Education of Israel
29
God gave to Israel lessons illustrating His principles and preserving
the memory of His wonderful works. Then, as inquiry was made, the
instruction given impressed mind and heart.
In the arrangements for the education of the chosen people it is
made manifest that a life centered in God is a life of completeness.
Every want He has implanted, He provides to satisfy; every faculty
imparted, He seeks to develop.
The Author of all beauty, Himself a lover of the beautiful, God pro-
vided to gratify in His children the love of beauty. He made provision
also for their social needs, for the kindly and helpful associations that
do so much to cultivate sympathy and to brighten and sweeten life.
As a means of education an important place was filled by the feasts
of Israel. In ordinary life the family was both a school and a church,
the parents being the instructors in secular and in religious lines. But
three times a year seasons were appointed for social intercourse and
[42]
worship. First at Shiloh, and afterward at Jerusalem, these gatherings
were held. Only the fathers and sons were required to be present;
but none desired to forgo the opportunities of the feasts, and, so far
as possible, all the household were in attendance; and with them, as
sharers of their hospitality, were the stranger, the Levite, and the poor.
The journey to Jerusalem, in the simple, patriarchal style, amidst
the beauty of the springtime, the richness of midsummer, or the ripened
glory of autumn, was a delight. With offerings of gratitude they came,
from the man of white hairs to the little child, to meet with God in His
holy habitation. As they journeyed, the experiences of the past, the
stories that both old and young still love so well, were recounted to the
Hebrew children. The songs that had cheered the wilderness wandering
were sung. God’s commandments were chanted, and, bound up with
the blessed influences of nature and of kindly human association, they
were forever fixed in the memory of many a child and youth.
The ceremonies witnessed at Jerusalem in connection with the
paschal service,—the night assembly, the men with their girded loins,
shoes on feet, and staff in hand, the hasty meal, the lamb, the unleav-
ened bread, and the bitter herbs, and in the solemn silence the rehearsal
of the story of the sprinkled blood, the death-dealing angel, and the
grand march from the land of bondage,—all were of a nature to stir
the imagination and impress the heart.