whole man, were required. A Nazarite was understood to identify himself with each of these several acts of oblation. The shorn hair laid and burnt in the fire of the altar, was also, according to this deeper view, supposed to indicate that person was offered to God,-the Divine Law not permitting the offering of human blood, and the hair, as a portion of the person, being understood to represent the whole. That the idea implied is that of the setting apart of the life, a self-sacrifice to God, is in accordance with the Scriptural terms denoting the state: "The Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel and say unto them, When either man or woman shall separate themselves to vow the vow of a Nazarite, to separate themselves unto the Lord," etc. It was apparently the typical anticipation of the regenerate soul offering the "living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto the Lord.”

Some writers of note have even supposed that the Nazarite rule was ordained as a quasi-sacramental representation of man before the fall; nor is it improbable that God would preserve on earth some visible signs of man's original creation, a state which knew not death, and which implied the restraint of the appetites in subjection to the will, in harmony with the Divine law, when, as a

priest, man lived before God, consecrating himself and all his possessions as the highest offering of nature to its Creator.

The Nazarite rule embraced women as well as men. It was, moreover, applicable equally to limited periods of days or years, or to the whole life. The former case constituted the "Nazarite of days." Most commonly the vow was limited to a definite period,—thirty, sixty, or a hundred days being the ordinary terms. Of Nazarites for life, the notable instances mentioned in Scripture, are Samson, Samuel, and St. John the Baptist, and in each case with the additional element of obedience to a superior will in the choice of a rule, the devotee accepting his consecration as an act of his parents, who were, we can not question, moved by God to make this dedication of their child. That there was a tendency in the Jewish mind to such acts of self-devotion, in order to win the favor of God, or deprecate His wrath, or for the cultivation of greater strictness of life, is evident from many tokens in their history. Beside the Nazarite rule, which had the highest possible sanction in the Revelations of God, other forms of self-consecration had grown up of themselves. The Institutes of Rechabites and Essenes arose out of this tendency. Josephus records, that in his day there

were many, particularly persons oppressed by sickness, or adverse fortune, who vowed to abstain from wine, and go with the head shaven-their rule thus being distinguished from that of the Nazarite-and to spend a prolonged time in prayer during thirty days previously to their offering up the promised sacrifice.

Such vows, especially if undertaken only for short periods, would ordinarily pass almost unnoticed. "But the Nazarite for life must have been, with his flowing hair and persistent refusal of strong drink, a marked man. He may have had some privileges (as we have seen) which gave him something of a priestly character, and (as it has been conjectured) he may have given much of his time to sacred studies. Though not necessarily cut off from social life, yet when the turn of his mind was devotional, consciousness of his peculiar dedication must have influenced his habits and manner, and in some cases probably led him to retire from the world."

Voluntariness was always considered to be an essential characteristic of a vow; and its subjectmatter some devotion left free to the conscience. It was the willing adoption of a rule of life not enjoined by the Law, but revealed as pleasing to God, and expressive of some high truth by which

the soul might aspire to greater nearness to Him. That a parent could dedicate his child, is not at variance with this principle; because it was assumed that the child, when capable of a choice, would willingly concur in the dedication. But though wholly voluntary before the choice was made, it became, when made and uttered "before the Lord," solemnly binding. The expressions of Holy Scripture on both these points are strong and unmistakable. "When thou shalt vow a vow unto the Lord thy God, thou shalt not be slack to pay it for the Lord thy God will surely require it of thee." And again, "That which is gone out of thy lips thou shalt keep and perform; even a free-will offering, according as thou hast vowed unto the Lord thy God, which thou hast promised with thy mouth."

The term "before the Lord" had a deep significance in the faith of Israel. He was believed in, and dealt with as with a personal God with whom definite relations could be formed, by which His own dealings also would be influenced. The idea involved in the vow was that of a definite contract or covenant, entailing a whole series of after consequences depending on the condition of being fulfilled; a promise and an acceptance mutually sealed by which both parties in the covenant were

affected. A momentous reality attached to the uttered word beyond what the thought of the heart could express. The utterance gave it a palpable shape and being, and thus constituted it a reality of existence, sealing its truth beyond recall. The instinct which to human consciousness invests a word with a power and a life beyond the unspoken thought, is evidently an indication of some profound truth in the spiritual world, and is assumed in the revelations of God as the turning-point of the obligations incurred by a vow. It lives "before the Lord," when spoken, as it did not live before, an image, as it were, of the outward form of the life of God, impressed on the mind of man, and projected forth, uniting him with God. Even as God comes forth out of Himself to make a covenant with His creature, and confirms it by an oath, thus establishing it "by two immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie," so man may go forth from himself and bind himself, sealing the covenant by his promise. As he speaks the purpose of his heart, it assumes a substantial existence in Heaven, which stands before God as a witness for or against the soul which has uttered the word, and thus committed itself to all its consequences.

It is sometimes urged that a continual self-devotion, ever renewed by ever-repeated acts, while the