their children. The season was a bad one, if we may judge by their allusion to the famine. The work on the wall brought things to a crisis. The debts must be paid, the mortgages were about to be foreclosed; the children were in some cases already delivered over to the creditors. We cannot wonder that this seemed a hard return for their meritorious and self-denying work on behalf of their city, or that the complaints soon became loud enough to reach the ears of Nehemiah. The governor was equal to the occasion. He called the nobles together and rebuked them for their oppression of their poorer brethren. He and likeminded men in the distant East (he says) had been accustomed to ransom those of their own blood who had been sold into slavery. Now these oppressors were doing just the contrary-selling their debtors, though Jews like themselves, into slavery to the Gentiles. Nehemiah himself had loaned money and corn to these poor people. This fact gives force to his proposition that the debts should be remitted. Backed by his strong personality the appeal was effectual, the debts were remitted, and under solemn oath the creditors restored the pledges in their hands. The crisis was thus successfully met.

"The governor takes occasion by this incident to set before us his method of life. He made no use of his right to levy a tax on the people for his own support. The former pashas had exacted forty shekels a day in table allowance, and their retainers had been allowed in Oriental fashion to make requisitions for themselves. All this was now stopped. Nehemiah drew upon his private fortune for his personal expenses, and from the same source kept a public table for the nobles and guests. He provided thus regularly for at least a hundred and fifty persons. His

bodyguard instead of being a burden on the people was made a help, by being put at work upon the wall. All this is told us with a refreshing simplicity: the man was doubtless conscious of his own merits. But then the merits were there, and the limitations of the man do not interfere with our admiration. His generous and decided action must have put fresh life into his discouraged countrymen." -H. P. SMITH.

IX. The Great Work Ended and the Law Proclaimed. "Now the work advances with giant strides: on the 25th of September, 444 B. C., after fifty-two days' labor, the wall was finished and the gates set in place. A solemn procession, which marched about with psalm-singing and music upon the top of the newly-erected wall, expressed thanks to God for the success of the work and proclaimed to all the world its completion.

"Thus protected against interference from without, they now proceed to the greater and more important task which Ezra had been obliged to drop. The very next 1st of October, 444 B. C., the whole people is summoned to Jerusalem. From the midst of the assembly itself comes the proposal that Ezra shall read from the book of the law of Moses. Ezra mounts a pulpit already erected for this purpose; on either side of it stand seven of the most prominent men, and a number of Levites are on hand to explain to the people what Ezra has read. Again the people break out into loud weeping; but Ezra says they are not to weep, but sit down to a joyous meal and give a share to those who have brought nothing, for this day is a sacred jubilee for Israel.

"The following day Ezra continues the reading of the law, but only to the heads of families. Then the Feast

of Tabernacles is celebrated on the 15th of October, according to the directions of the law, and on the 24th of October a great and general day of repentance and prayer is held, and there the whole people takes a solemn oath to support the book of the law as read by Ezra; the heads of families sign and seal this obligation with due solemnity: strict observance of the Sabbath, absolute prohibition of mixed marriages, observance of the sabbatical year and the remission of debts, and above all faithful payment of the dues to the Temple, are the most important single points of this compact.

"The 24th of October is the real birthday of Judaism, one of the most important days in the history of humanity. At last the religion of revelation had succeeded in getting a home of its own, if I may use the expression; it had created for itself a body in and through which it could act and fulfil its lofty mission to the world."-CORNILL.

X. The Influence of this Experience. The story of all their bitter ordeal is full of significance as it bears on the development of the Jewish people. We must not forget that no such religion as that given us in the Old Testament could have been possible save as developed through the experience of the people themselves. In other words, it could not be given complete at once, but must grow from point to point, from stage to stage, and become thus the actual experience and possession of men. This long battle,

lasting through centuries, between the Pagan or Idol Party and the Jehovistic Party, could not be won at a stroke. It was the conflict of falsehood with truth, of an imperfect low faith with a nobler and higher faith. Such a conflict brings its sufferings and sorrows; it involves advance now, and again the falling back into old evils. It shows much

that is noble and much that is unworthy. It is possible, for example, that some of the psalms with their fierce imprecations or curses upon the enemies of the writer, or of his people, may date from such a period as this. Here, at least, we see the scorn of the Jew for those of alien birth, and what has been well called the Jewish Puritanism crystallized into a powerful and enduring school of thought. The old Jewish sense of separation from other races became more clearly defined and shaped under the stern policy of Ezra and Nehemiah, and later on produced what we know in our Lord's time as the sect of the Pharisees. But out of all these bitter years and centuries the great revelation of God grew, and in the fulness of time came to its perfect flowing in the Life and Truth of Christ.

The Greek Period

NOTE: The history of the Hebrews, from the Exile to the coming of the Messiah, will be found more fully treated in a special manual of this series, "From the Exile to the Advent," which should be taken up in place of these concluding lessons, in all schools whose time is not unduly limited.

The glory of Babylon passed into its decline with the victory of Cyrus, but it remained still a city of importance. The seventy years of Babylonian captivity contributed to scatter abroad still more widely the Jews who had been thus forcibly wrenched from their ancestral home. Northward they spread through Armenia, to the shores of the Black Sea, and through Media to those of the Caspian. Southwards they drifted into Arabia, and eastward as far as India. With Babylon came also the synagogue. Separated from the temple sacrifices, they were thrown back on the profounder study of the law, and the larger use of prayer in services of worship. Much of the finer spiritual life of the race dates from this period.

We pass on now to what is called the Greek period. What does this mean? We have already seen the influence of the captivity upon the thought and worship of the Jews. But in the dispersion, colonies of Jews had become established throughout the then civilized world. Just as today we speak of the Eastern and Western worlds, or civilization; just as in the history of Christianity we speak of the Eastern and Western Churches, so at this time there came into existence what were known as the Jews of the East, embracing the two centers of Babylon and Jerusalem,