hand, ministers or assistants who might relieve them from the menial and low duties connected with the service of the Sanctuary. They received a chief in the High-priest, and assistants in the Levites.

The High-priest, invested both with greater holiness and higher responsibilities, was the embodiment of the theocratic community itself. He was consecrated by a more copious anointment than the common priests, and was, therefore, simply called the anointed priest' or even distinguished by the name the holy of the Lord.' There could of course only be one High-priest at a time. The sin of the High-priest caused or involved the sin of the nation. The dignity was confined to Aaron and his descendants through Eleazar, the eldest of his surviving sons, and was certainly not extended to any other branch of his tribe. The High-priest was permitted to marry none but a Hebrew virgin. He held his office for life; his death marked an epoch in the existence of the nation; and when it happened, the involuntary homicide who had escaped into a city of refuge, was permitted to return to his home. It was his prerogative especially, to consult the Urim and Thummim, which he wore on his breast. He exercised supreme supervision over the entire public worship. He sacrificed the sin-offering for himself and the people. On the day of Atonement, he expiated the sins of the community by most solemn and imposing rites. He occupied a high position, if he did not preside, in the supreme tribunals. He was not allowed to approach the dead bodies even of his father and his mother. He was rigorously to abstain from all external signs of mourning. He was to keep himself in perfect and constant purity; for he should not go out of the Sanctuary, nor profane the Sanctuary of his God, for the crown of the anointing oil of God is upon him.' His garments were, even in a higher sense than those of the common priests, to be made

for 'glory and distinction.' They were marked both by greater splendour and higher significance, as has been pointed out above (p. 182). But on the Day of Atonement, when he entered into the Holy of Holies, he had to lay off those magnificent vestments, and humbly to appear in garments of plain white linen.

The Levites, or the ministers of the priests, comprised all the members of the tribe, except the branch of Aaron. Their connection with the public service was not spiritual, but menial and mechanical. They were not properly elected by God, but merely set apart for certain subordinate duties. They were, in fact, considered as mere substitutes for the Israelites. They were not allowed to come near the holy implements of the Sanctuary; if they did so, they were to expect death from the hand of God, together with the neglectful priests who permitted the desecration. They were, like the Israelites, restricted to the Court. They were invested with no peculiar significance or holiness. Physical perfection was not required as a necessary condition. All were admitted, and served from the twenty-first or thirtieth to the fiftieth year of their lives. They were initiated in their office by the simplest rites. They were neither clothed nor anointed, but merely cleansed by purifying water. They had no distinguishing garments, and did not differ, in this respect, from the common Israelites. They had to keep the charge of the Sanctuary,' that is, to do the service of the Tent of Meeting. Therefore, during the wanderings of the Israelites, they had to carry the Tabernacle and its vessels, which, however, not they, but the priests alone, were permitted to wrap up, under penalty of certain death. During the encampments, they were stationed round the holy structure. They assisted in the offering of sacrifices, especially in receiving the blood of the victims in the appointed vessels, and presenting it to the priests for

sprinkling. They had to prepare the holy ointment, the shew-bread, and the other unleavened cakes and cereal oblations. When the Temple was built, their functions were naturally enlarged: they were the keepers of the entrances, courts, and chambers, and in later times, together with the priests, the guardians of the treasury of the Temple; they had the charge of the stores of flour and oil, wine, frankincense, and spices; they attended the morning and evening services, at which they performed vocal and instrumental music. They were probably chosen for judges of the inferior courts, and for teachers of the people.

When the Levites had thus risen in authority, they were deemed too holy for many of the menial duties, and they received, on their part, servants called Nethinim, who were charged to assist them in the same way as they had been appointed to assist the priests; the Nethinim were probably captives of war, and were held in great contempt.

The Levites were, in the Pentateuch, liberally provided for. They had, indeed, no landed property, but they received, in return for their services at the Sanctuary, the tenth part of all the produce of the soil and of the annual increase of the cattle; of the former, however, they had to give the tenth part to the priests. Though exempt from military service and all taxes, they yet probably received a share of the booty of war. They had abodes assigned to them in thirty-five cities on both sides of the Jordan, within the territories of all tribes, except those of Judah, Benjamin, and Simeon, in which the priests had their dwellings; and to each town, fields were attached sufficient for pasturage.

48. VARIOUS LEVITICAL LAWS.

1. Dietary Laws (Levit. xi. &c.). Purity and holiness were to be the chief characteristics of the Hebrew people; they were to be manifested in their faith and worship, in their moral conduct and daily life. Bearing this in mind, we shall be able duly to estimate the value of the dietary laws, which, though, perhaps, partly sanitary in their origin, were invested with a religious sanctity, and connected with the great principle, 'You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy.' Man was allowed to feed on the flesh of animals, but he was restricted in his choice. Among quadrupeds, the legislator considered as clean and wholesome the cloven-footed ruminants; among birds, those which do not prey on dead bodies; and among fishes, those which have fins and scales: these alone he permitted, whereas he rigidly interdicted all other creatures, as the camel, the pig, and the hare, the eagle, the vulture, and the hawk, and especially 'creeping things,' which were declared to be an abomination, and to cause uncleanness if touched when dead. Moreover, he prohibited the people from eating all animals that had not been properly killed, because they might be unwholesome; and all that were torn by wild beasts, because they were stifled in their own blood; and blood was interdicted by the most awful penalties, because the blood is the soul' of the animal, which it was regarded iniquitous not to respect; therefore, even the blood of animals that had been killed in the chase was to be poured on the ground and covered with earth. The fat also was forbidden, because it was, like the blood, considered as the seat of the life and strength of the animal; and it is likely that for a similar reason the custom arose among the Hebrews of abstaining from the

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principal (or sciatic) nerve, representing the power of motion, though that custom was derived from a remarkable ineident in the life of the patriarch Jacob (see p. 74). The command, Thou shalt not seethe the kid in its mother's milk' was probably prompted by motives of humanity, and had, besides, the object of preventing certain superstitious rites practised by heathens.

2. The Laws of Purification (Levit. xiii.-xv. &c.) were enforced with great severity and precision. Foremost among them are the rules to be observed with respect to that terrible Eastern scourge, leprosy. As soon as the first symptoms of illness were noticed, the sufferer was removed from the community, and placed under the supervision of the priest. If the symptoms developed themselves into the dread disease, he was kept in seclusion, and whenever he went forth into the abodes of men, he had to appear with his clothes rent, his head bared, and his chin covered, and to utter the doleful warning, Unclean, unclean!' If the plague left him, he was cleansed by various and significant purifications meant to symbolise his renewed holiness in thought and in deed, and restoring him again to all his rights as a member of the chosen community. A terrible plague akin to leprosy is, in the East, not unusual in houses, when the stones of the walls are covered with green or red streaks. As soon as the priest received information of such symptoms, he went to examine the house, and at once ordered everything to be cleared out of it; after seven days he returned, and if the marks had made progress during that time, the stones so affected were, by his direction, taken away and cast into an unclean place without the city, the interior of the house was thoroughly scraped, and the dust likewise removed beyond the precincts of the city, after which the stones and the dust were replaced by new stones and mortar. But the signs