"The Old Testament possesses distinctive characteristics of its own, which must ever secure for it a permanent position and influence in the Church.”

"Truthfulness, honesty, sincerity, justice, humanity, philanthropy, generosity, disinterestedness, neighborly regard, sympathy with the unfortunate or the oppressed, the refusal to injure another by word or deed, cleanness of hands, purity of thought and action, elevation of motive, singleness of purpose, these and such as these ... are the virtues which, again and again, in eloquent and burning words, are commended and inculcated in the pages of the Old Testament."

S. R. DRIVER.

CHAPTER II.

BACK TO THE OLD TESTAMENT FOR ITS OWN SAKE.

1. No subject of study can be more interesting and profitable, considered even from a secular point of view, than the history of the Hebrew people from the earliest times to the close of the first Christian century. The history of Israel has taught the world, inspired the world, moralized the world, as has no other history under heaven. To Judaism and Christianity the civilized world goes for its religion and its ethical ideal. It is here that we meet with the greatest statesmen, the purest preachers, and the noblest lives. It is here that we meet not only men who lived nobly, but men who refuse to be satisfied till their brothers and sisters also live nobly with them. It is in Hebrew history that to a marked degree we find God in history. Hebrew history is the story of human progress under the guidance of the Spirit of God. And the Bible is written with this end in view. It shows that God is the teacher of the race.

The Jews were indeed a peculiar people. And at the first sight, as we glance over an outline of their civil and political progress, we are almost forced to the conclusion that a nation so peculiar, so small, and so insular in its habits, can by no possibility have greatly

influenced the course of the world's history in succeeding ages. Yet the very exclusiveness and littleness of Israel fitted it in a special way to become the teacher of the world for all time. Israel does not teach us many lessons, but it teaches one lesson well. And we need not be long in deciding what that lesson is.

2. Let us note briefly some of the things that Israel did not do. It did not produce a great world conqueror. There were times when the Hebrews were ambitious to rule. The empire of David was not inconsiderable, and three hundred years later Jeroboam II. enlarged the borders of the nation, and forced the surrounding nations to submit to his rule. But at no time was this extended sway enduring. Indeed, it was always dependent upon the misfortunes of the great Semitic empires in the heart of Asia; and when, finally, shortly after the death of Jeroboam II., the arms of Assyria began to be successful, Israel lost its political independence, never again to regain it for any considerable

time.

Neither did the Hebrew people produce a philosophy. There is some dealing with abstractions in the Book of Job. There is some theorizing in Proverbs and Ecclesiastes. But no system of philosophy appears like that of Greece. Even the God of the Hebrews is accepted as a matter of course. He is named, but not defined. His attributes are nowhere catalogued. The intellectual process whereby we conceive him is nowhere outlined.

The Jews have left us no works of art. Some of the utensils used in the temple service were artistically designed; but they were of foreign models, as was also the

temple of Solomon itself. There was no sculpture, no painting. The teraphim, or household images, were perhaps busts of deceased ancestors. But they were rudely carved, and do not deserve to be classed as works of art. Something was done by the Jews in music, but what and how much is unknown. The musical terms which occur in the Book of Psalms are untranslatable.

Neither were the Jews lovers and careful students of nature for its own sake. There is a late tradition that Solomon was a botanist; but it is of little value. While the poets and prophets display a considerable knowledge of their native surroundings, they have left us nothing that may be claimed as in the faintest degree suggestive to the student of natural science. So, then, we must search farther if we would find the true value of Hebrew history.

3. We need not read a whole book of the Bible, indeed a chapter is sufficient, to convince us that to the Jew everything is subordinate to religion. What patriotism, philosophy, science, and art are to the nations, religion is to the Jew. Jahveh is the nation's God and king. For him they will live or die. The fear of him is the beginning of wisdom. To know him is the highest philosophy. His holiness is the most perfect beauty. His will is the highest good.

The Hebrews were adepts in religious literary art. But they have not even here a wide range; they must make up in intensity where they are deficient in breadth. The writings of their prophets are unique. Prophecy is the creation of the Hebrew spirit ; no other literature has anything like it, or nearly like it. And

it is this very part of the Hebrews' contribution to modern culture that has been the chief inspiration of all the world's greatest and best loved reformers. The Bible, then, is the world's greatest text-book on religion. The civilized nations are Jewish and Christian in their religion.

A large body of men and women in these civilized lands continue, like the ancient Hebrews, to subordinate all else to their religion. Their religion is their philosophy. It is their science, their poetry, and their music. Draw them in conversation away from their religion, and they are lost. Ask them a question upon which they cannot bring their religion to bear, and they have no answer. We, as minister, lawyer, doctor, or man of the world, are going to meet these and similar people. Some of these we will desire for friends. It behoves us then as a matter of general information, if for no other reason, to acquaint ourselves with the book which is the religious teacher of the masses.

But we have by no means said all when we have said thus much. The Bible is not the book it is by chance. The world did not choose it by lot. The Bible is the text-book on religion of the civilized world because it deserves to be. The religion of the Bible is so strong on the practical and moral side, that even he who half disbelieves in religion may study the Bible, when he has been shown the way, with a real zest.

There is no greater moral and practical civilizing force in the world to-day than the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures. This fact is very widely admitted. This being so, it follows, as a matter of course, that a knowl