also the child~en, were l? ~ instructed in it. So that the national desire might very properly find its expression ID the words of the Psalm (cxiL 19), which celebrate& the Divine Law, "I am a stranger in the earth: hide not thy commandments from me." A pilgrim people in ex111lmporized tents applied themselves in the sabbatic year t.o the study of God's commandments. Thus national education was promoted, and this education was of such a character that "the revival of religion" must have resulted if the sabbatic years had been faith- fully kept. It would seem from such a passage as Jer. :uxiv. 14, however that Israel was not ~areful about the 91!-bb~tic _year, and the result was judgment without mercy (Jer. XXXIV. 17-22). The IDstitubon was most valuable, morally and spiritually, but it was disregarded by an ap'.>statizing people, who came in consequence i.nt.o an inheri- tance of judgment rather than of blessing.-&. M. E. The Jubuee. Ch. xxv. 8--55; cf. Isa. lxi. 1-13; Luke Iv. 18, 19. We have here a further appendix to the fourth commandment. After seven sabbatic years there came another year, called the jubilee, which was also sabbatic, and dnring which there was to be a universal restitution. The trumpet was to be blown on the Day of Atone- ment, and the captives were then to be released, the unfortunate ones who had been compelled to part with their inheritance had it restored to them, and there was a general restoration of heart and of hope throughout the land. It was the year of liberty, of comfort, of restoration; in one word, it was every half-century a bloodles, ,·evolution, giving to the entire nation the opportunity of a new departure. I. THE JUBILEE WAS PRE-EMINENTLY THE LORD'S, AND AS SUCH WAS A HALLOWED YEAR. The fallow year was a year of rest unto the land, the jubilee was a year of liberty and release unto the people, and, as the year which was reached after a series of seven sabbatic yeal"ll, it was hallowed as no other year was hallowed, to the service of the Lord. His will ruled all the year, just as his will is pre-eminently regarded on the sabbath days. Now, the principle embodied in the jubilee was this: "All members of the community are the direct servants of Jehovah, not the servants of men, and they must therefore have an unfettered body and unencumbered estate, in order to live worthy of their vocation." 1 Hence God gave his people in the jubilee who had become ., servants of men" through the pressure of the times, release from their bonr.age; he gave those of them who had disposed of their estates, which they could only dispose of until the jubilee, a new gift of their inheritance; he gave every exile from his home and family through the exigencies of the times, right to return to his family and begin life amid the old associations and without encumbrance. This was surely to show that his service is perfect freedom, and that when his will is done on earth as it ought to be, men shall have such social privileges and such adequate temporal provision as will make life an antepast of heaven I The onl.v exception to the law of restoration was the case of a house in a walled town, which, if not redeemed within a year, might become the inalienable inheritance of the buyer. It was only by some little possibility of this kind that the stranger could have any footing in the holy lanJ. at all. The growth of cities, and of the civili- zation which cities bring, was thus provided for. If every house as well as field reverted to its former owners, every jubilee would have witnessed an emigration of all but the descendants of the old propriet.ors, and business would have been brought to an utter standslill. We see in thiR exception the possibility of a foreign and advan- tageous element amid the native population. II. THERE WAS A SLAVERY WHICH TERHmATBD1 AND A SLAVERY WHICH DID NOT TERMINATE, IN THE YEAR OP THE JUDILEE. 'l'he slavery which did terminate was that into which a Jewish debtor had entered, in order to give his service in lieu of the debt. In fact, slavery was the form that the bankruptcy laws took in Palestine. It would be well if some such system were eografted on our own jurisprudence. A man who has got unfortunately into difficulties might thus honourably redeem his position and his character, instead of compromising both by availing himself of present legal facilities. On the other hand, foreigners or natives of Canaan might become perpetual slaves to,
! Ewald'• 'Antiquities of Israel,' pp. 878, 879. (-00 'l'HE BOOK OF LEVITICUS. [cu. n.v. 1-65.