Attempt to reach the Origin.

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its religious character had become well marked. In order to discover how all this was brought about, we are referred to an earlier period of their history. We turn to the great prophets who lived and wrote before the exile, and we find that, while their conceptions of the national religion are clear and positive, they do not regard the religion as a thing of their own day, nor claim to have. reached it by their own study. The very earliest of the writing prophets to whose words we have access, appeal to a series of prophetic men before them who had taught the same truths, and presuppose for the nation of Israel a certain religious standing which rests on an antecedent history to which they pointedly and repeatedly refer. Attempting to make our way still farther back, we find the books which tell of the activity of Moses, the this begs the question! exodus from Egypt, and the consolidation of the people under an elaborate system of law; and we seem to have reached an absolute commencement. But even the Mosaic period rests on an earlier. Moses speaks in the name of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and the same books that tell of the work of the great lawgiver are full of references to the covenant and the promise made to Abraham. With Abraham the history of Israel as a people is made by the Old Testament writers to begin. From him the nation is made to descend by ordinary generation; the promise made to him is seen expanding in the succeeding history; and although the writers give an account of ages preceding, and carry their history back to the very origin of things, Abraham is made to stand at the watershed where the national life of Israel has its rise, the "nations" of the world being thereafter left out of account, or only referred to in connection with the fortunes of the chosen people.

What we want to determine is the origin of this peculiarly religious cast of the history of Israel, and the nature of the religious life which is represented as running this long uninterrupted course. And in order to do this, it is of the utmost consequence to secure a firm standingground from which to estimate the precise course of events.

CHAPTER II.

TWO CONTENDING THEORIES OF THE HISTORY.

There are practically two accounts given of the earlier religion of Israel, that of the Biblical writers and that of modern critics, and in vital points they are opposed-The Old Testament books agree, or have been made to agree, in their statement of a scheme-Its outlines-Modern objection to this view that it is an afterthought-Contending theory advanced by critics-Its outline-The contrast-How is the balance to be held between them, since both appeal to the same books?-Proposal to leave aside at the outset the disputed books or portions-Reasons given for this method-Proceeding from the known and admitted to the unknown or disputed-The result will, among other things, determine the value of the books which at the outset are left out of account.

WE have seen that the history of Israel resolves itself into a history of religious ideas. The outstanding events of the nation's history are all invested by the Biblical writers with religious significance; and it is through its religion that Israel is still a power in the world. A history of this people which should be confined to political events would be as unsatisfactory and as uninteresting as a history of Greece which should take no account of art, philosophy, or science. The vital point is to determine, if possible, what was the nature of the earlier religion of this people.

There are, practically, two accounts given of the history

of Israel's earlier religion, between which we have to choose,1 and they are, in important respects, opposed to each other. There is the account of the Biblical writers, which may be gathered from the Old Testament books. Whatever, and however many, may be the original sources of which the Pentateuch and historical books are composed, and in whatever particulars the various sources may be found to be divergent or discordant among themselves, they all agree, or have been manipulated so as to have the appearance of agreeing, in the main view which they exhibit of the course through which the history ran. These books, in addition to an account of primeval history contained in the first eleven chapters of Genesis, have, in the remainder of that book and in the succeeding books to the end of 2 Kings, a connected narrative of the fortunes of Israel from the call of Abraham to the time of the Captivity; and the books of Ezra and Nehemiah record the events connected with the return. Besides these, there are other writings, particularly those of the prophets, which have for the most part their known historical dates, and are therefore valuable contributions to the Biblical account of the history. Now the account which all these books together give of the history is ostensibly consistent and of one tenor. It amounts to this: that the people of Israel, from the time of Abraham, stood in a peculiar relation to God, and received from Him special intimations of His will and character, and were by Him peculiarly guided and directed in their growth into a nation, and

1 See Note IV.

2 The books of Chronicles are confessedly of late date, and stand in some respects by themselves. Whatever may be said of their historic value in detail, they rest on the earlier books and imply the same general scheme of history.

Biblical Theory stated.

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in their existence as a state. By a signal display of divine power they were delivered from the bondage of Egypt and led into the desert of Sinai, where the covenant made with Abraham was renewed with awful sanctions. Upon the covenant was reared the law, ordaining holiness on God's people, fencing round their daily life with ceremonial prescriptions, and educating their spiritual life, so that they might be in deed as in ideal a kingdom of priests, an holy nation. Up to this ideal, however, they never came. On the contrary, they sinned under the very shadow of Sinai; and throughout the course of their journey in the wilderness, marked as it was by constant tokens of divine guidance, they exhibited continual backsliding, and fell into one corruption after another. Even when, by signal displays of divine favour, they were brought into the promised land and made victorious over its inhabitants, they sinned against the God who had favoured them, and conformed to the practices of their neighbours. Nevertheless they were not rejected, nor was their education interrupted. A series of prophets, from Samuel's time onwards, arose to testify against them and to plead for a higher life. These men, with one voice, whether in the northern or the southern kingdom, tell the same tale of God's great doings for His people in the past; they reprove, rebuke, exhort; they confront kings and people, and denounce priests and false prophets alike,-the burden of their message being the same from age to age. Nor do they lose faith in God's promise. As troubles gather about the nation, their reproof of sin becomes more stern, their enforcement of God's righteousness more emphatic, but their trust in His faithfulness remains unshaken. As the fabric of the nation falls to pieces, their views be