sacrifices than the blood of bulls and lambs—­of sins slaughtered and fleshly powers consumed, of lives of men offered up in purity to God.  They whispered to the soul of the holiness of God, and of His forgiveness as well; and, in their powerlessness to satisfy the spiritual needs suggested by them, they kept men’s eyes upon the future, looking for the Prophet greater than Moses, who would surely come from behind the veil with a new word from God.  Out of such thoughts and feelings the temple worship drew upon itself a noble service of song, of whose ethical and spiritual beauty we can judge from the temple hymnal.  You and I to-day have sung some of the very hymns which those Jews chanted around their brazen altar.  Through these psalms of many ages, gathered into a hymnal of unrivalled nobleness, the worship of Israel ascended in the aspirations of the people after purity and righteousness.  If the choirs sang of the Shepherd of Israel, it was not merely in the praises of the providential care felt over the chosen people, but in the thankfulness of souls, because of the assurance of His spiritual guidance: 

    He shall convert my soul,
    And bring me forth in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake.

If they chanted the glories of the House of God, it was because thither the tribes came up, with this desire in the hearts of the worshippers: 

Like as the hart desireth the water-brooks,
So longeth my soul after thee, O God. 
My soul is athirst for God.  Yea, even for the living God: 
When shall I come to appear before the presence of God?

* * * * *

O send out thy light and thy truth: 
Let them lead me;
Let them bring me unto thy holy hill, and to thy tabernacles. 
Then will I go up unto the altar of God,
Unto God, the gladness of my joy: 
Yea, upon the harp will I praise thee,
O God, my God.

The temple, however, was but a part, and practically a small part, of the institutionalism of religion in this period.  This was the era of the scribe rather than of the priest.  Ezra came back to Jerusalem with a new treasure, “The Law.”  Around this sacred book, which soon added to itself the writings of the Prophets, the religious life of the nation really crystallized.  To read and expound it, now that “no vision came to the prophets from The Eternal,” became the highest office of religion, an office purely ethical and spiritual.  In every town of the land the Meeting-house arose, opening its doors upon the Sabbath and on market days, to the villagers, who gathered for a simple service of instruction and devotion.  The service began with a short prayer, which was followed by the recitation of some portions of “The Law,” setting forth the great beliefs and duties of the Jewish religion—­a confession of faith, in other words.  After this came the long prayer, which, in later times, became liturgical; and then the reading of the lesson for the day from “The Law,” with its interpretation, when Hebrew had become a dead language.  Then followed a reading from the Prophecies, and a homily or sermon based upon the passage read.  In their synagogues the Jews worshipped much as we are doing in this church to-day.