memory of man, that the universe is the work of the Deity.

In this purpose we see only a new proof of the far-reaching wisdom of Heaven. For, on this fact alone is founded the whole morality of man. One of the oldest questions of the human understanding is, "Why are we bound to obey the Divine will?" Some authorities have held fear of the Divine power to be the legitimate principle. But fear is an ignoble passion, acting by ignoble means, evasion, distrust, and hatred; enfeebling the energies of the agent in proportion to its force, and, after all, capable of being thrown off, without a stain on duty, gratitude, or virtue. Others have held the Divine rewards as the sufficient motive'. Yet, the hope of reward, alone, is selfish, extinguishing all magnanimity, and is equally capable of being abandoned without a crime.

But the fact of creation establishes a claim, irresistible by every higher feeling of the heart. In human life, who has a right to call upon us for the full use of our means, equal to the man

who may have originally given us those means? Against whom would the voice of mankind be more instinctively raised than against the denier of such an obligation? And it is thus that we stand with the Creator. What claim to the service of our powers can equal His, by whom those powers were spontaneously given? What allegiance of heart or understanding are we entitled to withdraw from the great Benefactor by whom both were endowed? What labour of the intellect, what tribute of the wealth, what obedience of the will, what sacred devotement of the affections, are we justified in refusing to the all-giving Source of the mind, the opulence, the volition, and the feelings? On this principle, no service can be withheld. The deepest requisition of obedience must be complied with, on the mere impulse of our nature. Having received all, we must be ready, on common principles, to repay all; unless we are prepared for the charge of acknowledged ingratitude; which is but another name for an acknowledged failure in the sense of dignity, justice, and honour; which is but another name for the refusal of a right-a refusal, in itself, constituting a crime. And this bond, thus clinging to every limb of the moral frame, and utterly inextricable, is yet so far from being a restraint on the nobler impulses of our nature, that it is a chief source of their healthful growth and legitimate vigour; rendering duty the

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prime mover of all our actions, and sustaining and elevating its efforts by the ardour of generous affection; extinguishing all selfishness, the bane of all magnanimity; purifying hope and fear by love; and constringing and modelling the whole human nature into the closest resemblance to the Divine.

The permanency of the Lord's day is a direct consequence. If the practice of honouring a Sabbath be essentially connected with the principle of honouring the Creator;-and if that principle be the foundation of all religious obedience, and with it, of all human happiness,-what ground have we to doubt, that the principle and the practice were intended to live and die together? that the solemn and grateful observance of a seventh day, in distinct acknowledgment of the Creator, was Divinely appointed, and that it was appointed to last as long as mankind'?

1 It has been rashly objected, that the Ten Commandments, however valuable as foundations of general morality, were exclusively addressed to the Jews; alleging for this, the exclusiveness of the command to honour our parents, on a promise of long life in Palestine. Yet, it is remarkable, that, as if for the express purpose of overthrowing this cavil, St. Paul re-states this command, as incumbent on the Christian Church in all ages; expressly adding, for its increased sanction, that it was the "first commandment with promise."

CHAPTER XXIX.

THE MOSAIC WORSHIP.

THE Mosaic ordinances for the dignity of the Divine worship, were on the stateliest scale. The whole tribe of Levi was appointed to the especial service of religion. In the wilderness, the three chief Levite families, the Kohathites, the Gershonites, and the Merarites, encamped on three sides of the sanctuary; the tents of Moses and Aaron were on the fourth. In the days of the Temple, four and twenty thousand of the tribe were appointed to its attendance; divided into four and twenty courses, of a thousand for each week. When David "made Solomon his son king of Israel," a numbering of the Levites gave 38,000 for the entire number of males from thirty to fifty years of age: the legal period of service'.

1 Numb. iv. 3. The age in the general instances was twentyfive. But the Kohathites, who carried the vessels, &c. of the sanctuary, must be thirty years old, as being entrusted with a more responsible duty. Such was the minute and accurate care exhibited in every part of the Divine code. The numbering by David began with thirty.

B b

The remaining 14000 were divided into three classes: 6000 officers and judges, who, in their districts, interpreted the Law, and kept those public records and genealogies, so important to all the operations of Jewish public life; another class of 4000, employed as attendants at the gates, and general guards and regulators within the Temple; and a third, of 4000, as minstrels and singers. But no Levite was, probably, subjected to any degrading occupation. The menial work, the hewing of wood and drawing of water, was done by the Nethinims; a race descended of the Gibeonites, who had imposed on Joshua; and some remnant of the Canaanite prisoners'.

That fine part of devotion which speaks "in psalms and hymns, and spiritual songs," and which is so feebly sustained, if not so criminally neglected, in the service of later times, in the rude discordancy of the parish church, and the frigid and penurious formality of the cathedral; occupied a pre-eminent place in the service of the Temple. The 25th chapter of the 1st Book of Chronicles gives a list of twenty-four families, amounting to 288 persons, expressly appointed to instruct the choirs and lead the performances. The Psalms of David, and the 1500 Songs of Solomon, attest the sacred interest with which the most gifted of the national sovereigns cultivated this admirable source of elevation of heart.

11 Kings ix. 20, 21.