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HELON'S PILGRIMAGE
TO
JERUSALEM.

HELON'S PILGRIMAGE

TO

JERUSALEM.

A PICTURE OF JUDAISM,

IN THE CENTURY WHICH PRECEDED THE ADVENT

OF OUR SAVIOUR.

TRANSLATED FROM THE GERMAN OF

FREDERICK STRAUSS,

WITH NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS BY THE TRANSLATOR.

Ἡ ΣΩΤΗΡΙΑ ἘΚ ΤΩΝ ἸΟΓΔΑΙΩΝ ἘΣΤΙΝ.

VOL. I.

LONDON:

PRINTED FOR J. MAWMAN, LUDGATE-STREET.

1824.

LONDON: PRINTED BY A. APPLEGATH, STAMFORD-STREET.

CONTENTS.

VOL. I. BOOK I.

BOOK II.

AUTHOR'S PREFACE.

The present work contains a picture of the Jewish people, in which their ecclesiastical and civil constitution, their social and domestic life are represented, as they existed at the time when the advent of the Messiah was at hand.

From his boyhood the author had been inspired, by the perusal of similar works on Pagan antiquities, with the wish to exhibit such a picture of the Jewish nation; and, encouraged by men whose opinion he valued, he had at an early period of life formed the resolution to undertake it, had sketched the general outline of his work, and even executed particular parts of it. Just at this time, however, it pleased the Disposer of events to call him from the situation of leisure in which he had hitherto been placed, to the execution of an office, whose multiplied duties left him little time for any other occupations; and he was compelled to abandon the design which he had so long cherished. It was not without pain that he resolved to make this sacrifice of an object which had long directed and animated his studies. The images which it had left in his mind recurred from time to time, and revived his former wishes. In particular, whenever he had occasion, in the discharge of his pastoral duty, to narrate the histories of the Bible, the question arose in his mind, whether it might not be possible to delineate the peculiar system of life in which these writings originated, according to the picture which they had left in his own mind, without descending to all the minutiæ of antiquarian detail? In pursuance of this thought, he has devoted his few and interrupted hours of leisure, to the work which he now offers to the indulgence of the reader, for which he hopes with the more confidence, having had such large experience of it on a former occasion.

The plan of the work is the following. A young Jew, who had been enamoured of the prevailing Grecian philosophy, has returned to the observance of the law of his fathers, at one of those important crises in life which decide the character of succeeding periods. Bent on the fulfilment of the law, which he believes it impossible to accomplish any where but in the place where the altar of Jehovah is fixed, he makes a journey from Alexandria, where he had been brought up, accompanied by his uncle, to Jerusalem, in the spring of the year 109 before the birth of Christ, remains there during the half year which included the principal religious festivals; becomes a priest; enters into the married state; and, by the guidance of Providence, and varied experience, attains to the conviction, that peace of mind is only to be found in believing in Him who has been promised for the consolation of Israel.

The plan now traced, while it offered an opportunity of delineating the progress of an interesting change in the sentiments of Helon himself, seemed also to present the means of combining with this a living picture of the customs, opinions, and laws of the Jewish people. No period of their history seemed so well adapted to the design of this work, as that of John Hyrcanus. It is about this time that the books of the Maccabees close; it is the last era of the freedom and independence of the people, whose character and institutions at the same time were so nearly developed and fixed, that very little change took place between this and the time of our Saviour. It was possible, therefore, to give a picture which, as far as relates to usages and manners, should be applicable to the times of the New Testament. By selecting this period, it was more easy to avoid the inconvenience of placing fictitious characters in contact with the real personages of history, than if the time of our Saviour had been chosen. Hyrcanus and his sons have only in one instance been brought upon the scene, and even here care has been taken to keep them as much as possible in the back-ground, to avoid mingling the individual realities of history with a series of events, which the author has invented to answer the design of his work.

It was in the last years of the long reign of Hyrcanus that the opposing sects of Sadducees and Pharisees first became conspicuous, and the one hundred and ninth year before the Christian era is the date of the destruction of Samaria. In the description of the temple, however, I have allowed myself to anticipate a little, in order to describe its magnificence in the days of Herod, whose temple was that to which our Saviour resorted. In the description of the customs of sacrifice and prayer, I have ventured to use, but with moderation, the accounts of later times.

One thing it must be allowed to the author to remark, in order to prevent the misapprehensions of those, who do not know what properly belongs to a work like the present, and that is, that he is by no means to be understood as uniformly declaring his own views; and he particularly wishes this to be borne in mind in reading the first part.[^[1]]

It is well known that the want of a lively and distinct picture of those local and national peculiarities which are presented in the Bible, revolts many from the perusal of it, and exposes others to very erroneous conceptions. It is the author’s prayer to Him, from whom these precious records have proceeded, that the present work may serve, under his blessing, to make the perusal of the Scriptures more attractive and edifying; and he hopes those who shall drink with pleasure from his humble rill, will not be satisfied without going to the fountain of living waters.

TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE.

The work which is now offered to the public, appeared in Germany in 1820, unaccompanied by notes or even references to Scripture. The author alleged, as a reason for this omission, that the majority of readers would not concern themselves about authorities, and that the few who did might easily find them. He was, however, soon convinced, by the expression of public opinion, that he had underrated the curiosity of the former class, as much as he had overrated the patience of the latter; and promised to remedy the deficiency. As the work had been partly translated into Dutch and illustrated with notes, by the Professors Vanderpalm and Clarisse, he purposed to add his own notes to theirs, when their translation should be completed. It was my original intention to have waited for the appearance of this appendix; but as four years have now elapsed, and I have been unable to hear any tidings of it from Germany, I thought it better to endeavour to supply the defect. Having no clue whatever to guide me to the sources of the author’s statements, it may happen that I have not assigned the precise authority which he had in view; and, in justice to him, the reader will not conclude, that all which is not fortified by a reference is destitute of a warrant from antiquity, but only that the passage in which it is found has not occurred to me.

The liberty which I have used with the original consists wholly in retrenchments. Of these alterations some have been made to prevent repetition and diffuseness: in a very few instances what appeared evidently fanciful or unfounded has been silently effaced.

The reader who is not acquainted with any other authority for Jewish antiquities than the Old and New Testament, will not, perhaps, be displeased to find here a brief statement of the sources whence the materials of the following work have been derived. He who chooses a distant age for the scene of such a fiction as this, and endeavours to give the form and colour of reality to the dim and broken outlines, will find himself at a loss, even in delineating the best known ages of Greece and Rome. But our author has undertaken a task of still greater difficulty. The Jews were entire strangers to those kinds of literary production, in which the living manners of a people are preserved to posterity: literature among them was devoted to higher objects than comedy, satire, and ethical description. The history of our Saviour, it is true, carries us into the very bosom of domestic life among his contemporaries; and the knowledge which we thus acquire is peculiarly valuable, from the stamp of truth which is impressed on every part of it. But if we learn much from this source, there is still more of which we are left ignorant. Next to the books of Scripture, the Antiquities and History of the Jews by Josephus, are the most authentic sources of information. Philo, occupied in pursuing the phantoms of allegorical interpretation, gives less aid than might have been expected from his voluminous writings. Among the Fathers of the Christian church, Jerome, who was long resident in Palestine, has left us, in various works, very important information respecting the geography, natural history, and customs of the country. Of the heathen writers, even the gravest and most learned so pervert and confound every thing relating to the manners and religion of the Jews, that they cannot be trusted for any thing beyond geography, and the details connected with it.

The Rabbinical writings of the Jews are chiefly occupied with that traditional law, which, in our Saviour’s time, had almost strangled, by its parasitical growth, the genuine stock of the Mosaic institutions: but they also contain much information respecting civil and religious customs, especially the ritual of the second temple. According to the Jewish doctors, there existed two kinds of law; the written, promulgated on Sinai, and preserved in the Mosaic books; and the oral, delivered at the same time,[^[2]] but handed down, traditionally, by a succession of teachers, to the captivity; and thence from Ezra to the time of Rabbi Judah Hakkadosh, (the holy,) who lived about the middle of the second century after Christ. As the dispersion of the Jews had rendered the oral transmission of their learning more difficult and uncertain, he reduced the traditions of the doctors into a system, to which the name of the Mishna (repetition) was given. It consists partly of civil and criminal laws, partly of a ritual for the great Jewish festivals; in both, the Mosaic precepts bear a very small proportion to the later additions. The Mishna itself was soon found to need commentary and supplement; and the Gemara of Jerusalem was compiled by Rabbi Jochanan, and two disciples of Judah Hakkadosh, to supply its deficiencies. This collection appears to have been received as of authority by the Jews of Palestine, who cultivated Rabbinical learning in the academies of Tiberias and Jafnia. In the sixth century, Rabbi Asa, president of the school of Sora, in the Babylonian territory, where the Jews were numerous and flourishing, compiled another Gemara. The original work of the Mishna, with the addition of one or the other of these Gemaras, forms the Talmud (doctrine) of Jerusalem or Babylon.[^[3]] The Talmud is the oracle of the Jewish doctors, venerated by the greater part of them as of equal if not greater authority than the law itself; though many, as the whole sect of Karaites, deny its authority. Probably the first step towards the religious improvement of the modern Jews, must be the abandonment of the Talmud, and a return to the simplicity of the Mosaic law.

Besides this great repository of their traditions, the Jews have commentaries of their Rabbins, of uncertain age, on books of Scripture, under the name of Medraschim; and collections of their sayings. I do not mention here their cabalistical writings; which are, evidently, too fanciful and absurd, to furnish materials to the antiquary.

After participating in the darkness of the middle ages, Jewish literature and science revived with great brilliancy in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, from the connection of the Jews with the Saracens of Spain, and their acquaintance with the Aristotelian philosophy. Of the learned men who arose about this time, Jarchi, Aben Ezra, and David Kimchi, are most celebrated for their grammatical and critical works: Moses Ben Maimon, or Maimonides, for the vigour of his understanding, and his knowledge of the ancient rites and ceremonies of his nation. He gave consistency and systematic form to the Jewish doctrines, and his articles are the standard of Jewish orthodoxy. The age at which these authors lived, however, prevents us from receiving them as original testimonies to any thing which concerns the state of the Jews before the destruction of their polity. The question how far Rabbinical authority can be relied on for Jewish antiquity, resolves itself at last into the credibility of those who wrote in the first five centuries after the Christian era, and especially of the Mishna and the Gemaras.

It is now pretty generally admitted, that these works are very delusive guides, in respect to the times of the Old Testament. But it might be thought, that, having been compiled at so short an interval after the destruction of Jerusalem, we might have trusted to them safely for information respecting the times of the preaching of the Gospel, and the immediately preceding period. And it cannot be denied that some advantage is to be derived from them in this way, but much less than might have been expected.[^[4]] It is not necessary to have recourse to works, which, like the Entdecktes Judenthum of Eisenmenger, have been written purposely to expose the Talmuds to contempt; it is sufficient even to consult the professed extracts of what is useful in them, such as the works of Lightfoot (a name not to be mentioned without respect and gratitude) to be convinced how large a proportion is frivolous subtlety or groundless fiction. Indulging themselves in an unbounded license of invention, to solve difficulties, or exaggerate the glories of their nation and religion, they incur the usual penalty of those who violate the truth, and are suspected of falsehood, even when they may be innocent. The rule which Schöttgenius lays down—eligendum est quod Scripturæ Sacræ magis convenit et quod cæteris paribus aliorum antiquiorum auctoritas sequendum suaserit—affords no guide in respect to those accounts which Scripture does not confirm, nor yet by its silence necessarily invalidate. Here an author can only follow his own judgment and feeling of probability. The reader must determine for himself, whether, in the Pilgrimage of Helon, only due weight has been given to Rabbinical authority. I have endeavoured to enable him to ascertain, by the references, what rests on this, and what on more solid ground.

The descriptions given by travellers of the present manners of the people of Palestine, Syria, and Arabia, have furnished another and less fallacious means of completing the picture of Jewish life. Allied to the children of Israel, according to the testimony of Scripture and their own traditions, by a common origin, and experiencing little change from age to age, these nations still present the strongest conformity with the manners described in the Bible; nor has any thing contributed more to its illustration, than the use which modern critics have made of oriental voyages and travels. The Arab Sheikh, among his flocks and herds, recalls the very image of patriarchal times; allowing for the change which religion has made, the mourning and the festivity, the diet, dress, and habitation, of the present natives of these regions, will be found nearly what they were two thousand years ago. It is true, that we advance a step further, when, from the present state of the east, we describe what it was at this distant period, than when we merely illustrate scriptural allusions from modern oriental manners: but among the various descriptions which might be given, that will be nearest to the truth which is most accordant with the known usages of eastern nations; and though this presumption can never amount to a positive proof of its accuracy, the reader is not misled, provided he is informed on what he relies. The author has also occasionally attributed some of the practices of the modern Jews to their ancestors of the Asmonean period; and, perhaps, the singular inflexibility which characterises the manners not less than the faith of this people, may justify him in so doing.

The reader may possibly think that too flattering a portrait of the Jews has been drawn in the Pilgrimage of Helon. Whoever is acquainted with an earlier work of the same author, Die Glockentöne, will perceive at once, that the piety, enthusiasm, and ardent feeling, the sensibility to the religio loci, which mark the hero of the narrative, are the characteristics of the writer’s own mind. And as every variety of temperament exists in every age of the world, there is nothing unnatural in the creation of such a character as that of Helon among the Jewish people, if it only acts and is acted upon, according to the principles and motives of the times to which it is referred. If, in the description of the national character, he has heightened its virtues, or touched its faults with a lenient hand, it must be remembered, that this was the almost inevitable consequence of that warm interest in his subject, without which he could have had no power to engage his readers’ feelings. To those who cannot be satisfied, unless the Jews are described as sunk in all the vices which mark a people for the vengeance of heaven, I would suggest how improbable it is, that the religious and moral advantages which they enjoyed should not have made them better than those whose corrupt religion, if it had any, had a pernicious influence on their morals—or that Providence should select the instruments of the moral regeneration of mankind from among a people, whose depravity equalled or exceeded that of the heathen world. Were this a proper place for entering on such a discussion, it might not be difficult to show how unjustly we identify the whole body of the people with the hypocritical Pharisees whom our Lord rebuked; or infer their ordinary character from what Josephus says of the atrocities committed by them, when stung by oppression, engaged in a desperate struggle for independence and existence, and maddened by faction and fanaticism; under the influence of which, Christian nations have manifested an equal disregard of justice and humanity.

The translator may perhaps be singular in regarding the Jewish people, even in the last days of their national independence, as objects rather of commiseration than abhorrence; but surely there can be no question, that the language in which they are perpetually spoken of must tend to retard the event, which every true Christian earnestly desires, the removal of that veil of prejudice which hides from them the evidence of the divine origin of the Gospel. Beneath the exterior appearance of passive submission, which fear and oppression have taught the Jew to assume, and the habits of sordid worldliness to which our unjust laws condemn him, lurks a deep-seated animosity against the Christian name—a name associated in his mind with the brutal outrages of fanatic mobs, the extortion and cruelty of tyrannical rulers; and though last, not least in bitterness, the harsh and contumelious language with which his nation is assailed, as if they were branded with the curse of heaven, and a perpetual memorial of its vengeance. While the feeling continues which such reproaches necessarily perpetuate, the efforts of Christians for the conversion of the Jews will probably be as fruitless as they have hitherto been. It would well become the disciples of the religion of love, to set the example of conciliation; and to renounce the use of language which is equally unfavourable in its influence on those who employ and those who endure it.

Tuque prior, tu parce, genus qui ducis Olympo!

HELON'S PILGRIMAGE

TO

JERUSALEM.

BOOK I. CHAP. I.
ALEXANDRIA.

The whole house was in commotion. The camels were receiving their load in the inner court, and drinking, before their journey, from the fountain beneath the palm trees. The slaves ran this way and that way: in the apartments of the women the maid-servants were busily preparing the farewell meal for the son of their mistress, who, while she hurried in different directions and issued her commands, was repeating the words of the forty-second Psalm.—

As the hart panteth for the water-brooks,

So panteth my soul after thee, O God!

My soul thirsteth for God,

The living God!

When shall I return

And appear before the face of God!

She had been born in the Holy Land, and her deceased husband had brought her to Egypt. The country in which her youthful days had been spent, and the journies to Jerusalem, in which she had borne a part, rose up to her remembrance, and with overflowing eyes she proceeded:

My tears have been my food day and night,

While they say unto me continually

“Where is thy God?”

The thought of her deceased husband rushed upon her mind, and her tears flowed in a fuller stream. Yet with a lighter heart, and with a less faltering voice, she proceeded: (ver. 4.)

When I remember these things, my heart melteth within me;

How I had gone with the multitude to the house of God,

How I had gone with the voice of joy and praise,

With the multitude that kept the festival.

At this moment Helon met her. She embraced him and said, “So once I went to the holy city, but now I must remain a captive in a strange land. All the day long this psalm of the sons of Korah dwells upon my mind. Thy father sang it the last evening that we spent together. Immediately after, he set out for the promised land, and returned no more.”

Helon was moved by the distress of his mother. His feelings had been the same as hers, but he was near the accomplishment of his wishes. He was about to visit the holy city, and the grave of his father in the valley of Jehoshaphat; and raising himself from his mother’s embrace, he replied, “Hast thou forgotten the thrice repeated chorus of that psalm?”

Why art thou cast down, O my soul,

And why art thou disquieted within me?

Hope thou in God; for I shall yet praise him

Who is my deliverer and my God.

Sallu, a young Jew, who had been purchased as a servant of the family six years before, now entered the apartment. He was dejected, and anxiously asked Helon, “Wilt thou not take me with thee, master?” The mother replied, “Thou art free; yesterday thy six years expired, and it shall be Helon's last employment before his departure solemnly to [emancipate] thee.” The youth kept his eyes fixed upon Helon, as if he was still asking him, “Wilt thou not take me with thee, master?” “Why dost thou refuse thy freedom, Sallu?” said Helon. “Master,” replied he, “when thy father bought me, six years ago, I was a houseless, friendless boy. I have been brought up with thee, and if I now must leave thee, I shall be again without a friend or a home. I will not leave thee: thou art going to Jerusalem, and, if I go not with thee, I shall never behold the altar of my God, nor the place to which I direct my prayers. Take me with thee, and I will be a servant in thine house all my days. I have called the elders, and they will be here immediately.”

They endeavoured to dissuade him from his purpose. Helon painted to him the value of freedom, and the mercy of Jehovah towards the bondsmen in Israel, in appointing their release in the seventh year. His mother promised him that he should not go forth empty handed; that she would give him “of her flock, and of her barn, and of her wine-press, of all in which the Lord her God had blessed her,” as the Lord had commanded by Moses in the law.[^[5]] But Sallu replied, “Nay but I will remain with thee: it is best for me to be here.” The elders had now arrived.

“This youth,” said one of them, “will be a servant of thy house. Come together to the gate.”

The elders, with Helon, his mother, and Sallu, went through the covered way, as far as the gate which opened to the outer court. Sallu stood beside the gate-posts. The elder asked him, “Wilt thou not leave Helon?” Sallu replied, “I will not leave him; for I love him and his house.” Then Helon took an awl, and piercing his ears against the door-post, made him his servant for ever. The elders pronounced a blessing, and Helon put a ring through the ears of Sallu, as a sign that he was become his property. The youth bounded for joy, and exclaimed, “I have bought thee with my blood. Wilt thou not now take me with thee to the Holy Land?” “Go,” said Helon, “to look after the camels, and prepare thyself for the journey.”

The mother invited the elders to partake of the farewell supper with her and her son, at which Elisama was also to be present. They consented, and went back with her into the inner court (the [thavech].) Helon remained awhile behind, to inspect the preparations for the journey. The slaves were equipping three stately dromedaries, which, young, high-spirited, and fleet, deserved the name of ships of the desert. They had taken a long draught at the well, while the slaves laid in order the baggage which contained the food and clothing of the travellers, and [presents] for their host in Jerusalem. In the east, the expressions of friendship were made by deeds rather than by words, and the travellers destined for their host costly caftans, Egyptian linen, a robe of thread of gold, and some books written on papyrus. The camels, kneeling down, received the burthen on their backs.

Helon’s uncle, Elisama, who was to be his guide on the pilgrimage to the Holy Land, arrived, examined the preparations, and appointed to the slaves the hour of departure. Helon and he then went together into the [inner court], where the elders were sitting under the palms beside the fountain, and enjoying the refreshing coolness of the evening. This inner court, around whose sides ran a portico and a gallery, was paved with green, white, yellow, and black marble. An awning of various colours was stretched over it to shelter from the burning rays of the sun; and in the middle was the fountain with its lofty palms. In Alexandria, as in the east generally, this was the place for the reception of visitors.

The meal was prepared, and the elders arose from beside the fountain to place themselves on cushions around the table. A venerable man with hoary locks took the place of honour, the middle place, on the middle cushion. The seven-branched lamp shed a bright light around, from its one and twenty flames. The slaves had strewed the table, the cushions, and the floor with the flowers of spring. Sallu came with a silver basin, poured water on the hands of the guests, and when he had wiped them sprinkled on them the fragrant [nard]. The most delicate productions of fertile Egypt were served up; among which the mother had not forgotten [the fish of the Nile], that her son might taste them once more before his departure. Helon [lay before Elisama], or, as it was called in the east, in his bosom.

Elisama, acting as father of the house, [blessed] the bread. He spread both his hands over it, and said, “Blessed be thou, O Lord our God, King of the world, who causest bread to grow out of the earth;” and the rest answered “Amen.” As this was an entertainment, the wine also was blessed. Elisama took the cup with both hands, then holding it with the right, at the height of a yard above the table, he praised the Lord and said, “Blessed be thou, O Lord our God, who hast given unto us the fruit of the vine;” and the rest again replied, “Amen.” The bread and wine were blessed with both hands, that the fingers might be a remembrance of the number of the commandments. This done, he repeated the twenty-third Psalm:

The Lord is my shepherd I shall not want.

He maketh me to lie down in green pastures,

He leadeth me beside the soft flowing waters,

He refresheth my soul,

He leadeth me in the straight path

For his name’s sake.

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,

I fear no evil, for thou art with me;

Thy rod and thy staff comfort me.

Thou preparest a table for me

In the presence of mine enemies;

Thou anointest my head with oil;

My cup runneth over

Surely goodness and mercy follow me all my life,

I shall dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.

This was the prayer with which the festive meal was usually hallowed in Israel. The guests helped themselves and enjoyed the feast. When the last dish was removed, Elisama began: “It is long since I repeated that beautiful psalm, with such a feeling of devotion as to-day. One might think that it had been written expressly for the feast on the evening before our departure for the Holy Land. '[Happy the people] that know the sound of the trumpet!'”

Helon’s kindling glance, thanked Elisama for thus expressing the sentiment of which his own heart was full. But one of the elders replied, “The sound of the trumpet is heard also in Leontopolis, and the psalm might be repeated with equal propriety, before a journey to the nome of Heliopolis.”

“I always maintain,” said Elisama, “that Israel is Israel nowhere but in the Holy Land.”

“But does not the law itself declare,” said the elder, “Thou shalt not abhor an Egyptian, because thou wast a stranger in his land?[^[6]] Did not the patriarchs of our nation always repair to Egypt in their distress, and did not the land of Ham almost always show a brotherly compassion for the children of Shem? Why did our forefathers always resort to this land of wonders, rather than to Syria or Mesopotamia? Does it not appear as if some secret guiding of Providence had always impelled Israel to unite himself with his brethren of Misraim? Was not our father Abraham himself in Egypt?” “And well did Pharaoh reward him by his treatment of Sarah,” interrupted Elisama. “Jehovah himself forbad Isaac to go down to Egypt.”[^[7]]

“Yet,” replied the elder, “[Jacob came hither] with seventy souls; Joseph was proclaimed the father of the land, and Pharaoh said to him, I am Pharaoh, and without thee shall no man lift up his hand or foot in the land of Egypt.[^[8]] Moses was born here and brought up at court, and Jeremiah also was here.[^[9]] When Alexander founded this city, he brought a multitude of our nation hither; the first Ptolemy settled a hundred thousand of them in different parts of the land, and because the kings thought us to be the brethren of the Egyptians, we have obtained the privileges of the highest rank of citizens, and are called, like the conquerors themselves, Macedonians. The Lord has moved the heart of the king and queen, and Onias, the son of Onias, has built us a temple in Leontopolis, which is an exact copy of that on mount Moriah. Soon shall we be still more highly exalted. You know that let the schemes of Ptolemy Lathyrus be what they may, his mother Cleopatra, who is joint regent with him, has the administration in her hands, and by her means (a thing unheard of in any other country) two of our nation, Hilkias and Ananias, the sons of Onias, are at the head of the army.”

“The God of Israel bless Cleopatra our queen! May he increase her a thousandfold, and cause her seed to possess the gate of their enemies,” exclaimed the elders.

“What thou hast said of our fathers, and of their journies into Egypt is true; but acknowledge also,” said Elisama, “that they never failed to return to the Holy Land, when they had an opportunity; and we will do the same.”

“No,” said the elder, “we have our own temple in Egypt, our Oneion.”

“But it is contrary to the law of the Lord; on Moriah only should the temple and the altar stand. Jehovah spoke to Moses saying,[^[10]] ‘To the place which the Lord your God shall choose out of all your tribes, to put his name there, even unto his habitation shall ye seek, and thither shall ye come, and thither shall ye bring your burnt-offerings: but take heed that thou offer not thy burnt-offerings in any place that thou seest; in the place which the Lord shall choose there shalt thou offer thy burnt-offerings, and do all that the Lord thy God requires of thee.’ And five hundred years after, when the temple was built, he said to Solomon, when he appeared to him in the night, ‘I have heard thy prayer and have chosen this place to myself, as a house of sacrifice.’[^[11]] And this place is Moriah, where Abraham was about to offer up his own son.”

“Knowest thou not,” continued the elder, “what Isaiah, the greatest of all the prophets, said two hundred years later? Our high priest wrote the passage to the king and queen at the building of the Oneion. In that day shall five cities in the land of Egypt speak the language of Canaan and swear to the Lord of Hosts: one shall be called [Irhaheres, Leontopolis].”[^[12]]

Elisama replied, “I adhere to the words of the psalm, ‘The Lord hath chosen Zion and delights to dwell therein.’[^[13]] To Isaiah also the Lord spoke, saying, ‘I will comfort you as one whom his mother comforteth, and ye shall be comforted in Jerusalem.’[^[14]] We might say to you of Alexandria, what the Lord said by the mouth of Jeremiah, 'Go up into Gilead and take balm, O virgin daughter of Egypt!'”[^[15]]

“Yet Jehovah, in the same chapter, calls Egypt a fair heifer.”

“True, but he threatens her; ‘destruction cometh from the north,’ and in us will his word be fulfilled, 'ye shall be ashamed of Egypt as thou wast ashamed of Assyria.'”[^[16]]

“Now accursed be he who reviles the Oneion, the temple of the Lord, and Egypt and the queen,” exclaimed the elder, in vehement indignation. They had long ceased to eat, as their conversation became more animated, and sat upright upon their cushions. The elder started on his feet, and seemed about to offer some violence to Elisama; but a grey-headed elder, who had hither only listened, interposed between them, and with the calmness of age said to them both, “Peace, my children! There is enough of strife in Israel; let not us increase it. Do thou remain in Egypt, and thou Elisama take thy way to Jerusalem. The Messiah cometh and will teach us all things.”

The mother entered the room. “What sayst thou, dejected mother in Israel,” continued the aged man. “She could not,” she said, “divest herself of the fear that one of the travellers would never return. So it had been six years before. Her only comfort was, that her deceased husband had been buried in the valley of Jehoshaphat, and nothing would have induced her to consent to Helon’s departure, but the thought that he would visit his father’s grave. Ye all knew him,” said she, turning to the guests, “he was a stay of Israel in a foreign land.”

The elders turned to Helon and said, “Blessed be thou, for thou art the son of an upright man, and one that feared God.” “As to thy apprehension that one of us may not return,” said Elisama, “let us rather hope, that we shall bring back with us a new member of the family, a future mother, either from Jericho or from Anathoth.”

The mother smiled, with a significant look, which seemed to say that she already knew more of this matter. The elder, who had scarcely recovered from his passion, seemed not well pleased that the number of Aramæan Jews in Alexandria should be increased. Helon blushed, and observed the modest silence which became a youth in Israel, in the presence of his elders.

“Of the two,” said the old man, “thou wouldst rather receive thy new relation from Anathoth.” “True,” she replied, “many of our friends live there, and there the holy prophet Jeremiah was born.” The mention of Jeremiah was sufficient to kindle Elisama. His forefathers had accompanied the prophet, when, after Ishmael’s outrage upon Gedaliah,[^[17]] he was carried into Egypt, by the people who feared the vengeance of the king of Babylon; and he had sojourned with this family. “While there lives one of our race,” exclaimed Elisama, “never shall it be forgotten by us that we once entertained a prophet of the Lord. His writings are our favourite study, and by them we are directed to seek the Holy Land.”

The discourse assumed a more cheerful character. The last cup was emptied. Sallu washed the hands of the guests, and sprinkled them with fragrant oil. Elisama pronounced the thanksgiving, and the old man rising up, took Helon’s hand and said, “Farewell, and take with thee my blessing.” Then, laying his hands upon the young man’s head, he said—

“He that keepeth Israel neither slumbereth nor sleepeth.

May Jehovah be thy keeper, thy shade on thy right hand!

May Jehovah preserve thy going out and coming in,

From this time forth and for evermore?”—Ps. cxxi.

The other elders also blessed him, but it was evident that they would have done it with a more hearty good will, if he had been going to Leontopolis. All the guests took leave, and returned to their respective abodes.

CHAPTER II.
THE DEPARTURE.

It was late in the evening: the slaves extinguished the seven-branched lamp and laid the cushions for beds in the porticoes which surrounded the inner court. All retired speedily to rest, that they might set out the earlier on the following morning. But the mother still lingered on the spot; her grief increased as the time of departure drew nigh; weeping she embraced her child, and said, “Call me Mara, for I am a sorrowful mother in Israel.” Helon in silence leant upon her bosom, till Elisama came, and said to her: “Bethink thee of what our prophet saith,[^[18]] 'Rachel weepeth for her children and refuseth to be comforted. But thus saith the Lord, refrain thy voice from weeping and thine eye from tears: for thy work shall be rewarded and thy children shall come again to their own border.'” He forced her away into the inner apartments, and himself lay down on one of the cushions in the portico.

Helon did not attempt to sleep. Wishing his uncle calm repose, he ascended the roof of the house where stood the [alija], a small apartment like a turret, dedicated to secret meditation and prayer. From the roof there was an extensive view over the city of Alexandria; on the north to the Mediterranean, on the south to the lake Mareotis, and on the east to the Nile and the Delta. Here he had often stood when a boy, and with restless longing had looked towards the Holy Land. It was a clear, calm night of spring. Refreshing odours arose from the surrounding gardens. The countless stars shed down their twinkling radiance upon him, and the moon’s new light was mirrored in the lake and the canals of the Nile.

Before him lay the city of Alexander, justly styled in the days of her highest prosperity, the Queen of the East and the Chief of Cities. In what stillness she now reposed, with her towering obelisks! How deep the silence and the rest which wrapt her 600,000 inhabitants, and her five harbours, by day so full of activity and noise! The house was near the [Panium], from which the whole city could be seen at one view. There stood the Bruchium which, besides the royal palace, contained the Museum, rendered the chief seat of the learning of the times, by its library of 400,000 volumes, and by being the residence of the learned men, whom the munificence of the Ptolemies had collected around their court. Here Helon had sat for several years, at the feet of the philosophers. He thought on those years, and, as he compared them with his present hopes, he exclaimed:

Better is a day in thy courts than a thousand!

I would rather be a door-keeper in the house of the Lord

Than dwell in the tents of sin.—Ps. lxxxiv. 10.

“Truly the tents of sin,” said he to himself, as he paced the roof, “even when I think on my own people, who live here in high favour. Let them be called Macedonians if they will, let the sons of the high priest be the commanders of the army, let them hope for still greater distinctions from Cleopatra’s favour, it is still an exile and Israel is in affliction. Their schisms in doctrine and laxity of morals are too plain a proof of it.”

He went into the alija and brought out his harp; the plaintive tones resounded through the still air of night as he sung

By the rivers of Babel we sat and wept

When we thought on Zion.

We hung our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof.—Ps. cxxxvii.

“Here we ought to hang them upon the pyramids,” continued he. “The controversy which destroyed the harmony of our social meal this evening still jars upon my soul. Praised be God, that Jeremiah sojourned with my forefathers, that they like myself have continued Aramæan Jews, and have not gone over to the Hellenists.”

The Diaspora, or body of the Jews dispersed in foreign countries, was divided at this time into Hellenists and Aramæan Jews. The Hellenists had adopted the Greek, at that time the universal language of the civilized and literary world; the [Aramæan Jews] used, even in foreign lands, the Hebrew, or rather a dialect of that language, called the Aramæan. The latter attached themselves to the temple at Jerusalem, the former worshipped at Leontopolis in Egypt. A division once begun is easily extended to other points. With the Greek language the Hellenists had adopted Grecian culture, yet wished still to continue Jews, and hence arose the necessity for uniting philosophy with the law. The only way in which this could be accomplished, was that which they adopted, of attributing the doctrines of Grecian wisdom to the law, as its inward and spiritual meaning. In this undertaking the Egyptians had led the way for them. Egypt is the native country of [allegories]. For a long time past the popular religion had been very different from that of the sacerdotal caste, and they stood to each other in the relation of the letter to the spirit; of the image to the reality. The Hellenistic Jews had adopted this Egyptian mode, and three classes had been formed amongst them. One party openly renounced both law and allegory, living without the law, which indeed it was impossible to observe exactly any where but in Judea. Another outwardly conformed to the law, but did so for the sake of its hidden and spiritual meaning. A third set were contented with this spiritual meaning, which they arbitrarily annexed to it, and concerned themselves no further with the literal observance. No little confusion had arisen from this variety of opinions, and the incessant controversies to which they gave rise.

Helon had been hurried by the prevailing spirit of his age and country for some years into the vortex of allegory. A youth of such an ardent temperament and high intellectual endowments, connected with the most considerable families of the Alexandrian Jews, could scarcely escape this temptation. Had his father been alive, he would have been a constant monitor to him against the danger—but since his death on the journey to the Holy Land, Helon’s danger had increased, with the increase of his liberty. It seems too as if it were necessary that those master spirits, who are destined successfully to oppose the errors of their times, should themselves for a while be involved in them. The scattered intimations which the law itself affords opened to him a new and attractive field, which he was eager to explore completely. He was advised to make himself acquainted with the Grecian philosophy, as the source of the knowledge which he desired, and for this purpose he resorted to the Museum. His first instructor here was a Stoic, who demanded from him a greater rigour than even the law had required, but at the same time taught him, that the knowledge of God was not necessary. Helon forsook him, and applied himself to an acute Peripatetic; but his thoughts seemed more occupied with his pecuniary remuneration, than with the high rewards of wisdom and philosophy. Helon lost no time in seeking another teacher. A Pythagorean required, as a preliminary, a long study of music, astronomy and geometry, and Helon thought that the knowledge of the truth might surely be attained by a less circuitous process. At last a young and lively Greek of the name of Myron, whom he had known as a child, introduced him to a Platonic philosopher. In him he seemed to have found all of which he had been in search. He perused with Myron the dialogues of him whom his disciples called the divine. Those were hours never to be forgotten, in which his doctrine of [reminiscences], of virtue that is not to be taught or learnt, of That which is, first irradiated his mind. About this time he became acquainted with , who was also a Platonist, and profoundly skilled in the interpretation of the law. He could answer every question which Helon wished to ask respecting the sense of scripture. He explained to him the seven days of creation, and the ten commandments, in their spiritual import; and taught him much respecting the world of ideas, which he had not found even in Plato. His new teacher represented the divine intelligence, not as an attribute of God, but as a being having a distinct existence, and called it the image of God, his first born son, the highest of the angels and the primeval man.

For a long time his fancy rioted in these speculations, to which he was so entirely devoted, that if he continued to observe the law, it was owing to the pure and simple manners to which he was accustomed in his father’s family. But every thing which only gratifies the understanding loses its charm, especially with men of lively and ardent temperament, when it loses its novelty. When Helon’s first transport, at the enlargement of his views, had subsided, and cool reflection began to resume her sway; when he perceived that Myron could, with equal ease, explain and vindicate the worship of Jupiter, Bacchus, and Apollo—the Orphic and Dionysian mysteries—and all the idolatries of polytheism, by the aid of the same principles which his teacher had applied to the interpretation of scripture; suspicions were awakened in his mind that these principles could not be true. That which converts falsehood into truth, he thought, can never increase the force and evidence of truth. The promises which were given to Israel, the threatenings and warnings of Jehovah against participation in idolatry, recurred to his mind. The image of his deceased father was daily held up to him by his mother, as one who had abhorred the system of the Hellenists. A feeling of pride in his own nation, as the chosen people of Jehovah, was awakened in his bosom, and he could no longer take pleasure in the society of Myron.

He began now to remark the endless varieties and inconsistencies of these allegorical interpretations. Every one, full of the persuasion of his own wisdom, expounded the divine word according to his own fancy. Helon could not but perceive that all this wisdom was an arbitrary, self-invented, human system of doctrine respecting divine things, in opposition to which, not only Plato but the whole tenour of scripture taught him, that God only can be our [instructor] in things relating to himself, and that human reason must here rely upon revelation. This revelation he found in the law, delivered to his nation upon mount Sinai, under circumstances the most impressive and sublime. While this train of thought tended to alienate him from the Hellenists and their system, his mother one evening remarked to him with sorrow his slowness in fulfilling the divine precepts. At first he was so much offended by it, that he replied to her remonstrance only by a sarcastic look, and retired to his books. But conscience did not allow him to rest. Suddenly the divine denunciation occurred to him, “The eye that mocketh at his father, and despiseth to obey his mother, the ravens of the valley shall pick it out, and the young eagles shall eat it.”[^[19]] He was deeply moved, and now saw with opened eyes the abyss of immorality, to the edge of which this new wisdom had conducted him. He had long desired to be free from the burthensome duties of the law, and he had now transgressed against the first commandment with promise. He felt to what this heathen philosophy, this partial culture of the mind, was bringing him; and in the lives of its professors he saw, in all their rank maturity, the vices, of which he discovered the seeds in his own heart. They lived without a law, sunk in heathen vice and immorality. He now perceived that nothing but the most faithful obedience to the law could make him truly happy, that in this way only he became a partaker in the promises of God to the upright, and that the passion for allegories had corrupted his mind instead of enlightening it. These reflections determined him to return to the faith of his fathers.

He now felt himself once more at home under his paternal roof; his former filial reverence for his mother returned; his father’s spirit seemed to smile on his conversion; and the experienced counsels of his uncle proved much more than an equivalent to him for all the wisdom of the Museum. All the joys and the longings of his childhood returned upon him; the feelings of the present moment seemed to be linked immediately to the remembrances of his boyish days, and all that had intervened appeared like a period of delusion. His desire to behold Jerusalem came over him again, in all its original vividness: it had been the strongest of his early feelings, and the very names of Canaan, Zion, and Jerusalem, had held a mysterious sway over his imagination. His mother, as he sat upon her knees, had told him of the place, towards which he was taught to lisp his prayer; of the thousands who went up to the feast; of Moses, David, and Solomon; and had represented Egypt as a land of exile, another Babel, in comparison with the land of his fathers. He often saw her weep when she spoke of Jericho and her native city, and related how she, when a maiden, had gone up in the choir of singers to the festival, but must now remain in a strange land. As the severest punishment for his childish offences, he used to be told, that it would be a long time before he would be fit to accompany his father on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land; and the reward of his proficiency and his obedience was the promise of a sight of Jerusalem. When Jews from the holy city visited Alexandria, and, as their custom was, came to see his father, it was a festival for Helon; he regarded these strangers with scarcely less veneration than his fathers had done Jeremiah, and tried all the insinuating arts of which he was possessed, to induce the most courteous among them to tell him something about the land of his ancestors. It was the land of promise, the theme of sacred song, the theatre of sacred history. When his father was in a cheerful mood, he used to relate anecdotes of his pilgrimages, beginning and ending every narrative with the words of the children of Korah:

The Lord loveth the gates of Zion,

Whose foundation is in the holy mountains,

More than all the dwellings of Jacob.

Glorious is it to speak of thee,

O city of God!—Ps. lxxxvii.

The journey from which his father never returned, was to have been the last which he made alone—on the next, Helon was to have accompanied him. His grief at being obliged to remain at home, his mother’s tears, his father’s solemn farewell, as it were prophetic of the fatal event; his mother’s daily remarks, “Now they are in Hebron, to-day they will reach Jerusalem; to-day the passover begins, to-day it will be over;” their joyful expectations of his return, and the overwhelming intelligence of his death, had all combined to leave an impression on his mind, which he had with difficulty mastered for a time, and which now revived with uncontroulable force. Since his return to the law of his fathers, a pilgrimage to Jerusalem had been his dream by night and his thought by day. Leontopolis, the character and proceedings of the Hellenists, and even the conversation at this evening’s entertainment, all conspired to convince him, that Egypt was no place for the fulfilment of the law. It was now the predominant wish of his soul to become a true Israelite, a faithful follower of the law, and a worthy member of the people of the Lord, and he felt that only in the Holy Land could he become so.

All these reflections and retrospects of his past life filled the mind of Helon, as he laid down his harp upon the parapet of the roof, and paced up and down in strong emotion. At times he stopped, and fixing his eyes on the north-east, almost persuaded himself that the clouds which he saw there were the hills of Judah. In the mean time Sallu, who, like his master, had been unable to sleep, had silently placed a lamp in the alija. Helen was attracted by the light and went in. A roll lay unfolded; he looked into it, and opened at the splendid description which an exile at Nineveh, of the tribe of Naphthali, makes of the holy city. (Tob. x.) “O Jerusalem, the holy city! Many nations shall come from far to the name of the Lord God, with gifts in their hands. Blessed are they that love thee, and rejoice in thy peace. Let my soul bless God, the great King: for the Lord our God will deliver Jerusalem from all her afflictions. The gates of Jerusalem shall be built of sapphires and emeralds and precious stones; thy towers and battlements of pure gold: and the streets of Jerusalem shall be paved with white marble, and in all her streets shall they say, Hallelujah! Praised be God who hath exalted her, and may his kingdom endure for ever. Amen.”

“Hallelujah,” he exclaimed, “that before me an [Egyptian Jew] could put such words into the mouth of a captive at Nineveh.” He hastened to his harp, and placing the footstool under his foot, turned towards the Holy Land as he sung

O Jehovah, thou art my God, early will I seek thee.

My soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee,

In a dry and thirsty land.

Would that I might see thy sanctuary,

To behold thy power and glory.—Ps. lxiii.

He knew by heart all the psalms which had any relation to Jerusalem, and no sooner had he finished one, than his fingers and his voice, unbidden, began another.

When Israel went out of Egypt,

The house of Jacob from a people of strange language,

Judah was his sanctuary,

Israel his dominion.—Ps. cxiv.

His own pilgrimage to Jerusalem seemed to him like the departure of Israel from Egypt fourteen hundred years before, and he was transported at once to those remote ages with so lively a feeling, that the psalm seemed to him to spring fresh from his own soul, and to have been dictated by his own emotions. The forty-third Psalm occurred to his mind, and with the raised look, but subdued voice of humble devotion, he sung—

Send out thy light and thy truth and let them guide me!

Let them bring me to thy holy hill and to thy tabernacles!

Then will I go unto the altar of God,

Unto God my exceeding joy.

Yea upon the harp will I praise thee,

O God, my God!

Why art thou cast down, O my soul,

And why art thou disquieted within me?

Hope in God; for I shall yet praise him

Who is the health of my countenance and my God.

The tones of the harp gradually died away, and Helon remained absorbed in gratitude and devotion towards Jehovah.

At length he arose to perform his evening prayer. Since his return to the law of his fathers, he had been rigid in the performance of this duty, and without discriminating accurately, in the fervour of his new zeal, between the commands of God, and the usages established by tradition, he would gladly even have added to their length and frequency. There was at this time a distinction commonly made among the Aramæan Jews between the righteous man, who only aimed to fulfil the law as it was left by Moses; and the pious man, who, not content with this, endeavoured by the performance of other ordinances to attain a still higher degree of the divine favour. At an earlier period of Helon’s life, it would have seemed to him a superfluous trouble, to endeavour to deserve the character of the [righteous man]; now, nothing could satisfy him, but to aspire to the rank of a pious man.

The washing of the hands preceded prayer, because nothing impure was to appear before the purest of Beings. Helon next covered his head with his mantle, a sort of [tallith]. This mantle had at the four corners fringes, which were called zizis, consisting of eight double twisted threads of wool, whose azure colour had a reference to the heavens, with five tassels for the five books of the law. The use of these fringes had been commanded by God himself to the children of Israel, “That they might look upon them and remember all the commandments of the Lord and do them, and seek not after their own heart and their own eyes.”[^[20]] He next bound the [phylacteries], called tephillim, on his forehead and his left arm, in such a way, that the strings of the first hung upon his breast, and the latter were wound seven times round the fore-arm, then across the fore-finger and the thumb, and finally three times round the middle finger. These phylacteries were little cases, containing strips of parchment, on which the following sentences of the law were written. Deut. v. 11, 13-21. Exod. xiii. 11-16. Deut. vi. 4-9. and Exod. xiii. 1-10. of which the Lord had commanded “They shall be for a token upon thine hand and for frontlets between thine eyes.”[^[21]] In the phylactery for the forehead there were four strips, in that for the left arm only one.

He now placed himself with his face towards Jerusalem and prayed the Kri-schma, a prayer which consisted of these three passages from the books of Moses; Deut. vi. 4-9. in which it is commanded to love and honour God alone; Deut. xi. 13-21. where the promises are given for the fulfilling of the law; and Numb. xv. 37-41. where it is required that the commandments be diligently kept. He concluded all with a prayer to God, as being, in every act of religious worship, the beginning and the end, the centre to which every thing tends.

Having performed his devotions, he descended with a cheerful heart from the roof, and laid himself beside Elisama in the portico. At the first cock-crowing he arose; for strengthened and animated by hope he had little need of sleep.

He went first to the alija, and having repeated the ceremonies of the preceding evening, and again concluded with an act of praise to God, he roused the slaves and bade them lead the laden camels to the gate. His mother came, with eyes red with weeping, from the apartment of the women. The sun was rising at that moment, and Elisama approaching her, tried to console her with the words of the eighty-fourth Psalm,

The Lord God is a sun and shield,

The Lord will give grace and glory;

No good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly.

O Lord of Hosts

Blessed is the man that trusteth in thee!

“Yes,” she exclaimed,

Turn thee unto me and have mercy upon me,

For I am desolate and afflicted.

The travellers were invited to take some food, but Elisama declared that only the servant in Israel [took food early] in the morning, and to others it was a disgrace. The mother, however, was not to be dissuaded, and compelled them to take dates, figs, and honey. “Greet thy father’s grave,” said she to Helon. “Let thy first visit be to the valley of Jehoshaphat.” Sallu led out the camels. He was full of joy, and every moment touched his ear-ring as a badge of honour. The mother embraced her son, and weeping said to him,

The Lord bless thee and keep thee!

The Lord make his face to shine upon thee

And be gracious unto thee!

The Lord lift up his countenance upon thee

And give thee peace!

“Go then,” she exclaimed, “God be with thee on the way, and his angel lead thee!”

Helon tore himself from her, and, accompanied by his uncle, descended the inner court. He had scarcely reached the outer, before the delightful expectation of visiting Jerusalem had already gained the ascendency in his thoughts over the sorrow of departure. And when from the end of the street he had cast back a look on the parental house, and blessed once more his mother and the alija, he proceeded with alacrity on his way, repeating to himself,

Blessed is the man who puts his confidence in thee,

And [thinks of the way] to Jerusalem.

No farewell to home is ever less painful than the first.

CHAPTER III.
THE CARAVAN.

The slaves halted before the gate with the camels and the horses. The camels bore the travelling equipage, provisions, clothes, and presents for the hosts. Sallu when weary was to find a seat upon the one which was most lightly loaded. Elisama and Helon mounted two stately Egyptian horses, which they designed to sell again at Gaza. Egypt abounds with [beautiful horses], and supplies the neighbouring country with them.

They had arranged their journey so well, that, by joining a Tyrian caravan from Pelusium to Gaza, they would be able to arrive in Judea time enough to accompany the pilgrims from Hebron on their way to Jerusalem. From Alexandria to Pelusium their road lay through Egypt, and they might venture to make it alone.

Alexandria lies upon a tongue of land, between the Mediterranean sea on the north, and the lake Mareotis on the south. Their journey at first lay between these two, affording them views first of one and then of the other. The shore of the lake was covered with palm trees and papyrus, canals united it with the Nile, and splendid buildings rose on every side of it. Helon, in spite of his longing for the Holy Land, was compelled to confess, that Alexander had chosen a spot to bear his name, not only preeminently convenient for trade, but delightfully situated.

The places through which they passed, being well known to both our travellers, offered nothing to divert the course of their thoughts. They halted one day, because it was [the sabbath], on which the law did not permit them to travel more than a thousand paces. The whole journey lasted nine days, in the course of which they ferried over several [branches of the Nile], crossing both the great and the little Delta. They passed through Naucratis, celebrated for several centuries past, as the first emporium of Grecian commerce with Egypt; Sais, with its temple of Neitha; Busiris, with the ruins of the largest temple of Isis in Egypt; and Tanis, anciently the royal residence. This land of wonders, however, had little other effect upon Helon, than to make him often repeat—

Blessed is the man who puts his confidence in thee,

And thinks of the way to Jerusalem!

His uncle sometimes smiled at him, and observed that it was well that they had left the elder behind at Alexandria. For the rest but little conversation passed. Elisama was wearied by the journey, and Helon and Sallu were silent, or repeated passages from the Psalms.

At length they came in sight of Pelusium, where they were to meet the Phœnician caravan; and Helon rejoiced that he should leave the country of the grave and gloomy Egyptians, to penetrate into the desert that conducted him to the land of his forefathers.

As they made a circuit round the city, they saw outside one of the gates a promiscuous assemblage of men, goods, camels, and horses. The neighing of the Egyptian and Arabian steeds pierced through the hoarser cry of the camels. Egyptians, Phœnicians, Syrians, Romans, and swarthy Ethiopians, were hurrying in every direction, between the piled up heaps of merchandise; Greek, Aramaic, and Latin, were blended in one confused murmur. The main part of the caravan consisted of Phœnicians from Tyre, who, according to the custom which then prevailed, had carried wine in earthen jars to Egypt, where [little wine was produced]. They had gone through Alexandria to Memphis, and as they passed, Elisama had agreed with them to be conducted from Pelusium to Gaza. They had just arrived from Memphis, and this was the rendezvous for all who wished to accompany them in their journey through the desert. They had purchased, to carry back with them, horses, cotton and embroidered cloths, and the fine and costly linen of Egypt. The leader of the caravan, busied with a variety of cares, briefly saluted Elisama and Helon, and informed them that he should depart on the following morning at daybreak, and that the camels should be arranged four and four. Half the inhabitants of Pelusium had come out, to traffic or to gaze, and the tumult and bustle were indescribable.

While Elisama and Helon endeavoured to find themselves a suitable lodging-place for the night, in the [marshy land] around this city, which borders on the vast sandy desert of Arabia, and Sallu was following them with the slaves, a well-known voice exclaimed, “Welcome Elisama and Helon! Are ye also for Tyre?” It was Myron, the young and handsome Greek from Alexandria, Helon’s early friend, who had introduced him to the knowledge of Platonism, and studied Plato with him in the Museum. Since his return to the law, Helon had purposely avoided him, and would willingly not have encountered him here, just as he was entering on his journey to Jerusalem. Myron was going to Damascus, and meant to accompany the caravan to Tyre; and although they told him that their intention was only to go as far as Gaza, this did not prevent his offering to join company with them to that place; and he made his proposal with so much of Greek urbanity, that they knew not how to refuse. The pleasure of their society, he said, would save him from dying of tedium; which, if he kept company any longer with the Phœnicians, who could talk of nothing but their merchandise, threatened to be more fatal than thirst to him in crossing the desert. “Your oriental gravity,” said he, “will be enlivened by my Grecian levity, and together we shall form the most agreeable party in the whole caravan.” He took the hand of Elisama with a smile, and the bargain was concluded.

Long before sunrise on the following morning, the tumult of the [caravan] began again. Helon’s camel was bound behind the three camels of Elisama: Sallu led them, the slaves urged them on, and the three travellers mounted their horses. The trumpet sounded a second time, as the signal of departure. The camels were arranged four together, and our party endeavoured to place themselves as near as possible to the head of the line of march, to avoid the clouds of sand which were raised in the middle and near the end. Between every fifty parties, came a horse with a guide, and a man bearing a kettle of pitch, raised on a pole, which was to be kindled during the night. The principal guide, who had the superintendence of the whole caravan, rode usually in front, on a horse richly caparisoned, and accompanied by a camel which carried his treasure. He was the absolute master of the whole train; at his nod the blasts of the trumpet were given, and every one set forward or halted. A litter was borne behind him, in which he occasionally reposed.

It was an hour after sunset before all was arranged and the third blast of the trumpet was given. The guide mounted his Arabian horse, and the march began. Thousands of persons from Pelusium and the neighbourhood, stood by the road-side, and saluted them as they departed. The slaves began to sing, and the bells on the necks and feet of the camels chimed between. Every thing in the caravan was performed in measured time, the step of the camels, the jingling of the bells, and the song of the slaves. Both men and beasts were full of alacrity, and thus, even in the desert, one portion of the dreary way after another is performed without tediousness.

Helon’s heart beat high with the thought that he had entered on the road to Jerusalem; and he could not refrain from exclaiming, when the signal for the march was given, “Happy are the people that know the sound of the trumpet.” To Myron his exclamation was unintelligible, and he continued to exercise his Attic raillery upon every thing around him; but Helon was too much absorbed in his own thoughts to notice him.

The first day’s journey, as is usual with caravans, was very short; and they halted, after a march of an hour and a half, at [Gerrha], where there was a fountain, by which they encamped. All the press and tumult was renewed. The beasts and the merchandise were placed in the middle, and tents were erected all around, as a shelter from the burning heat of noon. Myron’s slave went to fetch wood and water: Sallu unpacked the travelling equipage from the camel, and the three travellers helped him to set up the tent. He then spread a carpet, on which Elisama seated himself; coverlets and mattresses were brought out for sleeping; and a [round piece of leather], having rings at the circumference which can be drawn together like a purse by a string which runs through them. This was to be laid on the ground before the meal, that the dishes might be placed upon it. The slave had brought the wood—a fire was made in the sand, and the camp kettle placed upon it.

While Sallu and the slave were preparing the meal, Helon and Myron joined Elisama in the tent. Myron’s slave brought a hare which he had purchased of an inhabitant of Pelusium, and was about to dress it. Elisama observed it, and joined with Sallu, who thrust the slave away, exclaiming, “that the animal was unclean, and must not be dressed for food for his masters.”

“Nay, what is this?” said Myron; “the game is excellent, and I meant it to do honour to my introduction into your society.”

“We may not eat of it,” replied Elisama; “it is [unclean]. It is forbidden in the law to eat any animal, which ruminates without dividing the hoof.”[^[22]]

“Ye are then worse off even than the Egyptians,” said Myron, “who are only forbidden to eat their sacred animals. We Greeks are wiser than either: we eat what we like.”

“And do what ye like;” interposed Helon. “But we have the law.”

“And what need,” said Myron, “of any other law than that which is written in the hearts of all men?”

“Yet that this law, written in the heart, is not of itself sufficient, and does not supersede the necessity of a revealed law, you might have learnt from your own Socrates. Remember what he says of his dæmon.”

“If the Jew attempts to turn the weapons of the heathen against himself, let us see if the heathen cannot do the same with those of the Jew. Ye call Abraham the progenitor of your people.”

“Undoubtedly,” said Elisama.

“Did he not live many hundred years before the law was given by Moses? If so, which you cannot deny, this progenitor, whom ye prize so highly, and exalt above all men that ever lived, had not even heard of the law, and was no better than one of us.”

Helon was for a while silent and perplexed. At length he replied, “The example of our father Abraham urges us to obedience to the law: for circumcision, which is a leading part of it, was commanded to him, and he performed it on all his house on the same day on which Jehovah made a covenant with him and changed his name.”[^[23]]

“I will give thee a better answer,” interposed Elisama. “It is true, that Abraham had not the law of Moses, and could not, in our sense of the word, exhibit the righteousness of the law. He received the commands of the Lord immediately from himself, and therefore needed not that they should be engraved on tables of stone. And for the same reason he was permitted to sacrifice elsewhere than in Jerusalem, though his greatest and most costly sacrifice, that of his son, was appointed to be performed on [Moriah], the hill where our temple stands. The Lord, who himself gave him the law, was every where with him, in Egypt as in Mamre. But now, since Israel has been stained with sin, the glory of Jehovah will dwell only on his own holy hill; and it is our duty to repair to Jerusalem and bring thither our offerings.”

A new view of the subject opened itself to Helon’s mind, and Myron listened with great attention; Elisama continued:

“Obedience to the law presupposes three things. First, that a law is given. Secondly, that external circumstances are so disposed that the observance of the law is practicable; and, thirdly, that there be willingness to obey. The two first existed in Abraham, as perfectly as in his descendents. The third could only be formed in the people of Israel, by the events of several centuries, confirming the promises to the obedient and the threats denounced against the disobedient. Israel is at length grown wise by experience, and the time draws near, when the Messiah shall come to deliver his people from oppression, and bless all nations of the earth by means of the law. But Abraham needed no such discipline—he practised voluntary obedience.”

“By Apollo,” said Myron, “thou speakest wisely!”

“Such a man,” pursued Elisama, “do we venerate in our great progenitor. Is there any people that can produce one like him? In him every thing was united essential to that happiness which is attainable only by the law. For this reason also he received the promise from Jehovah, that in his seed all the nations of the earth should be blessed. Abraham was to become a people, and that people must attain the righteousness of Abraham. But with a people such a change must be progressive: Israel first of all received the law on Sinai, then the promised land and a temple; and only through a long course of discipline learnt to obey the law willingly. These three periods, together with the end which is yet to come, and the beginning in Abraham, form the series of Jewish history. You Greeks like to have things presented to you in such arranged and comprehensive views.”

“With good reason,” exclaimed Myron, who had all that curiosity for knowledge of every kind, which was the characteristic of his nation. “And now, my venerable Elisama, I would fain hear from thee the whole history of thy people, arranged according to the plan which thou hast traced. Ere we reach Gaza, we shall pass many an hour together, at the places of encampment, which might be so employed, agreeably to us all. You will delight in an opportunity of relating what redounds so much to the honour of your people; Helon will listen as gladly as you will relate; and I shall rejoice in an opportunity of hearing a connected narrative of your history.”

“As thou wilt, Myron,” said Elisama, “in the hope that you Greeks may also learn to value duly the chosen people of Jehovah. It is only of the history of such a people as Israel, that such an orderly developement can be made: it is necessary for this purpose that God himself should have taught us what plan of his he designs a nation to fulfil. Of Israel he declared this, even when he had no political existence; and we need only open our eyes upon his history, in order to perceive the progressive accomplishment of the promise. The Messiah, when he comes, will perhaps teach us to what purpose Greeks, Romans, and Egyptians have existed. I know not what it may be, but this I know, that theirs must be a subordinate part, and an inferior destination to that of Israel. This I tell you frankly, and you will see the proofs of it still more strongly in the history itself. Are you satisfied with it?”

“Only begin your discourse,” said Myron, “and I promise you to listen, as the Hellenic nation listened to Herodotus, when he recited his history at the Olympic games. A Greek of Athenian blood, a pupil as I boast myself to be of the Alexandrian philosophy, knows no greater pleasure than to acquire knowledge, wherever he may find it. Pythagoras travelled into the east, and Plato visited Egypt and Italy. Conversation is the life of life; and a discourse which is regularly renewed should have some fixed object, by which it may be resumed at each successive opportunity. Do us then this favour, and relate the history of your nation.”

Helon had been sitting absorbed in thought on what he had heard from his uncle. “What a noble subject,” he now exclaimed, “for our conversation on our pilgrimage to the Passover! What an excellent preparation for the momentous times which are approaching! Truly, ‘days should speak and length of years give understanding.’ How profound is the discernment of those ‘whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditate upon it day and night!’ Begin then, dearest uncle, and speak of the glories of our forefathers.”

“Youths,” said Elisama, “I will not refuse your request, though ye praise me too much. I call to mind the psalm of Asaph, which I will rehearse to thee, Myron:

Give ear, O my people, to my teaching!

Incline your ears to the words of my mouth!

I will open my mouth in parables;

I will declare the histories of old,

Which we have known and heard,

Which our fathers have told us

That we might not hide them from their children,

Showing to the generation to come the praise of Jehovah,

His strength, and the wonders he hath done.

He established a testimony in Jacob,

And appointed a law in Israel,

Which he commanded our fathers

That they should make known to their children;

That the generation to come might know them, the sons which should be born;

That when grown up they might declare them to their children,

That they might set their hope in God,

And not forget the works of God,

And keep his commandments.—Ps. lxxviii.

“Israel is rich in such psalms as this. The history of our nation lives in their poetry, it is interwoven with their prayers, it is the groundwork of doctrine and the theme of narrative; all our festivals rest upon it as their basis, and nothing great or important can take place in Israel, which has not an historical reference. The cause of this lies in the promise of Jehovah and in its fulfilment. We seek our wisdom in the revelation which God has given us—ye seek it in your own reflections: hence our wisdom is historical, yours speculative. What we know of God and of his law, was communicated to us through the discourses of God to our fathers, or derived from the observation of his dealings with them. It is therefore a bold undertaking in which I engage, to relate the history of our nation, and I must stipulate beforehand that you will not expect from me any thing like a perfect view of it, in the halts of a caravan. You must also permit me, Myron, to go on, after the oriental manner, in an unbroken narrative, which besides better suits a history, than that dialogue form, interrupted by question and objection, in which you Greeks so much delight. There will be time for these when my narrative is ended.”

“Make what stipulations thou wilt,” said Myron, “only begin.”

“For to-day,” said Elisama, resuming, “I must confine myself to the patriarchs, not only because our discourse has been accidentally led to them, but because the knowledge of their history is absolutely necessary to understand what follows.

“Our father Abraham is at once, the last star in the night of primeval history, and the morning star which announces the approaching day. The history of the creation and the fall you have doubtless heard already in the Bruchium; for I am told that both your [philosophers] and our Hellenists employ themselves very diligently upon it; and I must lament, that, leaving the true path of knowledge, they should prize the interpretations of the heathens above the genuine word of Jehovah. But enough of these men.

“Notwithstanding the fall of our first parents, they had still a just knowledge of God and of his will, connected with his promise, that the seed of the woman should bruise the head of the serpent. But when Cain was compelled to flee from his father’s house, unwilling to relate to his children the story of his own fratricide, he represented himself as the origin of the human race, on which account his descendants, who had been brought up in his sins, called themselves the Sons of Men; in contradistinction to which, the children of the other sons of Adam, who were acquainted with the history of the creation, called themselves Sons of God. By the sins of these sons of men, and their mixture with the sons of God, iniquity became so prevalent upon the earth, that Jehovah sent a deluge, in which only Noah and his family were saved. In him and the descendents of his son Shem alone, was the true knowledge of God preserved, when the former iniquities again obtained the ascendency among other nations and they fell into idolatry. When the true religion began to give way before the false, even in Ur of the Chaldees, where Abram the son of Terah[of Terah] lived, Jehovah bade him leave his native country and his father’s house, to go to a land which the Lord should show him. That land was Canaan. This Abram is our father Abraham, who, when he arrived at Bethel, erected a tabernacle there, and built an altar, and proclaimed the name of the Lord. The Lord appeared often unto him and proved his faith: ten of these trials are recorded in scripture. The severest of them was that in which he was commanded to offer up his son Isaac, in whom the promise was to be fulfilled. But his steadfastness in all these trials made him worthy that on him all these promises should rest. God promised him, in the person of his descendents, the land of Canaan, which on this account we still call the Land of Promise. The Lord made him to come forth from his tent, and said, ‘Look towards heaven, and see if thou canst count the stars thereof—such shall thy seed be.’[^[24]] On the same day the Lord made a covenant with Abraham, and said, ‘To thy seed will I give this land from the river of Egypt unto the great river Euphrates.’ But these promises, to make his posterity a mighty nation and to give them a fair country for their inheritance, had their motive in a yet higher promise. After he had endured, with such noble firmness and resignation, the most grievous of all his trials, God said unto him, ‘In thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed.’[^[25]] This prophecy is the radiant point of Jewish history, never obscured through all the vicissitudes of our condition, nay, wonderful to relate, shining most brightly in the very circumstances which seemed most unauspicious for its fulfilment. The promise was renewed to his son Isaac, and his grandson Jacob; its import involves the history of the whole human race. Abraham stood alone in his knowledge and his worship of the one true God; except indeed that he found at Salem, the present Jerusalem, a single priest of the Most High, the king Melchisedec. It was necessary therefore that the people of the promise should separate themselves from all other nations, even from the rest of Abraham’s descendents. In Isaac they separated themselves from Ishmael and his children; in Jacob from Esau and his children, the Edomites: for thus only could they continue to be the people of the promise.

“How great and dignified does the patriarch appear, in whom were united all those qualities, to which his descendents could only be formed by the lapse of a thousand years—the knowledge of the will of Jehovah from his own immediate communication; in his own house, and its precincts, a temple; unlimited faith and unreserved obedience!

“While I mention these three distinguishing characteristics of the patriarch, I cannot help dwelling more particularly on the second, of which I am reminded by the contrast of our life in Egypt; and because our present situation, living in tents and caravans in the desert, has some analogy with his. His whole dwelling, and the region in which for the time he had his abode, were consecrated as a temple by the manifestations of Jehovah. The manifold complexity of relations and collision of interests, which are so burdensome in the life of men in cities, were unknown to him, in the simple grandeur of his pastoral state. His days flowed on in intercourse with God, amidst the groves, the hills and the plains of the finest countries of the east. Now he dwells upon the lofty sides of Lebanon, near the cedars that pierce the heavens; on the approach of the rainy season, he drives his herds to the warmer plains of Jordan. He is in the fields with the earliest glow of morning, and his simple tent is designed only for shelter at night, and during the rain. Three hundred and eighteen servants, born in his house,[^[26]] feed his countless flocks of sheep and goats, his herds of cattle, asses and camels. In the fairest part of the pasture the dark brown tents are pitched, and in the midst of them the tent of the patriarch. Seldom does he come into a city; for they are the abodes of corruption. If a stranger makes his appearance, he is hospitably received, the fatling of the flock is killed, and while the patriarch’s own hands prepare it for food, Sarah bakes cakes upon the hearth; the guest is feasted, and not till he has eaten and been satisfied is he asked who he is. Benevolence guides all his actions. If he falls in with another body of roving shepherds, he says to Lot, ‘Why should there be strife betwixt me and thee; if thou wilt go to the left hand, I will go to the right; or if thou wilt go to the right hand, I will go to the left.’ Independent of all without, he rules as a king in his own house: but his highest dignity is that he is also a priest there. He walks before God with a perfect heart: to him he repairs in danger and in joy, to him he offers thanks, to his command he is ready to sacrifice his dearest hopes: to him he erects altars, raises memorials of his providential guidance, and proclaims his name. And Jehovah dwells with his servant Abraham, he appears to him, and blesses him in all things; he discloses the future to him, and says, ‘Shall I hide from Abraham that which I am about to do, seeing that he shall become a great and mighty nation; and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him. For I know him that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord, and do what is just and righteous, that the Lord may accomplish unto Abraham that which he hath spoken of him.’[^[27]]

“Thus he lived a complete century in Canaan; he came thither not as an old man, but in the prime of life, in his seventy-fifth year, and in his hundred and seventieth year he died, in a good old age, and was gathered to his people.

“His son Isaac and his grandson Jacob led the same patriarchal life. Both took to themselves wives from the native country of Abraham, that they might form no connection with the Canaanites. Jehovah appeared to both of them, and their lives throughout, in an equal degree, were simple and happy, like that of Abraham.

“Such was the origin of our nation, and half the world joins with us to extol our great progenitor. The [Magi of Persia]; the Arabs, the sons of Ishmael, and the Edomites, the children of Esau, even Egypt itself celebrates the wisdom of Abraham, and the whole east praises his name.

“But the sun is already high in the heavens, the slaves are waiting for us with the food, and an old man needs rest before he undertakes a further journey.”

The slaves brought the victuals prepared in the Jewish fashion, the round piece of leather was spread upon the ground; they sat around it, ate, and were satisfied. Myron often wished to renew the conversation, but Elisama did not speak during the meal, and Helon was lost in reflections on the glory of his nation, and in anticipation of the delight of soon standing where Abraham and Isaac had talked with God.

After the meal they all laid themselves down during the heat of noon. The evening came—but hardly had the night begun, when, at the fourth hour, (about ten of our reckoning) the trumpets sounded for the first time. The tent was struck, the camels loaded, the travellers mounted their horses, each party resumed their former station in the line, and about midnight, after the third blast, they broke up from Gerrha. On account of the heat, caravans travel chiefly at night, and halt during the hottest time of the day. The march was now more orderly and peaceable. The flames flashed from the burning pitch-kettles which were borne aloft, and threw their light over the desert. It was an attractive sight, to behold them like scattered suns, along a line of march extending for several thousand paces, and to see men and beasts travelling onward through the night by their ruddy gleam. Their journey lay this night and every night, as far as Gaza, along the sea, whose distant thunder was occasionally heard, mingling with the songs of the slaves and the bells of the camels.

CHAPTER IV.
THE HALT AT CASIUM.

In the morning our travellers found themselves in the neighbourhood of [Casium]. The march had not been long, but the situations of the wells determine the halts of the caravans. Near the town a large sand-hill extended into the sea, on the point of which was built the temple of Jupiter Casius. The active Greek set off, though the distance was considerable, not for the purpose of worshipping there, but of examining it as a work of art. Helon felt no desire to accompany him, for on a journey to Jerusalem and in his present state of mind, it seemed to him nothing less than a sin to visit a heathen temple, even for the gratification of his curiosity. Elisama praised his determination, and reminded him of the reproof delivered by the mouth of Jeremiah, “Thou hast always broken thy yoke and burst thy bands; and hast said, I will not be restrained, but on every high hill and every green tree thou hast gone after idolatry.”[^[28]] In the mean time Elisama began, and Helon devoutly joined in this psalm:

Bless the Lord O my soul,

And all that is within me bless his holy name!

Bless the Lord O my soul,

And forget not all his benefits;

Who forgiveth all thine iniquities,

Who healeth all thy diseases,

Who redeemeth thy life from destruction,

Who crowneth thee with loving kindness and tender mercy.

He satisfieth thy mouth with good things

So that thy youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

Jehovah executeth righteousness

And judgment for all that are oppressed.

He made known his ways unto Moses,

His acts unto the children of Israel.

The Lord is merciful and gracious,

Slow to anger and plenteous in mercy.—Ps. ciii.

They next sang the hundred and sixth Psalm, which describes the journey, the wilderness, and the disobedience of Israel. “It is well,” said Elisama, when they had done, “that our Greek is not here, or his nascent reverence for our people might be stopped in its growth. I must confess his society was at first very burthensome to me, but he is more open to the reception of the truth than I had given him credit for being, and I have hopes that he may become a [stranger of the gate].”

Myron returned full of admiration of the precious works of art which he had found in the temple of the Casian Jupiter, in which however, as a connoisseur, he found of course something to blame. At the meal the discourse of Helon and Myron (for Elisama was too oriental in his habits to talk at such a time) turned upon the ancient [Goshen], in whose limits they now supposed themselves to be. They agreed that at the distance of fourteen hundred years it was very difficult to identify it, but that probably it was the district of Lower Egypt which is bounded by the sea, by the eastern branch of the Nile at Pelusium and by the river of Egypt, and that it perhaps ascended as far as Heliopolis to the south.

When they awoke towards evening, refreshed by their sleep, the conversation respecting Goshen was resumed. Elisama, seated upon his carpet, thus took up the discourse:

“It seems then that we are at least on the skirts of that fruitful district of pasturage, in which the children of Abraham sojourned, and where they grew from a family to a people. Thou hast already heard, Myron, that our father Jacob came down to Egypt, with seventy persons, to his son Joseph, who had preserved the land of Pharaoh, by his wise precautions, from the miseries of famine; that two hundred and fifteen years after Jacob went down into Egypt, and four hundred and thirty years after Abraham left his native country at God’s command, 603,550 fighting men of the Israelites quitted Egypt, without reckoning the 22,000 Levites, or the women and children. During these [four hundred and thirty years] Israel grew into a nation.

“In order that the promise of Jehovah, ‘that all nations should be blessed in Abraham,’ might be accomplished, it may easily be conceived that it was necessary that Abraham should become a people. But there was no country where it could have been accomplished in so short a time as in this. Canaan was already fully peopled, but in Goshen there was ample room for them to increase and spread. The Canaanites would not have looked quietly on for so many years, and have witnessed their increase, whereas the Egyptians would feel themselves bound by gratitude to Joseph, at least during the first century after his death, to abstain from any injury towards his nation. Nowhere else could Israel have been kept so free from mixture with other nations, as in the neighbourhood of the Egyptians, whose religion inspired them with a [horror of pastoral tribes]. The land was at the same time fruitful, and facilitated the existence of numerous families. Finally, Egypt already possessed a civil polity more perfect than existed at that time in any other country; and though no human means were necessary to form a lawgiver for Israel, yet by constantly observing a people living under a constitution which regulated the rights and duties even of the lowest order of the people, the Israelites were prepared to value and receive a similar constitution themselves.

“When therefore Israel had become a numerous people, and began to feel the want of a system of laws, Divine Providence so arranged circumstances, as to awaken in them a longing for freedom and for the promised land. The Pharaohs inhumanly oppressed them, and made their lives bitter to them, by labour in brick and tile, and in all manner of service in the field. At length it was even given in command to the midwives to kill all the male infants. This was indeed, in one point of view, only a just punishment for the guilt of Israel, in worshipping the sacred animals of the Egyptians, and leaving the service of the true God: but as calamity, by the wise ordinance of Jehovah, serves at once for punishment and deliverance, the cruelty of the Egyptians proved the means of Israel’s deliverance and exaltation.

“God raised up Moses and laid his spirit upon him. After the command of Pharaoh for the murder of the male infants, he was exposed by his parents among the reeds of the Nile, and rescued in a wonderful manner by the king’s own daughter. At the royal court, where he was brought up, he became acquainted with all the wisdom of the Egyptians. When forty years of age, hurried away by sympathy for his suffering countrymen, whom even at Pharaoh’s court he had not forgotten, he slew an Egyptian who was committing an outrage upon an Israelite, and was compelled to flee. He took refuge in the wilderness, and by a pastoral life of forty years formed his mind in solitude and amidst the sublimities of nature, where only a faint remembrance of the world remained to him, and thoughts of God filled his soul. Here God appeared to him in mount Horeb, in a bush that burned with fire and yet was not consumed. ‘And Moses said, I will now turn aside and see this great sight, why the bush is not burned. And when the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst of the bush, and said, Moses, Moses, and he said, Here am I. And he said, Draw not nigh hither: put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground. Moreover he said, I am the God of thy fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And Moses hid his face. And the Lord said, I have seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters. I know their sorrows, and I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them out of that land unto a good land and a large, a land flowing with milk and honey. Come now, therefore, I will send thee to Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring forth my people, the children of Israel, out of the land of Egypt.’[^[29]]

“This was the calling of Moses. His apprehension of his own unworthiness was removed, and the Lord made known his name unto him; I will be that I will be. He began the great work, and at the first step had to contend with the unsteadiness of Israel, which, during the remaining forty years of his life, occasioned him no less trouble than the assaults of their enemies. Pharaoh refused to let the people go, and nine plagues in succession, which Jehovah denounced by Moses, and then brought upon the land, were able only for a time to overcome Israel’s fickleness and Pharaoh’s obstinacy. At last the tenth was inflicted, and on the fourteenth of the month Nisan, Israel, with their wives and their children, and all their possessions, came out from the house of bondage in Egypt, and passed through the Red Sea, in which the Egyptians, following them, were drowned. This is, of all the events in the history of our nation, the most important, from its connection with the giving of the law which immediately followed. We keep the feast of the Passover in remembrance of this event. Our great leader was also a poet, and sang the following song, the oldest and the noblest ode of victory that the world can show:

I sing unto the Lord for he is great—

Chariot and horse he hath thrown into the sea.

The Lord is my strength, my song, my salvation:

He is my God, and I will sing praise unto him,

My father’s God, and I will exalt him.

Jehovah is mighty in war,

Jehovah is his name.

Pharaoh’s chariots and his host hath he cast into the sea,

His chosen captains are drowned in the Red Sea.

The depths have covered them,

They sank to the bottom as a stone.

Thy right-hand, O Jehovah, is become glorious in power,

Thy right-hand, O Jehovah, hath dashed in pieces the enemy.

In the greatness of thy might thou overthrowest them that rise up against thee,

Thou sendest forth thy wrath which consumeth them as stubble.

With the blast of thy nostrils the waters were gathered together,

The floods stood upright as a heap,

The waves were congealed in the depths of the sea.

The enemy said,—

I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the spoil,

My desire shall be gratified upon them, I will draw my sword, my hand shall destroy them.

Thou didst blow with thy breath, the sea covered them,

They sank like lead in the mighty waters.

Who is like unto thee, O Lord, among the gods?

Who is like unto thee, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders?

Thou stretchedst out thy right-hand—the earth swallowed them.

Thou hast led forth in thy mercy thy redeemed people,

Thou hast guided them in thy strength unto thy holy place;

The people hear and are afraid

Anxiety taketh hold on the inhabitants of the land of the Philistines;

The princes of Edom quake,

Terror taketh hold on the mighty men of Moab,

All the inhabitants of Canaan shall melt away.

Let fear and dread fall upon them, by thy mighty arm,

Let them become stiff as stone,

Till thy people pass over, O Lord,

Till the people which thou hast purchased pass over.

Bring them in, plant them in the mountain of thine inheritance,

To the place of thy dwelling which thou thyself hast prepared,

To the sanctuary which thy hands have built.

Jehovah reigns for ever and ever.—Exod. xv.

“This first victory, which ennobled Israel as a people, was destined to be the forerunner of a series of victories, till its greatest, that over all nations, shall be won. This first song of triumph has given the model to a number of similar compositions, all of which refer to it.

“Israel was now made free. But this was scarcely accomplished when it was made also a holy nation, and on the fiftieth day after the departure from Egypt, God gave to our fathers that treasure which hallows them above every other people, the law upon mount Sinai. Yonder in the desert, in the midst of a sandy and naked region, rises a mountain, with two summits, of which the lower is called Horeb, the higher Sinai. Northward from them are two valleys, terminating in a plain, in which the people was encamped. In this impressive solitude, cut off from all other nations of the earth, surrounded with steep and pointed rocks, beneath a burning sky, amidst the thunders and the lightnings of Jehovah’s presence, they received the law.

“Jehovah declared to Moses that Israel should be to him a kingdom of priests and a holy people.[^[30]] For this purpose they were commanded to wash their garments and keep themselves holy to the third day, and it was forbidden that man or beast should ascend the mountain, or even touch it with his foot. The third day came. Early in the morning ‘there were thunders and lightnings and a thick cloud upon the mount, and the voice of the trumpet exceeding loud, so that all the people that were in the camp trembled. And Moses brought forth the people out of the camp to meet God; and they stood at the lower part of the mount. And mount Sinai was altogether in a smoke, because the Lord descended upon it in fire, and the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mount trembled greatly. And the voice of the trumpet sounded long, and grew louder and louder, and Moses spake, and the Lord answered him with a voice.’

“Awful preparations! symbols of the presence of Jehovah! who drew near to give the law. While he thus displayed himself in all the terrific majesty of heaven on the loftiest pinnacles of the land; and the people, overwhelmed with terror, felt their own feebleness before him, he gave to Moses the tables with the ten commandments, and afterwards the rest of the law; and all was concluded with a promise to the obedient, and the threat, ‘Cursed be he that fulfilleth not all the words of this law to do it. And all the people shall say Amen.’

“The whole constitution and legislation of Israel rests on the relation of the people to God as their king. From the covenant between them arose a twofold authority. Aaron was the first high priest and Moses the first chief. The high priest conducted the worship of the people before Jehovah; the chief directed their civil and military affairs. Their employment in the land which they were to occupy was to be agriculture.

“But the Jews, who had been corrupted by living in Egypt, were not fit subjects for such a constitution. It was necessary that a new generation should arise, and for this purpose Moses led them forty years backward and forward in the wilderness, and only two, of whom he himself was not one, came into the promised land. Forty-four stations in the desert are reckoned up, in which they successively encamped, as we do now; and it was only by the severest discipline that they could be retained in obedience. Often was Jehovah compelled to visit them with heavy calamities, and sweep them away by thousands. Yet he never ceased also to perform miracles of mercy and almighty power upon them.

“Amidst all these sins of the people, in their forty years wandering in the wilderness, Moses was the representative of the divine authority, and the medium of divine communication. Against him the fury of the rebellious people was vented, and by him Jehovah both blessed and punished them. Moses stood among them, like a rock in the desert, a wonder, or rather a miracle of firmness combined with meekness, steadfast resolution, with wise indulgence, absolute submission to God, with boldness and determination in the guidance of the people. In the long and unhappy period of forty years of wandering, he displayed the aptitude for command which his kingly education had given him, joined with that love to his suffering countrymen, with which he could only have been inspired by being a native Jew.

“He died on mount Nebo, in the sight of that land for which he had done and suffered all to which human strength was equal. His eye was permitted to behold it, but not his foot to tread its soil. Firm as he was in acting and in suffering, he had once allowed himself to be overcome, and therefore he was not permitted to attain the end of his journey, or go to his rest in Canaan. Perhaps it was also the will of God, that the hands which had been stretched out over the Red Sea, which had received the tables of the law from Jehovah, and had built his tabernacle, should not be stained by the blood of the Canaanites. Even in the battle with Amalek, these hands were only lifted up in the attitude of prayer.[^[31]]

“Listen to the last glowing words of this extraordinary man!

Give ear, O ye heavens, and I will speak,

And hear, O earth, the words of my mouth!

My doctrine shall drop as the rain,

My speech shall distil as the dew.

As rain upon the tender herb,

And as the showers upon the grass.

For I will proclaim aloud the name of Jehovah,

Ascribe ye greatness unto our God!

He is a rock, his work is infinite,

All his ways are just.

God is truth, without deceit,

Just and right is he—

Remember the days of old,

Consider the years of many generations,

Ask thy father and he will show thee,

Thine elders, and they will tell thee,

When the Most High divided the lands to the nations,

When he separated the children of men,

He set bounds to the people,

That the numbers of Israel might have room to dwell.

For the Lord’s portion is his people,

Jacob is the extent of his inheritance.

He found him in a desert land,

And in the waste howling wilderness.

He led him about, he instructed him,

He kept him as the apple of his eye.

As an eagle covers her nest around,

And hovers over her young,

Spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them up,

And beareth them aloft upon her pinions,

So the Lord, he alone, did lead them,

And there was no strange god with him—

See now that it is I,

And there is no god with me.

I kill and I make alive,

I wound and I heal;

There is none that can deliver out of my hand.

For I lift my head to heaven,

And say, I live for ever.

If I whet my glittering sword,

And my hand lay hold on judgment,

I will render vengeance to mine enemies,

And reward them that hate me.

I will make my arrows drunk with blood,

And my sword shall satiate itself on carcasses,

On the blood of the slain and the captive,

On the bared head of mine enemies?—Deut. xxxii.

“Again in the animated commencement of his benediction, imitated in so many later poems of our nation:

Jehovah came from Sinai,

He rose up unto them from Seir;

He shined forth from Paran,

He came from the hills of Cadesh.

From his right hand darted the rolling fire;

Yea, he loved the people!

All his glory is around thee;

And sitting at thy feet they received thy words.

Moses commanded us the law,

The inheritance of the congregation of Israel.

He was king in Israel,

In the assembly of the heads of the people,

Together with the tribes of Israel.—Deut. xxxiii.

“In this manner, Myron, and by means of such a man, did Israel obtain its treasure and inheritance, the law. And this is the first period of the history of our people.”

“Our best thanks belong to thee, venerable old man,” said Myron, “for the relation of it, and I can readily believe, that the history of thy nation has more in it than is commonly supposed. It was, I must confess, in a very different way that Lycurgus, Solon, Numa Pompilius, and even Pythagoras himself, gave their laws. There is something grand, exalted and divine, in the manner in which Moses speaks and acts. But permit me to remind you, that though you mentioned his being brought up at the court of Pharaoh, and instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, you have given us no hint that he may have learned much from the pillars of Isis, and that an [imitation] of the Egyptian polity is every where conspicuous in your law, especially in the double power of the king and the priest, the institution of a sacerdotal caste, the encouragement given to agriculture, your festivals, and many other particulars.”

“I gave no hint of it,” said Elisama, “because in this sense it does not exist. To say nothing of its being as yet an undetermined point, whether the Jews learned these things from the Egyptians, or the Egyptians from the Jews; I will suppose that the wisdom of the Egyptians is of that high antiquity which you ascribe to it, and maintain that Jehovah wisely chose institutions for his people not too remote from those to which they were accustomed; that some things, which were for higher reasons essential in the Jewish economy, have an accidental coincidence with circumstances of the Egyptian customs. But disregarding outward and accidental things, let the spirit of the two systems be compared, and you will find that one is the spirit of God, and the other the spirit of the world. In our religion there is no worship of animals or of images, no polytheism, no secret doctrines of the priests. These are essential points, which show that the legislation of Moses must have had a higher origin, and was not learned by him from any other nation. Would it, besides, be surprising if, in giving a divine revelation to his people, Jehovah should have chosen a form for its communication, in which, as being familiar to them, they would more readily adopt it? Though this form was of human invention, it was purified and hallowed by God’s adoption of it.”

“I will confute his heathen unbelief in another way,” said Helon, “and turn his own weapons upon him, more successfully, I hope, than he lately endeavoured to do upon me.”

“Speak then,” said Myron, “do you question, and I will reply: here in the desert let us renew our ancient practice among the Academic philosophers. A dialogue will be a relief too, for your uncle presumes upon more patience in his hearers than belongs to Greeks of Athenian blood.”

“This,” said Helon, “is not the only thing which is tiresome to you.”

“I acknowledge it—a transient gleam of the Divinity from time to time is well; but my thoughts must return to the things of earth.”

“How well hast thou characterised thyself and the religion of thy heathen brethren,” said Helon. “You have, indeed, a gleam of divine truth, a remnant of ancient, primeval tradition, eclipsed and shrouded in the darkness of human error.”

“To look on the sun, and only on the sun, dazzles the eyes. Elisama is always pointing thither, and my eyes already ache with straining.”

“The rising sun does not dazzle or strain the eye,” replied Helon, “and Elisama will tell you, that as yet we only see the dawn, and that thousands of years will pass before noon arrives. But I was going to confute you out of your own Plato. Does he not say that truth and virtue cannot be taught?”

“He does.”

“How then, O wise Myron, can they be attained?”

“Only in the [state of divine inspiration], as we have often read in the dialogues of the god-like sage,” replied Myron.

“What name then must be given to the knowledge of that which is true, and which is?” continued Helon.

“We must call it a reminiscence of that divine condition, in which, according to Plato, the soul formerly was, but from which it has fallen.”

“And do not you yourself say, that all this is merely an intimation of the truth, and that that which is, cannot be comprehended by means of such symbols? It is for this reason that I call such knowledge, Revelation; and I hold this doctrine of Plato to be a relic of those primeval times, when the true and revealed knowledge of God was not yet entirely obliterated. But we can prove by historical evidence that God spoke by Moses, and that our law therefore is what it claims to be, a Revelation.”

“But what are these historical proofs, on which all depends?” interrupted Myron.

“Has not Elisama given them in the course of his narrative, and are they not plainly to be discerned in our sacred writings? But I will give you another proof. If Moses had read his doctrines on the hieroglyphic pillars of Egypt, how happened it that they were not read by the priests of Isis, who must have had still readier access to them?”

Myron appeared to be about to answer, though somewhat perplexed by the question, when they were interrupted by the well-known blast of the trumpet. They had not observed that they were prolonging their discourse far into the night. Sallu and the slave came up, and pulled the poles of the tent out of the sand. “It is time,” said Elisama, “that we should desist, and indeed such disputes, Helon, have little results! Let him fear God, and he will believe in the law.”

“In that case,” said Helon, “we should as men enjoy that friendly communion in the knowledge of the truth, of which as youths we dreamt in the Bruchium.” He reached his hand to Myron, who took it smiling, and hastened to his horse.

CHAPTER V.
THE HALT AT OSTRACINE.

The march began, as usual, about midnight, and terminated at [Ostracine]. They had not proceeded far from Casium, when they reached the lake Sirbonis, whose surface was so covered with the [drifted sand], that they had difficulty in distinguishing it, in the darkness, from the surrounding wilderness. A few sabbath-days’ journies farther on, they came to a green, fertile, and blooming vale, called [Larish], in the midst of the desert, like a flower growing in the sand. A small brook discharges itself by this valley into the lake Sirbonis. In summer, it is commonly dry: now its clear waters were flowing, and the stars were reflected in them. Elisama checked his horse, as they were about to cross it, and called to Helon, “Farewell to Egypt; this is the boundary! I cross the [river of Egypt].”

There seemed to be something melancholy in his tone, as if the farewell were painful, notwithstanding his approach to the Holy Land. The ominous anticipations of Helon’s mother occurred to him, and though at Alexandria he had despised them as female weakness, he could not shake them off. Helon called aloud, with an animated voice, so that all before and behind might hear him, “Farewell Egypt; I see thee not again—or only as a new man!” He rode forward, giving himself up to the imaginations of his own mind, to which there was something of a fascinating interest in this nightly procession, amidst songs near and distant, the measured tinkling of the bells, beneath the glimmering light of the stars, and ruddy gleams of pitch-kettles, which deepened the surrounding shadows. He felt now more than ever that he had left Egypt behind, and was surprised at the almost poetical enthusiasm which began to be awakened within him.

Two hours after sunrise, they arrived at Ostracine. No one was weary. The tent was pitched, and they laid themselves under it. Myron was rather dissatisfied, as having had the worst of the argument; Helon was full of the animating reflections which the journey in the night had excited in him; and Elisama still under the influence of the melancholy which had seized him at the river of Egypt. All emotions are durable in the mind of an oriental, and he does not quickly part either with his sorrow or his joy. Yet all were full of alacrity, and Myron, as usual, the first to speak, began thus:

“Though I have little chance of making my cause good to any one’s satisfaction but my own, while I continue with you, yet I shall rejoice, Elisama, to hear the continuation of your narrative. I presume we would all rather speak and hear, than sleep.”

“Listen then,” said Elisama, “and perhaps the narrative may enable me to throw off the melancholy that weighs upon me. I related to you, at Casium, that Jehovah had given the law to our nation, in preference to every other, as their inheritance, and their treasure. But though given, much was yet necessary in order that the law should be obeyed. It was not in every land, nor under all circumstances, practicable to walk blameless in all the commandments of the Lord. The whole legislation on mount Sinai had a reference to the future condition of Israel in Canaan, where those circumstances, under which alone the law could be fulfilled, either already existed, or were to be produced.

“First of all it was necessary, that the land of Canaan, which was still occupied by many native tribes, should be conquered. Moses, the man ‘with whom Jehovah talked as a man talketh with his friend,’[^[32]] was dead. But he had left his people the law, and an ardent longing for rest in the land of which he had presented so attractive a picture; and, besides all this, he had left them a valiant successor to himself, Joshua, the son of Nun, who, with Caleb, had alone been found worthy, among so many thousands, to enter into the promised land. Joshua was indeed not a second Moses; for a prophet like him has not since arisen in Israel, who had known God face to face. But, even in his youthful years, we knew Joshua as a faithful servant of Moses, who never quitted the tabernacle till his master returned to the camp. At the same time we saw him victorious over Amalek, in the valley of Rephidim, while Moses, standing on the top of Horeb, held up the staff of God. Next he appears as one of those who explored the land of Canaan, and brought back a true report of it, with a specimen of its fruits; and last of all, the Lord himself calls him a man in whom his spirit is, and commands Moses ‘to lay his hands upon him, and present him to the priest Eleasar, and the whole congregation, and put his glory upon him, that all the children of Israel might obey him.’[^[33]] Eleasar was to consult the Lord for him; and, at his word, both he and all the children of Israel were to go out and come in. This Moses had done, and when he died the Lord confirmed the appointment, and said to Joshua, ‘Be strong, and of good courage, and thou shalt divide unto this people the land which I have sworn to their father to give them.’

“By him, accordingly, the conquest of the land of promise was accomplished. The terror of the Lord went before him; the swelling Jordan divided itself to let him and the people pass; Jericho and Ai fell before him, in a manner equally wonderful and terrific, and the march of the victorious army proceeded without a check to Sichem, which Jacob had given to Joseph. The craft of the Gibeonites and their neighbours saved their lives, but furnished Israel with the [Nethinim], the hewers of wood and drawers of water.[^[34]] Thus he smote one and thirty kings, and divided the land among the tribes, established cities of refuge, and built Timnath-Serah, on the hills of Ephraim.[^[35]] The tribes of Gad and Reuben, and the half tribe of Manasseh, received their inheritance on the eastern side of Jordan; but, on condition that 40,000 men from among them should assist in the conquest of the country on the other side, and on their return should erect, near the Jordan, a monument of their having partaken in the war with their brethren. A short time before his death, he held a general assembly of the people, in which he made Israel renew the covenant with Jehovah.[^[36]] When he died, he bequeathed to fourteen judges, who ruled Israel in succession, the difficult duty of upholding what he had established. The people, not yet sufficiently confirmed in the law, since more was necessary for this purpose than the mere possession of the land, allowed themselves to be seduced into the idolatry of the Canaanites. From without, the Mesopotamians, Moabites, Canaanites of the north, Midianites, Amalekites, Amonites, and Philistines, harassed and subdued the yet unconsolidated nation. In this way nearly 500 years elapsed, in which fourteen heroes and sages, whom we call Judges, arose, and each, in their time, employed their energies in opposing the universal corruption, or delivering the people from oppression. So much did it cost to secure the possession of the portion which Jehovah had given to his people! Samuel closes this list of heroes, a man on whom, in a peculiar manner, the spirit of the Lord rested, and who, under the influence of this spirit, established schools of the prophets, to perpetuate the knowledge of the law.

“Thus was the land acquired: but there was still wanting a civil constitution, and a vigorous executive government. Jehovah alone would be their king; but the people felt the necessity that this dignity should be embodied to them in the person of one from among themselves. Samuel disapproved this imitation of the customs of the heathens, but he was compelled to yield, and anointed first Saul, and then David, king. In the whole history of our nation, there is no character that takes a more powerful hold of human sympathies than David, from his youth and his friendship, his heroic spirit, his conquests and institutions, his weaknesses and his sufferings. Scripture calls him ‘a man after God’s own heart.’ Under him the promise of God to Abraham was fulfilled in the amplest sense, and from the river of Egypt to the great river Euphrates, the whole country was subject to Israel. But he did still more. He became the central point to all the tribes who had hitherto lived in nominal federation and virtual independence. He united all the five millions of his subjects by a common bond, and made Jerusalem the capital. For the first time, under him, it was possible to observe the civil laws of Moses. Joshua had conquered a country for the law, but David established a state for it.

“Still one thing was wanting, the temple, in which the glory of the Lord should dwell. The tabernacle, its prototype, had been brought to Shiloh, and from thence to Gibeon. The ark had been captured by the Philistines, had been brought back by them to Bethshemesh, thence to Kiriath Jearim, to Gilgal, to Nob, to the house of Obed-Edom at Gibeon, and finally to Zion. In all these places sacrifices had been performed. This was contrary to the will of Jehovah. David, who knew this, had already made preparations for the building of a temple, but it was not the pleasure of Jehovah that he should erect it. It was reserved for Solomon his son, to be the third, who, after Joshua and David, should furnish the last and most important of those means, which still were wanting to make the external observance of the law practicable. And how did he perform this duty! In what strains do our sacred books speak of his wisdom, of his riches and of the unparalleled splendour of his temple! Kings and queens came from the east to behold this wonder of the world.

“The reign of Solomon was the era in which all was fulfilled, which Israel could still desire; in which every thing united to give external dignity to the worship of Jehovah. The country was tranquil within, and at peace with its neighbours, governed by its king with wisdom, and united by the temple which served as a central point to the whole nation. This is the most splendid era of our history, and when an Israelite pictures to himself days of happiness and prosperity, it is under the image of the reign of Solomon.

“Only read, Myron, the [translation] of our Books of Kings, and you will be surprised to find, that on reaching the reign of Solomon, you are transported from the calm tone of historic narrative, to the animated style of poetry, as if its own traits and colours were not strong or bright enough to do justice to the reminiscences of those joyous, youthful days. In the history of a nation, as in the life of an individual, there is always some one period, in which every thing is combined that contributes to happiness; it comes once, and comes not again!

“But I am wandering from my proper subject, which is to describe to you the wisdom and the riches of Solomon. The Books of Kings relate, that at his entrance on his kingly office, after he had sacrificed a thousand burnt-offerings on the hills of Gibeon, Jehovah appeared to him in a dream[^[37]] and asked him what he should give him. Solomon, in his humility, calls himself a little child, who knew not how to go out or to come in, and asks only an understanding heart, to discern good from evil. And the answer of Solomon pleased the Lord, and God said unto him, ‘Because thou hast asked this thing, and hast not asked for thyself long life, nor riches, nor the life of thine enemies, but hast asked understanding to discern judgment, behold I have given thee a wise and understanding heart, so that there was none like thee before thee, neither after thee shall any arise like unto thee. And I have given thee also that which thou hast not asked, both riches and honour, so that there was none like thee before thee, neither after thee shall any arise like unto thee.’ Accordingly we are told of his wisdom, ‘that he excelled all the children of the east country and all the wisdom of Egypt. For he was wiser than all men, than Ethan the Ezrahite, and Heman, and Chalcol, and Darda the sons of Mahol; and his fame was in all nations round about. And he spoke 3000 proverbs, and his songs were 1005; and he spake of trees, from the cedar tree that is in Lebanon, to the hyssop that springeth out of the wall: he spake also of beasts, and of fowl, and of insects, and of fishes. And there came of all people to hear the wisdom of Solomon from all kings of the earth which had heard of his wisdom.’[^[38]] Of his riches it is said, ‘Judah and Israel were many as the sand which is by the sea in multitude, eating and drinking and making merry. And Solomon reigned over all kingdoms from the river unto the land of the Philistines, and unto the border of Egypt; and they brought presents, and served him all the days of his life. And Solomon’s provision for one day was thirty measures of fine flour, and threescore measures of meal, ten fat oxen and twenty oxen out of the pastures, and a hundred sheep, besides harts, roebucks, and fallow deer, and fatted fowl. And Judah and Israel dwelt safely, every man under his vine and under his figtree, from Dan even to Beersheba, all the days of Solomon. And Solomon had 40,000 chariot horses, and 12,000 horsemen.’[^[39]] And the weight of gold that came to Solomon in one year, was six hundred threescore and six talents of gold, besides that which he had of the merchant-men, and of the traffic of the spice-merchants and the kings of Arabia and the governors of the country.—He made a great throne of ivory, and overlaid it with the best gold, there was not the like made in any kingdom. All the drinking vessels were of gold, and all the vessels in the house of the forest of Lebanon were of pure gold, none were of silver, it was accounted nothing of in the days of king Solomon. ‘He made silver to be in Jerusalem as stones, and cedars as the sycamore trees that are in the vale, for abundance.’[^[40]]

“When the queen of Sheba had visited him, she said, ‘It was a true report that I heard in mine own land of thy acts and of thy wisdom. Yet, I believed not the words until I came and mine eyes had seen it—behold the half was not told me; thy wisdom and prosperity exceedeth the fame which I heard. Happy are thy servants which stand continually before thee and hear thy wisdom.’[^[41]]

“The temple was a monument both of his wisdom and his wealth. Phœnicia excelled at that time all other nations of the earth in skill in the arts, and Solomon made a bargain with Hiram, king of Tyre, both for workmen and for cedar-wood from Lebanon. Solomon had 70,000 men who carried burthens, and 80,000 carpenters, on the mountain, without reckoning the superintendents of the works. Seven years was this multitude employed upon the erection of the temple; the foundation was laid in the fourth year of his reign, and it was completed in the eleventh. When it was finished, he assembled the elders of Israel, and the heads of tribes, the chief of the fathers of the children of Israel, in Jerusalem, that they might bring up the ark of the covenant of the Lord out of the city of David. And the priests brought in the ark of the covenant of the Lord into its place, into the oracle of the house, to the most holy place, under the wings of the cherubim. And when Solomon had offered his incomparable dedication-prayer, and blessed the people, and had sacrificed 22,000 oxen and 120,000 sheep, he and all Israel held a feast, a great assemblage, from the entering in of Hamath to the river of Egypt, before the Lord for fourteen days. And he sent the people away, and they blessed the king, and went away unto their tents joyful and glad of heart for all the goodness that the Lord had done for David his servant, and for Israel his people.[^[42]]

“Thus was the second period of the history of our nation completed. In the first they received the law; in the second they obtained a country, a king, and a temple. Now every man in Judah and in Israel might dwell securely under his own vine and his own figtree, from Dan to Beersheba, and serve Jehovah. We have next to see whether they did so. But I will break off here, that I may preserve unmingled the remembrance of those glorious days.”

“Blessed be the Lord,” exclaimed Helon, “the King of the world, who vouchsafed such a time to his people!”

“It is not to be denied,” said Myron, “that it must have been a joyful time in Jerusalem, and the whole land of Judea under Solomon. And yet your nation seems to me better fitted for a wandering life through the wilderness, such as was yesterday described to us.”

“Why so?” asked Helon.

“Because you knew not how to improve your good fortune.”

Helon was astonished.

“I pity a people, so destitute of all taste and skill in the fine arts as yours. They want to build a temple and a house of the forest of Lebanon—gold and silver they have in abundance, but they are obliged to send for artists from Tyre; they come, execute their works, and leave these behind them, without having communicated to your nation the smallest portion of their dexterity.”

“There have not been wanting amongst us in all ages,” said Helon, “excellent artificers.”

“Single instances decide nothing,” said Myron, “but a nation which, in its most flourishing period, is obliged to engage artists from foreign kings, and can do nothing by its own ingenuity and dexterity, is surely a poor and helpless race. How different from the great Hellenic people! Poetry in abundance I have indeed heard from you, but this is the only branch of art in which you have done any thing. No painting, no statuary, no drama!”

“Thou speakest,” said Elisama, interposing angrily, “like a blind heathen, and what I have so often intimated seems to have been lost upon thee. Israel was not designed, nor ever aimed, to excel in such worldly arts. It was to be a kingdom of priests and a holy people, to receive and to preserve the law of Jehovah; and on this account he calls it his people, his Jeshurun, his beloved Israel. The time which other nations might devote to the culture of the elegant arts, Israel was to spend in the observance of the law. You have omitted all mention too of our music. This and our poetry are alone worthy to accompany the people before the presence of Jehovah; his temple must be splendid, but it was of no consequence that it was made so by foreign hands. Besides, the present temple, which yields little if at all to the former, was built by native artists; and supposing that in Solomon’s time architecture was unknown among us, could this skill be reasonably expected in a nation, which had struggled for five hundred years for the possession of the soil, which even then had not been completely united for more than half a century, and had passed a considerable portion even of that short time in internal commotion!

“You are unjust, Myron, in another respect,” added Helon, “the state of the arts among a people should be judged of from that department, in which it has put forth its powers. Compare our poets with yours; we have no need to fear the comparison.”

“Mention to me then your Homer and Sophocles,” said Myron.

“In those species of poetry our fathers have written nothing. But name to me a Greek, who has surpassed the odes of David, the elegies of Jeremiah, or the epigrams and scolia of Solomon.”[Solomon.”]

“I will read your poets,” said Myron, “when I return to Alexandria, but it is impossible that a barbarian should rival the great masters of Greece.”

“Compare, with a mind free from prejudice, as becomes a true critic of art, and you will be astonished at the lyric flights of our psalms, which leave Pindar behind; at the plaintive tenderness of Jeremiah, more deep and touching than that of Simonides. Remember, too, that this poetry of ours was never designed by its authors as a work of art, or a display of poetic power, but was the effusion of a mind swelling with the praise of Jehovah, lamenting its own, or its country’s sorrows, or intent upon enforcing the precepts of the law. With us the artist is more prominent and interesting than his work; you think you have succeeded, when the artist is forgotten in the merit of his production.”

Sallu brought in the meal, and they ate and drank in peace, Elisama and Helon ruminating on the glory of Solomon, Myron not less pleased with his reflections on the preeminence of his own nation. They slept from the heat of the noonday till the sun went down, and when evening came on were still in a state between sleeping and waking, enjoying the coolness of the breeze. The stars had begun to appear over the desert, when they were roused by a blast of the trumpet, in its harshest tone. They started up. “That,” said Elisama, “is not the signal of the march; it is an alarm.” Sallu rushed in and informed them that a horde of Arabs was in sight, and threatened an attack. The tumult was excessive. The men mounted their horses and hastened to the side on which the danger appeared. The guides vociferated and endeavoured to restore order. The bows were strung; the slaves struck the tents, and were preparing to drive the camels further into the rear. After all these preparations had been made the enemy retired, feeling himself probably too weak to encounter such a resistance.

While all were resuming their places, Myron seemed somewhat disappointed at the loss of the adventure which he had promised himself, to season the insipid sameness of the caravan’s march, Elisama turned himself in the direction of Jerusalem, and in an attitude of prayer repeated,

When I call my enemies turn back;

This I know, for God is with me.

In God have I put my trust, I will not fear;

What can man do unto me?

Thy vows are upon me, O God!

I will pay my thank-offerings unto thee:

For thou deliveredst my soul from death,

My foot from falling,

That I may walk before God in the land of the living?

Ps. lvi. 10-14.

The guide was not willing to remain till midnight in this place, and gave the signal for departure. The alarm into which they had just been thrown, the terrors of their fellow-travellers, and the tumult of departure, were unable to turn the minds of Helon and Elisama from the glories of the age of Solomon, and they rehearsed together the following psalm, which, composed primarily in his honour, was supposed to carry also a secret reference to one much greater than Solomon.

The mountains shall declare peace to the people

And the hills announce righteousness.

They shall fear thee, as long as the sun and moon endure,

Throughout all generations.

He shall come down like rain upon the mown grass,

As showers that water the earth.

In his days shall the righteous flourish,

And abundance of peace, so long as the moon endureth.

He shall have dominion from sea to sea,

From the river to the ends of the earth,

They that dwell in the desert shall bow before him,

And his enemies shall lick the dust.

The kings of Tarshish and of the isles shall bring presents,

The kings of Sheba and Seba shall offer gifts.

All kings shall fall down before him,

All nations shall serve him—

A handful of corn, scattered in the earth on the top of the mountains

Shall wave its fruit like the trees of Lebanon.

And the peopled cities shall flourish like grass of the earth.

His name shall endure for ever;

His name shall be continued as long as the sun.

Men shall be blessed in him;

All nations shall call him blessed!—Psl. lxxii.

CHAPTER VI.
THE HALT AT RHINOCORURA.

They arrived in safety, and at an early hour, at [Rhinocorura], and encamped where a copious stream from the mountains had produced verdure and fertility upon its banks. Elisama, who from his advanced age was easily exhausted by any unusual excitement, was compelled to lie down to rest immediately on his arrival, and it was not till after the meal that he was able to resume his narrative.

“I have,” said he, “a long and melancholy history to relate. The vicissitudes of five hundred years were necessary, in order to impress upon the mind of Israel the conviction, that the retributive Providence of God watched over their observance of the law, and rewarded or punished them according as they kept or broke it. Yesterday we left our nation on the highest and most brilliant pinnacle of national prosperity, possessed of the law, of the land of promise, and of a temple in which all the outward rites of Jehovah’s worship might be observed. One thing only was wanting to make Israel that blessed people, by whom all other nations were to be blessed—willing obedience. But something more was necessary to produce this obedience, than the possession of the law and the means of keeping it. It must be regarded as an extraordinary mark of the favour of Jehovah towards Israel, that every thing was so combined, as to impress the doctrine of retribution upon them, both by fact and precept. No people exhibits such a quick succession and such a striking alternation of reward and punishment, so that Jehovah may be said to have set it up as a monument to the nations of his retributive justice. Its history, however, was not designed merely for the instruction of others, but primarily to teach Israel itself this great lesson; and for this purpose a succession of prophets was raised up, to enforce by their instruction the moral which the events of history were teaching.”

Myron was about to interpose, but Elisama made a sign to him and continued,

“I guess what you are going to say.”

“Allow me, however, this once to interrupt you in your narrative, for you seem to me to be going too far in your panegyrics. Has not every nation and every religion its priests, its prophets, and its inspired teachers?”

“You know,” said Elisama, “that I do not relish the Grecian mode of interlocutory debate: let me, if you please, go quietly on, and I hope, before I have done, to remove all your objections. Your own statement shows the difference. Our prophets were not always priests. They were sometimes shepherds, and were chosen by God from all the tribes without distinction. They were chosen messengers of Jehovah; their office raised them above both priest and people, and through them he made known his judgments and his mercy. They remind the people of the law, they point out in passing, or in future events, the operations of retributive justice; they promise rewards to obedience and denounce punishments on disobedience, and they disclose, in the distance, the future glories of the days of the Messiah.

“Samuel had founded schools of the prophets, and we read of Nathan, the prophet, in the history of David. But it is to the period which follows the reign of Solomon, that they more appropriately belong. This period begins with the separation of the kingdoms of Israel and Judah. Even in the last years of his reign, his splendour may have been a source of oppression to his people, who called upon Rehoboam his successor for alleviation of their burthens. Young, and following the advice of youthful counsellors, he threatened, instead of granting their request. On this Jeroboam, who had come out of Egypt, where he had premeditated his destructive plans against the house of David, was chosen king by ten tribes, while Judah, Benjamin and Levi, adhered to Rehoboam, and formed the kingdom of Judah; Jeroboam, now become the king of Israel, erected his throne at Sichem, and fearing that by going up to the temple at Jerusalem, the people might be tempted to reunite with the kingdom of Judah, he set up the worship of the golden calves, at Bethel and at Dan. He was the exact opposite of David, and the scripture designates him as ‘the man that caused Israel to sin.’[^[43]] This fearful degeneracy could not pass unpunished. Ahia, the prophet, predicted the extermination of his house. His son Nadab, who walked in the way of his father, was killed by Baasa, who succeeded him as king, and took up his abode in Thirza, and who, walking in the way of Jeroboam, received from the prophet Jehu, the son of Hanani, a fearful denunciation of divine vengeance.[^[44]] His son Elah fell, when in a state of intoxication, by the sword of Zimri; and thus the prophetic word was a second time fulfilled. Zimri, besieged in Thirza by Omri, whom the people in the camp had chosen king, set fire to the palace and perished in the flames. Omri built Samaria, and was succeeded by his son Ahab. Ahab was king of Israel, at the same time as Jehoshaphat was king of Judah. Though they were allied by the marriage of their children, they were directly opposite in their characters. Ahab, wicked and devoted to idolatry, added the worship of Baal to those which were already practised in Israel, and thus brought upon himself the most awful threatenings of Jehovah. Jehoshaphat, weak, but faithful to the law, sent Levites through the country to teach and judge,[^[45]] and obtained the mercy of Jehovah.

“In the days of these two kings, Elijah made his appearance; he may be called by eminence the prophet. His native place was Thisbah, but he traversed the whole country from side to side, clad in a skin, with a leathern girdle about his loin, denouncing, in the boldest and most glowing terms, the worship of Baal—a fearful and sublime phenomenon. Now he appears boldly before the throne—now he wanders a fugitive in the wilderness: at one time he denounces the wrath of Jehovah on backsliding Israel; at another he slaughters, on Carmel, the idolatrous priests of Baal: to-day he is the messenger of Jehovah to bring comfort to the widow of Zarephath, to-morrow he appears before Ahab and his queen, and predicts their dreadful fate. His name carries terror with it to the hearts of the guilty, and inspires the righteous with courage.

“His disciple, Elisha, anointed Jehu, and predicted that the kingdom should continue in his family to the fifth generation. These kings, though not acceptable to God as David was, yet opposed the progress of idolatry. Jehu put to death the worshippers of Baal, and made a pool of his temple. In consequence this dynasty continued on the throne and flourished till the fifth generation; and under the fourth, Jeroboam, the son of Joash, the ancient limits were regained, and Israel extended from Hamath to the sea of the plain, as Jonah, the son of Amittai, had foretold to him.[^[46]] Still, however, the calves remained in Dan and Bethel, the relics of that idolatry which the people had learned in Egypt. As a punishment for this, a terrible interregnum ensued, at the close of which, Zechariah, the fifth from Jehu, came to the throne, but was murdered by Shallum. This is the third fulfilment of the prophecy of Jehovah respecting the royal houses of Israel.

“This is the time in which Jonah, Amos, Hosea, and the great Isaiah, prophesied. Jonah was sent to Nineveh, the largest city then existing, to preach the judgments of Jehovah. Amos, one of the shepherds of Tekoah, prophesied to all the surrounding nations, and last of all to Judah and Israel, the punishment of their sins, beginning with these terrific words:

The Lord will thunder from Zion,

And utter his voice from Jerusalem.

The habitations of the shepherds shall mourn,

And the top of Carmel shall wither.

“And as he successively denounces to Damascus, to Gaza, to Tyre, and the other neighbouring states, the punishments that awaited them, he begins each prophecy with the alarming words,

Thus saith Jehovah;

[Three sins] I have passed by,

The fourth I cannot overlook.

“He beholds first the approach of a desolating flight of locusts, then a terrible fire, and having interceded against both, he sees the Lord, standing with a plummet in his hand beside the wall, and hears the words:

Behold I will set a plumb-line in the midst of my people Israel;

I will not again pass by them any more.

The high places of Isaac shall be desolate,

And the sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste,

And I will rise against the house of Jeroboam with the sword.—Amos vii. 7.

“Let me here subjoin, Myron, the history which follows, which will show you clearly in what relation the prophet stood to the priests: ‘Then Amaziah, the priest of Bethel, sent to Jeroboam, king of Israel, saying, Amos hath conspired against thee in the midst of the house of Israel, the land cannot remain tranquil for the words which he speaketh. For thus Amos saith; Jeroboam shall die by the sword, and Israel shall surely be led away captive out of their own land. And Amaziah said unto Amos, O thou seer, go flee away into the land of Judah, and there eat bread and prophesy there: but prophesy no more at Bethel: for it is the king’s sanctuary and royal palace. Then answered Amos and said to Amaziah, I was no prophet, neither was I a prophet’s son, but I was a herdsman, and I lived on sycamore fruit. And the Lord took me, as I followed my flock, and he said to me, Go prophesy unto my people Israel. Now therefore hear thou the word of the Lord. Thou sayest

Prophesy not against Israel

And stream not forth against the house of Isaac!

“But the Lord saith,

Thy wife shall be a harlot,

And thy sons and thy daughters shall fall by the sword.

Thy land shall be divided by the line,

And thou shalt die in a polluted land,

And Israel shall be carried captive out of his land.[^[47]]

“Hosea, the son of Beeri, is first of all commanded to contract a symbolical marriage, to indicate the infidelity of the congregation of Israel against Jehovah. Then he breaks forth in the highest and boldest strain of indignation.

Blow ye the cornet in Gibeah,

The trumpet in Ramah!

Cry aloud at Bethaven

‘They are after thee, O Benjamin!’

Ephraim shall be desolate in the day of rebuke,

And upon the tribes of Israel

I make known what shall surely be.

The princes of Judah were like them that remove the landmark;

Therefore will I pour out my wrath upon them like water.[^[48]]

“The prophetic words were soon accomplished, in the rapid downfal of the kingdom of Israel. Assyria, which Jehovah calls the rod of his indignation,[^[49]] made Menahem, the next king after Zechariah, tributary; and Tiglath-pilesar carried away many of the inhabitants of Israel. Galilee, and the district beyond Jordan were lost. Hoseah, the last king of Israel, contrary to the advice of Isaiah, made a league with So, the king of Egypt, and was defeated by Salmanassar. Samaria was destroyed, the inhabitants carried beyond the Tigris, to the neighbourhood[neighbourhood] of the river Chebar, and the Lord put away Israel from before him, as he threatened by his servants the prophets.

“Where once the tribes of Israel, the sons of Joseph, Ephraim, and Manasseh had dwelt, strangers from the east had settled themselves, and being infested with lions, they requested from the king that Israelitish priests might be sent them; and so they polluted the land, the village of Jacob, and many other sacred spots, by a mixture of the worship of God with that of idols, which continues to defile it even to this day.

“Thus had Jehovah manifested, both by deed and precept, his retributory judgments in the case of Israel. Would that Judah had been wise, and had learned from the fate of her sister kingdom that lesson which they who will not read must feel!

“Rehoboam sat upon the throne of David, but had no resemblance to him in character. He built high places and pillars, and planted groves, and committed the abominations of the heathens, whom the Lord had cast out before the children of Israel, upon every hill and under every green tree. Jehovah sent Sisak, king of Egypt, who conquered all the cities and Jerusalem itself, and carried away both the royal treasure and that of the temple into his own country. Jehovah had foretold this by the prophet Shemaiah[^[50]] and the king and the princes of Judah humbled themselves. And when the Lord saw that they had humbled themselves, he said, I will not destroy them, but I will grant them a little deliverance, and my wrath shall not be poured out upon them by the hand of Sisak. Nevertheless they shall be his servants, that they may know what it is to serve me, and what to serve the kingdoms of the countries.

“Abijah followed him. He trusted in Jehovah, and was successful in a great battle against Israel, in which he defeated an enemy who was at least twice as numerous.[^[51]] He entered the battle with the words, ‘With us is the Lord our God and we have not forsaken him, and the priests which minister unto the Lord, the sons of Aaron and the Levites in their occupations.’[occupations.’]

“His successor Asa, by the same faith, smote again a mighty host of invaders from Arabia and Ethiopia, as the prophet Azariah had foretold. How greatly was the power of Jehoshaphat increased, by his zeal against idolatry, and his obedience to God, and in how humbled a condition did he return from a war in which the prophet Micaiah had warned him not to engage! He unfortunately gave to his son, Jehoram, Athaliah, Ahab’s daughter, to wife; and when the iniquity of Israel was thus communicated to Judah, by this seed of Jezebel, punishment, oppression and distress soon followed, till Joash, who had escaped her murderous hand, was brought forth from the temple where he had been concealed by Jehoiada, and placed upon the throne of David. Uzziah was prosperous against all his enemies, as long as the prophet Zechariah lived; but a grievous leprosy fell upon him when he daringly presumed to approach the Lord, and offer him incense after the manner of the priests. To him succeeded Ahaz, the worst and most infatuated of the sons of David, who being given up to Syrian idolatry and superstition, closed the temple and sought aid of Assyria. But how strikingly was his apostasy punished, when he was compelled to give the treasures of the temple to these very allies!

“Even down to this time, how triumphantly had the retributive providence of God been manifested in the history of our people! What wonderful accomplishment of the prophetic word, even in years, names, and individual occurrences! But about this time Isaiah arose, towering with an eagle’s flight, now encouraging king and people with the promise of divine favour, now humbling them with denunciations against their sins, and above all predicting, in clearer language than any preceding prophet, HIM who was to be the consolation and the glory of Israel—the Messiah! He who, when he received his prophetic commission, saw Jehovah seated on a throne, high and lifted up, and the seraphim around him crying, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God of Hosts[^[52]]—whose lips were touched with a live coal from the altar; and whom the Lord himself sent to speak in his name, was well fitted either to denounce captivity and punishment to the people, or to describe the glorious days of Emanuel, the son of the virgin.

Behold the Lord, the Lord of Hosts

Shall lop the bough with a loud crash,

And the high tops shall be hewn down

And the lofty shall be made low.

He fells the thickets of the forest with the axe,

And Lebanon falls by a mighty hand.

Yet there shall come forth a shoot from the stem of Jesse,

And a scion shall grow out of his root;

And the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him,

The spirit of wisdom and understanding,

The spirit of counsel and strength,

The spirit of the knowledge and fear of Jehovah.

He shall be of quick discernment in the fear of Jehovah,

And shall not judge according to appearances,

Nor decide according to hearsay.

But he shall judge the poor in righteousness,

And speak for the right of the oppressed in the land.

He shall smite the evil doer with his tongue,

And slay the wicked with the breath of his lips.

Righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins,

And faithfulness the cincture of his reins.

Then shall the wolf dwell with the lamb,

And the leopard shall lie down with the kid,

And the calf and the young lion, and the fatling shall be together,

And a little child shall lead them.

And the heifer and the she-bear shall feed together,

Their young ones shall lie down together;

And the lion shall eat straw like an ox;

The suckling shall play upon the hole of the aspic,

And the weaned child lay his hand upon the den of the basilisk:

They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain.

For the earth shall be full of the knowledge of Jehovah,

As the waters cover the depths of the sea.—Is. x. 33.

“Contemporary with Isaiah, the sublimest of our prophets, was Micah, the Morasthite, who uttered these words:

The sun goeth down over the prophets

And the day shall be dark over them.

Then shall the seers be ashamed,

And the diviners confounded.

Yea, they shall all cover their faces

Because no fulfilment cometh from Jehovah.

But I am full of power by the spirit of the Lord,

Full of truth, and of courage,

To declare unto Jacob his transgression

And unto Israel his sin.

For this reason shall Zion be ploughed as a field,

And Jerusalem shall become heaps,

And the temple-hill as the high places of the forest.

But in the last days it shall come to pass

That the hill of the Lord’s temple shall be established on the top of the mountains,

And it shall be exalted above the hills,

And nations shall flow unto it;

And many people shall come and say,

Come and let us go up to the mountain of Jehovah,

And to the house of the God of Jacob,

That he may teach us of his ways

And we may walk in his paths.

For the law shall go forth from Zion

And the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.

He shall judge among many people,

And be arbiter of strong nations afar off.

They shall beat their swords into ploughshares,

And their spears into pruninghooks;

Nation shall not lift up the sword against nation

Neither shall they learn war any more.

But they shall sit every man under his own vine and under his figtree

And none shall make them afraid:

For the mouth of the Lord of Hosts has spoken it.

Micah iii. iv.

“Such prophets as these spoke in the days of Hezekiah, a weak but pious man. When indeed could the word of prophecy be more seasonable or more needed? The doctrine of retribution was now fully developed. Israel had ceased to be; Judah still existed, through the piety of her kings. Had the prophet to speak of judgment—he had only to point to the hills of Ephraim, and to her sons on the banks of Chebar; was the faithfulness of Jehovah—and his recompense of obedience, the theme;—the seed of David still sat upon the throne of Judah, while so many dynasties had successively occupied that of Israel. But there was another occasion for a prophet: for danger threatened on all sides, and Sennacherib with his immense host besieged Jerusalem. To-day the army of the conqueror stood around the terrified city and its trembling king. He goes dejected to the house of the Lord, spreads out before him the letters and demands of the haughty invader, and prays to Jehovah. Isaiah, the prophet, declares to him, ‘He shall not come into this city; for I will defend it to save it, for mine own sake and for David my servant’s sake.’[^[53]] And in the morning Sennacherib flees before the angel of the Lord, who had smitten his host during the night. But Jehovah, who was so benign towards those that called upon him in humility, showed himself equally severe towards the proud. When Hezekiah, thoughtless and vain, had shown his treasures to the Babylonians, a nation then of little account in comparison with the Assyrians, Isaiah appears before him, and says, ‘Behold the time cometh, when all that is in thine house and all that thy fathers have collected unto this day shall be carried away to Babylon, nothing shall remain saith Jehovah.’[^[54]]

“To Hezekiah succeeded his son Manasseh, a prince wholly unlike his father, who, as a punishment of his offences, was carried away to Babylon, and brought back when he repented and returned to Jehovah. His reign is the picture of the history of the people in this period; sin and punishment, repentance and favour!

“Some time after began the days of Josiah, who was pious and prosperous under the guidance of Hilkiah, as Joash had been under that of Jehoiada, and Uzziah under that of Zechariah. The lost volume of the law was found, the temple purified, the passover kept, and the abominations of the high places, of the valley of Tophet, and the horses of the sun, were removed. The king stood by a pillar in the temple and made a covenant with the Lord, and it is written, ‘There was no king before him like unto him, that turned to the Lord with all his heart, and with all his soul, and with all his might, according to all the law of Moses; neither after him arose there any like him.’[^[55]] For this he was permitted to see the downfal of the hostile kingdom of Assyria, and he and his people were happy.

“But after the death of Josiah, Judah hastened with rapid strides to its destruction under the government of wicked princes. The prophecy of Isaiah to Hezekiah was fulfilled in the days of Jehoiakim. The vessels of the temple and the sons of the chief men of the land were carried away to Babylon. Jehoiakim, his son and successor, was deposed, after a reign of three months, and all the men of valour or property were removed to Babylon. Two prophets, who accompanied their exile, Ezekiel and Jeremiah, were chosen by Jehovah, in these awful times, to make known his word to his people.

“The last king that sat upon the throne of David was Zedekiah, another son of Josiah. He was seduced, in the ninth year of his reign, to rebel against Babylon and to league himself with Egypt. The Chaldeans invested Jerusalem, and it fell, in the three hundred and seventeenth year of the division of the kingdoms. The king was carried to Ribla, and his eyes put out, after he had witnessed the slaughter of his sons. He was then carried captive to Babylon, and awfully was the prophecy of Ezekiel fulfilled: ‘I will bring him to Babel in the land of the Chaldeans, and he shall die there; yet he shall not behold it.’[^[56]]

“The vessels of the house of God, small and great, the treasures of the temple and of the palace, and of all the princes, were carried by Nebuchadnezzar to Babylon. The youths were slaughtered in the sanctuary, and neither age nor sex was spared; Jehovah gave every thing into his hand. All that remained was carried away to Babylon. They burnt the house of the Lord, and the house of the king and all the houses of Jerusalem. And the army of the Chaldeans broke down the walls of Jerusalem round about.

“Thus Jeshurun, the once beloved people of Jehovah, the once glorious daughter of Zion, lay in desolation and misery. The glory of Solomon was scarcely discernible in its ruins; the blessing of David had vanished from his throne, and even that which Joshua and the Judges had earned with toil and blood was lost. David, Solomon, Asa, Jehoshaphat, Hezekiah, and Josiah, had called upon them to fear Jehovah, but the superstitions of the neighbouring nations had more powerful attractions, and the law was too heavy a yoke for their untamed necks. Hence this awful punishment and unheard of retribution. Prophets were not wanting, to point out and enforce the lesson. Hear how our Jeremiah pours forth his heart-rending sorrows:

How doth the city sit solitary that was full of people!

How is she become as a widow—once great among the nations!

The queen of the lands, how is she become a slave!

She weepeth sore in the night, and her tears are on her cheeks.

Of all that loved her she hath none to comfort her,

All her friends have dealt treacherously with her, they are become her enemies.

She dwelleth among the heathens, she findeth no rest,

All her persecutors overtake her at the borders.

The ways of Zion mourn because no man comes to the solemn feasts;

All her gates are desolate, her priests sigh,

Her virgins are afflicted and are in bitterness.

Her adversaries are victorious, her enemies prosper;

For the Lord hath afflicted her for the multitude of her transgressions.

Her children are gone into captivity before the enemy;

From the daughter of Zion all her beauty is departed.

Her princes are become like deer, that find no pasture;

They fall without strength before the pursuer.

Jerusalem calls to mind in her misery the pleasures of the days of old.

Now she falleth into the hand of the enemy, and none help her;

Her adversaries see her and mock, because she must keep her sabbaths.

—She seeth that the heathens enter into her sanctuary,

Whom thou didst command that they should not enter into thy congregation.

—See if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow,

With which the Lord hath afflicted me in the day of his anger.”[anger.”]

“Admirable!” exclaimed Myron, unable to resist the beauty of this Lamentation.

Elisama continued: “It is the finest of all the songs of our prophets, and its echo still lives in the hearts of the children of Israel. This melancholy tone never ceases to predominate in their minds, no, not even in the days of Hyrcanus. What must the prophet have felt when he wrote,

All that pass by clap their hands at thee,

They hiss and shake the head at the daughter of Jerusalem;

Is this the city which men call the Perfection of Beauty, the joy of the whole earth?

“He had foreseen it all—he had taught them how the calamity might be avoided, but they would not listen to his voice; they had persecuted him, and despised the prophetic word. Now he had to endure the sight of that which he had endeavoured to avert.

I am the man that hath seen affliction

Under the rod of his wrath.

He hath led me and brought me

Into darkness and not into light.

He turneth his hand against me every day.

“Jeremiah did not forsake his people. He remained on the ruins of the temple, sitting and lamenting with the inferior people, when Nebuchadnezzar carried away the nobles and the princes. Gedaliah was placed over those who remained. He dwelt in Mizpah, and received those who had fled during the presence of the Chaldees. But scarcely had the hapless people begun to recover from the miseries of war, and to gather in the vintage and the summer fruits, when Ishmael, the son of Nethaniah, of the royal blood, came and slew Gedaliah.[^[57]] The people, fearing the king of Babylon, implored Jeremiah to ask counsel at the Lord on their behalf. After ten days the Lord answered by Jeremiah, that they should remain in the land and not fear the king of Babylon; nor venture, under severe penalties, to take refuge in Egypt. But they again disobeyed, and betook themselves to Egypt—our ancestors, Helon, were among the number; for what could individuals do against the stream which hurried them away. By the command of Jehovah, Jeremiah accompanied them thither, that by a symbolical action, before the door of Pharaoh’s house, he might typify the defeat of the Egyptians and the punishment of Israel. He dwelt in our house, and died there. On this pilgrimage we may well call to mind the words which he spoke; ‘Yet a small number shall return out of the land of Egypt into the land of Judah, and all the remnant of Judah, that are gone into the land of Egypt to sojourn there, shall know whose word shall stand, mine or theirs.’[^[58]]

“In the midst of these sufferings Jehovah did not wholly forsake his people. While, by the mouth of Jeremiah he spoke to those in Egypt, Ezekiel, the son of Buzi, was his messenger to the captives on the banks of Chebar. Nearly 40,000 men had been carried thither under Zedekiah; one hundred and fifty-three years before, in the days of Pekah, Israelites from Galilee and Gilead had been transferred to Assyria, and Salmanassar, one hundred and thirty-five years before, had carried those who remained into the cities of Media. In this manner they were dispersed through the east. But the word of the Lord came to Ezekiel, and in bold and lofty images he announced their return, and the glory of their future days. He foretold too their union, at some future time, after their present dispersion. The prophet was commanded to take two rods, and write on one of them, ‘for Judah and for the sons of Israel, his companions;’ and on the other, ‘for Joseph, the rod of Ephraim, and for all the house of Israel, his companions,’ and then to join them together as a symbol of their future union.[^[59]]

“Thus Israel was not left wholly comfortless: but her sins had been numerous and her punishment was grievous. Driven from their home, cut off from the land of promise, without a temple, or a prince on the throne of David, they were taught the power of Jehovah. He had punished no other people so, for he had loved no other so well. As they sat by the rivers of Babel and wept, when they thought of Zion, they felt that he was their judge, as well as their lawgiver. What did it avail them, that individuals of their nation rose to favour and distinction, Daniel, Esther, and Tobias, when the nation itself lived in misery and degradation? The seventy years of the captivity were tedious, mournful years, and while a child of Abraham remains upon the earth, their features will continue to bear the [traces of that melancholy], which these years impressed upon them. Every year we keep the mournful anniversary of the destruction of the temple, though it has been rebuilt, while, according to the words of Jeremiah, ‘we sit solitary and are still.’”

Elisama ceased, and a grief, that could find no vent in words, hung heavy about his heart and that of Helon. The last glow of the departing light had fallen on Elisama’s countenance, as he related the destruction of Jerusalem. Night succeeded; by the feeble glooming of the hearth fire, he had described the ruin and misery of Israel; and now all was darkness and silence. The blast of the trumpet, which gave the signal to prepare for the march, at length broke in upon them and they arose.

CHAPTER VII.
THE HALT AT RAPHIA.

The caravan halted in the neighbourhood of the ruins of [Raphia]; their day’s journies had been short, on account of the quantity of merchandise which they carried. Raphia does not properly belong to Egypt, and was reckoned as a part of Syria; a hundred years before, Antiochus the Great lost here a great battle with the Egyptians. The space which lies between Egypt and Syria had been for ages past the theatre of war between the adjacent countries; a circumstance that, before the captivity, had been the source of frequent calamity to Israel, which could scarcely fail of being involved either in the war or its consequences. This thought occurred to the minds both of Helon and Elisama, as they crossed the field of battle—but they derived some consolation from the thought, that Judea’s conqueror had in his turn been conquered here. Jehovah had indeed visited his people with calamity, but their enemies, the instruments in his hands, had always been punished for their ambition. Antiochus after the battle fled into his own kingdom, and left Palestine again free.

When they all awoke after the sleep at noon, Myron began, “Venerable Elisama, will you not relate to us the remaining part of the history of your nation? The journey to Gaza will be the last that we shall make together. Let us then pass these hours in something more improving than listening to the noise of camels and the Phœnicians’ talk of buying and selling.” Elisama placing himself in a convenient posture for narration, thus began:

“When Israel sat and wept by the rivers of Babel, and hung their harps upon the willows, ‘the hand of the Lord was upon Ezekiel the prophet,[^[60]] and carried him out in the spirit of the Lord, and set him down in the midst of a valley which was full of bones; and caused him to pass among them: and there were very many on the surface of the valley, and they were very dry. And he spoke to me and said, Son of man, can these bones live? And I said, Thou Lord knowest. And he said to me, Son of man prophesy concerning these bones, and say unto them, Ye dry bones, hear the word of the Lord! Thus saith the Lord God unto these bones, Behold, I will cause breath to enter into you and ye shall live! And I prophesied, as I was commanded, and as I prophesied they moved themselves, and the bones came together, bone to bone. And I beheld and saw that the sinews and the flesh came upon them, and the skin covered them, but there was no breath in them. Then said he unto me, Prophesy unto the wind; prophesy, O Son of man, and say to the wind, Thus saith the Lord God, Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live. So I prophesied, as I was commanded, and the breath came unto them, and they lived and stood up upon their feet, an exceedingly great multitude. And he said unto me, Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. Behold, they say, Our bones are dried up and our hope is lost. Therefore prophesy and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord; Behold I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel.’

“Thus the prophet consoled Israel, on the banks of Chebar; but he lived not to witness the deliverance which he announced. Not long however after his death, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus, the king of Persia, (who had conquered Assyria and Babylonia) by the means of the astonishment excited in him by the prophecies communicated to him by Daniel. Cyrus caused proclamation to be made through all his dominions, saying, 'Thus saith Cyrus, king of Persia; The Lord God of heaven hath given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and has commanded me to build him a house at Jerusalem in Judah. Who is there among you of all his people? his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem in Judah, and build the house of the Lord, the God of Israel. And whosoever remaineth in any place where he sojourneth, let the men of his place help him with silver and gold, and with goods and with cattle, of freewill, for the house of God at Jerusalem.’[Jerusalem.’]

“Then rose up the chief of the fathers of Judah and Benjamin, and the priests and the Levites, with all those whose spirit God had stirred up, to go and build the house of the Lord in Jerusalem. And all that were about them strengthened their hands with vessels of silver and vessels of gold, with goods and with cattle, and with precious things, besides all that was freely given. And king Cyrus brought forth the vessels of the house of the Lord, which Nebuchadnezzar had taken away from Jerusalem, and had put them in the temple of his gods, to the number of 5400, both gold and silver.[silver.][^[61]]

“The word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah, respecting the seventy years, was now fulfilled.[^[62]] Forty-two thousand three hundred and sixty men, with 7237 servants and maidens, 736 horses, 245 mules, 435 camels, and 6720 asses went with Zerubbabel and Jeshua to the land of their fathers out of captivity, full of thankfulness and praise. The expression of their joy may still be heard in the 126th Psalm.

When the Lord brought back the captivity of Zion

We were like them that dream.

Then was our mouth filled with laughter,

And our tongue with singing.

Then said they among the heathen,

“Jehovah hath done great things for them;”

Yea, Jehovah hath done great things for us, whereof we are glad.

Bring back, O Lord, our captives,

Like streams in a parched land.

They that sow in tears shall reap in joy.

The sower goeth forth with weeping, bearing the seed;

He cometh back with rejoicing, bringing the sheaves.

“Thus they returned to the Holy Land, Israel and Judah one rod, according to the words of Ezekiel. They take possession of the country, build villages, and even raise Jerusalem out of her ruins, but without repairing her walls. In the next month, Tisri, the whole congregation assembled at Jerusalem, as one man, to the feast of tabernacles. They set up the altar upon its base, amidst the ruins of the temple, and offered thereon burnt-offerings, morning and evening, according to custom, as the duty of every day required; and afterwards the burnt-offerings of the new moons, and all the feasts of the Lord that were hallowed.[^[63]]

“In the second month of the second year of their return, they laid the foundation of the temple of Jehovah, the expenses being supplied by their voluntary contributions. All set their hands to the work, and the Levites, from twenty years old and upwards, had the superintendence. The foundation being laid, the priests stood in their apparel, and the Levites, the sons of Asaph, with cymbals, to praise the Lord with the psalms of David, king of Israel, and they sung in responsive strains, praising and giving thanks unto the Lord, because he is good and his mercy endureth for ever toward Israel. And all the people shouted with a loud shout, when they praised the Lord, because the foundation of the house was laid. But many of the aged priests, and Levites and chiefs, that had seen the first house, when the foundation of this house was laid before their eyes, wept with a loud voice, and many shouted aloud for joy; so that the people could not distinguish the shout of joy from the noise of the weeping of the people.

“The prophets Haggai and Zechariah arose and encouraged the people to persevere—but difficulties were thrown in their way by the Samaritans, who, worshipping Jehovah along with their idols, had been desirous of partaking in the building of the temple.[^[64]] As their proposal was rejected, they obtained an order from a king of Persia, a successor of Cyrus, that the work should be stopped. But Jehovah aided his people: the temple was at length completed; and Haggai prophesied: The glory of this latter house shall be greater than the glory of the former, saith Jehovah of hosts, and I will give peace in this place.[^[65]] The new temple was dedicated, and the passover kept with joy.

“Under that Xerxes, whose millions, you Greeks, Myron, boast to have overcome, Ezra, the priest and scribe, a teacher of the word of the Lord, came from Babylon to Jerusalem. An [Israelitish maiden] was Xerxes’ queen, a Jew his prime minister, and Ezra was sent as viceroy to Jerusalem, commissioned to appoint judges, superior and inferior, to correct abuses and enforce the observance of the law. He came with a company of not more than 6,000 men.[^[66]]

“The work, however, proceeded slowly, and incessant wars interfered with it. After thirty years Nehemiah came, as viceroy from the court of Artaxerxes, and urged on the building and fortifying of Jerusalem, which the Samaritans, Sanballat, Tobiah, and Geshem, had hindered in every possible way. As Ezra had been the restorer of the worship of God, Nehemiah was the restorer of the civil constitution of Israel. On his arrival, he makes the circuit of the city in the stillness of the night; then addressing the people, he encouraged them to labour. Half the young men wrought at the fortifications, the other half kept watch in arms, and the rulers stood behind. If danger threatened any where, the trumpet was sounded and the people assembled from every part of the walls; for even the builders wrought with a sword by their side. Neither Nehemiah nor any other took off their clothes, except for the purpose of washing them.[^[67]]

“Thus were the walls completed; but the space included between them was much greater than was necessary for the actual population, and very few houses had been built. The feast of tabernacles was approaching. The people assembled on the open space before the Watergate, and Ezra read the law there, from morning until evening.[^[68]] And the people lifted up their hands and wept when they heard the words of the law. And Nehemiah and Ezra said, This day is holy unto the Lord, therefore weep not nor be sad: for the joy of the Lord is your strength! Finding from the law that the time of the feast of tabernacles was at hand, they went to the hills and fetched olive branches and pine branches, and myrtle branches and palm branches, to make booths; and they made them every one upon the roof of his house and in their courts, and in the courts of the house of God, and in the street of the Watergate, and in the street of the gate of Ephraim. And the whole congregation of those who were come out of captivity made booths, and dwelt therein. For since the days of Joshua, the son of Nun, until that day, the children of Israel had not done so. After this the people cast lots, to decide who of them should occupy Jerusalem; and who take up their abode in the towns. A tenth part was destined to the city, where the chiefs already dwelt.[^[69]]

“When all these arrangements were made, the walls were consecrated. The Levites were sent for from all parts, to give solemnity to the consecration. The priests and Levites purified themselves and the people, the walls and the gates. The princes of Judah stood upon the walls. Two choirs, with cymbals, psalteries, and harps, went round the walls, as far as the temple. On the same day great sacrifices were offered, and the people rejoiced greatly, so that the joy of Jerusalem was heard afar off.

“Nehemiah was compelled to return to court; but he revisited Jerusalem after some years,[^[70]] and laboured earnestly to induce the people to put away their foreign wives, as Ezra had done at an earlier period.[^[71]] Their children spoke a mixed dialect, half Hebrew, half the language of Ashdod, Ammon, or Moab. Malachi, the last of the prophets, enforced his advice with the words of the Lord. Such support was necessary, for some of the leading men were involved, and Manasseh, (the son of Joiada the high priest) who had married the daughter of Sanballat, refused compliance. Nehemiah expelled him from the city,[^[72]] and as Sanballat had just obtained from Darius Nothus permission to build a temple on mount Garizim, [Manasseh] became high priest in it.

“Thus Israel had been restored to the possession of the land of their fathers, had rebuilt the holy city, raised the temple from its ruins, and ordered the worship of God, according to the law. So far was the law from having been lost in their captivity, that in some parts it had never been fully practised by the people till now. The visitation of Jehovah had wrought the designed effect on the minds of the people. Since the days of Moses, an interval now of 1000 years, they had never manifested such zealous obedience to the law. They had learnt, by long and bitter experience, that obedience and national prosperity were inseparably connected together. In their captivity the better part of the people had sought each other out, had formed little associations, and had been strengthened by the words of the prophets, whom Jehovah sent to them for this purpose. These formed the chief strength of the nation which returned from the captivity. Their peculiar institutions, especially that of circumcision and the prohibition of eating unclean food, tended powerfully to keep them, even in the midst of strangers, a separate people; and the glorious prophecies, whose fulfilment they still expected, seemed to belong to them only so far as they were the pure unmixed descendents of those to whom the promises were given. The greater part of those who returned were besides of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, who had before been most faithful to Jehovah, and most closely connected with the temple. The baser part of the people remained behind in foreign lands, just as they do now in Egypt. From this time, therefore, a new period begins in Israel, in which the fruits of the discipline which the people had undergone in preceding periods are displayed. The voice of prophecy is henceforth dumb: for they had learnt that lesson, which prophets were sent to impress upon them.

“It is true, that those revolutions in the kingdoms of the earth, which are preparatory to the coming of the Messiah, often interrupted the internal peace of Israel. The Persians, from whose subjection Judea was not entirely free, were engaged in wars, in which we were obliged to take part. The expedition of Alexander brought him to Jerusalem, but the [conqueror of the world acknowledged] the merits of Israel on the heights of Sapha, while Tyre sunk beneath his sword. In the division of his empire, Palestine fell to the share of Ptolemy, king of Egypt, who took many Jews with him into Egypt, and many emigrated thither of their own accord. Antigonus wrested our country from Ptolemy, and for more than a century it was the theatre of war between Syria and Egypt. But these wars were not so much punishments of Israel, as the ways by which Jehovah had decreed to weaken the heathen, and prepare the way for the complete emancipation of his people. This alone was still wanting to their happiness. Israel was obedient and walked all in the ways of the Lord.”

“Allow me, venerable Herodotus, for so I must call you,” said Myron, “to make a remark here. I know how much you dislike interruption, but this will not displease you. On the contrary, it will gratify you to find your own account confirmed by the mouth of a heathen. [Hecatæus] (it is true he was a native of Abdera) has written a book respecting your nation, in which he gives them the highest praise for the firmness with which they adhered to their law, when in the midst of foreign nations, in military service, and on other occasions.”

Elisama was pleased, and proceeded with his narrative. “At this time too a work was undertaken, which would never have been thought of at an earlier period, the collection of the oral traditions respecting the law. [Antigonus Socho], president of the great council, collected them in a volume. In earlier times the simple law had been found too heavy a burthen; now the people eagerly adopted explanations and additions, by which it was enlarged and made more precise. Such obedience was occasionally rewarded by Jehovah’s disposing the hearts of neighbouring princes very favourably towards them. [Antiochus the Great] was so much pleased with the faithfulness of Israel, that he commanded victims, wine, oil, frankincense, meal, wheat, and salt, to be furnished for the sacrifices; gave them wood from Lebanon for the repairs of the temple; recalled the Jews who had left their country, and freed the nation from all tribute for three years.

“Still the yoke of foreign dominion pressed heavily, till at last Jehovah hardened the heart of [Antiochus Epiphanes], king of Syria, who carried his cruelty to such a length, as to prepare the way for the complete emancipation of Israel. This Antiochus, whom the surname of Epimanes (frantic) would have better suited, bestowed on the wretched Joshua, the brother of Onias the third, the office of high-priest, and allowed him, in consideration of an enormous increase of tribute, to open a Grecian gymnasium in Jerusalem, and grant to the Jews the privileges of citizens of Antioch. A strange infatuation seized a part of the people, to witness the contests of this gymnasium; even priests, for this object, forsook their duties in the temple. His younger brother Onias, (who as Joshua, in his passion for every thing Greek, had called himself Jason, took the name of Menelaus) tempted Epiphanes by still higher offers, abjured in Antioch the religion of his fathers, promised an increase of three hundred talents of tribute, and by force of arms installed himself high-priest. A report being spread, that Antiochus had died in Egypt, Jason returned with 1000 men of the Ammonites, and possessed himself of Jerusalem. Antiochus hastened back from Egypt, took Jerusalem, plundered the city, cut to pieces 80,000 men, and sold as slaves, or carried away captive, an equal number. He added impiety to cruelty. Entering the temple with Menelaus, he reviled the God to whom it was dedicated, directed all the gold and silver, the table of shew-bread and the candlestick to be carried away, and then offered—I can scarce relate the horrible atrocity, a swine upon the sacred altar, and sprinkled the whole temple with the water in which a part of it had been boiled. This was not all that Israel was doomed to bear from the heathen. Some time after, being in Egypt, and being compelled to return home by an embassy of the Romans, he vented his ill-humour upon Jerusalem, sent thither 22,000 men, who marched in on the sabbath day, plundered the houses, pulled down the walls of the city, turned the hill of Zion into a fortification, and made the streets of Jerusalem flow with the blood of its inhabitants. The daily sacrifice ceased. The worship of the Grecian idols was commanded upon pain of death; the holy scriptures were cut to pieces or taken away; the temple on Garizim dedicated to Jupiter Xenius; that at Jerusalem to Jupiter Olympius. On the altar of burnt-offering another was erected to these idols, and groves and shrines of idolatrous worship were introduced into every town. To practise circumcision, or to observe the sabbath, was forbidden on pain of death. Two women were discovered to have circumcised their children; the infants were bound on their breasts, they were led round the whole city, and at last precipitated from the walls. Some had crept into caverns near the city, in order to keep the sabbath—they were all burnt alive. Every month, at the return of the day on which the king was born, the Jews were forcibly driven to perform a sacrifice. On the festival of Bacchus, they were made to appear in garlands of ivy in his honour. Eleasar, an aged man and learned in the law, had his mouth forced open, that he might swallow swine’s flesh; but in spite of force or fraud, he preferred to die, rather than violate the law. A mother with seven sons was taken, and scourging applied, to make them eat the unclean food, but in vain. The executioners then took the eldest of the sons, cut out his tongue, lopped off his hands and feet, and broiled him in the fire, while he exhorted his mother and brethren, who were standing by, to die undauntedly for the law. The other sons shared the same fate, and last of all the mother, who had thus addressed her last son, ‘My dearest child, whom I bore nine months beneath my heart, and three years at my bosom, have pity upon me! Fear not the man of blood, but die willingly, as thy brothers have done, that the God of mercy may restore you with them living to my embrace!’ What miracles of steadfastness under such torments! Israel was oppressed, as it had never been before; but it stood the trial nobly, and deserved to obtain its perfect freedom, which was at length accomplished in the following manner.

“There lived in [Modin] a priest of the name of Mattathias, who had five sons, and whose complaint it was that he had been born to behold the oppression of his people and the desolation of the holy city, without being able to give them aid. He rent his clothes, and he and his sons put on sackcloth. When the captains of Antiochus came to Modin, and seduced many of the people to apostasy from the law, and endeavoured by promises of all kinds to persuade Mattathias, who was one of the most considerable of the inhabitants, to offer sacrifice and burn incense, he not only openly refused, but when a Jew, at the close of his speech, went up to the altar and sacrificed[sacrificed] to the idol, his zeal for the Lord of Hosts was so kindled, that he ran up to him, slew both him who had offered and the captain of Antiochus, and overturned the altar. This done, he cried aloud through the whole city, ‘Whoso is zealous for the law and will keep the covenant, let him go forth with me!’ This action decided the emancipation of Israel.

“Many followed him into the desert, and a multitude of pious Jews soon collected about him. They traversed the whole country, throwing down the altars of the idols, circumcising the children on whom that rite had not yet been performed, and attacking the ungodly. Mattathias succeeded in maintaining the law against all the power of the heathens. He was already far advanced in age, and having blessed his children, encouraged them to vigorous resistance, reminded them of the deeds of their fathers, and recommended his third son, Judas, for their leader; and the second, the wise Simon, for their counsellor; he died and was buried with his fathers at Modin.

“[Judas], surnamed Maccabeus, or the Hammer, continued the good work which his father had begun. After gaining several glorious victories over the Syrians, he entered in triumph into Jerusalem. And when they saw how the sanctuary was laid desolate, the altar defiled, the posts of the gates burned, the space around grown over with grass and trees, and the cells of the priests fallen to ruin; they rent their clothes and made great lamentations, they strewed ashes upon their heads, fell down on their faces, and blew the trumpet, and cried towards heaven. The priests who were with them purified the temple. The desecrated altar was pulled down and a new one built. The sacred vessels were renewed, a golden lamp-stand, an altar of incense, and a table of shew-bread made. They placed the incense on the altar, lighted the lamps, laid the shew-bread on the table, hung up the curtains, and restored the temple to its former state. On the twenty-fifth day of the ninth month, they arose early and offered again according to the law, on the altar of burnt-offering, with song and pipe, harp and cymbal. This was the first offering since the time when the heathen defiled the sanctuary. This [festival] of the new altar was continued for nine days, and there was great joy among the people, that their disgrace was taken away. It was resolved that it should be annually observed, as a remembrance for ever. They then built strong walls and towers around the sanctuary on the hill of Zion. Judas proceeded from victory to victory, till at length he lost his life in an unsuccessful battle, after he had made a league with the Romans. His brother Jonathan followed him, and maintained himself and upheld the law in very difficult circumstances. He was appointed high-priest. The heroic defender of Judea was made prisoner by stratagem and shamefully put to death. He was great in council, still greater in the field, and those who saw him were compelled to confess that Jehovah had raised him up to be the guardian of the people in their time of need. I saw him in my youth at Ptolemais, at the espousals of king [Alexander Balas], of Syria, with the daughter of the king of Egypt. There sat the hero, in a robe of purple, among kings at table, and surpassed them all in royalty of mien.

“Simon, the last of the sons of Mattathias, now took the command of the army. It was he whom his dying father had called the Wise, and commanded his brethren to obey him. For four and twenty years he had served his brethren with counsel, and, though older than Judas and Jonathan, had filled a subordinate station with so much humility, as well to deserve the honour of finally establishing the independence of Israel. He had scarcely erected a monument at Modin, to his father and his valiant brothers, renewed the covenant with the Romans, and sent an embassy to Demetrius in Syria, when the Romans declared Israel free, and Demetrius formally renounced all claims upon them. This happy consummation, by which Israel has been placed securely on an eminence of prosperity unknown before, became [an era to us], and we are now in the thirty-fourth year of freedom. The people dwell in the land, serve no foreign master, possess the temple and the law, and fulfil it gladly. Would that this same period had not also witnessed the erection of the Oneion at Leontopolis!

“I cannot refrain from adding a few events of the latest times. Simon retook Gaza; Jerusalem was purified. He besieged the garrison in the castle, and when they surrendered and retired, he entered with branches of palm and the sound of the harp, singing praises to God for having delivered Israel from tyranny, and commanded that this day should be kept as a perpetual festival. He built walls all around the temple-hill, made the castle still stronger, and took up his own residence there. The people, as an expression of their gratitude, chose him as their prince and high-priest, till God should raise up the true Prophet. While Simon lived, Judah had peace, every man cultivated his own field, the land was productive, and there was fruit in the vine. The elders exercised authority and preserved good order, and the condition of the citizens was greatly improved.

“What shall I say of John Hyrcanus, his son and successor? Thou wilt see him thyself, Helon, in all his majesty; and wert thou, Myron, to see him, thou wouldest never jest again at Israel’s expense. While we were enduring in Egypt the cruelty of the abandoned [Ptolemy Physcon], and the men of science and eminence in the arts were flying from the country, Israel was happy under its wise and heroic prince. If the oppression of the Syrians was felt for a short time, Hyrcanus soon shook off the yoke, and himself conquered the Syrian cities, Madeba, Samega, and others. He next humbled the Samaritans, and removed that offence of every Jew, the temple on mount Garizim. He gave the Idumeans their choice, to expatriate themselves, or to receive circumcision, and thus united the seed of Esau with the posterity of Jacob. He has built the castle of Baris in the holy city. He is distinguished, above all the princes and fathers of Israel, by uniting in himself the threefold office which the Messiah is to bear, king, leader, and high-priest. At this moment he has just annihilated the power of the Samaritans by the conquest of their capital.

“To such a pitch of glory and to such hopes has Jehovah exalted his people; to him be the praise! He setteth us up on high. Since the days of Abraham, no period has occurred, in which Israel was so free and so pure. Great was indeed the splendour of the reign of Solomon; nor can we now boast, that silver and gold are like the stones of the street—but in his days neither sovereign nor people were strict in the observance of the law. Now, what zeal, what earnestness for the law is manifested! Our fathers in those days were little better in this respect than the Hellenists in our own.

“I praise my God that he has permitted me to behold the glory of his people, and to feast my thoughts with the contemplation of it, though I am not permitted to dwell with my brethren in the Land of Promise, under the sceptre of Hyrcanus. How important the present condition of Israel is, may be judged from the long preparations by which it has been brought about, and the difficulties which opposed and retarded it.

Had not the Lord been on our side

May Israel now say,

Had not the Lord been on our side,

When men rose up against us,

Then they had swallowed us up alive,

When their wrath was kindled against us;

The waters had overwhelmed us,

The stream had gone over our soul,

The proud waters had gone over our soul.

Blessed be the Lord!

He hath not given us a prey to their teeth,

Our soul is escaped, as a bird out of the snare of the fowler;

The snare is broken, and we are escaped.

Our help is in the name of Jehovah;

He made heaven and earth.—Ps. cxxiv.

“I perceive, Myron, that your eyes are turned towards the west, and I read your meaning. You think that the [Romans], before whom already Carthage and Corinth have fallen, and to whom so many nations have bowed the neck, may threaten the liberty of Israel. But stern and implacable as they are to all their enemies, they keep faith with their friends and allies; and he whom they aid may think himself secure upon his throne. Besides, Israel has still higher hopes. Let me only remind you of the commencement of my narrative, in which I showed, that Israel was destined to communicate the faith of Abraham to all nations, by means of the law; and that the Messiah is to be the Patriarch of the human race. To bring this to pass, Israel became a nation in Egypt, received the law from Sinai, conquered the Holy Land under the judges, obtained a temple under its kings, and was taught obedience by the vicissitudes of calamity and prosperity in successive centuries. All now exists together—Israel is a nation, has the law and obeys it willingly. The time therefore cannot be remote, when all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in the seed of Abraham and the son of David. The sins which are still found in Israel alone prevent his immediate appearance. As soon as they repent, and keep but one sabbath as they ought, the expectation of Israel will come. For thus has Isaiah prophesied; ‘Thus saith the Lord; my salvation is near and my righteousness is about to be revealed. Blessed is the man that doeth this, and the son of man that layeth hold on it, that keepeth the sabbath free from pollution, and restraineth his hand from doing any evil.[^[73]] He that is promised shall come and that speedily. Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee! The Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising.’[^[74]] In this hope I conclude my narrative, which, long as it has been, is too short for the subject, with that psalm, so full of thankfulness and hope:

Praise ye the Lord: for it is good to sing praises to our God;

For it is pleasant, and praise is comely.

Jehovah doth build up Jerusalem,

He gathereth together the outcasts of Israel;

He healeth the broken in heart,

And bindeth up their wounds.

He telleth the number of the stars,

He calleth them all by their names.

Great is our Lord, and of great power,

His understanding is infinite.

The Lord lifteth up the oppressed.

He casteth the wicked down to the ground.

Sing unto Jehovah with thanksgiving!

Sing praises upon the harp unto our God!

He covereth the heaven with clouds,

He giveth rain upon the earth,

He maketh grass to grow upon the mountains,

He giveth to the beast his food,

And to the young ravens when they cry.

He delighteth not in the strength of the horse,

Nor takes pleasure in the swiftness of a man:

The Lord taketh pleasure in them that fear him,

In those that hope in his mercy.

Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem!

Praise thy God, O Zion!

For he hath strengthened the bars of thy gates,

He hath blessed thy children within thee;

He maketh peace in thy borders,

He filleth thee with the finest of the wheat.

He showeth his word unto Jacob,

His statutes and his judgments unto Israel.

He hath not done so with every nation,

They have not known his judgments.

Praise Jehovah!—Ps. cxlvii.

“Amen!” exclaimed Helon.[exclaimed Helon.] “Amen!” responded Elisama; and even Myron repeated “Amen!”

END OF BOOK THE FIRST.

BOOK II.

CHAPTER I.
THE PROMISED LAND.

The way from Raphia to Gaza was travelled with very different feelings by the several members of our party.

Helon, as he proceeded, was constantly looking to the right, towards the hills of Judah, which rose black and dark in the starry night, to the eastward of the road which they travelled along the coast. His feelings grew more intense with every glance; passages from the Psalms and the Prophets perpetually rose to his lips; and all the fatigues of the journey over the stony and sandy soil were forgotten in the reflection, that every step brought him nearer to the Promised Land. The history of his people passed in review before his mind, and his imagination applied every thing around him to cherish the illusion. Instead of a caravan of Phœnician traders, he seemed to be in the pastoral encampments of Abraham; with Moses and the children of Israel in the wilderness; in the caravan of the queen of Sheba, when she came to visit Solomon; or amongst the exiles returning with Zerubbabel, to rebuild the ruined sanctuary.

Elisama was seated on his horse, his mind full of the glory of Israel which was about to be revealed; in the midst of the bitterness against the heathens, which was become a necessary excitement to his aged heart, and the inward ill-will which he harboured against Myron, he rejoiced in the triumph which he had gained over him by his narrative, which had been so complete, as to force the Greek, at last, to assent to the praises of Israel.

Myron’s feelings were of a very mixed kind, and some of them far from being pleasant. He felt the Jewish pride in all its force, and was perpetually tempted to keep it within bounds, by applying to it the keen edge of Attic wit. Yet when he reflected on the other hand, that the society of these Jews had enabled him to pass his time more pleasantly and instructively, than he would have done among the Phœnicians, and that the journey was now at an end, he thought it was not worth while to offend them, and so held his peace. He had a further reason for not wishing to come to a rupture with his fellow-travellers, that he might not lose the invitation to Jerusalem upon which he reckoned. For, notwithstanding all that was offensive to him, he could not but acknowledge, that the Jews were a people in the highest degree remarkable, and he had a great curiosity to see what they were in their native land, where he had often been told they could alone be fairly judged of.

With these feelings they came late at night to [Gaza]. Elisama, while the tents were erecting, paid the conductor of the caravan the sum agreed upon for the journey. As he intended, according to the ancient custom of his people, to make the journey to the passover on foot, he had already bargained with some one in the caravan for the purchase of the horses. They reposed for some hours, and rose again before the dawn.

The caravan still lay buried in profound slumber. By the time that the camels were loaded and themselves ready to depart, the morning began to dawn, and a singular spectacle was unfolded by it. The camels were crouching in a wide circle around the baggage, the horses, and the merchandise; and their long necks and little heads rose like towers above a wall. The men had encamped round fires or in tents. Most of the fires had burnt out, only here and there dying embers occasionally shot a flame, which feebly illuminated the singular groups around. Within the great circle all was still, save that the watchmen with their long staves were going their rounds, and calling their watchword in the stillness of the hour. In the distance were heard the hoarse sounds of the waves, breaking on the shore. On the other side of the camp was Gaza with its towers and ruins; and the fiery glow of morning was lightening up the scene of the fearful accomplishment of the word of prophecy. Gaza, once so populous, magnificent, and strong, when she committed the shameful outrage on Sampson, had no longer any gates at the spot where the mighty hero once lifted them up, and placed them on the hill opposite to Hebron.[^[75]] Jeremiah had taken the wine-cup of fury from the hand of Jehovah, to cause the nations to drink of it to whom the Lord had sent him, and Gaza was amongst them, that they might reel and be mad because of the sword that he sent amongst them.[^[76]] The shepherd of Tekoah had foretold this in yet plainer language.

Thus saith Jehovah,

Three transgressions of Gaza have I passed unnoticed,

But the fourth I cannot overlook.

And I will send a fire on the walls of Gaza,

Which shall devour the palaces thereof.—Amos i. 6, 7.

Zephaniah[^[77]] had said, “Gaza shall be forsaken;” and last of all Zechariah[^[78]] had declared,

Ashkelon shall see it and fear,

Gaza also shall see it and grieve,

The king shall perish from Gaza,

And Ashkelon shall not be inhabited.

What the prophets foretold against Gaza, which was one of the five principal cities of the south-west of Canaan, Alexander the Great had fulfilled. Her ruins bore witness also to the prowess of the later heroes of Israel, Jonathan and Simon. The city had been originally allotted to the tribe of Judah, and the Philistines never prospered in their unjust possession of it. It was the seat of the worship of [Dagon], a monstrous idol, whose lower half had the form of a fish, and the upper of a woman. Helon regarded the city as a monument of Israel’s revenge, placed on the very confines of the Promised Land. To-day he was to enter that land, and it seemed as if this awful spectacle had been exhibited to him, to impress indelibly upon his mind the transition from the land of the heathen to the land of Jehovah.

Lost in these thoughts, he stood unconscious of what was going on around him. Myron placed himself beside him, and, for a long time, watched him with earnest curiosity. “In good truth,” he at last suddenly exclaimed, “this is oriental contemplation! Helon, thou thinkest on Jerusalem!” Helon, disagreeably startled from his sublime reflections, replied, “I was not thinking on Jerusalem, but on that city of the heathens, on which, as our prophet predicted, ‘baldness is come.’”

“It is indeed a revolting sight,” said Myron, “and your prophet’s anticipation has proved correct. But you are about to depart to-day for Jerusalem. How I wish I could accompany you, and enter this temple, whose magnificence I have heard you describe, along with the train of pilgrims to the passover!”

“You would find yourself,” said Helon, “in a more disagreeable situation, than even on the journey from Pelusium to Gaza.”

“I should be able to stand my ground nevertheless,” said Myron: “I must now however go to Sidon. But I have a plan to propose.” He then told him what his own occupations were, and suggested, that as they would probably be terminated about the time when Elisama and Helon would have celebrated the two festivals, he should join them at Jerusalem, and after visiting together some other parts of the Holy Land, they should return to Egypt in company. With the address of a Greek he contrived to make his proposal acceptable even to Elisama, who, offended as he was at his sarcasms upon the Jewish people, cherished a hope that by knowing them better he might be persuaded to become, if not a proselyte of righteousness, at least a proselyte of the gate. Helon was convinced, that no true peace was to be derived from all the boasted wisdom of the Greeks, and ardently desired that the friend of his youth, who had sought this peace with him in philosophy, might be brought to confess with him, that it was only to be found in the law of Jehovah; and Elisama had often observed that the scoffer is most easily converted into a worshipper.

The zeal for making proselytes, by which Israel was distinguished, may be easily accounted for. Accustomed, for nearly two thousand years, to believe, and on no less authority than that of God himself, that salvation should proceed from them, and in them all nations of the earth be blessed, they could not for a moment relinquish the desire of carrying this prediction into effect; at this time they were more peculiarly urged to it by the openly expressed veneration or secret acquiescence of the wisest men. Religious faith, although the most deeply seated in the breast of any of our sentiments, is, singular as it may appear, that which we are most eager in communicating to others. Whatever too has been long suppressed, breaks forth with redoubled force when the obstacle is removed. Besides, the religious sentiments of the Jews were not, like those of the heathens, the speculations of human reason, but truths, confirmed by the sanction of God; and their zeal in making proselytes was not the vain desire to swell the numbers of a sect, but to deliver those who were under the dominion of error.

Myron and our travellers took leave of each other, in the hope of meeting after a few months. He went through the camp to seek for company as far as Tyre, and they took the road to Hebron.

From Gaza two roads conduct to Jerusalem. One passes by Eleutheropolis and the plain of Sephela; the other through the hills by Hebron. Although the former was the easier and more customary, Elisama preferred the latter. He had a friend in Hebron, whom he had not seen for many years, and in whose company he wished to perform the pilgrimage; and he was desirous of making Helon’s first entrance into the Land of Promise as solemn and impressive as possible. By taking the easier road, they must have gone a long way through the country of the Philistines, and not have been joined by pilgrims, till they reached Morescheth, and then only in small numbers. On the other road, they entered immediately on the Jewish territory, and their way conducted them through scenes adorned with many an historical remembrance. They had not proceeded far inward from the sea, in the direction of the river [Besor], when they reached the confines of Judah; they stood at the foot of its hills, and the land of the heathen lay behind them. Helon seemed to feel for the first time what home and native country mean. In Egypt, where he had been born and bred, he had been conscious of no such feeling; for he had been taught to regard himself as only a sojourner there. Into this unknown, untrodden native country he was about to enter, and before he set his foot upon it, at the first sight of it, the breeze seemed to waft from its hills a welcome to his home. “Land of my fathers,” he exclaimed, “Land of Promise, promised to me also from my earliest years!” and quickened his steps to reach it. He felt the truth of the saying, that Israel is Israel only in the Holy Land. “Here,” said Elisama, “is the boundary of Judah.” Helon, unable to speak, threw himself on the sacred earth, kissed it and watered it with his tears, and Sallu, letting go the bridles of the camels, did the same. Elisama stood beside them, and as he stretched his arms over them, and in the name of the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, blessed their going out and their coming in, his eyes too overflowed with tears, and his heart seemed to warm again, as with the renewal of a youthful love. See, he exclaimed,

The winter is past, the rain is over and gone,

The flowers appear on the earth;

The time of the singing of birds is come,

The voice of the turtledove is heard in our land.

The figtree putteth forth her green figs,

The vines give fragrance from their blossoms.—Cant. ii. 10.

They proceeded slowly on their way; Helon gazed around him on every side, and thought he had never seen so lovely a spring. The [latter rains] had ceased, and had given a quickening freshness to the breezes from the hills, such as he had never known in the Delta. The narcissus and the hyacinth, the blossoms of the apricot and peach, shed their last fragrance around. The groves of terebinth, the oliveyards and vineyards stood before them in their living green: the corn, swollen by the rain, was ripening fast for the harvest, and the fields of barley were already yellow. [The wide meadows], covered with grass for the cattle, the alternation of hill and valley, the rocks hewn out in terraces, and filled with earth and planted, offered a constant variety of delightful views. You might see that this was a land, the dew of which Jehovah had blessed, in which the prayer of Isaac over Jacob had been fulfilled, when the patriarch said, “God give thee of the dew of heaven, and of the fatness of the earth, and plenty of corn and wine.”[^[79]] Helon drank of the pure, clear mountain stream, whose sparkling reflection seemed to him like a smile from a parent’s eyes on a returning wanderer, and thought the [sweet water] of the Nile, so praised by the Egyptians, could bear no comparison with it. Elisama reminded him of the words of the psalm:

“Thou[“Thou] lookest down upon our land and waterest it,

And makest it full of sheaves.

The river of God is full of water.

Thou preparest corn and tillest the land,

Thou waterest its furrows and softenest its clods;

Thou moistenest it with showers, thou blessest its springing,

Thou crownest the year with thy blessing,

And thy footsteps drop fatness.

They drop upon the pastures of the wilderness,

And the hills are encompassed with rejoicing:

The pastures are clothed with flocks,

And the fields are covered with corn:

All shout for joy and sing.”—Ps. lxv.

Helon replied to him from another psalm:

The springs arise among the valleys,

They run among the hills.

Here the thirsty wild beast cools itself,

The wild ass quenches his thirst.

The fowls of heaven dwell beside them,

And sing among the branches.

He watereth the hills from his clouds above;

The fruit of his works satisfieth the earth.

He maketh grass to grow for cattle,

And herb for the service of man,

Preparing bread from the earth

And wine that maketh glad man’s heart;

The fragrance of the oil for ointment,

And bread that giveth strength.

The cedars of Lebanon, tall as heaven,

He has planted, he watereth them!—Ps. civ.

“This,” exclaimed both together, “is indeed the Land of Promise;” and Helon called to mind the words of the prophet Ezekiel, “Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, I lifted up my hand to bring them out of Egypt into a land which I had promised for them, a land flowing with milk and honey, a land that is the glory of all lands.”[^[80]]

These words Helon repeated incessantly as he proceeded. The pure mountain air, which he had never drawn before, inspired the body, as the feeling of home refreshed the mind. This moment, and that in which he had returned to the law, moments of deep and indelible interest, seemed to rise like lofty summits, far above the ordinary level of the events of life. When he thought on the narrative of his uncle, he was inclined to compare the former of these events with the terrific annunciation of the law from Sinai—the latter, with the joy of Israel, when, under the command of Joshua, they crossed the Jordan, and first set their feet on the Promised Land.

During the whole of this journey to Hebron, external impressions seemed to have no other power over him, than to awaken trains of thought, connected with the subject by which his whole soul was occupied. When Elisama pointed out to him Minois and Gerar, which lay far to the south; and reminded him that Gerar was the place where Abraham had involved himself in difficulties by the concealment of the truth from Abimelech;[^[81]] and where the pious Asa had defeated the Ethiopians;[^[82]] these hints were sufficient for his imagination to cover the plains with the flocks of the patriarch, and the hosts of the virtuous king of Judah.

They passed near Beersheba, which had given rise to the expression so common in scripture history, “from Dan to Beersheba,” to denote the whole extent of the Holy Land, from north to south. Beersheba was the frontier town on the south, distant from Dan a hundred and sixty sabbath-days’ journies, or fifty-three leagues. Elisama related how Abraham and Isaac had dug a well here, and called it Beersheba, in memory of the oaths exchanged between them and Abimelech;[^[83]] how Jehovah had here appeared to Jacob, and permitted him to go down to Egypt to his beloved Joseph;[^[84]] how Elias the Tishbite had fled hither from the face of Ahab and Jezebel;[^[85]] how Samuel’s sons had judged the people here;[^[86]] and how, in latter times, it had become a seat of idolatrous worship under Uzziah; in consequence of which, Amos had given the warning, “Pass not to Beersheba,”[^[87]] and had denounced calamity on those who say, “The worship of Beersheba liveth.”[^[88]] At the return from the captivity this was one of the first cities which the exiles repeopled. Notwithstanding the length of the journey, which they performed on foot, Elisama seemed to feel no fatigue; and every hill or valley, every town or village, which they passed, gave him fresh occasion to produce his inexhaustible store of historical recollections. Their road lay by Debir, called also sometimes Kiriath Sanna, sometimes Kiriath Sepher; and it reminded him of the heroic prize, the hand of his own daughter Achsa, which Caleb had proposed to the man who should conquer it.[^[89]]

At length Hebron rose before them, and each approached it with characteristic feelings. Helon viewed it only as having been for seven years the city of David’s residence;[^[90]] and could have imagined, that the tones of the sweet singer’s harp still lingered about its walls. Elisama longed to see the friend of his youth, and to repose under his hospitable roof. There was an unusual commotion beneath the towering palms at the gate and in all the streets. It was evident that they were preparing to depart for Jerusalem on the morrow.

They were received with the cordial welcome of early but long separated friends. Elisama had scarcely laid himself down, to have his feet washed, when the discourse between him and his host flowed as freely as if the old man had only walked a sabbath-day’s journey. Helon observed, that here the ancient custom was preserved of [crouching upon the carpet] at meals; while in Alexandria they reclined on Grecian cushions. He fell asleep, and night prolonged the dreams of day.

CHAPTER II.
THE PILGRIMAGE.

At the first crowing of the cock, all was in motion; their host was making the last arrangements for his departure, the neighbours entered to announce that the march was about to begin. Refreshments were offered to the travellers, and especially to Elisama; but he declared with earnestness, that, even amidst the idolaters of Egypt, he had scarcely ever allowed himself to taste food early in a morning, and much less would he do so in Israel, and in the city of David, and on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. The commotion in the street became greater and greater, and it was scarcely dawn, when they set forth. All the doors of the houses were open, all the roofs were covered with persons watching their departure. Helon, as he passed through the streets of [Hebron] in the ruddy light of the dawn, and by the palm trees at the gate, was reminded that Hebron was one of the oldest cities in the world, even older than Zoan in Egypt;[^[91]] that it had been conquered by Joshua, and given as a portion to Caleb, the bravest and most faithful of the explorers of the land;[^[92]] that it had afterwards become a city of the priests, and had been for seven years the residence of David; that it had been taken by the Idumeans, and reconquered by the Maccabees,[^[93]] and once more incorporated with Judah. But when he had passed the gate, and gained a view of the lovely valley full of vine-yards and corn-fields, and looked around on the region where patriarchs had tended their flocks and pitched their tents, and lived in friendly communion with Jehovah, all the high and enthusiastic feelings of the preceding day were renewed in his mind. From all the cross-roads, men, women, and children were streaming towards the highway to Jerusalem. They had scarcely proceeded a sabbath-day’s journey, when they saw the [grove of terebinths]; cymbals, flutes, and psalms resounded from the midst of it, and hundreds were standing under the turpentine-tree of Abraham, a tree of immense size and wide-spreading branches. Helon entered the grove of Mamre with feelings of religious veneration. Here Abraham had dwelt, here the angels had appeared to him; beneath these trees Isaac had been promised, and the rite of circumcision instituted; here Ishmael had been born, and driven from his father’s tent; and not far off was the cave of Machpelah, where Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebecca, Jacob and Leah were buried.[^[94]] And on this spot, consecrated by so many recollections, the children of these patriarchs were now preparing to depart, on their festal pilgrimage to Jerusalem. The occasion and the place seemed to banish from all hearts every other feeling but piety and good-will; mutual greetings were exchanged; friends and relations sought each other out, and associated themselves for the journey, and all faces beamed with joy. “It is time to set out,” said some of the elders to the judge of Hebron: “already has the priest asked the watchman on the temple, [Does it begin to be light] towards Hebron?” The priests and elders led the procession; the people followed, and the slaves with the camels were placed in the midst of them, the Levites had distributed themselves with their instruments among the multitude, and as they set forward they sung this psalm:

How am I glad when they say unto me,

I will go up to the house of Jehovah!

My foot hath stood already in thy gates, O Jerusalem!

Jerusalem, thou beautifully built;

Chief city, where all unite together!

Thither do the tribes go up,

The tribes of Jehovah to the festival of remembrance,

To praise the name of Jehovah.

There are the thrones of judgment,

The thrones of the house of David.

Pray for the peace of Jerusalem;

May they prosper that love thee!

Peace be in thy walls,

Prosperity in thy palaces!

For my brethren and companions’ sake,

I wish thee peace!

For the sake of the temple of our God,

I bless thee with good.—Ps. cxxii.

It is impossible to conceive of the soul-felt exultation with which this psalm was sung, and of its effect on old and young. Now the voices rose, like the notes of the mounting lark, on the summit of the hills, now sunk again in the depths of the valleys. How differently did it operate now upon the heart of Helon, and when he sung it before to his solitary harp on his roof in Alexandria! How did he bless the memory of Samuel, who had given his schools of the prophets the harp and the flute;[^[95]] and of David, who, bred up among them, did not forget them even when seated on his throne,[^[96]] but appointed Levites for the cultivation of music; and himself often laid down his sceptre, to assume the harp. It was on such a pilgrimage, with such accompaniments, that the sublimity and force of the psalms, and the superiority of Jewish poetry, made itself fully felt.

Helon was astonished at the effect which they had upon himself and all around him. The youths and maidens bounded for joy, and tears of pleasure stood in the eyes of the aged. Those who were going up for the first time to the festival looked and listened to those who had already been there, as if to hear from them an explanation of the full meaning of what they sung. The old heard in these festive acclamations the echo of their own youthful joys, and while their hearts swelled with the remembrance of the feelings of their earliest pilgrimage, they beat yet higher with gratitude to Jehovah, who had permitted them, in their grey hairs, to behold such glorious days for Israel, the Syrian tyranny overthrown, and Hyrcanus seated on the throne.

Sublime are the acclamations of a people freed from a foreign yoke! But here was more. It was the fraternal union of a whole people, in the holiest bond of a common faith, going up to appear before the altar of Jehovah, and to commemorate the wonders of love and mercy which he had manifested towards their forefathers. They seemed a band of brothers. “In Alexandria,” said Helon, “Jew is against Jew, and family against family—but here is one holy people, loving each other as the children of one Israel, joint heirs of one great and blessed name.” Every one had bidden adieu to the occupations and the anxieties of ordinary life. They had come to give thanks and to pray, and no sounds but those of thankfulness and prayer were heard among them. The hostilities and alienations produced by self-love and the collision of interests appeared to have been left at home, and the general joy dispersed every melancholy feeling which an individual might have been disposed to indulge. On these pilgrimages they seemed as free from care as the people of old, when, rescued from Egyptian bondage, they were fed by manna from heaven, on their way to the land that flowed with milk and honey. Jehovah had promised to protect the whole country, so that no enemy should invade its borders, while the people went up, thrice in every year, to appear before him[^[97]]—how much more confidently might each father of a family intrust his own household to his protection! Nothing was more remarkable than that the aged and the weakly were able to bear this journey of thirty-six sabbath-days’ journies, over hill and dale, without complaining of fatigue. It seemed as if the strong had given to the weaker a portion of their own vigour; or rather, as if Jehovah himself had strengthened the feeble knees for this journey. They expressed these sentiments, by singing, immediately after the former, the following psalm:

I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills

From which my help cometh.

My help cometh from Jehovah,

The Maker of heaven and earth.

He will not suffer thy foot to be moved;

He that keepeth thee will not slumber,

He that keepeth Israel neither slumbereth nor sleepeth.

Jehovah is thy guardian,

Thy shade upon thy right hand:

The sun shall not smite thee by day,

Nor the moon by night.

Jehovah shall preserve thee from all evil,

He shall preserve thy soul.

Jehovah preserveth thy going out and thy coming in,

From this time forth and for evermore.—Ps. cxxi.

It was a beautiful sight, when the procession came from the plain among the hills. The rocky walls, between which their path sometimes lay, re-echoed with their songs. Helon withdrew a little from the line, to an eminence which commanded a view in both directions, and could see the train, covering both the ascent and the descent of the hill, spreading over the plain, and winding like a wreath around the hill beyond.

In every town and village to which they came, they were received with shouts of joy. Before the doors of the houses stood tables with dates, honey, and bread. New crowds of persons, dressed in their holyday attire, were waiting at the junction of the roads, in the fields, and at the entrance of the towns, and joined themselves to the long procession. Here and there before the houses, in the fields or in the vineyards, stood an unclean person, or a woman, or a child, who had been compelled to remain at home, and who replied with tears to the salutation of the passing multitude. It seemed as if the people carried all joy with them from the country to Jerusalem, and only sorrow was left for those who remained behind. Before a house in [Bethshur], stood a fine boy of ten years old. Tears streamed from his large dark eyes, and the open features of his noble countenance had an expression of profound grief. His mother was endeavouring to comfort him, and to lead him back into the court, assuring him that his father would take him the next time. But the boy listened neither to her consolations nor her promises, and continued to exclaim, “O father, father, let me go to the temple! I know all the psalms by heart.” He stretched out his arms to the passers-by in earnest entreaty, and happening to see among them a man of the neighbourhood whom he knew, he flew to him, and clinging to his girdle and his upper garment, besought him with tears to take him with him, till the man, moved by his earnestness, asked his mother to allow him to go, promising to take care of him till he should find out his father.

“And this,” said Helon, “is the object of children’s longing in Israel; so early does the desire of keeping the festival display itself! Brought up in Palestine, he felt it would have been with him exactly as with the child.”[child.”]

They now passed through a wood and then descended a lofty hill whose slope was wholly covered with vines. In the valley before them lay the pools of Solomon. They slackened their pace, and the following psalm was sung:

How lovely are thy tabernacles, Lord of hosts!

My soul longeth and fainteth for the courts of the Lord,

My heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.

As the bird that findeth her house,

As the swallow, a nest for her young,

So I thine altars, O Lord of hosts,

My king and my God!

Blessed are they that dwell in thy house;

They are still praising Thee;

Blessed is the man who placeth his confidence in Thee

And thinketh of the way to Jerusalem!

Should they pass through the valley of sorrow

They find it full of springs.

Blessings be on him who goeth before them,

They increase in strength as they go on,

Till they appear before God in Zion.

O Lord of hosts, hear my prayer!

Give ear, O God of Jacob!

O God, our shield, look down,

Behold the face of thine anointed!

A day in thy courts is better than a thousand.

I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of God

Than dwell in the tents of wickedness.

For Jehovah our God is a sun and shield;

Jehovah giveth grace and glory,

No good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly.

O Lord of hosts,

Blessed is the man that trusteth in Thee!—Ps. lxxxiv.

They were now arrived at the pools of Solomon, into which the brook [Etham] was received, and which had formerly supplied Jerusalem with water, by means of a costly aqueduct. The three pools lay on different levels, one below another, on a sloping ground. Around each was a double row of noble palms, in which the whole of this spot abounded. Here, beside the springs and in the refreshing shade of the trees, the pilgrims encamped to rest at noon. They had accomplished twenty-six sabbath-days’ journies of their march and ten yet remained.

This aqueduct of Solomon’s was a stupendous work. The fountain of Etham, whose waters the pools received, was about one hundred and fifty paces above them. The pools were of an oblong form, the highest one hundred and sixty, the second two hundred, the lowest two hundred and twenty paces in length, and all ninety paces in breadth. The celebrated gardens of Solomon lay beneath these reservoirs, and were a work equally admirable in their kind. They lay in a rocky valley, enclosed by high hills, and were five hundred paces long and two hundred broad. A solitude, which had nothing in it wild or savage, made them a delightful retreat. In the stillness of this glen, amidst fruit-trees of every variety, the king might find a noble recreation from the cares of royalty. From these extraordinary gardens Solomon derived his imagery, when he said, “A garden enclosed is my sister, my spouse;[my spouse;]”[^[98]] and when he speaks in the same passage of a spring shut up, and a fountain sealed, we are reminded of the fountain of Etham, which Solomon is said to have sealed with his own signet ring. Both may serve to explain the words of the Preacher. “I made me great works, I builded me houses, I planted me vineyards; I made me gardens and orchards, and I planted trees in them of all kind of fruits; I made me pools of water to water therewith the wood of green trees.”[^[99]] Both the reservoirs and the aqueduct appeared, by the solidity of their construction, to have been designed to last for ever, and were worthy of the king by whom they were made, and of his times, of which the Book of Chronicles declares, that “Silver was in Jerusalem like stones.”[^[100]] Our travellers blessed his memory, as they drank, beneath the shade of the palms, the refreshing draught of the cool rock water. It was just mid-day, the heat of the sun was intense, and all longed for repose and coolness.

After a short rest the sacks and wine-skins were unpacked from the camels, while others produced their humble stores from their mantles or their bosoms. The upper garments were spread for carpets, on which they lay for rest, or crouched to eat. Now you might see that these pilgrims were a band of brothers. It is true, the very poorest had brought something with him. For weeks before, ever since the feast of tabernacles, they had denied themselves, in order to save something for this festival; and on this day at least the command of Moses might appear to have been literally fulfilled, “There shall be [no beggar among you].” But besides this the rich had provided for the poor a supply of those things which on ordinary occasions they were not able to procure themselves. Some sent to the old men a cup of generous wine, or regaled the children with confectionary and fruits. From [Tekoah], the birthplace of the prophet Amos, which was not far off, came asses loaded with the celebrated honey of Tekoah; and from Beth-Cherem, celebrated for its wines, others with large and sweet raisins. From the cheerful mirth which pervaded the whole assembly, and the delightful coolness of the water and the trees, they seemed more like a company celebrating, in a fine evening, the festival of the new moon, than a caravan halting at mid-day. No one felt the heat or complained of weariness, except a few aged and weakly persons, who indulged themselves in a short rest.

Behind a hill the walls of Tekoah were discerned in the distance, and beyond it the desert of Tekoah, the free pasture of the bees, for whose honey the town was celebrated. “Does not this scene remind thee of the prophet-herdsman of Tekoah?” said Elisama to Helon. “How should it not,” replied Helon, “when I see his prophecy almost fulfilled before my eyes?”[^[101]]

In that day will I raise up the fallen tabernacle of David,

And close up its breaches, and raise up its ruins,

And build it afresh as in the days of old,

That they may conquer the remnant of Edom,

And of all nations whom I will consecrate to myself,

Saith Jehovah who doeth this.

Behold the day cometh, saith Jehovah,

When the plowman shall overtake the reaper,

And the treader of grapes him that soweth seed.

And the mountains shall drop sweet wine,

And all the hills shall stream.

I will bring back the captivity of my people Israel

And they shall build the desolate cities,

And plant vineyards and drink the wine thereof,

They shall make gardens and eat the fruit of them,

And I will plant them firmly in their land,

And they shall no more be plucked out of their land which I have given them,

Saith the Lord thy God.

They waited another hour in this pleasant valley, till the great heat of noon was moderated. During this time some youths came to Helon, and said to him, “Though you speak our language you are not a youth of Judah, your turban betrays you.” Helon informed them that he was an Aramæan Jew, a native of Alexandria indeed, but one who had chosen Jerusalem, in preference to Leontopolis. They acknowledged him with joy as one of themselves, and invited him to accompany them in a walk around the encampment. Helon gladly accepted the offer.

What a multitude of interesting groups presented themselves on every side, as they wandered from one palm tree to another! Every party as they passed offered them wine, mead, honey, dates and the like, and greeted them with friendly words. Boys had insinuated themselves among the circles of the men, and listened, with fixed eyes and open mouth, to every word which they uttered respecting Jerusalem and the festival. The boy whom Helon had seen weeping so bitterly before the solitary house had found out his father, was lying in his lap and repeating to him the psalms which he had learnt. A group of maidens were listening to a description of the magnificent vestments of the high-priest. They past[past] by a company of men, who were speaking of the heroic deeds of Hyrcanus and the Maccabees, and rejoicing that Edom and Samaria had been made subject by him to Israel. One feeling of joy pervaded all bosoms, but it expressed itself in various ways, according to the age or sex of each.

One group rivetted the attention of Helon so long, that he did not leave them till it was near the time of departure. Under almost the furthest palm trees sat seven robust young men, with an equal number of women and several children. “This is Mardochai of [Ziph], with his children and children’s children,” said one of the youths who accompanied Helon. They approached him, took him by the hand, and congratulated him upon being able to go up to the feast, with such a train of his descendents. “Yes,” exclaimed the old man, while tears trembled in his dark eyes, “Jehovah hath abundantly blessed me. I see my offspring, like the sand on the seashore—children and children’s children, to the number of fifty souls!”

This aged pair had not for several years gone up to the festival: but their children had now persuaded them to appear once more before Jehovah. They had been the last in the procession, and their sons and daughters had been obliged almost to carry them in their arms—a burthen which they had joyfully sustained—for they had refused either to ride or be conveyed in a carriage. “Where could a psalm of degrees be more in its place?” said a lively youth of the company. At the word several of them ran to fetch their musical instruments, and standing around the deeply moved old man, they sung the following psalm:

Blessed is every one that feareth Jehovah,

That walketh in his ways.

For thou shalt eat of the labour of thy hands:

Happy art thou, and it is well with thee!

Thy wife is a fruitful vine, by the walls of thine house,

Thy children, like olive plants around thy table.

Behold, thus shall the man be blessed that feareth Jehovah:

Jehovah will bless thee out of Zion.

Thou shalt see the prosperity of Jerusalem thine whole life long,

Yea, thou shalt see thy children’s children.

Peace be upon Israel!—Ps. cxxviii.

During this time others had come up, and soon the news was spread through the whole assemblage, that Mardochai of Ziph was once more among them; and nearly all the pilgrims came and formed a circle about him. The judges and elders of Hebron were among them, and all greeted the venerable pair and wished them peace.

“Ye shall lead the procession!” said an elder of Hebron! “The place of honour belongs to you. The pilgrims of Hebron cannot advance with any blessing better or more rare.”

The sons took their father, the daughters their mother, in their arms, the priests and elders followed, and the march began again to complete the ten sabbath-days’ journies which they were still distant from Jerusalem.

Far from the expressions of joy being exhausted by all the songs and acclamations of the morning, they seemed only to be beginning, when they set forward again. From the pools of Solomon they took their way through the hills to Bethlehem. The cymbals, cornets, and timbrels of the Levites struck up their music again, and many a soul-inspiring psalm was heard from the lips of an assemblage now swollen to several thousand persons. In a pilgrimage to the temple, could he be forgotten, whose pious heart first conceived the wish to build a house for Jehovah? The warrior-bard was commemorated in the following psalm:

Lord remember David!

All his afflictions.

How he sware unto the Lord

And vowed unto the Mighty One of Jacob;

Surely I will not go into mine house,

Nor go up into my bed;

I will not give sleep to mine eyes,

Nor slumber to mine eyelids,

Until I find out a place for the Lord,

A habitation for the Mighty One of Jacob.

Lo, we heard of it at Ephratah,

We found it in the fields of Jaar:

Let us go into his tabernacle,

Let us worship at his footstool!—Ps. cxxxii.

It seemed as if the multitude could not leave the last strophe, which they repeated over and over again. They then went on to the second part of the psalm, which was probably sung at the dedication of the temple, and repeated in the same way the elevating words with which it concludes,

Jehovah hath chosen Zion,

He hath desired it for his habitation.

The instruments now struck in with a louder tone, and the multitude lifted up its voice, as the words of Jehovah were repeated.

This is my rest for ever;

Here will I dwell: for I have chosen it.

I will abundantly bless her provision,

I will satisfy her poor with bread;

I will clothe her priests with salvation,

Her holy ones shall shout aloud for joy.

There will I exalt the might of David

And prepare a lamp for mine anointed.

His enemies will I clothe with shame,

But on his head shall the crown flourish.

Proceeding in this way they reached Bethlehem Ephratah, “little among the thousands of Judah,” and yet so highly honoured. Both its names allude to the fertility of the country in which it stands. Bethlehem signifies the place of bread; and Ephratah, fruitful. In its luxuriant pastures Jacob fed his flocks; in its fertile fields Boaz was reaping when he found his kinswoman Ruth. Here his seven sons were born to Jesse, and here the man after God’s own heart grew up, till the day when he came forth to avenge the honour of his people on the boastful heathen.

Bethlehem is a small town, six sabbath-days’ journies from the holy city. It is situated upon a narrow, rocky ridge, surrounded by vallies and hills, having an extensive view over the diversified country in its neighbourhood, the region around Jericho, the Dead Sea, and the Arabian mountains. Before its gates you look to the plain of the [valley of Rephaim], and all around is the garden of God. The Kedron flows through its fruitful fields, which are thickly set with olives and figtrees, with vines and corn. But its greatest glory is that of which Micah prophetically speaks, “And thou Bethlehem Ephratah, who art little among the thousands of Judah, out of thee shall he come forth that is to be Ruler in Israel, whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.”[^[102]]

In Bethlehem they met with another company of pilgrims, coming from Lachish, Adullam, and Libna, which lie westward of Bethlehem. All who could, endeavoured to make Bethlehem in their way to Jerusalem on these occasions. It was the city of David, the road passed by the grave of Rachel, and it was dear to many, as the city to which the greatest of all the promises had been given.

The elders of the different cities had soon agreed about the order of the march from Bethlehem to Jerusalem. The venerable pair, Mardochai of Ziph and his wife, were borne before, the elders followed, but without any distinctive badge, and the people arranged themselves as they chose. Some time, however, elapsed before they set out. There were greetings of friends and acquaintance, who met after a long interval; those who had travelled furthest needed refreshment. At length the Levites began their music and their songs, and the people set forward. They had soon descended from the heights of Bethlehem into the valley of Rephaim. As the living stream poured down from the hills, among the corn-fields and mulberry-groves of the vale, this was the praise of Jerusalem which ascended in a mingled strain of voices and instruments.

They that trust in the Lord shall be as mount Zion,

Which cannot be removed, but abideth for ever.

As the mountains are around Jerusalem,

So the Lord is round about his people,

From henceforth and for evermore:

For the sceptre of the wicked shall not remain on the lot of the righteous.

Do good, O Lord, unto those that are good,

To them that are upright in their hearts!

As for those that turn aside into crooked ways,

Jehovah shall destroy them, with all the workers of iniquity.

Peace be upon Israel!—Ps. cxxv.

When they had proceeded about two sabbath-days’ journies, or a little more, from Bethlehem, they approached the [grave of Rachel].[^[103]] At another time this place of the rest of Jacob’s beloved wife, the hardly earned recompense of his labours, might have produced some melancholy emotions, but now such thoughts were banished by the universal joy. Helon remarked to Elisama, that this was not the time of which their prophet had spoken: “In Rama was heard a voice, lamentation and bitter weeping; Rachel weeping for her children.”[^[104]] “May it be always so with the children of Israel,” replied Elisama.

The eager haste of the multitudes now increased with every step, and their impatience for the first sight of Jerusalem was expressed in the following psalm:

Great is the Lord; and greatly to be praised

The mountain of his holiness in the city of our God.

Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole land

Is mount Zion, on the north of the city of the great King.

God is known in her palaces for a refuge,

We think of thy loving-kindness, O God,

In the midst of thy temple.

As thy name, so thy praise reacheth to the ends of the earth.

Thy right hand is full of righteousness.

Let the hill of Zion rejoice,

Let the daughters of Judah be glad

Because of thy judgments!

Walk about Zion, go round about her!

Tell her towers!

Mark well her bulwarks!

Consider her palaces!

That ye may tell it to the generation following.

For this God is our God, for ever and ever.

He will be our guide, as in our youth.—Ps. xlviii.

Expectation had reached the highest pitch. The last strophes were not completely sung; many were already silent, eagerly watching for the first sight of Jerusalem. All eyes were turned towards the north; a faint murmur spread from rank to rank among the people, only those who had been at the festival before continued the psalm, and these solitary scattered voices formed a solemn contrast with the silence of the rest of the multitude. Helon’s heart was in his eye, and he could scarcely draw his breath. When the psalm was concluded, the instruments prolonged the sound for a moment, and then all that mighty multitude, so lately jubilant, was still as death.

All at once the foremost ranks exclaimed, Jerusalem, Jerusalem! Jerusalem, Jerusalem! resounded through the valley of Rephaim. “Jerusalem, thou city built on high, we wish thee peace!” The children dragged their parents forward with them, and all hands were lifted up to bless.

The high white walls of the Holy City cast a gleam along the valley: Zion arose with its palaces, and from Moriah the smoke of the offering was ascending to heaven. It was the hour of the evening sacrifice. Scarcely had the multitude recovered a little, when they began to greet the temple and the priests:

Bless ye the Lord, all ye servants of the Lord,

Who stand by night in the house of the Lord!

Lift up your hands towards the sanctuary,