OBJECT OF FIRST-FRUITS, ETC.

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continually present to the mind of the Israelite the sense of the Divine goodness. The first was specially directed to the deliverance from Egyptian bondage, the two last to the bounty displayed in the natural productions of the earth. For all these, the works of nature and of Providence, the Israelite was taught to praise and thank God, whose is "the earth and the fulness thereof." He was also taught a lesson of brotherly love-the duty of communicating of his abundance to the poor about him, and thus to consider himself in the light of a steward, accountable to his Master in heaven for the use of the things committed to his charge.

IDOLATRY, DIVINATION, &c.

WARNINGS AGAINST IDOLATRY.-HIGH PLACES. TERAPHIM.GOLDEN CALF. THE BRAZEN SERPENT.-HEATHEN GODS. -BAAL. CHEMOSH. MOLOCH. ASHTORETH.-TAMMUZ.RIMMON.-DAGON. THE ASSYRIAN GODS, NISROCH, NERGAL, &c.-THE BABYLONIAN GODS, BEL, NEBO, GAD, MENI.— WORSHIP OF THE HEAVENLY BODIES.-CHIUN, OR REMPHAN.IDOL IMAGES.-SPOTS SELECTED FOR IDOL WORSHIP.-RITES. FAMILIAR SPIRITS.-DIVINATION OF VARIOUS KINDS.-DREAMS. THE great object for which the children of Israel were selected as a peculiar people, and hedged round with rites and ordinances of a peculiar character, was that the knowledge of the true God might be preserved in the world in all its purity and integrity. To secure this object the strictest injunctions were laid upon

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them to avoid heathenism and idolatry in all its forms -not only to abstain from worshipping false gods, but also to abstain from worshipping the true God in a false manner. Hence the great prominence given to these subjects in the Decalogue, the first commandment prohibiting the worship of false gods "Thou shalt have no other gods before Me;" the second prohibiting idolatry, including under it the worship of the true God under a visible image:-"Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing, &c." (Exod. xx. 3, 4). Hence the authoritative declaration of Moses shortly before his death:

"Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God is one Lord (Deut. vi. 4). Hence also the imperative orders to exterminate the Canaanites, lest they should seduce the Israelites into their idolatrous practices.

In spite, however, of the precautions and warnings which were bestowed upon the chosen people, they frequently fell into the fatal errors of idolatry and heathenism. Sometimes this arose out of a direct imitation of the nations that lived round about them, at other times out of ancient associations or from the corrupt inclinations of their own hearts. But whatever the cause, we know from the statements of the historical books of the Bible as well as from the frequent remonstrances of the prophets, that the evil was one deeply ingrained in the people. A short review, therefore, of the forms which this evil assumed, is necessary to a complete understanding of the sacred volume.

Perhaps the mildest error connected with false worship was the reverence paid to what are called in Scripture "high places." The custom of erecting altars on lofty spots may have originated in a feeling of natural piety, inasmuch as such spots seemed far removed from the impurities of earth and nearer to the abode of the Deity. At all events, the selection was not one that was in itself wrong; for we find Abraham

building an altar to the Lord on a mountain near to Bethel (Gen. xii. 8). The use of such places was, however, prohibited, on account of its general adoption by the surrounding heathen nations. We find that the

Moabites in particular practised it:- "Balak took Balaam, and brought him up into the high places of Baal that thence he might see the utmost part of the people" again, "He brought him unto the field of Zophim, to the top of Pisgah :" and yet again, "Balak brought Balaam unto the top of Peor (Num. xxii. 41; xxiii. 14, 28). The Israelites probably adopted the spots consecrated by ancient usage, and erected altars on them in honour of Jehovah. The evil had been foreseen, and had called forth the prediction:— "I will destroy your high places" (Lev. xxvi. 30). To what extent the usage prevailed in the early times of Jewish history we are not informed. Under the kings it was evidently very general in the kingdom of Israel the high places at Dan and Bethel were formally adopted by Jeroboam as the seats of national worship, and were furnished with appropriate temples and attendants :-" He made an house of high places, and made priests of the lowest people" (1 Kings xii. 31). This was done, not so much with a view to affect the religious belief of the people, as with a political object, lest the constant visits to Jerusalem should lead to a desire of reunion with the kingdom of Judah. Subsequently the number of the high places was increased until they were found "in all their cities, from the tower of the watchman to the fenced city," i. e. from the smallest to the most important (2 Kings xvii. 9). In Judah the evil was resisted by several of the pious kings, particularly by Hezekiah and Josiah but they appear never to have succeeded in thoroughly uprooting it. The high places were not, in this case at all events, connected with heathenism, for we are told in 2 Chron. xxxiii. 17 : Nevertheless the people did sacrifice still in the high places, yet unto the Lord their God only."

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TERAPHIM.

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The next deviation from the law of God was the adoption of images in connexion with the worship of Jehovah. The first images of which we have any record were those which the wives of Jacob carried off from the house of Laban (Gen. xxxi. 19, 34). These are named Teraphim in the Hebrew and in our version of Judges xvii. 5. They appear to have been images bearing the form of a man, for we are told that Michal, after she had contrived the escape of David, deceived Saul's messengers by placing a figure of a teraphim in the bed in his place :-" Michal took a teraphim (see margin) and laid it in the bed, and put a pillow of goats' hair for his bolster, and covered it with a cloth. And when Saul sent messengers to take David, she said, He is sick" (1 Sam. xix. 13, 14). This image was probably about the size of a man: the one which Rachel stole must have been of smaller dimensions, inasmuch as she was able to conceal it even from her husband's observation in the "camel-furniture (Gen. xxxi. 34). The Teraphim appear to have been regarded as household gods, and to have derived their name from having been looked upon as the nourishers and supporters of the family. Their images were consulted as oracles subsequently to the time of the Judges: hence the Ephraimite Micah, when he established a private temple for his worship, "made an ephod, and teraphim, and consecrated one of his sons, who became his priest" (Judg. xvii. 5). So also Hosea connects the teraphim with the ephod:-" For the children of Israel shall abide many days without a king and without a prince, and without a sacrifice, and without an image, and without an ephod, and without teraphim" (Hos. iii. 4): and we learn that the practice of consulting such images prevailed in Babylon in the age of Ezekiel:- "The king of Babylon stood at the parting of the way, at the head of the two ways, to use divination: he made his arrows bright, he consulted with teraphim, he looked in the liver" (Ez. xxi. 21). Lastly,