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with the earliest manifestations of revealed religion. As wise master-builders, however, the apostles-for instance, Paul at Athens-when they addressed persons of heathen parentage, chose rather to base their appeal on general convictions and sympathies discovered to men by their own intelligence, when quickened by the Spirit of God operating in his natural works. In these two lines of argument there was diversity without conflict; for human intelligence, as far as it was well guided, taught truths which Inspiration developed in union with man's understanding, though Revelation both anticipated discovery and in the fulness and value of its lessons went far beyond what unassisted Reason could ever attain.

In one essential particular the religion of Moses and that of Jesus were in strict accordance, namely, in the fact that the revelation in both cases was made in and through the medium of human beings. Accordingly, we find in both divine truth and divine charities in a living human form. Revealed religion is no abstract theory, no mere code of laws, no systematic product of reason; but the spirit and truth, the life and the love, which we find embodied and reflected in the characters-in the thoughts, words, deeds, and affections-in the joys and the sorrows, in the hopes and the fears-of holy men of old, moved by the Spirit of God. Hence it is warm with the rich, delicate, and attractive hues of actual life, and makes its way to the bosom in traits of excellence, in penetrating words, in heroic acts and lofty endurance, that are congenial with the best natural sentiments of man, and find the counterpart which ensures them a reception, and which in return they foster into new and vigorous life, wherever there is a heart to feel, a home to bless, and a heaven to cover and elevate, the human race.

CHAPTER V.

THE TIMES OF CHRIST-HEROD AND THE TEMPLE.

The writings of the Old Testament are chiefly valuable to Christians as they enable us to trace the manner in which God prepared the way for the advent of his Son, showing us as they do the inward and the outward discipline, the thoughts, the affections, the deeds, the rewards and the punishments, through which the education of one people was carried forward, with a view to the full development of men's powers and the final salvation of the world.

For the accomplishment of that grand result, Jesus, the son of Mary, was sent into the world. At the time of his appearance, Jude'a was under the sway of Rome, with a native sovereign whose tenure of power depended on the pleasure of the Roman emperor. That sovereign, Herod, falsely called the Great, was one of the worst of kings and the most shameful of men. In his old age, the monarch, under the combined influences of debility, vice, and disease, committed the most cruel acts, not sparing his best friends or even his own kin. One instance may be mentioned. Having, in the hope of finding relief, repaired to the warm clime found in the basin in which Jericho lies, he there had to endure terrific sufferings, when, aware that his end was not far off, and being convinced that whenever it came it would be a subject of rejoicing to the Jewish people, he resolved to furnish them with a good reason for bewailing his death. In this view, he seized the most distinguished men of the country and imprisoned them at Jericho, giving strict injunctions that they should all be slain the moment his breath had departed! With what alarm must so jealous a tyrant have heard men speak of a coming Deliverer, and how ready would he be to employ the sword in order to free himself from even the chance of a rival or a colleague! Accordingly, when he had learnt from the Magi that the Messiah had been born at Be'thlehem, he gave orders that all the children in the city under two years of age should be massacred. This crime was not too revolting to be committed by Herod, for in his last hours he put to death his own son, Anti'pater, and so gave Augustus an occasion of saying that he would rather be Herod's hog than his son.

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One merit was possessed by that monarch-he laboured for the embellishment of Jerusalem and of his country in general. With this view, he undertook the rebuilding of the temple. If, however, he raised one house to Jehovah, he constructed many Pagan edifices; and his object was rather to appease discontent among his subjects than render homage to the Almighty. However, in the eighteenth year of his reign, he convoked a national assembly, and set before them the necessity there was for rebuilding the temple, which had been raised by exiles just returned home, whose resources were insufficient for the task. truth, the actual building, which was five centuries old, bore but a mean appearance in comparison with the splendid edifices erected by Herod, in all the perfection of Greek art. But the Jews, distrusting Herod's designs, were at first in consternation. The king relieved their minds by assuring them that he would not begin the new building until he had collected all the necessary materials. Two years were spent in making preparations. The sanctuary was finished in two years, but the outer buildings took eight years; nor was the entire edifice completed till A. D.

64.

The whole enclosure formed by the exterior wall, and called the Temple Mount, was a quadrangle whose four sides ran for about half a mile. The ground rose in a series of platforms. The temple, properly so called, was much nearer the outer wall on the north and west than on the south and east, and stood on the highest level, so as to present an imposing object, visible from all parts of Jerusalem. In the outer wall were several gates, the principal of which was called the Gate of Susa. Along the wall on the inside ran colonnades or porticos, which were paved with stones of different colours, and under which were held markets for the sale of various kinds of articles. This part might be entered even by heathens, and hence it acquired the name of the Court of the Gentiles. This outer court was on all sides separated from the higher and inner parts by a stone balustrade wrought with much skill, and bearing pillars with inscriptions, in Greek and Latin, forbidding persons of pagan blood to proceed beyond. A flight of fourteen steps led up to a walk called Hel, which was limited by the wall of what was properly the temple. This wall had nine gates, to enter which the visitor had to mount five steps. The sacred enclosure, which thus stood higher than the Hel, was divided into two courts-one on the east, the other on the west. By the former there was an entrance into what was termed the Court of the Women. Here females might appear to offer their devotion. It was a quadrangle, with a small chamber or chapel at each corner. This court was separated from that on the west by a wall, in the middle of which was the Gate of Nicanor, which led into the great western court of the temple properly so called, at the south and north of which were chambers, in one of which the Sanhedrim held its sittings. In the eastern part of this court was the Court of the Israelites. The remainder was the Court of the Priests. The temple, in the strict sense of the term, built of marble and richly gilded within and without, rose at the summit, a hundred cubits (a cubit, 21 or 22 inches) long and a hundred in height. Its eastern front also extended a hundred cubits, and had a vestibule or portico twenty cubits in length, up to which led twelve steps. The gate which led from the vestibule to the Holy Place (Hechal), was fifty-five cubits high and sixteen broad. Besides a gilded folding-door, it had a magnificent Babylonian curtain, covered with inwrought work of various colours. Above the door was a colossal vine of gold. The Holy Place, which was twenty cubits broad, forty long, and sixty high, was separated by a curtain from the Holy of Holies, which was twenty cubits long, twenty broad, and sixty high. The roof appears to have been flat. It was surrounded by a balustrade three cubits high, and furnished with gilded nails a cubit in height, in order to keep off the birds. In the Court of the Priests, and on the south-east of the Sanctuary, stood the Brazen Sea or Laver in which the priests washed. In the same court,

in front of the entrance of the temple, was the Altar of Burntofferings, built of unpolished stones. On the north of the altar were marble slabs on which was laid the flesh of the victims. Within the Sanctuary was the Table of Shew-bread; in the middle, the Golden Candlestick with seven branches; and between the two, the Altar of Incense, of pure gold. The Holy of Holies was empty, as it was also in the temple of Zerubbabel, built on the return from Babylon; for the ark required by Moses, with the cherubim hovering over it, which had been placed in the temple of Solomon, had disappeared at the destruction of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar (587 A. C.). At the north-west corner of the temple-enclosure, on an elevation, stood the Tower of Antonia, which had a communication by a flight of steps with the Court of the Gentiles, and by a subterranean way with the temple.

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Herod in his last moments made the final disposition of his kingdom. His son Archela'us he named his successor to the throne, giving him Jude'a, Idume'a, and Samaʼria. Herod A'n

tipas, another son, he appointed tetrarch (properly, ruler of a fourth part) of Pere'a and Galilee; and Philip, his son by Cleopatra of Jerusalem, he made tetrarch of Batane'a, Gauloni'tis, Trachoni'tis, and Pa'nias. His daughter Salome' received the cities of Ja'mnia, Ashdod, and Phasäe'lis, with a large sum of money. Herod also bequeathed much money to Augustus and his spouse. He died at the age of seventy, in the thirty-fourth year of his reign, a few days before the Passover (Easter), four years before the commencement of the vulgar era, or the year of our Lord 1. In his reign, that monarch gave ample proof of the extent to which the Jewish institutions were mouldering away under foreign influence, though his extreme attachment to pagan customs and luxuries called forth in many quarters stern opposition; while the looseness of his morals, his tyranny, and his love of Greek art, made true and earnest Israelites yearn with their whole souls after the happy days of the Messiah.

CHAPTER VI.

THE TIMES OF CHRIST-ARCHELA'US; ROMAN PROCURATORS.

The death of Herod was the signal for the breaking out of rival claims and disastrous passions. Archela'us took the sceptre, but did not feel himself safe in its possession, unless confirmed by the Roman emperor. A'ntipas, his brother, demanded the crown in virtue of a prior nomination made by Herod in his favour. Both repaired to Rome in order to sustain their claims. In their absence, Sabi'nus, one of the Roman governors of Syria, established himself in Jerusalem, in order to administer the government in the name of his imperial master. This act, regarded as a usurpation, was vehemently resisted. The country fell into the greatest disorder. The termination of the consequent calamities depended on the will of Augustus. Besides Archelaus and Antipas, Philip also appeared before him to sustain the rights given him in Herod's testamentary bequest. There came to his court a fourth party, consisting of Jewish deputies, who prayed the emperor to abolish royalty in their land, and to take its government into his own hands. A public audience was given. The deputies painted in lively colours the evils which their nation had suffered at the hands of Herod, and spoke with energy of the cruelty of Archelaus, under the swords of whose soldiers there had fallen 3000 of their fellow-citizens who, with others, had ventured to require the adjustment of some of Herod's unrighteous acts. Augustus gave a decision which, on the whole,

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