,transcriber's note3 ,transcriber's ,note3 ,italic text is denoted by underscores4 ,small capital text has been replaced with all capitals4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,the ,,expositor',s ,,bible ,,edited ,,by ,,the ,,rev4 ,w4 ,,robertson ,,nicoll1 ,m4,a41 ,,ll4,d4 ,editor of ,the ,expositor ,,the ,,book ,,of ,,deuteronomy ,,by ,,andrew ,,harper1 ,b4,d4 ,,new ,,york ,a4 ,c4 ,,armstrong ,,and ,,son #ea ,,east ,,tenth ,,street #ahie ,,the ,,book ,,of ,,deuteronomy ,,by ,,the ,,rev4 ,,andrew ,,harper1 ,b4,d4 ,,professor ,,of ,,hebrew ,,and ,,old ,,testament ,,exegesis1 ,,ormond ,,college ,,within ,,the ,,university1 ,,melbourne ,,new ,,york ,a4 ,c4 ,,armstrong ,,and ,,son #ea ,,east ,,tenth ,,street #ahie ,dedicated to ,,rev4 ,a4 ,b4 ,,davidson1 ,d4,d41 ,,ll4,d4 ,,new ,,college1 ,,edinburgh ,,in ,,very ,,grateful ,,remembrance ,,of ,,instruction ,,and ,,impulse ,,in ,,old ,,testament ,,studies ,,preface4 ,an adequate exposition of ,deuteronomy requires the discussion of many topics4 ,the author has endeavoured to keep these various claims in view3 at the same time the limits of the volume have dictated selection and compression4 ,in particular1 a chapter on miracle in the ,old ,testament has been wholly omitted4 ,that topic cannot be said to have a peculiar or exclusive relation to ,deuteronomy4 ,yet the writer would have wished to include in the volume a reasoned statement of the grounds on which he owns and asserts the supernatural in ,old ,testament history2 all the more because he admits critical views which have sometimes been associated1 and still oftener supposed to be associated1 with rationalistic views generally4 ,for the present this discussion is postponed4 ,in some instances1 also1 the writer has been obliged to content himself with statements on critical questions more brief than he could have desired2 but it is hoped that enough has been said to explain the position assumed1 and to make clear the main lines of argument4 ,the task of adjusting the matter to the space would have been easier if it had seemed legitimate to omit the critical and archological questions on the one hand1 or1 on the other1 to leave untouched the bearing of the thoughts and ,laws of ,deuteronomy on the religious history of the race1 and on the dangers and duties of our own age4 ,but an exposition of ,deuteronomy must endeavour to open the appropriate outlooks in all these directions4 ,owing to the author's distance from ,london the work of passing the book through the press has necessarily been left wholly to others4 ,it is hoped that oversights which may have arisen from this cause will be pardoned4 ,,contents ,,chapter ,i ,,page ,,the ,,authorship ,,and ,,age ,,of ,,deuteronomy #a ,,chapter ,,ii ,,the ,,historic ,,setting ,,of ,,deuteronomy #cg ,,chapter ,,iii ,,the ,,divine ,,government #dh ,,deut4 i4-iii4 ,,chapter ,,iv ,,the ,,decalogue--,,its ,,form #fj ,,deut4 v4 #a-ba4 ,,chapter ,v ,,the ,,decalogue--,,its ,,substance #gc ,,chapter ,,vi ,,the ,,mediatorship ,,of ,,moses #ajf ,,deut4 v4 #bb-cc4 ,,chapter ,,vii ,,love ,,to ,,god ,,the ,,law ,,of ,,life #aaf ,,deut4 vi4 #d1 #e4 ,,chapter ,,viii ,,education--,,mosaic ,,view #adf ,,deut4 vi4 #f-be4 ,,chapter ,,ix ,,the ,,ban #afh ,,deut4 vii4 ,,chapter ,x ,,the ,,ban ,,in ,,modern ,,life #ahd ,,chapter ,,xi ,,the ,,bread ,,of ,,the ,,soul #bjb ,,deut4 viii4 ,,chapter ,,xii ,,israel',s ,,election1 ,,and ,,motives ,,for ,,faithfulness #bah ,,deut4 ix4-xi4 ,,chapter ,,xiii ,,law ,,and ,,religion #bci ,,deut4 xii4-xxvi4 ,,chapter ,,xiv ,,laws ,,of ,,sacrifice #bec ,,deut4 xii4 ,,chapter ,,xv ,,the ,,relation ,,of ,,old ,,testament ,,sacrifice ,,to ,,christianity #bfg ,,chapter ,,xvi ,,laws ,,against ,,idolatrous ,,acts ,,and ,,customs #bgg ,,deut4 xiii41 xiv4 ,,chapter ,,xvii ,,the ,,speakers ,,for ,,god--,i4 ,,the ,,king #bie ,,deut4 xvii4 #ad-bj ,,chapter ,,xviii ,,speakers ,,for ,,god--,,ii4 ,,the ,,priest #cjh ,,deut4 xviii4 #a-h ,,chapter ,,xix ,,speakers ,,for ,,god--,,iii4 ,,the ,,prophet #ccd ,,deut4 xviii4 #i-bb ,,chapter ,,xx ,,the ,,economic ,,aspects ,,of ,,israelite ,,life #cee ,,chapter ,,xxi ,,justice ,,in ,,israel #cgg ,,chapter ,,xxii ,,laws ,,of ,,purity 7,,chastity ,,and ,,marriage7 #cif ,,chapter ,,xxiii ,,laws ,,of ,,kindness #daa ,,chapter ,,xxiv ,,moses' ,,farewell ,,speeches #dcc ,,deut4 iv4 #a-dj1 xxvii4-xxx4 ,,chapter ,,xxv ,,the ,,song ,,and ,,blessing ,,of ,,moses #deb ,,deut4 xxxii41 xxxiii4 ,,chapter ,,xxvi ,,moses' ,,character ,,and ,,death #dga ,,chapter ,i ,,the ,,authorship ,,and ,,age ,,of ,,deuteronomy ,in approaching a book so spiritually great as ,deuteronomy1 it might seem superfluous to allude to the critical questions which have been raised concerning it4 ,on any supposition as to origin and authorship1 its spiritual elevation and the moral impulse it gives are always there2 and it might consequently seem sufficient to expound and illustrate the text as we have it4 ,minute and vexatious inquiry into details1 such as any adequate treatment of the critical question demands1 tends to draw away the mind1 in a disastrous way1 from the spiritual and moral purpose of the book4 ,that however is precisely what the expositor has to elucidate and apply2 and so it might seem to be an error in method to enter upon extraneous matters such as those with which criticism has mainly to do4 ,on the other hand1 this has to be taken into account4 ,the truth about the composition of a book1 about the authorities it is founded on1 about the times in which and the circumstances under which it was composed1 if it be attainable1 often throws a very welcome light upon the meaning4 ,it clears up obscurities1 removes chances of error1 and often1 when two or three possible paths have opened before us1 it shuts us up to the right one4 ,but if that is the case when no special conflict of opinion has arisen1 it is much more so when a revolution of opinion concerning the whole religious life of a nation has been caused by the critical view of a book adopted by able men4 ,now that is plainly the case here4 ,deuteronomy has been the key of the position1 the centre of the conflict1 in the battle which has been waged so hotly as to the growth of religion in ,israel4 ,the attack upon the views hitherto generally held within the ,church in regard to that matter has rested more upon the character and date of ,deuteronomy than upon anything else4 ,consequently every part of the book has been the object of intense and microscopic scrutiny1 and there is scarcely a cardinal point in it which must not be regarded differently1 according as we accept or reject the strictly ,mosaic origin of the book as a whole1 or even of the legal portions4 ,the difference is probably never absolutely fundamental4 ,on either supposition1 as we have said1 the spiritual and moral teaching remains the same2 but the mind is apt to be clouded with harassing doubt as to many important points1 until clear views on the critical question have been attained4 ,this is felt more or less acutely by all readers of the ,old ,testament who are touched by recent debates1 and they expect that any new exposition shall help them to a clearer view4 ,many will even demand that some effort in that direction should be made2 and1 as we think1 they rightly demand it4 ,but there is still another reason for dealing with the questions gathering round the authorship and age of our book1 and it is decisive4 ,the debate concerning the critical views of the ,old ,testament has reached a stage at which it is no longer confined to the professed teachers and students of the ,old ,testament4 ,it has filtered down1 through magazines first1 and then through newspapers1 into the public mind1 and opinions are becoming current concerning the results of criticism which are so partial and ill-informed that they cannot but produce evil results of a formidable kind in the near future4 ,by those who are sceptically inclined1 as well as by those who cling most closely to the teaching of the ,churches1 it is loudly proclaimed that the acceptance of the critical view--viz4 that the ,levitical law1 as a written code1 came into existence after the ,exile1 and that ,deuteronomy1 written in the royal period of ,israelite history1 occupies a middle position between the first legislation 7,exod4 xx4-xxiii47 and this latest--destroys the character of the ,old ,testament as a record of ,revelation1 and undermines ,christianity itself4 ,the former class rejoice that this should be so1 and think their scepticism is thereby justified4 ,the latter1 on the contrary1 reject the critical conclusions with vehemence4 ,they have found ,god through the ,scripture1 and1 resting upon this experience1 they turn away from theories which they believe to be in direct conflict with it4 ,to write an exposition of ,deuteronomy therefore1 without correcting the false impression that the critical view as to its age1 etc41 is incompatible with faith in a ,divine revelation1 would be to miss one of the great opportunities which fall to writers on the ,old ,testament in our day4 ,questions regarding the age1 authorship1 and literary form of the books of ,scripture cannot ultimately be so decided as to nullify the testimony borne to them by the experience of so many generations of ,christian men and women4 ,whatever makes itself ultimately credible to the human mind in regard to such matters1 will always be capable of being held along with a belief in the manifestation of ,himself which ,god has given in the history and literature of ,israel4 ,but nothing will make that fact so readily apprehensible1 nothing will make it stand out so clearly1 as an exposition of a book like ,deuteronomy1 which takes account of all that seems established in the critical view4 ,even the most extreme critical positions1 when separated from the totally irrelevant assumption 7which too often accompanies them7 that miracle is unhistorical1 are compatible with a real faith in ,revelation and ,inspiration4 ,it is not the fact of ,revelation1 but the common conception of its method1 which is challenged by the critical theories4 ,we shall therefore only try to meet a clamant need of our time1 if we take with us into the explanation of the ,deuteronomic teaching a definite conclusion as to the authorship1 age1 and literary character of the book4 ,as regards authorship1 the ordinary opinion still is that ,deuteronomy was written by ,moses4 ,this was the view handed over to ,christianity in pre-critical ages by the ,jews1 and accepted as the natural one4 ,but if the ,mosaic authorship of the whole contents of the other books of the ,pentateuch is now given up1 much more should it be given up in the case of ,deuteronomy4 ,for ,deuteronomy does not even claim to be written by ,moses4 ,it is not merely that in it ,moses is often spoken of in the third person2 that1 if it were carried out consistently1 as it is1 for instance1 in ,csar's ,commentaries1 would be compatible with ,mosaic authorship4 ,but what we find is that the author1 whenever he speaks himself1 purports to give a description in the third person of what ,moses did or said1#a while ,moses1 when he speaks1 always uses the first person4 ,the book1 consequently1 falls naturally into two portions3 the subsidiary1 introductory framework of statement1 in which ,moses is always spoken of in the third person1 together with the historical portions2 and the utterances of ,moses himself1 which these introduce and hold together1 and in which ,moses always uses the first person4#b ,again1 wherever the expression beyond ,jordan is used in the portions where the author speaks for himself1 it signifies the land of ,moab4#c ,wherever1 on the contrary1 ,moses is introduced speaking in the first person1 beyond ,jordan denotes the land of ,israel4#d ,the only exception is iii4 #h1 where at the beginning of a long archological note1 which cannot have originally formed part of the speech of ,moses1 and consequently must be a comment of the writer1 or of a later editor of ,deuteronomy1 beyond ,jordan signifies the land of ,moab4 ,if1 consequently1 the book be taken at its word1 there can be no doubt that it professes to be an account of what ,moses did and said on a certain day in the land of ,moab1 before his death1 written by another person1 who lived to the west of the ,jordan4 ,the author must consequently have lived after ,moses' day2 and he has taken pains by his use of language to distinguish himself from ,moses in a most unmistakable way4 ,it is no doubt possible1 though not probable1 that ,moses might have written of himself in the third person in the connecting passages1 and in the first person in the remainder of his book3 but that he should have made the anxious distinction we have seen as to the phrase beyond ,jordan does not seem possible4 #a ,driver1 ,introduction1 #eth ,ed41 p4 #hd4 #b ,cf4 ,deut4 i4 #a-e1 iv4 #da-dc1 iv4 #dd1 v4 #a1 xxvii4 #a1 #i-aa1 xxix4 #a1 xxxi4 #a-cj4 #c ,cf4 ,deut4 i4 #a1 #e1 iv4 #da1 #df1 #dg1 #di4 #d iii4 #bj1 #be1 and xi4 #cj4 ,but if our book1 as we have it1 is not by ,moses1 but is an account by another person of what ,moses did and said on a certain occasion1 that fact has a very important bearing upon the speeches reported as ,mosaic4 ,for the style of the whole book up to the end of the twenty-eighth chapter is1 for all practical purposes1 one4 ,the parts where the author speaks1 and the parts where ,moses speaks1 are all alike in style1 and that style is in all respects different from the style of the speeches attributed to ,moses in other parts of the ,pentateuch4 ,consequently we cannot accept the speeches and laws as being in the very words of ,moses4 ,they may contain the exact ideas of ,moses1 but these have manifestly passed through the mind and clothed themselves in the vocabulary of the author of ,deuteronomy4 ,even ,delitzsch is quite decisive on this point4#e ,in the tenth of his ,pentateuch ,kritische ,studien1 after distinguishing the ,deuteronomist from ,moses1 he continues thus3 ,the addresses are freely reproduced1 and he who reproduces them is the same who also contributed the historical framework and the historical details between the addresses4 ,the same colouring1 though in a less degree1 may also be remarked in the repetition of the law in chapters xii4-xxvi4 to which the book owes its name4 ,all the component parts of ,deuteronomy1 not excepting the legal prescriptions1 are woven through and through with the favourite phrases of the ,deuteronomist4 #e ,cf4 ,pentateuch ,kritische ,studien in ,luthardt's ,zeitschrift1 #ahhj4 ,under these circumstances1 the question immediately suggests itself to what degree this representation of ,moses' legislation can be regarded as purely and unmixedly ,mosaic4 ,was this legislation given in the main or entirely by ,moses1 and1 if it was so given1 may there not be mingled with what he gave inferences drawn by the author in whose style the book is written1 and adaptations demanded by the exigencies of his later times8 ,a full discussion of this point would1 of course1 be out of the question here1 and it would1 moreover1 be superfluous4 ,in ,dr4 ,driver's article on ,deuteronomy in ,smith's ,dictionary of the ,bible1 and in his ,introduction to ,hebrew ,literature1 detailed discussions will be found4 ,all that is necessary here is that one or two large and salient aspects of the question should be looked at4 ,in the first place1 it is important to know whether the author of ,deuteronomy can have been a contemporary of ,moses1 or a younger contemporary of his contemporaries4 ,if he were1 the relation between the speeches and legislation in his book and that which ,moses actually uttered would be similar to that between the speeches of ,christ reported by ,st4 ,john in his ,gospel and the actual words of our ,lord4 ,they might1 in fact1 be taken to be in all respects a reliable1 though not a verbal1 representation of what ,moses actually said or commanded4 ,if1 on the contrary1 it should be proved1 either from the character of the legislation itself1 or from the evidence we have as to the date of the authorities whom the ,deuteronomist quotes1 and upon whom he relies1 that he must have lived centuries later1 then any such confidence would be materially weakened4 ,now there can be no doubt1 to take the last point first1 that ,deuteronomy1 taken as a legal code1 though not wanting in laws which have been first formulated by its author1 is mainly intended to be a repetition and a reinforcement of what we find in the ,book of the ,covenant 7,exod4 xx4-xxiii474 ,the result of ,driver's careful tabulation of the subjects dealt with in the two codes is that the laws in ,,je1#f viz4 ,exod4 xx4-xxiii4 7repeated partially in xxxiv4 #aj-bf7 and the kindred section xiii4 #c-af1 form the foundations of the ,deuteronomic legislation4 ,this is evident as well from the numerous verbal coincidences as from the fact that nearly the whole ground covered by ,exod4 xx4-xxiii4 is included in it2 almost the only exception being the special compensations to be paid for various injuries 7,exod4 xxi4 #ah1 xxii4 #ae71 which would be less necessary in a manual intended for the people4 ,this is also the conclusion of other scholars1 and indeed is plainly demanded by the facts4 ,it is1 moreover1 what may be called the ,biblical hypothesis1 for ,moses is supposed to have been renewing the covenant made at ,horeb1 and repeating its conditions4 #f ,it is scarcely necessary to remind readers that1 from the point of view of the critics1 ,j signifies one of the constituent documents of the ,pentateuch which uses the name ,yahweh for ,god4 ,its date is about #hej ,b4,c4 ,e is that document which uses the name ,elohim1 and may be dated about the same period as ,j4 ,d is the author of ,deuteronomy1 who wrote1 it is supposed1 in the reign of ,manasseh1 perhaps about #fgj ,b4,c4 ,p is the ,priestly document1 which ,dillmann dates before ,deuteronomy1 but which most critics think was brought substantially into its present shape by ,ezra4 ,the portions of the ,pentateuch assigned to these various documents will be found in ,driver's ,introduction4 ,but in the present condition of our knowledge1 the fact of ,deuteronomy's dependence upon the ,book of the ,covenant brings into view unexpected consequences4 ,it is true1 certainly1 that the laws of the latter code existed before they were incorporated in the text where we now find them4 ,consequently no verbal coincidences would give us the assurance that the ,deuteronomist had before him the actual book in which these laws have come down to us4 ,but a conclusion may be reached in another way4 ,a comparison of the historical portions of ,deuteronomy with the corresponding narrative in the previous four books of our ,bible shows that for his history also the author of ,deuteronomy relies upon these earlier narratives1 and that he must have had portions at least of them before him in the same text as we have now4 ,the verbal coincidences tabulated in ,driver1 pp4 #ge f41 as well as the general and exact agreement in the events recorded in ,deuteronomy with those recorded in the earlier books1 show that the author has not only drawn his information from the same sources as those of the earlier books1 but that he must have had before him at least that section which contains the laws4 ,now1 as it happens1 in the course of the analysis of the ,pentateuch it has come to be all but universally acknowledged that ,exod4 xx4-xxiii4 form part of a document which can be traced1 dovetailed into others1 from ,genesis to ,joshua1 and perhaps beyond it4 ,this document has been called by ,wellhausen the ,jehovist document1 and in all critical books it is referred to as ,,je1 as being made up of two sections1 one of which uses ,yahweh for the ,divine name1 and the other ,elohim4 ,the only generally known scholar who denies the existence of ,,je is ,professor ,green1 of ,princeton in ,america1 who1 rightly enough1 sees that the ,mosaic authorship of the ,pentateuch cannot be held1 if these separate component documents are acknowledged4 ,but the separate existence and character of ,,je may be regarded as demonstrated1 and also that it has been interwoven with another narrative1 largely parallel1 but which deals of preference with priestly matters1 and has consequently been called the ,priest codex1 or ,p4 ,together these make up the first four books of the ,pentateuch2 and the remarkable thing is that1 both as regards law and history1 ,deuteronomy is dependent upon ,,je4 ,throughout the parallels just tabulated1 says ,driver1#g 7as well as in the others occurring in the book71 not the allusions only1 but the words cited1 will be found1 all but uniformly1 to be in ,,je1 not in ,p4 ,an important conclusion follows from this fact4 ,inasmuch as1 in our existing ,pentateuch1 ,,je and ,p repeatedly cross one another1 the constant absence of any reference to ,p can only be reasonably explained by one supposition1 viz4 that when ,deuteronomy was composed ,,je and ,p were not yet united into a single work1 and ,,je alone formed the basis of ,deuteronomy4 ,and this is not ,driver's conclusion only4 ,dillmann1 who argues with splendid ability against ,wellhausen for the dating of ,p in the ninth century ,b4,c4 instead of after the ,exile1 and consequently considers that it was in existence before ,deuteronomy1 still holds that in general ,,je is the ,deuteronomist's authority both for law and history1 contenting himself with affirming that ,d shows undoubted acquaintance with laws1 etc41 known to us only in ,p4 ,clearly1 therefore1 ,deuteronomy must have been written after ,,je had been made public1 or at least after ,j and ,e had been written4 #g ,driver1 ,introduction1 p4 #gf4 ,the question therefore arises1 what is their date8 ,an answer can be gradually approached in this way4 ,as ,,je reappear as an element in the ,book of ,joshua1#h and contribute to it an account of ,joshua's death and burial1 they cannot have been written by him1 nor before his death4 ,that is the first fixed point4 ,then we may proceed a step further4 ,in various parts of ,,je there occur phrases which cannot all be later glosses1 and which imply that the land1 when the writer lived1 had long ceased to be in possession of the ,canaanites1 if some of them do not even presuppose a time when the original inhabitants had been absorbed into ,israel1 as ,solomon attempted to absorb them by making them slaves of the ,state4 ,such passages are ,gen4 xii4 #f1 ,and the ,canaanite was then in the land2 ,gen4 xiii4 #g1 ,moreover the ,canaanites and the ,perizzites dwelled then in the land2 ,gen4 xl4 #ae1 in which ,joseph says of himself1 ,i was stolen away out of the land of the ,hebrews1 a name which the country could not have acquired till some little time at least after the conquest4 ,further1 in ,numbers xxxii4 #da1 which belongs to ,j or ,e1 probably the latter1 we have an account of the rise of the name ,hawwoth ,jair4 ,now in ,judges x4 #c-e we are informed that the ,jair from whom the ,hawwoth ,jair had their name was a judge in ,israel after the time of ,abimelech1 who made new conquests for his tribe east of the ,jordan4 ,unless1 therefore1 the unlikely hypothesis be accepted that both the district bearing this name in ,judges and its conqueror are other than those mentioned in ,numbers1 the verse brings down ,,je at least to the period of ,abimelech1 which ,kautzsch in his ,view of the ,history of the ,israelites1 appended to his translation of the ,old ,testament1 states as about #aabj ,b4,c41 i4e4 two hundred years after the ,exodus4 #h ,josh4 xxiv4 #cj4 ,the next step is suggested by ,gen4 xxxvi4 #ca-ci1 a passage from ,,je in which a list of ,edomite kings is given with this heading3 ,these are the kings that reigned in the land of ,edom before there reigned any king over the children of ,israel4 ,that sentence clearly cannot have been written before kings arose in ,israel2 consequently ,,je must be later than the days of ,saul1 and probably than ,david1 since the ,israelite kingship appears to the author's mind here as a firmly established institution4 ,the author of ,deuteronomy must have lived and written at a still later date1 and we are thus gradually brought down to the time of ,solomon1 or perhaps even later4 ,and the literary indications of date confirm this conclusion4 ,for instance1 two books are quoted occasionally in ,,je as authorities1 which must consequently have existed before that work--the ,book of the ,wars of ,yahweh 7,numb4 xxi4 #ad1 #ae71 and the ,book of ,yashar 7,josh4 x4 #ab f474 ,the former has indeed been declared by ,geiger to be the product of false punctuation2 but soberer critics have accepted it and date it in ,solomon's day4 ,however that may be1 there can be no doubt that the latter actually existed1 and was probably a collection of songs1 since from it the verses describing the standing still of the sun and moon are quoted4 ,but we learn from #b ,sam4 i4 #ah that ,david's beautiful lament for ,saul and ,jonathan was contained in this book1 and was quoted from it by the sacred historian4 ,the book must therefore have been compiled1 or at least completed1 after ,david's lament4 ,as it was manifestly a compilation1 and the poems it contained may have been of very various ages1 much stress in our search for dates cannot be laid upon it4 ,it is still of some weight1 however1 that this post-,davidic book is quoted by ,,je2 so far as it goes1 that fact confirms the conclusion arrived at from other indications4 ,in the same way1 the linguistic indications1 though not of themselves conclusive1 point towards the same period4 ,it is1 of course1 true that we are as yet far from having a general agreement as to the history of the ,hebrew language4 ,that can only be established along with the history of the ,hebrew literature and the ,hebrew people2 and perhaps we never shall be able to fix any definite stages in the growth and decay of the language4 ,nevertheless no careful reader of ,,je will deny what ,professor ,driver says regarding them3 ,both belong to the golden period of ,hebrew literature4 ,they resemble the best parts of ,judges and ,samuel 7much of which cannot be greatly later than ,david's own time72 but whether they are actually earlier or later than these1 the language and style do not enable us to say4 ,there is at least no archaic flavour perceptible in the style of ,,je4#i ,that is an admirably balanced judgment1 and we may rely upon the indication it gives as an additional confirmation of what we have already seen to be probable4 #i ,introduction1 p4 #aag4 ,it is impossible that these various lines of inquiry should converge1 as they have done1 towards the early centuries of the kingship as the date of ,,je1 if ,moses had written ,deuteronomy1 in which ,,je is drawn upon at every moment4 ,we may consequently dismiss that view finally1 and admit that the author of ,deuteronomy cannot well have written before the middle of the kingly period4 ,but we have still to inquire what the character of the ,mosaic speeches and the ,mosaic writings given in ,deuteronomy is in that case4 ,had the author lived and written near the time of ,moses1 we might1 as has been said1 have accepted them as the ,church generally accepts the ,johannine speeches of ,christ4 ,but if the ,deuteronomist wrote four1 or five1 or six centuries after ,moses1 what are we to say8 ,in one view it must be granted that his account may be as accurate as if it had been written within fifty years of ,moses' death4 ,for an author of our own day1 by keeping close to original written authorities1 and strenuously endeavouring to keep out of his mind any information he may have as to later times1 may reproduce with marvellous correctness the actual state of things1 as regards law and other departments of public life1 which existed in ,england1 say1 five hundred years ago4 ,similarly the author of ,deuteronomy may have handed on to us1 without flaw or defect1 the information as to ,moses' sayings and doings in the plains of ,moab which he had received from the written accounts of ,moses' contemporaries4 ,he may have done so2 but when we consider that his authorities may have been in part not much earlier than his own time1 that the critical sifting of history was then unknown1 and finally and most important of all1 that the ,deuteronomist has hortatory much more than purely historical aims1 we cannot evade the question whether a good deal that is here set down to ,moses may not turn out to be additions to and deductions from the original ,mosaic germs of law1 made by inspired law-givers and prophets who took up and carried on ,moses' work4 ,many assert that this is so1 and we must face and try to settle the question they raise4 ,the theory held by those who most strenuously deny this assertion is that all the laws in the ,pentateuch are ,mosaic in the strict sense1 that the codes were given by ,moses in the order in which they now stand in the ,pentateuch1 and that they were enacted with all their modifications in a period of not more than forty years1 all of which was spent in the desert4 ,in order to ascertain whether this view is tenable1 we shall take one or two of the more important matters1 such as the place of worship1 the agents of worship1 and the support of the cultus2 and we shall compare the provisions of the various codes in order to see whether they can be supposed to belong to so short a period1 or to have been all enacted by one man4 ,let us take first the place of worship4 ,the three codes--that called the ,book of the ,covenant 7,exod4 xx4-xxiii471 that contained in ,leviticus and ,numbers and called the ,levitical code1 and that in ,deuteronomy--all contain directions about this4 ,in the first the prescriptions are 7,exod4 xx4 #bd73 ,an altar of earth shalt thou make to ,me1 and thou shalt sacrifice upon it thy burnt offerings and thy peace offerings1 thy sheep and thy oxen4 ,in every place where ,i cause ,my name to be remembered ,i will come unto and bless thee4 ,in the ,levitical law the altar is to be of ,shittim or acacia wood overlaid with copper1 and the place for it is to be in the court of the ,tabernacle4 ,there all sacrifices are to be offered1 and thither every slaughtered animal is to be brought 7,lev4 xvii4 #a ff471 and this is to be a statute for ever unto them throughout their generations4 ,in ,deuteronomy again 7chap4 xii47 it is enacted that all sacrifices are to be brought unto the place which ,yahweh your ,god shall choose out of all your tribes to put ,his name there1 and ver4 #ba1 ,if the place which ,yahweh thy ,god hath chosen to put ,his name there be too far from thee1 then thou shalt kill of thy herd and of thy flock and eat them as game was eaten without bringing it to the ,sanctuary4 ,but ,moses is not represented as ordering this law to be introduced immediately4 ,it is only when they go over ,jordan and dwell in the land which ,yahweh their ,god giveth them1 and when ,he giveth them rest from all their enemies round about so that they dwell in safety1 that they are to do this4 ,nay1 according to ver4 #bj the new order is to be fully introduced only when ,yahweh their ,god shall enlarge their border as ,he had promised1 i4e4 when their boundaries should be 7xi4 #bd7 the wilderness on the south and ,lebanon on the north1 the ,euphrates on the east and the ,mediterranean on the west4 ,now these boundaries were attained only in ,david's day1 and the rest from all their enemies round about was1 as ,dillmann says1 given as a matter of fact only in the times of ,david and ,solomon 7cf4 #b ,sam4 vii4 #aa and #a ,kings v4 #ah71 notwithstanding ,josh4 xxi4 #db4 ,consequently the ,temple at ,jerusalem must have been the place referred to4 ,this is distinctly the view of #a ,kings iii4 #c and viii4 #af4 ,the latter passage is peculiarly emphatic4 ,solomon says1 at the dedication of the ,temple1 ,since the day that ,i brought forth ,my people ,israel out of ,egypt1 ,i chose no city out of all the tribes of ,israel to build an house that ,my name might be therein4 ,the ,deuteronomic view consequently is that the law requiring sacrifice at one sole altar was intended by ,moses to be enforced only after the ,temple at ,jerusalem had been built4 ,these are the provisions of the three codes4 ,can they have been the successive ordinances of a man legislating under the influence of ,divine inspiration within a period of less than forty years8 ,let us see4 ,the first legislation was given at ,sinai1 in the third month after the ,exodus3 the ,levitical legislation on the matter was given about nine months later when the ,tabernacle was finished1 and during that time they had not removed from ,sinai3 thirty-eight years afterwards the ,deuteronomic code was given in the plains of ,moab4 ,let us look at the character of the legislation given first of all at ,sinai4 ,the meaning of the decisive phrase1 ,in every place where ,i cause ,my name to be remembered ,i will come unto thee and bless thee1 has been much discussed2 yet taken as it stands1 without reference to laws which on any supposition are later1 it cannot mean that sacrifices were to be offered only at one central shrine4 ,it specially provides for sacrifices being offered at different places1 but restricts them to places which ,yahweh ,himself has chosen4 ,at every such place ,he promises to come to them and bless them4 ,so much1 men of all schools admit2 difference of opinion arises only as to whether these places are meant to be successive1 or whether they may be simultaneous4 ,the view of those who accept all the legislation of the ,pentateuch as ,mosaic in the strict sense is that the places could only be successive1 since otherwise the words would imply that originally worship at one altar was not prescribed4 ,delitzsch1 for example1 maintains that these words imply necessarily only this1 that the place of sacrifice would1 in the course of time1 be altered by ,divine appointment1 and he declares that to be their meaning4 ,others1 again1 suppose that the command was meant only to justify worship at the various places where the ,tabernacle was called to halt on the people's journeyings1 whether in the wilderness or in ,palestine4 ,now it cannot be denied that only on some such interpretation can ,exodus be brought into harmony with ,leviticus1 and that undoubtedly has influenced1 and rightly so1 the scholars who take this view4 ,if it were tenable it would be by far the most satisfactory interpretation4 ,but it can hardly be considered tenable if we look at the time at which this law was given4 ,there was as yet no other law1 and this was given as soon as the people came to ,mount ,sinai4 ,the law in ,leviticus was not on any supposition given till nine months later4 ,now1 if ,exod4 xx4 #bd was meant for immediate use only1 and was superseded by the ,levitical law after so short a time1 it is difficult to understand why it was given1 and still more difficult to conceive why it was preserved4 ,in any case it cannot have been understood to command worship at only one place4 ,it could have no other sense than that the people1 so long as they were at ,sinai1 were to sacrifice only at ,sinai where ,yahweh had revealed ,himself1 or at other places in the neighbourhood which ,he should sanctify1 or had sanctified1 by revealing ,his presence at them4 ,at any such place1 if there ,he had once revealed ,himself1 ,he would continue to meet them4 ,without the colour thrown upon them by succeeding laws1 that is surely the only meaning that could be put upon the words1 and so understood they undoubtedly authorise sacrifice at two or more places simultaneously4 ,if1 on the other hand1 this law was meant more for the future than the present1 as some of the laws in the ,book of the ,covenant undoubtedly were1 it must have been intended to be in force concurrently with ,lev4 i4 f4 ,but if so1 the places it refers to cannot be the mere halting-places on the wilderness journey4 ,no doubt these were determined by ,yahweh1 and the tabernacle was set up at places ,he may be said to have chosen1 but the places themselves were of no consequence at all4 ,the ,divine presence is declared to be always in the ,tabernacle4 ,that was certainly a place where ,yahweh caused ,his name to be remembered1 and without further inquiry about place1 the men of ,israel knew that ,he would always meet them and bless them in sacrifice there4 ,the different character of the altar in the ,book of the ,covenant too1 a mere heap of earth or unhewn stone1 and that in the ,tabernacle1 made of acacia wood overlaid with copper1 corroborates the view that the altar aimed at in ,exod4 xxiv4 is not the ,tabernacle altar4 ,the only coherent view1 on the supposition of the concurrence of the two laws1 is therefore that while1 as a rule1 sacrifice was to be offered at the ,tabernacle1 yet if the people came to any place where ,yahweh had caused ,his name to be remembered1 sacrifice might be offered there on an altar of earth or unhewn stone1 as well as at the ,tabernacle4 ,either way therefore there is permission to worship at more than one place4 ,but then the difficulty is that ,leviticus appears to denounce upon pain of being cut off from the people absolutely every sacrifice not offered at the ,tabernacle4 ,now if so far matters have been far from clear on the traditional supposition of the date and order of these codes1 a glance at ,deuteronomy will produce absolute confusion in every mind4 ,as we have seen1 ,deuteronomy represents ,moses as restricting sacrifice most rigorously to one altar after the building of the ,temple at ,jerusalem1 but virtually declaring that worship at various shrines was to be blameless until that time4 ,we have also seen that that is the view taken by the author of the ,book of ,kings4 ,now this might be regarded as a temporary relaxation of the law1 intended to meet the difficult circumstances of a period of war and conquest1 were it not for one thing4 ,that is1 that ,moses in ,deut4 xii4 #h1 after prescribing worship at one altar1 adds1 ,ye shall not do after all that we do here this day1 every man whatsoever is right in his own eyes1 and as if to render mistake as to the meaning impossible1 in ver4 #ac he explains ver4 #h thus3 ,take heed to thyself that thou offer not thy burnt offerings in every place that thou seest4 ,notwithstanding the efforts of conservative scholars like ,keil and ,bredenkamp to explain ver4 #h as a reference to the intermissions in1 e4g41 the daily sacrifice1 brought about by the desert wanderings1 or to the arbitrariness and illegality of the generation which had brought judgment upon themselves by refusal to obey ,yahweh in attacking ,canaan1 it still seems impossible to accept that view4 ,of course if we knew that ,moses was the giver of all these laws1 these words would have to be explained away in some such fashion4 ,but if they are approached by an inquirer seeking to discover whether they all are ,mosaic1 sound exegesis demands that they should be taken as ,dillmann and others take them4 ,in the plain sense of words ,moses here admits that1 up till the time at which he is speaking1 sacrifices were offered wherever men chose1 and that he had participated in the practice4 ,and observe1 he does not refer to the ,levitical law4 ,he does not say this conduct of ours is a sin which we must repent of and turn from at once4 ,he calmly permits this state of things to continue after ,israel is in ,canaan1 and looks forward with equanimity to its continuance till the ,temple shall be erected in ,jerusalem4 ,with this passage before us we ask1 ,can this be the same inspired legislator who thirty-eight years before compelled sacrifice at one central altar on pain of death8 ,the traditional hypothesis being thus encompassed with difficulties1 students of the ,old ,testament have sought another which would correspond better with all the data4 ,relying upon the fact that the author of ,deuteronomy founds his book almost entirely on ,,je1 and that if he knows some of the laws and some of the facts mentioned in ,p only1 there are no proofs that he knew that book as we have it1 they put it aside in this matter also4 ,immediately1 when that is done1 light breaks in upon our problem4 ,if we take ,exod4 xxiv4 #bj in the natural sense given to it above1 sacrifice at various altars was permitted from ,sinai onwards1 the only limitation being that there should have been1 at the place chosen1 authentic proof of a theophany or some other manifestation of the ,divine presence4 ,that is the state of things out of which ,moses speaks in ,deuteronomy4 ,it will be noticed1 however1 that there is a slight contradiction of ,exod4 xx4 #bd4 ,the ,moses of ,deuteronomy speaks as if every man's arbitrary choice had been his only guide4 ,probably1 however1 with his mind full of the stringent unity he desires to see1 he speaks hyperbolically of the looseness of the former law1 and means nothing else than the practice prescribed by it4 ,in all ways this view is supported by the history4 ,from the patriarchs till the time of ,samuel1 the practice was to sacrifice at various altars4#aj ,consequently1 according to both the ,book of the ,covenant and ,deuteronomy1 and according to the history1 the worship of ,yahweh at sacred places throughout the land was legal1 until the ,temple was erected at ,jerusalem4 ,the centralisation of worship was1 consequently1 a new thing when the division of the kingdoms took place1 and was not an express law till ,deuteronomy4 ,if that book was not written till perhaps ,hezekiah's day1 the fact will account as nothing else will do for ,elijah's words 7#a ,kings xix4 #aj71 ,the children of ,israel have forsaken ,thy covenant1 thrown down ,thine altars1 and slain ,thy prophets with the sword4 ,even in the presence of ,yahweh he1 without rebuke1 calls the altars in the ,northern ,kingdom ,his4 #aj ,cf4 for the passages on which this statement is founded ,driver's ,introduction1 p4 #hj1 and note in small print4 ,the first attempt we know of to centralise worship was made by ,hezekiah2 a second and more strenuous attempt was made under ,josiah1 but the work was not actually accomplished till after the ,return from the ,captivity4 ,all the facts taken together suggest that the movement towards centralisation was an age-long development4 ,at first all holy places might be sacrificed at1 though a certain primacy belonged to a central sanctuary1 and this may have been stamped by ,moses with approval4 ,when the ,solomonic ,temple was built the primacy began to take the form of a claim for exclusive validity4 ,the experiences in both kingdoms strengthened that claim1 by showing that if ,yahwism was to be kept pure the worship at the ,high ,places must be abolished4 ,the inspired writer of ,deuteronomy then completed ,moses' work by embodying that which had been always a tendency of the ,mosaic system1 and had now become a necessity1 in his revisal of the ,mosaic legislation4 ,this was adopted by the nation under ,josiah1 and the ,priest ,codex must in that case represent a later stage of the development1 when the centralisation was neither a tendency nor a demand1 but a realised fact4 ,such a process accounts much better for the facts than the traditional belief2 and though it is not free from difficulties it at least releases us from the confusion of mind which the ordinary supposition forces upon us4 ,the inquiry as to the agents of the cultus need not detain us so long4 ,in the ,book of the ,covenant no priests are mentioned at all4 ,the person addressed1 the thou of these chapters1 which is either the individual ,israelite or the whole community1 has been held by some to indicate that the individual offerer was the only agent in sacrifice4 ,but that is to press the word too far4 ,even in ,leviticus1 while the whole people are addressed1 the actions enjoined or prohibited are such as are done by any man of them1 and in ,deut4 xii4 #ac we have precisely the same expression1 ,take heed to thyself that thou offer not thy burnt offerings in every place that thou seest1 used at a time when there was undeniably a priestly tribe and even the ,high ,places had a regular priesthood4 ,but while in ,exod4 xx4-xxiii4 there is no evidence to show whether a priesthood existed1 in the previous chapter 7xix4 #bb1 #bd7 priests who come near to ,yahweh are twice mentioned4 ,this would be a fact of the first importance were it not that the words occur in a passage which is admitted to be in its present shape the work of the later editor4 ,dillmann maintains1 and with good reason1 that he has inserted and adapted here a fragment of ,j4 ,if so then ,j may have held the view that there were priests before ,sinai was reached1 but under the circumstances we cannot be certain that the mention of them may not be an anachronism introduced by the later hand4 ,in favour of the view that it is so is the fact that in the account given by ,,je of the ratification of the ,covenant between ,yahweh and the people 7,exod4 xxiv4 #a ff471 ,moses erected an altar and then sent the young men of the children of ,israel which offered burnt offerings and sacrificed peace offerings of oxen unto ,yahweh4 ,he himself however performed the specially priestly act of sprinkling the blood upon the altar4 ,had there been priests or ,levites accustomed to perform priestly functions1 we should have expected them to act1 instead of the young men of the children of ,israel4 ,but1 on the other hand1 we must not omit to notice that the ,levites occupy in all these transactions1 as narrated by ,,je1 a very prominent position4 ,dillmann1#aa as we have seen1 separating ,j and ,e1 considers that the passages in which priests before the ,sinaitic legislation are spoken of belong to ,j1 and adds3 ,indeed1 it appears from ,exod4 iv4 #ad1 ',is not ,aaron the ,levite thy brother8' and xxiv4 #a1 #i1 that for him even then the ,levites were the priestly persons4 ,to these passages ,driver adds ,exod4 xviii4 #ab3 ,and ,jethro1 ,moses' father-in-law1 took a burnt offering and sacrifices for ,god2 and ,aaron came1 and all the elders of ,israel1 to eat bread with ,moses' father-in-law before ,god4 ,further1 ,nadab and ,abihu are ,levites1 nay1 sons of ,aaron1 and in ,exod4 xxiv4 #a and #i they go with ,moses1 ,aaron1 and the seventy elders as the complete representation of the people1 and ,moses1 himself a ,levite1 performs all the greater priestly acts4#ab ,moreover ,,je knows of the ark1 and speaks frequently of the tent of meeting 7,exod4 xxxiii4 #g ff42 ,numb4 xi4 #bd f41 xii4 #d ff4 and ,deut4 xxxi4 #ad ff474 ,but a very notable thing in connection with the inquiry as to the performers of priestly duties appears in ,exod4 xxxiii4 #g ff41 where ,e's account of the tent of meeting is given4 ,when ,moses turned again into the camp his minister 7mesharetho7 ,joshua1 the son of ,nun1 a young man1 departed not out of the tent1 yet ,joshua was an ,ephraimite 7#a ,chron4 vii4 #bb-bg74 ,in ,exod4 xxxii4 #bi1 however1 the same authority describes the consecration of the ,levites to the priesthood1 after the apostasy of the golden calf4 #aa ,dillmann1 ,exodus and ,leviticus1 p4 #aii4 #ab ,josh4 iii4 #ad-ag and passim4 ,in ,deuteronomy1 on the contrary1 the priests are very prominent2 they are called1 however1 the ,levitical priests1 or priests simply1 but never sons of ,aaron4 ,the whole tribe of ,levi is regarded as priestly in some sense4 ,they constitute1 in fact1 a clerical order1 though there are clear indications of ranks1 of men being assigned to special duties4 ,curiously enough1 the tribe thus highly honoured is spoken of as being notoriously and all but universally poor4 ,no sacrifice can legitimately be offered without them2 and1 though the question of the place of sacrifice has not yet been finally settled1 the position of the ,levitical priests as sacrificers is so entirely established that it is regarded as needing neither assertion nor justification4 ,nay1 in one passage1 ,deut4 x4 #f--which there is no valid reason1 except the wish to get rid of its contents1 for supposing to belong to another authority than ,d#ac--the hereditary succession to the chief place among the priesthood is assigned to the family of ,aaron4 ,in xviii4 #e also the hereditary character of the priesthood is asserted in the words1 ,for ,yahweh thy ,god hath chosen him--i4e4 the priest--out of all thy tribes1 to stand to minister in the name of ,yahweh1 him and his sons for ever4 ,as for the body of the ,levites1 their position is somewhat ill-defined4 ,on the authority of xviii4 #f ff4 many claim that at the date of ,deuteronomy every ,levite was1 at least potentially1 a priest1 that in fact ,levite and priest were synonymous4 ,but1 as will appear in the exposition of the verses referred to1 that is a very questionable proposition4 ,nevertheless it cannot be denied that in ,deuteronomy the line between priests and ,levites is a very indistinct one2 there is prima facie reason to believe that it could be passed1 and the gap between the two is certainly not nearly so wide as it appears to be in the undeniably post-exilic literature4 #ac ,driver1 ,introduction1 p4 #ade2 ,oettli1 ,deuteronomy1 p4 #g2 ,kuenen1 ,h4,k4,o41 p4 #aac4 ,in the ,priest ,codex again1 the priesthood is confined exclusively to the house of ,aaron1 with the high priest at their head4 ,the ,levites have no possible way of entrance into the priesthood4 ,they are ,yahweh's gift to the priests1 and are confined most strictly to the duty of waiting upon these in the ministration of the ,sanctuary4 ,they have none but the most subordinate share in the sacrifices2 they are shut out from the holy places of the ,tabernacle2 and they have assigned to them cities in which they may dwell together when they are not on duty at the ,sanctuary4 ,there is no word there of ,levites being poor1 and altogether the position of the tribe is1 through the priests1 much more dignified and prosperous in a worldly sense than we found it to be in ,deuteronomy4 ,now1 taking all these data together1 we find here1 just as we did in the previous section1 that the ,levitical law is a disturbing element between ,exodus and ,deuteronomy4 ,if we take it out of the way1 ,j1 ,e1 and ,d harmonise well enough4 ,the main difference is that the latter shows the same fundamental conditions as we find in the former1 only consolidated and developed by time1 but by a longer time than forty years4 ,in fact ,d makes explicit that importance of the ,levites which is only hinted at and foreshadowed in ,,je4 ,they have come to be the only authorised agents of sacrifice2 they have a hereditary headship in the house of ,aaron2 various orders and degrees must be held to exist 7cf4 ,deut4 xviii4 #a ff474 ,compared with this state of things1 the ,levitical arrangements of ,p1 supposed to have been given thirty-eight years before1 are very different4 ,in every respect they are more definite1 more detailed1 and show a much more differentiated organisation than those sketched in ,deuteronomy4 ,these latter indicate a state of matters which would suit admirably as an embryonic stage of the full-grown ,levitical system1 and which can hardly be fitted into their place otherwise4 ,it is suggested1 in reply1 that allusions in ,deuteronomy imply the existence of a system of a much more elaborate kind than any that we could construct from the explicit statements of the book1 and that is certainly true4 ,but no reasonable interpretation of these allusions can lead us to a system identical with that in ,p4 ,nor can ,deuteronomy's use of the name ,levites 7though undoubtedly it has been pressed by some too far7 be held to be consistent with the public recognition of the great gulf fixed in ,p between the ,aaronic priests and the ,levites as a body4 ,nor will the fact that ,deuteronomy is the people's book1 and is consequently not called upon to go into technical details1 cover the difference4 ,indeed nothing will1 short of recognising the fact that1 as publicly acknowledged organisations1 the tribe of ,levi in ,p and the tribe of ,levi in ,d are different1 and that the state of things in ,d's day is earlier than that in ,p4 ,if this is not so1 then the ,levitical legislation1 conceived as given by ,moses1 must be held to have proved impracticable1 and ,deuteronomy must then be regarded as an abrogation of it for the time4 ,and the same conclusions suggest themselves if we look more closely into the curious fact that ,deuteronomy always speaks of the ,levites as poor4 ,some have supposed that this poverty is the result of the centralisation of the cultus which the author demands1 and that the constant insistence that the ,levite shall be invited to all sacrificial feasts1 along with the widow and the orphan1 and other helpless classes1 is a provision against the poverty to be brought upon them by the abolition of the ,high ,places4 ,but that is not so4 ,we know the manner of the ,deuteronomist when he is providing for contingencies arising from the new state of things he wishes to bring about1 and it is quite different from his manner here4 ,clearly1 the ,levites were poor before the suppression of the ,high ,places1 and were so1 as ,deuteronomy tells us1 from the fact that they had no inheritance in the land4 ,but that poverty is not consistent with their whole position as sketched in the ,levitical legislation4 ,there we have the ,levites launched as a regularly organised priestly corporation1 endowed with ample revenues1 and ruled and represented by a high priest of the family of ,aaron1 clothed with powers almost royal1 surrounded by a priestly nobility of his own family and by a bodyguard of tribesmen entirely at his disposal4 ,such a body never has remained chronically and notoriously poor4 ,in the wilderness they would not be so in contrast with others1 for all were poor1 and there was nothing to hinder the ,levites having cattle as the other tribes had1 and being on the same level as they4 ,in the promised land1 instead of becoming poor1 they would at once enter upon the enjoyment of their various tithes and dues1 and would moreover have such a share in the booty of ,canaan as would more than make up at first for their want of a heritage4 ,the priests were to receive one five-hundredth part of the army's half1 and the ,levites the fiftieth share of the people's half 7,numb4 xxxi4 #bh ff474 ,gradually1 too1 they would be put in possession of the priestly cities4 ,evidently1 therefore1 if the ,levites were ever poor1 it cannot have been till some time after ,israel had been settled in the land1 and then only if ,p's laws and organisations of the tribe were not enforced4 ,deuteronomy supports the same argument4 ,since want of a heritage was the cause of the ,levites' poverty1 they cannot have been exceptionally poor in the wilderness4 ,nor can they have been poor during the time of the conquest2 for even if the ,levitical law was in force and the tribe was then wholly organised for the priesthood1 they must have shared in the fighting and the spoil4 ,but if the order of legislation1 as we maintain1 was 7#a7 ,exodus xx4-xxiii41 7#b7 ,deuteronomy1 7#c7 the ,priest ,codex1 then as the booty from war ceased to be a source of income1 the ,levites as a body remaining nomads1 while the other tribes became agricultural1 would necessarily become poor in comparison with their fellow-countrymen4 ,it is out of that state of things the ,deuteronomist speaks4#ad #ad ,see further in exposition of chapter xvii2 xviii4 ,the same conclusions follow when the regulations are examined which bear upon the support of the priestly tribe4 ,the outstanding matters in this department are tithes and firstlings4 ,space will not admit of a full discussion of these topics2 but if the reader will compare1 in regard to tithes1 ,numb4 xviii4 #ba-bd and ,lev4 xxvii4 #cj1 #cb1 with ,deut4 xii4 #ag1 and in regard to firstlings ,numb4 xviii4 #ah with ,deut4 xii4 #f1 #ag f41 and xv4 #ai f41 he will see that the application of tithes and of firstlings according to ,deuteronomy is quite different from that in the ,levitical legislation4 ,the difference is such as will not comport with the hypothesis of a single legislator and a consistent legislation4 ,expedients with a view to solve the difficulty have been suggested by ,keil and others2 but each of those expedients is burdened with specific difficulties of its own4 ,the inevitable conclusion from all this would seem to be that in the ,deuteronomic as in the ,levitical laws we have not the legislation of ,moses or of his age alone4 ,the roots of all the legislative codes are ,mosaic1 but in all save perhaps the ,book of the ,covenant the trunk and branches are of much later growth4 ,the authors of them are not careful to distinguish what came from ,moses himself from that which had been developed out of it under the influence of the same inspiration4 ,in both ,d and ,p there were ,mosaic elements1 and in both there are laws not given by him4 ,to disentangle these completely now is impossible1 and it is probably best for expository purposes to take the codes as giving what the ,mosaic legislation had become at the time of the writer4 ,what we have in ,deuteronomy therefore cannot be better described than in ,driver's words 7,introduction1 p4 #he71 as the prophetic re-formulation and adaptation to new needs of an older legislation4 ,its relations to the other codes are as the same critic states 7p4 #ga73 ,it is an expansion of that in ,,je 7,exod4 xx4-xxiii472 it is1 in several features1 parallel to that in ,lev4 xvii4-xxvi42 it contains allusions to laws such as those codified in some parts of ,p1 while from those contained in other parts of ,p it differs widely4 ,and the state of things in which these various codes originated is more and more coming to be conceived in the manner stated by ,dr4 ,a4 ,b4 ,davidson4#ae ,it is evident1 he says1 that two streams of thought1 both issuing from a fountain as high up as the very origin of the nation1 ran side by side down the whole history of the people1 the prophetic and the priestly4 ,in the one ,jehovah is a moral ruler1 a righteous king and judge1 who punishes iniquity judicially or forgives sins freely of ,his mercy4 ,in the other ,he is a ,person dwelling among ,his people in a house1 a ,holy ,being or ,nature1 sensitive to every uncleanness in all that is near ,him1 and requiring its removal by lustrations and atonement4 ,those cherishing the latter circle of conceptions might be as zealous for the ,lord of ,hosts as the prophets4 ,and the developments of the national history would extend their conceptions and lead to the amplification of practices embodying them1 just as they extended the conceptions of the prophets4 ,a growth of priestly ideas is quite as probable as a growth of prophetic ideas4 ,that the streams ran apart is no evidence that they were not equally ancient and always contemporaneous1 for we see ,jeremiah and ,ezekiel both flourishing in one age4 ,at one point in the history the prophetic stream was swelled by an inflow from the priestly1 as is seen in ,deuteronomy1 and from the ,restoration downwards both streams appear to coalesce4 #ae ,ezekiel1 ,introduction1 p4 liv4 f4 ,the actual date of ,deuteronomy still remains to be settled4 ,already it has been brought down to post-,solomonic days4 ,how much later must it probably be put8 ,the book must have been written before the eighteenth year of ,josiah1 #fba ,b4,c41 for the ,book of the ,law which was then found in the ,temple was undoubtedly not the whole ,pentateuch1 but approximately ,deut4 i4-xxvi4 ,but it can hardly have been produced in ,josiah's reign1 because it would never have been permitted to drop out of sight had it been known to that pious king and the reforming high priest ,hilkiah4 ,on the other hand1 it can hardly have been written or known before ,hezekiah's reforms1 for otherwise it would have been made the basis of them1 as it was made the basis of ,josiah's4 ,probably1 therefore1 we may date it between ,hezekiah and ,josiah4 ,indeed we may with great likelihood affirm1 as ,robertson ,smith suggests1 that it was the need of guidance caused by ,hezekiah's reforms which suggested and called out this book4#af #af ,additional ,answer to the ,libel1 p4 #hj4 ,but1 say some1 if the body of the book is not ,mosaic1 then this is nothing else but forgery1 and no forged or even pseudonymous book can be inspired6 ,others again1 most gratuitously1 suppose that ,hilkiah found the book only because he had forged it and put it where it was found4 ,but there is neither need nor room for such suppositions2 and our effort must be to conceive to ourselves the means by which such a book could come into existence1 and be found as it was1 without fraud on the part of any one4 ,to modern1 and especially ,western notions1 it seems difficult to conceive any legitimate process by which a book of comparatively modern date could be attributed1 so far as its main part is concerned1 to ,moses1 and published as ,mosaic4 ,but if we take into account the character of ,deuteronomy as only an extension and adaptation of the ,book of the ,covenant set in a framework of affectionate exhortation1 and that all men then believed that the ,book of the ,covenant was ,mosaic1 we can see better how such action might be considered legitimate4 ,even on modern and ,western principles we can see that2 but at that early time and in the ,east1 literary methods and literary ideas were so different from ours that there may have been customs which made the publication of a book in this way not only natural but right4 ,an example from modern ,india will make this clear4 ,among the sacred books of the ,hindus one of the most famous is the ,laws of ,manu4 ,this is a collection of religious1 moral1 and ceremonial laws much like the ,book of ,leviticus4 ,it is generally admitted that it was not the work of any one man1 but of a school of legal writers and lawgivers who lived at very various times1 each of whom1 with a clear conscience and as a matter of course1 adapted the works of his predecessors to the need of his own day4 ,and this practice1 together with the belief in its legitimacy1 survives to this day4 ,in his ,early ,law and ,custom 7p4 #afa7 ,sir ,henry ,maine tells us that ,a gentleman in a high official position in ,india has a native friend who has devoted his life to preparing a new ,book of ,manu4 ,he does not1 however1 expect or care that it should be put in force by any agency so ignoble as a ,british-,indian ,legislature1 deriving its powers from an ,act of ,parliament not a century old4 ,he waits till there arises a king in ,india who will serve ,god and take the law from the new ',manu' when he sits in his ,court of ,justice4 ,there is here no question of fraud4 ,this ,indian gentleman considers that his book is the ,book of ,manu1 and would be amazed if any one should question its identity because he had edited it2 and he supposes that the king he looks for1 if he should come in his day1 would accept and act upon it as a ,divine authority4 ,so strangely different are ,eastern notions from those of the ,west4 ,it is legitimate to suppose that this ,eastern book originated in something of the same fashion4 ,in the evil days of persecution1 when all the prophetic spokesmen were cut off1 and when the priests were occupying the chief position among the supporters of pure religion1 some pious man1 inspired1 but not with the prophetic inspiration1 set himself1 like this modern ,hindu1 to re-write and adapt the legislation which he believed to be ,mosaic to the needs of his own day4 ,altering the fundamental points as little as might be1 he developed it to meet the evils which were threatening the ,mosaic religion2 and he inspired it with the passion for righteousness and the love of ,god which had already thrilled the hearts of faithful men in ,israel through the ministry of the great prophets4 ,hoping for the coming of a king who should serve ,god and judge ,israel out of this new ,book of ,moses1 but while the darkness still clouded the future1 he died1 committing his book to some temple chamber where he might hope that it would be discovered when ,god's set time should come4 ,in such a supposition there is perhaps something to shock the conventional theories of our time4 ,but1 so far as can be seen1 there is nothing to shock any open-minded man who knows how widely ancient and ,eastern thought differs from modern and ,western thought4 ,it is certain that at this day ,eastern men of the highest character and of the most burning zeal for religion would act in this manner without a qualm of conscience4 ,we may well believe1 therefore1 that in ancient days it was the same4 ,if so1 this was a literary method which inspiration might well use2 and the supposition that ,deuteronomy was so produced is certainly more consistent with its history and character than any other4 ,it explains how it so exactly met the needs of the time and summed up all its aspirations2 and it gives to its claim of inspiration a new support by laying bare the circumstances of its birth and its psychological presuppositions4 ,but it may still be asked1 what are we to think of the ,mosaic speeches1 which1 as has been seen1 contain1 to say the least1 much non-,mosaic matter8 ,the answer probably is that in these1 as in the laws1 the author relies upon earlier documents4 ,from the appearance in the codes of laws which would have little or no meaning if originated in the time of the ,deuteronomist1 it has rightly been concluded that there are very ancient and ,mosaic elements in them4 ,so1 in the speeches there are references and allusions that suggest an ancient tradition of a final address of ,moses1 and perhaps a written account of its general purport1 in which even a hope that the worship might be centralised may have been contained4#ag ,this the author has adapted to his purpose of inciting his contemporaries to be faithful to the ,mosaic teaching1 and has woven into it all that later experience could suggest as effective ground of exhortation4 ,so much as that all ancient historians would have done1 and some moderns would do1 without the faintest intention to deceive1 or any feeling of guilt2 and so much may probably have been done here4 ,delitzsch1#ah ,robertson ,smith1#ai and ,driver#bj are all at one as to this1 and in the proofs they produce of the necessity of accepting this view4 ,in the words of ,driver1 ,it is the uniform practice of the ,biblical historians in both the ,old and ,new ,testaments to represent their characters as speaking in words and phrases which cannot have been those actually used1 but which they themselves select and frame for them4 ,the speeches of ,david in ,samuel and ,chronicles serve for examples4 ,in ,samuel he speaks in the language of ,samuel1 in ,chronicles in the language of ,chronicles4 ,in some of these cases1 ,driver continues1 the authors no doubt had information as to what was actually said on the occasions in question1 which they recast in their own words1 only preserving1 perhaps1 a few characteristic expressions2 in other cases1 they merely gave articulate expression to the thoughts and feelings which it was presumed that the persons in question would have entertained4 ,in the ,deuteronomic speeches both these characteristic methods have probably been employed1 and we must just accept the inspired record for what it reveals itself to be1 setting aside1 with the inevitable sighs1 our own priori assumptions of what it ought to be4 #ag ,cf4 ,driver1 art4 ,deuteronomy1 ,smith's ,dictionary1 p4 #ggj4 #ah ,pentateuch ,kritische ,studien1 ,x4 #ai ,answer to the ,form of ,libel1 p4 #cd4 ,note3 where ,arnold and ,masson's ,life of ,milton are referred to4 #bj ,art4 ,deuteronomy1 ,smith's ,bible ,dict41 pp4 #gfi ff4 ,these then are the conclusions regarding ,deuteronomy on which the exposition offered here will rest4 ,they have been reached after a careful consideration of the evidence on both sides1 and are stated here not altogether without regret4 ,for1 as ,robertson ,smith has well said1#ba to the ordinary believer the ,bible is precious as the practical rule of faith and life in which ,god still speaks directly to his heart4 ,no criticism can be otherwise than hurtful to faith if it shakes the confidence with which the simple ,christian turns to his ,bible1 assured that he can receive every message which it brings to his soul as a message from ,god ,himself4 ,now1 though it can be demonstrated that the view of ,scripture which permits of such conclusions as those stated above is quite compatible with this believing confidence1 there can be little doubt that ,christian people will for a time find great difficulty in accepting this assurance4 ,the transition from the old view of inspiration1 so complete1 comprehensible1 and effective as it is1 to the newer and less definite doctrine1 cannot fail to be trying1 and the introduction of it here cannot but be a disturbing influence which it would have been greatly preferable to avoid4 #ba ,answer1 pp4 #da f4 ,it is not to be wondered at1 therefore1 that to the minds of the working ministry and of their earnest fellow-labourers1 who come into constant contact with the actual needs of men1 the change should be unwelcome4 ,but it cannot now1 in my judgment1 be avoided4 ,even the best and most scholarly work of those who still hold the traditional view does not convince4 ,rather it is their writings1 more even than those on the modern side1 which make it clear that the traditional view can no longer be held4 ,these writers admit the facts upon which their opponents' case rests1 and then explain them all away1 harmonising everything by a crowd of hypotheses1 often scholarly1 generally acute1 but almost always such as can be accepted only if we know beforehand that the view they support is true4 ,but far too many hypotheses are needed4 ,each case has to be set right by a special effort of the imagination2 while the new view has this great advantage1 that it makes room for all the facts1 by a hypothesis1 suggested not by one difficulty1 but by almost all the discrepancies and difficulties which are encountered4 ,and1 after all1 this view does not move men away from the central truth of inspiration1 even as it was conceived by the last generation4 ,apart from any care for averting errors in detail which can be ascribed to ,divine wisdom according to the old view or the new1 the central thing in both surely is the revelation of ,god ,himself4 ,it was always ,god that was held to be revealed1 and this the advocates of the newer view insist upon most strenuously4 ,they hold that chosen men1 the wisest1 best1 most truthful of their respective generations1 those who travailed most in thought1 received exceptional impressions of the ,divine nature4 ,they saw ,god1 and their whole being bore the impress henceforth of this illumination4 ,in every word and act the light they had received found expression for itself4 ,they did not receive this revelation in mere propositions about ,god1 which had to be carefully repeated with minute verbal accuracy4 ,they saw1 and their natures were in their degree uplifted1 changed1 and harmonised with the ,divine4 ,they could no more be false in speaking of what they had thus experienced1 than a sincere and tender nature can be false in speech or thought about death1 when it once has found its love frustrated and overborne by that dread messenger of ,god4 ,the impression in both cases is true as it is final1 and it will triumphantly convey itself to others with substantial and effective truth1 whatever the man's knowledge or ignorance otherwise may be4 ,when a man has received an impression1 or a sight of ,god which has shaken his very soul1 will it be lost in its essential parts because in the speech in which he utters it he shows ignorance of science1 or accepts as simply true the historic knowledge of his day8 ,the thing is impossible4 ,the light that is within him must shine out1 even though the medium through which it shines be here and there blackened by imperfection4 ,in the fundamental point1 therefore1 the old school of critics and the new are entirely at one4 ,on the basis of this essential harmony it should be possible for each to speak to the other for edification4 ,this is what has been attempted here2 and if those who hold by the ,mosaic authorship of ,deuteronomy will tolerate the opposite view1 they will find that in dealing with the ,scriptures as a revelation of ,god1 and as an infallible guide in all that concerns religious and moral truth1 there is no difference4 ,to make the sacred word living and powerful as an instrument of spiritual regeneration is our common effort2 and our common hope must be that1 if in anything we have been led into error1 the mistake may be discovered and removed1 before it has wrought evil in the ,church of ,god4 ,,chapter ,,ii ,,the ,,historic ,,setting ,,of ,,deuteronomy ,whatever may be the date of the first publication of ,deuteronomy1 there can be no doubt that it was accepted by ,josiah and the people of his time with an energy and thoroughness of which we find no previous example4 ,its main lessons were learnt and put into practice by them1 and from that period the religious conceptions of ,deuteronomy dominated and formed the ,hebrew mind in a manner of which we have no earlier trace4 ,for practical purposes1 therefore1 we may say that this was the ,deuteronomic period4 ,the book gathered up and embodied the higher strivings of that time2 and to understand it thoroughly we need to know the history of which it was1 in part at least1 the outcome4 ,indeed1 on any supposition as to age and authorship1 a study of the history of ,judah from the end of the eighth century ,b4,c4 to the end of the seventh is indispensable if we would adequately understand our book1 for that was the time when the book is seen entering as a living force into the history of ,israel4 ,unfortunately1 however1 there are few periods of ,israelite history as to which we have less of reliable information4 ,during much of the period the main currents of the national life ran contrary to all better influences1 and in such epochs the compilers of the ,book of ,kings took no interest4 ,for the most part they were content to look and pass1 gathering up the results of such times of declension in a few condemnatory words4 ,it is only when the nation is on the upward slope that they enter into details4 ,they wrote at a time when the purpose of ,god in their national life was becoming clear1 and the splendour of it possessed them so that nothing else but the increase of this purpose seemed worthy of any intenser contemplation4 ,victories and defeats1 successes and failures1 and last of all the tremendous catastrophe of the ,exile1 had taught them this discernment2 and they pressed forward so eagerly to record the deeds and thoughts of those who had learned the secret of ,yahweh that they had eyes for nothing else4 ,consequently the eighty years after the fall of ,samaria1 which for our purpose would be so extremely instructive1 are passed over in all our sources1 almost without mention4 ,but there are some facts and events of which we can be entirely sure2 and from these it is possible to conceive in outline the way in which things must have shaped themselves in these eventful years4 ,brought about as it had been by the appeal of ,ahaz to the king of ,assyria for help against the continual aggressions of ,syria and ,israel1 the fall of ,samaria must have come to the king and people of ,judah as a relief4 ,their enemy had fallen1 and they would henceforth be free from the anxiety and harassment which ,israel's enmity had caused4 ,but those must have been blind indeed with whom this feeling was permanent4 ,very soon it must have become apparent to all thoughtful men in ,judah that1 if they had been freed from the worrying and exasperating enmity of their kindred1 their very success had brought them into the presence of a much more serious foe4 ,with ,assyria on their immediate frontier1 settled in the lands both of ,damascus and ,samaria1 they must have felt themselves exposed to chances and dangers they had never hitherto had to face4 ,under the old conditions1 except during comparatively short periods when there was actual war between the two kingdoms1 ,israel had stood between ,judah and any danger from the ,north4 ,but now the people of the ,southern ,kingdom were summoned from the safe glad rear to the dreadful van4 ,henceforth no patriot could fail to be haunted by fear of that ambitious and conquering ,assyrian nation4 ,the whole of ,hezekiah's reign was filled with more or less convulsive efforts to maintain the independence of ,judah4 ,these were giving but faint promise of success1 when the great deliverance of ,jerusalem foretold by ,isaiah gave the king a breathing space1 and raised the highest hopes in the minds of his people4 ,it seemed for a little quite possible that the ancient independence of ,israel might be restored4 ,to many it seemed that the ,messianic times were at hand2 faith in ,yahweh carried all before it4 ,but ,hezekiah died not long after2 and in the succeeding reigns of ,manasseh and ,amon the whole temper and policy of ,israel underwent a most serious and reactionary change4 ,the causes of this are not far to seek4 ,during the greater part of ,hezekiah's reign ,isaiah had received only moderate support4 ,according to his own vision of his future work1 he was to preach without success2 he was to say1 ,hear ye indeed1 but understand not2 and see ye1 but perceive not2 and1 so far as the mass of the people were concerned1 that prevision was justified4 ,only the astounding success with which his opposition to the ,assyrians had been crowned had turned the tide of popular opinion in his favour4 ,it was probably1 therefore1 only then that ,hezekiah's reforms were instituted4 ,they had been too short a time in force at his death to have sent out their roots into the national life4 ,but that was not all4 ,one of the most characteristic points in all prophecy was that the time when the full ,messianic ,kingdom should appear was never clearly defined4 ,neither the ,prophet nor his hearers knew when it would be4 ,it loomed always as a bright but vague background to the deliverance which lay immediately before them2 and in almost every case neither speaker nor hearers had any conception of the long and weary way which divided those sunlit mountain peaks from the dark and threatening pass which they were approaching4 ,now the literal interpretation of ,isaiah's prophecies with regard to the deliverance from ,assyria had inevitably led the mass of the people to believe that the raising of the siege of ,jerusalem would mean the immediate destruction of ,assyria1 and the advent of the ,messianic day of peace and glory for ,israel4 ,but the facts completely falsified that expectation4 ,instead of being destroyed ,assyria only grew more powerful1 and instead of the ,messianic time there was only the old position of vassalage to ,assyria4 ,so men grew weary1 and said then as they have said so often since1 ,all things are as they have been from the beginning1 and where is the promise of ,his coming8 ,the true-hearted said it with sadness2 and the false-hearted1 saying it in mockery and unbelief1 fell back upon the old heathenish test1 and said1 ,the gods of ,assyria are stronger than ,yahweh1 and we must give them a place in our adoration4 ,with the bulk of the people this required no really great change in their point of view4 ,they had believed in ,yahweh and agreed to purify ,his worship1 because ,he had proved ,himself stronger than ,sennacherib and his gods2 and now when1 in the long run1 ,assyria was triumphing1 they must have seemed to themselves only to be following the teachings of experience in giving the host of heaven equal honour with their own ancestral ,god4 ,the reaction1 therefore1 was more in the outward expression than in principle1 and we can easily understand how it was so swift and so universal4 ,manasseh1 ,hezekiah's son1 had probably opposed his father's policy1 as the heir-apparent has so often opposed the policy of the reigning monarch2 and if1 as many suppose1 ,hezekiah lived for sixteen years after the destruction of ,sennacherib's host1 ,manasseh came to the throne just when men's minds were most weary with hope deferred1 and when the ,assyrian success was about to reach its highest point before its final fall4 ,accordingly ,manasseh would seem to have undone at once all that his father and ,isaiah had accomplished4 ,nay1 he went further in the introduction of idolatry than any even of the idolatrous kings who had preceded him4 ,in the ,book of ,kings the charges made against him are three3--#ast1 that he introduced the worship of the host of heaven according to the ,assyrian ritual2 #bnd1 that he took part in the ,moloch-worship2 and #crd1 that he restored the old semi-,canaanite worship which it had been ,isaiah's most strenuous effort to root out4 ,and this policy1 evil as it was in the eyes of all who cared for the higher destinies of ,israel1 had at once great and striking external success4 ,for it meant complete submission to ,assyria1 a willing vassalage from which even the wish for independence had disappeared4 ,the heart of the old ,israelite independence had been faith in ,yahweh and confidence in ,israel's calling as ,his people4 ,even so late as ,isaiah's day it had been faith in ,yahweh which had kept ,hezekiah steady in his opposition to apparently overwhelming force4 ,but now ,manasseh and the people who supported him exalted the gods of ,assyria as an even surer refuge than ,yahweh had been4 ,having made that admission1 there was nothing left for them but to humble themselves under the mighty hand of the great king and his great gods4 ,and this ,israel under ,manasseh did most thoroughly4 ,as ,stade has strikingly said1 ,the ,temple of the one ,god of ,israel became a ,pantheon4 ,the feeble attempts which ,ahaz had made in the same direction were utterly swept out of men's memory by the completeness of ,manasseh's apostasy4 ,with this degradation of the religious faith there also came1 naturally1 an intellectual degradation4 ,superstition1 baser even than idolatry1 seized upon the minds of men1 and illegitimate efforts to pry into the future or to influence the destinies of men by magic and incantations became part of the popular fashion of the day4 ,the old religion of ,israel had sternly set itself against all such debasing practices4 ,alone amid the religions of the ancient world1 it had relentlessly refused the help of necromancy and magic generally4 ,but the barrier the religion of ,yahweh had erected fell at once when its purity and uniqueness had been sacrificed1 and ,manasseh gave himself up to practise augury and to use enchantments1 and to deal with them that had familiar spirits and with wizards4 ,and to superstition he also added cruelty4 ,not content with his signal victory over all the best impulses of the past1 not content with the applause of the multitude who gladly followed him to do evil1 he endeavoured to force those whose work he had destroyed to bow before the gods they both hated and despised4 ,we know too little of the circumstances of the time to be sure of his motives1 but his action may have been founded upon a craven fear that if he did not suppress the voices of those who spoke for freedom1 he might be visited with the anger of the ,assyrian king4 ,or it may have been that feeling1 so powerfully expressed in ,browning's poem ,instans ,tyrannus1 which makes a tyrant feel that all his life is made bitter to him if there remain within his power one free man whom he cannot bend to his will4 ,in any case it is certain that he attacked the prophetic party with sanguinary fury4 ,though he had the gods of the great battalions on his side1 he was dimly afraid of the power of ideas2 and1 so far as faithful men were concerned1 he instituted a reign of terror4 ,according to the graphic statement of the historian1 he filled ,jerusalem with innocent blood from lip to lip1 and for the time at least was able to silence righteousness so far as public utterance was concerned4 ,there is a tradition that even ,isaiah fell a victim to his fury1 being sawn asunder between two planks at his command4 ,it is perhaps not likely that ,isaiah had survived so long4 ,but1 beyond all doubt1 many suffered for their faithfulness to ,god2 and it seems probable that the wonderful picture of the ,suffering ,servant in the ,deutero-,isaiah owes much of its colour to the pathetic and painful memories of this evil time4 ,all this apostasy brought with it worldly success4 ,manasseh reigned long1 and under him the land had peace4 ,assyria could have no quarrel with a people and a king who anticipated its very desire by eager submission4 ,peace brought material prosperity4 ,the land was so naturally fertile that it always grew rich when war was kept from its borders4 ,we may surmise1 too1 that a kind of bastard culture became popular when the ,jewish mind had opened to it1 for good and evil1 a world of myth and song and legend which1 if known before1 had until now been barred from complete and triumphant entrance by faith in a living ,god4 ,once only would ,manasseh appear to have asserted himself1 and1 according to the ,book of ,chronicles1 he was taken prisoner in ,jerusalem by the master he had served so well1 and learned to know in the bitterness of a ,babylonian prison that sycophancy does not always lead to safety4 ,and the wisdom he learned went further even than that4 ,at the end of his life he appears to have wished to undo1 at least in some measure1 the evil he had laboured throughout his reign to establish and make strong4 ,but he found that to be impossible2 and if his repentance was deep and sincere he must have learned how severely the heavenly powers can punish1 by opening a man's eyes to the evil he has done when it cannot be undone4 ,nor did his late repentance affect his son1 for under ,amon all things continued in their previous evil course4 ,indeed the prevailing idolatry had rooted itself so firmly that even in the early years of ,josiah1 when the prophetic influence was beginning to reappear1 it still retained its hold with unshaken power4 ,but what of the prophetic party during those evil days8 ,precipitated from power in an instant at ,hezekiah's death1 it had at once become feeble and obscure4 ,its leading supporters1 we may well believe1 had to seek safety in hiding or in flight2 and after some of its chief speakers had been cut off1 the once dominant party had to take the position of persecuted remnants for whom all public work was impossible4 ,under such circumstances what could these faithful men do8 ,they could only wait and pray1 and prepare for that better day of whose return their faith in ,yahweh would not suffer them to despair4 ,from the position afterwards taken up by the high priest1 it would seem probable that the ,temple clergy were in full sympathy with the prophetic movement4 ,we need not suppose that that sympathy arose wholly from the tendency of prophetic thought and effort towards the suppression of the ,high ,places4 ,we should probably do the better spirits among the priesthood grievous wrong if we thought that their personal interest was their main motive in supporting even that reform4 ,notwithstanding the earlier prophets' denunciation of the priests as a class1 there can be little doubt that they had advanced1 with the better classes of their nation generally1 in their appreciation of spiritual religion4 ,and we may well believe that the sight of the havoc which the now degraded worship at the ,high ,places was working in the popular mind made them earnest in their endeavours to restore the true faith4 ,privileged as they were1 they would naturally be sheltered from the full fury of the persecution4 ,consequently1 when the time came for the supporters of true religion to take their place in public life again1 it was natural and inevitable that the priests should be at their head4 ,the fact1 too1 that ,josiah at his accession was a child1 for whose guardian no fitter person could be found than the chief priest1 gave the future into their hands4 ,but they did not move prematurely4 ,so long as ,josiah was a minor they contented themselves with instilling their principles into the mind of the king4 ,in outward political life1 so far as we can ascertain1 they did not interfere at all1 and the ground was moved away from beneath the feet of the idolatrous party1 while they thought themselves firmly established4 ,in ,josiah's eighteenth year the results of this quiet preparation appeared4 ,in that year ,hilkiah1 the high priest1 told ,shaphan the scribe that he had found the ,book of the ,law in the ,temple4 ,that this was ,deuteronomy1 if not altogether1 yet practically1 as we have it now1 there can be but little doubt2 and it immediately became the text-book of religion for all that remained of ,israel4 ,now it is obvious that the whole hopes of the religious party would naturally be fixed upon it4 ,they would turn to it as eagerly as the ,reformers turned to the ,bible1 after it had been rediscovered by ,luther at ,erfurt4 ,for obviously1 if the people could be got to acknowledge the law1 the axe would be laid at the root of every evil which they deplored4 ,the ,high ,places would be destroyed2 the primacy of the ,temple at ,jerusalem would be secured2 and the prophetic teaching1 with its insistence upon judgment and the love of ,god as the essentials of true worship1 would1 for the first time1 become the dominant influence in civil and religious life4 ,never since ,israel was a nation had the condition of the people called so loudly for the enforcement of such a law1 and now for the first time was there hope that it might be actually enforced4 ,the character of the evils that afflicted the nation1 the history of the last half-century1 and the teachings of the great canonical prophets had all converged1 as it were1 to this one point1 and we can understand how all who strove for the higher life of ,israel would strive that ,deuteronomy1 whether ancient or modern1 should be neglected no longer4 ,the result was that the whole power of the ,state was thrown into the struggle against idolatry and the half-heathen ,bamoth-worship4 ,the prophets and the priests joined hands to spread the principles of the true religion1 as voiced by ,deuteronomy4 ,professor ,cheyne1 in his ,jeremiah1 conjectures1 with considerable likelihood1 that the break in that prophet's activity which occurred at this time is to be accounted for by the zeal with which he devoted himself to ,deuteronomic propaganda throughout the land4 ,in any case1 for the moment the purer worship obtained a completer victory than ever before4 ,unfortunately it came too late and proved too evanescent4 ,but in the inward sphere1 the ,deuteronomic view of religion as having its centre in love to ,god1 the tender1 thoughtful evangelical spirit which distinguishes the whole outlook of its author1 laid hold upon all the higher minds that came after it4 ,to ,jeremiah and to ,st4 ,paul alike1 it1 par excellence1 represented the law of ,god4 ,produced1 or at any rate first prized1 at a time when ,israel had fallen very low1 when evil was triumphant and good persecuted1 it recommended and exemplified a cheerful courage1 born of faith in the high destiny of ,israel and the truth of ,god4 ,that1 more than anything else1 helped to bear the ark of the ,church over the tumultuous centuries which separated those two great servants of ,god1 and when ,christ appeared it was seen that this book1 more than any in the ,old ,testament save perhaps the ,psalms1 had anticipated ,his cardinal teachings regarding the attitude of man to ,god and of man to man4 ,the conflicts and needs of the seventh century ,b4,c41 which are so clearly reflected in it1 gave inspiration the opportunity it needed to reveal that inner secret of ,god's ,kingdom4 ,out of defeat and disaster this revelation came1 and through times of defeat and backsliding it proved its ,divine origin by keeping steadfast and calm those who specially waited for the coming of the ,messiah4 ,,chapter ,,iii ,,the ,,divine ,,government ,,deut4 i4-iii4 ,after these preliminary discussions we now enter upon the exposition4 ,with the exception of the first two verses of chapter i41 concerning which there is a doubt whether they do not belong to ,numbers1 these three chapters stand out as the first section of our book4 ,examination shows that they form a separate and distinct whole1 not continued in chapter iv42 but there has been a great diversity of opinion as to their authorship and the intention with which they have been placed here4 ,the vocabulary and the style so resemble those of the main parts of the book1 that they cannot be entirely separated from them2 yet1 at the same time1 it seems unlikely that the original author of the main trunk of ,deuteronomy can have begun his book with this introductory speech from ,moses1 followed it up with another ,mosaic speech1 still introductory1 in chapter iv41 and in chapter v4 begun yet another introductory speech running through seven chapters1 before he comes to the statutes and judgments which are announced at the very beginning4 ,the current supposition about these chapters1 therefore1 is that they are the work of a ,deuteronomist1 a man formed under the influence of ,deuteronomy and filled with its spirit1 but not the author of the book4 ,this seems to account for the resemblances1 and would also explain to some extent the existence of such a superfluous prologue4 ,but the hypothesis is1 nevertheless1 not entirely satisfactory4 ,the resemblances are closer than we should expect in the work of different authors2 and one feels that the supposed ,deuteronomist must have been less sensitive in a literary sense than we have any right to suppose him if he did not feel the incongruity of such a speech in this place4 ,professor ,dillmann has made a very acute suggestion1 which meets the whole difficulty in a more natural way4 ,feeling that the style and language were in all essentials one with those of the central ,deuteronomy1 he seeks for some explanation which would permit him to assign this section to the author of the book himself4 ,he suggests that as originally written this was a historical introduction leading up to the central code of laws2 a historical preface1 in fact1 which the author of ,deuteronomy naturally prefixed to his book4 ,ex hypothesi he had not the previous books1 ,exodus1 ,leviticus1 and ,numbers1 before him as we have them4 ,these now form a historical introduction to ,deuteronomy of a very minute and elaborate kind2 but he had to embody in his own book all of the past history of his people that he wished to emphasise4 ,but when the editor who arranged the ,pentateuch as we now have it inserted ,deuteronomy in its present place1 he found that he had a double historical preface1 that in the previous books and this in ,deuteronomy itself4 ,as reverence forbade the rejection of these chapters1 he took refuge in the expedient of turning the originally impersonal narrative into a speech of ,moses2 which he could all the more blamelessly do as the probability is that the whole book was regarded in his time as the work of ,moses4 ,this hypothesis1 if it can be accepted1 certainly accounts for all the phenomena presented by these chapters--the similarity of language1 the archological notes in the speech1 and the historic colour in the statements regarding ,edom1 for example1 which corresponds to early feeling1 not to post-exilic thought at all4 ,it has besides the merit of reducing the number of anonymous writers to be taken account of in the ,pentateuch1 a most desirable thing in itself4 ,lastly1 it gives us in ,deuteronomy a compact whole more complete in all its parts than almost any other portion of the ,old ,testament1 certainly more so than any of the books containing legislation4 ,moreover1 that the ,deuteronomic reinforcement and expansion of the ,mosaic legislation1 as contained in the ,book of the ,covenant1 should begin with such a history of ,yahweh's dealings with ,his people1 is entirely characteristic of ,old ,testament ,revelation4 ,in the main and primarily1 what the ,old ,testament writers give us is a history of how ,god wrought1 how ,he dealt with the people ,he had chosen4 ,in the view of the ,hebrew writers1 ,god's first and main revelation of ,himself is always in conduct4 ,he showed ,himself good and merciful and gentle to ,his people1 and then1 having so shown ,himself1 ,he has an acknowledged right to claim their obedience4 ,as ,st4 ,paul has so powerfully pointed out1 the law was secondary1 not primary4 ,grace1 the free love and choice of ,god1 was always the beginning of true relations with ,him1 and only after that had been known and accepted does ,he look for the true life which ,his law is to regulate4 ,naturally1 therefore1 when the author of ,deuteronomy is about to press upon ,israel the law in its expanded form1 to call them back from many aberrations1 to summon them to a reformation and new establishment of the whole framework of their lives1 he turns back to remind them of what their past had been4 ,law1 therefore1 is only a secondary deposit of ,revelation4 ,if we are true to the ,biblical point of view we shall not look for the ,divine voice only1 or even chiefly1 in the legal portions of the ,scripture4 ,god's full revelation of ,himself will be seen in the process and the completion of that age-long movement1 which was begun when ,israel first became a nation by receiving ,yahweh as their ,god1 and which ended with the life and death of ,him who summed up in ,himself all that ,israel was called1 but failed1 to be4 ,that is the ruling thought in ,scripture about ,revelation4 ,god reveals ,himself in history2 and by the persistent thoroughness with which the ,scriptural writers grasp this thought1 the unique and effective character of the ,biblical ,revelation is largely accounted for4 ,other nations1 no doubt1 looked back at times upon what their gods had done for them1 and those who spoke for these gods may often have claimed obedience and service from their people on the ground of past favour and under threats of its withdrawal4 ,but earlier than any other people which has affected the higher races of mankind1 ,israel conceived of ,god as a moral power with a will and purpose which embraced mankind4 ,further1 in the belief which appears in their earliest records1 that through them the nations were to be blessed1 and that in the future ,one was coming who would in ,himself bring about the realisation of ,israel's destiny1 they were provided with a philosophy of history1 with a conception which was fitted to draw into organic connection with itself all the various fortunes of ,israel and of the nations4 ,of course1 at first much that was involved in their view was not present to any mind4 ,it was the very merit of the germinal revelation made through ,moses that it had in it powers of growth and expansion4 ,in no other way could it be a true revelation of ,god1 a revelation which should have in it the fulness1 the flexibility1 the aloofness from mere local and temporary peculiarities1 which would secure its fitness for universal mankind4 ,any revelation that consists only of words1 of ideas even1 must1 to be received1 have some kind of relation to the minds that are to receive it4 ,if the words and ideas are revealed1 as they must be1 at a given place and a given time1 they must be in such a relation to that place and time that at some period of the world's history they will be found inadequate1 needing expansion1 which does not come naturally1 and then they have to be laid aside as insufficient4 ,but a revelation which consists in acts1 which reveals ,god in intimate1 age-long1 constant dealings with mankind1 is so many-sided1 so varied1 so closely moulded to the actual and universal needs of man1 that it embraces all the fundamental exigencies of human life1 and must always continue to cover human experience4 ,from it men may draw off systems of doctrines1 which may concentrate the revelation for a particular generation1 or for a series of generations1 and make it more potently active in these circumstances4 ,but unless the system be kept constantly in touch with the revelation as given in the history1 it must become inadequate1 false in part1 and must one day vanish away4 ,the revelation then in life is the only possible form for a real revelation of ,god2 and that the writers of the ,old ,testament in their circumstances and in their time felt and asserted this1 is in itself so very great a merit1 that it is almost of itself sufficient to justify any claims they may make to special inspiration4 ,the greatest of them saw ,god at work in the world1 and had experience of ,his influence in themselves1 so that they had their eyes opened to ,his actions as other men had not4 ,the least of them1 again1 had been placed at the true point of view for estimating aright the significance of the ordinary action of the ,divine ,providence1 and for tracing the lines of ,divine action where they were to other men invisible1 or at least obscure4 ,and in the records they have left us they have been entirely true to that supremely important point of view4 ,all they deal with in the history is the moral and spiritual effects of ,god's dealing2 and the great interests1 as the world reckons them1 of war and conquest1 of commerce and art1 are referred to only briefly and often only in the way of allusion4 ,to many moderns this is an offence1 which they avenge by speaking contemptuously of the mental endowment of the ,biblical writers as historians4 ,on the contrary1 that these should have kept their eyes fixed only upon that which concerned the religious life of their people1 that they should have kept firm hold of the truth that it was there the central importance of the people lay1 and that they have given us the material for the formation of that great conception of supernatural revelation by history in which ,god ,himself moves as a factor1 is a merit so great that even if it were only a brilliant fancy they might surely be pardoned for ignoring other things4 ,but if1 as is the truth1 they were tracing the central stream of ,god's redemptive action in the world1 were laying open to our view the steps by which the unapproachably lofty conception of ,god was built up1 which their nation alone has won for the human race1 then it can hardly seem a fault that nothing else appealed to them4 ,they have given ,god to those who were blindly groping for ,him1 and they have established the standard by which all historic estimates of even modern life are ultimately to be measured4 ,for though there were in the history of that particular nation1 and in the line of preparation for ,christ1 special miraculous manifestations of ,god's power and love1 which do not now occur1 yet no judgment of the course of history is worth anything1 even to-day1 which does not occupy essentially the ,biblical position4 ,ultimately the thing to be considered is1 what hath ,god wrought8 ,if that be ignored1 then the stable and instructive element in history has been kept out of sight1 and the mind loses itself hopelessly amid the weltering chaos of second causes4 ,froude1 in his ,history of ,england1 has noted this1 and declares that in the period he deals with it was the religious men who alone had any true insight into the tendency of things4 ,they measured all things1 almost too crudely1 by the ,biblical standard2 but so essentially true and fundamental does that show itself to be1 that their judgment so formed has proved to be the only sound one4 ,this is what we should expect if ,god's power and righteousness are the great factors in the drama which the history of man and of the world unfolds to us4 ,that being so1 the suicidal folly of the policy of any ,church or party which shuts the ,bible away from popular use is manifest4 ,it is nothing short of a blinding of the people's eyes1 and a shutting of their ears to warning voices which the providential government of the world1 when viewed on a large scale1 never fails to utter4 ,it renders sound political judgment the prerogative only of the few1 and sets them among a people who will turn to any charlatans rather than believe their voice4 ,it was natural and it was inevitable1 therefore1 that the author of ,deuteronomy1 standing1 as he did1 on the threshold of a great crisis in the history of ,israel1 should turn the thoughts of his people back to the history of the past4 ,to him the great figure in the history of ,israel in those trying and eventful years during which they wandered between ,horeb1 ,kadesh-,barnea1 and the country of the ,arnon1 is ,yahweh their ,god4 ,he is behind all their movements1 impelling and inciting them to go on and enjoy the good land ,he had promised to their fathers4 ,he went before them and fought for them4 ,he bare them in the wilderness1 as a man doth bear his son4 ,he watched over them and guided their footsteps in cloud and fire by day and night4 ,moreover all the nations by whom they passed had been led by ,him and assigned their places1 and only those nations whom ,yahweh chose had been given into ,israel's hand4 ,in the internal affairs of the community1 too1 ,he had asserted ,himself4 ,they were ,yahweh's people1 and all their national action was to be according to ,his righteous character4 ,especially was the administration of justice to be pure and impartial1 yielding to neither fear nor favour because the judgment is ,god's4 ,and how had they responded to all this loving favour on the part of ,god8 ,at the first hint of serious conflict they shrank back in fear4 ,notwithstanding that the land which ,god had given them was a good and fruitful country1 and notwithstanding the promises of ,divine help1 they refused to incur the necessary toils and risks of the conquest4 ,every difficulty they might encounter was exaggerated by them2 their very deliverance from ,egypt1 which they had been wont to consider their crowning mercy1 became to their faithless cowardice an evidence of hatred for them on the part of ,god4 ,to men in such a state of mind conquest was impossible2 and though1 in a spasmodic revulsion from their abject cowardice1 they made an attack upon the people they were to dispossess1 it ended1 as it could not but end1 in their defeat and rout4 ,they were condemned to forty years of wandering1 and it was only after all that generation was dead that ,israel was again permitted to approach the land of promise4 ,but ,yahweh had been faithful to them1 and when the time was come ,he opened the way for their advance and gave them the victory and the land4 ,for ,his love was patient1 and always made a way to bless them1 even through their sins4 ,that was the picture the ,deuteronomist spread out before the eyes of his countrymen1 to the intent that they might know the love of ,god1 and might see that safety lay for them in a willing yielding of themselves to that love4 ,the disastrous results of their wayward and faint-hearted shrinking from this ,divine calling is the only direct threat he uses but in the passage there is another warning1 all the more impressive that it is vague and shadowy4 ,god is to the ,deuteronomist the universal ruler of the world4 ,the nations are raised up and cast down according to ,his will1 and until ,he wills it they cannot be dispossessed4 ,but ,he had willed that fate for many1 and at every step of ,israel's progress they come upon traces of vanished peoples whom for their sins ,he had suffered others to destroy4 ,the ,emim in ,moab1 the ,zamzummim in ,ammon1 the ,horites in ,seir1 and the ,avvims in ,philistia1 had all been destroyed before the people who now occupied these lands1 and the whole background of the narrative is one of judgment1 where mercy had been of no avail4 ,the sword of the ,lord is dimly seen in the archological notes which are so frequent in this section of our book and thus the final touch is given to the picture of the past which is here drawn to be an impulse for the future4 ,while all the foreground represents only ,god's love and patience overcoming man's rebellion1 the background is1 like the path of the great pilgrim caravans which year by year make their slow and toilsome way to ,mohammedan holy places1 strewn with the remains of predecessors in the same path4 ,with stern1 menacing finger this great teacher of ,israel points to these evidences that the ,divine love and patience may be1 and have been1 outworn1 and seems to re-echo in an even more impressive way the language of ,isaiah3 ,the anger of ,yahweh was kindled 7against these peoples71 and ,he stretched forth ,his hand 7against them7 and smote 7them72 and the hills did tremble1 and 7their7 carcases were as refuse in the midst of the streets4 ,for all this ,his anger is not turned away1 but ,his hand is stretched out still4 ,without a word of direct rebuke he opens his people's eyes to see that shadowy outstretched hand4 ,behind all the turmoil of the world there is a presence and a power which supports all who seek good1 but which is sternly set against all evil1 ready1 when the moment comes1 to strike once and strike no more4 ,yet another glimpse is given us in these chapters of ,god's manner of dealing with men4 ,we have seen how ,he guides and rules ,his chosen ones4 ,we have seen how ,he punishes those who have set themselves against the ,divine law4 ,and in chapter ii4 #cj we are told how men become hardened in their sin1 so as to render destruction inevitable4 ,of ,sihon1 king of ,heshbon1 who would not let the ,israelites pass by him1 the writer says3 ,yahweh thy ,god hardened his spirit1 and made his heart obstinate1 that ,he might deliver him into thy hand1 as appeareth this day4 ,but he does not mean by these expressions to lay upon ,god the causation of ,sihon's obstinacy1 so as to make the man a mere helpless victim4 ,his thought rather is1 that as ,god rules all1 so to ,him must be ultimately traced all that happens in the world4 ,in some sense all acts1 whether good or bad1 all agencies1 whether beneficent or destructive1 have their source in and their power from ,him4 ,but nevertheless men have moral responsibility for their acts1 and are fully and justly conscious of ill desert4 ,consequently that hardening of spirit or of heart1 which at one moment may be attributed solely to ,god1 may at another be ascribed solely to the evil determination of man4 ,the most instructive instance of this is to be found in the history of ,pharaoh1 when he was commanded to let ,israel go4 ,in that narrative1 from ,exodus iv4 to xi41 there is repeated interchange of expression4 ,now it is ,yahweh hardened ,pharaoh's heart2 now1 as in viii4 #ae and #cb1 ,pharaoh hardened his own heart2 and1 again1 ,pharaoh's heart was hardened4 ,in each case the same thing is meant1 and the varying expressions correspond only to a difference of standpoint4 ,when ,yahweh foretells that the signs ,he authorises ,moses to show will fail of their effect1 it is always ,yahweh will harden ,pharaoh's heart1 since the main point in contemplation is ,his government of the world4 ,if1 on the other hand1 it is the sinful obstinacy of ,pharaoh which is prominent in the passage1 we have the self-determination of ,pharaoh alone set before us4 ,but it is to be noted1 and this is indeed the cardinal fact1 that ,yahweh never is said to harden the heart of a good man1 or a man set mainly upon righteousness4 ,it is always those who are guilty of palpable wrongs and acts of evil-doing upon whom ,god thus works4 ,now we know that the author of ,deuteronomy had two at least of the ancient historical narratives before him which are combined in ,exod4 iv4-xi41 and he takes up their thinking4 ,expressed in modern language1 the thought is this4 ,when men are found following their own will in defiance of all law and all the restraints of righteousness1 that is manifestly not the first stage in their moral declension4 ,this obstinacy in evil is the result and the wages of former evil deeds1 beginning perhaps only with careless laxity1 but gathering strength and virulence with every wilful sin4 ,until near the end of a completed growth in wickedness no man deliberately says1 ,evil1 be thou my good4 ,nevertheless each act of sin involves a step towards that1 and the sinner in this manner hardens himself against all warning4 ,like the sins which work this obduracy1 this hardening is the sinner's own act4 ,the ruin which falls upon his moral nature is his own work4 ,that is the inexorable result of the moral order of the universe1 and from it no exception is possible4 ,but if so1 ,god too has been active in all such catastrophes4 ,he has so framed and ordered the world that indulgence in evil must harden in evil4 ,this it was which the ,israelite religious mind saw and dwelt upon1 as well as upon man's share in the dread process of moral decay4 ,we also do well to take heed to this aspect of the truth4 ,when we do1 we have solved the ,scriptural difficulty regarding the ,divine hardening of man's heart4 ,it is simply the ancient formula for what every mind that is ethically trained recognises in the world to-day4 ,those who recognise themselves as children of ,god1 and acknowledge the obligations of ,his law1 are dealt with in the way of discipline with infinite love and patience4 ,those who definitely set themselves against the moral order of the world which ,god has established are broken in pieces and destroyed4 ,between these two classes there are the morally undetermined1 who ultimately turn either to the right hand or to the left4 ,the process by which these pass on to be numbered among the rebellious is pictured in ,scripture with extraordinary moral insight4 ,the only difference from a present-day description of it is1 that here ,god is kept constantly present to the mind as the chief factor in the development of the soul4 ,to-day1 even those who believe in ,god are apt to forget ,him in tracing ,his laws of action4 ,but that is an error of the first magnitude4 ,it darkens the hope of man2 for without a sure promise of ,divine help there is no certainty of moral victory either for the race or the individual4 ,it narrows our view of the awful sweep of sin2 for unless we see that sin affects even the ,ruler of the universe1 and defies ,his unchanging law1 its results are limited to the evil that we do our fellow-men1 which1 as we see it1 is of little importance4 ,further1 it degrades moral law to a mere arbitrary dictum of power1 or to an opinion founded upon man's purblind experience4 ,the acknowledgment of ,god1 on the contrary1 makes morality the very essence of the ,divine nature1 and the unchangeable rule for the life of man4 ,,chapter ,,iv ,,the ,,decalogue--,,its ,,form ,,deut4 v4 #a-ba4 ,as the fourth chapter belongs to the speech which concludes the legislative portion of ,deuteronomy both in contents and language 7see ,chapter ,,xxiii471 we shall pass on now to the fifth chapter1 which begins with a recital of the ,decalogue4 ,as has already been pointed out1 the main trunk of the ,book of ,deuteronomy is a repetition and expansion of the ,law of the ,covenant contained in ,exod4 xx4-xxiii4#bb ,now1 both in ,exodus and ,deuteronomy1 before the more general and detailed legislation1 we have the ,decalogue1 or the ,ten ,words1 as it is called1 in substantially the same form2 and the question immediately arises as to the age at which this beautifully systematised and organised code of fundamental laws came into existence4 ,whatever its origin1 it is an exceedingly remarkable document4 ,it touches the fundamental principles of religious and moral life with so sure a hand that at this hour1 for even the most civilised nations1 it sums up the moral code1 and that so effectively that no change or extension of it has ever been proposed4 ,that being its character1 it becomes a question of exceeding interest to decide whether it can justly be referred to so early a time as the days of ,moses4 ,in both the passages where it occurs it is represented as having been given to the people at ,horeb by ,yahweh ,himself1 and it is made the earliest and most fundamental part of the covenant between ,him and ,israel4 ,it would accordingly seem as if a claim were made for it as a specially early and specially sacred law4 ,now1 much as critics have denied1 there have been found very few who deny that in the main some such law as this must have been given to ,israel in ,moses' day4 ,even ,kuenen admits as much as that in his ,history of the ,religion of ,israel4 ,the only commandment of the ten he has difficulty in accepting is the second1 which forbids the making of any graven image for worship4 ,that1 he thinks1 cannot have been in the original ,decalogue1 not because of any peculiarity of language1 or because of any incoherency in composition1 but simply because he cannot believe that at that early day the religion of ,yahweh could have been so spiritual as to demand the prohibition of images4 ,but his reasons are extremely inadequate2 more especially as he admits that the ,ark was the ,mosaic ,sanctuary1 and that in it there was no image1 as there was none in the ,temple at ,jerusalem4 ,that ,yahweh was worshipped under the form of a calf at ,horeb1 and afterwards in ,northern ,israel at ,bethel and elsewhere1 proves nothing4 ,a law does not forthwith extinguish that against which it is directed1 for idolatry continued even after ,deuteronomy was accepted as the law4 ,moreover1 if1 as ,kuenen thinks1 calf-worship had existed in ,israel before ,moses1 it was not unnatural that it took centuries before the higher view superseded the lower4 ,even by ,christianity the ancient superstitions and religious practices of heathenism were not thoroughly overcome for centuries4 ,indeed in many places they have not yet been entirely suppressed4 ,nor does ,wellhausen#bc make a better case for a late ,decalogue4 ,his hesitation about it is most remarkable1 and the reasons he gives for tending to think it may be late are singularly unsatisfactory4 ,his first reason is that according to ,exodus xxxiv4 the commandments which stood upon the two tables were quite different4 ,he relies on the words in ver4 #bh of that chapter--,and he 7,moses7 was there with the ,lord forty days and forty nights2 he did neither eat bread nor drink water4 ,and he wrote upon the tables the words of the covenant1 the ten words--taking them to imply that the immediately preceding commandments1 which are of the same ritual character with those which follow the ,decalogue in ,exodus xx41 are here called the ten words4 ,but it is not necessary to take the passage so4 ,according to ver4 #a it was ,yahweh who was to write the words on the tables1 and we cannot suppose that so flagrant a contradiction should occur in a single chapter as that here it should be said that ,moses wrote the tables4 ,yahweh1 who is mentioned in the previous verse1 must therefore be the subject of wayyikhtobh 7ver4 #bh71 and the ten words consequently are different from the words 7up to ver4 #bg7 which ,yahweh commanded ,moses to write1 somewhere1 but not on the tables4 ,besides1 every one who attempts to make ten words of the commands before ver4 #bg brings out a different result1 and that of itself1 as ,dillmann says1 is sufficient to show that the second ,decalogue in chapter xxxiv4 is entirely fanciful4 ,wellhausen's second reason is this3 ,the prohibition of images was quite unknown during the other period3 ,moses himself is said to have made a brazen serpent1 which down to ,hezekiah's time continued to be worshipped as an image of ,jehovah4 ,but the ,decalogue does not prohibit the making of every image2 it prohibits the making of images for worship4 ,therefore ,moses might quite well have made a figure of a serpent1 even though he wrote the ,decalogue1 if it was not meant for worship4 ,but there is nothing said to lead us to believe that the serpent was regarded as an image of ,yahweh4 ,indeed the very contrary is asserted2 and if ,israel in later times made a bad use of this ancient relic of a great deliverance1 ,moses can hardly be held responsible for that4 ,in the third place1 ,wellhausen says3 ,the essentially and necessarily national character of the older phases of the religion of ,yahweh completely disappears in the quite universal code of morals which is given in the ,decalogue as the fundamental law of ,israel2 but the entire series of religious personalities throughout the period of the ,judges and ,kings--from ,deborah1 who praised ,jael's treacherous act of murder1 to ,david1 who treated his prisoners of war with the utmost cruelty--make it very difficult to believe that the religion of ,israel was from the outset one of a specifically moral character4 ,surely this is very feeble criticism4 ,on the same grounds we might declare1 because of the ,massacre of ,st4 ,bartholomew1 or on account of ,napoleon's reported poisoning of his own wounded at ,acre1 that ,christianity was not a religion of a specifically moral character at this present moment4 ,surely the facts that people never live at the level of their ideals1 and that the lifting of a nation's life is a process which is as slow as the raising of the level of the delta of the ,nile1 should be too familiar to permit any one to be misled by difficulties of this kind4 ,nor is his last ground in any degree more convincing4 ,it is extremely doubtful1 he says1 whether the actual monotheism which is undoubtedly presupposed in the universal moral precepts of the ,decalogue could have formed the foundation of a national religion4 ,it was first developed out of the national religion at the downfall of the nation4 ,the obvious reply is that this is a petitio principii4 ,the whole debate in regard to this question is whether ,moses was a monotheist1 or at least the founder of a religion which was implicitly monotheistic from the beginning2 and the date of the ,decalogue is interesting mainly because of the light it would throw upon that question4 ,to decide this date therefore by the assertion that1 being monotheistic1 the ,decalogue cannot be ,mosaic1 is to assume the very thing in dispute4 ,wellhausen himself1 elsewhere 7p4 #dcd71 seems to favour the opposite view4 ,in speaking of what ,moses did for ,israel he says that through the ,torah1 in the sense of decisions given by lot from the ,ark1 he gave a definite positive expression to their sense of nationality and their idea of ,god4 ,yahweh was not merely the ,god of ,israel2 as such ,he was the ,god at once of ,law and of ,justice1 the basis1 the informing principle1 and the implied postulate of their national consciousness2 and again 7p4 #dch71 ,as ,god of the nation ,yahweh became the ,god of ,justice and of ,right2 as ,god of ,justice and ,right1 ,he came to be thought of as the highest1 and at last as the only power in heaven and earth4 ,in the ,mosaic conception of ,god1 therefore1 ,wellhausen himself being witness1 there lay implicitly1 perhaps even explicitly1 the conception of ,yahweh as the only power in heaven and earth4 ,in that case1 is it reasonable to put the ,decalogue late1 because being moral it is universal1 and so implies monotheism8 #bb ,see this brought out in detail in ,robertson ,smith1 ,old ,testament in ,jewish ,church1 p4 #dca4 #bc ,wellhausen1 ,prolegomena1 p4 #dci4 ,but there is still other1 and perhaps stronger evidence1 that the universality of the ,decalogue is no indication of a late date4 ,on the contrary it would seem1 from ,professor ,muirhead's account of the ,roman fas1 that universality in legal precept may be a mark of very primitive laws4 ,speaking of ,rome in its earliest stages of growth1 when the circumstances of the people in very many respects resembled those of the ,hebrews in ,mosaic times1#bd he says3 ,we look in vain for1 and it would be absurd to expect1 any definite system of law in those early times4 ,what passed for it was a composite of fas1 jus1 and boni mores1 whose several limits and characteristics it is extremely difficult to define4 ,he then proceeds to describe fas3 ,by fas was understood the will of the gods1 the laws given by ,heaven for men on earth1 much of it regulative of ceremonial1 but a by no means insignificant part embodying rules of conduct4 ,it appears to have had a wider range than jus4 ,there were few of its commands1 prohibitions1 or precepts that were addressed to men as citizens of any particular state2 all mankind came within its scope4 ,it forbade that a war should be undertaken without the prescribed fetial ceremonial1 and required that faith should be kept with even an enemy--when a promise had been made to him under sanction of an oath4 ,it enjoined hospitality to foreigners1 because the stranger guest was presumed1 equally with his entertainer1 to be an object of solicitude to a higher power4 ,it punished murder1 for it was the taking of a ,god-given life2 the sale of a wife by her husband1 for she had become his partner in all things human and ,divine2 the lifting of a hand against a parent1 for it was subversive of the first bond of society and religion1 the reverence due by a child to those to whom he owed his existence2 incestuous connections1 for they defiled the altar2 the false oath1 and the broken vow1 for they were an insult to the divinities invoked1 etc4 ,in fact1 the ,roman fas had much the same character as the ,decalogue and the legislation of the first code 7,exod4 xx4-xxiii474 ,consequently those who have thought that all early legislation must be concrete1 narrow1 particularistic1 bounded at widest by the direct needs of the men making up the clan1 tribe1 or petty nationality1 are wrong4 ,the early history of law shows that1 along with that1 there is also a demand for some expression of the laws of life seen from the point of view of man's relation to ,god4 ,that fact greatly strengthens the case for the early date of the ,decalogue4 ,for practically it is the ,hebrew fas4 ,if it has a higher tone and a wider sweep1 if it provides a framework into which human duty can1 even now1 without undue stretching of it1 be securely fitted1 that is only what we should expect1 if ,god was working in the history and development of this nation as nowhere else in the world4 ,in short1 the history of primitive ,roman law shows that1 without inspiration1 a feeble wavering step would have been taken to the development of a code of moral duty1 within the scope of which all mankind should come4 ,with inspiration1 surely this effort would also be made1 and made with a success not elsewhere attained4 #bd ,ency4 ,brit41 vol4 xx41 p4 #fgj4 ,in none of the reasons which have been advanced1 therefore1 is there anything to set against the ,biblical statement that the ten words were older and more sacred than any other portion of the ,israelite legislation1 and that they were ,mosaic in origin4 ,the universal hesitation shown by the greater among the most advanced critics in definitely removing the ,decalogue from the foundations of ,israel's history1 although its presence there is so great an embarrassment to them1 lets us see how strong the case for the ,mosaic origin is1 and assures us that the evidence is all in favour of this view4 ,but if it be ,mosaic1 at first sight the conclusion would seem to be that the form of the ,decalogue given in ,exodus is the more ancient1 and that the text in ,deuteronomy is a later and somewhat extended version of that4 ,closer examination1 however1 tends to suggest that the original ten words1 in their ,mosaic form1 differed from any of the texts we have1 and that of these the ,exodus text in its present form is later than that in ,deuteronomy4 ,the great difference in length between the two halves of the ,decalogue suggests the probability that originally all the commandments were short1 and much the same in style and character as the last half1 ,thou shalt not steal1 and so on4 ,further1 when the reasons and inducements given for the observance of the longer commands are set aside1 just such short commands are left to us as we find in the second table4 ,lastly1 differences between the versions in ,exodus and ,deuteronomy occur in almost every case in those parts of the text which may be regarded as appendices4 ,in fact there are only two variations in the proper text of the commands4 ,in the fourth1 we have in ,exodus ,remember the ,sabbath day1 while in ,deuteronomy we have ,observe the ,sabbath day2 but the meaning is the same in both cases4 ,in the tenth1 in ,exodus the command is ,thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house2 and the house is explained by the succeeding clause1 ,thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife1 nor his manservant1 etc41 to mean household in its widest sense4 ,in ,deuteronomy the old meaning of house as household and goods has fallen out of use1 and the component parts of the neighbour's household possessions are named1 beginning with his wife4 ,then follows the house in its narrow meaning1 as the mere dwelling1 grouped along with the slaves and cattle1 and with tithawweh substituted in ,hebrew for tachmodh4 ,fundamentally therefore the two recensions are the same4 ,even in the reasons and explanations there is only one really important variation4 ,in ,exod4 xx4 #aa the reason for the observance of the fourth commandment is stated thus3 ,for in six days ,yahweh made heaven and earth1 the sea and all that in them is1 and rested the seventh day2 therefore ,yahweh blessed the ,sabbath day1 and hallowed it4 ,in ,deuteronomy1 on the other hand1 that reason is omitted1 and in its place we find this3 ,and thou shalt remember that thou wast a servant in the land of ,egypt1 and ,yahweh thy ,god brought thee out thence by a mighty hand1 and by a stretched out arm2 therefore ,yahweh thy ,god commanded thee to keep the ,sabbath4 ,now if the reference to the creation had formed part of the original text of the ,decalogue in the days of the author of ,deuteronomy1 if he had that before him as actually spoken by ,yahweh1 it is difficult to believe that he would have left it out and substituted another reason in its stead4 ,he would have no object in doing so1 for he could have added his own reason after that given in ,exodus1 had he so desired4 ,it is likely1 therefore1 that in the original text no reason appeared2 that ,deuteronomy first added a reason2 while ver4 #aa in ,exod4 xx4 was probably inserted there from a combination of ,exod4 xxxi4 #ag b and ,gen4 ii4 #b b1--,for in six days ,yahweh made heaven and earth1 and on the seventh day ,he rested and was refreshed2 and ,he rested on the seventh day from all ,his work which ,he had made4 ,both these texts belong to ,p and differ in style altogether from ,,je1 with whose language all the rest of the setting of the ,decalogue corresponds4 ,on these suppositions ,exod4 xx4 #aa would necessarily be the latest part of the two texts4 ,originally1 therefore1 the ,mosaic commands probably ran thus3-- ,i am ,yahweh thy ,god1 which brought thee out of the land of ,egypt1 out of the house of bondage4 ,i4 ,thou shalt not have any other gods before ,me4 ,,ii4 ,thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image4 ,,iii4 ,thou shalt not take the name of ,yahweh thy ,god in vain4 ,,iv4 ,remember 7or ,keep7 the day of rest to sanctify it4 ,v4 ,honour thy father and thy mother4 ,,vi4 ,thou shalt not kill4 ,,vii4 ,thou shalt not commit adultery4 ,,viii4 ,thou shalt not steal4 ,,ix4 ,thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour4 ,x4 ,thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house4 ,in that shape they contain everything that is fundamentally important1 and exhibit the foundations of the ,mosaic religion and polity in an entirely satisfactory and credible form4 ,but1 before passing on to consider the substance of the ,decalogue1 it will be worth our while to consider what the full significance of these differing recensions of the ,decalogue is4 ,in both places the words are quoted directly as having been spoken by ,yahweh to the people1 and they are introduced by the quoting word saying4 ,now if we do not wish to square what we read with any theory1 the slight divergences between the two recensions need not trouble us1 for we have the substance of what was said1 and in the main the very words1 and that is really all we need to be assured of4 ,but if1 on the contrary1 we are going to insist that1 this being part of an inspired book1 every word must be pressed with the accuracy of a masoretic scribe1 then we are brought into inextricable difficulties4 ,it cannot be true that at ,horeb ,yahweh said two different things on this special occasion4 ,one or both of these accounts must be inaccurate1 in the pedantic sense of accuracy1 and yet both have the same claim to be inspired4 ,in fact both are inspired2 it is the theory of inspiration which demands for revelation this kind of accuracy that must go to the wall4 ,it will be seen that this instance is very instructive as to the method of the ancient ,hebrews in dealing with legislation which was firmly held to be ,mosaic1 or even directly ,divine4 ,if we are right in holding that originally the ten words were1 as we have supposed1 limited to definite short commands1 this example teaches us that where there could be no question of deceit1 or even an object for deceiving1 additions calculated to meet the needs and defects of the particular period at which the laws are written down1 are inserted without any hint that they did not form part of the original document4 ,if this has been done1 even to the extent we have seen reason to infer1 in a small1 carefully ordered1 and specially ancient and sacred code1 how much more freely may we expect the same thing to have been done in the looser and more fluid regulations of the large political and ceremonial codes1 which on any supposition were posterior1 and much less fundamental and sacred4 ,that there is for us something disappointing1 and even slightly questionable1 in such action is really nothing to the purpose4 ,we have to learn from the actual facts of revelation how revelation may be1 or perhaps even must be1 conveyed2 and we cannot too soon learn the lesson that to a singular degree1 and in many other directions than their notions of accuracy1 the ancient mind differs from the modern mind1 and that at any period there is a great gulf to be crossed before a ,western mind can get into any intimate and sure rapport with an ,eastern mind4 ,one other thing is noteworthy4 ,wellhausen has already been quoted as to the quite universal and moral character of the ,decalogue2 and his view1 that a code so free from merely local and ceremonial provisions can hardly be ,mosaic1 has been discussed4 ,but1 while rejecting his conclusion1 we must adhere to his premisses4 ,by emphasising the universal nature of the ten commandments1 and by showing that they preceded the ceremonial law by many centuries1 the critical school have cut away the ground from under the semi-antinomian views once so prevalent1 and always so popular1 with those who call themselves advanced thinkers4 ,it is now no longer possible to maintain that the ,decalogue was part of a purely ,jewish law1 binding only upon ,jews and passing away at the advent of ,christianity as the ceremonial law did4 ,of course this view was never really taken seriously in reference to murder or theft2 but it has always been a strong point with those who have wished to secularise the ,sunday4 ,now if the advanced critical position be in any degree true1 then the ten commandments stand quite separate from the ceremonial law1 have nothing in common with it1 and are handed down to us in a document written before the conception even of a binding ceremonial law had dawned upon the mind of any man in ,israel4 ,nor is there anything ceremonial or ,jewish in the command1 ,remember or ,observe the rest-day to keep it holy4 ,in the reasons given in ,exodus and ,deuteronomy we have the two principles which make this a moral and universal command--the necessity for rest1 and the necessity of an opportunity to cultivate the spiritual nature4 ,nothing indeed is said about worship2 but it lies in the nature of the case that if secular work was rigorously forbidden1 mere slothful abstinence from activity cannot have been all that was meant4 ,worship1 and instruction in the things of the higher life1 must certainly have been practised in such a nation as ,israel on such a day2 and we may therefore say that they were intended by this commandment4 ,understood in that way1 the fourth commandment shows a delicate perception of the conditions of the higher life1 which surpasses even the prohibition of covetousness in the tenth4 ,in the words of a working man who was advocating its observance1 ,it gives ,god a chance2 that is1 it gives man the leisure to attend to ,god4 ,but the moral point of view which it implies is so high1 and so difficult of attainment1 that it is only now that the nations of ,europe are awaking to the inestimable moral benefits of the ,sabbath they have despised4 ,because of this difficulty too1 many who think themselves to be leaders in the path of improvement1 and are esteemed by others to be so1 are never weary of trying to weaken the moral consciousness of the people1 until they can steal this benefit away1 on the ground that ,sabbath-keeping is a mere ceremonial observance4 ,so far from being that1 it is a moral duty of the highest type2 and the danger in which it seems at times to stand is due mainly to the fact that to appreciate it needs a far more trained and sincere conscience than most of us can bring to the consideration of it4 ,,chapter ,v ,,the ,,decalogue--,,its ,,substance ,that the ,decalogue in any of its forms must have been the work of one mind1 and that a very great and powerful mind1 will be evident on the most cursory inspection4 ,we have not here1 as we have in other parts of ,scripture1 fragments of legislation supplementary to a large body of customary law1 fragments which1 because of their intrinsic importance or the necessities of a particular time1 have been written down4 ,we have here an extraordinarily successful attempt to bring within a definite small compass the fundamental laws of social and individual life4 ,the wonder of it does not lie in the individual precepts4 ,all of them1 or almost all of them1 can be paralleled in the legislation of other peoples1 as indeed could not fail to be the case if the fundamental laws of society and of individual conduct were aimed at4 ,these must be obeyed1 more or less1 in every society that survives4 ,it is the wisdom with which the selection has been made2 it is the sureness of hand which has picked out just those things which were central1 and has laid aside as irrelevant everything local1 temporary1 and purely ceremonial2 it is the relation in which the whole is placed to ,god1--these give this small code its distinction4 ,in these respects it is like the ,lord's ,prayer4 ,it is vain for men to point out this petition of that unique prayer as occurring here1 that other as occurring there1 and a third as found in yet another place4 ,even if every single petition contained in it could be unearthed somewhere1 it would still remain as unique as ever2 for where can you find a prayer which1 like it1 groups the fundamental cries of humanity to ,god in such short space and with so sure a touch1 and brings them all into such deep connection with the ,fatherhood of ,god8 ,in both cases1 in the prayer and in the ,decalogue alike1 we must recognise that the grouping is the work of one mind2 and in both we must recognise also that1 whatever were the natural and human powers of the mind that wrought the code and prayer respectively1 the main element in the success that has attended their work is the extraordinary degree in which they were illumined by the ,divine ,spirit4 ,but where1 between the time of ,moses and the time when ,deuteronomy first laid hold upon the life of the nation1 are we to look for a legislator of this pre-eminence8 ,so far as we know the history1 there is no name that would occur to us4 ,so far as can be seen1 ,moses alone has been marked out for us in the history of his people as equal to1 and likely to undertake1 such a task4 ,everything1 therefore1 concurs to the conclusion that in the ,decalogue we have the first1 the most sacred1 and the fundamental law in ,israel4 ,here ,moses spoke for ,god2 and whatever additions to his original ten words later times may have made1 they have not obscured or overlaid what must be ascribed to him4 ,he may not have been the author of much that bears his name1 for unquestionably there were developments later than his time which were called ,mosaic because they were a continuation and adaptation of his work2 but we are justified in believing that here we have the first law he gave to ,israel2 and in it we should be able to see the really germinal principles of the religion he taught4 ,now1 manifestly1 a religion which spoke its first word in the ten commandments1 even in their simplest form1 must have been in its very heart and core moral4 ,it must always have been a heresy therefore1 a denial of the fundamental ,mosaic conception1 to place ritual observance per se above moral and religious conduct1 as a means of approach to ,yahweh4 ,on any reading of the commandments only the third and fourth 7two out of ten7 refer to matters of mere worship2 and even these may more correctly be taken to refer primarily to the moral aspects of the cultus4 ,all the rest deal with fundamental relations to ,god and man4 ,consequently the prophets who1 after the manner of ,amos and ,hosea1 denounce the prevailing belief that ,yahweh's help could be secured for ,israel1 whatever its moral state1 by offerings and sacrifices1 were not teaching a new doctrine1 first discovered by themselves4 ,they were simply reasserting the fundamental principles of the ,mosaic religion4 ,reverence and righteousness--these from the first were the twin pillars upon which it rested4 ,before ever the ceremonial law1 even in its most rudimentary form1 had been given1 these were emphasised in the strongest way as the requirements of ,yahweh2 and the people whom the prophets reproved1 instead of being the representatives of the ancient ,yahwistic faith1 had rejected it4 ,whether the popular view was a falling away from a truer view which had once been popular1 or whether it represented a heathen tendency which remained in ,israel from pre-,mosaic times and had not even in the days of ,amos been overcome1 it seems undeniable that it was entirely contrary to the fundamental principles of ,yahwism as given by ,moses4 ,even by the latest narrators1 those who brought our ,pentateuch into its present shape1 and who were1 it is supposed1 completely under the influence of ceremonial ,judaism1 the primarily moral character of ,yahweh's religion was acknowledged by the place they gave to the ten commandments4 ,they alone are handed down as spoken by ,yahweh ,himself1 and as having preceded all other commands2 and the terrors of ,sinai1 the thunder and the earthquake1 are made more intimately the accompaniments of this law than of any other4 ,unquestionably the mind of ,israel always was1 that here1 and not in the ceremonial law1 was the centre of gravity of ,yahwism4 ,in the view of that fact it is somewhat hard to understand how so many writers of our times1 who admit the ,decalogue to have been ,mosaic1 or at any rate pre-prophetic1 yet deny the prevailingly moral character of the early religion of ,israel4 ,when this law was once promulgated1 the old naturalism in which ,israel1 like other ancient races1 had been entangled was repudiated1 and the relation between ,yahweh and ,his people was declared to be one which rested upon moral conduct in the widest sense of that term4 ,and the ground of this fact is plainly declared here to be the character of ,yahweh3 ,i am the ,lord thy ,god1 that brought thee out of the land of ,egypt1 out of the house of bondage4 ,he was their deliverer1 ,he had a right to command them1 and ,his commands revealed ,his nature to ,his people4 ,the first four commandments show that ,yahweh was already conceived as a spiritual being1 removed by a whole heaven from the gods of the ,canaanite nations by whom ,israel was surrounded4 ,these were mere representatives of the powers of nature4 ,as such they were regarded as existing in pairs1 each god having his female counterpart2 and their acts had all the indifference to moral considerations which nature in its processes shows4 ,they dwelt in mountain tops1 in trees1 in rude stones1 or in obelisks1 and they were worshipped by rites so sanguinary and licentious that ,canaanite worship bore everywhere a darker stain than even nature-worship elsewhere had disclosed4 ,in contrast to all this the ,yahweh of the ,decalogue is alone1 in solitary and unapproachable separation4 ,amid all the unbridled speculation that has been let loose on this subject1 no one1 ,i think1 has ever ventured to join with ,him any name of a goddess1 and ,he sternly repudiates the worship of any other god besides ,him4 ,now1 though there is nothing said of monotheism here1 i4e4 of the doctrine that no god but one exists1 yet1 in contrast to the hospitality which distinguished and distinguishes nature-worship in all its forms1 ,yahweh here claims from ,his people worship of the most exclusive kind4 ,besides ,him they were to have no object of worship4 ,he1 in ,his unapproachable separateness1 had alone a claim upon their reverence4 ,further1 in contrast to the gods who dwelt in trees and stones and pillars1 and who could be represented by symbols of that kind1 ,yahweh sternly forbade the making of any image to represent ,him4 ,thereby ,he declared ,himself spiritual1 in so far as ,he claimed that no visible thing could adequately represent ,him4 ,in contrast to the ethnic religions in general1 even that of ,zarathushtra1 the noblest of all1 where only the natural element of fire was taken to be the god or his symbol1 this fundamental command asserts the supersensuous nature of the ,deity1 thereby rising at one step clear above all naturalism4 ,so great is the step indeed1 that ,kuenen and others1 who cannot escape the evidence for the antiquity of the other commandments1 insist that this at least cannot be pre-prophetic1 since we have such numerous proofs of the worship of ,yahweh by images1 down at least to the time of ,josiah's reform4 ,but1 by all but ,stade1 it is admitted that there was at ,shiloh under ,eli1 and at ,jerusalem under ,david and ,solomon1 no visible representation of ,deity4 ,now the same writers who tell us this everywhere represent the worship of ,yahweh by images as existing among the people4 ,according to their view1 the nation had a continual and hereditary tendency to slip into image-worship1 or to maintain it as pre-,mosaic custom4 ,and it is quite certain that up even to the ,captivity1 and after1 when1 according to even the very boldest negative view1 this command had been long known1 image-worship1 not only of ,yahweh1 but also of false gods and of the host of heaven1 was largely prevalent4 ,only the ,captivity1 with its hardships and trials1 brought ,israel to see that image-worship was incompatible with any true belief in ,yahweh4 ,undeniably1 therefore1 the existence of an authoritative prohibition does not necessarily produce obedience2 and the ,biblical view that the ,decalogue is ,israel's earliest law proves to be the more reasonable1 as well as the better authenticated of the two4 ,if1 after the command beyond all doubt existed in ,israel1 it needed the calamities of ,israel's last days1 and the hardships and griefs of the ,exile1 to get it completely observed1 and if in ,jerusalem and at ,shiloh in the pre-prophetic time ,yahweh was worshipped without images1 there can hardly be a doubt that this command must have existed in the earliest period4 ,for no religion is to be judged by the actual practice of the multitude4 ,the true criterion is its highest point2 and the imageless worship of ,jerusalem is much more difficult to understand if the second commandment was not acknowledged previously in ,israel1 than it would be if the ,decalogue1 essentially as we now have it1 was acknowledged in the days before the kingship at least4#be #be ,granting that the commandment did not exist1 one asks1 ,what was it in ,yahwism which determined the ,jerusalem ,sanctuary to be imageless8 ,the arguments advanced by ,kuenen and ,wellhausen for a contrary view1 beyond those we have just been considering1 rest on an undue extension of the prohibition to make any likeness of anything4 ,they adduce the brazen serpent of ,moses1 and the ,cherubim1 and the brazen bulls that bore the brazen laver in the court of the ,temple at ,jerusalem1 and the ornaments of that building1 as a proof that even in ,jerusalem this commandment cannot have been known4 ,but1 as we have seen1 the original command prohibited only the making of a pesel1 i4e4 of an image for worship4 ,the making of likenesses of men and animals for mere purposes of art and adornment was never included2 and the whole objection falls to the ground unless it be asserted that the bulls under the basin were actually worshipped by those who came into the ,temple6 ,the supersensuous nature of ,yahweh must1 therefore1 be taken to be a fundamental part of the ,mosaic religion4 ,but besides being solitary and supersensuous1 ,yahweh was declared by ,moses1 perhaps by ,his very name1 to be not only mighty1 but helpful4 ,the preface to the whole series of commandments is1 ,i am ,yahweh thy ,god1 who brought thee forth out of the land of ,egypt4 ,now of all the derivations of ,yahweh1 that which most nearly commands universal acceptance is its derivation from hayah1 to be4 ,and the probabilities are all in favour of the view that it does not imply mere timeless existence1 as the translation of the explanation in ,exodus#bf has led many to believe4 ,that is a purely philosophical idea entirely outside of morality1 and it can hardly be that the introduction to this moral code1 which announces the author of it1 should contain no moral reference4 ,if the name be from ,qal1 and be connected with ehyeh1 then it means1 as ,dillmann says 7,exodus and ,leviticus1 p4 #ce71 that ,he will be what ,he has been1 and the name involves a reference to all that the ,god of ,israel has been in the past4 ,such ,he will be in the future1 for ,he is what ,he is1 without variableness or shadow of turning4 ,if1 on the other hand1 it be from ,hiphil1 it will mean ,he who causes to be1 the creator4 ,in either case there is a clear rise above the ordinary ,semitic names for ,god1 ,baal1 ,molech1 ,milkom1 which all express mere lordship4 ,no doubt ,yahweh was also called ,baal1 or ,lord1 just as we find ,him in the ,psalms addressed as my ,king and my ,god2 but the specially ,mosaic name1 the personal name of the ,god of ,israel1 does undoubtedly imply quite another quality in ,god4 ,it is the ,helper who has revealed ,himself to ,israel who here speaks4 ,hence the addition1 who brought thee out of the land of ,egypt4 ,it is as a ,saviour that ,yahweh addresses ,his people4 ,by ,his very name ,he lifts all the commands ,he gives out of the region of mere might1 or the still lower region of gratification at offerings and precious things bestowed1 into the region of gratitude and love4 #bf iii4 #ad4 ,further1 by issuing this code under the name of ,yahweh ,moses claimed for ,him a moral character4 ,whether the ,hebrew word for holy1 qdhsh1 implied more in those days than mere separateness1 may be doubted2 but it is impossible that the idea which we now connect with the word holy should not have been held to be congruous to1 and expressive of1 the nature of ,yahweh4 ,here morality in its initial and fundamental stages is set forth as an expression of ,his will4 ,and similarly1 righteousness must also be an attribute of ,his1 for justice between man and man is made to be ,his demand upon men4 ,he ,himself1 therefore1 must be faithful as well as holy1 and ,his emancipation from the clinging chain of mere naturalism was thereby completed4 ,the ,yahweh of the ,decalogue is therefore absolutely alone4 ,he is supersensuous4 ,he is the ,helper and ,saviour1 and ,he is holy and true4 ,these are ,his fundamental qualities4 ,such qualities may be supposed to be present only in their elements1 even to the mind of ,moses himself3 yet the fundamental germinal point was there3 and all that has grown out of it may be justly put to the credit of this first revelation4 ,a moment's thought will show how the teaching that ,yahweh alone was to be worshipped broke away from the main stream of ,semitic belief1 and prepared the way for the ultimate prevalence of the belief that ,god was one4 ,that ,he was supersensuous1 so that ,he could not rightly or adequately be represented by any likeness of anything in heaven or earth or sea1 left no possible outlet for thought about ,him1 save in the direction that ,he was a ,spirit4 ,in essence consequently the spirituality of ,god was thereby secured4 ,still more important perhaps was the conception of ,yahweh as the ,helper and ,deliverer1 the ,saviour of ,his people2 for this at once suggested the thought that the true bond between ,god and man was not mere necessity1 nor mere dependence upon resistless power1 but love--love to a ,divine ,helper who revealed ,himself in gracious acts and providences1 and who longed after and cared for ,his people with a perfectly undeserved affection4 ,lastly1 ,his holiness and faithfulness1 ,his righteousness in fact1 held implicit in it ,his supremacy and universality4 ,as ,wellhausen has said1 ,as ,god of justice and right1 ,yahweh came to be thought of as the highest1 and at last as the only power in heaven and earth4 ,whether that last stage was present to the mind of ,moses1 or of any who received the commandments in the first place1 is of merely secondary importance4 ,at the very least1 the way which must necessarily lead to that stage was opened here1 and the mind of man entered upon the path to a pure monotheism1 a monotheism which separated ,god from the world1 and referred to ,his will all that happened in the world of created things4 ,god is ,one1 ,god is a ,spirit1 ,god is ,love1 and ,god rules over all--these are the attributes of ,yahweh as the ,decalogue sets them forth2 and in principle the whole higher life of humanity was secured by the great synthesis4 ,like all beginnings1 this was an achievement of the highest kind4 ,nowhere but in the soul of one ,divinely enlightened man could such a revelation have made itself known2 and the solitude of a lonely shepherd's life1 following upon the stir and training of a high place in the cultured society of ,egypt1 gave precisely the kind of environment which would prepare the soul to hear the voice by which ,god spoke4 ,for we are not to suppose that this revelation came to ,moses without any effort or preparation on his part4 ,god does not reveal ,his highest to the slothful or the debased4 ,even when ,he speaks from ,sinai in thunder and in flame1 it is only the man who has been exercising himself in these great matters who can understand and remember4 ,all the people had been terrified by the ,divine ,presence1 but they forgot the law immediately and fell back into idolatry4 ,it was ,moses who retained it and brought it back to them again4 ,his personality was the organ of the ,divine will2 and in this law which he promulgated ,moses laid the foundation of all that now forms the most cherished heritage of men4 ,the central thing in religion is the character of ,god4 ,contrary to the prevailing feeling1 which makes many say that they know nothing of ,god1 but are sure of their duty to man1 history teaches that1 in the end1 man's thought of ,god is the decisive thing4 ,everything else shapes itself according to that2 and by taking the first great steps1 which broke through the limits of mere naturalism1 ,moses laid the foundation of all that was to come4 ,there was here the promise and the potency of all higher life3 love and holiness had their way prepared1 so that they should one day become supreme in man's conception of the highest life3 the confused halting between the material and the spiritual1 which can be traced in the very highest conceptions of merely natural religions1 was in principle done away4 ,and what was here gained was never lost again4 ,even though the multitude never really grasped all that ,moses had proclaimed ,yahweh to be2 and though it should be proved1 which is as yet by no means the case1 that even ,david thought of ,him as limited in power and claims by the extent of the land which ,israel inhabited2 and though1 as a matter of fact1 the full-orbed universality which the ten commandments implicitly held in them was not attained under the old covenant at all2 yet these ten words remained always an incitement to higher thoughts4 ,no advance made in religion or morals by the chosen people ever superseded them4 ,even when ,christ came1 ,he came not to destroy but to fulfil4 ,the highest reach of even ,his thoughts as regards ,god could be brought easily and naturally under the terms of this fundamental revelation to ,israel4 ,the remaining commands1 those which deal with the relations of men to each other1 are naturally introduced by the fifth commandment1 which1 while it deals with human relations1 deals with those which most nearly resemble the relations between ,god and man4 ,reverence for ,god1 the deliverer and forgiver of men1 is the sum of the commandments which precede2 and here we have inculcated reverence for those who are1 under ,god1 the source of life1 upon whose love and care all1 at their entrance into life1 are so absolutely dependent4 ,love is not commanded2 because in such relations it is natural1 and moreover it cannot be produced at will4 ,but reverence is2 and from the place of the command1 manifestly what is required is something of that same awful respect which is due to ,yahweh ,himself4 ,the power which parents had over their children in ,israel was extensive1 though much less so than that possessed1 for example1 by ,roman parents4 ,a father could sell his daughters to be espoused as subordinate wives2#bg he could disallow any vows a daughter might wish to take upon her2#bh and both parents could bring an incorrigibly rebellious son to the elders of the city#bi and have him stoned publicly to death4 ,but1 according to ,moses1 the main restraining forces in the home should be love and reverence1 guarded only by the solemn sanction of death to the openly irreverent1 just as reverence for ,yahweh was guarded4 #bg ,exod4 xxi4 #g4 #bh ,numb4 xxx4 #f4 #bi ,deut4 xxi4 #h4 ,there was here nothing of the sordid view1 repudiated so energetically by ,jewish scholars like ,kalisch1#cj that we ought to weigh and measure filial affection after the degree of enjoyed benefits4 ,no2 to this law the relation between parents and children is holy1 religious1 godly1 not of a purely human character2 and it is a mere profanation to regard it as we in modern times too often do4 ,in our mad pursuit after complete individual liberty we have fallen back into a moral region which it was the almost universal merit of the ancient civilisations to have left behind them4 ,it is true1 certainly1 that there were reasons for this advance then which we could not now recognise without falling back from our own attainments in other directions2 but it was the saving salt of the ancient civilisations that the parents in a household were surrounded with an atmosphere of reverence1 which made transgressions against them as rare as they were considered horrible4 ,the modern freedom may in favourable circumstances produce more intimate and sympathetic intercourse between parents and children2 but in the average household it has lowered the whole tone of family life2 and it threatens sooner or later1 if the ancient feeling cannot be restored1 to destroy the family1 the very keystone of our religion and civilisation4 ,this commandment is not conditioned on the question whether parents have been more or less successful in giving their children what they desire1 or whether they have been wise and unselfish in their dealing with their children4 ,as parents they have a claim upon their respect1 their tenderness1 their observance1 which can be neglected only at the children's peril4 ,even the average parent gives quite endless thought and care to his children1 and almost unconsciously falls into the habit of living for them4 ,that brings with it for the children an indelible obligation2 and along with the new and wiser freedom which is permitted in the modern home1 this reverence should grow1 just as the love and reverence for ,god on the part of those who have been made the free children of ,god through ,christ ought far to exceed that to which the best of the ,old ,testament saints could attain4 #cj ,kalisch1 ,exodus1 p4 #cfd3--yet taught in all ,victorian ,state schools under the vicious system at present admitted4 ,want of reverence for parents is1 in the ,decalogue1 made almost one with want of reverence toward ,god1 and1 in the case of this human duty alone1 there is a promise annexed to its observance4 ,the duty runs so deep into the very core of human life1 that its fulfilment brings wholesomeness to the moral nature2 this health spreads into the merely physical constitution1 and long life becomes the reward4 ,but apart from the quietude of heart and the power of self-restraint which so great a duty rightly fulfilled brings with it1 we must also suppose that in a special manner the blessing of ,god does rest upon dutiful children4 ,even in the modern world1 amid all its complexity1 and though in numberless instances it may seem to have been falsified1 this promise verifies itself on the large scale4 ,in the less complex life of early ,israel we may well believe that its verification was even more strikingly seen4 ,in both ancient and modern times1 moreover1 the human conscience has leaped up to justify the belief that of all the sins committed without the body this is the most heinous1 and that there does rest upon it in a peculiar manner the wrath of ,almighty ,god4 ,it is a blasphemy against love in its earliest manifestations to the soul1 and only by answering love with love and reverence can there be any fulfilling of the law4 ,after the fifth1 the commandments deal with the purely human relations2 but in coming down from the duties which men owe to ,god1 this law escapes the sordidness which seems to creep over the laws of other nations1 when they have to deal with the rights and duties of men4 ,the human rights are taken up rather into their relation to ,god1 and cease to be mere matters of bargain and arrangement4 ,they are viewed entirely from the religious and moral standpoint4 ,for example1 the destruction of human life1 which in most cases was in ancient times dealt with by private law1 and was punished by fines or money payments1 is here regarded solely as a sin1 an act forbidden by ,god4 ,the will of a holy ,god is the source of these prohibitions1 however much the idea of property may extend in them beyond the limits which to us now seem fitting4 ,they begin with the protection of a man's life1 the highest of his possessions4 ,next1 they prohibit any injury to him through his wife1 who next to his life is most dear to him4 ,then property in our modern sense is protected2 and lastly1 rising out of the merely physical region1 the ninth commandment prohibits any attack upon a man's civil standing or honour by false witness concerning him in the courts of justice4 ,to that crime ,easterns are prone to a degree which ,westerns1 whom ,rome has trained to reverence for law1 can hardly realise4 ,in ,india1 at this hour1 false witnesses can be purchased in the open market at a trifling price2 and under native government the whole forces of civil justice become instruments of the most remediless and exasperating tyranny4 ,so long as the law has not spoken its last word against the innocent1 there is hope of remedy2 justice may at last assert itself4 ,but when1 either by corrupt witnesses or by a corrupt judge1 the law itself inflicts the wrong1 then redress is impossible1 and we have the oppression which drives a wise man mad4 ,both murder and robbery1 moreover1 may be perpetrated by false swearing2 and the trust1 the confidence that social life demands1 is utterly destroyed by it4 ,but it is in the tenth commandment especially that this code soars most completely away beyond others4 ,in four short words the whole region of neighbourly duty1 so far as acts are concerned1 has been covered1 and with that other codes have been content4 ,but the laws of ,yahweh must cover more than that4 ,out of the heart proceed all these acts which have been forbidden1 and ,yahweh takes knowledge of its thoughts and intents4 ,the covetous desire1 the grasping after that which we cannot lawfully have1 that1 too1 is absolutely forbidden4 ,it has been pointed out that the first commandment also deals with the thoughts4 ,thou shalt have no other gods before ,me1 separated from the prohibition of idol-worship1 can refer only to the inward adoration or submission of the heart4 ,and in this last commandment also it is the evil desire1 the lust which bringeth forth sin1 which is condemned4 ,in its beginning and ending1 therefore1 this code transcends the limits ordinarily fixed for law2 it leads the mind to a view of the depth and breadth of the evil that has to be coped with1 which the other precepts1 taken by themselves and understood in their merely literal sense1 would scarcely suggest4 ,this fact should guard us against the common fallacy that ,moses and the people of his day could not have understood these commandments in any sense except the barely literal one4 ,in the first and tenth commandments there is involved the whole teaching of our ,lord that he that hateth his brother is a murderer4 ,the evil thought that first stirs the evil desire is here placed on the same interdicted level as the evil deed2 and though until our ,lord had spoken none had seen all that was implied1 yet here too ,he was only fulfilling1 bringing to perfection1 that which the law as given by ,moses had first outlined4 ,with this in view1 it seems difficult to justify that interpretation of the commandments which refuses all depth of meaning to them4 ,the initial and final references to the inner thoughts of men1 the delicate moral perception which puts so unerring a finger on the sources of sin1 show that such literalism is out of place4 ,no interpretation can do this law justice which treats it superficially2 and instead of feeling safest when we find least in these commandments1 we should welcome from them all the correction and reproof which a reasonable exegesis will sustain4 ,some of those who adopt the other view do so in the interests of the authenticity of the commandments4 ,they say1 ,we must be careful not to put into them any idea which transcends what was possible in the days of ,moses2 otherwise we must agree with those who bring down the date of these marvellous ten words to the middle of the seventh century ,b4,c4 ,but there is much ground for distrusting modern judgments as to what men can have thought and felt in earlier and ruder stages of society4 ,so long as the nave interpretation of the state of man before the fall prevailed1 which ,milton has made so widely popular1 the tendency was to exaggerate the early man's moral and spiritual attainments4 ,now1 when the most degraded savages are taken as the truest representatives of primitive man1 the temptation is to minimise both unduly4 ,how often have we been told1 for example1 that the ,australian is the lowest of mankind1 and that he has no other idea of a spiritual world than that when he dies he will jump up a white man6 ,yet ,mr4 ,a4 ,w4 ,howitt1#ca an unexceptionable authority1 as having himself been initiated among the ,australian blacks1 tells us that they give religious and moral instruction to their boys when they receive the privileges of manhood4 ,his words are3 ,the teachings of the initiation are in a series of 'moral lessons1' pantomimically displayed in a manner intended to be so impressive as to be indelible4 ,there is clearly a belief in a ,great ,spirit1 or rather an anthropomorphic ,supernatural ,being1 the ',master of all1' whose abode is above the sky1 and to whom are attributed powers of omnipotence and omnipresence1 or1 at any rate1 the power 'to do anything and to go anywhere4' ,the exhibition of his image to the novices1 and the magic dances round it1 approach very near to idol-worship4 ,the wizards who profess to communicate with him1 and to be the mediums of communication between him and his tribe1 are not far removed from an organised priesthood4 ,to his direct ordinance are attributed the spiritual and moral laws of the community4 ,although there is no worship of ,daramlun1 as1 for instance1 by prayer1 yet there is clearly an invocation of him by name1 and a belief that certain acts please while others displease him4 ,to most it would have seemed absurd to attribute religious ideas of such a kind to a people in the social and moral condition of the ,australian aborigines4 ,yet here we have the testimony of a perfectly competent and reliable witness1 who1 moreover1 has no personal bias in favour of theologic notions1 to prove that even in their present state their theology is of this comparatively advanced kind4 #ca ,journal ,anthropological ,institute1 ,may #ahhd1 p4 #bh4 ,many critics like ,stade1 and even ,kuenen1 would deny to ,israel in the days of ,moses any conception of ,yahweh which would equal the ,australian conception of ,daramlun6 ,not to speak of the regrettable vivacities of ,renan in regard to ,yahweh1 ,kuenen would deny to the ,mosaic ,yahweh the title of ,lord of all2 he would deny to ,him the power to go anywhere and to do anything1 binding ,him strictly to ,his tribe and ,his land2 he would make ,his priests little more than the ,australian wizards2 and purely moral laws like the ,decalogue ,wellhausen would remove to a late date mainly because such laws transcend the limits of the thought and knowledge of the ,mosaic time4 ,but can any one believe that ,israel in the ,mosaic time had lower beliefs than those of the ,australian aborigines8 ,in every other respect they had left far behind them the social state and the merely embryonic culture of the ,australian tribes4 ,moses himself is an irrefragable proof of that4 ,no such man as he could have arisen among a people in the state of the ,australians4 ,even the fact that the ,hebrews had lived in ,egypt1 and had been compelled to do forced labour for a long series of years1 would of itself have raised them to a higher stage of culture4 ,moreover they built houses1 and owned sheep and cattle1 and must have known at least the rudiments of agriculture4 ,indeed ,deut4 xi4 #aj asserts this1 and the testimony of travellers as to the habits of the tribes in the wilderness of the wanderings now confirms it4 ,further1 they had been in contact with ,egyptian religion1 and they had been surrounded by cults having more or less relation to the ancient civilisations of ,mesopotamia4 ,under such circumstances1 even apart from all revelation1 it could not be assumed that their religious ideas must needs correspond to modern notions of the low type of primitive religions4 ,on the contrary1 nothing but the clearest proof that their religious conceptions were so surprisingly low should induce us to believe it4 ,on any supposition1 they had in the ,mosaic time the first germs of what is now universally admitted to be the highest form of religion4 ,can we believe that only #acjj years ,b4,c41 in the full light of history1 coming out of a land where the religion of the people had been systematised and elaborated1 not for centuries1 but for millenniums1 and only #fjj years before the monotheistic prophets1 a people at such a stage of civilisation as the ,hebrews can have had cruder notions of ,deity than the ,wiraijuri and ,wolgal tribes of ,new ,south ,wales6#cb ,it may have been so2 but before we take it to have been so1 we have a right to demand evidence of a stringent kind1 evidence which leaves us no way of escape from a conclusion so improbable4 #cb ,see ,page ,renouf1 ,hibbert ,lectures4 ,moreover the acceptance of the view now opposed does not get rid of the necessity for supernatural enlightenment in ,israel4 ,it only transfers it from an earlier to a later time4 ,for if the knowledge of ,israel in ,moses' day was below the ,wolgal standard1 then it would seem inexplicable that the ethical monotheism of the prophets should have grown out of it by any merely natural process4 ,if there were no inspiration before the prophets1 though they believed and asserted there was1 then their own inspiration only becomes the more marvellous4 ,it is not needful to deny that the ,hebrew tribes may at some time have passed through the low stage of religious belief of which these writers speak4 ,but they err conspicuously in regarding every trace of animistic and fetichistic worship which can be unearthed in the language1 the ceremonies1 and the habits of the ,hebrews at the ,exodus1 as evidence of the highest beliefs of the people at that time4 ,as a matter of fact1 these were probably mere survivals of a state of thought and feeling then either superseded or in the process of being so4 ,besides1 the mass of any people always lag far behind the thoughts and aspirations of the highest thinkers of their nation2 and if we admit inspiration at all as a factor in the religious development of ,israel1 the distance between what ,moses taught and believed himself1 and what he could get the mass of the people to believe and practise1 must have been still greater4 ,if he gave the people the ten commandments1 he must have been far above them1 and dogmatic assertions as to what he can have thought and believed ought to be abandoned4 ,granting1 however1 that all we have found in the ,decalogue's conception of ,yahweh was present to the mind of ,moses1 and granting that the commands which deal with the relations of men to each other are not mere isolated prohibitions1 but are founded upon moral principles which were understood even then to have much wider implications1 there still remains a gap between the widest meaning that early time could put into them1 and that which ,luther's ,catechism1 or the ,catechism of the ,westminster ,divines1 for example1 asserts4 ,the question therefore arises whether these wider and more detailed explanations1 which make the ,decalogue cover the whole field of the moral and religious life1 are legitimate1 and if so1 on what principle can they be justified8 ,the reply would seem to be that they are legitimate1 and that the ten words did contain much more than ,moses or any of his nation for many centuries after him understood4 ,for any fruitful thought1 any thought which really penetrates the heart of things1 must have in it wider implications than the first thinker of it can have conceived4 ,if by any means a man has had insight to see the central fact of any domain of thought and life1 its applications will not be limited to the comparatively few cases to which he may apply it4 ,he will generally be content to deduce from his discovery just those conclusions which in his circumstances and in his day are practically useful and are most clamorously demanded4 ,but those who come after1 pressed by new needs1 challenged by new experiences1 and enlightened by new thoughts in related regions1 will assuredly find that more was involved in that first step than any one had seen4 ,the scope of the fruitful principle will thus inevitably widen with the course of things1 and inferences undreamed of by those who first enunciated the principle will be securely drawn from it by later generations4 ,now if that be true in regard to truths discovered by the unassisted intellect of man1 how much more true will it be of thoughts which have first been revealed to man under the influence of inspiration8 ,behind the human mind which received them and applied them to the circumstances which then had to be dealt with1 there is always the infinite mind which sees that ,far-off ,divine event ,to which the whole creation moves4 ,the ,divine purpose of the revelation must be the true measure of the thoughts revealed1 and the ,divine purpose can best be learned by studying the results as they have actually evolved themselves in the course of ages4 ,consequently1 while the fundamental point in sound interpretation of a book such as the ,bible is to ascertain first what the statements made therein signified to those who heard them first1 the second point is not to shut the mind to the wider and more extensive applications of them which the thought and experience of men1 taught by the course of history1 have been induced1 or even compelled1 to make4 ,both the narrower and the wider meanings are there1 and were meant to be found there4 ,no exposition which ignores either can be adequate4 ,that all works of ,god are to be dealt with in this way is beautifully demonstrated by ,ruskin 7,fors ,clavigera1 ,vol4 ,i41 ,letter ,v474 ,in criticising the statement of a botanist that there is no such thing as a flower1 after admitting that in a certain sense the lecturer was right1 he goes on to say3 ,but in the deepest sense of all1 he was to the extremity of wrongness wrong2 for leaf and root and fruit exist1 all of them1 only--that there may be flowers4 ,he disregarded the life and passion of the creature1 which were its essence4 ,had he looked for these1 he would have recognised that in the thought of nature herself1 there is1 in a plant1 nothing else but flowers4 ,that means1 of course1 that the final perfection of a development is the real and final meaning of it all4 ,now any thought given by ,god in this special manner which we call inspiration has in it a manifold and varied life1 and an end in view1 which ,god alone foresees4 ,it works like leaven1 it grows like a seed4 ,it is supremely living and powerful2 and though it may have begun its life1 like the mustard seed1 in a small and lowly sphere1 it casts out branches on all sides till its entire allotted space is filled4 ,so in the ,decalogue2 the central chord in all the matters dealt with has been touched with ,divine skill1 and all that has further to be revealed or learned on that matter must lie in the line of the first announcement4 ,it is not1 therefore1 an illegitimate extension of the meaning of the first commandment to say that it teaches monotheism1 nor of the second that it teaches the spirituality of ,god1 nor of the seventh that it forbids all sensuality in thought or word or deed4 ,it is true that probably only the separateness of ,god was originally seen to be asserted in the first1 and the words may possibly have been understood to mean that the other gods referred to had some kind of actual life4 ,the second1 too1 may have seemed to be fulfilled when no earthly thing that was made by man was taken to represent ,yahweh4 ,lastly1 those who say that nothing is forbidden in the seventh commandment but literal adultery have much to say for themselves4 ,in a polygamous society concubinage always exists4 ,the absence of the more flagrant of what in monogamous societies are called social evils does not in the least imply the superior morality1 such as many who wish to disparage our ,christian civilisation have ascribed1 for instance1 to ,mohammedans4 ,the degraded class of women who are the reproach and the despair of our large towns are not so frequent in those societies1 because all women are degraded to nearer their level than in monogamous lands4 ,both lust and vice are more prevalent3 and they are so because the whole level of thought and feeling in regard to such matters is much lower than with us4 ,now1 undoubtedly1 ancient ,israel was no exception to this rule4 ,in it1 as a polygamous nation1 there was a licence in regard to sexual relations with women who were neither married nor betrothed which would be impossible now in any ,christian community4 ,it may be1 therefore1 that only the married woman was specially protected by this law4 ,but in none of these cases did the more rudimentary conception of the scope of the commandments last4 ,by imperceptible steps the sweep of them widened1 until finally the last consequences were deduced from them1 and they were seen to cover the whole sphere of human duty4 ,it may have been a long step from the prohibition to put other gods along with ,yahweh to ,st4 ,paul's decisive word ,an idol is nothing in the world1 but the one was from the first involved in the other4 ,between ,thou shalt not make unto thee a graven image and our ,lord's declaration ,god is a ,spirit1 and must be worshipped in spirit and in truth1 there lies a long and toilsome upward movement2 but the first was the gate into the path which must end in the second4 ,similarly1 the commandment which affirmed so strongly the sacredness of the family1 by hedging round the house-mother with this special defence held implicit in it all that rare and lovely purity which the best type of ,christian women exhibit4 ,the principles upon which the initial prohibitions were founded were true to fact and to the nature both of ,god and man4 ,they were1 therefore1 never found at fault in the advancing stages of human experience2 and the meaning which a modern congregation of ,christians finds in these solemn words1 when they are read before them1 is as truly and justly their meaning as the more meagre interpretation which alone ancient ,israel could put upon them4 ,how gradually1 and how naturally1 the advancing thoughts and changed circumstances of ,israel affected the ,decalogue may be seen most clearly in the differences between its form as originally given1 and as it is set forth in ,exodus and in ,deuteronomy4 ,if the original form of these commandments was what we have indicated 7p4 #fi71 they corresponded entirely to the circumstances of the wilderness4 ,there is no reference in them which presupposes any other social background than that of a people dwelling together according to families1 possessing property1 and worshipping ,yahweh4 ,none of the commandments involves a social state different from that4 ,but when ,israel had entered upon its heritage1 and had become possessed of the oxen and asses which were needed in agricultural labour and in settled life1 this stage of their progress was reflected in the reasons and inducements which were added to the original commands4 ,in the fourth and tenth commandments of ,exodus we have consequently the essential commandments of the earlier day adapted to a new state of things1 i4e4 to a settled agricultural life4 ,then1 even as between the ,exodus and ,deuteronomic texts1 a progress is perceptible4 ,the reasons for keeping the ,sabbath which these two recensions give are different1 as we have seen1 and it is probable that the reason given in ,deuteronomy was first4 ,to the people in the wilderness came the bare ,divine command that this one day was to be sacred to ,yahweh4 ,in both ,exodus and ,deuteronomy we have additions1 going into details which show that when these versions were prepared ,israel had ceased to be nomadic and had become agricultural4 ,in ,deuteronomy we find that the importance and usefulness of this command from a humane point of view had been recognised1 and one at least of the grounds upon which it should be held a point of morality to keep it is set forth in the words that thy manservant and thy maidservant may rest as well as thou4 ,finally1 if the critical views be correct1 in ,exodus we have the motive for the observance of the ,sabbath raised to the universal and eternal1 by being brought into connection with the creative activity of ,god4 ,if the progression now traced out be real1 then we have in it a classical instance of the manner in which ,divine commands were given and dealt with in ,israel4 ,given in the most general form at first1 they inevitably open the way for progress1 and as thought and experience grow in volume and rise in quality1 so does the understanding of the law as given expand4 ,under the influence of this expansion addition after addition is made1 till the final form is reached2 and the whole is then set forth as having been spoken by ,yahweh and given by ,moses when the command was first promulgated4 ,in such cases literary proprietorship was never in question4 ,each addition was sanctioned by revelation1 and those by whom it came were never thought of4 ,it would seem1 indeed1 that nothing but modern sceptical views as to the reality of revelation1 the feeling that all this movement to a higher faith was merely natural1 and that the hand of ,god was not in it1 could have suggested to the ancient ,hebrew writers the wish to hand on the names of those by whom such changes were made4 ,yahweh spoke at the beginning1 ,moses mediated between the people and ,yahweh1 and the law thus mediated was in all forms equally ,mosaic1 and in all forms equally ,divine4 ,one other thing remains to be noticed1 and that is the prevailingly negative form of the commandments4 ,of the ten only the fourth and fifth are in the affirmative4 ,all the others are prohibitions1 and we who have been taught by ,christianity to put emphasis upon the positive aspects of duty as the really important aspects of it1 may not improbably feel chilled and repelled by a moral code which so definitely and prevailingly forbids4 ,but the cause of this is plain4 ,a code like that of the ,twelve ,tables published in early ,rome is only occasionally negative1 because it rises to no great height in its demands1 and is intent only upon ordering the life of the citizens in their outward conduct4 ,but this code1 which seeks to raise the whole of life into the sacredness of a continual service of ,god and man1 must forbid1 because the first condition of such a life is the renunciation and the restriction of self4 ,benevolent dreamers and theorists of all ages1 and men of the world whose moral standard is merely the attainment of the average man1 have denied the evil tendency in man's nature4 ,they have asserted that man is born good2 but the facts of experience are entirely against them4 ,whenever a serious effort has been made to raise man to any conspicuous height of moral goodness1 it has been found necessary to forbid him to follow the bent of his nature4 ,thou shalt not has been the prevailing formula2 and in this sense original sin has always been witnessed to in the world4 ,hence the ,old ,testament1 in which the most strenuous conflict for goodness which the world in those ages knew was being carried on1 could not fail1 in every part of it1 to proclaim that man is not born good4 ,however late we may be compelled to put the writing of the story of the fall as it stands in ,genesis1 there can be no question that it represents the view of the ,old ,testament at all times4 ,man is fallen2 he is not what he ought to be1 and the evil taint is handed on from one generation to another4 ,every generation1 therefore1 is called1 by prophet and priest and lawgiver alike1 to the conflict against the natural man4 ,the truth is that all along the leaders of ,israel had a quite overawing sense of the moral greatness of ,yahweh and of the stringency of ,his demands upon them4 ,be ye holy1 for ,i am holy1 was ,his demand2 and so among this people1 as among no other1 the sense of sin was heightened1 till it embittered life to all who seriously took to heart the religion they professed4 ,this feeling sought relief in expiatory sacrifices1 like the sin offering and the guilt offering2 but in vain4 ,it then led to ,pharisaic hedging of the law1 to seeking a positive precept for every moment of time1 to binding upon men's consciences the most minute and burdensome prescriptions1 as a means of making them what they must be if they were to meet the ,divine requirements4 ,but that too failed4 ,it became a slavery so intolerable that1 when ,st4 ,paul received the power of a new life1 his predominant feeling was that for the first time he knew what liberty meant4 ,he was set free from both the bondage of sin and the bondage of ritual4 ,to the religious man of the ,old ,testament life was a conflict against evil tendencies1 a conflict in which defeat was only too frequent1 but from which there was no discharge4 ,it was fitting1 therefore1 that at the very beginning of ,israel's history1 as the people of ,god1 this stern prohibition of the rougher manifestations of the natural man should stand4 ,but it is characteristic of the ,old ,testament that it states the fundamental fact1 without any of the over-refinements and exaggerations by which later doctrinal developments have discredited it4 ,there is no appearance here1 or anywhere in the ,old ,testament1 of the ,lutheran exaggeration that man is by nature impotent to all good1 as a stock or a stone is4 ,keeping close to the testimony of the universal conscience1 the ,decalogue1 and the ,old ,testament generally1 speaks to men as those who can be otherwise if they will4 ,there is1 further1 a robust assertion of righteous intention and righteous act on the part of those whose minds are set to be faithful to ,god4 ,this may have been partly due to a blunter feeling in regard to sin1 and a less highly developed conscience1 but it was mainly a healthy assertion of facts which ought not to be ignored4 ,yet1 with all that1 original sin was too plain a fact ever to be denied by the healthy-minded saints of the ,old ,testament4 ,fundamentally1 they held that human nature needed to be restrained1 its innate lawlessness needed to be curbed1 before it could be made acceptable to ,god4 ,among the heathen nations that was not so4 ,take the ,greeks1 for instance1 as the highest among them4 ,their watchword in morals was not repression1 but harmonious development4 ,every impulse of human nature was right1 and had the protection of a deity peculiarly its own4 ,restraint1 such as the ,israelite felt to be his first need1 would have been regarded as mutilation by the ,greek1 for he was dominated by no higher ideal than that of a fully developed man4 ,there was no vision of unattainable holiness hovering always before his mind1 as there was before the mind of the ,israelite4 ,god had not revealed ,himself to him in power and unalloyed purity1 with a background of infinite wisdom and omnipotence1 so that unearthly love and goodness were seen to be guiding and ruling the world4 ,as a consequence1 the calling and destiny of man were conceived by the ,greeks in a far less soaring fashion than by ,israel4 ,to put the difference in a few words1 man1 harmoniously developed in all his powers and passions and faculties1 with nothing excessive about him1 was made ,god by the ,greeks2 whereas in ,israel ,god was brought down into human life to bear man's burden and to supply the strength needed that man might become like ,god in truth and mercy and purity4 ,it is of course true that both conceived of ,god under human categories4 ,they could not conceive ,god save by attributing to ,him that which they looked upon as highest in man4 ,it is also true that the higher natures in both nations1 starting thus differently1 did in much approach each other4 ,still1 the immense difference remains1 that the impulse in the one case was given from the earth by dreams of human perfection1 in the other it came from above through men who had seen ,god4 ,the ,greeks had seen only the glory of man2 ,israel had seen the glory of ,god4 ,the result was that human nature as it is seemed to the one much more worthy of respect and much less seriously compromised than it did to the other4 ,comparing man as he is1 only with man as he easily might be1 the ,greeks took a much less serious view of his state than the ,hebrews1 who compared him with ,god as ,he had revealed ,himself4 ,the former never attained any clear conception of sin1 and regarded it as a passing weakness which could without much trouble be overcome4 ,the latter saw that it was a radical and now innate want of harmony with ,god1 which could only be cured by a new life being breathed into man from above4 ,and when ,europe became ,christian1 this difference made itself felt in very widespread religious and theological divergences4 ,in the ,south and among the ,latin races the less strenuous view of human disabilities--the view which naturally grew out of the heathen conception of man as1 on the whole1 born good1 with no very arduous moral heights to scale--has prevailed1 and in those regions the ,pelagian form of doctrine has mastered the ,christian ,church4 ,but the ,teutonic races have1 in this matter1 shown a remarkable affinity with the ,hebrew mind and teaching4 ,the deeper and more tragic view of the state of man has commended itself to the ,teutonic mind1 and the depth of the moral taint in the natural man has been estimated according to the ,biblical standard4 ,it is not only theologians among the ,northern races who have been thus affected4 ,the higher imaginative literature of ,england gives the same impression2 and in our own day ,browning1 our greatest poet1 has emphasised his acceptance of the ,augustinian view of human nature by making its teaching as to original sin a proof of the truth of ,christianity4#cc ,at the end of his poem ,gold ,hair3 a ,story of ,pornic1 in which he tells how a girl of angelic beauty1 and of angelic purity of nature as was supposed1 is found after her death to have sold her soul to the most gruesome avarice1 he says3-- ,the candid incline to surmise of late ,that the ,christian faith may be false1 ,i find2 ,for our ,essays and ,reviews' debate ,begins to tell on the public mind1 ,and ,colenso's words have weight3 ,i still1 to suppose it true1 for my part1 ,see reasons and reasons2 this1 to begin3 ',tis the faith that launched point-blank her dart ,at the head of a lie--taught original sin1 ,the corruption of man's heart4 #cc ,browning's ,poetical ,works1 vol4 vi41 p4 #fi4 ,but the ,pagan view always reasserts itself2 and modern ,hellenists especially1 in their admiration of the grace which does undoubtedly go with such conceptions of goodness as the ,greeks could attain1 are apt to look askance at the harshness and strenuousness which they find in the ,old ,testament4 ,for the most pathetic and pure of the ,greek conceptions of the gods are those which1 like ,demeter1 embody mother's love or some other natural glory of humanity4 ,being thus natural1 they are set before us by the ,greek imagination with an unconstrained and graceful beauty which makes goodness appeal to the sthetic sense4 ,to do this seems to many the supreme achievement4 ,without this they hold that ,christianity would fail to meet the requirements of the modern heart and mind1 for to interest taste on the side of goodness is1 apparently1 better than to let men feel the compulsion of duty4 ,reasoning on such premisses1 they claim that ,greek religion gave to ,christianity its completion and its crown4 ,this is the claim advanced by ,dyer in his ,gods of ,greece 7p4 #ai74 ,the ,greek poets and philosophers1 he says1 are among our intellectual progenitors1 and therefore the religion of to-day has requirements which include all that the noblest ,greeks could dream of1 requirements which the aspirations of ,israel alone could not satisfy4 ,our complex life had need1 not only of a supreme ,god of power1 universal and irresistible1 of a jealous ,god beside whom there was no other ,god1 but also of a ,god of love and grace and purity4 ,to these ideal qualities1 present in the ,diviner godhead of the ,gospels1 the evolution of ,greek mythology brought much that satisfies our hearts4 ,the best answer to that is to read ,deuteronomy4 ,the ,hebrews had no need to borrow a ,god of love and grace and purity from ,greek mythology4 ,centuries before they came in contact with ,greeks1 their inspired men had painted the love and grace and purity of ,god in the most attractive colours4 ,nor did they ever need to unlearn the belief that ,yahweh was merely a supreme ,god of power4 ,in the course of our exposition we shall have occasion to see that the worship of mere power was superseded by the religion of ,yahweh from the first1 and that the author of ,deuteronomy gives his whole strength to demonstrate that the ,god of ,israel is a ,god of love and grace and purity4 ,but perhaps grace means to ,mr4 ,dyer gracefulness4 ,in that case we would deny that the ,diviner godhead of the ,gospels1 as revealed in ,jesus ,christ1 had that sthetic quality either4 ,there is no word of an appeal to the sense of the artistically beautiful in anything recorded of ,him2 but neither in the ,old ,testament nor the ,new is there any want of moral beauty in the representation given of ,god4 ,moral beauty alone has a central place in religion2 and when beauty that appeals to the senses intrudes into religion1 it becomes a source of weakness rather than of strength4 ,there may be a few people who can trust to their taste to keep them firm in the pursuit of goodness1 but the bulk of men have always needed1 and will always need1 the severer compulsion of duty4 ,they need an objective standard2 they need a ,god1 the embodiment and enforcer of all that duty demands of them2 and when they bend themselves to the yoke of obligation thus imposed1 they enter into a world of heavenly beauty which seizes and enraptures the soul4 ,the mere sthetic beauty of ,greek mythology pales1 for the more earnest races of mankind at least1 before this ,diviner loveliness1 and it is the special gift of the ,hebrew as well as of the ,teutonic races to be sensitive to it1 just as they fall behind others in sthetic sensitiveness4 ,wordsworth felt this1 and has expressed it inimitably in his ,ode to ,duty-- ,stern ,lawgiver6 yet ,thou dost wear ,the ,godhead's most benignant grace ,nor know we anything so fair ,as is the smile upon ,thy face4 ,that expresses the ,hebrew feeling also4 ,drawn upwards by the infinite and unchangeable love and goodness of ,yahweh1 the ,hebrews felt the clog of their innate sinfulness as no other race has done4 ,the stern thou shalt nots of the ,decalogue consequently found an echo in their hearts4 ,won by the beauty of holiness1 they gladly welcomed the discipline of the ,divine law1 and by doing so they established human goodness on a foundation immeasurably more stable than any the gracefulness of ,greek imaginations could hope to lay4 ,,chapter ,,vi ,,the ,,mediatorship ,,of ,,moses ,,deut4 v4 #bb-cc ,after the ten commandments1 ,deuteronomy1 like ,exodus1 next indicates that for all of legislation1 exhortation1 and advice that follows1 ,moses was to be the mediator between ,god and the people4 ,he is represented as ,yahweh's prophet or speaker in all that succeeds2 the ,decalogue alone is set forth as the direct ,divine command4 ,evidently a great distinction is here notified1 and what it exactly was may be best explained by reference to the history of ,roman law4 ,in the earliest times that consisted of ,fas1 ,jus1 and ,jus moribus constitutum4 ,in ,chapter ,,iv4 ,professor ,muirhead's description of fas has been given at length1 so that we need not repeat it here4 ,the point to remember is that it consisted of universal precepts such as the ,decalogue contains1 given direct by ,god4 ,jus again was1 according to ,breal1 the ,divine will declared by human agency1 and it occupied much the position which law does in civilised states now4 ,finally1 jus moribus constitutum1 or boni mores1 was customary law1 which had a twofold function4 ,it was 7#a7 a restraint upon the law1 condemning1 though it could not prevent1 the ruthless and unnecessary exercise of legal right4 7#b7 ,it was a supplement to law 7jus71 requiring things law did not1 e4g4 dutiful service1 respect and obedience1 chastity1 fidelity to engagements1 etc4 ,now it is a striking fact that1 though there can be no question of imitation here1 the legislation of ,deuteronomy falls naturally into these very divisions2 and that fact of itself gives strong support to the belief that here in ,israel1 as there in ,rome1 we have the recorded facts of the earliest efforts at the regulation of national life4 ,the fas1 then1 corresponds to the ,decalogue4 ,the jus runs exactly parallel with the laws in the strict sense of the term1 those which ,moses received from ,yahweh and afterwards promulgated4 ,lastly1 the boni mores are represented in ,deuteronomy by those beautiful precepts which limited the exercise of legal right1 and1 going far beyond law1 demanded of ,israel that they should make good their claim to be ,yahweh's people by justice1 charity1 and purity4 ,to some it may seem that we do no service to ,scripture by insisting upon such a parallel4 ,they will feel as if thereby the unique character of the religion of ,israel as a revealed religion were obscured1 if not obliterated4 ,but nothing can be imagined which could confirm us in belief of the substantial accuracy of what we find narrated of early times in ,scripture1 more than the discovery that1 without any possibility of collusion1 the earliest records of civilisation elsewhere give us precisely the same account of the forms in which law first makes its appearance4 ,surely we ought now to have learned this lesson at least1 that it is no disparagement to a ,divinely given system of law and religion1 that its growth and development run in the same channels as the growth and development of similar systems which have none of the marks of a ,divine origin4 ,revelation always seizes upon mind as it is1 and makes that a sufficient and effective channel for itself4 ,however it is to be explained1 it is true that ,divine action generally seeks to hide itself in the ordinary course of human things as quickly as possible4 ,it is only at the moment of contact1 or at the moment when it has burst forth in some flower of more than earthly grace and loveliness1 or when it has overturned and overturned until that state of things which has a right to endure has been attained1 that the ,divine force reveals itself4 ,for the most part it sinks into the general sum of forces that are making for the progress of humanity1 and clothes itself gladly in the uniform of other beneficent but natural influences4 ,consequently it ought to be a welcome fact that so close a parallel exists between the origins of ,roman law and the origins of ,hebrew law4 ,the one great gain already mentioned1 that it explains the early appearance of the ,decalogue1 and shows that some such laws would naturally be among the primary laws of ,israel1 would be sufficient to justify that view2 while in addition the distinctions from the early laws of ,rome help us to classify in clear broad masses the somewhat disordered series of ,deuteronomic laws4 ,on one point only does the parallel seem questionable4 ,if we followed it alone as our guide1 we should have to set down the mediatorship of ,moses1 as a mere part of the method1 as belonging to the formal side only of the great revelation4 ,in other words1 we should have to ask whether the statement we have in ,deut4 v4 #bb-cj is only an emotional and pictorial way of setting forth the fact that1 following and supplementing the elementary and ,divinely given ,hebrew fas1 there was also a ,divinely given but humanly mediated jus4 ,but clearly it means much more than that4 ,by the earlier prophets1 and generally in all earlier delineations of him1 ,moses is regarded as a prophet who had more direct and continuous access to the ,divine presence than any other prophet of ,israel4 ,moreover he had always been represented from the earliest times as standing between ,yahweh and ,his people1 holding on to the one and refusing to let the other go4 ,in the great scene1 taken from the earliest constituents of the ,pentateuch and narrated in ,exod4 xxxii41 we see him anticipating by centuries the wonderful picture of the ,servant of ,god in ,isa4 liii41 and by a still more amazing stretch of time1 that ,divinest wish of ,st4 ,paul1 that he himself might be accursed even from ,christ for his brethren's sake4 ,he thus stood between ,yahweh and ,his people both as the organ of ,revelation and as the self-forgetting intercessor1 who suffered for sins not his own1 as well as for sins which his connection with his nation had brought upon him2 who1 instead of repining1 was willing to be blotted out of ,god's book if that could benefit his people4 ,this representation of ,moses is not accidental4 ,it is in complete accord with a characteristic of ,israelite literature from beginning to end4 ,in the earliest historical records we find that the chief heroes of the nation are mediators1 standing for ,god in the face of evil men1 and pleading with ,god for men when they are broken and penitent1 or even when they are only terrified and restrained by the terror of the ,lord4 ,at the beginning of the national history we see the noble figure of ,abraham in an agony of supplication and entreaty before ,god on behalf of the cities of the plain4 ,at the end of it1 we see the ,christ1 the supreme mediator between ,god and man1 pouring out ,his soul unto death for men while they were yet sinners1 dying1 the just for the unjust1 taking upon ,himself the responsibility for the sin of man1 and refusing to let him wander away into permanent separation from ,god4 ,and all between is in accord with this4 ,for it is not ,moses only who is regarded as having a mediatorial office4 ,the very people itself is set1 by the promise given to ,abraham1 in the same position4 ,as early at least as the eighth century it was put before ,israel1 that their calling was not for their own sakes only1 but that in them all nations of the earth might be blessed4 ,and at their highest moments the prophets and teachers of ,israel always recognised this as their nation's part4 ,even when they were being scattered among the heathen1 it was that they might be the means of bringing the knowledge of ,yahweh to the nations4 ,from end to end of ,scripture1 therefore1 this conception is wrought into the very fibre of its utterances4 ,it is of the essence of the ,biblical conception of ,god that ,he should work among men by mediators4 ,in no other way could the primary ,divine message be set forth than by the prophetic voice2 in no other way than by the intercession and the suffering of those most in harmony with the ,divine will could any effective hold upon ,god be given to ,his people4 ,only by those who thus proved that they had seen ,yahweh could ,his character be expressed4 ,further1 it was in this way that ,moses and the prophets1 the rulers and the saints of ,israel1 were types of ,christ4 ,they were not mere puppets set forth in certain crises of ,israel's history to go through a certain career1 live a certain life1 and pass into and out of a number of scenes1 in order that they might afford us1 upon whom the end of the world has come1 pictorial proofs that all things in this history were pressing towards and converging upon ,christ4 ,that would be a very artificial way of conceiving the matter4 ,no1 each of these types was a real man1 with real tasks of his own to accomplish in the world4 ,not only were they all real men1 they were the leading men of their various times4 ,they bore the burden of their day more than others2 they were the special organs of ,divine power and grace2 and their lives were spent in giving impulse and direction to the movements of their people's life towards the strange1 unlooked-for consummation appointed for it4 ,they were types of ,christ1 they gave promise of ,him1 not because of mere arbitrary appointment or selection1 but because they did in their day1 in a lower degree and at an earlier stage1 the very same work that ,he did4 ,further1 the whole nation was a type of ,christ in so far as it was true to its calling at all4 ,it was the prophet and the priest among nations4 ,it spread abroad the knowledge of ,him1 and it died at last as a nation that life might be given to the world4 ,both ,israel and all the men who truly represented it were partakers in the labours and in the sufferings of ,christ beforehand1 just as ,christians are said to fill up the measure of ,his sufferings now4 ,the mediatorial character of ,moses1 therefore1 was essential4 ,it is no merely formal thing1 nor an afterthought4 ,he would have been no fit founder of the mediatorial nation had he not been a mediator himself1 for not otherwise could he have helped to realise the ,abrahamic promise4 ,but there is another subsidiary reason why a mediator was necessary to ,israel at this stage4 ,behind all that ,moses taught his people lay necessarily the ancient popular religion of the ,hebrews4 ,now1 except in so far as it may have been changed in ,egypt1 that was in its main features the same as the religion of the other nomadic tribes of ,semitic stock1 for the ,abrahamic faith was1 clearly1 known but to few4 ,but the names given to their deities by these people--such as ,baal1 ,adhonai1 ,milcom1 etc4--all expressed submission to the irresistible power revealing itself in nature1 just as ,islam1 which means submission1 indicates that ,mohammedanism is a mere perpetuation of this view4#cd ,consequently the ,israelite people were unable to conceive ,god save as a devouring presence1 before which no man could live4 ,the ,mosaic view was1 in itself1 immeasurably higher1 and1 besides that1 it opened up the path to attainments then inconceivable4 ,moses therefore had to stand alone in his new relation to ,god1 while the people cowered away in terror1 dominated entirely by the lower conception4 ,they could not stand where he stood4 ,they were unable to believe that power was not ,yahweh's only attribute2 while ,moses had had revealed to him1 in germ at least1 that ,god was merciful and gracious1 longsuffering and slow to anger1 and that a life passed in ,his presence was the ideal life for man4 ,both the ,yahwistic narrative in ,exodus and the repetition of it in ,deuteronomy give the same representation of the events at ,sinai1 and indicate quite clearly that1 while the old relation to ,god was in itself good so far1 it was to be superseded by that higher relation in which ,moses stood4 ,that is the meaning of the words in ,deut4 v4 #bh1 #bi3 ,and ,yahweh said unto me1 ,i have heard the voice of the words of this people which they have spoken unto thee2 they have well said all that they have spoken4 ,oh that there were such a heart in them1 that they would fear ,me and keep all ,my commandments1 always1 that it might be well with them and with their children for ever6 ,the parallel passage in ,exodus is xx4 #bj3 ,and ,moses said unto the people1 ,fear not3 for ,god is come to prove you1 and that ,his fear may be before you1 that ye sin not4 ,in both1 the standpoint of fear is approved as relatively good and wholesome4 ,it was well that the people should have this awestruck fear of the ,divine1 for it would act as a deterrent from sin4 ,but it was not sufficient4 ,it was only the starting-point for the attainments which ,yahweh by ,moses1 and in ,moses1 was about to call and incite them to4 ,moses therefore had to stand between ,israel and ,yahweh in this too1 that he had entered into and lived in relations with his ,god which they were as yet unable either to conceive or to endure4 #cd ,cf4 ,schultz1 ,alttestamentliche ,theologie1 p4 #ib4 ,it is well to add1 also1 that in giving approval of this kind to fear as a religious motive these early teachers were entirely in accord with the final development of ,israelite religion in the ,new ,testament4 ,the modern view that any appeal to fear in religion or morality is degrading would have been simply unintelligible to the ,biblical writers4 ,even now1 the whole fabric of society1 the state with its officials and the law with its penalties1 are a continual protest against it in the realm of practical morality4 ,in truth the conflict raised about this matter in modern times is simply a conflict between superfine theories and facts4 ,now the ,old ,testament is throughout supremely true to the facts of human nature and human experience4 ,it is practically a transcript of them as seen in the light of revelation4 ,in a time1 therefore1 when in morals and religion physical fact is being allowed to override or pervert psychical fact1 the ,old ,testament view is peculiarly wholesome4 ,it helps to restore the balance and to keep man's thoughts sane4 ,another point on which this narrative of ,deuteronomy corrects and restores that which the tendency of modern thought has perverted is an even more important one4 ,we have seen that the ,old ,testament view1 as stated here1 and as it is interwoven with the central fibres of the ,old ,testament conception1 is that all men who are called to the task of permanently raising the level of human life and thought must give not only their light to1 but their life for1 those whom they seek to win for ,god4 ,they must ask nothing from mankind but ever widening opportunities for service and self-sacrifice4 ,but in our modern day this has been precisely reversed1 and men like ,goethe and ,schopenhauer1 and even ,carlyle1 have demanded that mankind should yield service to them1 and then1 by the furtherance and development they thereby attain1 they promise to work out the deliverance of men from superstition and unreality and the bondage of ignorance4 ,goethe in this matter is typical4 ,he preached and practised in the most uncompromising manner the doctrine of self-development4 ,he thought that he could serve humanity in no way so well as by making every one he met1 and all the experiences he encountered1 minister to his own intellectual growth4 ,instead of saying with ,moses1 ,blot me out of ,thy book1 but spare these dim idolatrous masses1 he would have said1 ,let them all perish1 and let me become the origin of a wiser1 more intellectual1 more self-restrained race than they4 ,he consequently pursued his own ends relentlessly from his early years1 and attained results so immense that almost every domain of thought1 speculation1 and science is now under some debt to him4 ,but for all purposes of inspiring moral and spiritual enthusiasm he is practically useless4 ,his selfishness1 however high its kind1 accomplished its work and left him cold1 unapproachable1 isolated4 ,this want of love for men made him the accurate critic of human nature1 but left him blind in great degree and hopeless altogether in regard to those possibilities of better things which are never wholly wanting to it4 ,the result is that1 notwithstanding his heroic powers1 his influence is to-day rather a minus quantity in the spiritual and moral life4 ,no one who has not warmth from other sources pouring in upon him can have much communion with ,goethe without losing vitality1 and in his presence the ,divine passion of self-sacrificing love looks out of place1 or even slightly absurd4 ,his power is fascinating1 but it freezes all the sources of the nobler spiritual emotions1 and ultimately must tend to the impoverishing of human nature and the lowering of the level of human life4 ,no2 men are not to be reached so if it is wished to raise them to their highest powers1 and all experience proves that the ,new ,testament was right in summing up the teaching of the ,old by the words1 ,he that saveth his life shall lose it1 and he that loseth his life for ,my sake shall find it4 ,that is the doctrine1 simple1 ancient1 true2 ,such is life's trial1 as old earth smiles and knows4 ,if you loved only what were worth your love1 ,love were clear gain1 and wholly well for you2 ,make the low nature better by your throes6 ,give earth yourself1 go up for gain above6#ce #ce ,browning1 ,james ,lee's ,wife1 ,,vii4 ,,chapter ,,vii ,,love ,,to ,,god ,,the ,,law ,,of ,,life ,,deut4 vi4 #d1 #e ,in these verses we approach the commandments1 the statutes1 and the judgments which it was to be ,moses' duty to communicate to the people1 i4e4 the second great division of the teaching and guidance received at ,sinai4 ,but though we approach them we do not come to them for a number of chapters yet4 ,we reach them only in chapter xii41 which begins with almost the same words as chapter vi4 ,what lies between is a new exhortation1 very similar in tone and subject to that into which chapters i-iii4 have been transformed4 ,to some readers in our day this repetition1 and the renewed postponement of the main subject of the book1 have seemed to justify the introduction of a new author here4 ,they are scornfully impatient of the repetition and delay1 especially those of them who have themselves a rapid1 dashing style2 and they declare that the writer of the laws1 etc41 from chapter xii4 onwards cannot have been the writer of these long double introductions4 ,they would not have written so2 consequently no one else1 however different his circumstances1 his objects1 and his style may be1 can have written so4 ,it is true1 they admit1 that the style1 the grammar1 the vocabulary are all exactly those of the purely legal chapters1 but that matters not4 ,their irritation with this delay is decisive2 and so they introduce us1 entirely on the strength of it1 to another ,deuteronomist1 second or third or fourth--who knows8 ,but all this is too purely subjective to meet with general acceptance1 and we may without difficulty decide that the linguistic unity of the book1 when chapters vi4 to xii4 are compared with what we find after xii41 is sufficient to settle the question of authorship4 ,but we have now to consider the possible reasons for this second long introduction4 ,the first introduction has been satisfactorily explained in a former chapter2 this second one can1 ,i think1 quite as easily be accounted for4 ,the object of the book is in itself a sufficient explanation4 ,to modern critical students of the ,old ,testament the laws are the main interest of ,deuteronomy4 ,they are the material they need for their reconstruction of the history of ,israel1 and they feel as if all besides1 though it may contain beautiful thoughts1 were irrelevant4 ,but that was not the writer's point of view at all4 ,for him it was not the main thing to introduce new laws4 ,he was conscious rather of a desire to bring old laws1 well known to his fellow-countrymen1 but neglected by them1 into force again4 ,anything new in his version of them was consequently only such an adaptation of them to the new circumstances of his time as would tend to secure their observance4 ,even if ,moses were the author of the book this would be true2 but if a prophetic man in ,manasseh's day was the author1 we can see how naturally and exclusively that view would fill his mind4 ,he had fallen upon evil times4 ,the best that had been attained in regard to spiritual religion had been deliberately abandoned and trodden under foot4 ,those who sympathised with pure religion could only hope that a time would come when ,hezekiah's work would be taken up again4 ,if ,deuteronomy was written in preparation for that time1 the legal additions necessary to ward off the evils which had been so nearly fatal to ,yahwism would seem to the author much less important than they appear to us to be4 ,his object was to retrieve what had been lost1 to rouse the dead minds of his countrymen1 to illustrate that on which the higher life of the nation depended1 and to throw light upon it from all the sources of what then was modern thought4 ,his mind was full of the high teaching of the prophets4 ,he was steeped in the history of his people1 which was then receiving1 or was soon to receive1 its all but final touches4 ,he was intensely anxious that in the later time for which he was writing all men should see how ,providence had spoken for the ,mosaic law and religion1 and what the great principles were which had always underlain it1 and which had now at last been made entirely explicit4 ,under these circumstances1 it was not merely natural that the author of ,deuteronomy should dwell with insistence upon the hortatory part of his book2 it was necessary4 ,he could not feel ,wellhausen's haste to approach his restatement of the law4 ,to him the exhortation was1 in fact1 the important thing4 ,every day he lived he must have seen that it was not want of knowledge that misled his contemporaries4 ,he must have groaned too often under the weight of the indifference even of the well disposed not to be aware that that was the great hindrance to the restoration of the better thoughts and ways of ,hezekiah's day4 ,he had learned by bitter experience1 what every man who is in earnest about inducing masses of men to take a step backward or forward to a higher life always learns1 that nothing can be accomplished till a fire has been kindled in the hearts of men which will not let them rest4 ,to this task the author of ,deuteronomy devotes himself4 ,and whatever impatient theorists of to-day may say1 he succeeds amazingly4 ,his exhortation touches men from one end of the world to the other1 even to this day1 by its affectionate impressiveness4 ,his exhibition of the principles underlying the law is so true that1 when our ,lord was asked1 ,which is the first commandment of all8 ,he answered from this chapter of ,deuteronomy3 ,the first of all the commandments is this1 ,the ,lord our ,god is one ,lord3 and thou shalt love the ,lord thy ,god with all thy heart1 and with all thy soul1 and with all thy strength4 ,the second is this1 ,thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself4 ,there is none other commandment greater than these4 ,now these are precisely the truths ,deuteronomy exhibits in these prefatory chapters1 and it is by them that the after-treatment of the law is permeated4 ,the author of ,deuteronomy by announcing these truths brought the ,old ,testament faith as near to the level of the ,new ,testament faith as was possible2 and we may well believe that he saw his work in its true relative proportions4 ,the hortatory chapters are really the most original part of the book1 and exhibit what was most permanent in it4 ,the mere fact that the author lingers over it1 therefore1 is entirely inadequate to justify us in admitting a later hand4 ,indeed1 if criticism is to retain the respect of reasonable men1 it will have to be more sparing than it has hitherto been with the later hand2 to introduce it here under the circumstances is nothing short of a blunder4 ,in our verses1 therefore1 we have to deal with the main point of our book4 ,coming immediately after the ,decalogue1 these words render explicit the principle of the first table of that law4 ,in them our author is making it clear that all he has to say of worship1 and of the relation of ,israel to ,yahweh1 is merely an application of this principle1 or a statement of means by which a life at the level of love to ,god may be made possible or secured4 ,this section1 therefore1 forms the bridge which connects the ,decalogue with the legal enactments which follow2 and it is on all accounts worthy of very special attention4 ,our ,lord's quotation of it as the supreme statement of the ,divine law1 in its ,godward aspect1 would in itself be an overwhelmingly special reason for thorough study of it1 and would justify us in expecting to find it one of the deepest things in ,scripture4 ,the translation of the first clause presents difficulties4 ,the ,authorised ,version gives us1 ,hear1 ,o ,israel3 ,the ,lord our ,god is one ,lord1 but that can no longer be accepted1 since it rests upon the ,jewish substitution of ,adhonai for ,yahweh4 ,taking this view of the construction1 it should be rendered1 ,hear1 ,o ,israel3 ,yahweh our ,god is one ,yahweh2 and this is the meaning which most recent authorities--e4g4 ,knobel1 ,keil1 and ,dillmann--put upon it4 ,but equally good authorities--such as ,ewald and ,oehler--render1 ,yahweh our ,god--,yahweh is one4 ,this is unobjectionable grammatically4 ,still another translation1 ,hear1 ,o ,israel3 ,yahweh is our ,god1 ,yahweh alone1 has been received by the most recent and most scholarly ,german translation of the ,scripture1 that edited by ,kautzsch4 ,but the objection that in that case l'bhaddo1 not 'echdh1 should have been used1 seems conclusive against it4 ,the two others come very much to the same thing in the end1 and were it not for the time at which ,deuteronomy was written1 ,ewald's translations would be the simpler and more acceptable4 ,but the first--,yahweh our ,god is one ,yahweh--exactly meets the circumstances of that time1 and moreover emphasises that in ,israel's ,god which the writer of ,deuteronomy was most anxious to establish4 ,as against the prevailing tendency of the time1 he not only denies polytheism1 or1 as ,dillmann puts it1 asserts the concrete fact that the true ,god cannot be resolved in the polytheistic manner into various kinds and shades of deity1 like the ,baalim1 but he also prohibits the amalgamation or partial identification of ,him with other gods4 ,though very little is told us concerning ,manasseh's idolatry1 we know enough to feel assured that it was in this fashion he justified his introduction of ,assyrian deities into the ,temple worship4 ,moloch1 for example1 must in some way have been identified with ,yahweh1 since the sacrifices of children in ,tophet are declared by ,jeremiah to have been to ,yahweh4 ,further1 the worship at the ,high ,places had led1 doubtless1 to belief in a multitude of local ,yahwehs1 who in some obscure way were yet regarded as one1 just as the multitudinous shrines of the ,virgin in ,romanist lands lead to the adoration of our ,lady of ,lourdes1 our ,lady of taples1 and so on1 though the ,church knows only one ,virgin ,mother4 ,this incipient and unconscious polytheism it was our author's purpose to root out by his law of one altar2 and it seems congruous1 therefore1 that he should sum up the first table of the ,decalogue in such a way as to bring out its opposition to this great evil4 ,of course the oneness of deity as such is involved in what he says2 but the aspect of this truth which is specially put forward here is that ,yahweh1 being ,god1 is one ,yahweh1 with no partners1 nor even with variations that practically destroy unity4 ,no proposition could have been framed more precisely and exactly to contradict the general opinion of ,manasseh and his followers regarding religion2 and in it the watchword of monotheism was spoken4 ,since it was uttered1 this has been the rallying point of monotheistic religion1 both among ,jews and ,mohammedans4 ,for there is no ,god but ,god is precisely the counterpart of ,yahweh is one ,yahweh2 and from one end of the civilised world to the other this strenuous confession of faith has been heard1 both as the tumultuous battle-shout of victorious armies1 and as the stubborn and immovable assertion of the despised1 and scattered1 and persecuted people to whom it was first revealed4 ,even to-day1 though in the hands of both ,jews and ,mohammedans it has been hardened into a dogma which has stripped the ,mosaic conception of ,yahweh of those elements which gave it possibilities of tenderness and expansion1 it still has power over the minds of men4 ,even in such hands1 it incites missionary effort1 and it appeals to the heart at some stages of civilisation as no other creed does4 ,it makes men1 nay1 even civilised men1 of the wild fetich-worshipping ,african2 but for want of what follows in our context it leaves them stranded--at a higher level1 it is true1 but stranded nevertheless--without possibilities of advance1 and exposed to that terrible decay in their moral and spiritual conceptions which sooner or later asserts itself in every ,mohammedan community4 ,israel was saved from the same spiritual disease by the great words which succeed the assertion of ,yahweh's oneness4 ,the writer of ,deuteronomy did not desire to set forth this declaration as an abstract statement of ultimate truth about ,god4 ,he makes it the basis of a quite new1 a quite original demand upon his countrymen4 ,because ,yahweh thy ,god is one ,yahweh1 thou shalt love ,yahweh thy ,god with all thine heart1 and with all thy soul1 and with all thy might4 ,to us1 who have inherited all that was attained by ,israel in their long and eventful history as a nation1 and especially in its disastrous close1 it may have become a commonplace that ,god demands the love of ,his people4 ,but if so1 we must make an effort to shake off the dull yoke of custom and familiarity4 ,if we do1 we shall see that it was an extraordinarily original thing which the ,deuteronomist here declares4 ,in the whole of the ,old ,testament there are1 outside of ,deuteronomy1 thirteen passages in which the love of men to ,yahweh is spoken of4 ,they are ,exod4 xx4 #f2 ,josh4 xxii4 #e1 xxiii4 #aa2 ,judges v4 #ca2 #a ,kings iii4 #c2 ,neh4 i4 #e2 ,psalms xviii4 #b1 xxxi4 #bd1 xci4 #ad1 xcvii4 #aj1 cxvi4 #a1 cxlv4 #bj2 and ,dan4 ix4 #d4 ,now of these the verses from ,nehemiah and ,daniel are manifestly later than ,deuteronomy1 and of the ,psalms only the eighteenth can with any confidence be assigned to a time earlier than the seventh century ,b4,c4 ,all the others may with great probability be assigned at earliest to the times of ,jeremiah and the post-exilic period4 ,three of the passages from the historic books again--,josh4 xxii4 #e1 xxiii4 #aa2 #a ,kings iii4 #c--;are attributed1 on grounds largely apart from the use of this expression1 to the ,deuteronomic editor1 i4e4 the writer who went over the historical books about #fjj ,b4,c41 and made slight additions here and there1 easily recognisable by their differing in tone and feeling from the surrounding context4 ,indeed ,josh4 xxii4 #e is a palpable quotation from ,deuteronomy itself4 ,of the thirteen passages1 therefore1 only three--,exod4 xx4 #f1 ,judges v4 #ca1 and ,psalm xviii4 #b--;belong to the time previous to ,deuteronomy1 and in all three the mention of love to ,god is only allusive1 and1 as it were1 by the way4 ,before ,deuteronomy1 consequently1 there is little more than the mere occurrence of the word4 ,there is nothing of the bold and decisive demand for love to the one ,god as the root and ground of all true relations with ,him which ,deuteronomy makes4 ,at most1 there is the hint of a possibility which might be realised in the future2 of love to ,god as the permanent element in the life of man there is no indication2 and it is this which the author of ,deuteronomy means1 and nothing less than this4 ,he makes this demand for love the main element of his teaching4 ,he returns to it again and again1 so that there are almost as many passages bearing on this in ,deuteronomy as in the whole ,old ,testament besides2 and the particularity and emphasis with which he dwells upon it are immeasurably greater4 ,only in the ,new ,testament do we find anything quite parallel to what he gives us2 and there we find his view taken up and expanded1 till love to ,god flashes upon us from almost every page as the test of all sincerity and the guarantee of all success in the ,christian life4 ,to proclaim this truth was indeed a great achievement2 and when we remember the abject fear with which ,israel had originally regarded ,yahweh1 it will appear still more remarkable that the book embodying this should have been adopted by the whole people with enthusiasm1 and that with it should begin the ,canon of ,holy ,scripture2 for ,deuteronomy1 as all now recognise1 was the first book which became canonical4 ,i have said that the conception was an extraordinarily original one1 and have pointed out that it had not been traceable to any extent previously in ,israel's religious books or its religious men4 ,it will appear still more original1 ,i think1 if we consider what a growth in moral and spiritual stature separates the ,israel of ,moses' day and that of ,josiah's2 what the attitude of other nations to their gods was in contrast to this2 and1 lastly1 what it involves and implies1 as regards the nature of both ,god and man4 ,as we have already seen1 the earlier narratives represent the men to whom ,moses spoke as acknowledging that they could not1 as yet at any rate1 bear to remain in the presence of ,yahweh4 ,between their ,god and them1 therefore1 there could be no relation of love properly so called4 ,there was reverence1 awe1 and chiefly fear1 tempered by the belief that ,yahweh as their ,god was on their side4 ,he had proved it by delivering them from the oppressions of ,egypt1 and they acknowledged ,him and were jealous for ,his honour and submissive to ,his commands4 ,so far as the record goes1 that would seem to have been their religious state4 ,progress from that state of mind to a higher1 to a demand for direct personal relations between each individual ,israelite and ,yahweh1 was not easy4 ,it was hindered by the fact that ,israel as a whole1 and not the individual1 was for a long time regarded as the subject of religion4 ,that1 of course1 was no hindrance to the development of the thought that ,yahweh loved ,israel2 but so long as that conception dominated religious thought in ,israel1 so long was it impossible to think of individual love and trust as the element in which each faithful man should live4 ,but the love of ,yahweh was declared1 century after century1 by prophet and priest and psalmist1 to be set upon ,his people1 and so the way for this demand for love on man's part was opened4 ,man's relations with ,god began to grow more intimate4 ,the distance lessened1 as the use of the words them that love ,me in the song of ,deborah and the ,davidic word in ,psalm xviii41 ,i love thee1 ,yahweh my rock1 clearly show4 ,hosea next took up the strain1 and intensified and heightened it in a wonderful manner1 but the nation failed to respond adequately4 ,in the later prophets the love and grace and longsuffering of ,yahweh and ,his ceaseless efforts on behalf of ,israel are continually made the ground of exhortations1 entreaties1 and reproaches2 but1 as a whole1 the people still did not respond4 ,we may be sure1 however1 that an ever increasing minority were affected by the clearness and intensity of the prophetic testimony4 ,to this minority1 the ,israel within ,israel1 the remnant that was to return from exile and become the seed of a people that should be all righteous1 the love of ,yahweh tended to become ,his main characteristic4 ,that love sustained their hopes2 and though the awe and reverence which were due to ,his holiness1 and the fear called forth by ,his power1 still predominated1 there grew up in their hearts a multitude of thoughts and expectations tending more and more to the love of ,god4 ,as yet it was only a timid reaching out towards ,him1 a hope and longing which could hardly justify itself4 ,yet it was robust enough not to be killed by disappointment1 by hope deferred1 or even by crushing misfortune2 and in the furnace of affliction it became stronger and more pure4 ,and in the heart of the author of ,deuteronomy it grew certain of itself1 and soared up with an eagerness that would not be denied4 ,then1 as always where ,god is the object of it1 love that dares was justified2 and out of its restless and timid longings it came to the place of rest imperturbable1 where love is not forsaken if itself forsaketh not4#cf ,from knowledge1 confirmed by the answering love and inspiration of ,god1 and impelled consciously by ,him1 he then in this book made and reiterated his great demand4 ,all spiritual men found in it the word they had needed4 ,they responded to it eagerly when the book was published2 and their enthusiasm carried even the torpid and careless masses with them for a time4 ,the nation1 with the king at their head1 accepted the legislation of which this love to ,god was the underlying principle1 and so far as public and corporate action can go1 ,israel adopted the deepest principle of spiritual life as their own4 #cf ,augustine's ,confessions1 p4 #fd4 ,of course with the mass this assent had little depth2 but in the hearts of the true men in ,israel the joy and assurance of their great discovery1 that ,yahweh their ,god was open to1 nay1 desired and commanded1 their most fervent affection1 soon produced its fruit4 ,from the fragments of the earliest legislation which have come down to us1 it is obvious that the ,mosaic principles had led to a most unwonted consideration for the poor4 ,in later days1 though the ingrained tendency to oppression1 which those who have power in the ,east seem quite unable to resist1 did its evil work in both ,israel and ,judah1 there were never wanting prophetic voices to denounce such villainy in the spirit of these laws4 ,the public conscience was thereby kept alive1 and the ideal of justice and mercy1 especially to the helpless1 became a distinguishing mark of ,israelite religion4 ,but it was in the minds of those who had learned the ,deuteronomist's great lesson1 and had taken example by him1 that the love which came from ,god1 and had just been answered back by man overflowed in a stream of blessing to man's neighbours4 ,deuteronomy had uttered the first and great commandment2 but it is in the ,law of ,holiness1 that complex of ancient laws brought together by the author of ,p1 and found now mainly in ,lev4 xvii4-xxvi41 that we find the second word1 ,thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself4#cg ,if we ask1 ,who is my neighbour8 we find that not even those beyond ,israel are excluded1 for in ,lev4 xix4 #cd we read1 ,the stranger that sojourneth with you shall be unto you as the homeborn among you1 and thou shalt love him as thyself4 ,the idea still needed the expansion which it received from our ,lord ,himself in the parable of the ,good ,samaritan2 but it is only one step from these passages to the ,new ,testament4 #cg ,lev4 xix4 #ah1 #cd4 ,from the standpoint of mere fear1 then1 to the standpoint of love which casteth out fear1 even the masses of ,israel were lifted1 in thought at least1 by the love and teaching of ,god4 ,and the process by which ,israel was led to this height has proved ever since to be the only possible way to such an attainment4 ,it began in the free favour of ,god1 it was continued by the answer of love on the part of man1 and these antecedents had as their consequence the proclamation of that law of liberty--for self-renouncing love is liberty--,thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself4 ,without the first1 the second was impossible2 and the last without the other two would have been only a satire upon the incurable selfishness of man4 ,it is worthy of remark1 at least1 that only on the critical theory of the ,old ,testament is each of these steps in the moral and religious education of ,israel found in its right place1 with its right antecedents2 only when taken so do the teachers who were inspired to make each of these attainments find circumstances suited to their message1 and a soil in which the germs they were commissioned to plant could live4 ,but great as is the contrast between the ,israel of ,moses' day and that of ,josiah's1 it is not so great as the contrast between the religion of ,israel in the ,deuteronomic period and the religion of the neighbouring nations4 ,among them1 at our date #fej ,b4,c41 there was1 so far as we know them1 no suggestion of personal love to ,god as an effective part of religion4 ,in the chapters on the ,decalogue the main ideas of the ,canaanites in regard to religion have been described1 so that they need not be repeated here4 ,i shall add only what ,e4 ,meyer says of their gods3 ,with advancing culture the cultus loses its old simplicity and homeliness4 ,a fixed ritual was developed--founded upon old hereditary tradition4 ,and here the gloomier conception became the ruling one1 and its consequences were inexorably deduced4 ,the great gods1 even the protecting gods of the tribe or the town1 are capricious and in general hostile to man--possibly to some degree because of the mythological conception of ,baal as sun-god--and they demand sacrifices of blood that they may be appeased4 ,in order that evil may be warded off from those with whom they are angry1 another human being must be offered to them as a substitute in propitiatory sacrifice--nay1 they demand the sacrifice of the firstborn1 the best-loved son4 ,if the community be threatened with the wrath of the deity1 then the prince or the nobility as a whole must offer up their children on its behalf4#ch ,this also is the view of ,robertson ,smith1#ci who considers that while in their origin the ,semitic religions involved kindly relations and continual intercourse between the gods and their worshippers1 these gradually disappeared as political misfortune began to fall upon the smaller ,semitic peoples4 ,their gods were angry and in the vain hope of appeasing them men had recourse to the direst sacrifices4 ,hints concerning these had survived from times of savagery2 and to the diseased minds of these terror-stricken peoples the more ancient and more horrible a sacrifice was the more powerful did it seem4 ,at this time1 therefore1 the course of the ,canaanite religions was away from love to their gods4 ,the decay of nationality brought despair1 and the frantic efforts of despair1 into the religion of the ,canaanite peoples2 but to ,israel it brought this higher demand for more intimate union with their ,god4 ,whatever elements tending towards love the ,canaanite religions originally may have had1 they had either been mingled with the corrupting sensuality which seems inseparable from the worship of female deities1 or had been limited to the mere superficial good understanding which their participation in the same common life established between the people and their gods4 ,their union was largely independent of moral considerations on either side4 ,but in ,israel there had grown up quite a different state of things4 ,the union between ,yahweh and ,his people had from the days of the ,decalogue taken a moral turn2 and gradually it had become clear that to have ,abraham for their father and ,yahweh for their ,god would profit them little1 if they did not stand in right moral relations and in moral sympathy with ,him4 ,now1 in ,deuteronomy1 that fundamentally right conception of the relation between ,god and man received its crown in ,yahweh's claim to the love of ,his people4 ,no contrast could be greater than that which common misfortune and a common national ruin produced between the surrounding ,semitic peoples and ,israel4 #ch ,geschichte des ,alterthums1 p4 #bdi4 #ci ,religion of the ,semites1 p4 #ccj4 ,but besides the small kingdoms which immediately surrounded ,palestine1 ,israel had for neighbours the two great empires of ,egypt and ,assyria4 ,she was exposed therefore to influence from them in even a greater degree4 ,long before the ,exodus1 the land which ,israel came afterwards to occupy had been the meeting-place of ,babylonian and ,egyptian power and culture4 ,in the fifteenth century ,b4,c4 it was under the suzerainty if not the direct sovereignty of ,egypt2 but its whole culture and literature1 for it must have had books1 as the name ,kirjath-,sepher 7,book-town7 shows1 was ,babylonian4 ,throughout ,israel's history1 moreover1 ,assyrian and ,egyptian manners and ways of thought were pressed upon the people2 and we cannot doubt that in regard to religion also their influence was felt4 ,but at this period1 as in the ,canaanite religions1 so also in those of ,assyria and ,egypt1 the tendency was altogether different from what ,deuteronomy shows it to have been in ,israel4 ,in regard to ,egypt this is somewhat difficult to prove1 for the ,egyptian religion is so complicated1 so varied1 and so ancient1 that men who have studied it despair of tracing any progress in it4 ,a kind of monotheism1 polytheism1 fetichism1 animism1 and nature-worship such as we find in the ,vedas1 have in turn been regarded as its primitive state2 but as a matter of fact all these systems of religious thought and feeling are represented in the earliest records1 and they remained constant elements of it till the end4#dj ,whatever had once formed part of it1 ,egyptian religion clung to with extraordinary tenacity4 ,as time went on1 however1 the accent was shifted from one element to the other1 and after the times of the ,x,i,xth dynasty1 i4e4 after the time of the ,exodus1 it began to decay4 ,a systematised pantheism1 of which sun-worship was the central element1 was elaborated by the priests2 the moral element which had been prominent in the days when the picture of the judgment of the soul after death was so popular in ,thebes retired more into the background1 and the purely magical element became the principal one4 ,instead of moral goodness and the fulfilment of duty being the main support of the soul in its dread and lonely journeys in the world of the ,western sky1 knowledge of the proper formulas became the chief hope1 and the machinations of evil demons the main danger4 ,in the royal tombs at ,thebes the walls of the long galleries are covered with representations of these demons1 and the accompanying writing gives directions as to the proper formulas by knowledge of which deliverance can be secured4 ,this1 of course1 confined the benefits of religion1 so far as they related to the life to come1 to the educated1 and the wealthy4 ,for these secret spells were hard to obtain1 and had to be purchased at a high price4 ,as ,wiedemann says1 ,still more important than in this world was the knowledge of the correct magical words and formulas in the other world4 ,no door opened here if its name was not known1 no dmon let the dead pass in if he did not address him in the proper fashion1 no god came to his help so long as his proper title was not given him1 no food could be procured so long as the exactly prescribed words were not uttered4#da ,the people were therefore thrown back upon the ancient popular faith1 which needed gods only for practical life1 and honoured them only because they were mighty4#db ,some of them were believed to be friendly2 but others were malevolent deities who would destroy mankind if they did not mollify them by magic1 or render them harmless by the greater power of the good gods4 ,consequently ,set1 the unconquerable evil demon1 was worshipped with zeal in many places4 ,with him there were numerous demons1 the enemies1 the evil ones1 which lie in wait for individuals1 and threaten their life and weal4 ,the main thing1 therefore1 was to bring the correct sacrifices1 to use such formulas and perform such acts as would render the gods gracious and turn away evil4 ,moreover the whole of nature was full of spirits1 as it is to the ,african of to-day1 and in the mystic texts of the ,book of the ,dead1 there is constant mention made of the mysterious beings whose names1 whose ceremonials are not known1 which thirst for blood1 which bring death1 which go about as devouring flame1 as well as of others which do good4 ,at all times this element existed in ,egypt2 but precisely at this time1 in the reign of ,psamtik1 ,brugsch#dc declares that new force was given to it1 and on the monuments there appear1 along with the great gods1 monstrous forms of demons and genii4 ,in fact the higher religion had become pantheistic1 and consequently less rigidly moral4 ,magic had been taken up into it for the life beyond the grave1 and became the only resource of the people in this life4 ,fear1 therefore1 necessarily became the ruling religious motive1 and instead of growing toward love of ,god1 men in ,egypt at this time were turning more decisively than ever away from it4 #dj ,cf4 ,wiedemann1 ,religion der alten ,aegypter1 p4 #c4 #da ,wiedemann1 p4 #a1 #ce4 #db ,cf4 ,meyer1 p4 #ga4 #dc ,egypt under the ,pharaohs1 ,brodick's edition p4 #dbc4 ,of the ,assyrian religion and its influence it is also difficult to speak in this connection1 for notwithstanding the amount of translation that has been done1 not much has come to light in regard to the personal religion of the ,assyrians4 ,on the whole it seems to be established that in its main features the religion of both ,babylon and ,assyria remained what the non-,semitic inhabitants of ,akkad had made it4 ,originally it had consisted entirely of a spirit and demon worship not one whit more advanced than the religion of the ,south ,sea islanders to-day4 ,as such it was in the main a religion of fear4 ,though some spirits were good1 the bulk were evil1 and all were capricious4 ,men were consequently all their lifetime subject to bondage1 and love as a religious emotion was impossible4 ,when the ,semites came at a later time into the country their star-worship was amalgamated with this mere ,shamanism of the ,akkadians4 ,in the new faith thus evolved the great gods of the ,semites were arranged in a hierarchy1 and the spirits1 both good and evil1 were subordinated to them4 ,but even the great gods remain within the sphere of nature1 and have in full measure the defects and limitations of nature-gods everywhere4#dd ,they are not entirely beneficent powers1 nor are they even moral beings4 ,some have special delight in blood and destruction1 while the cruel ,semitic child-sacrifice was practised in honour of others4 ,again1 their displeasure has no necessary or even general connection with sin4 ,their wrath is generally the outcome of mere arbitrary whim4 ,indeed it may be doubted whether the conception of sin or of moral guilt ever had a secure footing in this religion4 ,it certainly had none in the terror-struck hymn to the seven evil spirits who are described thus3-- ,seven 7are7 they1 seven 7are7 they4 ,male they 7are7 not1 female they 7are7 not2 ,moreover the deep is their pathway4 ,wife they have not1 child is not born to them4 ,law 7and7 order they know not1 ,prayer and supplication hear they not4 ,wicked 7are7 they1 wicked 7are7 they4#de #dd ,meyer1 p4 #aag4 #de ,sayce1 ,babylonian ,literature1 p4 #cf4 ,both poems here referred to are pre-,assyrian1 being found as translations in the library of ,assurbanipal4 ,but ,assyrian religion made no progress2 it seems to have remained always dependent on ,babylonian1 even in details4 ,there is here an accent of genuine terror1 which involved not love1 but hatred4 ,even in what ,sayce calls a ,penitential ,psalm1 and which he compares to the ,biblical ,psalms1 there is nothing of the gratitude to ,god as a deliverer from sin which in ,israel was the chief factor in producing the response to ,yahweh's demand for the love of man4 ,morally1 it contains nothing higher than is contained in the hymn of the spirits4 ,the transgressions which are so pathetically lamented1 and from the punishment of which deliverance is so earnestly sought1 are purely ceremonial and involuntary4 ,the author of the prayer conceives that he has to do with a god whose wrath is a capricious thing1 coming upon men they know not why4 ,so conceived ,god cannot be loved4 ,it is entirely in accord with this that in the great flood epic no reason is given for the destruction of mankind save the caprice of ,bel4#df ,the few expressions quoted by ,sayce from a hymn to the sun-god--such as this1 ,merciful ,god1 that liftest up the fallen1 that supportest the weak4444 ,like a wife1 thou submittest thyself1 cheerful and kindly4444 ,men far and wide bow before thee and rejoice--cannot avail to subvert a conclusion so firmly fixed4 ,these are simply the ordinary expressions which the mere physical pleasure of the sunlight brings to the lips of sun-worshippers of all ages and of all climes4 ,at best they could only be taken as germs out of which a loving relation between ,god and man might have been developed4 ,but though they were ancient they never were developed4 ,at the end as at the beginning the ,assyrio-,babylonian religion moves on so low a level1 even in its more innocent aspects1 that a development like that in ,deuteronomy is absolutely impossible4 ,in its worse aspects ,assyrian religion was unspeakable4 ,the worship of ,ishtar at ,nineveh outdid everything known in the ancient world for lust and cruelty4 #df ,meyer1 p4 #agh4 ,cf4 however ,sayce1 ,the ,higher ,criticism and the ,monuments1 p4 #aad4 ,sayce maintains that the ,assyrian epic attributes the flood to the moral guilt of men4 ,but that is by no means proved1 for it is more than doubtful whether sin to the ,assyrian was not always mainly a ceremonial matter4 ,on this side too1 therefore1 we find no parallel to ,israel's new outgrowth of higher religion4 ,comparison only makes it stand out more boldly in its splendid originality2 and we are left with the fruitful question1 ,what was the root of the astonishing difference between ,yahweh and every other god whom ,israel had heard of8 ,precisely at this time and under the same circumstances1 the ethnic religions around ,israel were developing away from any higher elements they had contained1 and were thereby1 as we know now1 hastening to extinction4 ,under the inspired prophetic influence1 ,israel's religion turned the loss of the nation into gain2 it rose by the darkness of national misfortune into a nobler phase than any it had previously known4 ,but perhaps the crowning merit of this demand for love of ,god is the emphasis it lays upon personality in both ,god and man1 and the high level at which it conceives their mutual relations4 ,from the first1 of course1 the personal element was always very strongly present in the ,israelite conception of ,god4 ,indeed personality was the dominating idea among all the smaller nations which surrounded ,israel4 ,the national god was conceived of mainly as a greater and more powerful man1 full of the energetic self-assertion without which it would be impossible for any man to reign over an ,eastern community4 ,the ,moabite stone shows this1 for in it ,chemosh is as sharply defined a person as ,mesha himself4 ,the ,canaanite gods1 therefore1 might be wanting in moral character2 their existence was doubtless thought of in a limited and wholly carnal manner2 but there never was1 apparently1 the least tendency to obscure the sharp lines of their individuality4 ,in ,israel1 a fortiori1 such a tendency did not exist2 and that a writer of ,matthew ,arnold's ability should have persuaded himself1 and tried to persuade others1 that under the name of ,yahweh ,israel understood anything so vague as his stream of tendency which makes for righteousness1 is only another instance of the extraordinarily blinding effects of a preconceived idea4 ,so far from ,yahweh being conceived in that manner1 it would be much easier to prove that1 whatever aberrations in the direction of making ,god merely a non-natural man may be charged upon ,christianity1 they have been founded almost exclusively upon ,old ,testament examples and ,old ,testament texts4 ,if there was defect in the ,old ,testament conception of ,god1 it was1 and could not but be1 in the direction of drawing ,him down too much into the limits of human personality4 ,but though the gods were always thought of by the ,canaanites as personal1 their character was not conceived as morally high4 ,moral character in ,chemosh1 ,moloch1 or ,baal was not of much importance1 and their relations with their peoples were never conditioned by moral conduct4 ,how deeply ingrained this view was in ,palestine is seen in the persistency with which even ,yahweh's relation to ,his people was viewed in this light4 ,only the continual outcry of the prophets against it prevented this idea becoming permanently dominant even in ,israel4 ,nay1 it often deceived would-be prophets4 ,clinging to the idea of the national ,god1 and forgetting altogether the ethical character of ,yahweh1 without1 perhaps1 conscious insincerity1 they prophesied peace to the wicked1 and so came to swell the ranks of the false prophets4 ,but from very early times another thought was cherished by ,israel's representative men in regard to their relations with ,god4 ,yahweh was righteous1 and demanded righteousness in ,his people4 ,oblations were vain if offered as a substitute for this4 ,all the prophets reach their greatest heights of sublimity in preaching this ethically noble doctrine2 and the love to ,god which ,deuteronomy demands is to be exhibited in reverent obedience to moral law4 ,moreover1 that ,god should seek or even need the love of man threw other light on the ,old ,testament religion4 ,if1 without revelation1 ,israel had widened its mental horizon so as to conceive ,yahweh as ,lord of the world1 it may be questioned whether it could have kept clear of the gulf of pantheism4 ,but by the manifestation of ,god in their special history1 the ,israelites had been taught to rise step by step to the higher levels1 without losing their conception of ,yahweh as the living1 personal1 active friend of their people4 ,moreover they had been early taught1 as we have seen1 that the deep design of all that was wrought for them was the good of all men4 ,the love of ,god was seen pressing forward to its glorious and beneficent ends2 and both by ascribing such far-reaching plans to ,yahweh1 and by affirming ,his interest in the fate of men1 ,israel's conception of the ,divine personality was raised alike in significance and power2 for anything more personal than love planning and working towards the happiness of its objects cannot be conceived4 ,but the crown was set upon the ,divine personality by the claim to the love of man4 ,this signified that to the ,divine mind the individual man was not hid from ,god by his nation1 that he was not for ,him a mere specimen of a genus4 ,rather each man has to ,god a special worth1 a special character1 which1 impelled by ,his free personal love1 ,he seeks to draw to ,himself4 ,at every step each man has near him the great ,companion1 who desires to give ,himself to him4 ,nay1 more1 it implies that ,god seeks and needs an answering love2 so that ,browning's daring declaration1 put into the mouth of ,god when the song of the boy ,theocrite is no more heard1 ,i miss ,my little human praise1 is simple truth4#dg #dg ,browning's ,poems1 ,the ,boy and the ,angel4 ,but if the demand illustrates and illuminates the personality of ,god1 it throws out in a still more decisive manner the personality of man4 ,in a rough sense1 of course1 there never could have been any doubt of that4 ,but children have to grow into full self-determining personality1 and savages never attain it4 ,both are at the mercy of caprice1 or of the needs of the moment1 to which they answer so helplessly that in general no consistent course of conduct can be expected of them4 ,that can be secured only by rigorous self-determination4 ,but the power of self-determination does not come at once1 nor is acquired without strenuous and continued effort2 it is1 in fact1 a power which in any full measure is possessed only by the civilised man4 ,now the ,israelites were not highly civilised when they left ,egypt4 ,they were still at the stage when the tribe overshadowed and absorbed the individual1 as it does to-day among the ,south ,sea islanders4 ,the progress of the prophetic thought towards the demand for personal love has already been traced4 ,here we must trace the steps by which the personal element in each individual was strengthened in ,israel1 till it was fit to respond to the ,divine demand4 ,the high calling of the people reacted on the individual ,israelites4 ,they saw that in many respects the nations around them were inferior to them4 ,much that was tolerated or even respected among them was an abomination to ,israel2 and every ,israelite felt that the honour of his people must not be dragged in the dust by him1 as it would be if he permitted himself to sink to the heathen level4 ,further1 the laws regarding even ceremonial holiness which in germ certainly1 and probably in considerable extension also1 existed from the earliest time1 made him feel that the sanctity of the nation depended upon the care and scrupulosity of the individual4 ,and then there were the individual spiritual needs1 which could not be suppressed and would not be denied4 ,though one sees so little explicit provision for restoration of individual character in early ,yahwism1 yet in the course of time--who can doubt it8--the personal religious needs of so many individual men would necessarily frame for themselves some outlet4 ,building upon the analogy of the relation established between ,yahweh and ,israel1 they would hope for the satisfaction of their individual needs through the infinite mercy of ,god4 ,the ,psalms1 such of them as can fairly be placed in the pre-,deuteronomic time1 bear witness to this2 and those written after that time show a hopefulness1 and a faith in the reality of individual communion with ,god which show that such communion was not then a new discovery4 ,in all these ways the religious life of the individual was being cultivated and strengthened2 but this demand made in ,deuteronomy lifts that indirect refreshment of soul1 for which the cultus and the covenants made no special provision1 into a recognised position1 nay1 into the central position in ,israelite religion4 ,the word1 ,thou shalt love ,yahweh thy ,god1 confirmed and justified all these persistent efforts after individual life in ,god1 and brought them out into the large place which belongs to aspirations that have at last been authorised4 ,by a touch1 the inspired writer transformed the pious hopes of those who had been the chosen among the chosen people into certainties4 ,each man was henceforth to have his own direct relation to ,god as well as the nation2 and the national hope1 which had hitherto been first1 was now to depend for its realisation upon the fulfilment of the special and private hope4 ,thus the old relation was entirely reversed by ,deuteronomy4 ,instead of the individual holding definite place in regard to ,yahweh only through his citizenship1 now the nation has its place and its future secured only by the personal love of each citizen to ,god4 ,for that is obviously what the demand here made really means4 ,again and again the inspired writer returns to it2 and his persistent endeavour is to connect all else that his book contains--warning1 exhortation1 legislation--with this as the foundation and starting-point4 ,here1 as elsewhere1 we can trace the roots of the new covenant which ,jeremiah and ,ezekiel saw afar off and rejoiced at1 and which our blessed ,lord has realised for us4 ,the individual religious life is for the first time fully recognised for what ever since it has been seen to be1 the first condition of any attempt to realise the kingdom of ,god in the life of a nation4 ,and not only thus does our text emphasise individuality4 ,love with all the heart1 and all the mind1 and all the soul is possible only to a fully developed personality2 for1 as ,rothe says1 ,we love only in the measure in which personality is developed in us4 ,even ,god can love only in so far as ,he is personal4#dh ,or1 as ,julius ,muller says in his ,doctrine of ,sin1 ,the association of personal beings in love1 while it involves the most perfect distinction of the ,i and ,thou1 proves itself to be the highest form of unity4#di ,unless other counteracting circumstances come in1 therefore1 the more highly developed individuality is1 the more entirely human beings are determined from within1 the more entirely will union among men depend upon free and deliberate choice1 and the more perfect will it be4 ,in being called to love ,god men are dealt with as those who have attained to complete self-determination1 who have come to completed manhood in the moral life4 ,for all that could mix love with alloy1 mere sensuous sympathy1 and the insistent appeal of that which is materially present1 are wanting here4 ,here nothing is involved but the free outgoing of the heart to that which is best and highest2 nothing but loyalty to that vision of ,good which1 amid all the ruin sin has wrought in human nature1 dominates us so that we needs must love the highest when we see it4 ,the very demand is a promise and a prophecy of completed moral and religious liberty to the individual soul4 ,it rests upon the assurance that men have at last been trained to walk alone1 that the support of social life and external ordinances has become less necessary than it was1 and that one day a new and living way of access to the ,father will bring every soul into daily intercourse with the source of all spiritual life4 #dh ,theol41 ,ethik i41 p4 #eae4 #di ,doctrine of ,sin1 vol4 i41 p4 #aad4 ,but this demand1 in affirming personality of so high a kind1 also re-created duty4 ,under the national dispensation the individual man was a servant4 ,to a large extent he knew not what his ,lord did1 and he ruled his life by the commands he received without understanding1 or perhaps caring to understand1 their ultimate ground and aim4 ,much too of what he thus laid upon himself was mere ancient custom1 which had been a protection to national and moral life in early days1 but which had survived1 or was on the point of surviving1 its usefulness4 ,now1 however1 that man was called upon to love ,god with all his heart and mind and soul1 the step was taken which was to end in his becoming the consciously free son of ,god4 ,for to love in this fashion means1 on the one hand1 a willingness to enter into communion with ,god and to seek that communion2 and on the other it implies a throwing open of the soul to receive the love which ,god so persistently has pressed upon men4 ,in such a relation slavery1 blind or constrained obedience1 disappears1 and the motives of right action become the purest and most powerful that man can know4 ,in the first place1 selfishness dies out4 ,those to whom ,god has given ,himself have no more to seek4 ,they have reached the dwelling of peace imperturbable1 and know that they are secure4 ,nothing that they do can win more for them2 and they do those things that please ,god with the free1 uncalculating1 ungrudging forgetfulness of self1 which distinguishes those fortunate children who have grown up into a perfect filial love4 ,of course it was only the elect in ,israel who in any great degree realised this ideal4 ,but even those who neglected it had for a moment been illuminated by it2 and the record of it remained to kindle the nobler hearts of every generation4 ,even the legalism of later days could not obscure it4 ,in the case of many it bore up and transfigured the dry details of ,judaism1 so that even amid such surroundings the souls of men were kept alive4 ,the later ,psalms prove this beyond dispute1 and the advanced view which brings the bulk of the ,psalter down to the post-exilic period only emphasises the more this aspect of pre-,christian ,judaism4 ,in ,christianity of course the ideal was made infinitely more accessible3 and it received in the ,pauline doctrine1 the ,evangelical doctrine1 of ,justification by ,faith a form1 which more than any other human teaching has made unselfish devotion to ,god a common aim4 ,it would hardly be too much to say that those philosophical and religious systems which have preached the unworthiness of looking for a reward of well-doing1 which have striven to set up the doing of good for its own sake as the only morality worthy of the name1 have failed1 just because they would not begin with the love of ,god4 ,to ,christianity1 especially to ,evangelical ,christianity1 they have assumed to speak from above downwards2 but it alone has the secret they strove in vain to learn4 ,men justified by faith have peace with ,god1 and do good with passionate fervour without hope or possibility of further reward1 just because of their love and gratitude to ,god1 who is the source of all good4 ,this plan has succeeded1 and no other has2 for to teach men on any other terms to disregard reward is simply to ask them to breathe in a vacuum4 ,in the second place1 those who rose to the height of this calling had duty not only deepened but extended4 ,it was natural that they should not seek to throw off the obligations of worship and morality as they had been handed down by their ancestors4 ,only an authoritative voice which they were separated from by centuries could say1 ,it hath been said by them of old time1 444 but ,i say unto you2 and men would be disposed rather to fulfil old obligations with new zeal1 while they added to them the new duties which their widened horizon had brought into view4 ,it is true that in course of time the ,pharisaic spirit laid hold of the ,jews1 and that by it they were led back into a slavery which quite surpassed the half-conscious bondage of their earlier time4 ,it is one of the mysteries of human nature that it is only the few who can live for any time at a high level1 and hold the balance between extremes4 ,the many cannot choose but follow those few2 and the dumb1 half-reluctant1 half-fascinated way in which they are drawn after them is a most pathetic thing to see4 ,but too often they avenge themselves for the pressure put upon them1 by taking up the teaching they receive in a perverted or mutilated form1 dropping unawares the very soul of it1 and suiting it to the average man4 ,when that is done the bread from heaven becomes a stone2 the message of liberty is turned into a summons to the prison house2 and the darkness becomes of that opaque sort which is found only where the light within men is darkness4 ,that tragedy was enacted in ,judaism as rarely elsewhere4 ,the free service of sons was exchanged for the timorous1 anxious scrupulosity of the formalist4 ,how could men love a ,god whom they pictured as inexorable in claiming the mint and cummin of ceremonial worship1 and as making life a burden for all who had a conscience8 ,they could not1 and they did not4 ,most substituted a merely formal compliance with the externalities of worship for the love to ,god and man which was the presupposition of the true ,israelite's life1 and the mass of the nation fell away from true faith4 ,strangely enough1 therefore1 the strength of men's love for ,god1 and of their belief in ,his love1 gave an impulse to the legalistic ,pharisaism which our ,lord denounced as the acme of loveless irreligion4 ,but it was not so perverted in all4 ,there always was an ,israel within ,israel that refused to let go the truths they had learned1 and kept up the succession of men inspired by the free spirit of ,god4 ,even among the ,pharisees there were such--witness ,st4 ,paul--men who1 though they were entangled in the formalism of their time1 found it at last a pedagogue to bring them unto ,christ4 ,we must believe therefore that at the beginning the attainment marked by the demands of ,deuteronomy and the ,law of ,holiness existed and was carried over into the daily life4 ,as the national limits of religion were broken down1 the word neighbour received an ever wider definition in ,israel4 ,at first only a man's fellow-tribesman or fellow-countryman was included2 then the stranger2 later1 as in ,jonah's picture of the conduct of the sailors1 it was hinted that even among the heathen brethren might be found4 ,finally1 in our ,lord's parable of the ,good ,samaritan the last barrier was broken down4 ,but it needed all ,st4 ,paul's lifework1 and the first and most desperate inner conflict ,christianity had to live through1 to initiate men into anything like the full meaning of what ,christ had taught4 ,then it was seen that as there was but one ,father in heaven1 so there was but one family on earth4 ,then too1 though the merely ceremonial duties by which the ,jew had been bound ceased to be binding on ,christians1 the sphere for the practice of moral duty was immensely widened4 ,indeed1 had it not been for the free1 joyous spirit with which they were inspired by ,christ1 they must have shrunk from the immensity of their obligation4 ,for not only were men's neighbours infinitely more numerous now1 but their relations with them became vastly more complicated4 ,to meet all possible cases that might arise in the great and elaborate civilisations ,christianity had to face and save1 our ,lord deepened the meaning of the commandments2 and so far from ,christians being free from the obligation to law1 immeasurably more was demanded of them4 ,to them first was the full sweep of moral obligation revealed1 for they first had reached the full moral stature of men in ,jesus ,christ4 ,,chapter ,,viii ,,education--,,mosaic ,,view ,,deut4 vi4 #f-be ,those great verses1 ,deut4 vi4 #d1 #e1 form the central truth of the book4 ,everything else in it proceeds from and is informed by them1 and they are dwelt upon and enforced with a clear perception of their radical importance4 ,there is something of the joy of discovery in the way in which the unity of ,yahweh and exclusive love to ,him are insisted upon1 not only in verses #f-be of this chapter1 but in xi4 #ac-bj4 ,the same strongly worded demand to lay to heart ,yahweh's command to love ,him and ,him only1 and to teach it strenuously to their children--to make it a sign upon their hand1 and as a frontlet between their eyes--is found in both passages4 ,it is worthy of remark also that nearly the same words are found in ,exod4 xiii4 #i1 #af4 ,presumably on account of this1 some have ascribed that section of ,exodus to the author of ,deuteronomy4 ,but both ,dillmann and ,driver ascribe these passages to ,j and ,e1 and with good reason4 ,indeed1 apart from the purely literary grounds for thinking that these formulas were first used by the earlier writers and were copied by the author of ,deuteronomy1 another line of argument points in the same direction4 ,in ,exodus the thing to be remembered and taught to the children was the meaning and origin of the ,passover and the consecration of the firstborn1 i4e4 the meaning and origin of some of their ritual institutions4 ,here in ,deuteronomy1 on the contrary1 that which is to be written on the heart and taught to the children is moral and spiritual truth about ,god1 and love to ,god4 ,now the probable explanation of this likeness and difference is1 not that the author of ,deuteronomy1 after using this insistive phrase only of high spiritual truths in his own book1 inserted it in ,exodus with regard to mere institutions of the cultus2 rather1 the writers of ,exodus had used it of that which was important in their day1 and the ,deuteronomist borrowed it from them to emphasise his own most cherished revelation4 ,in the earlier stages of a religious movement1 the establishment of institutions which shall embody and perpetuate religious truth1 is one of the first necessities4 ,it has become a commonplace of ,christian defence1 for example1 that ,baptism and the ,lord's ,supper were made the most successful vehicles for conveying fundamental ,christian truth1 and that the celebration of these two rites from the first days even until now is one of the most convincing proofs of the continuity of ,christianity4 ,naturally1 therefore1 the establishment of the ,passover was specially marked out as the palladium of ,israelite religion in the earlier days4 ,but in the time after ,isaiah1 when ,deuteronomy was written1 the institutions needed no longer such insistence4 ,they had indeed become so important to the people that the mere observance of them threatened to become a substitute for religious and even moral feeling4 ,the ,deuteronomist's great message was1 consequently1 a reiteration of the prophetic truths as to the supremacy of the spiritual2 and for the object of the warm exhortation of the earlier writings he substituted the proclamation of ,yahweh's oneness1 and of ,his demand for ,his people's love4 ,this seems a reasonable and probable explanation of the facts as we find them4 ,if true1 it is a proof that the need of ritual institutions1 and the danger of unduly exalting them1 was not peculiar to post-exilic times4 ,in principle the temptation was always present2 and as living faith rose and fell it came into operation1 or was held in abeyance1 throughout the whole of ,israel's history4 ,hence the mention of this kind of formalism or the denunciation of it must be very cautiously used as a criterion by which to date any ,scriptural writings4 ,it is therefore with a full consciousness of its fundamental importance that the author of ,deuteronomy follows the great passage chapter vi4 #d1 #e1 with this solemn and inspiring exhortation4 ,it is from no mere itch for religious improvement of the occasion that he presses home his message thus4 ,nor is it love for the mere repetition of an ancient formula of exhortation that dictates its use4 ,he knew and understood the work of ,moses1 and felt that the moulding power in ,israel's life as a nation1 the unifying element in it1 had been the religion of ,yahweh4 ,whatever else may have been called in question1 it has never been doubted that the salt which kept the political and social life of the people from rotting through many centuries was the always advancing knowledge of ,god4 ,at each great crisis of ,israel's history the religion of ,yahweh had met the demands for direction1 for inspiration1 for uplifting which were made upon it4 ,with ,protean versatility it had adapted itself to every new condition4 ,in all circumstances it had provided a lamp for the feet and a light for the path of the faithful2 and in meeting the needs of generation after generation it had revealed elements of strength and consolation which1 without the commentary of experience1 could never have been brought out4 ,now the author of ,deuteronomy felt that in these short sentences the high-water mark of ,israelite religion so far had been reached1 and that in renewing the work of ,moses1 and adapting it to his own time1 the principles here enunciated must be the main burden of his message4 ,further progress depended1 he obviously felt1 upon the absorption and assimilation of these truths by his people1 and he felt he must provide for the perpetuation of them in that better time he was preparing for4 ,this he did by providing for the religious education of the young4 ,whatever else ,israel had gained it had been careful to hand on from generation to generation4 ,the land flowing with milk and honey was still in the possession of the descendants of the first conquerors4 ,the literature1 the science1 the wisdom that the fathers had gathered1 had been carefully passed down to the children2 and a precious deposit of enriching experience in the form of history had reached to the elect even among the common people1 as the example of ,amos shows4 ,but the most valuable heritage of ,israel was that continually growing deposit of religious truth which had been the life-blood of its master spirits4 ,from generation to generation the noblest men in the nation1 those most sensitive to the touch of the ,divine1 had been casting soundings into the great deep of the hidden purposes of ,god4 ,with sore travail of both mind and spirit1 they had found solutions of the great problems which no living soul can escape4 ,these were no doubt more or less partial1 but they were sufficient for their day1 and were always in the line of the final answer4 ,as the sum of experience widened1 the scope of the solutions widened also1 and in the course of ,providence these issued in a conception of ,god which elsewhere was never approached4 ,this of all national treasures was the most priceless1 and to preserve and hand on this was simply to keep the national soul alive4 ,compared with this1 every other heritage from the past was as nothing2 and so1 with a simple directness which must amaze the legislators of modern states1 the inspired lawgiver arranged for a religious education4 ,to him1 as to all ancient lawgivers1 a commonwealth without religion was simply inconceivable1 and the hampering1 confusing1 and confused difficulties of to-day lay far beyond his horizon4 ,parents must take over this great heritage and lay it deeply to heart4 ,they must then make it the subject of their common talk4 ,they must write the profound words which summed it up upon the doorposts of their houses4 ,they must let it fill their minds at their down-sitting and their uprising1 and while they walked by the way4 ,further1 as the crown of their work1 they were to teach it diligently to their children1 already accustomed by their parents' continual interest to regard this as the worthiest object of human thought4 ,but though the parents were to be the chief instructors of children in religion1 the ,state or the community was also to do its part4 ,as the private citizen was to write1 ,hear1 ,o ,israel3 ,yahweh our ,god is one ,yahweh2 and thou shalt love ,yahweh thy ,god with all thine heart1 and with all thy soul1 and with all thy might1 on the posts of his door1 so the representatives of the community were to write them upon the town or village gates4 ,in those early days schools were unknown1 as ,state-regulated schools are still unknown in all purely ,eastern countries4 ,consequently there was no sphere for the ,state in the direct religious teaching of the young4 ,but so far as it could act1 the ,state was to act4 ,it was to commit itself to the religious principles that underlay the life of the people1 and to proclaim them with the utmost publicity4 ,it was to secure that none should be ignorant of them1 so far as proclamation by writing in the most public place could secure knowledge1 for on this the very existence of the ,state depended4 ,but the religious instruction was not to be limited to the reiteration of these great sentences2 in that case they would have become a mere form of words4 ,in the last verses of the chapter1 vv4 #bj-be1 we find a model of the kind of explanatory comment which was to be given in addition3 ,when thy son asketh thee in time to come1 saying1 ,what mean the testimonies1 and the statutes1 and the judgments1 which ,yahweh our ,god hath commanded you8 then thou shalt say unto thy son1 ,we were ,pharaoh's bondmen in the land of ,egypt2 and ,yahweh brought us out of ,egypt with a mighty hand1 and so on4 ,that means that the history of ,yahweh's dealings with ,his people was to be taught1 to show the reasonableness of the ,divine commands1 to exhibit the love-compelling character of ,god4 ,and this was entirely in accord with the ,biblical conception of ,god4 ,neither here nor elsewhere in the ,old ,testament are there any abstract definitions of ,his character1 ,his spirituality1 ,his omnipresence1 or ,his omnipotence4 ,nor is there anywhere any argument to prove ,his existence4 ,all that is postulated1 presupposed1 as that which all men believe1 except those who have wilfully perverted themselves4 ,but the existence of ,god with all these great and necessary attributes is undoubtedly implied in what is narrated of ,yahweh's dealings with ,his people4 ,as we have seen1 too1 the very name of ,yahweh implies that ,his nature should not be limited by any definition4 ,he was what ,he would prove ,himself to be1 and throughout the ,old ,testament the gesta ,dei through and for the ,israelites1 and the prophetic promises made in ,yahweh's name1 represented all that was known of ,god4 ,this gave a peculiarly healthy and robust tone to ,old ,testament piety4 ,the subjective1 introspective element which in modern times is so apt to take the upper hand1 was kept in due subordination by making history the main nourishment of religious thought4 ,in constant contact with external fact1 ,israelite piety was simple1 sincere1 and practical2 and men's thoughts being turned away from themselves to the ,divine action in the world1 they were less touched by the disease of self-consciousness than modern believers in ,god4 ,in every sphere of human life1 too1 they looked for ,god1 and traced the working of ,his hand4 ,the later distinction between the sacred and secular parts of life1 which has been often pushed to disastrous extremes1 was to them unknown4 ,for these among many other reasons1 the ,old ,testament must always remain of vital importance to the ,church of ,god4 ,it can fall into neglect only when the religious life is becoming unhealthy and one-sided4 ,further1 its qualities especially fit it for use in the education of children4 ,in many respects a child's mind resembles the mind of a primitive people4 ,it has the same love of concrete examples1 the same incapacity to appreciate abstract ideas1 and it has the same susceptibility to such reasoning as this3 ,god has been very loving and gracious to men1 especially to our forefathers1 and we are therefore bound to love ,him and to obey ,him with reverence and fear4 ,to the children of a primitive people such teaching would therefore be doubly suitable2 but the ,deuteronomist's anxiety in regard to it has been justified by its results in times no longer primitive4 ,through ages of persecution and oppression1 often amid a social environment of the worst sort1 there has been little or no wavering in the fundamental points of ,jewish faith4 ,scattered and peeled1 slaughtered and decimated1 as they have been through blood-stained centuries1 this nation have held fast to their religion4 ,not even the fact that1 through their refusal to accept their ,messiah when ,he came1 the most tender1 the most expansive1 the most highly spiritual elements of the ,old ,testament religion have escaped them1 has been able to neutralise the benefit of the truth they have so tenaciously held4 ,of non-,christian nations they stand by far the highest2 and among the orthodox ,jews who still keep firm to the national traditions1 and teach the ancient ,scriptures diligently to their children1 there is often seen a piety and a confidence in ,god1 a submission and a hopefulness which put to shame many who profess to have hope in ,christ4 ,even in our day1 when agnosticism and denial of the supernatural is eating into ,judaism more than into almost any other creed1#ej a book like ,friedlnder's ,the ,jewish ,religion gives us a very favourable idea of the spirit and teachings of orthodox ,judaism4 ,and its main stay is1 and always has been1 the religious training of the young4 ,in obedience to the precept ',thou shalt speak of them1' i4e4 of 'the words which ,i command thee this day1'says ,friedlnder1 'when thou liest down and when thou risest up1' three sections of the law are read daily1 in the morning and in the evening1 viz4 7#a7 ,deut4 vi4 #d-i1 beginning ',hear'2 7#b7 ,deut4 xi4 #ac-ba1 beginning ',and it shall be if ye diligently hearken'2 7#c7 ,numb4 xv4 #cg-da1 beginning ',and the ,lord said4' ,the first section teaches the unity of ,god1 and our duty to love this one ,god with all our heart1 to make ,his word the subject of our constant meditation and to instil it into the heart of the young4 ,the second section contains the lesson of reward and punishment1 that our success depends on our obedience to the will of ,god4 ,this important truth must constantly be kept before our eyes1 and before the eyes of our children4 ,the third section contains the commandments of ,tsitsith1 the object of which is to remind us of ,god's precepts4 ,to-day1 therefore1 as so many centuries ago1 these great words are uttered daily in the ears of all pious ,jews1 and they are as potent to keep them steady to their faith now as they were then4 ,for in most cases where a drift towards the fashionable agnosticism of the day or to atheistic materialism is observable among ,jews1 it will be found to have been preceded either by neglect or formalism in regard to this fundamental matter4 ,briefly1 without this teaching they cease to be ,jews2 with it they remain steadfast as a rock4 ,uprooted as they are from their country1 their national coherence endures and seems likely to endure till their set time has come4 ,so triumphantly has the enforcement of religious education vindicated itself in the case of ,god's ancient people4 #ej ,jewish ,quarterly ,review1 ,october #ahhh1 p4 #ee1 where ,professor ,schechter finds himself compelled to discuss the question whether a man may be a good ,jew and yet deny the existence of ,god4 ,in the remaining verses of the chapter1 vv4 #aj-ai1 we have a warning against neglect and forgetfulness of their ,god1 and an indication of the circumstances under which it would be most difficult to remain true to ,him4 ,these are uttered entirely from the ,mosaic standpoint1 and are among the passages which it is most difficult to reconcile with the later authorship2 for there would appear to be no motive for the later writer to go back upon the exceptional circumstances of the early days in ,canaan4 ,his object must have been to warn and guide and instruct the people of his time in the face of their difficulties and temptations1 to adapt ,mosaic legislation and ,mosaic teaching to the needs of his own day4 ,now on any supposition he must have written when all conquest on ,israel's part had long ceased4 ,it is most probable too that in his day the prosperity of his people was on the wane4 ,they were not looking forward to a time of special temptation from riches2 rather they were dreading expatriation and decay4 ,consequently this reference to the ease with which they became rich by occupying the cities and villages and farms of those they had conquered is quite out of place1 unless we are to regard the author as a skilled and artistic writer who deliberately set himself to reproduce in all respects the mind and thoughts of a man of an earlier day1 as ,thackeray1 for instance1 does in his ,henry ,esmond4 ,but that is not credible2 and the explanation is that given in ,chapter ,i41 that the addresses here attributed to ,moses are free reproductions of earlier traditions or narratives concerning what ,moses actually said4 ,if we know anything about ,moses at all1 it is in the highest degree probable that he left his people some parting charge4 ,he longed to pass the ,jordan with them4 ,he could not fail to see that an immense revolution in their habits and manner of life was certain to occur when they entered the promised land4 ,that must have appeared to him fraught with varied dangers1 and words of warning and instructions would rush even unbidden to his lips4 ,there can be no doubt1 at any rate1 that this passage is true to human nature in regarding the sudden acquirement of great and goodly cities which they did not build1 and houses full of good things which they filled not1 and cisterns hewn out which they did not hew1 vineyards and olive trees which they did not plant1 as a great temptation to forgetfulness of ,god4 ,at all times prosperity1 especially if it come suddenly1 and without being won by previous toil and self-denial1 has tended to deteriorate character4 ,when men have no changes or vicissitudes1 then they fear not ,god4 ,it is for help in trouble when the help of man is vain1 or for a deliverance in danger1 that average men most readily turn to ,god4 ,but when they feel fairly safe1 when they have raised themselves1 as they think1 beyond all storms of chance1 when they have built up between themselves and poverty or failure a wall of wealth and power1 then the impulse that drives them upward ceases to act4 ,it becomes strangely pleasant1 and it seems safe1 to get rid of the strain of living at the highest attainable level1 and with a sigh of relief men stretch themselves out to rest and to enjoy4 ,these are the average men2 but there are some in every age1 the elect1 who have had the love of ,god shed abroad in their hearts1 who have had such real and intimate communion with ,god that separation from ,him would turn all other joys into mockery4 ,they cannot yield to this temptation as most do1 and in the midst of wealth and comfort keep alive their aspirations4 ,in ,israel these two classes existed2 and to the former1 i4e4 to the great bulk of both rulers and people1 the stimulus administered by the conquest to the material side of their nature must have been potent indeed4 ,it is here implied that the ,israelite people when they entered ,canaan had some moral education to lose4 ,whether that could be so is the question asked by many critics1 and their answer is an emphatic ,no4 ,they were1 say they1 a rude1 desert people1 without settled habits of life1 without knowledge of agriculture1 and possessed of a religion which in all outward respects was scarcely1 if at all1 higher than that of the surrounding nations4 ,what happened to them in ,canaan1 therefore1 was not a lapse1 but a rise4 ,they advanced from being a wandering pastoral people to become settled agriculturists4 ,they gained knowledge of the arts of life by their contact with the ,canaanites1 and they lost little or nothing in religion2 for they were themselves only image-worshippers and looked upon ,yahweh as on a level with the ,canaanite ,baals4 ,but if the ,decalogue belongs1 in any form1 to that early time1 and if the character of ,moses be in any degree historical1 then1 of course1 this mode of view is false4 ,then ,israel worshipped a spiritual ,god1 who was the guardian of morals2 and there was in the mind of their leader and legislator a light which illuminated every sphere of life1 both private and national4 ,consequently there could be a falling away from a higher level of religious life1 as the ,scriptures consistently say there was4 ,without perhaps having understood and made their own the fundamental truths of ,yahwism1 the people had had their whole social and political life remodelled in accordance with its principles4 ,they had1 moreover1 had time to learn something of its inner meaning1 and in forty years we may well believe that the more spiritually minded among them had become imbued with the higher religious spirit4 ,add to that the union1 the movement1 the excitement of a successful advance1 crowned by conquest1 and we have all the elements of a revived religious and national life among ,eastern people4 ,similar causes have produced precisely similar effects since4 ,in important respects the origin of ,mohammedanism repeats the same story4 ,a semi-nomadic people1 divided into clans and tribes1 related by blood but never united1 were unified by a great religious idea vastly in advance of any they had hitherto known4 ,the religious reformer who proclaimed this truth1 and those who belonged to the inner circle of his friends and counsellors1 were turned from many evils1 and exhibited a moral force and enthusiasm corresponding1 in some degree at least1 to the sublimity of the religious doctrine they had embraced4 ,the masses1 on their part1 received and submitted to a revised and improved scheme of social life4 ,then they moved forward to conquest1 and in their first days not only trampled down opposition1 but deserved to do so1 for in most respects they were superior to the ignorant and degraded ,christians they overthrew4 ,they came out of the desert1 and were at first soldiers only4 ,but in a generation or two they largely settled to purely agricultural life1 as landowners for whom the native population laboured2 and they gained in knowledge of the arts of life from the more civilised peoples they conquered4 ,but in religious and moral character imitations of the conquered peoples involved1 for the conquerors1 a loss4 ,and soon they did lose4 ,the violence accompanying successful war produced arrogance and injustice2 the immense wealth thrown into their hands so suddenly gave rise to luxury and greed4 ,within twenty-five years from the flight of ,mohammed from ,mecca1 relaxation of manners manifested itself4 ,sensuality and drunkenness were rife2 with ,ali's death the ,caliphate passed into the hands of ,muawia1 the leader of the still half-heathen part of the ,koreish2 and the secular indifferent portion of ,mohammed's followers ruled in ,islam4#ea #ea ,for an illustration of the way in which land-hunger and the rush to satisfy it operates on men1 see the account of ,the ,invasion of ,oklahoma 7a territory lately thrown open to occupation in the ,united ,states71 ,spectator1 ,april #bgth1 #ahhi4 ,allowing all that can be allowed for exceptional influences in ,israel1 we may well believe that the circumstances of the first invaders were such as would strain the influence of the higher religion upon the nation4 ,and after the conquest and settlement the strain would necessarily be greater still4 ,whatever drawbacks warfare may have1 it at least keeps men active and hardy1 but the rest of a conqueror after warfare is a temptation to luxury and corruption which has been very rarely resisted4 ,even to-day1 when men enter upon new and vacant lands1 and that without war and under ,christian influences1 the plenty which the first immigrants soon gather about them proves adverse to higher thought4 ,in ,america in its earlier days1 and in new ,american territories and ,australia now1 our civilisation at that stage always takes a materialistic turn4 ,every man may hope to become rich1 the resources of the country are so great and those who are to share them are so few4 ,in order to develop them1 all concerned must give their time and thoughts to the work1 and must become absorbed in it4 ,the result is that1 though the religious instinct asserts itself in sufficient strength to lead to the building of churches and schools1 and men are too busy to be much influenced by theoretical unbelief1 yet the pulse of religion beats feebly and low4 ,the feeling spreads1 under many disguises it is true1 but still it spreads1 that a man's life does consist in the abundance of the things which he possesseth2 and the heroic element of ,christianity1 the impulse to self-sacrifice1 falls into the background4 ,the result is a social life respectable enough1 save that the social blots due to self-indulgence are a good deal more conspicuous than they should be2 a very high average of general comfort1 with its necessary drawback of a self-satisfied and somewhat ignoble contentment2 and a religious life that prides itself mainly in avoiding the falsehood of extremes4 ,in such an atmosphere true and living religion has great difficulty in asserting itself4 ,each individual is drawn away from the region of higher thought more powerfully than in the older lands where ambitions are for most men less plausible2 and so the struggle to keep the soul sensitive to spiritual influences is more hard4 ,as for the national life1 public affairs in those circumstances tend to be ruled simply by the standard of immediate expediency1 and strenuousness of principle or practice tends to be regarded as an impossible ideal4 ,to all this ,israel was exposed1 and to more4 ,there are doubts as to the extent of their conquests when they settled down2 but there are none that when they did so they still had heathen ,canaanites among them4 ,throughout almost the whole country the population was mixed1 and constant intercourse with the conquered peoples was unavoidable4 ,at first these were either ,israel's teachers in many of the arts of settled life1 or they must have carried on the work of agriculture for their ,israelite lords4 ,moreover many of the sacred places of the land1 the sanctuaries which from time immemorial had been resorted to for worship1 were either taken over by the ,israelites or were left in ,canaanite hands4 ,in either case they opened a way for malign influences upon the purer faith4 ,gradually1 too1 the tribal feeling asserted itself4 ,the tribal heads regained the position they had held before the domination of ,moses and his successor1 just as the tribal heads of the ,arabs asserted themselves after the death of ,mohammed and his immediate successors1 and plunged into fratricidal war with the companions of their prophet4 ,the only difference was that1 while the circumstances of the ,arabs compelled them to retain a supreme head1 the circumstances of the ,israelites permitted them to fall back into the tribal isolation from which they had emerged4 ,the national life was broken up1 the religious life followed in the same path1 until1 as the ,book of ,judges graphically says in narrating how ,micah set up an ,ephod and ,teraphim for himself and made his son a priest1 every man did that which was right in his own eyes4 ,with a people so recently won for a higher faith1 there could not but follow a recrudescence of heathen or semi-heathen beliefs and practices4 ,to sum up1 given a great truth revealed to one man1 which1 though accepted by a nation1 is only half understood by the bulk of them1 and given also a great national deliverance and expansion brought about by the same leader1 you have there the elements of a great enthusiasm with the seeds of its own decay within it4 ,such a nation1 especially if plied with external temptation1 will fall back1 not into its first state certainly1 but into a condition much below its highest level1 so soon as the leader and those who had really comprehended the new truth are removed to a distance or are dead4 ,in the case of ,mohammedanism this was instinctively felt4 ,we find the ,governor of ,bassorah writing thus to ,omar1 the third ,khalif3 ,thou must strengthen my hands with a company of the ,companions of the ,prophet1 for verily they are as salt in the midst of the people4#eb ,the same thing is expressly asserted of ,israel also by the later editor in ,josh4 xxiv4 #ca3 ,and ,israel served the ,lord all the days of ,joshua1 and all the days of the elders that outlived ,joshua1 and had known all the work of the ,lord1 that ,he had wrought for ,israel4 ,it would almost seem as if ,semitic peoples were specially liable to such oscillations1 if ,palgrave's account of the people of ,nejed before the rise of the ,wahabbis in the middle of last century can be trusted4 ,almost every trace of ,islam1 he says1#ec had long since vanished from ,nejed1 where the worship of the ,djann1 under the spreading foliage of large trees1 or in the cavernous recesses of ,djebel ,toweyk1 along with the invocation of the dead and sacrifices at their tombs1 was blended with remnants of old ,saban superstition4 ,the ,coran was unread1 the five daily prayers forgotten1 and no one cared where ,mecca lay1 east or west1 north or south2 tithes1 ablutions1 and pilgrimages were things unheard of4#ed ,if that was the state of things in a country exposed to no extraneous influences after a thousand years of ,islam1 we may well believe that the state of ,israel in the time of the ,judges was a fall from a better state religiously as well as politically4 ,looking to the future1 ,moses might well foresee the danger2 and looking back the author of ,deuteronomy would have reasons1 many of them now unknown1 for knowing that what was feared had occurred4 #eb ,the ,caliphate1 by ,sir ,william ,muir1 p4 #ahe4 #ec ,central and ,eastern ,arabia1 vol4 i41 p4 #cgc4 #ed ,this shows how precarious the fundamental principle of much new criticism is4 ,the non-observance of rites laid down as ,divine commands1 and the appearance of ancient superstitions such as the worship of the dead at any period1 are held sufficient in the history of ,israel to prove that monotheism did not then exist1 and that ancestor-worship was then the prevailing cult4 ,if applied to ,islam that principle would lead to utterly false conclusions4 ,is there any reason for thinking that it may not give similar results when applied to the history of ,israel8 ,it is striking to see that both know but one security against such lapses in the life of a nation1 and that is education4 ,nowadays we are inclined to ask if this was not a delusion on their part4 ,the boundless faith in education as a moral1 religious1 and national restorative which filled men's minds in the early part of this century1 has given place to disquieting questions as to whether it can do anything so high4 ,many begin to doubt whether it does more than restrain men from the worst crimes1 by pointing out their consequences4 ,and in the case of ordinary secular education that doubt is only too well founded4 ,but it was not mere secular education the ,old ,testament relied on4 ,reading1 writing1 and arithmetic1 valuable as these are as gateways to knowledge1 were not in its view at all4 ,what it was felt necessary to do was to keep alive an ideal view of life2 and that was done by pouring into the young the history of their people1 with the best that their highest minds had learned and thought of ,god4 ,the demand is that parents shall first of all give themselves up to the love of ,god1 without any reserve1 and then that they shall teach this diligently to their children as the substance of the ,divine demand upon them4 ,evidently by the words1 ,thou shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house1 and when thou walkest by the way1 and when thou liest down and when thou risest up1 it is meant that the truth about ,god and the thought of ,god should be a subject on which conversation naturally turned1 and to which it gladly returned continually4 ,words about these things were to flow from a genuine delighted interest in them1 which made speech a necessity and a joy4 ,further1 parents were to meet the nave and questioning curiosity of their children as to the meaning of religious and moral ordinances of their people1 with grave and extended teaching as to the work of ,god among them in the past4 ,they were to point out1 vv4 #ba-be1 all the grace of ,god1 and to show them that the statutes1 which to young and undisciplined minds might seem a heavy burden1 were really ,god's crowning mercy3 they marked out the lines upon which alone good could come to man3 they were the directions of a loving guide anxious to keep their feet from paths of destruction1 for their good always4 ,such education as this might prove adequate to overcome even stronger temptations than those to which ,israel was exposed4 ,for see what it means4 ,it means that all the garnered religious thought and emotion of past generations1 which the experiences of life and the felt presence of ,god in them had borne in upon the deepest minds of ,israel1 was to be made the bounding horizon for the opening mind of every ,israelite child4 ,when the child looked beyond the desires of its physical nature1 it was to see this great sight1 this panorama of the grace of ,yahweh4 ,to compensate for the restrictions which the ,decalogue puts upon the natural impulses1 ,yahweh was to be held up to every child as an object of love1 no desire after which could be excessive4 ,love to ,yahweh1 drawn out by what ,he had shown ,himself to be1 was to turn the energies of the young soul outward1 away from self1 and direct them to ,god1 who works and is the sum of all good4 ,obviously those upon whom such education had its perfect work would never be fettered by the material aspects of things4 ,their horizon could never be so darkened that the twilight gods worshipped by the ,canaanites should seem to them more than dim and vanishing shadows4 ,every evil1 incident to their circumstances as conquerors1 would fall innocuous at their feet4 ,the instrument put into the hands of ,israel was1 viewed ideally1 quite adequate for the work it had to do4 ,but the history of ,israel shows that the effort to keep ,yahweh continually present to the mind of the people failed2 and the question arises1 why did it fail8 ,if1 as we have every reason to believe1 the main tendencies of human nature then were what they are now1 the first cause of failure would be with the parents4 ,many1 probably the most of them1 would observe to do all that ,moses commanded1 but they would do it without themselves keeping alive their spiritual life4 ,wherever that was the case1 though the prayers should be scrupulously rehearsed1 though the religious talk should be increasing1 though the instruction about the past should be exact and regular1 the highest results of it all would cease to appear4 ,the best that would be done would be to keep alive knowledge of what the fathers had told them4 ,the worst would be to render the child's mind so familiar with all aspects of the truth1 and with all the phases of religious emotion1 that throughout life this would always seem a region already explored1 and in which no water for the thirsty soul had been found4 ,but in the children1 too1 there would be fatal hindrances4 ,one would almost expect1 a priori1 that when one generation had won in trial and hardship and conquest a fund of moral and spiritual wisdom1 their children would be able to take it to themselves1 and would start from the point their fathers had attained4 ,but in experience that is not found to be so4 ,the fathers may have gained a sane and strong manhood through the training and teaching of ,divine ,providence1 but their children do not start from the level their fathers have gained4 ,they begin with the same passions1 and evil tendencies1 and illusions1 as their fathers began with1 and against these they have to wage continual war4 ,above all1 each soul for itself must take the great step by which it turns from evil to good4 ,no rise in the general level of life will ever enable men to dispense with that4 ,the will must determine itself morally by a free choice1 and the ,divine grace must play its part1 before that union with ,god which is the heart of all religion can be brought about4 ,no mechanical keeping up of good habits or fairer forms of social life can do much at this crucial point2 and so each generation finds that there is no discharge in the war to which it is committed4 ,as in all wars1 many fall2 sometimes the battle goes sorely against the kingdom of ,god1 and the majority fall4 ,the strength and beauty of a whole generation turns to the world and away from ,god1 and the labours and prayers of faithful men and women who have taught them seem to be in vain4 ,the method of warding off evil by even high religious education is consequently very imperfect and uncertain in its action4 ,nevertheless this relative uncertainty is bound up with the very nature of moral influence and moral agency4 ,professor ,huxley1 in a famous passage of one of his addresses1 says that if any being would offer to wind him up like a clock1 so that he should always do what is right1 and think what is true1 he would close with the offer1 and make no mourning about his moral freedom4 ,probably this was only a vehement way of expressing a desire for righteousness in deed1 and truth in thought1 somewhat pathetic in such a man4 ,but if we are to take it literally1 it is a singularly unwise declaration4 ,the longing which gives pathos to the professor's words would on his hypothesis be a lunacy2 for in the realm of morals mechanical compulsion has no meaning4 ,even ,god must give room to ,his creature1 that he may exercise the spiritual freedom with which he is endowed4 ,even ,god1 we may say without irreverence1 must sometimes fail in that which ,he seeks to accomplish1 in the field of moral life4 ,philosophically speaking1 perhaps1 this statement cannot be defended4 ,but it is not the ,absolute of ,philosophy which can touch the hearts and draw the love of men4 ,it is the living1 personal ,god1 of whom we gain our best working conception by boldly transferring to ,him the highest categories predicable of our humanity4 ,he is1 doubtless1 much more than we2 but we can only ascribe to ,him our own best and highest4 ,when we have done that we have approached ,him as near as we can ever do4 ,the ,scriptural writers1 therefore1 have no pedantic scruples in their speech about ,god4 ,they constantly represent ,him as pleading with men1 desiring to influence them1 and yet sometimes as being driven back defeated by the obstinate sin of man4 ,the ,bible is full of the failures of ,god in this sense2 and ,god's greatest failure1 that which forms the burden and inspires the pathos of the bulk of the ,old ,testament1 is ,his failure with ,his chosen people4 ,they would not be saved1 they would not be faithful2 and ,god had to accomplish ,his work of planting the true and spiritual religion in the world by means of a mere remnant of faithful men chosen from a faithless multitude4 ,but though this plan failed miserably in one way1 in the way of gaining the bulk of the people1 it succeeded in another4 ,as has just been said1 the purpose of ,god was in any case accomplished4 ,but even apart from that1 the religious education that was given was of immense importance4 ,it raised the level of life for all2 like the ,nile mud in the inundation1 it fertilised the whole field of this people's life4 ,it kept an ideal1 too1 before men1 without which they would have fallen even lower than they did4 ,and it lay in the minds of even the worst1 ready to be changed into something higher2 for without previous intellectual acquaintance with the facts1 the deeper knowledge was impossible4 ,moreover the ordinary civil morality of the people rested upon it4 ,without their religion and the facts on which it was based1 the moral code had no hold upon them1 and could have none4 ,that had grown up in one complex tangle with religion2 it had received its highest inspiration from the conception of ,god handed down from the fathers2 and apart from that it would have fallen into an incoherent mass of customs unable to justify or account for their existence4 ,in every community the same principle holds4 ,hence whatever the theory of the relation of the ,state to religion which may prevail1 no ,state can1 without much harm1 ignore the religion of the people4 ,it may sometimes even be wise and right for a government to introduce or to encourage a higher religion at the expense of a lower4 ,but it can never be either wise or right to be inadvertent of religion altogether4 ,in accordance with this precept1 the rulers of ,israel never were so4 ,they not only encouraged parents to be strenuous1 as this passage demands of them1 but on more than one occasion they made definite provision for the religious instruction of the people4 ,in a formal sense that grew into a habit which even yet has not lost its hold2 and hence1 as we have seen1 the ,jews have been kept true in an unexampled manner to their racial and religious characteristics4 ,,chapter ,,ix ,,the ,,ban ,,deut4 vii4 ,as in the previous chapter we have had the ,mosaic and ,deuteronomic statement of the internal and spiritual means of defending the ,israelite character and faith from the temptations which the conquest in ,canaan would bring with it1 in this we have strenuous provision made against the same evil by external means4 ,the mind first was to be fortified against the temptation to fall away2 then the external pressure from the example of the peoples they were to conquer was to be minimised by the practice of the ban4 ,the first five verses1 and the last two deal emphatically with that1 as also does ver4 #af1 and what lies between is a statement of the grounds upon which a strict execution of this dreadful measure was demanded4 ,these1 as is usual in ,deuteronomy1 are dealt with somewhat discursively2 but the command as to the ban1 coming as it does at the beginning1 middle1 and end1 gives this chapter unity1 and suggests that it should be treated under this head as a whole4 ,there are besides other passages which can most conveniently be discussed in connection with chapter vii4 ,these are the historic statements as to the ban having been laid upon the cities of ,sihon 7,deut4 ii4 #cd7 and ,og 7,deut4 iii4 #f72 the provision for the extirpation of idolatrous persons and communities 7,deut4 xiii4 #ae72 and lastly1 that portion of the law of war which treats of the variations in the execution of the ban which circumstances might demand 7,deut4 xx4 #ac-ah74 ,these passages1 taken together1 give an almost exhaustive statement in regard to the nature and limitations of the ,cherem1 or ban1 in ancient ,israel1 a statement much more complete than is elsewhere to be found2 and they consequently suggest1 if they do not demand1 a complete investigation of the whole matter4 ,it is quite clear that the ,cherem1 or ban1 by which a person or thing1 or even a whole people and their property1 were devoted to a god1 was not a specially ,mosaic ordinance1 for it is a custom known to many half-civilised and some highly civilised nations4 ,in ,livy's account of early ,rome we read that ,tarquinius1 after defeating the ,sabines1 burned the spoils of the enemy in a huge heap1 in accordance with a vow to ,vulcan1 made before advancing into the ,sabine country4 ,the same custom is alluded to in ,vergil1 n4 viii4 #efb1 and ,csar1 ,b4,g4 vi4 #ag1 tells us a similar thing of the ,gauls4 ,the ,mexican custom of sacrificing all prisoners of war to the god of war was of the same kind4 ,but the most complete example of the ban in the ,hebrew sense1 occurring among a foreign people1 is to be found in the ,moabite stone which ,mesha1 king of ,moab1 erected in the ninth century ,b4,c41 i4e4 in the days of ,ahab4 ,of course ,moab and ,israel were related peoples1 and it might in itself be possible that ,moab during its subjection to ,israel had adopted the ban from ,israel4 ,but that is highly improbable1 considering how widespread this custom is1 and how deeply its roots are fixed in human nature4 ,rather we should take the ,moabite ban as an example of its usual form among the ,semitic peoples4 ,and ,chemosh said to me1 ,go1 take ,nebo against ,israel4 ,and ,i went by night and fought against it from the break of morn until noon1 and took it and killed them all1 seven thousand men and boys1 and women and girls and maid-servants1 for ,i had devoted it to ',ashtor-,chemosh'2 and ,i took thence the vessels 7so ,renan7 of ,yahweh1 and ,i dragged them before ,chemosh4#ee ,the ordinary ,semitic word for the ban is ,cherem4 ,it denotes a thing separated from or prohibited to common use1 and no doubt it indicated originally merely that which was given over to the gods1 separated for their exclusive use for ever4 ,in this way it was distinguished from that which was sanctified to ,yahweh1 for that could be redeemed2 devoted things could not4 #ee ,driver1 ,notes on ,hebrew ,text of the ,books of ,samuel1 p4 #aja1 note4 ,in the ancient laws repeated in ,lev4 xxvii4 #bh1 #bi1 two classes of devoted things seem to be referred to4 ,first of all1 we have the things which an individual may devote to ,god1 whether of man or beast1 or of the field of his possession4 ,the provision made in regard to them is that they shall not be sold or redeemed1 but shall become in the highest degree sacred to ,yahweh4 ,men so devoted1 therefore1 became perpetual slaves at the holy places1 and other kinds of property fell to the priests4 ,in the next verse1 #bi1 we read1 ,none devoted which shall be devoted of 7i4e4 from among7 men shall be ransomed2 he shall surely be put to death1 but that must refer to some other class of men devoted to ,yahweh4 ,it is inconceivable that in ,israel individuals could at their own will devote slaves or children to death4 ,moreover1 if every man devoted must be killed1 the provision of ,numb4 xviii4 #ad1 according to which everything devoted in ,israel is to be ,aaron's1 could not be carried out4 ,further1 there is a difference in expression in the two verses3 in #bh we have things devoted to ,yahweh1 in #bi we have simply men devoted4#ef ,there can be little doubt1 therefore1 that we have in ver4 #bi the case of men condemned for some act for which the punishment prescribed by the law was the ban 7as in ,exod4 xxii4 #ai1 ,he that sacrificeth unto any god save unto ,yahweh only shall be put to the ban71 or which some legal tribunal considered worthy of that punishment4 ,in such cases1 the object of the ban being something offensive1 something which called out the ,divine wrath and abhorrence1 this devotion to ,god meant utter destruction4 ,just as anathma1 a thing set up in a temple as a votive offering1 became anathma1 an accursed thing1 and as sacer1 originally meaning sacred1 came to mean devoted to destruction1 so ,cherem1 among the ,semites1 came to have the meaning of a thing devoted to destruction by the wrath of the national gods4 ,from ancient days it had been in use1 and in ,israel it continued to be practised1 but with a new moral and religious purpose which antiquity could know nothing of4 ,no more conspicuous instance of that transformation of ancient customs of a doubtful or even evil kind by the spirit of the religion of ,yahweh1 which is one of the most remarkable characteristics of the history of ,israel1 can be conceived than this use of the ban for higher ends4 #ef ,cf4 ,dillmann1 ,exodus and ,leviticus1 p4 #fcd4 ,as the fundamental idea of the ,cherem was the devoting of objects to a god1 it is manifest that the whole inner significance of the institution would vary with the conception of the ,deity4 ,among the worshippers of cruel and sanguinary gods1 such as the gods of the heathen ,semites were1 the ends which this practice was used to promote would naturally be cruel and sanguinary4 ,moreover1 where it was thought that the gods could be bought over by acceptable sacrifices1 where they were conceived of as non-moral beings1 whose reasons for favour or anger were equally capricious and unfathomable1 it was inevitable that the ,cherem should be mainly used to bribe these gods to favour and help their peoples4 ,where victory seemed easy and within the power of the nation1 the spoil and the inhabitants of a conquered city or country would be taken by the conquerors for their own use4 ,where1 on the other hand1 victory was difficult and doubtful1 an effort would be made to win the favour of the god1 and wring success from him by promising him all the spoil4 ,the slaughter of the captives would be considered the highest gratification such sanguinary gods could receive1 while their pride would be held to be gratified by the utter destruction of the seat of the worship of other gods4 ,obviously it was in this way that the ,gauls and ,germans worked this institution2 and the probability is that the heathen ,semites would view the whole matter from an even lower standpoint4 ,but to true worshippers of ,yahweh such thoughts must have grown abhorrent4 ,from the moment when their ,god became the centre and the norm of moral life to ,israel1 acts which had no scope but the gratification of a thirst for blood1 or of a petty jealous pride1 could not be thought acceptable to ,him4 ,every institution and custom1 therefore1 which had no moral element in it1 had either to be swept away1 or moralised in the spirit of the purer faith4 ,now the ban was not abolished in ,israel2 but it was moralised1 and turned into a potent and terrible weapon for the preservation and advancement of true religion4 ,by the ,divine appointment the national life of ,israel was bound up with the foundation and progress of true religion4 ,it was in this people that the seeds of the highest religion were to be planted1 and it was by means of it that all the nations of the earth were to be blessed4 ,but as the chief means to this end was to be the higher ethical and religious character of the nation as such1 the preservation of that from depravation and decay became the main anxiety of the prophets and priests and law-givers of ,israel4 ,just as in modern days the preservation and defence of the ,state is reckoned in every country the supreme law which overrides every other consideration1 so in ,israel the preservation of the higher life was regarded4 ,rude and half-civilised as ,israel was at the beginning of its career1 the ,divinely revealed religion had made men conscious of that which gave this people its unique value both to ,god and men4 ,they recognised that its glory and strength lay in its thought of ,god1 and in the character which this impressed upon the corporate life1 as well as on the life of each individual4 ,as we have seen1 this bred in them a consciousness of a higher calling1 of a higher obligation resting on them than upon others4 ,they consequently felt the necessity of guarding their special character1 and used the ban as their great weapon to ward off the contagion of evil1 and to give this character room to develop itself4 ,its tremendous1 even cruel1 power was directed in ,israel to this end2 it was from this point of view alone that it had value in the eyes of the fully enlightened man of ,israel4 ,stade in his history 7vol4 i41 p4 #dij7 holds that this distinction did not exist1 that the ,israelite view differed in little1 if anything1 from that of their heathen kinsmen1 and that the ban resulted from a vow intended to gratify ,yahweh and win ,his favour by giving ,him the booty4 ,but it is undeniable that in the earliest statement in regard to it 7,exod4 xx47 there is a distinct legislative provision that the ban should be proclaimed and executed irrespective of any vow2 and in the later1 but still early1 notices of it in ,joshua1 ,judges1 and #a ,samuel the command to execute it comes in every case from ,yahweh4 ,in ,deuteronomy1 again1 the ethical purpose of the ban is always insisted upon1 most emphatically perhaps in chap4 xx4 #ag ff41 where the ,cherem is laid down as a regular practice in war against the heathen inhabitants of ,canaan3 ,but thou shalt utterly destroy them1 444 that they teach you not to do after all their abominations1 which they have done unto their gods2 so should ye sin against ,yahweh your ,god4 ,whatever hints or appearances there may be in the ,scripture narratives that the lower view still clung to some minds are not to be taken as indicating the normal and recognised view4 ,they were1 like much else of a similar kind1 mere survivals1 becoming more and more shadowy as the history advances1 and at last entirely vanishing away4 ,the new and higher thought which ,moses planted was the rising and prevailing element in the ,israelite consciousness4 ,the lower thought was a decaying reminiscence of the state of things which the ,mosaic revelation had wounded to the death1 but which was slow in dying4 ,in ,israel1 therefore1 the ban was1 on the principles of the higher religion1 legitimate only where the object was to preserve that religion when gravely endangered4 ,if any object could justify a measure so cruel and sweeping as the ban1 this could1 and this is the only ground upon which the ,scriptures defend it4 ,that the danger was grave and imminent1 when ,israel entered ,canaan1 cannot be doubted4 ,as we have seen1 the ,israelite tribes were far from being of one blood or of one faith4 ,there was a huge mixed multitude along with them2 and even among those who had unquestioned title to be reckoned among ,israelites1 many were gross1 carnal1 and slavish in their conceptions of things4 ,they had not learned thoroughly nor assimilated the lessons they had been taught4 ,only the elect among them had done that2 and the danger from contact with races1 superior in culture1 and religiously not so far below the position occupied by the multitude of ,israel1 was extreme4 ,the nation was born in a day1 but it had been educated only for a generation2 it was raw and ignorant in all that concerned the ,yahwistic faith4 ,in fact it was precisely in the condition in which spiritual disease could be most easily contracted and would be most deadly4 ,the new religion had not been securely organised2 the customs and habits of the people still needed to be moulded by it1 and could not1 consequently1 act as the stay and support of religion as they did at later times4 ,further1 the people were at the critical moment when they were passing from one stage of social life to another4 ,at such moments there is immense danger to the health and character of a nation1 for there is no unity of ideal present to every mind4 ,that which they are moving away from has not ceased to exert its influence1 and that to which they are moving has not asserted itself with all its power4 ,at such crises in the career of peoples emerging from barbarism1 even physical disease is apt to be deadlier and more prevalent than it is among either civilised or entirely savage men4 ,the old ,semitic heathenism had not been entirely overcome1 and the new and higher religion had not succeeded in establishing full dominion4 ,contact with the ,canaanites in almost any shape would under such circumstances be like the introduction of a contagious disease1 and at almost any price it had to be avoided4 ,the customs of the world at that time1 and of the ,semitic nations in particular1 offered this terribly effective weapon of the ban1 and for this higher purpose it was accepted2 and it was enforced with a stringency which nothing would justify short of the fact that life or death to the great hope of mankind was involved in it4 ,but it may be and should be asked1 ,would any circumstances justify ,christian men1 or a ,christian nation1 in entering upon a war of extermination now8 and if not1 how can a war of extermination against the ,canaanities have been sanctioned by ,god8 ,in answer to the first question1 it must be said that1 while circumstances can be conceived under which the extermination of a race would certainly be carried out by nations called ,christian1 it is hardly possible to imagine ,christian men taking part in such a massacre4 ,even the supposed command of ,god could not induce them to do so4#eg ,it would be so contrary to all that they have learned of ,god's will1 both as regards themselves and others1 that they would hesitate4 ,almost certainly they would decide that they were bound to be faithful to what ,god had revealed of ,himself2 they would feel that ,he could not wish to blunt their moral sense and undo what ,he had done for them1 and they would put aside the command as a temptation4 ,but the case with the ,israelites was altogether different4 ,the question is not1 how could ,god destroy a whole people8 ,were it only that1 there would be little difficulty4 ,everywhere in ,his action through nature ,god is ruthless enough against sin4 ,vice and sin are every day bringing men and women and innocent children to death1 and to suffering worse than death4 ,for that every believer in ,god holds the ,divine law responsible4 ,and when the ,divine command was laid upon the ,israelites to do1 more speedily1 and in a more awe-inspiring way1 what ,canaanite vices were already doing1 there can be no difficulty except in so far as the effect upon the ,israelites is concerned4 ,it is by death1 inflicted as the punishment of vice1 and sparing neither woman nor child1 that nations have1 as a rule1 been blotted out2 and1 except to the confused thinker1 so far as the ,divine action is concerned there is no difference between such cases and this of the ,canaanites4 ,the real question is1 ,can a living1 personal ,god deliberately set to men a task which can only lower them in the scale of humanity--brutalise them1 in fact8 ,no1 is of course the only possible answer2 therefore a supposed ,divine command coming to us to do such things would rightly be suspected4 ,we could not1 we feel sure1 be called upon by ,god to slay the innocent with the guilty1 to overwhelm in one common punishment individual beings who have each of them an inalienable claim to justice at our hands4 ,but the ,israelites had not and could not have the feeling we have on the subject4 ,the feeling for the individual did not exist in early times4 ,the clan1 the tribe1 the nation was everything1 and the individual nothing4 ,consequently there was not existent in the world that keen feeling in regard to individual rights1 which dominates us so completely that we can with difficulty conceive any other view4 ,in this world the early ,israelite scarcely perceived the individual man1 and beyond this world he knew of no certain career for him4 ,he consequently dealt with him only as part of his clan or tribe4 ,his tribe suffered for him and he for his tribe1 and in early penal law the two could hardly be separated4 ,indeed it may almost be said that1 when the individual suffered for his own sin1 the satisfaction felt by the wronged was rather due to the tribe having suffered so much loss in the individual's death than to the retribution which fell upon him4 ,moreover war was the constant employment of all1 and death by violence the most common of all forms of death4 ,manners and feelings were both rude1 and the pains as well as the pleasures of civilised and ,christian men lay largely beyond their horizon4 ,there was consequently no danger of doing violence to nobler feelings or of leaving a sting in the conscience by calling such men to such work4 ,the stage of moral development they had reached did not forbid it1 and the work therefore might be given them of ,god4 #eg ,mozley's ,lectures on the ,old ,testament1 p4 #ajb4 ,but the grounds for the action were immeasurably raised4 ,instead of being left on the heathen level1 the usage was utilised so as to harmonise with the principles of their religion1 and to satisfy its needs4 ,it became a mode of secluding and rendering harmless anything which peculiarly imperilled the religious life of either an individual or the community1 such objects being withdrawn from society at large1 and presented to the sanctuary1 which had power1 if needful1 to authorise their destruction4#eh ,the ,deuteronomic command is not given shamefacedly4 ,the interests at stake are too great for that4 ,israel is utterly to smite the ,canaanite nations1 to put them to the ban1 to make no covenant with them nor to intermarry with them4 ,thus shall ye deal with them3 ye shall break down their altars1 and dash in pieces their obelisks1 and hew down their ,asherim1 and burn their graven images with fire4 ,there is a fierce1 curt energy about the words which impresses the reader with the vigour needed to defend the true religion4 ,the danger was seen to be great1 and this tremendous weapon of the ban was to be wielded with unsparing rigour1 if ,israel was to be true to its highest call4 ,for1 ver4 #f goes on to say1 thou art a holy people unto ,yahweh thy ,god2 ,yahweh thy ,god hath chosen thee to be a peculiar people unto ,himself1 out of all peoples that are upon the face of the earth4 ,they were the elect of ,god2 they were a holy people1 a people separated unto their ,god1 and the ,divine blessing was to come upon all nations through them if they remained true4 ,their separateness must therefore be maintained4 ,as a people marked out by the love of ,god1 they could not share in the common life of the world as it then was4 ,they could not lift the ,canaanites to their level by mingling with them4 ,so they would only obscure1 nay1 in so far as this rigorous command was not carried out1 they did all but fatally obscure1 the higher elements of national and personal life which they had received4 ,they were too recently converted to be the people of ,yahweh1 too weak in their own faith1 to be able to do anything but stand in this austere and repellent attitude towards the world4 ,centuries passed before they could relax without danger4 ,it may even be said that until the coming of our ,lord they dared not take up any other than this separatist position1 though as the ages passed and the prophetic influence grew1 the yearning after a gathering in of the ,gentiles1 and the promise of it in the ,messianic day1 became more markedly prominent4 ,only when men could look forward to being made perfect in ,jesus ,christ did they receive the command to go unreservedly out into the world1 for only then had they an anchor which no storm in the world could drag4 #eh ,driver1 ,notes on the ,hebrew ,text of the ,books of ,samuel1 p4 #aja4 ,but we must be careful not to exaggerate the separation called for here4 ,it does not authorise anything like the fierce1 intolerant thirst for conquest and domination which was the very keynote of ,islam4#ei ,in ,deut4 ii4 #e1 #f1 #ai1 the lands of ,edom1 ,moab1 and ,ammon are said to be ,yahweh's gift to these peoples in the same way as ,canaan was to ,israel4 ,nor did the law ever authorise the bitter and contemptuous feeling with which ,pharisaic ,israelites often regarded all men beyond the pale of ,judaism4 ,there was no general prohibition against friendly intercourse with other peoples4 ,it was against those only1 whose presence in ,canaan would have frustrated the establishment of the theocracy1 and whose influence would have been destructive of it when established1 that the ban was decreed4 ,when war arose between ,israel and cities farther off than those of ,canaan1 they were not to be put to the ban4 ,though they were to be hardly treated according to our ideas1 they were to suffer only the fate of cities stormed in those days1 for the danger of corruption was proportionately diminished 7,deut4 xx4 #ag7 by their distance4 ,the right of other peoples to their lands was to be respected1 and friendly intercourse might be entered on with them4 ,but the right of ,israel to the free and unhindered development to which it had been called by ,yahweh was the supreme law4 ,the suspicion of danger to that was to make things otherwise harmless1 or even useful1 to be abhorred4 ,if men are to live nearer to ,god than others1 they must sacrifice much to the higher call4 #ei ,riehm1 ,old ,testament ,theology1 p4 #ih4 ,to press home this1 to induce ,israel to respond to this demand1 to convince them anew of their obligation to go any length to keep their position as a people holy to ,yahweh1 our chapter urges a variety of reasons4 ,the first 7vv4 #g-aa7 is that the history and grounds of their election exhibit the character of ,yahweh in such a way as to heighten their sense of their privileges and the danger of losing them4 ,he had chosen them1 only because of ,his own love to them2 and having chosen them and sworn to their fathers1 ,he is true to ,his covenant4 ,he brought them out of the house of bondage1 and has led them until now4 ,in ,yahweh they had a spiritual ideal1 whose characteristics were love and faithfulness4 ,but though ,he loves ,he can be wrathful1 and though ,he has made a covenant with ,israel1 it must be fulfilled in accordance with righteousness4 ,in dealing with such a ,god they must beware of thinking that their election is irrespective of moral conditions1 or that ,his love is mere good nature4 ,he can and does smite the enemies of good1 for anger is always possible where love is4 ,it is only with good nature that anger is not compatible1 just as warm and self-sacrificing affection also is4 ,those who turn away from ,him1 therefore1 ,he requites immediately to their face1 as surely as ,he keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love ,him and keep ,his commandments4 ,all the blessed and intimate relations which ,he has opened up with them1 and in which their safety and their glory lie1 can be dissolved by sin4 ,they are1 therefore1 to strike fiercely at temptation1 to regard neither their own lives nor the lives of others when that has to be put out of the way1 to smite and spare not1 for the very love of ,god4 ,a second reason why they should obey the ,divine commands1 as in other matters1 so in this terrible thing1 is this4 ,if they be willing and obedient1 then ,god will bless them in temporal ways as well as with spiritual blessings4 ,even for their earthly prosperity a loyal attitude to ,yahweh would prove decisive4 ,thou shalt be blessed above all peoples2 there shall not be a male or female barren among you1 or among your cattle4 ,and ,yahweh will take away from thee all sickness1 and ,he will put none of the evil diseases of ,egypt which thou knowest upon thee2 but will lay them upon all them that hate thee4 ,the same promises are renewed in more detail and with greater emphasis in the speech contained in chapters xxviii4 and xxix4 ,there the significance of such a view1 and the difficulties involved in it for us1 will be fully discussed4 ,here it will be sufficient to note that the profit of obedience is brought in to induce ,israel to enforce the ban most rigorously4 ,the last verses of our chapter1 vv4 #ag-bf1 set before ,israel a third incitement and encouragement4 ,yahweh1 who had proved ,his might and ,his favour for them by ,his mighty deeds in ,egypt1 would be among them1 to make them stronger than their mightiest foes 7ver4 #ba73 ,thou shalt not be affrighted at them1 for ,yahweh thy ,god is in the midst of thee1 a great ,god and a terrible4 ,the previous inducements to obey ,yahweh their ,god and be true to ,him were founded on ,his character and on ,his acts4 ,he was merciful2 but ,he could be terrible1 and ,he would reward the faithful with prosperity4 ,now ,his people are encouraged to go forward because ,his presence will go with them4 ,in the conflicts which obedience to ,him would provoke1 ,he would be with them to sustain them1 whatever stress might come upon them4 ,step by step they would drive out those very peoples whom they had dreaded so when the spies brought back their report of the land4 ,the terror of their ,god would fall upon all these nations4 ,a great ,god and a terrible ,he would prove ,himself to be1 and with ,him in their midst they might go forth boldly to execute the ban upon the ,canaanites4 ,the sins and vices of these peoples had brought this upon them2 their horrible worship left an indelible stain wherever its shadow fell4 ,israel1 led and directed by ,yahweh ,himself1 was to fall upon them as the scourge of ,god4 ,notwithstanding the ,divine urgency1 the command to destroy the ,canaanites and their idols was not carried out4 ,after a victory or two the enemy began to submit4 ,glad to be rid of the toils of war1 ,israel settled down among the people of the land4 ,all central control would seem to have disappeared4 ,the ,canaanite worship and the ,canaanite customs attracted and fascinated the people1 and enemy after enemy broke in upon them and triumphed over them4 ,the half-idolatrous masses were led away into depraved forms of worship1 and for a time it looked as if the work of ,moses would be utterly undone4 ,had the purer faith he taught them not been revived1 ,israel would probably not have survived the period of the ,judges4 ,as it was1 they just survived2 but by their lapse the leavening of the whole of the nation with the pure principles of ,yahweh-worship had been stopped4 ,instead of being cured1 the idolatrous inclinations they had brought with them from the pre-,mosaic time had been revived and strengthened4 ,multitudes1 while calling ,yahweh their ,god1 had sunk almost to the ,canaanite level in their worship1 and during the whole period of their existence as a nation ,israel as a whole never again rose clear of half-heathen conceptions of their ,god4 ,the prophets taught and threatened them in vain1 until at last ruin fell upon them and the ,divine threats of punishment were fulfilled4 ,,chapter ,x ,,the ,,ban ,,in ,,modern ,,life ,in our modern time this practice of the ban has1 of course1 become antiquated and impossible4 ,the ,cherem1 or ban1 of the modern synagogue is a different thing1 based upon different motives1 and is directed to the same ends as ,christian excommunication4 ,but though the thing has ceased1 the principles underlying it1 and the view of life which it implies1 are of perpetual validity4 ,these belong to the essential truths of religion1 and especially need to be recalled in a time like ours1 when men tend everywhere to a feeble1 lax1 and cosmopolitan view of ,christianity4 ,as we have seen1 the fundamental principle of the ,cherem was that1 however precious1 however sacred1 however useful and helpful in ordinary circumstances a thing might be1 whenever it became dangerous to the higher life it should at once be given up to ,yahweh4 ,the lives of human beings1 even though they were men's dearest and nearest1 should be sacrificed2 the richest works of art1 the weapons of war1 and the wealth which would have adorned life and made it easy1 were equally to be given up to ,him1 that ,he might seclude them and render them harmless to men's highest interests4 ,neighbourliness to the ,canaanites was absolutely forbidden1 and the ,church of the ,old ,testament was commanded to take up a position of hostility1 or at best of armed neutrality1 to all the pleasures1 interests1 and concerns of the peoples who surrounded them4 ,now the prevailing modern view is that not only the ban itself1 but these principles have become obsolete4 ,notwithstanding that the ,church of the ,new ,testament is the bearer of the higher interests of humanity1 we are taught that when it is least definite in its direction as to conduct1 when it is most tolerant of the practices of the world1 then it is most true to its original conception4 ,we are told that an indulgent ,church is what is wanted2 rigour and religion are now supposed to be finally divorced in all enlightened minds4 ,this view is not often categorically expressed1 but it underlies all fashionable religion1 and has its apostles in the golden youth who forward enlightenment by playing tennis on ,sundays4 ,because of it too1 ,puritan has become a name of scorn1 and careless self-gratification a mark of cultured ,christianity4 ,not only asceticism1 but has been discredited1 and the moral tone of society has perceptibly fallen in consequence4 ,in wide circles both within and without the ,church it seems to be held that pain is the only intolerable evil1 and in legislation as well as in literature that idea has been registering itself4 ,for much of this progress1 as some call it1 no reasoned justification has been attempted1 but it has been defended in part by the allegation that the circumstances which make the ban necessary to the very life of the ancient people of ,god have passed away1 now that social and political life has been ,christianised4 ,even those who are outside the ,church in ,christian lands are no longer living at a moral and spiritual level so much below that of the ,church4 ,they are not heathen idolaters1 whose moral and religious ideas are contagiously corrupting1 and nothing but ,pharisaism of the worst type1 it is said1 can justify the ,church in taking up a position to society in any degree like that which was imposed upon ancient ,israel4 ,now it cannot be denied that there is truth here1 and in so far as the ,christian ,church or individual ,christians have taken up precisely the same position to those without as is implied in the ,old ,testament ban1 they are not to be defended4 ,modern society1 as at present constituted1 is not corrupting like that of ,canaan4 ,no one in a modern ,christian state has been brought up in an atmosphere of heathenism1 and what an incredible difference that involves only those who know heathenism well can appreciate4 ,if spiritual life is neither understood nor believed in by all1 yet the rules of morals are the same in every mind1 and these rules are the product of ,christianity4 ,as a consequence1 the ,church is not endangered in the same way and to the same degree by contact with the world as in the ancient days4 ,indeed to the ,israelite of the post-,mosaic time our world1 which some sects at least would absolutely ignore and shut out1 would seem a very definite and legitimate part of the ,church4 ,the ,jewish ,church was certainly to a very large extent made up of precisely such elements1 while those who were to be put to the ban were far more remote than any citizens of a modern state1 except a portion of the criminal class4 ,further1 those not actively ,christian are1 on account of this community of moral sentiments1 open to appeal from the ,church as the heathen ,canaanites were not4 ,in ,english-speaking lands1 while there are multitudes indifferent to ,christianity1 most acknowledge the obligation of the ,christian motives4 ,in nations at least nominally ,christian1 therefore1 both because the danger of corruption is greatly less1 and because the world is more accessible to the leaven of ,christian life1 no ,church can1 or dare1 without incurring terrible loss and responsibility1 withdraw from or show a merely hostile front to the world4 ,the sects which do so live an invalid life4 ,their virtues take on the sickly look of all fugitive and cloistered virtue4 ,their doctrines become full of the idols of the cave1 and they cease to have any perception of the real needs of men4 ,nevertheless the austere spirit inculcated in this chapter must be kept alive1 if the ,church is to be the spiritual leader of humanity1 for strenuousness is the great want of modern life4 ,dr4 ,pearson1 whose book on ,national ,life and ,character has lately expounded the theory that the ,church1 being too inexorable in its ideal to admit of compromises with human frailty1 is precisely on this account unfitted for governing fallible men and women1 i4e4 governing them in the political sense1 has elsewhere stated his view of the remedy for one of the great evils of modern life4#fj ,the disproportionate growth of the distributing classes1 as compared with the producing1 is due1 ,i believe1 to two moral causes--the love of amusement and the passion for speculation4 ,men flock out of healthy country lives in farms or mines into our great cities1 because they like to be near the theatre and the racecourse1 or because they hope to grow rich suddenly by some form of gambling4 ,the cure for a taint of this kind is not economical but religious1 and can only be found1 ,i am convinced1 in a return to the masculine asceticism that has distinguished the best days of history1 ,puritan or ,republican4 ,this is emphatically true of ,australia1 where and of which the words were first spoken2 and masculine asceticism of the ,puritan type would cure many another evil there besides these4 ,but the same thing is true everywhere2 and if religion is to cure slackness in social or political life1 how much more must it cultivate this austere spirit for itself6 ,the function of the ,church is not to govern the world2 it seeks rather to inspire the world4 ,it should lead the advance to a higher1 more ennobling life1 and should exhibit that in its own collective action and in the kind of character it produces4 ,its greatest gift to the world should be itself1 and it is useful only when it is true to its own ethos and spirit4 ,to keep that unimpaired must therefore be its first duty1 and to fulfil that duty it must keep rigorously back from everything which1 in relation to its own existing state1 would be likely to lower the power of its peculiar life4 ,the ,state must often compromise with human frailty4 ,often there will be before the legislator and the statesman only a choice between two evils1 or at least two undesirable courses1 unless a worse thing is to be tolerated4 ,the ,church1 on the other hand1 should keep close to the ideal as it sees it4 ,its reason for existence is that it may hold up the ideal to men1 and exhibit it as far as that may be4 ,compromise in regard to that is impossible for the ,church1 for that would be nothing else than disloyalty to its own essential principle4 ,the spirit1 therefore1 that inspired the ban must always be living and powerful in the ,church4 ,whatever is dangerous to the special ,christian life must cease to exist for ,christians4 ,it should be laid at the feet of their ,divine ,head1 that ,he may seclude it from ,his people and render it innocuous4 ,many things that are harmless or even useful at a lower level of life must be refused a place by the ,christian4 ,gratifications that cannot but seem good to others must be refused by him2 for he seeks to be in the forefront of the battle against evil1 to be the pioneer to a more whole-hearted spiritual life4 #fj ,the ,social ,movements of the ,age1 by ,professor ,pearson1 ,melbourne ,church ,congress1 #ahhb4 ,but that does not imply that we should seek to renew the various imperfect and external devices by which past times sought to attain this exceedingly desirable end4 ,experience has taught the folly and futility of sumptuary laws1 for example4 ,their only effect was to do violence to the inwardness which belongs of necessity to spiritual life4 ,they externalised and depraved morality1 and finally defeated themselves4 ,nor would the later ,puritanism1 with its rigidity as regards dress and deportment1 and its narrow and limited view of life1 help us much more4 ,it began doubtless with the right principle2 but it sought to bind all to its observances1 whether they cared for the spirit of them or not2 and it showed a measureless intemperance in regard to the things which it declared hostile to the life of faith4 ,in that form it has been charged with isolation from human history1 human enjoyment1 and all the manifold play and variety of human character4 ,for a short time1 however1 ,puritanism did strike the golden mean in this matter1 and probably we could not in this present connection find a better example for modern days than in the ,puritanism of ,spenser1 of ,colonel ,hutchinson 7one of the regicides so called71 and of ,milton4 ,their united lives covered the heroic period of ,puritanism1 and taken in their order they represent very fairly its rise1 its best estate1 and its tendencies towards harsh extremes1 when as yet it was but a tendency4 ,spenser1 born in the spacious times of great ,elizabeth1 was politically and nationally a ,puritan1 and in aim and ideal1 at least1 was so in his stern view of life and religion4#fa ,his attachment to ,lord ,grey of ,wilton1 that personally kind yet absolutely ruthless executor of the ,english ban against the untamable ,irish1 and his defence of his policy1 show the one2 while his ,fairy ,queen1 with its representation of religion as the foundation of all nobleness in man and its dwelling upon man's victory over himself1 reveals the other4 ,but he had in him also elements belonging to that strangely mingled world in which he lived1 and which came from an entirely different source4 ,he had the ,elizabethan enthusiasm for beauty1 the large delight in life as such even where its moral quality was questionable1 and the artist's sensitiveness and adaptability in a very high degree4 ,these diverse elements were never fully interfused in him4 ,amid all the gracious beauty of his work1 there is the trace of discord and the mark of conflict2 and at times perhaps his life fell into courses which spoke little of self-control4 ,but his face was always in the main turned upwards4 ,in the main1 too1 his life corresponded with his aspirations4 ,he combined his poetic gift1 his love of men and human life1 with a faithfulness to his ideal of conduct which1 if not always perfect1 was sincere1 and was1 too1 as we may hope1 ultimately victorious4 ,the ,puritan in him had not entire victory over the worldling1 but it had the mastery2 and the very imperfection of the victory kept the character in sympathy with the whole of life4 #fa ,vide ,church's ,spenser1 p4 #af4 ,in ,colonel ,hutchinson1#fb as depicted in that stately and tender panegyric which speaks to us across more than two centuries so pathetically of his wife's almost adoring love1 we see the ,puritan character in its fullest and most balanced form4 ,we do not1 of course1 mean that his mind had the imaginative power of ,spenser's1 or his character the force of ,milton's2 but partly from circumstances1 partly by singular grace of nature1 his character possessed a stability and an equilibrium which had not come when ,spenser lived1 and which was beginning to go in the evil days upon which ,milton fell4 ,at the root of all his virtues his wife sets that which was the head and spring of them all1 his ,christianity4 ,by ,christianity1 she says1 ,i intend that universal habit of grace which is wrought in a soul by the regenerating ,spirit of ,god1 whereby the whole creature is resigned up into the ,divine will and love1 and all its actions designed to the obedience and glory of its ,maker4 ,he had been trained in a ,puritan home1 and though when he went out into the world he had to face quite the average temptations of a rich and well-born youth1 he fled all youthful lusts4 ,but he did not retire from the world4 ,he could dance admirably well1 but neither in youth nor riper years made any practice of it2 he had skill in fencing such as became a gentleman2 he had a great love to music1 and often diverted himself with a viol1 on which he played masterly2 he had an exact ear1 and judgment in other music2 he shot excellently in bows and guns1 and much used them for his exercise2 he had great judgment in painting1 graving1 sculpture1 and all liberal arts1 and had many curiosities of value in all kinds4 ,he took much pleasure in improvement of grounds1 in planting groves and walks and fruit-trees1 in opening springs and making fishponds4 ,of country recreations he loved none but hawking1 and in that was very eager1 and much delighted for the time he used it4 ,hutchinson was no ascetic1 therefore1 in the wrong sense1 but lived in and enjoyed the world as a man should4 ,but perhaps his greatest divergence from the lower ,puritanism lay in this1 that everything that it was necessary for him to do he did with delight1 free and unconstrained4 ,moreover1 though he adopted strong ,puritan opinions in theology1 he hated persecution for religion1 and was always a champion for all religious people against all their great oppressors4 ,nevertheless self-restraint was the law of his life1 and he many times forbore things lawful and delightful to him1 rather than he would give any one occasion of scandal4 ,in public affairs he took the courageous part of a man who sought nothing for himself1 and was moved only by his hatred of wrong to leave the prosperity and peace of his home-life4 ,he became a member of the ,court which tried the ,king against his will1 but signed the warrant for his death1 simply because he conceived it to be his duty4 ,when the ,restoration came and he was challenged for his conduct1 scorning the subterfuges of some who declared they signed under compulsion1 he quietly accepted the responsibility for his acts4 ,this led to his death in the flower of his age1 through imprisonment in the ,tower2 but he never flinched1 having made up his accounts with life and death1 and fixed his purpose to entertain both honourably4 ,from the beginning of his life to the end there was a consistent sanity1 which is rare at any time1 and was especially rare in those days4 ,his loyalty to ,god kept him austerely aloof from unworthiness1 while it seemed to add zest to the sinless joys which came in his way4 ,above all1 it never suffered him to forget that the true ,christian temper and character was the pearl of price which all else he had might lawfully be sacrificed to purchase4 #fb ,memoirs of ,colonel ,hutchinson1 by his wife4 ,in the character of ,milton we find the same essential elements1 the same purity in youth1 which1 with his beauty1 won for him the name of the ,lady of his ,college2 the same courage and public spirit in manhood2 the same love of music and of culture4 ,after his ,university career he retired to his father's house1 and read all ,greek and ,latin literature1 as well as ,italian1 and studied ,hebrew and some other ,oriental languages4 ,all the culture of his time1 therefore1 was absorbed by him1 and his mind and speech were shot through and through with the brilliant colours of the history and romance of many climes4 ,almost no kind of beauty failed to appeal to him1 but the austerity of his views of life kept him from being enslaved by it4 ,in his earlier works even1 he caught in a surprising way all the glow1 and splendour1 and poetic fervour of the ,english ,renaissance2 but he joined with it the sternest and most uncompromising ,puritan morality1 not only in theory and desire like ,spenser1 but in the hard practice of actual life4 ,when the idea of duty comes to dominate a man1 the grace and impetuosity of youth1 the overmastering love of beauty1 and the appreciation of the mere joy of living are apt to die away1 and the poetic fire burns low4 ,but it was not so with ,milton4 ,to the end of his life he remained a true ,elizabethan1 but an ,elizabethan who had always kept himself free from the chains of sensual vice1 and had never stained his purity of soul4 ,that fact makes him unique almost in ,english history1 and has everywhere added a touch of the sublime to all that his works have of beauty4 ,his soul was like a star1 and dwelt apart3 and we may entirely believe what he tells us of himself when he returned from his ,european travels3 ,in all the places in which vice meets with so little discouragement1 and is protected with so little shame1 ,i never once turned from the path of integrity and virtue1 and perpetually reflected that1 though my conduct might escape the notice of men1 it could not elude the inspection of ,god4 ,like the true ,puritan he was1 ,milton not only overcame evil in himself1 but he thought his own life and health a cheap price to pay for the overthrow of evil wherever he saw it4 ,when the civil war broke out1 he returned at once from his travels1 to help to right the wrongs of his country4 ,in the service of the ,government he sacrificed his poetic gift1 his leisure for twenty years1 and finally his sight1 to the task of defending ,england from her enemies4 ,but he did not stop there4 ,his severity became excessive1 at times almost vindictive4 ,when he wrote prose he scarcely ever wrote without having an enemy to crush1 and much that he uttered in this vein cannot possibly be approved4 ,his pamphlets are unfair to a degree which shows that his mind had lost balance in the turmoil of the great struggle1 so that he approached at moments the narrower ,puritanism4 ,but he still proved himself too great for that1 and emerged anew as a great and lofty spirit1 held down very little by earthly bonds1 and strenuously set against evil as a true servant of ,god4 ,now the temper of ,puritanism such as this of these old ,english worthies is precisely what ,christians need most to cultivate in these days4 ,they must be animated by the spirit which refuses to touch1 and refers to ,god1 whatever proves hostile to life in ,god2 but they must also combine with this aloofness a sympathetic hold on ordinary life4 ,it is easy on the one hand to solve all problems by cutting oneself off from any relation with the world1 lest the inner life should suffer4 ,it is also easy to let the inner life take care of itself1 and to float blithely on with all the currents of life which are not deadly sins4 ,but it is not easy to keep the mind and life open to all the great life-streams which tend to deepen and enrich human nature1 and yet to stand firm in self-control1 determined that nothing which drags down the soul shall be permitted to fascinate or overpower4 ,to this task ,christian men and the ,christian ,church seem at present to be specially called4 ,it is admitted on all hands that the ordinary ,puritanism became too intolerant of all except spiritual interests2 so that it could not1 without infinite loss1 have been accepted as the guide for all life4 ,but hence what was good in it has been rejected along with the bad2 and it needs to be restored1 if a weak1 self-indulgent temper1 which resents hardship or even discipline1 is not to gain the upper hand4 ,in social life especially this is needful1 otherwise so much debate would never have been expended on the question of amusements4 ,on the face of it1 a ,christianity which can go with the world in all those of its amusements which are not actually forbidden by the moral law must be a low type of ,christianity4 ,it can be conscious of no special character which it has to preserve1 of no special voice which it has to utter in the antiphony of created things4 ,whatever others allow themselves1 therefore1 the vigilant ,christian must see to it that he does nothing which will destroy his special contribution to the world he lives in4 ,it is precisely by that that he is the salt of the earth2 and if the salt have lost its savour wherewith will you season it8 ,no price is too great for the preservation of this savour1 and in reference to the care of it each man must ultimately be a law unto himself4 ,no one else can really tell where his weakness lies4 ,no one else can know what the effect of this or that recreation upon that weakness is4 ,when men lose spiritual touch with their own character they are apt to throw themselves back for guidance in such matters upon the general opinion of the ,christian community1 or the tradition of the elders4 ,in doing so they are in danger of losing sincerity in a mass of formalism4 ,but if a vivid apprehension of the need of individuality in the regulation of life is maintained1 the formulated ,christian objection to certain customs or certain amusements may be a most useful substitute for painful experience of our own4 ,some such amusements may have been banned in the past without sufficient reason2 or they may have been excluded only because of the special openness to temptation of a certain community2 or they may have so changed their character that they do not now deserve the ban which was laid upon them once justly enough4 ,any plea1 therefore1 for the revisal or abolition of standing conventions on such grounds must be listened to and judged4 ,but1 on the whole1 these standing prohibitions of the ,church represent accumulated experience1 and all young people especially will do wisely not to break away from them4 ,what the mass of ,christians in the past have found hurtful to the ,christian character will in most cases be hurtful still4 ,for if it can be said of the secular world in all matters of experience that this wise world is mainly right1 it may surely be said also of the ,christian community4 ,in our time there is a quite justifiable distrust of conventionality in morals and in religion2 but it should not be forgotten that conventions are not open to the same objection4 ,they represent1 on the whole1 merely the registered results of actual experience1 and they may be estimated and followed in an entirely free spirit4 ,it is not wise1 therefore1 to revolt against them indiscriminately1 merely because they may be used cruelly against others1 or may be taken as a substitute for a moral nature by oneself4 ,thackeray in his constant railing at the judgment of the world seems to make this mistake4 ,he is never weary in pointing out how unjust the broad general judgments of the world are to specially selected individuals4 ,harry ,warrington in ,the ,virginians1 for instance1 though innocent1 lives in a manner and with associates which the world has generally found to indicate intolerable moral laxity2 and because the world was wrong in thinking that to be true in his case which would have been true in ninety-five out of a hundred similar cases1 the moralist rails at the evil-hearted judgments of the world4 ,but this wise world is mainly right1 and its rough and indiscriminating judgments fit the average case4 ,they are part of the great sanitary provision which society makes for its own preservation4 ,and the case is precisely similar with the conventions of the religious life4 ,they too are in the main sanitary precautions1 which a conscience thoroughly alive and a strong intelligence may make superfluous1 but which for the unformed1 the half-ignorant1 the less original natures1 in a word1 for average men and women1 are absolutely necessary4 ,spontaneity and freedom are admirable qualities in morals and religion4 ,they are even the conditions of the highest kinds of moral and religious life1 and the necessary presuppositions of health and progress4 ,but something is due to stability as well2 and a world of original and spontaneous moralists1 trusting only to their own genial sense of truth1 would be a maddening chaos4 ,in other words1 conventions if used unconventionally1 if not exalted into absolute moral laws disobedience to which excludes from reputable society1 if taken simply as indications of the paths in which least danger to the higher life has been found to lie1 are guides for which men may well be thankful4 ,in the world of thought too1 as well as in the world of action1 a wise austerity of self-control is absolutely necessary4 ,the prevailing theory is that every one1 young men more especially1 should read on all sides on all questions1 and that they should know and sympathise with all modes of thought4 ,this is advocated in the supposed interests of freedom from external domination and from internal prejudice4 ,but in a great number of cases the result does not follow4 ,such catholicity of taste does produce a curious dilettante interest in lines of thought1 but as a rule it weakens interest in truth as such4 ,it delivers from the domination of a ,church or other historic authority2 but only1 in most cases1 to hand over the supposed freeman to the narrower domination of the thinker or school by which he happens to be most impressed4 ,for it is vain and impotent to suppose that in regard to morals and religion every mind is able to find its way by free thought1 when in regard to bodily health1 or even in questions of finance1 the free thought of the amateur is acknowledged to end usually in confusion4 ,those only can usefully expose their minds to all the various currents of modern thought who have a clear footing of their own4 ,whatever that may be1 it gives them a point on which to stand1 and a vantage-ground from which they can gather up what widens or corrects their view4 ,but to leave the land altogether1 and commit oneself to the currents1 is to render any after-landing all but impossible4 ,with regard to the books read1 the lines of thought followed1 and the associations formed1 the ,christian must exercise self-denial and self-examination4 ,whatever is manifestly detrimental to his best life1 whatever he feels to be likely to taint the purity of his mind or lower his spiritual vitality1 should be put under the ban1 should be resolutely avoided in all ordinary cases4 ,of course modes of thought that deserve to be weighed may be found mingled with such elements2 also views of life which have a truth and importance of their own1 though their setting is corrupt4 ,but it is not every one's business to extricate and discuss these4 ,those who are called to it will have to do it2 and in doing it as a duty they may expect to be kept from the lurking contagion4 ,every one else who investigates them runs a risk which he was not called upon to run4 ,the average ,christian should1 therefore1 note all that tends to stunt or deprave him spiritually1 and should avoid it4 ,it is not manliness but folly which makes men read filthy literature because of its style1 or sceptical literature because of its ability1 when they are not called upon to do so1 and when they have not fortified themselves by the purity of the ,scriptures and the power of prayer4 ,to make such literature or such modes of thought our staple mental food1 or to make the writers or admirers of such books our intimate friends1 is to sap our own best convictions and to disregard our high calling4 ,lastly1 however common it may be for men to sit down in selfish isolation and devote themselves to their own interests1 even though these be spiritual1 in the face of remediable evils1 that is not the ,christian manner of acting4 ,of the great ,puritans we mentioned1 ,spenser endured hardness in that terrible ,irish war which the men of ,elizabeth's day regarded as the war of good against evil2 ,hutchinson fought for and died in the cause of political and religious freedom2 and ,milton devoted his life and health to the same cause4 ,all of them1 the two latter especially1 might have kept out of it all1 in the peace and comfort of private life2 but they judged that the destruction of evil was their first duty4 ,at the trumpet call they willingly took their side1 and prepared to give their lives1 if necessary1 for the righteous cause4 ,now it is not enough for us to avoid evil any more than it was for them4 ,though personal influence and example are undoubtedly among the most potent weapons in the warfare for the ,kingdom of ,god1 there must be1 besides these1 the power and the will to put public evils under the ban4 ,whatever institution or custom or law is ungodly1 whatever in our social life is manifestly unjust1 should stir the ,christian ,church to revolt against it1 and should fill the heart of the individual ,christian with an undying energy of hatred4 ,it is not meant that the ,christian ,churches as such should transform themselves into political societies or social clubs4 ,to do that would simply be to abdicate their only real functions4 ,but they should be the sources of such teaching as will turn men's thoughts towards social justice and political righteousness1 and should prepare them for the sacrifice which any great improvement in the social state must demand of some4 ,further1 every individual ,christian should feel that his responsibility for the condition of his brethren1 those of his own nation1 is very great and direct2 that to discharge municipal and political duty with conscientious care is a primary obligation4 ,only so can the power be gained to ban the bad laws1 the unjust practices1 the evil social customs1 which disfigure our civilisation1 which degrade and defraud the poor4 ,a militant ,puritanism here is not only a necessity for further social progress1 but it is also a necessity for the full exhibition of the power and the essential sympathies of ,christianity4 ,for want of it the working classes in their movement upward have not only been alienated from the ,churches1 but they have learned to demand of their leaders that they shall countenance the poor man in his cause4 ,they are tempted to require their leaders to share not only their common principles1 but their prejudices2 and they often look with suspicion upon those who insist upon applying the plumb-line of justice to the demands of the poor as well as to the claims of the rich4 ,the whole popular movement suffers1 for it is degraded from its true position4 ,from being a demand for justice1 it becomes a scramble for power--power too which1 when gained1 is sometimes used as selfishly and tyrannically by its new possessors as it sometimes was by those who previously exercised it4 ,into all branches of public life there is needed an infusion of a new and higher spirit4 ,we want men who hate evil and will destroy it where they can1 who seek nothing for themselves1 who feel strongly that the kind of life the poor in civilised countries live is intolerably hard1 and are prepared to suffer1 if by any means they may improve it4 ,but we want at the same time a type of reformer who1 by his hold upon a power lying beyond this world1 is kept steady to justice even where the poor are concerned1 who1 though he passionately longs for a better life for them1 does not make more food1 more leisure1 more amusement1 his highest aim4 ,men are needed who think more nobly of their brethren than that3 men1 on the one hand1 who know that the ,christian character and the ,christian virtues may exist under the hardest conditions1 and that the ,christian ,church exists mainly to brighten and rob of its degradation the otherwise cheerless life of the multitude2 but1 on the other1 who recognise that our present social state is fatal in many ways to moral and spiritual progress for the mass of men1 and must be in some way recast4 ,all this means the entrance into public life of ,christian men of the highest type4 ,such men the ,christian community must supply to the ,state in great numbers1 if the higher characteristics of our people are not to be lost4 ,through a long and eventful history1 by the manifold training afforded by religion and experience1 the ,english nation has become strong1 patient1 hopeful1 and self-reliant1 with an instinct for justice and a hatred of violence which cannot easily be paralleled4 ,it has1 too1 retained a faith in and respect for religion which many other nations seem to have lost4 ,that character is its highest achievement1 and its decay would be deplorable4 ,christianity is specially called to help to preserve it1 by bringing to its aid the power of its own special character1 with its great spiritual resources4 ,the sources of its life are hid1 and must be kept pure2 the power of its life must be made manifest in actual union with the higher elements in the national character for mutual defence4 ,above all1 ,christianity must not1 timidly or sluggishly1 draw upon itself the curse of ,meroz by not coming to the help of the ,lord against the mighty4 ,nor can it permit the immediate interests of the respectable to blind or hold it back4 ,that which is best in its own nature demands all this2 and in seeking to answer that demand the ,churches will attain to a quite new life and power4 ,the ,lord their ,god will be in the midst of them1 and they will feel it2 for they will then have made themselves channels for the ,divine purity and power4 ,,chapter ,,xi ,,the ,,bread ,,of ,,the ,,soul ,,deut4 viii4 ,in the chapters which follow1 viz4 viii41 ix41 and x4 #a-aa1 we have an appeal to history as a motive for fulfilling the fundamental duty of loving ,god and keeping ,his commandments4 ,in its main points it is substantially the same appeal which is made in chapters i4-iii41 is1 in fact1 a continuation of it4 ,its main characteristics1 therefore1 have already been dealt with2 but there are details here which deserve more minute study4 ,coming after ,yahweh's great demand for the love of ,his people1 the references to the ,divine action in the past assume a deeper and more affectionate character than when they were mere general exhortations to obedience and submission4 ,they become inducements to the highest efforts of love2 and the first appeal is naturally made to the gracious and fatherly dealing of ,yahweh with ,his people in their journey through the wilderness4 ,of all the traditions or reminiscences of ,israel1 this of the wilderness was the most constantly present to the popular mind1 and it is always referred to as the most certain1 the most impressive1 and the most touching of all ,israel's historic experiences4 ,yet ,stade and others push the whole episode aside1 saying1 if any ,israelites came out of ,egypt1 we do not know who they were4 ,such a mode of dealing with clear1 coherent1 and in themselves not improbable historical memories1 is too arbitrary to have much effect1 and the wilderness journey remains1 and is likely to remain1 one of the indubitable facts which modern critical research has established rather than shaken4 ,to this1 then1 our author turns1 and he deals with it in a somewhat unusual way4 ,as we have seen1 the prevalent notion that piety and righteousness are rewarded with material prosperity is firmly rooted in his mind4 ,but he did not feel himself limited to that as the solitary right way of regarding the providence of ,god4 ,men's minds are never quite so simple and direct in their action as many students and critics are tempted to suppose4 ,every great conception which holds the minds of men produces its effects1 even from the first moment it is grasped1 by all that is in it4 ,implications and developments which are made explicit1 or are called out into visibility1 only by the friction of new environments1 have been there from the beginning2 and minds have been secretly moulded by them though they were not conscious of them4 ,hard and fast lines1 then1 are not to be drawn between the stages of a great development1 so that one should say that before such and such a moment1 when a new aspect of the old truth has emerged into consciousness1 that aspect was not effective in any wise4 ,the outburst of waters from a reservoir is indubitable evidence of steady persistent pressure from within in that direction before the overflow4 ,similarly1 in the region of thought and feeling the emergence of a new aspect of truth is of itself a proof that the holders of the root conception were already swayed in that direction4 ,the history of ,christianity affords proof of this4 ,it is a commonplace to-day that the world is only beginning to do justice to some aspects of the teaching of our ,lord4 ,but the teaching1 always present1 always exerted its influence1 and was felt before it could be explained4 ,in the ,old ,testament development the same thing was most emphatically true4 ,individual responsibility to ,god was not1 so far as we can now see1 distinctly present in ,israelite religious thought till the time of ,jeremiah1 but it would be absurd to say that any mind that accepted the religion of ,yahweh had ever been without that feeling4 ,so with the doctrine of ,god's providence over men3 we are not to say that before the ,book of ,job the explanation of suffering as testing discipline had been entirely hid from ,israel1 by the view that material prosperity and adversity were regulated in the main according to moral and religious life4 ,consequently1 notwithstanding previous strong assertions of the latter view which we find in ,deuteronomy1 we need not be in the least surprised to find that here the hardships of the wilderness journey are regarded1 not as a punishment for ,israel's sins1 but simply as a trial or test to see what their heart was towards ,him4 ,this is essentially the point of view of the ,book of ,job1 the only difference being that here it is applied to the nation1 there to the individual4 ,but our chapter rises even above that1 for the first verses of it plainly teach that the experiences of the wilderness were made to be what they were1 in order that the people might learn to know the spiritual forces of the world to be the essential forces1 and that they might be induced to throw themselves back upon them as that which is alone enduring4 ,in the words of ver4 #c1 they were taught by this training that man does not live by bread alone1 but by everything that proceeds from the mouth of ,god4 ,these two then1 that hardship was testing discipline for ,israel1 and that it was also intended to be the means of revealing spirit as the supreme force even in the material world1 are the main lessons of the eighth chapter4 ,of these the last is by far the most important4 ,casting back his eye upon the past1 the author of ,deuteronomy teaches that the trials and the victories1 the wonders and the terrors of their wilderness time were meant to humble them1 to empty them of their own conceits1 and to make them know beyond all doubting that ,god alone was their portion1 and that apart from ,him they had no certainty of continuance in the future and no sustainment in the present4 ,all the commandment which ,i command thee this day shall ye observe to do1 that ye may live1 is the fundamental note1 and the physical needs and trials of the time are cited as an object-lesson to that effect4 ,he humbled thee1 and suffered thee to hunger1 and fed thee with manna which thou knewest not2 that ,he might make thee to know that man doth not live by bread alone1 but by everything that proceedeth out of the mouth of ,yahweh doth man live4 ,of course the first reference of the everything that proceedeth is to the creative word of ,yahweh4 ,the meaning is that the sending of the manna was proof that the ordinary means of living1 i4e4 bread1 could be dispensed with when ,yahweh chose to make use of ,his creative power4 ,many commentators think that this exhausts the meaning of the passage1 and they regard our ,lord's use of these words in the ,temptation as limited in the same fashion4 ,but both here and in the ,new ,testament more must be intended4 ,here we have the statement in the first verse that ,israel is to keep the commandments1 which certainly are a part of all that proceeds from the mouth of ,god1 that they may live4 ,this implies that the mere possession of material sustenance is not enough for even earthly life4 ,impalpable spiritual elements must be mingled with bread if life is not to decay4 ,this1 our chapter goes on to say1 would be plain to them if they would carefully consider ,god's dealing with them in the wilderness1 for the sending of the manna was meant to emphasise and bring home to them that very truth4 ,it was meant1 in short1 to convey a double lesson--the direct one above referred to1 and the more remote but deeper one which had been asserted in the first verse4 ,in the ,temptation narrative the same deeper meaning is surely implied4 ,the temptation suggested to ,jesus was that ,he should use the miraculous powers given to ,him for special purposes to make stones into bread for ,himself4 ,now that would have been precisely an instance of the literal primary meaning of our passage2 it would have been a case of supplying the absence of bread by the use of the creative word of ,god4 ,to meet that temptation and to put it aside our ,lord uses these words3 ,it is written1 ,man shall not live by bread alone1 but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of ,god4 ,thereupon ,he was no more importuned to supply the place of bread by a creative word4 ,the implication is that the life of the ,son of ,god found sustenance in spiritual strength derived from ,his ,father4 ,in other words1 the passage is really parallel to ,john iv4 #ca ff3 ,in the mean while the disciples prayed ,him1 saying1 ,rabbi1 eat4 ,but ,he said unto them1 ,i have meat to eat that ye know not4 ,the disciples therefore said one to another1 ,hath any man brought ,him to eat8 ,jesus saith unto them1 ,my meat is to do the will of ,him that sent ,me1 and to accomplish ,his work4 ,understanding it thus1 the ,temptation passage is entirely in accord with that from which it is quoted1 if the first and third verses be taken together4 ,both teach that abundance of material resources1 all that visibly sustains the material life1 is not sufficient for the life of such a creature as man4 ,not only his inner life1 but his outer life1 is dependent for its permanence upon the inflow of spiritual sustenance from the spiritual ,god4 ,for animals1 bread might be enough2 but man holds of both the spiritual and the material as animals do not4 ,it is not mere mythical dreaming when man is said to be made in the image of ,god2 it expresses the essential fact of his being4 ,consequently1 without inbreathings from the spiritual1 even his physical life pines and dies4 ,but how wonderful is this insight in a writer so ancient1 belonging to so obscure a people as the ,jews6 ,how can we account for it8 ,there was nothing in their character or destiny as a people to explain it1 apart from the supernatural link that binds them and their thoughts at all times to the coming ,christ1 and draws them1 notwithstanding all aberrations1 even when they know it not1 towards ,him4 ,how great an attainment it is we may see1 if we reflect for a moment upon the state of ,christian ,europe at the present day4 ,nowhere among the masses of the most cultured nations is this deeply simple truth accepted by the vast majority of men4 ,nowhere do we find that history has succeeded in bringing it home to the conscience as a commonplace4 ,the rich or well-to-do cling to riches1 the means of material enjoyment1 as if their life did consist in the abundance of things they possess4 ,they strive and struggle for them with an industry1 a forethought1 a perseverance1 which would be justified only if man could live by bread alone4 ,that is largely the condition of those who have bread in abundance or hope to gain it abundantly4 ,with those who do not have it the case is perhaps even worse4 ,worn and fretted by the hopeless struggle against poverty1 driven wild by the exigencies of a daily life so near starvation point that a strike1 a fall in prices1 a month's sickness1 bring them face to face with misery1 the toiling masses in ,europe have turned with a kind of wolfish impatience upon those who talk of ,god to them1 and demand bread4 ,as a ,german ,socialist mother said publicly some years ago1 ,he has never given me a mouthful of bread1 or means to gain it3 what have ,i to do with your ,god8 ,their only hope for the future is that they may eat and be full2 and of this they have made a political and religious ideal which is attracting the ,european working classes with most portentous power4 ,in all countries men are passionately asserting that man can live by bread alone1 and that he will4 ,for this dreadful creed increasing numbers are prepared to sacrifice all that humanity thought it had gained1 and shut their ears to any who warn them that1 if they had all they seek1 earth might be still more of a ,pandemonium than they think it at present4 ,but they have much excuse4 ,they have never had wealth so as to know how very little it can do for the deepest needs of men2 and their faith in it1 their belief that if they were assured of a comfortable maintenance all would be right with the world1 is pathetic in its simplicity4 ,yet the secret that is hid to-day from the mass of men was known among the small ,israelite people two thousand five hundred years ago4 ,since then it has formed the very keynote of the teaching of our ,lord2 but save by the generations of ,christians who have found in it the key to much of the riddle of the world it has been learned by nobody4 ,yet history has never wearied in proclaiming the same truth4 ,israel as we have seen1 had verified it in the history of the pre-,canaanite races whose disappearance is recorded in the first section of our book1 and in the doom which was impending over the ,canaanites4 ,but to our wider experience1 enriched by the changes of more than two thousand years1 and by the still more striking vicissitudes of ancient days revealed by archology1 the fact that intelligence of the highest kind1 practical skill1 and the courage of conquerors cannot secure life1 is only more impressively brought home4 ,if we go back to the pre-,semitic empire of ,mesopotamia1 to what is called the ,akkadian time1 we find that1 before the days of ,abraham1 a great civilisation had arisen1 flourished for more than one thousand years1 and then decayed so utterly that the very language in which its records were written had to be dealt with by the ,semites1 who inherited the former culture1 as we deal with ,latin4 ,yet these early people had made a most astonishing advance into the ocean of unknown truth4 ,they had invented writing2 they had elaborate systems of law and social life2 they had in other directions made remarkable discoveries in science1 especially in mathematical and astronomical science1 and had built great cities in which the refinement and art of modern times was in many directions anticipated4 ,in all ways they stood far higher above neighbouring peoples than any civilised nation of ,europe stands now in comparison with its neighbours4 ,but if they were at all inclined to put their trust in the immortality of science1 if they ever valued themselves1 as we do1 on the strength of the advances they had made1 time has had them in derision4 ,very much of what they knew had to be rediscovered painfully in later times4 ,their very name perished out of the earth2 and it has been discovered now to make them an object of abiding interest only to the few who make ethnology their study4 ,neither material wealth and comfort nor assiduous culture of the mind could save them4 ,for their religion and morals were1 amid all this material success1 of the lowest type4 ,they heard little of what issues from the mouth of ,god in the specially ,divine sphere of morality1 and did not give heed to that little1 and they perished4 ,for man does not live by bread alone1 but by that also1 and neglect of it is fatal4 ,it may be said that they flourished for more than a thousand years1 and neglect of the ,divine word1 if it be a poison1 must 7as ,fnlon said of coffee7 be a very slow one1 so far as nations are concerned4 ,but it has always been a snare to men to mistake the ,divine patience for ,divine indifference and inaction4 ,the movement1 though to us creatures of a day it seems slow1 is as continuous1 as crushing1 and as relentless as the movement of a glacier4 ,the mills of ,god grind slowly1 but they grind exceeding small1 and all along the ages they have thrown out the crushed and scattered fragments of the powers that were deaf to the ,divine voice4 ,so persistently has this appeared that it would by this time have passed beyond the region of faith into that of sight1 were it not always possible to ignore the moral cause and substitute for it something mechanical and secondary4 ,the great world-empires of ,egypt and ,assyria passed away1 primarily owing to neglect of the higher life4 ,secondarily1 no doubt1 the ebbs and flows of their power1 and their final extinction1 were influenced by the course of the ,indian trade2 and many wise men think they do well to stop there4 ,but in truth we do not solve the difficulty by resting in this secondary cause2 we only shift it a step backwards4 ,for the question immediately arises1 ,why did the trade change its course from ,assyria to ,egypt1 and back again from ,egypt to ,assyria8 ,why did a rivulet of it flow through the land of ,israel in ,solomon's day and afterwards cease8 ,the answer must be that it was when the character of these various nations rose in vigour by foresight and moral self-restraint that they drew to themselves this source of power4 ,they lived1 in fact1 by giving heed to some word of ,god4 ,nor does the history of ,greek supremacy in ,europe and ,asia1 or the rise and fall of the ,roman ,empire1 contradict that view4 ,the modern historian1 whatever his faith or unfaith may be1 is driven to find the motive power which wrought in these stupendous movements in the moral and spiritual sphere4 ,this transforms history from being merely secular into a ,bible1 as ,mommsen finely says1#fc ,and if she cannot any more than the ,bible hinder the fool from misunderstanding and the devil from quoting her1 she too will be able to bear with and to requite them both4 ,she utters her voice in the streets1 and in the end makes her meaning clear4 ,for she gives us ever new examples4 #fc ,history of ,rome1 vol4 iv41 ,part ,,ii41 p4 #dfg4 ,probably her grandest object-lesson at present is the wasting and paralysis that is slowly withering up all ,mohammedan states4 ,where they have been left to themselves1 as in ,morocco and ,persia1 depopulation and the break-up of society has come upon them1 and where ,muslim populations are really prospering it is under the influence of ,christian ,powers4 ,and the reason is plain4 ,islam is a revolt from1 and a rejection of1 the higher principles of life contained in ,christianity1 and a return to ,judaism4 ,but the ,judaism to which it returned had already lost its finest bloom4 ,all that was left to it of tenderness or power of expansion ,islam rejected1 and of the driest husks of ,old ,testament religion it made its sole food4 ,naturally and necessarily1 therefore1 it has been found inadequate4 ,it cannot permanently live under present conditions1 and it is capable of no renewal4 ,here and there1 especially in ,india1 attempts to break out of the prison house which this system builds around its votaries are being made1 but in the opinion of experts like ,mr4 ,sell#fd they cannot succeed4 ,such a movement1 he tells us1 may elevate individuals and purify the family life of many1 but it will1 like all reform movements of the past1 have very little real effect on ,islam as a polity and as a religion4 ,if he be right1 we learn from a ,mohammedan whom he quotes1 the ,naual ,mulisin-ul-,mulk1 what alone can be looked for4 ,to me it seems1 he says1 that as a nation and a religion we are dying out2 our day is past1 and we have little hope of the future4 ,more conspicuously and deliberately perhaps than any one did ,mohammed choose to go back from the best light that shone in the world of his day4 ,some at least of his contemporaries knew what a spiritual religion meant4 ,he was guilty1 therefore1 of the great refusal2 and his work1 great as it was1 seems to some even of his own disciples to be hastening to its end4 ,material success1 bread in all senses1 the kingdoms founded by him and his successors had in abundance1 and still might have4 ,but man cannot live by that alone1 and the absence of the higher element has taken even that away4 #fd ,contemporary ,review1 ,august #ahic p4 #bic4 ,in ,christendom1 too1 the same lesson is being taught4 ,of all ,european countries ,france perhaps is that where the corroding power of materialistic thought has been most severely felt4 ,yet few countries are so rich in material wealth1 and if bread was all that life demanded1 no country should be so full of it4 ,but it is in no sense so4 ,even its intellectual life is drooping1 and its population1 if not decreasing1 is standing still4 ,this1 all serious writers deplore2 and the dawn of what may perhaps be a new era is seen in the earnestness with which the sources of this evil are sought out and discussed4 ,men like the ,vicomte de ,vog#fe depict the new generation as weary of negations1 sick of the material positivism of their immediate predecessors1 disgusted with realism1 which1 as another recent writer defines it1 in thought is mere provincialism1 in affection absolute egoism1 in politics the deification of brute force2 in the higher grades of society tyranny2 in the lower1 unbridled licence4 ,and the only cure is faith and moral idealism4 ,society can apply to itself to-day1 says ,de ,vog1 the beautiful image of ,plotinus2 it resembles those travellers lost in the night1 seated in silence on the shore of the sea1 waiting for the sun to rise above the billows4 ,in ,germany similar conditions have produced similar though much mitigated results4 ,yet even there1 ,lange1 the historian of materialism1 tells us that there runs through all our modern culture a tendency to materialism1 which carries away every one who has not found somewhere a sure anchor4 ,the ideal has no currency2 all that cannot prove its claim on the basis of natural science and history is condemned to destruction1 though a thousand joys and refreshments of the masses depend upon it4 ,he concludes by saying that ideas and sacrifices may still save our civilisation1 and change the path of destructive revolution into a path of beneficent reforms4 ,through all history1 then1 and loudest in our own day1 the cry of our passage goes up2 and where the path marked out by the faith of ,israel1 and carried to its goal by ,jesus ,christ1 has been forsaken1 the peoples are resting in hungry expectation4 ,words from the mouth of ,god can alone save them2 and if the ,churches cannot make them hear1 and no new voice brings it home to them1 there would seem to be nothing before them but a slower or quicker descent into death4 #fe ,heures d',histoire4 ,but it may be that the nations are deaf to the ,churches' voice because these have not learned thoroughly that life for them too is conditioned in the same fashion4 ,they can live truly1 fully1 triumphantly only when they take up and absorb everything that issues from the mouth of ,god4 ,all ,christians must admit this2 but most proceed at once to annul what they have stated by the limitations of meaning they impose upon it4 ,an older generation vehemently affirmed this faith1 meaning by it every word and letter which ,scripture contained4 ,we do not find fault with what they assert1 for the first necessity of spiritual life is the study and love of the ,holy ,scriptures4 ,no one who knows what the higher life in ,christ is1 needs to be told that the very bread of life is in the ,bible4 ,neglect it1 or1 what is perhaps worse1 study it only from the scientific and intellectual point of view1 and life will slowly ebb away from you1 and your religion will bring you none of the joy of living4 ,bring your thoughts1 your hopes1 your fears1 and your aspirations into daily contact with it1 and you will feel a vigour in your spiritual nature which will make you lords over circumstance4 ,every part of it contributes to this effect when it is properly understood1 for experience proves the vanity of the attempt to distinguish between the ,bible and the word of ,god4 ,as it stands1 wrought into one whole by labours the strenuousness1 the multiplicity1 the skill1 and the religious spirit of which we are only now coming to understand1 it is the word of ,god2 it has issued from ,his mouth1 and from it1 searched out and understood1 the most satisfying bread of the soul must come4 ,only by use of it can the ,christian soul live4 ,but though the ,bible is the word of ,god par excellence1 it is not the only word that issues from the mouth of ,god to man4 ,because the ,church has often too much refused to listen to any other word of ,god1 those who are without are sitting looking out over the sea towards the west for the rising of the sun which is behind them4 ,for if it is death to the spirit to turn away from ,scripture1 it means sickness and disease to refuse to learn the other lessons which are set for us by the ,god of truth4 ,all true science must contain a revelation of ,him1 for it is an exposition of the manner of ,his working4 ,history too is a ,bible1 which has been confirming with trumpet tongue the truths of ,scripture as we have seen4 ,nay1 it is a commentary upon the special revelation given to us through ,israel1 set for our study by the ,author of that revelation4 ,further1 we may say that the progress of our ,christian centuries has shown us heights and depths of wisdom in the revelation mankind has received in ,christ which1 without its light1 we should not have known4 ,the spirit of ,christ in regard to slavery1 for instance1 was made manifest fully only in our day4 ,the true relations of men to each other1 as conceived by our blessed ,lord1 are evidently about to be forced home upon the world by the turmoils1 the strikes1 and the outrages1 by the wild demands1 and the wilder hopes which are the characteristic of our epoch4 ,in the future1 too1 there must lie experiences which will make manifest to men the brand which the spirit of ,christ puts upon war1 with its savagery and its folly4 ,these are only noteworthy instances of the explanation of revelation by the developments of the ,divine purpose in the world4 ,but in countless ways the same process is going on1 and the ,church which refuses to regard it is preparing a decay of its own life4 ,for man lives by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of ,god1 and every such word missed means a loss of vitality4 ,the ,christian ,church1 therefore1 if it is to be true to its calling1 should be seriously watchful lest any ,divinely sent experience should be lost to it4 ,it cannot be indifferent1 much less hostile1 to discoveries in physical science2 it cannot ignore any fact or lesson which history reveals2 it cannot sit apart from social experiments1 as if holding no form of creed in such things1 without seriously impairing its chances of life4 ,for all these things are pregnant with most precious indications of the mind of ,god1 and to turn from them is to sit in darkness and the shadow of death4 ,in the most subtle and multifarious way1 the inner spiritual life of man is being modified by the discoveries of scientists1 historians1 philologists1 archologists1 and critics1 and by the new attention which is being given to the foundations of society and social life4 ,all the truth that is in these discoveries issues from the mouth of ,god4 ,they too are a ,bible1 as ,mommsen says1 and if the ,christian ,church cannot hinder the fool from misunderstanding and the devil from quoting them1 it can itself listen with open ear to these teachings1 and work them into coherent unity with the great spiritual ,revelation4 ,this is the perennial task which awaits the ,church at every stage of its career1 for on no other terms can it live a healthy life4 ,here we find the answer to timid ,christians who address petulant complaints to those who are called to attempt this work4 ,if1 say they1 these new thoughts are not essential to faith1 if in the forms to which we have been accustomed the essence of true religion has been preserved1 why do you disturb the minds of believers by outside questions8 ,the reply is that we dare not refuse the teaching which ,god is sending us in these ways4 ,to refuse light is to blaspheme light4 ,though we might save our generation some trouble by turning our back upon this light1 though we might even save some from manifest shipwreck of faith1 we should pay for that by sacrificing all the future1 and by rendering faith impossible perhaps for greater multitudes of our successors4 ,yet this does not imply that the ,church is to be driven about by every wind of doctrine4 ,some men of science demand1 apparently1 that every new discovery1 in its first crude form1 should be at once adopted by the ,church1 and that all the inferences unfavourable to received views of religion1 which occur to men accustomed to think only truths that can be demonstrated by experiment1 should be registered in its teachings4 ,but such a demand is mere folly4 ,the ,church has in its possession a body of truth which1 if not verifiable by experiment1 has been verified by experience as no other body of truth has been4 ,even its enemies being judges1 no other system of a moral or spiritual kind has risen above the horizon which can for a moment be compared with ,christianity as the guide of men for life and death4#ff ,through all changes of secular thought1 and amid all the lessons which the world has taught the ,church1 the fundamental doctrines have remained in essence the same1 and by them the whole life of man1 social1 political1 and scientific1 has ultimately been guided4 ,immense practical interests have therefore been committed to the ,church's keeping1 the interests primarily of the poor and the obscure4 ,she ought never to be tempted1 consequently1 to think that she is moving and acting in a vacuum1 or manage her affairs after the manner of a debating society4 ,it is no doubt a fault to move too slowly2 but in circumstances like that of the ,church1 it can never be so destructive to the best interests of mankind as to move with wanton instability4 ,her true attitude must be to prohibit no lines of inquiry1 to open her mind seriously to all the demonstrated truths of science with gladness1 to be tolerant of all loyal effort to reform ,christian thought in accordance with the new light1 when that has become at all possible4 ,for her true food is everything that issues from the mouth of ,god2 and only when she receives with gratitude her daily bread in this way also1 can her life be as vigorous and as elevated as it ought to be4 #ff ,cf4 ,lange1 ,geschichte des ,materialismus1 vol4 ii41 pp4 #eaj1 #ebh4 ,,chapter ,,xii ,,israel',s ,,election1 ,,and ,,motives ,,for ,,faithfulness ,,deut4 ix-xi4 ,the remaining chapters of this special introduction to the statement of the actual laws beginning with chapter xii41 contain also an earnest insistence upon other motives why ,israel should remain true to the covenant of ,yahweh4 ,they are urged to this1 not only because life both spiritual and physical depended upon it1 as was shown in the trials of the wilderness1 but they are also to lay it to heart that in the conquests which assuredly await them1 it will be ,yahweh alone to whom they will owe them4 ,the spies had declared1 and the people had accepted their report1 that these peoples were far mightier than they1 and that no one could stand before the children of ,anak4 ,but the victory over them would show that ,yahweh had been among them like a consuming fire1 before which the ,canaanite power would wither as brushwood in the flame4 ,under these circumstances the thought would obviously lie near that1 as they had been defeated and driven back in their first attempt upon ,canaan because of their unrighteousness and unbelief1 so they would conquer now because of their righteousness and obedience4 ,but this thought is sternly repressed4 ,the fundamental doctrine which is here insisted on is that ,israel's consciousness of being the people of ,god must at the same time be a consciousness of complete dependence upon ,him4 ,if ,his gifts were ultimately to be the reward of human righteousness1 then obviously that feeling of complete dependence could not be established4 ,they are to move so completely in the shadow of ,god that they are to see in their successes only the carrying out of the ,divine purposes4 ,instead of feeling fiercely contemptuous of the ,canaanites they destroy1 because they stand on a moral and spiritual height which gives them a right to triumph1 the ,israelites are to feel that1 while it is for wickedness that the ,canaanite people are to be punished1 they themselves had not been free from wickedness of an aggravated kind4 ,their different treatment1 therefore1 rests upon the fact that they are to be ,yahweh's chosen instruments4 ,in the patriarchs he chose them to become the means1 the vehicle1 by which salvation and blessing were to be brought to all nations4 ,while1 therefore1 the evil that comes upon the peoples they are to conquer is deserved1 the good they themselves are to receive is equally undeserved4 ,that which alone accounts for the difference is the faithfulness of ,god to the promises ,he made for the sake of ,his purposes4 ,he needs an instrument through which to bless mankind4 ,he has chosen ,israel for this purpose1 partly doubtless because of some qualities1 not necessarily spiritual or moral1 which they have come to have1 and partly because of their historical position in the world4 ,these taken together make them at this precise moment in the history of the world's development the fittest instruments to carry out the ,divine purpose of love to mankind4 ,and they are elected1 made to enter into more constant and intimate communion with ,god than other nations1 on that account4 ,in the words of ,rothe1 ,god chooses or elects at each historical moment from the totality of the sinful race of mankind that nation by whose enrolment among the positive forces which are to develop the kingdom of ,god the greatest possible advance towards the complete realisation of it may be attained1 under the historical circumstances of that moment4 ,whether that completely covers the individual election of ,st4 ,paul1 as ,rothe thinks1 or not1 it certainly precisely expresses the national election of the ,old ,testament1 and exhausts the meaning of our passage4 ,israelite particularism had universality of the highest kind as its background1 and here the latter comes most insistently to its rights4 ,it was not only the election of ,israel to be a peculiar people which depended upon the wise and loving purpose of ,god2 the providences which befell them also had that as their source4 ,to fit them for their mission1 and to give them a place wherein they could develop the germs of higher faith and nobler morality which they had received1 ,yahweh gave them victory over those greater nations1 and planted them in their place4 ,this1 and this only1 was the reason of their success2 and with scathing irony the author of ,deuteronomy stamps under his feet 7ix4 #g ff47 any claim to superior righteousness on their part4 ,he points back to their continuous rebellions during the forty years in the wilderness4 ,from the beginning to the end of their journey towards the promised land1 they are told1 they have been rebellious and stiff-necked and unprofitable4 ,they have broken their covenant with their ,god4 ,they have caused ,moses to break the tables of stone containing the fundamental conditions of the covenant1 because their conduct had made it plain that they had not seriously bound themselves to it4 ,but the mercy of ,god had been with them4 ,notwithstanding their sin1 ,yahweh had been turned to mercy by the prayer of ,moses 7vv4 #be ff471 and had repented of ,his design to destroy them4 ,a new covenant was entered into with them 7chap4 x47 by means of the second tables1 which contained the same commands as were engraven on the first4 ,the renewal1 moreover1 was ratified by the separation of the tribe of ,levi 7x4 #h ff47 to be the specially priestly tribe1 to bear the ,ark of the ,covenant of the ,lord1 to stand before the ,lord to minister unto ,him and to bless in ,his name4 ,from beginning to end it was always ,yahweh1 and again ,yahweh1 who had chosen and loved and cared for them4 ,it was ,he who had forgiven and strengthened them2 but always for reasons which reached far beyond1 or even excluded1 any merit on their part4 ,the grounds of ,moses' successful intercession for them 7ix4 #be ff47 are notable in this connection4 ,they have no reference at all to the needs1 or hopes1 or expectations of the people4 ,these are all brushed aside1 as being of no moment after such unfaithfulness as theirs had been4 ,the great object before his mind is represented to be ,yahweh's glory4 ,if this stiff-necked people perish1 then the greatness of ,god will be obscured and ,his purposes will be misunderstood4 ,men will certainly think1 either that ,yahweh1 ,israel's ,god1 attempted to do what ,he was not able to do1 or that ,he was wroth with ,his people1 and drew them out into the wilderness to slay them there4 ,it is ,god's purpose with them1 ,god's purpose for the world through them1 which alone gives them importance4 ,were it not for that1 they would be as little worth saving as they have deserved to be saved4 ,for his people1 and1 we may be sure1 for himself1 ,moses recognises no true worth save in so far as he or they were useful in carrying out ,divine purposes of good to the world4 ,nor is the absence of any plea on ,israel's behalf1 that it is miserable or unhappy1 due merely to a desire to keep the rebellious people in the background for the moment1 and to appeal only to the ,divine self-love for a pardon which would1 on the merits of the case1 be refused4 ,it is the ,god of the whole earth1 before whom the inhabitants of the earth are as grasshoppers1 who is appealed to2 a ,god removed far above the petty motives of self-interested men1 and set upon the one great purpose of establishing a kingdom of ,god upon the earth into which all nations might come4 ,if ,his glory is appealed to1 that is only because it is the glory of the highest good both for the individual and for the world4 ,if fear lest doubt should be cast upon ,his power is put forward as a reason for ,his having mercy1 that is because to doubt ,his power is to doubt the supremacy of goodness4 ,if the ,divine promise to the patriarchs is set forth here1 it is because that promise was the assurance of the ,divine interest in and ,divine love of the world4 ,under such circumstances it would need a very narrow-hearted literalism1 such as only very liberal theologians and critics could favour1 to reduce this appeal to a mere attempt to flatter ,yahweh into good-humour4 ,it really embodies all that can be said in justification of our looking for answers to prayer at all2 and rightly understood it limits the field of the answer as strictly as the expressed or implied limitations of the ,new ,testament1 viz4 that effectual prayer can only be for things according to the will of ,god4 ,moreover it expresses an entirely natural attitude towards ,god4 ,before ,him1 the sum of all perfections1 the loving and omniscient and omnipresent ,god1 what is man that he should assert himself in any wise8 ,when the height and the depth1 the sublimity and the comprehensiveness of the ,divine purpose is considered1 how can a man do aught save fall upon his face in utter self-forgetfulness1 immeasurably better even than self-contempt8 ,the best and holiest of mankind have always felt this most2 and the habit of measuring their attainments by the faithfulness and knowledge1 the virtue and power which is in ,god1 has impressed some of the greatest minds and purest souls with such humility1 that to men without insight it has seemed mere affectation4 ,but the pity1 the condescension1 the love of ,christ has so brought ,god down into our human life1 that we are apt at times to lose our awe of ,god as seen in ,him4 ,were we children of the spirit we should not fall into that sin4 ,we cannot1 consequently1 be too frequently or too sharply recalled to the more austere and remote standpoint of the ,old ,testament4 ,for many even of the most pious it would be well if they could receive and keep a more just impression of their own worthlessness and nullity before ,god4 ,in the section from the twelfth verse of chapter x4 to the end of chapter xi4 the hortatory introduction is summed up in a final review of all the motives to and the results of obedience and love to ,god4 ,the fundamental exhortation as to love to ,god is once more repeated2 only here fear is joined with love and precedes it2 but the necessity of love to ,god is expanded and dwelt upon1 as at the beginning1 with a zeal that never wearies4 ,the ,deuteronomist illustrates and enforces it with old reasons and new1 always speaking with the same pleading and heartfelt earnestness4 ,he does not fear the tedium of repetition1 nor the accusation of moving in a narrow round of ideas4 ,evidently in the evil time when he wrote this love towards ,god had come to be his own support and his consolation2 and it had been revealed to him as the source of a power1 a sweetness1 and a righteousness which could alone bring the nation into communion with ,god4 ,in affecting words resembling very closely the noble exhortation in ,micah vi41 ,he hath showed thee1 ,o man1 what is good2 and what doth ,yahweh require of thee1 but to do justly1 and to love mercy1 and to walk humbly with thy ,god8 he teaches much the same doctrine as his contemporary3 ,and now1 ,israel1 what doth ,yahweh thy ,god require of thee1 but to fear ,yahweh thy ,god1 to walk in all ,his ways1 and to love ,him1 and to serve ,yahweh thy ,god with all thy heart and with all thy soul1 to keep the commandments of ,yahweh and ,his statutes which ,i command thee this day for thy good8#fg #fg ,chap4 x4 #ab4 ,in spirit these passages seem identical2 but it is held by many writers on the ,old ,testament that they are not so1 that they represent1 in fact1 opposite poles of the faith and life of ,israel4 ,micah is supposed by ,duhm1 for instance1 to mean by his threefold demand that justice between man and man1 love and kindliness and mercy towards others1 and humble intercourse with ,god are1 in distinction from sacrifice1 true religion and undefiled4 ,robertson ,smith also considers that these verses in ,micah contain a repudiation of sacrifice4 ,in ,deuteronomy1 on the contrary1 fear and love of ,god and walking in ,his ways are placed first1 but they are joined with a demand for the heartfelt service of ,god and the keeping of ,his statutes as about to be set forth4 ,now these certainly include ritual and sacrifice4 ,the one passage1 written by a prophet1 excludes sacrifice as binding and acceptable service of ,god2 the other1 written perhaps by a priest1 certainly by a man upon whom no prophetic lessons of the past had been lost1 includes it4 ,to use the words of ,robertson ,smith in discussing the requisites of forgiveness in the ,old ,testament1 ,according to the prophets ,yahweh asks only a penitent heart and desires no sacrifice2 according to the ritual law1 ,he desires a penitent heart approaching ,him in certain sacrificial sacraments4#fh ,the author of ,deuteronomy teaches the second view2 the author of ,micah chap4 vi41 who is probably his contemporary1 teaches the former4 ,how is such divergence accounted for8 ,the answer generally made is that ,deuteronomy was the product of a close alliance between priests and prophets4 ,a common hatred of ,manasseh's idolatry and a common oppression had brought them together as never perhaps before4 ,with one heart and mind they wrought in secret for the better day which they saw approaching1 and ,deuteronomy was a reissue of the ancient ,mosaic law adapted to the prophetic teaching4 ,it represented a compromise between1 or an amalgamation of1 two entirely distinct positions4 #fh ,old ,testament in ,jewish ,church1 #bnd edition1 p4 #cjh4 ,but even on this view it would follow that from the time of ,josiah1 when ,deuteronomy was accepted as the completest expression of the will of ,god1 the doctrine that ritual and sacrifice as well as penitence were essential things in true religion was known1 and not only known but accepted as the orthodox opinion4 ,putting aside1 then1 the question whether sacrifice was acknowledged by the prophets before this or not1 they must have accepted it from this point onward1 unless they denied to ,deuteronomy the authority which it claimed and which the nation conceded to it4 ,jeremiah clearly must have assented to it1 for his style and his thought have been so closely moulded on this book that some have thought he may have been its author4 ,in any case he did not repudiate its authority2 and all the prophets who followed him must have known of this view1 and also that it had been sanctioned by that book which was made the first ,jewish ,bible4 ,we have here1 at all events1 the keynote of the supremacy of moral duty over ,divine commands concerning ritual which distinguishes the prophetic teaching in ,micah and elsewhere1 joined with the enforcement of ritual observances4 ,but there are few purely prophetic passages which raise the higher demand so high as it is raised here4 ,to love and fear ,god are anew declared to be man's supreme duties1 and the author presses these home by arguments of various kinds4 ,again he returns to the election of ,israel by ,yahweh1 without merit of theirs2 and to bring home to them how much this means1 the ,deuteronomist exhibits the greatness of their ,god1 ,his might1 ,his justice1 and ,his mercy1 which1 great as it is to ,his chosen people1 is not confined to them1 but extends to the stranger also4 ,this most gracious ,one they are to serve by deeds1 to ,him they are to cleave1 and they are to swear by ,him only1 that is1 they are solemnly to acknowledge ,him to be their ,god in return for ,his undeserved favour4 ,for their very existence as a nation is a wonder of ,his power1 since they were only a handful when they went down to ,egypt1 and now were as the stars of heaven for multitude4 ,then once more1 in chapter xi41 he repeats his one haunting thought that love is to be the source of all worthy fulfilment of the law2 and he endeavours to shed abroad this love to ,god in their hearts by reminding them once more of all the marvels of their deliverance from ,egypt1 and of their wilderness journey4 ,their ,god had delivered them first1 then chastised them for their sins1 and had trained them for the new life that awaited them in the land promised to their fathers4 ,even in the security of the land they were to find themselves not less dependent upon ,god than before4 ,rather their dependence would be more striking and more impressive than in ,egypt4 ,as we have seen repeatedly1 this inspired writer belonged in many respects to the childhood of the world1 and the people he addressed were primitive in their ideas4 ,yet his thoughts of ,god in their highest flight were so essentially true and deep1 that even to-day we can go back upon them for edification and inspiration4 ,but here we have an appeal based upon a distinction which to-day should have almost entirely lost its meaning4 ,the ,deuteronomist yields quite simply and unreservedly to the feeling that the regular1 unvarying processes of nature are less ,divine1 or at least are less immediately significant of the ,divine presence1 than those which cannot be foreseen1 which vary1 and which defy human analysis4 ,for he here contrasts ,egypt and ,canaan1 in both of which he represents ,israel as having been engaged in agricultural pursuits1 and speaks as if in the former all depended upon human industry and ingenuity1 and might be counted upon irrespective of moral conduct1 while in the latter all would depend upon ,divine favour and a right attitude towards ,god4 ,it is quite true that in preceding chapters he has been teaching that1 even for worldly material success1 the higher life is necessary1 that man nowhere lives by bread alone2 and that we may assuredly assume is his deepest1 his ultimate thought4 ,but he has a practical end in view at this moment4 ,he wishes to persuade his people1 and he appeals to what both he and they felt1 though in the last resort it might hardly perhaps be justified4 ,in ,egypt1 he says1 your agricultural success was certain if only you were industrious4 ,the great river1 of which the land itself is the gift1 came down in flood year after year1 and you had only to store and to guide its waters to ensure you a certain return for your labour4 ,you had not to look to uncertain rains1 but could by diligence always secure a sufficiency of the life-giving element4 ,in ,canaan it will not be so4 ,it drinketh water only of the rain of heaven4 ,god's eye has to be upon it continually to keep it fertile1 and the sense of dependence upon ,him will force itself upon you more constantly and powerfully in consequence4 ,they could hope to prosper only if they never forgot1 never put away ,his exhortations out of their sight4 ,otherwise1 he says1 the life-giving showers will not fall in their due season4 ,your land will not yield its fruits1 and ye shall perish quickly off the good land which ,yahweh giveth you4 ,now what are we to say of this appeal8 ,there can be no doubt that the ,divine omnipotence was really1 in the ,deuteronomist's view as well as in ours1 as irresistible in ,egypt as in ,canaan4 ,fundamentally1 no doubt1 life or death1 prosperity or adversity1 were as much in the hand of ,god in the one case as in the other2 and the ,deuteronomist1 at least1 had no doubt that rebellion against ,god could and would destroy ,egypt's prosperity as much as ,canaan's4 ,but he felt that somehow there was a tenderer and more intimate communion of love between ,yahweh and ,his people under the one set of circumstances than under the other4 ,we are not entitled to impute to him a questionable distinction which modern minds are apt to make1 viz4 that where long experience has taught men to regard the course of providence as fixed1 there the sphere of prayer for material benefit ends1 and that only in the region where the ,divine action in nature seems to us more spontaneous1 and less capable of being foreseen1 can prayer be heartily1 because hopefully1 made4 ,but the feeling that suggests that was certainly in his mind4 ,he felt the difference between the fixed conditions of life in ,egypt and the more variable conditions in ,canaan1 to be much the same as the difference between the circumstances of a son receiving a fixed yearly allowance from his father1 in an independent and perhaps distant home1 and those of a son in his father's house1 who receives his portion day by day as the result and evidence of an ever-present affection4 ,both are equally dependent upon the father's love1 and both should theoretically be equally filled with loving gratitude4 ,but as a fact1 the latter would be more likely to be so1 and would be held more guilty if he were not so4 ,upon that actual fact the ,deuteronomist takes his stand4 ,as they were now to enter into ,yahweh's land1 ,his chosen dwelling-place1 he sees in the different material conditions of the new country that which should make the union between ,yahweh and ,his people more intimate and more secure1 and ,he presses home upon them the greater shame of ingratitude1 if under such circumstances they should forget ,god and ,his laws4 ,finally 7xi4 #bb-be7 he promises them the victorious extension of their dominion if they will love ,yahweh and keep ,his laws4 ,from ,lebanon to the southern wilderness1 from the ,euphrates to the western sea1 they should rule1 if they would cleave unto their ,god4 ,at no time was this promise fulfilled save in the days of ,david and ,solomon4 ,for only then had ,lebanon and the wilderness1 the ,euphrates and the sea1 been the boundaries of ,israel4 ,this must1 then1 be regarded as the time of ,israel's greatest faithfulness4 ,but it is striking that it is in ,josiah's day1 after the adoption of ,deuteronomy as the national law1 that we meet with a conscious effort to realise this condition of things once more4 ,there would seem to be little doubt that the good king took an equally literal view of what the book commanded and of what it promised4 ,he inaugurated a period of complete external compliance with the law1 and like the young and inexperienced man he was1 he regarded that as the fulfilment of its requirements1 and looked for a similar instantaneous fulfilment of the promises4 ,bit by bit he had absorbed the ancient territory of the ,northern ,kingdom2 and in the decay of the ,assyrian power he saw the opportunity for the enlargement of his dominion to the limit here defined4 ,he consequently went out against ,pharaoh ,necho in the full confidence that he would be victorious4 ,but if the ,divine promise and its conditions were taken up too superficially by him1 ,divine providence soon and terribly corrected the error4 ,the defeat and death of ,josiah revealed that the reformation had not been real and deep enough1 and that the nation was not faithful enough to make such triumph possible4 ,indeed1 so far as we can see1 the time for any true fulfilment of ,israel's calling in that fashion had then passed by4 ,the harvest was past1 and ,israel was not saved1 and could not now be saved1 for it was in its deepest heart unfaithful4 ,it may be questioned by some1 of course1 whether an ,israel faithful even in the highest degree could at any time have kept possession of so wide a dominion in the face of the great empires of ,assyria and ,egypt4 ,these were rich1 and had a far larger command both of territory and men3 how then could the ,israelites ever have maintained themselves in face of them8 ,but the question is how to measure the power of the higher ideas they held4 ,it is not force but truth that rules the world2 and absolutely no limit can be set to the possibilities which open out to a free1 morally robust1 and faithful people1 who have become possessed of higher spiritual ideas than the peoples that surround them4 ,even in this sceptical modern day the transformation as regards physical strength which takes place when certain classes of ,hindus become either ,mohammedans or ,christians is so startling and so rapid that it appears almost a miracle4 ,as regards courage1 too1 it is even more rapid and equally remarkable4 ,the great majority of the struggles of nations are fought out on the level of mere physical force and for material ends1 and the strongest and richest wins3 but whenever a people possessed of higher ideas and absolutely faithful to them does appear1 the opposing power1 however great it may be in wealth and numbers1 is whirled away in fragments as by a tornado1 or it dissolves like ice before the sun4 ,what ,israel might have been1 therefore1 had it been penetrated by the principles of the higher religion1 and been passionately true to it1 can in no way be judged by that which it actually was4 ,among the untried possibilities which it was too unfaithful to realise1 the possession of such an empire as ,deuteronomy promises would seem to be one of the least4 ,our chapter sums up what precedes with the declaration on the part of ,yahweh1 ,see1 ,i am setting before you this day a blessing and a curse1 according as they might obey or disobey the ,divine command4 ,it is stated1 in short1 that the whole future of the people is to be determined by their attitude to ,yahweh and the commands ,he has given them4 ,in these two words blessing and curse1 as ,dillmann observes1 ,he sets before them the greatness of the decision they are called upon to make4 ,just as at the end of chapter iii4 the vision of ,yahweh's stretched-out hand1 which has strewn the world with the wrecks and fragments of destroyed nations1 is relied on to prepare the people for contemplating their own calling1 so here the gain or loss which would follow their decision is solemnly set before them4 ,by ,dillmann and others it is supposed that vv4 #bi and #ca1 which instruct the people to lay the blessing upon ,mount ,gerizim and the curse upon ,mount ,ebal1 have been transferred by the later editor from chapter xxvii41 where they would come in very fittingly after ver4 #c4 ,but whether that be so or not1 they are evidently so far in place here that they add to the solemnity with which the fate of the nation in the future is insisted upon4 ,their choice is brief and yet endless2 it can be made in a moment1 but in its consequence it will endure4 ,but here a difficulty arises4 ,dr4 ,driver in his ,introduction says of this hortatory section of our book that its teaching is that duties are not to be performed from secondary motives1 such as fear or dread of consequences2 they are to be the spontaneous outcome of a heart from which every taint of worldliness has been removed1 and which is penetrated by an all-absorbing sense of personal devotion to ,god4 ,yet in these later chapters we have had little else but appeals to the gratitude and hopes and fears of ,israel4 ,chapters viii4 to xi4 are wholly taken up with incitements to love and obey ,god1 because ,he has been immeasurably good to them1 never letting their ingratitude overcome ,his lovingkindness2 because they are wholly dependent upon ,him for prosperity and the fertility of their land2 and because evil will come upon them if they do not4 ,that would seem to be the opposite of what ,driver has declared to be the informing spirit and the fundamental teaching of ,deuteronomy4 ,yet his view is the true one4 ,even if the ,deuteronomist had added these lower motives to attract and gain over those who were not so open to the higher1 that would not deprive him of the glory of having set forth disinterested love as the really impelling power in true religion4 ,we are not required to lower our esteem of that achievement1 even if1 like the reasonable and wise teacher he is1 he boldly uses every motive that actually influences men1 whether it should do so or not1 to win them to the higher life4 ,but it is not necessary to suppose that he does so4 ,his demand is that men shall love ,yahweh their ,god with all their heart and strength1 and to win them to that he sets forth what their ,god has revealed ,himself to be4 ,men cannot love one whom they do not know2 they cannot love one who has not proved himself lovable to them4 ,as his whole effort is to get men to love ,god1 and show their love by obedience to ,his expressed will1 the ,deuteronomist brings to mind all ,his loving thoughts and acts towards them1 and so continually keeps his appeal at the highest level4 ,he does not ask men to serve ,god because it will be profitable to them1 but because they love ,god2 and he endeavours to make them love ,god by reciting all ,his love and friendliness and patience to ,his people1 and by pointing out the evil which ,his love is seeking to ward off4 ,the plea is not the ignoble one that they must serve ,yahweh for what they can gain by it1 but that they should love ,yahweh for ,his love and graciousness1 and that out of this love continual obedience should flow as a necessary result4 ,that is his central position2 and if he points out the necessary results of a refusal to turn to ,god in this way1 he does not thereby set forth slavish fear or calculating prudence as in themselves religious motives4 ,they are only natural and reasonable means of turning men to view the other side4 ,he uses them to bring the people to a pause1 during which he may win them by the love of ,god4 ,that is always the true appeal2 and ,christianity when it is at its finest can do nothing but follow in this path4 ,having before his mind the results of evil conduct1 he does urge men to escape from the wrath that may rest upon them4 ,but the only means so to escape is to yield to the love of ,god4 ,no self-restraint dictated by fear of consequences1 no turning from evil because of the lions that are seen in the path1 satisfies the demand of either ,old ,testament or ,new ,testament religion4 ,both raise the truly religious life above that into the region of self-devoting love2 and they both deny spiritual validity to all acts1 however good they may be in themselves1 which do not follow love as its free and uncalculating expression4 ,yet they both deal with men as rational beings who can estimate the results of their acts1 and warn them of the death which must be the end of every other way of supposed salvation4 ,in this manner they keep the path between extremes1 ignoring neither the inner heart of religion nor winding themselves too high for sinful men4 ,how hard it is to keep to this reasonable but spiritual view is seen by popular aberrations both within and without the ,church4 ,at times in the history of the ,church ,christian teachers have allowed their minds to be so dominated by the terror of judgment that judgment has seemed to the world to be the sole burden of their message4 ,as a reaction from that again1 other teachers have arisen who put forward the love of ,god in such a one-sided way as to empty it of all its severe but glorious sublimity2 as if1 like ,mohammed1 they believed ,god was minded mainly to make religion easy unto men4 ,outside the ,church the same discord prevails4 ,some secular writers praise those religions which declare that a man's fate is decided at the judgment by the balance of merit over demerit in his acts2 while others mock at any judgment1 and commit themselves with a light heart to the half-amused tolerance of the ,divine good-nature4 ,but the teaching which combines both elements can alone sustain and bear up a worthy spiritual life4 ,to rely upon terror only1 is to ignore the very essence of true religion and the better elements in the nature of man2 for that will not be dominated by fear alone4 ,to think of the ,divine love as a lazy1 self-indulgent laxity1 is to degrade the ,divine nature1 and to forget that the possibility of wrath is bound up in all love that is worthy of the name4 ,one other point is worthy of remark4 ,in these chapters1 which deal with the history of ,god's chosen people in their relations with ,him1 there come out the very elements which distinguish the personal religion of ,st4 ,paul4 ,the beginning and end of it all is the free grace of ,god4 ,god elected ,his people that they might be ,his instrument for blessing the world1 not because of any goodness in them1 for they were perverse and rebellious1 but because ,he had so determined and had promised to the fathers4 ,he had delivered them from the bondage of ,egypt by ,his mighty power1 and dwelt among them thenceforth as among no other people4 ,he gave them a land to dwell in1 and there as in ,his own house ,he watched and tended them1 and strove to lead them upwards to the height of their calling as the people of ,god by demanding of them faith and love4 ,it is a very enlightening remark of ,robertson ,smith's that the deliverance out of ,egypt was to ,israel in the ,old ,testament what conversion is to the individual ,christian according to the ,new ,testament4 ,taking that as our starting-point1 we see that the thought of ,deuteronomy is precisely the thought of ,romans4 ,it is said1 and truly enough1 that the ,pauline theology was a direct transcript of ,paul's own experience2 but we see from this that he did not need to form the moulds for his own fundamental thoughts4 ,long before him the author of ,deuteronomy had formed these1 and they must have been familiar to every instructed ,jew4 ,but the recognition of this is not a loss but a gain4 ,if ,st4 ,paul had founded a theory of the universal action of ,god upon the soul only on the grounds of his own very peculiar experience1 it might be argued that the basis of his teaching had been too personal to permit us to feel sure that his view was really as exhaustive as he thought4 ,we see1 however1 that what he experienced the ,deuteronomist had long before traced in the history of his people2 and most probably he would not have traced it with so firm a hand had he not himself had experience of a similar kind in his personal relations with ,god4 ,this method of conceiving the relation of ,god to the higher life of man1 therefore1 is stated by the ,scriptures as normal4 ,the free grace of ,god is the source and the sustainer of all spiritual life1 whether in individuals or communities4 ,ultimately1 behind all the successful or unsuccessful efforts of the human heart and will1 we are taught to see the great ,giver1 waiting to be gracious1 willing that all men should be saved1 but acting with the strangest reserves and limitations1 choosing ,israel among the nations1 and even within ,israel choosing the ,israel in whom alone the promises can be realised4 ,made to serve by human sin1 ,he waits upon the caprices of the wills ,he has created4 ,he does not force them2 but with compassionate patience ,he builds up ,his ,holy ,temple of such living stones as offer themselves1 and without haste as without rest prepares for the consummation of ,his work in the redemption of a people that shall be all prophets1 a kingdom of priests1 a holy nation unto whom all nations shall join themselves when they see that ,god is in them of a truth4 ,that is the ,old ,testament conception of the source1 and guarantee1 and goal of all spiritual life in the world1 and ,st4 ,paul's view is merely a more mature and definite form of the same thing4 ,and wherever spiritual life has manifested itself with unusual power1 the same consciousness of utter unworthiness on the part of man1 and entire dependence upon the grace and favour of ,god1 has also manifested itself4 ,the intellectual difficulties connected with this view1 great as they are1 have never suppressed it2 the pride of man and his faith in himself have not been able permanently to obscure it4 ,the greater men are1 the more entirely do they dread any approach to that self-exaltation which puts away as unnecessary the ,divine hand stretched out to them4 ,as ,dean ,church points out1#fi not ,hebrew prophets only1 but the heathen poets of ,greece looked with peculiar and profound alarm upon the haughty self-sufficiency of men4 ,nothing can1 they think1 ward off evil from the man who makes the mistake of supposing1 even when carrying out the ,divine will1 that he needs only his own strength of brain and will and arm to succeed1 that he is accountable to no one for the character which he permits success to build up within him4 #fi ,cathedral ,sermons1 p4 #bf4 ,even the agnostic of to-day1 as represented by ,professor ,huxley1 cannot do without some modicum of grace in his conception of man's relation to the powers of nature1 though to admit this is to run a rift of inconsistency through his whole system of thought4 ,suppose1 he says in his ,lay ,sermons1 it were perfectly certain that the life and future of every one of us would1 one day or other1 depend on his winning or losing a game at chess4444 ,the chessboard is the world1 the pieces are the phenomena of the universe1 the rules of the game are what we call the laws of nature4 ,the player on the other side is hidden from us4 ,we know that his play is always fair1 just1 patient4 ,but we know to our cost that he never overlooks a mistake1 or makes the smallest allowance for ignorance4 ,to the man who plays well the highest stakes are paid with that overflowing generosity with which the strong shows delight in strength1 and one who plays ill is checkmated without haste1 but without remorse4 ,my metaphor will remind you of the famous picture in which the ,evil ,one is depicted playing a game of chess with man for his soul4 ,substitute for the mocking fiend in that picture a calm1 strong angel1 playing1 as we say1 for love1 and who would rather lose than win1 and ,i should accept it as the image of human life4 ,even in a world without ,god1 therefore1 the facts of life suggest justice1 patience1 generosity1 and a pity which would rather lose than win4 ,with all the inexorable rigour and hardness of man's lot there is mingled something that suggests grace in the power that rules the world2 and from the ,deuteronomist to ,st4 ,paul1 from ,augustine to ,calvin and ,professor ,huxley1 the resolutely thorough thinkers have found1 in the last analysis1 these two elements1 the rigour of law and the election of grace1 working together in the moulding of mankind4 ,the statement of these facts in ,deuteronomy is as thorough as any that succeeded it4 ,the rigour of law could not be more precisely and pathetically declared than in this insistence on the blessing or the curse which must inevitably follow right choice or wrong4 ,but the tenderness of grace could not be more attractively displayed than in this picture of ,yahweh's dealings with ,israel4 ,love never faileth here1 no more than elsewhere4 ,it persists1 notwithstanding stiff-necked rebellion1 and in spite of coarse materialism of nature4 ,even a childish fickleness1 more utterly trying than any other weakness or defect1 cannot wear it out4 ,but inexorable blessing or curse is blended with it1 and helps to work out the final result for ,israel and mankind4 ,that is the manner of the government of ,god1 according to the ,scriptures4 ,history in its long course as known to us now confirms the view2 and the author of ,deuteronomy1 in thus blending love and law together in the end of this great exhortation1 has rested the obligation to obedience on a foundation which cannot be moved4 ,,chapter ,,xiii ,,law ,,and ,,religion ,,deut4 xii4-xxvi4 ,with this section 7chapters xii4-xxvi47 we have at length reached the legislation to which all that has gone before is1 in form at least1 a prelude4 ,but in its general outline this code1 if it can be so called1 has a very unexpected character4 ,when we speak of a code of laws in modern days1 what we mean is a series of statutes1 carefully arranged under suitable heads1 dealing with the rights and duties of the people1 and providing remedies for all possible wrongs4 ,then behind these laws there is the executive power of the ,government1 pledged to enforce them1 and ready to punish any breaches of them which may be committed4 ,in most cases1 too1 definite penalties are appointed for any disregard or transgression of them4 ,each word has been carefully selected1 and it is understood that the very letter of the laws is to be binding4 ,every one tried by them knows that the exact terms of the laws are to be pressed against him1 and that the thing aimed at is a rigorous1 literal enforcement of every detail4 ,tried by such a conception1 this ,deuteronomic legislation looks very extraordinary and unintelligible4 ,in the first place1 there is very little of orderly sequence in it4 ,some large sections of it have a consecutive character2 but there is no perceptible order in the succession of these sections1 and there has been very little attempt to group the individual precepts under related heads4 ,moreover in many sections there is no mention of a penalty for disobedience1 nor is there any machinery for enforcing the prescriptions of the code4 ,there is1 too1 much in it that seems rather to be good advice1 or direction for leading a righteous life1 a life becoming an ,israelite and a servant of ,yahweh1 than law4 ,for instance1 such a prescription as this1 ,if there be with thee a poor man1 one of thy brethren1 within any of thy gates1 in thy land which ,yahweh thy ,god giveth thee1 thou shalt not harden thine heart nor shut thine hand from thy poor brother1 can in no sense be treated as a law1 in the hard technical sense of that word4 ,it stands exactly on a level with the exhortations of the ,new ,testament1 e4g4 ,be not wise in your own conceits1 ,render to no man evil for evil1 and rather sets up an ideal of conduct which is to be striven after than establishes a law which must be complied with4 ,there is no punishment prescribed for disobedience4 ,all that follows if a man do harden his heart against his poor brother is the sting of conscience1 which brings home to him that he is not living according to the will of ,god4 ,in almost every respect1 therefore1 this ,deuteronomic code differs from a modern code1 and in dealing with it we must largely dismiss the ideas which naturally occur to us when we speak of a code of laws4 ,our conception of that is1 clearly1 not valid for these ancient codes2 and we need not be surprised if we find that they will not bear being pressed home in all their details1 as modern codes must be1 and are meant to be4 ,great practical difficulties have arisen in ,india1 ,sir ,henry ,maine assures us1 from applying the ideas of ,western lawyers to the ancient and sacred codes of the ,east4 ,he says that the effect of a procedure under which all the disputes of a community must be referred to regular law-courts is to stereotype ascertained usages1 and to treat the oracular precepts of a sacred book as texts and precedents that must be enforced4 ,the consequence is that vague and elastic social ordinances1 which have hitherto varied according to the needs of the people1 become fixed and immutable1 and an ,asiatic society finds itself arrested and1 so to speak1 imprisoned unexpectedly within its own formulas4 ,inconsistencies and contradictions1 which were never perceived when these laws were worked by ,easterns1 who had a kind of instinctive perception of their true nature1 became glaring and troublesome under ,western rule1 and much unintentional wrong has resulted4 ,may it not be that the same thing has happened in the domain of literature in connection with these ancient ,hebrew laws8 ,discrepancies1 small and great1 have been the commonplace of ,pentateuch criticism for many years past1 and on them very far-reaching theories have been built4 ,it may easily be that some of these are the result rather of our failure to take into account the elastic nature of ,asiatic law1 and that a less strained application of modern notions would have led to a more reasonable interpretation4 ,but granting that ordinary ancient law is not to be taken in our rigorous modern sense1 yet the fact that what we are dealing with here is ,divine law may seem to some to imply that in all its details it was meant to be fulfilled to the letter4 ,if not1 then in what sense is it inspired1 and how can we be justified in regarding it as ,divinely given8 ,the reply to that is1 of course1 simply this1 that inspiration makes free use of all forms of expression which are common and permissible at the time and place at which it utters itself4 ,from all we know of the ,divine methods of acting in the world1 we have no right to suppose that in giving inspired laws ,god would create entirely new and different forms for ,himself4 ,on the contrary1 legislation in ancient ,israel1 though ,divine in its source1 would naturally take the ordinary forms of ancient law4 ,moreover in this case it could hardly have been otherwise4 ,as has already been pointed out1 a large part of the ,mosaic legislation must have been adopted from the customs of the various tribes who were welded into one by ,moses4 ,it cannot be conceived that the laws against stealing1 for example1 the penalties for murder1 or the prescriptions for sacrifice1 can have been first introduced by the great ,lawgiver4 ,he made much ancient customary law to be part and parcel of the ,yahwistic legislation by simply taking it over4 ,if so1 then all that he added would naturally1 as to form1 be moulded on what he found pre-existing4 ,consequently we may apply to this law1 whether ,divinely revealed or adopted1 the same tests and methods of interpretation as we should apply to any other body of ancient ,eastern law4 ,now of ancient ,eastern codes the laws of ,manu are the nearest approach to the ,mosaic codes1 and their character is thus stated by themselves 7chap4 i41 ver4 #ajg73 ,in this work the sacred law has been fully stated1 as well as the good and bad qualities of human actions and the immemorial rule of conduct to be followed by all4 ,that means that in the code are to be found ritual laws1 general moral precepts1 and a large infusion of immemorial customs4 ,and its history1 as elicited by criticism1 has very interesting hints to give us as to the probable course of legal development in primitive nations4 ,it is sometimes said that the results of the criticism of the ,old ,testament1 if true1 present us with a literature which has gone through vicissitudes and editorial processes for which literary history elsewhere affords absolutely no parallel4 ,however that may be as regards the historical and prophetical books1 it is not true with regard to the legal portions of the ,pentateuch4 ,the very same processes are followed in ,professor ,buhler's ,introduction to his translation of the ,laws of ,manu1 forming ,vol4 ,,xxv4 of ,the ,sacred ,books of the ,east1 as are followed in the critical commentaries on the ,old ,testament law codes4 ,pages lxvii4 seq4 of ,buhler's ,introduction read exactly like an extract from ,kuenen or ,dillmann2 and the analysis of the text1 with its resultant list of interpolations1 runs as much into detail as any similar analysis in the ,old ,testament can do4 ,moreover the conjectures as to the growth of ,manu's code are1 in many places1 parallel to the critical theories of the growth of the ,mosaic codes4 ,the foundation of ,manu is1 in the last resort1 threefold--the teaching of the ,vedas1 the decisions of those acquainted with the law1 and the customs of virtuous ,aryas4 ,at a later time the teachers of the ,vedic schools gathered up the more important of these precepts1 decisions1 and customs into manuals for the use of their pupils1 written at first in aphoristic prose1 and later in verse4 ,these1 however1 were not systematic codes at all4 ,as the name given them implies1 they were strings of maxims or aphorisms4 ,later1 these were set forth as binding upon all1 and were revised into the form of which the ,laws of ,manu is the finest specimen4 ,in ,israel the process would appear to have been similar1 though much simpler4 ,it was similar2 for though there are radical differences between the ,aryan and the ,semitic mind which must not be overlooked1 the former being more systematic and fond of logical arrangement than the latter1 a great many of the things which are common to ,moses and ,manu are quite independent of race1 and are due to the fact that both legislations were to regulate the lives of men at the same stage of social advancement4 ,but ,manu was much later than ,moses4 ,indeed1 as we now have them1 the laws of ,manu are as late as the post-,ezraite ,judaic code1 and in temper and tone these two codes very nearly resemble each other4 ,consequently the earlier codes of the ,pentateuch are simpler than ,manu4 ,when ,israel left ,egypt1 custom must have been almost alone the guide of life4 ,moses' task was to promulgate and force home his fundamental truths2 in this view he must adopt and remodel the customary law so as to make it innocuous to the higher principles he introduced1 or even to make it a vehicle for the popularising of them4 ,so far as he made codes1 he would make them with that end4 ,consequently he would take up mainly such prominent points as were most capable of being1 or which most urgently needed to be1 moralised1 leaving all the rest to custom where it was harmless4 ,this is the reason1 too1 most probably1 why the earlier codes are so short and so unsystematic4 ,they are selections which needed special attention1 not complete codes covering the whole of life4 ,in fact the form and contents of all the ,old ,testament codes can be accounted for only on this supposition4 ,as the codes lengthen1 they do so simply by taking up1 in a modified or unmodified form1 so much more of the custom2 and under the pressure of ,yahwistic ideas these selected codes became more and more weighted with spiritual significance and power4 ,that would seem to have been the process by which the inspired legislators of ,israel did their work2 and if it be so1 some of the variations which are now taken to be certain indications of different ages and circumstances may simply represent local varieties of the same custom4 ,custom tends always to vary with the locality within certain narrow limits4 ,it would be quite in accord with the general character of ancient customary law to believe that1 provided the law was on the whole observed1 there would be no inclination to insist upon excluding small local variations2 and equally so that in a collection like the ,pentateuch the custom of one locality should appear in one place1 that of another in another4 ,in that case1 to insist that a certain sacrifice1 for example1 shall always consist of the same number of animals1 and that any variation means a new and later legislation on the subject1 is only to make a mistake4 ,the discrepancy is made important only by applying modern ,english views of law to ancient law4 ,professor ,a4 ,b4 ,davidson has shown in the ,introduction to his ,ezekiel 7p4 liii47 that this latter was probably ,ezekiel's view4 ,on any hypothesis of priority1 he says1 the differences in details between him 7i4e4 ,ezekiel7 and the law 7i4e4 ,p7 may be easiest explained by supposing that1 while the sacrifices in general and the ideas which they expressed were fixed and current1 the particulars1 such as the kind of victims and the number of them1 the precise quantity of meal1 oil1 and the like1 were held non-essential and alterable when a change would better express the idea4 ,the same principle would apply to the differences between ,ezekiel and ,deuteronomy1 e4g4 the omission of the feast of weeks and of the law of the offering of the firstlings of the flock4 ,if so1 then obviously ,ezekiel must have thought that the previous ritual law was not meant to be as binding as we make it4 ,but1 as has already been remarked1 this law was elastic in more important matters2 often1 even when it seems to legislate1 it is only setting up ideals of conduct4 ,before we leave this subject an example should be given1 and the law of war may serve1 especially if we compare it with the corresponding section of ,manu4 ,the provisions in ,deuteronomy chap4 xx4 according to which on the eve of a battle the officers should proclaim to the army that any man who had built a new house and had not dedicated it1 or who had planted a vineyard and had not yet used the fruit of it1 or who had betrothed a wife and not yet taken her1 or who was afraid1 should retire from the danger1 as also the provisions that forbid the destruction of fruit-trees belonging to a besieged city1 cannot have been meant as absolute laws4 ,yet that is no ground for supposing that they could have been introduced only after ,israel1 having ceased to be a sovereign state1 waged no war1 and that consequently they are interpolations in the original ,deuteronomy4 ,for the similar provisions of the laws of ,manu were given while kings reigned1 and were addressed to men constantly engaged in war4 ,yet this is what we find3 ,when he 7the king7 fights with his foes in battle1 let him not strike with weapons concealed 7in wood71 nor with 7such as are7 barbed1 poisoned1 or the points of which are blowing with fire4 ,let him not strike one who 7in flight7 has climbed on an eminence1 nor a eunuch1 nor one who joins the palms of his hands 7in supplication71 nor one 7who flees7 with flying hair1 nor one who sits down1 nor one who says ',i am thine1' nor one who sleeps1 nor one who has lost his coat of mail1 nor one who is naked1 nor one who is disarmed1 nor one who looks on without taking part in the fight1 nor one who is fighting with another foe1 nor one whose weapons are broken1 nor one afflicted 7with sorrow71 nor one who has been grievously wounded1 nor one who is in fear1 nor one who has turned to flight2 but in all these cases let him remember the duty 7of honourable warriors74 ,with an exact and unremitting obligation to observe these precepts war would be impossible1 and we may be sure that in neither case were they meant in that sense4 ,they simply set forth the conduct which a chivalrous soldier would desire to follow1 and would on fitting occasions actually follow2 but by no means what he must do1 or else break with his religion4 ,only by hypotheses like these can the form and the character of such laws be properly explained1 and if we keep them constantly in mind1 some at least of the difficulties which result from a comparison of the law and the histories may be mitigated4 ,such being the character of the ,deuteronomic code1 the question has been raised whether its introduction and acceptance by ,josiah was not a falling away from the spirituality of ancient religion4 ,many modern writers1 supported by ,st4 ,paul's dicta concerning the law1 say that it was4 ,indeed the very mention of law seems to depress writers on religion in these days1 and ,deuteronomy appears to be to them a name of fear4 ,but whatever tendencies of modern thinking may have brought this about1 it is nevertheless true that experience embodied in custom and law is the kindly nurse1 not the deadly enemy1 of moral and spiritual life4 ,without law a nation would be absolutely helpless2 and it is inconceivable that at any stage of ,israel's history they were without this guide and support4 ,as we have seen1 they never were4 ,first they had customary law2 then along with that short special codes1 e4g4 the ,book of the ,covenant and the ,deuteronomic code2 and even when the whole ,pentateuchal law as we have it had been elaborated1 a good deal must still have been left to custom4 ,consequently there was nothing so startling and revolutionary in the introduction of ,deuteronomy as many have combined to represent4 ,indeed it is difficult to see how it altered anything in this respect4 ,of all forms of law1 customary law is perhaps that which demands and receives most unswerving obedience4 ,under it1 therefore1 the pressure of law was heavier than it could be in any other form4 ,it does not appear how the fact that those observing it did not think of that which they obeyed as law1 but simply custom1 altered the essential nature of their relation to it4 ,they were guided by ordinances which did not express their own inward conviction1 and were not a product of their own thought4 ,they obeyed ordinances from without1 and these ought therefore to have had the same effect upon the moral and spiritual life as written laws4 ,for they cannot be said to have regulated only civil life4 ,religious life 7even if the ,book of the ,covenant be ,mosaic or sub-,mosaic1 as ,i believe2 much more if it be post-,davidic1 as many say7 must have been largely regulated by the customs of ,israel4 ,if law then be in its own nature1 as the antinomians tell us1 destructive of spontaneity and progress1 if it necessarily externalises religion1 then there would have been as little room for the religion of the prophets before ,deuteronomy as after it4 ,but1 as a matter of fact1 no falling off in spirituality took place after ,deuteronomy4 ,wellhausen says that with law freedom came to an end1 and this was the death of prophecy4 ,but he can support his thesis only by denying the name of prophet to all the prophets after ,jeremiah4 ,it is difficult to see the basis of such a distinction4 ,it is judged by this1 if by nothing else--that it compels ,wellhausen to deny that the author of ,second ,isaiah is a prophet4 ,that he wrote anonymously is held to prove that he felt this himself4 ,now a view so extraordinarily superficial has no root1 and every reader of that most touching and sublime of all the ,old ,testament books will simply stand amazed at the depth of the critical prejudice which could dictate such a judgment4 ,if the post-,deuteronomic prophets are not prophets1 then there are no prophets at all1 and the whole discussion becomes a useless logomachy4 ,but even if ,ezekiel and ,second ,isaiah and the rest are not prophets1 they are at least full of spiritual life and power1 so that the decay of spiritual religion which the adoption of ,deuteronomy is supposed to have brought about must be considered purely imaginary on that ground also4 ,and this contention is strengthened by the theories of the critical school themselves4 ,if the bulk of the ,psalms1 as all critics incline to believe1 or all of them1 as some say1 are post-exilic1 then the first centuries of the post-exilic period must have been the most spiritually minded epoch in ,israelite history4 ,the depth of religious feeling exhibited in the ,psalms1 and the comprehension of the inwardness of man's true relation to ,god by which they are penetrated1 are the exact contrary of the externality and superficiality which the introduction of written law is said to have produced4 ,so long as the ,psalms were being written religious life must have been vigorous and healthy1 and to date the beginnings of ,pharisaic externalism from ,josiah's day must consequently be an error4 ,after what has been said it is scarcely necessary to discuss ,duhm's views of the opposition between prophecy and ,deuteronomy4 ,it will be sufficient to ask how the latter can have turned against prophecy1 when it is in its essence an embodiment of prophetic principles in law1 and was introduced and supported by prophets4 ,but1 it may be said1 after all prophecy did decay1 and ultimately die1 and that too during the period after ,deuteronomy4 ,is there not in that admitted fact a presumption that this law did work against prophecy8 ,if so1 then it is more than met by the fact that the decay of spiritual religion became noticeable only some centuries after this1 and that the immediate effect of ,deuteronomy was rather to deepen and intensify religion1 and to keep it alive amid all the vicissitudes of the ,captivity and ,return4 ,moreover the break-up of the national life was sufficient to account for the slow decay and final cessation of prophecy4 ,from the first1 prophecy had been concerned with the building up of a nation which should be faithful to ,yahweh4 ,its main function had been to interpret and to foretell the great movements and crises of national life--to read ,god's purpose in the great world-movements and to proclaim it4 ,with ,israel's death as a nation the field of prophecy became gradually circumscribed1 and ultimately its voice ceased4 ,consequently1 though in the main the final cessation of prophecy was connected with the rise of externalism in religion and with the great decay of spiritual life in the two or three centuries before ,christ1 the destruction of the nation would account for the feebleness of prophecy during a period when the inner spiritual life was flourishing as it flourished after ,deuteronomy4 ,moreover1 as religion became more inward and personal1 prophecy1 in the ,old ,testament sense1 had less place4 ,though in ,new ,testament times spiritual life and spiritual originality and power were more present than at any time in the world's history1 prophecy did not revive4 ,in the whole ,new ,testament there is not one purely prophetic book save the ,revelation1 and that is apocalyptic more than simply prophetic2 and though there was an order of prophets in the early ,church1 if they had any special function other than that of preachers their office soon died out4 ,if then the denationalising of religion and its growth in individualism and inwardness in ,new ,testament times prevented the revival of prophecy1 we may surely gather that the same things1 and not the introduction of written law1 brought it to an end in the ,old ,testament4 ,nor does ,st4 ,paul's judgment as to the meaning and use of law1 in ,galatians1 when rightly understood1 contradict this4 ,no doubt he seems to say that the ,mosaic law by its very nature as law is incompatible with grace1 that it necessarily stands out of relation to faith1 and that its principle is a purely external one1 so much wages for so much work4 ,further1 he clearly regards it as having been interpolated into the history of ,israel between the promises given to ,abraham and the fulfilment of them in the redemption by ,christ1 and as having served only to increase sin and to drive men thus to ,christ4 ,but when he says this he is replying mainly to the ,pharisaic view of the law which was represented by the ,judaizers1 and finds himself all the more at home in refuting it that it was his own view before he became a ,christian4 ,according to that view1 the whole law1 both the moral and ceremonial provisions of it1 was necessary to obtain moral righteousness1 and the mere doing of the legally prescribed things gave a claim to the promised reward4 ,so interpreted1 law had all the evil qualities he states1 and stood in absolute hostility to grace and faith1 the great ,christian principles4 ,the only difficulty is that ,st4 ,paul does not say1 as we should expect him to do1 that originally the law was not meant to be so regarded4 ,he seems to admit by his silence that the ,pharisaic view of the law was the right one4 ,but if he does1 he cannot have meant to include ,deuteronomy4 ,for there law is made to have its root and ground in grace4 ,it is given to ,israel as a token of the free love of ,god1 and it is a law of life which1 if kept1 would make them a peculiar people unto ,god4 ,further1 love to ,god is to be the motive from which all obedience springs1 so that this law is bound up with both grace and faith4 ,but the probability is that ,st4 ,paul admits the ,pharisaic view only because it is that view with which alone he has to contend in the case in hand4 ,for in ,romans vii4 he gives us quite another conception of the ,mosaic law4#gj ,there he is thinking of it mainly from an ethical point of view1 and he regards it as full of the ,spirit of ,god1 as a norm of moral life which not only continues to be valid in ,christianity1 but which finds in the ,christian life the very fulfilment which it was intended to have4 ,it presses home too the moral ideal upon the man with extraordinary power1 and marks and emphasises the terrible divergence between his aspirations and his actual performance4 ,this is a much higher office than that which he assigns to law in ,galatians2 and hence one gathers that he is not speaking in ,galatians exhaustively and conclusively1 but is condemning rather a way of regarding the ,mosaic law with which he had once sympathised than that law in its own essential character4 ,in its moral aspects1 as represented by the ,decalogue1 the law is of eternal obligation4 ,from it comes the light which brings to the ,christian that moral unrest and dissatisfaction which is one of ,god's ,divinest gifts to ,his people4 ,in this aspect1 the law is holy and just and good3 instead of favouring the critical view ,st4 ,paul leaves it without any fragment of real support4 #gj ,ritschl's ,rechtfertigung und ,vershnung1 vol4 ii41 pp4 #caa ff4 ,our conclusion is1 therefore1 that the antinomianism1 which makes the acknowledgment of ,deuteronomy by ,josiah and his people the turning-point for the worse in the religious history of ,israel1 is unfounded4 ,the nation had always been under law1 and previous to ,deuteronomy under even written law4 ,this code was not in any previously unheard-of way made the law of the kingdom4 ,its very contents are conclusive against that view1 for it contains much that could not be enforced by the ,state4 ,instead of trying to do by external means that which the persuasions of the prophets had failed to do1 ,josiah and his people did just what they would have had to do1 when they became convinced that the prophetic principles ought to be carried out4 ,they made an agreement to follow these ,divine commands1 these ,god-given principles1 in actual life4 ,but there is no hint that they regarded ,deuteronomy as the sum of the ,divine ordinances for the life of men4 ,indeed there are many references to other ,divine laws2 and the priestly oracle remained1 after ,deuteronomy as before it1 a source of ,divine guidance4 ,deuteronomy therefore did not destroy prophecy2 the post-exilic ,psalms are proof that it did not destroy spiritual life3 and the ,pauline view of the law1 in at least one series of passages1 coincides entirely with the view that law stated as it is stated in ,deuteronomy may be one of the mightiest influences to mould1 and enrich1 and deepen1 moral and spiritual life4 ,,chapter ,,xiv ,,laws ,,of ,,sacrifice ,,deut4 xii4 ,it is a characteristic of all the earlier codes of law--the ,book of the ,covenant1 the ,deuteronomic ,code1 and the ,law of ,holiness--that at the head of the series of laws which they contain there should be a law of sacrifice4 ,probably1 too1 each of the three had1 as first section of all1 the ,decalogue4 ,the ,book of the ,covenant and ,deuteronomy undeniably have it so1 and the earlier element which forms the basis of ,lev4 xvii4-xxvi4 not improbably had originally the same form4 ,if so1 we may assume that the order of the precepts has in a measure been determined by the order of the commandments4 ,on this account the laws for the cultus would naturally come first4 ,for just as the first commandment is1 ,thou shalt have no other god before ,me1 and the second forbids all idolatrous images1 so the laws begin with provisions meant in the main to ward off idolatry4 ,israel's great calling was to receive and to spread the truth concerning ,god4 ,that was the centre of the sacred deposit of ,divine and revealed truth committed to that nation2 and it is most instructive to see how1 not only in historical statements1 but even in the form in which early ,israelite legislation is handed down to us1 the ,decalogue dominates all the details of it4 ,it formulated in as concrete a shape as was possible the ,divine demand that ,israelites should love ,god and their neighbour1 and therefore the legislative provisions and statutes begin with ordinances dealing with sacrifice4 ,to us in modern times it may seem almost bathos to connect such an antecedent with such a consequent2 but it seems so1 only because we have difficulty in apprehending the meaning and importance of sacrifice in primitive religion4 ,for sacrifice had in ,israel a meaning and importance of its own1 and a present value at every period1 which in no way depended upon its typical or prophetic value as pointing forward to the sacrifice of ,christ4 ,it supplied the religious needs of men even apart from the clearness of their knowledge about its ultimate purpose4 ,sacrifice1 especially in its simplest meaning1 was in heathenism absolutely essential as a means of approach to ,god4 ,to come before a great man without a gift was in ancient days an outrage4 ,it was therefore inevitable that men should approach their gods in the same manner4 ,sacrificial gifts expressed the dependent's joy in a gracious lord1 and also the homage and reverence due from a subject to a king4 ,further1 as all good things were regarded as the gifts of the gods to their worshippers1 the sacrifices conveyed thanks for good gifts received1 and joined the gods and their worshippers by a common participation in the ,divine gift which connected them as eaters at the same table4 ,but sacrifices had a higher reach of expression even than that4 ,as they were brought to the gods they were the symbols of the self-devotion of the offerer to the service of his god2 and where there was need of propitiation because of offence consciously given1 or offence felt by the deity for unknown reasons1 these gifts took on in some measure a reconciling or propitiatory quality4 ,now the ,old ,testament sacrifices had in them1 unquestionably1 all these elements3 but as ,yahweh was high above all heathen deities in moral character1 they also took on a depth and intensity of meaning which they could never have on the soil of heathen religious conceptions4 ,along this line of sacrificial ritual1 therefore1 all the spiritual emotions of ,israel flowed2 and to hold that sacrifice had no real place in the religion of ,yahweh would be almost equivalent to saying that neither love1 nor penitence1 nor prayer1 had any real place in it either4 ,all these found utterance in sacrifice and along with it2 and it has yet to be shown that they had any regular and acceptable utterance otherwise4 ,to regulate sacrifice and keep it pure must1 therefore1 have been one chief means of guarding against the degradation of ,yahweh to the level of the gods of the heathen4 ,but there is another and very important reason for it4 ,both in the days when ,moses parted from his people1 and also in the time of ,manasseh1 the people stood confronted by very special danger just at this point4 ,at the earlier period they were about to enter upon intimate contact with the ,canaanites1 their superiors in culture and in all the arts of civilised life1 but corrupted to the core4 ,further1 the ,canaanite corruption was focussed in their religious rites and worship1 and evil could not fail to follow if the people suffered themselves to be drawn into any participation in it4 ,for if ,professor ,robertson ,smith be right1 the central point of ancient sacrifice was the communion between the god and his worshippers in the sacrificial feast4 ,they became of one kin with each other and with the god1 and this close relationship made the communication of spiritual and moral infection almost a certainty4 ,in ,manasseh's day again it was natural that legislation on the same subject1 and warnings of even a more solemn kind1 should be repeated4 ,a prophetic lawgiver writing at that date had before him1 not only the possibility of evil1 but actual experience of it4 ,the laws and warnings of the earlier code had been defied and neglected4 ,the faith of the chosen people had been miserably perverted by contact with the ,canaanites2 the whole history of prophecy had been a struggle against corrupt and insincere worship2 and now the monstrous sacrifices to ,moloch and the invasion of ,assyrian idolatry had degraded ,yahweh and destroyed ,his people1 so that scarce any hope of recovery remained4 ,in bracing himself for one more struggle with this desperate corruption1 the ,deuteronomist naturally repeated in deeper tones the ,mosaic warnings4 ,the command utterly to uproot and trample under foot the symbols and instruments of ,canaanite worship1 he brings1 from the less prominent place it occupies in the ,book of the ,covenant1 to the first place in his own code4 ,to break with that and all other forms of idolatry1 utterly and decisively1 had come to be the first condition of any upward movement4 ,the degrading and defiling bondage to idolatry into which his people had fallen must end4 ,with trumpet tongue he calls upon them to break down the ,canaanite altars1 dash in pieces their obelisks1 and burn their ,asherim with fire4 ,to some moderns it may seem that such excessive energy might1 with better effect1 have been expended upon the denunciation of moral evils1 such as cruelty and lust and oppression1 rather than of idolatry4 ,we have grown so accustomed to the distinctions drawn by the ,church of ,rome1 and in later times by the neo-classicists1 between worshipping ,god through an image or a picture1 or in any natural object or natural force1 and the actual worship of the image or picture or natural object itself1 that we have sophisticated our minds4 ,but the author of ,deuteronomy knew by bitter experience that such subtle1 and1 in great part1 sophistical distinctions had no application to his people and his time4 ,their worst immoralities were1 he knew well1 rooted in their idol-worship4 ,for idolatry in any form binds all that is highest in man to the sphere of nature1 i4e4 of moral indifference4 ,just as a conception of ,god which rigorously separated ,him from nature1 which made ,his will the supreme impelling force in the world1 and which conceived ,his essential attributes to be entirely ethical1 was the fountain of the higher life in ,israel1 so a lapse into idolatry of any kind was the negation of it all4 ,no doubt some moral life would have remained in ,israel1 even if the lapse had become universal4 ,but1 even at its best1 this natural morality of self-preservation has no future and no goal4 ,it does not lead the van of human progress2 it merely comes after1 to ratify the results of it4 ,only when social morality is taken up into a wider sphere than its own1--only when it is conceived as the path by which man can co-operate with a sublime purpose lying beyond himself1--can it maintain itself as the inspiration of human life1 impelling to progress and guiding it4#ga ,now1 so far as history teaches1 this energy of moral life has been attained only where the conception of ,god which makes moral perfection to be ,his essential nature has been accepted and cherished4 ,but no natural religion can rise to that2 hence idolatry must always be destructive of ethical religion4 ,it must destroy faith in the moral character of ,god4 #ga ,cf4 ,riehm1 ,old ,testament ,theology1 p4 #be4 ,further1 it must destroy the moral character of man4 ,in the last resort all idolaters are equally acceptable to their god1 if only they bring the prescribed gifts and accurately perform the prescribed ceremonies4 ,the lewd and the chaste1 the cruel and the merciful1 the revengeful and the forgiving1 are all equally accepted when they sacrifice4 ,non-moral or positively immoral gods can care nothing about such differences4 ,of this fact and its results no man acquainted with the history of ,israel could doubt4 ,the main zeal of the prophets was at all times directed against those who were steeped in moral evil1 but were zealous in all that concerned sacrifice1 and against the amazing folly of a people who thought to bind the living ,god to their cause and their interests by mere bribes1 in the shape of thousands of bullocks and ten thousand rivers of oil4 ,this conception was bound up essentially with idolatry4 ,but the evil of it was intensified in the ,semitic idolatries with which ,israel specially defiled itself4 ,their cruelty and obscenity were unspeakable4 ,now by ,israel's idolatry ,yahweh was made to appear tolerant of ,moloch and ,baal1 as if they were equals4 ,every quality which the ,mosaic revelation had set forth as essential to the character of ,yahweh--,his purity1 ,his mercy1 ,his truth--was outraged by the society which ,his worshippers in ,manasseh's days had thrust upon ,him4 ,no reform1 then1 had the least chance of stability till the axe was laid at the root of this wide-spreading upas tree4 ,deuteronomy1 therefore1 grapples first and grapples thoroughly with the evil1 and strikes it a blow from which it was never to recover4 ,the inspired writer repeats with new energy the old decrees of utter destruction against the ,canaanite sanctuaries2 for though these were for the most part no longer in ,canaanite hands1 the ,high ,places still existed2 and the principle of that old prohibition was more clamant for recognition and realisation than it had ever been in the history of ,israel before4 ,then he goes on to proclaim the new law1 that no sacrifice should any longer be offered save at the one central sanctuary chosen by ,yahweh4 ,there is no such provision in the ,book of the ,covenant1 and there is no hint in the legislation of ,deuteronomy that its author knew of the ,tabernacle and its sole right as a place of sacrifice4 ,from beginning to end of the code he never mentions the ,tabernacle nor the sacrifices there2 and in the very terms in which he permits the slaughter of animals for food in vv4 #ae1 #af1 and #bj-be1 though he obviously repeals a custom which has been embodied in the ,priestly ,code as a law 7,lev4 xvii4 #c ff471 he makes no reference to that passage4 ,consequently this at least may be said1 that he may quite conceivably have been ignorant of ,lev4 xvii4 #c ff4 ,in ignorance of it1 he might write as he has done2 and if not ignorant1 it would be much more natural to refer to it4 ,when we add to this negative testimony the positive testimony of verses #h and #ac1 which we have already discussed in ,chapter ,i41 there would seem to be little room for doubt that the priestly law on this subject was not before the writer of ,deuteronomy4 ,consequently we are justified in regarding this as the first written law actually promulgated on this subject4 ,hezekiah had attempted the same reform2 but he had1 so far as we know1 neither published nor referred to any law commanding it1 and his work was entirely undone4 ,the ,deuteronomist1 more convinced than he that this step was absolutely necessary to complete the ,mosaic legislation on idolatry1 and filled with the same inspiration of the ,almighty1 completed it2 and though a reaction followed ,josiah's enforcement of this law also1 its existence saved the life of the nation4 ,its principles kept the nation holy1 i4e4 separate to their ,god1 during the ,exile1 and at the return they were dominant in the formation of the congregation4 ,certainly there is no lack of earnestness in the way in which these principles are urged4 ,with that love of repetition which is a distinguishing mark of this writer1 he expresses the commandment first positively1 then negatively4 ,then he brings in the consequential alteration in the law regarding the slaughtering of animals for food4 ,again he returns to the command1 explaining1 enlarging1 insisting1 and concludes with a reiteration of the permission to slaughter4 ,efforts1 of course1 have been made to show that this repetition is due to the amalgamation here of no fewer than seven separate documents6 ,but little heed need be given to such fantastic attempts4 ,it is1 once for all1 a habit of this writer's mind to shrink from no monotony of this kind4 ,there is not one important idea in his book which he does not repeat again and again2 and where repetition is so constant a feature1 and where the language and thought is so consistent as it is here1 it is worse than useless to assert separate documents4 ,the writer's earnestness is sufficient explanation4 ,he saw plainly that1 so long as the provincial ,high ,places existed and were popular1 it would be impossible to secure purity of worship4 ,the heathen conceptions of the ,canaanites clung about their ancient sanctuaries1 and1 like the mists from a fever swamp1 infected everything that came near4 ,inspection sufficiently minute and constant to be of use was impracticable2 there remained nothing but to decree their abandonment4 ,when the whole worship of the people was centred at ,jerusalem1 corruption of the idolatrous kind would1 it was hoped1 be impossible4 ,there1 a pious king could watch over it2 there1 the ,temple priesthood had attained to worthier ideas in regard to sacrifice and the fulfilment of the law than the priests elsewhere4 ,josiah accordingly rigorously enforced this new law4 ,such a change1 aimed solely at religious ends1 did not stop there4 ,in many ways it affected the social life of the people2 in vv4 #ae1 #af1 and #bj1 #bd1 the author meets one hardship connected with the new law1 by allowing men to slay for food at a distance from the altar4 ,according to ancient custom1 no flesh could be eaten by any ,israelite1 save when the fat and the blood had been presented at the altar4 ,during the wilderness journey there would be little difficulty regarding this4 ,in the desert very little meat is eaten2 and so long as life was nomadic there would be no hardship in demanding that those who wished to make sacrificial feasts should wander towards the central place of worship rather than from it4 ,it has been disputed whether there was in those days a tabernacle such as the ,priestly ,code describes2 but there certainly was1 according to the earliest documents1 a tent in which ,yahweh revealed ,himself and gave responses4 ,as we have seen1 there must have been sacrifice in connection with it2 and though worship at other places where ,yahweh had made ,his name to be remembered was permitted1 this sanctuary in the camp must have had a certain pre-eminence4 ,a tendency1 but according to the words of ,deuteronomy nothing stronger than a tendency1 must have shown itself to make this the main place of worship4 ,when the people crossed the ,jordan into the land promised to the fathers1 and had abandoned the nomadic life1 great difficulty must have arisen4 ,for those at a distance from the place where the ,tabernacle was set up1 the eating of meat and the enjoyment of sacrificial feasts would1 by this ancient customary law1 have been rendered impossible1 if the attendance at one sanctuary had been obligatory4 ,only if men could come to local sanctuaries1 each in his own neighbourhood1 could the religious character of the festivals at which meat was eaten be preserved4 ,the nature of men's occupations1 now that they had become settled agriculturists1 and the dangers from the ,canaanites so long as they were not entirely subdued and absorbed1 alike forbade such long and frequent journeys to a central sanctuary4 ,the conquest must consequently at once have checked any tendency to centralisation that may have existed2 and there is reason to believe that the acceptance of the ,canaanite ,high ,places as sanctuaries of ,yahweh was in great part caused by the demands of this ancient law concerning the zebhach4 ,in any case it must have helped to overcome any scruples that may have existed4 ,but when the ,tabernacle and ,ark were brought to ,zion1 and still more when the ,temple was built1 the centripetal tendency1 never altogether dead1 must have revived4 ,for there was peace throughout the land and beyond it4 ,no danger from the ,canaanites existed2 and the political centralisation which ,solomon aimed at1 and actually carried out1 as well as the superior magnificence of the ,solomonic ,temple and its priests1 must have attracted to ,jerusalem the thoughts and the reverence of the whole people4 ,what ,deuteronomy now makes law may have then first arisen as a demand of the ,jerusalem priests4 ,at all events1 the very existence of the ,temple must have been a menace to the ,high ,places2 and we may be sure that among the motives which led the ten tribes to reject the ,davidic house1 jealousy for the local sanctuaries must have been prominent4 ,but the separation of the ten tribes would only strengthen the claim of the ,temple on ,zion to be for ,judah the one true place of worship4 ,the territory ruled from ,jerusalem was now so small that resort to the central sanctuary was comparatively easy4 ,the glorious memories of the ,davidic and ,solomonic time would centre round ,jerusalem4 ,any local sanctuaries would be entirely dwarfed and overshadowed by the splendour and the1 at least comparative1 purity of the worship there4 ,priests of local altars too must inevitably have sunk in the popular estimation1 and even in their own1 to a secondary and subordinate position1 as compared with the carefully organised and strictly graded ,jerusalem priests4 ,even without a positive command1 therefore1 the people of ,judah must have been gradually growing into the habit of seeking ,yahweh at ,jerusalem on all more solemn religious occasions2 and though the ,high ,places might exist1 their repute in the ,southern ,kingdom must have been decreasing4 ,of course if a command was given in the ,mosaic time which had been neglected1 the tendencies here traced must have been stronger and more definite than we have depicted them4 ,when the prophetic teachings of ,isaiah which proclaimed ,jerusalem to be ,ariel1 the sacrificial hearth1 or the hearth of ,god1 were so wondrously confirmed by the destruction of ,sennacherib's host before the city1 the unique position of ,zion must have been secured2 and after that only those who were set upon idolatry can have had much interest in the ,high ,places4 ,hezekiah's effort to abolish these latter is quite intelligible in these circumstances2 and we may feel assured that1 as ,wellhausen says1#gb ,the ,jewish royal temple had early overshadowed the other sanctuaries1 and in the course of the seventh century they were extinct or verging on extinction4 #gb ,wellhausen1 ,history1 p4 #dbj4 ,along with this there must have grown up a measure of laxity in regard to the provision that all slaughtering for food should take place at the sanctuary4 ,many would doubtless go to ,zion1 many would continue to resort to the ,high ,places1 and a number1 from a mere halting between two opinions1 would probably take their zebhachim to neither4 ,consequently the law before us would by no means be so revolutionary as ,duhm1 for instance1 pictures it4 ,he says3 ,i do not know if in the whole history of the world a law can be pointed to which was so fitted to change a whole people in its innermost nature and in its outward appearance1 at one stroke1 as this was4 ,the ,catholic ,church even has never by all her laws succeeded in anything in the least like it4 ,but we have seen evidence of a very strong and continuous pressure to this point1 at least in ,judah4 ,history during centuries had justified and intensified it2 so that in all probability the true worshippers of ,yahweh found in the new law not so much a revolution as a ratification of their already ancient practice4 ,to idolaters1 of course1 its adoption must have meant a cessation of their idolatry2 but the change in the people and in their life would1 though extensive1 be only such as any ordinary reform would produce4 ,duhm overlooks altogether the very small territory which the law affected4 ,a long day's walk would bring men from ,jericho1 from ,hebron1 from the borders of the ,philistine country1 and from ,shechem and ,samaria to ,jerusalem4 ,if ,deuteronomy made a revolution1 it must have been confined within the modest limits of substituting a whole for a half-day's journey to the ,sanctuary4 ,moreover it is a mistake to say that sacrifice at one central sanctuary took religion away from the people1 as ,duhm says4 ,if spiritual religion be meant1 it ultimately brought religion more vitally home to them4 ,for when the priestly system was fully carried out1 the demands of household religion were met1 as the post-exilic ,psalms show1 by the adoption of the practice of household prayer without reference to sacrifice1 and finally by the institution of the synagogue4 ,a more spiritual method of approach to ,god was substituted for a less spiritual in the remote places and in the homes of the people4 ,and the public worship even gained4 ,it became deeper1 and more penetrated with a sense of the necessity of deliverance from sin4 ,it is true1 of course1 that in the end ,pharisaic legalism perverted the new forms of worship1 as heathen externalism had perverted the old4 ,but in neither case was the perversion a necessity4 ,in both it was simply a manifestation of the materialistic tendency which dogs the footsteps of even the most spiritual religion1 when it has to realise itself in the life of man4 ,it is enough for the justification of the whole movement led by ,josiah to say that it held the ,judan exiles together2 that it kept alive in their hearts1 as nothing else did1 their faith in ,god and in their future2 and that on their return it gave them the form which their institutions could most profitably take4 ,further1 under the forms of religious and social life which this movement generated1 the true1 heartfelt piety which the prophets so mourned the want of became more common than ever it had been before4 ,the establishment of the central altar as the only one was the main object of this law2 but there is much to be learned from the very terms in which this is expressed4 ,they breathe the same love for man and sympathy with the poor which forms one of the most attractive characteristics of our book4 ,the gracious bonds of family affection1 the kindly feeling that should unite masters and servants1 the helpfulness which ought to distinguish the conduct of the rich to the poor1 and above all the cheerful enjoyment of the results of honest labour1 are to be preserved and sanctified even in the ritual of sacrifice4 ,thou shalt rejoice before ,yahweh in all that thou puttest thine hand unto1 is here the motto1 if we may so speak1 of religious service4 ,that1 indeed1 is to be made the opportunity for the discharge of all humane and brotherly duties2 and the religious life is at its highest when the worshipper rejoices himself1 and shares and sheds abroad his joy upon others4 ,the love of ,god is here most intimately blended with love of the brethren4 ,masters and servants1 slaves and free1 the high and the low1 are to be reminded of their equal standing in the sight of ,god1 by their common participation in the sacrificial meals2 and the poorest are to be permitted an equal enjoyment of the luxuries of the rich in these solemn approaches to ,yahweh4 ,the ,deuteronomist here reaches the highest stage of religious life1 in that he shows himself in nowise afraid of human joy4 ,as we have seen1 he knows the value of austerity in religion4 ,he is well enough aware that war against evil is not made with rose-water4 ,but then he is equally far from the extreme of suspecting all affection not directly turned to ,god1 of regarding natural gladness as a ruinous snare to the soul4 ,this finely balanced1 this just attitude to all aspects of life1 is a most notable thing at this epoch in the history of the world1 and considering the circumstances of the time it is little short of a marvel4 ,it is true1 of course1 that the religion of ,israel was always finely human4 ,it could run into excesses1 and was marked by many imperfections2 but asceticism1 the doctrine which holds pain and self-denial to be in themselves good1 when it did intrude into ,israel1 always came from without4 ,nevertheless the heartiness and thoroughness with which all gracious human feelings and all kindly human relations are here taken up into religion is remarkable1 even in the ,old ,testament4 ,more1 perhaps1 than anything else in this book1 it shows the sweetening and wholesome effect of demanding supreme love to ,god as man's first duty4 ,if any man come to ,me and hate not his father and mother1 says ,christ1 he cannot be ,my disciple1#gc and many purblind critics have found this to be a hard saying4 ,but all who know men know1 that when ,god in ,christ is made so much the supreme object of love that even the most sacred human obligations seem to be disregarded in comparison1 the human affection so thrust into the background is only made richer far than it otherwise could be4 #gc ,luke xiv4 #bf4 ,,chapter ,,xv ,,the ,,relation ,,of ,,old ,,testament ,,sacrifice ,,to ,,christianity ,but it may be asked1 ,what is the relation of this ,divinely sanctioned ritual law of sacrifice to our religion in its present phase8 ,to that question various answers are being returned1 and indeed it may be said that on this point almost all the main differences of ,christians turn4 ,the ,church of ,rome maintains in essence the sacerdotal view of the later ,old ,testament times1 though in a spiritualised ,christian shape1 and to this the ,high ,anglican view is a more or less pronounced return4 ,the ,protestant ,churches1 on the other hand1 regard priests and sacrifices as anachronisms since the death of ,christ4 ,in that1 for the most part1 they regard the significance of sacrifice as being summed up and completed2 and the present dispensation is for them the realisation in embryo of that which ,old ,testament saints looked forward to--a people of ,god1 every true member of which is both priest and prophet1 i4e4 has free and unrestricted access to ,god1 and is authorised and required to speak in ,his name4 ,the interest of ,protestant ,christians1 therefore1 in priesthood and sacrifice in the ,old ,testament sense1 though very great and enduring1 has no connection with the continuation of sacrifice4 ,they look upon the ,old ,testament ritual as wholly obsolete now4 ,it was simply a stage in the religious development of the chosen people1 and as such it has no claim to be continued among ,christians4 ,by a curious allegorical process1 however1 some devout ,protestants keep alive their interest in ,old ,testament ritual by finding in it an elaborate symbolism covering the whole field of evangelical theology4 ,but this revivification of the old law is too arbitrary and subjective1 as well as too improbable1 to have an abiding place in ,christianity4 ,it is1 moreover1 useless for the guidance of life2 for all that is thus ingeniously put into the ,levitical ordinances is found more clearly and directly expressed elsewhere4 ,the amount of religious symbolism in the earlier stages of ,israelite religion is small1 and very simple and direct4 ,even in the most elaborate parts of the ,levitical legislation1 e4g4 in the directions regarding the ,tabernacle1 the purposely allegorical element is kept within comparatively narrow limits2 and we may boldly say that the mind which delights in finding spiritual mysteries in every detail of the sacrificial ritual is ,rabbinical rather than ,christian4 ,on the other hand we need not enter upon a discussion of the view held by ,modern or ,broad ,church theologians and by ,unitarians1 that sacrifice was merely a heathen form taken over into ,mosaism1 that it had no special significance there1 and that the ideas connected with it have absolutely no place in enlightened ,christian theology4 ,the ,christianity which attaches no sacrificial signification to the death of ,christ has1 so far as ,i know1 never shown itself to be a type of religion able to create a future1 and it is only with types of ,christianity that do and can live we have to do4 ,our question here therefore is limited to this1 ,which of the two types of view1 the ,roman ,catholic or the ,protestant1 is truest to the ,old ,testament teaching8 ,externally1 perhaps1 the evidence seems to favour the ,roman ,catholic position2 for the prophets either directly say1 or imply1 that sacrifice shall be restored with new purity and power in the ,messianic time4 ,this is so patent a fact that it led ,edward ,irving to say that it was the ,old ,testament economy that should abide1 and that of the ,new ,testament which should pass away4 ,but the inner progress and development of ,old ,testament religion is quite as decisively on the other side4 ,as we have seen1 ,old ,testament piety had at the beginning almost no recognised expression save in connection with sacrifice1 and the ,exile first trained the people to faithfulness to ,god without it1 sowing the seed of a religious life largely separate from the sacrificial ritual4 ,then the ordinance demanding sacrifice at one central altar1 which1 though introduced by ,deuteronomy1 was made the exclusive law only by the post-exilic community1 furthered the growth of these germs1 so that they produced the synagogue system4 ,this completed the severance of the ordinary daily religion of the bulk of the people from sacrificial ritual1 so far as that was attained within the limits of ,judaism1 and prepared the way for ,pauline ,christianity1 in which all allegiance to ritual ,judaism is cast off4 ,now1 as between the external and internal evidence1 there can be little doubt that the latter has by far the greater weight1 especially as the external evidence can1 perfectly well1 be read in a different sense4 ,the ,old ,testament promises that sacrifice should be restored may be held to have been fulfilled by the sacrificial death of ,christ1 which completed and filled up all that had gone before4 ,in that case the evidence that sacrifice and ritual are now obsolete for ,christians is left standing alone1 and the ,protestant view is justified4 ,and the case for this view is strengthened immeasurably by observing that the modern sacerdotalism has taken up as essential what was the main vice of sacrificial worship in the old economy4 ,that was1 as we have seen1 the tendency to rest on the mere performance of the external rite1 without reference to the disposition of the heart or even to conduct4 ,rivers of oil and hecatombs of victims were thought sufficient to meet all possible demands on ,god's part1 and against this the polemic of the prophets is unceasing4 ,now in almost all modern sacerdotalism the doctrine of the efficacy of sacraments duly administered1 apart from right dispositions in either him who administers them or in him who receives them1 has been affirmed4 ,it is not now1 as it was in the old time1 an evil tendency which had to be assiduously fought against1 but which could not be overcome4 ,it is openly incorporated in the orthodox teaching1 and is distinctly provided for in the ideal of ,christian worship4 ,that marks a considerable falling away from the prophetic ideal3 it can hardly be regarded as the appointed end of that great religious movement which the prophets dominated and directed for so long4 ,the teaching of ,deuteronomy certainly is1 that wherever mere external acts are supposed to have power to secure entrance into the spiritual world of life and peace1 there the character of ,god is misconceived and religion degraded4 ,what it demands is the inward and spiritual allegiance of faithful men to ,god4 ,what it depicts as the essence of religious life is a set of the whole nature ,godward1 as deep and irresistible as the set of the tides-- ,such a tide as moving seems asleep1 ,too full for sound and foam4 ,under no sacerdotal system can that view be unreservedly accepted1 and therein lies the condemnation of every such system4 ,so far as it is allowed to prevail1 the force of the prophetic polemic has to be ignored or evaded1 and in greater or less degree the same spiritual decay which the prophets mourned over in ,israel must appear4 ,but it is not only where trust in the mere opus operatum is theoretically justified that it makes its baleful presence felt4 ,it may surreptitiously creep in where the door is theoretically shut against it4 ,the tendency is very deep-seated in human nature2 and many evangelical preachers1 who repudiate all sacramentarianism1 and throw the full emphasis of ,christian religious life upon grace and faith1 yet bring back again in subtler shape that very thing which they have rejected4 ,for example1 instead of the reception of the sacrament at the hands of ordained ministers1 a man's acceptance with ,god is sometimes made to depend upon a declaration of belief that ,christ has died for him1 or that he has been redeemed and saved by ,christ4 ,wherever such statements are forced upon men1 there is a tendency to assume that a decisive step in the spiritual life is taken by the mere utterance of them4 ,the motives which actuate the utterer are taken for granted2 the existence of such a set of the spiritual nature to ,god as ,deuteronomy demands is supposed to be proved by the mere spoken words2 and men who cannot or will not say such things glibly are unchurched without mercy4 ,what is that but the opus operatum in its most offensive shape8 ,but in whatever shape it appears1 the ,deuteronomic demand for love to ,god1 with the heart and soul and strength1 as essential to all true spiritual service and sacrifice1 condemns it4 ,love to ,god and men are the main things in true religion4 ,all else is subordinate and secondary4 ,sacrifice and ritual without these are dead forms4 ,that is the ,deuteronomic teaching1 and by it1 once for all1 the true relation of the cultus to the life is fixed4 ,nevertheless the priestly and sacrificial system of the ,old ,testament has even for ,christians a present importance1 for it is an adumbration of that which was to be done in the death of ,christ4 ,it has an unspeakable value1 when rightly used1 as an object-lesson in the elements which are essential to a right approach to a ,holy ,god on the part of sinful men4 ,even in heathenism there were such foreshadowings2 and nothing is more fitted to exalt our views of the ,divine wisdom than to trace1 as we can now do1 the ways in which man's seekings after ,god1 even beyond the bounds of the chosen people1 took forms that were afterwards absorbed and justified in the redeeming work of our ,blessed ,lord4 ,for example1 ,professor ,robertson ,smith says of certain ancient heathen piacular sacrifices1 ,the dreadful sacrifice is performed1 not with savage joy1 but with awful sorrow1 and in the mystic sacrifices the deity himself suffers with and for the sins of his people and lives again in their new life4 ,now if we admit that he is not unduly importing into these sacrifices ideas which are really foreign to them1 surely awe is the only adequate emotion wherewith a believer in ,christ can meet such a strange prophecy1 in the lowest religion1 of that which is deepest in the highest4#gd ,the sacrificial system in general was founded1 in part at least1 on belief in the possibility and desirability of communion with ,god4 ,in the sacrificial feasts this was supposed to be attained1 and the essential religious needs of mankind found expression in much of the ritual4 ,if the death of the god1 and his returning to life again in his people found a prominent place in piacular sacrifices in various lands1 that suggests that in some dim way even heathen men had learned that sin cannot be removed and forgiven without cost to ,god as well as to man1 and that communion in suffering as well as in joy is a necessary element of life with ,god4 ,the human heart1 ,divinely biassed1 asserted itself in effort after such association with ,deity1 and in the feeling that sin was that element in life which it would make the highest demand upon the ,divine love to set effectively aside4 #gd ,ency4 ,brit41 vol4 xxi41 p4 #ach4 ,but if such preparation for the fulness of the time was going on in heathenism1 if the mind and heart of man1 driven forward by ,divinely ordered experience and its own needs1 could produce such forecasts in the ritual of heathen religion1 we surely must admit that the religious ritual in ,israel had an even more intimate connection with that which was to come4 ,for we claim that in guiding the destinies of ,israel ,god was1 in an exceptional manner1 revealing ,himself1 that among them ,he established the true religion1 unfolded it in their history1 and prepared as nowhere else for the advent of ,him who should make real and objective the union of ,god and man4 ,here consequently1 if anywhere1 we should expect to find the permanent factors in religion recognised even in the forms of worship1 and the less permanent allowed to fall away4 ,we should also expect the ritual of the cultus to grow in depth of meaning with time1 and that it would more and more recognise the moral and spiritual elements in life4 ,finally1 we should expect that it would be the parent of conceptions rising above and beyond itself1 and more fully consonant with the revelation given by ,christ than anything in heathenism4 ,now all these expectations would seem to have been fulfilled2 and it is reasonable to assume that those sacrificial ideas which corresponded to the deepened consciousness of sin1 and synchronised apparently with the decay of ,israel's political independence1 are rightly applied to the elucidation of the meaning of ,christ's death4 ,of course mistakes may be and have been made in the application of this principle2 the most common being that of forcing every detail of the imperfect and temporary provision into the interpretation of the perfect and eternal4 ,sometimes1 too1 the significance of the life and coming of ,christ are obscured by a too exclusive attention to ,his sacrificial death4 ,but the principle in itself must be sound1 if ,christianity is in any sense to be regarded as the completion and full development of the ,old ,testament religion4 ,besides the immediate significance of sacrifice which the worshippers perceived and by which they were edified1 there was another significance which belonged to it as a step in the long progress which had been marked out for this people in the ,divine purpose4 ,regarded from that standpoint1 the sacrifices1 and the ritual connected with them1 had a meaning for the future also1 were in fact typical of the final sacrifice which would need to be offered only once for all4 ,how much of this was understood by the men of ancient ,israel we have no means of knowing4 ,some1 doubtless1 had a faint perception of it2 but at its clearest it was probably more a dissatisfaction with what they had1 leading them to look for some better sacrifice1 than any more definite understanding4 ,but what they only dimly guessed was1 as we can now see1 the inner meaning of all2 and it is perfectly legitimate to use both the provisional and the perfected revelations to explain each other4 ,on these grounds the ,new ,testament freely makes use of the ancient ritual to bring out the full significance of the sacrifice of ,christ4 ,no doubt a different view has to be reckoned with4 ,many say that the whole of this typical reference is a begging of the question4 ,in the infancy of mankind sacrifice was a natural way of expressing adoration and of seeking the favour of the gods4 ,in the heathen world it reached its highest manifestation in those piacular sacrifices of which ,robertson ,smith speaks1 but which nevertheless were merely an outgrowth of ,totemism4 ,in ,israel sacrifice was taken up by the religion of ,yahweh and embodied in it4 ,the spiritual forces which were at work in that nation used it as a means whereby to express themselves2 and when ,christ came to complete the revelation1 ,his purely ethical and spiritual work was unavoidably expressed in sacrificial terms4 ,but that is no guarantee that the essential thing in the work of ,christ was sacrifice4 ,on the contrary1 the sacrificial language used about it is of no real importance4 ,it is simply the natural and unavoidable form of expression1 in that place and at that time1 for any spiritual deliverance4 ,in short1 had there been really nothing sacrificial in the death of ,christ1 the religious meaning and significance of it would have been expressed in sacrificial language1 for no other was available4 ,consequently the presence of such language in the ,new ,testament does not prove that the sacrificial meaning belongs to its main and permanent significance4 ,the sacrificial idea1 on this view of things1 belongs1 both in ,israel and in heathenism1 to the elements which ,christianity superseded and did away with2 and it is consequently an anachronism to bring it in to explain and elucidate anything done or taught under this new dispensation4 ,but such a view is singularly narrow1 and unjust to the past4 ,it surely is more honouring to both ,god and man to suppose that the capital religious ideas of the race1 those ideas which have been everywhere present and have been seen to deepen and refine with every advance man has made1 have permanent value4 ,moreover1 on any view1 it is probable that in them the essential religious needs of human nature have found expression4 ,if so1 we should expect that they would in the end be met1 and that the perfect religion1 when it did come1 would not ignore but satisfy the demand which the nature of man and the providence of ,god had originated and combined to strengthen4 ,further1 it is the very essence of the ,scriptural view of ,christ that ,he perfected and carried to their highest power all the essential features in the religious constitution of ,israel4 ,he was indeed the true ,israel1 and all ,israel's tasks fell to ,him4 ,as ,prophet1 ,priest1 and ,messianic ,king alike1 ,he excelled all ,his predecessors1 who were what they were only because they had1 in their degree1 done part of the work which ,he was to come to finish4 ,apart from the religion of the ,old ,testament1 therefore1 ,christ is unintelligible1 and that1 in turn1 without ,him1 has neither a progress nor a goal4 ,belief in a ,divine direction of the world would in itself be sufficient to forbid the separation of one from the other4 ,if so1 it will follow that the sacrificial idea is essential to the interpretation of our ,lord's work4 ,that idea grew in complexity with the growth of the higher religion4 ,it was at its deepest when religious thought and feeling had done its most perfect work2 and on every principle of evolution we should expect that1 instead of disappearing at the next stage1 it would1 though transformed1 be more influential than ever4 ,it is so if ,christ's death is regarded from the point of view of sacrifice2 whereas1 if that is laid aside like a worn-out garment1 it can never have been anything anywhere but an excrescence and a superstition4 ,that has not been so2 the essential ideas connected with sacrifice1 and forgiveness by means of it1 were lessons ,divinely taught in the childhood of the world1 to prepare men to understand the ,divinest mystery of history when it should be manifested to the world4 ,,chapter ,,xvi ,,laws ,,against ,,idolatrous ,,acts ,,and ,,customs ,,deut4 xiii41 xiv4 ,having thus set forth the law which was to crown and complete the long resistance of faithful ,israel to idolatry1 our author goes on to prohibit and to decree punishment for any action likely to lead to the worship of false gods4 ,he absolutely forbids any inquiry into the religions of the ,canaanites4 ,take heed to thyself that thou inquire not after their gods1 saying1 ,how do these nations serve their gods8 even so will ,i do likewise4 ,all that was acceptable to ,yahweh was included in the law of ,israel1 and beyond that they were on no account to go in their worship4 ,what thing soever ,i command you1 that shall ye observe to do3 thou shalt not add thereto nor diminish from it4 ,but it should be observed that the inquiry here forbidden has nothing in common with the scientific inquiries of ,comparative ,religion in our time4 ,curiosity of that kind1 supported by the motive of discovering how religion had grown1 was unknown at that early age of the world1 probably everywhere1 certainly in ,israel4 ,the only curiosity powerful enough to result in action then was that which tried to learn how the ritual might be made more potent in its influence over ,yahweh by gathering attractive features from every known religion4 ,that was one of the distinguishing characteristics of ,manasseh's reign4 ,the ,canaanite religions1 the religions of ,egypt and ,assyria1 were all laid under contribution2 and wherever there was a feature which promised additional power with ,god or the gods1 that was eagerly adopted4 ,israel had lost faith in ,yahweh1 owing to the successes of ,assyria4 ,in unbelieving terror men were wildly grasping at any means of safety4 ,they worshipped ,yahweh1 lest ,he should do them harm1 but they joined with ,him the gods of their foes1 to secure if possible their favour also4 ,inquiry into other religions1 with the intent of adopting something from them which would make either ,yahweh or the strange gods1 or both1 propitious to them1 was rife4 ,like the heathen population who had been transported by ,assyria into the territory of the ten tribes1 men feared ,yahweh1 and served their graven images4 ,all that is here sternly condemned1 and ,judah is taught to look only to the ,divine commands for effective means of approach to their ,god4 ,the prohibition1 therefore1 does not import mere fanatical opposition to knowledge4 ,it is a necessary practical measure of defence against idolatry2 and only those can disapprove of it who are incapable of estimating the value which the true religion in its ,old ,testament shape had and has for the world4 ,to preserve that was the high and unique calling of ,israel4 ,any narrowness1 real or supposed1 which this great task imposed upon that people1 is amply compensated for by their guardianship of the spiritual life of mankind4 ,but if inquiry into lower religions was forbidden1 there could be nothing but the sternest condemnation for those who had inquired1 and then endeavoured to seduce the chosen people4 ,deuteronomy1 therefore1 takes three typical cases--first1 seduction by one who was respected because of high religious office1 then seduction by one who had influence because of close bonds of natural affection1 and lastly that of a community which would be likely to have influence by force of numbers--and gives inexorably stern directions how such evil is to be met4 ,there can be little doubt that the cases are not imaginary4 ,in the evil days which the ,deuteronomist had fallen upon they were probably of frequent occurrence1 and they are1 consequently1 provided against as real and present evils4 ,naturally the writer takes the most difficult case first4 ,if an ,israelite prophet1 with all his religious prestige as a confidant of ,yahweh1 and still more with the prestige of successful prediction in his favour1 shall attempt to lead men to join other gods to ,yahweh in their worship--for that and not rejection of ,yahweh for the exclusive service of strange gods is almost certainly meant--then they were not to listen to him4 ,they were to fall back upon the original principle of the ,mosaic teaching as it was restated in ,deuteronomy1 that ,yahweh alone was to be their ,god4 ,some lynx-eyed critics have discovered here the cloven hoof of legalism4 ,they think they see here the free spirit of prophecy1 to which untrammelled initiative was the very breath of life1 subjected to the bondage of written law1 and so doomed to death4 ,but probably such a mood is unnecessarily elegiac4 ,it is not to written law that prophecy is subjected here4 ,it is the actual life-principle of ,yahwism in its simplest form which prophecy is required to respect2 that is1 ultimately1 it is called upon simply to respect itself4 ,its own existence depended upon faithfulness to ,yahweh4 ,if it had a mission at all1 it was to proclaim ,him and to declare ,his character4 ,if it had a distinction which severed it from mere heathen soothsaying1 it was that it had been raised by the inspiration of ,yahweh into the region of the true1 the good1 the eternal1 and its whole power lay in its keeping open the communication with that region4 ,it is therefore only the law of its own inner being to which prophecy is here bound2 and the people are instructed that1 whatever reputation or even supernatural power it might have attained to1 it was to be obeyed only when true to itself and to the faith4 ,nothing was to make men stagger from that foundation4 ,not even the working of miracles was to mislead the people1 for only on the plane of ,yahweh's revelation had even miracle any worth4 ,this is the sound and wholesome doctrine of true prophecy1 and other utterances on the subject in our book must be taken in conjunction with it4 ,religious faithfulness1 not foretelling1 is the essence of it1 and by that the prophet is to be inexorably judged4 ,if any prophet1 therefore1 leads men to strange gods1 his character and his powers only make him more dangerous and his punishment more inexorable4 ,that prophet1 or that dreamer of dreams1 shall be put to death4 ,he comes under the ban4 ,so shalt thou put away the evil from the midst of thee4 ,similarly1 when family ties and family affection are perverted to be instruments of seduction1 they are to be disregarded1 just as religious reputation and miraculous power were to be set aside4 ,if a brother1 or a son1 or a daughter1 or a wife1 or a friend1 shall secretly entice a man to serve other gods1 then he shall not only not yield1 but he must slay the tempter4 ,it is characteristic of the ,deuteronomist that1 by the qualifications of the various relationships he mentions1 he should show his sympathy and his insight into the depths of both family affection and friendship4 ,thy brother1 the son of thy mother1 the wife of thy bosom1 the friend which is as thine own soul1 even these1 near as they are to thee1 must be sacrificed if they are false to ,israel and to ,israel's ,god4 ,nay more1 ,thou shalt surely kill him2 thine hand shall be upon him to put him to death1 and afterwards the hand of all the people1 and thou shalt stone him with stones that he die4 ,upon him1 too1 the ban shall be laid4 ,nor1 finally1 shall their multitude shield those who suffered themselves to be perverted4 ,if a city should have been led away by sons of ,belial1 i4e4 by worthless men1 to worship strange gods1 then the whole city was to be put to the ban4 ,it was to be immediately stormed1 every living creature put to death1 and all the spoil of it burnt unto ,yahweh their ,god2 and the ruins were to be a mound for ever--that is1 a place accursed4 ,only on these terms could ,yahweh be turned away from the fierceness of ,his anger at such treason and unfaithfulness among ,his people4 ,the ,canaanites had been condemned to death that their idolatries and vices might not corrupt the spiritual faith of ,israel4 ,there was no other way1 if the treasure which had been committed to this nation was to be preserved4 ,as ,robertson ,smith has said1 ,experience shows that primitive religious beliefs are practically indestructible except by the destruction of the race in which they are engrained4 ,but if so1 it was perhaps even more necessary that idolaters within ,israel should be also extirpated4 ,we may think the punishment harsh2 and our modern doctrines concerning toleration can by no ingenuity be brought into harmony with it4 ,but the times were fierce1 and men were not easily restrained4 ,in more civilised communities excessive severity in punishment defeats itself1 for it enlists sympathy on the side of the criminal4 ,but among a people like the ,hebrews1 probably severity succeeded where mercy would have been flouted4 ,in ,india our administrators have had to confess that the horrible recklessness and severity of punishment in the ,mahratta states of the old type suppressed crime as the infinitely more just and better organised but milder ,british police organisations could not then do4 ,probably the success of barbarous methods of repressing crime is best explained by their origin in and close connection with a primitive state of society4 ,because punishments were inhuman1 they struck terror where no other motive would deter from crime4#ge ,in other and ,scriptural words1 the hardness of men's hearts made such harshness unavoidable4 #ge ,tupper1 ,our ,indian ,protectorate1 p4 #bdh4 ,taking the whole of this thirteenth chapter into consideration1 therefore1 we see how high and severe were the demands which ,old ,testament religion1 as taught in ,deuteronomy1 made upon its votaries4 ,it presupposes on the part of the people an insight into the fundamentally spiritual nature of their faith entirely unobscured by ritual and sacrifice4 ,they were expected to pass beyond the teachings of accredited spiritual guides1 beyond even the evidence of supernatural power1 and to test all by the moral and spiritual truth1 once delivered to them by prophet and by miracle1 and now a secure possession4 ,spiritual truth received and lived by is thus set above everything else as the test and the judge of all4 ,other things were merely ladders by which men had been brought to the truth in religion4 ,once there1 nothing should move them2 and any further guidance which purported to come from even the heavenly places was to be tried and accepted1 only if it corroborated the fundamental truths already received and attested by experience in actual life4 ,loyalty to ascertained truth1 that is1 is greater than loyalty to teachers1 or to that which seems to be supernatural2 and the chief power for which a prophet is to be reverenced is not that by which he gives a true forecast of the future1 but that which impels him to speak the truth about ,god4 ,even at this day1 and for believers in ,christ1 after all the teaching and experience of eighteen ,christian centuries1 this is a high1 almost an unattainable1 standard to set up4 ,even to-day it is thought an advanced position that miracles as a security for truth are subordinate and inferior to the light of the truth itself as exhibited in the lives of faithful men4 ,yet that is precisely what the ,deuteronomist teaches4 ,he has no doubt about miracles4 ,he regards them as being ,divinely sent1 even when they might be made use of to mislead2 but he calls upon his people to disregard them if they seem to point towards unfaithfulness to ,god4 ,their supreme trust is to be that ,yahweh cannot deny ,himself4 ,if he seem to do so by giving the sanction of miracle to teaching which denies ,him1 that is only to prove men1 to know whether they love ,yahweh their ,god with all their heart and with all their soul4 ,the inner certainty of those who have had communion with ,yahweh is to override everything else4 ,whosoever loves ,god with a pure heart1 says ,calvin1 is armed with the invincible power of the ,divine ,spirit1 that he should not be ensnared by falsehoods4#gf ,this has always been the confidence of religious reformers who have had real power4 ,luther1 for example1 took his stand upon the ,new ,testament and his own personal experience2 and by what he knew of ,god he judged all that the most venerable tradition1 and the authority of the ,church1 and the examples of saintly men claimed to set forth as binding upon him4 ,here stand ,i3 ,i can do no other3 ,god help me4 ,he felt that he had hold of the heart of the revelation of ,god as it was made in ,christ1 and he rejected1 without scruple1 whatever in itself or in its results contradicted or obscured that4 ,inspired and upheld by this consciousness1 he faced a hostile world and a raging ,church with equanimity4 ,it is always so that abuses have been removed and innovations that are hurtful warded off in the ,church of ,god4 #gf ,commentary on ,pentateuch1 vol4 i41 p4 #ddh4 ,but there is a difficulty here4 ,as against the historical examples which show how much good may be wrought by this unshaken mind when accompanied by adequate insight1 many1 perhaps even more1 instances can be adduced where unbending assertion of individual conviction has led to fanaticism and irreligion2 or1 as has even more frequently been the case1 has blinded men's eyes1 and made them resist with immovable obstinacy teachings on which the future of religion depended4 ,on the altar of uncompromising fidelity to the letter of the faith delivered to them1 men in all ages have offered up love and gentleness and fairness1 and that open mind to which alone ,god can speak4 ,how then can they be sure1 when they disregard their teachers and defy even signs from heaven1 that they are really only holding up the banner of faith in an evil day1 and are not hardening themselves against ,god8 ,the answer is that1 since the matter concerns the spiritual life1 there are no clear1 mechanical dividing lines which can be pointed out and respected4 ,nothing but spiritual insight can teach a man what the absolutely essential and the less essential elements of religion are4 ,nothing else can give him that power of distinguishing great things from small which here is of such cardinal importance4 ,probably the nearest approach to effective guidance may be found in this principle1 that when all points in a man's faith are to him equally important1 when he frets as much in regard to divergence from his own religious practices as in regard to denial of the faith altogether1 he must certainly be wrong4 ,such a temper must necessarily resist all change2 and since progress is as much a law in the religious life as in any other1 it must be found at times fighting against ,god4 ,otherwise1 stagnation would be the test of truth1 and the principles of the ,christian faith would be branded as so shallow and so easily exhausted1 that their whole significance could be seized and set forth at once by the generation which heard the apostles4 ,that was far from being the case4 ,the post-apostolic ,church1 for instance1 did not understand ,st4 ,paul4 ,it turned rather to the simpler ideas of the mass of ,christians1 and elaborated its doctrines almost entirely on that basis4 ,during the centuries since then many lessons of unspeakable value have been learned by the ,christian world4 ,the ,church has been enriched by the thoughts and teachings of multitudes of men of genius4 ,the providential chances and changes of all these centuries have immensely widened and deepened ,christian experience4 ,stagnation consequently cannot be made the test of ,christian truth4 ,we must be open to new light on the meaning of ,divine revelation1 or we fail altogether1 as the ,israelites would have done had they refused to accept the teaching of any prophet after the first4 ,this much may1 however1 be said on the affirmative side1 that when a man has thoughtfully and prayerfully decided that the central element of his faith is attacked1 he cannot but resist1 and if he is faithful he will resist in the spirit of the passage we are discussing4 ,his assertion of his individual conviction1 even if it be mistaken1 will do little harm4 ,time will be in favour of the truth4 ,but mistake will be rare1 indeed1 when men are taught to assert in this manner only the things by which the soul lives1 when only the actual channels of communion with ,god are thus defended to the uttermost4 ,these any thoughtful patient man who looks for and yields to the guidance of the ,holy ,spirit of ,christ will almost infallibly recognise1 and by these he will take his stand1 for he can do no other4 ,but precautions against idolatry are not exhausted by the war declared upon men who might attempt to lead the ,israelite into evil4 ,besides insidious human enemies1 there were also insidious customs originating in heathenism1 and still redolent of idolatry even when they were severed from any overt connection with it4 ,ancient rituals1 ancient superstitions1 hateful remnants of bloodthirsty pagan rites1 were being revived in the ,deuteronomist's day on every hand1 because faith in the higher religion that had superseded them had been shaken4 ,like streams from hidden reservoirs suddenly reopened1 idolatrous and magical practices were overflowing the land1 and were finding in popular customs1 harmless in better days1 channels for their return into the life of those who had formerly risen above them4 ,some of these were more hurtful than others1 and two are singled out at the beginning of chapter xiv4 as those which a people holy unto ,yahweh must specially avoid3 ,ye shall not cut yourselves1 nor make any baldness between your eyes for the dead4 ,the grounds for avoiding these practices are first given1 and we may probably assume that they are the grounds also for the other enactments which follow4 ,they are these3 ,ye are the children of ,yahweh your ,god1 and ,thou art a holy people unto ,yahweh thy ,god1 and ,yahweh hath chosen thee to be a peculiar people unto ,himself1 out of all peoples that are upon the face of the earth4 ,the last of these reasons is common to the ,exodus code with ,deuteronomy1 and comes even more prominently into view in the ,levitical law4 ,just as ,yahweh alone was to be their ,god1 they alone were to be ,yahweh's people1 and they were to be holy to ,him1 i4e4 were to separate themselves to ,him2 for in its earliest meaning to be holy is simply to be separate to ,yahweh4 ,this whole dispensation of law1 that is1 was meant to separate the people of ,israel from the idolatrous world1 and in this separation we have the key to much that would otherwise be hard to comprehend4 ,looked at from the point of view of revelation1 petty details about tonsure1 about clean and unclean animals1 and so on1 seem incredibly unworthy2 and many have said to themselves1 ,how can the ,god of the whole earth have really been the author of laws dealing with such trivialities8 ,but when we regard these as provisions intended to secure the separation of the chosen people1 they assume quite another aspect4 ,then we see that they had to be framed in contrast to the idolatries of the surrounding nations1 and are not meant to have further spiritual or moral significance4 ,but the first reason given is a higher and more important one1 which occurs here for the first time in ,deuteronomy3 ,ye are the children of ,yahweh your ,god4 ,in heathen lands such a title of honour was common1 because physically most worshippers of false gods were regarded as their children4 ,but in ,israel1 where such physical sonship would have been rejected with horror as impairing the ,divine holiness1 the spiritual sonship was asserted of the individual much more slowly4 ,in ,yahweh's command to ,moses to threaten ,pharaoh with the death of his firstborn son1 and in ,hosea xi4 #a1 ,israel collectively is called ,yahweh's firstborn and ,his son4 ,in ,hosea i4 #aj it is prophesied that in the ,messianic time1 in the place where it was said unto them1 ,ye are not ,my people1 it shall be said unto them1 ,ye are the sons of the living ,god4 ,but here for the first time this high title is bestowed upon the actual individual ,israelites4 ,it was perhaps implied in the ,deuteronomist's view of ,god's fatherly treatment of the nation in the desert1 and still more in his demand for the love of the individual heart4 ,yet only here is it brought plainly forth as a ground for the regulation of life according to ,yahweh's commands4 ,each son of ,israel is also a son of ,god2 and by none of his acts or habits should he bring disgrace upon his spiritual ,father4 ,likeness to ,god is expected and demanded of him4 ,it is his function in the world to represent ,him1 to give expression to the ,divine character in all his ways4 ,this is the ,israelite's high calling1 and the religious application of noblesse oblige to such matters as follow1 gives a dignity and importance to all of them such as in their own nature they could hardly claim4 ,ye shall not cut yourselves1 nor make any baldness between your eyes for the dead4 ,israel was not to express grief for the dead in these ways1 first because that was the custom of other nations1 and secondly still more because the origin and meaning of such rites was idolatrous1 and as such altogether unworthy of ,yahweh's sons4 ,both1 says ,robertson ,smith1 occur not only in mourning1 but in the worship of the gods1 and belong to the sphere of heathen superstition4#gg ,elsewhere he explains the cutting of themselves to be the making of a blood covenant with the dead1 just as the priests of ,baal in their worship tried to get their god to come to their help by making a covenant of blood with him at his altar4#gh ,this naturally tended to bring in the superstitions of necromancy1 and opened the way also for the worship of the dead4 ,many traces of its previous existence among the ,israelite tribes are to be found in the ,scriptures2 and the probability is that as ancestor-worship ruled the life and shaped the thoughts of ,greeks and ,romans till ,christianity appeared1 so ,yahwism alone had broken its power over ,israel4 ,but such superstitions die hard1 and in the general recrudescence of almost forgotten forms of heathenism at this time1 this cult may very well have been reasserting itself4 ,as for the shaving of the front part of the head1 that had a precisely similar import4 ,it had exactly the same sense as the offering of the mourner's blood4#gi ,when the hair of the living is deposited with the dead1 and the hair of the dead remains with the living1 a permanent bond of connection unites the two4 #gg ,the ,old ,testament in the ,jewish ,church1 p4 #cff4 #gh ,religion of the ,semites1 p4 #cjd4 #gi ,ibid41 p4 #cjf4 ,the prohibition as food of the animals and birds called unclean was another measure obviously of the same nature as the prohibition of heathen mourning practices2 but in its details it is more difficult to explain4 ,probably1 however1 it was a more potent instrument of separation than any other4 ,in ,india to-day the gulf between the flesh-eater and the orthodox vegetarian ,hindu is utterly impassable2 and in the east of ,europe and in ,palestine1 where the ,jewish restrictions as to food are still regarded1 the orthodox ,jew is separated from all ,gentiles as by a wall4 ,in travelling he never appears at meals with his fellow-travellers4 ,all the food he requires he carries with him in a basket2 and at every place where he stops it is the duty of the ,jewish community to supply him with proper food1 that he may not be tempted to defile himself with anything unclean4 ,but it is very difficult for us now to bring the individual prohibitions under one head1 and it seems impossible to explain them from any one point of view4 ,some of the animals and birds prohibited were probably1 then1 animals eaten in connection with idolatrous feasts by the neighbouring heathen4 ,isa4 lxv4 #d shows that swine's flesh was eaten at sacrificial meals by idolaters1 and from the expression broth of abominable things is in their vessels it is clear that the flesh of other animals was so used4 ,all these would necessarily be prohibited to ,israel2 but beyond a few1 such as the swine1 which was sacrificed to ,tammuz or ,adonis1 and the mouse and the wild ass1 we have no means of knowing what they were4 ,that this is a vera causa of such prohibitions is shown by the facts mentioned by ,professor ,robertson ,smith1 that ,simeon ,stylites forbade his ,saracen converts to eat the flesh of the camel1 which was the chief element in the sacrificial meals of the ,arabs1 and our own prejudice against the use of horse-flesh is a relic of an old ecclesiastical prohibition framed at the time when the eating of such food was an act of worship to ,odin4 ,the very ancient and stringent prohibition of blood as an article of diet is probably to be accounted for in this way also4 ,blood was eaten at heathen sacrificial feasts2 without other reason that would be sufficient4 ,these are the general lines which must have determined the list of clean animals in the view of the lawgiver1 since he brings them in under the head of idolatry and under the two general grounds we have discussed 7p4 #bhi1 supra74 ,jewish writers1 however1 especially since ,maimonides1 have regarded these prohibitions as aiming primarily at sanitary ends1 and as a proof of their efficacy have adduced the unusually high average health of the ,jews1 and their almost complete exemption from certain classes of disease4 ,no such point of view is suggested in the ,scriptures themselves1 for it would surely be rather farfetched to class possible disease as an infringement of the holiness demanded of ,israel1 or as a thing unworthy of ,yahweh's sons4 ,nevertheless a general view of the list of clean animals here given would support the idea that sanitary considerations also had something to do with the classification4 ,the practical effect of the rule laid down is to exclude all the carnivora among quadrupeds1 and so far as we can interpret the nomenclature1 the raptores among birds4#hj ,amongst fish1 those which were allowed contain unquestionably the most wholesome varieties4 ,further1 the nations of antiquity which developed such categories of clean and unclean animals seem in the main to have taken the same line4 ,the ground of this probably is the natural disgust with which unclean feeders are always regarded4 ,animals and birds especially which feed1 or may be supposed to feed1 on carrion1 are everywhere disliked1 and as a rule they are unsuitable for food4 ,grass-eating animals1 on the other hand1 are always regarded as clean4 ,scaleless fish1 too1 are generally more or less slimy to the touch1 and with them reptiles are altogether forbidden4 ,all this seems to show that a natural sentiment of disgust1 for whatever reason felt1 was active in the selection of the animals marked unclean by men of every race4 ,the pre-,mosaic customary law on this subject would1 of course1 have this characteristic in common with similar laws of primitive nations4 ,when the worship of ,yahweh was introduced1 most of this would be taken over1 only such modifications being introduced as the higher religion demanded4 ,in some main elements1 therefore1 the ,mosaic law on this subject would be a repetition of what is to be found elsewhere4 ,hence a general tendency to health may be expected2 for besides the guidance which healthy disgust would give1 a long experience must also have been registered in such laws4 ,the influence of them in promoting health has recently been acknowledged by the ,lancet2 and though that reason for observing them is not mentioned in ,scripture1 we may view it as a proof that the ,jewish legislators were under an influence which brought them1 perhaps even when they knew it not1 into relation with what was wholesome in the practices and customs of their place and time4 #hj ,smith's ,dictionary of the ,bible1 vol4 iii4 p4 #aehi4 ,beyond these three reasons for the laws regarding food1 all is the wildest speculation4 ,if other reasons underlie these laws1 we cannot now ascertain what they were4 ,for a time it was the custom to ascribe the ,jewish laws to ,persian influence1 though from the nature of the case such laws must have been part of the heritage of ,israel from pre-,mosaic time4 ,even to-day ,jewish writers ascribe them to the evil effect which bad food has upon the soul1 either by infecting it with the characteristics of the unclean beasts1 or by rendering it impenetrable to good influences4#ha ,but1 as usual1 it is the allegorical interpreters who carry off the palm4 ,animals that chew the cud were to be eaten1 because they symbolised those who read1 mark1 learn1 and inwardly digest the ,divine law3 those which divide the hoof are examples of those who distinguish between good and bad actions2 and in the ostrich one interpreter finds an analogue to the bad commentators who pervert the words of ,holy ,scripture4 #ha ,dillmann1 ,deuteronomy1 p4 #dhc4 ,hitherto in chapter xiv4 we have been dealing with material to which a parallel can be found only in the small code of laws contained in ,lev4 xvii4-xxvi41 commonly called the ,law of ,holiness1 and in the ,priestly ,code4#hb ,but the two remaining directions regarding food1 which are contained in the twenty-first verse are parallel to prohibitions in the ,law of the ,covenant4 ,the first1 ,ye shall not eat of anything that dieth of itself 444 for thou art an holy people unto ,yahweh thy ,god1 is parallel to ,exod4 xxii4 #ca4 ,and ye shall be holy men unto ,me3 therefore ye shall not eat any flesh that is torn of beasts in the field1 and to ,lev4 xvii4 #ae1 ,every soul that eateth that which dieth of itself1 or that which is torn of beasts1 whether he be homeborn or a stranger1 he shall wash his clothes1 and bathe himself in water1 and be unclean until the evening4 ,the ground for prohibiting such food1 was1 of course1 that the blood was in it4 ,but there is a divergence between the parallel laws1 which is seen clearly when we take into account the destination of the flesh of the animal so dying4 ,in ,exodus it is said1 ,to the dogs shall ye cast it4 ,in ,deuteronomy the command is1 ,to the stranger within thy gates ye shall give it1 and he shall eat of it1 or ye may sell it unto a foreigner4 ,in ,leviticus it is taken for granted that an ,israelite and also a stranger may eat either of the nebhelah1 that which dieth of itself1 or the terephah1 that which is torn2 and if either do so it is prescribed only that he should wash1 and should be unclean until the evening4 #hb ,this1 of course1 does not show that ,p must have been known to ,d1 but it proves that as regards material ,p and ,d have drawn from the same source1 and that older documents1 or customs at least1 underlie both4 ,here1 therefore1 we have one of the cases in which the traditional hypothesis--that the ,law of the ,covenant was given at ,sinai when ,israel arrived there1 the laws of the ,priestly ,code probably not many weeks after1 and the code of ,deuteronomy only thirty-eight or thirty-nine years later1 but before the laws had come fully into effect by the occupation of ,canaan--raises a difficulty4 ,why should the ,sinaitic law say that terephah is not to be eaten by any one1 but cast to the dogs1 and the ,levitical law in so short a time after make the eating of that and nebhelah mere cause of subordinate uncleanness to both ,israelite and stranger1 while ,deuteronomy permits the ,israelite either to give the nebhelah to the stranger that he may eat it1 or to make it an article of traffic with the foreigner8 ,keil's explanation is certainly feasible1 that in ,exodus we have the law1 in ,leviticus the provision for accidental1 or perhaps wilful1 disobedience of it under the pressure of hunger1 while in ,deuteronomy we have a permission to sell1 lest on the plea of waste the law might be ignored4 ,but the position of the gr1 or stranger1 is not accounted for4 ,in ,leviticus he is bound to the worship of ,yahweh1 and can no more eat nebhelah or terephah than the native ,israelite can1 while in ,deuteronomy he is on a lower stage than the ,israelite as regards ceremonial cleanness1 and much on the same level as the nokhri1 the foreigner1 who in ,deuteronomy is dealt with as an inferior1 not bound to the same scrupulosity as the ,israelite 7,deut4 xv4 #c1 #bc1 #bi74 ,there does not appear to be any explanation of such a change in less than forty years2 more especially as the moment at which the change would on that hypothesis be made was precisely the moment when the stranger was about for the first time to become an important element in ,israelite life4 ,if1 on the other hand1 the order of the codes be ,exodus1 ,deuteronomy1 ,leviticus1 then the ,exodus law1 which does not consider the stranger1 would suit the earliest stage of ,israel's history1 when the stranger would generally be a spy4 ,later1 he crept into ,israelite life1 and gradually received more and more consideration2 especially in the days of ,solomon1 when the ,chronicler estimates the number of the strangers at over a hundred and fifty thousand4 ,but he was not recognised at that stage as fully bound to all an ,israelite's duties1 or as possessed of all an ,israelite's privileges1 and that is precisely the position he occupies in ,deuteronomy4 ,in the ,priestly ,code1 however1 at a time when the stranger had practically become a proselyte1 the ideal ,kingdom of ,god includes the stranger1 and gives him a position which differs little from that of the homeborn4 ,that would make these different laws answer to different periods of ,israel's history1 and would coincide with what has been otherwise found to be the order of ,israel's legal development4 ,the second prohibition1 which runs parallel to what we find in ,exodus1 is the somewhat enigmatical one that a kid should not be sodden in its mother's milk4 ,what it was in this act which made it seem necessary to issue such a command cannot now be ascertained with any certainty4 ,most probably it was connected in some way with heathen ceremonies1 perhaps at a harvest feast2 for1 as we have seen1 it is a ruling motive throughout all this section that the ,israelites should reject everything which among their neighbours was connected with idolatry4 ,,chapter ,,xvii ,,the ,,speakers ,,for ,,god--,i4 ,,the ,,king ,,deut4 xvii4 #ad-bj ,in approaching the main section of the legislation it will be necessary1 in accordance with the expository character of the series to which this volume belongs1 to abandon the consecutive character of the comment4 ,it would lead us too far into archology to discuss the meaning and origin of all the legal provisions which follow4 ,moreover nothing short of an extensive commentary would do them justice1 and for our purpose we must endeavour to group the prescriptions of the code1 and discuss them so4 ,as it stands there is no arrangement traceable4 ,so utterly without order is it1 that it can hardly be thought that it is in the exact shape in which it left its author's hands4 ,transpositions and misplacements must1 one thinks1 have taken place to some extent4 ,we are thus left free to make our own arrangements1 and it would appear most fitting to discuss the code under the five heads of ,national ,life1 ,economic ,life1 and three fundamental qualities of a healthy national life--,purity1 ,justice1 and the ,treatment of the ,poor4 ,every phase of the laws which remain for discussion can easily be brought under these heads1 and this chapter will discuss the first of them1 the organisation of the national life4 ,it is a striking instance of the accuracy of the national memory that there is a clear and conscious testimony to the fact that for long there was no king in ,israel4 ,had the later historians been at the mercy of a tradition so deeply influenced by later times as it pleases some critics to suppose1 it would seem inexplicable that ,moses should not have been represented as a king1 and especially that the conquest should not have been represented as a king's work4 ,evidently there was a perfectly clear national consciousness of the earlier circumstances of the nation1 and it presents us with an outline of the original constitution which is very simple and credible4 ,according to this the tribes whom ,moses led were ruled in the main by their own sheikhs or elders4 ,under these again were the clans or fathers' houses similarly governed2 and lastly1 there were the families in the wider sense1 made up of the individual households and governed by their heads4 ,so far as can be gathered1 ,moses did not interfere with this fundamental organisation at all4 ,he added to it only his own supremacy1 as the mediator and means of communication between ,yahweh and ,his people4 ,as such1 his decision was final in all matters too difficult for the sheikhs and judges4 ,but the fundamental point never lost sight of was that ,yahweh alone was their ruler1 their legislator1 their leader in war1 and the doer of justice among ,his people4 ,from the very first moment of ,israel's national existence therefore1 from the moment that it passed the ,red ,sea1 ,yahweh was acknowledged as ,king1 and ,moses was simply ,his representative4 ,that is the cardinal fact in this nation's life1 and amid all the difficulties and changes of its later history that was always held to4 ,even when kings were appointed1 they were regarded only as the viceroys of ,yahweh4 ,in this way the whole of the national affairs received a religious colour2 and those who look at them from a religious standpoint have a justification which would have been less manifest under other circumstances4 ,it is1 therefore1 no delusion of later times which finds in ,israelite institutions a deep religious meaning4 ,nor is the persistence with which the ,scriptural historians regard only the religious aspects of national life to be laid as a fault to their charge4 ,it is nothing to the purpose to say that the bulk of the people had no thoughts of that kind1 that the whole fabric of the national institutions appeared to them in a different light4 ,we have no right to lower the meaning of things to the gross materialism of the populace4 ,one would almost think1 to hear some ,old ,testament critics speak1 that in this most ideal realm of religion we can be safe from illusion only when ideal points of view are abandoned1 that only in the commonest light of common day have we any security that we are not deceiving ourselves4 ,but most of these same men would resent it bitterly if that standard were applied to the history of the lands they themselves love4 ,what ,englishman would think that ,great ,britain's career and destiny were rightly estimated if imperial sentiment and humanitarian aims were thrust aside in favour of purely material considerations8 ,why then should it be supposed that the views and opinions of the multitude are the only safe criterion to be applied to the institutions of ,god's ancient people8 ,in truth1 there is no reason why we should think so4 ,the ,divine kingship made it impossible that the higher minds should be content with the low aims of the opportunists of their day1 whether these were of the multitude or not4 ,even the entrance into ,canaan1 which to the mass of the people was1 in the first place1 a mere acquisition of territory and wealth1 was idealised for the leaders of the people by the thought that it was the land promised by ,yahweh to their fathers1 the land in which they should live in communion with ,him4 ,generally1 it may be said that the desire for communion with ,god was the impelling and formative power in ,israel4 ,the thoughts of even the dullest and most earthly were touched by that ideal at times2 and no leader1 whether royal1 or priestly1 or prophetic1 ever really succeeded among this people who did not keep that persistently in view as the true goal of his efforts4 ,moreover this gave its depth of meaning to the whole movement of history in ,israel4 ,every triumph and defeat1 every lapse and every reform had1 owing to this direction of the people's efforts1 a significance far beyond itself4 ,these were not merely incidents in the history of an obscure people2 they were the pulsations and movements of the world's advance to the full revelation of ,god4 ,all that would have been wholly national or tribal in the institutions and arrangements of an ordinary people was in ,israel lifted up into the religious sphere2 and the orders of men who spoke for the invisible ,king--the earthly king1 the priest1 and the prophet--became naturally the organs of the national life4 ,the king's position was entirely dependent upon ,yahweh4 ,he was to be chosen by ,yahweh1 he was to act for ,yahweh1 and no king could rightly fill his place in ,israel who was not loyal to that conception4 ,it is in this sense that ,david was the man after ,god's own heart4 ,he1 in contrast to ,saul and to many of the later kings1 accepted with entire loyalty1 notwithstanding his great natural powers1 the position of viceroy for ,yahweh4 ,it is1 therefore1 an essential truth which underlies the ,scriptural judgment that the kings who made themselves1 or attempted to make themselves1 independent of ,yahweh1 were false to ,israel and to their true calling4 ,and this is why ,samuel1 when the people demanded a king1 regarded the movement with stern disapproval1 and why he received an oracle denouncing the movement as a falling away from ,yahweh4 ,for1 in the first place1 the motive for the people's request1 their desire to be like other nations1 was in itself a rejection of their ,god4 ,it repudiated1 in part at least1 the position of ,israel as ,his peculiar people1 and implied that an earthly king would do more for them than ,yahweh had done2 whereas if they had been faithful and united enough in spirit they would have found victory easy4 ,in the second1 the request in itself was a confession of unfitness for their high national calling2 it was a confession of failure under the conditions which had been ,divinely appointed for them4 ,not only in the eyes of the ,biblical historian therefore1 but as a plain matter of fact1 the demand was an expression of dissatisfaction on the people's part with their invisible ,king4 ,they needed something less spiritual than ,yahweh's invisible presence and the prophetic word to guide them4 ,but since they had declared themselves thus unfaithful1 ,yahweh had to deal with them at that level1 and granted their request as a concession to their unbelief and hardness of heart4 ,that is the representation of the ,books of ,samuel2 and the absence of any similar law from the codes before ,deuteronomy confirms the view that the earthly kingship was not an essential part of the polity of ,israel1 but a mere episode4 ,nowhere in legislation save here in ,deuteronomy is the king ever mentioned1 and nowhere1 not even here1 is any provision made for his maintenance4 ,no civil taxes are appointed by any law1 while the most ample provision is made for the presentation direct to ,yahweh1 as ,lord paramount1 of tithes and firstfruits4 ,the history and the law alike agree therefore in regarding the kingship as somewhat of an excrescence upon the national polity2 and this law1 where alone the king's existence is recognised1 confines itself strictly to securing the theocratic character of the constitution4 ,he must be chosen by ,yahweh2 he must be a born worshipper of ,yahweh1 not a foreigner2 and he must rule in accordance with the law given by ,yahweh4 ,further1 the ideal ,israelite king must be on his guard against the grossly voluptuous luxury which ,oriental sovereigns have never been able to resist1 either in ancient or modern times2 and also against the lust for war and conquest which was the ruling passion of ,assyrian and ,egyptian kings4 ,evidently too the ideal king of ,israel was1 like ,bedouin sheikhs now1 expected to be rich1 able to maintain his state out of his own revenues4 ,the tribute paid by subject peoples1 together with the booty taken in war and the profits of trade1 were his only legitimate sources of income beyond his own wealth4 ,every other exaction was more or less of an oppression4 ,he had no right to make any claims upon the land1 for that was held direct of ,yahweh4 ,nor were there any regular taxes1 so far as the ,old ,testament informs us4 ,the only approach to that would appear to be that the presents with which his subjects voluntarily approached the king were sometimes and by some rulers made permanent demands2 at least that would seem to be the meaning of the somewhat obscure statement in #a ,sam4 xvii4 #be that ,king ,saul would reward the slayer of ,goliath by making his father's house free in ,israel4 ,some kind of regular exaction from which the victorious champion's family should be free must here be referred to2 but it would not be safe1 in the absence of all other evidence1 to suppose that regular taxes in the modern sense are referred to4 ,more probably something of the nature of the benevolences which ,edward ,,iv4 introduced into ,england as a source of revenue is meant4 ,if a popular and powerful king of ,israel was in want of money1 he could always secure it by ordering those able to afford handsome presents to appear yearly before him with such gifts as a loyal subject should offer4 ,for the convenience of all parties an indication of how much would be expected might be made1 and then he would have what to all intents and purposes would be a tax4 ,along with this he might also enforce the corve2 but such things were always regarded as excesses of despotic power4 ,that ,samuel in his mishpat hammelekh 7#a ,sam4 viii4 #ae7 warns the people that the king would demand of them a tithe of their cereal crops and of the fruit of their vineyards and of their sheep1 does not contradict this reading of the passage in #a ,sam4 xvii4 ,for though chapter viii4 belongs to the later portion of #a ,samuel and may therefore represent what the kings had actually claimed1 yet it in no way endorses such demands4 ,on the contrary1 it indicates that such exactions would bring the people into slavery to the king by the phrase ,and ye shall be to him for slaves4 ,all that is mentioned there1 consequently1 is part of the evil the kingship would bring with it1 and cannot in any way be regarded as a legal provision for the maintenance of royalty4 ,it is not probable1 therefore1 that in these prescriptions the author of ,deuteronomy is repeating a more ancient law4 ,no such law has come down to us4 ,dillmann supposes the provision that the king should always be an ,israelite to be ancient2 and indeed at first sight it is difficult to see why such a provision should be introduced for the first time in the last days of the ,southern ,kingdom1 where the kingship had so long been confined1 not only to ,israelites1 but to the ,davidic line4 ,but ,jer4 xxxii4 #ba--,their potentate shall be of themselves1 and their governor shall proceed from the midst of them--shows that1 whatever the cause might be1 there was in the first years of the sixth century a longing for a native king similar to that here expressed4 ,in any case1 as the obvious intention here is to make entire submission to ,yahweh the condition of any legitimate kingship1 it was only consistent to require expressly that the king should be one of ,yahweh's people4 ,that motive would be quite sufficient to account for raising what had been the invariable practice into a formulated law2 and no other of the prescriptions need have been ancient4 ,on the other hand1 the curious phrase ,only he shall not multiply horses to himself1 nor cause the people to return to ,egypt to the end that he should multiply horses2 forasmuch as ,yahweh hath said unto you1 ,ye shall henceforth return no more that way1 can hardly belong to the ,mosaic time4 ,there was no doubt then much danger that the people should wish to return to ,egypt2 but that a king should cause them to return for horses1 is too much of a subordinate detail to have been portion of a ,mosaic prophecy4 ,if1 as is most probable1 the phrase condemns the sending of ,israelites into ,egypt to buy horses and chariots1 it can have been written only after ,solomon's days4 ,before that time ,israel1 as an almost exclusively mountain people1 regarded horses and chariots with dislike1 and usually destroyed them when they fell into their hands4 ,with the extension of their power over the plains and the growth of a lust for conquest1 they sought after chariots eagerly4 ,to procure them they entered into alliances with ,egypt which the prophets denounced1 and which brought to the nation nothing but evil4 ,it was natural1 therefore1 that the ,deuteronomist should specially mention this detail1 and should support it by reference to a ,divine promise1 which does not appear in our ,bible1 but which probably was found in either the ,yahwistic or the ,elohistic narrative4 ,but whether the whole is ,deuteronomic or not1 there can be no question that the command that the king shall have a copy of this law prepared for him and shall read constantly therein is so2 and perhaps of all the prescriptions this is the most important4 ,in purely ,eastern states there is no legislature at all1 and the greater part of the criminal jurisdiction especially is carried on without any reference to fixed law save in cases affecting religion4 ,this was the case in the ,mahratta states in ,india so long as they were independent4 ,the ruler and the officers he appointed administered justice1 solely according to custom and their own notions of rectitude1 without advertence to any law except the popular notions of customary law4#hc ,now in ,israel the state of things was entirely similar1 save in so far as the fundamental principles of ,yahwistic religion had been formulated4 ,in all other respects customary law ruled everything4 ,but it was the religious influence that gave its highest and best developments to the life of ,israel4 ,it was this1 too1 which brought to such early maturity in ,israel the principles of justice1 mercy1 and freedom4 ,elsewhere these were of exceedingly slow growth4 ,in ,israel1 the influence of the lofty religious ideas implanted in the nation by ,moses did for them what the influence of the higher political and social ideas of the governing ,englishmen are said to do1 under favourable circumstances1 for the ,indian peoples4 ,without disturbing the general harmony which must subsist between all parts of the organism of the ,state if the nation's life is to be healthy1 and without putting it out of relation with its surroundings1 that influence has been1 and is still1 moving the more backward ,indian societies along the natural paths of human progress at a greatly accelerated speed4#hd ,in a similar way the ,israelite people was moved by the ,mosaic influence1 in its aspirations at least1 with an elsewhere unexampled speed and certainty1 towards an ideal of national life which no nation since has even endeavoured to realise4 ,but whenever the kings threw off the yoke of ,yahweh and plunged into idolatry1 then the evils of despotic ,oriental rule made their appearance unchecked4 ,these evils have been enumerated in the following words by one well acquainted with ,oriental states3 ,cruelty1 superstition1 callous indifference to the security of the weaker and poorer classes1 avarice1 corruption1 disorder in all public affairs1 and open brigandage4 ,with the exception perhaps of the last1 these are precisely the sins which the prophets are continually denouncing4 ,long before ,hezekiah they were rampant1 especially in the ,northern ,kingdom1 and in the evil days between ,hezekiah and ,josiah1 when we suppose ,deuteronomy to have been written1 they were indulged in without shame or compunction4 #hc ,tupper1 ,our ,indian ,protectorate1 pp4 #bdh1 #bdi4 #hd ,ibid41 p4 #cba4 ,the result was that an inarticulate cry1 like that we hear to-day from ,persia in the articulate form of newspaper articles1 must have filled the hearts of all righteous men and the multitude of the oppressed4 ,what it would be we may learn from the following extract from a letter written from ,persia to the ,kamin1 i4e4 ,law1 a ,persian newspaper published in ,london1 and translated by ,arminius ,vambry in the ,deutsche ,rundschau for ,october #ahic3 ,oh1 brothers1 behold how deeply we have sunk into the sea of ignominy and shame4 ,tyranny1 famine1 disease1 poverty1 calamity1 decay of character1 and all the misery in the world has overflowed our country4 ,the cause of all this misfortune lies in this1 that we have no laws2 only in this1 that our conscienceless and foolish great ones have wilfully and purposely rejected1 trodden under foot1 and destroyed the laws of the sacred code4444 ,we are men1 and would have laws6 ,it is not new laws we ask for1 but we desire that our secular and spiritual heads should assemble and press for the enforcement of the holy laws of the sacred code4 ,therefore we ask of you this one thing1 that you should proclaim3 ',we are men1 and would have laws4' ,the ,east is so perennially the same1 that the two thousand five hundred years which separate that pathetic cry from the prayers of the true ,israel in ,manasseh's and ,amon's days make no radical difference4 ,the situation was the same1 and the need was the same4 ,hence came this prophetic and priestly redaction of the ,law of the ,covenant4 ,they were men1 and would have laws4 ,they sought to be freed from the greed1 the cruelty1 and the lawlessness of their rulers2 and having produced their revised code1 they wished to secure that it should not disappear from memory1 as the more ancient law had been suffered to do4 ,it must be kept continually before the king's mind4 ,it shall be with him1 and he shall read therein all the days of his life2 that he may learn to fear ,yahweh his ,god1 to keep all the words of this law and these statutes to do them4 ,in this way it was thought that future great ones would be prevented from rejecting1 treading under foot1 and destroying the laws of the sacred code4 ,but the king of ,israel was not only to be a law-abiding and a law-enforcing king4 ,he was to learn from this new law even a deeper lesson4 ,he was to read daily in the law1 that his heart might not be lifted up above his brethren4 ,oriental despots either openly claim that they are of higher and purer blood than their subjects1 or they deal with these latter as if they had nothing in common with them4 ,in the laws of ,manu it is said1 ,even an infant king must not be despised1 7from an idea7 that he is a 7mere7 mortal2 for he is a great deity in human form4 ,it was not to be so in ,israel4 ,his subjects were the ,israelite king's brethren4 ,they all stood in the same relation to their ,god4 ,all equally had shared ,yahweh's favour in being delivered from the bondage of ,egypt4 ,each had the same rights1 the same privileges1 the same claims to justice and consideration as the king himself had4 ,that1 this law was to teach the king2 and when he had learned the lesson1 it is taken for granted that the root from which the other evils spring would be destroyed4 ,such1 then1 the ruler of ,israel was to be4 ,he was to feel1 first of all his responsibility to ,god4 ,then he was to deny himself to the lust of conquest1 to the voluptuous pleasures of the flesh1 to the most devouring lust of all1 the love of money4 ,last of all1 and above all1 he was to acknowledge his equality with the poorest of the people in the sight of ,god4 ,could there be even yet a nobler ideal set before the kings of the world than this8 ,the reign of only one king of ,israel1 ,josiah1 promised its realisation4 ,that seemed1 indeed1 to be the fair beginning of a time4 ,but it was not so2 it proved to be only an afterglow1 a mere prelude to the night4 ,none of his successors made even an attempt to imitate him1 and the destruction of the ,jewish ,state put an end to all hope of the appearance of the ,yahwistic king in ,israel4 ,elsewhere1 before the coming of ,christ1 he did not appear4 ,since ,christ's coming1 here and there1 at rare intervals1 such rulers have been found4 ,but in the ,east perhaps the only rulers who can be said to have made any attempt in this direction are the best of the great uncrowned kings of ,india1 the ,british viceroys4 ,such1 for example1 was ,lord ,lawrence's aim1 and his reward4 ,from the beginning to the end of his ,indian career he lived a pure and simple life1 laboured with untiring energy for the good of the people1 and kept in his mind1 as his aspirations for his ,punjaub peasantry show1 the ,old ,testament ideal of both ruler and ruled4 ,he was1 too1 entirely free from the lust of conquest1 as some ,indian viceroys have not perhaps been2 and he did all his work under a solemn sense of responsibility to ,god4 ,to a large extent1 the ,biblical ideal made him what he was as a ruler1 and the life and power of that ideal now1 in such men1 sufficiently show the truth of the prophetic and priestly insight which is embodied here4 ,many who have disregarded these rules have done great things for the world2 but we are only the more sure1 after two thousand five hundred years1 that on these lines alone can the ruler attain his highest and purest eminence4 ,all the aspirations of men to-day are towards a state of things in which rulers1 whether they be any longer kings or no1 shall stand on a level of brotherhood with their subjects1 and shall set the good of the ruled before them as their sole aim4 ,all men are dreaming now of a future in which personal ambition shall have little scope1 in which none will be for himself or for a party1 but all will be for the ,state4 ,if ever that good dream be realised1 rulers of the ,deuteronomic type will be universal2 and the depth of wisdom embodied in the laws of this small and obscure ,oriental people1 so many ages ago1 will be manifested in a general political and social happiness such as has never yet been seen1 on any large scale at least1 in the history of men4 ,,chapter ,,xviii ,,speakers ,,for ,,god4--,,ii4 ,,the ,,priest ,,deut4 xviii4 #a-h ,the priesthood naturally follows the kingship in the regulations regarding the position of the governing classes4 ,but it was an older and much more radical constituent in the polity of ,israel than we have seen the kingship to be4 ,originally1 the priests were the normal and regular exponents of ,yahweh's will4 ,they received and gave forth to the people oracles from ,him1 and they were the fountain of moral and spiritual guidance4 ,the ,torah of the priests1 which on the older view was the ,pentateuch as we have it1 or its substance at least1 which ,moses had put into their hands1 is much more probably now regarded as the guidance given by means of the sacred lot and the ,urim and ,thummim4 ,because of their special nearness to and intimacy with ,god1 the priests were in contact with the ,divine will and could receive special ,divine guidance2 and in days when the voice of prophecy was dumb1 or in matters which it left untouched1 the priestly ,torah1 or direction1 was the one authorised ,divine voice4 ,but this was not the only function of the priests4 ,sacrificial worship was a more fundamental function4 ,wellhausen and his school indeed seem inclined to deny that as priests of ,yahweh they had any ,divinely ordered connection with sacrifice4 ,but the truer view is that their power to give ,torah to ,israel depended entirely upon their being the custodians of the places where ,yahweh had caused ,his name to be remembered4 ,the theory was that1 as they approached ,him with sacrifices in ,his sanctuaries1 they consequently could speak for ,him2 so that the guarding of ,his shrines1 and the offering of the people's sacrifices there were their first duties4 ,in fact they were the mediators between ,yahweh and ,israel4 ,yahweh was ,king1 but ,he was invisible1 and the priests were ,his visible earthly representatives4 ,the dues1 which in a merely secular state would have gone to the king1 as rent for the lands held of him1 were employed for their appointed uses by the priests1 as the servants and representatives of the heavenly ,king who had bestowed the land upon ,israel and allotted to each family its portion4 ,occupying a middle position1 then1 between the two parties to the ,covenant by which ,israel had become ,yahweh's chosen people1 they spoke for the people when they appeared before ,yahweh1 and for ,him when they came forth to the people4 ,they were1 as we have said1 the oldest and most important of the ruling classes1 and must have been from early times a special order set apart for the service of ,israel's ,god4 ,the main passages in ,deuteronomy which bear upon the position and character of the priesthood and of the tribe of ,levi are the following4 ,in chaps4 xviii4 #a-h1 x4 #f-i1 and xxvii4 #i-ad the strictly priestly functions of the tribe of ,levi are dealt with2 in xvii4 #i ff4 xix4 #ag1 the judicial functions2 in xxi4 #a-e their function in connection with sanitary matters is referred to4 ,besides these there are the various injunctions to invite the ,levites to the sacrificial feasts1 because they have no inheritance1 and a number of references to the priesthood as a well-known body1 the constitution and duties of which did not need special treatment4 ,these last are of themselves sufficient to prove beyond question that in dealing with the priests and ,levites the author of this book writes from out of the midst of a long established system4 ,he does not legislate for the introduction of priests1 neither does he refer to a priestly system recently elaborated by himself1 and only now coming into operation4 ,he does not tell us how priests are to be appointed1 nor from whom1 nor with what ceremonies of consecration they are to be inducted into their office4 ,in fact the writer speaks of what concerns the priests and ,levites in a manner which makes it certain that in his day there were1 and had long been1 ,levites who were priests1 and ,levites of whom it may at least be said that they were probably nothing more than subordinates in regard to religious duty4 ,in a word1 while presupposing an established system of priestly and ,levitical service1 he nowhere attempts to give any clear or complete view of that system4 ,his whole mind is turned towards the people4 ,it is about their duties and their rights he is anxious1 about their duties perhaps more than their rights2 and he touches upon matters connected with others than the people only in a cursory way4 ,in this matter1 especially1 he clearly needs to be supplemented by information drawn from other sources1 and his every word about it shows that he is not introducing or referring to anything new4 ,any modifications he makes are plainly stated and are limited to a few special points4 ,the chief passage for our purpose is1 however1 xviii4 #a-h1 where we have the agents of the cultus defined1 and directions for the dues to be given them4 ,in ver4 #a these agents are clearly said to be the whole tribe of ,levi2 for the phrase ,the priests1 the ,levites1 the whole tribe of ,levi1 cannot mean the priests and the ,levites who together make up the whole tribe of ,levi4 ,notwithstanding the arguments of ,keil and ,curtiss and other ingenious scholars1 the unprejudiced mind must1 ,i think1 accept ,dillmann's rendering1 ,the ,levitical priests1 the whole tribe of ,levi1 the latter clause standing in apposition to the former4 ,in that case ,deuteronomy must be held to regard every ,levite as in some sense priestly4 ,this view is confirmed by x4 #h f41 where distinctly priestly duties are assigned to the tribe of ,levi4 ,some indeed assert that this verse was written by a later editor1 but valid reasons for the assertion are somewhat difficult to find4#he ,neither ,kuenen nor ,oettli nor ,dillmann find any4 ,we may1 then1 accept it as ,deuteronomic since critics of such various leanings do so4 ,to quote ,dillmann1 ,beyond question1 therefore1 the tribe as a whole appears here as called to sacred1 especially priestly service2 only it does not follow from that that every individual member of the tribe could exercise these functions at his pleasure1 without there being any organisation and gradation among these servants of ,god4 ,no1 that does not follow2 and this very passage 7,deut4 xviii4 #a-h7 shows that it does not1 for it makes a very clear distinction4 ,in vv4 #c ff4 the dues of the priest are dealt with1 while in vv4 #f ff4 those of the ,levite in one special case are provided for4 ,as if to emphasise the distinction between them1 the priest in ver4 #c is not called ,levitical1 as he is in other passages4 #he ,kuenen1 ,h4 ,k4 ,o41 ,eerste ,deel1 p4 #aac4 ,further1 the verses concerning the ,levite also emphasise the distinction2 for few will be able to adopt the view that here in vv4 #f ff4 every ,levite who chooses is authorised to become a priest1 by the mere process of presenting himself at the central sanctuary4 ,the author of ,deuteronomy must have known1 better probably than any one now considering this matter1 that the priests in the central sanctuary would never consent to divide their privileges and their income with every member of their tribe who might choose to come up to ,jerusalem4 ,indeed1 if they had received each and every one1 the crowd would have been an embarrassment instead of a help4 ,as a matter of fact1 when the ,deuteronomic reform came to be put in practice1 this free admission of every ,levite to the service of the ,jerusalem ,temple was not adopted1 and it is prima facie improbable that the author of it can have meant his provision in that sense4 ,the meaning seems to be that1 as only those ,levites who were employed in the central sanctuary could be de facto priests1 those living in the country were not priests in the same sense2 and the regulation made is that if any ,levite came up to ,jerusalem and was received into the ranks of the ,temple ,levites1 i4e4 the sacrificial priests1 he should receive the same dues as the others performing the same work did4 ,but though no conditions of admission to the ,temple service are mentioned1 obviously there must have been some conditions1 some division of labour1 some organisation involving gradations in rank1 and perhaps also some limitation as to time in the case of such voluntary service as is here dealt with4 ,for1 as ,dillmann points out1 it is not said that the service of every ,temple ,levite is the same2 numbers of them may have had no higher work than the ,levites under the laws of the ,priest ,codex4 ,moreover the other functions assigned to the priests confirm the argument1 and prove that in the time of ,deuteronomy distinctions of rank among the ,levites must have been firmly established4 ,they had a place in the public justiciary1 even in the supreme court1 in the place which ,yahweh their ,god had chosen 7,deut4 xvii4 #i1 xix4 #ag74 ,not only so1 the law concerning a man found slain in chap4 xxi41 vv4 #a-e1 implies that there were in the cities throughout the land priests1 the sons of ,levi1 whom ,yahweh thy ,god hath chosen to minister unto ,him and to bless in the name of ,yahweh1 and according to their word shall every controversy and every stroke be4 ,now it cannot possibly have been the intention of the author of ,deuteronomy that every member of the tribe of ,levi should have equal power to decide such matters4 ,if in his view every ,levite was a priest1 then we should have this impossible state of affairs1 that the highest courts for judicial process should be in the hands of a class which was more largely indebted to the generosity of the rich for its maintenance than any other in the country4 ,it seems plain therefore that every ,levite could not exercise full priestly functions because of his birth4 ,clearly1 if any ,levite might become a priest it was only in the same sense in which every ,napoleonic soldier was said to carry a marshal's baton in his knapsack4#hf #hf ,the same conclusion must be come to in connection with the sanitary duties of the priesthood as laid down1 or rather as alluded to1 in ,deut4 xxiv4 #h1 #i4 ,this implies that the ,levitical priests had special duties in connection with such matters1 duties which1 if not precisely the same as those laid down in the ,law of ,leprosy 7,lev4 xiii41 xiv471 must have nearly resembled them4 ,semi-medical skill must have been necessary for the satisfactory discharge of these duties1 and we must suppose that the priests who discharged them were selected from the tribe of ,levi on some principle either of special proved knowledge and fitness1 or on the ground of hereditary devotion to such work4 ,finally1 in this passage 7ver4 #e71 by the words him and his sons for ever1 which refer back to the priest1 a hereditary character of the priesthood is asserted4 ,this phrase is remarkably parallel to that so frequently used by ,p1 ,aaron and his sons2 and though we are not told in what family or families the priesthood was hereditary1 it must have been so in some4 ,but in x4 #f1 #g1 the family of ,aaron is mentioned by the ,deuteronomist as having hereditary right to the priesthood at the central shrine4 ,there can therefore be no doubt that in the time of the author of ,deuteronomy priesthood was hereditary1 perhaps in several families1 but certainly in the family of ,aaron4 ,the remaining point in these verses of chap4 xviii4 is the dues4 ,as the whole tribe had no land1 so the whole tribe had a share in the dues paid by the people to their ,divine ,king4 ,in vv4 #c ff4 we have a statement of what these were4 ,the whole tribe of ,levi are to eat the offerings of ,yahweh made by fire1 and ,his inheritance4 ,and they shall have no inheritance among their brethren3 ,yahweh is their inheritance1 as ,he hath spoken unto them4 ,the only place in ,scripture in which such a promise is given is ,numb4 xviii4 #bj1 #bd1 so that these passages1 if not referred to by the author of ,deuteronomy1 must be founded upon a tradition already old in his time4 ,as the servants of ,yahweh1 the ,levites were to be wholly ,yahweh's care2 as ,his representatives1 they were to use for the supply of their needs all such portions of the offerings made to ,him by fire as were not to be consumed on the altar4 ,their remaining provision was to be ,his1 i4e4 ,yahweh's1 inheritance1 or rather portion1 or that which belongs to ,him4 ,now ,yahweh's portion consisted of all the other sacred dues 7besides the sacrifices7 which should be paid to ,yahweh1 such as the tithes1 the firstlings1 and the firstfruits4 ,on these the whole tribe of ,levi was to live1 and so be free to give their time to the special business of the sanctuary1 and to related duties1 in so far as they were called upon4 ,but there were to be distinctions4 ,in vv4 #c-e we have a special statement of what was to be paid by the people to the priests1 i4e4 the sacrificing priests4 ,of every animal offered in sacrifice1 except those offered as whole burnt-offerings1 they were to receive the shoulder1 the two cheeks1 and the maw1 all choice pieces4 ,further1 they were to receive the firstfruits of corn1 wine1 oil1 and the first of the fleece of the sheep4 ,for the priests of one sanctuary these would be quite provision enough1 though the word translated firstfruits1 rshith1 is very indefinite1 and probably meant much or little1 according as the donor was liberal or churlish4 ,but how does this agree with that which is bestowed upon the priests according to the ,priest ,codex8 ,in the passage corresponding to this 7,lev4 vii4 #ca-cd7 the wave breast and the heave thigh are the portions which are to be bestowed upon ,aaron the priest and his sons1 as a due for ever from the children of ,israel2 and where the firstfruits are dealt with 7,numb4 xviii4 #ab ff47 the first of the fleece of the sheep is not mentioned4 ,that is an addition made by the author of ,deuteronomy2 but what of the shoulder1 the two cheeks1 and the maw8 ,are they a substitute for the wave breast and the heave thigh1 or are they an addition8 ,if we hold that the laws in the ,pentateuch were all given by ,moses in the wilderness1 and in the order in which they stand1 it will be most natural to think that what we have here is meant to be an addition to what ,numbers prescribes4 ,but if it is established that ,deuteronomy is a distinct work1 written at a different period from the other books of the ,pentateuch1 then1 though there is not sufficient evidence to justify a dogmatic decision on either side1 the weight of probability is in favour of the supposition that the ,deuteronomic provision is a substitute1 or at least an alternative1 for what we have in ,numbers4 ,the fact that the prescription in ,numbers is not repeated makes for that view1 as well as the fact that ,deuteronomy does not as a rule tend to increase the burdens on the people4 ,keil's view1 that ,deuteronomy and ,numbers are dealing with quite different sacrifices1 will hardly stand examination4 ,he thinks that the feasts at which the firstlings1 turned into money1 and the third-year tithes were eaten1 are referred to here1 while in ,numbers it is the ordinary peace-offerings which are dealt with4 ,but the postponed firstlings were eaten at the sanctuary1 and would consequently come under the head of ordinary sacrifices2 and the third-year tithes were eaten in the local centres1 so that the bringing of the priestly portions would be as difficult in this case as in the case of the slaughterings for ordinary meals1 which ,keil1 partly for that reason1 thinks cannot be referred to here4 ,on the whole1 the best opinion seems to be that ,deuteronomy has here different prescriptions from those in ,numbers1 and that probably there is a considerable interval of time between the two4 ,in vv4 #f-h the ,levite as distinguished from the priest is dealt with1 though by no means fully4 ,only in one respect are special regulations given4 ,when such an one came to do duty at the central sanctuary1 he was to receive his share of the sacrifices with the rest4 ,in ,chapter ,i4 the main outlines of the ,deuteronomic system of priestly arrangements have been placed alongside those of the ,book of the ,covenant and ,,je1 and those of ,p1 with a view to decide whether they could all have been the work of one lawgiver's life4 ,here they must be compared in order that we may ascertain whether a view of the development of the priestly tribe which will do justice to these various documents and their provisions can be suggested4 ,some schools of critics offer the hypothesis that there was no special priesthood till late in the time of the kings4 ,from the beginning1 they say1 the head of each household was the family priest1 and secular men1 such as the kings1 and men of other tribes than the ,levites1 could be and were priests1 and offered sacrifice even at ,jerusalem4 ,with ,deuteronomy the tribe of ,levi was established as the priestly tribe1 and only after the ,exile was priesthood restricted to the sons of ,aaron4 ,but this scheme does justice to one set of passages only at the expense of another4 ,it accounts for all that is anomalous in the history1 and pushes aside the main and consistent affirmation of all our authorities1 that from the earliest days the tribe of ,levi had a special connection with sacred things and a special position in ,israel4 ,to what straits its advocates are reduced may be seen in the fact that ,wellhausen has to declare that there were two tribes of ,levi1 one purely secular that was all but destroyed in an attack upon ,shechem1 and which afterwards disappeared1 and a later ecclesiastical and somewhat factitious tribe1 or caste1 which towards the end of the monarchy arose out of the separate priestly families of ,judah4#hg ,a more improbable suggestion than that can hardly be conceived4 #hg ,history of ,israel1 p4 #ade4 ,but historical analogy1 the favourite weapon of these very critics1 also condemns it4 ,let us look at the growth of the priesthood in other ancient nations4 ,in small and isolated communities the head of the household was generally the family priest1 and in all probability this was the case in the various separate tribes of which ,israel was composed2 at least it was so in the households of the patriarchs4 ,but1 in communities formed by amalgamation of different tribes--and according to modern ideas ,israel was so formed--there was almost always superinduced upon that more primitive state of things another and different arrangement4 ,in antiquity no bond could hold together tribes or families conscious of different descent1 save the bond of religion4 ,consequently1 whenever such an amalgamation took place1 the very first thing which had to be done was to establish religious rites common to the whole new community1 which of course were not the care of the heads of households as such4 ,each separate section of the composite body kept up1 no doubt1 the family rites2 but there had to be a common worship1 and of course a special priesthood1 for the new community4 ,this is sufficiently attested for the ,greeks and ,romans by ,de ,coulanges1 who in his ,la ,cit ,antique gathers together such a mass of authorities in regard to this matter that few will be inclined to dispute his conclusion4 ,on page #adf he says3 ,several tribes might unite1 on condition that the worship of each was respected4 ,when such an alliance was entered into1 the city or state came into existence4 ,it is of little importance to inquire into the causes which induced several tribes to unite2 what is certain is that the bond of the new association was again a religion4 ,the tribes which grouped themselves to form a state never failed to light a sacred fire1 and to set up a common religion4 ,but the family and tribal rites continued to exist as sacra privata1 just as the central government dominated but did not destroy the family and tribal governments4#hh #hh ,cf4 also ,muirhead1 article ,roman ,law1 in ,ency4 ,brit41 vol4 xx4 p4 #ffi1 #bnd col41 and ,ramsay1 ,church in ,roman ,empire1 p4 #aij4 ,it may be objected that these customs are proved only for the ,aryan races1 and that1 though proved for them1 they form no valid analogy for ,semitic peoples4 ,but besides the fact that part of the statements we have quoted are obviously true of ,israel1 we have a guarantee that the principle enunciated is also valid for it4 ,the whole process traced in the religious progress of the ,aryan nations is based upon the worship of ancestors4 ,now one of the critical discoveries is that ancestor-worship was a part of the religion of the tribes which afterwards united to form the ,israelite nation4 ,some1 like ,stade1 tell us that that was the early religion of ,israel itself4 ,in that form the theory is1 ,i think1 to be rejected2 but there would seem to be little doubt that1 before the birth of the nation1 ancestor-worship was much practised by the ,hebrew tribes4 ,if so1 we may quite safely take over the analogy we have established1 and believe that when ,moses united the tribes into a nation1 the religion of ,yahweh was the absolutely necessary connecting link which bound them together4 ,for though the tribes were related1 and are represented as the descendants of ,abraham1 they must have varied considerably from each other in religious beliefs and usages4 ,by ,moses these variations were extinguished1 as far as that was possible1 by the establishment of an exclusive ,yahweh-worship as the national cult2 and to carry on this1 not the heads of households1 but a priesthood that represented the nation1 must have been selected4 ,but if so1 who would most naturally be selected for this duty8 ,a sentence from ,de ,coulanges will show that in this case the tribe of ,levi would almost necessarily be chosen4 ,speaking of cases in which a composite state relieved itself of the trouble of inventing a new worship by adopting the special god of one of the component tribes1 he says3 ,but when a family consented to share its god in this fashion it reserved for itself at least the priesthood4 ,now if that was the case in ,israel1 the priesthood of the tribe of ,levi would at once become a necessity4 ,whether ,yahweh had been ever known to the other tribes or not1 there can be little doubt that the knowledge of ,him which made them a nation and started them on their unique career of spiritual discovery came from the ,mosaic tribe1 and family4 ,the ,god whom the family worshipped became the ,god of the confederacy1 and they would be the natural guardians of ,his sanctuary4 ,this would not in the least involve special sanctity and meekness on the part of the tribe1 as some insist4 ,they would remain a tribe1 like the others2 but their leading men would discharge the functions of priests for the confederated nation4 ,it is difficult1 indeed1 to see why any one else should have been thought of3 most likely the arrangement was made as a thing of course4 ,but if there was such a common worship1 there must have been a sanctuary for it1 and at it the ,levitic priests must have discharged their functions4 ,now though the ,tabernacle1 as ,p knows it1 is not spoken of either in ,,je or in ,deuteronomy1 a tent of meeting at which ,jehovah revealed ,himself to ,moses and to which the people went to seek ,yahweh 7,exod4 xxxiii4 #g ff47 is known to all our authorities4 ,further1 ,wellhausen himself says1 ,if ,moses did anything at all he certainly founded the sanctuary at ,qadesh and the ,torah there1 which the priests of the ark carried on after him1 so that even he recognises the necessity we have pointed out4 ,from the days of ,moses onwards1 therefore1 there must have been special priests of ,yahweh1 a special ,yahwistic sanctuary1 ritual with a special sacrifice presented to ,yahweh1 and lastly a central oracle1 which is precisely what the passages explained away by ,wellhausen assert4 ,but of course at that early time1 even if the ultimate purpose was to have an exclusively ,levitical priesthood1 concessions to the old state of things would have to be made4 ,the ,passover was left in the hands of the household priest1 and in other ways probably he would be considered4 ,the old order would insist on surviving1 and the rigour of the later arrangements cannot then have been attained4 ,in other respects we know that it was so2 and we may well believe that the priesthood of the individual householder and of the rulers was tolerated1 and as far as possible regulated1 so as to offer no public scandal to the religion of ,yahweh4 ,so1 among the ,homeric ,greeks special hereditary priesthoods coexisted with a political priesthood of the head of the ,state1 and with the household priesthood4#hi #hi ,rgelsbach1 ,homerische ,theologie1 p4 #aih4 ,the laxity on these points ascribed to ,moses is1 however1 less than has been supposed4 ,at ,mount ,sinai he certainly did appoint the young men of the children of ,israel#ij to slaughter the beasts for sacrifice2 but he reserved for himself1 a ,levite1 the sprinkling of the blood on the altar4#ia ,he also made ,joshua his servant1 an ,ephraimite1 the keeper of the sanctuary2 but even under the ,levitical law1 a priest's slave was reckoned to be of his household and could eat of the holy things4 ,these were not very great laxities1 and there is nothing in them to make us suppose that a regular priesthood did not exist from ,sinai4 ,moreover1 that a special place should be assigned to ,aaron and his sons was natural4 ,he was the brother of ,moses1 and would be the natural representative of the tribe1 since ,moses was removed from it as being leader of all4 ,everything therefore concurs to confirm the ,biblical view that the ,levitic priesthood had its origin at ,sinai1 and that at the chief sanctuary and oracle the chief place in the priesthood fell to ,aaron and his sons4 ,worship at other sanctuaries was permitted1 and there the heads of households may have performed priestly functions1 or in later times in ,canaan some other ,levitic families2 but that there was a central sanctuary in the hands of ,levitic priests1 among whom the family of ,aaron had a chief place1 is what the circumstances1 the historical data we have1 and all historical analogy alike demand4 #ij ,exod4 xxiv4 #e4 #ia ,exod4 xxxiii4 #aa4 ,for the discharge of their sacred functions certain dues were doubtless assigned to the priests1 and the ,levites sharing in the subordinate duties of the sanctuary would share also in the emoluments4 ,in other respects ,levi in the wilderness would differ in nothing from other tribes4 ,but in preparation for the arrival in ,canaan1 it was decreed that ,levi should have no part or inheritance in ,israel4 ,yahweh was to be their inheritance4 ,the point to notice here is that this tribe was to retain the nomadic life when the other tribes became agricultural4 ,the reason for it is plain4 ,that ancient manner of life was looked upon as superior in a religious aspect to the agricultural life4 ,in the first place1 the ancestral life of ,israel had been of that kind4 ,abraham1 ,isaac1 and ,jacob had been heads of nomadic families or tribes2 and the pure and peaceful religious life1 the intimate communion with ,god which they enjoyed1 always dominated the imagination of the pious ,israelite4 ,moreover the fundamental revelation had come to ,moses when he was a shepherd in the waste4 ,further1 the life of the shepherd is necessarily less continuously busy than that of the agriculturist2 it has1 therefore1 more scope in it for contemplation2 and in many countries and at various times shepherds have been a specially thoughtful1 as well as a specially pious class4 ,but1 perhaps the chief reason was that the shepherd life was not only simple and frugal in itself1 but it was also by its very conditions free from some of the greatest dangers to which the religious life of the ,israelite in ,canaan was exposed4 ,when the bulk of the people adopted the settled life1 they were not only thrown among the ,canaanites1 but they went to school them in all that concerned elaborate agriculture4 ,this necessarily made the intercourse and connection between the two peoples extremely intimate1 and was fruitful in evil results4 ,from this the semi-nomadic portions of the people were to a great extent free1 and they would seem to have been regarded as the guardians of a higher life and a purer tradition than others4 ,they represented to the popular mind the ,israel of ancient days1 which had known nothing of the vices of cities1 and in which the pure uncorrupted religion of ,yahweh had held exclusive sway4 ,a remarkable narrative of the ,old ,testament establishes this4 ,when ,jehu was engaged in his sanguinary suppression of the house of ,ahab1 and the ,baal-worship which they had introduced1 we read in #b ,kings x4 #ae ff4 that he lighted on ,jonadab the son of ,rechab coming to meet him4 ,this ,jonadab was the chief of the ,rechabites1 a nomadic clan1 who were bound by oath to drink no wine1 nor to build houses1 nor sow seed1 nor plant vineyards1 and to dwell in tents all their days 7,jer4 xxxv4 #f1 #g74 ,this was clearly intended as a protest against the prevailing corruption of manners1 and was founded on a special zeal for the uncorrupted religion of ,yahweh4 ,recognising ,jonadab's position as a champion of true religion1 ,jehu anxiously seeks his approval and co-operation4 ,he says1 ,is thine heart right1 as my heart is with thy heart8 ,and ,jonadab answered1 ,it is4 ,if it be1 said ,jehu1 give me thine hand4 ,and he gave him his hand1 and he took him up to him into the chariot4 ,and he said1 ,come with me1 and see my zeal for ,yahweh4 ,at a much later time1 ,jeremiah1 at the ,divine command1 used the faithfulness of these nomads to the ordinances of their chiefs to put to shame the unfaithfulness of ,israel to ,yahweh's ordinances2 and promises 7,jer4 xxxv4 #ai7 that because of it ,jonadab the son of ,rechab shall never want a man to stand before ,yahweh1 i4e4 as ,his servant4 ,the ,nazarites1 again1 were in some measure an indication of the same thing4 ,their rigorous abstinence from the fruit of the vine 7the special sign and gift of a settled life in a country like ,palestine7 was their great distinguishing mark1 as persons peculiarly set apart to the service of ,god4 ,something analogous is seen in that other desert faith1 ,mohammedanism4 ,when the great reformer1 ,abd-el-,wahab1 attempted to bring back ,islam to its primitive power1 he fell back largely upon the simplicity of the desert life1 though he did not insist upon the abandonment of agriculture and fixed habitations4 ,it is1 therefore1 not surprising that the priestly tribe was kept to the nomadic life by the ordinance that they should not have a portion in the distribution of the ,canaanite territory4 ,but according to the narrative of the attack upon ,shechem by ,levi and ,simeon1 and the verses in the blessing of ,jacob 7,gen4 xlix47 dealing with these tribes1 the course of history reinforced this command4 ,whether the treachery at ,shechem occurred1 as the ,genesis narrative places it1 before the ,exodus1 when ,israel was only a family1 or was an incident in the history of the two tribes after ,canaan had been invaded1 as many critics think1#ib the significance of it is that because of an historical exhibition of fierce and intolerant zeal on the part of ,levi and ,simeon1 which the other tribes would not defend1 their settlement in that part of the land was rendered difficult1 if not impossible4 ,hence ,simeon had to seek other settlements1 while ,levi fell back to the position assigned to it by its priestly character4 ,it is not a valid exception to this view--which reconciles the two statements that ,levi had no inheritance with the other tribes because of its specially near relation to ,yahweh1 and also because of its cruel treachery at ,shechem--that a priestly tribe is likely to have been not more1 but rather less1 fierce than the others4 ,that would entirely depend upon the cause or occasion which called out the fierceness4 ,in all that concerned religion ,levi would naturally be more inclined to extreme measures than the other tribes1 and in this case the higher morality1 secured by the separateness of ,israel1 might easily appear to be at stake4#ic ,it is1 therefore1 quite credible that the excessive vengeance taken should have been planned mainly by ,levi1 and that the resulting hatred should have broken up ,simeon1 and driven back ,levi with emphasis to its higher call4 #ib ,cf4 ,kittel's ,geschichte der ,hebrr1 ,,ii41 p4 #fc4 #ic ,cf4 ,exod4 xxxii4 #ae-bj4 ,in any case there never was again any doubt that the ,levites were to be excluded from the number of land-owning tribes4 ,even in the legislation regarding the forty-eight priestly cities this principle asserts itself4 ,the keeping of sheep and cattle on the pastures1 which were the only lands attached to these cities1 was to be the ,levites' only secular occupation1 and they were neither to own nor work agricultural land4 ,but to compensate for any hardship this arrangement might bring with it1 the ,levites1 as the special servants of ,yahweh1 were to have ,him for their inheritance1 i4e4 as we have seen1 the dues coming to ,yahweh were to become the property of the ,levites in great part4 ,i say in great part1 because the gift to the ,levites exclusively of a tithe of the income of the people is thought by many to be only a late provision4 ,after ,canaan had been conquered1 the state of things in connection with the priesthood would be something like this4 ,the tent with the ark would be the principal sanctuary1 served by a hereditary ,levitic priesthood1 at the head of which would be a descendant of ,aaron4 ,the tribe of ,levi1 being nomadic1 would probably encamp in the neighbourhood of the central sanctuary in part1 and recruits for the priestly work would be taken occasionally from them1 while other sections would gravitate to the neighbourhood of other sanctuaries4 ,as we see from the story of ,micah in ,judges1 it was considered desirable to have a ,levite for priest everywhere1 and consequently there would arise at all the ,high ,places ,levitic priesthoods1 most probably in part hereditary4 ,but notwithstanding their dues1 the bulk of the tribe1 being nomads1 would be looked upon by the agricultural population as poor1 just as the ,bedouin1 in ,palestine now are1 comparatively speaking1 very poor4 ,this state of things would correspond entirely with what ,deuteronomy tells us2 and after that legislation the position of the ,levites as a priestly body would be more assured than ever4 ,in the post-exilic period all that had been regulated by practice in earlier days found written expression4 ,differentiation of function was minutely carried out4 ,the priesthood was confined rigorously to the ,aaronic house1 and the other ,levites were given to them as attendants4 ,in this way the whole ,levitic system was introduced1 and with the exclusive altar came the exclusive priesthood4 ,so far as ,i can see1 it is only by some such hypothesis that justice can be done to all the statements of ,scripture2 and considering the elastic nature of ,old ,testament law1 there is nothing improbable in it4 ,in any case there is an amount of evidence of various kinds for the ,mosaic origin of the ,levitic1 and even the ,aaronic priesthood1 which no proof of irregularities can overturn4 ,in the ,divinely sanctioned arrangements of the ,old ,testament ,church1 therefore1 the existence of a body of ecclesiastical persons1 having little share in the ordinary pursuits of their neighbours1 and dependent upon their clerical duties for a large part of their maintenance1 was deemed necessary to secure the continuity of worship and religious belief4 ,as has been already pointed out1 the priesthood was necessarily more conservative than progressive4 ,as an institution1 it was suited rather to gather up and perpetuate the results of religious movements otherwise originated1 than to originate them itself4 ,but in that sphere it was an absolutely necessary element in the life of ,israel4 ,difficult as it was to permeate the people with the truths of revealed religion1 it would have been impossible without the services of the priestly tribe4 ,wherever they went they were a visible embodiment of the demand for faithfulness to ,yahweh1 and1 with all their aberrations1 they probably lived at a higher spiritual level than the average layman4 ,as has been well said1 though ,malachi had much reason to complain of the priests in his own day1 his estimate of what ,levi had been in the past is no exaggeration 7ii4 #f73 ,the law of truth was in his mouth1 and unrighteousness was not found in his lips3 he walked with ,me in peace and uprightness1 and did turn many away from iniquity4 ,but such a body as the ,levites could not have been kept thus spiritually alive1 unless the members of it had lived somewhat aloof from the strifes and envies of the market-place1 and this they could not have done had they not lived by their sacred function4 ,the prophets1 under the power and impulse of new truth adapted to their own time1 did not need this protection2 consequently some of them were called from ordinary secular work--from the plough1 like ,elisha1 or from the midst of the rich and highborn inhabitants of ,jerusalem1 like ,isaiah4 ,if one may so say1 they were men of religious genius2 while the bulk of the priests and ,levites must always have been commonplace men in comparison4 ,yet even of the prophets a number were trained in the nomadic life2 others were priests who were shut off also from agriculture4 ,clearly1 therefore1 some measure of separation from the full pulsing life of the world was1 even in the most favourable circumstances1 helpful in developing religious character4 ,for the ordinary average ecclesiastic it was indispensable2 and that he should exist1 and should live at as high a level as possible1 was as much a condition of ,israel's discharge of her great mission1 as that the voice of the prophet should be heard at all the great turning-points of her career4 ,the modern tendency in ,old ,testament study is to depreciate the priest and to exalt the prophet1 just as in ecclesiastical life we tend to make much of those who are or give themselves out to be religious reformers and thinkers1 and to make little of the ordinary parish or congregational ministry4 ,but the good done by the latter is1 and must be1 for each individual generation more than that done by the former4 ,no one can estimate too highly the conserving and elevating effect of a faithful high-minded spiritual minister4 ,often without genius either intellectual or religious1 without much speculative power1 with so firm a hold of the old truth1 which has been their own guiding star1 that they cannot readily see the good in anything new1 such men1 when faithful to the light they have1 are the stable1 restful1 immediately effective element in all ,church life4 ,and such a body can be best spiritualised by being separated somewhat from the stress and strain of competition in the race of life4 ,being what they are1 the necessity of taking their full part in the business of the world would inevitably secularise them1 to the great and lasting damage of all spiritual interests4 ,for though to modern students of ,old ,testament religion1 who are interested most in its growth and progress towards its consummation in ,christianity1 the prophet is by far the most interesting figure1 to the ancient people itself it must have seemed that the priests and ,levites1 if they in any degree deserved ,malachi's eulogy1 were the entirely indispensable element in their religious life4 ,they gave the daily bread of religion to the people4 ,they embodied the principles which came to them from prophetic inspiration in ceremonies and institutions2 they treasured up whatever had been gained1 and kept the people nurtured in it and admonished by it4 ,in short1 they prepared the soil and cultivated the roots from which alone the consummate flower of prophecy could spring2 and when the voice of prophecy was dying away they brought the piety of the average ,israelite to the highest point it ever reached4 ,in modern times the necessity for such a body of special churchmen is challenged from two opposite sides4 ,there is1 on the one hand1 the body of over-spiritualised believers who abhor organisation1 and the machinery of organisation1 as if it were an intolerable evil4 ,conscious very often of quick spiritual impulse and vivid life in themselves1 they fret against the slow movements of large bodies of men2 they separate themselves from all the organised ,churches and reject a regular ministry4 ,all the ,lord's people are now1 under the ,christian dispensation1 priests and prophets1 they say1 and a separate paid ministry in sacred things they refuse to hear of4 ,for spiritual nourishment they rely solely upon the prophetic gifts of their members1 and are satisfied that thus they are preparing the way for the universal prevalence of a higher form of ,church life4 ,but1 so far as can be judged1 their experiment has not prospered1 nor is it likely to do so4 ,for these separatist ,christians have found that spiritual life1 like other kinds of life1 cannot express itself without an organism4 ,that implies organisation2 and though they do with less of it than other ,christians1 still they are often driven into arrangements which really bring back the regular ministry with its separate position2 and in other respects they are saved from the inconveniences they have fled from1 only by their want of success4 ,if their system ever became general1 it would necessarily drift into organisation1 for only at that price can any coherent1 continuous1 and lasting effect be produced4 ,unfettered by the dull1 the critical1 and the judicious1 the impulsive and enthusiastic would always be outrunning the possibilities of the present time4 ,in the interests of the best1 they would be continually ignoring or destroying the good4 ,to prevent that1 a special body of religious men set apart for sacred services1 and freed from the rough struggle for existence so far as a maintenance from funds devoted to religious purposes can free them1 is one of the best provisions known4 ,where in the mass they are really religious men1 they secure that the pressure upward1 which the ,church exerts upon the lives of its own members and upon the community in general1 shall be effective to the highest degree then possible1 and shall be exerted in the directions in which such pressure will most fully answer to the needs and aspirations of the time4 ,where1 on the contrary1 the mass of them are secularised1 they no doubt are a power for evil2 but the contrast between their profession and their practice in that case is so shocking1 that unless they be supported by the dead hand of endowments with no living spiritual demand behind them1 they soon sink by their own weight1 to give place to a better type4 ,and even when they are thus supported1 though unfaithful1 their calling in name at least remains spiritual1 and sooner than the other elements in the nation they are apt to be stirred by breathings of a new life4 ,the other objectors to the regular ministry are those1 in the press and elsewhere1 who demand of all ministers that they should be prophets1 or inspired religious geniuses1 and1 because they are not1 deny their right to exist4 ,according to this view every sermon that is not a new revelation is a failure1 every minister of the sanctuary who is not a discoverer in religion is a pretender1 every one who only exemplifies and lives by the power of the ,gospel1 as it was last formulated so as to lay hold upon the popular mind1 is an obscurantist4 ,but no reasonable man really believes this4 ,such reproaches are merely the penalty which must be paid for claiming so high a calling as that of an ambassador for ,christ4 ,no man can quite adequately fill such a position2 and the bulk of ministers of ,christ know better than others how much below their ideal their real service is4 ,but this also is true1 that1 take them all in all1 no class of men are doing anything like so much as ,christian ministers throughout the world are doing to keep up the standard of morals and to keep alive faith in that which is spiritual4 ,we have no right to complain that in their sphere they are conservative of that which has been handed on to them4 ,they have tried and proved that teaching2 they know that wherever it secures a foothold it lifts men up to ,god1 and they are naturally doubtful whether new and untried teaching will do as much4 ,they have pressing upon them1 too1 as others have not1 the interest of individual men and women whom they see and know1 men and women who for the most part1 and so far as they can see1 are accessible to spiritual impulse only on lines with which they are familiar2 and they dread the diversion of their thoughts from their real spiritual interests1 to matters which1 for them at least1 must remain largely intellectual and speculative4 ,no doubt it would be well if all pastors could1 as the most highly endowed do1 look beyond that narrower field2 could take account of the movements which are drifting men into new positions1 from which the old landmarks cannot be seen and consequently exert no influence2 and could endeavour to rethink their ,christianity from new points of view1 which may be about to become the orthodoxy of the next generation4 ,but no ministry will ever be a ministry of prophets4 ,it may even be doubted whether such a ministry could be borne if it ever should arise4 ,under it one might fear that spiritual repose and spiritual growth would alike be impossible for the average man1 in his breathless race after teachers each of whom was always catching sight of new lights4 ,the mass of men need1 first of all1 teachers who have firmly seized the common truth by which the ,church of their day lives1 who live conspicuously nearer the ,christian ideal1 as generally conceived1 than others do1 who devote themselves in sincerity and self-sacrifice to the work of making the things that are most surely believed among ,christians a common and abiding possession4 ,such men need never be ashamed of themselves or of their calling4 ,theirs is the foundation work1 so far as any attempt to realise the ,kingdom of ,god on earth is concerned2 for without the general acceptance of the truth attained which they bring about1 no further attainment would be possible4 ,the very environment out of which alone the prophet could be developed would be wanting1 and stagnation and death would certainly and necessarily follow4 ,one other thing remains to be said4 ,though we have taken these significant words of ver4 #b--;,and they shall have no inheritance among their brethren3 ,yahweh is their inheritance1 as ,he hath spoken unto them--in their first and most obvious reference1 it is not to be supposed that that meaning has exhausted all that the words conveyed to ancient ,israel4 ,the perpetuation of the nomadic form of life among the ,levites1 and the bestowal of tithes and sacrificial meats upon them1 was undoubtedly the first purpose of this command4 ,but it had1 even for ancient ,israel1 a more spiritual meaning4 ,just as in the promise of ,canaan as a dwelling-place the spiritual ,israelite never regarded merely the gift of wealth and the prospect of comfort1--,canaan was always for them ,yahweh's land1 the land where they would specially live near ,him and find the joy of ,his presence1--so in this case the spiritual gift1 of which the material was only an expression1 is the main thing4 ,to have ,yahweh for their heritage can never have meant only so much money and provisions1 so much leisure and opportunity for contemplation1 to any true son of ,levi4 ,otherwise it is inexplicable how the words used to indicate this very earthly thing should have become so acceptable a formula for the deepest spiritual experience of ,christian men4 ,it meant also a spiritual bond between ,yahweh and ,his servants--a special nearness on their part1 and a special condescension on ,his4 ,to the other tribes ,yahweh had given ,his land1 to them ,he had given ,himself as a heritage2 and though doubtless any unspiritual son of ,levi must have thought the tangible advantages of a fertile farm more attractive than visionary nearness to ,god1 the spiritual among the ,levites must have felt that they had received the really good part1 which no hostile invasion1 no oppression of the rich1 could ever take away4 ,their ordinary life-work brought them more into contact with sacred things than others4 ,the goodness1 the mercy1 the love of ,god were1 or at least ought to have been1 clearer to them than to their brethren2 and the joy of doing good to men for ,god's sake1 the rapture of contemplation which possessed them when they were privileged to see the face of ,god1 must have made all the coarser benefits of the earthly heritage seem worse than nothing and vanity4 ,of course there was the danger that familiarity with religious things should dull instead of quickening the insight2 and many passages in the ,old ,testament show that this danger was not always escaped4 ,but often1 and for long periods1 it must have been warded off2 and then the superiority of ,god's gift of ,himself must have been manifest1 not only to the chosen tribe1 but to all ,israel4 ,for the nature of man is too intrinsically noble ever to be quite satisfied with the world1 and the riches and comforts of the world1 for its inheritance4 ,at no time has man ever failed to do homage to spiritual gifts4 ,even to-day1 in spheres outside of religion1 there are multitudes of men and women who would put aside without a sigh any wealth the world could give1 if it were offered as a substitute for their delight in poetry1 or for their power to rethink and re-enjoy the ideas of those whose thoughts have wandered through eternity4 ,and the power to follow and to yield oneself up to the thoughts of the ,eternal ,god ,himself is a reward far above these4 ,to the faithful servant of ,god at all times and in all lands that joy has been open1 for ,god ,himself has been their heritage2 and though in ancient ,israel the beauty of ,yahweh their ,god was not quite unveiled1 yet we know from the ,psalms that many penetrated even then to the inner glory where ,god meets ,his chosen1 and there1 though having nothing1 yet found that in ,him they had all4 ,,chapter ,,xix ,,speakers ,,for ,,god--,,iii4 ,,the ,,prophet ,,deut4 xviii4 #i-bb ,the third of the ,divine voices to this nation was the prophet4 ,just as in the other ,semitic nations round about ,israel there were kings and priests and soothsayers1 there were to be in ,israel kings and priests and prophets2 and the first two orders having been discussed1 there remains for consideration the prophet1 in so far at least as he was to be the substitute for the soothsayer4 ,that this parallel was in the mind of the writer1 and that he probably intended only to deal with certain aspects of the prophetic office1 is witnessed by the fact that he introduces what he has to say regarding the prophet by a stern and detailed denunciation of any dealings with soothsayers and wizards4 ,in the earlier codes the same denunciation is found1 but the catalogue of names for those who practised such arts is nowhere so extensive as it is here4 ,in the ,book of the ,covenant the mekhashsheph1 or magician1 alone is mentioned 7,exod4 xxii4 #ag72 while the peculiar code which is contained in the last chapters of ,leviticus1#id mentions only five varieties of sorcerers4 ,the ,deuteronomic list of eight is thus the most complete2 and ,dillmann may be right in regarding it as also the latest4 ,but the special indignation of the writer of ,deuteronomy against these forms of superstition would be quite sufficient to account for his elaborate detail4 ,if he lived in the days of ,manasseh1 he would have before his eyes the passing of children through the fire to ,moloch4 ,that was connected with soothsaying and was the crowning horror of ,israel's idolatry4 ,the author of ,deuteronomy might1 therefore1 well be more passionate and detailed in his denunciations than others1 whether earlier or later4 #id ,only two in any one law2 ,lev4 xviii4 #ba1 xix4 #bf1 #ca1 xx4 #f1 #bg4 ,nor let any one imagine that in this he was wrong and unenlightened4 ,whether we believe in the occasional appearance of abnormal powers of the soothsaying kind or not1 it is evident that in every nation's life there has been a time in which faith in the existence of such powers was universal1 and in which the moral and spiritual life of men has been threatened in the gravest way by the proceedings of those who claimed to possess them4 ,at this hour the witch-doctor1 with his cruelties and frauds1 is the incubus that rests upon all the semi-civilised or wholly uncivilised peoples of ,africa4 ,even ,british justice has to lay hands upon him in ,new ,guinea1 as the following extract from a ,melbourne newspaper will show3 ,divination by means of evil spirits is practised to such an extent and with such evil effects by the natives of ,new ,guinea that the ,native ,regulation ,board of ,british ,new ,guinea has found it necessary to make an ordinance forbidding it4 ,the regulation opens with the statement1 ',white men know that sorcery is only deceit1 but the lies of the sorcerer frighten many people2 the deceit of the sorcerer should be stopped4' ,it then proceeds to point out that it is forbidden for any person to practise or to pretend to practise sorcery1 or for any person to threaten any other person with sorcery1 whether practised by himself or any one else4 ,any one found guilty of sorcery may be sentenced by a ,european magistrate to three months' imprisonment1 or by a native magistrate to three days' imprisonment1 and he will be compelled to work in prison without payment4 ,through the sorcerer attempts at advance to a higher life are in our own day being rendered futile2 at his instigation the darkest crimes are committed2 and because of him and the beliefs he inculcates men are kept all their lives subject to bondage4 ,so also of old4 ,the ancient soothsayer might be an impostor in everything1 but he was none the less dangerous for that4 ,to what depths of wickedness his practices can bring men is seen in the horrors of the secret cult of the negroes of ,hayti4 ,even when soothsaying and magic were connected with higher religions than the fetichism of the ,haytian negro1 they were still detrimental in no ordinary degree4 ,no worthy conception of ,god could grow up where these were dominant1 and toleration of them was utterly impossible for the religion of ,yahweh4 ,the justice of the punishment of death decreed against wizards and witches in ,scripture was1 therefore1 quite independent of the reality of the powers such persons claimed4 ,they professed and were believed to have them1 and thus they acquired an influence which was fatal to any real belief in a moral and spiritual government of the world4 ,they must therefore be an abomination to ,yahweh2 and as1 in any case1 by the very fact that they were soothsayers and diviners they practised low forms of idolatry1 those who sought them must share the condemnation of the idolater in ,israel4 ,in the earlier days of the sacred history there was no enemy so subtle1 so insidious1 so difficult to meet as magic and soothsaying4 ,only by actual prohibition1 on pain of death1 could the case be adequately met2 and under these circumstances there is no need for us to apologise for the ,old ,testament law1 ,thou shalt not suffer a witch to live 7,exod4 xxii4 #ag74 ,what is aimed at here is the profession on the part of any woman that she had and used these supernatural powers4 ,this was a crime against ,israel's higher life4 ,the punishment of it had no resemblance to the judicial cruelties perpetrated in comparatively modern times1 when the charge of being a witch became a weapon against people1 who for the most part were guilty only of being helpless and lonely4 ,but it is characteristic of the large outlook of ,deuteronomy that not only is the evil protested against2 the universal human need which underlay it is acknowledged and supplied4 ,behind all the terrible aberrations of heathen soothsaying and divination the author saw hunger for a revelation of the will and purpose of ,god4 ,that was worthy of sympathy1 however inadequate and evil the substitutes elaborated for the really ,divine means of enlightenment were4 ,so he promises that the real need will be supplied by ,god's holy prophets4 ,nothing that savoured of ignorance or misapprehension of ,god's spirituality1 or of unfaithfulness to ,yahweh1 could be tolerated2 for ,israel's ,god would supply all their need by a prophet from the midst of them1 of their brethren1 like unto ,moses1 in whose mouth ,yahweh would put ,his words1 and who should speak unto them all that ,he should command him4 ,this is the broadest and most general legitimation of the prophet1 as a special organ of revelation in ,israel1 that the ,scripture contains4 ,by it he is made one of the regularly constituted channels of ,divine influence for his people4 ,for it is evidently not one single individual1 such as the ,messiah1 who is here foretold4 ,that has been the interpretation received from the earlier ,jews1 and cherished in the ,church up till quite modern times4 ,but as ,keil rightly says1 the fact that this promise is set against any supposed need to have recourse to diviners and wizards1 is in itself sufficient proof that the prophetic order is meant4 ,it was not only in the far-off ,messianic time that ,israel was to find in this ,divinely sent prophet that knowledge of ,god's will and purposes which it needed4 ,israel of all times1 tempted by the customs of its heathen neighbours to go to the diviners1 was to have in ,yahweh's prophet a continual deliverance from the temptation4 ,that implies that this ,nabhi1 or prophet like unto ,moses1 was to be continually recurring1 at every turn and crisis of this nation's career4 ,further1 the direction in the end of the passage for testing the prophets1 whether they were really sent of ,god or not1 confirms this view4 ,it would be singularly out of place in a promise which referred to the ,messiah in an exclusive and primary fashion4 ,he would never need testing of this sort1 for ,he was to be the realisation and embodiment of ,israel's highest aspirations4 ,but if the passage means to give the prophets a place among the national organs of intercourse with ,yahweh alongside of the priests1 the necessity of distinguishing these true and ,divinely given prophets from pretenders was urgent4 ,the context1 both before and after the promise1 seems1 therefore1 to be decisively in favour of the general reference2 and the phrases like unto me1 like unto thee1 i4e4 ,moses1 when carefully examined1 instead of weakening that inference1 strengthen it4 ,they are not used here as the similar phrase is used in ,deut4 xxxiv4 #aj3 ,and there hath not arisen a prophet since in ,israel like unto ,moses1 whom ,yahweh knew face to face4 ,there the closeness of ,moses' approach to ,yahweh is the point in hand1 and it is clearly stated that in that regard ,moses was more favoured than any who had succeeded him4 ,but here the comparison is between ,moses and the prophets1 in so far as mediation between ,yahweh and ,his people was concerned4 ,at ,israel's own wish ,moses had been appointed to hear the ,divine voice4 ,israel had said ,let me not hear again the voice of ,yahweh my ,god1 neither let me see this great fire any more1 that ,i die not4 ,the prophet here promised was to be like ,moses in that respect1 but there is nothing to assert that he would be equal to ,moses in power and dignity4 ,on all grounds1 therefore1 the reference to the line of prophets is to be maintained4 ,still1 the interpretation thus reached does not exclude--it distinctly includes--the ,messianic reference4 ,if the passage promises that at all moments of difficulty and crisis in ,israel's history1 the will of ,god would be made known by a ,divinely sent prophet1 that would be specially true of the last and greatest crisis1 the birth of the new time which the ,messiah was to inaugurate4 ,whatever fulfilment the promise might receive previously to that1 it could not be perfectly fulfilled without the advent of ,him whose office it was to close up the history of the present world1 and bring all things by a safe transition into the new ,messianic world4 ,that was the greatest crisis2 and necessarily the prophet who spoke for ,yahweh in it must be the crown of the long line of prophets4 ,there is still a higher sense in which this promise has reference to the ,messiah4 ,he was to sum up and realise in ,himself all the possibilities of ,israel4 ,now they were the prophetic nation1 the people who were to reveal ,god to mankind2 and when they proved prevailingly false to their higher calling1 the hopes of all who remained faithful turned to that true ,israel which alone would inherit the promises4 ,at one period1 just before and in the ,exile1 the prophetic order would appear to have been looked upon as the ,israel within ,israel1 to whom it would fall to accomplish the great things to which the seed of ,abraham had been called4 ,but the author of ,second ,isaiah1 despairing even of them1 saw that the destiny of ,israel would be accomplished by one great ,servant of ,yahweh1 who should outshine all other prophets1 as ,he would surpass all other ,israelite priests and ,davidic kings4 ,as the crown and embodiment of all that the prophets had aspired to be1 the ,messiah alone completely fulfilled this promise1 and consequently the ,messianic reference is organically one with the primary reference4 ,they are so intimately interwoven that nothing but violence can separate them2 and thus we gain a deeper insight into the wide reach of the ,divine purposes1 and the organic unity of the ,divine action in the world4 ,these form a far better guarantee for the recognition of ,messianic prophecy here than the supposed direct and exclusive reference did4 ,by not grasping too desperately at the view which more strikingly involves the supernatural1 we have received back with full measure pressed down and running over the assurance that ,god was really speaking here1 and that this1 like all the promises of the ,old ,testament when rightly understood1 is yea and amen in ,christ4 ,but for our present purpose the primary reference of this passage to the prophetic line is even more important than the secondary but most vital reference to the ,messiah4 ,for it sets forth prophecy as the most potent instrument for the growth and furtherance of the religion of ,israel4 ,the prophet is here declared to be the successor of ,moses1 to be the inspired declarer of the ,divine will to ,his people in cases which did not come within the sphere or the competency of the priest4 ,the latter was1 as we have seen1 bound to work within the limits and on the basis of the revelation given by ,moses4 ,he was to carry out into execution what had been commanded1 to keep alive in the hearts of the people the knowledge of their ,god as ,moses had given it1 to give ,torah from the sanctuary in accordance with its principles4 ,but here a nobler office is assigned to the prophet4 ,he is to enlarge and develop the work of ,moses4 ,the ,mosaic revelation is here viewed as fundamental and normative1 but1 in contrast to the views of later ,judaism1 as by no means complete4 ,for the completion of it the prophet is here declared to be the ,divinely chosen instrument1 and he is consequently assigned a higher position in the purpose of ,god than either king or priest4 ,he is raised far above the diviners by having his calling lifted into the moral sphere2 and he excels both the other organs of national life in that1 while they are largely bound by the past1 he is called of ,god to initiate new and higher stages in the life of the chosen people4 ,the ascending steps of the revelation begun by ,moses were to be in his hands1 and through him ,god was to reveal ,himself in ever fuller measure4 ,viewed thus1 the prophetic order in ,israel has a quite unique character4 ,it is a provision for religious progress such as had no parallel elsewhere in the world2 and this public acknowledgment of its ,divine right is almost more remarkable4 ,wherever elsewhere in the world religion has been supposed to be ,divinely given through one man1 though modifications have indeed been made in later times1 yet they have never been anticipated and provided for beforehand4 ,save in the case of ,mohammedanism1 which borrowed its idea of the office of the prophet from ,judaism1 there has never been a deliberate admission that ,god had yet higher things to reveal concerning ,himself1 still less has provision been made for the coming of that which was new to fulfil the old4 ,and in modern times the revealer of new aspects of truth finds nowhere a welcome4 ,instead of being received as a messenger of ,god1 even in the ,christian ,church he has always to face neglect1 often persecution1 and only if he be unusually fortunate does he live to see his message received4 ,but in ,israel1 even in such ancient days as those we are dealing with1 the progressive nature of ,god's ,revelation of ,himself was acknowledged1 the reception of new truth was legitimised and looked for1 and the highest place in the earthly kingdom of ,god was reserved for those whom ,god had enlightened by it4 ,it is true of course that the nation as a whole never acted in accordance with this teaching4 ,they did not obey the command given here1 ,unto him shall ye hearken1 and reiterated still more solemnly in the words1 ,and it shall come to pass1 that whosoever will not hearken unto ,my words1 which he shall speak in ,my name1 ,i will require of him4 ,the prophets for the most part spoke to their contemporaries in vain4 ,where they were not neglected they were persecuted1 and many sealed their testimony with their blood4 ,but the thought that ,yahweh was educating ,his people step by step1 and that at all times in their history ,he would have further revelations of ,himself to make1 is familiar to this writer4 ,therefore he welcomes the thought of advance in this region of things1 and here solemnly enrols those who are to be the instruments of it among the ruling powers of the nation4 ,now in religious thought this is quite unparalleled4 ,tenacious conservatism1 based on the conviction that full truth has already been attained1 has always been the mark of religious thinking4 ,that a religious teacher should be able to see that the light of revelation1 like the natural light1 must come gradually1 broadening by degrees into perfect day1 and that he himself was standing only in the morning twilight1 is a thing so remarkable that one is at a loss to account for it1 save on the ground of the special nature of prophetic enlightenment4 ,it was part of the office of the prophets to foresee and foretell the future4 ,smend is certainly in the right1 as against those who have been teaching that the prophet was merely a preacher of genius1 when he says that in ,amos and his successors prophecy is the starting-point of their whole discourse and action1 and that all new knowledge which they preach comes to them from the action of ,yahweh which they foretell4444 ,consequently the greatness of a prophet is to be gathered from the measure in which he foresees the future4#ie ,this statement gives us the truth that lies between the two other extremes2 for according to it the prophet proclaims and preaches religious truth1 but he does so on the basis of what he perceives that ,god is about to do in the future4 ,in other words1 he proclaims new truth on the ground of the revelation ,god is about to make of ,himself1 which he is inspired to foresee and to interpret4 ,his business is neither all foreseeing nor all teaching2 it is teaching grounded upon foresight4 ,consequently it was impossible for the prophet to believe that change in religion was in itself evil4 ,he knew to the contrary4 ,only change which should remove men from the ,divinely given basis of the faith was evil2 and such change1 whatever credentials might accompany it1 even though they might be miraculous1 every faithful ,israelite had been already warned most sternly to reject 7,deut4 xiii4 #e74 ,but when the impulse to advance came from ,yahweh's manifestation of ,himself1 change was not only good1 it was the indispensable test of faithfulness4 ,they were not the true followers of ,isaiah who1 on the ground of his prophecy that ,zion1 as ,yahweh's dwelling-place1 should be delivered from destruction1 rejected the prophecy of ,jeremiah that ,zion would fall before the ,chaldeans4 ,the really faithful men were those who had taken to heart the lessons ,yahweh had set for ,his people in the century that lay between these two prophets2 who saw that the time when the deliverance of ,zion was necessary to the safety of the true religion was past1 and that now the capture of ,zion was necessary to its true development4 ,and that is not a solitary case2 it is an example of what was normal in the religious history of this people4 #ie ,lehrbuch der ,alt-,testamentlichen ,religion's ,geschichte1 pp4 #afi ff4 ,this did not escape the quick eye of ,john ,stuart ,mill4 ,he says the religion of ,israel gave existence to an inestimably precious unorganised institution--the order 7if it may be so termed7 of prophets4444 ,religion1 consequently1 was not there1 what it has been in so many other places1 a consecration of all that was once established1 and a barrier against further improvement4 ,there always was the movement of pulsing life within it1 and under the ,divine guidance that movement was always upward4 ,at some times it was comparatively shallow and slow1 at others it was a deep and rushing tide4 ,but it was always moving in directions which led straight to the great consummation of itself in the coming of ,christ1 who gathered up into ,his own life all the varied streams of revelation1 and crowned and fulfilled them all4 ,at no point in the progress from ,moses to the ,messiah do we touch rounded and completed truth2 nor1 according to the teaching of ,scripture in this passage1 were we meant to do so4 ,the faithful among ,israel had as their watchword the disio and pace of ,dante4 ,they saw before them a world of ,divine peace1 which they knew lay still in the future1 and the desire and yearning of their souls were always directed towards it4 ,with inextinguishable hope they marched onward with uplifted faces1 to which light reflected from that future gave at times a radiant gladness2 and always they kept an open ear for those who saw what ,god was about to do at each turning of the way4 ,but granting that religion was thus progressive before men were spoken unto by the ,son1 can we say or believe that1 now that ,he has spoken1 progress in this way is still possible8 ,at first sight it would seem necessary to answer that question in the negative4 ,the progressive revelation of ,god has come to its perfection in ,jesus ,christ2 what then remains to us but to cling to that8 ,are we not bound to make resistance to progress1 to any new view in religion1 our first duty8 ,many act and speak as if that were the only possible course consistent with faithfulness4 ,but we must distinguish4 ,the revelation of ,god has1 according to our ,christian faith1 reached not only its highest actual point1 but also its highest possible point in ,christ4 ,god can do nothing more for ,his vineyard than ,he has done4 ,as a manifestation of ,god1 revelation is completed and closed in ,christ4 ,for it is impossible to manifest ,god to men more fully than in a man who reveals ,god in every thought and word and act4 ,but it is quite otherwise with the interpretation of the manifestation4 ,in the earlier days this was provided for by a special inspiration of ,god1 which made the holy men of old infallible in their interpretation of the revelation received up to their day1 and that continued till the establishment of the ,church4 ,since then the ,holy ,spirit is to be the guide of faithful men into all truth4 ,now in the way of interpreting ,christ and ,his message progress is as much open to us as it was to ,israel4 ,a complete revelation of ,god must necessarily1 at any given time up till the consummation of all things1 contain in it a residuum of significance which1 at that point of their experience1 mankind has not felt the need of1 nor has had the capacity to understand4 ,as the world grows older1 however1 new outlooks1 new environments1 new circumstances continually appear1 and they all insist upon being dealt with by the ,church4 ,in order to deal with them adequately and worthily1 a faithful ,church must turn to ,christ to see what ,god would have it do2 and if ,christ be what we take ,him to be1 there will issue from ,him a light1 unseen or unnoticed before1 to meet the hitherto unfelt need4 ,moreover1 while our ,lord ,jesus ,christ reveals ,god completely as the ,god of ,redemption1 and throws light upon all ,god's relations to man1 a light which needs and admits of no supplementary addition1 there are other aspects of the ,divine character which ,he does not so entirely reveal4 ,for example1 ,god's relations to the world of nature1 which are now being unveiled in a most striking manner1 are dealt with comparatively rarely in the ,gospels4 ,are we to shut our eyes to these as of no importance1 and to allow them no influence upon our thoughts8 ,surely that cannot be demanded of us2 for1 to speak plainly1 it is impossible4 ,no one can remain unmoved when ,god and man are revealing themselves in the wondrous panorama of the world's life4 ,even those who most profess to do so in no case take their stand simply and solely upon the truths believed and held by the first ,christians4 ,all of them have adopted later developments as part of their indefeasible treasure4 ,some go back to the theology of the great ,evangelical ,revival only2 some to the ,reformation2 some to the pre-,reformation ,scholastics2 others to the first five centuries4 ,but whatever the point may be at which they take up ,christian theology1 they take up1 along with the original creed of the first believers1 some truths or doctrines which emerged and were accepted at a later date4 ,themselves being judges1 therefore1 additions to the primitive deposit of faith have to be admitted2 and it is a purely arbitrary proceeding on their part to say that now we have attained to all truth1 and stolid conservatism is henceforth the only faithful attitude4 ,no1 we have still a living ,god and a living ,church1 and a multifarious and wonderful world to deal with4 ,interaction of these cannot be avoided1 nor can it occur without new truth being evolved4 ,to have ears and not to hear1 to have eyes and not to see1 must be as offensive to ,god now as it was in ,old ,testament times4 ,though we have now no inspired prophets to foresee and interpret1 we have in all our ,churches men whose ears are better attuned to the celestial harmony than others1 whose eyes have a keener and surer insight into what ,god the ,lord would speak2 and we ought to hear them1 to see at least whether they can make their position good4 ,to reject their teaching1 only because some element or aspect of it is new1 is to deny the guiding providence of ,god1 to turn our back upon the rich stores of instruction which the facts of history1 both secular and religious1 are fitted to impart4 ,that can never be a ,christian duty4 ,even if it were possible it would be futile4 ,the light will be received by the younger1 the fresher and less stereotyped natures in all the ,churches2 and those who refuse it1 in holding obstinately and with exclusive devotion to what they have1 will find it shrink and shrivel in their hand4 ,only in the rush and conflict1 only amid the impulses and the powers which are moving in the world1 can a healthy religion breathe4 ,doubtless new teaching will come to us in ways congruous to the completed ,revelation of our ,redeeming ,god2 but it will come2 and it should be welcomed as gladly as the teaching of the prophets was welcomed by faithful men in ,israel4 ,if it be not1 then the ,divine threat will apply in this case as fully as in the other3 ,whosoever will not hearken unto ,my words which he shall speak in ,my name1 ,i will require it of him4 ,many say now1 and at all times many have said1 to those who had caught glimpses of some new lesson ,god was desiring to teach3 ,you admit that souls have been renewed and character built up and spiritual life preserved without this new teaching4 ,why then can you not let us alone8 ,in your pursuit of the best you may destroy the good2 and no harm can happen if you keep the improved faith to yourself4 ,but they have forgotten ,yahweh's solemn ,whosoever will not hearken1 ,i will require it of him4 ,if we refuse to hear when the ,lord hath spoken1 evil must come of it4 ,indeed1 though the evils of heresy may be more dramatically and strikingly manifest1 those of stagnation and a refusal to learn may be much more destructive of the common faith4 ,for refusal to acknowledge truth has far wider issues than the loss of any particular truth4 ,it indicates and reinforces an attitude of soul which1 if persisted in1 will allow the ,church that adopts it to drift slowly away from living contact with the minds of men4 ,so drifting1 it shrinks into a coterie1 and its every activity becomes infected with the curse of futility4 ,on both sides1 therefore1 there is danger for us1 as there was for the ,old ,testament ,church2 and we turn with quickened interest to the test1 the criterion1 by which ,deuteronomy would have the prophets tried4 ,it puts the very question which the line of thought we have been pursuing could not fail to suggest3 ,how shall we know the word which ,yahweh hath not spoken8 ,if a prophet spoke in the name of other gods he was to die2 that had already been determined in the thirteenth chapter1 and it is repeated here4 ,but the prophet who should speak a word presumptuously in the name of ,yahweh1 which ,he had not commanded1 was to be in the same condemnation4 ,it was1 therefore1 of the last importance that there should be means of detecting when this last evil occurred4 ,the test is this3 ,when a prophet speaketh in the name of ,yahweh1 if the thing follow not1 nor come to pass1 that is the thing which ,yahweh hath not spoken4 ,the strange notions of ,duhm and others in regard to this have been already dealt with 7vide pp4 #bdh f474 ,there1 too1 it has been shown that the prophecy here spoken of must have been prophecy in its narrower sense1 prophecy dealing with promises of immediate judgment and deliverance4 ,furthermore1 this is set forth here as a test applicable to prophets in all ages of the history of ,israel4 ,it lies1 too1 in the nature of the case that it must always have been the popular test4 ,the announcement of things to come before they came was made1 at least partially1 with the view of impressing the populace1 and of gaining their confidence and attention4 ,they must consequently have been continually on the alert to apply this test1 and all that is here done is to acknowledge it in the fullest manner as a right and ,divinely approved criterion4 ,but the way in which it ought to be applied is best exemplified by ,jeremiah's own method of applying it1 which1 as ,dr4 ,edersheim#if has pointed out1 is to be found in the twenty-eighth chapter of that prophet's book4 ,there we read of ,jeremiah's conflict with ,hananiah the son of ,azzur the prophet1 in the beginning of the reign of ,zedekiah4 ,just previously ,nebuchadnezzar had carried away ,jeconiah the king of ,judah1 with all the treasures of the house of ,yahweh and the strength of the people4 ,jeremiah had prophesied that they would not return2 nay1 he had foretold a further calamity1 viz4 that ,nebuchadnezzar would come again and would take away the people and the vessels of the house which still remained4 ,in opposition to that1 ,hananiah declared1 as a word of ,yahweh1 ,within two full years will ,i bring again into this place all the vessels of ,yahweh's house that ,nebuchadnezzar king of ,babylon took away from this place1 and carried them to ,babylon2 and ,i will bring again to this place ,jeconiah the son of ,jehoiakim king of ,judah1 with all the captives of ,judah that went to ,babylon1 saith ,yahweh4 ,jeremiah's conduct under these circumstances is noteworthy4 ,he did not immediately denounce his rival as prophesying falsely4 ,he seems to have thought that possibly he might have a true word from ,yahweh1 since1 as we see in the ,book of ,jonah1 the most positive prophecies were conditional1 and ,jeremiah would seem to have thought it possible that personal repentance was about to bring upon the captive king and people a blessing1 instead of the evil he had foreseen4 ,he consequently expressed a fervent wish that ,hananiah's prophecy might come true1 but reminded his rival that the causes of the evil prophecies of himself and previous prophets were far wider than the ground which the personal repentance of the captives could cover4 ,because of that he evidently felt the gravest doubt about ,hananiah2 but he disposes of the matter by saying1 ,the prophet which prophesieth of peace1 when the word of the prophet shall come to pass1 then shall the prophet be known1 that ,yahweh hath truly sent him4 ,only afterwards1 when he had himself received a special revelation concerning ,hananiah1 did he denounce him as an impostor and a false prophet4 #if ,prophecy and ,history in ,relation to the ,messiah1 p4 #aej4 ,the whole narrative is of extreme importance1 for it shows us how the prophets themselves regarded their own supernatural powers1 and how they used the tests supplied in ,deuteronomy4 ,in the first place1 they asked how the new word of ,yahweh stood in regard to the older words which ,he had certainly spoken4 ,if there was any possible way in which the new and the old could be reconciled1 they gave the new the benefit of the doubt1 and left the decision to the event4 ,obviously had there been no way of reconciling ,hananiah's prophecy with the mass of contrary prophecy which had gone before1 ,jeremiah would have denounced him under the law of ,deut4 xiii4 #e as leading away from ,yahweh4 ,as it was1 he fell back upon the test in this twenty-eighth chapter1 and would have maintained an attitude of watchful neutrality until the event had justified or condemned his rival1 had not ,yahweh ,himself settled the question4 ,for our own day and in our different circumstances the tests are radically the same1 though1 as prophecy is extinct in the ,church1 they must to some extent act differently4 ,the ,new ,testament parallel to the criterion in ,deut4 xiii4 #e is to be found in #a ,john iv4 #a1 #b1 and #c3 ,prove the spirits1 whether they are of ,god3 because many false prophets are gone out into the world4 ,hereby know ye the ,spirit of ,god3 every spirit which confesseth that ,jesus ,christ is come in the flesh is of ,god3 and every spirit which confesseth not ,jesus is not of ,god3 and this is the spirit of the antichrist1 whereof ye have heard that it cometh4 ,under the ,christian dispensation to deny that ,jesus ,christ is come in the flesh is the same as it was to say under the earlier dispensation ,let us go after other gods1 so completely do ,god and ,christ coincide in our most holy faith4 ,in each case the ultimate test of prophecy is to be the fundamental principle of the faith4 ,whatever credentials teachers who deny that may bring1 they are to be unhesitatingly rejected4 ,they belong to the world1 that scheme and fabric of things which rejects allegiance to the ,spirit of ,god4 ,least of all is popularity with the world as distinguished from the ,church1 or with the worldly portion of the ,church1 to stand in the way of its rejection4 ,that is only the natural consequence of its being of the world4 ,within the ,church no quarter is to be shown to such teaching1 for it really carries with it the absolute negation of the faith4 ,but what of erroneous teaching which acknowledges that ,jesus ,christ is come in the flesh8 ,to it the ,old ,testament parallel is the utterance of the prophet who speaketh in the name of ,yahweh1 and the thing followeth not nor comes to pass4 ,according to ,old ,testament precept and example1 that was to be left to the judgment of time4 ,in our day a corresponding course must be found4 ,the case supposed is that of teaching believed to be erroneous1 but neither fundamentally subversive of ,christianity nor destructive of the special principles of a ,church4 ,if so1 earnest opposition by those who hold the opposite view1 and adequate discussion1 are the true way of meeting the case4 ,for the rest1 the final decision should be left to experience4 ,in time1 even subsidiary error of this kind1 if important1 will manifest itself by weakening spiritual life in those who hold it2 they will gradually dwindle in numbers and their influence in the ,church will die away4 ,they begin by promising renewed strength and insight in spiritual things1 renewed energy in the spiritual life4 ,if that follow not nor come to pass1 when due time has been given for any such development1 then that is the thing which the ,lord hath not spoken1 and it should be dealt with as the fundamental heresy is to be dealt with4 ,but probably by that time it will have judged itself1 and will need no judgment of men at all4 ,these then were the connecting links between ,yahweh and ,his people1 and the organs by which the life of the ,israelite nation was guided3 the ,kingship1 the ,priesthood1 and the ,prophetic ,order4 ,the first gave visibility to the ,divine rule1 and stability to national and social life2 the second secured the stability of religion1 and built up the moral life of the nation on the basis of ,mosaic law2 the third secured progress and averted stagnation1 both in religion and in social and individual morals4 ,in fact1 order and progress1 the two things ,positivist thinkers have set forth as those which can alone secure health to a community1 are provided for here with a directness and success which it would be difficult to parallel elsewhere4 ,when we remember how small1 how obscure1 and how uncivilised the people was to whom this scheme of things was given1 and how little their surroundings or circumstances were calculated to suggest such far-reaching provisions1 we see that the source of it all was the ,revelation of the ,divine character given by ,moses4 ,yahweh as revealed through him did not permit ,his worshippers to believe that they could1 at one moment1 receive all that was to be known about ,him4 ,they were taught to found their conduct and their polity upon what they did know1 and to be eagerly on the watch for that which might be revealed at new crises of their history4 ,now that teaching finds its most complete expression in the laws concerning the three institutions we have been reviewing4 ,behind all healthy national life and all stable institutions there was1 so had this people learned1 the power and the righteousness of ,almighty ,god4 ,in ,his eagerness to draw near to men1 ,he had changed the priest1 the king1 the prophet from being1 as they were among the heathen1 merely political and religious officials appointed for purely earthly ends1 into channels of communication with ,him4 ,through them there were poured into the life of this nation wholesome and varied streams of ,divine grace and enlightenment1 and a just balance between conservatism and reform in religion was admirably secured4 ,consequently1 amid all drawbacks1 the ,israelites became an instrument of the finest power for good in the hands of their ,almighty ,king2 and even when their outward glory faded1 they were inwardly renewed and pressed onward age after age4 ,without hasting and without resting1 the purpose of ,god was realised in their history1 guided by these three organs of their national life4 ,each contributed its share in preparing for the fulness of the time when ,he came who was the ,salvation of ,god1 and each supplied elements of the most essential kind to the mingled expectation which was so marvellously satisfied by the life and work of ,christ4 ,they wrought together in the fullest harmony1 moreover1 though they were not always conscious of doing so4 ,for they all moved at the bidding of the still small voice wherewith ,god speaks most effectively to the souls of men4 ,because of this their purposes took a wider sweep than they knew1 their hopes received wings which carried them far away beyond the horizon of ,old ,testament time2 and1 starting from the remotest points1 all the streams of the national life converged1 till1 at the close of the ,old ,testament time1 they were running in such directions that they could not fail in little space to meet4 ,it was therefore no surprise to the faithful in ,israel when1 at the beginning of the ,new ,testament1 they were found to have met in ,jesus the ,christ4 ,once that point was reached1 the whole former history1 which was now lying completed before the eyes of all1 could be fully appreciated4 ,everything in the past seemed to speak of ,him4 ,if1 in that first burst of joyous surprise1 ,messianic references of the most definite kind were found where we now can see only faint hints and adumbrations1 we need not wonder4 ,so much more had been spoken of ,him than they had thought1 it would have been strange had they not swung a little to the opposite extreme4 ,but that need not hinder us from acknowledging that the history of ,israel1 viewed from their standpoint1 was and is the most conspicuous1 the most convincing1 the most inspiring proof of the ,divine action in the world4 ,the finger of ,god was so manifestly here1 harmonising1 directing1 impelling1 that the evidence for ,divine guidance in much more obscure regions becomes irresistible4 ,with this history before us we can believe that it was not only in those far-off days1 and in that little corner of ,asia that ,god was active for the production of good4 ,now and here1 as well as then and there1 there are ,divine and guiding forces at work in the world2 and the only safe politics1 the only truly prosperous peoples1 are those in which rulers and priests and prophets are secured1 to whom the secret of ,god is open4 ,,chapter ,,xx ,,the ,,economic ,,aspects ,,of ,,israelite ,,life ,it has often and justly been said that the life of ,israel is so entirely founded on the grace and favour of ,god that no distinction is made between the secular and the religious laws4 ,whatever their origin may have been1 whether they had been part of the tribal constitution before ,moses' day or not1 they were all regarded as ,divinely given4 ,they had been accepted as fit building stones for the great edifice of that national life in which ,god was to reveal ,himself to all mankind1 and behind them all was the same ,divine authority4 ,that being so1 it is not wonderful1 in times like these1 when the air is full of plans and theories for the reconstruction of society in the interest of the toiling masses of men1 that believers in the ,scriptures should turn with hope to the legislation of the ,old ,testament4 ,in the present state of things the material conditions of life are far more deadening and demoralising for the multitude in civilised countries than they are in many uncivilised lands4 ,that this should be so is intolerable to all who think and feel2 and men turn with hope to a scene where ,god is teaching and training men1 not merely in regard to their individual life1 as in the ,new ,testament1 but also in regard to national life4 ,it is seen1 too1 that the tone and feeling of these laws are sympathetic for the poor as no other code has ever been2 and many maintain that1 if we would only return to the provisions of these laws1 the social crisis which is as yet only in its beginning1 and which threatens to darken and overshadow all lands1 would be at once and wholly averted4 ,men consequently are diligently inquiring what the land tenure of ancient ,israel was1 what its trade laws were1 how the poor were dealt with1 and how and to what extent pauperism was averted or provided for4 ,many say1 ,if ,god has spoken in and by this people1 so that their first steps in religion and morals have been the starting-point for the highest life of humanity1 may we not expect that their first steps in political and social life will have the same abiding value1 if rightly understood8 ,now the main thing in regard to which the economical arrangements of a nation are important is land4 ,in modern times there may be some exceptionally situated communities1 such as the ,british people1 among whom commerce and manufactures are more important than agriculture2 but in ancient times no such case could arise4 ,in every community the land and the land tenure were the fundamentally important things4 ,now the fundamental thing concerning it was that ,yahweh1 being the ,king of ,israel1 who had formed and was guiding this people as ,his instrument for saving the world1 and who had bestowed their country upon them1 was regarded as the sole owner of the soil4 ,it is not necessary to quote texts to prove this1 since it is the fundamental assumption throughout the ,old ,testament ,scriptures that the ,israelite title to their land was the gift of ,yahweh4 ,he had promised it to the fathers4 ,he had driven out the ,canaanite nations before ,israel4 ,he had by ,his mighty hand and ,his stretched-out arm established ,his chosen people in the place which ,he had chosen1 and ,he had granted them the use and enjoyment of it so long as they proved faithful to ,him4 ,consequently1 in a quite real and palpable sense1 there was no owner of land in ,israel save ,yahweh4 ,and this thought was not without practical consequences of great moment4 ,it was not a mere religious sentiment1 it was a hard and palpable fact1 that ,yahweh ruled4 ,absolute proprietorship could never be built up on that basis1 and never as a matter of fact1 was acknowledged in ,israel4 ,all were tenants1 who held their places only so long as they obeyed the statutes of ,yahweh4 ,the sale in perpetuity of that which had been portioned out to tribes and families was consequently entirely prohibited4 ,as against other nations1 indeed1 ,israel was to possess this land1 so that no heathen could be permitted to buy and possess even a scrap of it2 but as against ,yahweh and the purposes for which ,he had chosen ,israel1 all were equally strangers and sojourners1 practically tenants at will1 who could neither give nor take their holdings as if they were absolutely theirs4 ,yet1 relatively1 the land was given to the community as a whole1 and according to ,joshua xiii4 #g sqq4 7a passage generally assigned to the ,deuteronomic editor7 it was parcelled out by lot to the various tribes just before ,joshua's death1 according to their respective numbers4#ig ,then within the tribal domain the families in the wider sense had their portion1 and within these family domains again the individual households4 ,in this way the ,israelite tenure of land occupies a middle point between the theories of ,socialism1 and the high doctrine of private property in land which declares that the individual owner can do what he will with his own4 ,the nation as a whole claimed rights over all the land1 but it did not attempt to manage the public estate for the common good4 ,it delegated its powers to the tribes4 ,but not even they undertook the burdens of proprietorship4 ,under them the families undertook a general superintendence2 but the true proprietary rights1 the cultivation of the soil1 and the drawing of profit from it1 subject only to deductions made by the larger bodies1 the families1 the tribes1 and the nation1 were exercised only by individuals4 ,the nation took care that none of its territory should be sold to foreigners1 lest the national inheritance should be diminished1 and the tribes did the same for the tribal heritage1 as we see from the narrative concerning the daughters of ,zelophehad4 ,it was only within limits therefore1 that the individual proprietor was free2 and though the rights of property were respected1 the corresponding duties of property were set forth with irresistible clearness4 ,the community1 in fact1 never abandoned its claims upon the common heritage1 any more than ,israel's ,divine ,king did1 and consequently the field within which proprietary rights were exercised was more restricted here than in any modern state4 #ig ,cf4 ,numb4 xxvi4 #ec-ee from ,p and ,josh4 xvii4 #ad ff4 from ,,je4 ,further1 besides the prohibition of absolute sale which flowed from the recognition of ,yahweh's ownership1 and the limitations which tribal and family claims involved1 there were distinct provisions in which the national ownership under ,yahweh was plainly asserted4 ,for example1 it is enacted in ,deut4 xxiii4 #bd--,when thou comest into thy neighbour's vineyard1 then thou mayest eat grapes thy fill at thine own pleasure2 but thou shalt not put any in thy vessel4 ,when thou comest into thy neighbour's standing corn1 then thou mayest pluck the ears with thine hand2 but thou shalt not move a sickle unto thy neighbour's standing corn4 ,allied to these were the provisions 7,lev4 xix4 #i ff41 xxiii4 #aj7 concerning gleaning1 and not reaping the corners of the field4 ,it will be observed that1 though these latter may be discounted as intended for the relief of the poor alone1 the former provision was for all1 and that consequently it may be regarded as an undoubted assertion of the common ownership1 or common usufruct1 which1 though latent1 was always held to be a fact4 ,in other ways also the same hint is given4 ,the provisions for letting the land lie fallow in the seventh year and in the jubilee year1 and for securing the use of what grew in the field for all who chose to take it1 were interferences with the free-will of the individual owners or occupiers1 which find their justification only in the fact that the general ownership was never suffered entirely to fall into the background4 ,to sum up then this system aimed at securing the advantages both of the socialist view and of the individualistic view1 while avoiding the evils of both4 ,private enterprise was encouraged1 by the individual being guaranteed possession of his land against any other individual2 while public spirit and a regard for general interests were promoted by the restrictions which limited the private ownership4 ,further1 and more important still1 the whole relation of the nation and of the individual to the land was raised out of the merely sordid region of material gain into the spiritual and moral region1 by the principle that ,yahweh their ,god alone had full proprietary rights over the soil4 ,all were sojourners with ,him4 ,he had promised this land to their fathers as the place wherein ,he should specially reveal ,himself to them4 ,here1 communion with ,him was to be established1 and to each household there had been assigned by ,yahweh a special portion of it1 which it would be equally a sin and an unspeakable loss to part with4 ,compulsion alone could justify such a surrender2 and the completed legislation1 whatever its date1 and even if it remained always an unrealised ideal1 shows how determined the effort was to secure the perpetuity of the tenure in the original hands4 ,the ideal of ,israelite life was consequently that the land should remain in the hands of the hereditary owners1 and that the main support of all the people should be agricultural labour4#ih #ih ,the questions connected with the jubilee year are numerous and intricate1 and it may be for ever impossible1 from lack of data1 to decide at what period in ,israelite history it originated1 or whether it was ever actually observed2 but it undoubtedly expressed the spirit of the ,israelite legislation and customary law at all times4 ,it is the natural culmination of tendencies and ideas which were always present4 ,that it is not mentioned in ,deuteronomy at all is surprising1 if it had been previously to ,manasseh's day embodied either in custom or in law2 yet1 on the other hand1 there are references in ,ezekiel and other exilic books which are almost unintelligible except on the supposition that the jubilee year was a perfectly well-known institution 7cf4 ,jer4 xxxiv4 #h ff42 ,ezek4 vii4 #ab f42 ,ezek4 xlvi4 #af ff42 ,isa4 lxi4 #a ff474 ,it is referred to in a merely allusive way1 which implies that every hearer or reader of the prophetic warnings would know at once the full scope and meaning of the reference4 ,now1 had the jubilee year been unknown before the ,exile1 had it been introduced by the author of ,lev4 xxv4 just before ,ezekiel1 no such assumption could have been made4 ,it would1 therefore1 seem necessary to suppose that the ordinance for a jubilee year must have existed in pre-exilic time2 for1 strange as ,deuteronomy's silence in regard to it is1 the argumentum e silentio cannot weigh against indications of a positive kind1 were they even fainter than those we have in regard to this matter4 ,the hypothesis that this was the case is strengthened to a certainty by the manner in which commerce1 one of the other main sources of wealth1 is dealt with in the ,israelite law4 ,there is but little sympathy expressed with it1 and some of the regulations issued are such as to render trade on any very large scale within ,palestine itself impossible4 ,from the use of the word ,canaanite in the ,old ,testament 7cf4 ,job xli4 #f2 ,prov4 xxxi4 #bd2 ,zeph4 i4 #aa2 ,ezek4 xvii4 #d1 and ,isa4 xxiii4 #h7 it is clear that1 even in the later periods of ,israelite history1 the merchants were so prevailingly ,canaanites that the two words are synonymous4 ,nay1 more2 there can be no doubt that the commercial career was looked down upon4 ,even as early as the prophet ,hosea the ,canaanite name is connected with false weights and vulgar commercial cheating 7,hos4 xii4 #g71 and it is looked upon as a last degradation that ,ephraim should take delight in similar pursuits4 ,in all that we read of merchants in the ,old ,testament we seem to hear the expression of a feeling that commerce1 with its necessary wanderings1 its temptations to dishonesty1 its constant contact with heathen peoples1 was an occupation that was unworthy of a son of ,israel4 ,even ,solomon's success as a royal merchant would not seem to have overcome this feeling1 nor did the later commercial successes of kings like ,jehoshaphat4 ,in fact the ordinary ,israelite had the home-staying farmer's contempt and suspicion of these far-wandering commercial people1 so much more nimble-witted than himself1 who were therefore to be regarded with half-admiring wariness4 ,but the very sinews of extensive commerce were cut by the law against the taking of interest from a brother ,israelite4#ii ,without credit1 or the lending of money1 or what is called sleeping partnership 7and all these are bound up with receiving interest71 it is impossible to have extensive trade4 ,without them every merchant would have to limit his operations to cash transactions and to his own immediate capital1 and the great combinations which especially bring wealth would be impossible4 ,now we do not need at present to discuss the wisdom of prohibiting the taking of interest1 nor the still more debated question whether that ancient prohibition would be wise or advantageous now4 ,it is enough for our purpose that usury in its literal sense was actually forbidden among ,israelites1 and that they were thus shut out from the developed commercial life of the surrounding nations4 ,as a result trade remained in a merely embryonic condition4 #ii ,cf4 ,kbel1 ,die sociale und wirthschaftliche ,gesetzgebung des ,alten ,testaments p4 #dg4 ,but in still other ways the ,sinaitic legislation interfered with its development4 ,the inculcation of ceremonial purity1 especially in food1 and the effort to make ,israel a peculiar people unto ,yahweh1 which distinguishes even the earlier forms of the law1 made intercourse with foreigners and living abroad1 always difficult1 and under some circumstances impossible4 ,consequently all the legislation that can possibly be considered commercial was of a very rudimentary character4 ,from every point of view it is clear that ancient ,israel was not a commercial people1 and that the ,divine law was intended to restrain them from commercial pursuits4 ,they could not have been the holy and peculiar people they were meant to be1 had they become a nation of traffickers4 ,with regard to manufacturing industries the case was not essentially different4 ,such pursuits were1 it is true1 more honoured than commerce was1 for skill in all arts1 whether agricultural or industrial1 was regarded as a special gift of the ,almighty4 ,but so far as the records go1 there is no evidence that a manufacturing industry existed1 beyond what the very limited needs of the nation itself demanded4 ,from the fact that1 according to ,prov4 xxxi4 #bd1 which was probably written late in the history of ,israel1 the manufacturing of linen garments for sale and of girdles for the ,canaanites was the business of the thrifty and virtuous housewife1 we may gather that systematic wholesale manufacture of such things was unknown4 ,probably the case was not otherwise in regard to all branches of industry4 ,there are no traces of trade castes1 nor of manufacturing towns2 so that the manufacturing industries1 so far as they existed1 had no other place than that of handmaids to agriculture1 by which the nation really lived4 ,according to the ,old ,testament1 then1 the ideal state of things for a people like ,israel was that every household should be settled upon the land1 that permanent eviction from or even alienation of the holdings should be impossible1 and that the whole population should have a common interest in agriculture1 that most honourable and fundamental of all human pursuits4 ,there were1 of course1 some men in ,israel more prominent than others1 and some richer1 but there was to be no impassable barrier between classes such as we find in ,eastern countries where caste prevails1 or in ,western countries where the aristocratic principle has drawn a deep dividing line between those of good blood and all others4 ,so far as is known1 there were no class barriers to intermarriage4 ,from the highest to the lowest1 all were servants of ,yahweh1 and were consequently equal4 ,the conditions of the land tenure were such that it was impossible1 if they were respected1 that large estates should accumulate in the hands of individuals1 and a landless proletariate could not arise4 ,the very rich and the very poor were alike legislated out of existence1 and a sufficient provision for all was that which was aimed at4 ,by the cycle of ,sabbatic periods 7the weekly ,sabbath1 the ,sabbatic year1 and the year of jubilee7 ample rest for the land and its inhabitants was secured2 and in the limits set upon the period for which a ,hebrew slave might be retained1 in the release1 whatever that was1 which the seventh year brought to the debtor1 and in the restoration of land to the impoverished owner in the year of jubilee1 such a series of breakwaters were erected against the inrushing flood of pauperism1 that1 had they been maintained1 the world would have seen for the first time a fairly civilised community in which even moderate ill-desert in a man could not bring irretrievable ruin upon his posterity4 ,the prodigal was hindered from selling his heritage2 he could only sell the use of it for a number of years4 ,he could not ruin himself by borrowing at extravagant rates of interest1 for no one was tempted to lend him1 and usury was forbidden4 ,he might indeed run into debt and be sold into slavery along with his family1 but that could only be for a few years1 and then they all resumed their former position4 ,in this very land where the fact1 ,divinely impressed upon human life1 that the sins of the fathers were visited on the children was most unflinchingly taught1 the most elaborate precautions were taken to mitigate the severity of this necessary law4 ,from the first the ideal was that there should be no son or daughter of ,israel oppressed or impoverished permanently2 and whatever the stages of advance in ,israelite law may have been1 and whatever the date of particular ordinances may be1 there is an admirable consistency of aim throughout4 ,even should it be proved that the ,sabbatic ordinances remained mere generous aspirations1 which never entered into the practical life of the people at all1 that fact would only emphasise the earnestness and persistency with which the inspired legislators pursued their generous aim4 ,no change in circumstances turned them aside4 ,the glitter of the wealth acquired by ,solomon and other kings by commerce never seduced them4 ,no ideal but that early one of every man sitting under his own vine and his own fig-tree1 with none to make him afraid1 which is witnessed to before the ,exile 7,micah iv4 #d71 in the ,exile 7#a ,kings iv4 #be71 and after the ,exile 7,zech4 iii4 #aj71 was ever cherished by them2 and the whole economic legislation is entirely consistent with what we know of the earliest time4 ,and the deepest roots of it all were religious4 ,the ,biblical writers have no doubt at all that the ideal economic state can be reached only by a people attuned by religion to self-sacrifice1 to pity1 and to justice4 ,in this they differ radically from the socialists or semi-socialists of to-day4 ,these imagine that man needs only a favourable environment to become good2 whereas the ,scriptural writers know that to use well the best environment is a task which1 more than anything1 puts strain upon the moral and spiritual nature4 ,for to deal in a supremely wise fashion with great opportunities is the part only of a nature perfectly moralised4 ,consequently all the social laws of ,israel are made to have their root in the relation of the people to their ,god4 ,there was only one power that could secure that this admirable machinery would move1 and keep it moving4 ,that was the love and fear of ,god4 ,the conduct prescribed was the conduct befitting the true ,israelite1 the man who was faithful in all his ways4 ,the laws marked out the paths wherein he should walk if he willed to do ,god's will4 ,they were1 therefore1 ideal in all their highest prescriptions1 and could never become real except where the true religion had had its perfect work4 ,in that respect the ,sermon on the ,mount resembles the ,israelite law4 ,it presupposes a completely ,christian society1 just as the old law presupposes a completely ,yahwistic society1 i4e4 a society made up of men who made devotion to their ,god the chief motive of their lives4 ,in such a community there would have been no difficulty in entirely realising the state of things aimed at here1 just as in a community penetrated by the love of ,christ the ,sermon on the ,mount would be not only practicable but natural4 ,but without that supreme motive much that the enactments of both the ,old ,testament and the ,new demand must remain mere aspiration4 ,just in proportion as ,israel was true to ,yahweh was the law realised1 and the demands of the law always acted as a spur to the better part of the people to enter into fuller sympathy and communion with ,him in order that they might respond to them4 ,the law and the religion of the people acted and reacted upon one another1 but the greater of these two elements was religion4 ,it was not wonderful1 therefore1 that to a large extent this legislation failed1 as men measure failure4 ,the religious state of the nation never was what it should have been2 and the law1 though it was held to be ,divine1 was never wholly observed4 ,in the ,northern ,kingdom1 by the time of the ,syrian wars1 the old constitution of ,israel had broken up4 ,the hardy yeomanry had been ruined and dispersed4 ,their lands had been seized or bought by the rich1 and every law that had been made to ensure restoration was habitually disregarded4 ,as ,robertson ,smith states it1#ajj3 ,the unhappy ,syrian wars sapped the strength of the country1 and gradually destroyed the old peasant proprietors who were the best hope of the nation4 ,the gap between the many poor and the few rich became wider and wider4 ,the landless classes were ground down by usury and oppression1 for in that state of society the landless man had no career in trade1 and was at the mercy of the landholding capitalist4 ,and in ,judah the state of things1 though not so bad1 was similar4 ,in the days of ,zedekiah we know that ,hebrew slaves were held for life1 instead of being released in the seventh year4#aja ,the properties of those compelled to sell were never returned to the owners1 and all the laws that were meant to secure the welfare and prosperity of the masses of ,israel were contemptuously disregarded4 ,in short1 the worst features of a purely competitive civilisation1 with materialism eating into its soul1 became glaringly manifest4 ,all the canonical prophets without exception denounce the vices and tyrannies of the rich4#ajb ,as far as can be learned1 moreover1 the year of release and the ,sabbatic year were not regularly or generally observed1 while the jubilee year would seem never to have been kept after the ,exile4 ,the laws regarding taking interest were also evaded4#ajc #ajj ,prophets of ,israel1 p4 #hh4 #aja ,cf4 ,jer4 xxxiv4 #h ff4 #ajb ,cf4 ,amos ii4 #f ff4 #ajc ,neh4 v4 #a seq4 ,nevertheless it would be a great error to suppose that these ,divinely given social laws should be branded as a failure4 ,they were not lived up to1 and it is not improbable that the corruption of the people's life was in a degree intensified by the reaction from so high an ideal4 ,but the axiom which is current now in all the newspapers1 that laws too far above the general level of the national conscience cannot be enforced1 and becoming a dead letter tend to produce lawlessness1 does not apply to such codes as those of ,israel4 ,these1 as has more than once been pointed out1 were not of the same character as our legal codes are4 ,among us1 laws are meant to be observed with minute and careful diligence1 and any breach of them is punished by the courts1 which1 on the whole1 can be easily set in motion4 ,ancient religious codes are never of that kind4 ,they do contain laws of that character1 but the bulk of the provisions are not laws which the executive is to enforce1 but ideals of conduct which the true worshipper of ,god ought to strive to attain to4 ,it is1 therefore1 of their very essence that they should be far above the average national conscience4 ,nations whose ideals soar no higher than the possible attainment of the average man as he is1 have virtually no ideals at all1 and are cut off from all enduring upward impulses4 ,those1 on the contrary1 who have a vision of the perfect life1 are certain to be both humbler1 and at the same time more sure to persist in the painful path of moral discipline4 ,as a man's reach should exceed his grasp1 so also should a nation's2 and though it is almost always forgotten1 it is precisely ,israel's glory that she set up for herself and exhibited to the world an ideal of brotherhood1 of love to ,god and man1 to which she could not attain4 ,great as the practical failure in ,israel was1 therefore1 no fault can be found in the legislation4 ,it moulded the characters of men who were sensitive to the influences coming from ,god1 so that they became fit instruments of inspiration2 and it made their lives examples of the highest virtue that the ancient world knew4 ,further1 it gave shape to the hopes and aspirations of the people1 especially where it was not realised4 ,the year of jubilee1 for example1 is the groundwork of that great and affecting promise contained in ,isa4 lxi3 ,the ,spirit of the ,lord ,yahweh is upon me1 because ,yahweh hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek2 ,he hath sent me to bind up the broken-hearted1 to proclaim liberty 7deror7 to the captives1 and the opening of the prison to them that are bound2 to proclaim the acceptable year of ,yahweh and the day of vengeance of our ,god2 to comfort all that mourn4 ,that which was unattainable here1 amid the greeds and lusts of an unspiritual generation1 gave colour to the ,messianic future2 and men were taught to look and wait for a kingdom of ,god in which a peace and truth that could not as yet be reached would be the certain possession of all4 ,when we turn to modern times and modern circumstances1 it is not easy to see how this ancient law can be applicable to them4 ,in the first place1 much of it was made binding upon ,israel only because of its peculiar character as the people to whom the true religion was revealed4 ,as custodians of that1 they were justified in keeping up walls of partition between themselves and the world1 which if universally accepted would only be hurtful to the highest interests of mankind4 ,on the contrary1 the development of the true religion having been completed by the coming of ,christ1 it is the duty of those nations which enjoy the light to spread abroad the good news of ,god which they have received1 and to exhibit its power among all the nations of the earth4 ,the highest and most ,divine call which can now come to any people must1 therefore1 be radically different in some chief aspects from that of ,israel4 ,in the second place1 the civilisation and culture of the great nations of to-day are far more complicated than any ancient civilisation ever was1 and the general level is fixed by an action and reaction extending over the whole civilised world4 ,no successes can be achieved1 no blunders can be committed1 in any part of the world which do not affect almost immediately the farthest ends of the earth4 ,moreover the intimate and universal correlation of interest makes interference with any part of the complicated whole an exceedingly perilous matter4 ,any proposal that this law1 as being ,divinely given1 ought in its economic aspect to be made universally binding1 should therefore be met by a demand for a careful inquiry into possible differences between ancient life and modern1 which might make guidance ,divinely given to the one inapplicable to the other4 ,it is not necessarily true that because ,israel by ,divine command established every household upon the soil1 forbade interest1 and did nothing to encourage trade and manufactures1 we should do these things4 ,take1 for instance1 the case of interest4 ,in our day1 and in civilisations of a high type1 lending money to a person not in distress at all1 but who sees an opportunity of making-enough by the use of borrowed money to pay the interest and make a profit1 is often a most praiseworthy and charitable act4 ,but if the ,israelite legislation in regard to interest cannot justly be taken as a law for all time1 still less can any great modern state neglect or discourage commerce and manufactures4 ,the merely embryonic character of commercial legislation1 and the contempt for the merchant which did in ancient days exist1 would be exceedingly out of place now4 ,there is no career more honourable than that of the merchant of our day when he carries on his business in a high-minded fashion1 nor is there any member of the community whose calling is more beneficent than his4 ,so long as he looks for gain to himself in ways which1 taken on the great scale1 bring benefit both to producer and consumer1 his activity is purely beneficial4 ,there is absolutely no reason why commercial life should not be as honest1 as sound1 as much in accord with the mind of ,god1 in itself1 as any other manner of life4 ,for in many ways it has been a civilising agent of the highest power4 ,of course1 if the charges brought against merchants by ,ruskin1 for example1 who seizes upon and believes every story which involves charges of fraud against modern commerce1 were true2 if it were impossible1 as he says it is1 for an honest man to prosper in trade1 then we might have some ground for condemning this branch of human activity4 ,but happily only a confirmed and incorrigible pessimist can believe that4 ,in our time some of the noblest men of whom we have any knowledge have been merchants1 and among no class has so much princely generosity been exhibited4 ,if mercantile help had been withdrawn from the poor1 if the time1 the money1 the organising skill which merchants have freely expended upon charities were suddenly to fail them1 the case against our modern civilisation would be indefinitely stronger than it is4 ,moreover the immense expansion of credit which is at once the glory and the danger of modern commerce1 is itself a proof that such wholesale condemnation as we have spoken of is unwarrantable4 ,the bulk of commerce must1 after all1 be fairly sound1 otherwise it could not continue and spread as it does4 ,and1 as against the evils which affect it in common with all human activities1 we must put the fact that it brings the produce of all lands to the door even of the poor1 and by the constant contact between nations which it causes it is influencing the thought as well as the lives of men4 ,human brotherhood is being furthered by it1 slowly1 it is true1 but surely1 and the barriers which separate the nations are being sapped by its influence4 ,these are indispensable services for the future progress of mankind1 and make commerce now as much the necessary handmaid of the highest life as it would have been a hindrance to it in the case of the chosen people1 before they had assimilated the truths of which they were to be the bearers to the world4 ,that commerce1 and trade in general1 need to be purified goes without saying4 ,that it may1 of late years1 have deteriorated1 as the general decay of faith and the pursuit of luxury have weakened the sanctions of morality1 is not improbable4 ,but in itself it is not only a legitimate human activity2 it is also an admirable instrument for bringing home to the consciences of men the truth that they are all their brothers' keepers4 ,it presses home as nothing else could do the great truth proclaimed by ,st4 ,paul in regard to the ,church1 as true also of the world1 that if one member suffers all the body suffers with it4 ,every day through this channel men are receiving lessons1 which they cannot choose but hear1 to the effect that no permanent benefit can come from the loss and suffering of men in any part of the world2 that peace and righteousness and good faith are things which have supreme value even in the mercantile sense2 and that1 conversely1 the merchant's pursuit of wealth1 if carried on in accord with the fundamental truths of morality1 inevitably becomes a potent factor in that advance to a worldwide knowledge of the ,lord1 which gleamed before the eyes of prophets and seers as the ,far-off ,divine event1 ,to which the whole creation moves4 ,but if we cannot make the ,old ,testament our law in regard to commerce1 we must ask whether the legislation in regard to land has for us any binding force8 ,viewing it with this question in our minds1 ,i think we must be struck by one fact1 this namely1 that the universal possession of land which was provided for in ,israel and so anxiously maintained is the only provision known against the growth of a wage-earning class largely1 if not entirely1 at the mercy of the employer4 ,in ,greece and ,rome the population at first were all settled on their own lands1 and it was only when by money-lending the small properties were bought up and turned into huge farms1 worked by farm-bailiffs and slaves1 that misery began to invade all parts of the social fabric4 ,in medival and feudal ,england1 on the other hand1 and indeed wherever the feudal system existed1 the cultivators1 even when they were serfs1 had an inalienable right to the land4 ,they could not be evicted if they rendered certain not very burdensome services to the lord4 ,as long as these dues were satisfied1 it is plain the tenant was secure from dispossession1 says ,professor ,thorold ,rogers 7,six ,centuries1 etc41 p4 #dd74 ,but in time that system was broken down2 and ever since1 until within the last half-century1 the course of things with the labouring classes in ,england has been one long descent4 ,so long as the people were attached to the soil1 and so long as all alike practised agriculture1 as in ,palestine under the ,mosaic law1 ,englishmen lived in rough plenty1 and were for the most part content4 ,the fifteenth century was the golden age of medival agriculture2 but a change for the worse came in with the seventeenth1 and it continued4#ajd #ajd ,contemp4 ,rev41 #ahhj1 ,april1 p4 #fha4 ,two measures--the introduction of competitive rents with its corollary1 eviction1 and the enclosure of the common lands--worked gradually on until they have entirely divorced the workman from the soil1 and ,professor ,cairnes#aje has told us clearly what that means4 ,in a contest between vast bodies of people so circumstanced and the owners of the soil the negotiation could have but one issue1 that of transferring to the owners of the soil the whole produce1 minus what was sufficient to maintain in the lowest state of existence the race of cultivators4 ,this is what has happened wherever the owners of the soil1 discarding all considerations but those dictated by self-interest1 have really availed themselves of the full strength of their position4 ,it is what has happened under rapacious governments in ,asia2 it is what has happened under rapacious landlords in ,ireland2 it is what now happens under the bourgeois proprietors of ,flanders2 it is1 in short1 the inevitable result which cannot but happen in the great majority of all societies now existing on earth where land is given up to be dealt with on commercial principles unqualified by public opinion1 custom1 or law4 ,the result is that the labourers have only their daily wages to depend upon4 ,they have no means of productive home industry2 they have not even a home from which they cannot be ejected at any moment on failure to pay the weekly rent2 they have no land1 garden1 or domestic animals1 the produce of which might support them till fresh work could be obtained4#ajf ,we need not wonder that this question of the occupancy of land as the only visible remedy for the hideous social state of the most highly civilised nations of the world is gradually becoming the question of our time4 ,a great reaction against the purely commercial theory of land tenure has taken place4 ,the land legislation in ,ireland has been based on the doctrines that the nation cannot permit absolute property in land1 and that there is no hope for any permanent improvement in the condition of the poor until labourers have land of their own4 ,now these are precisely the principles of the ,scriptural land legislation4 ,under it landlords with absolute rights over land were impossible1 and the rise of a proletariate at the mercy of the capitalist was also impossible4 ,it is not so strange1 therefore1 as it might at first sight appear that the demands of advanced land reformers1 as they are voiced in ,mr4 ,wallace's book 7p4 #aib71 are1 mutatis mutandis1 identical with the provisions of the ,israelite law4 ,he demands 7#a7 that landlordism shall be superseded by occupying ownership2 7#b7 that the tenure of the holders of land must be made secure and permanent2 7#c7 that arrangements must be made by which every ,british subject may secure a portion of land for personal occupation at its fair agricultural value2 and 7#d7 that in order that these conditions be rendered permanent sub-letting must be absolutely prohibited1 and mortgages strictly limited4 ,this essential oneness of view in the modern land reformer and in the ancient law is all the more remarkable that1 so far as can be gathered from his book1 ,mr4 ,wallace has never regarded the ,old ,testament from this point of view4 ,he never quotes it1 and is apparently quite unconscious that the plan which experience of present evils1 and acute and disinterested reflection on them1 has suggested to him1 was set forth thousands of years ago as the only righteous one4 #aje ,essays on ,political ,economy1 p4 #bja4 #ajf ,wallace1 ,land ,nationalisation1 p4 #af4 ,but this is not by any means the end of the matter4 ,even if the social reformers of our day could restore society to the conditions set forth so emphatically and so long ago in ,israel1 history proves that nothing more than a temporary improvement might be accomplished4 ,in ,israel1 as we have seen1 with the decay of religion came the decay of this righteous social state4 ,human selfishness then shook off the curb of religion1 and gave itself without restraint to the oppression of the poor4 ,have we any reason to believe that now human selfishness would do less8 ,there appears little ground to think so2 and though we may believe that without the acceptance of ,deuteronomic principles in modern life we cannot restrain the growth of poverty1 even with ,deuteronomic principles embodied in our laws nothing will be done if the people turn their backs upon religion1 make selfish enjoyment their highest good1 and the comforts and pleasures of a merely material life their only heart-warming aspiration4 ,in that fact we have an indication of the true functions of the ,church and of religious teachers in the social and political life of our time and of times to come4 ,as individuals1 religious men should certainly be found always among the advocates of all laws and plans which tend to justice and mercy1 and to the raising of the toilers everywhere to a higher standard of living4 ,further1 at no time should the ,church be found committed to a purely conservative policy1 of retaining things as they are4 ,the undeniable facts as to the condition of the poor are so utterly unjustifiable1 that to leave things as they are is to fall into the treason of despair in regard to the future of our race1 and into scarcely veiled disbelief of the essential truth of ,christianity4 ,no ,church whose heart has not been corrupted by worldliness can think for a moment that the present state of things in all highly civilised communities is even tolerable4 ,it cannot last1 and it ought not to last2 the ,church that timidly supports it1 lest worst things should come1 is named and known thereby for recreant to ,christ and to the highest hopes of ,his ,gospel4 ,but1 on the other hand1 it is only in very exceptional circumstances1 and for short intervals1 that the ,churches and their ministers can ever be called upon to make the external1 material condition of the people their first and chief care4 ,they have a place of their own to fill1 a function of their own to discharge2 and upon their efficiency and diligence in these the stability and permanence of all that politicians and publicists can accomplish ultimately depends4 ,they must keep alive and nourish the religious life1 as that life has been shaped and constituted by our ,lord ,jesus ,christ4 ,their province is to witness1 in season and out of season1 for a life of purity and love1 for the ,divine and ideal sides of things1 for the necessity1 for man's highest well-being1 of a life hid with ,christ in ,god4 ,if they do not keep up this testimony1 no others will2 and if it be dropped out of sight1 then the social agony and struggle1 the patriotic and humanitarian strivings of all the reformers1 will lack their final sanction4 ,men will inevitably come to think that man's life does consist in the abundance of the things that he possesses1 the leisure1 the amusement1 the culture which by combining material resources he may attain to4 ,but it is to deny and denounce that view that the ,church exists in the world4 ,it was to lift men out of it1 to set them above it for ever1 that ,christ died4 ,it is finally only by abandoning it that the highest social condition can be reached and made permanent for the multitudes of men4 ,in no way therefore can the ,church so dangerously betray the cause of the poor and the oppressed as by plunging into the heat of the social and political struggle4 ,she has to witness to higher things than that involves1 and her silence in the ideal region which would certainly follow her devotion to material interests1 however unselfish1 would be but ill compensated for by any imaginable success she might attain4 ,,chapter ,,xxi ,,justice ,,in ,,israel ,among the nations of the modern world one of the most vital distinctions is the degree in which just judgment is estimated and provided for4 ,indeed1 according to modern ideas1 life is tolerable only where all men are equal before the law2 where all are judged by statutes which are known1 or at least may be known1 by all2 where corruption or animus in a judge is as rare as it is held to be dishonourable4 ,but we cannot forget that in the majority of even the more advanced countries of the world these three conditions are not yet found1 and that where they do exist they are only recent acquirements4 ,in the latest born1 and in many respects the most advanced of the great commonwealths1 in the ,united ,states of ,america1 the corruption of a number of the inferior courts is undeniable1 and is tolerated with a most disappointing patience by the people4 ,in ,england ,judge ,jeffries is no very remote memory1 and ,lord ,bacon's acceptance of presents from litigants in his court has only been made more certain by recent investigations4 ,an absolutely honest intention to give even-handed justice to all is1 therefore1 even in ,england1 only a recent attainment1 and in no country is the honest intention always successful in realising itself4 ,but if this be so among the civilised nations of the ,west1 we may say that in ,oriental countries there has been little of systematic and continuous effort to give even-handed justice at all4 ,yet nowhere has the sinfulness and the destructiveness of corruption in judgment been more impassionedly and more frequently set forth by the highest authorities in religion and morals1 than in the ,east4 ,tupper1 our most recent authority1 in writing of ,our ,indian ,protectorate1 p4 #bhi1 describes the ,indian attitude to law thus3 ,there was not that reverence for law which in ,europe is in all probability very largely due to the influence of the ,roman law1 and to the teaching of the ,roman ,catholic and other ,christian ,churches4 ,so far as there was a germ out of which the respect for law ought to have grown1 it was to be found in dislike to actions plainly opposed to custom and tradition4 ,there was a deeply rooted and widespread conviction that there could be no rule to which exceptions could not be made1 if agreeable to the discretion of the chief or any of his delegates4 ,the chief was set above the law2 it did not limit his authority by any constitution4 ,there was no legislation for the improvement of law4 ,the administration of justice was extremely imperfect4 ,the same writer describes the result of such a state of mind in his picture of ,mahratta rule 7p4 #bdg74 ,there was1 he says1 no prescribed form of trial4 ,men were seized on slight suspicions4 ,presumptions of guilt were freely made4 ,torture was employed to compel confession4 ,prisoners for theft were often whipped at intervals to make them discover where the stolen property was hidden4 ,ordinarily no law was referred to except in cases affecting religion4 ,that there were both ,hindu codes and ,mohammedan codes in existence which claimed and were believed to have ,divine authority made no difference in ,india4 ,nor does it make any in ,persia to-day4#ajg #ajg ,see ante1 p4 #cjd4 ,now1 in coming to the consideration of the views of justice embodied in ,old ,testament law1 and the quality of the judiciary in ancient ,israel1 we must take not ,western but ,eastern ideas as our standard4 ,judging from that point of view1 it should create no prejudice in our minds if we find on the first glance that all men were not equal before the ancient law of ,israel2 that for a considerable period1 if not during the whole political existence of ,israel1 there was no very extensive written law2 and that arbitrary and corrupt judgment was only too common at all times4 ,for none of these defects would indicate in ancient ,israel the same evils as similar defects in nations of our time would indicate4 ,they are rather defects in the process of being overcome1 than defects arising from feeble or vitiated life4 ,if there was a constant movement towards the highest state of things1 that is all we can demand or expect to find4 ,now there does seem to have been that4 ,as has been well pointed out by ,dr4 ,oort1#ajh in the tribes which became ,israel justice must have been administered by the heads of the various bodies which went to make these up4 ,the household was ruled even in matters of life and death solely by the father2 the family1 in the wider sense1 was judged by its own heads2 the tribes by the elders of the tribes1 and there probably was no appeal from one tribunal to another4 ,each tribunal was final in its own domain4 ,it may be1 also1 that the judicial function was in all these bodies exercised in the lax and timid fashion common among ,bedouin tribes to-day4#aji ,in all cases1 too1 it is probable that in the pre-,mosaic time the standard of judgment was customary law4 ,only with this very great modification can ,oort's epigrammatic description of the situation--,there was no law1 but there were givers of legal decisions--be accepted4 ,so far as can be ascertained1 the customs according to which men were expected to live were perfectly well known1 and within certain narrow limits of variation were extraordinarily stable4 ,how stable customary law may be made1 even in the midst of a society governed in the main according to written law in its strictest sense1 may be seen in the execration which any breach of the ,ulster custom of tenant right met with1 before that custom was embodied in any statutes4 ,and in antiquity the stringency of custom can hardly be exaggerated4 ,under it1 when thoroughly established1 there was1 in all the cases covered by it1 only this one way of acting for all1 both men and women1 who were fit for society at all4 ,any alternative course was probably inconceivable in the tribal stage of the ,israelites' existence4 #ajh ,cf4 ,oud-,isral ,rechtswezen1 pp4 #aj ff4 #aji ,cf4 ,doughty1 ,arabia ,deserta1 vol4 i41 p4 #bdi4 ,but a change would doubtless be wrought whenever the appointment of a king took place4 ,then national law would appear1 in embryo at least2 and at first1 until custom had grown up in this region also1 it would largely be an expression of the will of the king1 and of the royal officers instructed and trained by the king4 ,but it would have free and unchallenged course only when it claimed authority in matters lying outside of the family and tribal jurisdictions4 ,wherever it attempted to interfere with tribal or family rights1 danger to the kingship of the most acute kind would be sure to arise4 ,in all probability1 it was disregard of this axiomatic truth which made ,solomon's reign so burdensome to the people and tore the kingdom asunder under ,rehoboam4 ,ahab too fell a victim to his disregard of it4 ,lastly1 the introduction of elaborate written codes of law would1 if it came as the crown of such a development1 depose custom from its supremacy1 though it would not abolish it2 and would substitute for it as the main element in all judicial matters the written prescription1 which is the necessary presupposition of a fully organised judiciary of the modern type1 with a regulated and definite power of appeal4 ,but in the case of ancient ,israel there is a distinguishing element which has to be fitted into this ordinary scheme of progression1 and that is the ,divine revelation to ,moses4 ,taken up at the tribal stage by the ,mosaic revelation1 the ,israelite tribes were touched and welded into coherence1 if not quite as a nation1 at least as the people of ,yahweh1 so that during all the distracting days of the ,judges they kept up in essentials their social and religious unity4#aaj ,and with the religious union there must have come administrative uniformity to some considerable extent4 ,the jurisdiction of the heads of households1 of heads of families1 and of the tribal elders would be as little interfered with as possible2 but1 as we have seen1 all customs and rights had to be reviewed from the point of view of the new religion1 and appeal to ,moses as the prophet of it must have often been unavoidable4 ,just as his first followers were continually coming to ,mohammed1 to ask whether this or that ancient custom could be followed by professors of ,islam1 so there must have been constant appeals to ,moses4 ,so long as he lived1 therefore1 he1 and after him ,joshua and ,moses' fellow-tribesmen the sons of ,levi1 as being specially zealous for the religion of ,yahweh1 must have been constantly called in to assist the customary judges2 and so the habit of appeal must have grown in ,israel long before there was any king4 ,thus also a common standard of judgment would be established4 ,that standard must necessarily have been the law of ,yahweh1 i4e4 the new ,yahwistic principles and all that might prima facie be deduced from them1 together with so much of custom and tradition as had been accepted as compatible with these principles4 ,we have stated the reasons for holding that the ,decalogue was ,mosaic1 and the ,book of the ,covenant may be taken also to represent what the current law in ,mosaic or sub-,mosaic time was held to be4 ,as ,oort well says 7loc4 cit471 when we know that the ,hittites about the middle of the fourteenth century ,b4,c4 concluded a treaty with ,rameses ,,ii4 of ,egypt the terms of which were written upon a silver plate1 why may there not also have been written statements regarding the mutual rights and duties of the people of a town1 engraved upon stone or metal1 and set forth openly for inspection8 ,what he confines to mere town business and refers to the time of the ,judges1 we may without risk extend to a general fundamental law like the ,decalogue1 or even to the ,book of the ,covenant1 and date it in the time of ,moses4 ,writing was so common an accomplishment in ,canaan before the ,exodus1 that such a supposition is not in the least improbable4 ,these written laws formed the crown of the law of ,yahweh1 and by them all the rest was raised to a higher level and transformed4 #aaj ,cf4 ,nowack1 ,die sozialen ,probleme in ,israel1 p4 #e4 ,as new men1 new times1 and new difficulties arose1 the priest became the special organ of ,divine direction4 ,it may be that the priestly ,torah was largely the result of the sacred lot2 but the questions that were put1 and the manner in which they were put1 would be decided ultimately by the conception the priest had of the truth about ,god4 ,the teaching of the ,decalogue would therefore be the dominant and formative power in all that was spoken by the priest and for ,yahweh4 ,in the disorganised state into which ,israel fell during the time of the ,judges1 when1 as ,deuteronomy takes for granted1 and as #a ,kings iii4 #b and #c asserts1 the legitimate worship of ,yahweh was carried on at many centres1 the substantial sameness of the tradition as to the history of ,israel1 in all the varied forms in which we encounter it1 is proof sufficient that at each of the great sanctuaries 7which were certainly in the hands of ,levitical priests7 the treasure of ancient knowledge1 both in law and history1 was carefully and accurately preserved4#aaa ,new decisions would be given1 but they came through men penetrated with the high thoughts of ,god1 and of ,his people's destiny1 which ,moses had so fruitfully set forth4 ,this was the element in the life of the people which all the higher minds strove to perpetuate1 and1 being spiritual1 it spiritualised and raised all accessory things4 ,consequently there was1 long before the kingship1 what was equivalent to a national feeling of the highest kind1 and the conception of justice and its administration corresponded to that4 #aaa ,oort1 ,oud-,isral ,rechtswezen1 p4 #ad4 ,in the ,book of the ,covenant1 which in this matter represents so early a period that there is no mention of judges1 only of ,pelilim1#aab i4e4 arbitrators 7,exod4 xxi4 #bb71 so that the tribal and family heads can alone have exercised judicial functions1 we find the most solemn warnings against any legal perversion of right to gain popularity1 against yielding to the vulgar temptation to oppress the poor1 or to the subtler and1 for generous minds1 more insidious temptation1 to give an unjust judgment out of pity for the poor4 ,israel was1 moreover1 to keep far from bribery1 which blindeth them that have sight1 and perverteth righteous causes4 ,in no way was the law to be used for criminal or oppressive purposes4 ,from the very first1 therefore1 in ,israel the higher principles of faith and life set themselves to combat outrance the tendency to unjust judgment1 which seems now1 at least1 quite ineradicable in the ,east1 save among the ,bedouin4#aac #aab ,a probable parallel to these may be found in the non-official arbiters mentioned by ,doughty1 ,arabia ,deserta1 vol4 i4 pp4 #ade and #ejb-c4 #aac ,doughty1 vol4 i41 p4 #bdi4 ,a still higher note is struck in the repetition of the law in the ,book of ,deuteronomy4 ,in chap4 i41 originally part of a historic introduction to the book proper1 we read3 ,hear the causes between your brethren1 and judge righteously between a man and his brother1 and the stranger that is with him4 ,ye shall not respect persons in judgment2 ye shall hear the small and the great alike2 ye shall not be afraid of the face of man2 for the judgment 7i4e4 the whole judicial process and function7 is ,god's2 and the cause that is too hard for you ye shall bring unto me 7,moses71 and ,i will hear it4 ,yes1 the judgment is ,god's4 ,just as the whole of moral duty towards man was raised by the ,decalogue to a new and more intimate relation with ,god1 so here justice1 the fundamental necessity of a sound and stable political state1 is lifted out of the conflict of mean and selfish motives1 in which it must eventually go down1 and is set on high as a matter in which the righteous ,god is supremely concerned4 ,in this1 as in all things1 ,israel was called to a lonely eminence of ideal perfection by the character of the ,god whom they were bound to serve4 ,therefore it strikes us with no surprise that justice is insisted upon almost with passion in ,deut4 xvii4 #bj3 ,justice1 justice shalt thou pursue after1 that thou mayest live and possess the land which ,yahweh thy ,god giveth thee2 or that it is made one of the conditions of ,israel's permanence as a nation4 ,in chap4 xxiv4 #ag we read1 ,thou shalt not wrest the judgment of the stranger1 nor of the fatherless2 nor take the widow's raiment to pledge2 in xxv4 #a and #b1 ,if there be a plea between men1 444 then they 7i4e4 the judges7 shall justify the righteous and condemn the wicked4 ,for any other course of conduct would bring guilt upon the nation in the sight of ,yahweh2 and how jealously that was guarded against is seen in the sacrifice and ritual imposed for the purification of the people from the guilt of a murder the perpetrator of which was unknown 7,deut4 xxi4 #a-i74 ,unatoned for and disregarded1 such a crime brought disturbance into those relations between ,israel and their ,god upon which their very existence as a nation depended2 and the disregard of justice1 where wrongs were committed by known persons and were left unpunished1 was of course more deadly4 ,so the author of ,deuteronomy looked upon it2 and the prophets1 from the first of them to the last1 brand unjust judgment1 the perverting the course of legal justice1 as the most alarming sign of national decay4 ,the righteous ,god1 with whom there was no respect of persons1 could not permanently favour a people whose judges and rulers disregarded righteousness2 and when destruction actually came upon this people1 it was proclaimed to be ,god's doing1 because there was no truth nor justice nor knowledge of ,god in the land4 ,nowhere in the world1 therefore1 has the demand for justice been made more central than here1 and nowhere has injustice been more passionately fought against4 ,nor have the sanctions binding to a pursuit of justice been at any period more nobly or more vividly conceived4 ,in this main point1 therefore1 ,israel's law stands irreproachable--marvellously so1 considering its great antiquity4 ,but we have still to inquire whether any really adequate provision was made for the general and inexpensive administration of justice4 ,to take the latter first1 law was in old ,israel probably as cheap as it would be in the primitive ,east to-day1 if bribery were to be stopped4 ,to advise as to the sacred law1 to plead for justice according to it1 did not then1 and does not now in similar circumstances1 belong to any special professional class who live by it4 ,the priest could be appealed to freely by all2 and the heads of fathers' houses1 as well as the tribal heads1 were1 by the very fact that they were such1 bound to give judgment among their people1 and to appear for and take responsibility for them when they had a cause with persons beyond the limits of the particular families and tribes4 ,justice1 consequently1 was in ordinary circumstances perfectly free to all4 ,and from a very early time earnest efforts were made to make it equally accessible4 ,at first1 when the people were in one army or train1 before they came to ,sinai1 an overwhelming burden was laid upon ,moses4 ,as the prophet of the new dispensation all difficulties were brought to him4 ,but at ,jethro's suggestion1 as ,,je tells us in ,exod4 xviii4 #ac ff41 and as ,deuteronomy repeats in chap4 i4 #af1 he chose men of each tribe1 or took the heads of each tribe1 and set them as captains of thousands and hundreds and fifties and tens4 ,not improbably this was primarily a military organisation1 but to these captains was committed also jurisdiction over those under them4 ,in all ordinary cases they judged them and their families in the spirit of ,yahwism1 as well as commanded them2 and in this way1 as has already been pointed out1 the customary law was revised in accordance with ,yahwistic principles4 ,justice too was brought to every man's door4 ,the only question that suggests itself is1 whether these captain-judges were the ordinary family and tribal heads1 organised for this purpose by ,moses4 ,on the whole this would seem to have been so1 and it may well be that ,jethro's suggestion had in view the danger of ignoring them1 as well as the burden which ,moses' sole judgeship laid upon him4 ,but with the advance to the conquest of ,canaan a new situation emerged1 and the probability is that more and more1 as the tribes fell into entire or semi-isolation1 the tribal organisation in its natural shape would come to the front again4 ,deuteronomy1 however1 tells us little if anything of this4 ,in the main passage regarding this matter 7xvii4 #h-ac71 where provision is made for an appeal to a central court1 the legislation is entirely for a period much later than ,moses4 ,like the law regarding sacrifice at one altar1 the judicial provisions of ,deuteronomy seem all to be bound up with the place which ,yahweh shall choose1 viz4 the ,solomonic ,temple in ,jerusalem4 ,we may consequently conclude that the judicial arrangements to which ,deuteronomy alludes existed only after the ,israelite kingship had been for some time established at ,jerusalem4 ,we have no distinct evidence for the existence of a central high court in ,david's days2 and from the story of ,absalom's rebellion we should gather that the old1 simple ,oriental method still prevailed1 according to which the king1 like the heads of tribes1 families1 etc41 judged every one who came to him1 personally1 at the gate of the royal city4 ,but ,samuel is said in #a ,sam4 vii4 #af to have annually gone on circuit to ,bethel1 ,gilgal1 and ,mizpah4 ,according to the school of ,wellhausen1 nearly the whole of this chapter is the work of a ,deuteronomic writer about the year #fjj4 ,in that case1 of course1 it would be difficult to prove that the arrangement attributed to ,samuel was not a mere echo of what was done in ,josiah's day2 though1 if the ,deuteronomic prescriptions were carried out then1 there would be no need for such a system4 ,on the other hand1 if ,budde and ,cornill be right in tracing the chapter back to ,,je1 this habit of going on circuit must have been an ancient one1 possibly dating from ,samuel's time4 ,that this latter view is the correct one is in a degree confirmed by the statement in viii4 #b that ,samuel's sons were installed by him as judges in ,israel1 at ,beersheba4 ,this belongs to ,e1 and it would seem to indicate the beginnings of such a system as ,deuteronomy presupposes4 ,but it is only in the days of ,jehoshaphat 7#hgc-hdi ,b4,c47 that an arrangement like that in ,deuteronomy is mentioned4 ,from #b ,chron4 xix4 #e ff4 we learn that he set judges in the land throughout all the fenced cities of ,judah1 city by city4 ,moreover in ,jerusalem did ,jehoshaphat set of the ,levites and of the priests1 and of the heads of the fathers' houses1 for the judgment of ,yahweh and for controversies4 ,further1 it is stated that ,amariah the chief priest was set over the judges in ,jerusalem in all ,yahweh's matters1 i4e4 in all religious questions1 and ,zebadiah the son of ,ishmael the prince of the house of ,judah in all the king's matters1 i4e4 in all secular affairs4 ,of course few advanced critics will admit that the ,books of ,chronicles are reliable in such matters4 ,but that judgment is altogether too sweeping1 and here we would seem to have a well-authenticated record of what ,jehoshaphat actually did4 ,for it will be observed1 that when we take up the various notices in regard to the administration of justice1 we have a well-defined progress from ,moses to ,jehoshaphat4 ,moses was chief judge and committed ordinary cases to the tribal and family heads who were chosen as military leaders1 each judging his own detachment4 ,after passing the ,jordan1 the whole matter would seem to have fallen back into the hands of the tribal heads1 with the occasional help of the heroes who delivered and judged ,israel4 ,at the end of this period ,samuel1 as head of the ,state1 went on circuit1 and appointed his sons judges in ,beersheba1 thus initiating a new system1 which1 had it been successful1 might have superseded the tribal and family heads altogether4 ,but it was a failure1 and was not repeated4 ,with the rise of the kingship the courts received further organisation4 ,if the ,chronicler can be trusted1 ,levites to the number of six thousand were appointed to be judges and ,shoterim4 ,the number seems excessive2 but the appointment of ,levites to act as assessors with the tribal and other heads would be a natural expedient for a king like ,david to have recourse to1 if he desired to secure uniformity of judgment1 and to bring the courts under his personal influence4 ,the next step would naturally be that which is attributed to ,jehoshaphat1 and it is precisely that which ,deuteronomy points to as being already at work in his time4 ,we have1 consequently1 more than the late authority of the ,chronicler for ,jehoshaphat's high court4 ,the probabilities of the case point so strongly to the rise of some such judicial system about that period1 that it would require some positive proof1 not mere negative suspicion1 to lead us to reject the narrative4 ,in any case this must have been the system in ,josiah's day1 and afterwards4 ,for when ,jeremiah was arraigned for prophesying destruction to the ,temple and to ,jerusalem1 the process against him was conducted on similar lines to those laid down in ,deuteronomy4 ,the princes judged1 the priests 7curiously enough along with the false prophets7 made the charge1 i4e4 stated that the prophet's conduct was worthy of death1 and the princes acquitted4 ,during the ,exile it is probable that the elders of the people were permitted to judge them in all ordinary cases1 but we have no certain proof that this was so4 ,after the return from ,babylon1 however1 the local courts were re-established1 probably in the very form in which they appear in the ,new ,testament 7,matt4 v4 #bb1 x4 #ag2 ,mark xiii4 #i2 ,luke xii4 #ad-eh74 ,throughout the whole history of ,israel1 therefore1 courts of justice were easily accessible to every man1 whether he were rich or poor4 ,no doubt the free1 open-air1 ,eastern manner of administering justice was favourable to that2 but from the days of ,moses onward we have fairly conclusive proof that the leaders of the people made it their continual care that wherever a wrong was suffered there should be some court to which an appeal for redress could be made4 ,the justice aimed at in ,israel was1 therefore1 impartial and accessible4 ,we have still to inquire whether it was merciful or cruel in its infliction of punishment4 ,dr4 ,oort says it was a hard law in this respect1 but one is at a loss to see how that view can be sustained4 ,there is no mention of torture in connection with legal proceedings1 either in the history or in the legislation4 ,nor is there any instance mentioned in which an accused person was imprisoned until he confessed4 ,indeed imprisonment would not appear to have been a legal punishment in ,israel1 nor in any antique state4 ,the idea of providing maintenance for those who had offended against the law was one which could never have occurred to any one in antiquity4 ,prisons are1 of course1 frequently mentioned in ,scripture2 but they were used1 up to the time of ,ezra1 only for the safe-keeping of persons charged with crime till they could be brought before the judges4 ,sometimes1 as in the case of the prophets1 men were imprisoned to prevent them from stirring up the people2 but this procedure was nowhere sanctioned by law4 ,further1 the crimes for which the punishment prescribed in the ancient law was death were few4 ,idolatry1 adultery1 unnatural lust1 sorcery1 and murder or manslaughter1 together with striking or cursing parents and kidnapping--these were all4 ,considering that idolatry and sorcery were high treason in its worst forms1 so far as this people was concerned1 and that impurity threatened the family in a much more direct and immediate fashion then than it does now1 while the people were naturally inclined to it1 one must wonder that the list of capital crimes is so short4 ,contrast this with ,blackstone's statement in regard to ,england 7quoted ,ency4 ,brit41 iv41 p4 #ehi73 ,among the variety of actions which men are daily liable to commit1 no less than one hundred and sixty have been declared by ,act of ,parliament to be felonies without benefit of clergy1 or1 in other words1 to be worthy of instant death4 ,it is only in comparatively recent years that the punishment of death has been practically restricted to murder in ,england4 ,yet that is almost the case in the ancient ,jewish law2 for the exceptions are such as would reappear in ,england if it were more sparsely populated and manners were rougher4 ,in ,australia1 for example1 highway robbery under arms and violence to women are capital crimes1 just because the country is sparsely inhabited and the households unprotected4 ,nor were the modes of death inflicted cruel4 ,only three--viz4 impalement1 and burning1 and stoning--appear to be so4 ,but it may be believed that in the cases contemplated by the law death in some less painful manner had preceded the two former1 as is certainly the case in ,josh4 vii4 #ae and #be1 and in ,deut4 xxi4 #bb4 ,as for the latter1 it must have been horrible to look upon1 but in all probability the criminal's agony was rarely a prolonged one4 ,the other method of execution1 by the sword namely1 was humane enough4 ,dr4 ,oort tells us that mutilations were common2 but his proof is only this1 that in the treaty between the ,hittite king and ,rameses ,,ii4 we read1 concerning inhabitants of ,egypt who have fled to the land of the ,hittites and have been returned1 ,his mother shall not be put to death2 he shall not be punished in his eyes1 nor on his mouth1 nor on the soles of his feet4 ,the same provision is made for ,hittite fugitives4 ,from this evidence of the custom of surrounding peoples1 and from the fact that the jus talionis is announced in the ,scriptures by the familiar formula1 ,eye for eye1 tooth for tooth1 hand for hand1 foot for foot1 ,dr4 ,oort draws this conclusion4 ,but he appears to forget that the jus talionis was common to almost all the peoples of the ancient world1 and is referred to in the ,pentateuch1 not as a new principle1 but as a custom coming down from immemorial time4 ,consequently1 though there must once have been a time in which it was carried out in its literal form1 that time probably was past when the laws referring to it were written4 ,in ,rome1 and probably in other lands where this custom existed1 it early gave place to the custom of giving and receiving money payments4 ,most probably this was the case in ,israel1 at least from the time of the ,exodus4 ,for the new religion introduced by ,moses was merciful4 ,but these references to the principle of retaliation tell us nothing as to the frequency or otherwise of mutilation as a punishment4 ,no instance of mutilation being inflicted either as a retaliation or as a punishment occurs in the ,old ,testament1 and the probability is that cases were never numerous4 ,apart from retaliation they are never mentioned2 and we may1 ,i think1 set it down as one of the distinctive merits of the ,israelite law that it never was betrayed into sanctioning the cutting off of hands or feet or ears or noses as general punishment for crime4 ,but so far as the principle of the lex talionis was retained1 its effect was wholesome4 ,it was a continual reminder that all free ,israelites were equals in the sight of ,yahweh4 ,and not only so1 it enforced as well as asserted equality4 ,any poor man mutilated by a rich man could demand the infliction of the same wound upon his oppressor4 ,he could reject his excuses1 and refuse his money1 and bring home to him the truth that they had equal rights and duties4 ,in this way this seemingly harsh law helped to lay the foundation for our modern conception of humanity1 which regards all men as brethren4 ,for the teaching of our ,lord1 which fulfilled all that the polity and religion of ancient ,israel had foreshadowed of good1 broke down the walls of partition between ,jew and ,gentile1 and made all men brethren by revealing to them a common ,father4 ,it surely is strange and sad that those who specially make liberty1 equality1 and fraternity their watchwords1 have received so false an impression of the religion of both the ,old and ,new ,testaments1 that they pride themselves on rejecting both4 ,when all is said1 the levelling of barriers which the crushing weight of ,roman power brought about1 and the common methods and elements of thought which the ,greek conquests had spread all over the civilised world1 would never have made the brotherhood of man the universally accepted doctrine it is4 ,the truths which made it credible came from the revelation given by ,god to ,his chosen people1 and its final and conclusive impulse was given to it by the lips of ,christ4 ,in face of that cardinal fact it is vain to point out as one of the defects of this law that all men were not equal before it4 ,women were not equal with men1 nor were foreigners nor slaves equal with freeborn ,israelites2 but the seed of all that later times were to bring was already there4 ,the principles which at the long end of the day have abolished slavery1 raised women to the equal position they now occupy1 and made peace with foreigners increasingly the desire of all nations1 had their first hold upon men given them here4 ,in all these directions the ,mosaic law was epoch-making4 ,in the fifth commandment1 as well as in the legislation regarding the punishment of a rebellious son1 the mother is put upon the same level as the father4 ,however subordinate woman's position in the larger public life might be1 within the home she was to be respected4 ,there1 in her true domain1 she was man's equal1 and was acknowledged to have an equal claim to reverence from her children4 ,in precisely the same way the stranger was freed from disability and protected4 ,in the earliest days1 when the ,israelite community was still being formed1 whole groups of strangers were received into it and obtained full rights1 as for example the ,kenites and ,kenizzites4 ,but though this was a promise of what ,israel was ultimately to be to the world1 the necessities of the situation1 the need to keep intact the treasure of higher religion which was committed to this people1 compelled the adoption of a more separatist policy4 ,yet in no other nation of antiquity were strangers received and treated with such liberality and humanity as in ,israel4 ,they were freely afforded the protection of the law2 they were1 in short1 received as a kind of half-citizens1 with definite rights and duties4#aad ,further1 though the ger was not bound to all the religious practices and rites of the ,israelite1 yet he was permitted1 and in some cases commanded1 to take part in their religious worship4 ,if he consented to circumcise all his house he might even share in the ,passover feast4 ,all oppression of such an one was also rigorously forbidden1 and to a large extent the stranger shared in the benefits conferred by the provision for the poor of the land which the law made compulsory4 #aad ,riehm1 ,handwrterbuch1 ,baethgen1 vol4 i41 p4 #dfc4 ,nor was the case otherwise with slaves4 ,equality there was not1 and could not be2 but in the provisions for the emancipation of the ,israelite slave and the introduction of penalties for undue harshness1 it began to be recognised that the slave stood1 in some degree at least1 on the same level as his master--he too was a man4 ,taking it as a whole1 therefore1 the ancient world will be searched in vain for any legislation equal to this in the promise and the potency of its fundamental ideas as to justice4 ,here1 as nowhere else1 we can see the radical principles which should dominate in the administration of justice laying hold upon mankind1 and that there was a living will and power behind these principles is shown in the steady movement toward something higher which characterised ,israelite law4 ,in the pursuit of impartiality1 accessibility1 and humanity1 the teachers of ,israel were untiring1 and the sanctions by which they surrounded and guarded all that tended to make the administration of justice effective in the high sense were unusually solemn and powerful4 ,the result has been most remarkable4 ,all the ages of civilised men since have been the heirs of ,israel in this matter4 ,roman influence and the influence of the ,christian ,church have no doubt been powerful1 and the manifold exigencies of life have drawn out and made explicit much which was only implicit in the ancient days4 ,but the higher qualities of our modern administration of justice can be traced back step by step to ,biblical principles1 and the course of development laid bare4 ,when that is done1 it is seen that the almost ideal purity and impartiality of the best modern tribunals is the completion of what the ,israelite law and methods began4 ,in this one instance at least the great ,mosaic principles have come to fruition2 and from the security and peace1 the contentment and the confidence1 with which impartial justice has filled the minds of men1 we can estimate how potent to cure the ills of our social and moral state the realisation of the other great ,mosaic ideals would be4 ,it should be a source of encouragement to all who look for a time when the kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdoms of our ,lord and of ,his ,christ1 that something like the ideal of justice has so far been realised4 ,it has no doubt been a weary time in coming1 and it has as yet but a narrow and perhaps precarious footing in the world4 ,but it is here1 with its healing and beneficent activity2 and in that fact we may well see a pledge that all the rest of the ,divinely given ideals for the ,kingdom of ,god will one day be realised also4 ,such a consummation1 however remote it may seem to our human impatience1 however devious and winding the paths by which alone it can draw near1 will come most surely1 and in our approach to the ideal in our judicial system we may well see the firstfruits of a richer and more plentiful harvest4 ,,chapter ,,xxii ,,laws ,,of ,,purity 7,,chastity ,,and ,,marriage7 ,in dealing with the ten commandments it has been already shown that1 though these great statements of religious and moral truth were to some extent inadequate as expressions of the highest life1 they yet contained the living germs of all that has followed4 ,but we cannot suppose that the reality of ,israelite life from the first corresponded with them4 ,they contained much that only the experience and teaching of ages could fully bring to light2 therefore we cannot expect that the actual laws in regard to the relations of the sexes and the virtue of chastity should stand upon the same high level as the ,decalogue4 ,the former represent the reality1 this the ultimate ideal of ,israelite law on these subjects4 ,but neither is unimportant in forming an estimate of the value of the revelation given to ,israel1 and of the moral condition of early ,israel itself1 nor can either be justly viewed altogether alone4 ,the actual law at any moment in the history of ,israel must be regarded as inspired and upborne by the ideal set forth in the ten commandments4 ,but it must1 at the same time1 be a very incomplete realisation of these1 and its various stages will be best regarded as instalments of advance towards that comparative perfection4 ,in regard to the relations of the sexes and the virtue of purity this must be peculiarly the case4 ,for though chastity has been safeguarded by almost all nations up to a certain low point1 it has never been really cherished by any naturalistic system4 ,nor has it ever been favoured by mere humanism4#aae ,consequently there is no point of morals in regard to which man has more conspicuously failed to work out the merely animal impulse from his nature than in this4 ,and yet1 for all the higher ends of life1 as well as for the prosperity and vigour of mankind1 purity in the sexual relations is entirely vital4 ,one great cause of the decay of nations1 nay1 even of civilisations1 has been the abandonment of this virtue4 ,this was the main cause of the destruction of the ,canaanites4 ,it may even be said to have been the cause of the wreck of the whole ancient world4 ,we should consequently measure what the ,mosaic influence did for purity of life1 not by comparing early ,israelite laws with what has been accomplished by ,christianity1 but with the condition of the ,semitic peoples surrounding ,israel1 in and after the ,mosaic times4 #aae ,cf4 ,renan1 ,philosophic ,dialogues1 iii4 p4 #bf3 ,la nature a intrt ce que la femme soit chaste et ce que l'homme ne le soit pas trop4 ,de l un ensemble d'opinions qui couvre d'infamie la femme non chaste1 et frappe presque de ridicule l'homme chaste4 ,et l'opinion quand elle est profonde1 obstine1 c'est la nature mme4 ,what that was we know4 ,their religions1 far from discouraging sexual immorality1 made it a part of their holiest rites4 ,both men and women gave themselves up to natural and unnatural lusts1 in honour of their gods4 ,to the north1 and south1 and east1 and west of ,israel these practices prevailed1 and as a natural result the moral fabric of these nations' life fell into utter ruin4 ,in private life adultery1 and the still more degrading sin of ,sodom were common4 ,the man had a right to indiscriminate divorce and remarriage1 and marriage connections now reckoned incestuous1 such as those between brother and sister1 were entirely approved4 ,in all these points ,israel as a nation was without reproach4 ,the higher teaching this people had received in respect to the character of ,god1 and it may be some reminiscence of ,egyptian custom1 which was in some respects purer than that of the ,semitic peoples1 raised them to a higher level4 ,yet in the main the early ,israelite view of women was fundamentally the uncivilised one4 ,but at all periods of ,israelite history1 even the earliest1 women had asserted their personality4 ,in the eye of the law they might be the chattels of their male relatives1 but as a fact they were dealt with as persons1 with many personal rights4 ,they had no independent position in the community1 it is true4 ,they could take no part in a festival so important as the ,passover1 nor were they free to make vows without the consent of their husbands4 ,in other ways also social restraints were laid upon them4 ,nevertheless their position in early ,israel was much higher than it is in the ,east to-day1 and their liberty was in no wise unreasonably abridged4 ,in ,david's day women could appear in public to converse with men without scandal4#aaf ,they also took part in religious festivals and processions1 giving life to them by beating their timbrels1 by singing1 and by dancing4#aag ,they could be present also at all ordinary sacrifices and at sacrificial feasts2 and1 as we see in the case of ,deborah and others1 they could occupy a high1 almost a supreme1 position as prophetesses4 ,in the main1 too1 the relations between husband and wife were loving and respectful1 and in ,israel's best days1 when the people still remained landed yeomanry1 the wife1 by her industry within the house1 supplemented and completed her husband's labour in the fields4 ,the ,israelite woman was consequently a very important person in the community1 whatever her status in law might be2 and if she had not the full rights which are now granted to her sex in ,western and ,christian lands1 her position was for the times a noble and independent one4 ,that all this was so was largely due to the improvements which ,mosaism wrought on the basis of that ancient ,semitic custom which we sketched at the beginning of this chapter1 and with which it seems natural to suppose the ,israelite tribes had also begun4 #aaf ,cf4 #a ,sam4 xxv4 #ah ff2 #b ,sam4 xiv4 #a ff4 #aag ,cf4 ,exod4 xv4 and #a ,sam4 xviii4 #f f4 ,bearing these preliminary considerations in mind1 we now go on to consider the actual legislation in regard to the relations of the sexes4 ,but here we must once more recall the fact that1 in regard to all matters vitally affecting the community1 there had always been a custom1 and even before written law appears that custom had been adopted and modified in ,yahwism by ,moses himself4 ,that this was actually the case here is rendered highly probable by the history of legislation in this matter4 ,in the ,book of the ,covenant there is no mention of sexual sin1 save in one passage 7,exod4 xxii4 #af71 where the penalty for seduction of a virgin who is not betrothed is that the seducer shall offer a mohar for her1 and marry her without possibility of divorce1 if her father consent4 ,if he will not1 then the mohar is forfeited to the father nevertheless1 as compensation for the degradation of his daughter4 ,but it is obvious that there must have been laws or customs regulating marriage other than this1 for without them there could have been no such crime as is here punished4 ,obviously1 also1 there must have been laws or customs of divorce4 ,but of what these laws of marriage and divorce were ,exodus gives us no hint4 ,deuteronomy1 the next code1 which on the critical hypothesis arose at a much later time as a revision of the ,book of the ,covenant1 contains much more1 i4e4 it draws out of the obscurity of unwritten custom a more extensive series of provisions in regard to purity4 ,the ,law of ,holiness then adds largely to ,deuteronomy1 and with it the main points of the law of purity have attained to written expression4 ,but the influence of the higher standard set in the ,decalogue also makes itself felt1--not in the law so much as in the historic books and the prophets--and our task now is to trace out first the legal development1 then the prophetical1 and to show how the whole movement culminated and was crowned in the teaching of ,christ4 ,beginning then with ,deuteronomy1 we find that the chastity of women was surrounded by ample safeguards4 ,religious prostitution was absolutely prohibited 7,deut4 xxiii4 #ah74 ,further1 if any violence was done to a woman who had been betrothed1 the punishment of the wrong was death2 if done to a woman who was not betrothed1 the wrong was atoned for by payment of fifty shekels of silver to her father1 and by offering marriage without possibility of divorce4 ,if marriage was refused1 then the fifty shekels was retained by the father in consideration of the wrong done him4 ,when the woman was a sharer in the guilt the punishment in all cases was death2 while pre-nuptial unchastity1 when discovered after marriage1 was punished1 as adultery also was1 with the same severity4#aah ,in women who were free1 therefore1 purity was demanded in ,israel as strenuously as it ever has been anywhere1 though in man the only limit to sexual indulgence was the demand1 that in seeking it he should not infringe upon the father's property in his daughter1 or the husband's in his wife or his betrothed bride4 #aah ,chap4 xxii4 #ac-ah4 ,admittedly the original underlying motive for this moral severity was a low one1 the mere proprietary rights of the father or husband4 ,but it would be a mistake to suppose that purely ethical and religious motives had no place in establishing the customs or enactments which we find in ,deuteronomy4 ,with the lapse of time higher motives entwined themselves with the coarse strand of personal proprietary interest1 which had originally1 though perhaps never alone1 been the line of limitation4 ,gradually there grew up a standard of higher purity2 and when ,deuteronomy was written1 though the original line was still clearly visible1 it was justified by appeals to a moral sense which reached far beyond the original motives of the customary law4 ,the continually recurring burden of ,deuteronomy in dealing with these matters is that to work folly in ,israel is a crime for which only the severest punishment can atone4 ,to extinguish the evil from ,israel1 and to put away such things as were abominations to ,yahweh their ,god1 are the great reasons on which the writer of ,deuteronomy founds the claim for obedience in these cases4 ,obviously1 therefore1 by his time1 under the teaching of the religion of ,yahweh1 ,israel had risen to a moral height which took account of graver interests than the rights of property in legislating for female purity4 ,the cases included in the law had been determined by considerations of that kind2 but the sanctions by which the commands were buttressed had entirely changed their character4 ,the holiness of ,god and the dignity of man1 the consideration of what alone was worthy of a son of ,israel1 have taken the place of the coarser sanctions4 ,in this way a possibility of unlimited moral progress was secured1 since the cause of purity was indissolubly bound to the general and irresistible advance of religious and moral enlightenment in the chosen people4 ,moreover the personality of the woman was acknowledged in the entire acquittal of the betrothed woman who had been exposed to outrage in the country1 where her cries could bring no help4 ,in the earliest times most probably the punishment of death would have been inflicted equally in that case1 since the husband's property had been deteriorated to such a degree as to make it unworthy of him4 ,but in the ,deuteronomic provision quite other things are drawn into the estimate4 ,the moral guilt of the person concerned is now the decisive consideration4 ,the woman has ceased to be a mere chattel1 and the full claims of her personality are in the way to be recognised4 ,these were great advances1 and for these it is vain to seek for other causes than the persistent upward pressure of the ,mosaic religion4 ,the moral superiority of ,israel at the time of the conquest over the much more cultured ,canaanites1 as also over the nomadic tribes to which they were more nearly related1 is due1 as ,stade says1 ultimately to their religion2 and no reader of the ,old ,testament1 in our time at least1 can fail to see that their moral progress in the land they conquered depended entirely upon the same cause4 ,at the ,deuteronomic epoch purity had already been placed upon a worthy basis1 as a moral achievement of the first importance1 and impurity had taken its proper place as a degrading sin4 ,but much still remained to be done before these principles could be extended into all domains of life equally4 ,how far they had penetrated in early times may perhaps best be seen in the ,deuteronomic references to divorce4 ,before ,deuteronomy there is no law of divorce1 nor indeed is there any after it4 ,we may perhaps even say that there is in it not so much the statement of a law of divorce1 as a reference to custom which the writer wishes to correct or reinforce in one particular respect only4 ,notwithstanding the ,jewish view1 therefore1 which finds in ,deut4 xxiv4 #a-d a divorce law1 we must adduce the passage as a new and striking proof of what we have all along asserted1 that neither ,deuteronomy nor any other of the legal codes can be taken as complete statements of what was legally permitted or forbidden in ,israel4 ,behind all of them there is a vast mass of unwritten customary law1 and divorce was doubtless always determined by it4 ,that this was the case will be seen at once if the passage we are now concerned with be rightly translated4 ,it runs thus3 ,when a man taketh a wife and marrieth her1 and it shall be 7if she find no favour in his eyes1 because he hath found in her some unseemly thing7 that he writeth her a bill of divorcement1 and giveth it into her hand1 and sendeth her out of his house1 and she go forth out of his house and goeth and becometh the wife of another man1 and if the latter husband also hate her1 and write her a bill of divorcement1 and give it in her hand and send her out of his house1 or if the latter husband die who took her to him to wife1 then her former husband who sent her away may not take her again to be his wife after that she has permitted herself to be defiled4 ,all the passage provides for1 therefore1 is that a divorced woman shall not be remarried to the divorcing man after she has been married again1 even though she be separated from her second husband by divorce or death4 ,there is consequently no law of divorce here stated4 ,there is merely a reference to a general law or custom by which divorce was permitted for any unseemly thing1 and according to which a chief wife at any rate could be divorced only by a bill of divorcement1 and not by mere word of mouth1 as is common in many ,eastern lands to-day4 ,mosaic influence may have procured this last slight increase in rigour1 and ,deuteronomy certainly adds three other restrictions1 viz4 that after remarriage a woman cannot be again married to her first husband1 and that pre-nuptial wrong done to a woman by her husband1 or a false accusation by him after marriage1 takes away his right of divorce altogether4 ,but the woman has no right of divorce at all1 so firmly fixed throughout all ,old ,testament time was the belief in the inferiority of women4 ,on the whole1 therefore1 divorce in ,israel remained1 after the law had dealt with it1 much on the level to which the tribal customs had brought it4 ,so far as the legislation dealt with it1 it tended to restriction2 but when all is said it remains true that the ,israelite law of divorce was in the main much what it would have been had there been no revelation4 ,but the spirit of the religion of ,yahweh was against laxity in this matter1 and this more rigorous feeling finds expression in the evident distaste for the remarriage of a divorced woman which is expressed in ,deut4 xxiv4 #d4 ,remarriage is not forbidden2 but the woman who remarries is spoken of as one who has let herself be defiled4 ,no such expression could have been used1 had not remarriage after divorce been looked upon as something which detracted from perfect feminine purity4 ,the legislator evidently regarded it as the higher way for a divorced woman to remain unmarried so long at least as the divorcing husband lived4 ,if she remained so1 the possibility of reunion was always kept open1 and the law evidently looked upon the ultimate annulment of the divorce as the course which was most consonant with the ideal of marriage4 ,it is thus clearly seen how our ,lord's statement 7,matt4 xix4 #h7--,moses because of the hardness of your hearts suffered you to put away your wives1 but from the beginning it hath not been so--is true4 ,and when we leave the law and come to history and prophecy1 we find this view to have been a prevalent one from early times4 ,in one of the earliest connected historical narratives1 that of ,j 7,gen4 ii4 #bd71 the union of husband and wife is said to be so peculiarly intimate that it makes them one body1 so that separation is equivalent to mutilation4 ,and the prophets remain true to this conception of marriage1 as the one which fitted best into their deeper and loftier views of morality4 ,from ,hosea onwards#aai they represent the indissoluble bond between ,yahweh and ,his people as a marriage relation1 founded on free choice and unchangeable love4 ,the possibility of divorce is no doubt often admitted1 and the conduct of ,israel is represented as justifying that course4 ,but the prophetic message always is that the love of ,god will never permit ,him to put away ,his people2 and the people are often addressed as faithless and faint-hearted1 because they yield to the temptation of believing that ,he has cast them off 7,isa4 l4 #a74 ,evidently1 therefore1 the prophetic ideal of marriage was that it should be indissoluble1 that it should be founded upon free mutual love1 and that such a love should make it impossible for either husband or wife to give the other up1 however desperate the errors of the guilty one might have been4 #aai ,hosea ii4 #ai4 ,perhaps the finest expression of this view occurs in ,isa4 liv41 in the exhortation addressed to exiled ,israel and beginning ,sing1 ,o barren1 thou that didst not bear4 ,there the ideal ,israel is urged to lay aside all her fears with this assurance3 ,for thy ,maker is thine husband2 ,yahweh of ,hosts is ,his name3 and thy ,redeemer1 the ,holy ,one of ,israel1 the ,god of the whole earth shall ,he be called4 ,for ,yahweh hath called thee as a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit2 how can a wife of youth be rejected8 saith thy ,god4 ,the full meaning of this last touching question has been well brought out by ,prof4 ,cheyne 7,isaiah1 ii41 p4 #ee73 ,even many an earthly husband 7how much more then ,yahweh67 cannot bear to see the misery of his divorced wife1 and therefore at length recalls her2 and when his wife is one who has been wooed and won in youth1 how impossible is it for her to be absolutely dismissed4 ,the rising tide of prophetic feeling on this subject culminates in the pathetic scene depicted by ,malachi1 who in chap4 ii4 #ab ff4 reproves his people for their cruel and frivolous use of divorce4 ,drawn away by love of idolatrous women1 they had divorced their ,hebrew wives2 and these in their misery crowded the ,temple1 covering the altar of ,yahweh with tears and weeping and sobbing1 till ,he could endure it no more4 ,he had been witness of the covenant made between each of these men and the wife of his youth2 yet they had broken this ,divinely sanctioned bond4 ,he therefore warns them to take heed1 for ,yahweh the ,god of ,israel saith1 ,i hate putting away1 and him who covers his garment with violence4 ,the ,rabbinic interpreters1 not being minded to give up the privilege of divorce1 have wrested these words into for ,yahweh the ,god of ,israel saith1 ,if he hate her put her away4 ,but1 so wrested1 the words bring down the whole context in one ruin4 ,they are intelligible only if they denounce divorce1 and in this sense they must undoubtedly be taken4 ,there remains for consideration1 however1 a marriage which the ,deuteronomist permits1 which seems to run counter to all the finer feelings and instincts of his later time4 ,it is dealt with in chap4 xxv4 #e-aj1 and is notable because it is a clear breach of the definite rule that a man should not marry his deceased brother's wife4 ,but it will be obvious at once that the permission of this marriage stands upon quite a different footing from the prohibition4 ,it is permitted only in a special case for definite ends2 and while the sanction of the prohibition is the infliction of childlessness 7,lev4 xx4 #ba71 the man who refuses to enter upon marriage with his deceased brother's wife is punished only by being put to shame by her before the elders of his city4 ,we have not here1 therefore1 a law in the strict sense4 ,it is only a recognition of a very ancient custom which is not yet abolished1 though evidently public feeling was beginning to make light of the obligation4 ,its place in the twenty-fifth chapter1 away from the marriage laws 7which are given in xxi4 #aj ff41 xxii4 #ac ff41 and xxiv4 #a-d71 and among duties of kindness1 seems to hint this1 and we may consequently take the law as a concession4 ,that the custom was ancient in the time of ,deuteronomy may be gathered from the fact that in ,hebrew there is a special technical term1 yibbm1 for entering on such a marriage4 ,the probability is1 indeed1 that levirate marriage was a pre-,mosaic custom connected with ancestor-worship4 ,it certainly is practised by many other races1 e4g4 the ,hindus and ,persians1 whose religions can be traced to that source4 ,under that system1 it was necessary that the male line of descent should be kept up in order that the ancestral sacrifices might be continued1 and to bear the expense of this the property of the brother dying childless was jealously preserved4 ,in ,india1 at present1 both purposes are served by adoption1 either by the childless man or by the widow4 ,in earlier times1 when fatherhood was to a large extent a merely juridical relationship1#abj when1 that is to say1 it was a common thing for a man to accept as his son any child born of women under his control1 whether he were the father or not1 the same end was also attained by this marriage4#aba ,originating in this way1 the practice was carried over into the ,israelite social life when it changed its form1 and the motives for it were then brought into line with the new and higher religion4 ,the motive of keeping alive the name and memory of the childless man was substituted for that of securing the continuance of his worship2 and the purpose of securing the permanence of property1 landed property especially1 in each household1 was substituted for that of supplying means for the sacrifice4 ,later1 the motive connected with the transmission of property possibly became the main one4 ,for1 since the levirate marriage came in1 according to the strict wording of our passage1 whenever a man died without a son1 whether he had daughters or not1 this marriage would seem to have been an alternative means of keeping the property in the family to that of letting the daughters inherit4#abb ,but the spirit of the higher religion1 as well as a more advanced civilisation1 was unfavourable to it4 ,the custom evidently was withering when ,deuteronomy was written1 though in ,judaism it was not disallowed till post-,talmudic times4 #abj ,the ,primitive ,family1 ,starcke1 p4 #ada4 #aba ,indeed in ,india it was not only the widow of the childless man who might bear him a son whose real father was a near relation1 but his childless wife also4--,maine1 ,early ,law1 p4 #ajb4 #abb ,that the latter course may in some cases have been unpopular with the sonless man's nearest kin is clear1 since under it the inheritance must be divided1 and it might pass to remoter connections1 though not beyond the tribe4 ,the nearer relations would1 therefore1 probably prefer that their brother's property should be kept intact and be transmitted with his name1 and this ancient custom1 sanctioned and modified by ,mosaism1 would give them that choice4 ,the impression1 therefore1 which the laws and customs regulating the relations of men and women in ,israel give to the candid student must be pronounced to be a strangely mixed one4 ,it would probably not be too much to say that it is at first a deeply disappointing one4 ,we have been accustomed to fill all the ,old ,testament utterances on this subject with the suffused light of ,gospel precept and example1 till we have lost sight of the lower elements undeniably present in the ,old ,testament laws and ideas concerning purity4 ,but that is no longer possible4 ,whether of enmity or of zeal for the truth1 these less worthy elements have been dragged forth into the broad light of day1 and in that light we are called upon to readjust our thoughts so as to accept and account for them4 ,evidently at the beginning the ,israelite tribes accepted the uncivilised idea of woman4 ,on that as a basis1 however1 customs and laws regarding chastity1 marriage and divorce were adopted1 which transcended and passed beyond that fundamental idea4 ,the moral complicity of woman1 or her innocence1 in cases where her chastity had been attacked1 came to be taken into account4 ,polygamy1 though never forbidden1 received grievous wounds from prophets and others of the sacred writers2 and as marriage with one became more and more the ideal1 the higher teachers of the people kept the indissolubleness of marriage before the public mind1 till ,malachi denounced divorce in ,yahweh's name4 ,in regard to the bars to marriage there was little change1 probably1 from the days of ,moses2 but the old family rules were reinforced by a deep and delicate regard for even the less palpable affections and relations which grew up in the home4 ,the final attainment1 therefore1 was great and worthy enough2 but the cruder and less refined ideas1 which had been inherited from pre-,mosaic custom1 always make themselves felt1 and have even dominated some of the laws4 ,they dominated1 even more1 the practice of the people and the theory of the scribes2 so that on the very eve of ,his coming who was to proclaim decisively the indissolubility of marriage1 the great ,jewish schools were wrangling whether mere caprice1 or some immodesty only1 could justify divorce4 ,nevertheless the ,decalogue1 with its deep and broad command1 culminating in prohibition even of inward evil desire1 had always had its own influence4 ,the teachings of the prophets1 which breathe passionate hatred of impurity1 had taught all men of good-will in ,israel that the wrath of ,god surely burned against it4 ,but the stamp of imperfection was upon ,old ,testament teaching here as elsewhere4 ,like the ,messianic hope1 like the future of ,israel1 like all ,israel's greatest destinies1 the promise of a higher life in this respect was darkened by the inconsistencies of general practice2 and uncertainty prevailed as to the direction in which men were to look for the harmonious development of the higher potencies which were making their presence felt4 ,it was in them rather than in the law1 in the ideals rather than in the practice of the people1 that the hidden power was silently doing its regenerating work4 ,the religion of ,yahweh in its central content1 surrounded all laws and institutions with an atmosphere which challenged and furthered growth of every wholesome kind4 ,the axe and hammer of the legislative builder was rarely heard at work2 but in the silence which seems to some so barren1 there slowly grew a fabric of moral and spiritual ideas and aspirations1 which needed only the coming of ,christ to make it the permanent home of all morally earnest souls4 ,with ,him all that the past generations had willed1 or hoped1 or dreamed of good came actually to exist4 ,he made what had been aspiration only the basis of an actual ,kingdom of ,god4 ,as one of its primary moral foundations ,he laid down the radical indissolubility of marriage1 and made visible to all men the breadth of the law given in the ,decalogue by forbidding even wandering desires4 ,in doing this ,he completely surpassed all ,old ,testament teaching1 and set up a standard which ,christian communities as such have held to hitherto1 but which from lack of elevation and earnestness they seem inclined in these days to let slip4 ,that such a standard was ever set up was the work of a ,divine revelation of a perfectly unique kind1 working through long ages of upward movement4 ,humanity has been dragged upwards to it most unwillingly4 ,men have found difficulty in living at that height1 and nothing is easier than to throw away all the gain of these many centuries4 ,all that is needed is a plunge or two downwards4 ,but if ever these plunges are taken1 the long1 slow effort upwards will only have to be begun again1 if family life is to be firmly established1 and purity is to become a permanent possession of men4 ,,chapter ,,xxiii ,,laws ,,of ,,kindness ,with the commands we now have to consider1 we leave altogether the region of strict law1 and enter entirely upon that of aspiration and of feeling4 ,kindness1 by its very nature1 eludes the rude compulsion of law1 properly so called4 ,it ceases to be kindness when it loses spontaneity and freedom4 ,precept1 therefore1 not law1 is the utmost that any lawgiver can give in respect to it2 and this is precisely what we have in ,deuteronomy1 so far as it endeavours to incite men to gentleness1 goodness1 and courtesy to one another4 ,the author gives his people an ideal of what they ought to be in these respects1 and presses it home upon them with the heartfelt earnestness which distinguishes him4 ,that is all2 but yet1 if we are to do justice to him as a lawgiver1 we must consider and estimate the moral value of these precepts2 for1 properly speaking1 they are the flower of his legal principles1 and they reveal in detail1 and therefore1 for the average man1 most impressively1 the spirit in which his whole legislation was conceived4 ,in the abstract no doubt he had told us that love--love to ,yahweh--was to be the fundamental thing1 and we have seen how deep and wide-reaching that announcement was4 ,but a review of the precepts which indicate how he conceived that love to ,god should affect men's relations with men1 will give that general principle a definiteness and a concreteness more impressive than a thousand homilies4 ,for the conception that a relation of love is the only fit relation between man and ,god1 could not1 if it were sincerely taken up1 fail to throw light upon men's true relations to each other4 ,consequently the great declaration of the sixth chapter was bound to re-echo in the precepts to guide conduct1 giving new sanctity and breadth to all man's duty to his fellows4 ,of course the risk of great failure was nigh at hand3 for men may be intellectually convinced that love is the element in which life ought to be lived1 and may proclaim it1 who are far from being actually penetrated and filled with love1 tested and increased by communion with ,god4 ,as a result1 much talk about love and kindly human duty has fallen with but little impulsive power upon the hearts of men4 ,when1 however1 it is felt to be the expression of a present experience1 such exhortation has power to move men as no other words can do4 ,and the author of ,deuteronomy was one of those who had this divinely given secret4 ,in all parts of his book you find his words becoming winged with power1 wherever love to ,god and man is even remotely touched upon4 ,if our hypothesis as to the age in which he lived and wrote be correct1 his must have been one of those high and rare natures which are not embittered by persecution or contemptuous neglect4 ,long before our ,lord had spoken ,his decisive words on our duty to our neighbour1 or ,st4 ,paul had written his great hymn to love1 this man of ,god had been chosen to feel the truth1 and had suffused his book with it1 so that the only principle which can be recognised as binding together all his precepts is the central principle of the ,new ,testament4 ,of course that made his ideal too high for present realisation2 but he gained more than he lost2 for1 from ,jeremiah and ,josiah downwards through the years1 all the noblest of his people responded to him4 ,the splendour of his thought cast reflections upon their minds1 and these glowed and shone amid the meaner lights which ,pharisaism kindled and cherished1 till ,he came whose right it was to reign4 ,then ,deuteronomy's true rank was seen2 for from it ,christ took the answers by which ,he repelled ,satan in the temptation1 and from it1 too1 ,he took that commandment which ,he called the first and greatest4 ,of course the humanity of the book had not1 in expression at least1 the imperial sweep of ,christian brotherhood which makes all men equal1 so that for it there is neither ,jew nor ,gentile1 neither wise nor unwise1 neither male nor female1 neither bond nor free4 ,but all the chosen people are included in its sympathy2 and in this field1 without undue interference with private life1 the author sets forth by specimen cases how the fraternal feeling should manifest itself in loving1 neighbourly kindness4 ,as these laws or precepts of kindness are not systematically arranged1 it will be necessary to group them1 and we shall take first those in which it is prescribed that injury to others should be avoided4 ,of course criminal wrongs are not dealt with here4 ,they have already been forbidden in the strictly legal portions of the book1 and penalties have been attached to them4 ,but in the region beyond law1 there are many acts in which the difference between a good1 and kindly1 and sympathetic man1 and a morose1 and sullen1 and unkindly one1 can be even more clearly seen4 ,in that region ,deuteronomy is unmistakably on the side of sympathy4 ,the poor1 the slave1 the helpless should1 it teaches1 be objects of special care to the true son of ,israel4 ,they should be treated1 it shows1 with a generous perception of the peculiar difficulties of their lot2 and pressure upon them at these special points where their lot is hard should be abhorrent to every ,israelite4 ,the first in order of the precepts which we are considering 7chap4 xxii4 v4 #h7--,when thou buildest a new house1 then thou shalt make a railing for thy roof1 that thou bring not blood upon thine house1 if any man fall from thence--reveals the fatherly and loving temper which it is the author's delight to attribute to ,yahweh4 ,as earthly parents guard their children from accidents and dangers1 so ,yahweh thinks of possible danger to the lives of ,his people1 and calls for even minute precautions4 ,the habit of sitting and sleeping upon the flat roofs of the houses has always been1 and is now1 prevalent in the ,east4 ,many accidents take place through this habit4 ,in recent years ,emin ,pasha1 who ruled so long at ,wadelai1 nearly lost his life by one2 and here the house-owner is required in ,yahweh's name to minimise that danger1 that he bring not blood upon his house4 ,the life of each one of ,yahweh's people is precious to ,him2 therefore it is that ,he will have them to guard one another4 ,this is the principle which runs through all these precepts4 ,in the sphere of ritual and religion the ,deuteronomist does not transcend ,old ,testament conditions4 ,for him as for others it is the nation which is the unit4 ,but in the region now before us he virtually goes beyond that limitation1 and emphasises the care of ,yahweh for the individual1 just as in the demand for love to ,god he had already made ,israel's relation to their ,god depend upon each man's personal attitude4 ,the thought that the ,divine care was exerted over even such a set of paltry ill-given animalcules as himself and his nation were1 according to ,carlyle's phrase1 does not stagger him as it staggered ,frederick the ,great4 ,in matters like these1 the unsophisticated religion of the ,old ,testament is most helpful to us to-day4 ,we have analysed1 and refined1 and dimmed all things into abstractions1 ,god and man among the rest4 ,the fearless simplicity of the ,old ,testament restores us to ourselves1 and pours fresh blood into the veins of our religion4 ,no faith in ,god as the living orderer of all the circumstances of our lives can be too strong or too detailed4 ,the stronger and more definite it becomes1 the nearer will it approach the truth4 ,only one danger can threaten us on that line1 the danger of taking all our own plans and desires for the ,divinely appointed path for us4 ,but most men will by natural humility be saved from that presumption2 and the glad assurance that they are wrapped about with the love of ,god is perhaps the greatest need of ,god's people in their many sceptical and unspiritual hours4 ,we cannot1 therefore1 be surprised that1 in connection with debts and pledges for payment1 the same kindness in the ,divine commands should be observable4 ,as usury was forbidden in ,israel1 and precautions against excessive indebtedness were exceedingly elaborate1 the possibilities of oppression in connection with debt in ,israel were much more limited than in most ancient communities4 ,nevertheless there was here a region of life in which great wrongs could still be done by a harsh and unscrupulous creditor4 ,in order that the creditor might have some security for what he had lent1 it was permitted to receive and give pledges4 ,the precepts regarding these are contained in chap1 xxiv41 vv4 #f1 #aj ff4 and #ag1 and express a considerate brotherly spirit1 for which it would be hard to find a parallel either in ancient or modern times4 ,the creditor who has taken a poor man's upper garment as a pledge is commanded1 both in the ,book of the ,covenant and in ,deuteronomy1 to restore the garment to its owner in the evening1 that he may sleep in it4 ,in ,palestine for much of the year the nights are cold enough1 and the poor man has no covering save his ordinary clothes4 ,to deprive him of these1 therefore1 is to inflict punishment upon him1 whereas all that should be aimed at is the creditor's security4 ,this was peculiarly offensive to ,israelite feeling1 as we see from the mention in ,amos ii4 #h of the breach of this prescription as one of the sins for which ,yahweh would not turn away ,israel's punishment4 ,further1 in no case was a widow's garment to be taken in pledge1 nor the handmill used for preparing the daily flour1 for that is taking life in pledge1 as the ,deuteronomist says with the feeling for the conditions of the poor man's life which he always shows4 ,but the crown of all this kindness is found in the beautiful tenth verse3 ,when thou dost lend thy neighbour any manner of loan1 thou shalt not go into his house to fetch his pledge thou shalt stand without1 and the man to whom thou dost lend shall bring forth the pledge without unto thee4 ,not only does ,yahweh care for external and physical pain1 ,he sympathises with those deeper wrongs and pains which may hurt a man's feelings4 ,if a pledge to satisfy the lender had to be given1 scruples of delicacy on the part of the borrower would appear to the practical man1 as he would call himself1 contemptibly misplaced4 ,if the man's feelings were so very superfine1 why did he borrow8 ,but the author of ,deuteronomy knew the heart of ,god better4 ,with the fine tact of a man of ,god1 he knew how even the well-meaning rich man's amused contempt for the poor man's few household treasures1 would cut like a whip1 and he knew that ,yahweh1 who was very pitiful and of tender mercy1 would desire no son of ,israel to be exposed to it4 ,he knew1 too1 how human greed might dispose the lender to seize upon the thing of greatest value in the poor house1 whether its price was in excess of the loan or not4 ,finally1 he knew how it deteriorates the poor to be dealt with in an unceremonious1 tactless way even by the benevolent4 ,and in the name and with the authority of ,god he forbids it4 ,the poor man's home1 the home of the man whom we desire to help especially1 is to be sacred4 ,in our dealing with him of all men the finest courtesy is to be brought into play4 ,just because he needs our help1 we are to stand on points of ceremony with him1 which we might dispense with in dealing with friends and equals4 ,thou shalt stand without1 unless he asks thee to enter2 and thou shalt show thereby1 in a deeper way than any gifts or loans can show1 that the fraternal tie is acknowledged and reverenced4 ,in two other precepts the same delicate regard for the finer feelings finds expression4 ,in the fifth verse it is commanded that ,when a man taketh a new wife1 he shall not go out in the host1 neither shall he be charged with any business3 he shall be free at home one year1 and shall cheer his wife that he hath taken4 ,the strangeness and loneliness which everywhere make themselves felt as a formidable drawback to a young wife's joy1 and which in a polygamous family1 where jealousies are bitter1 must often have reached the point of being intolerable1 are provided for4 ,in chap4 xxv4 #a-c again1 which deals with the punishment of criminals by beating1 it is provided that in no case shall the number of blows exceed forty1 and that they shall be given in the presence of the judge4 ,this in itself was a measure of humanity1 but the reason given for the direction is greatly more humane4 ,forty stripes he may give him1 says ver4 #c2 he shall not exceed2 lest1 if he should exceed1 and beat him above these with many stripes1 then thy brother should seem vile unto thee4 ,even in the case of the criminal care is to be taken that he be not made an object of contempt4 ,punishment has gone beyond its true aim when it makes a man seem vile unto his neighbours by attacking his dignity as a man2 for that should be inalienable even in a criminal4 ,a man may have all his material wants satisfied1 and yet be sorely vexed and injured4 ,god sympathises with these hurts of the soul1 and defends ,his people against them4 ,after the lovingkindness of these commands1 it seems almost needless to say that the smaller social wrongs which men may inflict upon each other are sternly forbidden4 ,often1 the rich from want of thought about the life of the poor carelessly do them wrong4 ,such a case is that dealt within chap4 xxiv4 #ad f43 ,thou shalt not oppress an hired servant that is poor and needy1 whether he be of thy brethren1 or of thy strangers 7gerim7 that are in thy land within thy gates3 in his day thou shalt give him his hire1 neither shall the sun go down upon it2 for he is poor1 and setteth his heart upon it3 lest he cry against thee unto ,yahweh1 and it be sin unto thee4 ,the same command is given in ,lev4 xix4 #ac1 and ,dillmann is probably right in regarding this as a ,deuteronomic repetition of that1 since there the precept forms part of a pentade of commands dealing with similar things1 while here it stands alone4 ,from early times1 therefore1 ,yahweh had revealed ,himself as considering the poor and the necessities of their position4 ,further1 the poor man or the wayfarer was permitted to satisfy his hunger by taking fruit or grain in his hands as he passed through the fields4 ,no one was to die of starvation if the fields were yielding meat4 ,last of all1 estrangement between brethren1 i4e4 all ,israelites1 was not to free them from duties of neighbourly love4 ,if a man find a stray ox or sheep or ass1 or a garment or any other lost thing1 he is not to leave it where he finds it4 ,he is to restore it to the owner2 and if the owner is unknown or too far off1 the finder is to keep that which he has found till it is inquired after4 ,then if he see his brother's1 i4e4 his neighbour's1 ass or ox fallen by the way1 he must not pass by1 but must help the owner to set it on its feet again4 ,that an estranged brother was especially in view is shown by the fact that in the parallel passage 7,exod4 xxiii4 #d7 thine enemy's ox and the ass of him that hateth thee are mentioned4 ,now1 we have called these precepts and provisions the flower and blossom of the ,deuteronomic legislation1 because they reveal in their greatest perfection that sympathy with the commonest and the innermost cares of men which is the moving impulse of it all4 ,but they reveal more than that4 ,they show that already in those far-off days the secret of ,god's love to man had been made known4 ,its universality so far as ,israel was concerned1 its penetrative sympathy1 its quality of regarding no human interest as outside its scope1 its superhuman impartiality--all are here4 ,they are not of course present in their full sweep and power1 as ,christ made them known4 ,outside of ,israel there were the ,gentiles1 who had a share only in the uncovenanted mercies of ,god2 and even among the chosen people there were the slaves and the strangers1 who had a comparatively insecure relation to ,him4 ,further1 the thought of the self-sacrifice of ,god1 though soon to have its dawning in the later chapters of ,isaiah1 was not as yet an appreciable element in the ,israelite theology4 ,nevertheless the passages we have been considering throw a light upon social duty1 as seen by this inspired servant of ,god1 which puts to shame the state of the ,christian mind on these subjects even now4 ,the great principles underlying right relations between men of different social status are1 according to these precepts1 courtesy and consideration4 ,now it is precisely the want of these which lies at the root of the bitterness which is so alarming a symptom of our social state at present4 ,there is not1 we are willing to believe1 much of intentional1 deliberate oppression exercised by the strong upon the weak4 ,the injustice that is done is probably inherent in the present social system1 for the character of which no one living is responsible4 ,but one reason why reform comes so slowly1 and why patience till it can come dies out among the masses of men1 is that the employing classes1 and those who have inherited privileges1 often convey to those they employ the impression that they are beyond the pale of the courtesies which are recognised as binding between men of the same class4 ,often without intending it1 their manner when they are approached by those they employ1 their short and half-aggrieved replies1 reveal to the latter that they are regarded much more as parts of the machinery1 than as men who might naturally be expected to claim1 and who have a right to1 the recognition of their rights as men4 ,of course there are excuses4 ,there is the long tradition of subordination to arbitrary power1 from which none in earlier ages of the world have been free4 ,there is the impatience with which a governing and organising mind listens to grievances which it sees either to be inevitable under the circumstances1 or to be compensated by some corresponding privilege1 which stands or falls with the thing complained of4 ,and then there is the absence of outlook1 which is the foible of the directing mind4 ,it is set to rule and make successful a large and intricate business under given circumstances4 ,the more effective such a mind is for practical purposes1 the more thoroughly will it limit itself to working out the problem committed to it4 ,when grievances have to be dealt with which have their root in the present circumstances1 and which imply changes more or less radical in his fixed point if they are to be redressed1 it is hard for the employer to persuade himself that his employees are not merely crying for the moon4 ,if he think so1 he will probably say so2 and working men go away from such interviews with the feeling that it is vain to expect from employers any sympathy for their aspirations towards a better social state1 which yet they cannot give up without a slur upon their manhood4 ,but though these are excuses for the attitude we have been describing1 there can be no question that the fine and delicate courtesy which ,deuteronomy prescribes is indispensable in order to avert class hostility4 ,courtesy cannot1 of course1 change our social state1 and where it works badly evils that produce friction will remain4 ,but the first condition of a successful solution of our difficulties is1 that evil tempers should as far as possible be banished1 and for that purpose courtesy even under provocation is the one sovereign remedy4 ,for it means that you convey to your neighbour that you consider him in all essentials your equal4 ,it means1 too1 that you are willing to recognise his rights and to respect them4 ,though power may be on your side1 and weakness on his1 that will only make it more incumbent upon you to show that mere external circumstances cannot impair your reverence for him as man4 ,if that be sincerely felt1 it opens a way1 otherwise absolutely closed1 to mutual confidence and mutual understanding4 ,these once established1 light on all parts of the social problem 7which1 be it remembered1 employers and employed must solve together if it is to be solved at all7 will break in upon the minds of both classes4 ,in spite of the diversity of their immediate interests1 the ultimate interest of all is the same4 ,if contempt and suspicion were excluded1 eyes which are now holden would be opened1 and a common effort to reach a social state in which all men shall have the opportunity of living lives worthy of men would become possible4 ,if all would learn to treat those of other classes with the courtesy which they constantly show to those of their own1 a great step in the right direction would be taken4 ,men overlook much and forgive much to their fellows when these recognise their equality1 and show that they attach importance to having good relations with them4 ,but much more is to be aimed at than that4 ,the esteem for man as man has great conquests yet to make before even the ,deuteronomic courtesy becomes common4 ,but if these nobler manners are to come in1 then the motives suggested by ,deuteronomy will have to be made effective for our day4 ,what these were it is not difficult to see4 ,they all had their source in the author's own relations and the relations of his people to ,god4 ,each of his brethren of the chosen people was a friend of ,yahweh4 ,there was no difference between ,israelite men before ,him4 ,he had brought them all1 the poor and the weak1 as well as the rich and the strong1 out of the house of bondage2 ,he had guided them all through the wilderness1 and had appointed each household a place in ,his land where full communion with ,him was to be had4 ,he had thought many thoughts about them1 had given them laws and statutes dictated by loving insight1 so as to fill their life with the consciousness that ,yahweh loved them1 condescended to them1 and even allowed ,himself to be made to serve by their sins4 ,whatever else they might be1 they were friends of ,god1 and had a right to respect on that ground4 ,and for us who are ,christians all these motives have been intensified and raised to a higher power4 ,it is not lawful for us to call any man common or unclean4 ,it is not lawful to overwhelm and bear down the minds of others by sheer energy and power4 ,those for whom ,christ died are not to be dealt with save on the worthy plane of moral and spiritual conviction4 ,that is the law of ,christ2 and so long as it is broken in our labour troubles by contemptuous refusal of conference when it can be granted without compromising principle1 or by slighting references to labour leaders and a refusal to meet them1 when leaders of another class would be courteously met1 so long will the bitterness which inevitably springs up trouble us4 ,it is not1 however1 to be supposed that only the rich can sin in this respect4 ,the labour organisations are becoming in many places1 the stronger1#abc and so far they have learned the law of courtesy no better than their opponents4 ,opprobrious epithets and injurious suspicions and accusations are the stock-in-trade of some who lead the labour cause4 ,that is as unworthy in them as it would be in others2 it is not only a crime1 but a blunder4 #abc ,especially in some of the ,southern ,colonies in one of which this exposition is written4 ,but the practice of courtesy does not end with itself4 ,it opens the way for that consideration of the circumstances of the poor which we have found so conspicuous in ,deuteronomy4 ,as we have seen1 ,yahweh's precepts contemplate with the nicest care the unavoidable necessities of the poor man's life4 ,so ,he stirs us to endeavour to realise the conditions of our poorer brethren1 and by doing so to avoid the blunders which well-meaning people make by assuming that the conditions of their own life are the norm4 ,there are vast varieties of circumstance in the world2 and from lack of consideration those more favourably situated excite envies and hatreds the bitterness of which they cannot conceive1 by simply taking it for granted that every one has the same opportunities for recreation1 the same possibilities of rest4 ,to realise clearly what life and death mean to the toiling millions of men2 to see that matters which are small to those who live the materially larger and freer life of the class above them are of vital moment to the poor2 to consider and allow for all such things in their dealings with them1--this is the teaching of ,deuteronomy4 ,hence the command to pay the labourer his wages in the same day4 ,the heart of man responds when this note is struck4 ,in nothing is the story of ,gautama the ,buddha more true to the best instincts of humanity than in this1 that it represents him as making his great renunciation through coming into intimate contact with the pain and misery of ordinary life4#abd ,that gave him insight1 and insight wrought sympathy1 and sympathy transformed him from being a petty prince of ,northern ,india into the consoler and helper of millions in all ,eastern lands4 ,even hopeless pessimism1 when born of sympathy1 has an immense consoling power4 ,much more should the inextinguishable hope given by ,christ1 combined as it is with the same sympathetic insight1 console men and uplift them4 #abd ,buddhism1 by ,t4 ,w4 ,rhys ,davids1 p4 #bi4 ,but the sixteenth verse of chap4 xxiii4 reminds us that in that ancient ,deuteronomic world there were sad limitations to these lofty sympathies and hopes4 ,if intensively ,deuteronomy almost reaches the ,gospel1 extensively it shows the whole difference between ,judaism at its best and ,christianity4 ,below the world of free-born members of the ,israelite community1 to whom the precepts we have hitherto been considering alone apply1 there was the class of slaves1 who in many respects lay beyond the region of the finer charities4 ,the origin of slavery we need not discuss4 ,it was a quite universal feature in all ancient communities1 and was doubtless a step upwards from the custom of destroying all prisoners taken in war4 ,among the ,hebrews it had always been customary2 but in historic times it was not among them the all-important matter it was in ,greek and ,roman polity4 ,had it been so1 it would have been impossible to discuss the economic ideals of ,israel without taking this social feature into consideration first4 ,but slaves were comparatively few in ,israel1 and the slave trade can never have been extensive1 since no slave markets are mentioned in the ,old ,testament4 ,moreover the social state of the country made owners of slaves share in the slaves' work1 and that of itself prevented the growth of the worst abuses4 ,but the most powerful element in making the lot of the slave tolerable was undoubtedly the just and pitiful character of the ,israelite religion4 ,the fundamental position with regard to him was1 however1 the common one3 he was the property of his master4 ,he could be sold1 pledged1 given away as a present1 and inherited1 and could even be sold to foreigners4 ,but a female slave1 if taken as a subordinate wife1 could not be sold1 but only freed if she ceased to occupy that position4 ,exclusive of the ,canaanites1 subject to forced labour1 and the ,nethinim1 the servants of the ,sanctuary1 who occupied much the same place as the servi publici in ,rome1 there were two classes of slaves1 non-,israelites and ,israelites4 ,the ways in which a non-,israelite slave could come into ,israelite hands were just what they were elsewhere4 ,they might be prisoners of war1 they might be purchased from travelling merchants1 they might voluntarily have sold themselves from poverty in a strange land1 or might have been sold for debt1 and finally they might be children born of slaves4 ,their lot was of course the hardest4 ,yet even they were not so entirely unprotected by the law as slaves were among ,greeks and ,romans4 ,they were recognised as men1 having certain general human rights4 ,the master had no right to kill2 and if he maimed his slave he had to give him his freedom1 according to the oldest law 7,exod4 xvi4 #bj f474 ,the law regarding the killing of a slave has often been quoted as singularly harsh1 especially that clause which says that if a slave when fatally smitten lives for some days after the blow1 his death shall not be avenged1 for he is his 7the master's7 money4 ,but it ought1 notwithstanding the harshness of the expression1 to be judged quite otherwise4 ,the fact that death was not immediate was taken to indicate that death was not intended1 and consequently the loss of the slave was thought a sufficient punishment4 ,but the prohibition of the deliberate murder of a slave was a humane provision which could not be paralleled in the ,grco-,roman world4 ,moreover these laws would not seem to have been widely called into action4 ,the humane spirit became so general in ,israel that slaves were generally well treated4 ,in ,prov4 xxix4 #ba over-indulgence to a slave is deprecated1 as if it were a common error2 and during the whole history there is no mention of evils resulting from cruel treatment of slaves1 much less any record of servile insurrection4 ,nor is there very frequent mention even of runaway slaves4 ,on the other hand1 we read of slaves who were stewards of their masters' houses2 others probably were entrusted with the charge of the education of children4 ,in ,deuteronomy we find1 as we should expect1 that the movement towards humanity in dealing with slaves is greatly furthered4 ,in chap4 xxi4 #aj ff4 the hardship of a woman's lot when she was taken captive in war is mitigated with sympathetic insight4 ,to modern women of the ,western world the lot of such an one seems so dreadful that no mitigation of it can make any difference4 ,the current teaching among even religious men is that rather than submit to it a woman is justified in suicide4 ,but in antiquity the personality of woman was undeveloped1 the chances of life constantly passed her from one master to another1 and things intolerable now were tolerable then4 ,making even these allowances1 however1 if we look at the law of the ,old ,testament as being in all its provisions and ab initio ,divine1 it seems impossible to praise it4 ,a law which graciously permitted a captive woman to mourn for her people for a month1 and only then allowed her captor to marry her1 but if he wished afterwards to get rid of her provided that he should not sell her1 but should let her go whither she would1 cannot be said to be in itself compassionate4 ,but1 if the customary law of the ,israelite tribes1 restrained and purified by the higher spirit1 be regarded as the basis of ,old ,testament legislation1 then the leaven of religion and humanity can be seen working nobly1 and in a manner worthy of revelation1 even in such cases as these4 ,long after the ,christian era we see what the ordinary fate of a captive woman was1 in the conduct of ,khalid the sword of the ,lord1 one of the first great ,mohammedan soldiers4 ,when he had captured ,malik ibn ,noweira1 who had resisted ,islam1 along with his wife1 he gave orders which led to ,malik's death1 and the same night he married his widow4#abe ,shortly afterwards1 at the battle of ,yemama1 he demanded the daughter of his captive ,mojda1 and married her1 as the ,caliph wrote in reproof1 whilst the ground beneath the nuptial couch was yet moistened with the blood of twelve hundred4 ,horrors like these ,deuteronomy forbids4 ,the frenzied moments of a captive's first grief are respected1 and some tenderness is shown to woman in a world where her lot at its best had always in it possibilities which cannot now be even thought of with equanimity4 ,the same steady pressure to a nobler form of life is likewise seen in the ,deuteronomic law dealing with the case of a foreign slave who had taken refuge in ,israel 7,deut4 xxiii4 #ae f474 ,in the words1 ,thou shalt not deliver unto his master the slave which is escaped from his master unto thee2 he shall dwell with thee1 in the midst of thee1 in the place which he shall choose within one of thy gates1 where it liketh him best2 thou shalt not oppress him1 we have1 thus early1 the same legislation which it is the peculiar boast of ,england to have introduced into the modern world4 ,slaves cannot breathe in ,england1 and the moment they touch ,british soil in any part of the world they are free4 ,this was the case with the land of ,israel according to the ,deuteronomic conception of what it ought to be4 #abe ,sir ,w4 ,muir1 ,caliphate1 pp4 #bf and #cc4 ,but the highest points of privilege come to the non-,israelite slave in a way which disturbs the modern conscience1 for they came by means of compulsion in religion4 ,in contrast to the day labourer and the ,toshab or sojourner1 the slave must be of his master's religion4 ,for a heathen1 however1 that was not a difficulty4 ,his gods were gods of his land2 and when he left his land and was carried into a foreign country1 he had no scruple about worshipping the god of the new land4 ,a typical case of this is found in the narrative #b ,kings xvii41 where the immigrants whom the king of ,assyria had settled in ,samaria after ,israel had been carried captive besought him to send some one to teach them how to worship ,yahweh4 ,this adoption of the master's religion secured equality of slave and free to a degree which could not otherwise have been attained1 and brought the slaves fully within the humanity of the ,hebrew law4 ,it gave them the ,sabbath 7chap4 v4 #ad74 ,it gave a full share in all the religious festivals and a part in the sacrificial feasts 7,deut4 xii4 #ab and xvi4 #aa1 #ad74 ,such slaves were1 in fact1 fully adopted into the family of ,god1 and became brethren1 poorer and more unfortunate1 but still brethren of their masters4 ,they had indeed no claim to freedom1 as ,israelite slaves had2 they were slaves in perpetuity4 ,but their slavery was of a kind that did not degrade them beneath the condition of man4 ,with regard to ,israelite slaves the beneficence of the law was naturally still greater4 ,the fullest statement in regard to them is found1 not in ,deuteronomy1 but in ,lev4 xxv4 #ci-df2 but in the main we may suppose that in its larger outlines the distinction between ,israelite and non-,israelite slaves there insisted on was always acknowledged4 ,they were not to be thrust down into the lowest depth of slavery1 and they were not to be set to the lowest kinds of labour1 rather to that which hired labourers were wont to do1 because they were of the children of ,israel1 of the nation whom ,yahweh had brought out of the house of bondage4 ,further1 they had a right to emancipation every seventh year1 that is to say1 whenever they had served six full years they could claim freedom in the seventh4 ,their original property was meant to be restored to them in the ,sabbatic year1 and so their degradation could last only for a very limited time4 ,in ,exod4 xxi4 #b ff4 we find the original provisions concerning the ,israelite slave4 ,deuteronomy simply took these up1 and modified them in certain respects4 ,it extends all that ,exodus says of the slave to the female slave also1 and1 in its care for and understanding of the difficulties of the poor1 enacts that a slave when set free shall receive a fresh start in life from the cattle1 the barn1 and the winepress of the former owner4 ,but this anticipation of discharged prisoners' aid societies was too high a demand upon a faithless generation4 ,even ,jeremiah could not get it carried out2 and the probability is that none but the most spiritually minded of the ,jews ever regarded it as binding law4 ,the love which love of ,yahweh inspired spread still more widely4 ,it took in not only the poor and the slave1 but it took account also of the lower animals4 ,it has been often made a reproach to ,christianity that it makes no such appeal on behalf of the lower creation as ,buddhism does4 ,but that reproach 7like the kindred one brought by ,j4 ,s4 ,mill1 that in comparison with the ,qur'an the ,new ,testament is defective in not pressing civil duty7 is tenable only if the ,new ,testament be absolutely severed from the ,old4 ,taken as the completion of the moral and religious development begun in ,israel1 ,christianity takes up into itself all the experience1 and all the teaching by example1 which the ,old ,testament contains4 ,it does not repeat it1 because to the first ,christians the ,old ,testament was the ,divinely inspired guide4 ,it was at first their whole ,bible1 and to take the ,new ,testament by itself as an independent product is to mutilate both the ,old and the ,new4 ,when the ,old ,testament1 therefore1 enjoins kindness to animals we may set down all that it prescribes to the credit of ,christianity4 ,so much1 at least1 the latter must be held to teach2 and if we consider the spirit as well as the letter of this law1 there is no exaggeration in saying that it covers all the ground4 ,here1 as in the case of slaves and the poor1 the fundamental reason for kindness is relation to ,god4 ,in the ,yahwist's narrative in ,gen4 ii4 all creatures are formed by ,god1 and ,god ,himself shows kindness to them4 ,indeed in passages like ,psalm xxxvi4 #g1 as ,cheyne well remarks1 there is an implication that morally speaking there is no complete break of continuity in the scale of sentient life1 and that1 as is seen by passages like ,jer4 xxi4 #f1 and ,isa4 iv4 #aa1 the mild domesticated animals are in fact regarded as a part of the human community4 ,in the ,decalogue the animals that labour with and for man have their share in the ,sabbath rest1 and the produce of the fields during the ,sabbatic year 7,exod4 xxiii4 #aa2 ,lev4 xxv4 #g7 is to be for them as well as for the poor4 ,that they were mere machines of flesh and blood1 to be driven till they were worn out1 and were then to be cast aside1 seems never to have occurred to the ,israelite mind4 ,these helpful creatures had made a covenant with man1 and had a share in the consideration which the sons of ,israel were taught to have for one another4 ,in reaching that attainment ,israel had reached the only effective ground for dealing with animals1 as ,cheyne says1 without inhumanity and without sentimentalism4 ,the individual prescriptions of ,deuteronomy emphasise and bring down these principles into the practical life4 ,it is probable that the precept not to seethe a kid in its mother's milk 7,deut4 xiv4 #ba7 was1 in part at least1 a law of kindness1 founded upon a reverential feeling for the parental relationship even in this lower sphere4 ,the command in ,deut4 xxii4 #f is certainly so4 ,we read there3 ,if a bird's nest chance to be before thee in the way1 in any tree or on the ground1 with young ones or eggs1 and the dam sitting upon the young1 or upon the eggs1 thou shalt not take the dam with the young2 thou shalt in any wise let the dam go1 but the young thou mayest take unto thyself2 that it may be well with thee1 and that thou mayest prolong thy days4 ,evidently the ground of sympathy here is the existence and the sacredness of the parental relationship4 ,the mother bird is sacred as a mother2 and length of days is promised to those who regard the sanctity of motherhood in this sphere1 as it is promised to those who observe the fifth commandment of the ,decalogue4 ,thus intimately the lower creation is drawn into the human sphere4 ,the only other precepts under this head are that a fallen animal is always to be lifted 7,deut4 xxii4 #d71 and the ox is not to be muzzled when it is treading out the corn 7,deut4 xxv4 #d74 ,these were ordinary prescriptions of humanity1 but they too rest upon the sympathetic identification of the sufferings and wants of all sentient beings with those of mankind4 ,it may be objected1 however1 that ,st4 ,paul denies that the last precept really was due to pity for the oxen4 ,in #a ,cor4 ix4 #i1 referring to it1 he says1 ,is it for the oxen that ,god careth1 or saith ,he it altogether for our sake8 ,yea1 for our sake it was written4 ,but there is no real contradiction here4 ,it is quite impossible that a devout ,jew like ,st4 ,paul did not believe that ,god's tender mercies are over all ,his works 7,psalm cxlv4 #i74 ,he would have been false to all his training had he not accepted that as a fundamental axiom4 ,his apparent denial does not refer at all to the historic fact that the precept was given because of ,god's care for oxen4 ,it only signifies that1 when taken in its highest sense1 it was meant to form character in men4 ,st4 ,paul argues1 as ,alford says1 that not the oxen1 but those for whom the law was given1 were its objects4 ,every duty of humanity has for its ultimate ground1 not the mere welfare of the animal concerned1 but its welfare in that system of which man is the head1 and therefore man's welfare4 ,in fact ,st4 ,paul understood the ,old ,testament as we have seen it demands to be understood1 and places the duty of kindness to animals in its right relation to man4 ,in all relations1 therefore1 ,deuteronomy insists that life's main principle shall be love illumined by sympathy4 ,beginning with ,god and giving man's unquiet heart a firm anchorage there1 it commands that all creatures about us shall be embraced in the same sympathising tenderness4 ,it forbids us to look upon any of them as mere instruments for our use1 for all of them have ends of their own in the loving thought of ,god4 ,god is for it the great unifying1 harmonising power in the world1 and from a right conception of ,him all right living flows4 ,if the ,new ,testament asks with wonder how a man who loves not his brother whom he hath seen can love ,god whom he hath not seen1 the ,old ,testament teaches with equal emphasis the complementary truth that he who loves not ,god whom he hath not seen will never love as he ought his brother whom he hath seen4 ,for to it ,yahweh is the first and last word2 and all the growth in kindness1 gentleness1 consideration1 and goodness which can be traced in the revelation given to ,israel1 has its source in a conception of the ,divine character which from the first was spiritual1 and was moreover unique in the world4 ,,chapter ,,xxiv ,,moses' ,,farewell ,,speeches ,,deut4 iv4 #a-dj1 xxvii4-xxx4 ,with the twenty-sixth chapter the entirely homogeneous central portion of the ,book of ,deuteronomy ends1 and it concludes it most worthily4 ,it prescribes two ceremonies which are meant to give solemn expression to the feeling of thankfulness which the love of ,god1 manifested in so many laws and precepts1 covering the commonest details of life1 should have made the predominant feeling4 ,the first is the utterance of what we have called the liturgy of gratitude at the time of the feast of firstfruits2 and the second is the solemn dedication of the third year's tithe to the poor and the fatherless1 and the disclaimer of any misuse of it4 ,further notice of either after what has already been said in reference to them would be superfluous4 ,the closing verses 7#af-ai7 of the chapter are a solemn reminder that all these transactions with ,god had bound the people to ,yahweh in a covenant4 ,thou hast avouched ,yahweh this day to be thy ,god and1 ,yahweh hath avouched thee this day to be a peculiar people 7'am segllh7 unto ,himself4 ,by this they were bound to keep ,yahweh's statutes and judgments1 and do them with all their heart and with all their soul1 while ,he1 on ,his part1 undertakes on these terms to set them high above all nations which ,he hath made in praise1 and in name1 and in honour1 and to make them a holy people unto ,himself4 ,but the original ,deuteronomy as read to ,king ,josiah cannot have ended with chapter xxvi41 for the thing that awed him most was the threat of evil and desolation which were to follow the non-observance of this covenant4 ,now though there are indications of such dangers in the first twenty-six chapters of ,deuteronomy1 yet threats are not1 so far1 a prominent part of this book4 ,the book as read must consequently have contained some additional chapters1 which1 in part at least1 must have contained threats4 ,now this is what we have in our ,biblical ,deuteronomy4 ,but in chapters xxvii4 and xxviii4 there are reduplications which can hardly have formed part of the original author's work4 ,an examination of these has led every one who admits composite authorship in the ,pentateuch to see that from chapter xxvii4 onwards the original work has been broken up and dovetailed again with the works of ,,je and ,p2 so that component parts of the first four books of the ,hexateuch appear along with elements which the author of ,deuteronomy has supplied4 ,we have1 in fact1 before us1 from this point1 the work of the editor who fitted ,deuteronomy into the framework of the ,pentateuch2 and it is of importance1 from an expository point of view even1 to endeavour to restore ,deuteronomy to its original form1 and to follow out the traces of it that are left4 ,as we have said1 we must look for the threats and promises which undoubtedly formed part of it4 ,these are contained in chapters xxvii4 and xxviii4 ,but a careful reader will feel at once that chapter xxvii4 disturbs the connection1 and that xxviii4 should follow xxvi4 ,in chapter xxvii41 vv4 #i and #aj alone seem necessary to give a transition to chapter xxviii42 and if all the rest were omitted we should have exactly what the narrative in ,kings would lead us to expect1 a coherent1 natural sequence of blessings and curses1 which should follow faithfulness to the covenant1 or unfaithfulness4 ,the rest of chapter xxvii4 is not consistent either with itself or with ,josh4 viii4 #cj1 where the accomplishment of that which is commanded here is recorded4 ,in vv4 #a-c ,moses and the elders command the people to set up great stones and plaister them with plaister and write upon them all the words of this law1 on the day when they shall pass over ,jordan1 that they may go in unto the land4 ,in ver4 #d it is said that these stones are to be set up in ,mount ,ebal1 and there an altar of unhewn stones is to be built1 and sacrifices offered1 and thou shalt write upon the stones very plainly4 ,from the position of this last clause and the mention of ,mount ,ebal1 the course of events would be quite different from that which vv4 #a-c suggest4 ,the stones were1 according to the verses #d ff41 to be set up in ,mount ,ebal2 out of these an altar of unhewn stones was to be built2 and on them the law was to be inscribed1 and this is what ,joshua says was done4 ,but if we take all the verses1 #a-h1 together1 we can reconcile them only by the hypothesis that the stones were set up as soon as ,jordan was crossed1 plaistered1 and inscribed with the law2 that afterwards they were removed to ,mount ,ebal and built into an altar of unhewn stone1 upon which sacrifices were offered4 ,but that surely is in the highest degree improbable2 and since we know that in other cases two narratives have been combined in the sacred text1 that would seem the most probable solution here4 ,verses #d-h will in that case be a later insertion1 probably from ,j4 ,in the same connection vv4 #ae-bf contain a list of crimes which are visited with a curse and no blessings2 this cannot be the proclamation of blessing and cursing which is here required4 ,further1 this list must be by a different author1 for it affixes curses to some crimes which are not mentioned in ,deuteronomy1 and omits such sins as idolatry1 which are continually mentioned there4 ,this section must consequently have been inserted here by some later hand4 ,it must probably have been later even than the time of the writer of ,josh4 viii4 #cc ff41 since the arrangement as reported there differs from what is prescribed here4 ,moreover1 as there is nothing new in these sections1 and all they say is repeated substantially in chapter xxviii41 we may give our attention wholly to chapter xxviii4 #a-fh1 as being the original proclamation of blessing and curse4 ,but other entanglements follow4 ,chapters xxix4 and xxx4 manifestly contained an adieu on the part of ,moses1 who turns finally to the people with an affecting and solemn speech of farewell4 ,that appears in chapters xxix4 and xxx4 ,but for many reasons it is impossible to believe that these chapters as they stand are the original speech of ,deuteronomy4#abf ,the language is in large part different1 and there are references to the ,book of the ,law as being already written out 7chap4 xxix4 #ai f4 #bf1 and chap4 xxx4 #aj74 ,it is probably therefore an editor's rewriting of the original speech1 and from the fact that it contains many points of contact with ,jeremiah in thoughts and words1 it is probably to be dated in the ,exile4 ,but there is another noticeable thing in connection with it4 ,it has a remarkable resemblance in these and other respects to chapter iv4 #a-dj4 ,that passage can hardly have originally followed chapters i4-iii41 if as is most probable these were at first an historic introduction to ,deuteronomy4 ,the hortative character of iv4 #a-dj shows that it must have been placed where it is by a reviser4 ,but the language1 though not altogether that of ,deuteronomy1 is like it1 and the thought is also ,deuteronomic4 ,probably the passage must have been transferred from some other part of ,deuteronomy and adapted by the editor4 ,a clue to its true place may perhaps be found in ver4 #h1 where all this law is spoken of as if it were already given1 and in ver4 #e1 where we read1 ,behold1 ,i have taught you statutes and judgments4 ,these passages imply that the law of ,deuteronomy had been given1 and in that case chapter iv4 must belong to a closing speech4 ,we probably shall not be in error1 therefore1 in thinking that chapters iv4 #a-dj and xxix4 and xxx4 are all founded on an original farewell speech which stood in ,deuteronomy after the blessing and the curse4 #abf ,cf4 ,dillmann1 ,deuteronomy1 pp4 #agh ff4 ,but it may be asked1 if that be so1 why did an editor make these changes8 ,the answer is to be found in two passages in chapters xxxi4 and xxxii4 which cannot be harmonised as they stand4 ,in xxxi4 #ai we are told that ,yahweh commanded ,moses to write this song and teach it to the children of ,israel1 that this song may be a witness for ,me against the children of ,israel1 and ver4 #bb1 ,so ,moses wrote this song4 ,but in vv4 #bh f4 we read that ,moses said1 ,assemble unto me all the elders of the tribes and your officers1 that ,i may speak these words in their ears1 and call heaven and earth to witness against them4 ,obviously these words are different from this song1 and are meant for a different purpose4 ,the same ambiguity occurs at the end of the song in vv4 #dd ff41 where we first read of ,moses ending this song1 and in the next verse we read1 ,and ,moses made an end of speaking all these words to all ,israel4 ,now what has become of these words8 ,in all probability they were the substance of chapters iv4 and xxix4 and xxx41 and were separated and amplified1 because the editor who fitted ,deuteronomy into the ,pentateuch took over the song in chapter xxxii41 as well as those passages of xxxi4 and xxxii4 that speak of this song1 from ,,je4 ,he accepted them as a fitting conclusion for the career of ,moses1 and transferred the original speech1 which we suppose to have been the last great utterance of the original ,deuteronomy1 putting the main part of it immediately before the song1 but taking parts out of it to form a hortatory ending 7such as the other ,moses' speeches have7 to that first one which he had formed out of the historic introduction4 ,this may seem a very complicated process and an unlikely one2 but after the foundation had been built by ,dillmann1 ,westphal has elaborated the whole matter with such luminous force that it seems hardly possible to doubt that the facts can be accounted for only in this way4 ,by piecing together iv41 xxx41 and xxxi4 he produces a speech so thoroughly coherent and consistent that the mere reading of it becomes the most cogent proof of the substantial truth of his argument4#abg #abg ,le ,deuteronome 7,toulouse1 #ahia71 pp4 #fb-ge4 ,the order in which he disposes of the verses is as follows3 ,deut4 xxxi4 #bd-bi1 xxix4 #a-ae1 iv4 #a1 #b1 xxix4 #af-ba1 iv4 #c-cj1 xxix4 #bb-bh1 iv4 #cj1 #ca1 xxx4 #a-aj1 iv4 #cb-dj1 xxx4 #aa-bj1 xxxii4 #de-dg4 ,if before this we place xxxi4 #a-ac1 we shall probably have the original sequence fully restored4 ,an analysis of it will show this1 7#a7 ,there is the introduction2 up till now the people have understood neither the commands nor the love of ,yahweh 7xxix4 #a-i74 7#b7 ,there is the explanation of the ,covenant 7xxix4 #aj-ae72 7#c7 ,a command to observe the ,covenant 7iv4 #a1 #b72 7#d7 ,warning against individual transgression1 which will be punished by the destruction of the rebel 7xxix4 #af-ba1 iv4 #c1 #d72 7#e7 ,warning against collective transgression1 which will be punished by the ruin of the people 7iv4 #e-bf74 ,the author1 from this point regarding the transgression as an accomplished fact1 announces3 7#f7 ,the dispersion and exile of the people 7iv4 #bg1 #bh72 7#g7 ,the impression produced on future generations by the horror of this dispersion 7xxix4 #bb-bh72 7#h7 ,the conversion of the exiles to ,god 7iv4 #cj1 #ca72 7#i7 ,their return to the land of their fathers xxx4 7#a-aj74 7#aj7 ,in conclusion1 it is stated that the power of ,yahweh to sustain the faith of ,his people and to save them is guaranteed by the past 7iv4 #cb-dj72 and there is no reason therefore that the people should shrink from obeying the commandment prescribed to them4 ,it is a matter of will4 ,life and death are before them2 let them choose 7xxx4 #aa-bj74 ,the analysis of the remaining chapters is not difficult4 ,chapter xxxi41 vv4 #ad-bc and #cj1 form the introduction to the song1 chapter xxxii41 vv4 #a-dc1 just as ver4 #dd is the conclusion of it4 ,both introduction and song are extracted probably from ,j and ,e4 ,verses #dh-eb are after ,p4 ,then follows the blessing of ,moses1 chapter xxxiii4 ,finally1 chapter xxxiv4 contains an account of ,moses' death and a final eulogy of him1 in which all the sources ,,je1 ,p1 and ,d have been called into requisition4 ,the threefold cord which runs through the other books of the ,pentateuch was untwisted to receive ,deuteronomy1 and has been re-twisted so as to bind the ,pentateuch into one coherent whole4 ,that is the result of the microscopic examination which the text as it stands has undergone1 and we may pretty certainly accept it as correct4 ,but we should not lose sight of the fact that1 as the book is now arranged1 it has a notable coherence of its own1 and the impression of unity which it conveys is in itself a result of great literary skill4 ,not only has the editor combined ,deuteronomy into the other narratives most successfully1 but he has done so not only without falsifying1 but so as to confirm and enhance the impression which the original book was meant to convey4 ,we turn now to the substance of the two speeches--the proclamation of the blessing and the curse1 and the great farewell address4 ,as we have seen1 the first is contained in chapter xxviii4 ,if any evidence were now needed that this chapter was written later than the ,mosaic time1 it might be found in the space given to the curses1 and the much heavier emphasis laid upon them than upon the blessings4 ,not that ,moses might not have prophetically foretold ,israel's disregard of warnings4 ,but if the heights to which ,israel was actually to rise had been before the author's mind as still future1 instead of being wrapped in the mists of the past1 he could not but have dwelt more equally upon both sides of the picture4 ,whatever supernatural gifts a prophet might have1 he was still and in all things a man4 ,he was subject to moods like others1 and the determination of these depended upon his surroundings4 ,he was not kept by the power of ,god beyond the shadows which the clouds in his sky might cast2 and we may safely say that if the curses which are to follow disobedience are elaborated and dwelt upon much more than the blessings which are to reward obedience1 it is because the author lived at a time of unfaithfulness and revolt4 ,obviously his contemporaries were going far in the evil way1 and he warns them with intense and eager earnestness against the dangers they are so recklessly incurring4 ,but after all we have seen of the spirituality of the ,deuteronomic teaching1 and its insistence upon love as the true bond between men and ,god and the true motive to all right action1 it is perhaps disappointing to some to find how entirely these promises and threats have their centre in the material world4 ,probably nowhere else will the truth of ,bacon's famous saying that ,prosperity is the blessing of the ,old ,testament be more conspicuously seen than here4 ,if ,israel be faithful she is promised productivity1 riches1 success in war4 ,even when it is promised that she shall be established by ,yahweh as a holy people unto ,himself1 the meaning seems to be that the people shall be separated from others by these earthly favours1 rather than that they shall have the moral and spiritual qualities which the word holy now connotes4 ,other nations shall fear ,israel because of the ,divine favour4 ,israel shall be raised above them all4 ,if it become unfaithful1 on the other hand1 it is to be visited with pestilence1 consumption1 fever1 inflammation1 sword1 blasting1 mildew4 ,the earth is to be iron beneath them1 and the heaven above them brass4 ,instead of rain they are to have dust2 they are to be visited with more than ,egyptian plagues4 ,their minds are to refuse to serve them2 they are to be defeated in war2 their country is to be overrun by marauders2 their wives and children1 their cattle and their crops1 are to fall into the enemy's hands4 ,locusts and all known pests are to fall upon their fields2 and they themselves are to be carried away captive1 after having endured the worst horrors of siege1 and been compelled by hunger to devour their own children4 ,and in exile they shall be an astonishment1 a proverb1 and a by-word1 and shall be ruled by oppressive aliens4 ,worst of all1 they shall there lose hope in ,god and shall serve other gods1 even wood and stone4 ,their lives shall hang in doubt before them4 ,in the morning they shall say1 ,would ,god it were evening1 and at even they shall say1 ,would ,god it were morning4 ,all the deliverance ,yahweh had wrought for them by bringing them out of ,egypt would be undone1 and once more they should go back into ,egyptian bondage4 ,all that is materialistic enough2 but there is no need to make apology for ,deuteronomy1 nevertheless4 ,the prophet has taught the higher law2 he has rooted all human duty1 both to ,god and man1 in love to ,god1 and now he tries to enlist man's natural fear and hope as allies of his highest principle4 ,how justifiable that is we have already seen in ,chapter ,,xii41 pp4 #bca ff4 ,but a more serious question is raised when it is asked1 does ,nature1 in definite sober truth1 lend itself1 in the manner implied throughout this chapter1 to the support of religious and moral fidelity8 ,at a time when imaginative literature is largely devoting itself to an angry or querulous denial of any righteous force working for the unfortunate and the faithful1#abh there can be no question what the popular answer to such a question would be4 ,but from the ranks of literature itself we may summon testimony on the other side4 ,mr4 ,hall ,caine1 in his address at the ,edinburgh ,philosophical ,institution1 maintains in a wider and more general way the essence of the ,deuteronomic thesis when he says1 ,i count him the greatest genius who touches the magnetic and ,divine chord in humanity which is always waiting to vibrate to the sublime hope of recompense2 ,i count him the greatest man who teaches men that the world is ruled in righteousness4 ,and his justification of that position is too admirable not to be quoted3 ,life is made up of a multitude of fragments1 a sea of many currents1 often coming into collision and throwing up breakers4 ,we look around and see wrong-doing victorious1 and right-doing in the dust2 the evil man growing rich and dying in his bed1 the good man becoming poor and dying in the street2 and our hearts sink and we say1 ,what is ,god doing after all in this world of ,his children8 ,but our days are few1 our view is limited1 we cannot watch the event long enough to see the end which ,providence sees4 ,it is the very province of imaginative genius1 he goes on to say1 to see that which the common mind cannot see1 to offer to it at least suggestions of how these triumphs of unrighteousness may be accounted for in accordance with the law that righteousness rules in the world4 ,we would go further4 ,it is one of the main purposes of inspiration to go beyond even imaginative genius1 to point out in history not only how right may perhaps ultimately triumph1 but how it has been in reality and must be victorious4 ,for it will not do to shut off the world of material things from the working of this great and universal law4 ,owing to the narrow fanaticism of science1 modern men have become sceptical1 not only of miracle1 but even of the fundamental truth that righteousness is profitable for the life that now is1 that in following righteousness men are co-operating with the deepest law of the universe4 ,but it remains a truth for all that4 ,it is written deep in the heart of man2 and in more wavering lines perhaps1 but still most legibly1 it is written on the face of things4 ,with the limitations of his time and place1 this is what the ,deuteronomist preaches4 ,doubtless he has not faced1 as ,job does1 the whole of the problem2 still less has he attained to the final insight exhibited in the ,new ,testament1 that temporal gifts may be curses in disguise1 that the highest region of recompense is in the eternal life1 in the domain of things which are invisible but eternal4 ,he does not yet know1 though he has perhaps a presentiment of it1 that being completely stripped of all earthly good may be the path to the highest victory--the victory which makes men more than conquerors through ,christ4 ,nevertheless he is1 making these allowances1 right1 and the moderns are wrong4 ,in many ways obedience to spiritual inspirations does bring worldly prosperity4 ,the absence of moral and spiritual faithfulness does affect even the fruitfulness of the soil1 the fecundity of animals1 the prevalence of disease1 the stability of ordered life and success in war4 ,this was visible to the ancient world generally in a dim way2 but by the inspired men of the ,old ,covenant it was clearly seen1 for they were enlightened for the very purpose of seeing the hand of ,god where others saw it not4 ,but they never thought of tracing out the chain of intermediate causes by which such results were connected with men's spiritual state4 ,they saw the facts1 they recognised the truth1 and they threw themselves back at once upon the will of ,god as the sufficient explanation4 #abh ,cf4 ,recent fiction1 e4g4 ,the ,african ,farm1 ,tess of the ,d',urbevilles1 ,the ,heavenly ,twins4 ,we1 on the other hand1 have been so diligent in tracing out the immediately preceding links of natural causation that1 for the most part1 we have been fatigued before we reached ,god4 ,we consequently have lost view of ,him2 and it is wholesome for us to be brought sharply into contact with the ancient ,oriental mind as we are here1 in order that we may be forced to go the whole way back to ,him4 ,for the fact is that much of that very process of decay and destruction from moral causes is going on before us in countries like ,turkey and ,morocco1 where social righteousness is all but unknown1 and private morality is low4 ,a truly modern mind scorns the idea that the fertility of the soil can be affected by immorality4 ,yet there is the whole of ,mesopotamia to show that misgovernment can make a garden into a desert4 ,where teeming populations once covered the country with fruitful gardens and luxurious cities1 there is now in the lands of the ,tigris and ,euphrates a few handfuls of people1 and all the fertility of the country has disappeared4 ,irrigation channels which made all things live have been choked up and have been gradually filled with drifting sand1 and one of the most populous and fertile countries of the world has become a desert4 ,in ,palestine the same thing may be seen4 ,under ,turkish domination the character of the soil has been entirely changed4 ,in many places where in ancient days the hills were terraced to the top the sweeping rains have had their way1 and the very soil has been carried off1 leaving only rocks to blister in the pitiless sun4 ,even in the less likely sphere of animal fecundity modern science shows that peace and good government and righteous order are causes of extraordinary power4 ,and the movements which are going on around us at this day in the elevation and depression of nations and races have a visible connection with fidelity or lack of fidelity to known principles of order and justice4 ,this can be said without concealing how scanty and partial in most cases such attainments are4 ,prevailing principles can be discerned in the providence which rules the world4 ,and these are of such a kind that the connection which obedience to the highest known rules of life has with fertility1 success and prosperity1 is constant and intimate4 ,it is1 too1 far wider reaching than at first sight would seem possible4 ,to this extent1 even modern knowledge justifies these blessings and curses of ,deuteronomy4 ,but it may be asked1 ,is this all the ,old ,testament means by such threats and promises8 ,does it recognise any even self-imposed limitations to the direct action of ,divine power8 ,most probably it does not4 ,though always keeping clear of ,pantheism1 the ,old ,testament is so filled and possessed by the ,divine ,presence that all second causes are ignored1 and the action of ,god upon nature was conceived1 as it could not fail to be1 on the analogy of a workman using tools4 ,now that the methods of ,divine action in nature have been studied in the light of science1 they have been found to be more fixed and regular than was supposed4 ,the extent of their operation1 too1 has been found to be immeasurably wider1 and the purposes which have to be cared for at every moment are now seen to be infinitely various4 ,as a result1 human thought has fallen back discouraged1 and takes refuge more and more in a conception of nature which practically deifies it1 or at least entirely separates it from any intimate relation to the will of ,god4 ,it is even denied that there is any purpose in the world at all1 or any goal1 and to chance or fate all the vicissitudes of life and the mechanical changes of nature are attributed4 ,but though we must recognise1 as the ,old ,testament does not1 that ordinary ,divine action flows out in perfectly well-defined channels1 and is so stable in its movement that results in the sphere of physical nature may be predicted with certainty2 and though we see1 as was not seen in ancient days1 that even ,god does not always approach ,his ends by direct and short-cut paths1--these considerations only make the ,old ,testament view more inspiring and more healthful for us4 ,we may gather from it the inference that if the fertility of a land1 the frequency of disease1 and success in war are so powerfully affected by the moral and spiritual quality of a people1 it is very likely that in subtler and less palpable ways the same influences produce similar effects1 even in regions where they cannot be traced4 ,if so1 whatever allowance may be required for the inevitable simplicity of ,old ,testament conceptions on this subject1 however much we miss the limitations we have learned to regard as necessary1 the ,deuteronomic view as to the effects of moral and spiritual declension upon the material fortunes of a people is much nearer the truth than our timorous and hesitating half-belief4 ,to find these effects emphasised and affirmed as they are here1 therefore1 acts as a much needed tonic in our spiritual life4 ,coming too from a man who possessed1 if ever man did1 ,divinely inspired insight into the process of the world and the ideal of human life1 these promises and warnings bring ,god near4 ,they dissipate the mists which obscure the workings of ,god's ,providence1 and keep before us aspects of truth which it is the present tendency of thought to ignore too much4 ,they declare in accents which carry conviction that1 even in material things1 the ,lord reigneth2 and for that the world has reason to be supremely glad4 ,certainly ,christians now know that prosperity in material things is by no means ,god's best gift4 ,that great principle must be held to firmly1 as well as the legitimacy of the vivid hopes and fears of ,old ,testament times regarding the material rewards of right-doing4 ,in many ways the new principle must overrule and modify for us those hopes and fears4 ,but with this limitation we are justified in occupying the ,deuteronomic standpoint and in repeating the ,deuteronomic warnings4 ,for to its very core the world is ,god's2 and those who find ,his working everywhere are those whose eyes have been opened to the inmost truth of things4 ,with regard to the farewell speech contained in chapters xxix4 and xxx4 and the related parts of chapter iv4 and chapter xxxi4 there is not much to be said4 ,taken as a whole1 it develops the promises and threats of the previous chapters1 and repeats again with affectionate hortatory purpose much of the history4 ,but there is not a great deal that is new2 most of the underlying principles of the address have been already dealt with4 ,taken according to the reconstruction of the speech and its reinsertion in its original framework1 the course of things would seem to have been this4 ,after the threats and promises had been concluded1 ,moses1 carrying on the injunction of iii4 #bh1 addressed 7chapter xxxii4 #h7 all the people and appointed ,joshua to be his successor2 then he wrote out this law1 and produced it before the priests and elders of the people1 with the instruction that at the end of every seven years1 at the feast of release1 in the feast of tabernacles1 it should be read before all ,israel1 men1 women1 and children 7chapter xxxi41 w4 #i-ac74 ,then he gave the book to the ,levites1 that they might lay it up by the side of the ,ark of the ,covenant of ,yahweh their ,god1 that it might be there for a witness against them when they became unfaithful1 as he foresaw they would4 ,he next summons all ,israel to him1 and delivers the farewell address contained in chapters iv41 xxix41 and xxx41 an outline of which has already been given 7p4 #dch71 according to ,westphal's recombination4 ,this would seem to indicate that ,moses himself inaugurated the custom of reading the law and giving instruction to all the people1 which he prescribed for the feast of tabernacles in the year of release4 ,after the law had been given he addressed the whole people in this farewell speech4 ,but though on the whole there is no need for detailed exposition here1 there are one or two things which ought to be noticed1 things which express the spirit of ,deuteronomy so directly and so sincerely that they can be identified as forming part of the original ,deuteronomic speech4 ,one of these is unquestionably xxx4 #aa-bj4 ,at the end of the farewell address a return is made to the core of the whole ,deuteronomic teaching3 ,thou shalt love ,yahweh thy ,god with all thy heart1 and with all thy soul1 and with all thy might4 ,this was announced with unique emphasis at the beginning2 it has lain behind all the special commands which have been insisted upon since2 and now it emerges again into view as the conclusion of the whole matter4 ,for beyond doubt this1 and not the whole series of legal precepts1 is what is meant by this commandment in verse #aa4 ,both before it1 in the sixth and tenth verses1 and after it1 in the sixteenth and twentieth verses1 this precept is repeated and insisted on as the ,divine command4 ,had the individual commands or the whole mass of them together been meant1 the phrase used would have been different4 ,it would have been that in ver4 #aj1 where they are called ,his commandments and ,his statutes which are written in this book of the law1 or something analogous4 ,no1 it is the central command of love to ,god1 without which all external obedience is vain1 which is the theme of this last great paragraph2 and a clear perception of this will carry us through both the obscurities of it1 and the difficulties of ,st4 ,paul's application of it in the ,romans4 ,of this then the author of ,deuteronomy says3 ,it is not too hard for thee1 neither is it far off4 ,it is not in heaven1 that thou shouldest say1 ,who shall go up for us to heaven1 and bring it unto us1 and make us to hear it1 that we may do it8 ,neither is it beyond the sea1 that thou shouldest say1 ,who shall go over the sea for us1 and bring it unto us1 and make us to hear it1 that we may do it8 ,but the word is very nigh unto thee1 in thy mouth1 and in thy heart1 that thou mayest do it4 ,that is to say1 there is no mystery or difficulty about this commandment of love4 ,neither have you to go to the uttermost parts of the sea to hear it1 nor need you search into the mysteries of heaven4 ,it has been brought near to you by all the mercy and forgiveness and kindness of ,yahweh2 it has been made known to you now by my mouth1 even in its pettiest applications4 ,but that is not all2 it is graven on your own heart1 which leaps up in glad response to this demand1 and in answer to the manifestation of ,god's love for you4 ,it is really the fundamental principle of your own nature that is appealed to4 ,you should clearly feel that life in the love of ,god and man is the only fit life for you who are made in the image of ,god4 ,if you do1 then the fulfilment of all the ,divine precepts will be easy1 and your lives will lighten more and more unto the perfect day4 ,now1 for an ,oriental of the pre-,christian era such teaching is most marvellous4 ,how marvellous it is ,christians perhaps find it difficult to see4 ,in point of fact1 many have denied that ,old ,testament teaching ever had this character4 ,misled by the doctrines of ,islam1 the great ,semitic religion of to-day1 many assert that the religion of ancient ,israel called upon men to submit to mere power in submitting to ,god4 ,but the appeal of our text to the heart of man shows that this is an error4 ,no such appeal has ever been made to ,mohammedans4 ,their state of mind in regard to ,god is represented by the remark of a recent traveller in ,persia4 ,speaking of the ,persian ,babis1 who may be described roughly as an heretical sect whose minds have been formed by ,mohammedanism1 he says3 ,they seemed to have no conception of absolute good1 or absolute truth2 to them good was merely what ,god chose to ordain1 and truth what ,he chose to reveal1 so that they could not understand how any one could attempt to test the truth of a religion by an ethical and moral standard4#abi ,now that is precisely the opposite of the ,deuteronomic attitude4 ,israel is encouraged and incited to right action by having it pointed out that not only experience1 not only ,divinely given statutes and judgments1 but the very nature of man itself guarantees the truth of this supreme law of love4 ,the law laid upon men is nothing strange to1 or incongruous with1 their own better selves4 ,it is the very thing which their hearts have cried out for2 when it is proclaimed the higher nature in man recognises it and bows before it4 ,it is not received because of fear1 nor is it bowed before because it is backed by power which can smite men to the dust4 ,no2 even in its ruins human nature is nobler than that2 and ,deuteronomy everywhere teaches with burning conviction that ,god is too ethical and spiritual in nature to accept the submission of a slave4 #abi ,a ,year ,among the ,persians1 ,e4 ,g4 ,browne1 p4 #djf4 ,this reading of our passage is plainly that which ,st4 ,paul takes in ,rom4 x4 #e and #f4 ,he perceives1 what so many fail to do1 that the spirit and scope of the ,deuteronomic teaching are different from that of the purely legal sections of the ,pentateuch4 ,paul therefore quotes the ,pentateuch as having already made the distinction between works and faith which he wishes to emphasise1 and as having distinctly given preference to the latter4 ,leviticus1 keeps men at the level of the worker for wages1 while ,deuteronomy in this passage1 by making love to ,god the essence of all true observance of the law1 raises them almost to the level of sons4 ,and just as in those ancient days the highest manifestations of ,god had not to be laboured for and sought by impotent strivings1 but had plainly been made known to them and had found an echo in their hearts1 so now the highest revelation had been brought near to men in ,christ1 and had found a similar response4 ,they did not need to seek it in heaven1 for it had been brought to earth in the ,incarnation4 ,they did not need to descend into the abyss1 for all that was needed had been brought thence by ,christ at ,his resurrection4 ,and in the ,new ,testament as in the ,old1 the simplicity of the entrance into true relations with ,god is emphasised4 ,love and faith are the fundamental conditions4 ,from them obedience will naturally issue1 since to faith all things are possible1 and to love all things are easy4 ,,chapter ,,xxv ,,the ,,song ,,and ,,blessing ,,of ,,moses 7,a74 ,,the ,,song ,,of ,,moses ,,deut4 xxxii4 ,critics have debated the date1 authorship1 and history of this song4 ,for the present purpose it is sufficient1 perhaps1 to refer to the statement on these points in the note below4#acj #acj ,the song is described1 in the narrative framework1 as delivered through ,moses to the children of ,israel4 ,on the other hand1 internal evidence points to a date after the establishment of the monarchy--when the days of ,moses and the events of the wilderness were old1 when the fruits of the land were gifts of ,god in present use1 and when ingratitude and rebellion had become conspicuous1 so that judgment was impending4 ,either1 then1 ,moses took his stand1 in the spirit1 at a point of time long subsequent to his own death1 adapted the song to its circumstances1 and spoke not to his own generation but to one much later2 or a later prophet must be the writer4 ,the objection to the former view is supported by arguments drawn from various features in the language and the allusions of the song1 which are asserted to be indicative of the later origin4 ,on the detail of these we cannot dwell4 ,but the most interesting part of the argument is the position that the transference of the prophetic consciousness to a remote future period1 in order to give hope and guidance to a generation not the prophet's own1 is too improbable to be admitted4 ,such a process is now generally regarded as not impossible indeed1 but unheard of in the history of prophecy4 ,the examination of the prophets of the ,old ,testament has convinced students that the prophet's vision starts from his own time1 and is primarily for the comfort and warning of his contemporaries4 ,his words may have a more remote reference1 but must have the nearer one4 ,hence ,isa4 xl4-lxvi4 is now ascribed to a prophet or prophets of the ,exile4 ,the principle is really the same as that which determines the authorship of ,deut4 xxxiv4 #e-ab4 ,no one now holds the view of some ,jews1 that ,moses by the spirit of prophecy wrote this himself4 ,yet if ,moses could in a poem address his people as sinning and suffering through rebellions induced by their prosperity in ,canaan1 which they had not entered when he died1 one might as well believe him to describe his own decease4 ,in both cases we have to suppose the mind of ,moses transported to a period when he had been removed by death1 that he might look back upon and speak of events which when he wrote were still future4 ,now in both cases a reason is lacking4 ,every one accepts the view that since ,joshua or ,eleazar was there to write the account of ,moses' death1 it is unlikely the lawgiver should have been inspired to write it himself4 ,just so1 since ,yahweh inspired new prophets at every crisis of ,his people's history1 it seems unlikely that the spirit of ,moses should be transferred to1 and made at home in1 the circumstances of a distant generation1 in order to deliver to it a message which could have been made known by a prophet to whom the time was present4 ,neither ,kamphausen nor ,oettli nor ,dillmann nor the ,english expositors who accept the non-,mosaic authorship of the song have any doubt as to the supernatural character of prophecy4 ,they found upon observations as to the manner of ,old ,testament prophecy1 which ought to regulate interpretation4 ,according to critical views the ascription to ,moses of the reception and delivery of this song was taken by the ,deuteronomist from ,,je4 ,kautzsch supposes that an editor to whom the song was known as passing under the name of ,moses may have inserted it4 ,dillmann suggests grounds for believing that several prayers and poems ascribed to ,moses 7including ,psalm xc47 were in circulation in prophetic circles in the ,northern ,kingdom1 and that this one of them was inserted here as its appropriate place4 ,the case would be parallel to the ascription of various later ,psalms to ,david4 ,compare also the discussions as to the song of ,hannah1 #a ,sam4 ii4 ,the view that a mistake as to the ,mosaic authorship1 for which the writers of ,,je were not responsible1 was handed on in perfect good faith1 is compatible with the doctrine of inspiration as held by representatives of the orthodox ,evangelical school in ,germany1 and by the newer ,evangelicals in ,england4 ,cf4 ,oettli1 ,deuteronomy1 p4 #bb1 and ,sanday's ,bampton ,lecture4 ,but in discussing the meaning and contents of the song the differences referred to cause no difficulties4 ,on any supposition the time and circumstances1 whether assumed as present1 or actually and really present to the prophet's mind1 can clearly be identified as not earlier than those of the ,syrian wars4 ,accepted as dealing with that time1 this poem takes its place among the ,psalms of that period4 ,its subject is a very common one in ,scripture3 the goodness of ,yahweh to ,his people1 and their unfaithfulness to ,him2 ,his grief at their rebellion2 ,his punishment of them by heathen oppressors2 and ,his turning in love to them1 along with ,his destruction of the nations who had prematurely triumphed over the people of ,god4 ,practically this is the burden of all the prophecies1 as indeed it may be said to be the burden of the whole ,book of ,deuteronomy itself4 ,here it is stated and elaborated with great poetic skill2 but in the main1 the essential thought1 there is little that has not already been elucidated4 ,as regards form the poem is among the finest specimens of ,hebrew literary art which the ,old ,testament contains4 ,every verse contains at least two parallel clauses of three words or word-complexes each1 and the parallelism in the great majority of instances is of the ,synonymous kind2 that is to say1 the second line enforces the thought of the first by repeating1 and as it were echoing it in a varied form4#aca ,but into this as a foundation there is wrought a great deal of pleasing variation4 ,the two-clause verses are varied by single instances or couplets or triplets of four-clause verses2 while in two cases1 at the emphatic end of sections1 in vv4 #ad and #ci1 the rare five-clause verse is found4 ,further1 the synonymous parallelism is relieved by occasional appearances of the synthetic parallelism1 in which the second line contains neither a repetition nor a contrast to the thought of the first1 but in different ways supplements and completes it1#acb e4g4 vv4 #h1 #ai1 and #bg4 #aca ,cf4 ,driver's ,introduction1 #eth edition1 p4 #cdj4 #acb ,cf4 ,driver1 cit4 loc4 ,the contents of the song are in every way worthy of the origin assigned to it1 and higher praise than that it is impossible to conceive4 ,beginning with a fine exordium calling upon heaven and earth to give ear1 the inspired poet expresses the hope that his teaching may fall with refreshing and fertilising power upon the hearts of men1 for he is about to proclaim the name of ,yahweh1 to whom all greatness is to be ascribed4 ,in vv4 #d ff4 the character and dealings of ,yahweh are set over against those of the people3-- ,the ,rock6 ,his deeds are perfect1 ,for all ,his ways are judgment2 ,a ,god of faithfulness and without falsity1 ,just and upright is ,he4 ,they1 on the contrary1 were perverse and crooked2 and1 acting corruptly1 they requited all ,yahweh's benefits with rebellion4 ,to win them from that perverseness1 he calls upon his people to look back upon the whole course of ,god's dealings with them4 ,even before ,israel had appeared among the nations1 ,yahweh had taken thought for ,his people4 ,when ,he assigned their lands to the various nations of the world ,he had always before ,him the provision that must be made for the children of ,israel1 and had left a space for them from which none but ,yahweh could ever drive them out4 ,for ,he had the same need of and delight in ,his people as the nations had in the lands assigned to them1 the lot of their inheritance4 ,and not only had ,he thus prepared a place for ,israel from the beginning1 but ,he had led him through the wilderness1 through the waste1 the howling desert4 ,he compassed him about1 ,he cared for him1 ,he kept him as the apple of ,his eye4 ,to depict the ,divine care worthily1 he ventures upon a simile of a specially tender kind1 rare in the ,old ,testament1 but to which our ,lord's comparison of ,his own brooding affection for ,jerusalem to that of a hen gathering her chickens under her wing is parallel4 ,as an eagle stirs up her nest1 ,flutters above her young2 ,he1 ,yahweh1 spread abroad ,his wings1 ,he took him1 ,he bore him upon ,his pinions4 ,all the hardship and the toil were of ,god's appointment to drive ,his beloved people upwards and onwards4 ,whatever they might think or believe now1 it was ,yahweh alone1 without companion or ally1 who had done this for them1 borne them up through it1 and had bestowed upon them all the luxury of the goodly land once promised to their fathers4 ,even from the rocks ,he had given them honey1 and the rocky soil had produced the olive tree4 ,they had1 too1 all the luxuries of a pastoral people in abundance1 and the wheat and foaming wine which were the finest products of agriculture4 ,in every way their ,god had blessed them4 ,they had all the prosperity which a complete fulfilment of the will of ,god could have brought1 but the result of it all was unfaithfulness and rejection of ,him4 ,jeshurun1 the upright people1 as the sacred singer in bitter irony calls ,israel1 waxed fat and wanton4 ,instead of being drawn to ,god by ,his benefits1 they had been puffed up with conceit concerning their own power and discernment4 ,full of these1 they had mingled idolatrous rites with their worship of ,yahweh4 ,he had suffered them to reap the results of their own unfaithfulness in defeat at the hands of their foes4 ,instead of seeking the cause of their ill-success in themselves1 they had found it in the weakness of their ,god4 ,all the victories ,yahweh had given them over foes whose strength they had feared were forgotten1 and they despised the ,rock of their salvation4 ,they had adopted new and upstart deities whom their fathers had never heard of1 who as they had come up in a day might disappear in a day1 and neglected the ,rock who begat them4 ,yahweh on ,his part saw all this1 and scorned ,his people and their doings4 ,in a vivid imaginative picture the poet represents ,him as resolving to hide ,his face from them1 to see what their end would be4 ,without the shining of ,god's countenance there could be but one issue for a people who were so faithless and perverse4 ,he will recompense them for their doings4 ,they made ,me jealous with a no-,god1 ,they vexed ,me with their vain idols1 ,and ,i will make them jealous with a no-people1 ,with a foolish nation will ,i vex them4 ,for the fire of ,divine wrath is kindled against them4 ,it burns in ,yahweh with an all-consuming power1 and fills the universe even to the lowest depths of ,sheol4 ,upon this sinful people it is about to burst forth2 ,yahweh will exhaust all ,his arrows upon them4 ,by famine and drought2 by disease and the rage of wild beasts1 and of the crawlers of the dust2 by giving them up to their enemies1 and by overwhelming them with terror4 ,he will destroy this people1 the young man and the virgin1 the suckling and the man of grey hairs alike4 ,nothing could save them1 save ,yahweh's respect for ,his own name4 ,i had said1 ,i shall blow them away1 ,i shall make their memory to cease from among men3 ,were it not that ,i feared vexation from the enemy1 ,lest their adversaries should misdeem1 ,lest they should say1 ,our hand is exalted1 ,and ,yahweh hath not done all this4 ,nothing but that stood between them and utter destruction1 for as a nation they had no capacity for receiving and profiting by instruction4 ,if they had been wise they would have known that there was but a step between them and death2 they would have seen that their deeds had separated them from ,yahweh1 and could have but one issue4 ,their frequent and shameful defeats should have taught them that1 for ,how could one chase a thousand1 ,and two put to flight ten thousand1 ,were it not that their ,rock had sold them1 ,and that ,yahweh had delivered them up8 ,there was no possible explanation of ,israel's defeats but this2 for neither in the gods of the heathen nor in the heathen nations themselves was there anything to account for them4 ,their gods were not comparable to the ,rock of ,israel2 even ,israel's enemies knew as much as that4 ,israel might forget and doubt ,yahweh's power1 but those who had been smitten before ,him in ,israel's happier days knew that ,he was above all their gods4 ,nor was the explanation to be sought in the heathen nations themselves4 ,for they were not vines of ,yahweh's planting1 but shoots from the vine of ,sodom1 tainted by the soil of ,gomorrah4 ,they were1 perhaps1 in race1 of the old ,canaanite stock2 in any case they were morally and spiritually related to them1 and their acts were such as brought death and destruction with them4 ,in themselves1 consequently1 they could not have been strong enough to discomfit the people of ,god as they were doing1 nor could they have been helped to that by any favour of ,his4 ,only the determination of ,yahweh to chastise ,his people could explain ,israel's unhappy fate in war4 ,but ,yahweh's purpose was only to chastise4 ,he was in no way finally forgetful of ,his chosen1 nor of the ineradicable evil of their enemies' nature4 ,the inner character of men and things is always present to ,him1 and their deeds are laid up with ,him as that which must be dealt with1 for it is one of the glories of ,deity to sweep evil away and to restore anything that has good at its heart4 ,recompense is ,god's great function in the world1 and evil1 however strong it may be1 and however long it may triumph1 must one day be dealt with by ,him4 ,it is laid up and sealed ,against the day of vengeance and of recompense1 ,against the time when their foot shall slip2 ,for the day of their calamity is at hand1 ,and hastening are the things prepared for them4 ,without that1 justice could never be done to the people of ,god2 and justice should be done to them when they had been brought to the verge of extinction1 when1 according to the antique ,hebrew phrase1 there was none fettered or set free1 none left under or over age4 ,then when all but the worst had come1 ,yahweh would demand1 ,where are their gods1 with whom they took refuge1 and who have eaten the fat of their sacrifices1 and drunk the wine of their drink offerings8 ,he will challenge them to arise and help in this last disastrous state of their votaries4 ,but there will be no response1 and it will be made clear beyond all doubting that ,yahweh alone is ,god4 ,he will declare ,himself1 saying3-- ,see now that ,i1 ,i1 am ,he1 ,and there is no god with ,me3 ,i kill1 and ,i make alive2 ,i wound1 and ,i heal3 ,and there is none that delivereth out of ,my hand4 ,in that great day of ,yahweh's manifested glory ,he will stand forth in the fulness of avenging power4 ,before the universe ,he will pledge ,himself by the most solemn oath to bring down the pride of ,his enemies4 ,in a death-dealing judgment1 such as is seen only when the evil elements in the world have brought about a mere carnival of wickedness1 and only universal death can cleanse1 ,he will recompense upon evil-doers the evil they have wrought1 and to a renovated world bring peace4 ,there are few finer or more impressive imaginative passages in ,scripture than this3-- ,for ,i lift up ,my hand to heaven1 ,and say1 7,as7 ,i live for ever1 ,if ,i whet ,my gleaming sword1 ,and ,my hand take hold on judgment1 ,i will take vengeance upon ,mine enemies1 ,and ,i will recompense them that hate ,me4 ,i will make ,mine arrows drunk with blood1 ,and ,my sword shall devour flesh1 ,with the blood of the slain and the captives1 ,from the chief of the leaders of the enemy4 ,with this great vision of judgment the poet leaves his people4 ,for them the first necessity evidently was that they should be assured that ,yahweh reigned1 that evil could not ultimately prosper4 ,with their whole horizon dominated and illumined by this tremendous figure of the ever living and avenging ,god1 their faith in the moral government of the world and in the ultimate deliverance of their nation would be restored4 ,the poem closes with a stanza in which the seer and singer calls upon the nations to rejoice because of ,yahweh's people4 ,the deliverance worked for them will be so great and so memorable that even the heathen who see it must rejoice4 ,they will see ,his justice and ,his faithfulness1 and will gain new confidence in the stability and the moral character of the forces which rule the world4 7,b7 ,,the ,,blessing ,,of ,,moses ,,deut4 xxxiii4 ,besides the farewell speeches and the farewell song1 we have in this chapter yet another closing utterance attributed to ,moses4 ,here1 as in the case of the song1 we relegate critical matters to the note below4#acc #acc ,the blessing of ,moses was certainly not written by the author of ,deuteronomy3 the vocabulary and the style are different from his4 ,nor probably was the poem inserted here by him1 but rather by the final editor of the ,pentateuch who is believed to have brought these closing chapters into their present shape 7cf4 ,chap4 ,,xxiv474 ,the authority on which he relied may have been ,e4 ,as to the authorship of the blessing1 ,volck and ,keil ascribe it to ,moses4 ,the great majority of recent students regard it1 at all events in its present form1 as post-,mosaic1 on grounds drawn from features in the poem1 and from the principles of prophetic exegesis referred to in the note 7p4 #deb74 ,opinions differ much as to the date to be assigned1 varying from the time of ,david to that of ,jeroboam ,,ii4 ,the general assumption is that the blessing is the work of a ,northern ,israelite2 and the feeling for the tribes of ,levi and ,judah which it embodies is the chief indication on which a conjecture can be hazarded4 ,that would agree with a date later than ,solomon and not later than ,jehoshaphat--a period when many in the ,northern ,kingdom still looked with reverence to the sanctuary at ,jerusalem1 and when the ,northern ,levites still resented the intrusion by ,jeroboam of a mixed multitude into the priesthood4 ,as to form1 and partly as to contents1 the blessing of ,moses is modelled on the blessing of ,jacob 7,gen4 xlix74 ,one conspicuous difference is the introduction into that before us of a prose heading before most of the sections1 analogous to the headings which appear in ,arabic poetry 7as the ,hamasa7 before each quatrain or longer poem4 ,there is no ground for treating these as later insertions1 nor for separating other portions1 as some have proposed1 as later than the main composition4 ,we must notice in the first place the remarkable difference in tone and outlook between the blessing and the song of ,moses4 ,in the latter evil-doing and approaching judgment are the burden2 here the outward and inward condition of ,israel leaves little to be desired4 ,satisfaction is breathed in every line1 for both temporally and spiritually the state of the people is almost ideally happy4 ,nowhere is there a shadow2 even on the horizon there is scarcely a cloud4 ,now even an optimist would need a background of actual prosperity to draw such a picture of idyllic happiness for any nation1 and we may therefore conclude that the poem has in view one of the few halcyon periods of ,israel1 before social wrongs had ruined the yeomen farmers1 or war and conquest had corrupted the powerful4 ,the nation is as yet faithful to ,yahweh1 and possesses in peace the land which ,he had given them to inherit4 ,the central part of the poem is of course the ten blessings promised to the various tribes1 but these are preceded by an introduction 7vv4 #b-e71 in which the formation of the people is traced to ,yahweh's revelation of ,himself and ,his coming forth as their ,king4 ,they are followed also by a concluding section 7vv4 #bf-bi71 in which the ,god of ,jeshurun is declared to be incomparable1 and ,his people are depicted as supremely happy under ,his protecting care4 ,the language is in parts obscure1 and though the general scope is always plain1 yet there are verses the meaning of which can only be conjectured4 ,this is especially the case in the introduction4 ,of the five lines of ver4 #b1 the fourth and fifth as they stand are hardly intelligible2 the fifth indeed is not intelligible at all4 ,in ver4 #c again1 while the first and second clauses are fairly clear1 the third and fourth are as they stand untranslatable4 ,but the general signification of the introductory verses 7#b-e7 is that the ,divine revelation of ,himself which ,yahweh bestowed upon ,his people as ,he came with them from ,sinai1 ,paran1 and ,seir through the wilderness1 and the establishment of the covenant which made ,yahweh ,israel's ,king1 together with the bestowal of an inheritance upon them1 is the foundation and beginning of that happiness which is to be described4 ,it is all traced back to the dawning of ,god upon them1 ,his shining out upon them from ,sinai1 and ,seir1 and ,paran4 ,these are named simply as the most prominent points in that region whence the people came out into ,canaan1 and where the great revelation had been bestowed4 ,god had risen like the sun and had shed forth light upon them there1 so that they walked no more in darkness4 ,the sight of ,god was1 on this view1 the great and fundamental fact in the history of the chosen people4 ,they1 like all who have seen that great sight1 were henceforth separate from others1 with different duties and obligations1 with hopes and desires and joys unknown to all beside4 ,and the ground of this condescension on the part of ,god was ,his love for ,his people4 ,he loved them1 and the saints among them were upheld by ,him4 ,by ,moses ,he gave them a law1 which was to hold from generation to generation2 and ,he had crowned ,his gifts to them by becoming their ,king when the heads of the people entered into covenant with ,him4 ,then follow the blessings1 beginning with good wishes for ,reuben as the firstborn4 ,but the tribe is not highly favoured4 ,it is however less severely dealt with than in ,jacob's blessing4 ,there instability and obscurity are foretold of it4 ,here it would seem as if the fortunes of the tribe were at the lowest ebb1 and a wish is expressed that it may not be suffered to die out4 ,from the earliest times the tribe of ,reuben seems to have been tending to decay4 ,at the first census taken under ,moses the number of ,reubenites capable of bearing arms was #df1ejj men 7,numb4 i4 #ba71 at the second #dc1gcj 7,numb4 xxvi4 #g74 ,both passages are from ,p1 and consequently this decadence of the tribe must have been present to that author's mind4 ,in ,david's day they had still possession of part of their heritage1 but even then their best estate was past4 ,they had allowed many ,moabites to remain in the territory they conquered4 ,these most certainly caused trouble and gained the upper hand in places1 until before the days of ,mesa1 king of ,moab1 as we learn from his inscription1#acd a great part of the cities formerly ,reubenite were in ,moabite or ,gadite hands4 ,in ,isaiah xv4 and xvi4 again1 ,heshbon and ,elealeh1 cities still ,reubenite in ,mesa's day1 appear as ,moabite1 so that the bulk of the territory assigned to the tribe must have been lost4#ace ,this record confirms the view that the blessing was written between ,rehoboam and ,jehoshaphat1 and throws light upon our verse3-- ,may ,reuben live1 and not die1 ,so that his men be few4 #acd ,dillmann1 ,deuteronomy1 p4 #dbj4 #ace ,baethgen's ,riehm1 ,handwrterbuch1 p4 #acba4 ,the blessing of ,judah follows1 but in contrast with the great destiny foretold for this tribe in ,jacob's blessing what is here said is strangely short and unenthusiastic3-- ,hear1 ,o ,yahweh1 ,judah's voice1 ,and bring him to his people2 ,with his hands has he striven for it 7his people72 ,and a help against his enemies be thou4 ,some whose opinions we are bound to respect1 as ,oettli1 think this refers merely to ,judah's being appointed to lead the van of the invasion1 as in ,judges i4 #a and xx4 #h4 ,in that case we should have to conceive that on some occasion ,judah was absent leading the conquest1 and got into dangerous circumstances1 which are here referred to4 ,but it would seem that any such temporary danger could hardly have a place here4 ,in all the other blessings permanent conditions only are regarded2 and the sole historical fact we really know that would explain this reference is the division of the kingdom4 ,but1 it may be said1 all critics agree that the author of the blessing is a ,northern ,israelite3 now we cannot suppose a ,northern man to speak in this way of ,judah1 for it was the ten tribes that revolted from the house of ,david1 not ,judah from them4 ,we must remember1 however1 that though that is how ,scripture1 which in this matter represents the ,southern view1 regards the matter1 the ,northern ,israelites could look at the separation from another standpoint4 ,to those even who were favourable to the ,davidic house1 and regretted the folly of ,rehoboam1 it might seem that ,judah had first broken away from the kingdom as united under ,saul2 and the revolt under ,jeroboam would appear to be only a resumption of the older state of things1 from which ,judah had again separated itself4 ,what circumstance can be referred to in the request to hear ,judah's voice cannot now be ascertained2 but it is not at all unlikely that some indication of a wish for reunion1 perhaps expressed in some public prayer1 may have been given in the first period of the separation4 ,the rest of the verse would fit this hypothesis as well as it fits the other1 and ,i think with the light we at present have we must hold the reference to be as suggested4 ,with the eighth verse the blessing of ,levi 7one of the two most heartfelt and sympathetic7 begins4 ,in it ,yahweh is addressed thus3-- ,thy ,urim and thy ,thummim be to the men 7i4e4 tribe7 of thy devoted one 7i4e4 ,moses or ,aaron71 ,whom thou didst prove at ,massah1 ,with whom thou didst strive at the waters of ,meribah4 ,in the last lines the relative pronoun is ambiguous1 as it may refer either to men1 for which in ,hebrew we have the collective singular 'ish1 or to thy devoted one4 ,the last is the more probable2 but in either case there is a superficial discrepancy here between the historical books and this statement4 ,in ,exod4 xvii4 #a-g1 as well as in ,deuteronomy itself1 it is the people who strove with ,moses and proved or tempted ,yahweh4 ,on this account some would have us believe that a different account of the events at ,massah and ,meribah was in this writer's mind4 ,but that is the result of a mere itch for discovering discrepancies4 ,it lies in the very nature of the case that there should be another side to it4 ,the beginning was with the people2 but just as the wandering in the wilderness is said to have been meant by ,god to prove ,israel1 so this insubordination of the people was meant to prove ,moses or ,aaron1 and their failure to stand the proof made ,yahweh strive with them4 ,the verse1 then1 founds ,levi's claim to possess the chief oracle and to instruct ,israel first of all upon their connection with ,moses or ,aaron1 or both1 since they had been exceptionally tried and had proved their devotion4 ,the next verse1 then1 goes on to found it also on the faithfulness of the ,levites1 when they were called upon by ,moses 7,exod4 xxxii4 #bf-bi7 to punish the people for their worship of the golden calf4 ,in vv4 #bg and #bi of that chapter we find the same phrases1 #i ,who 7i4e4 the tribe7 said unto his father and to his mother1 ,i have not seen him2 ,who recognised not his brother1 and would know nought of his son2 ,for they kept ,thy commandment1 ,and kept guard over ,thy covenant4 ,being such-- #aj ,let them teach ,jacob ,thy judgments1 ,and ,israel ,thy ,torah2 ,let them put incense in ,thy nostrils1 ,and whole burnt-offerings upon ,thine altars4 ,here we have the whole priestly duties assigned to the ,levites4 ,they are to perform judicial functions2 to give ,torah1 or instruction1 by means of the ,urim and ,thummim and otherwise2 to offer incense in the ,holy ,place1 and sacrifices in the court of the ,temple4 ,as early as this1 therefore 7on any supposition we need regard1 long before ,deuteronomy71 we find the ,levites fully established as the priestly tribe4 ,before the earliest writing prophets this was so--a fact of the greatest importance for the history of ,israelite religion4 ,the remaining verse beseeches ,yahweh to accept the work of ,levi's hands1 and to smite down his enemies4 ,evidently when this was written special enmity was being shown to this tribe2 and1 as has been said already1 the religious proceedings of ,jeroboam ,i4 would be sufficient to call forth such a cry to ,yahweh4 ,in ver4 #ab the tribe of ,benjamin is dealt with1 and it is depicted as specially blessed by the ,divine favour and the ,divine presence4 ,yahweh covers him all the day long1 and dwells between his shoulders4 ,there can hardly be a doubt that the reference is to the situation of the ,temple at ,jerusalem1 on the hill of ,zion1 towards the loftier boundary of ,benjamin's territory4 ,verses #ac-ag contain the blessing of ,joseph1 i4e4 of the two tribes ,ephraim and ,manasseh4 #ac ,blessed of ,yahweh be his land ,by the precious things of heaven from above1 ,by the deep which crouches beneath2 #ad ,by the precious things of the sun1 ,and the precious things of the moons2 #ae ,and by the 7precious things of the7 tops of the ancient mountains ,and by the precious things of the everlasting hills2 #af ,and by the precious things of the earth and its fulness4 ,and may the good-will of ,him that dwelt in the bush ,come upon ,joseph's head1 ,and upon the top of the head of the crowned among his brethren4 #ag ,may the firstborn of his ox be glorious2 ,and the horns thereof like the horns of the wild-ox2 ,with them may he gore the peoples1 even all the earth's ends together4 ,these 7i4e4 thus blessed7 are the myriads of ,ephraim1 ,and these the thousands of ,manasseh4 ,supreme fertility is to be his1 and the favour of ,yahweh is to rest upon him as the kingly tribe in ,israel4 ,the curious phrase at the beginning of the seventeenth verse has been supposed to be a reference to some individual1 ,joshua1 ,jeroboam ,,ii41 or to the ,ephraimite kings as a whole4 ,but the subject of the blessing is the ,josephite tribes1 and there seems to be no good reason why the reference should be changed here4 ,it cannot1 therefore1 refer to less than a whole tribe1 and as according to ,gen4 xlviii4 #ad ,ephraim received the blessing of the firstborn1 it must be ,ephraim which is ,joseph's firstborn ox4 ,this view is confirmed by the last clause of the verse1 in which the myriads of ,ephraim are spoken of1 and only the thousands of ,manasseh4 ,obviously this must refer to times like those of ,omri1 when the ,israelite kingship was in its first youthful energy1 and was extending conquest on every hand4 ,the benedictions which remain are addressed to ,zebulun1 ,issachar1 ,gad1 ,dan1 ,naphtali1 and ,asher4 ,they need little comment beyond close translation4 #ah ,and of ,zebulun he said1 ,rejoice1 ,zebulun1 in thy going out2 ,and1 ,issachar1 in thy tents4 #ai ,they shall call the peoples unto the mountain2 ,they shall offer sacrifices of righteousness3 ,for they shall suck the abundance of the seas1 ,and the hidden treasures of the sand4 ,the territory of ,zebulun stretched from the ,sea of ,galilee to the ,mediterranean1 probably quite down to the sea near ,akko1 in any case near enough to give it an active share in the sea traffic4 ,issachar1 whose tribal land was the plain of ,esdraelon1 also shares in it2 but the contrast between thy going out and thy tents implies that ,zebulun took the more active part in the traffic4 ,the reference in verse #ai1 clauses a and b1 is obscure4 ,as the ,septuagint reads they shall destroy instead of unto the mountain1 the text may be corrupt4 ,it may perhaps be an allusion to the sacrificial feasts at inaugurated fairs to which surrounding peoples were called1 as ,stade suggests4 #bj ,and of ,gad he said1 ,blessed be the enlarger of ,gad3 ,he dwelleth as a lioness1 ,and teareth the arm1 yea1 the crown of the head4 #ba ,and he looked out the first part for himself1 ,because there a 7tribal7 ruler's portion lay ready2 ,and he came with the heads of the people1 ,he executed the justice of ,yahweh1 ,and ,his judgments in company with ,israel4 ,at this time ,gad was in possession of a wide territory1 and was famed for courage and success in war4 ,his foresight in choosing the first of the conquered land as a worthy tribal portion is praised1 and his faithfulness in carrying out his bargain to accompany the nation in its attack on the west ,jordan land4 #bb ,and of ,dan he said1 ,dan is a lion's whelp1 ,leaping forth from ,bashan4 ,this does not mean that ,dan's territory was ,bashan1 but only that his attack was as fierce and unexpected as that of a lion leaping forth from the crevices and caves of the rocks in ,bashan4 #bc ,and of ,naphtali he said1 ,o ,naphtali1 sated with favour1 ,and full of the blessing of ,yahweh3 ,possess thou the sea and the south4 ,the soil in the territory of ,naphtali was specially fruitful1 in the region of ,huleh and on the shore of the ,sea of ,gennesaret4 ,these are the sea and the hot south part which the tribe is called upon to take as a possession1 and because of which the favour of ,yahweh and ,his blessing specially rested upon it4 #bd ,and of ,asher he said1 ,blessed above children be ,asher2 ,may he be the favoured of his brethren1 ,and dip his feet in oil4 #be ,iron and brass 7be7 thy bars2 ,and as thy days 7so may7 thy strength 7be74 ,the last line is extremely doubtful4 ,the word translated thy strength is really not known1 and that meaning probably implies another reading2 thy bars in the previous line is also doubtful4 ,the reference to oil probably implies that the olive tree was specially fruitful1 in the country inhabited by ,asher1 but why he should be specially favoured of his brethren can now hardly be conjectured4 ,in the concluding verses we have an exaltation of ,israel's ,god and of ,his people4 ,speaking out of the time when ,israel had driven out its enemies and was in full and undisturbed possession of its heritage 7ver4 #bh71 the poet declares to ,jeshurun how incomparable ,god is4 ,he rides upon the heaven to bring help to them1 and ,he comes in the clouds with majesty4 ,the ,god of old time is ,israel's refuge or dwelling1 covering him from above1 and beneath1 i4e4 on the earth4 ,his everlasting arms bear ,his people up in their weariness1 and shelter them there against all foes4 ,he has proved this by thrusting out before them1 and by commanding them to destroy1 their enemies4 #bh ,and so ,israel came to dwell in safety1 ,the fountain of ,jacob alone1 ,in a land of corn and wine2 ,yea1 ,his heavens drop down dew4 #bi ,happy art thou1 ,o ,israel3 ,who is like unto thee8 ,a people saved by ,yahweh1 ,the shield of thy help ,and the sword of thy majesty6 ,thine enemies shall feign friendship to thee2 ,and thou shalt tread upon their high places4 ,,chapter ,,xxvi ,,moses' ,,character ,,and ,,death ,it has been often said1 and it has even become a principle of the critical school1 that the historical notices in the earlier documents of the ,old ,testament represent nothing but the ideas current at the time when they were written4 ,whether they depict an ,abraham1 a ,jacob1 or a ,moses1 all they really tell us is the kind of character which at such times was held to be heroic4 ,in this way the value of the historic parts of ,deuteronomy have been called in question1 and we have been told that all we can gather from them about ,moses is the kind of character which the pious1 in the age of ,manasseh1 would feel justified in attributing to their great religious hero4 ,but it is manifestly unfair to estimate the statements of men who write in good faith1 as if they were only projecting their own desires and prejudices upon a past which is absolutely dark4 ,it may be true that such writers might be unwilling to narrate stories concerning the great men of the past which were inconsistent with the esteem in which they were held2 but it is much more certain that their narratives will represent the tradition and the current knowledge of their time regarding the heroes of their race4 ,unless this be true1 no reliance could be placed upon anything but absolutely contemporary documents2 even these would be open to suspicion1 if the human mind were so lawless as to have no scruple in filling up all gaps in its knowledge by imaginations4 ,we must protest1 therefore1 against the notion that what ,j and ,e and ,d tell us concerning the life and character of ,moses must be discounted in any effort we make to represent to ourselves the life and thought of that great leader of ,israel4 ,they tell us much more than what was thought fitting for a leader of the people in the ninth and eighth and seventh centuries ,b4,c4 ,they tell us what was believed in those times about ,moses2 and much of what was believed about him must have rested upon good authority1 upon entirely reliable tradition1 or upon previous written narratives concerning him4 ,up till recently it was held1 by men as eminent even as ,reuss1 that writing was unknown in the days of ,moses1 and that for long afterwards oral tradition alone could be a source of knowledge of the past4 ,but recent discoveries have shown that this is an entire mistake4 ,long before ,moses writing was a common accomplishment in ,canaan2 and it seems almost ridiculous to suppose that the man who left his mark so indelibly upon this nation should have been ignorant of an art with which every master of a village or two was thoroughly conversant4 ,moreover the fact that the same root 7k-t-b7 occurs in every ,semitic tongue with the meaning to write1 would seem to indicate that before their separation from one another the art of writing was known to all the ,semitic tribes4 ,the new facts enormously strengthen that probability1 and make the arguments advanced by those who hold the opposite view look even absurd4 ,but if writing were known and practised in ,moses' day in ,canaan1 it would be marvellous if many of the great events of the early days had not been recorded4 ,it would be still more marvellous if the comparatively late writings1 which alone we have at our disposal had not embodied and absorbed much older documents4 ,but for still another reason the critical dictum must be held to be false4 ,applied in other fields and in regard to other times1 this same principle would deprive us of almost every character which has been considered the glory of humanity4 ,zarathustra and ,buddha have alike been sacrificed to this prejudice1 and there are men living who say that we know so little about our ,lord ,jesus ,christ that it is doubtful whether ,he ever existed4 ,a method which produces such results must be false4 ,the great source of progress and reform has always been some man possessed by an idea or a principle4 ,even in our own days1 when the press and the facilities for communication have given general tendencies a power to realise themselves which they never had in the world's history before1 great men are the moving factors in all great changes4 ,in earlier ages this was still more the case4 ,it is an utterly unjustifiable scepticism which makes men contradict the grateful recollection of mankind1 in regard to those who have raised and comforted humanity4 ,through all obscurities and confusions we can reach that ,indian ,prince for whom the sight of human misery embittered his own brilliant and enjoyable life4 ,we refuse to give up ,zarathustra1 though his story is more obscure and entangled than that of almost any other great leader of mankind4 ,especially in a history like that of ,israel1 which purports to have been guided in a special manner by revelations of the will of ,god1 the individual man filled with ,god's spirit is quite indispensable4 ,even if mythical elements in the story could be proved1 that would not shake our faith in the existence of ,moses2 for as ,steinthal1 who holds the very advanced opinion that solar myths have strayed into the history of ,moses1 wisely says1 it is quite as possible to distinguish between the mythical and the historical ,moses as it is to distinguish between the historical ,charlemagne and the mythical4 ,because of the general reliability of tradition regarding great men therefore1 and because also of the proofs we have that writing was common before ,moses' day1 we need not burden ourselves with the assumption or the fear that the ,deuteronomic character of ,moses may be unreliable4 ,but in endeavouring to set forth this conception of the character of ,moses1 we cannot confine ourselves to what appears in this book4 ,it is generally acknowledged that the author had at least the ,yahwist and the ,elohist documents in their entirety before him1 and regarded them with respect1 not to say reverence4 ,consequently we must believe that he accepted what they said of ,moses as true4 ,the only document in the ,pentateuch that he may not have known in any shape was the ,priest ,codex1 but that makes no attempt to depict the inner or outer life of ,moses4 ,all the personal life and colour in the ,biblical narrative belongs to the other sources4 ,for a personal estimate1 therefore1 we lose little by excluding ,p4 ,only one other cause of suspicion in regard to the historical parts of ,deuteronomy could arise4 ,if it1 comparatively modern as it is1 contained much that was new1 if it revealed aspects of character for which no authority was quoted1 and of which there was no trace in the earlier narratives1 there might be reasonable doubt whether these new details were the product of imagination4 ,but there is very little more in ,deuteronomy than there is in the historical parts of the other books1 though the older narratives are repeated with a vivid and insistive pathos which almost seems to make them new4 ,combining then what the ,deuteronomist himself says with what the ,yahwist and ,elohist documents contain1 we find that the claim usually made for ,moses1 that he was the founder of an entirely new religion1 is not sustained4 ,again and again it is asserted that ,yahweh had been the ,god of their fathers1 of ,abraham1 ,isaac1 and ,jacob--so that ,moses was simply the renewer of a higher faith which for a time had been corrupted4 ,some have even asserted that there had been all down the ages to ,moses the memory of a primeval revelation4 ,but if there ever was such a thing1 we learn from ,josh4 xxiv4 #b1 a verse acknowledged to be from the ,elohist1 that that fair beginning of a time had been entirely eclipsed1 for ,terah1 the father of ,abraham1 had served other gods beyond the flood4 ,abraham1 therefore1 rather than ,moses1 is regarded as the founder of the religion of ,yahweh4 ,whether the word ,yahweh 7,exod4 vi4 #c7 was known or not makes little difference1 for all our four authorities teach that ,moses' work was the revival of faith in that which ,abraham1 ,isaac1 and ,jacob had believed4 ,but the bulk of the people would appear to have been ignorant regarding the ,god of their fathers2 and probably the conception which ,deuteronomy shares with ,j and ,e is that in ,moses' day ,yahweh was the special ,god of a small circle1 perhaps of the tribe of ,levi1 among whom a more spiritual conception of ,god than was common among their countrymen had either been retained1 or had arisen anew4 ,probably then we ought to conceive the circumstances of ,moses' early life somewhat in this way4 ,a number of ,semitic tribes1 more or less nearly related to each other and to ,edom and ,moab1 had settled in ,egypt as semi-agricultural nomads4 ,at first they were tolerated2 but they were now being worn down and oppressed by forced labour of the most brutal sort4 ,either a tribe or a clan among them had the germs of a purer conception of ,god1 and in this tribe or clan ,moses1 the deliverer of his people1 was born4 ,providentially he escaped the death which awaited all ,israelite boys in those days1 and grew up in the camp of the enemies of his people4 ,by this means he received all the culture that the best of the oppressors had1 while the tie to ,israel was neither obscured nor weakened in his mind4 ,at the court of ,pharaoh he could not fail to acquire some notions of state-craft1 and he must have seen that the first step towards anything great for his people must be their union and consolidation4 ,but his earliest effort on their behalf showed that he had not really considered and weighed the magnitude of his task4 ,killing an ,egyptian oppressor might conceivably have served as a signal for revolt4 ,but in point of fact it frustrated any plans ,moses might have had for the good of his people1 and drove him into the wilderness4 ,here the germs of various thoughts which education and experience of life had deposited in his mind had time to develop and grow4 ,according to the narrative1 it was only at the end of his long sojourn in ,midian that he had direct revelation from ,god4 ,but amid the wide and awful solitudes of that wilderness land1 as ,general ,gordon said of himself in the kindred solitudes of the ,soudan1 he learned himself and ,god4 ,whatever deposits of higher faith he had received from his family1 no doubt the long1 silent broodings inseparable from a shepherd's life had increased and vivified it4 ,every possible aspect of it must have been reckoned with1 all its consequences explored2 and his great and solitary soul1 we may be sure1 had many a time let down soundings into the deeps which were1 as yet1 dark to him4 ,and then--for it is to souls that have yearned after ,him in the travail of intellectual and spiritual longing that ,god gives ,his great and splendid revelations--,yahweh revealed ,himself in the flame of the bush1 and gave him the final assurance and the first impulse for his life's work4 ,it is a touch of reality in the narrative which can hardly be mistaken1 that it represents ,moses as shrinking from the responsibility which his call must lay upon him4 ,behind the few and simple objections in the narrative1 we must picture to ourselves a whole world of thoughts and feelings into which the call of ,god had brought tumult and confusion4 ,one would need to be a dry-as-dust pedant not to see here1 as in the case of ,isaiah's call1 the triumphant issue of a long conflict and the decisive moment of a victory over self1 which had had already many stages of defeat and only partial success4 ,it is perennially true to human nature and to the ,divine dealings with human nature1 that help from on high comes to establish and touch to finer issues that which the true man has striven for with all his powers4 ,enlightened and assured by this great revelation of ,god1 ,moses left the quiet of the desert to undertake an extraordinarily difficult task4 ,he had to weld jealous tribes into a nation2 he had to rouse men whose courage had been broken by slavery and cruelty to undertake a dangerous revolt2 and he had to prepare for the march of a whole population1 burdened with invalids and infants1 the feeble and the old1 through a country which even to-day tries all but the strongest4 ,these things had to be done2 and the mere fact that they were accomplished would be inexplicable1 without the domination of a great personality inspired by great ideas of a religious kind4 ,for1 in antiquity1 the only bond able to hold incongruous elements together in one nationality was religion4 ,with the people whom ,moses had to lead the necessity would be the same1 or even greater4 ,but the political work which must have preceded any common action likewise demanded a great personality4 ,though no doubt a common misery might silence jealousies and make men eager to listen to any promises of deliverance1 yet many troublesome negotiations must have been carried through successfully before these sentences could have been written with truth3 ,and ,moses and ,aaron went and gathered together all the elders of the children of ,israel1 and the people believed1 and bowed their heads and worshipped4 ,many conjectures have been hazarded as to what the centre of ,moses' message at this time really was4 ,some1 like ,stade1 bring it down to this1 that ,yahweh was the ,god of ,israel4 ,others add to this somewhat meagre statement another equally meagre1 that ,israel was the people of ,yahweh4 ,but unless the character of ,yahweh had been previously expounded to the people1 there seems little in these two declarations to excite any enthusiasm or to kindle faith4 ,the mere fact of inducing the tribes to put all other gods aside is insufficient to account for any of the results that followed1 if to ,moses ,yahweh had remained simply a tribal ,god1 of the same type as the gods of the ,canaanites4 ,on the other hand1 if he had risen to the conception of ,god as a spirit1 of ,yahweh as the only living ,god1 as the inspirer and defender of moral life1 or even if he had made any large approach to these conceptions1 it is easy to understand how the hearts of the mass of the people were stirred and filled1 even though things so high were not1 by the generality1 thoroughly understood or long retained4 ,but the hearts of all the chosen1 the spiritually elect1 would be moved by them as the leaves are moved by the wind4 ,these1 with ,moses at their head1 formed a nucleus which bore the people on through all their trials and dangers1 and gradually leavened the mass to some extent with the same spirit4 ,even after this had been accomplished1 the main work remained to be done4 ,we cannot agree indeed with many writers who seem to think that the whole life of the ,israelite people was started anew by ,moses4 ,that would involve that every regulation for the most trivial detail of ordinary life was directly revealed1 and that ,moses made a tabula rasa of their minds1 rubbing out all previous laws and customs1 and writing a ,god-given constitution in their place4 ,obviously1 that could hardly be2 but still a task very different1 yet almost as difficult1 remained for ,moses after his first success4 ,his final aim was to make a virtually new nation out of the ,hebrew tribes2 and their whole constitution and habits had1 consequently1 to be revised from the new religious standpoint4 ,he and the nation alike had inherited a past1 and it was no part of his mission to delete that4 ,reforms1 to be stable1 must have a root in the habits and thoughts of the people whom they concern4 ,moses would1 consequently1 uproot nothing that could be spared2 he would plant nothing anew which was already flourishing1 and was compatible with the new and dominant ideas he had introduced4 ,a great mass of the laws and customs of the ,hebrews must have been good1 and suitable to the stage of moral advancement they had reached before ,moses came to them4 ,any measure of civilised life involves so much as that4 ,another great mass1 while lying outside of the religious sphere1 must have been at least compatible with ,yahwism4 ,all laws and customs coming under these two categories1 ,moses would naturally adopt as part of the legislation of the new nation1 and would stamp them with his approval as being in accord with the religion of ,yahweh4 ,they would thus acquire the same authority as if they were entirely new1 given for the first time by the ,divinely inspired lawgiver4 ,but besides these two classes of laws and customs there must have been a number which were so bound up with the lower religion that they could not be adopted4 ,they would either be obstructive of the new ideas1 or they would be positively hostile to them2 for on any supposition heathenism of various sorts was largely mingled with the religion of the ,israelite people before their deliverance1 and even after it4 ,to sift these out1 and to replace them by others more in accord with the will of ,yahweh as now revealed1 must have been the chief work of the lawgiver4 ,in that more or less protracted period before ,israel came to ,sinai1 during which ,moses burdened himself with judging the people personally1 he must have been doing this work4 ,his reflections in the wilderness had doubtless prepared him for it4 ,in a mind like his1 the fruitful principles received by the inspiration of the ,almighty could not be merely passively held4 ,like ,st4 ,paul in his ,arabian sojourn1 we must believe that ,moses in ,midian would work out the results of these principles in many directions2 and when he led ,israel forth1 he must have been clearly conscious of changes that were indispensable4 ,but it needed close every-day contact with the life of the people to bring out all the incompatibilities which he would have to remove4 ,every day unexpected complications would arise2 and the people at any rate1 if ,moses himself be supposed to be raised by his inspiration above the needs of experience1 would be able to receive the instruction they needed only in concrete examples1 here a little and there a little4 ,when they came to seek ,yahweh in any matter which perplexed them1 ,moses gave them ,yahweh's mind on the subject2 and each decision tended to purify and render innocuous to their higher life some department of public or private affairs4 ,every day at that early time must have been a day of instruction how to apply the principles of the higher faith just revived4 ,the better minds among the chiefs were thereby trained to an appreciation of the new point of view2 and when ,jethro suggested that the burden of this work should be divided1 quite a sufficient number were found prepared to carry it on4 ,after this it must have gone on with tenfold speed1 and we may believe that when ,sinai was reached the preliminaries on the human side to the great revelation had been thoroughly elaborated4 ,the ,divine presence had been with ,moses day by day1 judging1 deciding1 inspiring in all their individual concerns as well as in their common affairs4 ,but that would only bring out more clearly the extent of the reformation that remained to be wrought2 doubtless too it had revealed the dulness of heart in regard to the ,divine which has always characterised the mass of men4 ,the need for a more complete revelation1 a more extended and detailed legislation on the new basis1 must have been greatly felt4 ,in the great scene at ,sinai1 a scene so strange and awe-inspiring that to the latest days of ,israel the memory of it thrilled every ,israelite heart and exalted every ,israelite imagination1 this need was adequately met4 ,in connection with it ,moses rose to new heights of intimacy with the ,divine4 ,what he had already done was ratified1 and in the ,decalogue the great lines of moral and social life were marked out for the people4 ,but the most remarkable thing to us1 in the narrative of the circle of events which made the mountain of the law for ever memorable1 is the sublimity attributed to the character of ,moses4 ,from the day when he smote the ,egyptian1 at every glimpse we have of him we find him always advancing in power of character4 ,the shepherd of ,midian is nobler1 less self-assertive1 more overawed by communion with ,god1 than the son of ,pharaoh's daughter1 noble as he was4 ,again1 the religious reformer1 the popular leader1 who needs the very insistence of ,god to make him lead1 who speaks for ,god with such courageous majesty1 who teaches1 inspires1 and manages a turbulent nation with such conspicuous patience1 self-repression1 and success1 is greatly more impressive than the ,moses of ,midianite days4 ,but it is here1 at ,sinai1 that his rank among the leaders of men is fixed for ever4 ,to the people of that time ,god was above all things terrible2 and when they came to the mount and found that there were thunders and lightnings and a thick cloud upon the mount1 and the voice of the trumpet exceeding loud1 they could only tremble4 ,their very fear made it impossible for them to understand what ,god desired to reveal concerning ,himself4 ,but in ,moses love had cast out fear4 ,even to him1 doubtless1 the darkness was terrible1 because it expressed only too well the mystery which enwrapped the end of the ,divine purposes of which he alone had seen the beginnings2 even his mind must have been clouded thick with doubts as to whither ,yahweh was leading him and his people2 yet he went boldly forth to seek ,god1 venturing all upon that errand4 ,in previous perplexities the narrative represents ,moses as calling instantly upon ,yahweh2 but now1 when experience had taught him the formidable nature of his task1 when difficulties had increased upon him1 when his perplexities of all kinds must have been simply overwhelming1 he heard the voice of ,yahweh calling him to ,himself4 ,straightway he went into solitary communion with ,him2 and when he passed with satisfied heart from that communion1 he brought with him those immortal words of the ,decalogue which1 amid all changes since1 have been acknowledged to be the true foundation for moral and spiritual life4 ,he brought too a commission authorising him to give laws and judgments to his people in accord with what he had heard and seen on the mount4 ,however we are to understand the details of the narrative therefore1 its meaning is that at this time1 and under these circumstances1 ,moses attained his maximum of inspiration as a seer or prophet1 and from that time onward stood in a more intimate relation to ,god than any of the prophets and saints of ,israel who came after him4 ,he had found ,god2 and from where he stood with ,god he saw the paths of religious and political progress plainly marked out4 ,henceforth he was competent to guide the nation he had made as he had not yet been1 and with his power to help them his eagerness to do so grew4 ,twice during this great crisis of his life the people broke away into evil1 and national death was threatened4 ,but with passionate supplications for their pardon he threw himself down between ,god and them4 ,at precisely the moment when his communion with ,god was most complete1 he rose to the loving recklessness of desiring that if they were to be destroyed he might perish with them4 ,strangely enough1 though the author of ,deuteronomy had this before him1 he does not mention it4 ,it cannot have struck even him as the crowning point of ,moses' career1 as it does us4 ,even in his day the fitness1 nay1 the necessity1 of this self-sacrificing spirit as the fruit of deeper knowledge of ,god1 was not yet felt2 much less could it have been felt in the days of the earlier historians4 ,there must1 therefore1 be reliable information here as to what ,moses actually did4 ,such love as this was not part of the ,israelite ideal at the time of our narrative1 and from nothing but knowledge of the fact could it have been attributed to ,moses4 ,we may rank this enthusiasm of love1 therefore1 as a reliable trait in his character4 ,but if it be so1 how far must he in his highest moments have transcended his contemporaries1 and even the best of his successors1 in knowledge of the inmost nature of ,god6 ,his thought was so far above them that it remained fruitless for many centuries4 ,jeremiah's life and death first prepared the way for its appreciation1 but only in the character of the ,servant of ,yahweh in ,second ,isaiah is it surpassed4 ,now if in this deepest part of true religion ,moses possessed such exceptional spiritual insight1 it is vain to attempt to show that his conception of ,god was so low1 and his aim for man so limited1 as modern theorists suppose4 ,the truth must lie rather with those who1 like ,dr4 ,a4 ,b4 ,davidson1#acf see in him a profoundly reverential ancient mind with thoughts of ,god so broad that mankind has added little to them4 ,nothing in the way of sublimity of view would be incongruous with such a character1 while nothing could be more grotesque than to shut it up within the limits of the gross conceptions of the mass of the people4 ,he was their guiding star1 not their fellow1 in all that concerned ,god1 and his religious conceptions were by a whole heaven removed from theirs4 ,the entire tragedy of his life just consisted in this1 that he had to strive with a turbulent and gainsaying people1 had to bear with them and train them1 had to be content with scarcely perceptible advances1 where his strenuous guidance and his patient love should have kindled them to run in the way of ,god's commandments4 ,but though their progress was lamentably slow1 he gave them an impulse they were never to lose4 ,under the inspiration of the ,almighty he so fixed their fundamental ideas about ,god that they never henceforth could get free of his spiritual company4 ,in all their progress afterwards they felt the impress of his mind1 moulding and shaping them even when they knew it not1 and through them he started in the world that redemptive work of ,god which manifested its highest power in ,jesus ,christ4 #acf ,moses' ,god1 ,british ,weekly1 ,february #b1 #ahic4 ,from this point onward the idea of ,moses that ,deuteronomy gives us is that of a great popular leader1 meeting with extraordinary calmness all the crises of government1 and guiding his people with unwavering steadfastness4 ,without power1 except that which his relation to ,god and the choice of the people gave him1 without any official title1 he simply dominated the ,israelites as long as he lived4 ,and the secret of his success is plainly told us in the narrative4 ,he would not move a single step without ,divine guidance 7,exod4 xxxiii4 #ab73 ,and ,moses said unto the ,lord1 ,see1 ,thou sayest unto me1 ,bring up this people3 but ,thou hast not let me know whom ,thou wilt send with me4 7,ver4 #ad7 ,and ,he said1 ,must ,i go in person with thee and bring thee to thy place of rest8 ,and ,moses said1 ,if ,thou dost not go with us in person1 then rather lead us not away hence4 ,that can only mean that he laid aside self-will1 that he put away personal sensitiveness1 that he had learned to feel himself unsafe when vanity or self-regard asserted themselves in his decisions1 that he sought continually that detachment of view which absolute devotion to the ,highest always gives4 ,it means also that he knew how dark and dull his own vision was1 that clouds and darkness would always be about him1 and that it would be impossible for him to choose his path1 unless he knew what the ,divine plan for his people was4 ,and all that is narrated of him afterward shows that his prayer was granted4 ,his patience under trial has been handed down to us as a marvel4 ,though his brother and sister rebelled against him1 he won them again entirely to himself4 ,though a faction among the people rose against his authority under ,dathan and ,abiram1 his power was not even shaken4 ,amid all the perversity and childish fickleness of ,israel he kept them true to their choice of the desert1 that great and terrible wilderness1 as against ,egypt with the flesh-pots4 ,he kept alive their faith in the promise of ,yahweh to give them a land flowing with milk and honey1 and what was more and greater than that1 their faith in ,him as their ,redeemer4 ,by his intercourse with ,yahweh he was upheld from falling away from his own ideals1 as so many leaders of nations have done1 or from despairing of them4 ,the complaints and perversities of the people did however force him into sin2 and perhaps we may take it that the outbreak of petulance when he smote the rock was only one instance of some general decay of character on that side1 or perhaps one should rather say1 of some general falling away from the self-restraint which had distinguished him4 ,it seems strange that this one failure should have been punished in him1 by exclusion from the land he had so steadfastly believed in1 the land which most of those who actually entered it would never have seen but for him4 ,and it is pathetic to find him among that great company of martyrs for the public good1 those who in order to serve their people have neglected their own characters4 ,under the stress of public work and the pressure of the stupidity and greed of those whom they have sought to guide1 many leaders of men have been tempted1 and have yielded to the temptation1 to forget the demands of their better nature4 ,but whatever their services to the world1 such unfaithfulness does not pass unpunished4 ,they have to bear the penalty1 whosoever they be2 and ,moses was no more an exception than ,cromwell or ,savonarola was1 to mention only some of the nobler examples4 ,he had been courageous when others had faltered4 ,he had been pre-eminently just2 for in founding the judicial system of ,israel he had guarded alike against the tyranny of the great and against unjust favour to the small4 ,he had laid a firm hand upon the education of youth1 determined that the best inheritance of their people1 the knowledge of the laws of ,yahweh and of ,his providences1 should not be lost to them4 ,he had cleared their religion in principle of all that was unworthy of ,yahweh1 and he had by resolute valour1 and by uncompromising sternness to enemies1 brought his great task to a successful issue4 ,but the reward of it all1 the entrance into the land he had virtually won for his people1 was denied to him4 ,it is one of the laws of the ,divine government of the world1 that with those to whom ,god specially draws near ,he is more rigorous than with others4 ,amos clearly saw and proclaimed this principle 7,amos iii4 #b74 ,hear this word that ,yahweh hath spoken against you1 children of ,israel1 he says2 ,you only have ,i known of all the families of the earth3 therefore ,i will visit upon you all your iniquities4 ,the pathetic picture of the aged lawgiver1 judge1 and prophet1 beseeching ,god in vain that he might share in the joy which was freely bestowed upon so many less known and less worthy than he1 pushes home that strenuous teaching4 ,for his sin he died with his last earnest wish unfulfilled1 and it was sadly longing eyes that death's finger touched4 ,we remember also that1 so far as we can judge1 he had no certain hope of a future life other than the shadowy existence of ,hades4 ,though he slay me yet will ,i trust him had a much more tragic meaning for ,old ,testament saints than it can ever have for us1 for whom ,christ has brought life and immortality to light4 ,yet1 with a so much heavier burden1 and with so much less of gracious support1 they played their high part4 ,that solitary figure on the mountain-top1 about to die with the fulfilment of his passionate last wish denied him by his ,god1 must shame us into silence when we fret because our hopes have perished4 ,all those nations which have had that figure on their horizon have been permanently enriched in nature by it4 ,in a thousand ways it has shot forth instructions2 but1 above all1 it has made men worthy in their own eyes2 for it has been a continuous reminder that ,god can and ought to be served unfalteringly1 even when the reward we wish is denied us1 and when every other consolation is dim4 ,but the question may now arise1 ,is not this character of ,moses which the author of ,deuteronomy partly had before him and partly helped to elaborate1 too exalted to be reliable8 ,can we suppose that a man in ,moses' day and circumstances could actually have entertained such thoughts1 and have possessed such a character as we have been depicting8 ,in essentials it would appear to be quite possible4 ,putting aside all distracting questions about details1 and remembering that it is a mere superstition to suppose that the wants and appliances of civilisation are necessary to loftiness of character and depth of thought1 where is there anything in the situation of ,moses which should make this view of him incredible8 ,no doubt there was a rudeness in his surroundings which must necessarily have affected his nature2 and the forms of his thinking in that early1 though by no means primitive1 time must have differed greatly from ours4 ,moreover1 as an instrument for scientific inquiry and for the verification of facts1 the human mind must have been greatly less effective then than it is to-day4 ,but none of these things have much influence upon a man's capacity to receive a new and inspiring revelation as to ,god4 ,otherwise no child could be a ,christian4 ,as regards the rudeness of his surroundings1 we must not consciously or unconsciously degrade him to the level of a modern ,bedouin4 ,among the host he led1 some doubtless were at that level2 but the bulk of ,israel must have been above it2 and ,moses himself1 from his circumstances and his natural endowment1 must have stood side by side with the most cultured men of his time4 ,whatever ignorance or error in science he may have been capable of1 and however rude1 according to our ideas1 his manner of life1 there was nothing in these to shut him out from spiritual truth4 ,that which ,prof4 ,henry ,morley has finally said of ,dante#acg must have been true1 mutatis mutandis1 of a man like ,moses4 ,dante's knowledge is the knowledge of his time1 but if spiritual truth only came from right and perfect knowledge1 this would have been a world of dead souls from the first to now1 for future centuries in looking back at us will wonder at the little faulty knowledge that we think so much4 ,but let the known be what it may1 the true soul rises from it to a sense of the ,divine mysteries of wisdom and love4 ,dante's knowledge may be full of ignorance1 and so is ours4 ,but he fills it as he can with the spirit of ,god4 ,in the ,east this is even more conspicuously true1 even to this day4 ,what an ,israelite under similar conditions might be is seen in the prophet ,amos4 ,his external condition was of the poorest--a gatherer of sycamore fruit must have been poor even for the ,east--yet he knew accurately the history1 not only of his own people1 but of the surrounding nations1 and brooded on the purpose of ,god in regard to his own people and the world1 till he became a fit recipient of prophetic inspirations4 ,but indeed the whole history of ,christianity is a demonstration of this truth4 ,from the first days1 when not many mighty1 not many noble were being called1 when it was specially the message to listening slaves1 the religion of ,christ has had its greatest triumphs among the poor of the world1 rich in faith1 but in nothing else4 ,these have not only believed it1 but they have lived it1 and amid the meanest and rudest surroundings1 with the most limited outlook1 have built up characters often of even resplendent virtue4 ,whatever primitiveness we may fairly ascribe1 therefore1 to the life and surroundings of ,moses1 that is no reason why we should think it incredible that he had received lofty spiritual truth from ,god4 ,if he did such things for ,israel as we have seen1 if1 as almost all admit1 he actually made a nation1 and planted the seeds of a religion of which ,christianity is the natural complement and crown1 then the view that he had a greatly higher idea of ,god than those about him is not only credible but necessary4 ,if his teaching concerning ,yahweh had amounted only to this1 that ,he was the only ,god ,israel was to worship1 and that they were to be solely ,his people1 then on such a basis nothing more than the ordinary heathen civilisations of the ,semitic people could have been built4 ,but if he had the thought of ,god which is embodied in the ,decalogue1 that could bring with it everything in the character of ,moses that seems too high for those early days4 ,the knowledge of ,god as a spiritual and moral being could not fail to moralise and spiritualise the man4 ,the lofty conception of human duty1 the submission to the will of ,god1 the passionate love for his nation which made personal loss nothing to ,moses1 may well have been evoked by the great truth which formed his prophetic revelation4 #acg ,convito of ,dante1 ,morley's ,universal ,library1 ,introduction1 pp4 #f ff4 ,but the narrative itself1 considered merely as a history1 is of such a nature as to give confidence that it rests upon some record of an actual life4 ,ideal sketches of great men 7setting aside the products of modern fictive art7 are much more uniform and superficially coherent than this character of ,moses4 ,the purpose of the writer either to exalt or to decry carries all before it1 and we get from such a source pictures of character so consistent that they cannot possibly be true4 ,here1 however1 we have nothing of that kind4 ,rashnesses and weaknesses are narrated1 and even ,moses' good qualities are manifested in unexpected ways in response to unexpected evils in the people4 ,the mere fact1 also1 that his grave was unknown is indicative of truth4 ,though it would be absurd to say that wherever we have the graves of great men pointed out1 there we have a mythical story1 it is nevertheless true that in the case of every name or character which has come largely under the influence of the myth-making spirit1 the grave has been made much of4 ,the ,arabian imagination here seems to be typical of the ,semitic imagination2 and in all ,moslem lands the graves of the prophets and saints of the ,old ,testament are pointed out with great reverence1 even1 or perhaps we should say especially1 if they be eighty feet long4 ,though a well-authenticated tomb of ,moses1 therefore1 would have been a proof of his real existence and life among men1 the absence of any is a stronger proof of the sobriety and truth of the narrative4 ,that with the goal in sight1 and with his great work about to come to fruition1 he should have turned away into the solitude of the mountains to die1 is so very unlikely to occur to the mind of the writer of an ideal life of an ideal leader1 that only some tradition of this as a fact can account for it4 ,the unexpectedness of such an end to a hero's career is the strongest evidence of its truth4 ,the result of all the indications is that the story of ,moses1 as the author of ,deuteronomy knew it1 rests upon authentic information handed down somehow1 probably in written documents1 from the earliest time4 ,apart from the question of inspiration1 therefore1 we may rest upon it as reliable in all essentials4 ,only in him1 and the revelation he received1 have we an adequate cause for the great upheaval of religious feeling which shaped and characterised all the after-history of ,israel4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,the ,,expositor',s ,,bible4 ,crown #hvo1 cloth1 price #a4ej each vol4 ,,first ,,series1 #ahhg-h4 ,colossians1 ,by ,a4 ,,maclaren1 ,d4,d4 ,st4 ,mark1 ,by ,very ,rev4 the ,dean of ,armagh4 ,genesis1 ,by ,prof4 ,,marcus ,,dods1 ,d4,d4 #a ,samuel1 ,by ,prof4 ,w4 ,g4 ,,blaikie1 ,d4,d4 #b ,samuel1 ,by the same ,author4 ,hebrews1 ,by ,principal ,t4,c4 ,,edwards1 ,d4,d4 ,,second ,,series1 #ahhh-i4 ,galatians1 ,by ,prof4 ,g4 ,g4 ,,findlay1 ,b4,a4 ,the ,pastoral ,epistles1 ,by ,rev4 ,a4 ,,plummer1 ,d4,d4 ,isaiah ,i4-,,xxxix4 ,by ,prof4 ,g4 ,a4 ,,smith1 ,d4,d4 ,vol4 ,i4 ,the ,book of ,revelation1 ,by ,prof4 ,w4 ,,milligan1 ,d4,d4 #a ,corinthians1 ,by ,prof4 ,,marcus ,,dods1 ,d4,d4 ,the ,epistles of ,st4 ,john1 ,by ,rt4 ,rev4 ,w4 ,,alexander1 ,d4,d4 ,,third ,,series1 #ahhi-ij4 ,judges and ,ruth1 ,by ,r4 ,a4 ,,watson1 ,m4,a41 ,d4,d4 ,jeremiah1 ,by ,rev4 ,c4 ,j4 ,,ball1 ,m4,a4 ,isaiah ,,xl4-,,lxvi1 ,by ,prof4 ,g4 ,a4 ,,smith1 ,d4,d4 ,vol4 ,,ii4 ,st4 ,matthew1 ,by ,rev4 ,j4 ,,monro ,,gibson1 ,d4,d4 ,exodus1 ,by ,very ,rev4 the ,dean of ,armagh4 ,st4 ,luke1 ,by ,rev4 ,h4 ,,burton1 ,m4,a4 ,,fourth ,,series1 #ahij-a4 ,ecclesiastes1 ,by ,rev4 ,,samuel ,,cox1 ,d4,d4 ,st4 ,james and ,st4 ,jude1 ,by ,rev4 ,a4 ,,plummer1 ,d4,d4 ,proverbs1 ,by ,rev4 ,r4 ,f4 ,,horton1 ,d4,d4 ,leviticus1 ,by ,rev4 ,s4 ,h4 ,,kellogg1 ,d4,d4 ,the ,gospel of ,st4 ,john1 ,by ,prof4 ,m4 ,,dods1 ,d4,d4 ,vol4 ,i4 ,the ,acts of the ,apostles1 ,by ,prof4 ,,stokes1 ,d4,d4 ,vol4 ,i4 ,,fifth ,,series1 #ahia-b4 ,the ,psalms1 ,by ,a4 ,,maclaren1 ,d4,d4 ,vol4 ,i4 #a and #b ,thessalonians1 ,by ,,james ,,denney1 ,d4,d4 ,the ,book of ,job1 ,by ,r4 ,a4 ,,watson1 ,m4,a41 ,d4,d4 ,ephesians1 ,by ,prof4 ,g4 ,g4 ,,findlay1 ,b4,a4 ,the ,gospel of ,st4 ,john1 ,by ,prof4 ,m4 ,,dods1 ,d4,d4 ,vol4 ,,ii4 ,the ,acts of the ,apostles1 ,by ,prof4 ,,stokes1 ,d4,d4 ,vol4 ,,ii4 ,,sixth ,,series1 #ahib-c4 #a ,kings1 ,by ,ven4 ,archdeacon ,,farrar4 ,philippians1 ,by ,principal ,,rainy1 ,d4,d4 ,ezra1 ,nehemiah1 ,esther1 ,by ,prof4 ,w4 ,f4 ,,adeney1 ,m4,a4 ,joshua1 ,by ,prof4 ,w4 ,g4 ,,blaikie1 ,d4,d4 ,the ,psalms1 ,by ,a4 ,,maclaren1 ,d4,d4 ,vol4 ,,ii4 ,the ,epistles of ,st4 ,peter1 ,by ,prof4 ,,rawson ,,lumby1 ,d4,d4 ,,seventh ,,series1 #ahic-d4 #b ,kings1 ,by ,ven4 ,archdeacon ,,farrar4 ,romans1 ,by ,h4 ,c4 ,g4 ,,moule1 ,m4,a4 ,the ,books of ,chronicles1 ,by ,prof4 ,w4 ,h4 ,,bennett1 ,m4,a4 #b ,corinthians1 ,by ,,james ,,denney1 ,d4,d4 ,numbers1 ,by ,r4 ,a4 ,,watson1 ,m4,a41 ,d4,d4 ,the ,psalms1 ,by ,a4 ,,maclaren1 ,d4,d4 ,vol4 ,,iii4 ,,eighth ,,series1 #ahie-f4 ,daniel1 ,by ,ven4 ,archdeacon ,,farrar4 ,the ,book of ,jeremiah4 ,by ,prof4 ,w4 ,h4 ,,bennett1 ,m4,a4 ,deuteronomy1 ,by ,prof4 ,,andrew ,,harper1 ,b4,d4 ,the ,song of ,solomon and ,lamentations1 ,by ,prof4 ,w4 ,f4 ,,adeney1 ,m4,a4 ,ezekiel1 ,by ,prof4 ,,john ,,skinner1 ,m4,a4 ,the ,minor ,prophets1 ,by ,prof4 ,g4 ,a4 ,,smith1 ,d4,d4 ,two ,vols4 99 99 99 99 99 ,transcriber's note3 ,minor typographical and punctuation errors have been corrected without note4 ,irregularities and inconsistencies in the text have been retained as printed4 ,the cover for the e,book version of this book was created by the transcriber and is placed in the public domain4 ,a list of the ,expositor's ,bible series has been shifted to the end of the book4