either actual, as in chattels, or symbolical, as by delivery of a sandal, the method employed in the sale of Elimelech's land by Naomi,1- and therefore must be disposed of by the owner before his death, if at all; or, more likely, because the law of primogeniture was so rigid in maintaining the patriarchal system, that it would not allow a father to prejudice the heirs by devising away his property. If this view is correct, a disability which has been imposed on aliens in most other states, is set wholly aside from consideration, because common to aliens and Hebrews alike. But from the foregoing observations it will appear that a foreigner suffered many inconveniences with respect to real estate. He could purchase, receive by gift, and perhaps inherit, as heir to his mother; but his title would be defeated at the next Jubilee. He could leave real estate to his heirs by blood, but the property could not be retained in his family for more than half a century. Personal property appears not to have been subject to the same rule, as its exclusion seems to be implied by the requirement that land should not be sold forever. Aliens were denied the benefit of the septennial release of debts enjoyed by Hebrews. It was lawful to exact usury of them, though not of Hebrews; but poor strangers were not to pay usury. Alien paupers were entitled to relief." They, in common with widows and orphans, had a right to the gleanings of the wheat-field, the olive tree, and the vineyard.' 4 2. The political rights of citizens of the Jewish state, were, for the most part, merged in those of religion. In the ordinary assembly of the people, strangers seem to have taken 1 Ruth 4: 7. Abraham bought the field of Ephron, with the appurtenances, Gen. 23: 17. Possession was given by the payment of the purchase money in the presence of witnesses at the city gate. See 1 Kings 21: 16. 2 Deut. 21: 17. The Law of Inheritance, Num. 27: 8-11, seems to exclude the father from disposing of his property, real or personal, so as to defeat the inheritance by descent. Jacob found it necessary to buy Esau's birthright. Abraham, however, disinherited Ishmael; but he was not the son of a proper wife. 8 Deut. 15: 1, 3. 6 Lev. 25: 35, S6. Deut. 23: 20. Ex. 22: 25. 5 Lev. 25: 35, 36. 7 Lev. 19: 10. 23: 22. Deut. 24: 19-21. a part.1 It may be doubted whether they were in all cases competent witnesses in trials at law. It is probable that foreigners could hold no important civil offices. The senate originally consisted of seventy elders, of the Hebrew stock.3 By an express statute, no foreigner could be made king. 3. It was in religious affairs that the estate of an alien differed most from that of a Hebrew. That obedience to the laws which was exacted of all the inhabitants alike, whether Israelites or strangers, regarded the precepts of morality rather than the rites of religion; and yet, though alien residents were not obliged to become proselytes, they were compelled to keep some parts of the ceremonial law. A few brief but comprehensive rules support the great partitionwall which separated Jews from Gentiles. 8 The majesty of the God of Israel was the first object of regard to the law. No stranger might worship, openly at least, any God but Jehovah. To blaspheme his name was death. Next, observance of the weekly sabbath, the sabbatical year, and the great jubilee' were enjoined on all Gentile inhabitants. No stranger might receive the holy anointing oil.10 Neither could he burn incense to Jehovah," or eat of the paschal lamb,12 or offer consecrated bread,13 or taste the sacrifice of atonement." But a stranger might eat of the triennial tithe;15 he might take part in the three national feasts, -the Passover, except in eating the paschal lamb,16 the Feast of Booths," and Pentecost; 18 he might come up to the tabernacle; 19 a part of the temple was open to him; 20 1 Josephus, Antiq. B. IV. 28. 45. Deut. 29: 11. 31: 12. 2 In the Mishna, Gittim (Bills), I. 5, it is said: "All legal documents made in courts of justice are valid, even when the attesting witnesses are not Israelites, bills of divorce and deeds of manumission excepted." But one of the Rabbins held that there was no exception. 3 Num. 11: 16, 17, 24, 25. Maimon. Sanhed. c. 2. But it is doubtful whether Moses created this court or council, except temporarily. 4 Deut. 17: 15. 7 Ex. 20: 10. 23: 12. 10 Ex. 30: 33. 18 Lev. 22: 25. 6 Ex. 22: 20. 6 Shelomith's son, Lev. 24: 11, 14, 16. 8 Lev. 25: 4, 6. 11 Num. 16: 40. 14 Ex. 29: 33. 16 Num. 9: 14. Michaelis, Leg. Moisae, c. 184. 18 Deut. 16: 11. Lev. 25: 47, 50. 12 Ex. 12: 43, 45, 48. 15 Deut. 14: 29. 26: 11-13. 17 Deut. 16: 14. 19 Lev. 17: 8, 9. 22: 18. Num. 15: 14. 20 Josephus, Antiq. B. VIII. c. IV. 9. B. XV. c. XI. 6. 1 Kings 8: 41. circumcised or not, he might worship Jehovah in public, or at least by proxy; might bring an offering to his name." Naturalization, in Israel, was effected by adoption of the Jewish religion, and, with males, by being circumcised. But Moses did not compel strangers to become Jews. He nowhere enjoins circumcision upon other than Israelites, except as a condition of eating the paschal lamb. This rite, though not peculiar to the Hebrew nation, was necessary to complete citizenship, being a part of the ceremony of investiture. With females, as has been hinted before," nationality was conferred by adoption, or by marriage to an Israelite. Nobody ever questioned the citizenship of Moses' sons by Zipporah the Midianitess, or challenged King David's pedigree because the amiable daughter of Moab was his great-grandmother. The rights of citizenship could not, however, be conferred on all. The seven proscribed nations could never be naturalized; nor could the male descendants of a Moabite or Ammonite father, at least not until the tenth generation. Edomites and Egyptians were likewise under incapacity. No length of previous residence, or of probation, seems to have been requisite to qualify a stranger for admission as a member of the congregation. He might be admitted as soon as domiciled, on receiving circumcision, if he were uncircumcised, and undertaking to acknowledge and worship Jehovah as the only living and true God.10 The test was a religious one, capable of being applied without expense or delay; so that the poorest stranger, as well as the richest, could purchase the freedom of the divine commonwealth. 11 Kings 8: 41 et seq. Num. 15: 14. 2 Chron. 6: 32, 33. Michael. Leg. Mois. c. 184. From Josephus, Antiq. B. XV. c. XI. 6, and B. XX. c. VIII. 11, it seems that none were allowed to be present at the sacrifices, or even to look on, but Jews themselves. 2 Michaelis, c. 184: slaves excepted. 3 Ex. 12: 48. A stranger needed not to be circumcised to be saved; but if he were, he bound himself to keep all the ceremonies of the Law. So the law was explained by Paul, Gal. 5: 3. See the story of Naaman, 2 Kings v. 14; Herodotus, Euterpe, XXXVI. 4 Josephus, in Apionem, II. 5 Ex. 12: 48. 8 Deut. 23: 3. VOL. XIII. No. 51. Merely as a matter of curious learning, it may be gratifying to the scholar to notice the regulations collected in the foregoing pages. But if the true use of history is to draw from it lessons of practical wisdom, for the present and the future; if all Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness; the Christian citizen will see a worthier aim in the preservation of these ancient laws than the mere indulgence of curiosity. He will ask upon what principles their provisions are founded: whether freedom to worship God, or not, was allowed as an elementary right; whether the security of the government was provided for by excluding persons from civil office under it, because their birth-place chanced to be out of its allegiance; whether the restrictions upon foreigners as to the acquisition of landed estate, and its transmission to their descendants, did not arise from the circumstance of God's entailing the land of Canaan upon the tribes of Israel, by a special gift, and not from considerations affecting all governments alike; whether, as has been declared by a sovereign and legislature in England, all liberties granted to aliens were to be regarded as matters of mere grace and favor; whether it was the policy of the State to estrange, as much as possible, the citizens from the strangers dwelling by them, or the reverse; or, finally, whether those principles, whatever they may be found to have been, are sustained by the example of Jesus Christ, and his doctrines in the New Testament, taken from his own sacred lips, or expounded by his inspired interpreters. And the answers which he receives to these inquiries he will turn to present use; not, like one in a fever with stores of proper medicines in his possession untouched, abandoning his information at the missionary meeting and the ballot-box, to adopt the views of other men, merely because they are prominent members of society. The treatment of the strangers now among us, as well as of those who are to come, is not to be left to the political arm alone; and he who is a citizen of Christ's kingdom as well as of an earthly State, cannot fail to see that Christianity is to be deeply affected by the result. ARTICLE V. THE HISTORICAL AND LEGAL JUDGMENT OF THE OLD TESTAMENT SCRIPTURES AGAINST SLAVERY. By George B. Cheever, D. D., New York. Law of Jubilee.-Specific Enactments of the Law. THE enacting clauses from Lev. 25: 39-46 are occupied with the regulation of the treatment of such Hebrew and heathen servants respectively, as were bound to servitude until the Jubilee. The Hebrew servants so bound were to be treated as hired servants, not as apprenticed servants; but the heathen servants so bound might be employed as apprenticed servants, and not as hired servants, up to the period of the Jubilee. And always there was to be maintained this distinction; forever the quality of apprenticeship to the Jubilee was to belong to the heathen, not to the Hebrews; the heathen were to be the possession of the Hebrews and their posterity, as an inheritance or stock, from whom, and not ordinarily from the Hebrews, they might provide themselves for such a length of time with apprenticed servants, as well as hired. Subject always to the law of freedom. every fifty years, during that interval all their apprentices for longer than six years, all their servants purchased as apprentices till the Jubilee, and to be treated as apprentices up to that time, and not as hired servants, were to be of the heathen, or the stranger, forever, and not of the Hebrew. But every fiftieth year was a year of Jubilee throughout the land for all the inhabitants thereof, Hebrew or heathen, ali the inhabitants, of whatever class or station. The heathen apprenticed servant was not regarded, because purchased of the heathen, as on that account not an inhabitant of the land; on the contrary, this grand statute was evidently made additional to all the other statutes of relief and release, for |