time, He sang an hymn* with them, and then went out towards the Mount of Olives. And Music will only have finished its great mission when, according to the prophetic vision of John, on the Isle of Patmos, all the redeemed shall stand before the throne of God, with harps in their hands, celebrating the final triumph of the cross, saying:

1. "Worthy is the Lamb that was slain,

To receive power, and riches, and wisdom,

And strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing.

2. "Amen! Blessing, and glory, and wisdom,

And thanksgiving, and honor, and power, and might,
Be unto our God for ever and ever! Amen."

Let us now direct some attention, in a more definite way, to the instruments of Music mentioned in the Bible. The human voice was the only original organ of Music, and this continued alone for upwards of a century, when Jubal arose and invented instruments to accompany and assist it. From this point the Bible history of musical instruments begins. For the sake of arrangement they may be classified into-1, stringed instruments; 2, instruments of percussion; 3, wind instruments.

Among the stringed instruments, the first is the harp (kinnor). The names harp and lyre are interchangeable in the Bible, signifying that, although their forms may often be very different, they are, nevertheless, the same instrument.

In the 15th century there lived a man by the name of Lyra, a most ardent Reformer, which, from its similarity to the word lyre, suggested the couplet:

"Si Lyra non lirasset,
Lutherias non saltasset."

Had Lyra not played,
Luther had not danced;

Designing to show the dependence of Luther and his work, in the 16th century, upon others who had imbibed the same sentiments, and labored for them in the 15th.

The lyre or harp was invented by Jubal, according to the testimony already referred to, and this was one of the instruments with which Laban had desired to celebrate the departure of Jacob, his son-in-law. At first, it seems that the harp was almost exclusively consecrated to joy and exultation; and, among others, this is, doubtless, one reason why David introduced it into the worship and praise of God, showing that the worship of the Divine Being was always regarded as a solemnly-joyous exercise. David had, no doubt, greatly improved its original construction. When in the Babylonian captivity, some six hundred and eighty-eight years before Christ, the Jews were carried away into a strange country, we are

* What is meant by this hymn is difficult, at this day, to determine accurately. There is very little doubt, however, but that it differs from the modern hymn very much as the ancient organ and other instruments of music differ from those of more modern style.

told that, with sad hearts and weeping eyes, they hung their harps upon the willows, and asked, "How shall we sing the Lord's song in a strange land?" The harp being of a joyful sound, and its previous associations being all of a gladsome character, it was felt not to be adapted to their condition of sadness and bondage. It was used on occasions of jubilees and happy festivals, when the heart was elated and full of joy. Yet it was also serious and impressive, when in the holy temple. Hence, in the 92d Psalm, the Psalmist says:

"To show forth Thy loving-kindness in the morning,
And Thy faithfulness every night:

Upon an instrument of ten strings, and upon the psaltery,
And upon the harp with a solemn sound."

As to the harp itself, the Bible does not furnish much information; but enough to give us the general idea, that it was made of the sounding parts of good wood, and furnished with strings. David made it of the berash wood, and Solomon, of the more costly algum, or fir-wood, both of a hard, fine texture. The ancient Sanskrit word for this wood is valguka, which Jewish and Phoenician merchants corrupted into algum, and which in Hebrew was still further changed into almug.* Some, as Josephus says, were made of mixed metals, and were struck by an instrument, but, most generally, they were struck by the fingers. It was of different shapes, and the number of strings varied, generally ten, but sometimes less and sometimes more. If we may judge from representations on Egyptian monuments (and it strikes the reader as strange, that, in a book written expressly on the monuments of Egypt, by Dr. Hawks, and published in 1850, these drawings are not found), we conclude that some were very large, requiring the full length of the arm to play upon them; and we can very easily imagine what a grand effect would be made by the full sweep of the hand of a skilful performer over all its strings.

Layard and Botta have done more, perhaps, than any other two men, in exhuming the general subject of ancient Biblical Music. In describing a scene of war, sculptured in bas-relief, on the walls of a chamber dug up at Nimroud, Layard says: "Two musicians are playing with a plectrum, on stringed instruments, or harps similar to those on slabs Nos. 19 and 20 of the same chamber." (Layard's Nineveh, Part I. C. X.) He says, further: "It is probable that the Assyrians, like the Egyptians, had various musical instruments; only one kind, however, is represented in the sculptures. It is in the shape of a triangle, is held between the left arm and the side, and appears to have been suspended from the neck. The strings, nine or ten in number, are stretched between a flat board and an upright bar, through which they pass. Tassels are appended to the ends of the strings, and the bar itself is generally surmounted by a small hand, probably of metal or ivory. The instrument was struck by a plectrum, held in the right hand; the left appears to have been used either to pull the strings, or to produce notes by pressure." (Part II. C. VI.)

The next instrument in this class is the psaltery. (Nebel). This instrument consisted of strings stretched over a wooden frame, of great variety of shapes-sometimes oblong, sometimes parts of a circle, or bow-shape,

* Müller's Science of Language, p. 204.

and sometimes in the shape of a triangle. It appears first in the reign of Saul, about 1080 B.C., and runs afterwards to the close of the Old Testament. It was used in the worship of God. From 1 Chron. we learn, that the psaltery was played upon by several persons in the grand procession in moving the ark from the house of Obed-Edom to the holy temple. On this occasion the grand 24th Psalm was performed, and according to the opinion of Herder, by answering or responsive choirs. It is thus rendered by Herder:

All sing the first four lines:

"Jehovah's is the earth and its fulness,
The world and all that dwell therein,
For He hath founded it upon the seas,
He hath established it upon the floods."

Then one sings the next two lines:

"Who shall ascend the Mountain of Jehovah ?
Who dares to stand in His most holy place?"

"Jehovah, God of gods, He is the King of Glory."

This Psalm, thus performed, accompanied by the numerous instruments which are spoken of as connected with the occasion, must have produced a very grand effect.

Beyond the direct worship of God, the psaltery was used also on occasions of great public joy (Amos vi. 5). Various forms of this instrument are yet seen on Egyptian monuments-those grand piles that have so long defied the wasting tooth of Time. The dulcimer, mentioned in the 3d chapter of Daniel, the name indicating an instrument of sweet music, and which had fifty brass wires, and was played on with little sticks, was, no doubt, a modification of the psaltery.

In addition to the stringed instruments already named, there was, also, according to an intimation which we find in the titles of the 53d and 88th Psalms, an ancient instrument which, Gesenius supposes, was similar, in some respects, to the modern guitar-something, probably, out of which the modern guitar has been developed. Of the violin, one of the most perfect of all the stringed instruments, we are able to find exceedingly faint traces in the Bible-none, indeed, except in the way of slight suggestion from the various forms of the lyre here and there. The charming "barbiton" of Byron, it would seem, was left almost entirely to the inventive genius of the sprightly Italian.

The next class of instruments were those, whose music was called forth by striking upon them, and hence named percussion instruments. These were the tambourine, the bell, the cymbal, and the sistrum.

The tambourine (toph) was one of the instruments with which Laban desired to celebrate the departure of Jacob, and was known, therefore, to the Jews before they quitted Syria. With this instrument Miriam led the joyous dance on the occasion to which we have already referred (Exod. xv. 20). Job says, alluding to the form of merry-making: "They take the timbrel," which is synonymous with the tambourine, "and rejoice at the sound of the organ" (Job xxi. 12). The tambourine or timbrel comprehends all the instruments of the drum kind, which were of various shapes and sizes, and were struck sometimes by the fingers and sometimes by sticks.

The bells denote, originally, the small golden appendages to the robes of the high priests, as we may see by referring to Exod. xxviii. 33. The reference reads thus: "And beneath, upon the hem of it," namely, of the priestly robe, "thou shalt make pomegranates," (that is, an ornament resembling the pomegranate) "of blue, and of purple, and of scar-let, round about the hem thereof; and bells of gold between them round about," (that is, to alternate with the pomegranates, or as the passage goes on to express it) "a golden bell and a pomegranate, a golden bell and a pomegranate upon the hem of the robe round about." The object of this, as stated in v. 35, was to make a sound as the priest went into the holy place and came out, that he might not die.

The cymbals were brass instruments, in the shape of dishes-" plates" (Exod. xxviii. 36), one held in each hand, and thus brought into violent contact with each other, producing a wild, sharp and piercing sound. The word metzilthaim, which, in Zech. xiv. 20, is rendered "bells of the horses," is the same word which, in other places, is rendered cymbals, and should, no doubt, be translated cymbals in this place. Then it would read: "In that day shall there be upon the cymbals of the horses, holiness unto the Lord." Cymbals were often used in the worship of God. the 150th Psalm the people are called upon to praise the Lord with "loud cymbals," to praise Him with the "high-sounding cymbals." denoting different kinds of the same instrument.

In

"Strike the cymbals,

Roll the timbrels."

When the walls of Jerusalem were dedicated, the people expressed their joy, as we see in Neh. xii. 27, by giving thanks and singing, with cymbals, psalteries and harps. In the grand procession bearing the ark to the temple, to which we have already alluded, there were not only harps, psalteries, timbrels and trumpets, but also cymbals. As an accompaniment, cymbals gave vigor, life, and spirit to the music.

Finally, the sistrum, (menaaneim) although it is translated cymbal at times, is supposed, on very good ground, to have been an instrument of an entirely different kind. It is sometimes represented in the form of a serpent, variously coiled, and, at other times, simply bowed Kitto's Encyclopædia, p. 603), inlaid with silver, often very highly ornamented, with rings moving to and fro upon the bars, and had a handle below, at which it was held and shaken; and when played by a skilful hand, had the effect to give precision and promptness, and a wild and exciting, and in some cases, a bewildering tone to the music of ancient days.

These comprise, in a general way, the musical instruments mentioned in the Bible, whose melody was elicited by striking upon them.

A few words, now, in regard to the wind instruments. Among these, and prominently, occurs the horn (keren). The natural horns taken from rams, used by the ancient Hebrews, were, no doubt, the types of all the varieties of horns which have since been brought into the service of Music. In the siege of Jericho, reference is made to horns of this character, in the 6th chapter and 5th verse of Joshua, thus: "And it shall come to pass, that when they make a long blast with the rams' horns, and when ye hear the sound of the trumpet, all the people shall shout with a great shout; and the wall of the city shall fall down flat, and the people shall ascend up, every man straight before him.”

Instruments of this character anciently took their names, sometimes, from their shape, sometimes from their size, and sometimes from some other peculiarity in their construction. Thus the trumpet was a horn of a straighter kind than some other horns, and, as some suppose, was taken from cattle of a neater and more elevated class. Sometimes the name denotes a certain curvature; at others, a peculiar tone. In Dan. iii. 5, there is a trumpet called sackbut, which means to draw, to shorten or lengthen, which indicates that class of horns whose tones are thus modified, rendered high or low, sharp or mellow.

Then, there are instruments of the wind kind, whose name (chalil) signifies boring, denoting pipes perforated and furnished with holes, similar to our flute or fife. Of this kind the variety is also considerable; some long and others short, some with the holes near the mouth, and others as far from it as the hands can reach; and some double, that is, two tubes, sometimes of equal and sometimes of unequal length, having a common mouth-piece, and each played with the corresponding hand. The one often serves to furnish a kind of bass for the other. It is said by travellers, that this kind of pipe is still in use in Palestine.

The pipe was commonly used on occasions of hilarity and pleasure; so entirely, indeed, was this the case, that, when joy was taken from Jacob, in the days of Judas Macabæus, some 220 years before Christ, it is said