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and all-sustaining power of Providence, to the wisdom and goodness of God, the Psalmist proceeds to say,"The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring for ever: the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether."

We will not stay to give an exposition of this important scripture; but, without attempting this, it appears from the most casual consideration of its terms that it ascribes all the power, purity, and happiness of religion to the influence of the word of God, and thus proves that in the purest age of the Hebrew church the will of God, as revealed in the authorized Scriptures, was regarded as the foundation of Hebrew morals and religion; that to these inspired records were ascribed a spiritual unction and power, which by Divine grace effected a real moral transformation of the soul, and made it a partaker of purity, knowledge, and joy. Nor are these solitary texts. Such quotations might be multiplied. David elsewhere, speaking of the pious man, says, "The mouth of the righteous speaketh wisdom, and his tongue talketh of judgment. The law of his God is in his heart; none of his steps shall slide." (Psalm xxxvii. 30, 31.) Thy law is within my heart; " (Psalm xl. 8;) and again, "Blessed is the man whom Thou chastenest, O Lord, and teachest out of Thy law." (Psalm xciv. 12.)

Too much importance cannot, at the present time, be ascribed to this fact. While some among us altogether repudiate the authority of the Pentateuch and the other early Hebrew Scriptures, and others affect to regard them as a collection of fragments written at

different times by nameless and unknown persons, it is of vital consequence to know that pious and learned Hebrews who lived three thousand years ago, and within five hundred years of the time of Moses, with every means of testing the genuineness and authority of his writings in their possession, should have revered them as the "law of the Lord," and have received them as "the word of God."

Although perfectly assured of the soundness of the conclusions at which we have arrived, we are not sanguine as to the reception of the evidence which has been adduced, or of the opinions based upon it, by Christians generally in the present day. The worship in this tabernacle on Mount Zion has so commonly been ignored, and all Hebrew piety been referred to the services and sacrifices of the temple, that in the minds of most Christians there does not seem to be room for any other idea of the origin and progress of Hebrew religion. And this, too, although it is a notorious fact that the temple itself arose out of a preexistent piety, and would never have been built but for the great religious revival promoted and fostered by the worship in the tabernacle of David.

In these circumstances we are content to look away from all private opinions and partial views, and to call attention from a detail of particulars to one permanent, undoubted fact. The worship in the tabernacle on Mount Zion gave us the greater part of the Book of Psalms. Its worship was so pure, so richly fraught with Divine influence, so unceremonial, spiritual, and holy, and in such exact accordance with all the revealed truth of God, even in its most complete and perfect form, that its hymnology has remained from that day to the present, as the richest exponent of devout affections, and the best guide to gracious intercourse with

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God in public worship, that the church has ever possessed. A sanctuary, worship, and religious community which led to such results, deserve to be had in perpetual and reverent remembrance, and must be considered and carefully studied by all who aspire to any correct knowledge of the Old Testament Church.

CHAPTER IX.

FROM THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE ARK ON MOUNT ZION, TO THE BEGINNING OF DAVID'S GENERAL WAR.

AFTER having made Jerusalem the capital of his kingdom and the seat of his court, and placed the religious institutions of his country in a more satisfactory condition than formerly, so as to afford the people means of worship, and opportunities for spiritual instruction, David directed his attention to those measures which were necessary to his appearing in the character and state of a king.

There were, doubtless, many matters of minor importance, and which are not noticed in the sacred record, but which were absolutely necessary, as preliminary to the exhibition of any regal pomp or royal state. All these were doubtless attended to, as far as opportunity afforded; but there was one requirement which called for resources beyond those which David could command. It was the erection of a stately dwelling, suited to the exalted rank and sovereign sway of the king of Israel. The Hebrews, as yet, had not attained such proficiency in the useful and ornamental arts as to enable them to rear up such an erection. Nor, if they had possessed the necessary amount of science, art, and practical dexterity for such a work, did the country afford suitable materials for the building of an elegant and costly structure.

If this building had been required but a very few

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years earlier, it is more than doubtful whether these various wants would have been supplied. While the Hebrews were a collection of partially united tribes, alternately struggling for existence and independence, we have no notice of any intercourse between them and the Phoenicians.

This nation had long been established on a slip of country on the north-west coast of Palestine, and had become the merchants and navigators of the world. Centuries before the reign of David, their manufactures in wood and metal, in weaving, dyeing, and various articles of elegance and taste, were universally celebrated. In the days of Joshua, he extended the limits of the lot assigned to Asher, to the "great Zidon," the parent city of Phoenicia, and the inheritance of this tribe included the " strong city of Tyre;" (Joshua xix. 28, 29;) so that the greater portion of the Phoenician states lay within the territory given to Israel. The wealth and power of this people, however, appear to have prevented them from having been assaulted, although Joshua carried the war even to the walls of Zidon. For when the confederated northern Canaanites made their last stand for their independence at the waters of Merom, and tried to stay the further progress of his conquests in that direction, we are told that he totally routed their army, “and chased them unto great Zidon." (Joshua xi. 8.) In the time of David, this people had extended their maritime commerce to all parts of the Mediterranean Sea, and beyond it, had colonized numerous islands in that sea, and had planted establishments even on the western coasts of Spain. They were therefore wealthy an1 powerful; but they were a commercial, and not a martial, people. So long, therefore, as the Hebrews were weak, poor, and insignificant, they regarded them as of