happiness. It rigidly enforced personal duties and domestic obligations, and it provided for the weak and the helpless by fostering and strengthening feelings of humanity. It not only moulded the minds of the people, but also their habits and customs, and entered into the details of daily and private life. And as the Law itself was received as Divine, so every duty which it enjoined was invested with religious solemnity. If the Hebrew committed any illegal act, it was an offence not only against the statutes of the community or the enactments of men, but against God.

Those who pre-eminently studied and taught the Law, and who in fact acted as mediators between God and the people, were the priests. Everything was done to imbue the nation thoroughly with the idea that God is the invisible Ruler or Monarch, that is, to strengthen the theocracy. The people might temporarily rebel against the accepted organisation; they might desire and even establish a monarchy with a human and visible chief, in order to give unity to their constitution; but they never strayed long from the notions which pervade the Pentateuch. Hence the priests, God's ministers, were endowed with great dignity and influence, and they gradually became a body of very considerable importance. They represented the holy aspirations of the people and their obedience to a Divine Law, and they became the public teachers, advisers, and judges.

But the priests were scarcely free agents; their individual judgment had little scope; they were hardly more than ministers and instruments. Fettered by the unalterable precepts of a Divine legislation, they could do no more than expound and enforce them, and demand passive obedience and strict adherence to the eternal precepts inherited from their fathers. But notwithstanding the authority and the diffusion of the Law, the

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history of almost every age since Moses proves that its teaching was neglected or defied, and that the nation sank into every heathen error, and was degraded by every immoral excess.

To quell this rebellion against the Law, a voice more powerful and more inspired than that of the priests was required. Stronger hands were necessary to uphold and to direct a struggling and a falling nation. Many events and circumstances happened which had not been foreseen and provided for by the Law, and discussions and questions were raised which could not be decided by the written precepts. The affairs of the people became frequently complicated and critical. Happily, in such times, men arose who, equal to the emergency, not only delivered but strengthened the nation. They did not confine their attention to the doctrinal points of the Law, nor limit their influence to the political condition of the community; but they sought to lay the foundation of a far nobler national greatness by insisting upon the spirit of their religion; and they endeavoured to build up a powerful state upon a pure and enlightened faith. It was owing to the prophets that religion, refined and spiritualised, became the shield of the Israelites in battle and their guide in council; and success or defeat attended them, according as they obeyed or disregarded its voice, It was the prophets who at the same time most decidedly separated the Hebrews from the heathens, and yet upheld that common sympathy between both, which they predicted would one day result in one universal creed of love. They represented the intellectual members of the community who aspired to pass beyond the limits of tradition, who rejected the supreme rule of forms and customs, who saw in their holy legislation something more than ordinances of religious rites, and who venerated the spirit, while the mass clung blindly to the letter.

The priests and the prophets thus exercised distinct functions in the moral education of the people. It was the province of the priests to uphold the ancient doctrines, and to enforce the absolute authority of the Mosaic code in every age and under every change of political condition; but it was the mission of the prophets to take advantage of the passing events, to employ the moment itself for the illustration of religious truths, and to teach the people from actual life rather than by doctrine. But the prophets were not moral teachers alone, they were patriots as well, and came forward as leaders in all political movements. From the time of Samuel, whose influence aided in establishing the monarchy, down to the decay of the commonwealth, their voices were heard in the public councils, now stimulating king or people to some righteous and honourable war, now denouncing a hasty or impolitic treaty, passing their withering verdict on some act of cowardice or rebellion, or extolling with glowing enthusiasm the glory of a peaceful reign destined to shed its serene lustre on a virtuous and happy generation. The words which we chiefly admire for the sublimity and the fervour of their eloquence, were words spoken with an immediate and practical purpose. These orations, at once profound in thought and soaring in expression, were designed to guide the hearers to wise and useful acts, and to force their stubbornness into obedience. They often proved ineffectual to move a refractory race; but long after the events that occasioned them had passed away, they were remembered and meditated upon, recalling the greatness of men unequalled for elevation of mind and soul, and they have since become the heirloom of mankind.

For we must not forget that politics and religion were inseparably united in the commonwealth of the Hebrews. As the legislation possessed Divine authority, and God

was considered as the owner of the land and the invisible King who ruled and guided the nation, the life of the community as well as that of every individual was marked by a religious sanctity unlike that of any other people. It was, therefore, impossible for the great statesmen to separate the interests of their religion and of their country; to extend and establish the one was to promote the welfare of the other. Everything depended upon and originated in God; therefore, obedience to His precepts and His commands was at once a political and religious duty. Thus the prophets necessarily exercised a double function; they were the counsellors alike of the citizens and of the members of the theocracy, the promoters of worldly success and religious zeal. They exhorted the people to avert the stroke of adversity, and even when unheeded, assisted them to bear it; for their stern and inflexible morality was tempered by hopefulness and mercy. Therefore, as great leaders both in the religious and political sphere, the prophets claim our earnest attention, and if we desire duly to appreciate them, we must carefully study the time in which they lived and worked.

The prophetic instincts manifested themselves in the nation at an early period, though then only in isolated instances. Some great disaster or some sacrilegious crime would call forth the counsel or the reproof of a voice that had till then been silent; and the 'man of God,' armed with a greater authority than the judge or the priest, would step forward when other means failed to rouse the irresolute and to strengthen the weak. One of the first who encouraged or threatened the Israelites by prophetic admonition was Moses, who combined the functions of leader, lawgiver, and prophet. The dark and troubled period which followed the settlement in Canaan, was replete with dangers and calamities; but these very perils seemed to call forth men filled with the spirit of

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God, who, appearing at different intervals, held out hope or warning, and wrought deliverance. Gifted with the powers of expounding the Divine will, the poetess Deborah exhorted her people to piety and zeal; a man of God' incited Gideon to action, and inspired him to free the Israelites from a foreign yoke; and later, when the sons of Eli desecrated their holy office, a prophet came forward and unfolded to them their own punishment and the fate of their descendants. Thus prophets were heard occasionally among the people, menacing or encouraging. But they had no wide-spread influence. They were considered as diviners and as advisers, who disclosed the future, and gave those who sought them the benefit of their knowledge and wisdom. They lent their aid to release men from worldly cares and difficulties; but their power was limited to individuals, it did not reach the nation as a whole. The Israelites were as yet incapable of receiving their sublime teaching, and a long tuition was required to educate the multitude. In due time, a man arose-Samuel-singularly fitted for this great mission by rare energy, a comprehensive mind, intense perseverance, and above all, by fervent devotion to his people. He contributed to raise prophecy to the lofty eminence it was destined to occupy, and he laid the foundation for its great and lasting influence. From his time, it appeared no more in scattered rays, but in unbroken splendour; and the rights of the prophets were soon as firmly established among the people as those of the priest and the judge, the king and the general.

Samuel combined in himself nearly all the chief offices of the state: he was ruler, judge, priest, and prophet. In genius and force of character, he was only equalled by Moses. He was roused into activity by the condition of his time and country. For during the period which preceded his birth, the nation had sunk into the lowest