Hebrew Life and Times

Study Topics

1. Glance over the book of Leviticus, also the latter part of Exodus, and the book of Numbers. How important did the Hebrews evidently consider the carrying out of sacrifices?

2. Look up in the Bible dictionary Jeroboam II and Amos. Find out more (1) about the times in which Amos lived and (2) about his personal history and character.

3. Read as much as you can in the book of Amos: chapters 1 and 2 and 7 and 8 are most important for our study.

4. Are religious ceremonies ever substituted to-day for the religion of justice and right? If so, explain how.

CHAPTER XVIToC

A NEW KIND OF WORSHIP

Amos seemed to think of sacrifices and burnt-offerings as mere formalities which distracted men's attention from the thing of real importance, namely, just and righteous dealing between man and his neighbor.

There was another prophet who lived a little later than Amos. Perhaps as a youth he heard Amos speak. This was Hosea, who probably came from Gilead east of the Jordan. This man saw even deeper into the truth of religion than Amos, and his messages wonderfully completed and rounded out the great true words which the older prophet had so bravely spoken.

The Good and the Evil in the Old Sacrifices

The old religion of sacrifices was by no means wholly evil. When a family in those days sat down to a happy feast and gave some of everything in gratitude to Jehovah, God really was there, not in the sacred rock, but in their love for one another and for him. When they poured out libations and burned fat on the altar, God was indeed glad, not because of the smell of the smoke or because he enjoyed drinking the blood, but because his children were grateful.

Wrong ideas of God.—On the other hand, these sacrifices, when misunderstood, tended to give people a wrong idea of God as one who was greedy for food and gifts. There was the greater danger of this wrong idea because of the character of the priests who were supposed to represent Jehovah. Many of them were very greedy indeed. The story of Eli's sons in 1 Samuel 2. 12-17 is an illustration. The priests were supposed to receive for their own personal support a part of all the gifts which were brought to the shrine. But the sons of Eli made it the rule that whatever came out of the meat kettle on a three-pronged fork stuck in by the priest should belong to him. Very often, it is plain, the priest got everything. And naturally the people came to think of Jehovah as like his priests—as a Being who cared only for gifts.

A worship based on greed.—The worship of such a god, or of a god who was thought of as being of such a character, would, of course, be very far from the love and adoration which we Christians are taught to offer to our Father, and was really far from the kind of worship advocated by devout Hebrews. It would be a sort of bargain-hunting worship: the people to bring gifts of the fat of lambs and libations of blood and wine, and the god to give them in return good crops of wheat and oil, and figs and grapes, and an abundance of silver and gold. If Jehovah would give these things, then worship Jehovah. If other gods and Baals would give more than Jehovah, worship them.

In short these sacrifices, as Hosea saw, were a kind of worship, and no worship is a mere formality, but is a vast influence for good or for ill. Because of these wrong ideas the sacrifices had come to be more and more an influence for evil. And you cannot have a righteous and happy human family in which men are just and kind to each other, without a true worship, growing out of a true idea of God.

Hosea's Experience and Message

This young man from the lovely, grassy plains and valleys east of the Jordan had had an experience which taught him much. He was by nature a man with a loving heart. He loved his native land with a burning patriotism. By and by there came to him, as to most young men, the experience of a passionate love for a beautiful girl. All the deep wells of tenderness in Hosea's loving heart were hers, and she became his wife. For a time they were happy; then little by little it became clear that this woman, Gomer, did not really love him as he loved her. She only wanted his money. And when she could get nothing more from him, or could get more elsewhere, she left him. She was like the woman in Kipling's poem, "The Vampire," "she did not care." It hurt Hosea. For a time the light of the whole world seemed darkened for him.

Reading a meaning in sorrow.—Then like a flash the thought came to him; Jehovah is just like me in this regard. He wants love, not gifts, from his people, a love which on their part does not fawn for other gifts from him in return, like the cupboard love of kittens purring for cream. He loves his people Israel just as I love Gomer. That is why he asks us not to worship these other gods, the Baals; not because he is jealous but because he is good. He wants us to learn a different kind of worship altogether—a worship which is not prompted by greed but by love.

With his whole soul aflame, Hosea poured these new ideas into the ears of his countrymen.

These great words were quoted by Jesus himself in one of his controversies with the Pharisees; they are one of the supreme utterances of human literature.

Storm Clouds on the Horizon

This new insight of Hosea helped him to interpret hopefully the troubles which at that time were coming thick and fast upon his people. The forebodings of Amos were coming true. The kings of Assyria were ambitious. They had set their hearts upon a great Assyrian empire extending from Babylonia to Egypt. For more than two centuries each new king at Nineveh sent his conquering armies farther west and south. Already in Hosea's day they had more than once invaded northern Israel and had taken away tribute. And the leaders of the nation did not have the brains or the character to avoid a conflict with this merciless and resistless foe.

Jehovah loving even in punishment.—Amos had declared that Jehovah would surely punish his people because of injustices and wrongs which they were inflicting on one another. Hosea agreed, but was able to go further, and say that in these very punishments which were now coming Jehovah was still showing not his anger but his love. He was punishing in the hope that his children might learn their lesson and return to him in love.

Fall of the northern kingdom.—The nation, as a nation, seemed to pay no attention to Hosea's pleadings. They went right on living their selfish and greedy and lustful lives. And in B.C. 721, as a result of provoking the Assyrian king Shalmanezer to a fresh attack, the land was again invaded and the city of Samaria was captured and sacked. Thousands of the northern Hebrews were carried away as exiles to other lands and never returned. The northern kingdom was a failure. The religious ideals and dreams of Abraham and Moses had not yet been fulfilled. The common people had had little opportunity for happiness or growth in knowledge and goodness. But the southern kingdom still existed. And many a disciple of Hosea, some of them carrying scraps and rolls of papyrus on which his sayings were copied, fled to Jerusalem, and there sowed the seed of his great message of a God not only of justice but of love.

Study Topics

1. Read Genesis 4. 1-15. In this story of Cain and Abel is there any hint as to how even an animal sacrifice might be true worship?

2. Look up Hosea in the Bible dictionary, or in the chapter on Hosea in Cornill, The Prophets of Israel. Find out more about the times in which he lived and about his personal history.

3. Read what you can in the book of Hosea. This is rather hard reading, but chapter 11 is not very difficult, and gives a good idea of Hosea's style.

4. Which kind of prayer counts more for the happiness of all, prayers for personal advantage, or prayers of love and gratitude to our Father?

CHAPTER XVIIToC

JEHOVAH NOT A GOD OF ANGER

There are other mischievous delusions in regard to the character of God which we find among all races in the early childhood of their history. They think of their gods not only as greedy but as having arbitrary whims and as often falling into fits of unreasonable and cruel anger.

Early Ideas of Jehovah's Anger

The Hebrews were not entirely free from these wrong notions in their conception of Jehovah. Even in the story of Moses, for example, there is a strange narrative which declares Jehovah "met Moses and sought to kill him" and would have killed him except for the ceremonial rite which his wife Zipporah performed.

The story of the ark and the men of Beth-shemesh.—Similar to this is the story of the wanderings of the ark in 1 Samuel. This ark, or sacred chest, was regarded as the special dwelling place of Jehovah in Canaan, his permanent home supposedly being on Mount Sinai in the desert. When the ark was captured by the Philistines a plague broke out in every city where it was taken. Finally it was placed on a new cart with specially chosen cows to draw it, and sent back toward the Hebrew border, and in the course of time it reached the Hebrew town of Beth-shemesh. And we read that "the sons of Jeconiah did not rejoice with the men of Beth-shemesh, when they looked upon the ark of Jehovah. So he smote among them seventy men."[4]

Sacrifice as a Propitiation of Jehovah's Anger

It was just this idea of Jehovah as subject to fits of anger which prompted many of the old sacrifices. It was not merely that Jehovah was greedy and could be bribed with gifts to grant favors, but also that he was dangerous when his anger was stirred and hence sacrifices were necessary to placate him.

Human sacrifices.—An even darker side of the picture is the existence of human sacrifices, even among the Hebrews, in the worship of Jehovah. The pathetic story of Jephthah's daughter is the most conspicuous example. This warrior had promised to sacrifice to Jehovah whatever first came out to meet him, if he returned victorious from war. Alas, it was his own daughter! Yet he did not dare to break his vow.

The story of Abraham and Isaac also proves that human sacrifices to Jehovah were not unknown among the Hebrews. In this story Jehovah finally intervenes and allows Abraham to offer up a ram instead of his own son. Yet the story implies the belief that Jehovah might demand of a father that he kill his own son and burn him on the altar. These ideas continued to be believed even down to the time of the prophets, Amos and Hosea, and the others about whom we will study.

The Prophet Micah and His Message

About the time that Hosea was finishing his sad career in the north another prophet in the south caught up the torch of light and truth. His name was Micah. Like the two great men who preceded him, Amos and Hosea, his heart was stirred to pity and indignation by the sufferings of the poor and by the injustice and luxury of the rich and powerful. In plain, direct, and fiery sentences he denounced these evils and foretold punishment. Because of these things, he declared that "Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the mountain of the house as the high places of a forest."

Micah was especially bitter against those men who made religion their business, and used it as a means of oppressing the poor—the prophets who proclaim a holy war against those "who put not into their mouths," that is, those who do not give them presents. The priests, Micah says, "teach for hire, and the prophets thereof divine for money."

Micah's great message.—It was, of course, the existence of superstitious fears in the hearts of the people which made it possible for the priests and the prophets to join with the rich nobles in preying upon them. "You give me this or that," "You pay for this sacrifice or that—or I will call down a curse upon you from Jehovah. Some dreadful misfortune will come upon you." With one great word whose throbbing pity for the ignorance and sorrow of men makes it another of the great utterances of human lips, Micah cut the root of all such fears. Jehovah is not that kind of a God, he declared. He does not break out in fits of rage. He does not need to be wheedled back into good nature by costly offerings, perhaps even sometimes with the costliest offerings of all, one's own darling children.

Study Topics

1. Read the stories of the ark, referred to in this chapter. See 1 Samuel 6. 1-20; 2 Samuel 6. 1-9. What other way of explaining the death of Uzzah and of the men of Beth-shemesh occurs to you rather than the anger of Jehovah? In the case of the men of Beth-shemesh, read 1 Samuel 5, with its clear indications of contagious disease.

2. How has modern science helped to free mankind from the curse of superstitious fear?

3. Look up Micah in the Bible dictionary, and find out all you can about his personal history and work.

4. Are superstition and wrong religious beliefs ever made the means of extortion and oppression to-day? If so, how?

FOOTNOTES:

CHAPTER XVIIIToC

ONE JUST GOD OVER ALL PEOPLES

The Message of Isaiah

The destruction of the northern kingdom by the Assyrian armies struck fear into the hearts of the Hebrews of the sister kingdom in the south. No one had dreamed that such a thing could happen. It is true that from the beginning of the terrible onrush the Assyrians had been almost irresistible. All the little nations which had stood in their way had been swallowed up.

Moreover, the prophets Amos and Hosea had plainly foretold that some such calamity would be sent upon Israelites by Jehovah on account of their sins. But very few of them believed these brave and lonely preachers of the truth. "Jehovah send the Assyrians against us! Why, that is absurd! We are Jehovah's people, and he is our God. What has he to do with the Assyrians? He may chastise us, but not by sending foreign armies to conquer us. What would he do if we should be conquered? He would have no nation to worship him." So they reasoned.

Jehovah too weak to protect his people?—When, therefore, the Assyrians actually did come marching down from the Euphrates River, hundreds of thousands of them with their gleaming armor and their multitudes of horses and war chariots, and besieged and captured the city of Samaria, leaving it a ruin, most of the Hebrews, north and south, were sick with fear and bewilderment. For them with their false notions it could mean only one thing: their God, Jehovah, was too weak to protect his people against the greater gods of Nineveh. The Assyrians said to them:

Against such taunts as these, the Hebrews, with their mistaken beliefs, could bring no answer.

The Craze for Foreign Gods

With their faith in Jehovah breaking down there was a great running here and there after other gods and strange religions. Instead of trusting quietly in Jehovah's watchful care many of the people resorted in their terror to soothsayers and mediums, to "wizards that chirp and mutter." Jerusalem seems to have become almost as full of them as the cities of the Philistines, which had always been famous for their fortune-tellers and necromancers.

Alliances with other nations.—Another favorite way of seeking safety was through alliances with other nations and their gods. According to the beliefs of that age, when two nations made an alliance their gods were included in it. To overcome the Assyrians, therefore, it would be necessary to make an alliance with some other nation whose gods were very powerful. So the people of Jehovah began to "strike hands with the children of foreigners." The rulers of Jerusalem set about making coalitions with the other nations of western Asia: with the Philistines, the Syrians, the Phœnicians and, most of all, the Egyptians. The gods of the Egyptians were supposed to be especially strong: Osiris and Isis were the chief of their deities and they were believed to be the gods of the underworld—of Sheol, or Hades, the abode of the dead. So when these poor ignorant politicians at Jerusalem finally did succeed in arranging for an alliance with the crafty and deceitful kings of Egypt they said to themselves: "Now we are safe. The Assyrians cannot hurt us now. We have made a covenant with Death."

The Statesman-Prophet, Isaiah

It is good to know that among many misguided people there was one man whose wisdom of the eternal Truth of God made him stand like a rock while the multitudes ran to and fro in uncertainty and despair. Isaiah was a comrade and co-worker in spirit with the prophets named in the three preceding chapters, Amos, Hosea, and Micah. It is by no means impossible that he had listened to the sermons of Hosea, and thus caught from him his inspiration. He must certainly have known Micah personally, for they lived and preached only some twenty-five or thirty miles apart—Micah in the village of Moresheth and Isaiah in the city of Jerusalem.

Isaiah's message.—Isaiah's special message to his people was that all the nations of the world are subject to the righteous rule of the God of righteousness, Jehovah; and that the attempt to find safety for their nation by alliances with other nations and their gods was utterly foolish and wrong. Undoubtedly this message found a response in the hearts of those who remained faithful to Jehovah.

This message grew out of the great and splendid ideas as to Jehovah's character which Amos and his successors had been working out: that he was a God of righteousness and love, not greedy for burnt-offerings, not flaring up into fits of anger, and needing to be soothed and mollified by peace offerings; but a God who asks only for justice and fair-dealing among men, and for true love in response to his own. Isaiah repeated these great truths to his own people in Jerusalem in glowing words whose eloquence is unsurpassed. For example:

Isaiah's originality.—The prophets and leaders who came before Isaiah had not fully grasped the idea of a God of all nations instead of one. Amos and Hosea had only caught glimpses of it. Before their time, even the greatest of the leaders of Israel had thought of Jehovah as for the most part the God of Israel only. But now in the midst of the terror of cruel armies and ruined cities and smoking fields, when no one knew what to believe or where to look for comfort and protection, this great Isaiah was able to realize that Jehovah, the God of righteousness and justice and love, was the God of all humanity. There were no limits to his realm. All tribes and kingdoms and races were subject to his holy law. The Assyrians are but "the axe that he hews with." His providence rules over all. Whatever wicked men may say or do, his will is done in the end. His plans are brought to pass.

Isaiah's faith.—With such a God as this in whom to trust, Isaiah was able to show himself to his countrymen as a wonderful example of the power of faith. When they were panic-stricken he was calm. "Thus saith the Lord God, ... In returning and rest shall ye be saved; in quietness and confidence shall be your strength." Do not rush off to other nations and other gods. They will fail you. Most likely they will selfishly betray you. Only do the will of the just God, who rules the nations, and quietly trust him. Do that and no evil can befall you. He is all-wise and all-powerful, and he is good.

So at last, the religion of the one All-Father, which we call monotheism, was born in the mind and heart of a man, and began to be clearly proclaimed by human lips.

STUDY TOPICS

1. Look up "Isaiah" in the Bible dictionary.

2. Read Isaiah 6. 1-8 for his own story of the experience which led him to be a prophet.

3. What parts of this story in Isaiah 6. 1-8 express the idea of one great God of all nations? Look up "Monotheism" in the dictionary.

4. Read chapter one or chapter five of the book of Isaiah for a good example of his eloquent preaching.

CHAPTER XIXToC

A REVISED LAW OF MOSES

Amos and the great prophets who followed him met with the same fate as many other pioneers—only a few of their hearers heeded their words, or even understood them. But four great leaders in one century—Amos, Hosea, Micah, and Isaiah—could hardly fail to make some real impression on the minds and lives of their nation. Isaiah was perhaps the most influential, partly because the others before them had prepared the way and partly because he himself lived and preached to the people during a long period of time—more than forty years.

Isaiah's disciples.—Another reason why Isaiah exerted so great an influence was that he organized little groups of his disciples into circles for study. These groups met together from time to time, and read aloud the sermons of Isaiah and the other prophets, and talked about how to apply them to their lives. We can see them seated in a circle in the evening on the floor of one of those little homes opening into a narrow Jerusalem street. There would be a candlestick in the center, or an upturned bushel measure, with a candle on top of it. The circle would be composed of men; but on the outside eagerly listening would be women and children. One of the men in the circle would be seated by the candle reading from a roll of papyrus on which were written the sermons of one of the prophets.

The Evil Days of Manasseh's Reign

It is well that these reading circles were started, for they kept alive the new truth of the reformer-prophets during the reign of a bad king, Manasseh. This man's father, Hezekiah, had favored the prophets. But Manasseh, who became king when Isaiah was an old man, was opposed to all these new ideas. Most of the people of Judah probably agreed with him. They still clung to the belief that the one sure way for a nation to be prosperous was to offer sacrifices to the most powerful gods. Now the kingdom of Judah, in spite of all their worship of Jehovah, was still subject to the empire of Assyria. Great sums had to be paid every year as tribute. "What fools those prophets are!" men said, as they talked together in the streets. "See how much stronger the Assyrian gods are than Jehovah!" "Last month I had to pay ten shekels for the tribute!" "If we want to prosper, we must worship the gods of Assyria."

Manasseh's persecution.—Manasseh therefore proceeded to introduce the worship of the moon-god, and the sun-god, and other deities of Nineveh. He even set up altars to these divinities in the temple of Jehovah at Jerusalem. When the disciples of the prophets spoke against all this he had them seized and killed, until he had "filled Jerusalem with innocent blood." Many a good man who had listened to the reading of Isaiah by candlelight in one of those reading circles now had to hide himself in some closet or cistern from the soldiers of Manasseh. There is a tradition that the aged Isaiah himself was put to death during this persecution.

Not all of those who opposed Manasseh were killed, although they were finally compelled to keep silence. Those little study circles still held meetings in secret to read and talk and pray; and they kept looking forward to a time when a different kind of a man would be king, and when they would be able once more to lead the people into the way of justice and true worship.

In one of these little groups a remarkably wise plan was suggested. Let us take the laws which have been handed down to us from Moses, it was said, and work them up into a sermon. Every one reverences Moses. Let it include the farewell address which Moses is said to have spoken to his people just before he died, and put into it all the laws of Moses, and let us show what they really mean. And by and by when Manasseh is dead we may be able to read it to the people, and perhaps they will listen.

The Written Law

The new law book—Deuteronomy.—So they wrote the new book, and it is preserved in our Bible as the book of Deuteronomy. We find in it all the old laws which had been handed down from early times, and which were called the "laws of Moses." And we find on every page sentences which show the influence of the great prophets, from Amos to Isaiah. Isaiah's influence is perhaps the most plainly seen, especially his teaching that the people should worship Jehovah alone as the one ruler of the world. In Deuteronomy also we find a very solemn and emphatic commandment bidding us love and worship only Jehovah, the one true God. This is the commandment which Jesus called the first and greatest of all.

Such a law as this of course forbade all those covenants with other gods which Isaiah denounced.

Laws helping the oppressed.—All the prophets had been on the side of the poor and the weak, against the rich and powerful who oppressed them. The authors of the book of Deuteronomy tried to shape this new law so as more fully to protect the poor. They made stronger all the older laws which were intended to make life a little easier for the weak and unfortunate, and they added others: for example, laws protecting debtors against greedy and merciless creditors, and laws forbidding the extremely harsh penalties which poor men were sometimes made to suffer by rich judges.

There was an ancient law requiring that any Hebrew who had fallen into a state of slavery on account of debt must be set free after seven years. The new law book included this law, and added that the master must not send him away emptyhanded at the end of the seven years, but must give him food and clothes enough to keep him alive while he looked for a chance to work and earn money for himself. The new law also protected fugitive slaves from other countries. They were not to be returned to their owners.

A compromise.—All of the four reformer-prophets whom we have studied had condemned the offerings and animal sacrifices of the old worship, not only because of the idolatry and other heathen and immoral practices connected with them, but also on the ground that Jehovah did not want sacrifices anyway, but only justice and love.

But the authors of the new law did not abolish sacrifices altogether. They provided that all the small shrines, called "high places," such as at Hebron or Gibeon, and all up and down the country should be destroyed, but that sacrifices should be offered at Jerusalem and only there. The old-time religious feasts, such as the Passover, could no longer be celebrated at home. All the people must come up to Jerusalem for them. No doubt it was thought that this would help to put down idolatry.

The Adoption of the New Law

Manasseh reigned fifty-five years. It was a long, weary time of waiting for the disciples of the prophets. The new law book was put away in one of the closets of the temple for safe-keeping. The years went by and most of the men who helped to write it died. At last, however, the end came for Manasseh. After a short period his grandson, Josiah, who was only eight years old, became king. The boy's older relatives and friends were all against the ideas of old Manasseh and on the side of the prophets. Little by little the principles of the prophets were put in practice. Among other things, orders were given to tear out from the Jerusalem temple the images and altars to the sun-god and the moon-god and other emblems of Assyrian worship. The temple was also cleaned and renovated. While the carpenters were at work the new law-book was discovered in the chest where it had been hidden and was brought to the young king and read before him.

Josiah's reforms.—Josiah was deeply impressed and gave orders that the reforms called for by the new law should be carried out. Officers went all up and down the villages and towns of Judah tearing down the little temples, or "high places," where so much heathenism had been practiced. And the people were told that several times each year they were to bring their sacrifices to the temple at Jerusalem. Those were also good days for the common people. There was a king now who "judged the cause of the poor and the needy." Many a poor debtor, when his crops failed, appealed to the king's court in Jerusalem and he himself and his children were saved from slavery and their home from ruin.

The reform only lasted a few years—some twelve or thirteen—and then King Josiah was killed in battle, and much of the old heathenism and greed and injustice came back again in a flood. But the memory of the good days did not quickly fade. It was the first great triumph of the teachings of the prophets—the men who kept alive the true ideals of Abraham and Moses.

Study Topics

1. Read any part of Deuteronomy 1-5. Select any passages which seem to you truly eloquent.

2. Read Deuteronomy 12. 10, 11. What place is referred to by the author, when he writes, "The place that Jehovah your God shall choose, to cause his name to dwell there"?

3. In the light of the history in this chapter, which is the more likely to change human history, a battleship or a Bible class? Explain.

CHAPTER XXToC

A PROPHET WHO WOULD NOT COMPROMISE

The new law-book seemed a great victory. Yet sometimes victories are more dangerous than defeats. They lead to self-satisfaction. This was certainly the case with this victory of the authors of Deuteronomy. The people were careful to offer up their sacrifices at the temple in Jerusalem, and very few offerings were brought to the old village shrines. But the real kernel of the truth which the prophets had proclaimed was in danger of being forgotten. This was the truth that no forms of sacrifice, no solemn religious feasts are of any account in the sight of God unless accompanied by simple justice and brotherly kindness between neighbors. This was the state of affairs against which one more great reforming prophet was raised up to fight—Jeremiah, of the little town of Anathoth, five miles north of Jerusalem.

A Conversation in a Jerusalem Street

To understand clearly what Jeremiah's message was and why it was needed let us listen to a conversation between two citizens of Jerusalem. This one is imaginary. But there must have been many, in reality, very similar to this.

First citizen: Did you hear of my good fortune? I have just got a fine piece of ground for almost nothing.

Second citizen: How?

First citizen: I had loaned some money to an old farmer, and made him pledge me his field as security. Last summer the Babylonian soldiers came through that valley and burned all the wheat and barley stacks. So the old man couldn't pay back the loan. He tried to tell his story to King Jehoiakim, but the king drove him from the palace. So I went and took his field.

Second citizen: What would the prophets have said to a transaction like that? Did not Isaiah call down woes from Jehovah on those who took away poor men's fields?

First citizen: I have just offered a sacrifice to Jehovah.

Second citizen: I suppose, then, it is all right. But did not the prophets speak against sacrifice, unless one remembered justice and mercy?

First citizen: Yes, but they were speaking of the old sacrifices on the "high places," at the village shrines. Everyone knows they were heathen shrines and hateful to Jehovah. I offered my sacrifice at the temple yonder, just as we are told to do in the law of Moses, which King Josiah's servants found in the temple.

Look! Why is all that crowd gathered over there in the temple yard? Let us go and see what is happening. I heard some one say, that a certain Jeremiah who calls himself a prophet, was to speak there to-day. All my friends who have heard him say that he is a false prophet.

(They reach the edge of the crowd. Jeremiah is standing on the steps of the temple, addressing the people, as follows:)

Jeremiah's Message of a Heart Religion

It is clear that Jeremiah was fighting the same old battle that Amos and the other prophets had fought against a religion of mere empty ceremonies. But the battle had grown even harder, because the old false practices had been accepted as though they were just the kind of religion that Amos had preached. The people said, "We are keeping the law of Jehovah," and so they were satisfied with themselves.

The law to be written on the heart.—Jeremiah saw that this mistake had come from relying too much on a written law. Something more than an outward law was needed before men could succeed in living together as brothers. It is so easy to keep the letter of the law, or to think one is keeping it, while we lose the spirit of it. What is needed, Jeremiah said, is a changed heart. Again and again he cried to the people, "Oh Jerusalem, cleanse thy heart." And in one of the great chapters of the Bible, the thirty-first of the book of Jeremiah, he looks forward to a time when Jehovah and his people should be bound together in a new covenant—not a covenant written on tables of stone like the one which Moses wrote at Sinai: