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DISCOURSE XIV.

THE CHURCH'S COMMON SERVICE A PRIMITIVE AND REASONABLE SERVICE.

NEHEM. viii. 4-8.

And Ezra the Scribe stood upon a pulpit of wood, which they had made for the purpose; and beside him stood Mattithiah, and Shema, and Anaiah, and Urijah, and Hilkiah, and Maaseiah, on his right hand; and on his left hand Pedaiah, and Mishael, and Malchiah, and Hashum, and Hashbadana, Zechariah, and Meshullam. And Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people; (for he was above all the people ;) and when he opened it, all the people stood up: And Ezra blessed the Lord, the great God. And all the people answered, Amen, Amen, with lifting up their hands: and they bowed their heads, and worshipped the Lord with their faces to the ground. Also Jeshua, and Bani, and Sherebiah . . . and the Levites, caused the people to understand the law, and the people stood in their place. So they read in the book in the law of God distinctly, and gave the sense, and caused them to understand the reading.

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WE might search long among the different histories of the world, before we should find a scene

more impressive and affecting than that which is here represented. A whole people, recently reestablished by God's mercy in their own country, from which for their sins they had been long banished; assembled together to hear the solemn reading and exposition of their divinely-inspired law, now about to be revived amongst them; and bowing down in lowly adoration of the Lord, the great God, from whom they had received it. In order however to enter better into the spirit of the description, it will be useful to advert to the previous condition and circumstances of the people, to whom it relates.

The Jews had been carried captive to Babylon, as a punishment for their great and incorrigible wickedness, and in conformity with numerous precise denunciations of the Lord by his prophets. But this captivity, originating in judgment, was to determine in mercy; and so it was predicted that at the end of seventy years they should be restored to their own land. The period foretold arrived; and the promised restoration took effect for at the decree of Cyrus, king of Persia, "whose spirit the Lord stirred up, that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom," authorising the return of the Jews from their captivity, "then rose up the chief of the fathers of Judah and Benjamin," as we read in the beginning of the book of Ezra, "and the priests and the Levites, with all them

And

whose spirit God had raised, to go up to build the house of the Lord, which is in Jerusalem. all they that were about them strengthened their hands with vessels of silver, with gold, with goods, and with beasts, and with precious things, beside all that was willingly offered. Also Cyrus the king brought forth the vessels of the house of the Lord, which Nebuchadnezzar had brought forth out of Jerusalem, and had put them in the house of his gods; even those did Cyrus, king of Persia, bring forth by the hand of Mithredath the treasurer, and numbered them unto Sheshbazzar," or, as he is otherwise called, Zerubbabel, “the prince of Judah." And "all these did Sheshbazzar bring up with them of the captivity that were brought up from Babylon unto Jerusalem.”

But so arduous and laborious an enterprise, as the resettling of a people in full possession of their own land, and in the complete enjoyment of their several religious, social, and domestick relations, was necessarily a work of time: for God, whose providence was over the work, left the execution and completion of it to the diligence and industry of men. Many obstacles also were raised to it by the malicious opposition of enemies from without, and many interruptions occurred from a want of spirit and energy within. The books of Ezra and Nehemiah, which contain a very interesting account of this portion of the Jewish history, will

inform you of the particulars. Still, notwithstanding all discouragements and opposition, the work gradually proceeded, and in the end received its accomplishment. Under the direction, first of Zerubbabel, then of Ezra, and lastly of Nehemiah, the people had the satisfaction of contributing successively to the restoration of their dwellings, of their altars, of their temple, and, finally, of the gates and walls of their city.

But another want remained to be supplied; a want, which they appear to have experienced in a considerable degree during their captivity, and which indeed may not improperly be accounted one of the causes from which the captivity itself had arisen. It is evident from a very remarkable occurrence in the reign of Josiah, that the knowledge of their sacred Scriptures had been almost totally lost among the Jews'. It is probable that the deficiency was in some measure supplied during the captivity; that copies of the law had become by degrees more numerous; and that the acquaintance of the people with it had in consequence increased. Much however still remained to be done. And now that they were again established in their own land, it became a subject of earnest solicitude with their governours, that they should serve God in it acceptably; and

'See 2 Kings xxii. 8-13.

in order thereto, should be put in possession of that religious knowledge, which it had pleased Him in ancient times to reveal for their instruction. Together therefore with anxiety and diligence in restoring their material buildings, Ezra, who is recorded to have been "a ready scribe in the law of Moses," or a learned and skilful expositor of the law, combined an equal degree of care and industry in restoring the Holy Scriptures. By means of indefatigable attention and consummate wisdom, aided by that Holy Spirit, who had originally inspired the great lawgiver and the prophets of Israel, he effected a complete and correct edition of the Holy Scriptures; digested in the order, in which they now appear; and containing the several parts, which now, with the addition of his own and a few of the later books, constitute the canon of the Old Testament: and having introduced some additions and verbal alterations, rendered requisite by the existing state of things, he transcribed the whole into the Chaldean character, to which the people had been familiarized during their long captivity in Babylon.

His edition of the law of God being thus carefully prepared, he availed himself of a solemn opportunity for laying it before the people. Upon the feast of trumpets, when the commencement of the new year was celebrated with great festivity, it was usual for the people to assemble together

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