the Old Testament we contemplate the idea of marriage holy reflection of an inseparable psychic bond betwee souls, a typifying prelude to the happy restorations effected in the reign of the Messiah."*

However, amid all the splendor and achievements of mon's time, the process of a slow but certain social and rel decay was at work. Indeed, the worm of disinteg found its way into the national life of the Hebrews th the practices and example of the king himself. Associ with the princes of other realms, and marital relations the court of Egypt, with Moab, Sidon, Ammon, Edom the Hittite tribes, gradually transformed him from an ar and heroic devotee of the Jahveh worship, into a relig liberalist of so decided a type that he even invited tolerated the open and free re-introduction of the idolat worship of Chemosh and Moloch, whose degrading rites w celebrated within sight of the temple of Jehovah. Tho the priesthood of Israel may thereby have been arrayed agai the king, his example and instructions outweighed all th protestations. They could not stem the tide of approachi degeneracy. The old faith wavered and waned, and with the uses of music sank to the same deplorable level. So rap and universal, amid the increasing luxury and effeminacy the times, was the decline of music that not many years aft the close of Solomon's reign, the prophet Amos wrote: to them that are at ease in Zion! . . . . . That chant to th sound of the viol and invent to themselves instruments of musi like David. That is to say, "the same pains which David em ployed on music to the honor of God, they employed on thei light, enervating, unmeaning music, and if they were in earnes enough, justified their inventions by the example of David An artificial, effeminate music which should relax the soul, frittering the melody, and displacing the power and majesty of divine harmony by tricks of arts and giddy, thoughtless,

"W

Music of the Old Testament and Religion of Israel. 191

heartless, soulless versifying would be meet company. Debased music is a mark of a nation's decay and promotes it." *

The same prophet exposed the hypocritical character of diine service in the reign of Ahaz and Manasseh: "Take thou way from me the noise of thy songs; for I will not hear the nelody of thy viols." †

A few years later Isaiah bore witness to the prostitution of music as the accompaniment of religious degeneracy: “And The harp and the viol, the tabret and pipe and wine are in heir feasts; but they regard not the work of the Lord, neither consider the operation of his hands." In view of the loss of the buoyant spirit of faith and the punitive devastation consequent upon Israel's apostasy, he said again: "The mirth of abrets ceaseth; the noise of them that rejoice endeth; the joy of the harp ceaseth." §

Jeremiah, the next great prophet, was doomed to contemplate the same sad state of things. Said he: "The elders have ceased from the gate, the young men from their music. The joy of our heart is ceased; our dance is turned into mourning." ||

When, finally, the measure of iniquity became filled by the desecration and defilement of the temple and the institution of human sacrifices, offered on the altars of Tophet in the valley of Hinnom, a curse which recognizes the kinship between music and religion was uttered against Israel for its abominations: "Then will I cause to cease from the cities of Judah and from the streets of Jerusalem the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride; for the land shall be desolate." T

Shorn of their national glory, steeped in idolatrous iniquity and vice, dead to the inspiration and promises of the Jahveh worship, and the prey of internal dissension, the Jews were easily conquered by a foreign foe. But in the Babylonian captivity, once more reduced to servitude, they bewailed the errors of the *Pusey. Minor Prophets; Amos in loco. † Amos 5: 23. Jer. 7: 34; 25: 10.

Isa. 5: 12.

Isa, 24: 8. || Lam. 5: 14, 15.

past, and with tear-stained faces gazed, in imagination the vanished glory of David's age and the departed sp of Solomon's reign. Then the old longings returned to and they brought, as best they could, fruits meet for ance. The ancestral Jahveh faith was reinstated in hearts with somewhat of its former fervor, and the har of the temple gave them utterance.

After the decree of Cyrus had gone forth permitting return of the Hebrews, the temple destroyed by Nebuchadn zar seventy years before was rebuilt by Zerubabbel, and worship of Israel re-established in Jerusalem. But the forms introduced by Ezra, the dispersion of the Jews throug out the Persian Empire and the organization of the synagog so changed the course of later Jewish history that the ancie glory of Hebrew music was never again revived. The readi and exercise of the law in all its rigor, and strict habits prayer as associated with the synagogue, displaced the centra ized hierarchical ceremonialism of the temple. The peop were trained in a hard and narrow legalism which swept awa polygamy forever, and prevented the Jewish nation from bein totally obliterated. But it froze the fountain of that poeti

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193

ervor which had given responsive echo to the Psalms of David and the Songs of Solomon.

In the second century before Christ, Antiochus Epiphanes verran Cole-Syria, Palestine and Egypt. In consequence hereof, the temple services at Jerusalem were suspended for hree years, and the statue of Jupiter Olympus was erected in The Holy Places. But Lysias, a leading general under Antichus, having been defeated by the Maccabees, retreated to Antioch to reorganize his army. In the mean time an examnation of the temple disclosed the ruin that had been wrought within its sacred precincts. The altar was desecrated; the gates were burned; the spot on which it stood was covered with grass, and the tents of the priests had rotted to the ground. At sight of this devastation the victors tore their mantles, wept aloud, fell upon their faces, blew trumpets and ried to heaven. But, at the instance of Judas, the holy places were purified by priests who had observed the law. Every vestige of heathen uncleanness and abomination was removed. Early on the following day a sacrifice of burnt-offering once more fulfilled the provisions of the law of Moses, and was celebrated with songs, pipes, harps and cymbals. Thus the temple received a re-dedication to the worship of Jahveh. In connection with this service is found the last trace of music under the Old Covenant.

For nearly two hundred years of impotent effort to throw off the Roman yoke and call back an ancient independence, the muse of sacred song was hushed. The religion of the Old Testament, in Rabbinic form, had reached a lasting limit. When the Saviour of the world stood face to face with the appointed ordeal of His sacrifice, He ate the paschal meal with His disciples, and closed it with the institution of the sacrament of Holy Communion. Then they sang a hymn, and went out to the Mount of Olives.

*1 Mac. 4: 54.

13

IV.

C. E. SMITH ON THE APOCALYPSE.

BY REV. W, M. REILY, PH.D.

"Increase of knowledge awaits posterity. Hereafter much that despised will become a foundation for further building; much that is cepted will become antiquated; many a proof, which now avails only few, will be found superfluous. If, in the meantime, those who love t pearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, find in this book (his Erklärte Offent any trace of truth, let them with me praise God's name, and for the sake as well as mine, let them help me to pray for a supply for all my de cies out of His abundance who is full of grace and truth. Such a supp be further granted to all who, in connection with earnest p patient meditation and careful consideration, shall test what is here prese shall advance it, aided by higher illumination and more accurate inform to a greater degree of maturity; and shall, in faith, patience and persever make of it its intended use,

“Kloster Denkendorf, am Tage des Herrn, den 4. Sept., 1740.”

J. A. BENGEL.

THE work before us is entitled "THE WORLD LIGHTED, A st in the Apocalypse." All that we know of the author is what have gathered up from the book, including the informat given on the title page, that he is the writer of another "The Baptism of Fire." Our attention was drawn to it two highly flattering notices-one apparently from the pen Dr. Harper in the O. & N. T. Student, the other from 7 Independent. These notices of themselves were sufficient awaken our curiosity. Could any light be thrown upon th wonderful production, which in all ages has been regarded a the Great Enigma of bibical study? We had very disting reminiscence of allusions to it in a certain series of article in this Review, which we were never able to dismiss from ou