3. "Songs of Degrees" or Pilgrim Songs.

The inscriptions of many of the Psalms indicate their musical and liturgical use in Hebrew worship. Thus, the inscription of Psalm 5-"For the Precentor. WITH FLUTE ACCOMPANIMENT (or, to the flutes). A Psalm of David"-refers to the musical instruments (flutes) by which the chanting of this Psalm was to be accompanied in the Temple Services. Similarly, the inscription of Psalm 4-" For the Precentor. WITH STRINGED INSTRUMENTS. A Psalm of David"-shows that it was to be chanted with an accompaniment of stringed instruments. Psalms 6, 54, 55, 67, 76, were also to be sung with stringed instruments.

There are fifteen Psalms whose character and title seem to show that they were intended to be sung in the Open-Air, and not as a part of the stated worship in the Temple. I refer to those Psalms which are called, in the Authorised Version, "Songs of Degrees." The most probable explanation of this title is that it means "Songs of Goings-up" or " Pilgrim Songs." These were processional Psalms composed to be sung by the caravans and pilgrim-bands of Jews who "went UP "2 year by year to the great festivals at Jerusalem. Isaiah alludes to the custom of chanting Psalms and playing flutes on the march to these festivals. These Psalms are also supposed to have been chanted by the pilgrimbands of Jews on their way home from Babylon.3

1 Psalms 120-134.

2 Jericho-13 miles to the North-East of Jerusalem-is 3624 feet below it. Ramleh-25 miles to the West of Jerusalem-is 2274 feet below it. (Smith's Dict. of the Bible, I. 984, Art. Jerusalem.)

3 Perowne, The Psalms, I. pp. 86, 87. Isaiah 30. 29.

4.-The Samaritan Passover on Gerizim.

The elaborate Sacrificial Ritual of the Passover, as instituted by Moses, is fully described in the twelfth Chapter of Exodus. The design of the Holy Ghost in this institution seems to have been to fix unalterably those parts of the rite which foreshadowed the One Great Sacrifice for men. All the symbolical details of the rite were, therefore, fixed and settled by Divine authority. But beyond these details, the sacred narrative does not go. It gives no indication of the Devotional Ritual of prayers and praises, with which the piety of the Jewish Church should clothe the naked sacrificial skeleton of the rite. In a future Chapter, we shall learn that the Devotional Ritual with which the Passover was celebrated in the Temple was responsive and congregational. But here I would notice the presence of the same characteristics in the Open-Air celebration of the Paschal rite, which is still continued by the Samaritans upon mount Gerizim.

Gerizim appears to have been a sanctuary from very ancient times, and was, therefore, selected by the Samaritan colonists as their Holy Mount, the site of their Temple. It was with reference to Gerizim that the woman of Samaria said to our Lord, "Our (Samaritan) fathers worshipped in this mountain; and ye (the Jews) say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship." Many were the legends and relics 2 by which the Samaritans tried to establish the superior sanctity of Gerizim as compared with all other mountains.

Upon mount Gerizim, the small remaining remnant

1 See below, Chapter XXXI. § I.

* See those enumerated in Geikie's Life and Words of Christ, I. pp. 525, 526.

Y

of the Samaritans still sacrifice their Paschal lambs. year by year, with a ritual which many modern travellers have witnessed, and which is almost certainly, in its main features, a faithful representation of the ancient Paschal celebrations on this mount.1 With the Sacrificial part of this ritual we are not concerned in the present volume: but the still remaining traces of the Devotional Ritual show that the ancient Paschal sacrifices on mount Gerizim (which we know to have been borrowed from those of the Jews on mount Zion) were surrounded by a responsive, congregational, reverent, musical, and beautiful worship.

Down to the year 1854, all the men who were present at this solemnity on mount Gerizim wore long white robes. What must have been the joyous splendour and beauty of many a great Hebrew Service at which thousands of worshippers were so clad! The ancient Samaritan race and worship are now quickly passing away. Of late years, the custom of wearing white robes at their Passover has dwindled down to the wearing of white by the Priest and by about 15 of the elder men, and 6 youths, who assist at the sacrifice.

The Priest begins the ceremony by standing on a rough stone on the top of the mount, and reciting, by heart, in a loud chant, various prayers and praises. All present, who are mostly provided with service-books, join with the Priest in chanting these prayers and praises. At a further stage in the ceremony, namely, when the sheep which are to be sacrificed appear among the worshippers, the entire history of the Exodus, from the beginning of the Plagues of Egypt, is rapidly and vehemently chanted by the whole assembly. At the various stages of the sacrificial rite, other chants and prayers are

1 Stanley, Jewish Church, I. pp. 517-525. Farrar, Life of Christ, II. Pp. 290, 291.

sung. The attitude of the Samaritans is that of all Orientals in prayer: standing, occasionally diversified by the stretching out of the hands, and by bowing down upon their knees, with their faces reverently wrapt in their clothes, and bent to the ground.

I may here mention that since the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus, the Jews have ceased to offer up the Paschal lamb, which could only be sacrificed in the Temple. But there are still Paschal observances of great antiquity among the Jews, which contain traces. of the congregational character of the worship by which this ancient rite was surrounded. In keeping the Passover at Jerusalem at the present day, a little boy, one of the youngest members of the family, asks the company present, "What mean ye by this service?" Upon which all the males stand up and recite very rapidly, from Hebrew books which they have before them, the story of the deliverance from Egypt. All present are dressed in their best and gayest clothes, and the women. have jewels and flowers in their hair.2

1 Exod. 12. 26.

2 Geikie, Life and Words of Christ, I. p. 568.

CHAPTER XXV.

JEWISH OPEN-AIR SERVICES-continued.

1. The Dedication of the First-fruits.-2. A Singing People.-3. Christ's Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem.

I.-The Dedication of the First-fruits.1

THAT nothing is absolutely our own, has always been one of the deepest and clearest revelations of man's intuitive religious consciousness, and one of the fundamental principles of all religious systems. All that we have of good, and all that we are, come from God, and belong to Him. We enjoy but a short loan of His gifts; and we are to use them as His, and not as our own. In recognition of this great principle, all the first-born of man and beast were, under the Mosaic Law, dedicated to God. The first-born were so dedicated as the representatives of all: their dedication expressed that all are God's, and that all should live to Him and for His service. In like manner, the fruits of the ground are all from God, and belong entirely to Him. In using them, we use what we should regard as His, not as our own. The Mosaic Law, therefore, required that the first-fruits of produce, as representing all produce, should also be set apart as offerings to God, the Giver and Owner of all.2

1 Edersheim, The Temple and its Services, pp. 331-340. Smith's Dict. of the Bible, I. pp. 623, 624, Art. First-fruits.

Ex. 22. 29; 23. 19; 34. 26; Num. 15. 20, 21; 18. 12, 13; Deut. 18. 4; 26. 2-11.