of them, he who had proposed the question, took the important record, and the children arranged a plan for the individual and collective reading of it. Cheerfulness again resumed its sway, and the happiness of the group was the greater for the act of mutual love and confidence which had just passed.

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My dear young friends, have you found the key of this simple parable? Are all silent? I think John has caught some idea of it." Do you mean that we are to explain it scripturally? If you do”"Oh yes," said James, "if we are to look into the Bible for the key, I think I know who the elder brother is." "It reminds me of the parable of the prodigal son," said Benjamin, “but that was the younger son, and we have been told he means the Gentiles." "I think, then," said James, "I am right; the elder brother in this parable must be the Jews." "If you are right," said William, "it is something like reversing the prodigal son, for this happy family must be the Gentiles." "But," said George, "how can they be represented as a happy family, since you know they are described as aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world?" "Oh," said Ilenry, "It cannot mean unconverted Gentiles, but those who have, through grace, been brought into the family of God." "I think," said Clement, "it was quite right to describe the little circle as very cheerful, for I am sure those who love God and are loved by him ought to be very happy." Still, I do not know how God, who changes not," said Edward, can be represented as desiring what has not taken place; although it does indeed recall to my mind several passages of Scripture in which, (as we have been taught,) in order to meet our comprehension, God is represented as expressing language of joy and sorrow, of desire and of anger." We can be under no difficulty as to what is meant by the written account," said Hanley, "and, perhaps, if we had all been more attentive readers of the Bible, we should feel more concern about the elder brother than we do." "I think too," said Philip, "we may learn what is our duty about reading the Bible together, and alone." "And then," said Clement, "we are to go and speak to the father of the family about it." "And," said James, "we are to try what we can do for the poor Jews. How shall we begin, John? Should we not first, when we are alone, pray very earnestly for those whose condition has been thus brought before us?" "And then," said John, "let each of us extract from the book such passages as strike us, and afterwards meet and read them together. We may also, perhaps, from our teacher, and by reading, gain some information as to the present condition of the Jews, and of the means which have been employed for their spiritual good. Let us at once give what time we can spare to the subject, and ask our teacher to spend an hour with us soon to talk again about it.' All the boys agreed to this.

James suggested, that it would be well to divide the subject under a few heads, that some might take one head, and some another. It was proposed that that evening four weeks they should meet again to compare the result of their investigations.

The evening arrived, and the class gathered round the teacher. Each one had his Bible, his paper, and his pencil; and after the teacher had knelt with them in prayer, and encouraged them in a few kind

ls to state the result of their inquiries, and to express their views

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quite freely, Benjamin said, "I am sure, sir, I never thought there was so much about the Jews in the Bible: I find the Jew in every page." "When I sat down to the subject," said James, "I began to think, why, my very earliest thoughts about religion were awakened by my dear mother's telling me of the piety of young Joseph, and David, and Samuel, and Josiah :-and they were all Jews." "I had another thought," said Hanley, "for I recollected that the Old Testament was all written by Jews, who wrote as they were inspired by the Holy Spirit." Well, and who wrote the books of the New Testament?" said the Teacher. "Why, Christians." "Yes, but were they not all Christian Jews? The only one about whom there has been any question, is Luke, the beloved physician, who by some is thought to have been a Gentile convert. This opinion, however, is but feebly supported." "If it is not wandering from our subject," remarked John, "I would observe that we are very much indebted to the Jews for having preserved for us the Old Testament Scriptures with such jealous care." "This," said the Teacher, "we know they did, counting even the letters, and taking care that every jot should be preserved. And, perhaps too, the enmity which they cherished towards the first Christians affords an additional guarantee that the New Testament was not altered or corrupted. The remarks which have been made are as important as they are interesting, and they might be enlarged. They have already prepared us to enter on our direct subject, with feelings at least of respect and veneration for the people of the Jews." "If I may offer one word," said George, "it should be this,-that it seems strange that the very names which command our reverence, and even our affections, as we meet them in the Bible, have become terms of ridicule and reproach, when applied to the living Jew. We have called him in mockery, Abraham, Moses, Obadiah, &c." "I suppose," said James, "this is owing to the perverseness of our nature, but I do not think we hear much of this language now, and I hope it is gone by for ever. I am sure, until I forget what I have lately read in the Bible about the Jew, I shall think of him with very different feelings from those of scorn." "Is it not a sign," said Hanley, "that Christians understand the Bible better, and are more under its influence, when they regard the Jews with so much more favour than they did?" Yes," said the Teacher, "I trust this is one cause of the improved feeling, and it forms a proof, among many others, that the general diffusion of the word of God is working, like the leaven, secretly but surely, and preparing the way for the reign of universal love. I am afraid," continued the Teacher, "that we shall not have time to go further into our subject this evening. I shall be glad to meet you again, and consider in order the passages of Scripture which you have found. It will rejoice me to know that when we separate, some of us, at least, will go to worship at the family altar, and all, I hope, to pray to our Father in secret. Let us not forget to intercede for the children of the covenant. Meanwhile we will read the 80th Psalm, and commend each other to God in prayer."

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N. C.

REVIEW.

The Service of Song in the House of the Lord; an Oration and an Argument. By Thomas Binney. 8vo. pp. 58. Jackson and Walford.

THE pamphlet bearing the above title, contains much that is interesting to a lover of the Jewish nation. It traces the history, and portrays the character, of "the service of song," rendered in Divine worship, from the earliest times, down to the present period. After a brief glance at the union of music and poetry in the praise of God, during the patriarchal ages, Mr. Binney proceeds to enumerate, in a style of glowing eloquence, the Scripture notices of such an union in the worship which ascended from the Jewish church. We are met by it at the very outset. The first great national act of the Hebrews on their redemption from Egypt, was to unite in a song of thanksgiving to their Almighty Deliverer. "Whatever was the weight of their bitter bondage, it was not, it would appear, so crushing, as to prevent their general cultivation of an art, through which they might at once find utterance and solace for their sorrow. They had time to attend to it. They did attend to it. In the haste of their flight even, with their hearts palpitating, and absorbed with their hope of freedom, they had thoughts to spare for their tabrets and timbrels; they brought them with them; they preserved them on their journey; they took care of them in passing through 'the sea:' and hence, when brought to the further side, they were fully prepared, by voice and hand, with responsive skill and choral harmonies, to sing their deliverance, and magnify the Lord."

Passing on to later times, we find David and Solomon arranging, and perfecting, the service of song in the house of the Lord. Four thousand Levites were appointed to conduct the psalmody in the temple at Jerusalem. These, again, were divided into twenty-four classes, who performed the duties which devolved on them in rotation, each class for one week. It appears that the whole body of singers were superintended by the three, whose names are familiar to the student of Hebrew Psalmody, Asaph, Heman, and Jeduthun. 1 Chron. xvi.; xxiii.; xxv.; and 2 Chron. v. 12, 13.

See

We have not room here for the numerous Scripture references which Mr. Binney employs to illustrate and confirm his position-that, as a people, and a church, the Jews would seem to have been intensely musical. We cannot, however, abstain from giving our readers the following beautiful description of their "service of song :"

"They sang in public at their daily sacrifice, their Sabbath solemnities, and periodical feasts. They sang in private, at their social entertainments,-families when surrounding the Passover-table, all ages, and both sexes, sang. When from the villages and towns of Judea, the tribes ascended to the house of the Lord,' the 'ways' resounded with voice and instrument; every resting-place added to their numbers, and additional numbers were additions to the strength and melody of their song. The Sabbath to the Jews was a day of joy, they could dine together in large numbers, more especially, to gladden the poor and the stranger, when the songs of the Lord' would enliven their refreshment, and beautify His rest. Eminent individuals were commemorated in song. The Songs of Solomon were a thousand and five. But how shall we describe those of the Psalms? Than Solomon's fewer in number, but of higher inspiration and richer thought. As to their form, they include all varieties of lyric composition, they are of every character as to the nature of their subjects, and of all shades and colours of poetic feeling; but as to their essence, they are as a light from heaven or an oracle from the sanctuary :-they discover secrets, Divine and human ;-they lay open the Holy of Holies of both God and man, for they reveal the hidden things belonging to both, as the life of the one is developed in the other. The Psalms are the depositories of the mysteries, the record of the struggles, the wailing when worsted, the peans when triumphant, of that life. They are the thousand-voiced heart of the church, uttering from within, from the secret depths and chambers of her being, her spiritual consciousness-all that she remembers, experiences, believes; suffers from sin and the flesh, fears from earth or hell, achieves by heavenly succour, and hopes from God and his Christ. They are for all time. They never can be outgrown. No dispensation, while the world stands and continues what it is, can ever raise us above the reach or the need of them. They describe every spiritual vicissitude, they speak to all classes of minds, they command every national emotion. They are penitential, jubilant, adorative, deprecatory: they are tender, mournful, joyous, majestic: soft as the descent of dew; low as the whisper of love; loud as the voice of thunder; terrible as the Almightiness of God! The effect of some of them, in the temple service, must have been immense. Sung by numbers carefully instructed, and accompanied by those who could play skilfully; arranged in parts for courses and individuals, who answered each other in alternate verse; various voices, single or combined, being lifted up, sometimes in specific and personal expression, as the high service deepened and advanced, priests, Levites, the monarch, the multitude, there would be every variety of pleasant movement, and all the forms and forces of sound,-personal recitative; individual song; burst and swell of voice and instruments; attenuated cadences; united, full, harmonious combinations! With

such a service and such psalms, it was natural that the Hebrews should love with enthusiasm, and learn with delight, their national anthems, songs, and melodies; nor is it surprising that they were known among the heathen as a people possessed of these treasures of verse, and devoted to their recitation by tongue and harp. Hence it was that their enemies required of them, whether in seriousness or derision it matters not, the words of a song, and said, 'Sing us one of the songs of Zion.'"

And the children of those once happy and impassioned worshippers are amongst us still, but long have they hung their harp on the willows. We long that they should take it up again. We long to join with them in singing David's songs, in honour of David's Lord. We long to sit beside them in the house of the Lord-to come with them "before his presence with singing"-to unite in their psalms of praise to Him who is King in Zion, and "a Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec." "Then shall it be said among the heathen, The Lord hath done great things for them;" and they, redeemed by a more wondrous deliverance than were their fathers by the hand of Moses, and brought into the possession of a richer inheritance than the land of milk and honey, shall re-echo with a louder acclaim, "The Lord hath done great things for us, whereof we are glad." "For the Lord hath redeemed Jacob, and ransomed him from the hand of him that was stronger than he. Therefore they shall come and sing in the height of Zion, and shall flow together to the goodness of the Lord, for wheat, and for wine, and for oil, and for the young of the flock, and of the herd; and their soul shall be as a watered garden: and they shall not sorrow any more at all.”

CORRESPONDENCE, EXTRACTS, &c.

JEWISH LEARNING AND MORALITY.

CHRISTIANS too generally regard the Jews as an ignorant people. But history tells us that, in the darkest ages of Europe, when, amongst Christian nations, learning was at its lowest, this people had its poets, astronomers, historians, and physicians, who were men of superior talent, and rose high through their attainments, in the favour of their fellow-men.

In Spain, in Portugal, in Italy, in Germany, in France, they have had many celebrated men. A love of study and a quickness in learning are distinguishing features of the Jewish mind. Of them, as it regards learning, one well acquainted with them from long residence in Poland, and from long study of their writings, says, "Acute, subtle, disputatious, with a profound love of learning, and an uncon