Page:History of Art in Sardinia, Judæa, Syria and Asia Minor Vol 1.djvu/157

 History of the Israelites and their Religion. 139 smallness of its territory precluded multitudinous places being enshrined by old traditions. Had there been, however, their distance from the capital was never sufficiently great to allow them to compete with the more important shrine, surrounded by the pomp and circumstance to be found at the seat of government. Hence the ease with which the people were won over to pay their devotions at Jerusalem. We can easily guess the change that quickly supervened. At the outset the temple had been an appen- dage of the palace, and its priest a royal chaplain, who, as such, came to be regarded as the chief of his order. 1 What more natural than that he should have used the opportunities afforded him by his position and surroundings to increase the number and magnifi- cence of religious festivities, so as to induce the Israelites more and more to frequent the holy precincts. To keep pace with the multitudes that ere long daily thronged the courts of the temple, bringing rich offerings with them, part of which was devoted to repairing or building new houses for the priests, the number of officials was increased. 2 From the porter to the Lévite, who sat next to the high priest, they all acknowledged the supremacy of the latter — a supremacy which at times was second to none in the State. By making offices hereditary, the high priest created a sacerdotal class, that lived by the temple and about the temple, he keeping in his own hands the general direction of affairs, watch- ing over the interests of the community with that spirit of order and sequence frequently seen in churchmen. Religious unity, that dream of priests and seers of Judah, was realized under the " king of priests," Josiah ; when Hilkiah cleared the temple of the altars and images, and destroyed the high places of the Baalim in Judaea, defiling them " so that no man should again sacrifice there." 3 It is not improbable that in the thirty years or more that preceded the fall of Jerusalem, many a demolished altar was rebuilt, and many a victim surreptitiously sacrificed to the " host of heaven." Nevertheless, the ceremony that had taken place in the temple, when the law had been read to the assembled multitude, amid the adjurations of king and high priest on the one hand, and the vows of the congregation on the other, to obey no other God but the God of Jacob, in the 1 1 Kings ii. 35. 2 2 Kings xxii. 3, 7. 3 The mention of " unleavened bread," eaten by the priests amidst their brethren, indicates that priests of Jehovah and not of Baal are intended-