ould be much singing. These
"Pilgrim Songs" grew out of the spirit of these journeys. They are
filled with gratitude to God for his kindness, and with trust in his
care, and with pride in their beautiful city Jerusalem which God had
helped them to rebuild.

="I was glad when they said unto me,
Let us go into the house of the Lord."

"As mountains are round about Jerusalem,
So the Lord is round about them that fear him."=

HEBREW MUSIC AND MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS

These hymns were frequently sung to the accompaniment of instrumental
music. There are many allusions in the book of Psalms and elsewhere in
the Old Testament to the harp (_kinnor_), the psaltery (_nebel_), the
cornet (_shophar_) and other instruments.

We know just how they looked, for pictures of them, or at least of
similar instruments, are found on Egyptian and Babylonian monuments.
The harp was probably like a large guitar, only it was played like a
mandolin, with a plectrum. The psaltery or lute was a larger-sized
harp. The cornet or trumpet was simply a curved ram's horn blown with
the lips like our cornets; there was also another form made out of
brass, long and straight. The Hebrews also used a wind instrument like
our flute, a pipe with holes on the side for making the different
notes. They seem also to have been very fond of percussion
instruments--the timbal, a small drum, and the cymbals, metal plates
clashed together.

It is impossible to know how far the Hebrews had developed the art of
music. It seems most likely that the best they ever learned to do
with these various instruments would have sounded to us more like a
loud banging, twanging noise than like our own melodies and harmonies.

=Influence of this worship of prayer and song.=--Nevertheless the
prayer-hymns of which we have told could not fail to wield an
influence on the lives of those who sung them. Boys and girls heard
them week by week until they could not forget them. When they were
tempted to wrongdoing these melodies rang in their ears. For in all
these collections there were great hymns, written by men who had
caught the spirit of God as had Amos and Hosea and their
successors--men whose souls were white, whose love was tender, and
whose courage was unshakable. Only such men could write such lines as
these:

="Lord, who shall sojourn in thy tabernacle?
Who shall dwell in thy holy hill?
He that walketh uprightly, and worketh righteousness,