this provision, is 2 Kings xix, 29.

The year of jubilee began on the day of expiation, and was notified by the solemn sounding of trumpets throughout the land; whence some suppose the name of jubilee is derived; others consider that the word denotes, "to bring back," or liberty." The Jews on the coast of Malabar told Buchanan, that when their fathers settled in that land,

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after the destruction of the second temple, they brought with them the two silver trumpets used at the jubilee. There were two such trumpets kept in most of the considerable towns of Judea. In this year all lands or houses in the country, which had been sold or alienated, were to be returned to the families that originally possessed them:

a provision evidently intended to preserve that middle state, as to property, which is most conducive to human happiness. Ezekiel xlvi, 16-18, extends this to royal grants. In this year, also, all the poor Israelites, who, although not sold as slaves, had engaged themselves and their families as servants, returned into the possession of their paternal inheritance. Never was there any people so secured as the Israelites, both as to their property and as to their personal liberty.

It has been well observed, that no lawgiver would have ventured to propose such laws, had there not been the fullest conviction, on his own part and that of the people, that a peculiar Providence would facilitate their execution. And it was the want of faith in that peculiar Providence,

which led to the neglect of this solemn observance, and consequently to further ruinous evils.

We may imagine the joy which would re-echo through the land, when, on the evening of the solemn day of atonement, the sound of the silver trumpet was heard in every town, announcing the commencement of this auspicious period. How beautiful is the following sketch, of one of the families liberated at the jubilee, returning to their paternal home :

"The freedom-freighted blast through all the land
At once in every city, echoing rings:-
Free is the bondman now, each one returns
To his inheritance. The man grown old
In servitude far from his native fields,
Hastes joyous on his way; no hills are steep,
Smooth is each rugged path; his little ones
Sport as they go; while oft the mother chides
Their lingering step, lured by the way-side flowers.
At length the hill, from which a farewell look,
And still another parting look, he cast

On his paternal vale, appears in view.

The summit gain'd, throbs hard his heart with joy
And sorrow blent, to see that vale once more.
Instant his eager eye darts to the roof

Where first he saw the light: his youngest born
He lifts, and pointing to the much-loved spot,
Says, 'There thy fathers lived, and there they sleep.'
Onward he goes, near and more near he draws:
How sweet the tinkle of the palm-bower'd brook,
The sun-beam slanting through the cedar grove!
How lovely and how mild! but lovelier still
The welcome in the eye of ancient friends,
Scarce known at first and dear the fig-tree shade,
'Neath which on Sabbath eve his father told
Of Israel, from the house of bondage freed,
Led through the desert to the promised land.
With eager arms the aged stem he clasps,
And with his tears the furrow'd bark bedews;

And still, at midnight hour, he thinks he hears

The blissful sound that brake the bondman's chains,

The glorious peal of freedom and of joy !"-GRAHAME.

Shall not we consider this a lively emblem of the gospel declaring to all the acceptable year of the Lord? Isa. lxi. 1, 2. It is to be regretted that the poet just quoted has not noticed how the joy of a believing Israelite, set free by the jubilee, would be heightened by the remembrance that his liberation was introduced by the day of expiation or atonement, in which freedom from spiritual bondage was both sought and commemorated.

"Jesus, our great High Priest,

Hath full atonement made;

Ye weary spirits, rest;

Ye mournful souls, be glad.

The year of jubilee is come!

Return, ye ransom'd sinners, home!"

Hales considers Luke iv, 18, 19, as an evidence that our Lord began his public ministry in a year of jubilee.

It has been noticed, that the Sabbatical year, and the year of jubilee, were especially institutions of mercy to the poorer Israelites; and we must again remark, how much consideration towards them was manifested in every part of the Mosaic law. This is no slight proof of its Divine origin. Let any one read these enactments, or only refer to the passages, Lev. xiv, 21; xix, 10, 15; xxv, 25–47; Deut. xv, 7-18, and say whether the Divine law is not infinitely superior to every code of heathen laws, and to all the counsels of pagan philosophers. Deut. xv, 11, is a very remarkable passage. All the provisions of the Mosaic law were calculated to maintain the people at large in a happy state, being neither exalted by riches, nor ground down by poverty; yet we read the positive declaration, that "the poor shall never cease out of the land," accompanied with the plain precept, "Therefore I command thee, saying, Thou shalt open thine hand wide unto thy brother, to thy poor, and to thy needy, in thy land." Is it not evident, that the constant occasions that exist for the exercise of charity to the poor, are designed that our hearts should not grow cold, nor be hardened to any of our Christian affections and duties? The text, Prov. xiv, 31, contains a striking warning: "He that oppresseth the poor reproacheth his Maker: but he that honoreth him hath mercy on the poor."

For particulars concerning the festival of the new moon, and of the feast of trumpets, see pp. 261-263.

CHAPTER VII.

INTRODUCTORY REMARKS ON THE MORAL LAWS.

THE moral laws were declared in the ten commandments, which were solemnly delivered from Mount Sinai, as recorded in the twentieth chapter of Exodus, under the circumstances there mentioned, and which are noticed in the "Journeys of the Children of Israel." These laws were given in a clear and permanent form; not only declared