A Divine Revelation. gE
the ass of him that hateth thee lying under his burden, wouldst thou cease to leave thy business and help him?
Thou shalt surely leave it, to join with [assist] him."
Exod. 23 : 4, 5, margin.
Even the dumb animals were not forgotten. Cruelty to these as well as to human beings was prohibited stridlly. An ox must not be muzzled while threshing the grain ; for the good reason that any laborer is worthy of his food. Even the ox and the ass must not plow together, because so unequal in strength and tread: it would be cruelty. Their rest was also provided for. Deut. 25 : 4; 22 : 10; Exod. 23 : 12.
The priesthood may be claimed by some to have been a selfish institution, because the tribe of Levites was supported by the annual tenth, or tithe, of the individual produce of their brethren of the other tribes. This fa&, stated thus, is an unfair presentation too common to skeptics, who, possibly ignorantly, thereby misrepresent one of the most remarkable evidences of God's part in the organization of that system, and that it was not the work of a selfish and scheming priesthood. Indeed, it is not infrequently mis- represented by a modern priesthood, which urges a similar system now, using that as a precedent, without mentioning the condition of things upon which it was founded, or its method of payment.
It was, in faft, founded upon the striflest equity. When Israel came into possession of the land of Canaan, the Levites certainly had as much right to a share of the land as the other tribes ; yet, by God's express command, they got none of it, except certain cities or villages for residence, scattered among the various tribes, whom they were to serve in religious things* Nine times is this prohibition given, before the division of the land. Instead of the land, some equivalent should surely be provided them, and the tithe
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