striking contrast to the purity and simplicity of preceding

writers.

The characteristics of Ezekiel are not limited to his language and his imagination. His ideas and teachings, no less than his peculiar mode of expression, belong to a later stage of Hebrew culture. The doctrines of resurrection and of a life beyond the grave had but gradually been adopted. They had dawned upon the minds of men who, perplexed at the strange and unequal distribution of happiness on earth, questioned the justice of the dispensation which often sent sorrow to the pious and earthly blessing to the wicked. This problem, so naturally suggesting itself to every reflecting mind, remained long without a satisfactory solution. In the course of centuries, more spiritual and consolatory ideas were proposed and accepted; and in Ezekiel's time the doctrine of resurrection seems to have been generally received. The prophet does not enforce it as a truth to be taught and commented upon, but it was obviously familiar to his mind, and must have been current among the people, as he employed it to illustrate, in his usual metaphorical style, the future restoration of the people of Israel. This description belongs to the finest portions of his writings.

'The hand of the Lord was upon me, and carried me out in the spirit of the Lord, and set me down in the midst of the valley which was full of bones, and caused them to pass by me round about: and behold, there were very many in the open valley; and lo, they were very dry. And He said to me, Son of man, can these bones live? and I answered, O Lord God, Thou knowest. Again He said to me, Prophesy upon these bones, hear the word of the Lord: thus says the Lord God to these bones, behold, I will cause breath to enter into you, and you shall live; and I will lay sinews upon you and I will bring up flesh upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath

in you, and you shall know that I am the Lord..... So I prophesied as He commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood up upon their feet, an exceedingly great army. Then He said to me, Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel, behold they say, Our bones are dried and our hope is lost, we are cut off from our parts; therefore prophesy and say to them, thus says the Lord God, Behold, O My people, I will open your graves and cause you to come up out of your graves, and bring you out into the land of Israel. And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I opened your graves, and put My spirit in you, and you shall live, and I shall place you in your own land; then shall you know that I the Lord have spoken it and performed it, says the Lord."

Ezekiel's moral teachings evince also an advanced stage of thought. He emphatically insists upon the doctrine that each man is answerable for his own sins. The following proverb had apparently been current among the Hebrews for generations, "The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge.' The prophet, deeply impressed with the dangerous fallacy of this adage, opposed it with vigour and earnestness. • As

I live, says the Lord God, you shall not have occasion any more to use this proverb in Israel. Behold, all souls are Mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is Mine: the soul that sins, it shall die. But if a man be just, and do that which is lawful and right, and has not eaten upon the heights, nor lifted up his eyes to the idols of the house of Israel, nor... oppressed any, but has restored to the debtor his pledge, spoiled none by violence, given his bread to the hungry, and covered the naked with a garment; he that has not lent upon usury, nor taken any increase, that has withdrawn his hand from iniquity, executed true judgment between man and man,

walked in My statutes and kept My judgments, to deal truly; he is just, he shall surely live, says the Lord God. If he begets a son that is a robber, a shedder of blood, and that does like any one of these things... shall he live? He shall not live; he has done all these abominations; he shall surely die; his blood shall be upon him. Now, lo, if he beget a son, that sees all his father's sins which he has done, and considers, and does not such like,... he shall not die for the iniquity of his father, he shall surely live.... The soul that sins, it shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, nor shall the father bear the iniquity of the son; the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him. But if the wicked will turn from all his sins that he has committed, and keep all My statutes, and do that which is lawful and right, he shall surely live, he shall not die. All his transgressions that he has committed, they shall not be mentioned to him; in his righteousness that he has done he shall live. Have any pleasure at all that the wicked should die? says the Lord God; and not that he should return from his ways and live?'

I

C. THE MINOR PROPHETS.

In addition to the writings of the three prophets Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, the Hebrew Scriptures contain orations and narratives of twelve other, or 'minor' prophets, which constitute together one of the twenty-four Books of the Sacred Volume. It is probable that these compositions were at first preserved by means of memory and verbal tradition, and that they are no more than fragmentary portions of works as elaborate and complete as those of the three 'great' prophets. Consequently the Canonical arrangement does not preserve chronological order, and the twelve Books extend over a very long period; for the earliest date from a time when the Hebrew monarchy was still strong and prosperous, while the latest were written more than a century after the end of the Babylonian exile. Hence they necessarily present very great variety in style and imagery, in conception and historical allusions; and the characteristic features of each reveal almost conclusively the age when its author wrote and worked. In eloquence, in force, and in pathos, some of them are worthy of the greatest masters of Hebrew poetry; while in the sublimity of their doctrines many of them stand unrivalled.

The works which first claim our attention belong to the ninth century before the present era, or to a comparatively

early period of Hebrew history. They mark a new epoch in the annals of public teaching. Their writers followed, after a very short interval, the prophets of the type of Elijah and Elisha, whose influence lay particularly in miraculous deeds, in their timely and unlooked-for presence, in their concise and pithy sayings. The 'minor prophets,' though divested of such majesty and power, secured for themselves a more wide-spread and more lasting influence by infusing into the Hebrew character a more spiritual element, a more enlarged view of religion, and a more extended feeling of brotherhood and humanity. They changed accordingly the very scenes of their labours. No longer regarding the king as all-important and allpowerful in matters of religion, they came forward as the friends and counsellors of the people, and appeared more frequently in the open streets and public places than in the palace. Their strenuous efforts were less directed against political offences than against the misdemeanours which were of daily occurrence amongst the people. Both monarchies had to contend with internal evils of a slow but dangerous growth; and not even the brightest example from the throne was able to counteract the baneful propensities which always prevailed in the nation, and the effects of which were at all times manifest.

I. JOEL (about 810).

The commonwealth of Judah was enjoying apparent prosperity, when Joel, probably the earliest of the minor prophets, sought to free his people from the idolatry and corruption which lay beneath the outward gloss.

The reign of Uzziah formed a decided epoch in the history of Judah. It followed after a succession of hu