Tyre, and as a result Phoenician artists and artisans came down to
Jerusalem and helped to beautify the city. Phoenician wares also began
to be peddled in all the towns of Canaan: fine linen fabrics, such as
the Hebrews did not know how to weave; beautiful jars and cups, such
as Hebrew potters had not learned to fashion; jewels of silver and
gold and precious stones, over which Hebrew maidens hovered with
longing eyes. Soon one could see that the homes in these little towns
of Judah and Benjamin and Ephraim were cleaner and better furnished,
and the people were more neatly dressed. Commerce of the right kind is
always a blessing.

=Education.=--Better than fine clothes and jewels and furniture are
the things that feed the mind. David himself was a skillful harpist,
and no doubt this helped to make harp-playing popular. On one occasion
the ark of Jehovah, the sacred chest which had been carried in the
desert, was brought up to Jerusalem. It was accompanied by a chorus of
singers and a band of instrumental players, "with harps and lyres and
cymbals." In the worship of the temple at Jerusalem music from this
time on had an important place. And all up and down the land here and
there, one could hear in humble homes the tinkle of harp strings; and
boys and girls who liked music could learn to play.

If not in David's time, then very soon after, the first Hebrew history
books were written. These contained stories which had been handed down
from generation to generation; stories about the beginnings of things;
stories about Abraham and Moses and other early heroes.

There were, of course, only a few copies of written rolls of stories,
as compared with the millions of volumes which are constantly being
turned out to-day by our great printing presses. But these few were