The Church

retaining in full extent his old appropriation of the spiritual part of Reuben's birthright. In a modern synagogue, for instance, if a Levite be present he has the right of pronouncing the dismissal blessing; and if he should claim to read the lessons for the day, no other member of the congregation would be entitled to dispute precedence with him.

The foregoing historical facts will suffice with very little of additional comment to explain the terms in which the man of God uttered his blessing upon the priestly tribe. The literal rendering of his words is as follows:

Thy Thummin and Thy Urim (be) with Thy pious (or 'holy') man
Whom Thou didst prove at Massah: (proving')

Thou didst strive with him at the waters of Meribah. (“Striving.')

9. Who said of his father and of his mother, I saw him not; ' And his brethren he acknowledged not,

And his children he knew not;

For they (i.e., the Levites) have observed Thy word

And they keep Thy covenant.

10. They shall teach Thy judgments to Jacob,

11.

And Thy law to Israel;

They shall place incense before Thy face,

And whole burnt sacrifice úpon Thy altar.

Bless, O Lord, his strength,

And accept the work of his hands;

Smite through the loins of those that rise against him,
And of those that hate him, so that they rise not again."

The references in verse 8 to Massah and Meribah are a little perplexing, but can be explained by a due consideration of the circumstances of those oft-quoted instances of temptation of Jehovah by His people Israel. On both occasions* the Hebrews murmured against their invisible leader, Jehovah, and against His visible instruments, Moses and Aaron; and God used these murmurings as a test of the patience and faith of His servants whom He had made mediators betwixt Himself and Israel. The whole tribe of Levi was also " 'proved" in the person of these, its most distinguished members. In the test of Meribah, however, Moses and Aaron failed to maintain a perfect attitude, hence this partial shortcoming of the human instruments puts in brighter relief the wisdom and the mercy of God, who can work through faulty agents, and whose purposes will be accomplished, notwithstanding every natural hindrance. The whole history of Levi's selection for exceptional privilege in Israel illustrates very strikingly this principle of the Divine procedure, "Not for your sakes do I this... but my holy name's sake. Be ashamed and confounded for your own ways, ye house of Israel" (Ezek. xxxvi. 22-32).

for

* See Exod. xvii. 1-7; Num. xx. 1-13.

be accomplished, it is only needful that human repentance and selfconsecration should work together with the providence of Heaven. No soul that is under God's curse need regard its destiny as hopeless so long as there sits One who is "a refiner and a purifier of silver," who "shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness (Mal. iii. 3).

The honourable change in Levi's position among the Hebrew tribes began in the first year of the exodus from Egypt, and was confirmed by each enlargement of the covenant which was made with Israel at Sinai, through the mediation of Moses, who was himself the most distinguished of Levi's sons. Yet the personal relation of Moses to this tribe would never have secured for it any of its ultimate diguities and privileges, had not the tribe itself been faithful to Jehovah when all the rest of the nation fell away into idolatry, in the matter of the golden calf. On that occasion the Levites not only refrained from the general infidelity and sin of their brethren, but they also steeled their hearts to execute a bloody vengeance upon the transgressors. They obeyed the stern command of Jehovah to slay the ringleaders of the revolt; and there fell of the people that day, by their swords, about three thousand men (Exod. xxxii. 25-29). This was the immediate ground upon which the selection of Levi for the priestly tribe was based. It is referred to in this blessing of the tribe by Moses, and it was foreshadowed in the words by which the Levites were commissioned to execute their awful charge of justice before the holy mount: "Consecrate yourselves to-day to the Lord, even every man upon his son and upon his brother, that He may bestow upon you blessing this day."

After that memorable choice of God's part by Levi, and of Levi as His priest by God, the history of this tribe was simply the history of Israel on its religious and legal side. When Canaan was conquered and settled, the Levites were dispersed up and down in the land as teachers of the law and ministers of God for their brethren, the other Hebrews. They had no continuous territory assigned to them, but were invested with scattered and small estates in forty-eight different districts of the country; and received, in addition, large revenues from the Mosaic institutions of tithes, first-fruits, and sacrificial offerings. As a body, they seem to have adhered, at least with outward faithfulness, to the covenant of Sinai, from which the rest of the nation of Israel was so prone to depart. They kept their lineage tolerably pure from foreign admixture, and a large proportion of them were able to prove their pedigrees to the satisfaction of Ezra and Nehemiah after the return of the Jews from Babylon, and were consequently entrusted with their old functions as local judges, interpreters of the law, and religious instructors throughout the land of Palestine (Ezra ii. 36-42, 59-63, 70; x. 18-24. Nehem. xii. 1-26). To this day the Levite is honourably distinguished amongst the Jewish exiles in Gentile lands,

Thy Thummin and Thy Urim (be) with Thy pious (or 'holy') man
Whom Thou didst prove at Massah: (proving')

Thou didst strive with him at the waters of Meribah. (Striving.')

9. Who said of his father and of his mother, I saw him not; ' And his brethren he acknowledged not,

And his children he knew not;

For they (i.e., the Levites) have observed Thy word

And they keep Thy covenant.

10. They shall teach Thy judgments to Jacob,

11.

And Thy law to Israel;

They shall place incense before Thy face,

And whole burnt sacrifice upon Thy altar.

Bless, O Lord, his strength,

And accept the work of his hands;

Smite through the loins of those that rise against him,
And of those that hate him, so that they rise not again."

The references in verse 8 to Massah and Meribah are a little perplexing, but can be explained by a due consideration of the circumstances of those oft-quoted instances of temptation of Jehovah by His people Israel. On both occasions* the Hebrews murmured against their invisible leader, Jehovah, and against His visible instruments, Moses and Aaron; and God used these murmurings as a test of the patience and faith of His servants whom He had made mediators betwixt Himself and Israel. The whole tribe of Levi was also "proved" in the person of these, its most distinguished members. In the test of Meribah, however, Moses and Aaron failed to maintain a perfect attitude, hence this partial shortcoming of the human instruments puts in brighter relief the wisdom and the mercy of God, who can work through faulty agents, and whose purposes will be accomplished, notwithstanding every natural hindrance. The whole history of Levi's selection for exceptional privilege in Israel illustrates very strikingly this principle of the Divine procedure, "Not for your sakes do I this but for my holy name's sake. Be ashamed and confounded for your

own ways, ye house of Israel" (Ezek. xxxvi. 22–32).

* See Exod. xvii. 1-7; Num. xx. 1–13.

Another reference in ver. 8 will probably seem to most persons still more in need of explanation; and yet an explanation can hardly be given with certainty as to all its details until we have more light than has ever yet been cast upon the extremely obscure subject of the Urim and the Thummim. The most likely conjecture that has been advanced on this point bids us regard the Urim and the Thummim as two small figures of sapphire or of rock crystal, which may have been fashioned respectively in the shape of an Egyptian scarabæus and in that of a seated human form, and which were hidden in the inner pocket of the high priest's breastplate, so as to lie betwixt that breastplate and the linen ephod. In some way, the method of which it is quite impossible for us to determine, the high priest was able to use these objects as instruments for discovering the Divine will in matters of difficulty or of doubt which were brought to him by his brethren the Hebrews for decision. God somehow spake by Urim and by Thummim to those who came to His priests for guidance and judgment in their affairs and the names of these precious jewels bore reference to this peculiar use that was made of them, to give “light” and to determine "right"; for Urim is the plural form of the Hebrew word for light," and Thummim is the plural of a word that denotes " uprightor perfection."

ness

In the blessing of Levi by Moses, the usual order of these two mysterious words is reversed, and Thummim is put before Urim. There is probably a reason for this, namely, to suggest that Levi's zeal for the "right and perfect way "of God, amid the general defection at Horeb, was his real title to the honourable office of interpreting God's "light" and God's "truth" from His holy oracles. This supreme devotion of himself to "right" was indeed the sole condition of his blessing and of the Divine election which it declared. Levi had consecrated himself unreservedly to do all the perfect will of God; and therefore he was pronounced "holy" in the same sense in which David ascribes that title to himself in Psa. lxxxvi. 2: “ Preserve my soul, for I am holy;" i.e., I have devoted or consecrated myself unto Thee. "The covenant of Levi" is explained very forcibly and very suggestively in this way by the prophet Malachi, in a passage which is worthy of careful comparison throughout with the blessing of the tribe, and from which a single sentence may here be quoted as illustrating the reference to Urim and to Thummim: "For the priest's lips should keep knowledge, and men should seek the law from his mouth, for he is a messenger of the Lord of hosts" (Mal. ii. 4–9).

The blessing conferred upon Levi was both personal and instrumental, especially in that department of it which concerned the oracular use of the Urim and the Thummim. It was no mean advantage for the priests, the sons of Levi, that they bore upon their breasts an infallible means of guidance and instruction in the way of duty and of safety for themselves. Had Eli used this advantage to the full, the glory need never have departed from his house nor from Israel in his

days. And unless the spiritual inheritors of his blessing, the men and the women whom Christ has made priests unto God His Father, are as selfishly negligent and short-sighted as he was, they can never lack that Divine illumination wherein lies the pledge of salvation unto themselves, and through them unto the world. Let this be the lesson which as Christians we lay most closely to heart from our study of Levi's blessing. Let us diligently use the grace which is conferred upon us for our own enlightenment and that of others, for we "have an unction from the Holy One that we might know all things." And let our self-surrender to do all God's will be framed upon the model, not of Levi, but of that greater Priest who is consecrated for ever after the order of Melchizedek. For as His disciples we are bound to count even our life of no value unto ourselves, so that we may finish our course with joy, and the ministry which we received from the Lord Jesus."

"GOD 'LL SHOW ME THE WAY."

"YES, sir," said the man, run- | rude set, sir, we of the mines, and ning his hands through his shaggy 'specially in this place; we didn't locks, his harsh face showing the like anything that was what we marks of unusual intelligence, called 'pious.' Sundays, sir, used "mining in this region be a hard to be the regular-well, I might say life, but I think we've all been better hell-day, with us. It was nothing since little Pinky went away." but drinking and dancing, pitching and cards, and swearing.

"And who was little Pinky?" asked the gentleman, while the dark eyes of the young lady at his side sparkled in anticipation of a story. "Well, you see, it be something of a tell, and if ye'd move farther on to the shade of the old oak yonder, it'll mayhap be pleasanter for the young miss, for the sun be hot."

The lady and gentleman followed the brown and weather-beaten man to the cool shadow of the oak, and, finding a seat for the young lady on a convenient root that came squarely up from the ground, the miner began, with his customary preface.

"You see-Pinky were the son of Jesse Pinkham, a young man, and a regular good one, as the saying goes. I reckon Pinkham was the only man of us as ever said the Lord's Prayer or any other prayer. He was a nice young fellow, that's the fact! but we're a

Well, sir, you see, Jesse he got married to a regular lady-like girl, sir, and it turned out a pious one. They didn't none of 'em, that is, Pinkam, his wife and old mother, jine us in our merry-makings on a Sabbath, but sometimes the young man and Bessie, that's his wife, sir, would walk five miles to hear a parson preach. We was all down upon Jesse, sir. You see the real thing was, he made us ashamed of ourselves by his goodness; and I was worse than the rest, trying my best all the time to pick up a quarrel with him. Well, sir, one Saturday night, what did we see but a notice stuck up on this very tree, that there'd be a parson from Frankstown, on the morrow, to preach to us? We didn't like the news, and we could tell pretty well where the move come from, 'cause you see we knew Jesse was pious.

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