need, God raised up a deliverer in the person of Moses.

By a series of miracles Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt, through the Red Sea, into the Desert of Sinai, where the divine law for the newly-formed nation was promulgated. There they had to remain forty years as a punishment for their repeated disobedience and unbelief, and there, too, Moses died, after having appointed his servant Joshua as his successor. Joshua, by divine direction, waged a successful war against the inhabitants of the promised land, and distributed the conquered territory among the tribes of Israel. But even in his time may be discerned the signs of future national disasters, inasmuch as the war not made one of total extermination, as it ought to have been according to the command of God, and the Israelites were left amidst snares and temptations which they were unable to resist.

After the death of Joshua a period of 400 years follows, usually called the time of the Judges. During this period the work of Moses seems to have nearly come to nought, for the Israelites were steeped in idolatry, for which they were punished, though on their repentance they were always reinstated in the divine favour

The Period of the Judges.

7

through the judges whom God raised up for them. The state of the social life among the Hebrews, at this time of their history, may best be learned from the Book of Ruth, which combines all the beauties of an idyllic poem with historic accuracy and truthfulness. But their national life seems to have decayed after Joshua's death, and each of the different tribes appears to have pursued its own affairs without reference to the other parts of the nation.

During this time also first occur the signs of what in future was destined to bring about the disruption of the Hebrew race, namely the jealousy of Ephraim and Judah. In the case of Gideon as well as in that of Jephthah, the men of Ephraim remonstrated against a war being undertaken without them. Gideon turned away their wrath by kind words, but Jephthah had actually to engage in a fratricidal fight against them, the Ephraimites losing 42,000 in the battle. In connection with the way in which Jephthah distinguished the Ephraimites, viz., by making them pronounce the word "Shibboleth," it may not be without interest to mention that there are even in the present time numbers of Jews (especially in

Russia) who pronounce Shibboleth in the very same manner in which the Ephraimites did in the passage of the Jordan in Jephthah's time, viz., "Sibboleth," their organ of speech not allowing them to utter the sound of sh or the Hebrew, and it seems all but certain that Jews possessed of this peculiarity, are descendants of the proud tribe of Ephraim.

Towards the end of the so-called time of the Judges, the temporal and spiritual supreme power seems to have resided in the High Priest Eli at Shiloh, but his administration was sullied by such sins that God allowed the Philistines to be victorious over his people, and even to capture the holy ark. The loss of this great national treasure seems to have at last awakened throughout all the tribes the consciousness of their forming one nation, and when at last the ark was recovered, Samuel, who had succeeded Eli as high-priest and judge, obtained a hold upon the whole Israelitish nation; and it was no mean achievement of this, the last judge, that he welded the different tribes into one body, for all seem to have recognised his authority. In Samuel's time the tribes wished to have a king instead of a judge appointed over them,

The Hebrew Monarchy.

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and Saul, of the tribe of Benjamin, became their first monarch. Through disobedience to God's law Saul was not permitted to establish his dynasty as the hereditary kings of Israel, though he himself reigned forty years not ingloriously from a worldly point of view. His successor was David, who may be called the real founder of the Hebrew monarchy; for though on his accession Judæa was surrounded by enemies on all sides, he left to his son and successor a kingdom greatly enlarged in size and secure from all foreign attacks. The eve of his life was overclouded by the misdeeds of some of his sons, which he felt and acknowledged to be a just retribution for the great crimes of murder and adultery he had committed against Uriah and his wife. He was succeeded by his son Solomon, who was destined to build that temple of which David had already prepared the materials. In Solomon's time, it is stated, "Judah and Israel dwelt safely, every man under his vine and under his fig-tree," and this, in fact, is the acme of glory which the Jewish nation attained. From Moses to David and Solomon a steady progress in the national life is discernible, though at some periods this was retarded; but after the death of Solomon

the decline of the Jewish nation begins, never to be reversed again.

There follow yet some bright times, but they are only like the flickering that precedes the final extinction of a light. Never again was the kingdom of Israel so united within and so respected without as under David and Solomon, and I cannot pass on without casting a look back upon the three great men who chiefly brought about the result-Moses, David and Solomon.

It is no exaggeration to say that no other nation known to history can boast of three men equal to these. Moses surpasses all known lawgivers, inasmuch as he not only gave a constitution which in its main features remains unaltered and retains its influence over the greater part of the world to this day (for we must remember that Mahomedanism as well as Christianity pays homage, and, to a certain degree, derives its origin from the law of Moses), but had also to form the nation which was to follow his laws. His countrymen were shepherds when God first sent him to them, and by a wearisome process he had to mould them into a coherent body, ready for war, yet not aspiring to become a warlike and conquering nation, but one whose mission was to