5 q6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



the other hand, the numbering of the people not only proceeds with- 

 out the slightest evil resulting therefrom, but at the express command 

 of God himself. 



In the book of Deuteronomy the service of Jehovah is said to con- 

 sist mainly in the practice' of righteousness, in works of kindness 

 toward our fellows, in sincere and holy love toward the Deity, who is 

 represented as the merciful father of all his human children. 2 Sam. 

 xxi., a famine comes upon the land of Israel. The anger of Jehovah 

 is kindled against the people. To appease him, David offers sacrifice 

 human sacrifice. The seven sons of Saul are slain, and their 

 bodies kept exposed on the hill, " in the sight of Jehovah," and the 

 horrid offering is accepted, and the divine wrath is thereby pacified. 1 

 Truly, in the age of David, the Hebrews were far, far removed from 

 that high state of culture in which the ideal conception of religion 

 that pervades Deuteronomy became possible. And long after, when 

 centuries had gone by and the kingdom of Judah was already ap- 

 proaching its dissolution, the direful practices of David's reign still 

 survived, and the root of idolatry had not been plucked from the 

 heart of the people. Still do we hear of human sacrifice perpetrated 

 in the midst of Jerusalem, and steeds and chariots dedicated to the 

 sun-god, and images of the Phallus, and all the abominations of sen- 

 sual worship, filled the very Temple of Jehovah. 



But in the mean time a new force had entered the current of 

 Hebrew history. The conviction that one God, and he an all-just, 

 almighty being, rules the destinies of Israel, began to take root. In 

 the eighth century b. c. authentic records prove that monotheism, as a 

 form of religious belief, obtained, at least among the more illustrious 

 members of the prophetic order. We have elsewhere attempted to 

 trace the causes which led to the rise of monotheism at this particu- 

 lar epoch, and shall do no more than briefly allude to them here. 



When the mountaineers of Southern Palestine, after centuries of 

 protracted struggle, had secured the safe possession of individual 

 homes, the endearments of domestic life were invested'with a sanctity 

 in their eyes never before known. The attachment of the Hebrew 

 toward his offspring was intensified ; his devotion to the wife of his 

 bosom became purer and more enduring. Now, the prevailing forms 

 of Semitic religion outraged these feelings at every point. The gods 

 of the surrounding nations were gods of pleasure and of pain ; and in 

 their worship the stern practices of fanatic asceticism alternated with 

 the wildest orgies of sensual enjoyment. The worship of Baal Moloch 

 demanded the sacrifice of children ; that of the lascivious Baaltis in- 



1 Tt is important to note that the seven sons of Saul were sacrificed in the begin- 

 ning of the barley-harvest. This circumstance seems to throw light on the primitive 

 mode of celebrating the Passover. That the rite of human sacrifice was originally con- 

 nected with this festival is generally acknowledged. Vide, e. g., Exod. xiii., 2. By such 

 offerings it was intended, no doubt, to secure the favor of the god during the continuance 

 of the harvest. 



