and, keeper of the royal wardrobe, Hilkiah
the high-priest, and Shaphan the scribe, or secretary,--the youthful
king Josiah, in the eighteenth year of his reign, when he was himself
but twenty-six years old, set about reforms, which the nobles and
priests bitterly opposed. Idolatry had been the fashionable religion for
nearly seventy years, and the Law was nearly forgotten. The corruption
of the priesthood and of the great body of the prophets kept pace with
the degeneracy of the people. The Temple was dilapidated, and its gold
and bronze decorations had been despoiled. The king undertook a thorough
repair of the great Sanctuary, and during its progress a discovery was
made by the high-priest Hilkiah of a copy of the Law, hidden amid the
rubbish of one of the cells or chambers of the Temple. It is generally
supposed to have been the Book of Deuteronomy. When it was lost, and
how, it is not easy to ascertain,--probably during the reign of some one
of the idolatrous kings. It seems to have been entirely forgotten,--a
proof of the general apostasy of the nation. But the discovery of the
book was hailed by Josiah as a very important event; and its effect was
to give a renewed impetus to his reforms, and a renewed study of
patriarchal history. He forthwith assembled the leading men of the
nation,--prophets, priests, Levites, nobles, and heads of tribes. He
read to them the details of the ancient covenant, and solemnly declared
his purpose to keep the commandments and statutes of Jehovah as laid
down in the precious book. The assembled elders and priests gave their
eager concurrence to the act of the king, and Judah once more, outwardly
at least, became the people of God.

Nor can it be questioned that the renewed study of the Law, as brought
about by Josiah, produced a great influence on the future of the Hebrew
nation, especially in the renunciation of idolatry. Yet this reform,
great as it was, did not prevent the fall of Jerusalem and the exile of
the leading people among the Hebrews to the land of the Chaldeans,
whence Abraham their great progenitor had emigrated.

Josiah, who was thoroughly aroused by "the words of the book," and its
denunciations of the wrath of Jehovah upon the people if they should
forsake his ways, in spite of the secret opposition of the nobles and
priests, zealously pursued the work of reform. The "high places," on
which were heathen altars, were levelled with the ground; the images of
the gods w