should be displaced when the cart was jolted by the oxen. 2 Sam. vi. 6. Among the sculptures of the Assyrians we do not find any instance of sacred objects being borne on carts, although wheeled vehicles were in use among them; but there is one piece in which the images of the gods are borne on the shoulders of men. With these instances of mixed usage even among the Israelites, the Philistines may perhaps have been doubtful as to the right mode of conveying the ark; at least they would not have been aware that it was wrong to transport it in a cart. But we must recollect that they had actually seen it borne upon the shoulders of the Levites; and we therefore think they chose this mode, partly because they were reasonably afraid to carry it, and partly because this mode of conveyance was essential to the experiment they meant to try. They provided a new cart, in the proper feeling that this sacred object required a vehicle which had not previously been employed for meaner uses.

The experiment to be tried was this: To the cart were attached two kine which had never yet been under the yoke, and which, therefore, were not likely to exhibit much docility in being thus first put to draught. These kine had also calves, which were shut up at home; and from the well-known impatience of such animals in being separated from their young, it was certain that they would naturally be altogether disinclined to go away from the place where their calves remained. Then, again, the cows, thus unused to the service to which they were put, and indisposed for it, were not to be driven or guided: they were to be left entirely to their own impulses. If they took the direct course to the land of Israel, instead of turning back to their calves, or proceeding in any other direction, it was to be concluded that it was the hand of the God of Israel which had been so heavy upon the Philistines; but if not, they had been visited in the ordinary course of events: it was a chance'—an entirely fortuitous set of circumstances. The Lord condescended to respond to an appeal which, from a people that knew Him, would have been unbecoming, although something essentially of the same nature

had been tried by Gideon. The kine proceeded quietly along, lowing, indeed, at being separated from their calves, and thereby showing the restraint that was laid upon their nature. And more than this: they proceeded straight away from their young, taking no other road than the direct one to the nearest point of the land of Israel, followed by the Philistine lords, who, doubtless, beheld these things with great admiration.

The name of the first place to which the ark came by this road was Beth-shemesh. The people were at work in the fields, it being harvest time, when they caught the first sight of the approaching ark. Their delight and exultation at the return of that glory which had departed from Israel, may perhaps be imagined, but cannot well be described. Beth-shemesh, it may be observed, was a city of the priests, and some of them, with Levites, formed a part of the population. In such places the public grief for the loss of the ark can easily be supposed to have been of peculiar intensity. In the transports of their joy, the Bethshemites or say the priests and Levites theresupposed that on an occasion so extraordinary they might allow themselves to dispense with the ordinary law regarding sacrifices, which forbade any to be offered save on the one altar in the court of the tabernacle. They therefore took down the ark from the cart, near a great stone, which might serve for an altar. The cart they broke up to serve for fuel, partly because there was no other so ready at hand, and partly in order that, since it had borne the ark, it might not afterwards be used for any less noble service. They then slew the kine which had drawn the cart, and offered them up upon the great stone for a burnt-offering. One who has studied the laws regulating sacrifices, perceives in this other irregularities besides the one just pointed out. By offering the sacrifice here, they necessarily dispensed with the sacred fire originally kindled from heaven; and, moreover, in holocausts, or sacrifices wholly consumed upon the altar, only the male animal could be used, though the female was allowed in peace-offerings, when parts only of the victims were consumed upon the altar. It may be conceived that the Bethshemites were led into this last irregu

larity—if they knew that it was such, and they ought to have known it-by their wish to prevent these kine from being thereafter engaged in any less sacred service. In the inspired narrative these facts are not, in themselves, imputed to the Bethshemites as a fault. But with a view to what subsequently occurred, they are important, as showing the beginnings of an encroaching and disorderly spirit, regardless of some of the plainest directions of the law, which being thus far, in tenderness to them, unrebuked, led to further encroachments, by which a terrible judgment was brought upon them. Many, from insufficient reference to these circumstances-from not considering how much had previously been overlooked,—are inclined to feel as if the punishment which fell upon them for a further and more audacious encroachment was too sudden, and too severe; but we now see that it was to repress a growing evil, which might, if altogether unpunished, end in the entire subversion of the ritual service, which the wisdom of God had established as the fittest for this people. There is no knowing to what lengths the matter might have gone, if the next encroachment had been left without signal chastisement.

The offence was, that they looked into the ark. To do this, it must have been handled very irreverently, and the lid with the cherubim removed. For this there was no possible occasion or excuse, but the merest and idlest curiosity; and a painful sight to a well-regulated mind it must have been, to behold this sacred object, never approached even by the priests without the most profound reverence, and never but by them beheld unless enveloped with veils,' exposed in the open fields with the sacred cover removed, and a tumultuous rabble flocking from all quarters to view its mysteries exposed to the light of day. Even the Philistines had been less irreverent. They had not dared to open the ark, even to insert therein their golden offerings, but had placed them in a casket which they

1 The ark lay in the innermost sanctuary, only entered by the high priest once a year. In its removals the priests entered and covered it up, and only after this was done the Levites came in and bore it away. It was not lawful even for a Levite to touch it, on pain of death.

laid upon the top of the ark. This, it is expressly stated, the Bethshemites 'took down;' and it is very possible that the intention of placing this casket in the ark supplied them with the excuse for removing the cover.

They were heavily punished. A large number of them were smitten dead upon the spot. There is some doubt about the number. In the authorized version we read: 'He smote of the people fifty thousand and threescore and ten men.' To this it is objected, that a place like Beth-shemesh, of no figure in history, and which Josephus calls a village, could hardly have had so many inhabitants altogether. But it must be remembered that the important news of the arrival of the ark would spread rapidly, and bring together in a very short time a large multitude from all the neighbouring places. There is therefore no real objection as to the presence of such a number of people as might sustain this loss. Still, one is willing to suppose there is some mistake in this high number; and the mode of expression in stating the number is so peculiar, as to suggest that it has been misunderstood. It is to be noted that Josephus and the Talmuds, with the same text before them, make the number to be seventy-the very number which is stated above fifty thousand. It is therefore reasonably conjectured that these authorities read not fifty thousand,' but 'fifty of a thousand,' which, by a kind of decimation of the number of offenders, whatever was the actual population, would make the whole number concerned not exceed 1400, which seems so suitable a population for such a place as Bethshemesh, as may suggest that this transaction occurred before any considerable number of people had time to gather from the neighbouring parts. The supply of the particle of in such a case is not only admissible, but is often required by the construction of the Hebrew language. This often occurs in every version; and among other and very numerous instances the reader may refer to Ex. xix. 12, xxxvi. 8, 19, 34; Josh. x. 13; 2 Sam. xxiii. 24; 2 Kings xvii. 25.

Twenty-ninth Week-Fifth Day.

ISRAEL AT MIZPEH.-1 SAMUEL VII. 1-6.

AFTER the death of Eli and his sons, there was no one in Israel who stood before the people, with any claims to attention comparable to those of Samuel. His constant presence at the tabernacle had made the Israelites familiar with his person and history from childhood. The vision of the Lord with which he had even in early youth been favoured, followed by subsequent communications, which enabled him, 'in the name of the Lord,' to speak for warning, for reproof, for counsel, pointed him out as a commissioned prophet-a character rare before his time, but which afterwards became conspicuous and frequent in the history of Israel. After the account of that remarkable denunciation upon Eli and upon his house which we have already considered, the historian, before proceeding to the public transactions, carries forward the history of Samuel to the point where he means to take it up again, by the remark: 'And Samuel grew; and the Lord was with him, and did let none of his words fall to the ground. And all Israel, from Dan even to Beersheba, knew that Samuel was established to be a prophet of the Lord.' These words may indicate the nature of the influence which Samuel exerted during the twenty years following the subjugation of Israel by the Philistines. During this period, we cannot doubt that he continually lifted up his voice against the corruption of the times, and strove to rouse the people to a sense of the duty they owed to their country and their God. His exhortations were greatly needed. The abominations of the sons of Eli had corrupted the people, and brought discredit upon the worship of God. Under these circumstances, idolatry had reappeared and become prevalent, while the ark lay neglected by the nation at Kirjath-jearim, whither it had been removed from Beth-shemesh, and deposited in the house of a man named Abinadab, who probably was, as Josephus affirms, a