he ideas of old Manasseh and
on the side of the prophets. Little by little the principles of the
prophets were put in practice. Among other things, orders were given
to tear out from the Jerusalem temple the images and altars to the
sun-god and the moon-god and other emblems of Assyrian worship. The
temple was also cleaned and renovated. While the carpenters were at
work the new law-book was discovered in the chest where it had been
hidden and was brought to the young king and read before him.

=Josiah's reforms.=--Josiah was deeply impressed and gave orders that
the reforms called for by the new law should be carried out. Officers
went all up and down the villages and towns of Judah tearing down the
little temples, or "high places," where so much heathenism had been
practiced. And the people were told that several times each year they
were to bring their sacrifices to the temple at Jerusalem. Those were
also good days for the common people. There was a king now who "judged
the cause of the poor and the needy." Many a poor debtor, when his
crops failed, appealed to the king's court in Jerusalem and he himself
and his children were saved from slavery and their home from ruin.

The reform only lasted a few years--some twelve or thirteen--and then
King Josiah was killed in battle, and much of the old heathenism and
greed and injustice came back again in a flood. But the memory of the
good days did not quickly fade. It was the first great triumph of the
teachings of the prophets--the men who kept alive the true ideals of
Abraham and Moses.

STUDY TOPICS

1. Read any part of Deuteronomy 1-5. Select any passages which seem to
you truly eloquent.

2. Read Deuteronomy 12. 10, 11. What place is referred to by the
author, when he writes, "The place that Jehovah your God shall choose,
to cause his name to dwell there"?

3. In the light of the history in this chapter, which is the more
likely to change human history, a battleship or a Bible class?
Explain.

CHAPTER XX

A PROPHET WHO WOULD NOT COMPROMISE

The new law-book seemed a great victory. Yet sometimes victories are
more dangerous than defeats. They lead to self-satisfaction. This was
certainly the case with this victory of the authors of Deuteronomy.
The people were careful to offer up their sacrifices at the temple in
Jerusalem, and very few offerings were brought to the old village
shrines. But the real kernel of the truth which the prophets had
proc