did also the Therapeuta.1 Though these Old Testament practices came short of the perfect law of liberty, yet they were stages, ethically necessary moments, on the way to perfection. It is probable that the Hebrews would have at first been unable to understand the purpose of an entire prohibition of slavery. But the increasing stringency of the regulations guarding the well-being of the slaves proceeded pari passu with the moral training of Israel, until at last the institution was cast aside under the influence of the teaching of Christ. But while our moral instincts are offended at slavery, it is perfectly clear that the Israelites did not so regard it.2

III. THE MOSAIC LAW IN REFERENCE

TO SANITATION

The morality of the Old Testament was par excellence a sanitary morality. No legal code ever looked so well to cleanliness, or placed it nearer to godliness. In this respect it exercised a most healthful influence on Jewish social life.

The laws regarding uncleanness spring out of the conception of divine holiness in Israel.

1 Cf. Sirach, xxx. 33. Aristotle, Nic. Ethics, viii. 13. In Athens the proportion of slaves to citizens was as high as four to one; in Israel it was not more than one to six (Neh. vii. 66, 67).

2 See art. in Herzog's Real Encyc., "Sklaverie bei den Hebräern."

The natural life of the people is deemed too impure for immediate communion with a holy God. The flesh of man needs purification ere he can present himself acceptably at the altar. This fact is declared by the mother being regarded as unclean at childbirth. Everything relating to generation, birth, decomposition, corruption, and especially death, causes defilement; and stringent rules of purification for such uncleannesses are enjoined.

The primary purpose of these enactments was to bring to the worshipper's memory the defiling character of sin. The fellowship with God which is here contemplated is an external one, maintained through a national life set apart for this end, and is not that spiritual life of communion required in the New Testament. It is effected through the sanctuary service, by means of sin-offerings and purifications. Only by attending to these conditions of cleanliness can the individual Israelite share in the moral and social life of the nation, which, as a whole, had to purify itself annually on the great day of atonement.

The laws of purification embrace everything of the nature of food, and are designed for sanitary no less than for spiritual uses. They seem to be based on popular customs which had decided for their forefathers what was healthful and what was hurtful. All animals living on any kind of carrion are to be con

sidered unclean, both for dietetic reasons and because, through contact with the carcase, they have contracted uncleanness. Any beast that is torn in pieces, or dies a natural death, must not be eaten (Deut. xiv. 21). And the general instruction given is, "Thou shalt not eat of any abominable thing" (Deut. xiv. 3).

The disease against which the most careful and stringent provisions are made is leprosy. It is regarded as a slow creeping death, attacking organ after organ of the body, and so rendering the miserable sufferer a constant centre of infection and uncleanness. With what frightful horror it was looked upon may be seen in the restrictions enforced, as well as in the terrible sense of isolation and banishment with which a victim such as Miriam received her chastisement from God.1 The regulations both for the purpose of discovering its presence and of preventing its spread are given in Lev. xiii. and xiv. The duty and power of sanitary inspection lay with the priest; he must pronounce upon the nature of the disease; and, if it were discovered, must order the garments to be disinfected, and in certain events burned. After recovery, the patient had to go through the ritual of purification described in Lev. xiv., and to undergo separation from the camp for seven days.

1 Num. xii. 12, "as one dead." So in Josephus, Ant. iii. 11, "In no way different from the dead."

In this healthy sanitary legislation Israel was far ahead of contemporary nations. In Greece lepers were spoken of as the victims of the wrath of Phoebus, and most of them withdrew from all social life, and were left to perish in solitude. Among the Chinese they were regarded with natural aversion, were left to themselves, and frequently committed suicide. Egypt was the centre of this elephantiasis in ancient times, and it is very likely that the Hebrews contracted the disease on the banks of the Nile. Egyptologists have not been able to find any law enforcing the segregation of the sufferers. On the other hand, hospitals for their residence and cure have existed for many centuries in Syria, and we may reasonably suppose that these are a result of the wise regulations of the Mosaic Law.

CHAPTER X

I. LAWS REGARDING THE POOR IN ISRAEL

NOWHERE is the humanity of the Mosaic. legislation more clearly visible than in its treatment of the distressed. Care for the poor and the bereaved is made a duty of the highest importance. At the same time, it is very noticeable that it does not seem to contemplate any settled class of poor in the land, but only such as are reduced by loss or accident to sudden impoverishment.

Provision is made for every head of a family having his allotment of ground, and the means of earning an independent and honest livelihood; while at the same time the claims of kinship among relatives are not neglected. Provision, too, is made for continuing the family, in the case of a widow having no child, by what is known as the Levirate marriage law. So that, in point of fact, no pauper class existed, or could exist, among the Israelites. A " submerged tenth" was not possible in the Land of Promise; and the Law has no regulations of the nature of our Poor Laws.