e service. They aided the priests in preparing
the sacrifices and in caring for the utensils that were used in connection
with the sacrifice. Some of them were doorkeepers. Probably from the
Levites were drafted the temple police at whose head was the captain of
the temple. Their task was to preserve order and to prevent Gentiles from
entering the sacred precincts of the temple. The singers constituted a
third group of Levites.

Two public services were held each day, the first, at sunrise, consisted
in the offering of a sacrificial ram with the accompaniment of prayer
and song. The same rites were repeated at sunset. After the morning
sacrifice the private offerings were presented. On the sabbaths, new
moons, and great festivals, the number of sacrifices was greatly increased
and the ritual made more elaborate. Upon the Jews, instructed in the
synagogue in the details of the law and taught to regard the temple and
its services with deepest reverence, the elaborate ceremonies of this
great and magnificent sanctuary must have made a profound impression.
As the people streamed up to Jerusalem by thousands at the great feasts,
their attention was fixed more and more upon the ritual and the truths
which it symbolized. Herod's temple also strengthened the authority of the
Jewish hierarchy with the people, and gave the scribes and Pharisees the
commanding position which they later occupied in the life and thought of
Judaism.

Section CXX. THE MESSIANIC HOPES AND THE RELIGIOUS BELIEFS OF JUDAISM

[Sidenote: Sibyl. Oracles, III 767-784]
Then a kingdom over all mankind for all times shall God raise up, who once
gave the holy law to the pious, for whom he pledged to open every land,
the world and the portals of the blessed, and all joys, and an eternal,
immortal spirit and a joyous heart. And out of every land they shall bring
frankincense and gifts to the house of the great God. And to men there
shall be no other house where men may learn of the world to be than that
which God hath given for faithful men to honor; for mortals shall call it
the temple of the mighty God. And all pathways of the plain and rough
hills and high mountains and wild waves of the deep shall be easy in those
days for crossing and sailing; for perfect peace for the good shall come
on earth. And the prophets of the mighty God shall remove the sword; for
they are the rulers of mortals and the righteous kings. And there shall be
righteous wealth among m