columns frequently stood beside them that were not used directly in the service. It is possible the free pillars erected before Solomon's temple may have been conventionalized masseboth. Among some peoples these stones were believed to be actually possessed by the gods whom they worshiped, and form the foundation for the sculptured beauty of later idols among artistic peoples.

The sacred post or Ashera stood at the Canaanite places of worship by nearly all altars that were important in the sacred places and even at a comparatively late date these sacred posts were found by the altars of the temple in Jerusalem. In Josiah's great reformation these were some of the things which he destroyed. There seem to be many forms of these posts, and it is known that they were used by the Cyprians and the Phoenicians. The Ashera seems to have been originally regarded as a living tree, but the holy tree is not quite parallel to the conventionalized post known as the Ashera. The Second Law forbade the Ashera: "Thou shalt not plant thee an ashera of any kind of wood beside the altar of Jehovah thy God." This post seems by evidence outside of the Old Testament to have been in some way or other a representative of the divine presence. It hardly seems possible, as some scholars affirm, that, the

Ashera was the name of a goddess, as is intimated by the Tel-Amarna letters. There could probably be traced, were it worth while, some relation between the Ashera and the totem which still survives as the representative of the faith of a clan, and while the Ashera was never any vital part of the national worship of the Hebrews, that it played its subordinate part, and perhaps an important one in some localities among scattered clans, there can be no question. The facts with respect to the sacred stone and the sacred post seem to be that they were not confined to the worship of Jehovah and not characteristic, therefore, of Israel. They were erected to Jehovah in common with other gods. The law used by Josiah forbade their use, and though there seems little doubt that they were in some way or other used as a fetich, they were gradually eliminated under the influence of the prophets, and the later development of Israel.

Another object unique in the history of Israel is the brazen serpent, though in some form or other the serpent had been worshiped ages before in Egypt. When Hezekiah undertook his extensive reformation, it is said that he not only broke down the holy stones and cut down the holy posts, but he also "brake in pieces the brazen serpent that Moses had made, for unto those days the children of Israe!

did burn incense to it, and he called it a piece of brass" (2 Kings xviii. 4).

So passed away under the assault of this great iconoclast one of the sacred objects of Israel, reverence of which had doubtless become to them a form of idolatry.

Like most ancient peoples the Hebrews wore various kinds of ornaments that were regarded as sacred because the wearing of them afforded them protection. It is not necessary to follow this subject further than to call attention to a specific form of amulet mentioned in the Second Law. "Therefore shall ye lay up these my words in your heart and in your soul and ye shall bind them for a sign upon your hand, and they shall be for frontlets between your eyes, and thou shalt write them upon the doorposts of thine house, and upon thy gates: That your days may be multiplied and the days of your children in the land which Jehovah sware unto your fathers to give them" (Deut. xi. 18). Thus instead of the earring to keep away evils, or the charmed stone, perhaps inhabited by some god, to wear in a ring, and all the various forms which these protections have taken, at least in the Second Law there was nothing so important as reverence for the word of the Lord as written down in holy commandments, and if they wore these, they did

well, and later writers made a still further advance when they urge that the real protection is to write that law upon the heart.

Every form of organized religion must have its holy apparatus, from the plainest meeting house to the most majestic temple, from the simplest symbols of a holy brotherhood to the most ornate vestments of the priesthood and the splendid vessels of a complicated ritual. The extent of the temple does not depend entirely upon either the numbers or the wealth of the people, but upon the devotion which they hold to the objects of their worship. But religions grow magnificent as they grow older, for reverence is two parts memory and one part devotion. The Jehovah of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob still thrills the devout modern Jew because he was the early clan god of his fathers. So time hallows objects of religion and their sanctity gathers with the years, but if the object represent a doctrine that is outgrown, or forms of worship that stand in the way of the real advance of the people, some strong arm will arise to break it in pieces and say, "It is not for your worship; it is only a piece of brass."

CHAPTER XI

SACRED DAYS

TIMES and seasons are as much a necessity of every religion as sacred services. All social interests require some kind of a calendar. Religious festivals among every people have either been called by special proclamations, or have been celebrated at fixed and regular times. The summer and winter solstice have been venerable religious occasions among the most widely scattered tribes.

But doubtless earlier than the celebration of the movements of the sun was the recognition of the phases of the moon. Among shepherd people in tropical or semi-tropical countries the moon was a gentle guardian, while the sun with its fierce, withering heat was looked upon as an open enemy. The changes of the moon were so obvious that among many primitive peoples, as among the North American Indians, time was counted by moons rather than by years. The four phases of the moon naturally led to the division of time into weeks. This was a common discovery of men so widely separated that communication between them was