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3. Compare the Jewish Sabbath with that of the Puritan. Which was the more ascetically observed? What was the fundamental object of the Puritans in their Sabbath prescriptions? 4. In view of the attitude of Jesus toward the Sabbath and of Paul toward all ritual seasons (Col 2. 16), what is the social and religious value of the Christian Sunday? How is it desirable that it should be observed? How far may legislation secure such observance?

5. Compare the Jewish festival of the new moon with similar observances of other people. Why did not this festival survive in Christianity?

6. Read the Songs of Ascents (Psa 120-134), which were probably sung by the Jews as they went on pilgrimage up to Jerusalem. Consider what these beautiful hymns imply as to the spirit in which the festivals were kept, and as to the social and religious significance of these observances in Hebrew life. 7. Compare our own national festivals with those of the Hebrews (a) as to number and character, (b) as to social significance. 8. Do the Hebrew celebrations suggest any ways in which our own social life might be enriched by ceremonial observance? Consider the educational significance of ritual especially upon young and simple minds.

9. Note that the words "holiday" and "holy day" were originally one. Which element is increasing in the celebration of our own national and religious festivals? Is this a healthy tendency from the largest social considerations? What tendency is manifest in this matter among the foreign peoples in America? What social advantages would accrue from their retention of their own national festivals?

10 Is there any probable connection between the tenacity of the Hebrew in the observance of his national festivals and the continuance of his race as a social entity?

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CHAPTER XVII

PRAYER AND FASTING

PRAYER and fasting might seem rather to be exercises of religion than social institutions. But without pressing the point that every act of a communal nature may be regarded as a social institution, these two practices had great social significance in Israel. Prayer had a distinctly social origin, and its development in Judaism at once depended on and influenced social movements. Fasting was often a national act, and it entered into the determination of the quality of Hebrew religion to a considerable degree. An understanding of the development of prayer and fasting is very necessary to the appreciation of the evolution of a people whose history was markedly determined by religious considerations.

§ I. THE PROPHET AS INTERCESSOR

Prayer in ancient Israel was the office of the prophet. Men had not reached the sense of personal religious experience. Their religion was largely external. They could approach their God with a gift as in sacrifice, though even then the priest was generally the mediator; but when they sought to speak with him, and to beseech his favor, they felt the need of an intermediary who was able to secure audience with the Deity. The simplest expression of this fact is in the statement that Abraham as a prophet would pray for Abimelech (Gen 20. 7). So Moses is represented as praying for Israel (Exod 32. 11-13; Num 11. 11-15). Joshua, who was thought of as holding a like mediatorial

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office, sought Jehovah on the occasion of the defeat of the people (Josh 7. 6-9). Samuel prayed for Israel in the presence of the enemy (1 Sam 7. 5, 8), in this case the prayer being accompanied by sacrifice (v. 9). When the people sought a king they still asked Samuel to pray for them, and he consented (1 Sam 12. 19, 23). Elijah, occupying a noble mediatorial position on Mount Carmel, prayed for the people in connection with the sacrifice (1 Kings 18. 36f.).

The prophets frequently break into prayer in their writings, as Jeremiah when Judah was afflicted with the drought (14. 13-22). The thought of the efficacy of the prophetic pleading is plainly brought out in this incident, for Jehovah answered that even Moses and Samuel could not avail in prayer, so great had been the sin of the people (15. 1). The book of Deuteronomy is both priestly and prophetic. It represents an endeavor to spiritualize the worship at the temple. No directions are given to the people regarding prayer, but there are included two liturgical prayers that are to be said by the layman in connection with his offerings (26. 5-10, 13-15). And in the prophetic history of the kingdom, written toward the close of the preexilic period, the great kings David, Solomon, and Hezekiah are represented as offering noble prayers (2 Sam 7. 18-29; 1 Kings 8. 22-53; 2 Kings 19. 14-19). That of Solomon is especially significant as it plainly indicates the temple as a place of prayer, and represents the pious Hebrew wherever he may be as praying toward that place. It is the thought so nobly expressed in the postexilic prophecy quoted by Jesus, "My house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples" (Isa 56.7).

It would not be correct to say that there was no practice of prayer by the people before the exile, for Isaiah declares that their many prayers are useless unless accompanied by righteousness (1. 15). But the fact seems to be that religion rather expressed itself in ceremonial, the practice of prayer

belonging largely to those who as prophets were accustomed to hold converse with Jehovah.

§ 2. DEVELOPMENT OF PRAYER IN THE EXILE

Like so many other institutions of Hebrew life which were deepened and enlarged by the experience of the exile, the practice of prayer gained an added significance. The opportunity of offering sacrificial worship had ceased, but it was possible to pray even in Babylon. The idea of a local Deity confined to the petty jurisdiction of Palestine gave place to the great prophetic conception of Jehovah as the God of all creation. The exiles, torn from their sacred city, unable to worship according to the prescriptions of their ancient faith, lifted up their voices in confession and supplication, and found peace and refreshment of soul. The noble idea developed at this time, which Hosea had earlier expressed, that prayer is itself an acceptable offering to Jehovah (14. 2). It is finely presented in many psalms (141.2). Perhaps Psalm 51, personal as it seems, is a national confession, coming from this intensely religious period. And the prayer for mercy and help in Isa 64, in which the Fatherhood of God is pleaded, is a national prayer, wherein the prophet speaks not as a mediator but as one of the stricken people. Ezra's prayer, significantly offered at the time of the evening sacrifice, is of like tenor (Ezra 9. 5-15). Very much later, for the book belongs to the period of the Maccabean struggle, is Daniel's penitent supplication, accompanied "with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes" (Dan 9. 3-19). The exquisite tenderness of all these prayers, and their marked ethical tone, is an indication of the developing moral power of the Hebrew religion under the great influences of national calamity and prophetic inspiration.

The book of Nehemiah is a remarkable record of the private prayers of an active man of affairs-the more so

not an idealized representation by a later historian, gely the personal memoirs of the man himself.

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Judas the Maccabee also was a man who prayed and "kept his powder dry," as the heroic story repeatedly narrates (1 Macc 4. 30-33; 5. 33; 11. 71).

§ 3. PRAYER IN LATER JUDAISM

The book of Psalms is really a book of prayers as well as of praises (72. 20). It was very largely produced after the exile, as its constant references to the law and the sacrifices sufficiently testify. The psalms are the expression of Israel's faith and aspiration, many of them having all the elements of true prayer. They are personal yet representative, for the psalmist is always speaking for his people. They are ascriptions of praise, for that is the spirit in which the devout soul ever communes with God. They are cries for deliverance, for peace, for care, and sometimes for vengeance in the face of tyranny and oppression. They are thanksgivings for all temporal and spiritual mercies. Many of them were doubtless written to be chanted by the temple singers, and so come more properly under the category of hymns; but many were probably the spontaneous expressions of devotion which were found expressive of the nation's spiritual needs, and so were incorporated in the hymn book of the temple, as we have added many prayerpoems to our own hymnody.

There was a development of congregational prayer partly on the basis of the psalms, which took liturgical form in connection with the synagogue. The same or similar prayers were employed at the set hours of private devotion. This public and private practice of the forms of worship, while always the medium of religious expression for the nobler spirits, easily fell into the formalism which was so marked a characteristic of later Judaism.

The regular hours had been set when every Hebrew was expected to repeat his prayers (Dan 6. 10). The Pharisees, in their determination to do exactly what was required of them, observed these set times ostentatiously, being often

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