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against mere mechanism of ritual, and see in it no permanent value. Sings one: "For thou delightest not in sacrifice; else would I give it: thou hast no pleasure in burnt-offerings. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise." Very explicit is the voice of another to whom Jehovah says:

"I will take no bullock out of thy house
Nor he-goats out of thy folds

For every beast of the forest is mine
And the cattle upon a thousand hills.
I know all the fowls of the mountain
And the wild beasts of the fields are mine.

If I were hungry I would not tell thee

For the world is mine and the fulness thereof.
Will I eat the flesh of bulls

Or drink the blood of goats?

Offer unto God the sacrifice of thanksgiving

And pay thy vows unto the Most High

And call upon him in the day of trouble

I will deliver thee and thou shalt glorify me.”

Such was the higher content of the Hebrew religion.

Did space permit, scores of citations from the prophets could be given to indicate their attitude. in the matter of their nation's ritual. The body of religion might be in external altars and temples; the dramatic services of religion might require sacrifice and festival, but neither altars nor the one institution of the temple in all its services were of

any final validity save as they gave expression to the soul of religion which dwelt within them and which was a constant renewal of the covenant which they held with Jehovah whom they worshiped.

CHAPTER X

SACRED OBJECTS

THE ARK

THE most significant and the most original object in the religious furniture of the Hebrews was a box, probably something over four feet long and about three feet wide and three feet high, called the Ark of Jehovah or the Ark of the Covenant. It is vain to compare the Ark with those boxes used for carrying about idols in processions on the banks of the Euphrates or with those boats used for the same purpose on the river Nile. There is a suggestion of the sacred chest of the Hebrews in the belief that the image of the goddess Pallas must be preserved in order to secure the safety of the city of Troy. In like manner, early images, crude and inartistic, are said to have been preserved in Greece because they had fallen from heaven and were special symbols of divine beings. The notices of the Ark of the Covenant are so numerous and its position in the life of Israel is so unique, that it may well be said that this box is the most important sacred object that the world has

ever seen.

There is a tendency among modern scholars to reduce the whole history of Israel to the domain of legend devised about the time of the Exile, but the Ark of the Covenant is securely entrenched in the earlier history. There can be no question that the holy box was made, and it is not at all impossible to believe that the account of its making given in Exodus is substantially correct and if there were an Ark, it is easy to believe that there was also a tabernacle for the sheltering of the Ark, though the account of the tabernacle and of the furniture was not made in the days of Moses and is doubtless too opulent to be perfectly historic. The first notice we have of the use of the Ark was as a leader in battle, and in this use there are very many parallels, except that among other peoples the images of their gods were taken into battle, possibly for the more express purpose of the divine help, but possibly also in part as men to-day carry flags. The record is, "And it came to pass when the Ark set forward that Moses said, Rise up, Jehovah, and let thine enemies be scattered, and let them that hate thee flee before thee; and when it rested he said, Return, O Jehovah, unto the ten thousands of the thousands of Israel" (Num. x. 35, 36). Nor did it do at that time to omit the presence of the Ark. "They presumed to go up to

the top of the mountain; nevertheless the Ark of the covenant of Jehovah and Moses departed not out of the camp; then the Amalekites came down, and the Canaanites who dwelt in that mountain, and smote them and beat them down." According to the later law the Ark was always to be kept in the Holy of Holies, but an interesting passage in the Book of Joshua informs us that at the time of the sin of Achan, who preserved clothing, silver and gold after the destruction of Jericho, there resulted a defeat for Israel. When they encompassed the next town we read that "Joshua rent his clothes and fell to the earth upon his face before the Ark of Jehovah until the evening, he and the elders of Israel, and they put dust upon their heads" (Joshua vii. 6). This indicates that so far from the Ark of the Covenant being kept secluded from the people, at least the elders of the people used it as a holy shrine at which they offered prayers.

For many generations we have no notice of the Ark and when we hear of it again it does not seem to have the old-time power. At this time when Samuel was the ruling leader of Israel, so far as they had one head, the Ark of the Covenant was established in the sanctuary in Shiloh. The Philistines, persistent enemies of Israel, set themselves in battle array, and when Israel fled before the Philis

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