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 PRINCETON, N. J. 
 
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 Presented bpV^G.^ .CAx-''VV\VAT^ Vb-V-Va . , 
 
 BM 648^ .A5 1858 
 Angel, Moses. 
 The law of Sinai, and its 
 appointed times 
 
THE 
 
 LAW OF SINAI, 
 
 ITS APPOINTED TIMES 
 
 MOSES ANGEL, 
 
 HEAD-MASTER OF THE JEWS' FREE SCHOOL, LONDON. 
 
 HTD^Ton n n-nn 
 
 THE LAW OF THE ETEENAL IS PERFECT 
 
 londo:n' : 
 william tegg & co., 85, queen street, 
 
 CHEAP SIDE. 
 
 AND SOLD BY 
 
 SAMUEL SOLOMON, 37, DUKE STREET, ALDGATE. 
 1858. 
 
SI'COKQUODALE AXD CO., PRINTERS, LONDOK. 
 WORKS— NEWTON. 
 
PEEFACE 
 
 To my Cliristian fellow-countrymen I would say — The 
 English are a business people. While they devote their 
 genius and their energy to the elaboration of practical 
 science, they give little attention to abstract truths. They 
 rather leave these to the few whose pecidiar profession it 
 is to deal with them. Thus, religion and its necessary 
 adjunct, Biblical research, are, for the most part, taken for 
 granted as they are expoimded by the representatives of 
 the Church. In this way Judaism has come to be 
 entirely misunderstood. It has been so universally 
 described as a thing of obsolete forms and custom»^as 
 incompatible with progress — as the associate of a low 
 standard of morality — as the obstacle preventing the 
 approach to heaven rather than the ladder reaching 
 thither^ — that the world has grown to beheve what few 
 have taken the trouble to contradict, and still fewer to 
 deem inconsistent with a dispensation acknowledged as 
 divine. 
 
 The Bible, which might serve as a guide, has been so 
 spiritualized, that even they who read it scarcely allow 
 their judgment to interfere with interpretations which 
 they have been accustomed to regard as authoritative. It 
 has been so mistranslated, that even they who desire to 
 judge are prevented by want of proper materials. A 
 correct version of Scripture might do much — the study of 
 
IV PREFACE. 
 
 Hebrew would do more ; but the former would perhaps 
 be antagonistic to the existing interests of an influential 
 clergy — the latter is certainly not to be expected of a 
 people whose whole intent is confined to what is useful 
 and practical. 
 
 Meanwhile, Jews are silent ; and, because they have not 
 cared to remove erroneous impressions, it is believed that 
 they cannot. I have written this book in the endeavour 
 to prove the contrary. 
 
 Meanwhile, Peers and Prelates, Commoners and Clergy- 
 men, have been permitted, without reproof, to utter as 
 fects monstrosities which should have been scorned and 
 repudiated, as red tape has been scorned and repudiated, 
 because it has confined some of the best strength of the 
 country till it has become paralyzed — because it has tied 
 genius to the cliariot-wheels of routine^ and led captive 
 what should have triumphed as a conqueror. 
 
 England has a mission before the world. She is destined 
 to send forth her sons as the pioneers of knowledge and 
 truth ; but, to do this, she must herself cultivate know- 
 ledge and truth, especially in their most elevated field — the 
 Scripture. Hitherto she has done this only on erroneous 
 principles. 
 
 Englishmen are slow to recognize their faults ; but they 
 are sure to correct them when they have been recognized. 
 This book has been written in the earnest hope that some 
 faults may be pointed out and acknowledged ; and in the 
 belief that a better understanding between Jew and 
 Christian, will contribute to a better understanding 
 between the various sects of Christianity itself, by 
 demonstrating the possibility that all may be right who 
 honestly conform to the first principles of Revelation — by 
 shewing that true charity admits of no qualification. 
 
PBEFACE. V 
 
 To my Jewisli readers I would say — Tlie English Jews 
 partake of all the qualities of Englishmen. Thus, they 
 have become Utilitarian. 
 
 While the Je\vish character has perhaps benefited by 
 this assimilation, the Jewish religion has, ta some extent, 
 suffered. All the treasures of Judaism are buried in 
 books written in Hebrew ; and because Hebrew, as a 
 language, has little to recommend it to the Utilitarian, the 
 study of it is neglected. Thus, diamonds which should 
 glitter in the sun, lie obscure in the darkness. The strata 
 which contain the precious gems exist, but no industry has 
 striven to penetrate to their depth. 
 
 From the days of Abraham, Tradition has been a marked 
 feature of Judaism. Through its means have been 
 preserved many of the ties which bind Judaism to the 
 past ; through its means, also, have been rejected many of 
 the links which might attach Judaism to the present, and 
 fasten it to the future ; for Tradition deals with the 
 visible, not with the invisible — that is, it retains ceremonies 
 and neglects truths. It retains ceremonies because they 
 become the habit of life, degenerating as they do so ', it 
 neglects truths, because, being only abstract^ they require 
 reason as well as memoiy to assist in their preservation. 
 Reason has so often proved to be rationalism, that ortho- 
 doxy excludes it from the pale, preferring blind submission 
 to voluntary obedience. Memory has so often proved 
 treacherous, that Tradition, trusting to it alone, has become 
 unworthy of confidence. Thus, religion has suffered. 
 Simple belief has excluded reason, and has not unfre- 
 quently essayed to coerce intellect with the restraint of 
 instinct. Philosophic belief has excluded Tradition, and, 
 beginning by abandoning respect for the past, has ended 
 by denying even Revelation, 
 
<V1 PREFACE. 
 
 Thus the eternal Law of Sinai has become to the 
 multitude little better than a dry history of facts, or 
 a categorical recital of statutes — some existent, some 
 obsolete; the Appointed Times of the Eternal have grown 
 to have no higher significance than that which is derived 
 from their observances. 
 
 My object has been to meet these evils. It is the 
 spirit of the Law, as contained in the Law, which is 
 eternal. I have endeavoured to evoke that spirit from 
 the shroud in which it has lain entranced. The Appointed 
 Times of the Eternal sanctify their forms, and are not 
 sanctified by them. I have endeavoured to make this 
 clear, by associating reason with Tradition, and by elevat- 
 ing the thought which grows of faith above the act which 
 comes of duty. 
 
 If I have succeeded, I shall awaken a desire for the 
 study of Judaism, and of the Hebrew language, for I 
 shall have shown that they may be beneficial even to the 
 Utilitarian, by providing a heavenly origin for his mora- 
 lity, a divine warrant for his civilisation. 
 
 Failing in this design, I may achieve one scarcely less 
 useful. In the absence of a loved friend we cling to a 
 faithful portrait, finding memory and hope sustained by 
 the contemplation. If I cannot induce communion with 
 the original, I may at least hope to hold the portrait up 
 to ^dew. By the light of reason I have taken a photo- 
 gi'apb of the religion promised through Abraham, and 
 given through Moses. True, I have used only lenses of 
 my own consti^uction. True, I have coloured my picture 
 with hues drawn only from my own i*mpressions, and I 
 may therefore have distorted some traits ; but I have 
 laboured so earnestly, that I believe my likeness to be 
 honestly produced, and true. I trust that orthodoxy will 
 
PREFACE. Vll 
 
 not deny the resemblance ; I doubt if latitndinarianism 
 can refuse to recognize its correctness. Thus, if I have 
 not resuscitated the past, I maj -vivify the future ; for i^ 
 through my instrumentality, principles shall be made to 
 transcend practices without superseding them; if faith 
 and reason shall be found consentaneous ; if progress shall 
 be based on the permanent truths of revelation, instead 
 of on the evanescent caprices of society ; if the actions of 
 God-service shall be assimilated with its preaching, and 
 love indeed be as really universal as it is professedly so in 
 doctrine — I shall be more than rewarded in the knowledge 
 that I have fulfilled my vocation as a Jew, by aiding in 
 the difiusion of a blessing among all the families of the 
 earth. 
 
For the information of non-Jewish readers, it is necessary to 
 state, that the articles composing this hooJc are adapted to the 
 divisions of the Pentateuch, read %oeehly, on the Sahhath, in the 
 
THE LAW OF SINAI, &c, 
 
 GENESIS: CHAPTER I. 
 
 The history of oiir first parents is tlie history of all 
 their descendants. They first entered into the battle of 
 life, and since their days the contest has continued with- 
 out cessation. !N^ow, it has raged with fierceness, like 
 some struggle between phalanx and legion ; now, it has 
 subsided into sullen horror, Kke some midnight massacre 
 of civilisation by barbarism ; but the fight has gone on 
 through thousands of years, and still the combatants are 
 ranged in opposing columns, nor will victory declare itself 
 till one side be utterly exterminated. 
 
 The God of battles himself decreed tlds battle when he 
 animated the perishable " dust of the earth " with the 
 spirit of immortality. He thus placed in antagonism 
 the eve.nescent ' and the eternal, the impulses of nature 
 and the restraints of conscience, passion and princijjle, 
 evil and good. Since then, religion, philosophy, ra- 
 tionalism and infidelity have done their best to compli- 
 cate the difficulties of the struggle ; but, efiectually no 
 change has occurred, because man cannot supersede 
 Providence. 
 
 Why this battle should have been ordered is the 
 question which has most agitated mankind. Wherefore 
 
 B 
 
2 THE LAW OF SINAI, 
 
 humanity should have been so constituted that its 
 elements naturally militate against each other, has been 
 the lasting problem of the world. But this is one result of 
 the struggle itself— blind judgment against prescient 
 wisdom. The pages of revelation solve the proposition. 
 
 It has been said, that man is born in sin, and that but 
 for a vicarious atonement the millions of earth had been 
 created to everlasting perdition. It has been said, that 
 the all-perfect Eternal delegated to frail mortals the right 
 to 2:)ardon and to anathematize. It has been said, that 
 belief is the privilege of power ; hence the sword and the 
 stake have claimed their victims, and in the name of that 
 Being designated the God of mercy, mercy has been all 
 but annihilated. It has been said, that nature is self- 
 existent, that right and wrong have no higher source than 
 man himself, that here is the end of life, for that there is 
 no hereafter ; but the words of the Divinity proclaim the 
 worthlessness of these and all other human interpretations, 
 and liojht us to that knowledgje which alone can lead to 
 the victory that shall terminate the battle. 
 
 " We will make man in our image," was the behest 
 which called man into existence. " And he shall have 
 dominion over the fish of the sea, over the fowl of the 
 heaven, and over the beasts, and over all the earth," was 
 the fiat which declared him the lord of creation, thus 
 pronounced to be for his service. 
 
 The image of God is eteriiity ; the spirit of creation is 
 love. Man, then, must have been designed eternal, love 
 must have been the predominant princij^le not only of his 
 being but of that of all things. Let us harmonise this 
 with the words of Holy Writ. 
 
 There is nothing in the organization of man which 
 needs to be terminable. We are so accustomed to see 
 helpless infancy progress to vigorous maturity, degenerate 
 to worn out old age, and then subside in death, that we 
 do not pause to reflect if this be inherent or acquired. 
 
AND ITS APPOINTED TIMES. 3 
 
 And yet in what does the constitution of man differ from 
 that which renders nature permanent ? Grant gravita- 
 tion, inertia, and a projectile force, and the orbs of 
 heaven roll through countless ages ; eternal motion in 
 infinite space. Grant a supply of food as the material 
 for animal combustion, and a supply of oxygen as the 
 medium in which that combustion may be carried on, and 
 animal life becomes as endless as " summer and winter, 
 heat and cold," which cease not. 
 
 The spirit of creation is love. What but love, infinite 
 as the wisdom which summoned the harmony of the 
 universe from the confusion of chaos, could have impressed 
 on matter that reproductiveness which perpetuates with- 
 out the necessity for a new creation. In every thing 
 was " its seed within itself." In every thing was dis- 
 played the boundless care of boundless love for the preser- 
 vation of that seed, so that the embryo might become 
 endowed with the necessary vitality. In vegetables and 
 in the inferior animals, nature and instinct stand for this 
 spirit of love. In vegetables the husk, the bulb, the 
 fleshy fruit, the horny flower cup, are its demonstrations. 
 In animals it is seen in the lair of the carnivora, the nests 
 of birds, the migrations of fish. Man developes it in 
 obedience to tlie divine command which enjoins marriage, 
 but as he is superior to all other productions, so his 
 development is higher and more conformable to the 
 reason which constitutes his supremacy. 
 
 The spirit of creation is love. ^Ye trace it in the 
 mutual support which animals and vegetables give to 
 each other , in the adaptation of things to the localities 
 in vfhich they are placed ; in the universality of man 
 destined to rule all ; in the agencies constantly at work 
 to maintain the equilibrium between the inanimate and 
 the animate, to promote intercommunication, through ne- 
 cessity, between the inhabitants of the most distant 
 climes. But, above all, we trace it in the double nature 
 
4 THE LAW OF SINAI, 
 
 given to humanity, wlieieby mankind may merit what it 
 aspires to earn. 
 
 If man had been created perfection, error would have 
 been impossible to him ; virtue would have been entitled 
 to no reward, because it would have been inherent ; 
 there would have been no necessity for any state beyond 
 the one existence, because all that creation demanded 
 would have been fulfilled in its perfection. If man had 
 been made with a preponderant tendency to evil, cruelty, 
 and not love, w^ould have condemned him to an endless 
 and fruitless wrestle with himself, and would have judged 
 him because he had not succeeded where success was 
 impossible. If he had been born in sin, and if to it 
 had been given dominion over him, reason, which should 
 bless by its power to raise, would curse by its subser- 
 vience to what it abhorred. For the function of reason 
 admits of no cavil. It is that portion of the divine 
 within us which renders man improvable by comparison 
 and combination ; it enables him to discriminate be- 
 tween that which conduces to the general weal and that 
 which promotes the common woe, and thus it permits 
 him to appreciate good and evil. To give man this 
 guide, to teach him that his happiness depended on a 
 course which this guide approved, and which it would 
 willingly pursue, but from which it was debarred by an 
 irresistible influence, might be the characteristic of some 
 Indian Mahadeva, or some Koman Ate ; impiety only 
 could apply it to the Eternal, God, long suffering, abun- 
 dant of kindness and truth. 
 
 Man, then, v^ras not called into existence with any bias, 
 except such as love gave. And, truly, there was the 
 sublimity of eternal love in the idea of creating a being 
 endowed with a double nature so nicely balanced, that 
 the portion which was all perishable could never become 
 utterly corrupt, because the portion which was all heaven- 
 ly could never entirely lose its purity. To give to this 
 
AND ITS APPOINTED TIMES. 5 
 
 being, volition, to choose its own career, and thus to 
 secure the merit of its actions ; conscience, to judge those 
 actions, and thus to be capable of working out its own 
 happiness ; was only consistent with that love. There 
 remains only to investigate how this scheme failed. 
 
 Causes 2:)rorluce effects. Love in the Divinity was to 
 produce gratitude in man. God w^as to rule through 
 love ; man was to obey through gratitude. Conformable 
 with man's double nature — the immaterial and the ma- 
 terial — his gratitude was to have a double development; 
 his religion, which was to be all soul, his actions, which 
 were to be all bodily. The type of his spirituality was 
 the knowledge of God and of his will ; the type of his 
 corporeality was obedience to the behest which prohibited 
 the eating of the tree of good and evil. This knowledge 
 of God was to be limited by Divine will ; '^ to be satisfied 
 with this restraint was to be happy^ to strive to break it 
 was to be sin. Man, yielding to the ignoble pleadings of 
 appetite, ate of the forbidden fruit, and thus exhibited 
 his desire for a knowledge which had been declared in- 
 consistent with its being — a knowledge of those inherent 
 consequences of good and evil which had been impressed 
 as mysterious laws on creation. But the Eternal had 
 said : " On the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely 
 become mortal," and man, who had braved this penalty, 
 was now to learn the result of his wantonness. The fruit, 
 he found did not confer what he had coveted, but the 
 lightning of reason showed him the crooked way he had 
 chosen, a,nd the thunder of conscience condemned him to 
 fear. He hid himself. Then came to his cowering shame 
 the sentence of his disobedience — not the punishment, but 
 
 * No stronger proof of this can be given than the answer made 
 by the Eternal to Moses, when he asked for that knowledge which, 
 by the Divine will, was to be only divine : " No man can see my 
 face and live;" not to mention the assertion — "Your thoughts 
 are not my thoughts." 
 
b THE LAW OF SINAI, 
 
 the inevitable consequences of his allowing mortal corrup- 
 tion to prevail in his being. Woman, the original insti- 
 gator of the wrong, was to become seqpndary to man. 
 Having been the means of giving death to the world, she 
 •was to provide for the continuation of her race as tlie 
 mother of future generations, and in her maternity she 
 was to find alike her danger and her dependence. Man, 
 because he had yielded to be led where he should have 
 sought to guide, was thereafter to assume his legitimate 
 position. Lord of created things, by bringing corruption 
 to himself he had brought it to all below him : " The earth 
 is cursed on thy account." Having been the slave to his 
 desires, he was thereafter to find in labour his servitude 
 and his mastery. 
 
 But the image of God is eternity, the spirit of creation 
 is love. Man had voluntarily deprived himself of his 
 participation in those Divine principles; it remained with 
 the All Merciful that they should not, therefore, cease 
 from earth. Then came the great law of compensation, 
 which preserved man to eternity and love to creation. 
 Sin had doomed nature to decay, life to mortality; 
 existence thus became incomplete. Desire had introduced 
 toil and sorrow ; happiness thus became jeopardised. 
 The body was to pay the penalty of tliese evils ; the soul 
 was to remain immortal. Through the awe of death the 
 spirit was to pass, but beyond that dread visitation beam- 
 ed an eternal future. Thus, being was ren^lered perfect, 
 and eternity was preserved to the world. AVoman was to 
 risk her life to perpetuate her race, man was to spend his 
 days in labour ; but woman was to become a mother in 
 obedience to her love, and fn her maternity she was to 
 find the solace for the danger she had passed, and the 
 affection which rendered her happy even in trouble ; 
 man was to learn that in labour consisted his best safe- 
 guard against future temptations, and that through it 
 alone could he procure the activity necessary to his well- 
 
L 
 
 AND ITS APPOINTED TIMES. 7 
 
 being. Thus the clepeudeoce of woman and the labour of 
 man were hallowed by the spirit of love. 
 
 Sin had come into creation. Constant enmity had been 
 pronounced between it and society : " He shall bruise thy 
 head, and thou shalt bruise his heel." Antagonism had 
 been instituted between the body, which had become cor- 
 rupt and perishable, and the soul, which was to remain 
 capable of perfection and immortality. The design of 
 creation, human happiness, was compromised by this battle 
 of life, thus voluntarily engaged in by man. Moreover, 
 as man had fallen from good to e^dl, and as in the struggle 
 between his contending natures (it is so in all struggles) 
 bad passions were to be excited, and therefore further evil 
 was to ensue, it became necessary that Divine wisdom 
 should provide means for regeneration. Again the spirit 
 of love spoke through the mouth of the Eternal. On 
 Adam and Eve was bestowed one compensation^ to Cain 
 was imparted another. He had taken away a life ; un- 
 consciously, but still wickedly, because he had yielded to 
 the influence of e\dl thoughts. When the stern voice of 
 God announced to him the magnitude of his crime, and 
 the consequences which conscience would entail : "A 
 fugitive and a wanderer wilt thou be on the earth ; " he 
 trembled before the terrible future he had evoked, and in 
 the bitterness of his prostration he exclaimed — " My ini- 
 quity is gi'eater than I can bear." Then said Mercy : 
 " Atonement lieth at the door ; and to thee is its desire ; 
 and through it thou shalt rule." And when the guilty 
 one, thus told that the road to heaven still lay open before 
 him, was awakened to the new fear that some act of 
 violence similar to his own might prevent his treading 
 that road through the gates of repentance : " But it may 
 come to pass that any one meeting me may slay me ; " 
 God gave him " an assui-ance " of safety, and so confirmed 
 the fiat that expiation is the antidote for vice.* 
 
 * That it proved so in the case of Cain may be inferred from the 
 
8 THE LAW OF SINAI, 
 
 Since tliat time, the dawn of the world, human life has 
 resembled an April day. Now sunshine, now shower ; 
 now the bright light of spring, now the sombre darkness 
 of winter ; but amid all, the glorious daystar remained 
 resplendent, although temporarily obscured, and the 
 coming summer loomed in the future as the realisation of 
 hope. Since that time the battle of life has continued 
 without intermission. Now virtue has prevailed ; now 
 vice has ruled ; now men have yielded to the Divine in- 
 fluence of spirit ; now they have succumbed before the 
 debasing control of matter'; but around all, atonement 
 shone the great mediator, and still before us glittered the 
 prosjDCct of human regeneration and human happiness, as 
 essential to the merciful design of creation. 
 
 Since that time, self love, which, in mortal minds, 
 usurps the place of genuine love, has invented a thousand 
 excuses for excesses in the cause of zeal, for short-comings 
 in the path of duty ; but ever the character of man, in 
 the aggregate, has continued the same. . Power has 
 abused its privileges, crime has used its opportunities ; 
 philanthro]\y has ministered, on the one hand, to the 
 satisfaction of conscience, on the other hand, to the 
 gratification of vanity ; religion in its purity, lias taught 
 the highest virtue, in its impurity, has inculcated the 
 lowest vice ; it has preached charity and practised 
 atrocities ; it has spoken i:>eace and has acted war. Pro- 
 gress has been made to mean the advancement of the 
 mass, and the advantage of the individual ; merit has 
 either led the van or it has ceded its place to nepotism ; 
 public service has been confided to the worthy or it has 
 been abandoned to favoritism, it has been wielded for the 
 emergencies of the times or it has rusted in the fetters of 
 
 zeal with which he, and, throiij]jh him, his descendants, cultivated 
 the industrial pursuits ordained hy ProA'idcnce as the result of sin, 
 and its preventive ; for to this zeal we owe our first knowledge of 
 cattle, of music, of metals. 
 
AXD ITS APPOINTED TIDIES. U 
 
 rontine. Confidence in heavenly mercy lias led martyrs 
 to the grave and has consecrated them in it ; confidence 
 in mortal resources has conducted criminals to the abysses 
 of sin, and has there deserted them. Good has risen to 
 the very type of the Godhead ; evil has descended to the 
 depths of perdition ; but, amid all, no man has been found 
 pure, no man has been found so coriiipt that atonement 
 has not, at the last, proved his redeemer. 
 
 Since that time, man's cunning has devised a thousand 
 means for deceiving himself or others, and in every way 
 men seem to have exerted themselves to render void the 
 decrees of Providence founded on its own inalienable laws. 
 But ever the great principles deducible from the history 
 before us have remained permanent. In appearing to 
 shape tbeir individual courses men have only contributed 
 to one harmonized whole. Right has always prevailed 
 even thougli wrong may have been supported by prejudice 
 and maintained by power. Volition, while most 
 unrestrained, is most subservient to a superior, though 
 unseen, will ; responsibility strives in vain to shake off 
 its 3^oke because it is obedient to judgment beyond its 
 control. And, above all, no human eflforts have been able 
 to banish from earth the compensation (through a future 
 state) given for death, or that given for labour through 
 atonement and regeneration ; for the ima.a;e of God is 
 eternity, the spirit of creation is love. 
 
 o 
 
 : n3 
 GENESIS: CHAPTEE YL, VEESE 0. 
 Holy AV KIT, so faithful in its recitals, conveys to us 
 but too soon the sad truth that the design of creation — 
 human happiness through virtue — had all but failed. In 
 conformity with the princi[)le of volition, the Eternal 
 had not actively interfered to guide mankind. He had 
 permitted Adam to plunge into disobedience and mortality, 
 
 b2 
 
10 THE LAW OF SINAI, 
 
 and had completed the existence thus rendered imperfect 
 in this world, by the addition of a future state. He had 
 allowed Cain to descend to the abyss of murder, and had 
 provided repentance as the means to regeneration. But 
 in all else God had been passive. Man's merits and de- 
 merits were to be his own. Divine mercy did what was 
 consistent with free will when it lent the weight of its 
 wisdom and its power to man's teaching, and free-will 
 would have found its highest dignity in obedience ; but 
 our first parents, in introducing corruption into the earth, 
 had generated a love for self and self-indulgence, which 
 degraded man to be rather the slave to his body than its 
 master. Instead of looking to the spiritual, mankind re- 
 garded the corporeal, and in so doing they ignored the 
 invisible instructions of heaven in favour of the tangible 
 instructions of example and experience. Compared to 
 the people of after ages, the immediate descendants of 
 Adam were but infants in all that respects the store of 
 past wisdom for future benefit. History had done nothing 
 for them, misfortune had done nothing. Eew in number, 
 inhabiting a tract of land whose vegetation was naturally 
 luxuriant, under a climate which was all genial, they were 
 exposed to no vicissitudes of fortune, they had little to 
 study but enjoyment. Society had not yet entered on to 
 those complications which rendered diplomacy or war 
 politic. People were simj)ly j)astoral and agricultural. 
 In the many hours of leisure which the abundance of 
 fresh nature enabled them to take, their minds, unem- 
 ployed in intellectual pursuits, wandered in search of 
 pleasures befitting their bodily idleness. Only two models 
 for their guidance were before them ; the long past reve- 
 lation of creation, every year becoming more shadowy in 
 the distance ; the present avocations of unemployed facul- 
 ties, every year less disposed to any exertion but that 
 which was self-rewarding through the joy it brought. As 
 generation succeeded generation, the obedience enjoined 
 
AND ITS APPOINTED TIMES. 11 
 
 on Adam, tlie repentaPxCe which comforted Cain, became 
 faint memories. It is doubtful if they were understood ; 
 it is certain that they were not appreciated. By the 
 gradation which has always since been observed in parallel 
 cases, pleasure unrestrained grew to be licentiousness, and 
 this exj)anded to be crime. Even the industrial pursuits of 
 Cain and his posterity seem to have been lost in the fusion 
 which took place between the two races, or to have been 
 only the means to produce bloodshed, as selfishness strove 
 to extort from wealth what it had not the skill or desire 
 to earn. In the emphatic words of the Bible : " The 
 earth was full of violence ;" and to such an extent that 
 " God repented that he had made man." 
 
 Mercy could do no- more ; it could not silently permit 
 its indulgence to be further outraged, still less could it 
 permit the spirit of love to be annihilated from creation. 
 At once to destroy the world was to sweep away the 
 design of Pro\ddence ; to allow volition to sink into 
 unfathomable corruption, was equally to vitiate the 
 object of the Creator. A proceeding was necessary, 
 either to arrest men in their career of guilt and restore 
 them to the road to virtue, or to cut them off in their 
 obstinacy if they persisted in sin. This proceeding was 
 rendered of easy acomplishment, by the fact that there 
 existed one family among the children of earth in which 
 the seeds of virtue were not extinct. Where all others 
 had steeped themselves so deeply in crime, the wonder is 
 not that this family was not better, but that it was so 
 nearly good. " Noah, a righteous man, was perfect in his 
 generation." It was thus possible at one blow to reward 
 and to punish. Therefore «aid God to Noah : " Make 
 thee an ark." But vainly rose the gigantic fabric for the 
 warning of corruption. Men asked not, or, if they asked, 
 they heeded not the object of the stupendous erection. 
 Devoted to their rapine, their ciaielty, their voluptuous- 
 ness, they had not a moment to spare for reflection ; 
 
12 THE LAW OF SINAI, 
 
 heaven miglit have come to eartli, and they would not 
 have paused ; nothing could stay them but the arresting 
 hand of death. 
 
 And death came in the form of a terrible vengeance. 
 Eight human beings, obedient to the behest of mercy, 
 pairs of inferior animals, obedient to the guidance of their 
 Maker, betook themselves to the ark, and " God shut 
 them in." Then the fertilising rains of heaven poured 
 down in destroying torrents, the life-giving fountains of 
 earth welled up in overwhelming floods. Forty days and 
 forty nights the mighty waters swelled into a boundless 
 field of desolation, and alone in creation floated the 
 solitary few, protected by divine care. Vainly the 
 terrified herd sought for shelter; vainly some fled to 
 mountain tops, and some to cavern depths ; vainly some 
 yelled imprecations, some shrieked prayers ; on, on, came 
 the foaming billows with resistless fury, till the great 
 globe became one vast sphere of fluid waste, and the orbs 
 of space shone on no living object. 
 
 " And God remembered Noah and that which was 
 with him in the ark," and again nature resumed her 
 functions. Earth began to absorb, heat to evaporate ; the 
 sea receded to its basin, the atmosphere imbibed an ocean 
 of moisture. By slow, but sure degrees, the superfluity of 
 waters disappeared from the world, and the olive branch 
 — for vegetation had been miraculously preserved beneath 
 the deluge — told Noah that land was again ready to 
 receive its occupants. Once more existence teemed in its 
 proper home, and gratitude hastened to pour itself out 
 in sacrifices to the God that had rescued it from death. 
 " And the Eternal smelled the sweet savour " — the 
 sincerity of a pious heart; and although prescience was 
 enabled to foresee that the awful warning of the flood 
 would scarcely conduce to human amelioration, mercy 
 swore never again to inflict a like visitation, or to destroy 
 the earth in any other way. It is the more necessary to 
 
AND ITS APPOINTED TIMES. 13 
 
 bear this promise in mind, because on its fulfilment 
 depended the future spiritual history of man. 
 
 Tradition here steps in to aid revehition. To Adam 
 and the infancy of society obedience and atonement only 
 had been given. These had failed of their effect. 
 Meanwhile, experience had raised society to a state of 
 maturity, capable of receiving and adopting a more exten- 
 sive legislation. On Noah and his sons, therefore, were 
 bestowed the seven Noacliide precepts, which are still 
 regarded as the fundamental principles of all morality and 
 religioD. These precepts were in themselves suiScient to 
 lead man to virtue and happiness. Their adoption was 
 due alike to the memory of the terrible catastrophe which 
 had just cut off past wickedness, and to the confidence 
 which divine wisdom and mercy should have inspired. 
 But the battle of life had ceased only while there was no 
 field on which to %ht. No sooner were men restored to 
 earth than they returned to pleasure, and the contest 
 between the eternal image in man and his corporeal 
 tendencies was renewed in all its vigour. Through 
 creation the spirit of love breathed, in men the spirit of 
 self-love acted. Noah gave himself to sensuality j Ham 
 became the Cain of the new worlcL In the bitterness of 
 his anger the flither forgot his own shortcomings to 
 remember the crime of his son. He cursed the guilty one 
 through his descendants ; for knowing, from his antedilu- 
 vian career, the fatal power of evil example, he was enabled 
 to foresee how the doomed race would themselves contri- 
 bute to accomplish the destiny decreed by his wrath. And 
 so the second era in time began, like the fii\st, in wrong. 
 
 When God created the earth he designed it for 
 habitation, not in one locality only, but throughout all its 
 extent. He had placed in its various parts difierent 
 constituents to human happiness — some animal, some 
 vegetable, some mineral ; he had given the ocean as the 
 great highway of intercommunication; he had endowed 
 
14 THE LAW OF SINAT, 
 
 man with faculties to achieve intellectual and physical 
 perfectibility ; and he had therefore ordained that the 
 means to the end he had proposed should not be wasted. 
 In the» exercise of free-will, men, at this period, were 
 blindly conspiring to their own injury. Satisfied with 
 the fertile valley in which they lived, they cared not to 
 ask if earth had not tracts equally delightful and even 
 more eligible. They did not fore.see the consequences of 
 human increase, either that they must resort to violence 
 to destroy the too abundant population, or that they must 
 spread as one people till the extremities were too weak, 
 because of their distance from the centre of being. They 
 did not know that nature had other resources, that they 
 had a higher destination. They thought that in fulfilling 
 in its literality the behest — " In the sweat of thy brow 
 shalt thou eat bread," they were discharging all the func- 
 tions of life, except those which contribiited to enjoyment. 
 They were content to remain simple agriculturists : in- 
 vention, science, literature, and the thousand other chan- 
 nels into which mind flows, were all unopened. They 
 were even proud of their sensual torpor, and in their 
 arrogance they aspired to decide their own fate by pa- 
 ralyzing the energies which activity only could call into 
 play. They said : " Come, let us build a tower whose 
 head shall reach to heaven, lest we be scattered over the 
 face of the whole earth." But it was alien to divine 
 mercy, in conformity with the promise to Noah, to suffer 
 mankind thus to perpetuate its own misery, to render 
 impossible its regeneration. An expedient was needed, 
 w-hich might not only preserve men, but which should 
 lead them in the exercise of a spontaneous volition to 
 those treasures of nature and of reason of which at present 
 they were ignorant. Their language was confounded. 
 A multiplicity of tongues, each unintelligible to the other, 
 immediately created a diversity of interests. It was im- 
 practicable for people to live together who could hold no 
 
AXD ITS APPOINTED TIMES. 15 
 
 verbal communication with, eacli other. Of their own 
 accord they separated. Some turned eastward, and pro- 
 bably by a tedious journey set between themselves and 
 their fellow men the almost impassable desert of central 
 Asia. Some turned southward, and skirting the great 
 mouutain ridges, found themselves in the fertile valleys 
 of the Ganges, and the Indus. Some turned northward, 
 and sought a scanty home in the cheerless wilds of the 
 Caucasus and Russia. Some turned westward. These 
 soon took three directions : some stationed themselves on 
 the eastern edge of the Mediterranean, some penetrated 
 into Africa, and the more adventurous, taking to tlie 
 water, colonised the southern shores of Europe as the 
 pioneers of civilization. A few remained at the seat of 
 the original dispersion. 
 
 But travelling or settling brought no improvement to 
 the one defect. The light of revelation had been ex- 
 tinguished in the stream of voluptuous sloth, and although 
 men were contributing, under the direction of Providence, 
 to fulfil their temporal development, their spiritual eleva- 
 tion was as yet uncared for. Nay, more, in the bodily 
 activity rendered necessary by the new state of society, 
 the mental faculties were so neglected that even the 
 traditions, which memory might have preserved, were 
 clouded or changed till they became the myths of heathen- 
 ism. Later, when men had conquered the difficulties in 
 the way to bodily happiness, and when mind once more 
 was at leisure to cater for its own gratification, the past 
 afforded no recollections sufiiciently lofty to raise reason 
 to heaven. In every clime what men called religion 
 assumed a form modified by external circmnstances, or by 
 particular interests. In the luxurious regions of Asia 
 and Africa, sensuality was the prevailing characteristic ; 
 in the more temperate valleys of Europe, imagination 
 adorned passion with immortality. Assyria and Egypt 
 covered their gi'ossness with a veil of mystery, or hid it 
 
1 6 THE LAW OF SINAI, 
 
 in the gigantic tem^^Ies by wliicli the vulgar herd was 
 kept in awe. Greece deified the moral and intellectual 
 faculties, and thus elevated them above earth, but it also 
 endowed its gods with the appetites and weaknesses of 
 men, and thus degraded them to the level of their worship- 
 pers. Everywhere existed some idea of a superior power ; 
 nowhere was the Eternal really known. Thus, virtue, 
 which in its perfection is consistent only with the recogni- 
 tion of God, held a comparative and precarious being, 
 incompatible with the true intention of life — progressive 
 improvement and happiness. Again, therefore, the design 
 of creation was in danger of failure. If criminality was 
 less than it had been before the flood ; if the earth was 
 less saturated with violence ; men had approached no 
 nearer to the accomplishment of an eternal destiny. But 
 mercy had sworn never again to wreak vengeance on an 
 entire world, and in the fullilment of that oath it resolved 
 on a third revelation ; in this instance, as in the case of 
 Noah, o-ivdno; to mortal volition and mortal obedience the 
 merit of their singularity. 
 
 When the Eternal created light he made it universal. 
 There is no darkness so complete that some principle of 
 light is not within it. In the plain of " Aram between 
 two rivers," the darkness of idolatry prevailed with fearful 
 intensity ; in that plain there glimmered one spark of 
 the true illumination. Weak and wavering in uncer- 
 tainty that spark may have been, but it was there ; and 
 as into the dust of the earth the Almighty breathed the 
 spirit of life, and made it the image of God, so the 
 breath of the Omnipotent fanned this faint spark with 
 its vivifying power, and made it the fire of eternal exis- 
 tence. 
 
 While other men were bowing beneath the yoke of 
 vile superstition and viler idolatry, Abram, the son of 
 Terah, walked erect with his eyes heavenward. His 
 father and his kindred worshipped images of mortal 
 
A^'D ITS APPOINTED TIMES. 17 
 
 fashioning; his fellow-countrymen and his king bent 
 before forms of clay and wood ; but their example had 
 no other effect on him than to excite his pifcy for their 
 weakness, his contempt for their ignorance. His soul 
 yearned for something more sublime ; his mind could 
 not stoop to adore things which it felt to be its inferiors. 
 Tradition had given him so little, that it rather opposed 
 than assisted his aspirations ; they tended to an upward 
 goal, but whither he knew not. His will was to attain 
 an end worthy the dignity of his being, and it led him in 
 the right direction ; he needed but a helping hand more 
 powerful than his own, and more skilled, and all his 
 faculties were ready to obey its impulse. And God, 
 mindful of the love he bore to man, and specially watchful 
 of the integrity of purpose which makes man immortal, 
 lent that helping hand to the anxious wanderer, and 
 guided him to the knowledge for which he thirsted. The 
 ecstasy of the Sj^racusan when the laws of specific gravity 
 first burst on him in his bath, — the phrenzied delight of 
 the Genoese when to his longing eyes rose the dark 
 outline of a new world, — the sublime joy of Newton when 
 the great volume of nature unrolled itself before his 
 mind, all were as nothing to the luxury of bliss which 
 permeated the soul of Abram in the form of inspiration. 
 He felt himself newly created ; new desires, new hopes, 
 grew within him ; he panted to prove his devotion to the 
 glorious Being who had vouchsafed him so much mercy; 
 and God, approving the zeal of his chosen one, determined 
 to permit him to exhibit the loftiness of faith to all 
 
18 THE LAW OF SINAI, 
 
 GENESIS: CHAPTEE HI. 
 In reviewing the life of the first of the patriarchs it 
 must not be forgotten that virtue derives its highest 
 human influence from example. Since the Almighty- 
 reads the heart of man, knows the exact strength of its 
 principles, and the just amount of its sacrifices, it might 
 be inferred that he needs no actions to convince him of 
 sincerity of purpose, and, therefore, that mortals make no 
 advance in his favour when they do that which his pre- 
 science detected that they were ready to do. It is the 
 intention which sanctifies the deed, not the deed which 
 ennobles the intention. Doubtless, in so far as concerns 
 the relationship between God and man, nothing is neces- 
 sary but power on the one side to judge, and volition on 
 the other side to meap. But professions are so easy, and 
 practices so difficult ; individupJs are so prone to propose 
 to themselves a righteous course till the very moment at 
 which they are called on to act, and then some inconveni- 
 ence interferes to change their direction ; abstract good is 
 sometimes so beautiful in theory, and is only by experience 
 found to be evil ; there is, in short, so much difference 
 between the ideal and the real of utility, that nothing 
 but the visible proofs of sense could suffice for those for 
 whose benefit virtue is especially designed. True, God 
 has ordained this virtue, but none the less true that, 
 except in so far as his love grieves over sinfulness because 
 of the fatal consequences which it entails, his majesty and 
 his eternity are not affected thereby. Man alone derives 
 advantages from virtue, because, in obedience to funda- 
 mental laws of creation, it leads to combinations which 
 promote his happiness ; and, therefore, for man, who can 
 judge only through his senses, are required the means 
 whereby a judgment may be formed. This means is the 
 
AND ITS APPOINTED TIMES. 19 
 
 example of action, subserving the powerful faculty ofimi- 
 tativeness ; and mercy, ever so desirous of rendering 
 mortals the instruments of their own amelioration, has 
 required at man's hands visible proofs of devotion, not to 
 satisfy itself, but to convince more fallible beings, more 
 erring perceptions. 
 
 The crimes of antediluvian ages are lost beneath the 
 flood which swept them away with their perpetrators and 
 their records. Holy "Writ is content to designate the 
 wickedness of that era as " violence " — a bare outline, 
 which imagination only can fill. A new revelation was 
 necessary for the Noachid?e, and it was vouchsafed ; but, 
 as has been shown, human pride and human selfishness 
 threw the mantle of worldliness over the beauty of the 
 heavenly gift, and again Divine interposition was needed 
 to interfere between man and his perverse determination 
 to ill. As Noah had been selected because " he was 
 perfect in his generation," so Abram was chosen because 
 of his superiority above his age. It mattered not in what 
 Noah was better than his fellow-creatures, for virtues and 
 vices were alike to perish beneath the avenging waters. 
 Future times were to know nothing but the one prominent 
 fact of the deluge. It might even be assumed that Noah 
 was saved less because of his positive merits than because 
 of his relative morality as compared with that of others ; 
 it mattered little to the after progress of good when the 
 materials on which judgment could build a conclusion 
 were to be utterly destroyed. In the case of Abram 
 these considerations did not prevail. God had pronounced 
 in favour of the perpetuity of the earth ; already men had 
 begun to accumulate, in engraved figures or hieroglyphics, 
 lasting memorials of the past ; the still more perma- 
 nent characters of language were soon to supervene. 
 Mankind was thus preparing to rear with the materials 
 of history a tower which was really to reach to heaven, 
 and, this time, heaven approved, for it recognised in the 
 
20 THE LAW OF SINAI, 
 
 new erection the beacon whicli was to guide by tlie good it 
 illuminated, to warn by the bad on which it shed the 
 light of truth. The Eternal, also, through Abram, was 
 lending his hand to consolidate the foundation of this 
 edifice. That future labourers might be zealous in the 
 gi-eat work, it was necessary that they believe in the 
 worth of him so specially selected by Providence, other- 
 wise they might repudiate their task because of their 
 dislike of favouritism. For, when God gave man the 
 power of reasoning, he did not except even himself and 
 his actions from its operation. Hence was it that the 
 career of Abram was made to stand in bold relief; that 
 his earnest faith was permitted to develop itself in 
 earnest deeds ; that his fitness for the task assigned to 
 him proved itself by the way in which he discharged that 
 task ', that the heritage which he achieved as the heir- 
 loom of his posterity seemed the result not only of God's 
 blessing, but of his own high deserts. Let us trace liis 
 life as the page before us relates its events, pausing to 
 make those reflections which the simple narrative of the 
 Bible always leaves open. 
 
 " A nd the Eternal had said to Abram, get thee out 
 from thy country, and from tliy kindred, and from thy 
 father's house, to the land which I shall show thee. And 
 I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee 
 and make thy name great ; and thou shalt be a blessing ; 
 and I will bless those that bless thee, and him who curseth 
 thee I will curse ; and in thee shall all the families of the 
 earth be blessed." 
 
 The land in which Abram dwelt was no fit arena for 
 his operations ; its inhabitants were too numerous, and 
 too regular in their modes of life ; his family and connec- 
 tions were steeped in idolatry, and were incapable of any 
 higher aspirations, and being, therefore," not disposed to 
 second his aims at the introduction of Godworship, were 
 likely to be his strongest opponents. He would be fet- 
 
AND ITS APPOINTED TlilES. 21 
 
 tered, and it was necessary at least that the obstacles to 
 his success should be passive rather than active, for his 
 career was new and dangerous, and much might depend 
 on first results. But it was not a light matter in those 
 days to travel from Mesopotamia to Canaan. The 
 Euphrates once crossed, there intervened a trackless wast-e 
 of mountain and desert, infested by wandering, and often 
 predatory, tribes, and affording no certain means of sub- 
 sistence. It required high moral courage to face the 
 dangers and difficulties of the journey. Abram found 
 this courage in his confidence in the Being who had just 
 inspired him with the idea of setting out. Before the 
 intensity of his desire to show his faith all other conside- 
 rations vanished. With his wife, Sarai, his nephew, Lot, 
 and witli their respective households, he departed from his 
 native country, and arrived in Canaan. Empliatically the 
 Bible tells us, " The Canaanite was then in the land." 
 There is to be no misunderstanding of the peril which 
 ■ virtue of any sort was sure to incur amidst such peoj)le, 
 especially if it assumed the function of the patriarch, and 
 preached a doctrine antagonistic to their superstitions, and 
 condemnatory of their vices. Can we wonder, then, that, 
 in reward for the steadfast trust which had sustained the 
 wanderer amid his troubles, and which nerved him to 
 confront the malice or hatred of the Canaanites, the 
 Eternal should at once say : " Unto thy seed will I give 
 this land." He had richly earned this reward, for^ by his 
 zeal in behalf of God, he showed himself most worthy to 
 supersede those who, tradition and Scripture tell us, most 
 resembled the antediluvian despisers of God. 
 
 And everywhere the voice of Abram proclaimed the 
 existence of the Eternal ; everywhere did he strive to in- 
 culcate on others the U'uths that inspiration had impressed 
 on him. And in his own person did he experience the 
 fulfilment of God's first promise, for he found that, vdiile 
 violence and plunder were the ordinary pursuits of the 
 
22 THE LAW OF SINAI, 
 
 Canaanites, as against one anotlier, he and his remained 
 sacred. Even volition, which in the lust for gain dares 
 so much, dared nothing against him. He felt himself as 
 protected of Heaven as though the visible presence of the 
 Deity went before him ; and certainly, in no instance has 
 the interposition of a special providence seemed to inter- 
 fere more with the operation of free-will ; for, except that 
 such interposition were, how are we to reconcile the for- 
 bearance of the Canaanites with their usual licentiousness 
 — how are we to account for the fact, that when Lot se- 
 parated himself from Abram, the same mysterious shield 
 that had protected him, no longer served as a defence. 
 
 Little need is there to dwell on the unselfishness which 
 prompted Abram's behaviour to Lot on the occasion of 
 their parting. It was in the nature of such a man to ren- 
 der self the last consideration, just as it must have been 
 in the nature of Lot to cultivate sensual ease ; otherwise, 
 why did he seek the plain of Sodom because that " it was 
 well watered," when he knew that its people were " evil 
 and sinful before the Eternal exceedingly." As little need 
 is there to expatiate on the readiness with which Abram 
 forgot his nephew's ingratitude when there was the oppor- 
 tunity for doing a good action, or on his bravery in con- 
 fronting -the numerous dangers of war, when he had already 
 faced the scarcely less terrible cupidity of the Canaanites. 
 He who strives to elevate himself towards God, and to 
 form himself after the Divine model, may do things strange 
 to some men, but the few who reflect on this object will 
 see in the beauty of his conduct only the faithfulness of 
 his imitation. The Eternal, who knows that the " imagina- 
 tions of man's heart are evil from his birth," knows also the 
 strength of purpose necessary to withstand them ; he, there- 
 fore, could measure the true worth both of Abram's promp- 
 titude to active good, and of his forbearance from even the 
 seeming wrong of accepting his legitimate spoils as a pay- 
 ment for what he had done. And accordingly, "after 
 
AND ITS APPOINTED TIMES. 23 
 
 these tliiuga, the word of the Eternal came to Abram in 
 a vision, saying, Fear not, Abram, I am thy shield, thy 
 reward shall be very great." And when the patriarch, 
 with an anxiety only too natural, asked wherein would his re- 
 ward consist, seeing that he was childless, and that a stranger 
 would be his heir ; mercy comforted him with the promise 
 of a posterity numerous as the stars of heaven. " And he 
 believed in the Eternal, and he accounted it to him for 
 righteousness." Even God, who, for human benefit, asks 
 for practical illustrations of faith, was content with this 
 spontaneous belief, for he knew it to 'be sincere. Man, 
 always so sceptical of that which does not appeal to his 
 senses, accepts it also as an exception, because he finds in 
 Abram's past conduct a warrant for the reliance which 
 now sustained him, and in his future conduct an assurance 
 that even under the ordeal most harrowing to his love, his 
 trust did not fail. 
 
 The covenant " between the pieces," which, though 
 Abram knew it not, foreshadowed the birth of Isaac, and 
 the whole subsequent history of his posterity till the days 
 of Joshua, introduces the circumstance that leads to the 
 birth of Ishmael. God has promised the patriarch a 
 numerous progeny ; already age is stealing over him, and 
 his wife Sarai, also past the ordinary age of maternity, 
 " bare him no children." Believing in the certain fulfil- 
 ment of God's word, and yet not prepared for any special 
 miracle on his behalf, he resorts to means still within his 
 control, and in accordance with existing customs ; — perhaps 
 Heaven may aid his pious endeavour to assist in accom- 
 plishing its design. So Hagar becomes a wife to Abram 
 and, in process of time, the mother of a son ; and, though 
 to her the Eternal announces the child's name and destiny, 
 there can be little doubt that in this boy Abram thought 
 he beheld the pledge of that numerous seed promised to 
 him, and that his whole heart was preparing to expend 
 itself in care for its future welfare. Little dreamed he, 
 
24 THE LA.W OF SINAI, 
 
 who, reposing on the rock of his faith, was content to 
 believe ; little dreamed Sarai, who, thinking her hope of 
 children lost, said, " Perhaps I may have cliildren by her," 
 what happiness was still in store. For them the present was 
 enough ; they had Ishmael; all else seemed an impossibi- 
 lity ; and Hagar naturally kept her own counsel concern- 
 ing her son's condition, foretold by the angel. And so 
 time rolled on, each succeeding year carrying Abram and 
 Sarai deeper into the vale of years, concentrating their 
 affection on the wayward Ishmael, and confirming in them 
 the idea that thus the word of God had been fulfilled. 
 
 But as yet Abram knew not all the power of Heaven. 
 At the age of ninety-nine he was to learn that nothing 
 was impossible to the Eternal, who then declared him- 
 self to him as "an Almighty God," before whom to 
 walk was to be " perfect." Then indeed the patriarch 
 was made to reap the rich harvest of his faith, and, 
 while another practical instance of obedience was de- 
 manded and readily conceded in the form of the initiatory 
 rite of Judaism — tlie Abrahamic covenant — the promises 
 of God extended themselves not only to him, but, through 
 his merits, to his posterity for ever. How beautiful is 
 the faith which could thus evoke mercy for unborn 
 millions ; how beautiful is the mercy which could thus 
 accept the failh of one man as the test of a certain 
 alliance with his descendants " throughout their genera- 
 tions." Then was the patriarch named Abraham — " the 
 father of a multitude of nations :" then w^as Sarai to be 
 called Sarah, because she was to be a mother of nations, 
 and kings of people were to be of her. Then did God 
 say, — " I will establish my covenant between me and thee, 
 and thy seed after thee, throughout their generations, for 
 a covenant for ever, to be a God unto thee, and to thy 
 seed after thee. And I will give unto thee and to thy 
 seed after thee, the land of thy sojournings, all the land 
 of Canaan, for a possession for ever, and I will be their 
 
AND ITS APPOINTED TIMES. 25 
 
 God." Then was rendered eternal tlie bond between the 
 perfection of the Eternal and the perfectibility o± man. 
 Thereafter the truths of revelation were no more to be 
 lost to earth, the hopes of human regeneration were no 
 more to wither before man's volition to evil. Mercy had 
 sworn never again to destroy, now it promised to save. 
 Chosen because of his deserts, Abraham thus accom- 
 plished the confirmation of his own high merits, and the 
 destiny of his descendants. He had aspired to God, and 
 God had vouchsafed to meet his aspirations. He had 
 prayed for a child that he might through it transmit his 
 faith and his knowledge, and to his children for ever was 
 granted the privilege of preserving and spreading that 
 faith and that knowledge. He had been told that he 
 should be a blessing, he now knew what this blessing 
 meant. It was not to ])e personal to himself, and so 
 minister to his selfishness or arrogance ; it was not to be 
 the peculiar possession of him and his, and so induce in 
 them the intolerance of exclusiveness in religion, the 
 bigotry of claiming salvation for themselves alone ; it was 
 not to be worldly prosperity, and so separate class from 
 class, fostering pride in the rich and envy in the poor ; 
 but it was to be the means of carrying out the great law 
 of creation, which declared all men brothers and equals in 
 the eyes of God, by teaching all alike to look up to God 
 as their father and sovereign. It was to be the heirloom 
 of him and his posterity, as stewards for the weal of man- 
 kind. As the sun dispenses light to the whole world nor 
 claims any peculiar merit for discharging for others' good 
 the function impressed on it ; as the atmosphere, by a 
 constant circulation, promotes animal and vegetable 
 being, nor does more than its destined task, so Abraham 
 and his descendants were to perform their duty, with the 
 additional task of elevating themselves while they raised 
 others. As men bless the sun and the atmosphere, so 
 were they fco bless the seed of the patriarch ; those were 
 
 c 
 
2Q THE LAW OF SINAI, 
 
 created to give the heat and vital principles of animal 
 life, these were ordained to give the principles of moral 
 and religions life. And when men shall universally bear 
 in mind that the spirit of creation is love, this truth shall 
 be acknowledged. Then, too, shall the lofty and en- 
 grossing faith which deserved this blessing be worthily 
 recognised. Now, after the performance of a thousand 
 miracles of extraordinary occurrence, and myriads of 
 daily occurrence ; after the irrefragable proofs of special 
 and general providence afforded by liistory, after the 
 abundant testimony which revelation, which science, and 
 which conviction have borne to the wisdom and power of 
 the Divinity ; now it may not be strange that mortals 
 believe in God and acknowledge what so many concurring 
 circumstances deny to doubt. But in that dark age, when 
 a dim tradition supplied the place of history and mystified 
 rather than enlightened; when the daily habit of idolatrous 
 life debased every sentiment of the mind to the level of an 
 instinct ; when ignoraace, like a misty atmosphere, dis- 
 torted all seen through it ; when filial affection, and the 
 other associations of duty, cliained reason to slavery through 
 the influence of the heart ; in that age, for a man, unaided, 
 to break the fetters from his intellect, to tear the trammels 
 from his genius, to rend asunder the ties of custom and 
 relationship, and to rise to the conception of the Godhead, 
 was an effort deserving the Divine approval it received, and 
 worthy of the charge which rendered the patriarch " a 
 blessing " because " he proclaimed the name of the EternaL" 
 
 GENESIS: CHAPTER XVIII. 
 When God promised Abraham a numerous posterity, 
 the patriarch, regarding only the ordinary operations of na- 
 ture, supposed Ishmael to be the destined representative 
 of his race, and prayed for his well-doing. And the 
 
AND ITS APPOINTED TIMES. 27 
 
 Eternal said : " As for Islimael, I liave heard tliee 
 
 But my covenant will I establish with Isaac, whom Sarah 
 shall bear unto thee at this appointed time in the next 
 year." And Abraham and Sarah laughed. What ! could 
 old age assume the vigour of youth, and bloom like the 
 green shoots of the early spring 1 Could the suspended 
 functions of life, long since forgotten in the distant past, 
 be resumed in all their strengtli ? They were yet to learn 
 the power of Heaven. " Is any thing too hard for the 
 Eternal 1 At the time appointed I will return unto thee, 
 as the time that liveth, and Sarah shall have a son." 
 Now, indeed, they had not lived in vain. Old age, which 
 gives so little to joy but memory, was to cheer them with 
 the pleasures of hope. Hitherto their very prosperity 
 had been painful, for no loved being existed to inherit it ; 
 their sacrihces had been, as it were, useless, for no succes- 
 sor would perpetuate the knowledge which it had been 
 their fortune to acquire. But every thing indued new 
 colours in the anticipation of the promised child. Love 
 saw its brightest fruition when marriage gave the cares of 
 maternity to the wife, the duties of a father to the hus- 
 band. Islimael was "a wild ass among men;" but, ere 
 his birth, Isaac was pronounced to be the legitimate heir 
 to God's covenant. The bliss of parentage was for them 
 without alloy ; beforehand, they knew that their training 
 should be productive of good results, that their precepts 
 should be rewarded by wise practice-. Providence had not 
 given them a barren blessing, since the future was to be 
 not only rich to them, but everlasting ito their descend- 
 ants. They had planted the tree of religion on earth, 
 and the word that faileth not gave to their progeny the 
 eternal charge of that tree, with the assurance that its 
 leaf should never wither, nor its root be destroyed. 
 Truly they were happy, and not the less so because of 
 theii' certainty that the fulfilment of their hopes would be 
 the beginning and not the end of hope. 
 
28 THE LAW OF SIXAI, 
 
 Little need to expatiate on the hospitality of the pa- 
 triarch, for hospitality is a common virtue, and, althongh 
 always graceful, it is not unfrequently the exponent of 
 ostentation, or a sacrifice to pride. He who could forget 
 the injuries of an ungrateful relation was not likely to 
 slight the claims of a helpless stranger. The faith which 
 inculcated a universal brotherhood knew nothing less than 
 the practice of that love which its doctrine taught. Little 
 need to dwell on his zealous intercession on behalf of the 
 condemned cities of the plain. His own heart was so 
 full of bliss that the idea of misery to others was painful 
 to him. Through Divine mercy he had himself escaped 
 from the degradation of idolatry and ignorance ; by his 
 simple example he had withdrawn many others from a 
 like fate ; why might not a few righteous and determined 
 men have the same effect on the people of Sodom ? 
 While the wicked lived, there was at least a chance of 
 their repentance ; destroyed, they could only fall in their 
 sin. And so he pleaded ; vainly, but not less earnestly 5 
 the cry that had gone up to offended Heaven from out- 
 raged humanity was too grievous for even Divine mercy 
 to ignore. Water had washed away the traces of one 
 unutterable wickedness ; fire was to consume the monu- 
 ments of another. The cup of the Amorite was only to 
 be full after the fourth generation of a promised seed ; 
 the cup of the Sodomites was ah-eady overflowing, and its 
 reeking miasma poisoned earth and polluted nature. To 
 render possible God's promise to Noah, never again to 
 involve creation in one doom, it was necessary to except 
 the cities of the plain ; the j^lague generated there would 
 have corrupted a universe. And so " the Eternal caused 
 to rain upon Sodom and Gomorrah brimstone and fire, 
 from the Eternal out of heaven ; " and Abraham glanced 
 *' towards all the face of the land of the district, and, lo ! the 
 vapour of the earth went up as the vapour of a furnace." 
 
 The episode of Ishmael and his ex^Dulsion from the 
 
AND ITS APPOINTED TIMES. 29 
 
 paternal home may well be lightly passed over. The 
 Eternal had himself removed Abraham from the evil 
 influences of family associations ; it was only consistent 
 that Abraham should take a like precaution on behalf of 
 a son on whom so much depended. The subsequent life 
 of Ishmael proves how little adapted he was to be the 
 companion of the meek, God-fearing Isaac, how little the 
 gentle nature of tliis latter was fitted to cope with the fiery 
 temperament of the man '/ whose hand was against every 
 one, and against whom was every one's hand." Abraham, 
 as the fiither of the wayward boy, was properly unwilling 
 to dismiss him in anger. Sarah, with a mother's blind 
 partiality, might counsel an injustice, but both children 
 were his, and, while he recognised the necessit}^ for 
 sepai-ating them, he could not allow jealousy to furnisli a 
 pretext. The Eternal, who had foretold the destiny df 
 Isaac and Ishmael, came to the rescue. " Let it not be 
 e^dl in thy eyes because of the lad, and because of thy 
 maid-servant ; in all that Sarah hatli said unto thee hearken 
 to her voice, for through Isaac shall seed be raised unto 
 thee ; and also of the son of thy maid-servant will I make a 
 nation, because he is thy seed." And Abr-aham, thus as- 
 sured that the sending away of Ishmael will not be an act 
 of cruelty, because God will protect his future, dismisses 
 the mother with her child ; and Holy Writ, ha\ang thus 
 disposed of all conflicting elements, proceeds with the single 
 harmony of the " only one." Let us trace this goklen 
 stream from its source, for on its bosom it bears the fate of 
 a nation, and through that nation, of a world. 
 
 " And the Eternal visited Sarah as he had said." Hope 
 gi'ew to be certainty ; certainty grew to be enjoyment, 
 and yet possession did not disappoint, satiety did not pall. 
 And the family picture was complete, just as the family 
 happiness was perfect. The mother, still decked with the 
 charms of youth,* beamed with a beauty all but divine as 
 
 * How else could she have attracted the notice of Abimeleeh ? 
 
30 THE LAW OF SINAI, 
 
 lier eyes lighted witli maternal love. The father, green 
 as the oak with a century o'er its head, drew a step nearer 
 to Heaven when he took his son by the hand to lead him 
 to God. What a domestic hearth ! Age laying aside its 
 gravity to lend itself to the buoyant spirits of childhood, 
 and yet putting on a new dignity as it poured out its 
 stores of wisdom into the heart of youth. Childhood, 
 innocent in its untaught simplicity, and yet wearing the 
 robe of a brighter innocence when youth practised the 
 wisdom which childhood had imbibed. Can we wonder 
 that affection hovered like a spirit divine over the nest 
 sustained by faith and warmed by charity. Parental love 
 was hallowed by the religion which it inculcated, filial 
 duty was sanctified by the piety which it aspired to 
 imitate. And so time stole on, and among the changes 
 it brought w^as the transfer of tlie paternal vigour of 
 both body and mind from the father to the son. The 
 snows of age would have frozen the brow of the father 
 but for the genial rayts- tlitit streamed from the eye of the 
 son. And so time stole on, and each succeeding year, 
 bringing the child nearer to the parents' level, more 
 closely cemented, through mutual respect and admiration, 
 the bonds enjoined by nature. He who had been the 
 object of the mother's tenderest care, became the support 
 of her waning strength ; the father, who had lent the 
 first hand to teach his son to walk, was in turn glad to 
 accept the son s arm to assist his own faltering steps. And 
 so time stole on ; day-dreams became realities, the active 
 life of the wandering preacher had settled into the sedentary 
 existence of the watchful sire ; and one might have thought 
 that the faith which had knitted itself so closely to earth 
 was in some degree loosened from heaven. This tendency 
 to depreciate what is absent was not unknown to God, and 
 thus once more the patriarch was called on to show that 
 resignation and trust which had distinguished his earlier 
 years, and which had been the reason of his selection. 
 
AND ITS APPOINTED TIMES. 31 
 
 ^' And it came to pass, after these things, that God did 
 try Abraham ; and he said unto him, Abraham ; and he 
 said, Here I am. And he said, take now "thy son, thine 
 only one, whom thou lovest, Isaac, and go into the land 
 of Moriah ; and offer him up there for a burnt offering, 
 upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of." 
 
 Direful words to fall on a father's ears, and to sear 
 his heart ; nor less terrible because, coming from the 
 Eternal, they seemed to revoke the promises for the 
 future which had made the faithful one so happy, because, 
 by demanding his son's life, they seemed to mock the joy 
 of his paternity with the agony of a violent and unnatur?vl 
 separation. He might have remonstrated : recollecting 
 his appeal for the condemned cities, one might justify a 
 remonstrance. He might have refused altogether ; know- 
 ing that he was acquainted "with the ordination which 
 forbade the shedding of human blood, one might under- 
 stand how a father's lore should seize the ready excuse. 
 But his was a perfect faith. While his heart was large 
 enough to hold in its embrace all mankind, his soul 
 recognized but one object of belief. Wherefore, no 
 murmur escaped his lijDs ; and if, in the hidden recesses 
 of his bosom, some untold pang awoke a mortal sense of 
 weakness, no hesitation was visible in his acts, no emotion 
 left its traces on his face, to betray to the perhaps less 
 ethereal and more womanly affection of Sarah the errand 
 on which he was bent. With ready steps he journeyed 
 to the appointed place ; with prudent foresight ^ he took 
 the fire in his hand and the knife ; " with pious prevarica- 
 tion he satisfied the curiosity of Isaac : " God will provide 
 for himself a lamb for a burnt offering, my son ; " with 
 prompt obedience he '' built an altar and set the wood in 
 order, and bound Isaac his son, and put him on the altar 
 upon the wood ; and stretched forth his hand, and took 
 the knife to slaughter his son." No yearnings of tender- 
 ness staid the claims of duty ; no voice of parental love 
 
32 THE LAW OF SINAI, 
 
 dro^vned tlie cries of devotion to heaven ; all the father 
 was merged in the servant of the Eternal. But the 
 sacrifice was already complete. The G-od of mercy, who 
 delights not in the death of the wicked, rejoices in the 
 life of the righteous. He had chosen Abraham to be the 
 dej)Ository of the eternal truths of revelation, and he 
 desired that Abraham should himself justify that 
 choice to man. Hence, the whole career of the patri- 
 arch had been a trial of his worth and of his steadfast 
 trust in God. From the moment at which, obedient to 
 Divine behest, he had journeyed from the house of his 
 father, till the hour in which he bound Isaac on the altar, 
 he had been exhibiting constant proofs of his devotedness 
 and his devotion. In the oifering of his " only son " his 
 faith culminated. In the sublimity of his resignation, 
 all that was human and natural in his being gave place to 
 his spiritual longing for his master. He thus separated 
 himself from the failings incidental to mortality, and, 
 indeed, impressed on it through the law that the spirit 
 of creation is love ; for, while his soul was bound in the 
 soul of his son, he hesitated not to tear the life from his 
 life at the command of Heaven. Wherefore, said God, 
 through his angel : " Lay not thine hand upon the lad, 
 neither do thou anything to him ; for now I know that 
 tliou fearest God, since thou hast not kept back thy, son, 
 thine only one, from me." Wherefore, also said the 
 angel, " By myself have I sworn, is the declaration of 
 the Eternal, that because thou hast done this thincf, and 
 hast not kej^t back thy son, thine only one, that I will 
 greatly bless thee, and I will exceedingly multiply thy 
 seed, as the stars of heaven, and as the sand which is 
 upon the sea shore, and thy seed shall possess the gate of 
 his enemies ; and all the nations of the earth shall bless 
 themselves through thy seed, because thou hast hearkened 
 to my voice." 
 
 Who shall describe the rajjture which thrilled the 
 
AND ITS APPOINTED THIES. 33 
 
 heart of tlie father when he found that not only had the 
 Eternal accepted his devotion, but that his son was still 
 to be spared to his love. The child of his maturity 
 became the child of his old age, being thus as it were 
 newly born, and in the declaration of the Eternal he 
 learned alike liis reward for the past and his hopes for the 
 future. Now, indeed, he had not been chosen in vain, 
 since Heaven had approved his zeal, and earth was to 
 bear witness to his mission. Now, his fidelity and self- 
 abnegation were to receive their recompense in the faculty 
 which they conferred on him and his posterity to bless 
 others. Now, the infinite mercy of God, responsive to the 
 unbounded piety of man, confirmed the promises already 
 given, and added to them the certainty of eternal salva- 
 tion. Now, religion, which had hitherto been a phantom, 
 mysterious and shadowy, became the tangible possession 
 of mankind, and its purpose was definitively announced 
 to be the means of regeneration and happiness. Now 
 conscience whispered praise, and the angel proclaimed a 
 blessing; paternal love reconciled itself with love for 
 Heaven, and as the patriarch and his lads " rose, and went 
 together to. Beer-Sheba," who shall say what harmony 
 dwelt in his heart, what holy content permeated his soul. 
 God could ask no more, since he had not withheld his 
 dearer self, and thereafter, he who had been a sojourner 
 in the land, "abode at Beer-Sheba." Peace spread her 
 balmy wings over the now permanent home of the well- 
 tried servant, and beneath their genial shade the stream 
 of his existence ran noiselessly on ; his work was done, 
 his task was accomplished, and calmly and hopefully he 
 waited the final visitation. 
 
 Two expressions used by the Eternal to Abraham 
 claim especial notice, as in them are contained the duties 
 of Judaism and its fate. First : " For I have known 
 him, because he will command his children and his house- 
 held after him, so that they keep the way of the Eternal, 
 
 c2 
 
34 THE LAW OF SINAI, 
 
 to do rigliteoiisness and judgment." Secondly : " And 
 all the nations of the earth shall bless themselves through 
 thy seed ; " explained subsequently to Jacob by the ad- 
 dition : "And thou shalt spread abroad to the west, and 
 to the east,, and t^o the north, and to the south." 
 
 The former of these texts announces the existence of 
 that oral law which it was to be the special duty of the 
 descendants of Abraham to perpetuate through their 
 generations. Just as Abraham himself was selected be- 
 cause of his determination to secure fidelity on the part 
 of those who came after him, so his posterity were to 
 merit their selection by a like endeavour. Just as lie 
 deserved a blessing for this particular quality, so they 
 were to claim it only by transmitting as an eternal heri- 
 tage the lessons which, through the same quality, they 
 were to inculcate. Theirs was not to be the tradition of 
 ordinary men, vague and mythic, becoming fabulous as 
 distance diminished, pride magnified, or words clouded it ; 
 but it was to be as certain through steadfast teaching as 
 the written records of history which tioith inscribes on 
 the pages of time. And that the Eternal himself sanc- 
 tioned this duty may be inferred from numerous passages 
 of the Pentateuch, " And thou shalt teach them dili- 
 gently ; " " And it shall come to pass in time to come 
 when thy son shall ask thee ; " " And thou shalt tell thy 
 son at that time ; " and from the extraordinary fact tha,t 
 from the era of Moses till that of Eabbinu Hakkadosh 
 (above 1500 years), the explanation of the precepts of the 
 law was so faithfully transmitted by word of mouth, that 
 they were observed in the same integrity then that had 
 characterized their institution on Sinai. 
 
 The second text announces the fate of Judaism. There 
 seems to be a remarkable contradiction between this pas- 
 sage and that in which Abraham is told that his seed 
 shall hold the land of Canaan as a possession for ever. 
 This contradiction is reconciled when we bear in mind the 
 
AXD ITS APPOINTED TIMES. '3o 
 
 principle of creation, which declares physical evil to be 
 the result of moral deflection. To Israelites was to be- 
 long as an eternal possession the land of Canaan ; but 
 this was to depend on their observance of God's law. By 
 combinations which man cannot understand, people were 
 not to molest them in their country so long as they re- 
 mained faithful to "their wisdom in the eyes of nations." 
 But Israelites were also to spread abroad in all directions, 
 to take with them to the remotest corners of earth the 
 blessings and truths of revelation. Divine prescience was 
 enabled to foresee that the land of Canaan would cease to 
 be the abiding place of the Jewish commonwealth, and, in 
 imj^ressing on the Israelites for their sins the necessity of 
 wandering to the four corners of the world, it was pro- 
 viding the compensation wliicli mercy always designs as 
 the antidote to its judgments. Who can read or com- 
 prehend the ways of Providence 1 As, in the torrid zone, 
 the whirlwind carries destruction to the fairest and most 
 fertile districts, but at the same time bears on its blast 
 the winged seed to germinate in some otherwise barren 
 spot, so perhaps the storms which laid Israel in ruins 
 bore the truths prostrated in Canaan to bloom and 
 fructify in other lands, and thus contributed to the fulfil- 
 ment of the promise, " And all the nations of the earth 
 shall bless themselves through thy seed." Had Israel re- 
 mained obedient and unmolested in Canaan, who can say 
 how far exclusion and jealousy, or religion and idolatry, 
 may have clashed, and may thus have prevented the 
 spread of that knowledge of God which was necessary to 
 man's regeneration ? During the 1500 years which elapsed 
 between the death of Moses and the conquest of Titus, 
 that knowledge had certainly not extended, and when 
 just prior to this latter event it first began to assume a 
 form which might be acceptable to others besides the de- 
 scendants of Abraham, it did so through a Jew, who, in 
 the spirit of enlightenment, adapted that religion which 
 
36 THE LAW OF SINAI, 
 
 Jews had begun to contemn and to cause 'to be despised, 
 and made it the faith which was to contribute to the de- 
 sign of heaven. But whether we call that faith, with its 
 ceremonies and restrictions, Judaism, or without them, 
 Christianity, the principle remains, that, through the 
 spread of that fjiith, the truths of revelation confided to 
 Abraham and his posterity are being borne " to the west 
 and to the east, to the north and to the south." •-? 
 
 GENESIS: CHAPTER XXITI. 
 
 Gently flows the stream of time, and on it glides the 
 bark of the patriarch to the haven appointed for all 
 mankind. The sea of life and its agitations no longer 
 hurry him. Calm reigns in his heart, fruition crowns his 
 hopes. He has earned the reward of his faith, and mercy 
 permits him peacefully to enjoy it. One more trial, one 
 more duty, and the thread of existence may fall from the 
 distafi", without a sound to tell that it has been snapped, 
 without a convulsion to tell that it has resisted. Mortality 
 is the lot of man, and blessed is he who can penetrate its 
 mystery without shame for the past or terror for the 
 future. 
 
 " And Sarah died in Kirjath-Arba, that is, Xlebron, in 
 the land of Canaan, and Abraham came to mourn for 
 Sarah, and to weep for her." True to his mortality he 
 bowed beneath the weight of grief; true to his faith he 
 did not permit feeling to interfere with duty. True to 
 the love which God had consecrated as the culmination 
 of human felicity, and which, in liis case, reason- had 
 sanctioned with the approval of experience, he bewailed 
 the broken ties, the desolate hearth ; he regretted the 
 companion of his youth, his manhood, and his old age ; 
 he gave a sigh to the sad memories that told him he had 
 lost for ever in this world, the partner of his dangers, the 
 
ASD ITS APPOINTED TIMES, 37 
 
 mother of Isaac, the wife of his bosom. Time to the 
 hopes which inspiration had given, he put aside de- 
 spondency, he plunged not into the desolation of woe, for 
 he knew that the broken ties would be re-established, 
 that the cherished companion would be restored, that the 
 lost one in this world would be found in another and a 
 happier state. First of all human beings, he had learned 
 the real meaning of the mystery — death ; through its 
 darkness he first saw the eternal light of immortality. 
 Therefore, again the old spirit of activity came over the 
 mourner, for he felt that in that consisted alike the 
 destiny and the regeneration of man. " He arose from 
 before his dead," and, in conformity with the pious insti- 
 tution that hides from affection the decay of what it once 
 held dear, he took steps for the burial of the depaii^ed. 
 And, in that land, these steps are of necessity immediate, 
 for decomposition so soon succeeds death, that men turn 
 mth loathing from the once loved object, lest in their 
 abhorrence they desecrate the lost image of God. He 
 purchased the field and the cave of Macpelah, " a^ a 
 possession of a burying- place for ever," and thus originated 
 the custom by which his descendants preserve their dead 
 separate from those of other people. 
 
 The manner in which this custom has been carried out 
 among: Israelites merits notice. Amongr the membei'S of 
 other creeds around us, a graveyard and a churchyard have 
 been synonymous. Wheresoever the fane has arisen to the 
 honour of the Eternal, there have also grown the perish- 
 able tumuli which tell of mortality. The worshipper, 
 bending his steps towards the altar of his God, has trodden 
 his way amid the mouldering remains of his fellow-creatures, 
 and has thus learned solemnity ere he passed the sacred 
 precincts. Israelites have always avoided this juxta- 
 position. The "house of the living," as, in allusion to 
 the existence hereafter, the graveyard is called, has never 
 been joined to the synagogua The feelings proper to de- 
 
38 THE LAW OF SINAI, 
 
 votion have been allowed to grow in tlie natural reverence 
 wliicli a place of worship should excite, without being 
 stimulated by any extraneous aid. The connection be- 
 tween the living and the dead, beneficial to the former by 
 the serious thoughts it awakens, and respectful to the 
 latter by the memories it preserves, has been maintained 
 by periodical visits to the tombs of the departed — 
 visits so hallowed by tradition, that few Israelites do not 
 spend some hours annually amid the graves of their deceased 
 friends. But in this difference of locality lay the great 
 distinction. While members of other creeds increased, 
 their dead increased ; streets and graveyards became popu- 
 lated together. Thus, while life teemed lin the busy 
 resorts of the quick, death grew from the putrefying re- 
 mains of the charnel-house. For, although men knew it 
 not, the churchyard was its own best provider, through 
 the poisonous miasma which it breathed among the living, 
 through the invisible pestilence which its vapours bore 
 into the haunts of life. By this intermingling, therefore, 
 of the abodes of those who are and those who are not, God's 
 service became immersed in the horrors of idolatry, for it. 
 offered up human sacrifices on the altar of its divinity. 
 Israelites never so compromised the religion of Sinai. 
 Although no wiser than their neighbours in the scientific 
 knowledge which teaches sanitary laws, they were more 
 faithful to the experience which tradition inculcates . Abra- 
 ham removed his dead from the vicinity of his home ; 
 Moses, under the command of God, who knew why he 
 ordained such a regulation, directed a like observance. In 
 Palestine, this separation was strictly carried out ; among 
 the fields, whose vegetation decomj^osing matter is calcu- 
 lated to feed, mortality was made to return to its elemen- 
 tary form ; it thus subserved the cause of life instead of 
 being its antagonist. After the dispersion, the custom 
 was no less stringently followed. Even where intolerance 
 confined Jews to close and unhealthy quarters, their 
 
AST) ITS APPOINTED TIMES. 39 
 
 homes were not rendered tlieir graves by tlie exhalations 
 from their dead. Now that attention has been directed 
 to the origin of disease and its prevention, the vahie of 
 this ancient i:>ractice of Israel is perceived, and one other 
 testimonj is thus borne to the wisdom of revelation, 
 and to the principle that all the Di\dne ordinances are 
 framed for hnman benefit. Men are gradually removing 
 from the vicinity of their habitations those fostering re- 
 mains of mortality v*^hich are so pregnant with death ; 
 they are gradually purifying their towns of " the pestilence 
 that stalketh in darkness ; the destruction that wasteth at 
 noon." Thus, science learns to prove the soundness of 
 Biblical teaching, and belief dignifies reason by showing 
 that even where man cannot understand he may trust. 
 
 Lonely is the heart of the patriarch, sad is the heart 
 of his son. Wife and mother ; companion and friend ; 
 the partner of more than sixty years of toil and danger, 
 the trainer of nearly forty years of inexperience and 
 youth ; all are lost in the death of Sarah. Anon, and 
 her genial smile awoke gladness ; now, even her shadov/ 
 is denied to sorrow. Mortality has claimed its rights o'er 
 the living, life bows to mortality o'er the dead. The 
 sleep of eternity seals the lids of the departed, the torpor 
 of grief arrests the hopes of the survivors. And so three 
 years pass, till at length the balm of forgetfulness spreads 
 its soothing: influence over the cankerino: wounds of 
 memory, and age and youth alike bow to the fiat that " it 
 is not good for man to be alone." But no one except a 
 wife must replace the mother of the " only one ; " and 
 where is the zealous servant of God to find among the 
 daughters of Canaan one worthy to be the ancestress of 
 his promised seed ? Anxiously he casts his eyes about, for, 
 knowing the influence of a wife, he dreads lest Isaac may 
 find temptation where he needs support. The thought 
 comes to him that Sarah was of his own kindred, why 
 may not the same source furnish a fitting consort for his 
 
40 THE LAW OF SINAI, 
 
 ffon ? He will try. But in this, as in all things, his trust 
 is in Providence : " The Eternal God of Heaven, who 
 took me from my father's house, and from the land of my 
 kindred, and who spake unto me, and sware unto me, 
 saying, Unto thy seed will I give this land, he will send 
 his angel before thee, and thou shalt take a wife for my 
 son from thence." 
 
 Thus spoke the patriarch to his messenger, and with 
 tliis assurance did the latter set out on his errand. This 
 servant is a noble type of the power of example. He is 
 the very reflex of his master. Prudent, he adopts the 
 best means within his reach ; pious, he commits the 
 result to Heaven. His every proceeding is characterised 
 by the wisdom which has come to him from long associa- 
 tion with Abraham ; witness his conduct when he 
 reached the city of Nahor, his behaviour in adapting 
 himself to the infirmity of Laban's disposition. Had he 
 gone directly to the home of his master's kindred, to 
 declare his object and to support his request by the asser- 
 tion of his master's wealth, he would certainly have 
 obtained what he sought, but not }>erhaps the exact wife 
 that his own sagacity told him was necessary. Had he 
 tnisted entirely to his own discretion, he might have 
 suffered himself to be deceived by a fair face and a 
 plausible manner, and thus his very success w^ould have 
 been a failure. He knew something of woman's nature. 
 He knew that goodness of heart atones for a host of 
 feminine infirmities, and decks the feature with more real 
 beauty than all the external charms of which vanity is so 
 proud. He resolved to make that the test of his selection, 
 and, recollecting his masters parting adjuration, he 
 invoked God to bless his plan with that unseen direction 
 which should prove alike the merit of Abraham and the 
 mercy of Heaven. 
 
 How beautifully every thing fills out as the honest 
 messenger can desire ; for it is not enough for him to do 
 
AND ITS APPOINTED TIMES. 41 
 
 his errand, he must do it well ! How naturally Eebekah, 
 in conformity with the custom of the coimtry and time, 
 comes to draw water ! How opportune it is that she is 
 " very fair to look upon, a virgin ! " How spontaneously 
 she offers, in the very words of the servant's secret prayer, 
 to draw water for the camels " until they have tinished 
 drinking ! " Every thing seems so entirely the result of 
 accident, that " the man, wondering at her, was silent." 
 His petition has been so promptly granted that he fears 
 to indulge in too sanguine hopes. What if this maiden, 
 who possesses all his proposed qualifications of heart and 
 face, should not be of his master's kindred ? All his care 
 will have been vain. He trembles with anxiety as he 
 asks her : " Whose daughter art thou ? " He prostrates 
 himself before the Eternal when her answer, " I am the 
 daughter of Bethuel, the son of Milcah, whom she bare 
 unto Nahor," assures him that God has prospered his 
 journey, and enabled him to select a wife for Vr^hose worth 
 he has the testimony of Divine approval, and of his own 
 judgment. 
 
 There yet remains one task ; he has to secure the 
 parental sanction. How adroitly he places before the 
 mother and brother the advantages of the proposed union ! 
 How carefully he omits all mention of the separation thus 
 rendered inevitable, of the infringement of the matrimonial 
 custom usual in those days ! How sagaciously he prevents 
 the utterance of objections by throwing the whole burden 
 of his proceedings on the authority of Heaven, whose 
 right to direct he feels they will not question, and, at last, 
 how admirably he concludes his embassy with the prompti- 
 tude which will not allow success to elude his grasp ! 
 " Delay me not," he says, " send me away, that I may go 
 to my lord." There is no refusal for so reasonable a 
 demand ; even the damsel herself seems to lay aside the 
 natural bashfulness of her age and sex when, in obedience 
 to the evidently Divine message, she exclaims, " I will go." 
 
42 THE LAW OF SINAI, 
 
 And so the patriarcli's task of life is accomplished. 
 " And Isaac brought Rebekah into the tent of Sarah his 
 mother, and took her, and she became his wife ; and he 
 loved her ; and Isaac was comforted after his mother's 
 death." And still the stream of time flows gently on, 
 and for thirty-five years the venerable father is blessed 
 witli the sight of his son's happiness. He hails the birth 
 of Esau and Jacob. In the diversity of their natures he 
 sees repeated the difference in his own sons, and he re- 
 ceives it as an assurance that, as he has been represented 
 in Isaac, so shall Isaac be represented in Jacob. His 
 mouth conveys to their young minds the first lessons of 
 religion, his experience strives to infuse into their infant 
 hearts the love of God. And so the stream flows onward 
 to the ocean of eternity, and at last it bears into the 
 unknown future the soul of the patriarch — unknown, but 
 not to him, for doubtless the mercy which had sustained 
 him so long, vouchsafed an assurance of bliss hereafter. 
 And so, " Abraham expired and died in a good old age, 
 old and full of years ; and he was gathered to his peoples. 
 And his sons, Isaac and Ishmael, buried him in the cave 
 of Macpelah." By the side of her he had loved in life 
 the patriarch reposed in death, bequeathing to his son the 
 heritage of his blessing, to his posterity the example of his 
 faith. We have seen how his son deserved the blessing — 
 a future time will tell how his posterity have imitated his 
 faith. 
 
 GENESIS: CHAPTER XXV., VERSE 19. 
 "We possess in the Pentateuch a double source of in- 
 struction. Its moral code appeals directly to our per- 
 ceptions of right and wrong. Its history — the lives of 
 individuals like ourselves, swayed by the same passions, 
 urged by the same interests, guided by the same influences 
 
AND ITS APPOINTED THIES. 43 
 
 . — appeals no less forcibly, because indirectly, to oar 
 faculty of combination. The former teaches Divine truths, 
 inalienable and eternal, because Divine ; the latter teaches 
 mundane lessons of fortitude or frailty, self-love or self- 
 denial, changeful because worldly. From the former we 
 learn the theory of religion and virtue ; from the latter, 
 either by imitation or avoidance, we infer their practice. 
 Life and its lessons are the subjects now before us. 
 
 But, it maybe asserted, the lives of the patriarchs must 
 not be judged by the ordinary standard; they were pro- 
 phets, inspired of God ; their actions were not based on 
 the calculations that obtain under less heavenly guidance ; 
 in our prayers we appeal, in commemoration of their 
 merits, for indulgence and pardon, and hence we must not 
 measure their conduct as we would our own. Hollow 
 argument ! To affirm that God directly influences human 
 actions is at once to destroy free-agency, to relieve man 
 from responsibility, and to deprive him of either the merit 
 or demerit of bis deeds. Holy Writ abounds with proofs 
 that, while by inspiration men have been recommended to 
 adopt certain lines of conduct, it has always been with 
 them only to decide on obedience or disobedience. The 
 recommendation came as the will of Heaven, but it was 
 not to interfere with man's volition. The obedience of 
 Abraham in his departure from his paternal roof, and in 
 his voluntary offering of Isaac, the disobedient prophet, 
 and Jonah, are instances of this doctrine of free will, and 
 of man's power to obey or to disobey. 
 
 Again, why did the inspired lawgiver enter so minutely 
 into the lives of the patriarchs ? Of what interest was it 
 to the fulSlment of his Divine mission that his flock 
 should learn how Abraham and Sarah were parted by an 
 equivocation with the truth, how Isaac and Rebekah 
 suffered from the same cause. The Omniscient Being, 
 under whose guidance Moses wrote, gave to the legislator 
 the power to appreciate the silent yet impressive force of 
 
44 THE LAW OF SINAI, 
 
 example. It was necessary that we sliould know tliat 
 man, under all circiimstances, was bat mortal ; that when 
 he arose above temptation he asserted his heavenly origin, 
 when he succumbed before sin he displayed his earthly 
 source : that when he acted in accordance with Divine 
 precept he did so because "he chose the life and the good," 
 when he eschewed virtue he took upon himself to deter- 
 mine what he deemed jiroper, and he abided by the 
 consequences. For, before proceeding to the immediate 
 story of the portion, it will be needful to advance one 
 more proposition. Tlie harmony which pervades creation, 
 the certainty with which the vast and complicated opera- 
 tions of nature are carried on, the impossibility of falsify- 
 ing or suspending any pjhysical development, all prove the 
 impression of certain fixed principles on the works of 
 Providence. Man, as a portion of the great universe, is 
 under the dominion of such principles, and it is as impossible 
 for him with impunity to violate them, as it is to prevent 
 the decay of one season from furnishing elementary matter 
 to organise the productions of the following season. When, 
 therefore, the poet wrote, '-Virtue alone is happine>;s 
 below," he only enunciated one of these principles, which, 
 in other words, may be thus stated. The Almighty 
 power which designed and executed creation established 
 sympathies, affinities, and repulsions which we call laws, 
 because we see them to be inalienable ; one of these 
 sympathies is the connexion between mind and matter, 
 between the immortal spirit and the perishable body, 
 between tlie moral and the physical. This sympathy is so 
 close that the one acts and reacts on the other with 
 illimitable sway, and as the breathing of a vitiated atmo- 
 sphere will convey bodily corruption, so the inhalation of 
 a moral taint will as surely lead not only to spiritual 
 infirmity but to physical ill. Man, in this world, therefore, 
 is lord of his own course, and therein differs from surround- 
 ing objects, which obey laws without the power to rebel. 
 
AND ITS APPOINTED TIMES. 45 
 
 "WheD, in the exercise of tins prerogative, he carries out 
 the behests of right, he acts in accordance with the princi- 
 ples of his creation and produces good. When, equally- 
 master of his will, he departs from what is right, he acts 
 in opposition to the principles of his creation and produces 
 evil. It is not needful to prove that by right we nniver- 
 sally understand truth, justice, and charity, in their 
 broadest and most extended meaning. 
 
 Isaac is married and is comforted after the death of his 
 mother. Years glide on, and Kebekah, conscious of 
 approaching maternity, is warned by Providence of the 
 future that her children will work out for themselves. 
 Her twin sons are to become two distinct peoples, one more 
 powerful than the other, and, to use the words of Holy 
 Writ, " the elder will be inferior to the younger." 
 
 The twins are born, and to show how the prediction of 
 heaven was in their youth accomplished by themselves, we 
 are told, in brief but emphatic words, " Esau was a man of 
 the field, Jacob loved to dwell in tents." Esau contracted 
 marriasfe with idolatrous women, Jacob remained sin^jle. 
 This is to say, Esau is addicted to worldly pursuits, to 
 passionate gratification, to those nomadic and irregular 
 habits by which the aborigines of Caanan were distin- 
 guished and vitiate 1 : — Jacob enjoys the pleasures of 
 home, and copies the simple habits of his parents and 
 grandparents. There is probably, therefore, but little 
 interchange of afiection between brothers so unlike. 
 Esau, fatigued with out-door employment, returns home, 
 faint and weary ; the scent of the good things of the table 
 inflames his grosser appetite, and iie is willing to barter 
 his birthright, " because he despised it," for a mess of 
 pottage. Here was either a wilful wrong or a voluntary 
 renunciation. Either Esau knew that he could not sell 
 that which was not his — the fact of his earlier birth, for 
 no after contract could remove that — or of his own accord 
 he resigned the only pretension to which his birth entitled 
 
4G THE LAW OF SINAI, 
 
 liiin — the privilege to transmit that blessing (the know- 
 ledge of God) for the promulgation of which Abraham 
 had been especially designed when the Almighty said of 
 him, "I have known him because he will charge his 
 children after him that they keep the way of God." 
 Jacob's conduct was not free from worldliness, but it was 
 by no means incompatible with the peculiar relations 
 between the brothers. He knew, probably, how little 
 Esau valued his primogeniture, how little attention he 
 paid to the teachings of his parents, how utterly abandon- 
 ed he was to present enjoyment, and he availed himself of 
 that knowledge to his own advantage — a trait he more 
 than once displayed. But wrong had been done, and 
 there grew from it its inevitable consequence, further 
 evil. 
 
 Activity is the salt of life, the great antiseptic preserv- 
 ing it from corruption. Where activity is not, symptoms 
 of degeneracy are but too soon apparent. Isaac grew old, 
 " his eyes were weak, so that he could not see ; " he was to 
 lead an inactive life, and to a certain extent he became a 
 sensualist. Already "he loved Esau because he ate of his 
 venison,'' certainly no high claim to paternal regard, and 
 now he asks his son to procure him some of his favourite 
 meat, that "his soul may bless him before his death." 
 This, at least, was without the pale of right. The satis- 
 faction of a bodily appetite should be no reason for a 
 spiritual privilege. The conferring of such privilege on a 
 son whose whole life had proved how little he cared for 
 spirituality, and that, too, in the face of the Divine pro- 
 phecy that the younger should be superior — as he but too 
 evidently was ; this went far to show that Isaac was but 
 a man, yielding to man's infirmities, and thus, by swerving 
 from inalienable right, leading to ill. 
 
 Eebekah hears the charge given to Esau, and the heart 
 of the mother trembles for her favourite Jacob. She 
 remembers but too well the destiny announced for her 
 
AND ITS APPOINTED TIMES. 47 
 
 cliildren before their birth ; she sees but too clearly its 
 truth in the unfitness of Esau for the mission of religious 
 teaching ; she resolves to prevent the patriarch from 
 doing what she conceives to be an iujustice, and thus at 
 once to gratify her partiality and to carry out the will of 
 Heaven. But she elects to do so by means not of right 
 but of wrong, and Jacob not only assists her too readily, 
 but becomes an accomplice in her deception, when he 
 voluntarily afiS.rms even more than her care had forestalled. 
 Imperishable lesson, that truth only is just ; that man, 
 how good soever, is frail ; that wrong produces its own 
 inherent evil. Jacob secures the blessing, the spirituality 
 of which is so distinctly proved by the words in which it 
 is conveyed, but the means for securing it defeat their 
 own object. Esau, incensed beyond measure at his 
 brother's deceit, aud forgetful that he was himself the 
 first deceiver, that having sold his birthright he had no 
 claim to the blessing appertaining to it, for that justice 
 demanded his abandonment of that which he had renoun- 
 ced j Esau, in the true spirit of the wrong-doer, taking 
 only his own selfish view, swears revenge, and, in the 
 bitterness of hate, gives utterance to words which, more 
 than anything he has hitherto done, prove the depravity 
 of his character : " I will slay my brother when the days 
 of mourning for my father arrive." He will sanctify the 
 grief for the loss of a parent by fratricide ; he will 
 comfort his widowed mother by the murder of her best 
 beloved ; he will wash out his own wrongs in the blood 
 of a greater wrong. Truly did the patriarch, guilty only 
 of the common errors of favouritism and love of enjoy- 
 ment, truly, when circumstances brought reason to resume 
 her wonted sway, did he say to Esau, "By the sword 
 thou wilt live, and thus thou wilt be inferior to thy 
 brother ; only when thou shalt have conquered (thy 
 natural disposition) thou shalt remove from thy neck his 
 supremacy." 
 
48 THE LAW OF SINAI, 
 
 And the suffering mother fears for her darling child ; 
 too well she knows the implacable disposition of her first- 
 born. And the temporarily weak father sees the evil 
 which has resulted from error, and trembles for new 
 horrors. And all must suffer ; the mother must part 
 from the dearly loved son, the father must lose one of the 
 props of his declining years ; Jacob must wander through 
 difficulty and danger to an unknown uncle, whose character 
 Bebekah must have remembered too well to have much 
 confidence in her son's future ; Esau must taste the bitters 
 of disappointed revenge, rendered doubly bitter by the 
 estranged affection of his parents, and by the knowledge 
 that the blessing clandestinely obtained has been volun- 
 tarily confirmed. And Jacob departs secretly, and in sore 
 terror for his life ; no preparations mark alike the affec- 
 tion and the regret of his parents ; no guide assists his 
 uncertain footsteps, no camel bears his wearied limbs. 
 Alone, amid the solitary paths of the desert, surrounded 
 by wandering bands of plunderers and by hungry wild 
 beasts, dependent for very existence on the (apparently) 
 chance berries and fountains, he is to atone for the wrong 
 he has committed. And never more, while life remains, 
 shall the mother who has perilled so much for her loved 
 one, see again that dear form ; to her through the long 
 future he is to be as in his grave, and kindly, therefore, 
 the inspired historian leaves her death unchronicled, lest, 
 in the record, he should be compelled to say : — her end, 
 uncheered by her child, was not that of Sarah. 
 
AXD ITS APPOINTED TIMES. 49 
 
 GENESIS: CHAPTER XXYIIL, VEESE 10. 
 
 "And Jacob departed from Beer Sheba and went 
 towards Haran." Alone on liis wandering way ; alone 
 with the uncertainties of day and the terrors of night ; 
 alone with his conscience, awakened doubtless by the 
 harsh realities of his present lot as compared with that 
 of his past life of domestic ease ; alone with his God j 
 the patriarch was journeying on that bridge which se- 
 parates the struggling world-life from th& indolent home- 
 dream. Idleness was changed into activity, and the 
 mind no less than the body benefited by the change. 
 The security and oomfort of the paternal tent, blessings 
 so usual and so expected, and therefore, such are mortals, 
 so little valued, were replaced by the perils and asperities 
 of a desert, and powers of endurance and submission were 
 awakened, which a more 23rosperous condition had allowed 
 to slumber. Thus is it ever : when the offended Creator 
 impressed on sinning mortals the result of theii' unhal- 
 lowed desire, when he denounced to our first parents the 
 consequences of their own introduction of con-uptibility 
 and death into their comjDOsition, he mercifully gave them 
 the means to mitigate theii' fate. He ordained labour 
 as alike the stay and the purifier of life, and during all ages 
 and in all climes, man has found in it the eternal truth 
 of God's deci'ee. Nor one condition alone, but every 
 grade ; the monarch ia his diadem and the serf in his 
 badge of slaveiy; the wealthy in his luxurious palace 
 and the poor in his miserable hut ; the proud in his ex- 
 alted station, and the lowly in liis degraded lot ; the 
 legislator aiming at the happiness of millions and the 
 mechanic toiling for the comfort of units j the rich seeking 
 philanthropy and usefulness, the pauper trudging for his 
 daily bread; all alike feel the blessings of the Divine 
 
 D 
 
60 THE LAW OF SINAI, 
 
 dispensation and voluntarily adopt it as tlieir best and 
 safest guide. 
 
 The sacred writings do not inform us how long Jacob 
 was journeying from Beer Sheba to Padan Aram ; we 
 may, however, infer that his transit was not rapid ; for 
 the time occupied had sufficed to change his entire 
 character. The indolent man of pleasure had become 
 the active man of business ; the quiet student had become 
 the skilful shepherd — no easy transition we shall find ; 
 the selfish brother, who had no kindness even for the son 
 of his own parents, had learned that holiest charity which 
 gives every fellow creature in need a claim to sympathy 
 and aid. Shall we say tha,t this change was effected by 
 Divine interposition only, and thus deprive the patriarch 
 of the merit of his self-conquest 1 Shall we attribute it 
 to the dream that cheered him on his lowly couch, and 
 thus convert him into " a servant serving his master for 
 the sake of a reward ? " Shall we wilfully shut our eyes 
 to the mortality and therefore fallibility of all created men, 
 and not see errors because recorded in Holy Writ ? Shall 
 we judge his conduct as the visible result of Heavenly 
 influence, and thus detract from its force as an ex- 
 ample "? No ! Reason and faith may well go hand in 
 hand without violence to right. Keason will show us 
 that Jacob was but a man and suiTered the weaknesses to 
 which men are subject, and faith will teach us (as we 
 shall hereafter illustrate) how noble was the reward con- 
 ferred on his victory. 
 
 A word on the dream of Luz. Jacob had obtained 
 by deception the blessing of his father ; this blessing had 
 been subsequently confirmed by Isaac. On his lonely 
 way the thought of the benediction doubtless consoled 
 the wanderer, and his waking thoughts as doubtless 
 coloured his nightly visions. But, in the earlier days of 
 his journey, the leaven of his character still remained : 
 the struggle for self-conquest may have commenced, but 
 
AND ITS APPOI^"TED TIMES. I 
 
 tlie victory was not achieved. Would it he irratioual 
 then to argue that the danger of the present — the present 
 which is always so impressive — may have shaken his 
 faith in the security of the future ; that the misery which 
 was his daily lot may have weakened his confidence in 
 the happiness of his coniing f \te ? Hence we shall appre- 
 ciate the dream. A merciful God sav^ the awakened 
 des^ire for self-control ; he beheld the aspirations of the 
 soul for dominion over the body, and he graciously deter- 
 mined to remove the doubts so naturally suggested by 
 asperities and hardships. When, therefore, Jacob's misery 
 was at its depth — when the bare ground formed his 
 couch and a friendly stone his pillow, when the phantoms 
 of sleejD might have mocked his slumbering senses only to 
 render his waking horrors more terrible b}'- contrast and 
 disappointment — then did the Almighty himself ratify 
 the paternal blessing, and give an assurance for the 
 future, which confirmed the new determination to good, 
 and strengthened humanity in the contest between what 
 the earthly had given and what the immortal had left. 
 
 And Jacob arrives in the land of the children of the 
 east, and is received by his uncle Labau. A mouth's 
 experience convinces the wily Assyrian how valuable a 
 servant he has obtained, and he eagerly closes with Jacob's 
 proposition to give seven years' service for the beautiful 
 Rachel. And love lightens the chariot wheels of time so 
 that they roll easily over the ruins of the past ; and the 
 seven years seem but as a few days for the love he bears 
 her. But the prosperous master, blessed with a faithful 
 and therefore invaluable servant, cannot affttrd to lose 
 the cause of his prosperity; and the homely Leah, as de- 
 votedly attached to Jacob as he is to her more attractive 
 sister, lends herself but too willingly to a deception which 
 gives her as a wife to the man of her choice, and secures 
 for her father new chances of gain. Thus, Jacob marries 
 both sisters ; and, in conformity with the custom of the 
 
52 THE LAW OF SINAI, 
 
 times, gives their father a dowry — his services for fourteen 
 years. 
 
 New ties cling round the hearth of the patriarch. 
 His beautiful wife, haj)py in her husband's love, is denied 
 for a time the holier affection of maternity, while the 
 little valued Leah, unblessed by a husband's attachment, 
 attains a higher felicity as a mother. And how heart- 
 rending is her cry,* for a reciprocation of the devotion 
 she has for Jacob ; how nobly her homely domesticity 
 contrasts with the querulous complaint of her fairer sister : 
 " Give me children or I die." She is rewarded by heaven- 
 born sympathy, and every child that is given to solace 
 her comparatively sad home awakens new thankfulness, 
 because it becomes a new claim on her husband. " Surely 
 the Eternal hath seen my affliction ; now therefore my 
 husband will love me." " The Eternal hath heard that I 
 was hated." " This time will my husband become attached 
 to me, because I have borne him three sons." " Now I 
 will praise the Eternal." As though her yearning had at 
 length evoked the feeling for which her womanish heart 
 longed. 
 
 Such is life and man ; we choose objects on which to 
 jfix our affections, often because of their external attrac- 
 tions only. Our eyes are dazzled and our judgment is 
 set aside. We are blinded by a meteor and stray from 
 the right path. We bow down before an idol whose 
 glitter alone merits notice, and neglect God who is hid- 
 den from us. And in this perhaps consists the difference 
 between the true and the false aim of existence ; the 
 latter may be the beautiful, the former is the useful ; 
 this deceives by the gauds which hide innate deformity, 
 that simply does not present exterior blandishments, and 
 the hollow and the vain do not follow, because their 
 weakness is not flattered. Another instance of our 
 
 * " Now will my husband be united with me." 
 
AND ITS APPOINTED TIMES. 53 
 
 mortal frailty : images are imprinted on tlie retina be- 
 fore impressions are made on the judgment, and we suffer 
 ourselves to be led away by a sense which we know to be 
 decej^tive and superficial, because we do not care to appeal 
 to a more certain but more troublesome adviser. Intel- 
 lect is the advanced force which we bring into the field 
 of life's battle, but experience is the reserve which is to 
 supply casualties and to retrieve reverses ; and many a 
 victory has been lost because the van has not been sup- 
 ported by the rear. 
 
 It is in the nature of cunning to outwit itself. A knave 
 seems sometimes to be the stone against which honest men 
 sharpen their wisdom. Laban had experienced the advan- 
 tage of Jacob's services and was unwilling to part with 
 them. Already fraud had doubled their intended length, 
 duplicity was now still further to extend them. Wages 
 were appointed between master and shepherd, but by 
 subterfuge and evasion the master was constantly attempt- 
 ing to shift liis ground and to deprive the shepherd of his 
 legitimate gains. But in Jacob, Laban found an antago- 
 nist more than his match ; Laban had only chicanery, 
 Jacob had j)i'actical knowledge and honesty of 2)urpose. 
 The former could only strive to diminish the appointed 
 wages by changing the hire ; the latter, satisfied with the 
 stipulated bargain, was driven in self-defence to make the 
 most of the little left to him. Each had his object to 
 attain. Laban had foimd that the Eternal had blessed 
 him for Jacob's sake, but he knew from Jacob's own lips 
 that he desired to return to Canaan. His own interest 
 led him to render Jacob's service as long as possible, and 
 he sought by every means to effect liis purpose. Jacob 
 had a natural anxiety to provide for his own household, 
 and, to this end, would have demanded nothing better than 
 the opportunities which nature and experience afforded. He 
 resorted to other means only to defeat attempts at fraud, 
 and to foil cunning with its own weapons. Nor can we 
 
54 THK LAW OF SIXAI, 
 
 blame Jacob for tlie course he adopted. Tbe labourer is 
 "worthy his hire, and every man is justified in making as 
 much of his services as legitimate wisdom permits. If 
 Jacob took advantage of his knowledge he at least had the 
 strong motive of self-defence ; it Avas to the utmost goad- 
 ing that the man he had enriched should seek to rob him ; 
 that, Avitli no cause for complaint, Laban should strive to 
 defraud him ; and it is clear that in the constant shifting 
 of ground to which he was exposed, Jacob had no alterna- 
 tive but to foil his antagonist with his own weapons. 
 
 There are limits to endurance ; there are periods at 
 which the desire to have pales before the fear of losing. 
 At such a juncture had Jacob at length arrived ; twenty 
 years of miserable servitude had estranged him from 
 Laban, and the dread came on him that his hardly-earned 
 gains would be forcibly taken away. In vain had the cold 
 consumed him by night rnd the drought by day ; in vain 
 did his honesty answer for him. He were better in bar- 
 barism than without the cover of civilization's first law 
 — protection of proj^crty. He longed to be free from 
 the incubus which oppressed him ; he longed still more for 
 his father's home ; but the courage which had enabled 
 him to sustain his weary slavery, was not, unaided, 
 enough to bid him face the dangers of the way for his 
 more delicate wives and tender children. He needed 
 some support above that which the world can give, and 
 in the hour of his despair it came, as Heavenly aid often 
 comes to the patient, the meek, the watcher for Divine 
 gi-ace. And Jacob, and all that he had — even two whole 
 camps — turned their faces towards Gilead ; and although 
 Laban, on no charitable thoughts intent, pursued hotly 
 after him, Heaven protected its own, and the Avanderer 
 once more stood on the border of his fatherland. 
 
 We pause — not from want of further food for reflection 
 — for there is no source more prolific, but because giving 
 our OAvn thoughts we desii-e rather to direct the percep- 
 
AXD ITS APPOINTED TIMES. 55 
 
 tions of others tliaii to form tliem ; we seize tlie salient 
 points, to others we give the details ; we sketch the car- 
 toon, we leave to others to fill in the shades. 
 
 GEXESIS: CHAPTEE XXXII. VEESE 3. 
 
 " When I see the heavens, the work of thy fingers, the 
 moon and the stars which thou hast establislied : what is 
 man, I ask, that thou rememberest him, and the son of 
 man, that thou art mindful of him *? " Thus spake the 
 inspired writer, and he found his answer in the record of 
 creation : " We will make man in our own image." 
 When we reflect on the relation in which man stands to 
 the objects which he beholds and investigates, we cannot 
 fail to be convinced that his superiority is derived only 
 from his intellectuality. While, in respect to the great 
 orbs of heaven, the earth and all man's works sink into 
 utter insignificance ; while strength, sight, instinct, afli'ec- 
 tions, affinities, and repulsions are common to all animated 
 nature ; reason stands prominently forth as the peculiar 
 attribute of man. Bat such is the law impressed on 
 rational beings, that every abstract principle must have 
 either its visible type or its ideal representative ; without 
 this the mind fails to grasp at what the imagination 
 soars, and visionary speculation takes the place of reason 
 and judgment. This superiority given to reason, and this 
 necessity for type, exphiin to us what is meant by the 
 question of the psalmist, and by tlie words of God. 
 Reason is that on which the Creator has impressed his 
 image iti man ; it is that God-like attribute which 
 connects mortality with immortality; which gives to the 
 '' dust of the earth " a dignity only less than Divine. 
 
 Tlie evidence of design so abundantly presented in 
 ever}^ branch of creation ; the adaptability of every atom 
 to its destined end, and the regularity with which every 
 
56 THE LAW OF SINAI, 
 
 operation of nature is performed, lead to the question : 
 In what does the Divine representative on earth differ 
 from all other mundane productions ? In this, surely, or 
 in nothing, that while all other productions blindly obey 
 principles which subserve their well-being, to reason is 
 given that type of its higher origin, to investigate, to 
 seek for causes, to combine, and to be convinced. But 
 with reason is joined, as eyes to the body, another hea- 
 venly gift, faith. As God alone is perfect, so even his 
 greatest boon to man is imperfect, and reason without 
 faith would be like the tempest- tossed vessel whose 
 compass is lost, and which rushes wildly, although still 
 ruled by high intelligence, to some unknown destination. 
 To reason, therefore, is none the less to believe. Where 
 reason fails, her heavenly sister faith steps in and con- 
 vinces by the assurance, that the Almighty wisdom which 
 has permitted so much to be apparent, is equally inherent 
 in that which is hidden. The doubter who will yield to 
 reason only, and who denies all he cannot prove, is more 
 a sensualist than he will allow, and he even degenerates 
 into idolatry when he sets reason on the throne of heaven, 
 and deifies the representative instead of its Divine author. 
 A ctuated by these iDrinciples, an investigation into one 
 event recorded in this portion of the holy law will be 
 alike profitable and pleasurable. It has been before 
 shown, that to be good is to be happy, and there cannot 
 be any cause for doubting that a merciful God has placed 
 every means for our happiness in our own hands. But 
 such is the double nature of man ; so evenly balanced, in 
 different individuals, are the earthly and the heavenly, 
 that on more than one occasion the evident design of 
 creation, man's eternal and temporal welfare, has seemed 
 in danger of being lost. When our first parents, follow- 
 ing a natural desire, unnaturally indulged in, sought for 
 a knowledge of the inherent consequences of evil, as 
 attached to their own being, their offended Judge per- 
 
AND ITS APPOINTED TIMES. 57 
 
 mitted them to learn tlie forbidden secret in tlie terrible 
 truths which he pronounced as the result of their intro- 
 ducing corruption into earthly forms. When subsequently 
 their son ignorantly rushed into the first crime — the first 
 visible t}^:>e of the unerring decrees of Heaven — and 
 when thus the first great shock was o-iven to the dominion 
 of intellect over matter, Almighty God deigned to show 
 to the future conscience-driven vagabond and wanderer 
 the path by which sinners might return to the road to 
 heaven ; the antidote designed by mercy to neutralise the 
 poison of sin. '• If thou wouldst do well, doth not repen- 
 tance lie at the door ; its desire is towards thee, and by 
 means of it thou shalt conquer (thy e^al propensities and 
 their consequences)." 
 
 If further argument were needful to show the relation- 
 ship in which repentance stands to sin, to show that 
 through repentance only and its ultimate efiect, (the 
 anticipation as it were of itself and of that which evokes 
 it, and thus the prevention of crime) — can man acliieve 
 his destiny, reference might be made to the Fast of 
 Kippur and its holy associations as sanctified by Divine 
 mandate ; but the faithful observer of every-day life will 
 not require additional proof He will observe that the 
 one great cause of wrong is self, corrupt, bodily, self; 
 that men dare, only when the selfish desire to have either 
 blinds them to consequences or preponderates over the 
 fear to lose ; that good is the abnegation of self and its 
 sensuality ; that virtue proceeds either from an innate 
 aj^preciation of the Divine, or from an awakened desire 
 to return to the Divine ; he will observe the natural 
 tendency of humanity to err, because " the imagination of 
 man's heart is evil from his youth," and because present 
 effects only are considered by evil doers, ultimate conse- 
 quences being ignored, and he will need no additional 
 evidence of the work to be accomplished by repentance. 
 But from the time at which God had pronounced to Cain 
 
 d2 
 
58 THE LAW OF SINAI, 
 
 that future regeneration was to depend on repentance, np 
 till tlie period at which Jacob had now arrived, there had 
 been no great instance of repentance. The children of 
 Adam degenerated ; " Enoch walked with God and was 
 not ; " Noah did not advance in goodness after the flood ; 
 the pure faith and the utter self-abandonment of Abraham, 
 and the less active but no less eminent virtue of Isaac 
 (only dimmed by such venial failings as proved each simply 
 imperfect) : these had required no rej)entance ; but with 
 Jacob it was different. He had, more than either of the 
 patriarchs, succumbed to self and its allurements ; he had 
 obtained the birthright by unbrotherly disaffection ; he 
 had secured the paternal blessing by means only too open 
 to censure ; he had taken two wives, but had loved only 
 her that was fair to his eye ; he had followed the impulse 
 of self-advantage in his struggle for proj^erty with Laban ; 
 in short, in every position, he had seemed less actuated by 
 thotights of the future than by the meaner desire for 
 present enjoyment. But a crisis in his life had been 
 reached. He had escaped, without loss or injury, from 
 the rapacious Laban, and that too, as Laban had avowed, 
 by the direct interposition of God. He was returning in 
 peace to his father's house, and his prayer at Bethel was 
 thus granted. The forlorn wanderer, who had crossed the 
 Jordan with only his staff to support his failing footsteps, 
 was recrossing that river the owner of immense wealth, 
 and his supplication for bread to eat had thus been more 
 than answered. Already, his mind, sharpened by the 
 activity of his past career, had learned to ponder on the 
 higher ends of life ; now, these higher ends force them- 
 selves on him with tenfold vigour, for they employ 
 the powerful levers, gratitude and self-interest. The 
 lessons of his youth, which even then had taken root, 
 but had not flourished through the sterile soil of worldli- 
 ness and sensuality, burst forth into new life beneath 
 the sun of assured Heavenly countenance and protec- 
 
AND ITS APPOINTED TTilES. 59 
 
 tion, and Jacob is more than prepared to follow in 
 the path of his father, and to deserve to transmit the 
 blessing of Abraham ; when, as though to dash the cup 
 of happiness from his lip, as though to blast at one 
 blow the accumulated labour of years, as though to falsify- 
 all that Pro^ddence seemed to have promised ; even on 
 the threshold of his native land, when all other dangers 
 had been overcome, all other obstacles removed, the 
 haiTowing intelligence is communicated to him : " Esau 
 thy brother is coming towards thee, and 400 men with 
 liim." Too well he recollects that brother's wrongs, that 
 brother's hate ; too well he recalls that fearful threat 
 which had doomed him to death on the newly-made grave 
 of his father ; too well he remembers that brother's early 
 habits of self-indulgence and blindness to consequences ; 
 too well he knows the lavvdess misrule of that desert land 
 and of those nomad leaders. What to him now seemed 
 the promise of God : '' I will be vdili thee ; '' Esau little 
 believed in that God, and would as little allow him to 
 interfere in his revensje. AYell mischt the heart of Jacob 
 foil him, well might he burst out into that prayer: 
 " Deliver me, I beseech thee, from the hand of Esau." 
 Nevertheless he does not murmur; the eminence of the 
 danger may have shaken his faith for a moment, it has 
 not destroyed it ; death stares him in the face ; he prepares 
 to meet it as becomes a man hopeful in Divine mercy, 
 resigned to Divine will. 
 
 How beautifully repentance develoj^s itself in his 
 abandonment of self All his manly care for his wives 
 awakens, all his paternal love for his children is called 
 into action ; of himself he thinks not ; if there must 
 be a victim at least let the innocent escape, let ven- 
 geance wreak its fuiy on hiin. All his dispositions are 
 made, every precaution that human foresight can suggest 
 is taken, and there remains but one last sad task — utterly 
 but contentedly to make his peace with God and to 
 
60 THE LAW OF SINAT, 
 
 resign himself into God's hands. And so, on that haiTow- 
 ing night, he parts from all that his heart holds dear, he 
 separates himself from all his most cherished ties, he takes 
 his final farewell of earth and all its joys, and alone in the 
 darkness and solitude he communes with his maker. His 
 repentance is perfect ; his soul, already as it were in 
 idea hovering on the confines of eternity, Sf)reading its 
 wings for flight to its Divine source, is purified from all 
 that earth had permitted to contaminate it. Through 
 the fire of repentance the bright essence emerges pure. 
 And so, to man, repentance and its effects were sanctified. 
 But every abstract idea must have its type ; the holiness 
 of repentance and its type must be as manifest to man- 
 kind as the holiness of any other God-ordained institute. 
 Even as the Sabbath had been blessed and made holy 
 as a day of rest, and as other observances were also 
 afterwards consecrated, so repentance was to be sanctified 
 as the regenerator of mp.n, as the chain by which earth 
 was to be raised to heaven. Abraham in " the covenant 
 between the pieces " saw a vision which was the type of 
 God's promise ; the initiatory covenant of Judaism had 
 its type. This covenant between Divine mercy and 
 human atonement had also its type. " There wrestled a 
 man with Jacob until the dawn ; " the strong contest 
 between all that earth had left of heaven in his nature, 
 and all that the immortal soul aspired to be, was repre- 
 sented in this wrestling. But "the man" could not pre- 
 vail against Jacob — the evil desire could not successfully 
 battle against the good intent. The struggle was thus 
 terminated : " I will not send thee away except thou 
 bless me. And he said unto him : "What is thy name "? 
 And he said : Jacob. And he said : Thy name shall be 
 called no more Jacob, but Israel ; for thou hast con- 
 tended with God and with men, and hast prevailed." 
 Of what was this the type but of the successful end to 
 which repentance had brought the patriarch ? His con- 
 
AXD ITS APPOIXTED TniES. 61 
 
 tention with God and with men was his present war in 
 behalf of his God-like attribute, and his past war with 
 men in support of his attribute of dust. In both had he 
 prevailed ; but, inasmuch as the victory with God pre- 
 ponderated over the other, so the type of its celebration 
 was only Godlike ; — Israel — a prince of God — one 
 worthy of God's favour as having achieved victory in 
 his behalf. But this event took place in solitude and 
 under the cover of nic^ht. Men midit doubt its authen- 
 ticity, might regard the patriarch's tale with distrust ; and 
 so, even that the ways of God might be sanctified to 
 mankind, that doubt might have no ground for support, 
 sin no anchor of hope, the type of the struggle was 
 presented to mortal eye in the lameness of the successful 
 wrestler. And, ever after, the patriarch halted in his 
 gait, and, ever after, his descendants ate not the sinew 
 which shrank. And even as the " thread of blue " 
 formed a memorial recalling to mind spii^itual behest, so 
 the forbidden sinew was the type of the conquest 
 achieved by one man's repentance and the incentive to 
 the repentance of other men. And ever after the name 
 of Jacob was lost in the more glorious epithet Israel ; and 
 we, the descendants of the patriarch, are not the sons of 
 Jacob but the chilch-en of Israel. In that title we 
 inherited the promised land ; in that title, when it shall 
 please Heaven, shall we re-possess it. And even as Israel 
 could journey to meet his ofiended brother with unflinch- 
 ing confidence, for come what would, Hep.ven was 
 appeased, so shall the children of Israel, when again 
 repentance is perfect, travel to their destination with 
 unshaken faith, for the peace of the Lord shall be theirs. 
 
62 THE LAW OF ^INAI, 
 
 GENESIS: CHAPTER XXXVII. 
 
 If there be one merit in tlie historical portions of the 
 sacred writiogs, which distinguishes them from similar 
 parts of piT)fane composition, it is the kaleidoscopic figures 
 which tliey present to us. Which way so ever we regard 
 these figures they are models of beauty and harmony ; 
 even in their defects they are symmetrical. While the 
 characters that play conspicuously on the broad theatre 
 of the world but too often rather shock us by the intensity 
 of their crimes than they dazzle us by the splendour of 
 their virtues, the men and women who distinguish them- 
 selves in the pages of holy writ, betray only just enough 
 weakness to teach that they are human (and so to point a 
 lesson), and we lose all regret for their failings in the 
 admiration excited by their nobler qualities. We remem- 
 ber the conquests of Alexander, and we admire the stoic 
 self-control which kept him away from the wife of 
 Darius ; but we remember also the wanton destruction 
 of Persepolis, the sanguinary revenge at Tyre, the brutal 
 murders of disgraced or honest servants, and we lose all 
 the glory of his life in the darkness that shrouded his last 
 few montlis. We recollect the conquests of David, and 
 admire the noble forbearance whicli spared the life of his 
 sleeping enemy ; we dej)lore, it is true, the cause which 
 led to Nathan's stem reproof, but we forget the error — 
 a lapse where human nature slips most often — in the 
 humility of the repentance ; and the microscopic frailties 
 of his career are hidden by the halo Avhicli encircles his 
 dying hmn*, when his paternal love for his people shines 
 with glory so resplendent. 
 
 The epic has ever been regarded as the highest species 
 of composition. So exalted has it seemed, that the genius 
 of a whole nation has scarcely achieved one worthy its 
 
AXD ITS APPOINTED TIMES. 63 
 
 reputation. Greece gave only the Iliad, Eome the Aeneis ; 
 England can point to the Paradise Lost ; and there, if 
 exception be taken to the works of Yoltaire and Tasso, 
 the list of recognized epics is complete. But, if the im- 
 personation of tlie loftiest feelings, the noblest aspirations, 
 that ever dignified humanity, be the attribute for a hero 
 of epos ; if the recital of events, in which these feelings 
 and these aspirations stand forth in bold relief, be the 
 true subject of epos, then the history of Joseph as far 
 excels any of the epics above named, as his character 
 excels those of Achilles or Aeneas, as his real greatness 
 excels the ideal grandeur of the fallen cherub. 
 
 " And Jacob dwelled in the land in which his father 
 had been only a sojourner." But unalloyed happiness 
 is not of this world; his mother's long-remembered 
 smile did not welcome him back to the paternal tent; 
 the music of his dearly-loved Eachel's voice did not 
 awaken melodious eclioes in his heart when he settled in 
 his much needed home. And the soul of the patriarch 
 retired as it were within itself, as the sap flies back before 
 the frosts of winter ; nor did it expand again till, like 
 that saji, the sun of a new spring shone upon it. Ah ! 
 talk on ye moralists, of paternal justice, of paternal im- 
 partiality. You reason well, but human nature loves, 
 and love hears not reason. Where is the father's heart 
 that has not beaten more lovingly at the sight of some 
 cherished smile mirrored in one child's eye more clearly 
 than in another's 1 Where is the father's heart that has 
 not responded more fervently to the caress which most 
 reminds it of a wife's affection, that has not echoed most 
 devoutly " God bless thee " when uttered in tones most 
 resembling her's ? The patriarch's hearth was desolate ; 
 the light of liis young manhood's dream had been buried 
 in his Eachel's grave ; and while his pious resignation to 
 the will of Heaven taught him to bear his bereavement 
 with fortitude and without a murmur, his affection for 
 
64 THE LAW OF SINAI, 
 
 lier memory kept alive his love for her through love for 
 her son. It was a natural weakness fostered by the 
 lioliest of earthly associations, amiable even in its unrecti- 
 tude ; but it was a deviation from the straight line of 
 right, and it produced the inevitable result, evil. 
 
 Joseph was at this time seventeen ; the age which 
 hovers midway between the visions of boyhood and the 
 realities of manhood ; the age at which passion speaks to 
 the heart in its most seductive accents ; the age at which 
 the spirit, if it have any expansive powers, begins to soar 
 towards the half-defined hopes of after life. His brethren 
 older, and, as the sequel proves, more experienced, more 
 worldly and more commonplace, were of merely ordinary 
 capability ; they were quietly settled down to their voca- 
 tion as shepherds. Their father's evident partiality for 
 Joseph was gall to them. They did not seek to awaken 
 his love for themselves by greater devotion or nobler con- 
 duct, but they justified his preference by the meanness 
 which induced them to resent and revenge it. They 
 smarted under what they conceived to be their father's 
 injustice, and they determined to erect themselves into a 
 monument of self-reproach, to become a vindication of his 
 justice. Concurrent circumstances added fuel to the 
 flames of their indignation. The favourite was adorned 
 with external marks of the paternal regard ; he had 
 already, in the affectionate confidence which existed 
 between him and his parent, revealed certain of their 
 " evil reports." If this bespoke his taking advantage of 
 his favouritism, it also told that their conduct was not 
 blameless ; for there is nothing in Joseph's other acts to 
 justify the assumption that the sad tales of their misdeeds 
 were not as true as they were sad. Fraternal affection 
 might have prompted concealment, but tliis would have 
 been a tacit participation in their guilt, and there was 
 certainly more inducement for revelation than silence. 
 
 But this was not all. As is usually the case with the 
 
AND ITS APPOINTED TIMES. 65 
 
 weak-minded, Joseph's brethren were greater slaves to 
 
 undefined fears for the future than to any present and 
 
 actual wrong. Joseph's mind was of a superior order ; 
 
 young as he was, dim visions of future glory — day-dreams 
 
 of genius intuitively aspiring heavenwards — floated before 
 
 him. His soul yearned for that far-off goal towards 
 
 which its heaven-born instincts already taught it to 
 
 stniggle. Deprived by jealousy of daily companionship, 
 
 havinof no friends of his own ao^e to whom he could con- 
 es <-> 
 
 fide his aspirations, he brooded in secret. Can we 
 wonder that the images of night received their coloimng 
 from the pictures of day? He cbeamed two cbeams ; 
 they were remai'kable for the individuality of their 
 cii-cumstances. He related them to his brethren — a 
 weakness of childish vanity perhaps — and the relation 
 sealed his fate. Hating him as having supplanted them 
 in their father's love, they came to loathe him that in the 
 world's esteem also he had dreamed his superiority. 
 Sure sign of a vulgar soul that contents itself with envy- 
 ing spirits above it, nor ever strives to rise to their level. 
 Accident favoured their baseness. The patriarch sent his 
 beloved Joseph to bring liim tidings of his absent children. 
 He was in their hands ; the giiardian care of his father 
 was loosened ; they thought to imbrue their hands in his 
 blood, as the readiest means of falsifying the promise of 
 his greatness and their abasement ; they would plunge 
 into the depths of the criminal abyss to avoid a guiltless 
 inferiority. His life is spared, but he is condemned by a 
 refinement of cmelty to a worse fate j he is sold to 
 slavery, and they cover (as they tliink) all traces of their 
 crime with the blood-stained coat which they carry to 
 their father. Thus is it ever that villainy defeats itself; 
 death might have served their purpose, but even the life 
 to which a worse hate had consigned him, was to produce 
 blossoms of hues brighter than any that ambitious hope 
 could have dreamed. 
 
^^ THE LAW OF SIX AT, 
 
 Poor boy ! what a lot for one so young, so clierislied, — 
 slavery, that living death that makes vitality a mockery 
 and a shame. He was to pass through untold years a 
 slave ; never more for him could bloom the sweet flowers 
 which youth plants on th© road of life ; never more could 
 grow the luscious fruits which gladden the heart of suc- 
 cessful manhood. For him, farewell the holy ties which 
 reason dignifies and religion renders sacred. No more 
 shall the beloved child be folded to his father's heart, no 
 more shall that father hope to be supported by the 
 younger strength of his darling son. Never shall a dearer 
 love be wakened in that crushed bosom, which hence- 
 forward must think and feel and hope only as a master 
 shall order. No wife shall bless his manhood, no children 
 flourish round his maturity. Alone, the thing of another's 
 caprice : with every power that should dignify but only 
 degrades ; with genius that must grovel, intellect that 
 must crawl ; without the pale of social life, and with no 
 other fellowship with his kind but the privilege to suffer, 
 and to know that he suffers unj)itied and inevitably : 
 such was to be the future of Joseph. A less noble spirit 
 would have sunk under the trial : a less pure mind, with 
 its guiding lights so extinguished, would have lost itself 
 in the darkness of unbelief or in the oblivion of madness. 
 Joseph only rose under his afflictions. If any superfluous 
 leaven had vitiated his home career, none deteriorated 
 his foreign life. He passed into the hands of a master 
 who could appreciate good qualities even in a slave, and 
 of a mistress who assumed Ijer licence as a warrant for 
 licentiousness. The former trusted all to his honour, the 
 latter hoped all from his weakness. His honour rewarded 
 his master's confidence by increased prosperity ; his weak- 
 ness was proof against temptation in its most seductive 
 form. His master, as prone to believe unsupported accu- 
 sation as he was backward to investigate it, sacrificed to 
 clamour the claims of past services ; but what of that 1 
 
AXD ITS APPOINTED TIMES. 67 
 
 Joseph was a slave. His mistress had no resource but to 
 8creen her own culpability behind a simulated aversion 
 for a crime she had vainly attempted to provoke ; but 
 what of th^t ? Joseph was a slave. It was just that a 
 slave should sufier ; bought as a household piece of inert 
 matter, he ceased to be valued when he ceased to serve 
 his purpose, or when he failed to minister to a whim. 
 And the persecuted youth, strong in nothing but his 
 rectitude and virtue, had to learn that even in the de23ths 
 of slavery there was a lower depth. He became an im- 
 prisoned slave ; on the horrors of his lot were accumu- 
 lated the tenfold horrors of a dungeon. Though a slave, 
 he had at least breathed the air of heaven like a free 
 man ; even that scant right was to be taken away. The 
 companion of malefactors and traitors, his very atmo- 
 sphere became corruption. As a slave he could at least 
 see virtuous men, and if his degradation might not permit 
 him to imitate, he could still admire them — for even 
 tyranny ca,nnot snatch all that is human from a slave. 
 As a prisoner even this was denied him ; he must hence- 
 forth recoil from all fellowship with those about him, 
 just as others had driven him from all communion with 
 them. And this without hope of change. Without ques- 
 tion consigned by a powerful master to a dungeon, all 
 release seemed impossible. How could mercy pause to 
 dwell on a despised slave 1 How could an incensed master 
 incline to mercy in the teeth of the reputed insult com- 
 mitted against his honour ? And still no murmur. It is 
 the will of God that he shall sufier. It is his duty as a 
 man to do so without repining. 
 
 But the humblest condition has in it something of 
 innate pleasure if sin be not there. Even in the im- 
 prisoned slave, one was found capable of approving 
 obedience and cheerfulness. It was a shade in the inten- 
 sity of his darkness that he became a leader if only of 
 prisoners. He thus acquired some power over his own 
 
CS THE LAW OF SINAI, 
 
 privacy, some influence over tliose beneatli him. He 
 might improve his inferiors by his authoritative teaching 
 where he coukl not have hoped to improve them by his 
 example as an equaL For, such is human nature, that 
 the vahie of an opinion or of a lesson varies as the posi- 
 tion of the promulgator. And time dragged heavily on 
 beneath the chains of captivity ; and the bright years of 
 youth yield no brightness to him ; and manhood in all the 
 sternness of his harsh fate sits heavily upon him ; and still 
 no light penetrates his dungeon, the past and the future 
 are enveloped in the same funereal pall. 
 
 Despotism is guided by no law but its own variable 
 will. We, who live under a constitutional government, 
 can scarcely understand what is meant by autocracy. 
 We realize so little of slavery that it is hard to conceive a 
 society in which all are slaves. We know that such a 
 state of things exists now, we know that under such a 
 condition Egypt existed in the time of Joseph. Pharaoh, 
 as the king was called, consigned two of his principal 
 officers to prison ; their crime does not appear, it was 
 enough that Pharaoh was wroth. Like other tenants of 
 that sad abode they fell under Joseph's charge. Revol- 
 ving their probable future from a knowledge of how they 
 had incurred their king's displeasure, they were both 
 troubled by a significant dream. A belief in dreams was 
 a superstition of the time ; interpreters of dreams were 
 therefore in great request. Joseph, instructed by the only 
 true interpreter — God, revealed to them the foreshadow- 
 ings of their dreams. They received his explanation as 
 they would have received one from a " magician " or a 
 " wise man " of their own people — individuals, then as 
 now, plentiful to trade on the credulity or ignorance of the 
 mass. Being prisoners they had no immediate means 
 wherewith to reward the (to them) professional interpreter; 
 doubtless the fortunate butler was profuse in promised, for 
 it is in the nature of some men always to intend well till 
 
AKD ITS APPOINTED TIMES. 69 
 
 tlie time for action comes. The honeyed words of Pha- 
 raoh's officer, soon to be reinstated in favour, fell like dew 
 on the withering heart of the friendless Joseph ; its 
 tendrils again shot forth. Who could tell but that the 
 same supporting Deity that had given him the knowledge 
 to interpret the dreams, would give to the chief butler the 
 will to prove the sincerity of Ms professions. Well can 
 we understand, therefore, the yearning cry of the weary 
 captive : " remember me when it shall be well with thee ; " 
 and while we sympathize with the anguish from whose 
 depths this was an echo, we can easily reconcile ourselves 
 to the result — he will be forgotten. For was it likely that 
 the restored favourite would care to remember either his 
 fall or any thing connected with it ? Holding his dignity 
 by the weak tenure of a tyi-ant's caprice, it was his 
 cue to keep that tyrant in good-humour by pandering to 
 the whim of the moment. To recall past disgrace, by 
 alluding to a companion, might be a dangerous venture. 
 Pharaoh might recollect that one of the two degraded 
 servants had been executed j he might have a fancy for a 
 similar fate for the other. No ! no ! let well alone, 
 thought tlie liberated butler ; things were very fair as they 
 were, and so " he did not remember Joseph because he 
 desired to forget him." 
 
 GENESIS, CHAPTER XLJ. 
 How inscrutable are the ways of Providence ! how 
 admirably do the prescience of the Divinity and the free 
 will of man combine ! How naturally, without effort or 
 strain, does human agency effect what the perfect wisdom, 
 of Heaven is enabled to foresee. Even as, in the physical 
 world, our wants and pleasures induce us voluntarily to 
 labour for the perpetuation of certain great laws, soj in 
 the moral world, we as steadfastly strive towards the final 
 
70 THE LAW OF SINAI, 
 
 goal of our creation — perfectibility. Tlirougliout the uni- 
 verse, so far at least as human knowledge extends, immu- 
 table principles are unerringly carried out, nor less in the 
 spiritual than in the material. Everywhere the most 
 finished system, the most harmonious arrangement ; even 
 a divergence from the straight line is nothing but a 
 pleasing variety. Occasionally some shock seems to dis- 
 turb the general harmony ; some eruption or earthquake 
 shakes the physical world ; some insane outburst over- 
 throws the moral world ; some revolutionary mania 
 destroys the social fabric ; but these are partial in their 
 effects and transient in their influence, nor do they appear 
 destined for other end than to restore the universal equili- 
 brium, just as a thunderstorm convulses, to be succeeded 
 by more perfect calm. 
 
 For two more weary years the lonely prisoner looked 
 longingly through the bars of hi^ dungeon. He had 
 already suffered thirteen years of slavery and confinement ; 
 and if occasionally the breath of hope had fanned the 
 wings of liberty, the result had been disappointment, the 
 wings had collapsed. He was the sport of cruel, unchari- 
 table self His brethren had sold him to gi^atify their 
 hate, and to prevent their anticipated abasement. His 
 mistress had made him a victim because he would not be- 
 come a tool. The chief butler had ceased to remember 
 what it was simj)ly a folly to recollect. In his o^vn con- 
 duct, Joseph was the very antithesis of self. He had been 
 a faithful servant to his master ; he was a fiithful minister 
 to his gaoler. We are now to see, in another instance, 
 how right and truth prevail over wrong ; how self is to 
 find its best security in serving others. Pharaoh dreamed 
 two remarkable dreams in one night, and in the morning 
 "his spirit was troubled." In vain the pretended wise 
 men — wise only in the folly of their dupes, charlatans 
 trading on the credulity and fears of the simple — essayed 
 their msdom. The source of these dreams v/as in that 
 
A^^D ITS APPOINTED TIMES. 71 
 
 heaven wliicli was above them, and the king still remained 
 unanswered. A tp-ant is at all times an uncertain master ; 
 a tyrant, angry, because uugratified, is a brute, with Avhom 
 ^t is dangerous to come into contact. Self-j)reservation, 
 the first law of nature, rendei'S it imperative to molliiy 
 such a lord, if possible. Jt suited the butler, therefore, to 
 remember Joseph who had interpreted his di'eam. To 
 introduce a candidate for royal favour was to pave the 
 way for his own advancement, and perhaps to place near 
 the throne a creature of his own. He suddenly became 
 as anxious to recollect as he had before been anxious to 
 forget : " Pharaoh was angry with his servant : " and the 
 forsaken prisoner is brought to the notice of the king. 
 
 Des])otism permits anomalies, only because caprice is 
 law. Josei^h, condemned without a hearing, is pardoned 
 without any excuse but that he may be able to minister 
 to the wants of the moment. But prosperity does not 
 dazzle whom adversity has chastened. " Interpretations 
 belong to God," is the declaration of his own limited 
 powers, and of the omniscience of Heaven only, This 
 avowed dependence on Supreme wisdom meets the reward 
 it merited. He not only interprets the dreams, but he 
 interprets them in a manner that gains conviction even 
 from an idolatrous despot. He accompanies his interpre- 
 tation with advice, a dangerous thing to offer to a tyrant 
 till his own views are ascertained ; and so salutary is his 
 counsel that he is at once appointed to execute its design. 
 What a transition, from a dungeon to a throne ; from 
 the lowest depths of degradation and misery to the 
 giddiest height of irresponsible power ! " By thy mouth 
 shall all my |)eople be ruled !" this was the fiat of the da}", 
 and the slaves who heard, knew but the law of blind and 
 servile obedience. And the new favourite, strengthened 
 by sad experience, proves equal to his arduous duties. 
 He who had been the leader of his brother slaves, the 
 superior of his fellow prisoners, had learned, by the 
 
72 THE LAW or SINAI, 
 
 necessities of his position, the duties of a ruler of men. 
 He had acquired, in the sternest school, the self-command, 
 the honesty of purpose, the charitableness for others, 
 which are of all things necessary for any sovereign, but 
 most imperative in a despotic monarch, and he was thus 
 able to discharge his functions to the satisfaction, not 
 only of Pharaoh, but, as the sequel proves, of a party 
 still more difficult to please — the favourites whom he 
 supplanted. 
 
 A famine in Egypt was not of common occurrence. 
 Fertilized by the annual overflowing of the Nile, there 
 seemed little reason to apprehend any serious incon- 
 venience. Thickly peopled by resident inhabitants, there 
 was no danger of the failure of labour. The sacred records 
 tell us (Genesis, ch. xii.), that when other lands hungered 
 there was still corn in Egypt. But with Canaan the case 
 was different. Through its valleys no fertilizing Nile 
 poured the luxury of its watery bosom ; from its moun- 
 tains rushed no equivalent substitute ; its inhabitants 
 were in part nomadic ; they preferred seeking the innate 
 abundance of nature to stimulating it by artificial culti- 
 vation. In Canaan dearth was not uncommon, and we 
 cannot be surprised, therefore, that when Egypt hungered, 
 neiofhbourinoj countries were famished. Such a state of 
 things was now going on. With a prescience only Divine, 
 God had foreseen the coming evil ; with a mercy only 
 Divine, he had deigned to warn ; with a predilection only 
 Divine, he had instructed Jose|)h, for wise after j^urposes, 
 to expound that warning. " There shall be seven years of 
 plenty, such as even Egypt never knew, and they shall be 
 immediately succeeded by seven years of famine." This 
 was the type of the royal dreams ; for the emergency 
 thus to supervene Joseph was instructed to prepare. How 
 well he fulfilled his duty, the narrative records in terms as 
 graphic as they are faithful. 
 
 Surrounding nations were stricken with the fear of a 
 
AND ITS APPOINTED TIMES. 73 
 
 'lingering death. Uncivilized, tliey knew not tlie great 
 social law which teaches men to live rather on the accu- 
 mulation of the past than on the chances of the present. 
 Famine stared at them with its gaunt and lurid eyes. 
 But even in their misery the Divine mercy shown to 
 Joseph was indirectly showered on them. They learned 
 that there was plenty in Egypt ; thither turned the faces 
 of thousands of the hungry ; thither, among the rest, 
 tm^ned the family of Jacob — the brothers of him who was 
 "lord over Egypt." Little dreamed the anxious train 
 that joiu^neyed from the patriarch to seek corn, how 
 momentous was the fate that hung on their footsteps. 
 They went to procure food ; what were they to obtain i 
 They who had rushed into a desperate crime to avoid 
 only an anticipated ill, were now voluntarily hurrying to 
 the very destiny they had dreaded. And yet they were 
 consistent in both cases, for they were 'in both impelled 
 by love for self, — that t}T.*ant lord which ever justifies the 
 means by the end, which ever overlooks consequences 
 Vv^hen present gTatification is to be secured. They came 
 among the crowd to buy corn — but their father, warned 
 by the evil which came to his beloved Joseph when unpro- 
 tected by his presence, sent not Benjamin with them. 
 They came ; they prostrated themselves before the great 
 man who held their very lives in his hand. V/hy rose 
 not some secret terror to warn them wdiat little claim 
 they had on that man's sympathy 1 They had robbed him 
 of all that life had of dear and precious; what if he 
 should retaliate ? But no ; the holy book tells us that 
 he recognised tliem, while they knew not him, only to 
 impress on us the nobleness of that revenge which blesses 
 while it chastens, which, by its utter oblivion of wrongs, 
 converts jealousy into love, envy into admiration. Where 
 is the epic that depicts so beautiful a character, — where is 
 the fabled hero whose victories can compare with the 
 victory achieved by \irtue and faith over all that passion 
 
 E 
 
74 THE LAW OF SINAf, 
 
 lias of unholy, over all that a selfish world has learned to 
 justify '? 
 
 Little could the crouching brothers, bowed to the earth, 
 little could they be expected to recognise, in tlie manly 
 face of the noble ruler before them, the youtliful features 
 they had so hated to behold. The boy of seventeen was 
 nearly forty, and time and care had written on his brow 
 characters which had obliterated the traces of earlier days. 
 But tlcey were not so changed. They were men when 
 they sold him ; and countenances do not alter after ma- 
 turity till decay comes. They probably spoke to each 
 other in their home language, Hebrew, and the long 
 unheard but still unforgotten accents (he had called his 
 sons Ephraim and Manasseh) enabled his ear to assist his 
 eye. He knew that the famine wa« sore in Canaan ; he 
 judged that his father and family, still lived there j he felt 
 that it was more than probable that the same necessity 
 that had driven Abraham and Isaac into Egypt might 
 send Jacob thither also. He expected to see the once 
 loved faces — perhaps this hope it was which induced him 
 personally to superintend the sale of corn. He did see 
 those faces, but he missed some ; w^iere was his father % 
 where Benjamin ? Had grief for the loss of a favourite 
 son killed the patriarch 1 Had Benjamin shared the 
 hatred of which himself had been the victim 1 These ques- 
 tions naturally arose in Joseph's mind. He knew that he 
 had to deal with unscrupulous men ; to ask them directly 
 what he desired to know, was either to frighten them 
 away, or to induce further deceit to cover his living testi- 
 mony to their existing guilt. He must ensure personal 
 communication with his father or his brother, if either 
 live ; for this end he must have a hold on his brothers 
 through the only medium by which guilt can be attacked 
 —its fears. We can understand his conduct viewed in 
 this light. He spoke to them roughly ; he raised against 
 them a feigned accusation to test their characters; he 
 
AND ITS APPOINTED TIMES. 75 
 
 desired to know what changes twenty years had intro- 
 duced into their hearts. He sokl them corn after they had 
 tokl him Y\^hat he longed to know — that Jacob and Ben- 
 jamin lived ; but could he believe them 1 Would they 
 come again ? There was but one way to satisfy himself; 
 he must have security. One of them was to be left as a 
 pledge with him, wliile the others returned to Canaan to 
 fetch their youngest brother. On him Joseph knew he 
 could depend ; his presence would remove all doubt ; and so 
 Simeon " is bound before their eyes " — that guilty brother 
 wh-om tradition points at as the instigator of Joseph's 
 death ; and Reuben, conscience-stricken, as all criminals 
 are when retribution ovei-takes them, in the agony of a 
 new sorrow, betrays to the listening ears of Joseph that 
 remorse never sleeps, that the recollection of their great 
 treachery against fraternal love and paternal obedience 
 still haunts their hearts, and fills their bosoms with dread. 
 Well may Joseph turn away and weep ; it is philan- 
 thropy weeping for human weakness ; virtue mourning 
 for sinful aberration. It is one of the Divine lessons 
 which the Bible gives by implication. Honesty is thus 
 commanded to expose guilt without revenge, to punish it 
 so as to reform tlie guilty, and to weep for the necessity 
 which impels to punish. Crime is thus taught that no 
 cunning can eifectually conceal it, no lapse of time remove 
 all trace of it ; on the broad principles of right impressed 
 by mercy ou creation it has inflicted a wi'ong, and the 
 result, inevitable because ordained of God, must be washed 
 away by atonement. 
 
 They returned to Canaan, these trembling culprits; 
 they could not conceal or pervert the truth. Simeon's 
 absence, the presence of their corn money, must be 
 accounted for. They tell their still grieving father their 
 sad tale. The dark past rises before him. 
 
 " Joseph is not," is his first cry ; " my son shall not 
 go down with you, for his brother is dead and he remains 
 
7^ THE LAW OF SINAI, 
 
 alone ; if mischief befal liim by the way in which ye go, 
 then shall ye bring down my grey hairs with sorrow to 
 the grave." 
 
 Deprived by death of one son because he went on their 
 way, and of a second who had been detained from him, 
 Jacob will not part with a third. As the withering leaf 
 clings to the stem while one drop of life remains, so the 
 seared heart fastens on existence. But the stock of corn 
 begins to fail ; again starvation's horrors threaten to 
 invade their homesteads. And the fear of utter loss 
 triumphs over the chance dread of partial loss. And 
 Benjamin, the test of his brothers' sincerity, stands before 
 Joseph. He receives also other proof of their honesty, 
 and his heart yearns for the children of his father. One 
 other lingering doubt removed ; are they no longer jealous 
 or revengeful — and he will be satisfied. He selects a 
 terrible ordeal, and triumphantly they pass it ; he is con- 
 tent, there remains but the task to discover himself. 
 
 GENESIS: CHAPTEE XLIV., VEESE 18. 
 As there are few good characters without their defects, 
 so there are few bad characters without their redeeming 
 qualities. Jealousy and an innate conviction of inferiority 
 had influenced Joseph's brethren in embittering his lot, 
 and in rendering his father's days " evil." But remorse, 
 the ever-pursuing avenger that treads on the heels of 
 crime, had evidently not failed in its mission with them. 
 Through long years they had been the guilty witnesses of 
 Jacob's unspoken, unmurmured sorrow. They had seen 
 his anguish, which even religious humility pardons, in the 
 deepening lines on his brow, in the melancholy of his 
 general demeanour. They had learned to respect the 
 heart-broken sorrow they had caused, and to bear with 
 its sole comfort — engrossing love for Benjamin. He, 
 
AND ITS APPOINTED TIME*?. 77 
 
 unlike tlie more nobly-gifted Joseph, had not actively 
 contributed to stir their envy. He was formed in their 
 own ordinary mould, and they had been content that he 
 should reign undisputed favourite, alike as the dying 
 pledge of his mother's affection, who had laid down her 
 life on the altar of her conjugal love, and as the represen- 
 tative of his lost brother, who had fallen a victim to their 
 uiibrotherly hate. More recently, they had -seen the 
 struggle between the desire to live and the wish not to 
 part with Benjamin, in the bosom of the patriarch. They 
 had seen the strong wrestling between the horrors of 
 famine and the di'ead of accident to the loved one, and 
 they knew that really Jacob's soul was bound up in 
 Benjamin's. Can we wonder then that the test by which 
 Joseph sought to prove both their filial and their fraternal 
 duty was just the one most difficult to bear, the one most 
 efficacious for discovering their real sentiments. 
 
 The address of Judah to Joseph is remarkable for its 
 simple truth, and for the abnegation of self which it 
 exhibits. Without any attempt at circumlocution, the 
 zealous pleader goes directly to the question at issue, and 
 speaks to it earnestly and honestly. He does not know 
 how needless is his advocacy, he cannot imagine how 
 warmly he is pleading his own cause while pleading that 
 of his brother ; but his exertions are none tl^e less praise- 
 worthy because they are so little requisite. And thus it 
 ever is; blinded by partizanship, by a false standard of 
 ]">hilanthropy, by passion, or by injustice, men launch their 
 efforts into causes which are unworthy the eiibrts wasted 
 on them. Attracted by the glitter of personal advantage, 
 or allured by the hollowness of public applause, men 
 cease to rely on the honesty of their purpose, and become 
 dependent on the flattery or cajolery of representations. 
 These men succeed perhaps, for it is with the mass they 
 prevail, and the mass are ever ensnared by the sliO"\vy 
 and the clamorous ; but their success is as evanescent 
 
78 THE LAW OF SINAI, 
 
 as it is unworthy, and the reaction that follows is the 
 more galling because of its contrast with previous 
 victory. The genuine advocate achieves a nobler con- 
 quest ; himself impressed with the truth of the cause 
 he pleads, his conviction lends dignity to his lan- 
 guage, and force to his arguments. What he says comes 
 from his heart, and goes to the heart of his hearers. 
 Doing the duty of neither a hireling nor a partizan, he 
 personifies his own views, and, if these be really honourable, 
 he cannot fail. 
 
 Who shall describe the feelings of his brothers when, 
 in their own language, those harrowing words rang in 
 their ears : " I am Joseph ? " Who shall depict the conflict 
 of emotions that raged in their bosoms ? Betrayed by 
 their own acts into the fulfilment of the doom they had 
 dreaded ; convicted by their own admission of acknowledg- 
 ing the justice of that doom ; their shame was so apparent 
 and tlieir humiliation so perfect, that even an enemy 
 would have pitied their abasement. How then should a 
 generous friend, a brother, hasten to relieve them from 
 their embarrassment; for it is a trait of generosity rather 
 to confess itself at fault than to wring such confession 
 from another. Hence we can understand Joseph's next 
 words : — 
 
 " I am Joseph, your brother, whom ye sold into Egypt ; 
 now, therefore, be not grieved, nor angry with yourselves, 
 that ye sold me hither ; for God did send me before you 
 for the preservation of life." 
 
 Not a reproach embitters the reconciliation ; not a 
 blush shames the newly-recognised ties of brotherhood. 
 The noble-minded Joseph avoids even that legitimate 
 retaliation which seeks an avowal of error ; so perfect is 
 his generosity that he even converts an atrocious crime 
 into an anticipatory benefit, and, as though to confirm his 
 view, he affects to believe that in their conduct towards 
 himself they had been less free agents than instruments 
 
AND ITS APPOINTED TI3IE3. 79' 
 
 ill the hands of Heaven, "Where is the epic which paints 
 the God-like attribute, mercy, more God-like I Shall we 
 turn to the mysterious and vicarious atonement of the 
 " Paradise Lost ? " Shall we dwell on the magnanimity 
 of the pious ^ueas ; the heroism of the fiery Achilles ? 
 No imaginary picture can equal this consummation. In 
 all the beauty of its perfection, it stands almost alone 
 amongst the noblest examples that history presents for 
 our instruction ; its value is not diminished by any ex- 
 traneous circumstance; its lustre is not dimmed by any 
 adventitious colouring ; its glory is not tarnished by 
 any erftriusic auxiliary. Alone, in utter simplicity, it 
 appeals to our hearts ; like a naked babe exposed on 
 some desolate strand, its very isolation is its attraction ; 
 its very want of help is its strongest plea for help. 
 
 But there remained one expiation which did not depend 
 on Joseph : the avowal of so much of the past to their 
 flither as was necessary to his being informed of Joseph's 
 existence. There still vibrated in his ears, and in his 
 heart still reverberated the echo, " ^ome evil beast has 
 devoured him." It was necessary to drown these sad 
 sounds by melody, than which holier never gladdened a 
 parent's ears, never softened a parent's heart. Such, how- 
 ever, is human nature, that the outlaw who dares to defy 
 all laws finds a difficulty in confessing even a venial fault ; 
 the avowal of a trivial error brings more shame than the 
 commission of the gravest ofience. Still this task of 
 setting Jacob's inquiries at rest was before them, and we 
 cannot forbear our admiration at the pains Joseph took 
 to render that task easy. Jacob would have been satis- 
 fied with the bare intelligence that his son lived ; all 
 other facts would have been absorbed in that fact. He 
 might have demanded some particulars, he might have 
 gone into some details, but in the end he would have been 
 content. Previous events had to some extent prepared 
 him to expect further news of the austere Egyptian who 
 
80 THE LAW OF SINAI, 
 
 had detained one of his sons as security for the appearance 
 of another. He anticip:T/ted some information respecting 
 the "money returned in the sacks' mouths;" and his 
 anxiety was not diminished by the uncertainty which 
 shrouded the fate of Simeon and Benjamin. Many a 
 longing look turned he southward, as day after day passed 
 and still came no sinjns of the absent ones ; and when at 
 length they did break on the prospect, how could he 
 recognise the small caravan formed by his sons and their 
 asses in the magnificent equipage sent as the type of 
 Joseph's grandeur ! 
 
 Well might he be lost in stupor at the astounding in- 
 telligence ; the dead had returned to life ; the cruel 
 gaoler of his son was a dearer son ; not only was his 
 darling Benjamin restored, but he came as the harbinger 
 of a happier restoration. What though "his heart had 
 fainted " at the first recital of the extraordinary news, 
 v/hich destroyed convictions of more than twenty years' 
 duration ; he could not long resist the assurances of his 
 children, seconded as they were by the pleadings of his 
 own heart. 
 
 '' It is enough ; my son Joseph is yet alive ; I will go 
 down and see him before I die." 
 
 What to the father's yearning was dignity, honour, or 
 power ? What heeded aifection that its object was high 
 or low ? His son lived, all other combinations were 
 hidden in that entirety ; his son lived. All other con- 
 siderations vanished before his desire once more to behold 
 that son. The home of his fathers, the grave of his 
 wife, the hearth of his manhood ; all were left for the 
 child of his love. And thus was accomplished the word 
 that never fails ; the word that was given to Abraham ; 
 and Israel, with all that he had, journeyed into the 
 country which, amid difficulties and dangers, was to be 
 the cradle of his people's nationality. 
 
 Apart from any religious opinions which may be 
 
AND ITS APPOINTED TIMES. 81 
 
 formed in coiiiiectioii with the Divine purpose of the 
 descent into Egypt, there are worldly opinions of sufficient 
 importance to warrant investigation. We know that 
 Israel was destined to become the father of a nation, but 
 it is clear, from the peculiar condition of Canaan, that 
 such a consummation could not have supervened there 
 without a miraculous interference. Canaan was a semi- 
 barbarous land ; it was, therefore, but indifferently culti- 
 vated, and was consequently but ill conditioned to supply 
 the wants of an increasing people. It is a law of nature 
 that men multiply in proportion as the means for their 
 support multiply. Savages who live from hand to mouth 
 are always few in number ; the half drained and badly 
 farmed Britain did not maintain one fiftieth part of tlie 
 millions that now inhabit England. But besides this, 
 Canaan was a country of tribes ; it was constantly the 
 scene of warflire and rapine ; the wild bands from the 
 hills rushed on to the hordes of the plains, and these 
 revenged themselves on their immediate neighbours. 
 Nomadic bands of plunderers also scoured the country, 
 and contributed their share to the general insecurity. 
 Even in the time of Abraham and Isaac, when the land 
 was much more thinly populated, the fear of God and a 
 well-trained household had not at all times exercised 
 sufficient influence to prevent encroachments. Abraham 
 and Isaac had suffered from these encroachments ; they 
 had been frequently compelled to change their dwelling 
 places. Jacob had become a settler ; his observations 
 after the affair of Shechem proved that he was not without 
 his dread of retaliation. The fear of God was rapidly 
 diminishing (the cup of the Amorites was growing full ;) 
 the tribes were on the increase; and the prevalence of 
 plundering habits may be inferred from the security 
 sought within " walled cities." All these circumstances 
 were antagonistic to the natural development of a people. 
 A careful cultivation ; the safety engendered by a power- 
 
 e2 
 
82 THE LAW OF SIXAI, 
 
 fill executive government j sedentary habits and the 
 consequent improvements in art and science induced by 
 experience ; these are wanting to such development. In 
 no country did they exist so abundantly as in Egypt, and 
 Egypt, therefore, was the place best adapted for the 
 increase which was to convert seventy souls into a people 
 " mighty and many/' The influence of Joseph ; the 
 benefits he had conferred on the throne ; the continued 
 want of his services ; were all powerful claims in behalf of 
 his frimily, and hence we can understand the ease with 
 which Pharaoh assigned to them the very elements they 
 required ; a land in which to live, a home which they 
 might the more safely call their own, because Egypt and 
 the Ked Sea defended it from external inroads, and 
 religious prejudice from internal invasion by the Egyp- 
 tians; "for shepherds are an abomination to Egypt." 
 And thus by human agency, by the unfettered operation 
 of free-will, are the unerring ends of Providence effected. 
 "Vainly do men struggle against general principles ; the 
 little wisdom, which does not see the morrow, is lost in the 
 infallible wisdom which measures all time, even as the 
 drop of water vanishes in the mighty ocean. 
 
 GENESIS. CHAPTER XLVII. VERSE 28. 
 
 The Israelites were definitively settled in the land of 
 Goshen, and Jacob lived seventeen years to behold their 
 domiciliation in their new homes. He lived to see the 
 grandchildren of Joseph, and to witness the rapid and 
 general increase of his descendants, nor can there be any 
 doubt that these last years of his career were the happiest 
 he ever knew. Honoured by his family, honoured through 
 his beloved son, supported by an active and unshaken faith 
 in God, and in the coming fulfilment of His promise made 
 to Abraham and confirmed to Isaac, he could well invoke 
 
AXD ITS APPOINTED TDIES. 83 
 
 a blessing on Epliraim and Manasseh in terms exj^ressive 
 alike of liis gratitude and his hopes : — " The angel who 
 has redeemed me from all evil will bless the youths, and 
 v^ill permit them to be called by my name, and by the 
 name of my ancestors, Abraham and Isaac." For the 
 sometime slave, now the head of his family, was to receive 
 a recompence in atonement of his sufterings ; he was to 
 be twice represented in the land of Canaan, he was to 
 have a double voice in the congregation of Israel ; and 
 even as his father had achieved the proud distinction of 
 giving a name to the descendants of Abraham, so had his 
 sufferings also their reward. " In thee shall Israel be 
 blessed." Even therefore as we are now the children of 
 Israel, so are we also to bless as he blessed ; and even as 
 the Sabbath or a solemn day sanctifies our souls and ap- 
 proximates them to their eternal source, even, as thus 
 dra^vn nearer to Heaven, we feel that we may without 
 trembling invoke Divine protection on those we love, so 
 we reiterate the words of the patriarch and say, "May 
 God make thee like Epliraim and Manasseh." And this 
 perhaps is one distinct feature of Judaism, that it is not only 
 a religion of public worship or of empty forms. Really 
 and piously observed, our holy faith is the reflex of its Di- 
 vine origin. It is interwoven with every relation of our 
 lives, even as our Heavenly spirit is intermingled with 
 every fibre of our bodies. Take away the spirit, and the 
 body remains an inert mass of earth ; take away from 
 our religion its spirit, and it becomes a thing only too 
 material and too earthly. But, as future portions will 
 show us, Judaism cannot well be deprived of its spirit ; 
 ignorance may stupefy by its blindness, bigotry may excite 
 by its intoxicating influence, intolerance may falsify by 
 its wilful perversions, but so long as the statutes of the 
 Law remain, so long will reason be able to prove their in- 
 timate and vivifying association with every combination 
 of our existence. 
 
84 THE LAW OF SIXAI, 
 
 And the la^it of the patriarchs is about to suffer the lot 
 of all flesh, and the sacred history is about to give up the 
 task of individual biography for that of describing a na- 
 tion's life. And over the transition the patriarch's spirit 
 hovers as though still attracted to its worldly loves, and 
 the pen of the historian lingers as though unwilling to 
 part from its grateful task. Around the bed of their dy- 
 ing father the heads of the future tribes of Israel are 
 summoned to listen to that which shall befal them in 
 latter days. The divinely-inspired parent desires to warn 
 his children by a foreshadowing of the future. But one 
 of the blessings of our earthly lot is, "the blindness to the 
 future kindly given." Whenever God has permitted man 
 to prophesy, it has been rather as a monitor than as an 
 expounder of inevitable fate. Thou wilt, and not thou 
 shalt, is the true rendering of the word ; for, if not, man 
 is at once deprived of all power over his actions, and 
 ceases to be a responsible agent. But this is not consis- 
 tent with his being ; everywhere is he his own master, in 
 no way is he controlled in his choice of path ; " good and 
 evil, life and death," are set before him, and he is recom- 
 mended which to choose. Infallible wisdom advises him 
 in his selection by pointing out the folly of evil, and by 
 referring to one of the first principles of creation ; ineffable 
 mercy confers a thousand benefits to induce gratitude, 
 and thereby make love and duty lead in the same way ; 
 unerring prescience foresees the inevitable consequences 
 to which disobedience will i-ush, and kindly lays those con- 
 sequences before disobedience that it may " turn and live ; " 
 but here all interference ceases. Heaven does not coerce 
 man ; he is lord of his own career and is just what he 
 himself determines ; neither more nor less. Such being 
 the case, it would have been inconsistent that Jacob should 
 have been permitted to ^^ronounce the doom of his sons ; 
 for, irrespective of being a departure from Divine law, the 
 pronunciation might, as in idolatrous countries it often 
 
AND ITS APPOIN'TED TIMES. 85 
 
 did, lead to its own fulfilmeut. And yet it would have 
 been equally inconsistent that the patriarch, whose whole 
 after life had been so specially dignified, should on liis 
 deathbed be degraded by announcing an intention he was 
 unable to accomplish. Hence we can understand the terms 
 of the "blessing of Jacob." Partly prophetic and partly 
 retrospective, it is entii^ely so allegorical that it is diflScult 
 to determine where the real ends and where the figurative 
 begins. To give a few examples. The address to Beuben 
 is evidently of the past : — " Thou art my first-born ; un- 
 stable as water, thou Avilt not excel." Here allusion is 
 made to a kno^vn trait in the character of Reuben, and an 
 inference, not necessarily prophetic, is therefrom deduced. 
 Of all the obstacles opposed to success in life, there is 
 none so obstructive as personal unsteadiness of purpose. 
 No man ever achieves greatness or even respectability 
 without determination. It is the curse of the common- 
 place that they are weakminded. To ensure success, an 
 object or goal must be firmly fixed before the eyes as the 
 point of sight, and every deviation from the straight line 
 must be carefully avoided. Eeuben's infirmity of purpose 
 therefore was a legitimate source for objection, and the 
 impressiveness of a dying charge the best guarantee for 
 attention to its removal. 
 
 The allusions to Simeon and Levi were of a double 
 character. Every word was in reference to their past 
 career till the last sentence, and that seemed to foretell 
 a future punishment. Yet how call a punishment that 
 which gave to Levi as an equivalent f©v his heritage the 
 proud privilege of furnishing special ministry to God ? 
 The same remark applies to Judah Avith the addition of a 
 mysterious figure never satisfactorily explained. "Thy 
 brethren shall praise thee," probably refers to what was 
 uj^permost in Jacob's mind, his love for Josejih ; and 
 Judah's intercession in the case of Benjamin was doubtless 
 the reason assigned by the patriarch for parental regard. 
 
6b THE LAW OF SINAI, 
 
 The passage alluding to the lawgiver and Shiloh, and 
 which has given rise to so many controversial translations, 
 to so much polemical speculation, has even now no recog- 
 nised version ; nor has any one been ahle to convince the 
 world that his rendering and the meaning to be deduced 
 from it, are the rendering and the meaning of Jacob. 
 May it not be regarded as a compromise between the real 
 and the ideal *? A sybilline oracle, which left so much open 
 to the future it pretended to read, was generally defensible 
 by its propounders ; for, no matter which event super- 
 vened, ambiguity always contrived an excuse in some way 
 satisfactory. To the word Shiloh, undoubtedly here 
 placed curiously, a meaning has been given Avhioh cer- 
 tainly the patriarch never contemplated ; and yet strong 
 ground is taken on this meaning, and a v/hole host of 
 theories built with as much foundation j^robably as the 
 mystery of the word sanctions and no more. 
 
 The affectionate address of Joseph, characterised per- 
 haps as the fertile bough, because he gave two tribes to 
 Israel instead of one, clearly points to the still undimi- 
 nished love of the patriarch, and to his vivid remembrance 
 of the cruelty perpetrated against his favourite by his 
 other children. The words referring to Zebulun certainly 
 were jDrophetic, but as their literal fulfilment involved 
 no knowledge of the future that could at all influence the 
 conduct or lessen the responsibility of the descendants of 
 Zebulun, there could be no deviation from Divine law in 
 their promulgation." Attempts have been made, satis- 
 factory to none so much as to the originators, to render 
 the observations made to other sons of Jacob also pro- 
 phetic, but to avoid the useless field of discussion and the 
 barren field of speculation, it were as wise to accept the 
 interpretation here given as to plunge into a labyrinth of 
 mystery on which as much is to be said on any one side 
 as on any other that a particular view may assume. For 
 this interpretation has at least one merit. It leaves to 
 
AND ITS APPOINTED TIMES. 87 
 
 the patriarch all the dignity of his high character as 
 holding communion with Heaven, and it in no way disturbs 
 the beneficial laws by which Providence withholds a 
 knowledge of the future. 
 
 Jacob dies, his body reposes by the side of his 
 father's, and his children return from his funeral to the 
 land of their adoption. His presence removed from 
 amongst them, the old leaven breaks out. The brothers, 
 who had so grievously sinned against Joseph, but half 
 trusted to their reconciliation, for it is the fate of crime 
 to suspect. They regarded their father as the tie which 
 had bound them into one harmonious whole ; that tie 
 removed, they feared the revenge they had done so much 
 to deserve. But as the sequel proves, they little knew 
 the great soul wh(5m they had first v,^ronged by deeds and 
 now insulted by suspicions. Joseph, irrespective of any 
 regard for fraternal afiection, could afi'ord to forgive them. 
 In social position, as in moral rectitude, they were alike 
 beneath him. To take revenge would be to debase him- 
 self below their level, and to adopt a course unworthy 
 himself and his lofty influence. But higher principles 
 prevailed with him. "What would only be unworthy his 
 greatness, would be a diso'race to his brotherhood, a 
 shame to ]iis faith in God. Hence his answer to their 
 servile entreaties : '' Am I instead of God 1 " He knew 
 that how much soever he might overlook their culpa- 
 bility, there was still an offended Deity, and their present 
 fear proved how little reliance they had in Him, and how 
 little therefore they had done to obtain that reliance. 
 Generosity never remembers that it has pardoned till 
 future misconduct recalls the need for past forgiveness. 
 But this the vile and the mean cannot understand. They 
 think they have pardoned when they stifle the unholy 
 desire for revenge ; they know not the nobler sentiment 
 which buries in the abyss of time all bitter recollections 
 and retains only those bright images which may awaken 
 
88 THE LA.W OF SINAI, 
 
 pleasurable emotions. Such men are either positive ene- 
 mies or negative friends ; they either actively hate or only 
 passively abstain from hating. Positive friendship and 
 its seeing in every loved object a second self, is a blessing 
 unknown to them. Of this stamp seem to have been the 
 brothers of Joseph, and the sacred historian, having held 
 np to our examination their abjectness and the nobility 
 of their brother, dismisses them from the scene without 
 further notice, as lost among the people of whom they were 
 the fathers. Joseph deserves and receives a special recog- 
 nition ; his death and the contem]3orary engagement that 
 his bones shall be placed in the land of the covenant are 
 faithfully recorded, and thus the first book of the Law 
 approjjriately closes. 
 
AXD ITS APPOINTED TIMES. 89 
 
 EXODUS: CHAPTEE T. 
 
 The stream of individual existence has poured its 
 bright waters into the troubled sea of a people's life. 
 Lashed by the angry breath of tyrant taskmasters that 
 sea knows no rest ; its heaving bosom reflects only the 
 black darkness which glooms from the clouds of slavery. 
 On, on, it rushes, impelled by a power that it cannot con- 
 trol, to a destination that it never seems to approach. 
 Tlie breath of its rulei^ is capricious, and drives it to no 
 definite goal ; motion, ceaseless, aimless, is the lot to which 
 it is condemned. Sullenly it surges beneath the lordly 
 rule, and loudly the wails rise from its heaving bosom. 
 But its moan is impotent before the blast that will not 
 cease to roar, and it appears reduc'ed for ever to its troubled 
 fate. No light breaks on its horizon ; there is no effec- 
 tual resistance from within, no hope of change from 
 vrithout, and bitter is the cry wrung from its agitated 
 breast and borne on the unseen wings of mercy to the 
 throne of God. 
 
 The stern realities of slavery are too harsh for even 
 imagination to soften or fancy to colour. "When man, 
 blindly selfish, inflicted slavery on his fellows, he invented 
 the sure means for his own injury ; looking only to pre- 
 sent advantage he ignored future consequences. For, if 
 the regeneration of the human race is to be achieved, as 
 we believe it is, by human agencies ; if mortals, by slow 
 but certain steps, are to tread, through Divine grace, the 
 road to eternal salvation, then slavery is the greatest 
 enemy that man has to combat ; it is the serpent bred in 
 his ovm bosom to destroy him who fostered it. Of all 
 heroes he is the greatest whom slavery does not degrade 
 below his species. Created a responsible being, man must 
 remain so, or a gi^eat law of nature is set aside. Art and 
 
90 THE LAW OF SIXAT, 
 
 the relations of social life are only consistent with human 
 progress when they work out the j^rinciples impressed by 
 Providence. Slavery, by depriving man of his temporal 
 free-agency, is therefore antagonistic to nature, and is 
 hence a wrong from which, by inherent law, only wrong 
 can emanate. It is alike futile and impious to talk 
 of distinctions of colour, or of proprietary rights; no 
 reasoning can make that a right which is radically wi-ong. 
 Sophistry may deceive, the strong arm of might may 
 coerce, but slavery is none the less an attempt to subvert 
 the decrees of Heaven, and is hence a crime. It is only 
 another kind of idolatry, by which man assumes to sur- 
 round himself by blind worshippers. 
 
 Years sj)ed on, and the children of Israel thrived in 
 their new homes. Attached by inclination and habit to 
 the arts of peace, they prospered, and they increased 
 through thei^r prosperity. Defended by the locality of 
 their settlement from warlike molestation, they needed 
 not the discipline which makes soldiers, and in the luxury 
 of sloth they lost that spirit of resistance v/hich prompts 
 men to resent, rather than to receive, an indignity. How 
 else could we understand that two millions of people 
 submitted without a struggle to the yoke which cruelty 
 imposed on them under the name of policy. But slavery 
 seemed in this instance to have lost one of its effects ; for 
 the more heavily its burden weighed on the children of 
 Israel the more they multij^lied. The Egyptians were 
 sorely perplexed at this result, so opposed to their ex- 
 perience. It became necessary to devise some new means 
 to prevent further increase ; and when did human hatred 
 fail to attain its end ? Excision of the males was the 
 method determined on. The worshipped river of Egypt 
 was to receive every new-born male child, while the 
 females were to be preserved — to furnish thereafter a 
 stock of wives, always valuable in an Eastern country. 
 This was indeed a master-stroke of policy ; for while 
 
AND ITS APPOINTED TIDIES. 91 
 
 inflicting a most deadly vengeance on a dreaded enemy, 
 it was to contribute no less efficiently to the national 
 welfare. Destruction of the slave was to be new life to 
 the master. There was but one defect in this policy — 
 a slight one in the eyes of a tyrant or an evil doer, but 
 a serious one when the result was to be considered. It 
 was wrong ; and hence, as a moral deflection, wrong to 
 its author was to be the inevitable result. 
 
 Who does not know how Moses was rescued from the 
 fangs of death 1 How, in the halls of his people's op- 
 pressor, he received not only protection, but the qualifica- 
 tions which were afterwards to fit him for his high 
 vocation 1 We desire not, therefore, to dwell on the oft 
 read tale ; we propose rather to investigate the circum- 
 stances involved in his selection as the future lawgiver of 
 Israel, and to show how human free-agency operated to 
 subserve the desi<_'n of Providence. This investigation 
 should be the more necessary and interesting when we 
 call to mind the words so frequently recorded in the 
 Pentateuch: "AYhat will the nations say, &c. ; " "Why 
 should the nations say, &c. ; " and the evident desire 
 thereby implied that in all the direct interpositions of 
 Pleaven there might be no excuse on which man could 
 build an exceptional hypothesis. Even the Almighty 
 condescended to listen to suoh an appeal, and, while 
 dispensing his universal power, vouchsafed "to justify the 
 ways of God to man," Nor can we wonder at this when 
 we consider how forcible is example ; how ready man is 
 to lay hold of any precedent for his own shortcomings ; 
 how many sophistries have been deduced from what 
 common-sense proves to have but one legitimate interpre- 
 tation ; how many precautions the A 11- Wise adopted in 
 the statutes given to Israel to guard against any infringe- 
 ment on the principles of moral right — even where such 
 infringement might be regarded as comparatively inno- 
 cuous ; e. g. : " Thou shalt not sufier a witch to live." 
 
92 THE LAW OF SIXAI, 
 
 Besides, the leader of a community should be ahle to 
 command the respect of his followers; he should gui'le 
 them less by the power of his position than by the 
 superiority of his moral, intellectual, and social qualities ; 
 let us see then in how far Moses was qualified for the 
 post to which Divine choice advanced him. 
 
 There can be no doubt that Egypt was the centre of all 
 the civilization that the world then knew, and it is no 
 less certain that the court of Egypt was the cynosure of 
 all that was superior in that country. The school, there- 
 fore, in which Moses passed the first period (40 years) 
 of his life was the one best adapted to the development of 
 his mental powers. The study of chemistry, astronomy, 
 and the abstract sciences generally, must have contributed 
 to expand his intellect, and man}'- passages might be 
 quoted to show his acquaintance with these subjects. 
 While tlie thousands of Israel were plunged in the 
 miseries of slavery, and were, as a consequence, steeped in 
 Fuch ignorance that even the knowled2:e of God was 
 fading from among them (" And they would not hearken 
 to Moses, &c."), one individual of that people was re- 
 ceiving the best and the most enlightened training that 
 the world then afforded. His very toleration in the 
 anomalous position that he held, may be adduced as an 
 indirect proof of his general character. He kept up a 
 constant intercourse with his afilicted brethren, and, 
 althougli trouble makes men selfish, such was their 
 regard for him that no one seems to have given intima- 
 tion to Pharaoh of his connection with tlie race which 
 that monarch so dreaded. Pharaoh's daughter too, and 
 doubtless many of the court, knew of Moses' descent, and 
 yet he must have conciliated their good opinion, or we 
 can scarcely imagine that his secret would have been so 
 well kept. And thus, in the possession of an ease un- 
 known to his people, he was unenvied by them ; usurping 
 rights to which his birth gave him no claim, he was still 
 
AND ITS APPOINTED THIES. 93 
 
 permitted freely to enjoy tliein. But the habits of a 
 student and the luxury of indolence, although they may 
 have contributed to eularoje the intellect and foster the 
 genius of Moses, were little calculated to give him those 
 habits of business which were so needed for a legislator. 
 For the acquirement of these it was necessary that lie 
 should come into rough contact with his fellow men, that 
 he should be called upon to exercise rather the bodily than 
 the mental powers, that he should be capable of meeting 
 an emergency, that he should be prepared to act as well 
 as to think; in short, that he should be as practical as his 
 previous education had made him theoretical. How was 
 this to be effected without trenching upon the privileges 
 of his free will, which was little likely to lead him to 
 prefer the sterner realities of existence to the intellectual 
 refinement of a luxurious court 1 How was he to prove 
 in adversity the soundness of those principles which 
 prosperity had never tried'? How was he to afford to 
 mankind the sublime example of a mortal's being selected 
 for his own inherent merits as the special servant of 
 Heaven 1 Bearing in mind that Moses was mortal, and 
 therefore not infallible, that man's actions are entirely his 
 own, that his moral or immoral principles are entirely of 
 his own forming, and that repentance is the grand anti- 
 dote for the counteraction of the innate effects of sin, we 
 shall understand the sequel. 
 
 Moses kept up a constant intercourse with his brethren, 
 and his heart doubtless bled for their wrongs. It required 
 an almost superhuman patriotism to induce him to prefer 
 a share in those wrongs to the voluptuous ease which he 
 enjoyed in the palace of the wronger, and yet one could 
 understand the sacrifice and appreciate it. That he did not 
 make such election only proves the weakness of humanity 
 rather than its culpability. But he could not bear un- 
 moved to witness sufiering which he could not alleviate, 
 and once, carried away by his sympathy, he smote au 
 
94 THE LAW OF SINAI, 
 
 oppressor of his brethren and killed him. Let lis look at 
 this act deliberately. It is the highest crime known to 
 man, that of nuirder, and yet it is deprived of all its hei- 
 nousness by its want of premeditation and by the accumn- 
 lated provocation which induced its commission. It 
 involves a social wrong for which Heaven itself leaves but 
 one atonement, and yet the circumstances connected with 
 it at once strip it of all atrocity, by showing the utter 
 absence of either malice or intention. It was strictly but 
 the result of a simple act of retaliation, but it was also 
 undoubtedly a proof of violence of temper, and of the 
 influence of passion, which carried to excess led to guilty 
 consequences, and certainly unfitted a man for the dis- 
 charge of legislative functions. These require calmness, 
 deliberation, and impassiveness ; they demand freedom 
 from impulse as likely to prevent the exercise of judgment, 
 and uniformity of temper as calculated to secure the 
 absence of personality. Moses therefore, by his deed of 
 homicide, proved that how qualified soever he may 
 have been by education, he was still destitute of those 
 practical qualities which were equally needed. But he 
 did more also. When subsequently he found that, sj)ite of 
 liis precaution, his secret was known, and that malice was 
 likely to betray it, he became a fugitive from justice. It 
 is true that there was little probability of his obtaining 
 justice ; not only would his killing of an Egyptian become 
 known, but his birth would be discovered to the tyrant. 
 Pharaoh would thus have a double motive for revenge. 
 The life of a subject, and that subject a tool of his oppres- 
 sion, would demand an atonement : the imposition, of 
 which he would feel himself to have been the victim, would 
 stimulate his personal desire to obtain that atonement, no 
 matter at what sacrifice. Justice under a tyrant is always 
 precarious, in this case it would have been a mockery. 
 Moses felt that while his violence, his want of temper, his 
 angry impulse, had led him into a culpable excess, they 
 
AND ITS APPOINTED- TIMES. 95 
 
 liad not made him a murderer. No law, either Divine or 
 human, could demand his life, and yet he knew that his 
 life would be taken. He fled. As he had once preferred 
 ease to patriotism, so- he now preferred entire withdrawal 
 from consequences to martyrdom. Living, he might atone 
 to Heaven for the moral wrong he had committed ; dying, 
 he would more than compensate the social injury he had 
 inflicted. His life might by its thereafter efface in repen- 
 tance its one blot ; his death could lead to no beneficial 
 result, and would at once cut off the future. He was 
 justified therefore in fleeing, but it is his mortality which 
 pleads for him with our mortality j one could understand 
 and appreciate the almost superhuman self-abnegation 
 which would lay down even life as the sacrifice for a de- 
 viation from the path of rectitude. 
 
 Circumstances and his own free ^vill had thus rendered 
 a courtier's career of ease impossible to Moses. He was 
 to become an active labourer for the very means of 
 existence, and this was to be tlie fire through which he 
 was to purify the dross from his past, and to prepare the 
 sterling metal for his future. In the eyes of his fellow- 
 men he was to justify his selectiort from all men for the 
 highest position ever assigned to mortal. He was to 
 become w^orthy to speak to God " face to face^" to have 
 the power of invoking the presence and support of 
 Heaven with a certainty of their being accorded ; he was 
 to stand as it were above the level of humanity, with the 
 implied confidence of the Eternal that he Avould not 
 presume on his privileges, that he would not, by any act 
 of his power, detract from the merit which had rendered 
 that power his prerogative. And all this he was to do 
 %\ithout in any way losing his position as a responsible 
 free agent to be judged according to his actions. With a 
 mind cultivated as liis had been, and with principles of 
 right gi'owing from extensive knowledge, this task was 
 not too difiicult, especially if we recollect that his past 
 
96 THE LA.W OF SIN'AI, 
 
 life liacl in all but one instance been the exponent of liigli 
 training. And the lot he chose was certainly that of all 
 others best calculated to leave ample time for the reflec- 
 tion necessary to correct his infirmity of temper, and yet 
 to awaken that activity to which his studential habits 
 had never given birth. He became a shepherd in a 
 desert land. How hard a shepherd's life was, may be 
 inferred from the terms in which, at Gilead, Jacob 
 described it to Laban. Exposed to the heat of day and 
 the cold of night, the body became inured to fatigue and 
 capable of sustaining it. Obnoxious to the attacks of 
 robbers, or to the inroads of savage beasts, the shepherd 
 learned vigilance to avoid danger or courage to resist it. 
 A witness to the infirmities of his flock, he became 
 accustomed to treat weakness tenderly, and he thus 
 acquired a habit of consideration likely to tell in his in- 
 tercourse with his fellow-men. These were the very 
 qualities desirable for a legislator, they were the precise 
 qualifications which the character of Moses required for 
 its completion. Meanwhile, his mind had plenty of scope. 
 Cut off from all communication with civilised men, 
 deprived of extraneous aid for reading or study, not 
 blessed with a congenial domestic companion to whom he 
 could confide his hopes and his fears, his mind naturally 
 took refuge in itself. Its vast innate powers were brought 
 to bear on himself. There was a struggle between the 
 spirit and body, and when did the former not prevail 
 when it was only honest? In the utter solitude to 
 which many of his hours were condemned, he had time to 
 consider the consequences of his hasty blow. His every- 
 day life contrasted too vividly with his past career not to 
 suggest food for many and bitter self-upbraidings. And 
 as in Jacob we have endeavoured to show how the 
 Almighty condescended to accept repentance and to 
 hallow it, so in Moses we find another, and a parallel 
 instance. That Moses did repent his single transgression 
 
AND ITS APPOINTED TIMES. 97 
 
 is best proved by the fact that he never again sinned 
 through the same cause ; indeed, Holy Writ specially 
 dwells on his peculiar meekness of character, as a tribute 
 alike to his equanimity and to the sincerity with which 
 he had conquered his defect. When therefore we see that 
 by the position in which he was placed during two periods 
 of his life, Moses acquired the mental and physical 
 qualities necessary to his future leadership of Israel ; 
 when we see that the single infirmity of liis character, 
 which led him into error, was nobly conquered and never 
 again prevailed, we can at once account for the selection 
 of Heaven and bow to the wisdom of it. Opportunities 
 innumerable will be presented in future chapters to show- 
 how Moses' after conduct justified the trust reposed in 
 him ; enough has now been said to assign a reason for the 
 appearance of the burning bush, and for the extreme 
 diffidence evinced by Moses, in his capacity as a free agent, 
 in obeying the direct command of God. 
 
 EXODUS: CHAPTER Yl. VERSE 2. 
 The plagues of Egypt 1 Who has not dwelt on these 
 visitations, who has not pondered on their awful charac- 
 ter ! As beacons on the watery expanse shine far into 
 the siuTOunding darkness, so these monuments of Divine 
 vengeance glitter in the long vista of the past. 
 Individual punishment may have been signal ; once, 
 the judgment inflicted on the powerful army of a great 
 king •• was signal ; but nowhere on the pages of tune has 
 history impressed calamities so universal and of duration 
 so lengthened. And these instruments of wrath deserve 
 and awaken the more reflection, because they are dis- 
 tinct emanations from Heaven. While some series of 
 events may or may not be regarded as instances of 
 
 * Sennacherib. 
 
"98 THE LAW OF SINAI, 
 
 special Providence, these certainly stand alone as in- 
 stances of special interposition. Suspensions of the laws 
 of nature, or deviations from them, not only were they 
 announced before their occurrence, but they seem to 
 have been j3roduced as means for warfare between man 
 and the Eternal. On the one hand, the words of Holy 
 Writ appear to tell us that all responsibility is taken 
 from Pharaoh, because God has hardened his heart; and 
 on the other hand, this responsibility is assumed as ex- 
 isting and Pharaoh is punished for his obduracy. On 
 the one hand, man appears to be impelled to rebellion 
 by a power that he cannot control ; on the other hand, he 
 is chastised for his revolt by the very power that he has 
 been forced to outrage. Let us endeavour to reconcile 
 these apparent contradictions, and then let us turn to 
 consider the plagues themselves. 
 
 The object of jDunishment is complex ; it is designed 
 as an atonement due from the transgressor to the laws 
 he has violated ; it is intended as a means to prevent 
 him from further sin ; it is held up as a warning 
 to others. But in order that punishment may be ex- 
 acted without assuming the character of revenge, the 
 law and the penalty for its infringement must first be 
 laid down. That punishment deters from further sin 
 depends rather on the impressibility of the sinner than 
 on the severity or lenity of the infliction. That pun- 
 ishment may be a warning to others, it must be appro- 
 priate to the crime which it is to correct, it must be 
 without cruelty, and it must be administered with due 
 regard to justice. If we examine the portion before us, 
 we shall find that these three necessities were all com- 
 plied with. Pharaoh and his predecessors had flagrantly 
 violated some of the first laws of humanity. They had 
 by main force compelled to slavery a people whom they 
 were bound to respect as invited guests, as the near 
 connections of a man to whom they were so much in 
 
AND ITS APPOINTED TIMES. 99 
 
 debtee!. Tliey Lad not only degraded these people to 
 slavery, and thereby assumed conquerors' rights, but 
 they had rendered that slavery too bitter for endurance, 
 and had even conspired against the very existence of 
 the race they had so oppressed. Such cruelty places its 
 perpetrators without the pale of humanity. The 
 horrors of modern slave trade present no such wholesale 
 miiieries. But so just is Providence, that, even against 
 the most inveterate sinners, no direct and visible inter- 
 ference is entered on without warning. Moses is sent 
 to Pharaoh to remind him of the wrong he has com- 
 mitted, and to tell him that the people he presumes 
 to call his slaves are the servants of a Being who is 
 his superior. In order that the embassy of Moses may 
 not be set down as an imj^osture, he is furnished with a 
 proof of Divine power. Aaron's rod is converted into 
 a serpent before the tyrant. But the ^vise men of 
 Egypt had their legerdemain. One of their devices 
 was the dexterous substitution of a serpent for a rod, 
 and perhaps it was to show the nothingness of their 
 pretensions that such a sign was chosen. When therefore 
 Moses performed his miracle before Pharaoh, he was met 
 by a rejoinder of like character from the wise men, and 
 an authority was thus arrogated by the oppressor of Israel 
 antagonistic to, and of equal calibre with, that of Israel's 
 deliverer. It was in vain that " Aaron's rod swallowed up 
 their rods." Pharaoh held his slaves by the might of his 
 own right hand, and he determined not to yield them 
 without resistance. He thus provoked a contest with 
 the Almighty by denying his power and defying his 
 claims. iNow, such is the influence of the Eternal, that 
 he can by his sole command so rule the heart of man 
 that it act entirely as he desires. To exercise this in- 
 fluence, however, would be to destroy human free-will 
 and human responsibility, thus perverting one of the 
 great ends of creation. Such is not the design of Heaven. 
 
100 THE LAW OF SINAI, 
 
 When therefore we meet the Avords, " I have permitted 
 Pharaoh's heart to he hardened," '^ we must understand 
 them as a positive announcement on tlie part of God that 
 he forbears to exercise his Divine influence, that he 
 declines to interfere with the privilege of volition which 
 is of his according, that while he can prevent Pharaoh 
 from persisting in his obstinacy, he, for wise pui-poses, 
 does not so prevent but permits its continuance. 
 
 The position of the contending parties is thus clearly 
 defined. Pharaoh, having committed a grievous wrong 
 and refusing to acknowledge it, is in open rebellion against 
 Heaven. Heaven, quite able to seize its own, prefers to 
 vindicate its rights, in order that man may learn how far 
 his little authority avails when opposed to the eternal 
 principles of justice. But, it may be asked, why did not 
 God at once inflict such summary vengeance on Pharaoh 
 as would have induced his submission ? The answer is 
 simple. Divine mercy abhors control or compulsion ; 
 while Divine prescience foresaw that Pharaoh would yield 
 only when to resist longer was to lose more than the 
 value of his slaves, Divine mercy desired to show its 
 forbearance as a lesson to mankind, and to leave to the 
 sinner every opening for voluntary submission. We thus 
 see that not only was it proper that punishment was 
 exacted from Pharaoh for his violation of law, but that 
 its nature was made to depend by his continued obduracy 
 on the impressibility of his character. A reference to the 
 text also will show us, that every plague was distinctly 
 annoimced before its occurrence, and that with the an- 
 nouncement was coupled the reiterated demand for a 
 discontinuance of the wrong. It only remains now to 
 show the necessity for Divine intei'position, and the 
 appropriate adaptation of the means to the end. 
 
 There existed in ancient times nothing analogous to 
 
 * Nowhere does the Hebrew text warrant the rendering, " I have 
 hardened Pharaoh's heart." 
 
AXD ITS APPOINTED TIMES. 101 
 
 wliat we now call tlie balance of power or international 
 policy. Country made war against country for the mere 
 purpose of conquest, and war only ceased when either one 
 party had nothing more to gain or both parties had 
 nothing to lose. Kings also being despotic, and having 
 no political connection with other potentates, ruled their 
 dominions according to their own caprice, without being 
 at all amenable to foreign remonstrance. Hence, Pha- 
 raoh's dominion over Israel being once established, 
 nothing human but a successful rebellion could overthrow 
 it. But all chances in favour of such a revolt were 
 wanting. For two hundred years Israel had abandoned 
 all warlike pursuits, depending for protection upon Egypt. 
 The hardships of slavery had been imposed on them to 
 crush out the few remaining sparks of manhood; and, as 
 though the yoke were not sufficiently galling, as though 
 the continuity of their labour might yet leave moments 
 for conspiracy, they were scattered over the whole land in 
 search of materials for their work, and the bonds of union 
 were thus sundered. By human means then there was 
 no hope of release. But through the seed of Abraham, 
 Divine mercy had promised that the blessings of revela- 
 tion should be disseminated through the earth. There 
 remained, therefore, for the realisation of that promise, 
 only Divine instrumentahty, and we thus see revelation 
 sanctified by the direct and visible interposition of Heaven, 
 as the champion of the wronged and the avenger of wrong. 
 The source of Pharaoh's resistance lay in pride, and in 
 confidence in his own resources, natural and artificial. 
 These resources were strengthened in the eyes of the 
 ignorant multitude by the adventitious aid of the cunning 
 of his wise men. We are to see how, one by one, his 
 resources were attacked and overcome ; how, one by one, 
 the bulwarks of his pride were destroyed, till tlie strong- 
 hold of his resistance crumbled before the Almighty 
 power he had defied, and left to him nothing but sub- 
 
102 THE LAW OF SINAI, 
 
 mission. The first plague was " blood." The river-god, 
 upon whose beneficence the idolatrous Egyptians believed 
 their very lives to depend, was made abominable in their 
 eyes, and they were thus taught the littleness of their 
 deity, while by tlie death of all within its bosom they 
 learned how small was its vivifying influence. Unsubdued 
 by this lesson, because after seven days the river resumed 
 its usual vitality, that vitality was made destructive to 
 them by tlie production of frogs. But the forced appear- 
 ance of blood and of frogs was a trick of the wise men ; 
 one of those mysterious deceptions by which they imposed 
 on their ignorant dupes. When, therefore, they seemed 
 to do what Aaron had done, the tyrant would recognise 
 no distinction between tlieir art and Aaron's power, and 
 he remained firm in his opposition. The fertile land was 
 next attacked ; that land which yielded suck abundance 
 to their industry, and upon whose productiveness they 
 3'elied with suck confidence. It successively brought forth 
 vermin, swarms of insects, disease among their cattle, and 
 personal boils, and as herein the cunning of the magicians 
 failed them, and as the}^ thus recognised a power superior 
 to their own, they and their master were terrified into 
 yielding. But it is in the nature of tyranny to be as 
 despairing in adversity as it is haughty in pT'osperity. 
 While, therefore, Pharaoh, thus personally the victim of 
 annoyance, was willing to promise any thing to rid him- 
 self of his trouble, no sooner was that object efiected than 
 he resum=ed his wonted pride, and violated his word with 
 as little compunction as he had had honesty in pledging it. 
 Earth and water, two of their elemental divinities and 
 sources of pride, having thus been unsuccessfully turned 
 against them ; their cattle having been destroyed and 
 their persons rendered disgusting ; the powers of air and 
 fire, their other elements, were called to their destruction, 
 and hail and lightning carried ruin and desolation on 
 their vegetable wealth. But before resorting to this 
 
AND ITS APPOINTED TI3IES. 103 
 
 extreme means, again was Moses desired to cantion 
 Pliaraob, to hold out to him, in still more emphatic terms, 
 the awful consequences of continued rebellion, and the 
 extent of the vengeance he was invoking. Mercy, how- 
 ever, was thrown away on stubbornness so innate, and 
 although the miraculous immunity of Goshen, where 
 dwelled the children of Israel, ought to have carried con- 
 viction to the soul of the tyrant, so confident was he in 
 the strength that had yet been sj^ared, that he braved still 
 further evil. And so, the vegetation which had escaped 
 the ravages of the hail became a prey to locusts ; and, 
 throughout the whole land of Egypt, there remained not 
 even a single blade of grass nor a single leaf cf a tree. 
 
 Still no token of submission, although Egypt stood 
 naked before the world, denuded of her animals and her 
 vegetables, and although, the means of subsistence thus 
 cut off, she had nothing but death before her. And death, 
 that most fearful of all pains, fearful because of its uncer- 
 tainty and mystery, death came thundering on. And 
 still Divine mercy interposed between the all-devouring 
 tomb and its victims, and sent one more premonitory plague 
 to typify the coming horror. And darkness, thick as the 
 grave, such as living mortal never knew, shrouded Egypt 
 as with a pall ; and when its veil was raised and again 
 showed unrelenting man to the light of life, then passed 
 the dread reality into the world, and the destroyer 
 claimed his own. " Night to be observed," night of un- 
 utterable terrors, when without a wail, without a sign, the 
 avenging angel swept over the face of that once fair land, 
 and left desolation behind. The torrent rushing from its 
 mountain height and carrying devastation on its turgid 
 bosom, the lightning darting from overcharged clouds 
 and riving through the heart the forest monarch, leaves 
 at least some ruin that love can cling to, some wreck upon 
 which to found a hope ; but there remained none such on 
 the passage of death. They who in life had loved, turned 
 
104 THE LAW OF SINAI, 
 
 in disgust from the mouldering contamination wliicli 
 death had left, for they knew not how soon it might be 
 their lot to succumb. They were not conscious of the end, 
 they saw but tlie beginning. There, before them, in the 
 homes they had cherished, on the hearths they had glad- 
 dened, lay the fetid corses of their best beloved. Death 
 had commenced his ravages, where would he end ? And 
 so, another miracle ; there was a great cry throughout the 
 length and breadth of Egypt, and the tyrant, subdued at 
 last by the nameless fear that stalked from the dead before 
 him, was now as anxious to release as he had before been 
 anxious to detain the prisoners. For, while life remained 
 intact, he could in his pride defy fate ; but death had 
 terrors for his guilty soul from which he shrank appalled. 
 He, therefore, was the first to hasten the departure of his 
 slaves. The first in useless oppression, he was the first 
 in abject humiliation, for in such characters extremes ever 
 meet. And thus the chains of bondage fell before the 
 word of the Eternal ; the cry of despair which had risen 
 to Heaven from the heart-broken Israelites, had awakened 
 an echo on earth, and its voice was freedom. And two 
 millions of human beings passed from the dark womb of 
 slavery into the light of a living Hberty. And Heaven 
 smiled upon this birth of nationality, and apjwinted its 
 anniversary for an eternal observance. 
 
 K2 
 
 EXODUS, CHAPTER X. 
 The contest between the tyranny of man and the power 
 of Heaven, exercised in behalf of the oppressed, was to ter- 
 minate as such a contest might be expected to end. For 
 the first time since the deluge, mankind at large were to 
 be witnesses of Divine interference in mortal concerns ; 
 for the first time since the creation, men were to be placed 
 under direct obligation for expressly performed mercies. 
 
AXD ITS APPOINTED TIMES. 105 
 
 At the deluge, mercy was secondary to punishment, nor 
 was the covenant for future immunity ratified till deso- 
 lation sat upon the face of what had been water. At the 
 calling of Abraham, kindness had been the result of obe- 
 dience, and not the motive for it. Jacob had deserved 
 Divine confidence before he obtained it. But in the case 
 of the liberated Israelites all this was reversed. To them 
 mercy was extended for no merits of their own. They 
 were the objects of mercy first, that they might become sub- 
 ject to gratitude afterwards. Indeed, so strongly did God 
 design to impress on his people his claim on their reverence 
 and thankfulness, that he was constantly bringing before 
 them that claim. Everywhere, on the occasion of any im- 
 portant ordinance, occur the words : " I am the Lord thy 
 God, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt." As, 
 in describing the cosmogony of the universe, the inspired 
 writer was content to relate only such portions of creation 
 as had special reference to the favours conferred on man 
 by Providence ; so, in appealing to Israel for obedience, 
 he was satisfied to invoke their duty by reference to the 
 special interposition of the Exodus. And was Moses not 
 right ? For, as by natural process, the confusion of chaos 
 could never have become harmonised into the beauty of 
 creation, so, by human agency, could Israel never have been 
 raised from the depths of slavery to the height of nation- 
 ality. As, by the Divine word, material light first burst 
 on the darkness that brooded over the murmuring deep, 
 so, by Divine grace, the light of liberty dawned on the 
 degradation of servitude. If, therefore, mankind were to 
 be called to obedience because of the obligation imposed 
 by creation, Israel was no less to be called to obedience 
 because of the redemption from Egypt. 
 
 But, as Divine mercy chose thus to single out its 
 own claim to gratitude, and to signalize its election of a 
 people from amongst people by signs, by miracles, and by 
 wonders ; so Divine wisdom assumed to point out the way 
 
 f2 
 
106 THE LAW OF SINAI, 
 
 in wliich that gratitude was to be shown, and to distin- 
 guish the people it had so elected. Now, as we have 
 before observed, every ordination is the result of supreme 
 wisdom, and while we are called on by faith to obey, we 
 are only prompted by reason to confirm faith. Hence, in 
 investigating the observances of the Passover, we desire 
 rather to confirm belief by the support of reason than to 
 awaken uncertainty from want of knowledge. For it 
 would seem beyond contradiction, that they who blindly 
 obey behests, which to them have no significance beyond 
 that which is derived from their Divine origin, are far 
 less likely to dignify themselves by their obedience, than 
 they who give to such behests a significance derived from 
 reason and common sense. It has been long, too long 
 perhaps, the dictum in Judaic investigation that, where 
 the Eternal has not assigned a cause for ceremony or 
 observance, man shall not seek to find one. But surely 
 no doctrine could be so little in accordance with the spirit 
 of the Mosaic dispensation. Throughout the whole of 
 that dispensation, the Lord condescends to treat with 
 man not as so much his inferior but as almost his equal. 
 We find constant opportunities for proving this even in 
 the manner in which Pharaoh was dealt with, and still 
 more convincing proofs in the covenants made at dififerent 
 times betv/een man and Heaven. Everywhere, the inde- 
 pendence of man is admitted in such words as these : if 
 thou wilt hearken ; if thou wilt obey ; and while his free 
 will is thus left unfettered, he is invited to exercise his 
 judgment in deciding on the alternatives attached re- 
 spectively to obedience and rebellion. In short, while the 
 Pentateuch contains 6 1 3 precepts, it is doubtful if it con- 
 tain one real command. There are many apparent com- 
 mands, but they are in fact only admonitions, addressed 
 to man in his deliberative capacity, and as violable in deed 
 as they are inviolable in their eternal truth and in their 
 inherent truthfulness to the object to be attained — roan's 
 
AXD ITS APPOIXTED TIMES. 107 
 
 salvation. We presume then to investigate the institu- 
 tion of the Passover, and we shall endeavour to assign a 
 reason for its distinctive ceremony, which will at least 
 give it a high significance, and the existence of which is 
 traceable also in other sacred institutions. 
 
 Already on the tenth day of the month, Moses, in- 
 structed by God, announced to the children of Israel the 
 certainty of their departure on the night of the fourteenth. 
 At the same time he told them to make the necessary 
 preparations. Sacrifice, so common among the nations of 
 those days, and practised also by the j^atriarchs, was now 
 sanctioned by special command of Heaven, and ratified as 
 man's legitimate expression of thankfulness for benefits 
 conferred. In other respects, the Passover was to be the 
 celebration of the national birthday. It was to be inau- 
 gurated by a physical indulgence, the supper from the 
 pascal lamb, as it was to commemorate a physical deli- 
 verance. Worldly considerations were thus as it were 
 introduced with the special concurrence of God ; and 
 when we reflect how these considerations at all times pre- 
 vail with men, how, in the process of ages, ideas and the 
 exponents of ideas become modified or altogether changed, 
 we shall scarcely be sm^prised that means were adopted to 
 prevent tliis, the first ceremonial institution of Mosaism, 
 from degenerating into mere ^vorldliness. We know too, 
 from the pages of Holy Writ, that birthdays were cele- 
 brated as periods of rejoicing, and we can imagine that 
 debauchery, or something akin to it, was the prevailing 
 feature in the regal banquets of those barbaric days. But 
 surely if any birthday was to be a recognised period for 
 indulgence, that birthday of all others was to be so recog- 
 nised which introduced, not an individual, but a nation, 
 into the community of men. The Almighty himself 
 deigned to sanction this view, when he said in reference 
 to the Passover : " And ye shall rejoice on your festival." 
 Assuredly, also, if debauchery sullied the enjoyment of an 
 
108 THE LAW OF SINAI, 
 
 individual, carousing in the bosom of his family and in 
 the midst of his friends, it was still more likely to dese- 
 crate the pleasures of a whole nation, when no sober 
 neighbour could stand by to remonstrate or check, and 
 when collective licence was thus open to become universal 
 licentiousness. Still, this mere animal indulgence could 
 scarcely be permitted as exhibitory of man's feelings to- 
 wards Heaven ; religion could scarcely be the exciise for 
 sanctioning a departure from those laws of temperance and 
 propriety which are so essential to social welfare. Hence, 
 some precaution was necessary ; but it was to be of a 
 character alike to serve its end, without seeming to inter- 
 fere with the joy so legitimate on the occasion, and to be 
 impressed on the festival without any deviation from the 
 principles of free-will. And how admirably the wisdom 
 of Heaven operated in connection with the independence 
 of man. Although the Israelites knew the very moment 
 of their departure days before it arrived, although they 
 asked and obtained from their Egyptian neighbours tardy 
 payment for their long and unrequited years of servitude, 
 although they slew the pascal lamb and prepared there- 
 from the meal of rejoicing, although they had " their loins 
 girded, their staves in their hands and their sandals on 
 their feet," although they were aware that they were to 
 journey in the dead of night towards a barren wilderness, 
 (for so Moses had told Pharaoh,) and although it seemed 
 therefore imperative upon them to think of the coming 
 morrow, and of the food needful thereon, still, by one of 
 those oversights which we see in the best devised schemes 
 of man, and which when guilt becomes thereby developed, 
 we call providential, by an oversight the more remarkable 
 that there seemed no reason for it, tlie Israelites in pre- 
 paring their bread, the very prop of life, neglected to 
 leaveii it. And, therefore, throughout all coming ages 
 were the events of this " night to be observed," to be 
 celebrated exactly as they occurred, and ever in the cele- 
 
AXD ITS APPOINTED TIMES. 100 
 
 bration was this oversight to be remembered, and all 
 leaven was to be banished because unleavened bread had 
 been eaten when they departed from Egpyt. 
 
 But, in conformity with the principles enunciated in 
 these pages, and in the proving of which an attempt 
 has been made to show a significance for every divine 
 institution, it becomes necessary to attach a type to this 
 ceremonial observance ; even as to " the sinew which 
 shrank" a type was also connected. And this is the 
 more needful if we consider for a moment the true con- 
 nexion between ceremony and religion. Religion is the 
 tie which connects the spirit of man with the Eternal. 
 It is that sacred gift which raises man above himself, 
 which prepares his immortal soul for participation in a 
 future state by hallowing his existence in this world. 
 But man is composed of body and soul so intimately 
 associated that it is impossible to define where the powers 
 of either cease. So influenced too is the soul by the 
 senses, that the majority are rather ruled by the real than 
 swayed by the ideal. Hence, in connection with religion, 
 which in its purity is entirely spiritual, has always been 
 established a visible representative by which gTosser man 
 may be governed through the feelings most prominent in 
 his nature. This representative is of a twofold character ; 
 it addresses itself to the ears and to the eyes ; to the 
 former it is prayer, to the latter it is ceremony. And as 
 prayer may be said to be the translation of feelings into 
 language, the echo of the heart's gratitude or the spirit's 
 supplication, the joyful outpourings of thankfulness for 
 the past and the trembling entreaty of hope for the future; 
 so ceremony may be regarded as the pictorial representa- 
 tion of the feelings, as the expression by which the body 
 associates itself in the spirit's devotion, as the medium 
 through which the corporeal passes before it presumes to 
 prostrate itself to Heaven. Take away this character 
 from ceremony and it remains an empty form, alike de- 
 
110 THE LAW OF SINAI, 
 
 void of chastening influence or instructive lesson. And 
 shall we say that our holy religion, which is so calculated 
 to promote its end, has ceremonial rei)resentatives that 
 have no stronger hold on our affections than that given 
 hy their divine origin ? Shall we say that we have free- 
 will obeying mechanically, and reason shrinking from its 
 legitimate privilege of investigation? 'No, rather let us 
 obey because our volition shews us the wisdom of obedience, 
 let us convince reason, and thus call in its co-operation 
 to guide volition. 
 
 Leaven was forbidden on the Passover, specially in 
 bread and in liquids — in other foods it is comparatively 
 wanting. But what is leaven ? It is that oxygenating 
 principle which deprives dough of its insipidity, and 
 which gives to the innocent saccharine matter of fluids 
 an exciting alcoholic character. To restrain men there- 
 fore from leaven, was to leave them nothing that could 
 render the pleasures of the body at all corruptive. Solid 
 food was so little palatable as to j^all before it satisfied, 
 and liquids were harmless because deprived of their 
 power of intoxicating. With such a prohibition, one 
 not forced upon them but growing naturally from their 
 own proceedings, and therefore not repugnant to their 
 free-will, the Israelites might safely rejoice on their 
 national birthday, without degenerating into mere 
 animals. In that eastern land where nature seems to 
 require stimulants, these stimulants were all but removed. 
 Unable to pamper their appetites, their passions were 
 likely to lie dormant, and thus no propensity calculated 
 to interfere with rational enjoyment was awakened. 
 The prohibition of leaven therefore was not either 
 the result of accident, or a decree impressed on Judaism, 
 which it was bound blindly to obey, without giving to 
 obedience the merit of being voluntary and consonant 
 with reason. No, this prohibition had a far higher 
 significance. In it was involved the imi:)lied knowledg3 
 
AND ITS APPOINTED TIMES. Ill 
 
 of Heaven that "the imagination of man's heart is 
 evil from his youth," and, therefore, that it were wiser to 
 remove temptation than to excite forbearance. In it was 
 contained the recognised sanction of Heaven for those 
 animal pleasures which stoics affect to despise and 
 ascetics to consider sinful ; but with this sanction was 
 joined the precaution which compelled indulgence v/ithin 
 the limits of moderation, and which deprived appetite of 
 its power to injure, by removing from it all tainted 
 objects. The serpent whose virus might poison to the 
 death was rendered innocuous by the withdrawal of its 
 fangs. And thus, as in all other divine institutions, the 
 means is consistent mth the end — human happiness. 
 And thus, reason investigating in the true spirit of 
 faithfulness, learns to admire the Heavenly wisdom which 
 makes obedience conformable to free-will by showing its 
 value to the obedient. Thus, too, love for the eternal 
 Author of oiir revelation is engendered by the conviction, 
 so constantly proved, of his care for our salvation. And 
 ever therefore as the Israelite removes from his abode the 
 forbidden leaven, should he reflect that the mere removal 
 is of secondary importance as compared with the desire 
 thereby expressed, to be freed from the temptation to sin " 
 through enjoyment. He should reflect that the changing 
 of culinary and other domestic vessels, the careful search- 
 ing for any concealed leaven, the removal of all doubtful 
 articles of food, are only so many types of his wish to be 
 freed from the intoxication of pleasure, and thus he v,dll 
 learn the true meaning of the words, " remove the leaven 
 from thy heart," and thus really shall Judaism rejoice on 
 its festival. 
 
112 THE LAW OF SlI^AI, 
 
 EXODUS, CHAPTEE XIII. VEESE 17. 
 
 How abject is crime ! To what aberrations does it 
 lead ! How little real repentance does it engender ! 
 As the man running down some steep declivity tries in 
 vain to arrest his headlong progress, so he who precipi- 
 tates himself into the abyss of crime cannot stay till he 
 reaches its lowest depths. Momentum in matter is force 
 multiplied by velocity ; in evil it is power multiplied by 
 inclination ; and as, in matter, accelerated velocity aug- 
 ments force, so in evil, unrestrained power increases in- 
 clination. Yirtue, on the other hand, pursues a level 
 course ; if it is never hurried by the descent, it is never 
 impeded by the ascent. It is always consistent with 
 itself, violence is not needful to it ; its motion, uniform 
 as that of the pendulum, may be more monotonous, but it 
 is also more beneficial than that of crime. In evil, incli- 
 nation, like the suction of a vortex, hurries its victims 
 more rapidly in proportion as they approach its centre : 
 in virtue, inclination, like the fly-wheel of a steam-engine, 
 regulates and harmonizes, and produces results never 
 attainable but by precision. 
 
 Already, as we have said, Egypt lay fallen ; her glory 
 had passed away, and save the millions of her inhabitants, 
 nothing of her pride remained. Cattle, vegetation, house- 
 hold valuables of all sorts, had been taken from them, and 
 in the hour of their dread they had yielded a forced but 
 reluctant consent to the departure of their slaves. And 
 those slaves, guided by the visible presence of their 
 Almighty deliverer, marched to freedom, to enlighten- 
 ment. Too glad to see the gates of their prison-house 
 unbarred, they stayed not to inquire whether they went 
 perforce or by their own free-will. Liberty was in the 
 pillar of fire that glided before them, and its illumining 
 
AXD ITS APPOINTED TIMES. 113 
 
 beams dispelled all surrounding darkness. But here 
 again Heaven condescended to acknowledge the inde- 
 pendence of man by recording that the way of the 
 • Philistines was avoided, lest the Israelites, terrified by the 
 horrors of war, might desire to return to Egypt. 
 
 Memory is a blessing ; forgetfulness is no less a blessing, 
 especially w^hen it carries from before us the love for the 
 dead. How else should we bear the sad void wliich death 
 makes in our affections and in our homes 1 The cherished 
 pass from our midst, and grief sanctities the tears wliich 
 recollection gives to their memory ; time flies, the image 
 of the departed becomes more and more faint on the tab- 
 lets of the mind, and at last oblivion throws the veil of 
 forgetfulness over the fading impression. It continues to 
 exist, but the outline is softened, and we can regard it 
 with that melancholy satisfaction, which bows to the fiat 
 — "whatever is, is right." But these feelings prevail 
 not with the wicked. Thinking not of God or of 
 Heaven, or they would not sin, death comes to them 
 like the avalanche to the mountain pine, riving asunder 
 at once all ties. Aroused by the sudden catastrophe, 
 which awakens fear and not reflection, they rather strive 
 to flee from what may prove personal danger, than to. 
 avoid the conduct which may have provoked the blow. 
 Remorse awakens no contrition of soul, and the me- 
 mory of the dead is removed with the fear which passes 
 away with them into their unhallowed grave. If this 
 were not so, how could Pharaoh still have been obdurate 
 of heart ? Had not horror on horror but just scared 
 every thing but thoughts of self-preservation from his 
 mind ? And yet, scarcely had Israel departed, scarcely 
 had the livid corses of his firstborn been borne from his 
 sight, before he was again thirsty for gain, again deter- 
 mined at all hazards to retake the prey just wi-ested from 
 his iron grasp. Nor were those about him less anxious ; 
 worthy servants of theii- tyi^ant master, they seem to have 
 
114 THE LAW OF SINAT, 
 
 been tlie willing ministers of his caprice, and to have 
 fostered his evil intentions with evil designs of their own. 
 And so, all that remained of the pride of Egypt was 
 aroused to defend what it called its right. And one of 
 those mighty armaments in which eastern pride seemed to 
 delight, " even all the chariots and horsemen of Pharaoh," 
 rolled over the track of the apparently defenceless Israel- 
 ites. Brave soldiers ! who saw an easy conquest in an 
 unresisting foe. Skilful leader ! who perceived no hope 
 of his enemy's escape, entangled as that enemy was, be- 
 tween the wilderness, the sea, and his own host. And 
 already Israel's murmurs echo from the coral rocks that 
 border the Hed Sea ; already gratitude for the late 
 redemption is absorbed in fears for impending danger. 
 What, though the elements, obedient to the Avord of their 
 divine Creator, had spoken in thunder the dread vengeance 
 of the Eternal, could the sea depart from its nature 1 
 But straight as an arrow in its flight, unerring as the 
 needle to the pole, proceeds the miraculous, guiding j)illar 
 over the waters that bp.rred the Israelites' progress. The 
 hand of Moses points liis wand in the same direction, and, 
 wonder on wonders, the surging waves, ever restless, ever 
 tossing, lose their incoherence, and stand up like walls in 
 the midst of the surrounding depths. God said, and it 
 was j and into the congealed billows went the hundreds of 
 thousands of Israel, and after them, undeterred by this 
 culminating miracle, and still blinded by their selfish 
 thirst for vengeance, rolled the dread tide of Egyptian 
 power. But there was a power aroused against the 
 Egyptian, that he might dare to brave, but Avhicli he 
 could not hope to subdue. " Thou didst blow with thy wind, 
 the sea covered them, they sank like lead in the mighty 
 waters ! " And thus, although two mighty hosts had 
 passed between the divided waters, but 07ie host departed 
 out of them ; over the other, again recalled to their 
 fluidity, roared the resistless waves of the mighty ocean. 
 
AND ITS APPOINTED TDIES. llo 
 
 "Well might the Israelites, a second time delivered, burst 
 forth into that magnificent song of praise which told alike 
 their gratitude, and the might of the Eternal : " Thy right 
 hand, O Lord, is glorious in power ; thy right hand, O 
 Lord, hath crushed the enemy." But although the billows 
 of the sea washed away the pride and panoply of Egypt, 
 the still more destructive flow of time can never wash away 
 the memory of that terrible acb of retribution. Among 
 the records of human frailty and human punishment, the 
 passage of the Red Sea holds still a solitary place. Alone 
 in its death-dealing grandeur, it declares to all time the 
 inevitable fete of the tp-ant and oppressor. It pronounces 
 as the decree of Heaven, that even though nature seems 
 to oppose liberty, its opposition is antagonistic to the laws 
 of Providence, and that in the promotion of the sacred 
 claims of men to be free, when all other means fail, even 
 God may deign to interfere. And ever, as the year re- 
 volves, and the anniversary of this great day of the Lord 
 returns, do we, the descendants of those redeemed Israel- 
 ites, tell our childi'en and our children's children, for our 
 everlasting memorial : " Thus did the Eternal to me when 
 I went out of Egy[3t." 
 
 The army of the Lord journeyed on, and the two-* 
 peaked Sinai loomed in the distance across the treeless 
 prairie of Northern Arabia. Delivered to be the source 
 of mental and spiritual regeneration to the rest of man- 
 kind, already the goal whence their mission was to spring 
 rose on their vision. But temporal wants seem ever to 
 press most heavily on weak humanity. The Israelites 
 seeing no signs of cultivation, and fearing, desj^ite the 
 visible presence of their Omnipotent Deliverer, the 
 approach of famine, broke forth into murmurs at their 
 apparently helpless condition, and even uttered bitter 
 regrets that they had abandoned the servitude of Egypt 
 — where at least there had been plenty. But this Avant 
 of faith was kindly borne by God. He knew how 
 
1 1 6 THE LAW OF SINAI, 
 
 strongly flesli pleads with the erring body, and he silenced 
 the murmuring host by satisfying their hunger, and by 
 appealing again to the trustfulness which past redemption 
 seemed not yet fully to have awakened. On the dew- 
 covered earth, day after day, was Israel thenceforward to 
 find its daily bread, as the direct gift of Heaven. Not 
 that industry was to be abandoned through this supply of 
 unearned food ; for every man was to go, day by day, to 
 provide for the wants of himself and family. Greediness 
 was reproved by the decomposition of all that remained 
 beyond the day's supjoly, and faith was strengthened by 
 the fact that the sanctity of the Sabbath arrested the 
 decay which resulted from saving on any other day. 
 And thus practically did the Almighty prove the truth 
 of that blessing which he had pronounced on the Sabbath 
 at the period of the creation : — " Therefore the Lord 
 blessed the Sabbath day,*liaving made it holy." And 
 thus did Israel learn, that though labour is the lesson of 
 life, vain is toil if not countenanced by the approval of 
 God ; that though man is destined to eat his bread by the 
 sweat of his brow, he has still another vocation, for the 
 fulfilment of which he must allow that sweat to remain 
 buried within him, and trust for his bread to the blessing 
 of the Eternal ; that though industry is the antiseptic 
 to preserve the moral and physical conformation, it must 
 not be exercised only on behalf of the body, because 
 corporeal wants press most sensibly, but it must also be 
 evoked for the spirit as the means of connecting the soul 
 more closely with heaven, even though the need of the 
 spirit seem less because it is invisible. 
 
 Again is the patience of the Eternal tried by mur- 
 murings for water, again does Divine mercy bear with 
 dissatisfied ingratitude, and the crystal flood is poured 
 from the bosom of the flinty rock. How the reflective 
 heart saddens at the continued recital of these new proofs 
 of human weakness and of Eternal goodness I One might 
 
AND ITS APPOINTED TIMES. 1 ] T 
 
 ■wish, as the liighest state of happiness that this workl 
 ever afforded, to have formed one of that Heaven-led host ; 
 to have been guided day and night by the visible presence 
 of the Invisible, to have been fed by the undeniable gift 
 of the Omnipotent, to have slaked one's thirst at the fount 
 which flowed only at the word of the Omniscient ; to 
 have known that the redemption of the body, signal as it 
 had been, was but anticipatory to a deliverance still more 
 glorious — the deliverance of the mind from ignoiTince, of 
 the soul from darkness, of the spirit from intolerance and 
 superstition. One might wish, as the most cherished boon 
 that God could confer, to be the living witness of existence 
 so miraculous, to be possessed of powers to appreciate the 
 favours conferred, and of free-will that one might 
 voluntarily pour out one's soul in gratitude and praise. 
 But alas ! such has been and such is the tendency of man 
 to forget the past in the present, that we lose the magni- 
 tude of the sin in the frequency of its occurrence. 
 
 " And Amalek came and fought against Israel at Re- 
 phidim." Tliis simple record seems, at first sight, scarcely 
 to warrant the announcement coupled with it, that the 
 Eternal vowed to have perpetual war with the Amale- 
 kites and to blot out their name from the book of nations. 
 But a little reflection will show that Divine justice is as 
 consistent with mercy here as in all other visible heavenly 
 interpositions. Israel, encumbered with baggage and 
 oaded with gifts of the Egyptians, surrounded by helpless 
 women and tender children, inexperienced in the arts of 
 war, and probably, for the most part, unarmed — Israel, in 
 this helpless condition, seemed to afford a fair mark for 
 that love of plunder so common in the nomad tribes of 
 those days. One might expect that some distant band of 
 marauders, whom the report of what had happened in 
 Egypt had not reached, and who had no personal connec- 
 tion with the Israelites, might, perhaps, avail themselves 
 of the opportunity for robbery so fortunately presented. 
 
•] 18 THE LAW OF SIN AT, 
 
 But tliat a tribe on the very borders of the Red Sea, who 
 were doubtless acquainted with the miraculous deliver- 
 ance and with the preceding wonders, a tribe descended 
 from the same source as the Israelites (Amalek was the 
 grandson of Esau), and therefore, of necessity, aware of 
 the vocation for which Israel was now destined, a tribe 
 by consanguinity bound rather to defend than to molest 
 Israel — that this tribe should violate every principle of 
 fraternal affection, and should, by its act, set itself in 
 direct opposition to the declared will of Heaven, was, as it 
 were, not only to hurl defiance at God, as Pharaoh had 
 done, but to add the gratuitous crime of fratricide to 
 rebellion. If therefore Egypt, a nation of strangers, 
 bound to Israel by no ties but gratitude and hospitality, 
 if Egypt suffered all but annihilation, surely utter ex- 
 tinction was not too great a punishment for Amalek, who 
 intensified the deeds of Egypt by the unnatural addition 
 of brotherly hatred. One would not have been surprised 
 if the Eternal, in vindication of his majesty, had destroyed 
 them even as he had exterminated the host of Pharaoh. 
 If he reserved for them another vengeance it w^as perhaps 
 that their humiliation might be perfect. When we con- 
 template the fate of Pharaoh, we pity his misguided 
 nature, his obdurate heart, and we shudder as we learn 
 his final prostration ; but at least we do not despise. 
 How widely different is the feeling we entertain for the 
 fate of Amalek ! While we recognise the Divine mercy 
 that aided the Israelites to defeat their foe, we recognise 
 also that this mercy was displayed not directly as at the 
 Red Sea, but through human agency. Amalek therefore 
 presents the sad spectacle of villainy caught in its own 
 trap, of violence suffering from its own lawlessness, of 
 armed ruffianism overcome by unarmed helplessness ; and 
 while we pity the effusion of human blood and the ne- 
 cessity which gave cause for Divine judgment, we despise 
 the cowards who had not the courage to carry out what 
 
AND ITS APPOINTED TIMES. 
 
 they had dared to plan, and we contemn tlie boasted skill 
 which suffered ignominy so signal at the hands of inex- 
 perienced recruits. 
 
 EXODUS, CHAPTEE XYIII. 
 
 True liberty consists best in doing what every one 
 else likes. The licence of acting according to the will 
 of the agent, is only another name for caprice or tyranny. 
 In those states, therefore, which are recognised as most 
 free, there generally exists some standard by which men 
 iearn to estimate the will of their fellow-men, and to 
 which, when they are honest, they lend a ready and 
 willing obedience. This standard is called law. It is 
 the majesty which presides over the mass ; and whether 
 a nation be monarchical or republican, it has in reality 
 but one supreme ruler, and that is law. Such however 
 are men, that it is as necessary to coerce some wdthin 
 prescribed limits, as it is needless to attempt arresting 
 others from overstepping those limits. Hence law 
 becomes enlarged ; it not only defines how far the indivi- 
 dual may go without doing violence to the multitude, 
 but it assigns the penalty attached to infringement. But 
 this penalty is not the necessary consequence of bad 
 deeds ; it is rather the atonement which society demands 
 as a balm for the wound inflicted by the evil-doer. As 
 society varies, this atonement varies ; hence all codes of 
 law which deal with social wrongs and their prevention 
 are as mutable as the circumstances out of which they 
 grow. The enactment of one age becomes the ridicule 
 or shame of the next. Who would now dream of ]3rick- 
 ing for witches ? 
 
 It is different with that code of laws which deals, not 
 with the social effects of wrong, but with its inherent 
 moral effects. We have before attempted to prove these 
 
 & 
 
120 THE LAW OF SIXAI, 
 
 inlierent effects to be as eternal as the other more 
 recognised principles impressed on creation. As season 
 succeeds season with unerring regularity, as element 
 attracts element with undeviating elective affinity, as 
 matter is developed, progresses towards maturity, pro- 
 ceeds to decay and returns through decomposition to 
 constitute new organisations, according to fixed laws, 
 so, we assert, do moral wrongs lead to definite and sys- 
 tematic moral combinations, as inalienable as physical 
 combinations, only not so evident, because not always 
 visible. Hence the gi-eat moral code, the Decalogue, 
 remains eternal. Designed to deal with permanent 
 effects, it is pe^rmanent in its characteristics ; and while 
 time washes away in its current the traces of those tran- 
 sient legislations destined to meet transitory circumstances, 
 it passes harmless over the laws of Sinai as above and 
 beyond its destructive influence. 
 
 And these considerations become more convincing when 
 we remember the important end of law above alluded 
 to, viz., the punishment of crime with a view to its pre- 
 vention. So long as this punishment depends for its 
 execution on men, so long it does not interfere with our 
 volition. Man proposes but he cannot always act. 
 Guilt may screen itself by chicanery, or it may withdraw 
 fi'om the penalty it has deserved by flight ; vengeance, 
 purely human, may defeat its own object by the heat of 
 its attack, or it may yield to the softer jDleadings of mercy. 
 Numerous, therefore, are the violations of law which the 
 law never reaches ; and even when ifc does overtake them, 
 while it exercises coercive functions over personal liberty 
 of action, it leaves thought and all the spiritual part of 
 the criminal entirely free. How different would be the 
 case with the laws of God if they too exacted punishment ! 
 Here volition would at once cease. If the Omniscient 
 designed actively to chastise an infringement on his code, 
 the evil-doer would be immediately deprived of his free- 
 
AND ITS APPOINTED TIMES. 121 
 
 v.-i\]. C'-'iitrolled by a power which he could not resist, 
 detected by a wisdom which he could not deceive, pursued 
 by a vengeance from which the supreme dignity of justice 
 would take away all rancour, escape from consequences 
 would be impossible, and responsibility under those con- 
 sequences would be utterly lost. While under human 
 punishment, the great remedy for evil, repentance, is 
 always within the hands of the guilty; under Divine 
 punishment, similarly exercised, repentance would lose 
 all its value, because it would be deprived of its voluntary 
 sincerity. But this would be contrary to the express 
 design of man's creation, and would at once degrade his 
 reason below instinct. Hence, v/hile the Sinaitic laws are 
 eternal, because they refer to eternal principles, they 
 differ from human laws in being altogether free from the 
 characteristic of vengeance. 
 
 Our ancestors, frequently as they murmured, often as 
 they tempted Providence, were at least worthy of imita- 
 tion in their manner of receiving these commandments. 
 Satisfied with the infallible wisdom from which the laws 
 were to emanate, conscious of the all-seeing eye which not 
 only beheld the very thoughts of living men, but reviewed 
 the imaginations of all coming ages, reliant on the mercy 
 which through creation had done so much for mankind 
 and through redemption so much for them, the Israelites 
 were content beforehand to give their implicit faith to 
 the Divine mandates. " We will do ; we will under- 
 stand," was their expression to Moses ; it was approved 
 by God, and it was a lesson too salutary not to be follow- 
 ed. Because, as we have before observed, blind obedience 
 is generally the result of early teaching or of ignorant 
 imitativeness ; it may arise from faith, but it is faith of 
 so undignified a character that it scarcely rises above 
 superstition. On the other hand, the faith which is based 
 on reason, acquires all the majesty of self-sacrifice and all 
 the beauty of devotion ; it is unshakable because it is not 
 
 G 
 
122 THE LAW OF SINAI, 
 
 capricious, it is unerring because it is founded on principle. 
 True, faith, as our ancestors taught us, must precede 
 reason, but true also that reason must follow faith. Faith 
 without reason is like those golden fruits which are tempt- 
 ing to the eye but are rotten at the core. E^eason without 
 faith would resemble that motion into eternal space which 
 depended on projection without attraction ; it would be 
 aimless and endless. Reason and faith conjoined form 
 that lovely combination which resembles the pure mind in 
 the pure body ; the inner life is as unsullied as the out- 
 ward frame is consistent with harmony. 
 
 Regarded from the point of view here determined, the 
 Ten Commandments naturally divide themselves under 
 the following heads : The first is simply a declaration. 
 The second, third, and fourth, are admonitory, and regard 
 the peculiarities which were thenceforward to distinguish 
 God-worship from idolatry. The fifth is purely domestic, 
 hallowing home ties by associating them with Heaven. 
 The remaining five are social, sanctifying temporal relations 
 by referring them to spiritual ends. 
 
 The prominence given to the first or (declaratory com- 
 mandment, is the definition given by a benevolent Divinity 
 of the terms on which he proposes to rule mankind. 
 Power is of two kinds ; it arises either from voluntary or 
 from forced submission. In the former case it is the rule 
 of love, in the latter of fear. The rule of love is based 
 on admiration or reverence for the qualities of the ruler, 
 and on gratitude for personal favours on the p^irt of the 
 ruled. There needs no proof to show that while fear may 
 inspire a forced and temporary respect, love alone can 
 command a sincere and permanent regard. Can we won- 
 der then that a beneficent Providence should decide to 
 secure the affection of his people. Already, he had evoked 
 their respect by the condescension with which he had 
 vouchsafed to treat with them ; already, he had excited 
 their admiration by his miraculous works, and their reve- 
 
AND ITS APPOINTED TIMES. 123 
 
 reuce by his tremendous power ; he now appeals to their 
 gratitude for the signal serAace he has done on their behalf. 
 The first command therefore, while assuming the form of 
 a declaration only, becomes doubly obligatory, because it 
 leaves our obedience voluntary, and thereby depends on 
 the nobler part of our nature. The homage which love 
 lays OD the altar of its divinity is that " sweet savour," so 
 delightful to the Eternal. The tribute with which fear 
 crouches before the king of its terrors, is the forced sacri- 
 fice of a Cain, and is not accei^ted. The dependence of 
 Israel on the Kock of their Salvation is to be pleasurable 
 to the dependants because of its consouance with their 
 gi-atitude, their love, and their reverence ; it is to be plea- 
 sant to their Eternal Ruler, because it is the free aspira- 
 tion of the mortal spirit to deserve the approval of the 
 All- wise. Fear degrades cowards into slaves ; love raises 
 worshippers to imitate the object of their adoration. 
 Israel therefore preserves the religion of love, and Heaven, 
 having expressed its desire for such a religion in the first 
 command, ratifies it in a subsequent behest : " Ye shall 
 be holy, for I,' the Eternal, thy God, am holy." 
 
 In considering the second group of the commandments, 
 we must not forget that what was called religion already 
 existed in the world : nor can we overlook the fact that 
 the Israelites, to a certain extent, must have imbibed the 
 notions, and become habituated to the circumstances, of 
 surrounding people. It is true that what was called religion 
 was a prostitution of that sacred word, but it is neverthe- 
 less equally true that the Eternal availed himself of much 
 of that religion in the formation of Judaism. For he 
 knew that nature abhors convulsions, and he preferred to 
 sanctify what already was, to originating something alto- 
 gether new. The practice therefore was often permitted 
 to remain,* the principle only was elevated and hallowed. 
 Worship prevailed, but it was idolatry; worship was 
 * E. g., sacrifices, tithes, &c. 
 
124 THE LAW OF SINAI, 
 
 allowed to remain, but it was to be devoted only to God. 
 Men were in the habit of setting up images of their own 
 creation ; tangible, material evidences alike of the degra- 
 dation of the worshippers and the nothingness of the 
 worshipped. This was to be prevented. The true end 
 of religion is to elevate and purify, not to debase and 
 corrupt ; hence, the second command is directed especially 
 to destroy all that coidd tend to depreciate God in the 
 eyes of man, or man in the sight of God. And this is 
 evidenced most strongly in the generally misunderstood 
 words, " visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the chil- 
 dren ; " and from which it would at first seem that an 
 important principle of justice was to be violated. For, 
 what could be more unjust than that an innocent and 
 perhaps even worthy child should suffer for guilt not its 
 own, which it had no influence to prevent, and in which 
 it never participated 1 When we recollect, however, that 
 Providence has deigned to exclude vengeance from these 
 commands, and when we bear in mind the particular 
 injunction with which these words are connected, we shall 
 at once see their true bearing to be the one above laid 
 down. Of all crimes, idolatry is that which degrades men 
 most ; for, what can be more inconsistent with the dignity 
 of reason or the pride of intellect than to see the lord of 
 creation, formed in the image of the Eternal, prostrating 
 his high powers before an inert mass of senseless matter "? 
 For any human being to be so debased implies an amount 
 of ignorance so great as to be scarcely conceivable. Ido- 
 latry may be defined tlien, as the perversion of the first 
 }>rinciples of man's creation. That men should be steeped 
 in such slough, who have never been taught better know- 
 ledge, is a cause for pity ; that men who have learned to 
 appreciate the true God should turn to such vitiating 
 courses, can only give rise to contempt and scorn. But 
 such is the depravity of idolatrous worship, so fatal are its 
 effects on all that is noble in nature, so pernicious is its 
 
AND ITS APPOINTED TIMES. 125 
 
 baneful embrace, that it even deprives its votaries of the 
 last remnant of virtuous recollection — shame. What 
 therefore is more in conformity with the other acts of 
 Heaven towards Israel, than that it should point out, in 
 connection with idolatry, the effects which man will entail 
 on himself and his descendants by plunging into an abyss 
 so yawning that it will engulf not only him but them ? 
 Shame being absent, the idolator would neither be con- 
 scious of his degradation, nor willing that his children 
 should, by different conduct, be a tacit reproach to him. 
 He will thus entail on them, by improper example and 
 still worse cultivation, the guilt in which he is wallowing ; 
 and in the case of Israel, destined by the teachings of 
 parents to children to enlighten the world, this would 
 indeed be a direct perversion of the will of Heaven. 
 Hence, the design of the words above quoted is evidently 
 to point out the necessary result of a vicious course, not 
 through any direct interference of God, but as an inevi- 
 table consequence of human perversity. 
 
 The sanctity of God's holy name, and the holiness of 
 the Sabbath, the former not to be sullied by association 
 with mere worldly concerns, the latter to be consecrated 
 for the soul as distinguished from the body, also grow 
 naturally from the antecedents by which Israel had been 
 surrounded. Idolatry being so purely sensual and ma- 
 terial, the idol, a tangible or visible object, becomes a 
 part of every-day life, and is connected with it by constant 
 presence. There were few houses without their household 
 go Is. The idol, too, being no check on the grosser, and 
 therefore meaner, appetites of its votaries, these, having 
 it always before them, saw no reason for withdrawing its 
 worship from the worldly concerns of which it formed a 
 part. The constant naming of the idol, its implied presi- 
 dence over domestic and public business, its admitted 
 patronage over health, births, deaths, and even appetites, 
 and the continued care for worldly matters, were therefore 
 
126 THE LAW OF SINAI, 
 
 common to idolatry. In God- worship these evils were to 
 be avoided. The Invisible was not to lose respect through 
 familiarity. High in the mystery of his spirituality, 
 " abiding in the secret place of the Most High," his very 
 name was to have no portion of earthly contact. It was 
 not to become in Israel's mouth a household word. Nay, 
 more, so sacred was it to be considered, that even its very 
 sound was altogether prohibited, (save to the high priest 
 on Kippur,) and another term was substituted. 
 
 The institution of the Sabbath was something entirely 
 new. It was associated with the works of creation, and 
 thereby became in its observance a type of man's gratitude 
 for the mercy then evinced on man's behalf It was asso- 
 ciated with the deliverance from Egypt, and thereby was 
 made a special type of Israel's gratitude. But its chief 
 importance was derived from the implied permission of 
 Heaven, that man might devote his energies to the 
 prosperity of his worldly matters, and that he was called 
 on to give only a small portion of leisure to the source 
 whence his blessings flowed. And in this is it that the 
 Sabbath appeals to our voluntary obedience. The reflec- 
 tive mind is well aware of the necessity for salient points 
 for observation. The vast expanse of space, nought but 
 sea and air, grand as is its immensity, falls like a blank 
 on the retina because of its entire sameness. The long 
 career of time would present a like void but for some 
 recognised epochs that stand out in bold relief on its 
 passage. What some flying albatross or scudding ship is 
 on the ocean, what some dark or bright spot is on the 
 page of time, the blessed Sabbath is to the religious mind 
 — its resting-place. Without the Sabbath, our whole 
 existence would be one headlong race after the meaner 
 things of life ; with it, we give to the soul constant 
 opportunities for soaring to the heights of Heaven, and 
 we purify the body by the flight. What the threshold is 
 to the temple the Sabbath is to Judaism, the step leading 
 
AND ITS APPOINTED TIMES. 127 
 
 to the inner sanctuary ; and hence it is that in all ages, 
 and under all circumstances, the Jewish religionist has 
 called for the observance of the Sabbath as the firet pledge 
 for the observance of other institutions. 
 
 The fifth commandment which sanctifies, by divine 
 association, the earthly love that blesses home, is of addi- 
 tional importance as connected with Israel's peculiar 
 vocation. " And thou shalt teach diligently to thy chil- 
 dren," is the behest by which the Jew holds his life interest 
 in Judaism. What he received from his ancestors he is 
 bound to transmit to his posterity, and the best security 
 for the faithful discharge of this duty is that it should be 
 based on love. To honour a parent is to receive his 
 instructions with, favour and to obey them with a free 
 heart, and therefore is it that, in caring for the future 
 spiritual welfare of his people, the Almighty adopted this 
 natural means for effecting a desired end. 
 
 It is not needful to expatiate on the remaining five 
 commandments. Their importance has been testified by 
 their universal adoption among civilized nations. It may 
 be observed, however, that while human laws of necessity 
 coutent themselves with keeping men honest, because men 
 can deal only with acts, the Divine legislation insists also 
 that men be honourable, because God can deal with their 
 thoughts. Hence is it that the last two commands are 
 peculiar to the Mosaic revelation ; their observance is 
 purely of the mind, and no human legislator could 
 presume to tread on that sacred ground, except by the 
 right of might which tyranny assumes under the name of 
 consistency, but which men condemn as intolerance, 
 bigotry, or persecution. 
 
128 THE LAW OF SINAI, 
 
 EXODUS: CHAPTEE XXI. 
 As man is composed of two essentially different parts, 
 soul and body, so his duties are divided to correspond 
 with these parts. His duties to Heaven belong to his 
 soul ; his duties to man relate to his body. Nor is the 
 connection between the immortal and the mortal more 
 close than the union of these two sets of duties ; it is 
 scarcely possible, in all cases, to define where the limits 
 of either extend. But there is also as much difference 
 between man's duty to Heaven and that to man, as there 
 is between his perishable body and his imperishable soul. 
 The body is material ; it is determinable by the senses ; 
 it is amenable to control, coercion, or confinement ; it 
 may he debased by external contact, or vitiated by internal 
 influences; it is lord of nothing but its strength, and in 
 this it does not excel meaner animals. The soul is 
 immaterial ; it is known to the senses only by its effects ; 
 it is not amenable to control, nor is it susceptible of con- 
 finement ; like its Divine origin it fills all space, and is 
 lord of creation only because it is His image. The duties 
 of the soul have no real existence in deed ; we understand 
 them only through their effects, or the types by which 
 they are represented. Love for God is a duty of the soul ; 
 charity, justice, and pious resignation are some of its types. 
 The duties of the body are visible and tangible ; they 
 belong to matter, and are, like it, subject to certain definite 
 laws. In the Ten Commandments may be found the 
 origin of all the duties of the soul ; in the "judgments" 
 of this portion may be traced the principal of the duties 
 of the body. The former belong to Heaven, and, as we 
 have shown, no penalty is attached to infringement of 
 them ; the latter belong to earth, and are, therefore, penal 
 as well as restrictive. 
 
A\D ITS APPOINTED TIMES. 129 
 
 In considering tlie nature of the judgments, or social 
 statutes, of Israel, we are again struck by the adaptation 
 of surrounding customs to Divine institutions. The cir- 
 cumstances hy which the nations of those days were 
 influenced, and among which Israel had grown to be a 
 people, are clearly traceable. But it was not the design 
 of God in separating Israel from other nations to isolate 
 it in any respect but one ; its religion. In all other 
 respects, Israel was to remain a member of the great 
 human family ; subject to the same natural principles. 
 This is clearly proved by two enactments promulgated by 
 Moses ; the one having reference to polygamy, the other 
 to slavery. Polygamy still exists in the East ; it is the 
 legitimate means for ministering to a great natural want, 
 under circumstances which it is better to tolerate by law 
 than to render intolerable by prohibition. In the East, 
 woman fades at an early period of life : developed at 
 eleven or twelve years old, she is aged at twenty-five. 
 Men are not so ; they flourish and are vigorous as long 
 as Europeans. To condemn a man, therefore, to the 
 society of one wife, who should cease to attract many 
 years before her husband ceased to want attraction, in 
 whose physique love should exist only as a memory, 
 while passion still glowed with unabated fervour in the 
 bosom of her husband, would be to tempt rather than to 
 chasten. Nature has implanted in the human heart 
 feelings which must exist, because they are natural. To 
 control these feelings within legitimate limits, is virtue : 
 to repress them altogether, is called asceticism, but is 
 utterly hypocritical, because impossible : to allow them 
 unlicensed sway is a vice or a barbarism. The laws of 
 Moses dealt with nature with a view to virtue ; hence 
 polygamy was permitted, because it was more consonant 
 with morality than either of the other extremes above 
 mentioned. For the same reason, polygamy has ceased to 
 be a custom of modern Judaism j because, in Europe, 
 
 G 2 
 
130 THE LAW OF SINAI, 
 
 where distinction of sex produces no diversity of tempera- 
 ment, the freshness of youth is of as long duration in 
 woman as in man ; she does not cease to attract till age 
 has also sobered the partner of her early beauty. Here, 
 therefore, polygamy would be unnecessary, because not in 
 accordance with natural law ; and here, therefore, an 
 apparent infringement on the Sinaitic code is permitted, 
 only because in social requirements Israelites are in 
 nowise to be distinguished from the nations among which 
 they dwell. And it is the more necessary that this fact 
 should be noticed because it has often been asserted that 
 Jews have nothing in common with tlieir neighbours of 
 other creeds. In reality, however, Jews have nothing in 
 contradistinction to their neighbours, except their spirit- 
 ual belief and its types, which, belonging exclusively to 
 the duties of the soul, are all heavenly, and have, there- 
 fore, no connection whatever with earth or its combina- 
 tions, social, moral, or political. 
 
 Slavery was another custom of the times of Moses. It 
 was primarily of political origin, and was destined to 
 supply males to the labour market, and the necessary 
 superfluity of females to the matrimonial state. But as 
 we have before shown, slavery, how politic soever in 
 theory, is antagonistic to natural law in fact, and hence 
 is opposed to civilisation and to morality. Slavery, there- 
 fore, is modified in the Mosaic code, and becomes only 
 servitude. Six years was to be the ordinary extent of a 
 man's service ; in extraordinary cases — that is, when 
 lengthened at the express desire of the servant — it might 
 extend to forty-nine years ; but beyond this it was alto- 
 gether impossible. Hereditary bondage, that chain which 
 fetters the future in eternal degradation, was utterly pro- 
 hibited ; and so desirable was it deemed that man should 
 aspire to be his own master rather than the servant of 
 another, so strongly was the love of li^Dcrty sought to be 
 impressed, that the bondman who elected to wear the 
 
AND ITS APPOINTED TIMES. 131 
 
 cliains of an easy servitude rather than seek the preca- 
 rious chance of free industry, was publicly degraded by 
 the voluntary act of his submission, and, with ear bo^-ed, 
 became a marked man. But if caution was exercised to 
 guard against male slavery, it was still more needful to 
 guard against female slavery. To sell a female into servi- 
 tude was only for one purpose ; she was to minister, by 
 illegitimate means, to the lawless passions of a master 
 whose wealth enabled him to indulge. But this would 
 have been, among Hebrews, opposed to the principles on 
 which polygamy was founded, and would have been to 
 sanction vice rather than to promote virtue. The He- 
 brew maiden, therefore, was to escape this degi^adation. 
 She might be sold, but there was to be no evasion of the 
 purpose of the sale, no' subterfuge as to the intention of 
 the bargain. She was to be the wife of the man whose 
 property she became, and was to be treated in every 
 respect as such. She lost not caste, she was not debased 
 in her own eyes ; custom sanctioned the peculiarity under 
 which her matrimonial engagement was contracted, and 
 if she gave place to some more attractive novelty in the 
 eyes of her sensual husband, she was at least not to be 
 thrown aside as useless or abandoned, but was still the 
 wife and not the slave. 
 
 Of the other "judgments" few deserve especial com- 
 ment. Their value has been recognised by their universal 
 adoption among civilized nations. They inculcate honesty, 
 charity, honour of purpose, consideration for the failings 
 of others, and forbearance. They teach the sinfulness of 
 hatred and the beauty of philanthropy. They not only 
 recognise affection for a brother Hebrew, but they com- 
 mand respect to strangers. They claim active pity for 
 the widow and the orphan, and they forbid oppression to 
 the unfortunate and the debtor. They inspire veneration 
 for God, and they ordain respect for earthly princes. . 
 They impress the necessity for even-handed justice ; jus- 
 
132 THE LAW OF SINAI, 
 
 tice wliich does "not follow tlie many for evil" (tlie 
 weakness of the head), and which does " not countenance 
 the indigent in his quarrel " (the weakness of the heart) ; 
 justice which is beyond the reach of the rich, and which 
 no bribe can blind. They caution against envy, which is 
 ever dissatisfied with what it has ; and against covetous- 
 ness, which ever grasps at what it has not. In short, a 
 careful and conscientious observance of the handful of 
 precepts here laid down would supersede the necessity 
 for those voluminous legislations which complicate mat- 
 ters without always applying a remedy. 
 
 " jChou shalt not suflfer a witch to live," is a peculiar 
 command, and implies so strongly the independence per- 
 mitted by Heaven to man's volition that it claims a short 
 notice. At first sight, this command appears superfluous, 
 and even contradictory ; superfluous, because believers in 
 God could never tolerate witchcraft ; contradictory, because 
 it seems as though God recognised that there really could 
 be witches. But a little consideration will show that this 
 conclusion is erroneous. Witchcraft is the mystery by 
 which knavery practises on weakness. It is a species of 
 idolatrous rite, attractive because of its pretended power 
 over the unknown future. It was a common thing among 
 the nations from which Israel had come ; the wise men of 
 Egypt were only performers of witchcraft ; the wizards of 
 Canaan were no better. Although men may to a certain 
 extent believe in Providence, they will still scarcely deny 
 that a knowledge of futurity may exist, and a few 
 fortunate coincidences may strengthen their conviction. 
 But if there is one blessing greater than another attached 
 to mortality, it is that blindness to the future which leaves 
 us masters of our careers, and which gives us every incen- 
 tive to active perseverance by holding out hope as our 
 eternal beacon. If any possession could render man 
 unhappy, it would be the knowledge of his coming destiny. 
 Say this were to be good, he would lose all chance of 
 
AND ITS APPOINTED TIMES. 133 
 
 deserving it by at once desisting from exertions which 
 could produce no end better than that ordained. Say it 
 were to be bad, he would cease to struggle against the 
 inevitable, and would suffer himself to be drawn unresist- 
 ingly down the vortex of misery. Thus, all that honour- 
 able rivalry which distinguishes man from man, all that 
 aspiring spirit which prompts to high daring for high 
 renown, all that greatness of heart which leads to philan- 
 tliropy, all that grandeur of intellect which achieves the 
 investigation of the occult laws of science, all, in short, 
 that renders life what it is, would be lost from the world. 
 As the oracles and pretended predictions of old led to their 
 own fulfilment through the ignorance and credulity of the 
 mass, so prescience in man would at once paralyze his 
 system, and reduce him to an inane mass of matter. This 
 it was which induced the Divine Legislator to pronounce 
 death against a witch. ISTot because a witch deserved 
 death for daring, in his volition, to pretend to that which 
 God had denied to man ; not that death was to be the 
 penalty for his imposition as a simple social deceit practised 
 upon the unwary, but because the act of witchcraft produced 
 in its believers that moral death which terminates all the 
 functions of moral free agency, and was thus as fatal in 
 its effects as a physical act of violence which deprived 
 society of a member. 
 
 Now that knowledge has reduced agriculture to a 
 science, man is enabled to reap the fulness of the earth 
 without cessation. The system of assoilments, or the 
 alternation of crops, the restoration by chemical means of 
 the elements of which vegetation has deprived the land, 
 improved cultivation and drainage, are adjuncts which 
 modern discoveries have given to man to render him 
 more capable of supplying by increasing harvests the 
 increasing millions which cover the globe. Commerce, 
 too, so much more profitable than agi'iculture, manufac- 
 tures, so necessary to commerce, and therefore so exten- 
 
134 THE LAW OF SINAI, 
 
 sively carried on, subtract thousands both of acres and 
 of hands from farming, and thus render it the more 
 imperative that the few cultivators should be able to 
 raise enough to maintain not only themselves but those 
 engaged in commerce and manufactures. But in Ca- 
 naan, the case was altogether different. There, the peo- 
 ple were entirely agricultural ; each family lived on the 
 produce of its own land, and as within certain limits 
 this land was inalienable, there was less need of aug- 
 mentation of soil being commensurate with family 
 enlargement. There, too, civilisation was only in its 
 dawn, knowledge had not investigated the fields of 
 science, and the earth, being in no way renovated, was 
 impoverished by its own fertility. It was necessary, 
 therefore, to guard against this latter contingency, and 
 to prevent men from destroying their resources through 
 ignorance. This was effected in a wa}^ consonant with 
 free will and with morality. Every seventh day had 
 been set apart for devotion, to withdraw man from too 
 incessant association with worldly matters, and to give 
 his soul a resting-place from which to wing its flight to 
 heaven. Every seventh year was now set apart for the 
 renovation of the soil, and in order that avarice might 
 have no excuse for violating a command so apparently 
 antagonistic, and yet so really necessary to its enjoyment, 
 charity, the sublimest of virtues, was made the vehicle 
 for ensuring obedience. The Israelites were not to be 
 instructed in secular knowledge by the Divine code ; 
 spiritual and moral knowledge was the end of the Mo- 
 saic dispensation ; for, while the cultivation of the mind 
 may be effected by human agency only, thus leaving 
 to man all the merit of the achievement, the cultivation 
 of the soul, depending as it does on truths which could 
 never be known but through revelation, can be effected 
 only by Divine interposition. Hence, in ordaining 
 the cessation of the seventh year, it was not withi^ 
 
AND ITS APPOINTED TIMES. 135 
 
 the scope of the Mosaic dispensation to assign scientific 
 reasons for its observance. Religious reasons were 
 enough, and what inducement more strong than the 
 doubly blessed virtue "which blesses him who gives 
 and him who receives ; " what proof more convincing of 
 sincerity of belief than the faith, which voluntarily sub- 
 mitted to the loss of a year's labour, and relied on Pro- 
 vidence to make the produce of the sixth year last 
 till the ninth. We shall be able to adduce additional 
 reasons in favour of this view when we discuss the in- 
 stitution of the Jewish festivals ; meanwhile it is suffi- 
 cient thus to show the completion of the chain by which 
 man is bound to Heaven. Sanctified by ordinations 
 that attached his soul to immortality (the Ten Com- 
 mandments) ; sanctified by judgments that rendered 
 his body not the independent agent of its own plea- 
 sures, but the chord that was to harmonise its require- 
 ments with the pleasures of others ; man became alike 
 the faithful interpreter to God of his desire for salvation, 
 and the exponent before man of his connection with the 
 great human family. Thus, true religion engendered 
 veneration without superstition, worship without bigotry, 
 fervour without intolerance ; and thus, by direct com- 
 mand, and by indirect implication, it taught that man's 
 reward from Heaven was to depend on his own personal 
 merits and on his estimation by his neighbours. It 
 taught the value of faith not as a merely abstract idea 
 but as a practical illustration of life ; a faith w^hich acts 
 and is judged by its acts, and not an abstruse mystery 
 which justifies means by the end ; a faith, which is so 
 simple in its morality and so pure in its reasoning, 
 that it never assumes to call wrono- risfht because done in 
 what may be an honest cause, but which knows good 
 only as good, and evil only as evil ; a faith, which while 
 it raises man's eyes towards Heaven, does still not so 
 withdraw them from earth as to prevent their beholding 
 
136 THE LAW OF SINAI, 
 
 with kindness and sympathy the struggles, the wants, the 
 troubles of his fellow creatures ; a faith, which, while it 
 purports to be eternal and of Divine origin, still arrogates 
 to itself no peculiar claims to exclusive salvation, but is 
 content that every human being shall worship God after 
 his own fashion ; a faith, which, while it cheers by its 
 comforting influence here, its blessed hopes for hereafter, 
 still allows others to enjoy in their own way the privi- 
 leges of tliis world, nor presumptuously denies them a 
 share in an eternal future. 
 
 n7:)i"in 
 EXODUS: CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 The theory of religion having been established in its two- 
 fold relation to Grod and to man, it became necessary 
 that the practice should be defined. For, as we have 
 before said, so enslaved is man by the material, that it 
 is questionable whether any principles could obtain 
 among the multitude, except through the medium of ex- 
 ternal objects, cognizant to the senses. Hence, we must 
 not be surprised that, in this portion, we find the Divine 
 Legislator proceeding directly, from the precepts that were 
 to bind the Israelite to his Maker and his fellow-creature, 
 to the erection of the sanctuary wherein those precepts 
 were to find exponents. To leave the practice of 
 religion to individual caprice was scarcely consistent with 
 the wisdom which was so apparent in the Sinaitic revela- 
 tion. Besides, as it was intended that the prescriptions 
 of Moses were to be handed down from parent to child, 
 not only as a part of education, but as a religious duty, it 
 was but reasonable that the types by which the future was 
 to be instructed, should have the same uniformity that was 
 apparent in what they typified. Thus, we have the first 
 establishment of public worship. 
 
 Of all the institutions by which society is held together. 
 
AND ITS APPOINTED TIMES. 137 
 
 there is not one that exercises a more healthful influence 
 than public worshij). Although it is true that the heart 
 is the real temple of God, and the spontaneous effusions 
 of the contrite spirit His best offering, it is no less true 
 that men cannot penetrate into that temple — the world is 
 not benefitted by that offering. In the headlong rush 
 after the realities of life, so infinite a diversity of interest 
 arises, that there scarcely exist two individuals (not of one 
 family) who find many common bonds of union. For the 
 advancement of civilization it is better that this is so. 
 While the physical world presents so many phenomena 
 for science to investigate, while the social world demands 
 so many requirements which must be satisfied, while the 
 great world of circumstances jiroduces so many emergencies 
 which must be met, it is advantageous that the energies 
 of men should be devoted to the fulfilment of the nu- 
 merous duties thus imposed. But the gi'eat moral and 
 religious world is pei-manent and unchangeable. The 
 truths of Sinai are the truths of to-day. The obligations 
 of the liberated Isi^elites are as incumbent on us as on 
 them ; to permit the indiscriminate employment of human 
 industry on these eternal spiritualities, would be to en- 
 danger their existence by reducing them to the level of 
 temporal wants which change with every generation. 
 Besides, there is much in a type ; its very beauty often 
 depends on its significance. Surely, therefore, if it be 
 conceded that from revelation are derived the fundamental 
 principles of morality and religion, it will not be denied 
 that from the same source should we expect the best ex- 
 ponents of those principles. Hence, when w^e find that 
 the Divine Legislator has condescended to enter into the 
 details of the service which He will consider most accept- 
 able, we cannot refrain from giving to those details all the 
 importance of the object which they are designed to illus- 
 trate. 
 
 But, as we have before observed, although true devotion 
 
138 THE LAW OF SINAI, 
 
 does not consist in form or in external show, still man is 
 so constituted as to be most impressible through his 
 senses. In all ages, it has been found advisable that 
 religious worship should be expounded by certain recog- 
 nised ceremonies. These become valuable not only as the 
 means for expressing man's obligations to Heaven, but as 
 the symbols by which he was to set an example to his 
 fellow-men. They became respected in the process of 
 time for their universality and for the seal which growing 
 antiquity was setting on them. True, in this as in other 
 worldly affairs, some confusion arose as to the precise 
 limits of the earthly and the heavenly. In the lapse of 
 years, too, the darkness of one generation, the necessities 
 of another, the bigotry of a third, impressed certain minute 
 changes, in themselves scarcely observable, but in the 
 aggregate, of sufficient magnitude to become important. 
 These changes gradually intermingled with the original 
 forms, till, at last, it was all bvit impossible to determine 
 either when and where the junction had been effected, or 
 indeed, if it^ had been effected at all. But while these 
 complications only proved the impossibility of drawing a 
 line of demarcation between the real and the ideal, tliey 
 also proved that mankind acknowledged the necessity for 
 some recognised form of service, which we designate 
 public worship. And this acknowledgment was of the 
 same benefit in a spiritual sense that the diversity of 
 views in human affairs was in social progress. While 
 mundane things constantly present new aspects, the soul 
 is always tending to one goal ; while there are thousands 
 of paths which genius, intellect, or enterprise, may tread 
 for the general good, the road to heaven ever terminates 
 in one direction. While, therefore, change is compatible 
 with worldly progress and indeed essential to it, per- 
 manence and uniformity are the characteristics most 
 necessary to public worship as conducing to spiritual pro- 
 gress. The Almighty deigned to sanction this view when 
 
AND ITS APPOINTED TIMES. 139 
 
 He said : " And it shall come to pass in time to come 
 when thy son shall ask thee, What is this service to you ? 
 that you shall say to him, It is because of that which the 
 Eternal did to me when I went out of Egypt." Now as 
 this answer concerning the departure from Egypt could 
 only directly refer to the generation that actually crossed 
 the Red Sea, it follows that its indirect reference to the 
 successors of that generation not only presupposed the 
 Exodus to be as much a mercy to all future Israelites as 
 to those who immediately benefitted by it, but that it 
 ordained the permanence of the " service " by which the 
 mii-aculous deliverance was to be celebrated. The same 
 may be said of other ceremonial ordinances, and hence it 
 may be inferred that public worship is a desideratum, the 
 import of which depends mainly on the permanence of its 
 ordinations. 
 
 But, in order that public worship may be duly per- 
 formed, there are needed, a place in which to perform it, 
 and ministers by whom it should be performed. The 
 place should be appropriate to its object. It should be 
 distinguished from buildings devoted to secular purposes, 
 and it should be calculated to inspire respect by its pecu- 
 liar adaptation to its end. The Almighty, we have shown, 
 permitted many customs of surrounding nations to be 
 engrafted on Judaism, taking care only to sanctify them 
 by elevating them to his service. The Israelites had seen 
 the stupendous temples of Egypt ; they had beheld those 
 vast and magnificent edifices of which even the ruins are 
 almost of fabulous grandeur and extent. They had doubt- 
 less become impressed by the magnitude of these erec- 
 tions, for the human mind receives a strong bias from 
 any thing beyond ordinary range. The grandeur of these 
 places of idol worship, so attractive to the eye of the 
 unlearned mass, had also contributed to intensify the 
 respect in which they were held. In designing the 
 sanctuary for his service, God adopted these attributes of 
 
140 THE LAW OF SINAI, 
 
 places of worsMp within such limits as time and place 
 permitted. 
 
 The Israelites were wandering in a wild and unculti- 
 vated desert, and their house accommodation was limited 
 to their narrow and easily moveable tents. They had no 
 means for any of that high architectural development 
 which was displayed in Egypt, and it was necessary, 
 therefore, that while their tabernacle should be both large 
 and grand, it should also, like their houses, be easily 
 moveable. In this light we shall at once understand the 
 description in this portion. The precious things which 
 had come to them from the anxious Egyptians were to 
 testify alike their willingness to give their valuables to 
 God, and their desire to have for his worship a place in 
 which his glory might, without impropriety, dwell. Gold, 
 silver, copper, fine linen, purple and scarlet, scarce woods 
 and choice furs, were the materials used, and, from the 
 description given, we cannot fail to j)erceive that if the 
 tabernacle of the congregation did not realise the gi-andeur 
 of an Egyptian temple, it certainly exceeded in splendour 
 all that the Israelites had ever seen of their o^vn. 
 
 There was one peculiarity also which deserves particular 
 notice, as showing how admirably Divine wisdom knew 
 how to deal with human weakness, and to raise it above 
 itself Man is ever impressed by the mysterious ; what 
 is beyond and above hioi inspires a kind of awe which 
 often takes the place and form of veneration. No one 
 recognised this failing better than the priests of old, and 
 no one ever made use of it more successfully. The pene- 
 tralia, the shrines, the oracles of the idolatrous world, 
 were only so many secret recesses of their temples, open to 
 a privileged and initiated few, but carefully screened and 
 jealously guarded from public inspection. These con- 
 cealed the nothingness of their secrets, and therefore 
 mysterious recesses were the great reserve on which priest- 
 craft fell back in difficulty or danger ; by them the 
 
AND ITS APPOINTED TIMES. 141 
 
 priestly authority was supported and strengthened, and 
 many instances are recorded of the good service so ren- 
 dered. God adopted this idea, but he hallowed and 
 rationalised it. The Holy of Holies took the place of the 
 idolatrous shrine ; its mystery was to be in the sanctity 
 it derived from the visible presence of the Divine glory, 
 and not from any unexplained and inexplicable imagina- 
 tive fortn. The fictitious and ambiguous jargon which 
 assumed the name of an oracle, and which destroyed 
 volition by the influence of superstition, was replaced by 
 the genuine and simple language in which God warned 
 and admonished free will by pointing out the inevitable 
 results of sin and evil. But it was necessary to pre- 
 vent the priesthood from making the design of heaven 
 subservient to its own policy; for such is opportunity 
 that it frequently converts the best intentions into the 
 worst executions. Hence, even priests were forbidden 
 to render themselves (as did idolatrous priests) an integral 
 portion of the mystery of the Divine sanctuary. They 
 could not, at will, retire within the otherwise impene- 
 trable precin(rts, either thus to clothe themselves with a 
 panoply of superior communion that awed the multi- 
 tude, or to delude their blind followers by behests 
 pretended to be derived from sources open only to them. 
 The Holy of Holies was sacred even from the priests ; as 
 the ineffable name of the Eternal was never to cross 
 mortal lips except on the one day of Kippur, so the inner- 
 most sanctuary of the Most Holy was never, except on the 
 same occasion, to be passed by human footstep. On that 
 day, without secrecy, without mystery, but for a purpose 
 known to all the nation, and the result of which became 
 visible through the change in the scarlet thread, the higli 
 priest was allowed to go into the dread presence that 
 hovered within the veil ; and although the people stood 
 awe-stricken, the priest himself was no less filled with 
 terror at the thought of the trial before him. In this 
 
142 THE LAW OF SINAI, 
 
 distant age, surrounded hj circumstances so widely differ- 
 ent, and accustomed to address the Eternal in the simple 
 language of our liturgy, we can scarcely realise the scene 
 of that holy and terrible day ; but we can well imagine 
 the feelings of both priest and people when we read that 
 his exit from the sanctuary without hurt was considered 
 a cause for so much congratulation that he was conveyed 
 home with every demonstration of happiness, and that the 
 people gave vent to the exuberance of their joy in songs of 
 praise and thanksgiving. Beautiful contrast ! the mean- 
 ingless mummery of ignorant idolcraft and the impressive 
 ceremonies of enlightened God-worship ; that degrading 
 its votaries through tlieir mental blindness, this elevating 
 its followers by communion with the All-wise. When in 
 the depths of the Red Sea the miraculous guiding pillar 
 of cloud passed between the host of Israel and the 
 armament of Egypt, it showed fire to the former and 
 darkness to the latter. Was this not a true type of the 
 condition of the two peoples, the one receiving light from 
 Heaven, the other " dragging heavily " through the 
 shadows of death ? And such was the difference between 
 the fabrics erected to man's images and the temple raised 
 to the Eternal ; those awed by a mystery which was 
 terrible because reason and intellect were left without 
 means for judging, while fancy conjured its own distorted 
 images ; this awed by the knowledge that man was 
 permitted to stand and live in the immediate presence of 
 that Omnipotent Being whose glory filleth the whole 
 universe. 
 
 EXODUS: CHAPTEK XXVII. VEESE 20. 
 The external and internal structure of the tabernacle 
 being described, the Divine legislator directs attention to 
 th-e service and the ministry. Wc shall have abundant 
 
AND ITS APPOINTED TIMES. 143 
 
 opportunity for speaking of the service when we investi- 
 gate the Levitical laws ; meanwliile it will suffice to make 
 a few observations on one peculiarity specially ordained in 
 the portion be>fore us : — 
 
 " Over against the altar, which is by the testimony, 
 Aaron and his sons shall arrange the light, that it may be 
 perpetual." 
 
 When we reflect that the commands of Heaven are, 
 even in their minutest detail, designed to appeal to our 
 reason for the promotion of our happiness, and that they 
 are not behests capriciously ordained without an object, 
 we must conclude that the perpetual light had some sig- 
 nificance beyond the mere ceremonial observance per- 
 formed in its maintenance. Let us endeavour to show 
 this significance to be twofold, real and typical. 
 
 The nations of those days, among which the lot of 
 Israel was cast, were steeped in the grossest idolatry. 
 Tiie mass were ignorant and degraded, and were the blind 
 slaves of a tyi^annic hierarchy. It was in the interest of 
 this ruling power to maintain its authority at any cost. 
 Hence, every means tliat cunning could devise for rivet ting 
 the fetters of an illiterate people was at different times 
 adopted. Nor was it difficult to multiply these means, 
 owing to the utter mental prostration which then uni- 
 versally prevailed ; for it is the peculiarity of ignorance, 
 when once under control, to yield itself willingly to the 
 yoke imposed on it, and rather to glory in its servitude 
 than to seek to throw it off. But the religion of Moses 
 was to open a new career to man. It was to spread the 
 knowledge of God, not among Jews only, but through 
 the whole world. It was to disseminate the principles of 
 the immortality of the soul, of man's responsibility, of his 
 creation in the Divine image, and, therefore, of his capa- 
 bility of approximating himself to the perfection of that 
 image. It was to appeal to the higher faculties of 
 humanity, and to rule them through their superiority over 
 
144 THE LAW OF SINAI, 
 
 the other attributes of life. It was not only to be distin- 
 guished from idolatry, by elevating man above himself 
 through the medium of the Eternal, instead of debasing 
 him by dependence on things of his own fashioning, but 
 it was also to be distinguished by awakening the soul to a 
 consciousness of its own powers, and by teaching it to 
 soar into the realms of everlasting light, instead of plung- 
 ing into the darkness of endless perdition. While, there- 
 fore, mystery was a characteristic of idolatry, openness 
 was to be a feature of God- worship. Mystery might be a 
 conveffiient tool in the hands of a knave to hide his 
 villainy, or to screen his chicanery from the eyes of his 
 dupes, but it was of no avail to the honest minister of 
 Heaven, who was to be the friend and adviser of his 
 flock, the exponent and expounder of the principles he 
 professed, and the mental educator as well as the spiritual 
 teacher of the people. Openness might be antagonistic to 
 the mummeries by which idolatry sought to mystify the 
 grovelling, but it was only an ally to the ceremonies by 
 wliich religion assumed to typify the duties of the soul. 
 Hence, while the Almighty in so far adopted the custom 
 of the temples of those times that he established a Holy of 
 Holies, or innermost tabernacle, he entirely changed the 
 character of it. The idolatrous shrine, the penetralia, 
 was secret, dark, and mysterious, only because light would 
 have exposed its nothingness ; the deepest recesses of the 
 tabernacle were to contain a perpetual light, that there 
 might be no mistake in the nature of their sanctity. 
 Adopting this view, we have a clue to the real significance 
 of an otherwise meaningless ceremony ; we shall now 
 show its typical significance, and, connected with it, the 
 vocation and functions of the priesthood. 
 
 Israel had seen much of other priests. Already, so 
 early as the days of Abraham, Melchizedek, " priest of 
 the most high God," occupied a position of influence. In 
 Egypt, the highest honour that Pharaoh could confer on 
 
AKD ITS APPOINTED TIMES. 145 
 
 Joseph waa to permit him to marry into the priestly 
 caste. The greatest privilege that Joseph granted to 
 famishing Egypt was the exemption of the sacerdotal 
 office from royal tribute. There seems little doubt also 
 that the wise men and magicians of Egypt were priests. 
 Israel, therefore, had been accustomed to behold a priest- 
 hood, separated by social distinctions from the mass of 
 the people, and isolating themselves still more by the 
 mysterious privileges which they arrogated in virtue of 
 their office. These priests assumed authority, in all cases, 
 over the worldly circumstances of their flocks, and, in 
 many cases, over their eternal welfare. They communi- 
 cated their knowledge to none but members of their own 
 body, and thus, while experience and constant intercom- 
 munication tended to increase their own capabilities, the 
 world was not only not benefitted, but was even purposely 
 continued in a state of mental and intellectual darkness. 
 They commanded the best things of earth by pretending 
 to hold the keys of heaven, and thus even the fruits of 
 personal industry were not secure from their grasping 
 influence. With the priesthood of Moses all this was to 
 cease, except in so far that the Almighty sanctioned the 
 wisdom which assigned to priestly duties a definite 
 amount of preparation and study, and did not leave them 
 open to ad captandum adoption. Like the hierophants 
 of Egypt, the priests of Israel were to form a distinct 
 class j they might intermarry with the females of other 
 tribes, but the males of the family of Aaron could not 
 alienate themselves from the tasks im^^osed by their birth. 
 Thus, even from childhood, the future ministers of religion 
 were aware of their distinction, and were doubtless, there- 
 fore, trained with a view to its fulfilment. But, as we 
 have said, this distinction was not to be one of isolation, 
 of personal worldly advantage, or of mysterious assump- 
 tion. The priest was to be the educator of the people jn 
 that moral and religious knowledge that was to be found 
 
 H 
 
146 THE LAW OF SINAI, 
 
 in the written law, and which was to be the basis on 
 which man was to establish his temporal welfare and 
 his eternal salvation. He was to be the depository of 
 those traditionary precepts (the Oral Law), the correct 
 retention and practice of which, and their intact delivery to 
 his posterity, were so necessary to a uniform and proper 
 observance of the ceremonial statutes. He was to be the 
 interlocutor of the congregation to God, not receiving 
 their votive offerings and returning an empty harvest of 
 ambiguous oracle, but communicating their thanks or 
 repentance to the throne of grace, and admonishing them 
 to sincerity and righteousness. He was to be the arbi- 
 trator in civil disputes, and the interpreter of those social 
 laws, which bind man to man, and distinguish the har- 
 mony of ci\dlized justice from the confusion of barbaric 
 tyranny. He was not to enrich himself at the expense of 
 his neighbours, amassing in the deep recesses of his shrine 
 untold treasures, to buy immunity from foreign invasion, 
 or to silence domestic clamour. His share of the general 
 capital was defined and limited, nor did his vocation 
 afford him any means of exacting further supplies by 
 pretended miracles or vicarious atonement. In short, the 
 priest, bound to no particular home, ft'om having no 
 portion of the Holy Land, was to permeate the whole 
 community as the blood circulates through the human 
 body. Like that blood, he was to carry vitality whither- 
 soever he went ; he was to nourish and to prevent decay, 
 he was to bear the life-giving stream fresh from the heart 
 (the tabernacle of the congregation) to the remotest parts 
 of the body. On his purity, was to depend the very 
 existence of the entire mass ; if he became corrupt, he 
 vitiated and killed, if he remained intact, he preserved 
 and immortalised. Thus, through the priests, the great 
 truths of the "tablets of the covenant" were to be taught 
 1p the people. These truths were not to lie buried in 
 the darkness of the enclosing ark, but were to be published 
 
AND ITS APPOINTED TIMES. 147 
 
 and explained throughout the entire congregation. On 
 their publication and appreciation were to depend spiri- 
 tual welfare and knowledge of God, and it is to this 
 function of the priest that the text refers when the Al- 
 mighty designs to promise : — " In every place in which I 
 peiTQit my name to be remembered, I will come unto thee 
 and bless thee." 
 
 Having shown that the priest was to be the enlight- 
 ener of the people, we need only bear in mind the 
 weakness of humanity to understand the typical signi- 
 ficance of the perpetual light. Man is accustomed to 
 degenerate. Length of service while giving him in- 
 creased experience, also not unfrequently produces care- 
 lessness of practice. There is a pride in intellectual 
 superiority which sometimes disdains meaner capaci- 
 ties. Immunity from certain restrictions and enjoyment 
 of peculiar privileges lead to monopoly on the one 
 hand, and resistance on the other. The isolation of 
 class from class, or of individual from individual, while 
 it may tend to pamper the pride, or swell the arrogance 
 of the few, is only destructive to the interests of the 
 many. As, in the atmosphere, there must be a constant 
 and universal interchange of currents and strata to pre- 
 serve the equilibrium ; as the tropical heats and the polar 
 snows mutually subserve the general circulation ; as 
 animals and vegetables reciprocally absorb and evolve 
 the elements necessary to each other ; so, in society, every 
 class must commingle with every other class, if the en- 
 tire mass is to derive benefit. This it was which was 
 to distinguish Jewish from idolatrous society ; in the 
 latter, the isolation of the priesthood produced selfish- 
 ness and assumption on their part and debasement in 
 the people ; in the former, the community were to be 
 elevated by priestly association and mutuality of inter- 
 ests. But so frail is man that it is necessary constantly 
 to remind him of his duties. This necessity is conceded 
 
l4^ THE LAW OF SINAI, 
 
 by the Almighty in the establishment of the various 
 ceremonies of daily observance, and which are to serve 
 as memorials : " When you see, you shall remember." 
 As therefore we find various tyj)es imj^ressed for this wise 
 end on Judaism, so we may regard the maintenance of 
 the perpetual light as the tjrpe to the priesthood of their 
 peculiar vocation. As they were constantly to preserve 
 this light within the tabernacle, as they were to trim the 
 lamps, to keep up a proper supply of oil, to watch night 
 and day lest some accident might extinguish their charge, 
 so were they reminded that they were to preserve 
 the light of knowledge, the light of religion, within 
 the entire nation ; so they were to fashion the hearts, 
 of the people, and to supply them with that spiritual 
 aliment which would ensure the burning of their lamp 
 of salvation, so tbey were to be vigilant night and 
 day lest untoward circumstances or sinister influence 
 might interfere to militate against tlie success of their ^ 
 ministration, and thus extinguish the flame which it was 
 their vocation to nourish and render perpetual. 
 
 EXODUS: CHAPTER XXX., VERSE 11. i 
 
 There is to the weak-minded something so attracti%'e in i 
 
 vice, that they seem spell-bound by its fascination. The \ 
 
 Israelites had been rescued from Egypt by the miraculoua ] 
 
 interposition of the Eternal ; they had seen (for the second < 
 
 time since creation) the visible hand of Providence: ' 
 
 coercing and gnidii^g human affjiirs, and they knew i 
 
 themselves to be the cause of this interference ; they ; 
 
 had been assembled face to face with the Divine Protector, I 
 
 and had heard his tremendous voice proclaim those i 
 eternal statutes which, through their agency, were to 
 
 secure the salvation of mankind ; they had witnessed i 
 
 the glorious similitude tlu'oiigh which God had deigned to j 
 
AND ITS APPOINTED TIMES. 149 
 
 communicate with the ehlers, and they had beheld the 
 ascent of Moses into those dread precincts of which the 
 thunders alone had appalled their very souls. All this 
 and more had tliey learned, and yet scarcely were they 
 left to themselves than they displayed the inherent bias 
 of their minds and fell to idolatry. To what are we to 
 attribute this disrespect to Heaven, this deviation in 
 man ? Surely to nothing but the power of example. 
 The Israelites had been born in Egypt ; there they had 
 imbibed the earliest notions, there they had received their 
 first and most lasting impressions ; thence they had brought 
 a store of recollections which might slumber for awhile, 
 but which no after years could entirely obliterate. Hence, 
 when they first entered the wilderness and found no 
 water, their memory reverted with regret to the fertility 
 they had left, and their regrets for their present privation 
 were based on the loss of past enjoyments. Hence, also, 
 no sooner has their leader left them alone, than the more 
 recent teachings of Providence are forgotten, and they 
 return to the idolatry among which their earliest years 
 had been passed. 
 
 Sad effects of example. Ah, ye who have the care of 
 youth j to whose guidance is intrusted the formation of 
 character ; should ye not be careful to surround your 
 charge with such influences only as may leave a good 
 impression ? Say, ye teach him to despise all doctrines 
 but those you profess, that you bid him see salvation only 
 through their medium, that you denominate virtue, forti- 
 tude, resignation, piety, the peculiar attributes of your 
 creed, shall he not grow to be bigotted and intolerant in 
 thought, and, if opportunity serve, a persecutor in act ? 
 Say, ye set before him words of truth but deeds of false- 
 hood or shame, that ye instruct him from goodly books 
 in the precepts to which yourselves do not conform ; that 
 ye 2^ liaise to hiui honour and high mindedneas while ye 
 are barely honest from fear, and always selfishly ungene- 
 
150 THE LAW OF SINAI, 
 
 rous, shall lie not grow to be mean, grovelling, and 
 depraved ? Say, ye legislate to him against crime which 
 you have never sought to prevent by proper teaching, 
 should you not find yourselves guilty of the consequences 
 of your own neglect ] Say, ye pander to unholy desires, 
 truckle to pride or bend to station, the while you com- 
 mand him to restrain his passions, to walk independently 
 and to respect not rank, shall he not grow the hypocrite 
 which he knows you to be, and shall he not perpetuate 
 the evil you place before him 1 Educate, yes ; but let 
 your ethics be those of universal philanthropy, your morals 
 those of all trxie God worship ; let your politics see right 
 where right is, and not in the bias of party ; let your 
 honour be the reflex of your aspirations after a divine 
 model, your honesty that which scorns even an equivoca- 
 tion, and then ye shall set an example which shall produce 
 a race of which you may be proud of being the ancestors, 
 and which may be thankful for being your descendants : 
 then you shiiU faithfully have discharged your duty to 
 time by contributing your means that the future ame- 
 liorate the past. 
 
 The Israelites returned to the well-remembered example 
 of youth, but they were none the less culpable, for their 
 recent teachings had been of a kind to eradicate the desire 
 for an evil, the magnitude of which their knowledge of 
 God permitted them to appreciate. Can we wonder, then, 
 that the anger of Heaven was kindled against them, or 
 that even Divine mercy knew no pardon for a crime 
 which multiplied its atrocity by the blackest ingratitude? 
 But sad as the recital is, we are reconciled to its perusal 
 by the opportunity it affords to Moses for a display of 
 that nobility of character which had rendered him worthy 
 to be the chosen servant of God. 
 
 " Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may glow 
 against them, and that I may coDSume them : and I will 
 make of thee a great natiou." Thus spake the Omnipo- 
 
AND ITS APPOINTED TIMES. Ifyl 
 
 tent. But the " meek man Moses " had no considerations 
 of a personal nature. The proud hopes of a numerous 
 posterity, the brilliant destiny of being the father of a 
 mighty nation, awakened no ambition in the heart that 
 could only bleed for the frailty and ingratitude of his 
 beloved flock. Listen to his appeal for mercy ; mark 
 how he invokes pardon by every argument that he thinks 
 can tell in favour of the cause he pleads. The anticipated 
 revengeful gratification of Egypt ; the memory of the 
 patriarchs : the promises made to them ; these are the 
 themes of his discourse, and, purified by the sincerity 
 whence they spring, they produce the efiect desired. 
 " And the Eternal repented of the evil which he thought 
 to do unto his people." 
 
 Divine man ! worthy servant of an all merciful Master ! 
 the records of the world may present many characters to 
 which our admiration is due, but to none as to thine, can 
 we attribute that God-like quality of utter unselfishness 
 which separates man from his own in lividuality, and 
 renders his existence the type of love for his fellow- 
 creatures ! 
 
 And three thousand victims fell to wash away in their 
 blood the memory of this sad event. Brother rose against 
 brother, friend butchered friend, nor compassion raised 
 one pitying cry in breasts steeled by wrath for the of- 
 fended majesty of Heaven. And thus is it ever in crime. 
 "While virtue constitutes men friends, vice renders them 
 only accessories to each other's interests ; so long as their 
 misdeeds prosper, they may cling together from a com- 
 munity of guilt, but discovery once made, they as easily 
 betray as they before assisted. And so the tribe of Levi, 
 less culpable perhaps than the majority of their brethren, 
 earned by their devotion to the cause of God, the brightest 
 reward ever bestowed on any body of men. As to Aaron 
 and his sons had alread)^ been given the special ofiice of 
 the ministry, so to the Levites was it now granted to per- 
 
^52 THE LAW OF SINAI, 
 
 form the various services of the tabernacle, to devote their 
 lives to the discharge of sacred duties. 
 
 One other circumstance grew out of this deviation of 
 Israel which is too important to be passed by in silence. 
 When Moses had obtained the final pardon of the repen- 
 tant survivors, when his ofier to consent to his own anni- 
 hilation rather than that his charge should suffer alone, 
 had proved alike his entire devotion to them, and his 
 utter disregard for himself, he was permitted to receive a 
 recompence never awarded to any other mortal. Placed 
 on the rock, he was allowed to see all the glory of God, 
 and the Eternal himself vouchsafed to declare the attri- 
 butes by which he desired thereafter to be known to man. 
 
 " The Eternal Lord God, gracious and merciful, slow to 
 anger and of abundant goodness and truth, showing kind- 
 ness to thousands, and to those who keep his command- 
 ments, and bearing with iniquity and transgression." 
 
 Here was no terrible God, armed with thunder-bolts 
 or clothed with dread, but a gracious and merciful Being^ 
 who desired to rule by love without fear, speaking to man 
 as to a friend, and treating with perishable mortality on 
 terms more equal than those with which human being 
 treats with human being. How different from the idols 
 of which Israel had heard, or which Israel had seen ! 
 While blood-thirsty Moloch was said to delight in human 
 victims, and while other heathen abominations claimed 
 self-inflicted wounds at the hands of their votaries, the 
 Eternal God of the universe proclaimed only love and 
 mercy, and asked no sacrifice but rectitude, virtue, and 
 religion. Can we wonder, on remarking this contrast, 
 that the Lord should pronounce, as he did, sentence of 
 condemnation on the nations which Israel was about to 
 dispossess 1 Israel, we have shewn, had failed through 
 following a bad example ; was it not merciful to prevent 
 the recurrence of a like catastrophe, especially when the 
 objects denounced had already become obnoxious to con- 
 
AXD ITS APPOINTED TIMES. 153 
 
 digii pimishment by their idolatry, their crimes, and their 
 utter demoralisation? For was not ''the cup of the 
 Amorites full?" And was this precaution not the more 
 needfal when it is remembered that Israel was to be the 
 exponent and the promulgator of God-worship to the 
 world 1 How could it be expected that mankind should 
 listen to the doctrine of Israel, if Israel did not show his 
 own ajjpreciation of the treasure he possessed to dispense ? 
 Hence can w^e not understand the denunciation, and re- 
 coucile it to the usual mercy of Heaven? "Take heed 
 that thou make not any covenant with the inhabitants of 
 the land which thou art going to inherit, lest it be a 
 snare to thee. But their altars thou shalt overthrow, 
 their pillars thou shalt break to pieces, their groves thou 
 shalt cut dow^n." For, if crime be so contagious that 
 communion with it leaves corruption behind, was it not 
 better and wiser to deal with already-existing offenders 
 according to their demerits, than to allow them to escape 
 a chastisement which their iniquities deserved, and thus 
 to afford them opportunities for perpetuating their errors ? 
 How necessary the precaution of Providence was, may be 
 inferred from the baneful effects produced by the presence 
 of the few fragments of Canaanitish people, whom Israel 
 wrongly permitted to denizen among them, and who from 
 time to time ensnared them by the peculiar fascinations 
 which sensual worship displays. A perusal of the book 
 of Judges affords too many instances of deviations from 
 duty not to strike the reader forcibly with the evil results 
 of these anomalous mixtures of idolatry and God-service ; 
 and we cannot w^onder therefore, that the All-wise who 
 foresaw those results, and whose legislation was specially 
 designed to promote the happiness of his people, should 
 lay down such cautions as his prescience and his desire 
 to avoid punishing, enabled him to know to be required. 
 Mercy seeks rather to reward than to chastise, and of 
 evils to choose the least ; annihilation of people M'ho 
 
 h2 
 
154 THE LAW OF SINAI, 
 
 had already polluted the earth by their vicious practices, 
 aud of whom it was said that through their iniquities 
 the land had vomited them from its midst, was certainly 
 a less evil, although perhaps savouring of severity, than 
 the corruption of an innocent but impressible nation, 
 whose mission, once endangered, might become altogether 
 abortive, and through whose failure the future regenera- 
 tion of mankind might be rendered impossible. 
 
 EXODUS: CHAPTER XXXV. 
 
 " Ye shall not kindle fire in any of your habitations on 
 the Sabbath-day." 
 
 Let us endeavour to investigate this statute, so pro- 
 minently introduced, and apparently with so little refer- 
 ence either to the passage which precedes or to that which 
 succeeds it. Let our investigation be carried out in the 
 spirit with which these reflections have ever been made ; 
 that it is inconsistent with Divine wisdom to impress 
 commands on man, except reason be permitted to point 
 out their design to promote his happiness ; that every 
 ordination has some distinct object to subserve, and is not 
 to be observed simply from blind obedience to the Divine 
 will, but from that higher submission which a voluntary 
 recognition of Supreme authority engenders and sanctifies. 
 
 The Sabbath was a new institution. Its design was to 
 introduce heavenly elements into worldly concerns, just 
 as the soul was centred in the body. It was a day set 
 apart from the ordinary occupations of life for the benefit 
 of the spirit. On it, not only was man to withdraw from 
 those avocations which, being industrial, contributed t(j 
 his physical existence and to his moral welfare, but he 
 was to deviate from the inherent consequences of his 
 original sin, " In the sweat of thy brow shalt thou eat 
 bread." But this cessation from industry was not to be 
 
AND ITS APPOINTED TIMES. 155 
 
 for tlie indulgence of enervating or demor.i Using sloth, 
 nor for any defiance of the will of Heaven ; on the con- 
 trary, it was to afford renewed vigour, through rest, for 
 fresh exertions, and it was to prove confidence in that 
 mercy of Providence which had promised that six days' 
 labour should supply seven days' provision. This devia- 
 tion from the inherent consequences of sin was to be the 
 compensating power by which the spring of life was to be 
 regulated ; it was to be the removal of the pressure from 
 the surface, in order that a vacuum, as it were, might 
 render effects more conformable to certain ends, but yet 
 all establishing and confirming the great law of equili- 
 brium. It was necessary, therefore, in ordaining the 
 observance of the Sabbath, to consider both the failings of 
 the body and the requirements of the soul. 
 
 Idleness, leaving the body unoccupied, gives more scope 
 to the mind, but it also affords more play for the animal 
 appetites ; hence, with holidays are generally associated 
 feasting and enjoyment. We know, too, that among the 
 heathens of those times, the days set apart for idolatrous 
 rites were always concluded by banquets and licentious 
 pleasures. Now the intention of the Sabbath was to 
 encourage rest, but not idleness ; it was rather to promote 
 a new industry, for which the occupation of worldly 
 affairs left no space. Just, as by the law of impene- 
 trability, -two bodies cannot occupy one place at the same 
 time, so the exertion of the physical members, and the 
 business of the eternal soul could not be collocated. 
 The Sabbath, then, was to afford scope for that for which 
 the six working days gave no leisure ; but it was to do 
 this under no disadvantage arising from the connection 
 between soul and body. On the contraiy, as the Sabbath 
 was designed specially to promote spiritual welfare, care 
 was to be taken that due preponderance should be given 
 to requirements ha\dng a tendency in that direction. 
 We have already shown, in our observations on the 
 
15G THE LAW OF SINAI, 
 
 leaven of the Passover, liow the animal appetites pamper 
 the body and fetter the mind ; how the corruption of 
 sensual enjoyments vitiates not only the material, but the 
 immaterial ; and we have shown how admirably the 
 wisdom of Providence, appealing to man's obedience 
 through his volition, contrived to deprive pleasure of its 
 sting, and luxury of its voluptuoiisness, by the abstrac- 
 tion of the intoxicating element from all permitted food. 
 What can be more reasonable then, than tliat the Omni- 
 scient, having adopted this princijDle as the basis on which 
 to found his institutions, having determined that it was 
 wiser to remove the opportunity for sin than to place 
 temptation before man, having legislated for human 
 happiness as best to be enhanced by voluntary virtue, 
 should impress on the Sabbath — the root and origin of all 
 holidays — the same restrictive power tliat he had given 
 to the Passover. " Thou shalt not kindle fire in any 
 of your habitations on the Sabbath-day," was the means 
 to the end, just as " you shall put away all leaven from 
 among you," was the means to the end. There was 
 no harm in the kindling of fire on the Sabbath, as 
 a simple act. It was permitted in the daily sacrifice ; 
 it was enjoined in the burning of the frankincense ; it 
 was allowed in any of the services of the Tabernacle. 
 The ein lay not in the act, but in the intention of 
 it. In those almost tropical lands, in which a genial sun 
 renders almost the whole year one contiuued spring and 
 summer, there was no necessity for domestic fires foB 
 the purpose of warming the person.* The purpose of a 
 fire in the habitation could only be for the cooking of 
 food, for the preparation of those appetising luxuries, for 
 the indulgence in which leisure and opportunity aff'orded 
 
 * The rabbins who decided that in cold countries it was lawful 
 to kindle fire for the purpose of warming "women and children," 
 evidently adopted this particular view, and no other, as^they care- 
 fully avoided legalising fire for culinary purposes. 
 
AND ITS APPOINTED TIMES. 157 
 
 only too much encouragement. But sucli an application 
 of fire would have been antagonistic to the abstemioiisness 
 necessary to the indulgence of soul, which alone was 
 approj^riate to the Sabbath. Highly-seasoned dishes or 
 tempting dehcacies, would not only produce animal 
 excitement or sensual languor on the part of those who 
 indulged in them, but they would entail inventiveness or 
 labour on the part of those who prepared them. Either 
 result would be alike detrimental to the sanctity of the 
 Sabbath ; the former inducing thoughts too sensual for 
 devotion, the latter worldly duties inconsistent ^vith. 
 spiritual reflections. Cooking, therefore, was to be for- 
 bidden as a preventive ; and to place it beyond possibility, 
 and at the same time to remove the temptation to it, fire was 
 prohibited from the habitations. Thus, when the Israelite 
 refrained from kindling fire on the Sabbath, he separated 
 himself at once from the only worldly consideration which 
 could attract him during the stoppage of all business 
 duties; and, by confining himself to uninviting or cold, 
 and therefore unstimulating food, he prevented any cor- 
 i-uptive influence from alienating his soul from the duties 
 entailed by the Sabbath. He restrained passion by with- 
 holding incentives, just as fire smoulders from which is 
 withheld the supply of oxygen needful for brisk combus- 
 tion. He renounced by an act of self-abnegation all the 
 craving-S of his animalisation, and thus, by the very 
 sacrifice, he best expressed his will that the soul should be 
 his primary consideration on that sacred day. And so, 
 again, in this apparently arbitrary statute, we recognise 
 the wisdom of the Supreme ; we perceive his merciful 
 desii'e for our happiness hj his removal of the temptation 
 to sin, and we bow to the restriction placed on our 
 desires, from a voluntary conviction that obedience is 
 scarcely a merit when it conduces so manifestly to our 
 own advantage. 
 
 But, it may be asked, how does this view coincide with 
 
158 THE LAW OF SINAI, 
 
 the manner in which, from time immemorial, the 
 Sabbath has been observed 1 How does it tally with 
 the rabbinical ordinance by which fasts are not allowed 
 to be kept on Sabbath, and which method of keeping 
 them might be regarded as only more strictly enforcing 
 the principle here laid down 1 The reply is by no 
 means difficult. The non-observation of the Sabbath 
 in the spirit here demanded only proves the proneness 
 of man to yield to corporeal influences. For, look at the 
 traditional ceremonies enjoined, but scarcely complied 
 with, as proper to the Sabbath. A longer evening 
 service, in which Psalms form a conspicuous feature, 
 gives weight to the synagogue duties. Zemiroth, or home 
 songs of praise, and the reading of Scripture, provide 
 devotional exercise for the domestic circle, and thus 
 exclude those mere worldly pursuits through which lei- 
 sure indulges in recreation. Again, on the Sabbath day, 
 three services and an additional service occupy some 
 hours ; Zemiroth, repetition of the Sedrah and Haftorah 
 read in the spiagogue, and the necessary reflections 
 thereon, a chapter of ethics or extra Psalms, all contri- 
 bute to give food and employment for the mind during 
 the hours to be spent at home. And although it may 
 be true that these observances are not by any means 
 universal, their very institution proves how well the 
 rabbins understood the spirit in which the Sabbath was 
 ordained, how sedulous they were to occupy it with such 
 pursuits only as tended to elevate the soul towards 
 Heaven, and to withdraw the mind as much as possible 
 from contemplating or supplying the requirements of the 
 body. Who that has spent the Sabbath in the 
 bosom of a truly pious family has not felt the truth 
 of this ? Who that has witnessed the utter isolation 
 from all worldly concerns ; the contracting of those 
 bonds by which the social union of parents and children 
 is confined within more sacred limits; the holy claim 
 
AND ITS APPOINTED TIMES. 159 
 
 wliicli a father establishes on the affection and duty 
 of his offspring by his exposition of Holy Writ, and by 
 his fulfilment of the primary laws of his tenure of Judaic 
 principles ; * the absence of that seiisuahty which seeks 
 to indulge in luxurious viands, and, in its place, that 
 primitive simplicity of appetite which supplies the first 
 wants of nature with plentiful but plain food ; the forget- 
 fulness of those artificial distinctions which separate 
 master and servant, and in their stead, the recognition of 
 the equality of all ranks in the eyes of Providence, as 
 evidenced in the assemblage of all Jewish inmates around 
 the same board, to listen to the same prayers, and to 
 participate in the same devotional exercises : the genuine 
 spirituality that has pervaded the whole domestic circle and 
 the happiness consequent thereon, irrespective of worldly 
 weal or worldly woe ; who that has witnessed all this, and 
 has contrasted it with the more ordinaiy method of cele- 
 brating a Sabbath, has not acknowledged that the original 
 institution seemed more consonant with the customs here 
 described'? Who will deny that if any one point of 
 difference has struck the mind most forcibly, it has been 
 the influence of bodily considerations in the one case, and 
 their absence in the other % And, yielding this, who will 
 deny that, of all bodily considerations, luxurious enjoy- 
 ment of the appetite holds the first place, and that the 
 prevention of this, by the prohibition of fire for culinary 
 purposes, is the wise means for securing man's appropriate 
 celebration of the Sabbath 1 
 
 In respect to fasting, as connected with the Sabbath, 
 the reasoning is somewhat analogous. While the Sabbath 
 is to promote virtue through moderation, it is not to 
 sanction asceticism by total abstinence. In the same 
 manner that God had provided wine and other rich ad- 
 juncts to the palate, that man may use and not abuse 
 
 * " And thou shalt diligently teach thy children." 
 
IGO THE LAW OF SINAI, 
 
 them, he commanded the Sabbath to be set apart for the 
 spirit — in its connection with the body — and not in entire 
 distinction from it. When, on the great day of Kippur, 
 the Divine Legislator instituted, " Ye shall afflict your 
 souls," the reason for fasting, being understood, is obvious. 
 Kippur is set apart for repentance ; it is the day on which 
 we acknowledge that, notwithstanding our utmost desire 
 to obey the laws of God, we have still erred through the 
 very imperfection of our nature ; it is the day on which 
 we confess that, notwithstanding our observation of the 
 Sabbath and other holidays, and our consequent culti- 
 vation of the soul, we have still gone astray through the 
 intimate connection between spirit and matter, and the 
 sometime preponderance of the latter ; it is the day, there- 
 fore, in which we endeavour for the time to separate the 
 soul from the influence which lias prevented its elevation 
 to its Divine source ; on which for a few hours we isolate 
 the spirit from even the minutest worldly concerns, in 
 order to shake off its earthly dross, and to hold commu- 
 nion with its Maker. To Kippur, therefore, fasting is 
 indispensable, alike as the recognition of the influence of 
 the body over the spirit, as the expression of the desire 
 for the preponderance of the latter, and as our confession 
 that this can only be effected by withdrawing the very 
 means of corporeal support. But to the Sal)bath, for the 
 same reason, fasting would be inappropriate. The Sab- 
 bath is to minister to spiritual wants, not to imply the 
 failure of their supply! It is to enable the soul to rule, 
 a.s connected with the body, and not as apart from it. It 
 is to remind man of the duties of life, and not to recall 
 the fact that the severance of Ki{)pur is only a type of 
 the final severance of death. Moreover the Sabbath is 
 connected as a memorial with the exodus from Egypt, 
 and is therefore to a certain extent a season for happiness ; 
 and if the law does not class it in respect to rejoicing 
 with other festivals, still less does it connect it in regard 
 
AXD ITS APPOINTED TIMES. IGl 
 
 to afflicting tlie soul with Kippur. Hence, in tlie dispo- 
 sition of those historical fasts designed to commemorate 
 national a,fflictions, the rabbins (fully aware of the original 
 designs of the Sabbath, and recognising how opposed 
 humiliation and penitence were to thanks for the mercies 
 of the vrorking days and to confidence in the rest of the 
 day of cessation) — the rabbins carefully abstained from 
 permitting a human institution from trenching on a Di- 
 vine ordinance by removing from the Sabbath any fast 
 occurring on that day. And thus, alike by the influence 
 of reason and the teachings of tradition, is the Sabbath 
 sanctified ; and in every place in which the scatterings of 
 Israel congregate to worship after the manner of their 
 ancestors, the same observance tends to hallow the S ib- 
 bath-day. Everywhere, the absence of fire shows obe- 
 dience to the Scriptural statute and compliance with 
 Divine rescript; everywhere, if not in its entirety, 
 certainly in part, abstinence from exciting viands and 
 stimulating beverages proves the voluntary submission of 
 Jews to the curb placed on animal desires and sensual 
 appetites ; everywhere, the cultivation, to some extent, 
 of the higher duties of the soul, sets apart the Jewish 
 Sabbath as a day different from other days, and thus 
 tends to preserve that spiritual distinction which separates 
 Israel from the other nations of earth. 
 
162 THE LAW OF SINAI, 
 
 LEVITICUS: CHAPTER I. 
 
 Keference to ceremonies whose existence has been 
 obliterated, does not afford much interest to the general 
 reader. The inquisitive and curious may turn with some 
 degree of excitement to the mysterious recitals connected 
 with the names Eleusis, Isis, or Walhalla ; but this ex- 
 citement depends entirely on the mystery connected with 
 all heathen celebrations, and on the importance to be 
 attached to their interpretations. The simple unpretend- 
 ing rites of the Levitical sacrifices ; their want of all that 
 can awaken speculation or leave room for controversy ; 
 the utter cessation not only of such religious expositions, 
 but of every thing analogous to them ; all contribute to 
 deaden the feelings, and to forbid speculation, and there- 
 fore to deprive that portion of the law now before us, of 
 much that can make reflection profitable. But sometliing 
 still remains which may not be wholly uninteresting, and 
 which may resolve itself into the following questions : — 
 Why were sacrifices ordained as exponents of man's duties 
 to Heaven 1 Did they take the place of that devotion 
 which now exhibits itself in prayer ? What was their 
 moral effect ? 
 
 Why were sacrifices ordained as exponents of man's 
 duty to Heaven ? It must not be forgotten that the 
 Divine Legislator adopted into Judaism many of the 
 ceremonies already existing among idolatrous nations. 
 Of all such ceremonies, sacrifices held by far the most 
 universal sway, not only among heathens, but even among 
 those older individuals who bowed to the true God. Al- 
 ready in the earliest years of creation, when Abel and 
 Cain sought to pour out into visible form the expression 
 of their gratitude to Heaven, sacrifice was the method 
 
AND ITS APPOINTED TIMES. 1G3 
 
 tliey adopted. When earth, freed from the overwlielmiiig 
 deluge, again bared her maternal bosom to nourish her 
 restored offspring, sacrifice was the type by which Noah 
 displayed his thankfulness for escape from the universal 
 destruction. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob all offered sacri- 
 fices as proofs of their devotion to the service of 
 God. Xor can we wonder at this develo})ment of 
 human feelings. Gratitude is a sentiment that seeks to 
 express itself in deeds somewhat parallel to the benefits 
 which evoked it. In those times men were essentially 
 agricultural ; their riches consisted in the produce of the 
 earth, and in domestic cattle. But the produce of the 
 earth was either speedily perishable or was consumed, as 
 now, for the ordinary maintenance of life. What we call 
 capital, therefore, the accumulations of past labour, con- 
 sisted then of cattle. Cattle formed the medium of 
 exchange, afibrded a ready means for the investment of 
 superabundant vegetable production, and thus became the 
 general standard by which wealth was estimated. The 
 possession of cattle also rendered necessary the acquisition 
 of grazing land and the co-operation of numerous shep- 
 herds and herdsmen, and thus contributed not only through 
 numbers to personal security, but to that system of coloni- 
 zation which was so needed to prevent nomad habits of 
 living, of idleness, and of pillage, from holding entire do- 
 minion. To cattle men looked, therefore, as to their 
 highest gifts through which they became respectable and 
 respected. To cattle also they owed many advantages ; 
 food, means of draught, clothing and numerous domestic 
 conveniences, were contributed by the quiet ox, the gentle 
 sheep or goat. Can we be surprised then that, in seeking 
 to display gi^atitude to the source of their wealth, men 
 should have chosen for the expression of that gi'atitude, 
 that which they valued most, or that God, in opening, as 
 it were, relations between himself and mortals, should 
 have deigned to declare himself willing to accept the tri- 
 
1G4: THE LAW OF SINAI, 
 
 bute whicli the holiest feelings of humanity had already 
 sanctified ? Assuredly not ; and more, if we were now 
 called on to determine what would have been the most 
 appropriate form for devotion, we should certainly pro- 
 nounce in favour of what seems to have possessed so many 
 claims for that peculiar end. Always at hand, always 
 valuable, always associated with comfort and happiness, 
 cattle were at all times adapted for sacrifice. Did some 
 long-continued prosperity determine a man to pour out 
 his gratitude, the marks of that prosperity were the best 
 means for his so doing. Did some escape from sudden 
 accident or momentary temptation evoke thankfulness, 
 the store of home at once afibrded scope for celebrating 
 the escape, or the resistance of temptation. If famine 
 threatened, what fitter to proijitiate than the food on 
 which, ill case of famine, existence depended 1 If we con- 
 cede, then, that man is as called on by gratitude to 
 Providence, as by his sense of Divine protection and his 
 want of Divine aid, to develop in some way his thank- 
 fulness, his dependence or his penitence, we must, at the 
 same time, allow that no type could have been more a23- 
 propriate than that selected. It returned in some way a 
 portion of his Divine blessing, and, by enabling man to 
 part with that which was valuable to himself and rendered 
 him valued in the eyes of others, it prevented selfishness 
 and avarice, and gave play to those warmer feelings of 
 generosity and benevolence which do so much to cement 
 the bonds of society. Fine sentiments, eloquently clothed, 
 may command admiration and excite respect ; but they 
 may be little else than glittering externals covering a 
 worthless character, and may disgrace the utterer as they 
 deceive the hearer. Homely thoughts, simply expressed, 
 may fail to rouse the imagination or awaken the fancy ; 
 but when the convictions they convey are substantially 
 proved by the sacrifice of something valuable or pleasui-able, 
 while we may fail to approve, we cannot refuse to appre- 
 
AND ITS APPOINTEE) TIMES. 165 
 
 eiate the siucerity and honesty of which they are the 
 emanations. Prayer may be only verbiage ; sacrifice must 
 be, to a certain extent, genuine. And this leads to the 
 second question. 
 
 Did sacrifices take the place of that devotion which now 
 exhibits itself in prayer 1 It is strange that, while modern 
 religion, throughout the civilised world, has adopted prayer 
 as the medium of its communication with Heaven ; while 
 Holy Writ contains abundant evidence that the patriarchs, 
 judges, and prophets of old must all have felt the value of 
 prayer and have used it ; while our present liturgy con- 
 tains passages of antiquity so remote that no precise date 
 can be given to their introduction, we nowhere find in 
 the Pentateuch any ordination concerning prayer. And 
 this is the more strange, when we consider the minuteness 
 of detail in eveiy respect that can affect human welfare, 
 either through moral, sanitary, social, or ceremonial law. 
 Even the fashion of the priestly garment is not thought 
 too light for a special ordination. How then can we 
 account for the absence of all rules as to prayer, or are 
 we to suppose that sacrifice superseded the necessity for 
 oral communication with Heaven 1 To us it has always 
 seemed evident that prayer was not ordained because it 
 was not to consist of any formula prescribed by God, but 
 was to be left to the free-w^ll of man. While it was quite 
 natural that a gracious Providence should point out to 
 men desirous of testifying by tangible means their repen- 
 tance or gi^atitude, their sorrow or hope, the manner most 
 agreeable to its acceptance, it was equally natural that 
 the expression of the sentiments which prompted those 
 testifying should be left to men themselves. The solemn 
 and impressive words of a recognised liturgy may penetrate 
 into the heart, although constant repetition sender them 
 somewhat too familiar, but the spontaneous effusions of r 
 soul, pouring itself out before the throne of grace, must 
 awaken a responsive echo in the deepest recesses of th© 
 
166 THE LAW OF r«INAI, 
 
 inind and body. Besides, the sacrifices being once 
 ordained, some individuals might have imagined that the 
 whole religious duty was involved in the offering, and 
 that to propitiate or atone, it was only necessary to bring 
 an ox or a lamb with the certainty of its being accepted. 
 And that this could not have been the end of sacrifice is 
 too apparent to require proof It seems clear, therefore, 
 that the devotion of our ancestors was to be of a twofold 
 nature — real and ideal ; the real being the visible sacrifice 
 and ceremony, the ideal being the accompanying senti- 
 ment which animated the act with all that rendered it 
 holy, and which expressed itself in the form of spontaneous 
 prayer. There must have been, and doubtless there were, 
 certain formulae which accompanied periodical sacrifice ; 
 such as the two daily offerings, the Sabbath and festival 
 offerings, &c., and these formulae were probably recited by 
 the ministering jjriests, and perhaps repeated by the sur- 
 rounding worshippers; but, for personal sacrifice, the 
 form of the prayer was left to the feelings of the indivi- 
 dual, and a standard was thus furnished by man himself 
 for estimating the sincerity of his devotion. But, it may 
 be urged, why, if the prayer was to be determined by man, 
 should the offering also be not so decided 1 The reply will 
 be evident from a consideration of the thir^ point : What 
 was the moral effect of sacrifices ? 
 
 Sacrifices were principally of two kinds : of atonement 
 for sin, and thus they partook of the nature of punishment ; 
 of thanksgiving for Divine mercy, and thus they assumed 
 the character of charity. Now, as has been before 
 observed, one of the primary objects of punishment is to 
 set an example to the culprit of the consequences entailed 
 by misdeeds — to the world of the evil effects which sin 
 produces. There is also no doubt that the discovery of 
 guilt and its exposure to the eyes of one's fellow-crea- 
 tures produce more shame than the actual guilt itself; 
 and that perhaps the best means to prevent crime would 
 
AND ITS APPOINTED TlifES. 167 
 
 be to compel every criminal to publish bis sbame. Viewed 
 in tbis Hgbt, tbe determining of tbe expiatory sacrifice by 
 Divine command was alike necessary to prevent tbe 
 sinner from concealing his guilt, and important to place 
 him in bis true character before bis fellow-creatures. 
 And tbis will be tbe more readily conceded when it is 
 recollected that although an act of sin offend only an 
 individual, it is essentially a wrong against society, and 
 that tbe sufferer has neither the power nor tbe right to 
 acquit the culprit without suitable reparation to tbe 
 offended majesty of the law. Hence to leave tbe form of 
 an atonement-offering to the sinner would have been to 
 deprive it of one of its most important functions, viz., its 
 being tbe medium for exposing the evil doer, and its 
 consequent tendency to prevent error through shame. 
 Even the most hardened sinner could not at some time 
 fail to acknowledge tbe omniscience of God, and he 
 would thus also recognise tbe necessity for appeasing bis 
 anger in the way ordained by his mercy; the hypocrite 
 also, who, under the cloak of sanctity, violated every 
 principle of morality, would at some moment of com- 
 punction feel impelled to attempt an expiation. Both, 
 however, while endeavouring to make their peace with 
 their offended Maker, could only do so by allowing their 
 fellow-men to be the witnesses of their contrition and 
 humiliation ; and thus tbe very best safeguard against tbe 
 recuiTence of criminality was the abasement to which a 
 public act of penitence compelled submission. And that 
 tbis idea prevailed with the Divine legislator may be 
 inferred by the particular sacrifice ordained for the 
 involuntary sin, or for the " sin of ignorance." A broad 
 line of demarcation was thus drawn between crime and 
 error ; while the one was held up in all its flagrancy, tbe 
 other was exposed only as a warning against frailty, and 
 as a caution to acquire that true knowledge of God's law 
 -which might prevent tbe ignorance that bad fallen. But 
 
168 THE LAW OF SINAI, 
 
 ill both cases the religious nature of the expiation deprived 
 it of all that coiikl render the sinner's humiliation a 
 theme for mockery or a means for insult. Men may pelt 
 the victim in the stocks, but there is something so solemn 
 and holy in an act of devotion to God that even scoifei*3 
 are silenced and unbelievers can only sneer. A conscious- 
 ness of the general weakness of human nature may 
 restrain from an acknowledgment of error to one's fellow- 
 man, and may support even under the obloquy of invective 
 to which undiscovered evil-doers are too apt to resort 
 when any opportunity offers for blurring another; but 
 there is no such excuse in confessing frailty before the 
 perfection of Heaven, for there is no degradation in Divine 
 reproof In regard to the atonement-offerings, therefore, 
 it is evident that the moral effect must have been most 
 impressive ; they deprived guilt of all means for subter- 
 fuge, and yet awakened no revengeful feelings against 
 human injustice; they compelled exposure of crime and 
 thus produced shame, but it was a shame which left no 
 sting in the culprit, because he felt that sincere repent- 
 ance was ennobling, and which afforded no triumph to 
 others, because all knew their own shortcomings, and 
 were conscious that it might "but too soon be their duty 
 to atone. 
 
 The offerings of gratitude, " free-will and peace," 
 were no less beneficial in a moral sense. They were 
 designed to represent man's thankfulness for heavenly 
 goodness, and to be the exponent of his resources in the 
 eyes of the world. But, as has been said, wealth in 
 those times consisted in cattle, and not in money. A 
 man's funds may be over or under estimated by com- 
 moii report or Iry appearances, but no mistake could 
 be made in respect to property which was so bulky, and 
 (^f necessity so apparent to the public. If, therefore, 
 parsimony or selfishness prompted to a scanty or inade- 
 quate sacrifice, there was no room for pleading a mis- 
 
AND ITS APPOINTED TIMES. 169 
 
 taken estimate or the scarcity of available capital. Just 
 a^j true cliai'ity left the "corners of the field" ample, 
 while niggard economy contracted them to the very 
 corners, so a free-will offering represented the exact 
 state of a man's philanthropy, and afforded no excuse 
 wliich the world could not well appreciate. Laws, 
 however, are made to bind only the dishonourable ; true 
 honesty requires no bridle. Real gratitude to Heaven, 
 expounded in genuine charity, needed no ordinance to 
 enforce the magnitude of its ofiering ; it was only the 
 pseudo-philanthropy which selfishness puts on as a 
 mask, which was exposed by the extent of its sacri- 
 fices. And thus, as now some only give that their 
 names may figure in subscription-lists, or become cele- 
 brated as patrons, so, in all times, there have been pre- 
 tenders to philanthropy and traders in charity. Our 
 means of convicting such hypocrites are fallible, but 
 before God they are exposed in their true colours ; we 
 do not succeed in detecting the fraud, and imiDunity 
 begets courage to persevere ; but Divine wisdom is not to 
 be deceived, and conscious dishonesty of purpose dares 
 not prevaricate before its Heavenly Judge. And so, here 
 again, the religious nature of the act of charity, its con- 
 nection with the service of God, was the best security 
 for its genuineness. While the publicity of the sacrifice 
 and the means thus afforded for comparing its adequacy 
 with the known resourceis of the giver, were checks 
 against the parsimony of the miser or the niggardliness 
 of the selfish, the sanctity attached to the ofiering was 
 its safeguard alike against the pretensions of hypocrisy 
 and against the vanity that aims at worldly applause. 
 Bow we then to the wisdom which ordained sacrifice to 
 be the preservative of honesty, the exponent of honour, 
 which opened the door to sincere repentance by gra- 
 ciously showing how its words might be i3roved by 
 suitable deeds, and which secured man against fraud 
 
 I 
 
170 THE LAW OF SINAI, 
 
 and affected sanctimony by reflecting tbem in acts safely 
 estimable, because tbey were assayed in tlie mint of tbe 
 Lord. 
 
 i:s2 
 LKVITICUS: CHAPTER YL, VERSE 8. 
 
 The existence of tbe priestbood having ceased to 
 present any very peculiarly distinctive features, there 
 is little in this portion to excite observation. Never- 
 theless, it may not be uninteresting to point out the 
 social, political, and religious position of the priest in 
 the Jewish commonwealth, and to trace the changes 
 which have occurred in supplying the vacancy occa- 
 sioned by tbe discontinuance of the sacerdotal functions. 
 
 The social position of the Jewish priest scarcely 
 resembled that now filled by any minister. He bad no 
 locus in the country, he held no stake in the land ; the 
 temple was his home, the high priest bis chief; the 
 contributions of his flock formed his support. He 
 might marry, and indeed he was even expected to exe- 
 cute that great law of nature, but be could bequeath to 
 his children nothing but his ministry. His principal 
 claim on his charge was founded on personal esteem, 
 derived from a conscientious and efficient discharge of 
 Ins sacred duties. He was everyv/here a detached por- 
 tion of the household ; he could not be said to form 
 one of the domestic circle, and yet no family but ad- 
 mitted his influence, but was modified in its relations 
 by his authority. He was the educator of the people ; 
 he trained youth to a knowledge of virtue and advised 
 manhood in its practice. In all the eras of life, his ofiice 
 had a share ; at births and dearths, in health and sick- 
 ness, the presence of the priest was felt as a want and 
 recognised as a privilege. If he could not participate 
 in the agricultural business of his time, he could and did 
 
AND ITS APPOINTED TlilE?. 171 
 
 rejoice in its prosperous result, and his vocation taught 
 liim to prevent those results from becoming destructive, 
 by enervating the body, or by alienating the mind from 
 a contemplation of higher subjects. His very presence 
 was a perpetual monitor, warning men to industrial 
 pursuits that they might maintain him in his usefulness 
 while providing for their own subsistence, and exhort- 
 ing them to intellectual and moral pursuits by remind- 
 ing them of his holy mission. In short, the priest was in 
 society what reading is in the acquirement of informa- 
 tion — the means by which each individual communi- 
 cated with individuals, by which sympathy evoked sympa- 
 thy, by which men learned to think for themselves, 
 by forming theii' judgment on the experience of 
 others. 
 
 The political position of the priest was that of a 
 magistrate. He w^as the administrator of the law and 
 the arbitrator in all cases of dispute or litigation. If 
 legislative functions were denied him, it was in common 
 with his fellow-countrymen, because both he and they 
 Avere taught that authority existed ouly in the Divine 
 code, which was to be sufficient for all time. In the 
 simple relations of those semi-barbarous ages, when 
 nation scarcely recognised nation, except for aggressive 
 or defensive purposes, and when consequently diplomacy 
 was unknown, the power of any individual in the state 
 was necessarily limited ; but such power as existed was 
 entirely in the hands of the priesthood, and one effect of 
 its use is too important to be forgotten. Composed as 
 the land of Israel was of several distinct territories, 
 appropriated to the different tribes, there was every 
 reason but one that a diversity of customs and interests 
 should gradually spring up, and that the country should 
 rather resemble ancient Greece in the number of its 
 commonwealths than remain an undivided government. 
 That one reason was the existence of the priesthood as a 
 
172 THE LAW OF SINAI, 
 
 harmonious whole. Penetrating the entire country; 
 carrying everywhere the exposition of the same prin- 
 ciples, and those principles more lofty, more permanent, 
 and more sacred than any of mortal origin ; representing 
 in every locality the same grand object that was centred 
 in the sanctuary or temple ; the priesthood preserved a 
 uniformity of customs, and a community of interests 
 which maintained the nation in its singleness. The 
 councils and games of Greece and the Diet of Germany 
 were designed for the same object, but they fulfilled it as 
 much more imperfectly as their human institutions were 
 inferior to the Divine institutions administered by the 
 Jewish priesthood. If proof of this service to the Jewish 
 state be wanted, it may be found in the fact that, so long 
 as the priesthood maintained their prescribed character- 
 istics, so long the nation remained entire, and that it 
 only became dismembered because one body of priests 
 desired to retain the worship of the true God and another 
 body succeeded in introducing idolcraft. And indeed, it 
 was to the sufficiency of the priesthood for the political 
 welfare of the nation that allusion was made to Samuel 
 when he was induced to ask Heaven to appoint a king. 
 " The Lord is King of his people," said the Eternal, 
 meaning thereby that all legislative authority was vested 
 in liim, while his representative priests held the amount 
 of executive authority requisite to secure justice and 
 maintain rights. 
 
 The religious position of the priest was strictly defined, 
 and while he preferred to exercise his vocation as the 
 guide of his flock, and not to be guided by them, there 
 was no danger of his losing caste or of his over-stepping 
 the boundaries assigned to his authority. He was the 
 spiritual adviser of the people, but he had no power to 
 mystify them by unintelligible transcendentalism, because 
 the text of faith was before them in all its literality, and 
 he was as amenable to its doctrines as they were. He 
 
AXD ITS APPOINTED TIMES. 173 
 
 received the confession of sins, and he was the instrument 
 for making the necessary sacrifice of atonement ; but the 
 confessional gave him neither power of absolution nor 
 right of stipulating for terms of expiation ; the text of 
 faith ordained the extent of his interference, and his 
 agency in the matter of the sacrifice was official, not 
 vicarious. He was the depository of the traditional 
 precepts and the expounder of the written statutes, but 
 tliese were not by prescription his peculiar property, and 
 he was permitted neither " to add to them nor to 
 diminish from them ;" the text of faith made him no 
 oracular patron of the hidden future, and while he might 
 assume some consequence as the honest servant of Heaven, 
 it was only as the zealous minister to the people that he 
 claimed respect. And in this the Jewish priesthood 
 differed from the priesthood of surrounding nations ; 
 while, among idolatrous people, the corruption of the 
 priesthood fed on the ignorance of their disciples, which 
 they had first produced, among the Jews the purity of the 
 people influenced the respectability of the priesthood 
 because the people were the power. Wlien any popular 
 movement took place among the idolatrous nations, it was 
 for the most part directed by priestly rule ; in the Holy 
 Land, the will of the people generally guided the priest- 
 hood, and it was only when these stood firm to their 
 principles that the spiritualism of God-worship prevailed 
 over the materialism which has so many charms in the 
 eyes of the mass. 
 
 When, after the dispersion, the priestly functions 
 ceased, the first care of the Jewish leaders was to provide 
 for that ministration now rendered considerably more 
 necessary by the dissolution of the national existence. 
 So long as the people had lived in their own land, and as 
 the priesthood had formed one united body, there had 
 been no need for more instruction than the j^riests could 
 give by word of mouth, and in vii'tue of their office. But 
 
174 THE LAW OF SINAI, 
 
 now that the most important sacerdotal duties had ceased, 
 now that the priest was no longer the representative of 
 the people in matters of worship, and that the prayers of 
 the individual were ofiered directly to Heaven, without 
 tlie intervention of sacrificial ceremony, the bond which 
 had united priest and people, and which had of necessity 
 engendered constant intercommunication, was altogether 
 dissolved, and the priesthood, as a recognised ministry, 
 disappeared. Provision, therefore, was requisite to supply 
 that other function of the priest which made him the 
 expounder of the traditional statutes : and accordingly, 
 we find that, in the very earliest period of the cajDtivity, 
 the oral law was committed to writing, and a means was 
 thus aflforded for the community to seek from records 
 what they had before asked at the mouth of the priest. 
 Nor was there any danger that these records should not 
 be consulted. At a time when idolatry ruled almost the 
 whole world, and while struggling Christianity was hiding 
 in deserts or suffering in towns, all that the Jew owned 
 to invoke the future was the religion which had attached 
 him to the past. True, that in his prosperity he had not 
 properly valued that religion ; true^ that in his own land 
 he had relied rather on the mercy which had so often 
 forgiven than on the merit which might deserve mercy ; 
 but now, in his adversity, he clung to his faith as the only 
 relic of his past glory ; a sojourner among strangers he 
 sought for that mercy which alone couJd recall him to the 
 country of his inheritance. Moreover, while the Israelites 
 were living as a nation, the language of the patriarchs 
 was their vernacular, the medium not only for their 
 addresses to Heaven, but for their familiar and ordinary 
 communication. Now, that they were to be sojournei-s 
 over the face of the world, now, that scattered among 
 strangers, their language, like their nationality, was to be 
 numbered with the dead, and they were to adopt the 
 language of tlieir temporary dwelling-places, now, the 
 
AND ITS APPOINTED TIMES. 175 
 
 language of Holy Writ was the peculiar bond wliicli kept 
 togetlier their dissevered knots ; it was the only repre- 
 sentative they had of the sacred mission confided to them 
 from Sinai, the only inheritance which persecution could 
 not alienate, which dispersion could not destroy. The 
 Hebrew language, therefore, was cultivated among the 
 earlier generations of the captivity with a zeal and fidelity 
 which recorded alike their repentance for what they had 
 deserved to lose, and their devotion to the cause which 
 they still hoped to achieve. Nor was this cultivation 
 remitted in those subsequent ages, when Christianity, 
 successful against the oppression of heathenism, seemed 
 resolved to pay back to Jews some of the contumely 
 under which itself had groaned. As in ancient history 
 there is more than once presented the phenomenon of a 
 hardy and vigorous barbarism attacking and overthrowing 
 an effeminate refinement, to be in its turn the victim of 
 the luxury it had conquered, so in modern days it seems 
 to have been the fate of young modes of faith to suffer, 
 and then to aspire to triumph in order that they might 
 inflict suffering on others. Hence, in the ages of the 
 crusades and of chivalry, when the banner of religion vv^as 
 unfurled to be dabbled in gore, and when the protection 
 of innocence meant any thing but Jewish innocence ; 
 when monarchs sold privileges to their Hebrew subjects 
 that they might rob them afterwards ; when people justi- 
 fied the fanatical onslaught of an infuriated and plunder- 
 seeking mob by calling pillage legal confiscation, and the 
 violation of all human rights, Christian; when bigots 
 shut up Jews in ghettos and thus enervated their bodies 
 by malaria, branded Jews with badges of degradation and 
 thus crushed theii* spirits by a sense of wi-ong, excluded 
 Jews from all honoiu*able careers and thus debased their 
 minds to humihating courses, taught Jews that money 
 alone could purchase a temporary immunity and thus 
 compelled them at all risks to acquire money ; when 
 
176 THE LAW OF SINAI, 
 
 intolerant inquisitors, not satisfied witli what bigotiy had 
 done, invented new tortures, — sent the aged and the young, 
 the grandsire and the maiden, to the stake or the rack,- 
 and called this outrage on humanity an " offering of faith," 
 — tore children from the arms of their parents, and morally 
 inflicted on them the very fate which they so deprecated 
 in the case of the founder of their religion — nailed them 
 to the cross ; when, in short, the Jews found themselves 
 isolated among men, and compelled to seek civilization by 
 stealth, they naturally attached themselves to the only 
 comforts left to them, their religion and their language. 
 Wherever Jews dwelt, therefore, there existed numerous 
 schools, yeshibas and botte medroshem, in which the study 
 of Hebrew was the exclusive occupation, and in which 
 almost the only text books wer^ the Bible, the Mishna, 
 and its commentary, the Gemarah. And thus, as wide- 
 spread as the Jews themselves, was the knowledge of 
 their sacred duties, and the rabbis who taught and ex- 
 pounded the doctrines which theii' predecessors, the 
 priests, had preserved, fulfilled the only function that 
 circumstances permitted, and circulated among willing 
 pupils the written lessons which had previously existed 
 only in tradition. 
 
 But times changed. By slow degrees active persecution 
 became, first, passive, and then, lingered and died. Men, 
 either from indifference, from inattention caused by ab- 
 sorption in more important personal matters, or from a 
 more liberal and enlightened knowledge of human rights, 
 gradually permitted Jews to leave their ghettos, to drop 
 their badges, to abandon their forced pursuits for honour- 
 able vocations, to give up their isolation for intercommuni- 
 cation with their fellow-creatures of other creeds ; and 
 everywhere this change was found productive of good. 
 There were infused into the mass the energy, the industry, 
 the perse verance.the genius of a people always distinguish- 
 ed by the high natural capabilities of the Circassian race. 
 
AND ITS APPOINTED TDIES. 177 
 
 and the beneficial effects soon became visible. The 
 stream which had previously been confined by artificial 
 dykes was permitted to flow in unrestricted plenty, and it 
 carried light on its surface and fertility in its bosom. 
 But this advantage to the world was purchased at some 
 sacrifice. The philanthropy which was now allowed to 
 develop it."^elf gushed forth with overwhelming force; the 
 hearts which had been compelled by a forced contraction, 
 the pressure being removed, burst into uncontrolled 
 elasticity. Jews became too eager to show their inherent 
 love for their neighbours to mark the distance to which 
 it bore them, they were too glad to be recognised as 
 members of the great human family to notice the peculiar- 
 ities which tliey were still bound to retain. And so 
 assimilation began to operate, and to convert heteroge- 
 neous materials into one harmonious whole, and one of the 
 first results was a greater cultivation of the vernacular, 
 through which they communicated with the world, and a 
 corresponding neglect of the language of Scripture, in 
 which they invoked Heaven. Circumstances, too, had 
 altered Jewish views. The exclusiveness and persecution 
 of past ages had justified rabbinical institutes, and com- 
 pelled Jews to look back. Toleration and enlightenment 
 rendered these institutes frequently unnecessary, some- 
 ti:ue3 objectionable, and often obstructive to Jewish 
 progress, - and induced Jews to look forward. The study 
 of rabbinical works, therefore, depreciated ; its use was 
 questioned as incompatible with modern civilization, and 
 every day grew stronger the desire to overleap all salient 
 points of distinction, and to merge more and more closely 
 into the universal mass. Again the functions of the 
 rabbis changed. Compelled to advance with the times, 
 and to preserve what was, after all, the essence of their 
 charge — religion, they were to sacrifice to some extent 
 the Hebrew language, and to adopt the vernacular for 
 sacred purposes also. Hence sermons grew to form a 
 
 i2 
 
178 THE LAW OF SINAI, 
 
 portion of divine service ; and so important was their aim 
 felt to be, that even they, who clung most fondly to tal- 
 mudical discussions and the like, were induced to dispense 
 with their favourite, but no longer generally understood 
 or appreciated themes, in favour of the less legitimate but 
 more impressive instruction of the pulpit. And thus to 
 subserve the great end of Judaism, and at the same time 
 to enable Jews successfully to permeate mankind, the 
 successors of the priesthood have a new duty. They are 
 bound, if they wish to adapt their religion to the wants of 
 the people, to present it in a garb suited to the age in 
 which they live. As modern Jews drop the caftan and 
 tlie gaberdine, and retain only the under-garment of 
 fringes as their distinctive mark of dress, so do they also 
 drop the peculiar cultivation of Hebrew for maintaining 
 rabbinical or obsolete institutes, and retain the sacred 
 language only for the inner life which is of their religion. 
 The rabbis must subserve what they cannot control, di- 
 recting it to a useful end; and everywhere the truths of 
 Judaism must be constantly enunciated from the pulpit if 
 the rabbis desire that Judaism should flourish. 
 
 LEVITICUS: CHAPTEPtlX. 
 " I WILL be sanctified by those who approach me," was 
 the emphatic declaration which recorded the death of 
 Aaron's disobedient sons, and was the caution by which 
 power was recommended not to abuse its privileges. In 
 the battle of life there is no conquest like self-conquest. 
 Among the gauds which attract man permanently there is 
 none so engrossing as power. Passion speaks to the weak 
 heart, now in whispers that enthral, now in thunder tones 
 that terrify ; but reason ever remains an honest moderator 
 when the intensity of the flame has worn itself out, and 
 conscience, like a faithful friend, holds up the truth in 
 
AND ITS APPOINTED TIIIES. 179 
 
 unalloyed purity. Power alone overcomes both reason 
 and conscience, for it is easy for self-love to convince 
 reason that power is its legitimate right for the benefit of 
 others, for vanity to hold a veil before conscience to colour 
 its pictures. 
 
 Among the problems which history presents, none is so 
 frequent as the influence which power has exercised over 
 its possessor, either for good or for e^T.1. It converted the 
 pampered favourite of a too indulgent father into an 
 honest and a zealous servant, and subsequently into a 
 politic, a sagacious, and withal a merciful ruler. Through 
 its purifying fire the compound ore was passed, and Joseph 
 emerged as a perfect metal. It converted the servant 
 groaning under the yoke of a tyrant master, and melting 
 to pity at the miseries inflicted on himself and others, into 
 a tyrant worse than his master, without pity and without 
 remorse. Through its miasmatic atmosphere the health- 
 ful character was trailed, and it came out poisoned as the 
 wicked Hazael. Over the sanguinary career of the ruth- 
 less Octavius it cast its shielding mantle, and men failed 
 to recognise Augustus in his garb of peace. In its madly- 
 driven chariot the light and spirited Plenry the Eighth 
 was driven headlong on a dowTiward course, till none 
 could identify the intoxicated charioteer, as his car di'ove 
 furiously over all that stood in his path. With these and 
 thousands of other examples before us, can we wonder 
 that Providence, ever watchful for the virtue of mankind, 
 should seize on a flagrant act to point a moral 1 
 
 Power is the pecaliar attribute of the Godhead ; in all 
 its modifications, traced back to its first cause, it is of God. 
 But power in the hands of ineflTable goodness and untii'ing 
 mercy is ever wielded with unswerving justice, and 
 operates not for its own aggrandisement, but for universal 
 good. Power in the hands of mortal frailty and mortal 
 selfishness, loses its Divine type, and becomes the rod by 
 which one compels the many to bow, that he may rise on 
 
180 THE LAW OF SINAI, 
 
 tlieir prostrate bodies. Of the many to whose charge 
 power has been deputed, experience has shown that 
 none have been so prone to abuse it as priests. While 
 monarchs have more than once enslaved a nation that 
 their successors might rule hereditary serfs ; while 
 usurpers, through either military or civil despotism, 
 have more than once crushed liberty from the hearts of 
 those who helped them to rise, priests alone have known 
 how to forge chains into which time eats no rust, which 
 no internal force or external pressure has been able to 
 burst. Nor is this difficult to understand. Where true 
 religion prevails, the priest is the guide of his flock, and 
 their teacher ; through him they soar to the height of the 
 Divinity whom he inculcates ; through him they learn 
 the duties of man to Heaven, and to his fellow-creature ; 
 through him they acquire a love for the universal rights 
 inalienable except by tyranny ; through him they know 
 that power is delegated to an individual as a sacred 
 deposit for the good of others, and thus slavery and degra- 
 dation become impossible. It is only where the worship 
 of God has been clouded by priestcraft, where corrupt 
 humanity has encircled the genuine essence of religion 
 with a shell which it is no longer possible to pierce, that 
 men ignore their privileges and crouch in fear and hatred. 
 But this can happen only through the complicity of 
 priests ; it is their j)rovince to enlighten, they purposely 
 mystify ; they should elevate, they seek to depress : to 
 them man is to look for knowledge, and they give him 
 instead ignorance ; they should raise human nature to be 
 little less than angelic, they lower it below the condition 
 of brutes. Under such circumstances slavery becomes the 
 only lot for which the multitude is fit ; not the slavery of 
 the body, working in mines or toiling in hopeless drudgery? 
 but that far worse slavery of the mind, which levels 
 reason with instinct, and thus renders example and imita- 
 tion the only rules for action. Now, it is necessary to 
 
AND ITS APPOINTED TIMES. 181 
 
 remember tliat it was precisely this state of tilings that 
 Judaism was to terminate. Throughout the world, at the 
 period of the Sinaitic revelation, there prevailed an entire 
 system of this slavery. Everywhere, protected by a fence 
 of mysterious charms which priests had erected, priests 
 ruled a debased and benighted mass. Everywhere, this 
 fence was gradually thickening into impenetrability, and 
 thus the end of Heaven in the creation of man was beinc^- 
 
 o 
 
 subverted by man himself Heaven had destined man to 
 happiness through virtue and holiness, the attributes of 
 the Eternal. But to acquire these it was essential that 
 man should possess a knowledge of the Divine model he 
 was called upon to imitate. Hence mercy gave revelation 
 as the means for human instruction, and man's destina- 
 tion was told in a few but pithy words : " Ye shall be 
 holy, for I, the Eternal, your God, am holy." In the 
 hurry of the world, however, in the pressure of mundane 
 affairs, it was little likely that ordinary men should find 
 either the leisure or the information necessary for perfect- 
 ing themselves in their task of salvation. Again, there- 
 fore, Divine grace interfered actively on behalf of mortal 
 weakness, and a priesthood was established whose func- 
 tions were to be intermediate between God and man. 
 Priests were to be left at entire liberty from worldly cares ; 
 their sole occupation was to be the spread of the eternal 
 principles of truth and religion, and the practice of those 
 rites which brought them into direct communication 
 with their flock on the one hand, and with the Almighty 
 on the other. Moreover, in order to give additional 
 solemnity to their own conduct, and additional authority 
 to their influence over their flock, one of their number 
 filled, as it were, on Kippur, a more elevated state of 
 being, when in the Holy of Holies he penetrated into the 
 very presence of God, and brought thence pardon and 
 atonement. To Jewish priests, therefore, belonged a 
 vocation Vv hich could only succeed while they remained 
 
182 THE LAW OF SINAI, 
 
 faithful to the duties imposed on them ; the moment 
 they trespassed and passed the Rubicon of obedience, 
 they were rebels against God, and thus lost caste among 
 men. 
 
 Duty is a straight line ; a deviation from it, how slight 
 soever, leads to indefinite aberration. This it is which 
 has made men conservative ; it is better, say they, to 
 narrow the path to a goal than to endanger reaching that 
 goal at all, by arbitrary, and therefore always changing, 
 roads. The Jewish priesthood was essentially a couser- 
 vative body. The sacerdotal functions, even to the mi- 
 nutest, were definitively settled by Divine prescription ; 
 and surely, if tlie congregation of Israel could become holy 
 only by following the law and its enactments, it was still 
 more evident that those who led the people should them- 
 selves show an example of devotion, wliich proved alike 
 their fidelity to their Supreme Master, and their claim to 
 the respect of their charge. While ignorance is to be 
 pitied, and want of proper information demands commi- 
 seration, there is no excuse for presumptuous intellectual- 
 isation, there is no forgiveness for knowledge which 
 proudly rebels, and seeks even to justify its rebellion. 
 Besides, there is a prestige in station which gives weight 
 to its proceedings. The acts of an humble individual are 
 scarcely known beyond his contracted domestic circle; 
 while living he exercises little or no influence, when dead 
 his memory passes away, and is utterly lost for good or 
 for evil. The acts of public men stand recorded on the 
 history of the world, which they invite to imitate or avoid 
 them ; while living they are regarded as the guiding 
 sj)irits of their age, when dead their memory is the study 
 for future generations. The humble may sin, therefore, 
 and do no harm beyond that involved in their sinful 
 deed ; tlie lofty need only to err and irreparable evil may 
 ensue, because of the power of their example. " I will be 
 sanctified by those who approach me," is the recognition 
 
AND ITS APPOINTED TIIilES. 183 
 
 of this principle. The sons of Aaron, himself the high 
 priest, were, next to their father, the leading men of the 
 house of Israel To them the people looked for the best 
 guidance ; from them, therefore, God expected the most 
 implicit obedience. With power such as thej possessed, 
 one step in a false direction might lead to a complication 
 which existed in idolatrous nations, but was not to be 
 tolerated in Israel. They took that step, and its danger 
 was magnified by the grandeur of their position. It was 
 necessary that they should be deterred from continuing 
 in the ^T.'ong path they had chosen ; it was still more 
 necessary that others should not be tamted l)y their in- 
 fection. True, it was a first ofience, and might, therefore, 
 be lightly regarded ; but to pardon offenders so dis- 
 tinguished was to render punishment impossible to meauer 
 culprits. There was but one alternative ; the majesty of 
 Keaven must be vindicated, and men must be taught that 
 power gives no privileges beyond the discharge of the 
 trusts involved in its possession. Not by the avenging 
 lightning, which was a natural phenomenon, did tlie 
 rebellious fall ; but straight from the Deity whom they 
 had dared to provoke came the miraculous fire, and in the 
 very pride of their disobedience they were consumed in a 
 moment. " And Aaron held his peace." Doubtless his 
 paternal heart grieved for the death of his children ; 
 doubtless he felt the disgrace entailed by their crime ; but 
 mourning would have been sinful, because irrelevant with 
 his dignity ; repining would have been a reproach on the 
 justice of Heaven. In his case, silence was the best sub- 
 mission ; in their case, silence was the best epitaph. 
 
 The laws relating to food have been the theme for so 
 many comments that it is scarcely needful to do more than 
 mention them. As a subject for these reflections they 
 connect themselves with the chain of reasoning adopted 
 in elucidation of the Passover and the Sabbath. Purity 
 
184 THE LAW OF SINAI, 
 
 of mind depending so mucli on purity of body, we cannot 
 be surprised at the prohibition of any food whicli, during 
 the process of assimilation, might introduce noxious ele- 
 ments into the system, which might tend to generate 
 disease, or which might urge the fierce current (^f tlie 
 blood into a passionate whirl. This prohibition was 
 effected by a reference to certain general principles of 
 nature impressed on the lower animals. Of quadrupeds, 
 those only were permitted that in this age of civilization 
 adorn the most highly cultivated farm-land. The one 
 exception was the pig. It is not that the 1%, living, is of 
 filthy habits, and that the effluvium arising from its sty is 
 not healthful, fov to some extent the same might be said 
 of other animals. It is the dead animal that is i)rohibited, 
 and not without reason ; its flesh, always containing a 
 very large proportion of adipose matter, yields fuel to the 
 human body without a corresponding amount of whole- 
 some nutriment ; it easily decomposes, and therefore is 
 mostly subject to a curing process, whicli prevents decay, 
 but does not benefit the constituent elements ; it is liable 
 during life to a subcutaneous disorder, which remains even 
 r.fter death, but which is not discernihle through the non- 
 removal of the skin; this disorder has the effect of inju- 
 ring those who feed on tlu; animal.* Among birds, the 
 flesh of which is generally of a uniform character, only 
 those are forbidden which are disgusting, as the carnivo- 
 rous ; or coarse, from their size, as the swan. Among fish, 
 one large and important class is among the prohibited, 
 viz., those which have shells. Now, to say nothing of the 
 indigestive nature of some shell-fish, it may be enough 
 to observe that most of them are highly stimulating, 
 that they excite without satisfying, aud that they are 
 consequently opposed to that state of body so necessary 
 
 * It is an authenticated fact, that some islanders in the Pacific, 
 who live almost wholly on swine's flesh, are afflicted with a kind of 
 constant scurvy, arising from the circumstance here mentioned. 
 
AXD ITS APPOINTED TIMES. 18-5 
 
 to a mind in equilibrio. Besides, when we compare Llie 
 longevity of tlie Jew with that of other men, when we 
 observe his general health as compared with theirs, we 
 cannot refrain from acknowledging that, how restricted 
 soever be his diet, he seems nevertheless to have still 
 sufficient to promote the vigorous maintenance of the 
 frame, and to secure a reasonable length of life. And this 
 conclusion will be rendered more impressive when, in 
 the ensuing portion of the law, we discuss the sanitory 
 laws of Moses. Meanwhile, to the pious Israelite, the 
 prohibition of certain kinds of food will be classed wich 
 the prohibition of leaven on the Passover, and of fire for 
 culinary purposes on the Sabbath, that is, as the means 
 to an end. He will not regard dietary law^s as a mere 
 clog on his appetites, imposed as statutes not to be in- 
 vestigated, but he will consider them as a portion of the 
 great system by which man was to be brought nearer 
 to the perfection of his Maker. The primary object of 
 this system was human happiness, and this was to be 
 subserved by such wholesome checks as exist in all well- 
 defined systems. Just as individual liberty, in its con- 
 stitutional sense, means a conformity to the general will, 
 rather than an indulgence in personal caprice ; so, in a 
 religious sense, it signifies an adaptation to those prin- 
 ciples which promote universal well-being, rather than a 
 repudiation of all principles whatever, Man, having 
 once fallen from the height of his original creation, and 
 liaving by his subsequent career, shown how utterly he 
 could obliterate all traces of Divine knowledge from the 
 earth, it became necessary, in the revelation of Moses, 
 which, in respect to laws, was to be final, to guard that 
 such a result should never again supervene. Hence the 
 particularity of many of the enactments, and among others 
 of the dietary laws. In these, Israelites (commanded to 
 have the words of God always in their hearts, when they 
 sat in the house as well as when they went on their 
 
186 THE LAW OF SIXAI, 
 
 way) found a ready subject for conversation of an elevating 
 nature, a subject which could not fail to lead them to 
 other religious considerations, and which thus benehted 
 the soul, while the laws themselves benefited the body. 
 
 LEVITICUS: CHAPTER XII. 
 The discoveries of science are daily confirming the 
 truths of Holy Writ. In the nineteenth century men 
 are learning to appreciate the simple knov/ledge which 
 shone from inspiration three thousand three hundred 
 years ago. " Cleanliness is next to godliness " has been 
 a saw for ages, but it has been only a saying. Men have 
 prated of the theory of health, but have altogether ignored 
 the practice. In all the great cities of modern times — 
 cities wherein regal or imperial courts hold their sway, 
 wherein learned and scientific bodies have their constant 
 meeting's, wherein are collected all that refinement and 
 luxury demand for their most fastidious wants — in all 
 these cities, poverty and squalor have their reeking homes. 
 The foetid hovel of the beggar rises side by side with the 
 palace of the merchant prince ; the light and splendour of 
 the fiishionable club or recherche hotel are blurred by the 
 smoke of the cheap lodging-house ; from the streets in 
 which wealth rolls in carriages branch alleys in which 
 paupers wallow in tilth and misery. Wisdom has been 
 struck by these contrasts, but it has allowed them to 
 remain as inevitabilities beyond either its province or its 
 greatness. Philanthropy has been outraged by seeing 
 death stalking in the midst of teeming thousands, but it 
 has not exerted itself to remove the dark phantom. From 
 time to time, pallid ague or putrid fever has desolated 
 whole districts of those peopled cities ; but the ravages 
 have been confined to the wretched homes of poor igno- 
 rance, and rich science has not troubled itself to inquire 
 
AND ITS APPOINTED TlilES. 187 
 
 for causes or to seek means for prevention. "Within the 
 very bosoms of dainty human beings miasma has generated 
 its subtlest poison from foul drains, over-crowded cellars, 
 or mouldering heaps of animal and vegetable refuse ; but 
 tlie malaria has not been imbibed within the precincts of 
 the great, and the earth could well afford to spare some of 
 the grovelling mass. The trumpet voice of personal 
 danger was needed to awaken the torpid mind of know- 
 ledge, to give energy to its paralysed hands and to direct 
 them to useful exertions, and it came — direct from Heaven. 
 What is that gaunt visage which, Medusa-like, strikes 
 all beholders with sudden death ? AYhat is that unseen 
 influence that penetrates into the heart of the quick and 
 the beautiful, and leaves all still and ghastly behind ? 
 What is that poisoned breath which shakes the arras of 
 luxury and rustles the rags of poverty, money buying 
 no immunity, wretchedness forming no shield 1 What 
 is that all-powerfal, all-insinuating vapour that passes, 
 simoom-like, over the domestic hearth, and prostrates on 
 it the old and the young, the loved and the forsaken 1 
 What is that dread visitant which claims admittance 
 alike to palace and hovel, pauses but to strike and quits 
 with wailing for its God-s^^eed ? What is that invisible 
 guest which, coming in the brightness of morning to the 
 glad home of health, tarries but till noon or evening and 
 then tear's away in its embrace parents from children, 
 blooming maidens from adoring lovers, helping sons from 
 lonely widows- — that severs all ties with abruptness so 
 appalling that precaution has no time to take measures, 
 skill no opportunity for arraying itself against the danger t 
 Whisper the dread name — softly, lest the thing hear thee 
 and come at thy call. Tell the horrible fact to thy terror- 
 stricken soul in privacy and solitude, lest to thine un- 
 strung nerves publicity attract what most they fear. 
 Cholera ! Once its dark pinions hovered over Europe and 
 thuusands fell beneath their shadow. Men shuddered, 
 
188 TilE LAW OF SINAI, 
 
 but they awoke not to action. A second and a third 
 time it winged its flight over the same ground, and then 
 at length reason began to trace analogies, to investigate 
 ])henomena, to bestir itself to guard its own from the 
 peril which threatened all alike, to try whether it were 
 not possible to prevent what there had been so little time 
 to cure. 
 
 And thus sfrew boards of health and sanitary laws. 
 Men found that the inherent principles of chemistry — 
 the great agent of nature's changes — were as true in re- 
 gard to vitality as to inert matter. As combustion 
 generates its antagonist, water, and as breathing produces 
 the inimical carbonic acid, so animalization was proved to 
 be the storehouse for the elements of death. The dread 
 horror that had written itself on sallow faces and shrunken 
 limbs, that had convulsed or paralysed, that had stalked, 
 " as the destruction at noon-day," amid the crowded house- 
 holds of a thousand localities, was found to be begotten 
 and nurtured on the hearths it was desolating. From 
 untold heaps of garbage and refuse, from smouldering 
 accumulations of unheeded decomposition, from charnel- 
 houses and graveyards, the infant giant was born, to en- 
 fold in its deadly embrace all that civilization held most 
 dear. And science went back three thousand years ; the 
 boasted knowledge of refined cities borrowed a lesson from 
 the inexperience of the untrodden wilderness. What 
 Moses had pronounced to be the basis on which the super- 
 structure of social health was to be raised, the nineteenth 
 century adopted as the foundation for its imjjroved edifice 
 of human life. Cleanliness, the removal of pestiferous 
 elements, the separation of the dead from the living, the 
 isolation of epidemic or endemic diseases, all enjoined in 
 this portion of the law, were the means again to be re- 
 sorted to for the preservation of existence, and thus one 
 more testimony was borne to the value of Holy Writ for 
 all and every condition. 
 
AND ITS APPOIXTED TIMES. 189 
 
 That men should have been so slow to adopt these 
 nieasures is the only wonder. Mercy is no cause for con- 
 gratulation, and Jews desire not to call themselves special 
 objects of Divine flivour ; but to the eye of even the least 
 curious, Jewish history presents some phenomena too 
 remarkable to escape notice, and it could only be tlie wil- 
 fulness which arrayed all creeds together, for the one 
 common end of seeing nothing valuable in Judaism, v/hich 
 j^revented these phenomena from exciting attention. 
 While in all towns, poverty and misery found their abodes 
 in the meanest and filthiest quarters, there was still one 
 district viler and more wretched than the rest to which 
 jorejudice confined the Jews. Poverty, multiplying in the 
 face of death, could at least flee to open suburbs or to the 
 no longer attractive streets of decayed gentility, but Jewish 
 j)overty, no matter how fruitful, must still be penned 
 within the original precincts. And yet, when plague or 
 other hideous form of death has swept through Europe, 
 gathering new force from every crowded neighbourhood, 
 it has still been in the most crov/ded Jewish homes that 
 the destroyer has come less frequently. When pestilence 
 has ravaged the fairest abodes, prostrating the most loved 
 objects of their spacious luxuriousness, the narrow cham- 
 bers of the ghetto, filled to repletion with teeming life, 
 have still been most free from the grim presence. jMore 
 recently too, when cholera mowed the thick ranks of full 
 cities, it was still the most serried files of Jewish bands 
 that fell least often before the appalling scythe. Whence 
 this comparative immunity ? Not because Jews can hope 
 to be objects of a special Providence — for there is no 
 longer any ground for supposing Divine interposition 
 I)eculiarly theirs. Not because Jews can boast of superior 
 medical attendance, of more careful watching — although 
 these are not wanting. Not because Jewish philanthropy, 
 great though it be, has provided ampler accommodation for 
 the needy and sufi'ering. Not because Jews have been 
 
190 THE LAW OF SINAI, 
 
 inomlly and j)liysically in advance of their fellow- creatures, 
 although they have not been behind in the great race of 
 progress. Nob because Jews have been naturally more 
 cleanly than other men, although, despite oppression and 
 degradation, they have not been comparatively more un- 
 clean. But because, humbly be it said, the requirements 
 of Judaism compel a course of domestic duty conducive to 
 health, and urge on those arrangements which sanitary 
 boards are now finding to be so essential. True, there are 
 some Jews whose habits are not the most agreeable, just 
 as there are some of all creeds whose morals are not pure ; 
 but Jews are unclean in spite of their faith, and not in 
 conformity with it, just as rogues are wicked, not because 
 of any particular teachings of their religious code, but in 
 opposition thereto. Who that has witnessed the tidy 
 welcome that greets the Sabbath in even the meanest 
 Jewish lodging, has not been struck with something like 
 astonibhment, recollecting as he would the peculiar posi- 
 tion of the heads of the family ? For it is essential to 
 draw attention to the remarkable difference between abject 
 Jewish poverty and the same condition among those of 
 other creeds. Deprived, as the Jew is, by his religious 
 ordinances, of the whole of the Sabbath, (including a por- 
 tion of Friday,) he has little more than two-thirds of the 
 business hours of other men. His many festivals contract 
 even these hours. He must consequently make the most 
 of what he has, and to do this, he calls in the assistance 
 of his wife, who, equally with himself, undertakes by 
 labour to provide for their mutual family. Hence, Jewish 
 women of the humblest class, have business occupations as 
 engrossing as those of their husbands. These avocations, 
 essential to the domestic maintenance, deprive the home 
 of that wholesome, womanly supervision so necessary to 
 cleanliness and comfort. From early morning to late 
 night, the womanly energies of the mother are engrossed 
 in a conflict fit only for the stronger arm of manhood, and 
 
AXD ITS APPOINTED TIMES. 191 
 
 her return home leaves her too tired to contribute much 
 to grace what she has so hardly helped to earu. But 
 even with this great drawback, the single room of the 
 Jewish family never disgusts by its offensive and noxious 
 effluvia. Keligion demands that all pollution shall be 
 carefully removed before the master may say his morning 
 prayers ; and where is the love for worldly pursuits so 
 enorossins: that the woman does not find a moment to do 
 her part, that the man does not, in an atmosphere at least 
 unpoisoned, offer in his phylacteries the '' sweet savour " 
 of a grateful heart ? And when the Sabbath comes, see 
 the little patch of healthful whitewash round the window- 
 sill ; (the mother is spared her out-door labour on Friday, 
 for higher calls than those for food claim her at home ;) 
 see the hard- washed table covers, the scoured floor, the 
 brirrhtened candlesticks, all tellinsf of woman's sweet 
 ministration, and giving to even the humblest abode an 
 air of sanctity in honour of the Sabbath. And annually, 
 at the Passover, behold the entire clearance ; bedding, 
 furniture, culinary utensils, every article must undergo a 
 thorough purification ; the walls and ceiling must be fresh 
 coloured ; God's feast of the redemption must be solem- 
 nized with due regard to its peculiar requirements, as to 
 the removal of leaven. AVhere else is this attention to 
 cleanliness to be found ? Where else does religion inter- 
 fere to render cleanliness imperative and unavoidable? 
 
 And here again bow we to Divine wisdom. As in the 
 other institutions of the sacred code we everywhere re- 
 cognise the great design of Providence to be human hap- 
 piness, so in the sanitary laws we recognise a merciful 
 care for human preservation. The Sinaitic revelation 
 was to be for all times, for all circumstances ; it ordained 
 the Israelite tc^look up to his Almighty Father in every 
 condition, when he went by the way or when he sat in 
 his house. And even as the external life derived its 
 vivifying principle from a pure atmosphere, so the internal 
 
192 THE LAW OF SINAI, 
 
 life was equally and similarly cared for. As when the 
 Israelite went abroad he found in the ever-changing air 
 new elements of existence, and in the ever- varied and 
 beautiful face of nature new claims for gratitude, reve- 
 rence and worship ; so when he sat in his house he was to 
 be surrounded by objects which should no less contribute 
 to stimulate his vigour of body and to promote his 
 strength of mind. For Divine wisdom knew the power 
 of habit, the force of association. The eye constantly 
 familiar with scenes of suffering grows steady to gaze on 
 even the most harrowing of tortures. The ear*attuned to 
 vile and disgusting language grows even unintelligent of 
 gentle discourse. Ihe body grovelling in filth and accus- 
 tomed to dirt loses one of its healthiest functions, and be- 
 comes foul and diseased. But the mind is influenced by 
 the body. It is not possible for refinement of intellect or 
 elevation of soul to dwell amid scenes of which every ob- 
 ject is revolting to the eye, every sound corrupting to the 
 ear. While the most exalted genius and the most 
 lovely piety have been found in the most abject poverty, 
 that poverty has never choked such genius by its loath- 
 some miasma, it has never strangled such piety by unholy 
 bonds of association. These truths the Eternal impressed 
 on Judaism, and these truths modern civilisation is now 
 learning from the saddest and most impressive of all 
 teachers, experience. And so, what religion has done for 
 the Jews, policy is doing for their neighbours j and thus 
 again, mankind, by its actions, becomes testimony to the 
 divinity of Holy Writ ; thus again men prove that the 
 nearest approach to human perfection must be through 
 the revelation bestowed on Israel, 
 
AND ITS APPOINTED TIMES. 19^ 
 
 D-'Ifipi DID '''-l^^< 
 
 LEVITICCS: CHAPTEFi XVI. 
 The standard of purity liaving been set up, and a vio- 
 lation of Divine riglit having received condign punish- 
 ment, the inspired legislator proceeds to enter into minute 
 details. It would seem as though the different vices into 
 which man was most prone to fall were attacked in detail, 
 and to this must we attribute the apparent incoherence in 
 the arrangement of the various precepts. Order and con- 
 nection are altogether absent, for as vice is seldom con- 
 sistent with regularity, so the cautions against it are 
 aimed without regularity. Civilisation boasts much of its 
 advanced morality, and it is the cry of the present dav 
 that men have more refined notions of right in these 
 enlightened days than they had in what is contemptuously 
 termed the semi-barbarian age of Moses ; but a careful 
 perusal of the text before us will scarcely fail to convince 
 us that the boast and thS cry are alike empty. Morality 
 is based on eternal principles ; it neither progresses nor 
 retrogrades. What is right now was always right ; what 
 is opposed to right now was always opposed to right. As 
 society becomes more complicated, so its wants and claims 
 multiply, but the great groundwork remains identical. 
 We do not educate our girls as the Spartans did ; and yet 
 the dictates of female modesty continue undisturbed. We 
 do not inculcate theft as a social benefit for stratagetical 
 purposes ; and if they did in Sjiarta, it was less to violate 
 the laws of honesty than to promote another set of rules 
 which were there deemed of more importance to the ge- 
 neral welfare. The truth is, that all real morality is a part 
 of religion, and came with it from Heaven. Morality, 
 therefore, came to earth as perfect as other Divine prcj- 
 ductions, and if the practice of any age or century have 
 
 K 
 
194 THE LAW OF SINAI, 
 
 seemed to show imperfection, tliis has risen from the 
 frailty or blindness of man, not from the insufficiency of 
 dispensation. Morality may be compared to solar rays ; 
 directness gives intensity, obliquity produces difinsion and 
 consequent weakness, clouds vitiate and obscure ; the more 
 directly a system of faith is borrowed from the revelation 
 of Sinai the more intense is its moral code ; the more 
 obliquely the system comes, the weaker the results : hu- 
 man agencies — passions and personal interests, priest- 
 craft and po2:)ular ignorance — are the clouds which vitiate 
 ahd obscure. To prove the strength of our position, to 
 show the perfection of the morality enunciated in the 
 Pentateuch, we shall select a few statutes and point out 
 their tendency, and we shall even essay to show that, so 
 far from falling short of the goal of to-day's enlightenment, 
 they proceed far beyond it. 
 
 When sixteen centuries after the delivery of the Deca- 
 logue, the founder of Christianity enunciated the doctrine 
 contained in the rescript. Do unto others as thou wouldst 
 that others do to thee, he was said to have founded a 
 new code of morals, and all the .philosophers of his dis- 
 ciples have proclaimed the perfection of his teaching. 
 Even now, the expletive Christian prefixed to any virtue 
 at once raises it to its culmination. Christian charity. 
 Christian fortitude. Christian forbearance, are models of 
 charity, fortitude, and forbearance. And yet, what is 
 there in the doctrine of him of Nazareth which is not in 
 the simple dictum of Moses, Thou shalt love thy neigh- 
 bour like thyself? What dignity does the term Christian 
 lend to any above-named virtue which might not be as 
 appropriately found in the word Jewish, as based on the 
 portion under consideration 1 Say " Jewish charity." 
 Well, listen to its teachings : " Thou shalt not reap the 
 corners of thy field, thy harvest thou shalt not glean, thy 
 vineyard thou shalt not wholly gather ; thou shalt leave 
 them for the poor and the stranger." In those days agri- 
 
AND ITS APPOINTED TIMES. 195 
 
 culture was what commerce is now. Where is the 
 modern doctrine that says, In thy traffic thou shalt not 
 make more than a certain amount of profit ; in selling 
 goods thou shalt not take more than so much per cent. 1 
 And yet, here, in the business of his life, the Jew was 
 forbidden to realise all the advantages of his energy or 
 skill, and, besides the alms his benevolence might j^rompt 
 him to bestow, he was compelled to subtract from his 
 gains. " Thou shalt not keep a servant's hire over 
 night." Where is the modern law which teaches more 
 strongly consideration for another*s wants, which incul- 
 cates more forcibly the uncharitableness of taking advan- 
 tage of dependence and of presuming on riches 1 " Thou 
 shalt not revile the deaf; thou shalt not put a stumbling- 
 block before the blind." Extend this to its full meaning, 
 and it becomes all this. Thou shalt not malign the 
 absent ; thou shalt not attack a man's character, and he 
 not by to defend himself; thou shalt not presume upon 
 a man's ignorance to make a profit of it to thyself; thou 
 shalt not speculate in another's inexperience ; thou shalt 
 not prevent thy fellow-creatures from acquiring a proper 
 knowledge of right and wrong, and then punish them for 
 crimes which education might have prevented ; thou 
 shalt not suifer precedent and official routine to stancl 
 between private worth and public good, nor shalt thou 
 permit red-tape to form an obstacle to the advance of the 
 general weal ; thou shalt not allow human beings to drop 
 like flies in autumn, because those who would save them 
 dare not, and those who can, will not ; thou shalt not 
 assume power because it happens that thou art strong and 
 another is weak ; thou shalt not make conscience an 
 impediment to the attainment of civil privileges, nor shalt 
 thou make religious conviction (always a blindness to 
 others) a stumbling-block to worldly advantage; thou 
 shalt not arrogate to thy wisdom the sole hope of salva- 
 tion, nor shalt thou deny place on earth or seat in heaven 
 
196 THE LAW OF SINAI, 
 
 to any but thyself. Where is the modern code that tells 
 this and calls it charity 1 
 
 Pen men in prisons, shut out the wholesome air of 
 vitality, obscure the blessed light of day; work them 
 through long weary hours at dull and profitless bodily 
 labour which produces nothing but lassitude, let them 
 toil till exhaustion, and never witness one result of 
 their toil ; condemn them to utter silence and the soli- 
 tude of a living tomb ; prate doctrine from the pulpit 
 which to them is all cant, because it professes one thing 
 and practises another ; tell them that, victims to the law, 
 they are beyond its pale, and then turn them loose on 
 society to pay back in violence and blood the wrongs 
 heaped on them in their helplessness. Call this cha- 
 rity (we will not consecrate it with an adjective) and we 
 shall understand the word. 
 
 Degrade men by exceptional and oppressive enact- 
 ments ; brand them physically with distinctive dress, 
 and morally with crime-creating suspicion ; confine 
 them to abject employments which must debase the 
 body and cramp the mind ; defraud them of all that 
 they cannot conceal on their persons, and render even 
 that hateful as a loophole for violence ; shut out from 
 them every earthly hope but such as money can pur- 
 chase, and when money fails deny them the prospect of 
 heaven ; say, because more than 1800 years ago a 
 Jew, living under a Jewish commonwealth and amenable 
 to Jewish customs and usages, was tried, found guilty, 
 and executed for a public breach of Divine Jewish law, 
 that therefore that man was a martyr, and his judges 
 bloodthirsty tyrants ; that that man's disciples and 
 their descendants for ever were, of necessity and be- 
 cause only of his martyrdom, to be all that was wise, 
 virtuous, and moral, while the descendants of those 
 judges, only because of their descent, were by Provi- 
 dence condemned to expiate the one assumed misdeed of 
 
AJH) ITS APPOINTED TIMES. 197 
 
 tlieir aEcestors in ignorance, vice, and immorality ; 
 pronounce this to be charity (again without an adjective) 
 and a chikl will understand and appreciate. 
 
 Or let us take Christian forbearance and contrast it 
 with the text before us. " Thou shalt rise before grey 
 bail's and thou shalt honour the aged." Well ; when 
 hardy and heathen Sj^arta did this very thing which 
 intellectual and heathen Athens admired, but did not 
 do. Christian wi-iters could chronicle the deed and hold 
 it up as a 23attern to their youth. Did any one ever find 
 this verse in the Bible and proclaim the usage older than 
 of Greece ? Did any one ever penetrate into Jewish 
 society and see that the one solitary instance above 
 recorded is there the active and constant practice of every- 
 day life ? 
 
 "And if a stranger sojourn amongst you in your 
 land, you shall not hate him ; he shall be among you 
 as a native, and ye shall love him like yourselves." Where 
 has forbearance like this ever been practised out of 
 Judaism ? 
 
 " Thou shalt not be a tale-bearer among my people ; 
 thou shalt not stand in the blood of thy neighbour." 
 Well ; shall we j^ass into Ireland and ask how this for- 
 bearance has been practised there 1 Shall we count the 
 premiums paid to fatten informers and the rewards held 
 out to create them ? Shall we measure the acres inherited 
 in the blood of massacred fellow-creatures ? Or shall we 
 go to continental battle-fields and seek the corpses of noble- 
 hearted Irishmen that perished there because blood-money 
 drove them from the dear home of their birth to carve a 
 n -ane and a grave in a foreign land 1 Or shall we stay in 
 dear England — dear in spite of what she has done, and 
 because when she is true to herself and her mission, the.-^e 
 things are of her backsliding sons and not of her loyal 
 children — shall we stay in England and read her annals ? 
 Well ; Englishmen have not spared insults to British- 
 
198 THE LAW OF SINAI, 
 
 born subjects (of other creeds), nor have they quite re- 
 frained from active persecution. Has theirs been the for- 
 bearance, or has it belonged to them who have patiently 
 borne the insults, and patiently submitted to the persecu- 
 tion, in the hope that a wiser spirit would one day wake 
 and rule? When an infuriate and drunken mob set on 
 the Jews in York, these were glad to buy the right of 
 shelter in York Castle, and there, Christian men quietly 
 looked on, while other so-called Christian men beleaguered 
 and blockaded the fortress till the wretched Jews were 
 driven to self-destruction to avoid worse horrors. When 
 a starving, and therefore discontented rabble met on the 
 field of Peterloo to talk, and it may be to act a little too 
 wildly on behalf of their supposed political rights. Christian 
 magistrates did not quietly stand by, but they called in 
 the military and shot the disaffected like dogs. Contrast 
 the two pictures, always taking into account that if the 
 ao"e was different, the Christianity was the same. When 
 Jews clung to a fliith in which they and their ancestors 
 had been born, and refused a creed which they could not 
 believe, did the forbearance of their neighbours (omitting 
 the adjective) allow them to retain in happiness and peace 
 the cherished treasure which they had inherited from 
 Heaven ? When hungry operatives, too ignorant to dis- 
 criminate nicely between their sufferings and their wrongs, 
 and too ill-taught to be able to trace the scarcely percepti- 
 ble line of demarcation between political agitation and 
 political disaffection, mouthed about a charter and cheap 
 bread, the forbearance of their neighbours, well fed, well 
 housed, and well cared for (the adjectives are necessary 
 now), armed special constables, or coerced licence of speech 
 only by military law and overcrowded gaols. Ah ! well; 
 we remember when men were hanged in this country as 
 though human life were not too precious to sport with ; 
 when the recorder's report went like a devastating plague 
 to the throne (not of mercy) on Saturday night, and a 
 
AND ITS APPOINTED TIMES. 199 
 
 dozen or so of miserable wretches fed the dissecting house 
 on Monday morning. We have heard too that in Palestine, 
 under Jewish hiw, an execution was rare even durin<y 
 seventy years, and that tlie judges who were compelled to 
 sacrifice a life were branded as the bloody Sanhedrin. 
 But, of course, both facts are of the past, and men know 
 better now. 
 
 Yes, and so ai^e many other things of the past ; and 
 so, one day, will be the arrogance, calling itself humi- 
 lity, which sets up its own creed as for Jews against 
 that which they received from Sinai. So, one day, w411 
 be the charity which sees salvation only on its own road, 
 and deals damnation upon the untold millions who have 
 never been able to hear of, still less to tread, that narrow 
 path. So, one day, will be the forbearance which only 
 lacerates men's tenderest feelings by passive resistance, 
 and which rather plumes itself on not actively perse- 
 cuting. So, one day, will be the piety which sends sleek 
 and well-fed missionaries to convert a few stray sto- 
 machs with a tolerable allowance of loaves and fishes, 
 and whicli leaves thousands of mind^ in this fair land to 
 starve for the veriest crumbs of spiritual and moral 
 food. So, one day, will be the many-headed hydra 
 (adjectived virtues) which seems with all its heads to 
 have eyes only for itself. And, when that day arrives, 
 men will acknowledge that wdiether the sermon on the 
 mount or the revelation from the mountain be assumed 
 as the standard of morality, that standard must be 
 darkened by no party preachings, by no individual acts 
 or expositions. Men will be convinced that all true 
 moral teaching is from Heaven ; that Christianity, 
 through its founder, enforced only what Judaism had 
 enjoined ; that virtue is an emanation of all true belief 
 in God and in his perfection, and is not the attribute of 
 any particular creed. Then, charity will be universal, 
 not only in almsgiving, but in kindliness of thought, in 
 
200 'the law of SINAI, 
 
 sympathy with distress, in gentleness towards failing ; 
 for " thou shalt not hate thy brother in thy heart," but 
 "shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." Then, respect 
 for the aged shall be shown in Jewish fashion, that is, 
 not only to grey hairs, but to all superiors ; to parents, to 
 teachers, to elders of all ranks. Then, justice shall be 
 even-handed, and shall be distributed according to the 
 law of Moses ; for " thou shalt do no iniquity in judg- 
 ment, thou shalt not favour the poor, nor shalt thou 
 honour the great ; in righteousness shalt thou judge 
 thy fellow." Then, shall men train their children in 
 conformity with the statute, '' Thy seed thou shalt not 
 give to Moloch." That is, education shall lead the 
 young to the highest and noblest desire of imitating 
 God ; no idol, be it real or ideal, shall lure them to 
 debasing and criminal hate ; no imaged prejudice 
 shall, from earliest infancy, be shrined in their innermost 
 hearts, to engross its affections and to prevent it from 
 loving all mankind alike. Moloch was that tyrant of 
 old to whom votaries were passed through a consuming 
 fire. Is there no Moloch noM^, no fiend like him, but 
 known as bigotry, whose victims are seared by a worse 
 conflagration — one which destroys not only their bodies, 
 but their minds, by preventing them from the free and 
 honest use of those sympathies and instincts natural to 
 humanity? Are there not thousands who voluntarily 
 abandon themselves to this demon, giving their children 
 to him with more zeal than they train them to serve 
 Heaven ? And do not " the people of the land wilfully 
 close their eyes " to this wickedness 1 Alas ! yes. But let 
 us hope that this debasing worship also shall, one day, 
 be a thing of the past ; that men shall find in education 
 the best guide to God-service, Not the education 
 which instils prejudice through sectarianism, which 
 fosters narrow-mindedness through party spirit, which 
 begets hatred for all but its own ; but that nobler education 
 
AXD ITS APPOINTED THIES. 201 
 
 which looks " through nature up to nature's God, " 
 which adopts the comprehensive morality of the Eternal 
 as its morality, which inculcates a love universal like 
 his, a charity unfailing like his, a sympathy entire like 
 his. Then shall the bond of brotherhood unite all mankind 
 in one hapj^y comj^act ; man shall turn to man and 
 seek for points of concord, not of antagonism ; he 
 shall regard his fellow-creatures as brothers, erring it may 
 be, but still of his flesh ; he shall not judge them by a 
 standard regulated after his own assumed infallibility, 
 but he shall look himself boldly in the face and acknow- 
 ledge that he needs mercy no less than they do ; he shall 
 worship God, not as God only of his creed, but as God of 
 the whole universe, the All-wise, the All-merciful, the 
 All-creating ; and then shall the peoples of the world, 
 each happy in its own faith, so long as that faith leads it 
 by any direct road to the imitation of Divine perfection, 
 indeed fulfil the statute of to-day's poi-fcion, for they " shall 
 be holy " even as " the Eternal is holy." 
 
 1;2K 
 
 LEVITICUS: CHAPTER XXL 
 To all well-governed nations centralisation has seemed 
 too advantageous to be neglected. Even where diversitv 
 of dialect or of interests has prevented an exact political 
 union, something analogous has been contrived by other 
 means. Greece had her games, at which the people of 
 every state assisted, and which kept alive a national 
 feeling. She had also her Amphyctionic council, destined 
 for a like end ; where this idea of centralisation did not 
 exist, the enlargement of an empire was sure to be at- 
 tended with weakness. Kome and Persia became, at 
 different times, overgrown giants, whose extremities 
 were so distant from the capital, and were so little con- 
 nected with it, that they scarcely seemed to belong to 
 
 k2 
 
202 THE LAW OF SINAT, 
 
 the same body. As, in the animal frame, the circula- 
 tion of the blood carries the fires of existence to the 
 remotest parts, and brings back to the heart and lungs 
 the exhausted fluid of the limbs, so centralisation acts 
 in a natic»n, promoting the interchange and communica- 
 tion ei?sential to national vitality. Most modern people, 
 in forming their legislature, have contributed to their 
 healthful strength by means of centralisation. Repre- 
 sentatives from different localities assemble to exchange 
 ideas, to carry the interests of one place to another, to 
 represent the wants of one part of the community to 
 the other parts. Returning home they carry back with 
 them the sympathy, the intelligence, and the co-opera- 
 tion of their fellow-countrymen, and thus contribute to 
 diffuse among hamlets and cottages the civilisation of 
 the capital and its palaces. In this way, the seat of 
 government is prevented from absorbing all the wealth 
 and genius of the country, and the humblest village 
 is brought into communication with improving influ- 
 ences. 
 
 In the land of Israel political unions were not to be 
 needed, because, as we have already shown, there ex- 
 isted no real power save that which was derived from 
 the finite and perfect legislation of Moses. The law of 
 Sinai was declared to be sufficient for all times, the 
 Eternal pronounced himself sovereign of Lis people, 
 and the priests, permeating the whole country, carried to 
 every corner, through their scriptural teachings, uni- 
 formity of custom and commonalty of interests. Things 
 altered to some extent when the froward Israelites de- 
 termined, despite the admonition of God, to elect a 
 human instead of an immortal king ; but while the 
 priesthood remained true to their charge there was no 
 danger of the nationality's expiring. It was only w^hen 
 Jerusalem and Samaria, as the capitals, absorbed all the 
 energy of the nation, and when the priests became slaves 
 
AND ITS APPOINTED TIMES. 203 
 
 to the capricious coiigregatious among wliicli tliey dwelt, 
 and thus ceased to be the bearers of their harmonising 
 religion, that both Judah and Israel succumbed. But so 
 perfect is the Divine provision for human well-being, that 
 the great interests involved in happiness were not left 
 dependent on one measure only. Besides the priesthood, 
 therefore, who might prove faithless, the jieople themselves 
 were to be the instruments of their own weal, and this 
 too without any interfei-ence with their free-will. Nay 
 more, so admirably was the means adapted to its end, 
 that it could only be the most consummate and perverse 
 folly which should refuse to lend itself to what was so 
 evidently designed to promote its comfort. This means 
 was the institution of the three national festivals. 
 
 The Israelites were essentially an agricultural people. 
 Every man cultivated his land, and was compelled to give 
 to it that incessant attention which admitted of little 
 repose.* Always occupied in the labours of the field, 
 there was no scope for intellectualization or sociality, and 
 even as now jDure country farmers are ages behind the 
 meanest artizans of towns, so then, a nation of pure 
 farmers could scarcely be expected to progress very rapidly 
 under their ordinary vocation. True, the leisure of the 
 Sabbath permitted of some indulgence, but that was so 
 
 * The mercy of Providence, always so watchful for human happi- 
 ness, is particularly distinguishable in the spiritual ordinations of 
 ancient Israel. The Israelites being destined to be agriculturists, 
 and, therefore, to avail themselves of every opportunity of weather, 
 it would have been next to impossible to ensure regular attendance, 
 at stated daily periods, for Divine service. Worldly wants would 
 have been too opposed to heavenly duties. Hence, the continual 
 offerings, made morning and evening by the priests, took the 
 place of public assemblies for prayer, and individuals could offer 
 their devotions to God surrounded by the beauties of nature — his 
 work. When time and opportunity permitted, the grateful could 
 always find expression for their thankfulness in especial sacrifices, 
 and could thus subserve at once the claims of charity and rehgiou. 
 
204 THE LA.W OF SINAI, 
 
 entirely a day of rest, and was, in its integrity, so exclu- 
 sively devoted to spiritual pursuits, that little social 
 advantage could be taken of it. With the festivals it 
 was altogether different. Fixed at three periods of the 
 year at which the cultivator of the soil was permitted by 
 beneficent nature to relax his exertions, and to leave her 
 to carry out his .labours, they were eminently adapted as 
 agricultural holidays. At the Passover, already the earth 
 had clad itself with its goodly livery of green ; the young 
 shoots were opening on the trees, the tender plumulse 
 were shining above ground ; men could determine with 
 some degree of certainty the promise of the coming 
 season, and for a few days might intermit their toil while 
 a transition of vegetable life was going on. At Shebuoth, 
 the productions of the field had passed through another 
 phase, and were waiting the finishing touch of maturing 
 summer ; already the blossoms had whitened the ground, 
 and early fruits gilded the trees ; already on the corn 
 dawned the first streak of ruddy brown, and again, for a 
 few days might men pause that nature might complete 
 her augured work. At Succoth, the feast of the in- 
 gatliering — a period of joy and love among all civilised 
 people — the labours of the year were over ; already the 
 falling leaves strewed the earth, and formed a mantle to 
 conceal her nakedness. Satisfied with the plenty in their 
 storehouses, men might once more intermit their exertions, 
 both to contemplate the result of the past and to afford 
 the earth, exhausted, as it were, by her fertility, a little 
 leisure for recruiting her strength. These periods were 
 real holidays, giveu by nature to labour, consecrated by 
 God to happiness. But they differed from the Sabbath 
 in one very important (and to their end essential) particular ; 
 they were only times for suspending industrial occupations, 
 they were not destined to that utter rest which distin- 
 guished tlie Sabbath. They could promote sociality — 
 they might even provoke luxury, but it was determined 
 
AND ITS APPOINTED TIMES. 205 
 
 that thej should subserve national welfare by contralisa- 
 tion ; and, therefore, were these festivals ordained as 
 national gatherings at the shrine of the Eternal. 
 
 Rest was permitted by nature, but it was not to 
 degenerate into sloth. And so the command pro- 
 claimed : — 
 
 " Three times in the year shall all thy males appear be- 
 fore the Lord thy God, in the place which he shall choose." 
 
 And so, at the three festivals, Simeon from the south 
 met Na})htali and Zebulun from tlie north ; in front of 
 the Tabernacle was spread out, under the banner of the 
 law, an immense army of worshippers, and that army was 
 a nation. Tribe after tribe poured its thousands into the 
 vast assembly, and even as mountain streams bring their 
 tributary waters to swell the tide of a mighty river, so 
 tliese overflowing thousands bore their sympathies and 
 sorrows, their joys and their hopes, to swell the common 
 nationality, Religion added its harmonising influence, 
 and gave to each day an opening and a closing service, 
 in which every individual joined with unanimous accord. 
 To the whole people there was but one heart, and that 
 vibrated with the noblest emotions that stir humanity. 
 What wonder then that the leisure intermediate hours 
 were spent in amity, in peace, in brotherhood. Joined 
 by the strongest of ties, a common faith, every soul was 
 directed to one goal, just as every eye watched the 
 smoking altar, the ministering priest. To the broad ex- 
 panse of heaven there went up the cry of millions — but it 
 was the giant cry of praise attuned as from one impressive 
 and almighty voice. How could bitterness or animosity 
 come into an assembly so constituted ? How could jea- 
 lousy lend one jarring note to disturb the universal 
 concord ? As in some fair landscape in whicli a thousand 
 dumb beauties offer their mute incense to a beneficent 
 Creator, the while myriads of flowers send up their per- 
 fumes, and myriads of birds give forth their gentle trills 
 
20G THE LAW OF SINAI, 
 
 to join the general choir of praise ; as, in such sunny scene, 
 even some darkling rock, some barren spot, or some hoarse 
 croak of a raven, would rather increase than diminish the 
 general harmony, so in that united congregation, each 
 trifliug discrepancy, each exceptional element, but added 
 to the common bond of fraternity, for over all was spread 
 the same Eternal hand, the same Eternal mercy. 
 
 But these gatherings, besides promoting nationality 
 through centralisation, were to stimulate industry, to ex- 
 cite emulation, to circulate knowledge, to diffuse improve- 
 ment. They had a worldly purpose as well as a spiritual 
 end. Every male who appeared before the Lord was 
 commanded to i^resent himself not empty-handed, but 
 each was to bring some specimen of his labour, " according 
 to his capability." Thus, these assemblies took the cha- 
 racter of industrial exhibitions — only the products were 
 confined to vegetable produce and live stock. True, there 
 may have been no scientific implements of husbandry, 
 there may have been no' short-horns or south downs suc- 
 cumbing under mountains of fat, but there were the choi- 
 cest specimens of the field and of the garden, the noblest 
 of the herb and of the flock — for what worshi})per taking 
 his offering would not carry his best to God, what man 
 about to exhibit before his fellow-creatures would not 
 strive to appear in his best colours 1 Nor were premiums 
 wanting to raise the spirit of honourable rivalry. At 
 the Passover, the finest barley produced was selected for 
 the Omer. Where was the Israelite who would not aspire 
 to the honour of having the work of his hands specially 
 distinguished before the peoi:>le as the fittest offering to 
 Heaven] The finest cattle were picked out for the addi- 
 tional sacrifices — the strongest inducement to breeders to 
 try their skill in improving their stock. And thus men 
 learned to vie with each other in agricultural and farming 
 pursuits, and this rivalry conduced to the general welfare 
 by tending to increase the national resources. For, while 
 
AND ITS APPOINTED TIMES. 207 
 
 striving to improve their productions, men exercised them- 
 selves in industry, and, if they did not gain the prize of 
 their ambition, they at least reaped the benefit of their 
 additional labour. 
 
 Another eflf^cb grew out of these gatlierings, less noble 
 perhaps, but, as man is constituted, not less useful. Sociality 
 was promoted, and, under the influence of the relationship 
 between guest and host, personal friendship lent its lustre 
 to enhance the general welfare. The vast multitude had 
 to be fed.' It was not possible for the neighbourhood in 
 which they were assembled, to supply the necessary 
 quantity of provisions. Doubtless, every man carried with 
 him wherewith to maintain himself. But, as in commer- 
 cial life, the superfluities of one country are bartered for 
 the superfluities of otl\er countries, so among the Israelites 
 many exchanged belongings for their mutual advantage. 
 One man perhaps, who prided himself on liis wine, would 
 make common cause with other men who were equally 
 famous, respectively, for their corn, their cattle, or their 
 fruit. During their stay before the Tabernacle, they would 
 unite their means, they would live togetlier as one family, 
 each contributing his quota to the general table, and while 
 enjoying the convivial meal, genial discourse would lend an 
 additional charm to the pleasures of the palate. They would 
 compare their experiences, they would communicate their 
 hopes.; fathers of families would be consoled by the solici- 
 tude of fiiendship for the loss of domestic love, and men 
 would part firmly attached, who had met almost strangers. 
 But their separation would be only temporary; they would 
 bid adieu with the promise to meet again at the ensuing 
 festival ; perhaps some child of one tribe would be spared 
 by his father as a kind of hostage, to visit his father's 
 friend of another tribe, and thus the whole nation becanie 
 only a large and somewhat scattered household, united 
 by ties of religion, by the aspirations after distinction in 
 their common pursuits, by the bonds of friendship and love. 
 
208 THE LAW OF SINAI, 
 
 Beautiful dispensation of Heaven ! " How manifold 
 are thy works, O Lord, all of them in wisdom hast thou 
 made ; " but none of thy works is so comprehensively 
 good as that all-serving revelation which thou gavest to 
 man from Smai. The animal, vegetable, and mineral 
 worlds supply his wants of food and of clothing, they 
 contribute to his necessities, and pamper him with luxuries. 
 The higher world of science gratifies the loftier cravings 
 of the mind ; it forms the reason and strengthens the 
 intellect. But the Sinaitic code surpasses all these ; it 
 nourishes the moral faculties, it sustains the soul^ and it 
 teaches man the true way to enjoy the benefits derived 
 from other sources, by turning his course heavenward. 
 Let the sensual abandon themselves to enervating and 
 perishable pleasures ; they will live without credit to 
 themselves, without profit to their fellow- creatures. Let 
 rationalists dream away existence in vain theories and 
 perplexing speculations ; they will live without satisfac- 
 tion, because they aim at something unknown to themselves, 
 and they will die, to be despised, because at the last mo- 
 ment they but too often confess the inanity of their 
 career. The religionist alone is happy ; he alone is blessed 
 himself, and, by his teachings and example, blesses others. 
 Not he who gives up his body to forms, and neglects 
 principles ; not he who knows of no excellence but his 
 own, and is intolerant of the opinions of others ; not he 
 who observes precepts because his father observed them, 
 without striving to become impressed with their saving 
 excellence ; not he who converts faith into an idol, and 
 dresses it in a livery entirely the creation of selfishness, 
 ignorance, bigotry, or priestcraft ; but he who sees in 
 religion only the connecting chain between one all-merciful 
 God, and the millions of his failing children ; who is 
 happy in having one link of that chain extended to him, 
 and gladly sees his fellow-creatures of all climes and all 
 colours, holding on by other links ; who walks the earthy 
 
AND ITS APPOINTED TIMES. 209 
 
 Laving charity and love in his lieart, and with his eyes 
 turned heavenward — but in his heart there is shrined the 
 image of human kind, and on his retina is imprinted its 
 miniature ; who aspires to imitate the ineffable goodness 
 of the Eternal by cherishing all created things ; who re- 
 gards this life as a preparation for a future stat€, and, 
 tlierefore, so numbers his days, that he brings his soul to 
 wisdom ; who has ever before him the behest addressed to 
 the patriarch, ''Walk before me and be perfect;" the 
 resci'ipt addressed to Israel, " And ye shall be to me a 
 kingdom of priests and a holy people." 
 
 Tipnni -inn 
 LEVITICUS: CHAPTER XXY. 
 So closely do the limits of Almighty behest and human 
 free-will approximate, that it is often difhcult to trace their 
 respective boundaries. In many phases of life, man 
 seems so blind an instrument in the hands of inevitable 
 circumstances, that reason, despite itself, thinks of fate, 
 and argues that tliere must be predestination. And yet? 
 it would be quite irreconcileable with man's salvation and 
 God's judgment to suppose, for one moment, that man 
 acted under a control which he coidd not resist. For, 
 were this to be, how could reward and punishment exist, 
 and without these what would be the idea of a future 
 state? But even the highest state of liberty is not 
 inconsistent with such wholesome amount of coercion as is 
 compatible with general well-being; and if this be the 
 case in worldly affairs, how much more permissible is it in 
 spiritual concerns ? As we have observed in reference to 
 the Passover and the Sabbath, the perfection of Heavenly 
 knowledge was made available to cause man to subserve 
 his owm happiness — always our being's end and aim. 
 This was effected too in a way which seemed alike natural 
 to the events out of which prohibition grew, and conform- 
 
210 THE LAW OF SINAI, 
 
 al)le to the sway vvhicli man lias over liis actions. For 
 we must recollect that the design of revelation was jmrely 
 religious. Moses, in his Divine teachings, made known 
 no scientific truths. ]\lan was created a perfectionahle 
 being ; he was endowed with faculties for comparison and 
 investigation, and he was thus in a condition to trace the 
 analogies of physical phenomena, to penetrate into causes, 
 to apply nature's powers to his own advantage. But 
 grand as was his reason, it could not soar beyond the 
 limits of the real or of the abstract; it might grasp the 
 immensity of time and space, it might span the most 
 abstruse metaphysical truths, but it could not of itself 
 rise to the height of God ; knowledge, because revelation, 
 wanting, it would have no fulcrum on which to rest the 
 lever of its intellectuality. Hence, while, to promote 
 human felicity through religion, it was imperative that 
 Providence should interfere, to advance scientific lore man 
 was amply endowed without special Divine aid. By this 
 means, he was to gain all the merit of his self-improvement, 
 and to lose nothing of his independence because of the 
 instruction of Heaven. It pleased the Eternal to set 
 salvation before mortal eyes as the goal of existence ; the 
 road thither was broad and expansive; to impress it most 
 e3icaciously, certain landmarks were placed by which 
 wanderers might be guided ; but, beyond this, no compul- 
 sion was used. Travellers on that great highway might 
 pause to decorate its landmarks ; they might even ex- 
 tend its limits or contract them; while they journeyed, 
 they were ever permitted to feel their independence by 
 the liberty allowed them of selecting their own way, of 
 altogether ignoring the pathway, and by the facility with 
 which they could at any time regain the beaten track. 
 Time was allotted to man, and, with it, all of creation that 
 lie could investigate ; to himself he was to owe the 
 profitable employment of his faculties, so that time might 
 assist his development, that creation might yield materials 
 
AND ITS APPOINTED TIMES. 211 
 
 for liis advantage. Eternity was reserved for God, but 
 through the portals of death man also might enter ou 
 that vast immensity; and, in order that those portals 
 might more easily admit of his passage, it pleased God to 
 direct liis steps towards them by the smoothest path of 
 most pleasant access. To time belongs education ; to 
 eternity, religion ; the intimate association of the corporal 
 and the spiritual in man effects that education trenches on 
 the field of religion, that religion cultivates the soul of 
 education. 
 
 In the days of Moses, agriculture was not known as a 
 science, it was a trade in which men engaged. They 
 were ignorant of the laws which might have regulated it 
 as a trade ; of its being a science they had never even 
 dreamed. Hence, while every mati's object was to se- 
 cure the best crops, no one knew how to attain his end. 
 He sowed and he reaped ; he gave to the land his labour, 
 and he relied on the fecundity of nature to do the rest. 
 Little heeded he the causes wdiich made any one soil 
 better adapted for one particular production ; little 
 imagined he that there were means by which the fertility 
 of nature might be augmented, or that it was possible 
 for her resources to fail from sheer exhaustion. The 
 system of alternation Qr assoilment, scarcely determined 
 now, had not then dawned. It was necessary either to 
 teach man the science of agriculture, which would have 
 been inconsistent with Divine plan, or to discover some 
 other means of preventing his destruction of his own 
 storehouse. Now, as we have before observed, while 
 the duties of all trades are engrossing, those of an agii- 
 culturist scarcely admit of any repose ; while all me- 
 chanical or business pursuits retard the development 
 of mind, agriculture almost chokes its growth. The 
 festivals were designed in some way to counteract the 
 effects of too close an attention to agriculture. But 
 alone they were not sufficient. Brief of duration, and 
 
21 2 THE LAW OF SINTAT, 
 
 partly occupied by the religious joiTrneys attacliecl to 
 them, they did much good, but they left much more to 
 be accomplished. Providence, therefore, again called in 
 faith . to replace science, and every seventh year was to 
 be one entire Sabbath. Man Avas enjoined to repose 
 on the mercy of Heaven ; he was told that the produce 
 of six years should suffice for the consumption of seven, 
 even as six days' labour supplied seven days' sustenance ; 
 he was told that even till the seed sown in the eighth 
 year should have yielded its produce in the ninth, the 
 beneficence of nature should permit him to enjoy the 
 "old store" of the sixth year, and thus three objects 
 were served. 1st, The earth received the rest she so 
 much needed ; her powers were recruited by elemental 
 changes carried on in the great laboratory of natm^e, 
 and she was again able, with renewed vigour, to fructify 
 the seeds committed to her bosom. 2nd, Man obtained 
 a cessation from wearing and unintellectual occupations ; 
 he was thus enabled to give time to his mental develop- 
 ment, and to afford opportunity for the discharge of 
 many social duties impossible while he was actively en- 
 gaged in agriculture. 3rd. Eeligion was promoted by 
 the inculcation of confidence in Heaven ; man was 
 w^eaned from his love for worldly advantages, he was 
 arrested in his debasing career after gain, and he was 
 constantly reminded, by the recurrence of his year of 
 rest, to prepare for that t.ftieth year of release, when 
 the whole land fell, as it were, into the hands of its de- 
 clared owner, God, to be afresh parcelled out among its 
 tenants ; and he was thus taught to rely on that mercy 
 which should continue him and his among the repre- 
 sentatives chosen of the Almighty to hold his posses- 
 sions on earth. We, living under a system so different, 
 with no direct interference of Providence ; we, whose 
 aim it is to obtain property, and to jDerpetuate it ; we, 
 who call in science to assist labour, and policy to secure 
 
AND ITS APPOINTED TIMES. 213 
 
 protective advantages ; we can scarcely understand the 
 state of things engendered by the Mosaic regulations 
 for Palestine. There, every man had but a life-interest 
 in his belongings, and as life here is but a preparation 
 for a future existence, so, in every one of his pursuits, 
 the one grand object — eternity — was to be kept steadily 
 before him. He was to be industrious and self-suj^- 
 porting, but he was not to allow his industry or desire 
 for self-support to make him obli^dous of God. He 
 was to be intelligent, and to gain experience, but liis in- 
 tellio-ence was to find its highest studv in God, his ex- 
 perience was to confirm his ardour for Divine love. 
 He was to benefit himself and his family by his honesty 
 and skill, but he was constantly to recollect that his 
 personal property was of as little importance, compared 
 to his spiritual well-doing, as his span of days was to his 
 endless hereafter. 
 
 But vvdiile the commands of Heaven come to man with 
 all the authority that omnipotent power, omniscient wis- 
 dom, and illimitable mercy can give them ; and while 
 boundless gratitude should entitle them to the strongest 
 claim to respect and obedience, we know, nevertheless, that 
 they are only imperative through human free-will, and 
 that comparatively it is more easy to transgress them than 
 mere earthly statutes. Men make laws for social se- 
 curity, and men break them ; but the punishment follows 
 so closely and evidently on the detected crime, that at a 
 least it may form a preventive. In the case of an infrac- 
 tion of heavenly precepts, not only is the retribution not 
 exacted with the same degree of promiMtude, but it is 
 sometimes not even to be recognized. Indeed, were the 
 vindication of Divine wrong as palpable as that of human 
 wrong, man would cease, to some extent, to be master of 
 his volition. Wherefore, it has always seemed to be the 
 will of Pro\T.dence that moral delinquencies or deflections 
 should possess certain inherent properties as inalienable as 
 
214: THE LA.W OF SINAI, 
 
 those of physical aberrations. Just as imbibing a me- 
 phitic vapour i^roduces convulsion or death, so inhaling a 
 criminal atmosphere, leads to the convulsion and death of 
 the moral faculties. True, God, as Lord of creation, 
 directs ; but equally true that man is lord of his own 
 ascendant, and is no more to be considered a blind instiii- 
 ment than an irresponsible agent. Hence, in reviewing 
 the portion before us, we must regard the denunciation of 
 future punishments for disobedience, not as a prophecy, 
 inevitable because of God, but only as the result of volun- 
 tary and wilful demoralisation on the part of Israel. The 
 case would appear to stand thus : — The Israelites are 
 selected as the depository for certain gi-eat truths, through 
 them to be promulgated to the rest of mankind. These 
 truths are both religious and moral, as regards the world 
 at large, and, in addition, they are ceremonial and restric- 
 tive also, in respect to the Israelites in particular. At- 
 tached to the trust thus reposed in man, are certain rewards 
 for the faithful fulfilment of duty, certain inflictions for a 
 breach of trust. But either alternative is in the hands of 
 the Israelites. They may elect to preserve their charge 
 in all its integi'ity ; this will render them pious to Heaven, 
 loving to men, charitable to failings, obedient to indus- 
 trial, social, and moral progress ; thus they will become 
 subservient to their own welfare, which will also be in- 
 directly promoted by the Eternal, who will send them 
 "rain in its due season," and "plenty of corn and wine," 
 in other words, who will permit nature to lavish her 
 beneficence without any disturbing influences. Or they 
 may elect to follow the promptings of their own hearts, 
 preferring indulgence in passion to adherence to principle ; 
 this will render them attached to earth and its corruiDtions, 
 selfish for personal gratification, intolerant of all weakness 
 but their own, antagonistic to industrial, social, and moral 
 progress ; they will thus become stumbling-blocks in their 
 own path to happiness ; they will impede themselves and 
 
AND ITS APPOINTED TIMES. 215 
 
 each otlier on the common road to perfectibility, and thus 
 degraded before the world, they will be fair marks for 
 aggression from without, for self-destruction from within. 
 For it must be recollected that the future position of the 
 Jews among nations, was to be determined by themselves. 
 Comparatively few in number, occupying but a small 
 territory, they were only to command respect and forbear- 
 ance by the terror which their manifest protection by 
 Heaven inspired. In proof : what happened when they 
 settled in Canaan 1 Their whole career was miraculous ; 
 before their inexperienced and half-armed bands, the most 
 disciplined troops fell, the strongest towns succumbed ; 
 with scarcely a check they achieved a series *of victories, 
 which convinced even the ignorant idolaters who surrounded 
 them, that there was something more than human in their 
 triumphs. Despite themselves, these idolators were com- 
 }>elled, even as Jethro had already been forced, to believe in 
 a superior power as battling on behalf of Israel. This belief 
 acted on their courage ; they were afraid to molest a people 
 before whom bravery could effect nothing, because of an in- 
 vincible but invisible champion. And this support of Heaven 
 affected the Israelites also. Conscious of rectitude, and 
 knowing that while they thus deserved the support of Hea- 
 ven they would surely have it, they were impelled to heroic 
 deeds by the sanctity of the cause wdiicli they felt them- 
 selves to be vindicating. Profane history has since told 
 the same tale many times ; patriotism, love of libei-tv, 
 devotion to God, has more than once nerved a hundred 
 arms to beat back thousands ; before the hearths of their 
 childhood, or the homes of their affection, a few breasts 
 have formed an segis that mpiads have striven in vain to 
 ])enetrate. But when the IsraeUtes, wallowing in the 
 luxury of sensual enjoyment, fell away from God, a reac- 
 tion took place. Surrounding people saw the same 
 abominations, the same idolatrous practices, the same 
 debasing rites that they themselves practised. They 
 
216 THE LAW OF SINAI, 
 
 Hsked tliemselves what now existsd to distinguisli Israel 
 from other nations, and their own perceptions told them 
 that there was nothing. Vice is always inflamed by 
 cupidity ; cupidity only forbears from violence when it 
 yields to fear. The senri-barbarous neighbours of Pales- 
 tine were both vicious and covetous; they saw the fertile 
 valleys of Canaan covered with abundant vegetation, 
 teeming with healthy cattle ; their desire to have such 
 treasures, without the labour of earning them, only 
 slumbered because they dreaded to attack the mysteriously 
 protected owners. But as they saw the difference 
 between Israel and themselves melt aWay, as one by one 
 they beheld Ihe shades of distinction fade, so their fear 
 began also to evaporate, and their cupidity to excite, till 
 at last they resolved to dare something for the rich 
 reward of plunder. Accordingly, they fell mth fury on 
 the unprepared and still confiding sinners, and were 
 surprised at their easy victory. For, just as a good cause 
 fortifies the courage, a bad cause paralyzes it. The 
 Israelites, allowing body to predominate over mind, had 
 fallen into evil. Lulled to security by past successes, 
 they did not reflect on the cause of those successes. It 
 was only when danger awoke them to the necessity for 
 salf-defence, that they became aware alike of their own 
 deficiencies and of their inability to cope with their now 
 more powerful enemies. Peril begat reflection, and then 
 it was tbat they became conscious of the fact, that the 
 spirit which had animated them had died when they 
 forsook tlieir God. Peligious ardour had made untrained 
 youths heroes ; idolatrous phrenzy converted heroes into 
 cowards. And so they fell an easy prey to those whom 
 in their prosperity they had affected to despise ; and, so, 
 while they had not the moral bravery to seek once more 
 ti) vivify the spirit of f\xith, they remained slaves. But 
 when some mind more self-communing than that of the 
 multitude strove once more to aspire to Heaven, and 
 
AND ITS APPOINTED TIMES. 217 
 
 wifcli renewed belief acquired renewed liope ; when, da- 
 ring trustfully to invoke God's aid, some soul felt im- 
 pelled to patriotic and lofty devotion, then that genial 
 support of conscience, which men call inspiration, 
 guided high thoughts to noble deeds, and even shep- 
 herds and farmers, nay even gentle women, rose to 
 the requirements of warriors and legislators. Their 
 exhortations and their example kindled a sympathetic 
 flame in the bosoms of their brother tribesmen, and 
 again some few resolute men became invincible, because 
 they were fighting for a right commanded of Heaven. 
 Not once this hai)pened, but several times ; and it was 
 only when repeated sins had provoked repeated j^unish- 
 ments, when experience brought no wisdom, and admoni- 
 tion no improvement, that the final fulfilment of the 
 denunciation of Moses was permanently accomplished by 
 the Israelites themselves. This denunciation had been 
 intended as a warning and as a caution of what ivould be, 
 not of what must be, the results of crime ; the pertinacity 
 of sin and unrepentance converted the warning into a 
 prophecy, and thus contributed to render inevitable what 
 had only been prohibitory. In regarding this portion, 
 therefore, let us not say that the destiny of Israel was 
 therein foretold with such certainty that they could not 
 avoid it ; let us rather say that with all the consequences 
 of sin laid bare before them, they obstinately rushed into 
 their fate, and only compelled mercy to cea^^e when the 
 cry of avenging justice drowned the soft pleadings of 
 compassion. There is no fate ; for good or for bad, men 
 choose their own courses, and the results, within certain 
 limits, are all of men's production. Just as it is impossible 
 to prevent certain physical combinations from occurring ; 
 just as season succeeds season, and year follows year, so 
 certain moral combinations lead to definite consequences, 
 not always to be traced, but as inalienable as other great 
 principles of creation. 
 
 L 
 
218 THE LAW OF SINAI, 
 
 NUMBERS: CHAPTER I. 
 Again we tread on the traces of man, as he prints them 
 on the sands of time that border the ocean of eternity. 
 Evanescent marks that vanish as the tide of events washes 
 over them ; new footprints replace them, to be in turn 
 effaced, and still mortality travels to its appointed goal. 
 Silent and thoughtful sits a watcher holding vigil over 
 the passing millions, and ever, as some stamp a deeper 
 impiess, he transfers their career to his open tablets, to 
 form from them the pages of history. His tale is faithful 
 in so far as he is honest, but such are men, that each 
 individual describes an image as it presents itself to his 
 vision, and thus the same object seen from different 
 points of view is differently represented. He alone fitly 
 paints who is above the failings and weaknesses of man- 
 kind. Hence, the sacred historian writing under the 
 direct influence of the Omnipotent, delivers lessons 
 as truthful as they are authoritative. Of these lessons, 
 some — as those of Leviticus just quitted, are entirely 
 spiritual ; they appeal to our souls through gratitude, to 
 our observation through experience ; some are social, and 
 appeal to our senses through combination, to our imitation 
 or avoidance through their^ effects. Of this latter kind no 
 part of the inspired books contains more salutary examples 
 than the book of Numbers. In the accounts here given 
 we read man as he really is ; neither prc\judice nor 
 selfishness has interposed a lens to distort his portrait. 
 And a dispassionate examination will show us that such 
 as we find our fellow-creature here, so do we meet him 
 now ; the same passions, the same temptations, the same 
 self-denial are every where to be met. Advancing civili- 
 sation and increasing knowledge have done their work on 
 the human character, but they have changed it in so 
 
AND ITS APPOINTED TIMES. 219 
 
 small a degree, tliat we can scarcely note the shades of 
 alteration. For, amid all the effects of time, those only 
 are clearly perceptible which affect human combinations 
 or human productions. Habits, commerce, policy, and 
 the like, vary with the age, but the works of Providence 
 remain unshaken through countless generations. When 
 the Creator of the Universe formed the heart of man, he 
 placed in it two opposite principles, the love of good and 
 of Heaven, and the desire for evil and for self. On the 
 very threshold of existence, man, of his own free-will, 
 decided that the latter of these principles should pre- 
 })ondt.'rate. Whether, because it was more easy to sin 
 than to restrain, or because of the attraction of imitation, 
 it were hard to say, but the descendants of our first 
 parents confirmed their choice, and hurried in a down- 
 ward career of vice which led to their destruction. The 
 condign punishment inflicted on the generation of Noah, 
 lost its terrors as time consigned it to the past, and suc- 
 ceedinsr ^fenerations plunsred agjain into the , devourina: 
 vortex of evil. Thus, man seemed determined to assert, 
 that only that portion of Heaven's work in his heart 
 should exist, which ministered to his passions, and grati- 
 fied his baser nature. Then it was that Divine mercy 
 deigned to interfere, with a view to afford mankind an 
 opportunity of recovering the lost dominion of virtue. 
 For this purpose was established religion— a heavenly 
 work, and only as such capable of operating on another 
 heivenly work. By means of reliiiion, man was taught 
 how he might assert the superiority of the principle of 
 good, and the Eternal vouchsafed to set his own attributes 
 before mortals, that they might thereby form themselves 
 on the most perfect of models. But the senses operate on 
 all, the intellect prevails only with the few. Every man 
 is amenable to certain physical wants, which it is more 
 pleasant to gratify than to limit ; a few men only feel 
 the purifying requirements of the spirit, to supply which 
 
220 THE LAW OF SINAI, 
 
 • 
 
 is to improve by drawing materials from Heaven. Hence,' 
 with tlie mass, the great truths of religion prevailed but 
 little, and even this little was diminished by the fatality 
 with which men learned to cling to their own peculiar 
 views. Belief was admitted as a necessity, but it was to 
 be squared by the rule and compass of human prejudices. 
 Modes of faith, tlierefore, became as numerous as modes of 
 dress, and as fantastic. And yet, as each man fancied he 
 looked heavenward, because he directed his gaze to a 
 divinity or divinities modelled after his own design, so 
 each presumed to dictate that every other man but him- 
 self looked in the wrong direction, and that to wean him 
 from this error was the highest moral duty. Thus, under 
 the name of religion, every one of the best teachings ot 
 religion was systematically ignored. Men murdered, 
 tortured, plundered, oppressed — and all for what they 
 caUed religion's sake ; forgetful that they thus stamped 
 their God as a God of murder, torture, plunder, and 
 oppression. They sacrificed to their divinities the victims 
 of cruelty, and pretended thereby to propitiate mercy. 
 On the altars of their faiths arose the smoke from 
 ruined hopes and desolated hearths, and amid the shouts 
 of the riotous worshippers arose the groans of their 
 victims ; and that was their incense, these their hymns of 
 praise. The result was but too distressing. Men assumed 
 to set up their own interpretation of a heavenly prin- 
 ciple for the principle itself, and tlius joermitted the 
 salutary effects of true religion to be all but lost. Instead 
 of accepting the dictum of God, the Eternal, that his 
 attributes were to be the basis on which they were to 
 build their characters, they infused into their hearts the 
 poison of their injustice, and thus vitiated their entire 
 bodies. The human character, therefore, remains all but 
 unchanged. Now and then, a few individuals shine like 
 beacons over a sea of darkness, but they are few and far 
 between ; the entire mass is still unilluminated, and will 
 
A>rD ITS APPOINTED TIMES. 221 
 
 romain so wliile the pseudo- God-worship of man's fashion- 
 ing replaces the genuine adoration of Heaven's own ordi- 
 nation. 
 
 But this evil to man from a violation of heavenly law 
 is not an exceptional case. The same happens whenever 
 humanity presumes to set its little knowledge against 
 the infinite wisdom of the Eternal. On the broad bosom 
 of creation the Almighty impressed certain indelible 
 characters which it is impossible to eradicate, save by 
 the annihilation of nature. Any attempt to alter these 
 characters may seem to succeed for a time, but it must 
 ultimately fail, as all human exertions must succumb 
 when opposed by the might of Providence. Among the 
 characters impressed, pre-eminently distinguishable is the 
 right of free-will, and so inalienable has this been decreed 
 that even Heaven itself has never interfered to violate it. 
 As has been more than once shown in these reflections, 
 the commands of God were only exhortations, his prt)phe- 
 cies only a denunciation of the possible, not the inevitable.""" 
 But as happened in the matter of religion, fell out also in 
 the case of free-will. Men arrogated to themselves the 
 power to do what God avoided, that is, to coerce volition, 
 and the means they adopted was slavery. Considering 
 that human invention has always exhibited a remarkable 
 amount of ingenuity when fellow-torture was the ques- 
 tion, one can scarcely wonder at the apparently remark- 
 able adaptation of this means to its designed end. While 
 the most abject slavery leaves man, to some ex-tent, a 
 free agent, lord of his passions, his appetites, his love, 
 
 * A remarkable instance of the truth of this doctrine may be 
 adduced from the portion under consideration. God had origi- 
 nally designed the firstborn of Israel to be sanctified to him, but 
 now, owing to the devotion exhibited by the tribe of Levi, on the 
 occasion of the making of the golden calf, he substitutes that 
 tribe for the firstborn, and thus alters a plan of Heaven to suit 
 mortal conduct. 
 
Z22 THE LAW OF SINAI, 
 
 and his revenge, it contrives so to confine his powers of 
 judgment as to degrade his reason into little more than 
 instinct, his humanity into mere brute forbearance or 
 action. If a slave, as a type of his order, excels in 
 any thing one of the inferior animals, it will be rather in 
 his power to plot than in any nobler faculty. One of 
 the results of this attack on the dignity of human nature 
 has been unproductiveness ; the elephant does not 
 breed at all in captivity, and man disdains in some 
 degree to yield to influences that die even in a brute. 
 With slavery, therefore, is of necessity associated traffic 
 in fellow-creatures, to keep up the stock, and to supply 
 by fresh importations what nature denies to conjugal 
 ties. As ever, wrong creates wrong ; that some men may 
 revel in the licentiousness of tyranny, other men are sold 
 " like sheep to the slaughter," the most sacred affections 
 of humanity are violently outraged, the bonds that unite 
 parent and child, wife and husband, are snapped asun- 
 der, and when the slave, thus rendered an outcast, 
 writhes in the excess of his bodily agony, the master 
 aspires to be the " God of God," and denies him even 
 the right to think. And so, bound in unnatural fetters, 
 men drag out a miserable existence, unsojaced by the 
 sweet hopes that garner in the bosoms of parents, but 
 also undistressed by the pang which might give to death 
 an extra horror, that they are leaving children to inherit 
 their shame. 
 
 To this fate the Israelites had been condemned in 
 Egypt. Policy, the name under which cunning seeks to 
 cover what is never right, had devised a thousand w^ays 
 to perpetuate its s^vay and the slavery of its victims. 
 Hard labour made the day bitter, and converted the 
 night into a dreadful anticipation of the morrow ; chil- 
 dren were condemned, even ere their birth, to a violent 
 and inhuman death ; men were torn from their families 
 and scattered over the land of Egypt, to search for 
 
AST) ITS APPOINTED TIMES. 223 
 
 materials for their work ; every sj^ecies of oppression that 
 could weigh on the hearts of human beings, and wring 
 from them a cry of despair, was tried against the doomed 
 race. But, as the heathen Jethro subsequently acknow- 
 ledged, a power was opposed to these tyrants which, " in 
 what they were most presumptuous, was above them." 
 Men were called on to witness a phenomenon never before 
 observed, never since repeated. The wretched slaves still 
 remained faithful to the great lav/ of creation, " Be fruit- 
 ful and multiply;" and "the more they afflicted them, 
 the more they increased." Holy writ, as imj^ressive in its 
 teachings through history, as it is sacred in its moral 
 instructions, proves this miracle in the portion before us, 
 when it records the thousands of the various tribes. With 
 seventy souls Jacob went down into Egypt ; from the 
 house of bondage there came out more than 600,000 adult 
 males, besides women and children. Man's volition had 
 not been interfered with ; the Egyptians had been freely 
 permitted to use the power of slave-masters, the Israelites 
 had been left to two centuries of bitter servitude ; those 
 had exercised their assumed right " wdth rigour ; " these 
 had even forgotten their God " from bitterness of spirit 
 and from hard labour ; " and yet, even though the murder 
 of male children had been superadded to the wrongs in- 
 flicted on the Israelites, despite the general law of nature 
 that bodily degradation produces enervation and unfruit- 
 fulness, the despised race had far outrun the ordinary 
 rate of increase, and had multiplied in proportion to their 
 sufferings instead of diminishing under them. Can we 
 wonder, then, that the inspired legislator should expatiate 
 with so much minuteness on the numbers of the various 
 tribes 1 When we bear in mind that many of the rela- 
 tions of the Pentateuch are only useful to us because of 
 the moral they point, when we recollect that the silent 
 impression of facts is often more improving than the 
 eloquent voice of the preacher, shall we not perceive in 
 
224 THE LAW OF SIXAI, 
 
 this apparently uninteresting catalogue, a tacit but solemn 
 declaration, that where God wills, he can rule, even 
 though men exercise the plenitude of their volition. The 
 word that never fails had announced to the patriarch, 
 " I'liy seed shall be as the stars of heaven and as the sand 
 of the sea-shore;" and that promise was to be fulfilled. 
 What, though man had decided against its accomplish- 
 ment ; what, though tyranny had set in motion engines 
 which, under ordinary circumstances, crush vitality into 
 a thing of forms ; the Lord fought for Israel, and man's 
 decision and his engines were alike powerless to frustrate. 
 And thus, since the captivity, nearly eighteen hundred 
 years, the Israelites have been the scorn of the world. 
 Moral, if not j)hysical, slavery has been forced upon them. 
 They have been subject to every debasing influence which 
 might have prevented their increase. It is doubtful 
 whether under similar treatment another people might 
 not have deteriorated in bodily form, becoming hideous 
 or stunted, or altogether have vanished before more 
 vigorous races. But there existed in these victims to 
 man's caprice, a spirit which was altogether beyond man's 
 control. Scorn has not been able to fix one national 
 stain which might merit contempt. Moral slavery has 
 not succeeded in diminishing, still less in extinguishing, 
 the fire of genius ; the grasp of intellect still remains 
 potent, the lustre of virtue and religion still remains 
 undimmed. Increase has been steady and commensurate 
 with extraneous circumstances ; bodily form still presents 
 some of the noblest specimens of true Caucasian beauty. 
 Contrast the fate of other nations. Trace the various 
 streams whicli man pours into .the sea of time. See how 
 many of them have altogether disaj^peared, absorbed in 
 the earth or merged into other confluents. Romans, 
 Greeks, Persians, are all gone ; Yandals, Goths, Huns, 
 where are their remnants now ? Meanwhile, the brooklet 
 that took its rise in the valley of the Euphrates runs 
 
AND ITS APPOINTED TlilES. 225 
 
 eternally on towards the illimitable ocean. It defies 
 mortal attempts to dam its course, it disdains to mingle 
 with adjacent waters. Clouds at times obscure its day, 
 but the sun of its guidance still penetrates to illuminate. 
 And why is this ? Because the spring that supplies the 
 brooklet wells from an omnipotent source, because the 
 waters of its bosom are the waters of life everlasting, 
 because the works of man only are perishable, while the 
 works of God are as the hills that chanoje not. 
 
 XCMBERS: CHAPTER lY. YEESE 21. 
 When the merciful Creator imj^ressed upon human 
 nature the principle of love, he pi'ovided the best safe- 
 guard for the preservation of society. "Wherefore 
 man will leave his ftither and his mother, and cleave to 
 his wife, and they will become one flesh." Obedient to 
 this law, man, through the marriage contract, becomes 
 the means of forming the most hallowed union that is 
 known to earth. Friendship, as sung by poets, or 
 painted by authors, is a beautiful idea ; the reality is 
 too often ftiir on the surface, but rotten at the core. 
 Self sets up its host of wants and interests, and these, 
 as various as the characters of men, diverge into op- 
 posite extremities, instead of converging to a centre. 
 Even the sublime tie that binds parents and children 
 yields to the link of marriage ; for, as parents themselves 
 sought helps meet for them, so do children, in their 
 turn, build homes elsewhere, and, in the new associa- 
 tions, forget the old love. But the bonds of matrimony 
 are permanent ; man assumes them voluntarily, to part 
 from them but with death. Wife and husband, where 
 the union is perfect as it should be, cease to be different 
 individuals. They are essentially the reflex of each 
 other. No image represented in a mirror resembles 
 
 L 2 
 
226 THE LAW OF SINAI, 
 
 more entirely its original than do liusLand and wife. 
 His interests are her interests ; his success or failure is 
 her success or failure. For her, he forgets his sternness ; 
 for him, if needs be, she lays aside her gentleness. For 
 her, he forsakes the most fascinating attractions of 
 worldly pleasure ; for him, society presents no allure- 
 ments to her. This intimate communion benefits both. 
 Man gains therefrom a solace from his labours, a haven 
 of comfort which receives him buffeted by the storms of 
 cuter life, a refuge from himself when embittered by 
 the coldness or falsehood of the world. Woman ac- 
 quires a protection for her weakness which commands 
 the respect of society, a shield to defend her from the 
 attacks of malice or violence, a support which gives to 
 her soft nature strength to endure her share of earth's 
 troubles. But, above all, means are provided, through 
 marriage, for the proper introduction into life of well- 
 qualified members. Man, the highest of created beings, 
 is also the slowest to attain the mature development of 
 his faculties. Inferior animals, requiring only physical 
 powers, may be dismissed from the parents' lair as soon 
 as their young strength enables them to provide for 
 their wants, and their future career will derive no loss 
 from the dismissal. Man requires mental and moral 
 training ; not only must his years of infancy and child- 
 hood pass in necessary education, but even his puberty 
 must not be without its cultivation. He needs not only 
 precept but practice ; it is not enough that he is taught 
 what is right, he must see it performed ; his mind must 
 be fortified by precept, his imitativeness must be guided 
 by example. And where but in the hallowed precincts 
 of the home of marriage can child len receive this 
 requisite treatment? Contrast the fate of those un- 
 fortunate victims to their parents' weakness who are 
 ushered into life without the pale of matrimony. How 
 many fall a prey to disease, either of mind or moraLv, and 
 
AND ITS APPOINTED TIMES, 227 
 
 become the pariahs of civilisation ; how few attain to any 
 thing higher than the brute perfection of physical growth ! 
 But, in order that marriage may fulfil its legitimate 
 functions, it is necessary that there be entire confidence 
 between husband and wife. Each is the depository of the 
 other's honour, and this is a trust so sacred that it must 
 be guarded even at the sacrifice of life itself. Nature and 
 society league in some respect to give immunity to man 
 which is denied to woman ; but no cloud must obscure 
 the brightness of her fidelity. Pure as the unsunned snow 
 that glitters eternal on the mountain top, she lives only 
 in her isolation from all external influence. Yet the 
 weakness of mortality oftentimes operates against her ; 
 she may become the object of a suspicion which she does 
 not merit, or she may have violated her duties without 
 being suspected. Grant the latter, and the results must 
 not only be fatal to her own peace of mind, but to her 
 happiness as a wife, to her fulfilment of her charge as a 
 mother. Crime trails its serpentine course along the 
 domestic hearth, and leaves misery and evil behind it. 
 Grant the former, and the consequences are no less hurtful 
 to her. Ker husband sees in her aflfection only a hollow 
 mockery ; a hideous skeleton fills the place of a living 
 love in his heart ; his children become hateful to him, 
 because he doubts their mother, and instead of seeking 
 his home for comfort and affection, he flees from it as 
 from something too horrible to contemplate. With these 
 obstacles to human happiness before us, can we wonder 
 that Providence, ever so watchful in our behalf, should 
 have deigned to interfere in favour of an institution of its 
 own creation, and which tends so much to promote its 
 design 1 Now, if the demon jealousy, with all its train of 
 attendant fiends, invades ahousehold, peace for ever departs, 
 and there is no chance that any future contingency can 
 restore the calm once broken. In the days of our ances- 
 tors, in the land of promise, there was a means sanctified 
 
228 THE LAW OF ?IXAI, 
 
 by religion, and dictated by One wlio, having fashioned 
 the heart of man, knoweth all its imaginations. " The 
 offering of jealousy " .was at once the sure dove of hope, 
 or the certain arrow of destruction, between husband 
 and wife. Say she was innocent ; before the evident 
 manifestation of her purity, as ratified by God, even the 
 most inveterate and deeply-rooted suspicion vanished. 
 Restored again, as she deserved, to her husband's arms 
 and love, she found herself the object of increased atten- 
 tions and care, that all past sorrows might be obliterated ; 
 her soul revived under the invigorating beams of affection, 
 and expanded into all that is beautiful in the wife, all that 
 is tender in the mother ; roses again bloomed where once 
 liad grown weeds, and harmony gave to life a strain of 
 melody to replace the jarring notes of domestic discord. 
 Say she was guilty ; say she was that sinful thing which 
 had crept like a parasite into the bosom of a husband, to 
 tear therefrom all its existence, and to leave the trunk 
 w^hich had supported it sapless and dead. There was no 
 retreating before the punishment that awaited her, there 
 was no concealment of the vengeance of outraged honour. 
 To her God she appealed, as the bitter waters passed her 
 lips, and he answered as she deserved. To crime against 
 her husband she added perjury before Heaven, and even 
 as a physical disobedience of our first parents introduced 
 moral corruption into themselves and their descendants, 
 so, in her case, a moral deflection produced physical dis- 
 organisation. She became a monument of her own disgrace, 
 and thus, convicted before God and man, she could no 
 longer pollute the home which she had already outraged. 
 And by this means was man defended from the effects of 
 his unfounded suspicions, by this means was woman 
 either preserved to her legitimate and honourable func- 
 tions, or she was degraded according to her demerits, 
 beyond the opportunity of doing further evil to her 
 husband, further wrong to her children. 
 
AND ITS APPOINTED TIMES. 220 
 
 To man belongs only tlie present, and so fleeting are 
 the moments tliat pass, that even as he endeavours to 
 arrest them they elude his grasp, till he can scarcely call 
 one his o^vn. Even when he begins to act he knows not 
 if he shall be able to accomplish. He, ' therefore, who 
 opens his moutli to say that he will, opens his mouth t<> 
 folly ; he that vows, and thereby attests his folly by God, 
 commits a positive crime. The law of the Eternal does 
 not coerce man ; it seeks to prevent rather than to punish, 
 to restrain, not to force. But Providence demands re- 
 spect, and wisely insists that any pledge taken in its name 
 shall be held sacred and inviolable. Hence the regula- 
 tions affecting the Nazarite. A man who, having arrived 
 at maturity, must be fully cognizant of his own inherent 
 infirmities, must have felt the constant strufjorle between 
 
 } CO 
 
 the principles and the passions, and must know tlie 
 strength requisite to ensure stability of purpose, volun- 
 tarily imposed on himself obligations which it might even 
 be an impossibility for him to perform. His folly fully 
 deserved that he should suffer, his sin that he should be a 
 warning to otliers. It was necessary that he should, as 
 much as possible, be sustained in the contest into which 
 he had thrown his nature ; it was more necessary that 
 others should be cautioned against involving themselves 
 in struggles which might prove fatal to their happiness. 
 Hence, he was called on to refrain from all intoxicating 
 drinks, from all delicate and luxurious viands, so that his 
 appetites not being pampered, his blood might permeate 
 his veins under due control, and not run like liquid fire 
 through his frame, in\dting him to passion and excess. 
 He had set himself apart to God, and therefore God set 
 him apart from the world and its temptations, because it 
 was better that he should altogether be deprived of the 
 sensual pleasures natural to his humanity, than that he 
 should enjoy them at the expense of his honour and truth. 
 Man is framed for social intercourse, but he should rather 
 
230 THE LAW OF SINAI, 
 
 violate all his propensities as a solitary hermit than 
 abandon himself to them as a member of society. Besides, 
 the Israelite who took the vow of a Nazarite probably 
 knew too well the failings which he desired thereby to 
 correct, and it was wiser to exterminate these failings, to 
 prevent them from again leading liim astray, than to 
 permit them to exist, even though in a latent but still 
 dangerous state. But it was nevertheless not consistent 
 with right that man, by vowing himself to a certain line 
 of conduct, should arrogate a power over the future. 
 Hence, as in the case of the voluntary servant, who pre- 
 ferred his dependent condition to the free lob which is 
 man's birthright, some external distinction was needful to 
 deter others from imitating a bad example. The Naza- 
 rite, therefore, was to wear his hair differently from the 
 rest of his brother men, and was thus to hold himself up 
 as a constant warning, first, to deter men from assuming 
 votive obligations inconsistent with their condition, and 
 not demanded by religion ; and, secondly, to caution them 
 against that insane indulgence in passion which had 
 hurried him into excesses, to curb which it was necessary 
 to lean as much beyond the straight line of right as he 
 had before fallen short of it. 
 
 " The Eternal bless thee and preserve thee : the 
 Eternal cause his countenance to shine upon thee, and 
 be gracious unto thee : the Eternal lift his countenance 
 to thee and grant thee peace." These were the terms 
 in which the priests were commanded to bless the 
 Israelites. Nor are they improperly placed in close 
 connection with the laws of the Nazarite. Blessings, 
 like vows, belong to the iuture ; they also, in so far as 
 man is concerned, are empty words, whose accomplish- 
 ment does not depend upon him who utters them. God 
 having pointed out, by implication, the unnatural con- 
 dition to which man might reduce himself, and liaving 
 placed before mortals a fellow-creature as a warning, 
 
AXD ITS APPOINTED TIMES. 231 
 
 immediately points out that other condition of human 
 nature by which man may subserve the claims of nature, 
 and still not oppose the demands of Heaven. But God 
 especially desires that there be no mistake. In the 
 outset he prevents us from supposing that his power 
 over the future is to be delegated to frail man. Blessings 
 and curses are of God only ; man can only exhort or 
 admonish, and, when he promises, promise in the name 
 of Him who faileth not. Wherefore having announced 
 the words in whicli the priests are to address their flock, 
 he distinctly says : " And they shall put my name upon 
 the children of Israel, and / will bless them." In other 
 words, they may recommend to my people the line of 
 conduct necessary to their welfare, but happiness or 
 misery must depend on me alone. And what is the in- 
 tent of these words ? The evil consequences of indul- 
 gence having been pointed out, the contrast is at once 
 presented. Man alone is weak and erring : even where 
 his will is strongest, his volition is most weak. In spite 
 of himself and of his independence, he requires that 
 hidden and un apparent support which is of God. This 
 it is which enables him to support the soul against the 
 body, to maintain that in its aspirations, to fortify this 
 in its resistance against attacks. The words of the 
 blessing, only so called because it is a lesson by the 
 learning of which man's conduct shall prove a source of 
 blessing to him, are therefore admonitory, and mean as 
 follows : The Eternal ble.^s thee with his unseen and 
 often unappreciated aid : may he preserve thee from 
 those erring tendencies to which men are so prone, and 
 which once indulged, prove so destructive : may he cause 
 that divine light which is the reflection of heavenly 
 purity to shine on thee, and so to illumine thee that thou 
 see the true path in which man should go, and mayest 
 thou proceed in accordance with the road thus placed 
 before thee, so that he can be gracious unto thee : may 
 
232 THE LAW OF SINAI, 
 
 lie turn liis coimteiiance to thee, watching over thee and 
 guarding thee from all ill, and may he give thee that peace 
 of conscience, which arises from a sense of rectitude, and 
 which is the perfection of all happiness ! 
 
 Thus, in three different ways the portion before us 
 displays ])rovidential care for human welfare. But these 
 ways, though so opi)osite in their direction, are all con- 
 nected with each other by leading to the future, after 
 which it is our nature so constantly to aspire. The 
 offering of jealousy is designed to promote the future 
 happiness of the domestic circle, and to secure the affec- 
 tion and harmony necessary to the proper training of 
 another generation. The law of the Nazarite renders 
 him a tablet w^hereon the past engraves indelible charac- 
 ters for the benefit of the future. The blessing of the 
 priests points out the direct road by which man may 
 gain salvation. The first governs the future by giving 
 man a test whereby to detect his own weakness; the 
 second gives him a warning to caution him against him- 
 self; the third shows him the source of his real strength 
 to be dependence on God. And so again bow we to the 
 ever-vigilant wisdom which seizes on every phase of life, 
 and renders it available to our virtue and well-being. 
 Again bend we in adoration before the all-watchful 
 mercy which makes our failings subservient to our hap- 
 piness by showing us thereby how to avoid sin. And ever 
 as we feel ourselves the objects of this wisdom and this 
 mercy, let us pour out our hearts in gratitude to the 
 Divine Parent of mankind, who has created us for his 
 glory and our own regeneration. 
 
 : inbrnn 
 NUMBERS: CHAPTER VIIT. 
 A YEAR had elapsed since the exodus. The Israelites 
 had learned to become familiar with the sweets of liberty 
 
AND ITS APPOINTED TIMES. 233 
 
 and with the precious truths whicli mtide that liberty 
 useful. Fed by the direct interposition of Providence, 
 and clad by the same mysterious agency, they needed 
 to have no care for worldly concerns. And already 
 across the treeless plain of the wilderness loomed a pro- 
 spect of the fertile vales and vine-clad hills of Palestine. 
 Already the guiding cloud glided across the empyrean, 
 and its direction was towards the promised land. And 
 a nation journeyed ; far and wide stretched its wings, 
 moving to the sound of the silver trumpets ; and in its 
 centre, even as a heart which gave the vitality of circula- 
 tion to the body, was the sacred ark of the covenant ; 
 and above, even as reason, which is in the image of God, 
 was the high intelligence that led the whole. It were to 
 be imagined, with such surroundings, that harmony 
 should have dwelt in the soul of that nation ; that 
 gratitude should have influenced its every thought, that 
 the silence of the desert should have been broken by its 
 reiterated songs of praise. But, alas ! for the frailty of 
 that double nature which constitutes mortality. A year's 
 respite from labour had been a year of enervating sloth, 
 and tliis had produced its usual result — sensuality. 
 Instead of devoting their thoughts to the contemplation 
 of their newly-acquired spiritual treasures, the Israelites 
 had accepted them as men are too prone to receive other 
 gifts of Heaven, in un thankfulness. As day followed day 
 and brought with it no change ; as each morning wit- 
 nessed the same outpouring to gather the same manna, 
 and as each noon saw the same round of monotonous and 
 comparatively unindustrial employments, the people, 
 incapable of appreciating the blessings of tranquil lit}^, and 
 pining only for that excitement which is the food of 
 intemperate minds, turned longing eyes back to the past, 
 and sighed silently, but no less sinfully, for the stimulants 
 which had varied their lives in Egypt. What though they 
 had toiled till exhausted nature bade them recruit her forces 
 
234 THE LAW OF SINAI, 
 
 with needful sustenance ; at least there was abundance 
 of those appetising luxuries which pamper the palate 
 and gratify the senses ; now there was nothing but one 
 constantly repeated fare to satisfy bodies which, unexer- 
 cised by labour, required but little support, and scarcely 
 even relished that. "What though the lash of the task- 
 master had driven them like boasts, at least there were 
 corporeal comforts to atone for corporeal pains. What 
 though a savage tyranny, had scattered them over the 
 whole land of Egypt to search for straw ; at least their 
 wanderings had the charm of novelty, and in the ever- 
 changiug scenes of nature and of art there was some 
 solace. So reasoned they on whom idleness had so well 
 done its work. And soon their silent reflections found a 
 tongue, and through the camp there resounded the voice 
 of murmuring against ^the bounty of Heaven. Anxious 
 only for their bodies, the Israelites cried for what they 
 conceived to be bodily pleasures ; forgetful that the body 
 is corruptible, and that all which tends to promote its 
 pleasure, carries to it something of decay. 
 
 It might have been enough that Providence should 
 vindicate its majesty by striking the murmurers with 
 some signal mark of its vengeance, but the moral would 
 have been lost ; we might have been unable to trace the 
 connection between cause and effect. Besides, man being 
 a free agent, the Israelites, evei; so ready to find fault, 
 might have taken ground for complaint in such a chastise- 
 ment, as incompatible with the liberty of volition, and as 
 tending to crush the legitimate expression of opinion in 
 the case of a well-founded grievance. It was necessary to 
 show them, first, how mercifully Heaven could bear v/itli 
 their ingratitude, and how miraculously it could supply 
 the most extravagant cravings of lust ; and, secondly, how 
 pernicious becomes even the food of life when indulged in 
 sensually. 
 
 When, into a magnificent world, filled with all that 
 
AND ITS APPOINTED TIMES. 235 
 
 could satisfy liis necessities, contribute to his comfort, 
 and promote his pleasures, man was introduced, he was 
 enjoined to use, nob to abuse, his means for enjoyment. 
 His own feelings taught him too constantly how incon- 
 venient was any deviation from this law. Disease fol- 
 lowed excess so closely that there could be no doubt as to 
 the one being a consequence of the other. And yet, so 
 little does the future weigh in proportion to the present, 
 that men have at all times been found not only willing to 
 accept the pleasure of to-day with the almost certain 
 chance of pain to-morrow, but even passionately deter- 
 mined to rush into voluptuousness that must lead to 
 misery. And so Israel cried for ment, and the Eternal 
 answered their cry with an abundance so extraordinary 
 and unnatural, that even doubt could not refuse to believe 
 in the miracle. And they v/ho had longed for the well- 
 remembered flesh were able to gratify their utmost long- 
 ing, and still find to spare. But it is a feature of sen- 
 suality never to be satiated ; it may be prevented, by 
 temporary saturation or prostration, from further absorp- 
 tion, but no sooner are its capabilities for indulgence once 
 more loosened than it again hurries to its wonted gluttony. 
 What better could be expected of the already guilty 
 Israelites, who were not satisfied with the wholesome and 
 agreeable food provided by Heaven 1 They fastened on 
 their coveted dainties as sloths fasten on their prey, to 
 quit them only v/lien utter exhaustion rendered them 
 incapable of further exertion. Torpor succeeded to the 
 lustful banquet ; to torpor again succeeded lust. Can we 
 wonder at the result ? With the flesh still between their 
 teeth, while they were still revelling in their unholy 
 banquet, the excesses into which they had rushed pro- 
 duced their result. Corruption grew from the riot in 
 which they had wallowed, and even among the feasters 
 death stalked as an avenger. The shout of tlie bacchanal 
 turned to the wail of the plague stricken ; the orgy of 
 
23 G THE LAW OF SINAI, 
 
 maddened delight was stayed by the silence of the tomb. 
 And on tlie desert there arose mound-like monuments 
 to tell the fate of those who lusted. And as the survivors 
 journeyed from the scene of guilt, the eyes of many ran 
 over as they felt themselves torn from the graves of those 
 they had loved, and which now stood sad and stern warn- 
 ings against the sinfulness of sensuality. Thus ever ; no 
 sooner docs man yield to the influence of his body, 
 abandoning the nobler impulses of the mind, than he 
 becomes his own enemy, and he ultimately succumbs to 
 the decay which is engendered by his vicious propensities. 
 Let us quit the sickening sight which imagination con- 
 jures before us. 
 
 In discussing the character of Moses an attempt was 
 made to justify, through his merit, his clioice as a 
 servant by the Eternal. It was shown that he was of 
 all characters the greatest — a self-conquered man. In 
 the portion before us there is ample proof of some of 
 the high qualities which dignified him in that capacity. 
 His complaint to God, when his flock murmur, is at 
 once touching and impressive. The joy with which he 
 submits to share his authority with the seventy elders, 
 shows how little the charms of power had affected him. 
 Thinking not of his own gratili cation, but of the wel- 
 fare of those intrusted to his care, his first interest is in 
 them. To him power was only welcome because of the 
 means it afforded for securing the happiness of others. 
 No sooner, therefore, does he find that, to some extent, 
 he has failed, than he invokes the interference of the 
 Eternal, and even prays that he may die rather than 
 that the Israelites come to harm. For, with the 
 modesty of true worth, in the rebellion of the people, 
 he sees not their fault only, but he attributes blame to 
 himself for their backslidings, and tacitly reproaches 
 liimself with shortcomings in the execution of his duty 
 as an excuse for their misconduct. When we compare 
 
AND ITS APPOINTED TIMES, 237 
 
 tliis conduct with the ordinary conduct of men, who are 
 so tender of themselves, and so heedless of otliers, who 
 see the mote in the eye of their neighbours, but ignore 
 the beam in their own, we cannot refuse our admiration 
 and respect. But we are impelled to still higher venera- 
 tion when we behold the tribute which Heaven itstdf 
 pays to his virtues. ''And Moses heard the people 
 weeping, every man at the door of his tent ; and the 
 Eternal was exceeding wroth, and it was evil in the eyes 
 of Moses." Even the mercy of Providence is provoked 
 to great anger, while the forbearance of Moses stops at 
 simple displeasure. Divine justice can find no excuse 
 for ingratitude so black ; mortal weakness, conscious of 
 its liability to err, can bear with the sin because of the 
 frailty of human nature. 
 
 Such was Moses as a public man ; as a private in- 
 dividual he was no less admirable. It is certain that he 
 was not blessed in his domestic relations. He was 
 married to a woman rather forced on him by circum- 
 stances than selected from affection. She was of an- 
 other race and another religion, and her sympathies were, 
 therefore, not those of her husband. He was the fatlier 
 of two sons, but how little pride he could find in them 
 may be inferred from the circumstance that, after the 
 record of their birth, he never mentions their existence. 
 The veil of silence is the best cover the faithful historian 
 can hold up, because where there needs to be conceal- 
 ment, there needs to be mystery. As husband and father 
 then, he was not happy. For him, no wife to multiply 
 joys and divide cares ; for him, no children to mirror his 
 virtues while he lived, and to represent them when he 
 was dead. He stood by his hearth alone, no congenial 
 spirit to minister to him, and the son of a stranger was 
 to be his successor. Nor was he more fortunate in the 
 secondary ties of blood. Aaron was rather his associate 
 in power than the brother of his love ; a weak-headed 
 
238 THE LAW OF SINAI, 
 
 man, whose extent of energy was to do tlie duty laid 
 down for liim, and to follow where others led. Miriam, 
 his sister, seemed to be jealous of the superiority of a 
 Vjrother so much her junior, and waited but the oppor- 
 tunity to vent her spleen. It is the privilege of little 
 minds to immerse themselves in trifles, and, where there 
 is no serious fault for them to cavil at, to take advan- 
 tage of accidental circumstances, and ccnivert them into 
 subjects for ridicule. Flies will defile every object on 
 which they light. Moses was unhappy in his marriage ; 
 a generous brother and sister would have sought to solace 
 him, to fill, by additional attention and kindness, the 
 void in his heart. According to the custom of the 
 times he might easily have released himself from his 
 wife by dismissing her when he sent away her father ; 
 but he was too honourable to abandon a woman who 
 was the mother of his children. Here, then, was a 
 glorious occasion for fraternal littleness to manifest it- 
 self; a brother was in his own person above reproach, 
 but his wife w^as an alien, and he might be twitted for 
 that. And so " Aaron and Miiiam spake against 
 Moses, because of the Cushite woman whom he had 
 taken." Poor spite to vent itself so meanly, even al- 
 though the honest historian strives to excuse it by saying 
 that there really Avas ground for the observation, 
 "because he had taken a Cushite woman." One can 
 only pity the malice which was not slander, and admire 
 the heroism proof even against the sting of unpleasant 
 truth. 
 
 But, having once begun to speak, Aaron and Miriam, 
 true to the instincts of their class, did not know how to 
 be silent. Wasps betray themselves by their buzzing. 
 And so, from the woman they affected to despise they 
 turned to the man they sought to degrade. " Hath not 
 the Eternal spoken also through us?" exclaimed they, as 
 though honourable association could dignify where per- 
 
AND ITS APPOINTED TIMES. , 239 
 
 sonal merit was absent. " And God heard," and again he 
 permitted Moses to pay a tribute to mortal merit, such as 
 it has seldom deserved, " And the man Moses was very- 
 meek, beyond every man on the face of the earth."* 
 Nothing that could be said of him could move him from 
 his determination to overcome his temper ; taunts could 
 not awaken an unkind return, sneers could not provoke 
 an angry rejoinder. The Almighty, however, jealous of 
 the honour of his servant, himself took up his cause, and 
 vindicated at once the rights of justice and the wrongs of 
 outraged consanguinity. He administered to the culprits 
 a reproof which crushed them by its stern defence of the 
 brother they had attempted to vilify. He spoke of the 
 iiiithful one in terms never before nor since applied to 
 man, and such that they rendered all further design to 
 misrepresent him futile. He inflicted on Miriam a 
 punishment so loatlisome that she became an object of 
 abhorrence even to the meanest ; au'l, to render her 
 humiliation more severe, she was to owe her pardon to 
 the very man she had designed to contemn. And, if 
 Aaron was not afflicted like his sister, it was doubtless 
 more out of regard to the sacred functions he discharged 
 than from any personal merit of his own. His immunity, 
 however, must have been equally painful if he possessed 
 any sensibility whatsoever; and the fact that he was the 
 first to hasten to Moses to solicit his interference on 
 IVIiriam's behalf, afforded proof that he felt how wrong he 
 had been, and was ready to show that he had rather 
 imitated than originated the calumny. 
 
 * The Hebrew is xery emphatic ; as applied to Moses, the term 
 man signifies a distinguished man, as though the text would con- 
 trast his greatness with his forbearance, his real claims to dignity 
 with his modesty ; as applied to other men, the term man means a 
 simple child of earth, as though to point the moral that the humble 
 have not always the greatest humility, and that it frequently 
 happens that demerits and pride increase in conjunction. 
 
240 THE LAW OF SINAI, 
 
 Thus again does Holy Writ teach by the force of 
 example. It interests us very little whether one man 
 was slandered or whether another was a slanderer; b\it it 
 does concern us to know the effects of misconduct ; it does 
 concern us to learn the opinion of the Perfect Judge on 
 moral deflections, and to see the way in which he treats 
 them. For so shall we be able to shape our own conduct, 
 avoiding the vices and copyiug the virtues which history 
 presents to our notice ; and so shall we be better able to 
 appreciate the Divine lessons, on which all true goodness 
 is baseil. 
 
 NUMBEES: CHAPTER XIII. 
 There is a limit even to Divine mercy, because, bej^ond 
 a certain point, it could only be a toleration of determined 
 j:)erverseness. The Israelites had seen sufficient direct 
 interposition of Providence in human affairs, to satisfy 
 the most doubtful. They had seen the tardy justice done 
 to them by the Egyptians, when in the hurry of departure 
 from slavery their greedy taskmasters gave them in pre- 
 cious things a long arrear of wages. They had seen the 
 pride and panoply of the most potent kingdom on earth 
 vanish like a mist of the morning before the breath of his 
 nostrils ; " the depths covered them, they went down into 
 the al:>yss like a stone." They had seen the warlike bands 
 of Amalek, inured to war, and with their courage sharp- 
 ened by the hope of plunder, fall like grass under the 
 sickle, before the half-armed and untrained youth led by 
 Joshua. They had seen the wondrous display at Sinai ; 
 they had heard the dread voice of the Eternal ; their food 
 had been supplied from Heaven ; for their sake water had 
 flowed from the flinty rock ; they had witnessed the con- 
 dign punishment of Aaron's froward sons, and more re- 
 cently they had beheld the direful effects of unrestrained 
 
AND ITS APPOINTED TIMES. 241 
 
 appetites in the burial of tliose who lusted. But all had 
 failed to eradicate from their uiinds the fatal elements of 
 corruption, originally implanted there by slavery. They 
 were now to set the seal on their disobedience, and to 
 render it impossible that they shonld any longer be deemed 
 worthy of the final destination to which all past mercies 
 and miracles had tended. Already they trod on the con- 
 fines of that land of promise, which, from the days of 
 Abraham, had been designed as their inheritance. To this 
 goal all their previous career had taught them to look 
 forward, alike as the culndnation of Divine favoirr and 
 the termination of their pilgrimage. Arrived there, they 
 would assume that j^lace among nations which would give 
 them respect in the eyes of their fellow-creatures, and 
 they would have both leisure and opportunity for the per- 
 formance of those duties which were to prove them the 
 representatives of revelation. There, they would by prac- 
 tice be enabled to show-their appreciation of their mission ; 
 there, in the discharge of the functions commanded by 
 religion and morality, they were to reap a rich earthly 
 reward in prosperity and health, and to deserve the richer 
 heavenly recompence of eternal salvation. One might 
 suppose that the memory of what they had experienced, 
 and the hope of what they could do to deserve such bene- 
 fits, had been sufficient to stimulate them to all that might 
 be desired. Let us see what they did. 
 
 Commanded by God, Moses sent twelve men, heads of 
 their respective tribes, to search the land of Canaan, and 
 to report thereon to, the people. The intention probably 
 was to enable the spies to judge by inspection of the fer- 
 tility and beauty of the country which they were about to 
 possess, and to enable the people to receive an impression 
 from brethren in whom they had confidence. Hitherto, 
 they had heard of the land only from God, and he who 
 knew their innermost hearts, read doubtless the lingering 
 feeling that existed there, in favour of learning something 
 
 M 
 
242 THE LAW OF SINAI, 
 
 from men who liad seen what they described. He had no 
 wish to coerce them ; still less did he desire them to rush 
 into what they considered a mystery, and might therefore 
 regard as auspicious. Having no design to deceive them, 
 the Almighty, in the true spirit of that lofty morality 
 which he had taught them, gave the choice into their own 
 hands, and instead of compelling them, consented to abide 
 by their decision. And so the men went. They passed 
 through the south of Palestine ; they traversed its fertile 
 valleys and saw them teeming with abundance, to which 
 even the abundance of Egypt was as nothing ; they saw 
 its mountains, not bleak and sterile blots on the landscape, 
 but crowned with the vine and the cedar, and literally 
 running down with honey from myriads of wild bees that 
 nested in their fissm'es. They saw also strong cities 
 " walled up to heaven," and giants compared with whom 
 they seemed as grasshoppers, 
 
 At the end of forty days these searchers returned. 
 A tale never loses in the repetition, nor does the moral 
 of it depend so much on the matter as on the manner of 
 its telling. All the twelve agreed in the account which 
 they gave of the beauty and luxury of the places they had 
 visited ; only two founded their other conclusions on the 
 analogy of the past. The ten others told all they had 
 seen, and added the impression it had made on them. 
 They spoke as men might have spoken sent without the 
 warrant of Heaven, or as men who had never been the 
 objects of any declared special Providence. They forgot 
 the defeat of the Amalekites, they forgot the express 
 promise of God that he would drive before them the 
 inhabitants of Canaan ; they were sufficiently willing to 
 enjoy the fertility of the land, but not sufficiently brave 
 to dare the a})parent danger of gaining it. With the true 
 pusillanimity of cowards, they magnified difficulties to 
 which fear had already lent fictitious greatness. Joshua 
 . and Caleb alone spoke with the courage which confidence 
 
AND ITS APPOINTED TIMES. 243 
 
 in the Eternal inspired. What to them were giants and 
 walled cities 1 Had not the might of Egypt, her chariots, 
 her horsemen, her king, and her people, all succumbed 
 before the word of the Lord 1 Could not the Eternal so 
 direct that the same thing might again happen 1 Had 
 he not jjromised victory, and did his word ever fail ? 
 
 Numbers prevailed ; the fear of the ten spread like a 
 contagion : the spirit of the two excited no kindred ardour. 
 The whole congregation were stricken with terror as with 
 madness. Their senses must have been paralyzed, or they 
 never would have gone to such extremities. Their 
 gratitude for Divine mercy could never have been sincere, 
 or they would not so have ignored its very existence. 
 Listen to their insane murmurings : " Would God that 
 we had died in the land of Egypt ; woidd God that 
 we had died in this desert. And wherefore has tl^ 
 Eternal brought us to this land to fall by the sword, 
 that our wives and little ones should be a prey; were 
 it not better for us to return to Egypt?" And they 
 began consulting the propriety of appointing a leader to 
 conduct them back to Egypt, and they threatened with 
 death Joshua and Caleb, who, true to their God, endea- 
 voured to stay them. Was ever human perversity so 
 wilful ? Was ever human blindness so monstrous 1 In a 
 moment, because a nameless terror had seized them, they 
 would have destroyed the work of four centuries, they 
 would have frustrated the design for the eternal regene- 
 ration of man. Already, in the days of Abraham, the 
 Almighty had declared his high purpose in the selection 
 of the patriarch. He had determined in precise words 
 the vocation of Judaism ; he had announced the means for 
 mankind's becoming blessed through the seed of his faith- 
 ful servant. Since that time, the whole history of the 
 descendants of Abraham had been one long preparation. 
 Their descent into Egj^pt, as we have shown, was necessary 
 to their development. Their abode in the desert was 
 
■244 THE LAW OF SINAI, 
 
 necessary for their instruction in the gi'eat principles of 
 religion and virtue, and for giving them time to become 
 accustomed to their newly-acquired liberty. Their entrance 
 into Canaan was no less necessary for the accomplishment 
 of Divine ends. Thereby, vengeance was to be taken on 
 idolators who had shamed the face of nature by their 
 atrocities; proof was to be afforded to mankind that no 
 power is safe which is not based on the sure foiindation of 
 right; the world was to be taught that immunity, how 
 long soevei' enjoyed and abused, is no security for crime ; 
 Israel was to assume a place among nations, and was thus 
 to claim a share in the great community of the earthy 
 wdiich through it was to be regenerated. All this was in 
 imminent danger of being prevented. Free-will, though 
 mighty, and, as here shown, hitherto uncontrolled, was 
 not to be permitted to perpetrate a deed which would 
 render permanent the reign of idolatry and ignorance. 
 The terror-stricken cowards were not, with Divine sanction, 
 to plunge into a system antagonistic to the eternal laws of 
 nature, inflicting not only on their guilty selves, but on inno- 
 cent unborn generations for ever, the wrongs of slavery. 
 In spite of themselves mercy should operate — only they 
 should not receive it. And so, even as the infuriate mob 
 would have hurled death on the two spies who were faith- 
 ful to God, " the glory of the Eternal appeared in the 
 ■ tabernacle to all the children of Israel." A panic seized 
 the guilty herd; the ready stones hung in their 23aralyzed 
 hands. Their cries of revenge sank into whispered 
 murmurs, and ended in the gaping silence of dread. 
 
 " And the Eternal spake unto Moses, How long will 
 this people provoke me, and how long will they not 
 • believe in me, notwithstanding all the signs which I have 
 done in their midst ? I will smite them with pestilence, 
 and dispossess them, and of thee I will make a nation 
 greater and mightier than they." Fearful sentence on 
 , guilt ; bright prospect for the faithful servant that his 
 
AND ITS APPOINTED TIMES. 245 
 
 seed should replace the appointed children of the older 
 patriarchs. But the meek Moses knew nothing selfish ; 
 in his heart the love of duty reigned paramount ; none 
 stood before his flock in the deep affection of his nature. 
 He acknowledged the culpability of the people, but he 
 deprecated the sternness of justice, and supplicated for 
 mercy. Now stood him in good stead the awful vision 
 which passed before him when he was placed on the rock. 
 He recalled to the incensed Deity the attributes of long- 
 suffering and untiring goodness which God had himself 
 proclaimed as his peculiar right. He spoke to the Eternal 
 not of the sin which was to suffer, but of the effect of the 
 pronounced sentence on mankind. The world, he urged, 
 ever so prone to find occasion against what it could not 
 understand, would attribute inability to God, whose 
 majesty would thereby be lessened in the eyes of man. 
 People would reflect not on the crime but on the destruc- 
 tion, and they would be regarded as martyrs who other- 
 Avise were only criminals. And, although the Almighty 
 needs not to justify his ways to man, he recognised the 
 force of Moses' prayer. Men might say that in the case of 
 Israel the privileges of volition had been violated ; for 
 that a nation had been forced against its will from Egypt, 
 and had been dragged into a desert to be put to death. 
 And there would seem the more plausibility in the 
 assertion, because the interference of God had been direcc 
 and declared, and because how much soever 'men might be 
 supposed, under ordinary circumstances, to act under the 
 influence of Providence, here at least there could be no 
 doubt that they had so acted. 
 
 " Forgive, I beseech thee, the iniquity of this people," 
 exclaimed Moses, mindful of the eternal declaration from 
 Sinai, that the iniquity of parents is to be visited on 
 children to the third and fourth generations. " And the 
 Eternal said, I have forgiven according to thy word." 
 Let us not mistake either the intention of the prayer for 
 
246 THE LAW OF SINAI, 
 
 pardon, or tlie pardon itself. It must not be supposed 
 that the terms of the commandment which tells of the 
 visiting of iniquity on the innocent are to be taken in 
 their literality. It would not be consistent with mortal 
 justice, still less with Divine mercy, that children should 
 receive direct punishment for the sins of their parents. 
 The commandment seems to be only a declaration of what 
 we know too well to be the force of example, Man is 
 imitative ; what children see before them in the home 
 wherein they are trained, that they will do. Thus it is 
 that evil seeds produce evil fruits. Iniquity, as here 
 understood, is the result of a failing or weakness of human 
 nature, and just as certain physical organisations descend 
 from parent to child, just as certain diseases are hereditary^ 
 so weaknesses of character as developed in daily life pass 
 from generation to generation through the mere force of 
 example. The Israelites had shown the weakness of their 
 character in want of confidence and rebellion, oftentimes 
 repeated. What could be expected of their children, if 
 they who had seen the miracles and mercies of God did 
 not believe? Distrust would be perpetuated, future 
 generations would fall away from God, till, at length, the 
 very first object of revelation would be altogether lost. 
 Against such a contingency Moses desired to guard. 
 When, therefore, he prayedfor pardonof the iniquity, it was 
 less for the act than for its effects, less for the actors than 
 for those who might copy their deeds. And when the 
 Eternal vouchsafed to forgive, it was precisely the effects, 
 and not the offenders that he pardoned. " I have for- 
 given according to thy word ;" that is, By my omnipotent 
 influence I will so rule the minds of the children of this 
 people, without interfering Avith their free-will, that the 
 pernicious example now before them shall jjroduce no 
 results ; I will so ordain that these children shall lose 
 nothing of their faith by imitating the acts of their 
 parents, but they shall be in all matters of belief as though 
 
AND ITS APPOINTED TIMES. 247 
 
 this defection had never been set before them. But this 
 pardon for the innocent was by no means extended to the 
 guilty. It had tl.e effect of saving Israel from destruc- 
 tion, and of leaving the inheritance of the promised land 
 to the descendants of the patriarchs, but the rebellious 
 were to suffer as they deserved, and as they themselves 
 had spoken. Their carcases were to fall in the desert ; in 
 it they were now destined to wander till ail the proud 
 array of men that had just been numbered should have 
 fjillen in death ; and the children, for whom they had 
 feared that they might fall a prey to the Canaanites, were 
 to go up and successfully inherit the land which they had 
 not dared to invade. 
 
 Sad result of disobedience j sad termination to the tri- 
 umphant career which had led them " with a high hand " 
 from Egypt, which had heard their song of glorification at 
 the Red Sea, which had witnessed the spontaneous submis- 
 sion, "We will do, we will hear," at Sinai. And still 
 more sad, because parents were thereby taught to know 
 that their memory was to fade from the minds of their 
 children as something too vile for contemplation. The 
 joyous longing of fathers, that sons may prove their worth 
 by wiser execution of wise precepts, was no more for these 
 condemned. Between parents and children a wide gulf 
 yawned, and ever as its banks opened more and more 
 widely, the ties of blood grew weaker, till at last they 
 snapped altogether. And the future was entirely lost. 
 For them no more that happy ignorance which knows not 
 when to anticipate death ; no more that elasticity of life 
 which even in old age dares to spring forward. Their 
 'days were numbered ; for them fate had nothing in store 
 but the monotony of wearying decay. Hope, which 
 weaves its bright veil for all, was dead to them. The 
 howling desert was to be their tomb, and even their child- 
 reai were destined to forget them. 
 
 Can we wonder that the terrible denunciation should 
 
24:8 THE LAW OF SINAI, 
 
 render the guilty Israelites desperate 1 Better far any lot 
 than that maddening sameness which knew no change, 
 that isolation and solitude amidst their kindred that left 
 them alone on earth. Now therefore, they would fain 
 atone their error. Now, they would fain dare any danger 
 to annul their dread sentence. But it was too late, as is 
 ever the repentance that comes after detection. Persis- 
 tence now was as much disobedience as resistance had 
 been before. Their cause had lost the approval of Heaven, 
 it had not even the support of their own consciences ; it 
 was a bad, and therefore a losing cause. The high moral 
 courage derived from conscious rectitude was not there to 
 support their undisciplined ranks, agaiust the trained 
 troops ox>posed to them. And so, they who had refused 
 to advance because of their want of ti-ust, now rushed for- 
 ward in consequence of it. Before, they had dreaded the 
 enemy ; now, they were afraid of themselves and their fate. 
 The result was not doubtful. With the awful sentence of 
 their offended God still ringing in their ears, they hurried 
 to their fate, and thus became the first fulfilment of the 
 denounced doom. In the strength of their manhood they 
 willed to act, and Heaven, ever mindful of man's right 
 over his conduct, did not interfere to stay them. They 
 sought to penetrate into the once promised, but now for- 
 bidden land, and on its border they perished violently. 
 The inhabitants whom they regarded as giants, crushed 
 them like grasshoppers, and thus from their own lips came 
 their condemnation, even as the Eternal had spoken. 
 
 Truly said the Psalmist, " If the Lord build not the 
 house, vainly the builders of it labour." There is no j^ros- 
 perity without God ; there is no success without the Lord. 
 Men strive to attain skill and experience, and they are 
 right, because in the struggle they are developing the 
 faculties which distinguish them from inferior animals. 
 Men plan and perform, invent and perfect, and again they 
 are right, because the intelligence with which they are 
 
AND ITS APPOINTED TIMES. 249 
 
 gifted, is thereby made available for the general welfare. 
 But skill and experience, plan and performance, invention 
 and perfection, are only productive of permanent and uni- 
 versal good, when they are based on the eternal principles 
 of religion, when they are designed to evince man's depen- 
 dence on a supreme God, not to manifest his independence 
 of Heaven. Temporary success, partial benefit, may arise 
 from exertions which are selfish and biassed, but the end 
 will show how evanescent and unreal are such unholy 
 victories. " Trust in the Lord, and do what is right," is 
 a sage, advice, for it contains the whole secret of happiness. 
 It inculcates love of virtue and justice, and it points out 
 the necessity for belief in Divine aid ; the former prompts 
 to honourable deeds, the latter makes them pious ; that 
 directs men in their course on earth, and this teaches 
 them to light their path by the illuminating beams of 
 religion. 
 
 NUMBEES: CHAPTEE XYI. 
 Silently and surely do men, even when they seem to 
 act most independently, carry out the designs of Provi- 
 dence. Silently and surely do circumstances, apparently 
 either fortuitous or of human arrangement, effect ends 
 pre-ordained of the Eternal. The fiat had gone forth 
 against rebellious Israel, even as to-day sentence of death 
 may be recorded against some guilty criminal. But there 
 is a difierence ; whereas the culprit of to-day, during the 
 period that elapses between his condemnation and his 
 execution, loses his volition, save as to personal action 
 within the limits of his prison, the people condemned by 
 God were still free agents, and the doom denounced against 
 them was to be the result of their own uninfluenced pro- 
 ceedings. For the all -seeing wisdom of Heaven was 
 enabled to foretell, with unerring certainty, the future of 
 
 m2 
 
2o0 THE LAW OF SINAI, 
 
 those imfaithfiil tribes whom a thousand miracles had 
 failed to convert, whom a thousand mercies had failed to 
 render grateful. He had said ; Forty years will ye wander 
 in this wilderness, and in it your carcases will waste ; we 
 are now to see how human passions and human frailties 
 rushed into fate, as though destiny were unavoidable, 
 because foretold. 
 
 The glitter of power dazzles most men ; the solemn 
 grandeur of spiritual power has charms only for the few, 
 but those charms are irresistible. There is something 
 magnetic in that absorbing influence which religious domi- 
 nion confers ; but it attracts only the kindred metal. 
 Thousands have dared to be traitors for temporal au- 
 thority; isolated units have made up the sum of those who 
 have aspired to prophetic rule. And it is wise that it is so. 
 The usurped sovereignty of earthly things is evanescent ; 
 gained by violence, by fraud, or by some lucky accident, 
 it is as easily lost, and when it has passed away and a 
 new power has replaced it, all traces of its existence 
 speedily vanish, and time runs on as though it had never 
 beeu. What avails it now that Alexander overran Asia, 
 that Attila scourged Europe ? what influence has the 
 usurpation of Kichard the Third had upon the history of 
 this country 1 Spiritual sovereignty is more lasting ; and 
 its effects, even when the cause has ceased to be, are often 
 visible through ages. Mahomet lives still in his doctrines ; 
 who shall say when the teachings of Mormonism shall 
 fail to lay hold on human destinies 1 Beautiful therefore is 
 that peculiar dispensation of Providence, which leads so few 
 to aspire to this influence, so powerful for good or for bad. 
 Powerful for good, only when it is based on those Divine 
 truths which came from Sinai, which unite God to man 
 by the ties of mercy and love, which unite man to man by 
 the bonds of brotherhood and charity. Powerful for bad, 
 when it is based on those pseudo-truths which, professing 
 to be heavenly, are only of earth, which unite one section 
 
AND ITS APPOINTED TIMES. 251 
 
 of humanity with a so-called divinity, and associate the rest 
 of mankind with perdition, which preach brotherhood and 
 charity in theory, and practise intolerance and tyranny 
 to all without the pale. Of those whose aim has been 
 something like this, Korah stands pre-eminent. 
 
 The Eternal had just established, through revelation to 
 Moses, the j^urest theocracy. He had announced himself 
 as Sovereign of his people, their sole executive and legisla- 
 tive Lord. He had vested certain of his executive 
 functions in a priesthood, but, as has already been shown, 
 these functions were purely of detail, and were as invio- 
 lable to the priesthood themselves as to the people on 
 whose behalf they were exercised. The laws of Sinai 
 were to be for all time ; in them, and in them only, 
 Israelites were to find happiness here, and salvation here- 
 after. They were to be preserved in all tjieir integrity, 
 because, one infringement permitted, who should say 
 where the aberration might end ? And, up to the period 
 at which the sacred historian has now brought us, they 
 had been so preseiwed. Rebellion had more than once 
 broken out among the Israelites, they had more than once 
 murmured against certain mercies of Providence, which 
 in their ignorance they had not recognised as mercies ; 
 but here crime had stayed. Even on the last and most 
 important occasion of their unfaithfulness they had not 
 aspired to violate the spiritual authority which God had 
 assumed over them, and which Moses and the priests 
 administered in his name. In proof, the man who was 
 found profaning the Sabbath, was executed in obedience 
 to the command of the Eternal ; and the Israelites, to 
 awaken their reflections, cheerfully accepted the ordi- 
 nance of the fringes as a memorial to be ever before their 
 eyes, to remind them of their duties. Korah was to 
 be the first to direct rebellion against the system of reli- 
 gion laid down for Israel ; he was to be amongst the first 
 of the thousands of victims whom ambition, selfishness, or 
 
252 THE LAW OF SINAI, 
 
 passion, was to claim on the desert plains over which 
 Israel was to wander during its period of purgation. 
 
 " And Korah the son of Izhar, the son of Kohath, the 
 son of Levi, presumed." He was of that tribe in which 
 God had vested the priestly duties. It might be supposed 
 that as one of the designed ministers of the tabernacle he 
 should be well acquainted with the will of his Divine 
 Master. His acts, therefore, being based on a sort of 
 official sanction, would have an authority and a weight 
 not attached to the acts of a meaner individual. As 
 might be expected, especially among a people so prone to' 
 rebel, his example found ready imitators, Dathan, Abi- 
 ram, On, and two hundred and fifty princes of the congre- 
 gation rose against Moses and against Aaron, and said : 
 " Ye take too much upon yourselves, for all the congre- 
 gation are holy, every one of them, and the Eternal is 
 among them ; why then lift ye up yourselves above the 
 assembly of the Eternal 1 " The idea is evident. The 
 spiritual authority of Moses and Aaron had led to the 
 terrible sentence recently denounced against Israel. That 
 authority therefore was wicked (so reasoned these men) ; 
 it had prostrated a whole people before the terrors of a 
 definite and dreadful future. It had goaded them, in the 
 madness of their despair, to dare what in the moment of 
 their- unfaithfulness they had refused to do — attack the 
 Canaanites, and it had failed adequately to nerve their 
 arms. They had thus fallen an easy prey before their 
 enemies, the while Moses and Aaron and the ark remained 
 in safety. Brooding melancholy sat with pall-like wings 
 over the congregation, darkness covered the present, no 
 hope illumined the future. Here, then, continued Korah 
 and his companions, is an opjDortunity for us which may 
 never occur again. If we can succeed in convincing these 
 people that the authority from which so much misery has 
 supervened is usurped, if we can induce them to reject 
 that authority, and to follow whither we lead, who shall 
 
AND ITS APPOINTED TIMES. 2o6 
 
 set bounds to the influence which we shall tlierehy secure, 
 especially if through some new doctrine or through some 
 xiew exponents of Divine functions, we ourselves assume 
 to stand between our followers and Heaven. None knew 
 better than Korah the power of spiritualism over the 
 mass, and the bold manner in which he ventured to act, 
 in the face of the miracles recently performed before the 
 whole congregation, proves that he was one of those 
 desperate men who venture all on the hazard of failure or 
 success. 
 
 And again the old repeated cry is raised to excite the 
 
 lustful Israelites. "Is it a small thing that thou hast 
 
 brought us up out of a land flowing with milk and honey, 
 
 to put us to death in this desert; that thou wouldst 
 
 make thyself altogether a prince over us ? " In other 
 
 v/ords, Having enslaved our bodies, wouldst thou control 
 
 our souls ? Can we wonder that even the meek Moses 
 
 was very wroth, not so much perhaps at the unmerited 
 
 reproaches heaped on him, the instrument of God, as at 
 
 the assumption contained in those reproaches, and which 
 
 he plainly perceived was making him the scapegoat k) 
 
 cover its intrigues after a new spiritualism ? " Turn not 
 
 to their oblation," said the faithful servant to the Eternal ; 
 
 that is, Disgrace them in the moment of their arrogance, 
 
 so that none but themselves may be the dupes of their 
 
 schemes. " I have not taken one ass from them, neither 
 
 have I done evil to one of them," was his appeal to the 
 
 congregation, alike to justify himself, and to deter them 
 
 from listening to the designing words of Korah. But 
 
 God was at hand to vindicate his own, just as he had been 
 
 at hand to avenge his servant on those who sought to 
 
 vilify him. And Moses said, " Hereby shaU ye know that 
 
 the Eternal has sent me to do aU these works, that I 
 
 have not done them of my own mind ; if these men die the 
 
 death of all men, or if they be visited after the visitation 
 
 of ail men, then the Eternal hath not sent me." And 
 
254 THE LAW OF SINAI, 
 
 the offended majesty of Heaven, speaking thus through 
 the mouth of its appointed one, launched its bolt against 
 those who had violated their own trust, and had sought 
 to implicate others in their treason. " The earth opened 
 her mouth and swallowed them up, and their houses and 
 all the men of Korah and all their substance ; they and 
 all that appertained to them went down alive into the 
 grave, and the earth covered them, and they perished 
 from among the congregation." A miserable end to a 
 miserable attemj)t to set up human for heavenly spiritual- 
 ism. The impostors were exposed in the very heart of 
 their weakness ; even as they were attempting to exhibit 
 proofs of their mission, they vanished in destruction before 
 the very persons in whose eyes they wished to be ag- 
 grandised. And not only they, but all that belonged to 
 them, adults whom they had corrupted by evil communion, 
 children whom they had vitiated by false teaching. For 
 such is spiritual crime, whose object is to influence not 
 only the present but future generations, that nothing 
 short of utter extermination can possibly prevent its 
 spread. Leave only one fibre, and it will strike its per- 
 nicious radicles somewhere. No grave arose to mark the 
 accursed spot, no relative remained behind to sustain by 
 mourning the memory of beings doomed to excision. 
 From among the people they had attempted to deceive 
 into further sin, they were violently torn, and not a vestige, 
 save their fate, was left, to tell that they had ever been. 
 " The tombs of those who lusted " might stand out as 
 monuments alike to mark the fate of indulgence, and to 
 point a warning against earthly pleasures, but no monu- 
 ment of Korah was to remain, that others might strive 
 thereon to raise a superstructure for enslaving their 
 fellow-creatures. His crime had not been an act the 
 consequences of wliicli were personal or evanescent ; he 
 had sought to alienate a people from its allegiance to God's 
 ordinances, and to lead them to j^refer a spiritualism of his 
 
AND ITS APPOINTED TIME.?. 2~)5 
 
 creation to one of Heaven's institution. ; lie had endea- 
 voured to substitute the darkness of superstition, and the 
 rule of priestcraft, for the light of religion and the 
 dominion of an honourable ministiy, and he had thus 
 designed to enslave unborn generations without end. 
 Therefore he was to be annihilated — even the great law 
 of nature which renders matter permanent and self-pro- 
 ductive, which ordains that decomposition be the means 
 through which one class or age shall support another 
 class or age — even this seemed to be suspended. Deep 
 down into the bowels of the earth, with no trace to mark 
 the spot j so deep, that even his decay could scarcely 
 affect humanity or vegetation, to which his released ele- 
 mentary particles could not ascend — deep into an abyss 
 that yawned for his body, but engulfed also his soul, 
 went do^Ti the guilty Korah and his associates, and Israel 
 was saved from farther corruption. 
 
 But the punishment of the guilty was not, of itself, 
 sufficient. It was necessary, if possible, to prevent the 
 recurrence of a like attempt. The murmuring against 
 the report of the sjoies and the desecration of the Sab- 
 bath had led to the institution of the garment of fringes, 
 that there might exist a visible sign to remind the 
 Israelites of duties dependent on impulses of the mind. 
 Providenee determined to adopt a similar expedient 
 now, and to establish some tangible proof of the spi- 
 ritualism he had vested in the family of Aaron. As the 
 fringes were to induce men to " remember all the com- 
 mands of the Eternal and do them," so the new token was 
 to bid men bear in mind the nature of the revelation of 
 which the priests were to be the exponents, and to 
 caution them aijainst listenina: to doctrines which another 
 priesthood might teach for sinister purposes. To carry 
 out this design was performed the miracle of the blossom- 
 ing rod. A lasting memorial was thus furnished of tlie 
 choice of God. No man thereafter could assert, as Korah 
 
25Q THE LAW OF SINAI, 
 
 had asserted, that the Eternal had not selected Aaron and 
 his family as the spiritual leaders of the people, for there, 
 in the tabernacle, was deposited a proof which none could 
 dare to doubt, both on account of its institution and of 
 its wondrous nature. To symbolise the continuous 
 existence of the chosen priesthood and to mark the inani- 
 tion of any other body of priests, a significant miracle was 
 presented to the world. Each tribe was represented by 
 the rod or staff of its leader ; the rod of Aaron represented 
 the tribe of Levi. The rod of Aaron bloomed and 
 brousfht forth almonds : at the word of the Eternal the 
 dry stick assumed vital powers, just as at the same behest 
 the rock gave forth waters, and the darkness of Sinai gave 
 light and life to morality and religion. The other rods 
 remained in their inertness ; a type that those they 
 represented were, in spiritualism, without vitality, just as 
 man without religion would be but as the dead. And so 
 again, in the performance of a miracle, man was left to 
 the exercise of his volition, and was admonished and 
 cautioned instead of being constrained by an uncontrollable 
 authority. 
 
 p^m npn 
 NUMBERS: CHAPTER XIX. 
 Nature works in a series of harmonies. Throughout 
 the whole extent of the physical word there is a gradation 
 of being so symmetrical and regular that it may be com- 
 pared to the scale of tones which forms melody. Through 
 successive and scarcely perceptible stages of intelligence, 
 creature rises above creature till we approximate to the 
 divine in man. Through an endless variety of form — • 
 from the infinitesimal atom that almost mocks the micro- 
 scope to the all but immeasurable orbs that traverse 
 the empyrean ; through an interminable diversity of 
 existence and motion — from the fleeting ephemerae 
 
AND ITS APPOINTED TIMES. 257 
 
 to the eternal soul — from tlie eccentric comet, now- 
 rushing with incredible velocity as it approaches its 
 perihelion, now sluggishly rolling into the invisibility of 
 distance, to the methodical planet that ever pursues its 
 measured course ; all tells of harmony and design. Nor 
 does nature only so work as a whole, her every part 
 operates in like manner. The moral world of humanity 
 is an instance of this. Men are not subject to exceptional 
 Jaws of progress, but one age is allied to another so closely 
 that it is scarcely possible at all times to mark the lines 
 of separation. And even in one generation the same 
 analogy exists. One individual does not single himself 
 out to our observation as wholly distinct from his fellowsj 
 but, even where he most differs, he presents points of associa- 
 tion so numerous that we recognise his identity with the 
 mass. That it is so, is good- for the future prospects of 
 lEan ; it is one of those compensating balances which, as 
 in certain machines, preserve the general uniformity. 
 Selfishness is prevented from exercising undue influence. 
 Man is taught that he cannot rise alone, but that all 
 mankind must excel together. The regeneration of 
 society is not to depend upon the peculiar excellence of 
 the few, but upon the universal merits of the many. 
 And thus, in obedience to laws which harmonise 
 responsibility with prescience, man occupies his place 
 among the glories which nature presents as testimonies of 
 the power and wisdom of the Eternal. 
 
 Of all the men that have stood out in prominent relief 
 among the thousands of their fellow-creatures, Moses is 
 the most remarkable. If any man may be said to stand 
 alone, it is he. Selected by Providence for the most 
 honourable and onerous task assigned to human being, his 
 every act showed how just had been the selection. Where 
 another might have triumphed in the dignity of his posi- 
 tion, he only became more humble in power. Where 
 another might have made his authority subservient to seit- 
 
258 THE LAW OF SINAI, 
 
 advantage, lie only sought the advantage of his flock. 
 When rebellion or infidelity shook the people, he alone 
 remained faithful. When Divine justice would have 
 inflicted punishment on the wicked, would have dealt out 
 reward to the pious, he had sufficient self-control to 
 refuse a recompence which would have elevated him on the 
 ruin of others. Patient under insult, lie bore with all the 
 taunts of envy and malice ; loving all men as himself, he 
 regretted their fallibility, and ever sought excuse in that 
 for mitigating the severity of oflended Heaven. But he 
 was nevertheless human, and we are now at length to find 
 him amenable to the same frailty that had betrayed so 
 many about him. True, we can find abundant excuse for 
 him, even though he sought to find none for himself; 
 true, his fault seems so venial and so natural that we 
 should scarcely recognise it as a fault at all, but for the 
 sentence which it evoked ; and yet in his fall we see one 
 of the harmonies of creation, we learn that men cannot 
 entirely isolate themselves. 
 
 The forty years appointed b}^ Providence for fulfilling 
 the fate of the murmuring Israelites were dragging their 
 length along, and the guilty people seemed only too 
 anxious to deserve death to wait for the ordinary stroke 
 with which nature closes existence. Now it was one rebel- 
 lion that brought destruction into the camp, now it was 
 another : and ever as new thousands fell before the 
 avenging hand of the Lord, the survivors learned no expe- 
 rience, but continued headstrong in perverseness. Ever 
 arose the one forbidden cry — Would we were still in 
 Egypt, and, as its echo, came the wail for those stricken 
 before their time. And still Moses was able to command 
 himself, still his great characteristic, forbearance, stood 
 him in good stead. 
 
 P>ut he was to undergo an ordeal yet more severe. In 
 the wilderness of Zin a new and more horrible cry went 
 up to Heaven : " Would that we had died when our 
 
AND ITS APPOINTED TIMES. 2o0 
 
 brethren died before the Lord." Because " tliere was no 
 water for the congregation" the ungrateful dared to for- 
 get the nuQierous and long-continued miracles by which 
 their wants had been supplied, they were sacrilegious 
 enough to express a preference for the terrible visitation 
 which had overtaken the wicked. " And the Eternal 
 spake unto Moses, saying : Take the rod and assemble 
 the congregation, thou and Aaron thy brother, and speak 
 to the rock before their eyes, and it shall give forth its 
 waters." And, in obedience to this command, Moses 
 stood with the congregation before the rock. Then, 
 doubtless, there came before his mind tlieir numerous acts 
 of rebellion, and the repeated pardon which he had 
 obtained on their behalf; he saw their continued froward- 
 ness, and the untiring mercy of God ; he felt perhaps 
 some misgivings as to the zeal which he had displayed in 
 admonishing. Hitherto he had been over zealous in the 
 cause of forgiveness, it was time that he became more 
 stern in the cause of chastisement. Hitherto he had been 
 only a mediator, it was time he became the vindicator of 
 the often-insulted God, whose servant and minister he 
 was. We recollect that he had been of a violent temper, 
 for that through an act of unpremeditated violence which 
 could only have been committed in the heat of passion, he 
 had taken a human life. He had strenuously resolved to 
 conquer this defect, and, as has been shown, he had till 
 now succeeded. But jealousy for the majesty of his 
 Divine Master awakened the long dormant anger. The 
 restraints which he had imj^osed on his impetuosity were 
 loosened, and again for a moment he suffered himself to 
 be carried away. "Hear now, ye rebels!" is his angry 
 exclamation ; and losing the control necessary for his 
 self-respect, he twice struck the rock, to which he had 
 been commanded to speak. The deed was trifling, the 
 loss of caste was fearful. In a moment he fell from the 
 security which command of temper had given him ; he 
 
260 THE LAW OF SINAI, 
 
 proved that lie was no longer capable of npliolding with 
 dignity the impartial majesty of law. 
 
 And again the Eternal spake : " Because ye did not 
 believe in me, to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of 
 Israel, therefore ye shall not bring this congregation into 
 the land which I have given to them." Moses, who had 
 been so ready to frame an excuse for others, had none for 
 himself He who could plead for the most flagrant 
 rebellion, could find no deprecating word for a single 
 hasty movement. He reflected, no doubt, that a leader 
 could only hope to secure the respect of his flock by the 
 constant and unbroken display of that conduct which 
 proved him unshaken by the ordinary emotions of man. 
 He felt that he must either be the exponent of Divine 
 actions or nothing ; that to give way to passion, if only 
 for a moment, was to declare himself mentally disqualified 
 for administering justice ; that to indulge in vituperation 
 was beneath his position ; and, above all, that to display 
 confusion and want of judgment in a crisis that called for 
 calmness and precision, was to declare himself unfitted for 
 meeting any future emergency. But the people were 
 going to a land through the trying career of a war of 
 extermination, in which emergencies must inevitably 
 occur ; he, therefore, who had shown so lamentable a 
 deficiency, who, by his undignified conduct as God's 
 representative, had failed to sanctify his divine Master and 
 His power of support — he was not fit to conduct the 
 Israelites under such emergencies ; and, acknowledging 
 this, he did not presume to find an excuse for what to 
 himself was unpardonable. True to his long-preserved 
 and only momentarily-forgotten character, he bowed with 
 submission to the decree of Heaven, and thereafter no 
 unavailing regrets rendered difficult the task of resigning 
 himself to the punishment he had merited. And so even 
 in his fall he is admirable. It was nature speaking in her 
 untutored licence that sinned ; nature in her trained 
 
AND ITS APPOINTED TIMES. 261 
 
 knowledge repassed the line of demarcation, and bade us 
 forget her presumption in her contrition. The man who, 
 through eighty long and not happy years, was the faithful 
 exponent of heavenly virtues, and the unflinching advocate 
 of human frailty, may well command our respect that he 
 failed but once, and then only just enough to prove that 
 he was mortal. 
 
 Again the people murmured, so that the Eternal sent 
 among them fiery serpents. Again Moses prayed on their 
 behalf, and God pardoned them at his intercession. The 
 sacred, record tells us that " Moses made a serpent of 
 copper and put it upon a banner; and it came to pass, 
 that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he looked on 
 the serpent of copper, he lived." Let us not misunder- 
 stand this miracle, inasmuch that it was a remarkable 
 tribute to the freedom of volition. .Want of faith had 
 caused the murmuring of the people and their consequent 
 affliction ; only by a full and entire return to faith could 
 they be saved. They, therefore, who had been bitten, and 
 who, judging by the death that had overtaken others also 
 bitten, imagined that their own fate was inevitable, thought 
 it useless to look on an emblem which, in their opinion, 
 could not benefit them. These died in their unbelief. Bat 
 they who trusted to the mercy of the Eternal, believing 
 that, despite the virus which was carrying death through 
 •their veins, nothing was impossible to the great Author 
 of nature, they reaped the reward of their confidence, and 
 the fatal poison became harmless within them. So ever; 
 the bite of the fiery serpent is as the bite of sin ; its taint 
 penetrates into the very springs of existence, and pollutes 
 them at their source. Dissolution waits on the traces of 
 the venom, and it comes with a thousand more terrors to 
 those hardened culprits who re^gn themselves without an 
 efibrt to its deadly influence. But when, in the full career 
 of guilt, the stricken victim pauses, and looks up with con- 
 fidence and hope to the other serpent, enablem of repent- 
 
262 THE LAW OF SINAI, 
 
 ance and faith, tlien is tlie mercy of the All-wise sufficient 
 to neutralise the poison already imbibed, and to prodvice 
 from it elements of future life and regeneration. And 
 thus again by the impressive force of example, Holy Writ 
 teaches us our duty, pointing out not only the path we 
 should take, but that also which we should avoid. 
 
 The war of extermination has begun ; already before 
 the armies of the Lord are falling some of those nations 
 who have polluted the earth with their crimes, and heaven 
 with their abominations. Sihon and Og have paid the 
 penalty of their sins; they, their children and their people, 
 are smitten until there remains no trace. Surround- 
 ing tribes look on with fearful wonder that the warlike 
 bands who have hitherto proved irresistible should have 
 succumbed before mere youths, led by an inexperienced 
 commander. They say, in their ignorance, There must be 
 some incantation in this, some supernatural influence, 
 which paralyzes the arm of the brave, and inspires boys 
 with the vigour of men. They do not see that it is the 
 power of a good cause battling against the desperation of 
 vice; they judge according to the superstitious mummery 
 in which idolatry has plunged them. Among those who 
 see with dread the victorious progress of the Israelites is 
 Balak, King of Moab. He becomes convinced that 
 prowess alone can avail him nothing, and he resolves to 
 meet incantation with incantation. Balaam becomes a 
 ready instrument for promoting the views of Balak. 
 
 The character of this Balaam is a study. He is one of 
 that class of men who know what is right and do what is 
 wrong ; who believe in Heaven and act as of earth ; who 
 l)i-ofess piety and practise wickedness; who abuse the 
 power of volition by becoming slaves to their own selfish- 
 ness. Than Balaam no#one knows better how futile is 
 any attempt to imprecate those whom the Eternal blesses. 
 He says so, and yet, with the peculiar contradiction of his 
 nature, he asks of God if he may comply with the request 
 
AND ITS APPOINTED TIMES. 263 
 
 of Balak. Refused ; upon a second application, he again 
 solicits permission of God, for the glitter of temptiug 
 bribes is before him, and this time he is allowed to depart 
 with the messengers sent to bring him to Balak. But the 
 serpent is deprived of his fangs and becomes innocuous : 
 he can only go to speak the word which the Eternal shall 
 put into his mouth. Accordinglj, the machinations of 
 Balak and the pertinacity of Balaam are made to recoil 
 on themselves. The former is made to listen, not to the 
 idolatrous jargon of incantation, but to the prophetic 
 poetry of Divine inspiration ; the latter, ever active with 
 renewed sacrifices, and ever watchful to discover some 
 weak point in Israel through which even God may permit 
 him to launch a malignant dart, is made to see nothing but 
 perfection and godliness, and the curses which would have 
 grown in his heart for the sake of obliging his patron, 
 turn to blessings on his lips, to his own shame and dis- 
 comfiture. And thus again do we learn the wisdom of 
 Providence, who uses the wicked as tools for efiecting his 
 great purposes. We see how vain are the efi*orts of weak 
 man to counteract the designs of God, even though free- 
 will be permitted the most unlimited sway, and we bow 
 to the truth that there is no blessing save of God, no curse 
 save of the Lord. 
 
 Dnra 
 NUMBERS: CHAPTER XXY, YERSE 10. 
 Israel, dwelling in the security of his own law, had 
 been able to defy the malice of Balak and the cunning 
 of Balaam, active to detect a weak point. Vainly the 
 trembling king and his ready minister of evil sought to 
 influence the destiny of God's chosen peoj)le. On which 
 side soever they cast their eyes, they beheld the harmony 
 of religious security, the beauty of faith that knew no 
 stain. On the corrupt lips of the seer curses grew to 
 
264 THE LAW OF SINAI, 
 
 blessings, even as from the mouldering remains of death 
 grow the brightest things of life, and still Moab sighed to 
 lind himself thwarted in his purpose, and foiled by his 
 own instrument. But what will not determination effect ? 
 Israel, safe from without, might be attacked from within. 
 What had been denied to hate might be granted to desire. 
 Israel, on his guard against hostile force, might succumb 
 before the wiles of treachery, especially if these were 
 masked in beauty's most attractive form. The strength 
 of man had failed, the weakness of woman might prevail. 
 And the dark-eyed daughters of Moab, tutored by their 
 king, spread their blandishments for the survivors of those 
 who had lusted in the desert. What availed the modest 
 charms of the daughters of Israel against the meretricious 
 seductions of all-absorbing passion. In that sunny land, 
 wherein man's blood rushes through his veins like liquid 
 fire, who, not restrained by the sternest virtue, can resist 
 sin in its brightest garb 1 The Israelites, who had already 
 proved themselves so j^rone to yield to bodily desires, 
 were little able to withstand the tempting poison. As 
 snow melts before the beams of the day-star, theiis virtue 
 melted before the glowing ardour of their enslavers. The 
 boundaries of right once passed, crime ran riot through 
 the camp. Intoxicated, the men of Israel flew from 
 passion to passion, and still the daughters of Moab minis- 
 tered to their wild orgies. Intoxication rose into delirium, 
 and still the daughters of Moab goaded their victims to 
 new madness. Soon the tempters and the tempted were 
 mingled in one horrible tide of ill. Men forgot their 
 shame as women had forgotten their modesty ; what pro- 
 fane history tells of an idolatrous saturnalia, the sacred 
 l)age records of Israel and Moab. Who thought of con- 
 sequences in that unhallowed orgy ? What cared the 
 infatuated Israelites that death had already claimed 
 " those who had lusted," even in the midst of their enjoy- 
 ment ; what heeded they the ties of religion, their duty to 
 
AND ITS APPOINTED TIMES, 265 
 
 their God ! In every briglit-eyed beauty tliey saw a new 
 divinity, at whose shrine they were ready to sacrifice even 
 their souls. The whole congregation must have become 
 vitiated, for sin unutterable stalked in brazen hardihood 
 before them, and guilt refused to hold up even a veil to 
 hide its hao-o-ard front. But it was not the will of Hea- 
 ven that the innocent youth who were to go up to possess 
 Canaan should be polluted by those who were already con- 
 demned for past sins. With the flesh between their teeth 
 the lustful had died at Kibroth-Hattarvah ; in the height 
 of their lascivious joys the lustful died when they prostrated 
 themselves before Baal-peor. Guilt and destruction cul- 
 minated together, when '' Phineas, the son of Eleazar, the 
 son of Aaron, the priest," stood forward as the champion 
 of God, as the avenger of outraged decency, and thus 
 " turned away wrath from the children of Israel." 
 
 And on the face of the desert arose new monuments to 
 tell of mortal sinfulness and mortal punishment ; twenty- 
 four thousand victims fell in their shame, to warn by their 
 fate succeeding generations, and one individual became 
 signalized for ever as the zealous supporter of Divine au- 
 thority. To Phineas, in reward for his pious interference 
 on behalf of Heaven, was decreed a covenant of peace, even 
 a covenant of priesthood for ever ; and amidst all the 
 ruins of ages, the wrecks of time, that covenant remains 
 permanent and indestructible. For even as Israel exists 
 among nations, the only link of the mighty past with the 
 unfathomable future ; so, in Israel, while all traces of 
 descent, all distinctions of tribe, are utterly lost, the tribe 
 of Levi still remains separate, and in that tribe the family 
 of Phineas is still existent, as in the days of Baal-j)eor. 
 Priests of Israel may have forgotten the example set them 
 by the founder of their race, but they could not deprive 
 themselves of their descent, and therefore of their partici- 
 pation, through Phineas, in the eternal rights of the 
 priesthood. They may have became exiles from their 
 
 N 
 
266 THE LAW OF SINAI, 
 
 land, tliey may have been dissociated from the temple's 
 service ; but their indissoluble connection with the sacer- 
 dotal functions has never been alienated, and when it shall 
 please Providence that human volition render the Holy- 
 Land once more the home of Judaism, under their spiri- 
 tual guidance shall incense once more smoke on the altars, 
 shall offerings once more ascend as " a sweet savour in 
 honour of the Eternal." 
 
 As though, with the sad exhibition just recorded, the 
 cup of Israel's iniquity were full, and the penalty to be 
 exacted for the rebellion at the report of the spies were 
 paid, again the sum of the people is taken. Of the proud 
 array that had passed beneath the hands of the tellers in 
 the wilderness of Sinai, not one was now counted, save 
 only Joshua the son of Nun, 0.11 d Caleb the son of Je- 
 phunneh. The remarkable proof afforded by the myriads 
 of Sinai, that even slavery fails before the unseen power of 
 the Eternal, had been swept away by tlie very might by 
 which it had been established. As, in the first instance, 
 human free-agency had been permitted full play, and had 
 still been subseiwient to Divine will, so here, also, the 
 decree of Heaven had been executed by human means. 
 The rebels, doomed to die within the forty years of wan- 
 dering, perished through their own misconduct, uncoerced 
 and responsible. And again a great natural law is sus- 
 pended through the invisible influence of the Great Crea- 
 tor. Again, unprecedented and unaccountable increase 
 proves that God is all potent to effect his designs, even 
 where man appears most uncontrolled. More than six 
 hundred thousand males, above twenty years of age, are 
 numbered in the plains of Moab, and to these Moses is 
 told that the Promised Land is to be apportioned. His 
 last duty ; for not he shall divide that glorious inheritance, 
 not he shall lead the congregation which he has done so 
 much to qualify. 
 
 " And the Eternal said unto Mo-es : Go up into this 
 
AND ITS APPOINTED TIMES. 267 
 
 niount, Abarim, and see the land which I have given unto 
 the children of Israel. And when thou hast seen it, thou 
 also shalt be gathered uuto thy peoples, as Aaron thy 
 brother was gathered." 
 
 The dread sentence pronounced against the faithful 
 servant in the wilderness of Ziu, was now to be accom- 
 plished, and the pious servant, in his death as in his life, 
 was to prove himself worthy of the Divine selection. At 
 the age of one hundred and twenty, but with vigour 
 undiminished, and faculties unimpaireJ, death, announced 
 and definitely fixed, loomed before him. But the terrors 
 of the grave were nothing to him ; through its portals he 
 was able to look with unflinching gaze, and there his 
 mind beheld only a closer union between his spirit and 
 its Maker. He needed not to repent, for his whole after 
 life, witli the one exception about to be expiated, had 
 been one long repentance, and his death was the crowning 
 act of his atonement. Cowards might tremble before the 
 uncertain and dark future, sinners might blench before 
 the prospect of meeting an incensed though merciful 
 judge; but Moses was not of these; faithfully he had 
 walked before his God in life, trustfully he could meet him 
 in immortality. His last thoughts, therefore, were not for 
 himself; his past had created his future. He still had 
 first in his mind the people whom he had so carefully 
 guarded, so honestly guided ; and no sooner did the Lord 
 communicate to him his approaching dissolution than his 
 first words were : — 
 
 " Let the Eternal, the God of the spirits of all flesh, set 
 a man over the congregation, who may go out before them 
 and who may come in before them, who may lead them 
 out and who may bring them in ; that the congregation 
 of the Eternal be not as a flock without a shepherd." 
 
 What father, parting from a beloved son, ever breathed 
 more fervent prayer for the welfare of his child ; what 
 mother, about to be severed from a cherished daughter, ever 
 
268 THE LAW OF SINAI, 
 
 invoked Divine aid with more solemn earnestness! He, 
 wlio so long had watched the people, who had gloried in 
 their glory, and mourned their waywardness ; who had 
 seen the perversity of the generation that had left Egypt, 
 and who feared lest their successors might tread in their 
 footsteps ; who knew the proneness of the multitude to 
 follow the impulse of a commanding mind, and who 
 dreaded most of all that those whom he had led to God 
 might, without proper counsel, be turned aside to idolatry; 
 who foresaw the difficulties attendant on the conquest 
 and settlement of a new land, multiplied as these would 
 be by the transition from the untrammelled life in the 
 desert to the organized restraints of civilization, and who 
 felt the necessity for some administrative genius to direct 
 a naturally wayward nation ; he, whose experience gave 
 just cause for apprehension, might well ask such aid from 
 Heaven as he felt could not come of earth. 
 
 *' And the Eternal said to Moses : Take thou Joshua, 
 the son of Nun, a man in whom is spirit, and lay thine 
 hand upon him ; and thou shalfc put some of thine honour 
 upon him, that all the congregation of Israel may be 
 obedient." 
 
 The prayer of the departing guardian was answered, 
 in the manner, too, which he himself most desired. A 
 man, in whom the necessary spirit already existed, was 
 appointed to succeed him ', and that nothing might be 
 w^anting to complete his qualification, by Divine permis- 
 sion some of the honour of the great lawgiver passed 
 to him. And so his mission was accomplished; and 
 without a murmur, without one expression of regret, the 
 most distinguished of men sees himself deposed, and thus 
 adds dignity to his character by his beautiful resignation 
 to the will of God. How differently have other men 
 acted ! It is recorded of one that he passed with some- 
 thing like pride from the purple to the plough, just as 
 he had left the plough for the purple with something of 
 
AND ITS APPOINTED TIMES. 269 
 
 deprecation ; but perhaps there was a little shame ia 
 both feelings as the memory of his son's unworthiness 
 passed through his mind. One, after wading through 
 oceans of blood, and trampling over thousands of human 
 victims to secure power, voluntarily laid down his dearly 
 bought gaud, and submitted at length to the laws he 
 had so often violated ; but perhaps satiety had palled 
 his appetite, and certainl}'" we look on the moderation as 
 the rebound of past excess. One is said to have broken 
 his proud heart on hearing the bell that announced the 
 reign of his successor. One laid down the reins of a 
 splendid government, and thereby destroyed the empire 
 which it had cost him so much to raise ; for he deprived 
 it of the only mind capable of guiding it, and by divi- 
 ding it among his children he sowed the seeds of its dis- 
 memberment. One resigned a proud inheritance and 
 retired into the silence of the cloister ; but we form 
 our own conclusions as to the weakness that prompted 
 the deed, when we know that superstition induced him 
 to perform his own funeral, and so preyed on a mind 
 already prostrate as to lead him to a premature grave. 
 But our lawgiver leaves no qualifying reservation in 
 the crowning act of his career ; he accepted power at 
 the express wish of the Eternal, and wielded it as his 
 representative. His own personality never appeared in 
 the exercise of his duty ; past all passion, he bore his 
 exposure on the pedestal on which Providence had 
 placed him with a purity that defied all suspicion, with 
 a blamelessness that envy could not accuse. If we think 
 of him at all in the recital of what he did, we do so 
 with wonder that he should have been only a mortal and 
 still have been so nearly perfect, that he should have 
 been only human, and, with so many opportunities, 
 should have availed himself so little of them. Truly 
 does he stand alone in the history of the world ; the 
 only man to whom the Eternal deigned to speak face to 
 
270 THE LA.W OF SINAI, 
 
 face, he seems to liave been the only one worthy so dis^ 
 tinguished a privilege ; God bears testimony to his 
 dignity when he calls hira the most humble of men^ and 
 men bear testimony to his worth by the fidelity with 
 which they preserve his dispensation. 
 
 Ever anxious for the happiness of mankind, Provi- 
 dence designed a system of religious observances well 
 calculated to inspire a constant recollection of his mer- 
 cies. These observances appeal to our reason by their 
 evident subservience to wise designs for our welfare ; 
 they appeal to our gratitude by their association with 
 personal benefits unattainable but throagh Divine aid ; 
 and, in order more effectually to guide us, they appeal 
 also to our senses by the external appliances with which, 
 they are invested. As has already been shown, sacrifice 
 formed a prominent feature in these observances, and 
 we cannot wonder, therefore, that, ere he closes his ca- 
 reer, Moses should ogain be commanded to direct at- 
 tention to these visible signs of the connection between 
 God and man. The particularisation in the portion be- 
 fore us completes the chain of precautions taken by the 
 All-merciful for our preservation. We find them in 
 every condition of our lives. The Abrahamic covenant 
 distinguishes our persons, and affords to the eyes, and? 
 through them, to the memory, a constant sign of the 
 original cause of our selection as the depositories of the 
 truths through which the earth is to be blessed. Our 
 garments of fringes and our phylacteries ; our pecu- 
 liarities of food and of building; the "omer" at the 
 Passover, and the " goodly fruit " at the Tabernacles ; 
 are so many mementos continually reminding us of our 
 vocation, and bringing our domestic existence within the 
 pale of our spiritual duties. The sacrifices were the 
 types for public worship ; they were the tangible tokens 
 by which Israelites saw their religious observances to be 
 of Heavenly import, and the constancy with which they 
 
AND ITS APPOINTED TIMES. 271 
 
 were to be offered rendered them also unfailing for the 
 purpose of awakening memory. And thus the cycle of 
 " signs " was completed : person, habit, dwelling, food, 
 domestic life, and public worship, all contained means 
 for recalling man to a knowledge of his duty by bid- 
 ding him ''remember all the commands of God and do 
 them." 
 
 ^S^UMBEPtS, CHAPTER XXX. 
 The time appointed for the pilgrimage in the desert is 
 passing rapidly on, even as a shadow flits over the sun-dial ; 
 and sin is leaving its sad traces in the graves of those who 
 perish by the way. We have done, at length, with mur- 
 murs and rebellions ; our hearts bleed no more for the 
 violent and premature fate of crime ; but surely, though 
 silently, the destroyer is doing his work, and the tombs of 
 two millions of human being-s tell his solemn progress. 
 Out of a comparatively small community, fifty thousand 
 are carried away yearly, till it may be said of Israel as of 
 Egypt : " There is not a house in which there is not one 
 dead." Through the bosom of families the dart passes, 
 and none can arrest its course. Over the hearth of happy 
 homes the angel of death spreads his dark wings, and 
 young and old fall beneath the shadow. But chief the 
 old ; vainly for them have been wrought the miracles of 
 Egypt and of the Red Sea ; vainly for them have been 
 thundered the truths of Sinai ; vainly has Heaven given 
 manna, and earth, water; vainly has Amalek been dis- 
 comfited and Moab conquered; vainly has the visible 
 presence of the Deity shone in the Tabernacle, and the 
 guiding cloud wandered across the firmament ; vainly have 
 the chains of slavery been stricken from boJy and mind ; 
 vainly have the sv/eets of liberty and the blessings of know- 
 ledge been rendered self-producing and permanent ; their 
 
272 THE LAW OF SINAI, 
 
 carcases feed tlie desolation of the desert, and their child- 
 ren are torn unrepining from graves that they cannot 
 hold sacred. 
 
 Sad fate, when men are bound to disregard the last 
 resting-places of their fathers and their own birth-places ; 
 when those no longer bring the past vividly before the 
 future, and these no more connect it with the present ; 
 when earth, like the ocean, bears no impress on its chan- 
 ging surface, nor offers one projecting feature to arrest the 
 gaze. Sad fate, when the landmarks which affection raises 
 to guide memory, are swept away in a torrent of shame ; 
 when the recollections of the dead, so hallowed by virtue, 
 lose themselves in a cloud that hides their disgrace 
 Blessed are they who can look back, and thereby learn how 
 they should go forward. Blessed are they whose parentage 
 knows no higher duty than to hand down what it received ; 
 who can point to the deeds of their fathers as the basis 
 on which they have founded their own honour for their 
 children. Theirs is the true immortality, which outlives 
 all the more glittering show of lighter fame. As the earth 
 absorbs heat from the sun and radiates it on all created 
 things, so virtue receives vitality from ancestors, and 
 transmits it to descendants. Miserable they who dare 
 not contemplate the past ; to whom the memory of parents, 
 that blesses others, is a curse ; who labour, through lon^ 
 years of sorrow and heart-burning, to raise by their repu- 
 tation a wall to shield their children from the blight 
 which seared them, and rest to find it rotten at its foun- 
 dation. Miserable they who, coming as it were from a 
 lazar-house of sin, are kept in quarantine, lest the plague 
 spot which burns them infect also their fellows. 
 
 Not vainly, then, does the sacred page record the 
 journeyings of those who had left Egypt " with a high 
 hand," for these are the lessons the narrative teaches. 
 Life has no honour but that which man gives it. To 
 start in the race of existence from a happy goal is not 
 
AND ITS APPOINTED TIMES. 273 
 
 always to ensure a successful termination. To win, man 
 must labour, less to surpass others than to excel himself. 
 It is pride that induces the strong to rely on what they 
 have done as an excuse for not further exerting them- 
 selves ; it is worse than pride which relies on the past 
 mercies of heaven, and does nothing to deserve further 
 favour. Often, the weakness which we affect to despise, 
 and therefore help to corrupt, rises in our despite, and be- 
 comes great, not\vithstanding our pernicious teaching. Still 
 more often, parents who devote all their energies to create 
 and preserve worldly wealth, that their children may have 
 a rich inheritance, are careless of the best legacy they can 
 bequeath, an honest name deserved by honest conduct. 
 And still more often, they who contrive to maintain a 
 fair reputation before the world, and who mouth wise pre- 
 cepts and wiser commandments, systematically ignore in 
 act what they advocate in theory, and, forgetful that con- 
 stant example far outweighs occasional preaching, leave 
 their children in full tilt for hypocrisy and sin. They 
 who lose sight of these truths may have entered on their 
 career " with a high hand ;" but, like the Israelites of old, 
 they may leave their carcases unmoumed in the wilder- 
 ness, nothing but the miraculous interposition of Provi- 
 dence preventing their corruptive practices from con- 
 taminating their children. 
 
 Moab and Midian had sought by the allurements of 
 vice to deprive Israel of that purity which was its best 
 support. Balak, wise in the knowledge that men yield 
 rather to pleasure than to force, decoyed those whom he 
 could not drive. Balaam, his ready counsellor and willing 
 tool, to whose advice he owed the plan which had made 
 Israel succumb at Baal-peor, abode among the Midianites, 
 and was to pay the penalty attached to evil association 
 and evil intentions. The Eternal, mindful of the future 
 regeneration of mankind, which he was entrusting to the 
 Israelites, knew full well that to ensure their fidelity it 
 
 N'2 
 
274 THE LAW OF SINAI, 
 
 was necessary to remove temptatioD. Once before, when 
 the original revelation to our first parents had all but 
 disappeared from the earth, and when the tyranny of 
 crime seemed to threaten the permanent extinction of the 
 great aim of creation — human happiness ; the Almighty 
 had deemed it more merciful at once to destroy what he 
 had formed, and to give another revelatiqii, than to per- 
 mit unborn millions to plunge more and more deeply into 
 the abyss of perdition. Better that the smaller number 
 perish to save the larger, just as it is better that a limb be 
 lost so that the body be saved. But when the liberated 
 Noah, destined to be the second Adam, propitiated 
 God by his grateful sacrifice, mercy swore never again to 
 annihilate as it had done. And yet the inhabitants 
 whom Israel was to displace in and about Canaan were, 
 to the full, as wicked as those who had deserved the 
 flood. Alreaxly it had been found just by Heaven to 
 visit the " cities of the plain " with a fate which, by its 
 fearful nature, should have roused men to a sense of what 
 crime might expect. The Dead Sea lay a terrible warn- 
 ing to surrounding peoples, and yet no reformation took 
 place, till at length " the cup of the Amorite was full." 
 A third and crowning revelation had become necessary ; 
 one destined to be final, and to possess within itself all 
 that was needed for the Eternal salvation of man. This 
 had been accomplished at Sinai, and its dispensation was 
 entrusted to the children of the patriarchs, prepared by a 
 long series of miracles for their glorious charge. These 
 depositories were now on their road to the fulfilment of 
 their task. But to render that task accomplishable, it 
 was necessary, 1st, that the Israelites should hold a 
 status among nations ; 2ndly, that they should be guarded 
 against those debasing influences which had already reu- 
 dered two revelations inefiectual. Both conditions were 
 fulfilled by the same means. The Canaanites, untaught 
 by the admonishing waters of the Dead Sea, were to meet 
 
AND ITS APPOIXTED TIMES. 275 
 
 tlie fate tlieir crimes had deserved ; by tlieir extinction 
 they were to purge earth of intolerable abominations, and 
 to give place for the representatives of Divine ti-uth. On 
 Midian, on Bashan, on Gilead, and the neighbouring 
 places, fell ihe first weight of the war of extermination ; 
 nor must we wonder at the severities enjoined against the 
 conquered when we reflect on what was at stake, and on 
 the fatal consequences denounced (and, alas, proved but 
 too correct by subsequent events) against sparing any of 
 the condemned criminals. What might have been the 
 condition of Israel and of the world had the former faith- 
 fully observed the counsels of Moses, and utterly destroyed 
 every vestige of those whom they were to dispossess, it 
 were impossible to say. It is not impossible to conjecture 
 that, removed from the contagion of evil contact, from the 
 corruption of evil example, from the influence of e\'il 
 association, Israel might have remained attached to the 
 law of God, and might have reaped the rich reward 
 promised in earthly greatness and prosperity, and in the 
 respect and admiration of the rest of mankind. Had this 
 been, perhaps religion, in its most abstract sense, would 
 at this day have meant Judaism, and all that intolerance, 
 that bigotry, and that ci'uelty which have since desecrated 
 sectarianism, would have been spared to the world. That 
 it has not been, is the tribute which Providence pays to 
 volition when it recommends but does not coerce, when it 
 points out the efiects of good and of bad, and leaves man 
 to decide on the course he shall adopt. 
 
 And so Midian paid the penalty of his misdeeds, and 
 among those who fell was Balaam. "When we recollect the 
 pains which this man had taken to find some imperfection 
 in the Israelites, and, failing that, to injure them by his 
 pernicious advice, we recognise the hand of Providence 
 mysteriously working through the means of human free 
 agency, and we bow to this signal example of retributive 
 justice. Twenty-four thousand Israelites had perished 
 
276 THE LAW OF SINAI, 
 
 miserably in their sins, enticed by the cunning of this one 
 man, and his death seems but a small return for so much 
 misfortune ; but it must be borne in mind that the re- 
 sponsibility of every man rests with himself, and, there- 
 fore, that those who lusted at Baal-peor must be regarded 
 not by their numbers but by i^lieir individual acts. Man 
 is not an inert mass of fluid, which a single drop may 
 permeate and colour, insinuating its particles throughout 
 every portion without resistance; he is a sentient being? 
 gifted with reason to control, and with judgment to guide. 
 He knows by experience that certain causes will jDroduce 
 certain results, and if he blindly permits imitativeness to 
 rule in the place of intellect, he has only himself to blame 
 for the consequences. Just, therefore, as the single act 
 of Phineas, which was the means of arresting the plague, 
 because its righteous boldness awoke the sensual Israelites 
 from their lethargy, and roused in them the dormant spirit 
 of repentance, is to be judged on its own merits ; so the 
 death of Balaam atoned for his misconduct, inasmuch that, 
 although he had originated the design for enslaving the 
 passions of his victims, they had but eagerly helped to 
 carry that design into execution. The self-love which 
 sways men is but too apt to find excuses for backsliding ; 
 any thing is blamed rather than want of principle ; but 
 were men to look at themselves honestly, they would be 
 compelled to confess that they have always sinned volun- 
 tarily, and that, even where temptation and opportunity 
 have lured them on, it has ever been in a course to which 
 want of self-control had predisposed them. If there be 
 one characteristic which entitles Moses to our respect, it is 
 that he always did consider himself with as little prejudice 
 as he would have judged another ; he states his conduct in 
 all its reality, he does not attempt either to palliate or to 
 conceal, and the lessons which he thereby inculcates are as 
 useful for our worldly guidance as his counsels in religious 
 concerns were beneficial for our spiritual welfare. 
 
AND ITS APPOINTED TIMES. 277 
 
 Another tribute is paid by Heaven to volition. Pro- 
 vidence had originally destined the land of Canaan, 
 between the Great Sea and the Jordan, the Lebanon and 
 the desert, as the inheritance of Israel. To effect this 
 purpose Israel was now on the eastern edge of the Jordan. 
 On the road thither several conquests had been effected ; 
 and now, at their own intercession, two tribes and a half are 
 permitted to hold territories not included by Providence 
 in the Promised Land ; what stronger proof can we have 
 that man is lord of his own career, and that to say that 
 he must inevitably accomplish his destiny, is to say no 
 more than that the prescience of the Eternal enables him 
 unerringly to determine what that destiny will be, but 
 further that he does not interfere. The real inevitable 
 is that to which man ^vilfully directs himself. In the 
 Ciipacity of a benevolent ruler, the Almighty deigns to 
 advise, to admonish, to exhort ; he never pretends to 
 command. He has himself pronounced, in emphatic 
 words, the terms by which he assumes to hold a-uthority 
 over human beings : — 
 
 " And thou shalt love the Eternal thy God with all thy 
 heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might." 
 
 The rule of love is based on the gratitude and the 
 voluntary desire for obedience of the governed, not on 
 their, fears, or their slavish, because compulsory, com- 
 pliance. This is the tenure by which mercy condescends 
 to wield what might be illimitable power, and in this 
 respect, therefore, the laws of man are far more coercive 
 than the laws of God. The laws of man care for their 
 own observance ; they visit with punishment any infrac- 
 tion, and while they cannot compel obedience beforehand, 
 except by the terror which their severity may inspire, 
 they to some extent control even volition after crime by 
 depriving malefactors of liberty, and sometimes of life. 
 The laws of God are altogether different. They are based 
 on a knowledge of those great principles upon which the 
 
278 THE LAW OF SINAI, 
 
 universe is established, and which are only enunciated to 
 man through the results which they produce. They never 
 interfere directly with man's free agency or responsibility ; 
 but tliey point out the consequences to which his mis- 
 conduct will lead, and they leave him to avoid or to incur 
 those consequences at his pleasure. Y\7'hile life remains, 
 they act as finger-posts that point in the direction of 
 virtue, religion, and happiness ; the wayfarer may pursue 
 the roads they indicate, or he may travel by another 
 pathway to the common goal of existence. And then 
 another phase of difference presents itself The operation 
 of human laws ceases with death. The operation of 
 divine laws in reality commences only after death. He 
 who obstinately resists the ordinances of God, and thereby 
 brings himself into difficulties or dangers, has no one but 
 himself to blame for the shame or trouble in w^hich he is 
 involved. But when he has passed from the world 
 wherein he has abused his free-will, then the laws of God 
 will compel his soul to answer for its perverseness, and 
 then he will receive the recompence due to his choice of 
 evil instead of good. And this is another of the great 
 compensations of life. There are many who, despite every 
 exertion in a just career, are constantly plunged in mis- 
 fortune ; they are the victims of circumstances beyond 
 their control, of villainy they cannot, till too late, detect, 
 of errors of judgment rather than of intention. Such in- 
 dividuals struggle in vain against w^hat seems an adverse 
 fate, but which is really some innate deficiency of their 
 own. They have been badly educated, and therefore 
 cannot discriminate with sufficient nicety ; they have 
 grown up with bad examples so constantly before them, 
 that, despite a sense of right, they have not the moral 
 firmness to shake off inveterate habits ; they have but 
 loose ideas of religion and of its moral application to the 
 social laws which regulate industry, which determine the 
 relations between master and servant, between employer 
 
AND ITS APPOINTED TIMES. 279 
 
 and employed, and wliich affect all tlie combinations into 
 which man, as a member of the great human family, enters. 
 They do well as far as their capacity admits, but their 
 standard falls short of what the inherent requirements of 
 human progress demand, and they suffer what is commonly 
 termed misfortune, but which is the result of a deviation 
 from the eternal principles of riglit impressed on creation. 
 Trust in the infinite mercy of the Eternal bids us hope, 
 that such as so suffer in this world will not be miide 
 responsible hereafter for conduct, the cause of which was 
 not in tliem. And as, more or less, all men are fallible, 
 as even those who are best educated, best trained, best 
 acquainted with religion and morality, still err from 
 want of that perfection of knowledge which is only Divine, 
 so the same trust in infinite mercy is that on which all 
 men must rely for immunity from those Divine laws 
 which have been ignorantly trespassed and not perversely 
 outraged. 
 
280 THE LAW OF SINAI, 
 
 DEUTERONOMY: CHAPTER I. 
 In one of the grandest works that mortal mind has 
 created, there stands the record : " Si monnmentumquseris, 
 circiimspice." With how much more justice such words 
 might be prefixed to the book of Deuteronomy it were 
 needless to prove. Of all the acts which history holds 
 up for our imitation or avoidance, there is not one that 
 will bear comparison with the final act of our great 
 lawgiver. Other careers have been triumphant; men 
 have proceeded from victory to victory, and their great- 
 ness has culminated with their deaths, but their glory 
 vanishes before the sublime lustre that surrounds the 
 crowning deeds of Moses, even as the stars "23ale their 
 ineffectual fires " before the beams of the sun. Say, we 
 accept as true the myth known as the legislation of 
 Lycurgus ; what is the depraved heroism which sought a 
 voluntary death to the intellectual supremacy that made 
 the solemnity of a dying claim the means of ri vetting 
 obedience by exhortation, and faith by example ? What 
 are the last moments of Addison to those of Moses ? If 
 the former might bid people, " See how a Christian could 
 die," may we not say, " See how a Jew went to his fate V 
 Doomed to death for a fault which is altogether eclipsed 
 by his merits, the faithful servant bows with a resignation 
 which has never been paralleled. Knowing to a moment 
 the period of his existence, he parcels out the time which 
 remains to him with a care and a precision which speak 
 rather of the divine than of the human. Devoted to the 
 performance of a mission, he permits no thoughts of self 
 to interfere in the discharge of his duty ; even where 
 such thoughts might have been excused, he astonishes us 
 by the fidelity with which he banishes every recollection 
 but that he has a task to fulfil for others' benefit, till 
 
AND ITS APPOINTED TIMES. 281 
 
 we are at a loss whether to venerate more his personal 
 merit or the sanctity of the cause he represents. When 
 a vocation dignifies a man, he may be unworthy ; when 
 a man dignifies his vocation, he must be admirable. 
 
 In order to understand the necessity for the minute- 
 ness with which Moses repeats the ordinances of God, 
 we must bear in mind the fact, that the major part of 
 the precepts had been given to that generation which had 
 just been sv/ept away in the desert, and that, except by 
 the teaching of their parents, the present generation 
 knew nothing of those precepts. Nor is it to be expected 
 that the impression made by such teaching, in the few 
 eases in which it had been given, could have been at all 
 deep, when it is recollected that the teachers had perished 
 because they had not valued the revelation entrusted to 
 them, because, in short, their practice had been the very 
 converse of their theory. To be successful, a teacher 
 must himself carry out the lessons he inculcates on others. 
 They who now stood round Moses in the plains of Moab, 
 had been especially exempted by the Eternal from the 
 evil effects of bad example. If God did not interfere 
 with their volition so far as to induce utter forgetfulness 
 of the past, he at least so ruled their free-will that they 
 were little anxious to remember parents who had trans- 
 mitted to them nothing but the disgrace of their rebellion, 
 and the horror of their punishment. There was danger, 
 however, that oblivion of the sinners might induce igno- 
 rance of the cause for whose violation they had suffered. 
 Hence, either a new dispensation was necessary, or such 
 a repetition of the old dispensation as might assume all 
 the authority of the original. But the original, invested 
 as it was with the wonders of Egj^pt and the terrors of 
 Sinai, had failed of its effect ; even the communication 
 of the will of Heaven by the very mouth of the Eternal 
 had not been able to lead man on the road to virtue and 
 religion. The inspired legislator determined, therefore, 
 
282 THE LAW OF SINAI, 
 
 to try how far lie might prevail where God had not 
 succeeded. Nor was the idea presumptuous when w^e 
 reflect that Providence did no more than recommend, 
 and that JMoses could do as much ; in both cases man's 
 volition heincr altoo^ether uncontrolled. Moreover, in 
 favour of the attempt of Moses there were many circmn- 
 stances which did not obtain in favour of God. 
 
 Moses was himself a living and visible testimony to 
 the truths which he desired to inculcate. His character, 
 his high integrity, his undeviating honesty, his entire 
 self-abnegation, his unexampled self-control, were so many 
 proofs of the value of his dispensation. He was himself 
 a practical example of what man might become by pui-su- 
 ing the path indicated in his teachings. The Eternal, 
 although more pure, more entitled to gratitude and obedi- 
 ence, was still invisible, and, save to the few, unintelligible. 
 Many who would not scruple to desecrate their com- 
 munion with God by unseemly behaviour and irreverent 
 manners, would not dare compoi-t themselves with dis- 
 respect before an earthly superior. God is far off; his 
 punishments are not always immediate, nor are they 
 always to be connected with the acts w^hich evoke them ; 
 he is merciful and long-suifering, and, when he strikes, 
 men are prone rather to number their visitations among 
 the ordinary chances of humanity, than to count them as 
 the result of their own deserts. Moses was aware of all 
 this, and he was no less av/are that even the very essence 
 of his dispensation — the ten commandments — had fallen 
 on unheeding ears. He had seen the first commandment 
 violated in every rebellious murmur of the people, from 
 Marah to Baal-peor. The second had been forgotten in 
 the worship of the golden calf, the third by the man 
 who blasphemed. The fourth had not ])re vented some 
 from seeking manna and one from gathering sticks. How 
 often the other commandments had been infringed, we 
 may infer from the disregard paid to these. What, there- 
 
AND ITS APPOINTED TIMES. 283 
 
 fore, could be more natural in the pastor, ^YllO had always 
 been so anxious for the well-doing of his flock, whose 
 grentest pain in parting from them was lest an inefficient 
 leader should supply his place, than that he should avail 
 himself of the warm feelings always excited by a farewell, 
 to appeal once more for a faith hitherto unattained ? 
 
 In the history of the world how often are we told that 
 a death-bed pleading has awakened emotions to which 
 other appeals have in vain sought to give birth. Moses 
 was now, as it were, on his death-bed, and his exit from 
 life was invested with a mysterious awe well calculated 
 to impress and inspire. Other men gradually fade away ; 
 one by one their powers of life give way, their fountains 
 of existence dry up ; they are seen sinking to their rest 
 so gently and so easily, that even sadness finds a pallia- 
 tive in the satisfaction derived from the belief, that ex- 
 hausted nature is better so extinguished than languish- 
 ing through protracted sufferings. Moses was still full of 
 the vigour of manhood ; the fires of intellect were as 
 vivid as when first he undertook his great charge ; he stood 
 before the Israelites without one symptom of decay, ^vith- 
 out one token by which the approach of death might be 
 detected ; and yet he and they knew that the seal of death 
 was as irrevocably set on him as if he were fading away 
 through disease and old age. And how calmly, how 
 unrepiningly he bore his fate ! Worn out by sickness, men 
 hail death as a release, but he awaited it as the atoning 
 act of his one fault, and was as serene as though his 
 passage from life were only another entrance into the 
 Holy of Holies. Even grief could find no consolation in 
 extraneous circumstances ; there was nothing but death 
 in its most terrible form, and yet terror was altogether 
 absent ; there was no longer any hope of life, and yet 
 hope never beamed more brightly. And so, rapt attention 
 took the place of mourning ; the ears of his auditors, and 
 not their eyes, were the gates through which he sought to 
 
284 THE LA.W OF SINAI, 
 
 reach their hearts ; and the fervid eloquence of his words, 
 the impassioned language in which he repeats the ordi- 
 nances, the warnings and the cautions of God, the height 
 to which his invocations rise as he approaches the close 
 of his address, are proofs that he carries his audience with 
 him, and that in proportion as they are greedy to listen, he 
 is zealous to teach. 
 
 The Deuteronomy, then, was no needless task ; it was 
 undertaken as a necessary and wise adaptation of the 
 respect engendered by leave-taking, with a view to the 
 conversion of regard for the teacher into love for what he 
 taught ; of affection for the agent into consideration for 
 the object. It was a step rendered all but imperative by 
 the fact, that the change of generation had been effected 
 in a way to render the past of little value as a means for 
 guiding the future, and Moses thus stood in the place of a 
 parent to all those assembled around him on the plains of 
 Moab. From him they were to learn those lessons which 
 their rebellious fathers had failed to inculcate ; to him his 
 own mission was to owe its perpetuity. His dispensation 
 had hitherto produced few results of which he could be 
 proud ; dying, he was to make a final effort to ensure 
 what, living, it had been denied him to see. 
 
 Now it was that the erudition of his youth, gathered 
 from the lore of Egypt, stood him in good stead. He set 
 about his task with a degree of skill that sliowed that he 
 was versed in the art of instruction, and that he could as 
 ably discharge the duties of a teacher as he had faithfully 
 fulfilled the duties of a medium between God and man. 
 Hitherto he had been called on to convey divine truths to 
 liis fellow-creatures, and all that was required of him was 
 fidelity and industry. Now he was to systematize and 
 argue ; not only was he to convey truths, but he was to 
 impress them by force of language ; he was to deduce con- 
 sequences from them by appealing to the perceptions of 
 his hearers. He did, therefore, what all wise teachers 
 
AND ITS APPOINTED TIMES. 285 
 
 would do ; he stated his facts, and his reasoning grew out 
 naturally from those facts. First, he dwelt on the 
 rebellion of the past generation, on the occasion of the 
 sending of the sjDies, because this it was which rendered 
 him the speaker and them the listeners. And then, lest 
 any foregone conclusions should rise in their minds to 
 destroy his influence, and, therefore, militate against the 
 success of his design, he repeated to them the cause of his 
 own disgrace and the appointment of Joshua, and thus 
 bespoke alike forbearance for himself and respect for his 
 successor. Subsequently, he recounted briefly the princi- 
 pal events which had varied the monotony of their desert 
 life, not omitting to dwell with considerable emphasis on 
 the conquests already effected. His design in this is 
 palpable. Cowardice and want of faith had been the 
 stumbling-blocks in the way of their parents, who had 
 refused to face eneuiies of whom they had conceived 
 exaggerated notions. In the belief that past success is 
 the best stimulant to future exertions, Moses reminds the 
 Israelites of the difficulties already overcome, and lays 
 considerable stress on the physical qualifications of the 
 kings and places that have fallen. Giants had frightened 
 the fathers ; he is desirous of disarming them of their 
 terrors to the children. Walled and fortified cities had in 
 imagination been too strong for the fiithers ; before the 
 children some had already fallen, and why not others? 
 Therefore, says the sagacious teacher : — 
 
 " All these cities were fortified with high walls, doors, 
 and bolts Behold, the bedstead of Og was a bed- 
 stead of iron ; is it not in Kabbah of the children of 
 Ammon? nine cubits was the length thereof, and four 
 cubits the breadth of it, after the cubit of a man." 
 
 How skilfully he makes their self-gratulations minister 
 to their further zeal in the cause of the Lord ! How can 
 they hesitate to face any enemy that Canaan can produce, 
 when they have already done so much before reaching 
 
286 THE LAW OF SINAI, 
 
 Cauaan ! If, they would say to themselves, we could 
 overcome while iuexperieuced, what may we not achieve 
 when victory adds strength to our arms and discipline 
 to our armies ? And thus self-reliance grew out of 
 success, and in the hands of the wise Moses even a weak- 
 ness of man, his vanity, was made sub;servient to promote 
 his strength. 
 
 DEUTEEONOMY: CHAPT.EE III, VERSE 23. 
 
 " See, I have taught you statutes and judgments, as 
 the Eternal, my God, has commanded me, that you may 
 do them in the land which you are going to inherit ; 
 wherefore keep them and do them, for that will be your 
 wisdom and your understanding in the eyes of people." 
 
 When the inspired lawgiver spoke these words, Israel, 
 of all the nations of the earth, alone possessed a know- 
 ledge of God. Since then, that knowledge has spread, but 
 still the truth enunciated by Moses remains unchanged. 
 
 Amid all the vicissitudes of time and the revolutions 
 of empkes, Judaism has remained permanent, the only 
 vestige of the remote past which has entirely defied decay 
 or dissolution. Mightier people than Israel have apjDeared 
 on the great stage of humanity, but they have vanished 
 like the shadowy figures of a phantasmagoria. On their 
 ruins other people have arisen, but conquest and admix- 
 ture have so modified tliem, that beyond a few centuries, 
 no man can trace a certain ancestry. Wiiy is it that 
 three thousand three hundred years have passed and 
 have left but this one verdant line amidst an immensity 
 of desert ; this one solitary star in a firmament of dark- 
 ness ? The words of the lawgiver solve the j^roblem. 
 
 When of old, men raised their vast structures of phy- 
 sical power, they employed none but human materials. 
 Tiie elements wliich alone could give stability — ^principles 
 
AND ITS APPOINTED TI3IES. 287 
 
 of eternal right derived from their eternal source — were 
 altogether wanting. Time therefore did its work. Bj 
 the ordinary process of waste, of antagonism, of brute 
 force, the gigantic fabrics, which already contained the 
 germs of decomposition, common to them with their 
 founders, were swept from the earth. Nations suffered 
 this fate so completely, that their very existence is to be 
 traced rather to their conquerors than to themselves. In 
 the era which separates ancient from modern history, a 
 new chaos supervened, as though to show man that his 
 works stand in vain against the laws which regulate him 
 and them. The dark ages, as this era is called, and out 
 of which modern civilization grew, as the original earth 
 grew out of the first chaos, not only effectually covered 
 with its veil all that antiquity had created by merely 
 human agencies, but it enveloped in an impenetrable 
 shroud the origin of all that modern times was to know 
 from the same source. Three things survived the general 
 wreck, and formed connecting Knks between the past and 
 the future. 
 
 First, the literature of old struggled through the storm. 
 When the strongest and most mighty peoples perished, 
 nor left a vestige behind, the small voice of their immortal 
 minds was borne on the air-waves of time to an eternal 
 future. Over this emanation from the divine, that which 
 could annihilate mortal work, however substantial, passed 
 harmlessly. Some fragments of paj^yrus or parchment 
 were consumed, and with them a few stray ideas were 
 lost ; but the great truths which genius had investigated 
 and recorded, the sublime language in which the soul of 
 one man in one age had spoken to the souls of all men 
 in all ages, the lofty conceptions by which morality had 
 proved its connection with an imperishable and heavenly 
 origin, these no j^liysical convulsions could destroy, they 
 were above and beyond such accidents. 
 
 Secondly, Christianity survived the fiery ordeal, be- 
 
288 THE LAW OP SINAI, 
 
 cause that, too, owed its existence to the eternal revela- 
 tion of Sinai, and man could only modify, not extirpate. 
 It did not pass through the flames unscathed, because 
 it contained mortal elements ; but its morality, its God- 
 teachinij, remained intact. In the battle which it had 
 been compelled to maintain against the barbarous forces 
 of northern and eastern idolatry, it had fought on terms 
 so unequal that it had been necessitated to call in 
 stratesrv to its aid. The luxurious easterns were best 
 ruled through their passions ; the uncouth northerns, 
 transplanted to the genial south, were best governed by 
 their old superstitious fears. Those followed the patriarch 
 of the Greek oharch, these the father of the Roman church. 
 But, in both churches, what had been abstract faith — that 
 is, the tie which binds man to God, became concrete 
 religion — that is, the tie which binds man to forms and 
 modes of belief. This result was arrived at through the 
 agency of those who had recourse to strategy, and who, in 
 adopting expedients, sought by their profession and prac- 
 tice to prove their efficacy. That became priestcraft 
 which had been Christianity ; a change, and a sad one, 
 but there is hope, while vitality was not destroyed, that 
 some future elementary revolution may restore the ori- 
 ginal combination. Then, charity, which, in the doctrine 
 of abstract faith, means love for universal mankind, shall 
 cease to be what concrete religion made it, love only 
 for self and self's imitators. Then, man shall acknow- 
 ledge that true God-worship consists not in observance 
 of any particular customs, but in the humble, zealous 
 cultivation of those qualities by which the Eternal has 
 made himself known to the world. The members of 
 one creed shall not arrogate to themselves peculiar 
 morality and peculiar salvation, denying both to the 
 members of other creeds ; but they shall learn that mora- 
 lity and salvation are the cause and effect of all earnest 
 endeavours to rise to the knowledge of revelation. Men 
 
AND ITS APPOINTED TIMES. 289 
 
 sliill cease to attenipfc the sub.stitution of one set of forms 
 f -r another set of forms ; they shall satisfy themselves 
 with being honest and dignified exponents of their own 
 luode of belief, and shall not seek to coerce what heaven 
 icself has left unfettered — the rights of conscience. They 
 shall strive to remove all obstacles to the spread of God- 
 vv'orship, hy showing how superior are the happiness, the 
 iiitelkctuality, the virtue of its professors ; bat they shall 
 stop there, not even for the sake of securing their object 
 preferring their own faith for that of another. This was 
 the original combination under which Christianity was 
 called into existence ; this was the power which enabled 
 it to survive the shock which had destroyed all else, and 
 t ) this must it return before its mission can be perfectly 
 accomplished. What the teachings of Sinai \^re to the 
 children of Abraham, the teachings of the other mount 
 were to be to the rest of the world ; one was not to su2)er- 
 sede the other, bub to render it accessible. 
 
 Thirdly, Judaism and the Jev/s escaped the general 
 wreck. Not quite purely, because rabbinism from w-ithin, 
 and persecution from w^ithout, did partially what priest- 
 craft did entirely ; but with enough of the divine left to 
 v/ithstand what mast have proved fatal to any thing less 
 imbued with the spirit of the Eternal. While nation 
 contended with nation, and race with race, all made 
 common cause against the people of God. Diversity of 
 religion knew of no harmony but that which taught scorn 
 of Israel. Men, through their various forms and tenets, 
 looked with less fidelity to heaven than to those spots of 
 earth which held Jews as objects for persecution. If 
 they differed in all else, they were unanimous in hatred. 
 While the doctrines of faith had failed to inculcate love, 
 they had found excuses for contempt and cruelty. But 
 through all, Judaism and the Jews remained. Over the 
 Mr face of nature there passes a convulsion ; heaven sends 
 its flooding rains, its searing lightnings ; earth, upheaved 
 
 
 
290 THE LAW OF SINAI, 
 
 by volcanic agency, opens to entomb, and the sea, carried 
 beyond its boundaries, ingulfs the ruins spared from 
 earth and heaven. Desolation holds undisputed sway, and 
 seems to threaten that there, at least, life is for ever ex- 
 tinct, vitality for ever annihilated. But the spirit of 
 God still shines in the glorious sun, in the new forms of 
 existence that permeate wave, earth, and air, in the elas- 
 ticity with which all recovers itself in obedience to the 
 divine law, " Day and night, summer and winter shall 
 never cease." So has it been with Judaism. What 
 physical convulsions do for nature, human brutality has 
 done for Judaism, and with like effect. The essence of 
 eternal existence has never been eradicated, and still from 
 ruin, from desolation, from despair, new life has gushed 
 with unajjated vigour, new vitality soared with pinion 
 ever sublime. And why ? Because in Judaism the 
 Eternal implanted the germs from which salvation is 
 ultimately to spring ; because, no matter what form 
 religion may since, for wise purposes, have been per- 
 mitted to assume, all that it contains of holy and pure is 
 identical with the holiness and purity of the teachings of 
 Moses. Therefore said the inspired legislator, " It is your 
 wisdom and your understanding in the eyes of people." 
 
 Thirty-three centuries have not effected any change 
 in the value of this declaration. Thirty -three centuries, 
 with all their diversity of thought and execution, of 
 passioii and princij>le, of persecution and forbearance, of 
 bigotry and faith, of struggle and conquest, of tyranny 
 and resistance, have left this untouched. Just as the 
 human soul remains identical with what it was, as the 
 revolutions of nature are carried on with unvarjdng 
 uniformity, as all that is of Divine origin retains the 
 eternal impress of its creator, so this truth continues 
 unalterable and inalienable, because it too is of Divine 
 origin. Men may blindly seek, in the exercise of their 
 volition, to palter with first principles, but they must 
 
AND ITS APPOINTED TIMES. 291 
 
 fail, because they attempt to establish human institutions 
 on the ruin of heavenly institutions. The history of 
 all ages bears testimony to this failure, from the time at 
 v.'hich Persia essayed to trample on Greece to the clay on 
 which military despotism fell at Waterloo. At Marathon, 
 eastern sloth and luxury, with their attendants, slavery 
 and mental degradation, attempted to triumph over that 
 heaven-born liberty of body and of mind which had found 
 its home in the West. One hundied thousand troops, of 
 an army previously deemed invincible, were routed by ten 
 thousand men, because the former fought for mortal con- 
 trol, the latter, though perhaps they knew it not, for the 
 eternal principles of freedom. Subsequently, when 
 Athens, false to the cause she had vindicated, sought to 
 inflict on Sicily what she had rejected from Persia, she 
 suffered at Syracuse as she had conquered in Attica. At 
 Arbela was destroyed that enormous fabric of human 
 weakness which held all civilized Asia in its paralyzing 
 embrace. On the field of Poictiers, Mahommedanism, with 
 its enervation and polygamy, so impossible to European 
 civilisation, fell before Christianity, giving a victory not 
 to form over form, but to free government over tyi-anny. 
 When the bigotiy of Spain tried to crush liberty of con- 
 science in its last home, her mighty armada was swept 
 from the seas, not by broadsides nor by fireships, but by 
 the irresistible spirit which God had infused into 
 England's sons as the champions of eternal freedom. 
 A little later, when England, following the policy of 
 Athens, would have forced an unjust rule on her Ame- 
 rican colonies, and would thus have betrayed her 
 mission, she bore at Saratoga what her prototype had 
 suffered at Syracuse. Later still, when once more carry- 
 ing out her vocation, her banners were unfurled at 
 Waterloo, she achieved the noblest conquest that graces 
 her annals. She terminated for ever the tyranny of the 
 sword, and paved the way for the establishment of universal 
 
292 THE LAW OF SINAI, 
 
 peace. Instances might be multiplied, from the expulsion 
 of Greek abominations from God's temple by the Macca- 
 bee, till the defeat of the great pontiff of the Roman 
 church by the unknown priest of Eisleben ; but all would 
 tell the same tale, how the great principles of right have 
 prevailed against all the power which man could wield 
 against them, because on them, and not on power, is to 
 depend the regeneration of the earth. 
 
 And now, although, to a great extent, the external 
 pressure against Jews and Judaism has ceased, the ne- 
 cessity for observing the words of Moses is increased. 
 Men are always on their guard against enemies. Danger 
 from without usually draws closer the bonds of resistance 
 from within. Even a doubtful cause becomes attractive 
 when its votaries are persecuted ; a righteous cause 
 threatened makes its supporters heroes or martyrs. So 
 long as Judaism was in this condition, Jews were united 
 to guard it with their lives, to hallow it in their deaths. 
 These sacrifices are not required now, but another danger 
 menaces, not less fearful because it is masked. Jews are 
 growing to associate with those who once repudiated their 
 society. These men claim to hold the privileges of earth 
 and the keys of heaven. They demand, as the price of 
 tlflsir friendship, conformity to some of their views ; they 
 would insist on compliance with all, but that they are 
 content to bide their time, and to leave something to the 
 natural result of the process of assimilation. Jews accept 
 the conditions proposed, because they aspire to a share of 
 the visible privileges ; and, because they are the smaller 
 party, and have something to lose and nothing real to 
 gain by disputing the question of the keys of heaven, 
 they leave that claim in abeyance, and half allowed, 
 because uncontested. They accept as a concession what 
 they should refuse, except as a right ; they are content 
 with toleration when they should demand equality. 
 Meanwhile, assimilation produces its anticipated effect. 
 
AND ITS APPOINTED TIMES. 293 
 
 Admitted, despite their religion, and not in conseqiienct^ 
 of it, to the coveted social distinctions, they gradually 
 "follow the multitude." The points of difference which 
 may grate against the tender prejudices of those whom 
 they jostle, are carefully kept out of sight, or they are 
 sedulously rubbed down till they disappear. The visible 
 prevails over the invisible. In their desire to escape a 
 separate recognition, for which, as prejudice still exists, 
 they might have a fancied reason to blush, they prefer 
 to merge into the mass, and to lose their identity for the 
 sake of their ease. Thus, in time, religious rights, always 
 so far above and beyond civil rights, become secondary 
 to them. To become consistent before man, who judges 
 from the surface, they become inconsistent before God, 
 who reads the heart : and, because they cannot square 
 the requirements of faith with the claims of modern 
 refinement, they affect to consider useless and obsolete 
 whatever spiritual duty interferes with their social duties. 
 They naturally desire to share in the mission with which 
 God has intrusted every member of the human family — 
 that of promoting the happiness, the social, the moral, 
 the intellectual progress of his fellow-creatures. They 
 feel that grievous wi'ong has been done them when bar- 
 riers have been set up to restrain them from this task, 
 when restrictions have coerced their capacity of heart 
 and of mind ; and they feel the wrong more deeply 
 because it has been inflicted under the sacred name of 
 religion, which is thereby vilified, and because they are 
 thus deprived of all hope of the reward so precious in this 
 world, the approbation of mankind. To obtain both ends, 
 their legitimate share in the advancement of civilisation 
 and their meed of worldly praise, they consult expediency, 
 which is only the subterfuge under which mortal blindness 
 presumes to array itself against eternal prevision. They 
 temporise where they should be firm. They ignore the 
 spiritual charge which is theii-s, because at the moment 
 
294 
 
 THE LAW OF SINAI, 
 
 it is not present to their gaze, and because they cannot 
 see how precisely to adapt it to the circumstances of their 
 case. 
 
 But, ah ! how sad is all this ; how like the conduct of 
 Israel of old, who ever presumed to jndge in op])Osition to 
 the recommendations of the Eternal, setting up human 
 devices against the great principles of right u}jon which 
 the universe was established ! And how signally does 
 this obsequiousness fail of its object ! True, the time- 
 serving Jew finds himself apparently courted and re- 
 spected, but it is because he is supposed to copy a certain 
 model, not because he sets a standard himself To him it 
 may be said: "And they who flatter, scorn thee;" for 
 the best that they think of him is, that it is a pity he is a 
 Jew ; and the best that tliey hope of him is, that his eyes 
 may be opened. 
 
 Ye little wise, who pander to prejudice that ye ought 
 to defy, when will you present to the world the dignified 
 front which is the emblem of innate high principles ? Ask 
 your own intellect, are you inferior in any one mental 
 quality to the members of any other creed ? Ask your 
 own heart, are you deficient in any of those attributes 
 which raise men above men, and render them universal 
 benefactors and philanthropists'? Ask your own faith in 
 Divine mercy, can any form of religion teach a purer 
 morality, a more lofty virtue, than that which God gave 
 you through Moses 1 Ask the mighty past, stained with 
 your blo)d and darkened by the clouds of atrocities in 
 which persecution has enveloped you, in what has any 
 doctrine taught a charity stronger and more forbearing 
 than that which you acquired from Sinai? Ask the 
 refined pres-nt, with its classism strong as the caste-system 
 of old ; with its bigotry fierce as of yore, only that now it 
 argues you into the degradation into which then it thrust 
 you ; with its intolerance only less hateful because it 
 hides its deformity behind a mask which is not horrible to 
 
AND ITS APPOINTED TIMES. 295 
 
 behold ; with its prejudice that only yields to force and 
 never to conviction — if society presents any object so 
 noble that it is beyond your reach, so towering that 
 Judaism cannot soar to its level? Ask the unborn 
 future, to which, through their volition, a certain destiny 
 is leading all mankind ; in which either right only must 
 prevail or creation be a mockery; out of which must be 
 shaped those hitherto unattained combinations which are 
 to lead to regeneration and eternity — ask if there be any 
 hopes more holy than those with which you can trust 
 yourself to its immensity, because they are founded on the 
 Rock of all ages 1 And if you give a faithful answer to 
 yourselves, if you honestly permit conscience to look con- 
 venience steadily in the face, then will you be convinced 
 that while ail your social and political ends are con- 
 sistent with your Judaism, it were better that you do not 
 achieve those than that you hold this light, it were better 
 that you let men do wickedly, and force you into isolation, 
 than that you abandon " your wisdom and your under- 
 standing in the eyes of people." 
 
 DEUTERONOMY: CHAPTKR YII, YERSK 12. 
 Among the many beauties which may be traced in the 
 book of .Deuteronomy, none are more remarkable than 
 the cautions occasionally introduced by Moses himself 
 They display a profound knowledge of the human heart, 
 and prove that the opportunities for forming a just esti- 
 mate of character, afforded by his position, were not 
 thrown away. Standing alone among men, uninfluenced 
 by the passions which exercise most sway over them, his 
 fellow-creatures passed before him as under a microscope. 
 He saw their most minute traits w^ith as much distinct- 
 ness as he saw their greater defects. In his warnings 
 he is more a prophet than in his prescience. When he 
 
296 THE LAW OF SINAI, 
 
 tells the Israelites that they are a stiff-necked people, he 
 describes them from his experience of the past ; but he 
 also depicts them in the future, because he feels that 
 national characteristi-cs remain, for that it is more easy 
 for a people to change its destiny than to alter its ten- 
 dencies. Further, when he says, — '' Take heed that thou 
 forget not the Eternal thy God, in not keeping his com- 
 mandments and his judgments and his ordinances which 
 I command thee this day ; lest when thou hast eaten 
 and art satisfied, and hast built goodly houses and dwelt 
 therein ; and when thy herds and thy flocks increase, and 
 thy silver and thy gold is increased, and all that thou hast 
 is increased ; that then thy hearb be exalted, and thou 
 forget the Eternal thy God, who brought thee out of the 
 land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage ..... 
 and thou say in thine heart. My strength and the might 
 of my hand hath gotten me this wealth. But thou shalt 
 remember the Eternal thy God, for it is he that giveth 
 thee strength to get wealth ; " — he writes down the whole 
 history of his flock, from the moment of their standing 
 around him on the plains of Moab till the present day. 
 
 The story of Job is a beautiful allegory. Its object 
 is not, as is generally supposed, to show the inefficacy 
 of poverty and affliction to alienate man from God, but 
 to point the more natural sequence, that suffering and 
 tribulation only draw more closely the ties which con- 
 nect earth and heaven, and that these visitations are 
 therefore, to some extent, blessings. Regarded in this 
 light, it inculcates a great moral lesson by shoAving 
 another instance of the compensations with which life is 
 filled. 
 
 The despot, at whose nod millions tremble, who is 
 amenable to no law but his own momentary caprice, into 
 whose lap pleasure exhausts her cornucopia, may seem an 
 object to be envied because of his power for gratifying 
 every desire as it rises : but, if his comparative indepen- 
 
AXD ITS APPOINTED TIMES. 297 
 
 dence of man leads to a corresponding fancied independence 
 of God, lie is rather to be pitied for his abuse of oppor- 
 tunity than envied for his means without end. We know 
 that life's compensation will come hereafter, and that the 
 time will be when he will be as responsible as the meanest 
 slave that has shaken beneath his rule. 
 
 The mariner, clinging with the energy of despair to 
 some friendly spar which the fierce violence of the waves 
 is gradually tearing from him, who is suddenly quitting a 
 world which he has shamed by his blasphemy or indif- 
 ference, whose resources have been squandered in riot as 
 his manhood has been wasted in brute efforts of strength, 
 may seem an object for pity ; but if, amid the darkness 
 and horror of the storm, there come to him the light and 
 calm of trust in God — if, when all other hope has left him, 
 there at length wakes in his dying heart a hope in that 
 ineffable mercy which is enough for all mankind, then he 
 is rather to be regarded as blessed in his miserable end, 
 because it has proved his life's compensation. 
 
 The inspired writer who penned the book of Job knew 
 full well that poverty is not the road which leads to in- 
 fidelity. He knew that such is man, that ever as earth 
 falls beneath his feet, his soul soars heavenward. He 
 desired to inculcate resignation to the will of the Eternal, 
 and to point out that even in the bitterest misfortune 
 man cannot be wretched if religion remains to him. The 
 object of the "faithful servant" is the same, only from a 
 different direction. He desires to caution against that 
 mundane hap})iiiess which is the goal of the many, but 
 which is not a wise aim if religion is to cease. And this 
 desire comes with additional force from one who knew so 
 well the people to whom his caution was addressed. He 
 remembered that they had been slaves and were now free, 
 but that the transition had not been accomplished with a 
 beneficial effect on their moral eharacter. Although 
 their Divine deliverer had given them through revelation 
 
 o2 
 
298 THE LAW OF SINAI, 
 
 all that could render their liberty vahiable to them and 
 useful to others, they had either been too oppressed in 
 Egypt to rise at once to the height of the eternal truths 
 presented to them, or they had been so long accustomed 
 to be amenable only to bodily influences that their minds 
 were not now sufficiently strong to shake off the old yoke. 
 The cowering fear of the slave had developed itself in the 
 overbearing pride of the master. They were essentially 
 stiff-necked ; people in whom only some terrible calamity 
 could awaki n a sense of mortal nothingness. Against all 
 ordinary troubles they were proof. Blind, as such 
 characters always are, to the fact that their own evil 
 doings were the cause of their misfortunes, (according to 
 the great law impressed on creation, that there is no 
 chance but that physical ill grows inevitably from moral 
 obliquity,) they continued in their riot till a sudden 
 shock brought them to a halt, and made them fearfully 
 sensible of human infirmity and human responsibility. 
 Then came the revulsion ; they were as abject in despair 
 as they had been reckless in prosperity. It was only 
 when continued affliction had restored their moral eqviili- 
 brium, that they were able to understand the beneficial 
 result of the compensation under which they had groaned. 
 Then was it that they returned to God and to virtue. 
 But when this return had produced its fruits, happiness 
 and worldly good, they again acted the same part, again 
 went through the same phases. Moses knew this of the 
 past, and he was anxious to guard the future. AVith how 
 much justice let history tell. 
 
 When, guided by the miraculous strength of the 
 Eternal, the Israelites overcame the nations of Canaan, 
 and quietly settled in their new possessions, what did 
 they become ? No sooner had Joshua passed from the 
 scene than prosperity puffed them with pride, and they 
 contrived, despite themselves, to show their neighbours 
 how little difference there could be between God- worship 
 
AND ITS APPOINTED TIMES. 299 
 
 and idol-worship. Reduced to an ignominious servitude, 
 tliey suffered till repentance brought back faith and its 
 attendant virtues, and they were released. The period of 
 their Judges is a repetition of this same tale. Heaven 
 showers its blessings and men forget their dependence, 
 and from liearts that should hymn praise, rises the self- 
 glorifying boast — " My strength and my right hand hath 
 gotten me this wealth." 
 
 The lonof and rif>-hteous rule of Samuel ftiiled to eradi- 
 cate this reliance on mortal resources. They longed for a 
 king, because they preferred resembling the people around 
 them to remaining distinct as the servants of God. They 
 forgot that there should be no resemblance between the 
 purity of religion and the corruption of sin, even in 
 externals. Their desire was gratified, but within an age 
 their sovereign became their leader into iniquit} , and 
 what they gained in the dignity of their ruler, they lost 
 in his power to guide them to ill. Better the judges, 
 with no external emblems of power, who dispensed for a 
 season the law of Sinai, than the crowned tyrants whose 
 grandeur made them oblivious of all but their own 
 importance, and whose larger means were only the means 
 to larger evil. Again the impious cry of self-reliance 
 burdened the air ; now, under some pious king, a little 
 hushed ; now, under a Rehoboam or an Ahab, swelling 
 into a rebellious shout, till all w^as stilled beneath the 
 crushing thunder of Assyrian wrath. Then arose the 
 unavailing murmurs of regret, unavailing because they 
 came not in the hour of triumph and joy as the spon- 
 taneous acknowledgment of error, but because ihey were 
 the forced relief of hearts bowed beneath physical sorrows^ 
 and glad even of that comfort. 
 
 Seventy years of captivity taught no permanent lesson. 
 Vainly Autiochus threatened, and the Maccabee stirred 
 the latent fires of patriotism. Vainly the Greek Alex- 
 ander left a faint impress of his passage, the Roman 
 
300 THE LAW OF SINAI, 
 
 Pompey a' more lasting one; still in the hearts of the 
 Israelites grew the fibres of self-dependence, seared by 
 past troubles, but not extirpated ; still from their lips 
 welled the stream of self-love, and its ripple sang, " My 
 strength and the might of my hand hath gotten me this 
 wealth." Titus came, and his legions trampled out the 
 last remains of national vitality. Thenceforward, Israel- 
 ites ceased to exist as a distinct nation, but they were to 
 carry with them into the regions wherein they settled the 
 characteristics which had marked them in their own 
 country. These characteristics, however, were to be 
 modified by external circumstances. In the new fate thus 
 inflicted on them, what had formerly been only temporary 
 now became permanent. In Palestine, they knew sorrow 
 only occasionally; they had, even in their worst hours, 
 their moments of joy. In their dispersion, sorrow was all 
 they could depend upon as theirs. Seasons might revolve, 
 but each brought the selfsame spirit of persecution. 
 Dynasties might rise and fall, but every race of kings was 
 alike inimical. Others might toil and prosper, they could 
 only labour and bear. Thus oppressed from without, they 
 hung with more tenacity on what men could not wrench 
 from them. If they could not propitiate man, they might 
 at least invoke God. If earth opened not her friendly 
 bosom to give them a home, at least they might aspire to a 
 resting-place in heaven. And so the same spirit that had 
 been awakened in the days of Ehud and Deborah, was des- 
 tined to live with more constancy in the final captivity. 
 Let us hope that the modifications it has effected in the 
 national characteristics have so changed them, that hence- 
 forward they never again are what they have been. 
 
 But we must be careful. Another, and it may be a 
 better change has come over dispersed Israel. Active 
 persecution has comparatively ceased. There bursts forth 
 now and then some volcano-like eruption to remind us of 
 the past, but it is rarely. Already in many countries 
 
AND ITS APPOINTED TIMES. 301 
 
 Israelites are no way distinguishable, in worldly matters, 
 from their fellow-citizens of other denominations. In 
 many more countries a sinful intolerance or an unwise 
 toleration still restricts, but there is reason to believe that 
 this will not long be. Again Jews may labour with the 
 assurance that they may enjoy the fruits of their labour. 
 Again they may claim as their home the land in which 
 they were born, and in which their Withers died ; for the 
 restoration to Canaan, they know, is to depend on events 
 in the accomplishment of which all mankind is to unite 
 voluntarily, and while they hope for such restoration, they 
 are no more affected by the hope than other men. For 
 all practical purposes, then, the Israelites have both pros- 
 perity and a home ; it must be theirs to guard themselves 
 from returning to the impiety which so often lost them 
 such treasures in days of yore. 
 
 Nor is the danger of their return without the bounds 
 of probability. In the rush after worldly honours, men 
 are too prone to tread only on w^orldly ways. In the 
 crowd, ever jostling each other on the road to fame, the 
 believer and the infidel, the pious and the indifferent, 
 the God -worshipper and the self- worshipper, meet and 
 mingle. By this contact the good generally suffer, the 
 bad are but seldom improved. 
 
 Again, Jewf. are anxious that their children obtain the 
 blessings of k lowledge. They feel that, for all the more 
 advanced business of education, their comparative fewness 
 and their limited resources will not permit them to 
 establish universities and colleges of their own, which may 
 vie with those maintained by their more numerous neigli- 
 bours. Hence they send their children to non-Jewish 
 academies, carefully requiring them to abstain from any 
 religious instruction there given. But, if there be not 
 careful measures adopted at home to supply the hiatus 
 thus made in the mind, heart, and morals, what can be 
 expected to counterbalance the impressions conveyed by 
 
302 THE LAW OF SINAI, 
 
 constant association with tlie giddj, pleasure-seekiupj 
 crowd that follows a student life. The religious element, 
 which harmonises all other branches of information, will 
 be absent alike from the theory of school and the practice 
 of home. The intellect,, tilled with the resources of 
 language and science, will want the compass of faith to 
 direct its career. But it will not founder ; tossed on the 
 ocean of the world it will steer its course among rocks 
 and quicksands, and ever seeking, but never finding, its 
 true harbour of refuge, it will still sail onward and onward, 
 always defying the waves it has so often conquered. Of 
 the world, it will be worldly, and again will the old cry 
 rise, the cry of self-reliance, of infidelity. 
 
 Therefore must Jews be careful. There is so much in 
 which they do assimilate with their fellow-citizens of 
 other denominations, and so much more in which they 
 will assimilate when prejudice on all sides shall have 
 given way to the true enlightenment of abstract religion, 
 that the danger of altogether losing their identity may 
 be incurred when retreat will be cut off. Jews have two 
 futures ; an historical future, which will restore them to 
 their proper place in the great social commonwealth, by 
 the extinction of bigotry and the destruction of fana- 
 ticism ; a spiritual future, quite independent of the other, 
 which will elevate them to their old position in the world, 
 as the guardians, for the universal good, of the sacred 
 truths of revelation. To both these ends, mankind at 
 large, no less than Jews themselves, must contribute, be- 
 cause the former is dependent on those inherent principles 
 of right which will ever prevail over wrong ; because the 
 latter is the certain behest of the Eternal to be effected 
 by man's volition. Every effort in opposition to these 
 results will only retard the ultimate object of Jews and 
 Judaism — the regeneration of the world ; and none more 
 than the Jews, therefore, are bound to have these distinct 
 futures always in view. But all must fight under the ban- 
 
AND ITS APPOINTED TIMES. 303 
 
 ner of God, wliose wide folds can cover the whole earth. 
 Wherever and whenever men raise the standard of self, 
 there will be sorrow and strife; friend will contend 
 against friend, brother will resist brother ; again, as of 
 old, the harmonies of nature will be drowned in shrieks 
 of agony, in groans of despair, and everywhere will re- 
 sound the discordant cry : — " My strength and my right 
 hand hath gotten me this w^ealth." 
 
 DEUTEPtOXOMT: CHAPTER XT, VEllSE 26. 
 
 " Ye shall not do after all the things which we do 
 here this day, every man whatsoever is right in his own 
 eyes." 
 
 Between the condition of modern Judaism and the life 
 of Israel in the wilderness there is more similarity than 
 would at first be imagined. This similarity arises in both 
 cases from the want of proper authority. In the wilder- 
 ness the Israelites were in a transition state. Most of 
 the precepts enjoined by Moses were only to become 
 effective in the land of Canaan. They were placed before 
 the peojjle with a view to their being observed when 
 time and circumstance should render their observation 
 not only conducive to morality, but subservient to happi- 
 ness. Meanwhile every man did much as he pleased, and 
 to this want of uniformity is perhaps to be traced the 
 partial disaffection which at times developed itself But 
 there was no executive law by which obedience was to be 
 maintained. Religious consistency was, therefore, un- 
 known ; the caprice of the individual gave a colouring to 
 conduct, and personal interpretation stood for authorita- 
 tive rescript. 
 
 Modern Judaism presents a picture very like this. 
 Since the decline of the national existence there has been 
 no real jjower to enforce submission. The earlier rabbins 
 
304 THE LAW OF SINAI, 
 
 laid down ordinances intended to bind together the 
 loosened members of the scattered tribes ; and, as has 
 before been shown, many things contributed to give their 
 legislation a higher value than even they themselves 
 designed. Affection for their persons; respect for the 
 firmness with which they represented Jewish faith before 
 the world ; admiration for the zeal with which they 
 sacrificed worldly advantages to enable themselves more 
 closely and uninterruptedly to study the law, and for the 
 cheerfulness with which they gave up even life itself for 
 their religion ; the natural tendency which men have to 
 cling to the spiritual when adversity renders the real 
 hard to be borne ; these were among the causes which 
 operated in favour of rabbinical institutions. The pro- 
 gress of the dispersion which every generation saw wider 
 and wider ; the increase of active persecution, which 
 drove its victims now into one locality, now into another; 
 the necessity for money making as the only means of 
 securing even the temporary protection of that which 
 was designated charity, and the consequent necessity of 
 devoting to secular pursuits the energies before given to 
 intellectual study; these were among the causes which 
 still further contributed to render those institutions per- 
 manent. For many hundreds of years no author * has 
 written a single line to explain or to supersede the code 
 laid down by the earliest rabbins. Hence the custom 
 has grown up of regarding that code as inalienable, 
 because those who might act, decline to take the initiative, 
 or to go further than their ancestors went. What has 
 been done, say they, since time immemorial, needs not to 
 be altered now. That which has preserved Judaism till 
 the present day will preserve it till a future day. 
 
 But the conditions are altogether changed. Modern 
 
 * Maimonides and Mendelssohn might be named as exceptions. 
 But what an outcry did their works raise, and how little weight 
 have they in the orthodoxy of to-day ! 
 
AND ITS APPOINTED TIMES. 305 
 
 rabbms refuse to trench on what they l)elieve to be sacred 
 ground. The okl motto was : " Make a fence round the 
 hiw," and a fence was made ; and lest some intemperate 
 scapegoat should break through this barrier, it was allowed 
 to grow till it far passed the boundaries originally- 
 designed for it. But it must not be forgotten that many 
 of the institutions, and much of the legislation, resulted 
 from extraneous pressure. They were directed against 
 communion with idolators, and against contact with 
 persecutors. Every one who was not a Jew was an 
 enemy. Whatever an enemy did was to be avoided. 
 Any course was considered preferable to that which might 
 lead to imitation of external manners and habits. " Cus- 
 tom of the heathens " was a cry as vehement among Jews 
 as " no Popery " was among Englishmen. It was the 
 pride of the Israelites in those days, that in every-day life, 
 they were as distinct from those among whom they dwelt 
 as in their religious observances. And it was a just and 
 honest pride ; how could they care to cultivate acquain- 
 tance with languages whose harshest terms were consi- 
 dered too mild for them, with people whose highest aim 
 was to plunder tho»e whom their cruelty had compelled 
 to hoard. Forced into ghettos, their very isolation 
 became their protection ; it was better, in the malaria 
 and miasma of their overcrowded quarters that they fell 
 into the hands of their God, than out of the poison that 
 they fell into the hands of their enemies. 
 
 But time has pulled down the barriers which ignorance 
 and intolerance raised. Every day sees the Jew pro- 
 gressing towards social equality. His vernacular has now 
 an endearing term even for him ; his neighbour, of 
 another creed, does not spit in his face, or cross himself 
 because a Jew passes his door. The yellow badge and 
 the gaberdine are things of the past. With these changes 
 other changes have become necessary. Some of the 
 original institutes of rabbinism are as obsolete as would 
 
306 THE LAW OF SINAI, 
 
 be the fanaticism of Peter the Hermit, or the feudalism 
 of William of Normandy. Let there be no misunder- 
 standing of the idea here enunciated. The religion of 
 Moses is not attacked, for no system can be more pure or 
 more perfect ; the ceremonies of Moses, as expounded in 
 these reflections, are not attacked, because they have 
 been shown to have a high significance in preserving our 
 nationality, and in maintaining our religious existence. 
 That religion and those ceremonies, like other works of 
 the Eternal, are for all time ; any innovation of mortal 
 origin must fail to supersede them permanently. Biit as 
 Avell as Judaism has an historical future, so also has it 
 historical duties ; and these are, progress and conformity 
 with the requirements of the times. He who does not 
 advance, retrogrades ; in life there is no standing still. 
 What suited admirably the exposition of Judaism before 
 the woiid of 1 100, is by no means adapted to represent it 
 in the nineteenth century. While there was every 
 reason to cause the Jew of that day to avoid even the 
 most trivial habit that could remind him of his perse- 
 cutors, there is every reason now why he should conform 
 to those habits which he sees to be prorlluctive of comfort 
 to those with whom he is on an equality. What was 
 once a pride would now be a disgrace. As well as the 
 Jewish gentleman adopts the di'ess and manners of his 
 fellow-countrymen of other denominations, so should he 
 adopt the other customs which experience has shown to 
 have a beneticial effect on social welfare and social im- 
 provement. Say that confirmations have been found to 
 give youths a more impressive love for their religion, why 
 should not Judaism adopt confirmation 1 Say that ser- 
 mons in the vernacular have proved most efficacious in 
 awakening pious sentiments and devotional feelings, why 
 should not such sermons become an integral part of Divine 
 service 1 Say that more refined notions of morality have 
 taught us, that to pray to Heaven " to avenge before our 
 
AND ITS APPOINTED TlilES. 307 
 
 eyes the blood of thy servants which has been shed," is a 
 desecration worthy only of the age of the crusades, why 
 should we not expunge such prayer from our liturgy ? 
 Say that the false logic of controversial rabbins, which has 
 found its way into the service for the " night to be 
 observed," has failed in convincing thinking men, why 
 should it not be replaced by some Psalm or other Biblical 
 passage bearing on the glories of the exodus "? Needs 
 Judaism in its integrity, to suffer because of such trifling 
 alterations ? Would a boy be less Barmitzvah because he 
 voluntarily announced his determination to adhere to pre- 
 cepts which it had been previously ascertained he under- 
 stood ? Would Divine service be less calculated to draw 
 our souls to God, if it were purified of poetical mysteries 
 few can penetrate, and still fewer appreciate, and if, in 
 their place, were substituted something that would come 
 more home to the heart and to the intellect*? Would 
 our religion be less our distinction before mankind because 
 we forbear to invoke Divine vengeance on fanatic cruelty 
 perpetrated ages since 1 Would the " night to be observed " 
 be less dear to us, if we devoted it to studying the truths 
 of revelation, and the duties rendered incumbent by the 
 event which the Passover celebrates ? There can be but 
 one answer to these questions. 
 
 Ah ! but, says the rabbinical system of to-day, it is 
 impossible to alter what men so much wiser ordained. 
 Time-hallowed customs must not be broken. Innovation 
 is always dangerous, because it is impossible to say where 
 it will cease. If every age is to set up its own standard, 
 there will be nothing left in time whereby the future 
 may show its likeness to the past, (tc, &c. True, quite 
 true. Now look at the alternative. The present rabbi- 
 nical authority being thus entirely set aside by the 
 rabbins themselves, who have been content vdth execu- 
 tive functions, and have endeavoured to set the same seal 
 of eternity on the mortal legislation of their predecessors 
 
308 THE LAW OF SINAI, 
 
 that should be claimed only for the legislation of Sinai, 
 men have grown to claim some share of authority for 
 themselves. It has been impossible to prevent this. 
 The most fervent orthodoxy has been unable to resist 
 some alterations rendered imperative by change of times 
 and circumstances; that same most fervent orthodoxy 
 must blush for the manner in which many things that it 
 has retained are still expounded by some of our com- 
 munity. And these things are just the sort of external 
 form which means so little for us, and tells so much 
 against us, which degrades Judaism into a system of 
 practices, and altogether ignores principles. In tlie 
 zeal with whicli orthodoxy has clung to the shell it lias 
 lost the kernel. It has tenaciously adhered to a past 
 which has nothing but age to recommend it to respect, 
 and it has lost its hold on those great doctrines which 
 make our faith so simple, so ennobling, so engrossing. 
 Ask it w-hat it has inculcated on the subject of prophecy, 
 responsibility, a Messiah, reward and punishment here- 
 after, the resurrection, and it will tell you that it has 
 taught so little that scarcely units in hundreds have any 
 fixed ideas on these subjects. It has cared so little for 
 them, that it has even left our youths without a recognised 
 catechism or text-book from which they may accquire 
 information for themselves. 
 
 But, besides all this, orthodoxy is the virtue of the 
 few. The mass are only moderately religious. They 
 love the dependence which yokes them to God, and they 
 revere the traditions which come to them sanctified by 
 the oral explanation of Moses and his successors ; but 
 they are thinking, reasoning men. They cannot rest 
 satisfied with the dictum which tells them that the 
 Eternal designed revelation to coerce man's intellect 
 into instinct, and that blind obedience is the only faith 
 that they need to cultivate. They ask a higher vocation, 
 a nobler connection with Heaven. They demand that 
 
AND ITS APPOINTED TIMES. 309 
 
 the religion wliich Moses gave, so pure and so consonant 
 with the best human faculties, be maintained in its pris- 
 tine integiity ; that it be stripped of all those representa- 
 tive practices which were born of persecution and dark- 
 ness, and which should have died when persecution and 
 darkness no longer lived to give them birth ; that what- 
 ever has grown like a fungiis on the dispensation of Sinai 
 be torn from it. They say, and they are right, a merciful 
 Creator gave us a religion which he designed for the 
 happiness of man throughout all ages and generations ; 
 that religion is not a temporary religion adaptable to 
 circumstances ; it is permanent, it is eternal, because its 
 object, human happiness, depends now, and ever will 
 depend, on those great principles of morality which God 
 first taught to our ancestors. But, they continue, we find 
 in the system to day called Judaism, much which we can- 
 not respect, some things that we cannot understand, some 
 things that even excite our disgust. Take these awav, 
 they say to the rabbins, to whom they naturally look for 
 assistance ; we know that these excrescences are not 
 natural to our sacred faith, we know that they are the 
 offspring of bygone opinions and times ; in their stead 
 give us Mosaism as Moses taught it, and we shall be both 
 happier men and better Jews. 
 
 The rabbins answer, that they have no power to act, 
 and the mass, too enlightened to be priestiidden, and 
 too religious inherently to mock themselves with the 
 thing held up to their regard, begin by degi^ees to act for 
 themselves. But they begin without concert, without 
 auy fixed principles. They desire to break off a parasite ; 
 in the struggle, they too often tear away a part of the 
 trunk into which it has insinuated itself One pulls in 
 one direction, one rends in another ; deprived of all gui- 
 dance, left to the imperfections of defective education or 
 the licence of caprice, men become half infidels whose 
 desire at setting out was to be only more sincere believers. 
 
310 THE LAW OF SINAI, 
 
 They eontinue to call themselves Jews, they are really 
 what convenience or concomitant circumstances make 
 them. The great spiritual bond which should unite 
 Israel all over the world is severed. For prayer, some 
 adopt the vernacular instead of the sacred language of 
 Scripture ; some uncover the head in synagogue ; some 
 associate male and female worshippers together ; some 
 introduce an organ ; some defer the Sabbath and celebrate 
 the first day of the week instead. In short, and herein 
 consists the resemblance between the present and the 
 days in the wilderness : " every man does whatsoever 
 seems right in his own eyes." There is no consistency 
 because there is no principle of action. 
 
 Now this was exactly the state of things against which 
 our great legislator designed to guard when he uttered the 
 words with- which these reflections were introduced. Of 
 al] antagonists to social and religious progress, none is so 
 formidable as anarchy. When barbarism first emerges 
 from its degradation to be guided into the future by the 
 torch of civilization, law, legislative and executive, is the 
 majesty before which it bows. It voluntarily imposes 
 on itself restraints and fetters, in order that liberty may 
 be more precious because rights are more respected. In 
 the wilderness, Israelites led a semi-barbarous life; in 
 Canaan, assuming their place among nations, they were to 
 fall into the civilized path on which nations tread to their 
 development. Therefore, said the greatest lawgiver that 
 the world has ever produced : " Ye shall not do after 
 all the things which we do here this day, every man what- 
 soever is right in his own eyes." He knew the effect of 
 that individualisation which converts a people into frag- 
 ments, as wide-spread as the wind-driven spray; why will 
 not the spiritual leaders of to-day gather the same know- 
 ledge ? Are they not allowing the substance to glide away 
 on the waters of deception while they grasp at an empty 
 shadow 1 Were it not better to sacrifice the human fancies 
 
AND ITS APPOINT ED TIMES. 311 
 
 of an obsolete date to the hiiniaii fancies of progress, than 
 to hold them and lose eternal certainties ? The wisest 
 politicians give way when opposition ceases to be respect- 
 able. The greatest leaders prefer to gnide the mass when 
 they can no longer sutcessfully struggle against it, because 
 they know that it is better discretion lead than madness. 
 To assert that there is any thing in Judaism incom|)atible 
 with the highest refinement, with any change that human 
 combinations for human hapjjiness can devise, is to assert 
 that the divine legislation has lost the eternal character 
 impressed on it by a merciful Creator. Orthodoxy would 
 be the last to admit this presumption. Why will it not 
 then assume its legitimate function, and, under the direc- 
 tion of recognised spiritual leaders, so purify the system 
 of Judaism as at present expounded, that we give to our 
 descendants a disembodied spirit endowed with everlasting 
 existence^ instead of what we now have, a spirit so sur- 
 rounded with corporeality that the majority see only what 
 is mortal and visible, and ignore what is eternal and in- 
 visible ? * 
 
 * These observations have been unfortunately both misunderstood 
 and misrepresented. The author neither has, nor ever had, any 
 desire to advocate what are popularly termed " Reform " doctrines. 
 On the contrary, he is strictly conservative. He would assign to 
 orthodox ecclesiastics their legitimate place, which is to lead, and 
 not to be left behind, to direct religious movements, and not to 
 pei-mit them to be the sport of unqualified or interested laymen. 
 But he would preserve only principles, and scriptural ceremonies, 
 which are the exponents of principles, because they alone are eter- 
 nal. Forms of more rectnt introduction which have lost their sig- 
 nificancy, through age or change of circumstances, he does not 
 respect. The careful reader will observe that all the suggested 
 innovations are put hypothetically, and are not sou^^ht to be en- 
 forced. How much something is needed to elevate Judaism, no 
 one can know better than the author, whose long connection with 
 thousands of the humble and more ignorant of his coreligionists, 
 has enabled him to learn the existence of opinions and practices 
 for which certainly religion is no Avarrant, but which contribute, 
 more than any thing else, to foster uarrowmindedness, and to re n- 
 der the Jew what he was never intended to be, an individual 
 suspecting others, and suspected by them. 
 
312 THE LAW OF SINAI, 
 
 DEUTERONOMY: CHAPTER XVI, VERSE 18. 
 
 The world still clings to many fictions with an ardour 
 worthy of a love for truths. Some of these fictions gratify 
 the vanity of their believers ; some excite their awe. 
 Some owe their good repute to the veneration generally 
 felt for what is old ; some to the admiration always 
 awakened for what is new. In some cases tliey are pre- 
 ferred to the recognised facts which should have super- 
 seded them, because the}^ are more imaginative and 
 poetical ; just as the romance of history is preferred to 
 its plain, matter-of-fact narrative. Who does not love 
 the mythic glories which shed a halo round the head of 
 Homer, better than the more probable suggestion that the 
 poems which bear his name are the work of many brains ? 
 Who that has studied the old heroic tales of Greece and 
 of Rome does not regret the researches that has proved 
 them fables 1 The stern virtue of Lycurgus ; the polished 
 refinement of Solon ; the unflinching valour of Aristode- 
 mus, or Aristomenes ; the god-like origin of the founder 
 of the empress city ; the mysterious communion of Nuraa; 
 the savage grandeur of the fierce Achilles ; the amiable 
 fickleness of the pious ^neas, are still niched in many a 
 heart, although they have been long driven from the 
 head. Who would not, if he could, rather believe that 
 Camillus arrived just at the critical moment at which he 
 was wanted, than that Rome first sought the forbearance 
 of her transalpine invaders and then attacked them, 
 encumbered with plunder and weakened by excesses ? 
 
 Who that has hung over the pages of romaunt, reading 
 of the troubadours and knights-errant of the chivalrous 
 ages, has not loved the highly-coloured pictures, which he 
 knew were not pictures of real life 1 The hour too late 
 at Roncasvalle and the ill-fated Roland ; the gage of 
 
AlfD ITS APPOINTED TIMES. 313 
 
 Blanche of Castile and tlie devotion of her 'preux che- 
 valier ; Richard of the Lion Heart and the generous 
 Saladin ; are some of the still cherished memories which 
 common-sense fails to banish, because man has a tendency 
 for beauty at the expense of utility. 
 
 We are so accustomed to speak of the crusades as wars 
 undertaken to rescue Jerusalem from the hands of the 
 infidels, that we forget the impropriety of the oflfensive 
 epithet, as applied to Mahometans, in its universal appli- 
 cation. It may be quite right for Christianity so to 
 desiirnate those who do not subscribe to its doctrines, 
 because Christianity admits of no salvation beyond the 
 pale of its particular church, and even denies it to any 
 but its own peculiar form. Judaism knows of no infidels 
 but those who altogether refuse to believe in God. To 
 Judaism, Mahometans, as worshippers of the Eternal, are 
 not only believers, but as much entitled to hope for mercy 
 as Jews themselves. And yet the fable lives and flourishes 
 because we are creatures of imitation, and are more prone 
 to adopt a name that others use than to find a correct one 
 ourselves. 
 
 But of all the fictions before which men voluntarily 
 bow, not one is so wide-spread as that which claims a 
 new and a higher morality for Christianity. It is asserted 
 that the doctrine of the evangelists and their master was 
 requisite to complete and perfect the doctrine of Moses. 
 It is even maintained that the revelation of Sinai was in 
 part superseded by the later lessons promulgated by Peter 
 and Paul. A dispassionate inquiry will show that 
 romance has far more than reality to do with this claim, 
 which is another of the vanities that men create for their 
 own gratification. 
 
 At the time when the founder of Christianity gave the 
 faint outline of that system, which was subsequently so 
 filled up that he would not have recognised his original 
 design, there existed but two so-called religions in the 
 
 p 
 
314 THE LAW OF SINAI, 
 
 world. Of these, the one was Judaism, the other that 
 monstrous absurdity called the Pantheism of Rome. The 
 former was then in its decline as a national religion. Its 
 professors, . distracted by intestine factions, had their 
 humanity torn from them by the hatred of partizanship. 
 Unable or unwilling to preserve harmony within, they 
 were more unable to maintain appearances from without. 
 What their neighbours knew of them was so little to the 
 credit of their advantage in point of revelation, that it 
 seemed as though idolatry had a better effect on character 
 than God-worship. While among the Romans, luxury 
 and cupidity still left enough of noble to produce an 
 Augustus, a Macsenas, a Horace ; among the Jews, secta- 
 rianism and bigotry had converted men into tigers, and 
 priests into something worse. Meanwhile, Christianity 
 was toiling over deserts, hiding in caves, or suffering in 
 cities. Its professors, animated by the usual zeal of 
 neophytes, and, above all things, desirous of propagating 
 the doctrines which they felt to be so much more lofty 
 than the superstitions of Rome, were examples of what 
 the moral support of conscience could do for a good cause. 
 They who toiled in deserts preferred their privations and 
 sufferings to the refinement and effeminacy of towns. 
 They who hid in caves sought darkness and solitude as a 
 refuge from the glitter and confusion of a pleasure-loving 
 crowd. They who suffered in cities displayed a calmness 
 and joy in the agonies of death, which made them objects 
 of envy to their persecutors. These saw revived the old 
 heroism of a Curtius and a Fabricius, and while they 
 tortured, they could not but admire. If there was any 
 character, therefore, at this time, which evoked respect, it 
 was that of the Christian. The Jew was shunned for his 
 intolerance, his infidelity, his crimes. The Roman was 
 scorned for his voluptuous enervation, his ignorant ad- 
 hesion to the degrading mummeries of the heathen 
 mythology. The Jew was no longer the representative 
 
AXD ITS APPOIXTED TIMES. 315 
 
 of the diviue f.iitli of Abraham, the sublime meekness of 
 Moses, the trustful valour of David ; virtue seemed to 
 have died from his nature, and all that was left was 
 brutal. 
 
 The Koman, no longer nerved by the stern morality of 
 his ancestors, had lost all that elevated him above the 
 barbarians whom he affected to despise, and having 
 nothing heavenly on which to Ml back, there was no 
 chance of his recovering from principle what he had lost 
 in practice. 
 
 Can we w^onder that Christianity, j)ersecuted by the 
 Romans as infidelity, and hated by the Jews as apostacy, 
 should have withdrawn into itself, and, seeing in its pro- 
 fessors qualities for which it vainly looked in its enemies, 
 should have grown partly to think those qualities the 
 inherent result of its teaching, and partly to persuade 
 others to think so, to enhance its claims for adoption. 
 If it did not inculcate a new morality, it did introduce 
 a morality which was altogether new in the then existing 
 corruption. The fiction was so slight that it was adopted 
 as genuine, and once adopted, it was cherished as fondly 
 as such children usually are. 
 
 When times changed, aud Christianity became the 
 dominant power, there was a new motive for retaining 
 the claim which it assumed to have established. Instead 
 of being the j^ersecuted, it was now the persecutor ; re- 
 paying with interest the bitterness of idolaters, with 
 compound interest the hatred of Jews. In the struggle 
 through which it * had passed, priestcraft had done so 
 much for its preservation, that gratitude required an 
 acknowledgment. This was made by the admission of 
 priestcraft into its bosom, and thenceforward Christianity 
 became a compound of what it had borrowed from the 
 old truths of revelation, and of what it had received from 
 the new interpretations of men. If it had gained nothing 
 in virtue, it had lost nothing in assumption. Priestcraft 
 
316 THE LAW OF SINAI, 
 
 claimed for it earthly infallibility, the fiction of its new* 
 morality claimed the sole right to heaven. The former 
 looked down with contempt on all that refused its pre- 
 scrijitions; the latter justified its persecutions by the end 
 which it pretended to achieve. Meanwhile, in Europe at 
 least, a giant civilisation crushed a giant idolatry, and 
 Judaism was left alone to bear the brunt of a contest, 
 none the less sanguinary because Christians now fought 
 in millions while Jews resisted in scores. All recol- 
 lections of an elder brotherhood, all respect for a vitality 
 which had survived so many death-blows, all memories 
 which gratitude or affection might have lent to soften 
 pride, were sedulously laid aside in the strife between a 
 creed which fell in prosperity and a creed which only 
 rose in adversity. For history tells too plainly for doubt 
 to deny, that what Christianity gained in power it lost in 
 purity, what Judaism lost in position it gained in a return 
 to its old faith. 
 
 And still the fiction gained ground and flourished ; 
 again, too, with seeming justice. The Jews still pre- 
 sented to the world, which would not look within, the 
 same spectacle that they had presented when the world 
 could only see from without. Then the cankerworm had 
 been generated in the core, and had eaten its way to the 
 surface ; now the blight had fallen on the cuticle, and had, 
 as was supposed, penetrated into the heart. In both 
 cases, rottenness was the result. Jews had been cruel, 
 vindictive, fanatic ; they were bitter, obstinate, grovelling. 
 But they who so pronounced forgot that, while in Pales- 
 tine unfaitlifulness had produced one result, in Europe 
 persecution had produced the other. For it is doubtful 
 whether at any time Judaism was more zealously observed, 
 and produced more noble instances of virtue, than at the 
 period when Jews and infidels were impiously classed in 
 the same category, and when, in the Christian, who 
 boasted of his charity, the very name of Jew stirred pas- 
 
AND ITS APPOINTED TIMES. 317 
 
 sions that blasted all kindly feelings. At this era the 
 Jew^s really afforded the spectacle that the first Christians 
 had afforded. Driven from the abodes of civilisation, 
 they still did not degenerate into barbarism ; shut out 
 from all honourable communion, they did not lose tha.t 
 love for the intellectual and the ideal which can exist only 
 in the refined; deprived of all cliance of displaying 
 external philanthropy and resignation, they atoned by 
 fraternal affection and friendly sympathy, than which 
 greater were never known, and by the self-denial and sub- 
 mission with which they sacrificed home, wealth, and life, 
 to the God of their ancestors. 
 
 And still the old fiction flourished. Jews dared not 
 expose its fiillacy, for already the murmurs of despair had 
 been construed into the clamour of rebellion, and what 
 new torture might they not expect if they entered into 
 controversy. Christians luould not expose its fallacy, 
 because much of their influence, and all their respectability 
 while they were persecutors, depended on its reception as 
 a truth. And even more recently, when active vigour 
 has ceased to make Jewish life a constant martyrdom, 
 indifference on one side and pertinacity on the other 
 have contributed to the maintenance of the erroneous as- 
 sumption. Satisfied with the better worldly fate which 
 has been permitted them, Jews have been too happy in 
 the consciousness of the treasures of Sinaitic revelation 
 to care much what others asserted. They have studied 
 the portion which has given rise to these reflections, and 
 they have studied other portions like it. Therein they 
 have seen the basis of the most perfect system of morality 
 that the world has ever known. They have learned 
 charity without selfishness, temperance without asceticism, 
 humility without obstinacy, resignation without sullen- 
 ness. They have acquired justice without the subtleties 
 of law, jurisprudence without the complications of statute, 
 equity, or canon. They have obtained industry without 
 
318 THE LAW OF SINAI, 
 
 avarice, mental cultivation without pride, intellectual 
 superiority without rationalism. They have gathiered 
 wealth without forf^ettinf]^ the divine source of all bless- 
 ings. They have borne poverty without murmuring at 
 the inscrutable decrees of Providence. They have known 
 that honesty is the negative virtue of the many, that 
 honour is the positive merit of tlie few. They have 
 garnered in their heart's core a faith in eternal mercy 
 which no misfortune could shake, which no ahurement 
 could alienate ; and ever, when desolation has sat on 
 their hearths, there has arisen, from the ashes of all they 
 have held dear, the phcenix hope, bearing a new life into a 
 trustful future. 
 
 And still they have held their peace when Christianity 
 has blazoned its fiction ; because their natural doctrine is 
 non-interfei"ence. But when they who pretend to inter- 
 pret the relationship in which Jews stand to their fellow- 
 countrymen of other creeds, assert that Jews are aliens by 
 birth and by morality ; when, with the gravity of legis- 
 lators and the dignity of statesmen, they promulgate the 
 monstrous assumption that God himself has violated his 
 own injunction, " Thou shalt neither add thereto nor di- 
 minish therefrom," which declared the Mosaic dispensation 
 perfect ; and when, acting on such interpretation, they 
 would keep alive the old spirit of intolerance and jjersecn- 
 tion, then it would be criminal in Jews any longer to 
 maintain silence. They cannot permit their past to be 
 covered with obloquy in order that their future may be 
 steeped in shame. They declare emphatically, that they 
 are not aliens by birth, for that all their temporal hopes 
 are allied with the homes of their adoption, with the land 
 of their childhood and age ; that, if they do look forward 
 to a restoration, they know that all mankind are to assist 
 at it ; that to isolate them for this hope would be to iso- 
 late all believers in God, for that all believe in the future 
 regeneration of man, with which the return to Palestine 
 
AND ITS APPOINTED TIMES. 319 
 
 is intimately connected. They declare emphatically that 
 they are not aliens in morality, for that all that Christianity 
 has taught to its professors was but the reflex of what 
 Moses inculcated from Sinai, and in proof of this they 
 point to his precepts and their application. They can 
 bear any taunt which is directed against their individuality, 
 because as men they claim no peculiar righteousness ; but 
 they repudiate the sneer levelled at their faith, because 
 now, as ever, they cannot believe that God gave them a 
 doctrine which wanted any thing to render men happy 
 through religion and virtue ; they cannot believe that a 
 merciful Creator instituted a system which gave men ten- 
 dencies opposed to right and honesty, and allowed it to 
 remain uncorrected for fifteen hundred years. They are 
 willing to allow that Christianity was necessary as the 
 means of introducing God-worship to a w^orld plunged in 
 idolatry; that its spirituality was necessary as the stepping- 
 stone to its morality, but there they stop. They cannot 
 allow that wliick would declare the Bible — recognised by 
 Christians as well as by Jews — to be a record of facts 
 based on incomplete notions of morality, to be a record of 
 principles avowedly unfit for the end which they every- 
 where pretend to subserve. 
 
 This is an age of investigation. Every day some ancient 
 theory is being pulled down. Science has destroyed many 
 fictions, common-sense has taken the veil from many more. 
 Old monarchies, founded on the right divine of kings to 
 govern wrong, have given place to governments in which 
 the happiness of the people is the first consideration. 
 Birth has ceased to be the only claim to public employ- 
 ment, while patronage has ceased to be the only power to 
 bestow. Men no longer inhale fevers as their fathers did, 
 because they chose to let things alone ; they endeavour to 
 trace physical ills to their sources, and they enjoy life the 
 better for their perseverance. Chemistry is ventilating 
 our homes, purifying our food, removing the corruption 
 
320 THE LAW OF SINAI, 
 
 that grew from our garbage and our graveyards ; medicine 
 is arresting diseases once believed to be incurable, and has 
 not yet become satisfied with what it has done ; philosophy 
 is joining the extremes of the world with new bonds of 
 civilisation and friendship, and is still searching for new 
 discoveries. Can we not apply some such powers to the 
 dissemination of those greatest and most essential of all 
 truths, religious truths? They would teach us that all 
 God-worship which is honest is alike productive of morality, 
 because it aspires to imitate its divine source ; that to 
 seek to set man against man by assumption of a higher 
 virtue, is destructive of the object aimed at, by encouraging 
 vanity and self-confidence on the one hand, jealousy and 
 distrust on the other ; that all systems of faith are best 
 expounded by the best practices ; that charity means 
 something more than deeds of love only to those who 
 think like ourselves ; that universal happiness is not to 
 be attained by trampling on what others respect ; that to 
 thrust converhion down men's throats is not the shortest 
 way to bring belief to their hearts ; and, above all, that to 
 insult what a thousand generations have looked up to as 
 divine, because history and conviction have proved that 
 any thing less than divine must have perished, is neither 
 a proof of superior wisdom, nor a sign of superior mo- 
 rality. 
 
 K:s2n •'D 
 DEUTEEONOMY: CHAPTER XXI., YEESE 10, 
 Amongst the institutions which tend most to raise 
 societies from barbarism to civilisation, none are more 
 eflicacious than those which give to women their proper 
 place in the scale of creation. When God formed woman 
 as the " help-meet " for man, he designed her exact posi- 
 tion in her name. She was not to be the slave to a tyrant, 
 but the companion of an equal; she was not to be the 
 
AXD ITS APPOINTED TIMES. 821 
 
 tool of caprice, but the partner alike of joys and of sorrows. 
 "When, subsequently, the Eternal made known to our 
 first parents the inherent consequences of good and evil, 
 such as they had disobediently and impiously aspired to 
 know them, he again pointed out woman's relationship 
 to man. She was to be the mother of his children, and 
 therefore not only was she to be entitled to respect as his 
 connecting link with futurity, but she was to claim his 
 love as the means to that felicity which he was to know 
 in possessing descendants. But her desire was to be to 
 her husband, and he was to rule over her. In thus decla- 
 ring her dependence. Providence, which is all mercy, at 
 once committed her to the guardianship of all that should 
 be chivalrous and noble in man's nature ; for while it is 
 not mean to oppose an equal, it is ever low to crush or 
 even to slight an inferior. 
 
 Wherever this decree of Heaven on woman's behalf has 
 been disregarded, there either barbarism or but an in- 
 ferior civilisation prevails. The negro and the red man, 
 who devote their energies to the chase, to war, and to the 
 scalping-knife, leave to woman the drudgery and labour 
 which they think beneath themselves. Thus the men, 
 unsoftened by intercommunion with beings naturally 
 more gentle, retain all the brutality of savages, and the 
 women, debased to the level of slaves, and deprived of 
 the moral support of man's higher faculties,, degenerate 
 into mere animals. 
 
 The Mahomedan shuts up woman in harems, and 
 debars her from all social intercourse with the other sex. 
 He refuses to admit her into his circle on earth, and 
 denies her, wanting a soul, a participation in heaven. 
 And what is the result ? He drones through existence 
 the slave to a sensuality which has all the mean passion 
 of the brute ; she trifles through life without even the 
 maternal tenderness of the tiger. His divan is the scene 
 of stolid indiflerence ; her chamber is the abode of petty 
 
 p2 
 
S22 THE LAW OF SINAI, 
 
 rivalry and small jealousy. He seeks her as a necessary 
 evil ; she ministers to ])leasures which she dares not 
 aspire to share. Thus, society is composed of two distinct 
 elements, which may intermix but which never combine ; 
 and civilisation ever progresses in proportion to the per- 
 fection with which its atoms combine : it halts when they 
 only mingle. 
 
 In the feudal days of western Europe, when men gave 
 all their thoughts to the tilt-yard and the battle-field, and 
 left women to the solitude of their bowers, history has 
 little to tell but of bloodshed and horror, of oppression and 
 resistance. Men did not throw ofif their armour till the 
 iron had eaten into their souls to indurate them ; and 
 when they did appear in gentler guise it was only to give 
 additional liberty to their drunken revelry. They knew 
 of no moderation ; they either raged like carnivora in the 
 mad passion for prey, or they wallowed like swine in the 
 slough of sensual enjoyment. Women were sometimes 
 sickened by the frequency of warfare, which gave back 
 their sons and their husbands mangled corpses or maimed 
 invalids, and were sometimes hardened by horrors too 
 common to excite emotion. In the former case, they 
 needed the comfort which it should be their peculiar pro- 
 vince to bestow ; in the latter, they lost the characteristic 
 of mercy which renders them so lovely. Every way 
 society suffered ; and, if chivalry did nothing else to 
 deserve well of modern times, it at least paved the way 
 for a better civilisation when it devoted its energies to the 
 service of " lady fair," and when it rendered even the god 
 of battles less gaunt by decorating him with the colours 
 of its mistress. 
 
 In respect to the treatment of women, Judaism, although 
 taking its rise in the East, is remarkably distinguished. 
 Nor can we wonder at this when we recollect its Divine 
 origin. Already, in the earliest times, God had dignified 
 women by his special regard. Sarah, Rebekah, and 
 
AND ITS APPOINTED TIMES. 323 
 
 Miriam were all so signalised. Eebekali *•' went to in- 
 quire of God." Miriam is emphatically designated a 
 prophetess. Later, Deborah ruled Canaan with judicial 
 functions ; Hannah was privileged to invoke and to re- 
 ceive peculiar interposition. To be a mother in Israel 
 was to be a matron honoured in the love of a husband 
 and happy in the duty of children. If women were not 
 permitted to take any active part in the public offices of 
 religion, as in the sacrifice, or the festival gatherings, she 
 had her share assigned to her in the domestic supervision 
 necessary to the proper observance of the dietary laws, of 
 the Sabbath, of the weaving of garments.* If she did 
 not occujjy the prominent position to which some women 
 now attain, she did exercise that home influence which is 
 so powerful for good or for evil. She was alike removed 
 from the degradation of the household drudge, from the 
 indignity of being the victim to caprice, or the slave to 
 j^assion. The Holy I>aw, ever so careful to provide for 
 human happiness, which is bound up in human progress, 
 is full of enactments having reference to the rights of 
 woman and to her claims to forbearance and kindness. 
 Her privileges as a wife are frequently enforced, her 
 purity as a daughter is strenuously recommended. As a 
 wife she is to be faithful, as a daughter she is to be vir- 
 tuous. If she forget her conjugal duty, she is to become 
 an outcast, branded of heaven and earth ; if she abandon 
 the beauty of her virgin honour, she becomes " an abomi- 
 nation to the Eternal." 
 
 And these early precautions on woman's behalf have 
 always been recognised in Jewish life. In the darkest 
 days of persecution, when bigotry and cruelty contracted 
 Judaism as in a vice, the}^ could not press out of it the 
 fidelity of its women, the purity of its daughters. Degra- 
 dation, so fertile of evil, never generated female dishonour 
 
 * In accordance AA'ith the command: "Thou shalt not wear a 
 garment of two kinds, as of woollen and linen together." 
 
324 THE LAW OF SINAI, 
 
 in Israel. Ignorance, so ready to raise accusations, never 
 dared assign the stigma of female dishonour to the people 
 to which it had done so much to provoke to it. And 
 thus, while tyranny reigned without, domestic happiness 
 prevailed at home. When the Jewish husband fled from 
 the taunts of the fanatic, or the insults of the oppressor, 
 he was sure to find comfort on the hearth which was 
 lighted by the fire of conjugal love. If the Jewish youth 
 was constrained to check the worldly ambition natural to 
 his age, the earthly hopes proper to his years, he had at 
 least the solace that his image lived in some faithful 
 heart, to which neither his ambition nor his hopes could 
 give any thing more precious than his affection. 
 
 Among the worldly appliances which aided in the pre- 
 servation of Judaism, when all else was wrecked in the sea 
 of barbarism, this influence of woman may be considered 
 as most important. Woman was the one haven from 
 which adverse winds could not detain the otherwise 
 friendless Jew. When every other resource fiiiled, she 
 still remained firm. Wherefore, when brighter days 
 shone, the gratitude which she awakened by her faithful- 
 ness in adversity was not diminished by the growth of 
 ties from without. Her tendrils had taken deep root in 
 the heart of her husband and sons, and no less worthy 
 love could supplant them. She had clung to them in 
 trouble, she had given them her sympathy in sorrow, and 
 in the day of their pride they did not cast her off*. Nor 
 did she deserve less honourable treatment. As her virtue 
 and her faith had lent to degradation almost its only 
 charm, so to prosperity her virtue and her faith lent its 
 brightest ornament. She had sustained manly fortitude 
 and encouraged it to tenderness and respect ; in return, 
 manly fortitude copied her domestic honour, and rendered 
 home the abode of earth's most sacred feelings. She 
 ]iad shown through every change of fortune her firm 
 adhesion to the command : " There shall be none impure 
 
AND ITS APPOINTED TIMES. 325 
 
 among tlie daughters of Israel:" lie learned from her 
 example to shew a like adherence to the command : 
 " There shall be none impure among the sons of Israel." 
 
 Thus, domestic vice was banislied from Judaism. Men 
 did not take upon themselves the duties of matrimony 
 without a full sense of their importance ; women did not 
 become wives without determining to deserve the honour 
 of the title. Drunkenness and gambling, therefore, the 
 two meretricious syrens that woo so many husbands to 
 destruction, were all but unknown. Desertion, which 
 renders men desperate and women worse, was scarcely 
 heard of. Jews, in mingling on equal terms with their 
 fellow-citizens, imbibed many of the customs which 
 fashion or taste render common, but infidelity in marriage 
 was not of the number, nor was the lewd shamelessness 
 that panders to lawless passion. There may have been, 
 there were, exceptions ; but they were exceptions, falling 
 in spite of their religion, and not in consequence of it. 
 Divorce was the event of an age, hearts grieving for an 
 erring daughter were almost miracles. Let us hope that 
 no darker shadows are about to fall on Jewish homes. 
 
 There can be no doubt that a love for dress and 
 pleasure is developing itself very rapidly among some 
 classes of our community. To some extent this is not 
 only pardonable, but even commendable. It is natural 
 that they who are immured during six days in darkened 
 rooms and close alleys should seek the open air on the 
 seventh day. It is natural that they who bow in rags 
 beneath the yoke of hard labour, should spend some 
 portion of their earnings in dress, when they desire to 
 throw off not only the weight of toil but its badge also. 
 But " extremes meet ; " there is but one step between 
 virtue and vice. Dress and pleasure, like other passions, 
 exercise an engrossing influence, especially upon those 
 whose indifferently cultivated minds have few intellectual 
 resources. The man of nerve who enjoys the excitement 
 
326 THE LAW OF SINAI, 
 
 of strong drinks, is wise if he takes the pledge of total 
 abstinence rather than slip into inebriety. The young 
 person who feels the love for show and amusement grow- 
 ing to be absorbing, would be wise to abjure altogether 
 what may have commenced harmlessly but must end 
 injuriously. As the delicate optic nerve suffers from the 
 glare of too much light, so the delicate moral tempera- 
 ment suffers from the glitter of too much pleasure. 
 Elderly and staid fathers and mothers, happy in their 
 domesticity, do not frequent the resorts of the gaudily 
 attired, joy-seeking crowd. Young people are thus left 
 to themselves. They have not tlie support which the 
 presence of seniors always gives ; and even the steadiest 
 object derives additional steadiness from support. They 
 give the rein to laughter, which quickly slips the re- 
 straining curb, and soon many an eye dances when a 
 cheek ought to blush, many a word passes as a joke which 
 should burn the throat of its utterer. True, enough of 
 the old characteristics of our race remain to prevent real 
 crime ; but should this satisfy us 1 Is our holy religion, so 
 elevating and so beautiful, to give us nothing but negative 
 virtue ? Shall we believe that we are conforming to the 
 ways of God by simply abstaining from positive vice 1 
 Ah ! no ; let us take higher ground. Already the world 
 has learned that we have deserved an honourable name 
 for our private morality, let us feel equally sure that in 
 future we deserve that name among ourselves. How can 
 our young men hope to become exemplary fathers if, on 
 the threshold of their manhood, they adopt a levity of 
 manner not excusable in children ? How can our maidens 
 hope to become " mothers in Israel " if they lose that 
 innate sensitiveness which shrinks from contamination ; 
 if, inured to coarse manners, they become hardened to a 
 coarse habit of thought ? The remedy for evil is ever in 
 our own hands. In the pages of Holy Writ we find wise 
 precepts to guide, bright models to direct us. Let our 
 
AXD ITS APPOINTED TIMES. 327 
 
 young men study these precepts till "there be none 
 impure among the sons of Israel ; " let our maidens 
 copy these models till " there be none impure among the 
 daughters of Israel." 
 
 Nnnn O 
 DEUTEEONOMY: CHAPTEPt XXYI. 
 What varied emotions are excited by the contempla- 
 tion of this portion. How "vdvidly does the inspired 
 lawgiver depict the results of virtue ! How gloomily 
 does he shadow the consequences of vice ! "With the 
 strict justice of the stern moralist he will allow of no 
 middle course. Who is not good is bad. Who does not 
 deserve the blessing of heaven, merits its curse. Who 
 cannot look up to the Eternal and say : " I have not 
 passed from thy commandments, nor have I forgotten 
 them," must prepare to listen to the anathema from 
 Mount Ebal. With the uncompromising piety of the true 
 religionist, Moses claims entire and perfect obedience for 
 " all the precepts." Not one is to be slighted. Man is 
 not to presume to measure the importance of ordinances 
 by any standard of his own, but he is to regard all alike 
 as the emanation of Divine will. He is to bow to 
 supreme wisdom, couAincing himself by faith, if by no 
 more rational means, that conformity is his highest aim. 
 And here again the legislator shows how well he knows 
 the worth of consistency. To admit human right to set 
 a value on divine institutions, is to introduce the law of 
 expediency, always so subversive of principles. Every 
 one will assume to disregard what he conceives not to be 
 essential, till dissent will be as extensive as dissenters 
 are numerous. As society only flourishes in proportion 
 to the uniformity of its government, as individuals only 
 prosper in proportion to the uniformity of their conduct, 
 so religion only binds wBen it is a system from which 
 
328 THE LAW OF SINAI, 
 
 there cannot be any deviation. If we look into the 
 forms of non-Israelites, we shall see how want of con- 
 sistency has multiplied sects, till it is scarcely possible 
 to distinguish the many shades of difference, till it is 
 difficult to meet two believers who believe exactly alike. 
 And what is the residt 1 Men can find excuses for almost 
 any crime ; they can scarcely admit of pardon for what 
 they consider want of faith, — that is want of their faith. 
 Thus, intolerance grows into a giant which ought to 
 shrink into a pigmy. Thus, the seeds of hatred are sown 
 broadcast, while the seeds of love sj^ring up only in 
 corners. Thus, persecution stalks abroad like a tyrant 
 instead of being bound a captive in the dark caverus of 
 ignorance and idolatry. If we refer to the history of our 
 own nation, w^e shall find its blackest page rendered most 
 black by the fierce internal dissensions which raged 
 between the two sects struggling for mastery. Every- 
 where, the annals of time tell the same tale ; and wisely, 
 therefore, Moses sought to prevent the evils of anarchy, 
 by demanding at the hands of his flock conformity which 
 admitted of no doubt, obedience which admitted of 
 no aberration. Later, the rabbins aimed at the same 
 consistency ; and if their efforts in modern days have 
 not been crowned with success, they have at least the 
 merit of good intentions. But it was scarcely possible 
 that their legislation could prove more efficacious than 
 the legislation of Sinai, which they desired to preserve 
 and explain. The original had failed, despite its divinity ; 
 it was not to be expected that their interpretation, often 
 dis2)uted among themselves, and often the result of ex- 
 ternal circumstances, could prevail, when, according to 
 the plan adopted by their successors, no authority was 
 left to alter what time had rendered obsolete, or change of 
 circumstances improper. 
 
 But perhaps the most interesting reflections suggested 
 by the portion before us, are those which grow out of the 
 
AND ITS APPOINTED TIMES. 329 
 
 prophetic warnings of Moses. These promise earthly 
 prosperity and heavenly support for religious consistency : 
 " And it shall come to pass, if thou attentively hearken 
 to the voice of the Eternal thy God, to observe and to per- 
 form all the commands which I command thee this day, 
 that the Eternal shall set thee high above all the nations 
 of the earth, and all these blessings shall come upon thee 
 and overtake thee." They denounce worldly misfortunes 
 and divine vengeance for disobedience and inconsistency : 
 " And it shall come to pass, if thou wilt not hearken to 
 the voice of the Eternal thy God, to observe and to do all 
 his commands and his statutes which I command thee this 
 day, that all these curses shall come upon thee and over- 
 take thee." 
 
 If there be any particular principle inherent to all true 
 religion, it is the principle of responsibility. To suppose 
 that God at any time directly interferes with human 
 actions, or with their consequences to man, is to suppose 
 man no longer a free agent. Controlled by the illimitable 
 and irresistible power of the Eternal, he would of neces- 
 sity cease to be master of his own destiny. He might 
 safely plead his fate here to be the reward or punishment 
 of his conduct here, and he would thus be justified in re- 
 belling against punishment and reward hereafter. Even 
 a mortal tribunal would admit the force of his plea ; much 
 more so the divine Judge who is all mercy. But all our 
 experience, every feeling of our nature, every aspiration of 
 our souls, all point to another state of existence, in which, 
 materiality being separated from the spirit, we shall be 
 held accountable for the good or the bad which we have done 
 or caused during life. To deprive us of this prospect 
 would be at once to take away all merit for our virtues, 
 all criminality for our vices. Conscience would no longer 
 be needed as a monitor ; its approving voice would be but 
 an empty imagination mocking the ears with unreal 
 sounds of vanity; its condemning reproof would be an 
 
330 THE LAW OF SINAI, 
 
 echo born of deceit. All the bright examples with which 
 history abounds would be lies ; they who have blessed the 
 world by their knowledge, their philanthropy, their piety ; 
 they who have sacrificed every earthly hope, every earthly 
 happiness, even life itself, because they believed in a 
 futurity ; they who have endured misery with fortitude, 
 and prosperity without pride ; all would alike cease to be 
 of value because they would cease to be responsible. 
 They who have shamed humanity by their ignorance, 
 their cruelty, or their idolatry ; they who have crushed 
 their fellow-creatures into slavery, or forced them into 
 dungeons and torture ; they who have made power the 
 means for multiplying misery, religion the excuse for hor- 
 rors too horrible to contemplate ; all would be alike un- 
 deserving of execration, because God, it would be said, 
 was the source of their conduct. We should be com- 
 pelled to expunge from onr memory Samuel, David, Solo- 
 mon ; Newton, Davy, Harvey ; Abarbanel, and a thou- 
 sand holier martyrs ; or, still more frightful, we should 
 have to associate Haman and Alba with Mordecai and 
 Maccabeus, Philip of Spain with Alfred of England, 
 Kobespierre and his blood-stained crew with the noble 
 lady who now sways this happy country. Nay, further, 
 while we should be ascribing no peculiar merit to God as the 
 cause of all the good with which earth has been visited, we 
 should be compelled to admit his attributes of long-suffer- 
 ing, gracious and merciful, and yet fasten on them all the 
 anger, tyranny, and crime with which earth has been 
 stained. Surely every sentient being would recoil from 
 such a conclusion. 
 
 What then is the alternative ? A simple but a saving 
 one. True, it will deprive persecutors of their excuse and 
 tyrants of their palliation, but it will restore to the world 
 the means of regaining the real path to virtue. It will 
 instil remorse and terror into those who have pretended to 
 find in tlie pages of Holy Writ a warrant for all the 
 
AND ITS APPOINTED TIMES. 331 
 
 atroeities wliich bigotry perpetrates and calls religion. 
 Men will no longer be able to jnstify the intolerance with 
 which they have treated Jews and Judaism, by branding 
 them in the name of God as outcasts and aliens ; but, in- 
 stead, responsibility will teach mercy, volition will instil 
 philanthropy, and the world will be blessed w^ith concord 
 where it has hitherto been cursed with war. 
 
 The alternative is, to admit to the utmost extent the 
 doctrine of free-agency, and to regard what is called pro- 
 phecy not as the fiat of the Eternal to which man must 
 inevitably bow, but as the announcement, through divine 
 prescience, of the infallible consequences to which man 
 will voluntarily conduct himself by means entirely within 
 his own control. Viewed in this light, Holy Writ will 
 no longer be chargeable with anathemas or sentences of 
 jDunishment. Its predictions, like its precepts, will be 
 simple admonitions. Its precepts w^ill point out the conduct 
 most conducive to virtue and happiness ; its predictions 
 will make known the results of obedience or disobedience. 
 But its precepts will be binding only on those who volun- 
 tarily perform them, its predictions will be accomplished 
 only through human agency. Both will emanate from 
 that supreme intelligence which created all things, and 
 which, having impressed on its works certain fixed j^rin- 
 ciples, knows how to guide man in accordance with those 
 principles. Nor is it difficult to believe that the growth 
 of inherent physical results from moral agencies is one of 
 the doctrines on which divine teaching is founded. Man 
 may not always be able to trace the connection between 
 cause and effect, but to assume that God can do so, is only 
 to ascribe wisdom in proportion to his power. Thus, a 
 positive command — "Thou shalt love the Eternal thy 
 God" — will be accepted, because men have faith in the 
 mercy which reconciled devotion to the Creator with 
 happiness to the created. A negative command — " Thou 
 shalt not steal" — will be accej^ted, because men have faith 
 
332 THE LAW OF SINAI, 
 
 ill the prescience which rendered dishonesty, discovered 
 or undiscovered, incompatible with human well-being. 
 The promise of blessings — prosperity and position among 
 nations, will be regarded as the declaration, that such are 
 the ends to which voluntary obedience to God and spon- 
 taneous rectitude with men must lead. The denunciation 
 of curses — adversity and degradation among men, will be 
 regarded as pointing out that sucli are the ends to which 
 self-willed crime and obstinate pride always tend. 
 
 Reading in the portion before us the blessing and the 
 curse announced by Moses, we can understand them only 
 in the way here propounded. While as Jews we hold 
 ourselves resj^onsible for our rejection of that line of con- 
 duct which would have been the means of our happiness, 
 and for our voluntary persistence in those vices which led 
 to our downfall, we none the less hold those equally re- 
 sponsible who contributed to our overthrow, and who have 
 rendered miserable our dispersion. Nebuchadnezzar and 
 Titus may have been instruments of divine vengeance, but 
 their respective conquests are none the less parts of the 
 policy which Babylon and Rome always pursued. The spirit 
 which treated Jews like wild beasts in England, France? 
 Germany, Italy, and Spain, may have been obedient to 
 the divine behest that there should be no rest for Jewish 
 foot, but it was voluntarily so, and will be held account- 
 able for its persecution. Men have alwaj^s been most 
 ready in framing excuses for conduct which they can only 
 believe to be reprehensible because they do excuse it. We 
 cannot be surprised, therefore, that the detestation in 
 which Jews have been held, and the cruelty of which they 
 have been the victims, should have found palliatives in 
 those who hated and in those who hunted. To pretend to 
 have a warrant in the express commands of God was too 
 tempting to be rejected. Hence, when any bigot more 
 intolerant than his fellows would fan the old flame of ani- 
 mosity, when any trifler with human existence and human 
 
AND ITS APPOINTED TIMES. 333 
 
 happiness, would by some wholesale butchery overstep the 
 bounds of ordinary murder, we are sure to hear reference 
 to the denunciations of Moses and the subsequent prophets, 
 and to listen to justification founded thereon. Moralists 
 of all creeds, no less than Jews, appreciate sucb allusions 
 and such apologies at their proper worth. They regard 
 them as the mask behind which vice ever seeks to hide its 
 deformity; nor do they think that any amount of argument 
 or sophistry on the part of man can throw off a responsi- 
 bility pronounced irrevocable by God. 
 
 DEUTEEONOMY: CHAPTER XXTX., YEESE 9. 
 
 " Neither with you only do I make this covenant and 
 this oath ; but with him that standeth here this day with 
 us before the Lord our God, and also with him that is not 
 here with us this day." 
 
 In these terms, among others, was permanency engraven 
 on Judaism. The inspired lawgiver, conscious that 
 through him the Eternal was making a revelation which 
 was to be final in respect to its capability for securing 
 human happiness, desired to impress on his legislation 
 that characteristic which should stamp its eternal origin, 
 and declare it suited to all times. He knew that in this 
 do the laws of man differ from the laws of God ; those are 
 circumscribed, commensurate with the little wisdom, the 
 selfishness, the narrow-mindedness, out of which they 
 grow ; these are infinite in their grasp, unbounded as the 
 omniscience which gave them birth, all merciful, all just, 
 all perfect. Those are a succession of changes, one age 
 demolishing what a previous age has set up, in order that 
 a future generation may destroy the labours of the present. 
 These are constant and unvarying, allied to time as closely 
 as time is allied to eternity. Those are as often the 
 
334 THE LAW OF SINAI, 
 
 result of prejudice as of judgment, frequently failing of 
 their effect, even iu the persons of those who make them. 
 These are based in the great principles of right and 
 universal good, and are equally inalienable. 
 
 Moses knew also that permanence is foreign to man's 
 nature, and, in mortal things, strange to liis experience. 
 Society presents a surface like the surface of the ocean ; 
 myriads of beings, like drops, whirl and struggle, advance 
 and recede, without rest, without apparent destination. 
 And in this constant motion is the life which preserves. 
 Deprive ocean of this characteristic and the whole eartli 
 would breed corruption ; take it away from society 
 and man would cease to know hope or fear, to dread 
 retrogression, to seek improvement. But even as the 
 ocean moves within fixed bounds, so should society 
 revolve within determined principles. Were the waters 
 not coerced, their very mobility would destroy the world ; 
 if society be not restrained, law would become tyranny, 
 and from the elements of happiness would be formed 
 anarchy. 
 
 Some truth like this Moses desired to inculcate in the 
 words above quoted. The Israelites were about being 
 launched into the community of nations. They were to 
 take with them human passions and human faculties ; 
 they were to contribute their share to the supply of those 
 wants by which nature has declared that man cannot live 
 independently of his fellow. They were no longer to 
 dwell in the isolation which had marked their sojourn in 
 the wilderness. The visible presence of the Eternal was 
 to be removed ; no successor to Moses was to be able to 
 invoke and receive, at all hours, the special interposition 
 of Heaven. The period of their helplessness and infancy 
 being over, parental care was no more to guard them with 
 an eye constantly open, a care never slumbering. They 
 were to try their manhood without the unwearied super- 
 vision which had hitherto guarded them. But, ere the 
 
AND ITS APPOINTED TIMES. 335 
 
 last bond of restraint is removed, the faithful exponent of 
 God's will recapitulates all the mercies and all the benefits 
 which have blessed the past, and appeals to them as in- 
 citements to grateful recollection in the future. He 
 dwells on the conditions attached to a continuance of 
 Divine favour, and expatiates on the object which these 
 conditions are designed to subserve. 
 
 " See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and 
 death and evil." 
 
 He does not himself immediately deduce the inference, 
 but it is obvious that Israel is not to submit the laws of 
 the Eternal to the general fate of man's possessions. As 
 Israel is to be one of the families of the earth, and yet 
 to be a peculiar family, so God's revelation is to be a 
 mortal holding, and yet not subject to mortal contingencies. 
 Israelites are to go forth into the world, and are to 
 participate in its wants and desires, in so far as they are 
 worldly, but beyond that they are not to proceed. They 
 are to carry on the fullest intercommunication ; to dis- 
 cbarge all the duties which mutual well-being demands ; 
 to advance with the mass in the pursuit of knowledge and 
 civilisation ; but they are not to copy the multitude in 
 giving mutability to religion, any more than they are to 
 copy the abominations of the people whom they are to 
 exterminate before they can possess Canaan. 
 
 Let the word religion, however, be understood as 
 Moses himself defined it. In this age of controversy 
 when men so often impale principles on points of form, it 
 is not possible to be too particular. Happily, too, the 
 portion ])efore us supplies in precise terms what is wanted. 
 
 " For this commandment which I command thee this 
 day, it is not hidden from thee, neither is it far off. It is 
 not in heaven, that thou shouldst say, Who shall go up 
 for us to heaven, and bring it unto us, that we may hear 
 it and do it. Neither is it beyond the sea, that thou 
 shouldst say, Who shall go over the sea for us, and bring 
 
336 ' THE LAW OF SINAI, 
 
 it to us, tliat we may liear it and do it. But the word is 
 very nigli uuto thee, in thy moutli, and in thy heart, that 
 thou mayest do it." 
 
 Mystery and spiritualism (as men attempt to force them 
 on religion) are thus declared alien to Judaism. Tlie 
 Written Law, with its integral explanation, the Oral 
 Law, is the doctrine of Moses ; all else is foreign, and 
 therefore not essential. Chaldsea may have added its 
 cabalistic lore ; persecution may have rendered exclusion 
 politic j dispersion and the consequent desire to guard, 
 may have raised particular fences ; but Judaism is not to 
 be confounded with these adjuncts. They may or they 
 may not be attached, according as circumstances pronounce 
 them advantageous or disadvantageous. The most vene- 
 rable orthodoxy cannot claim more, the most levelling 
 heterodoxy should be content to ask no less. If, there- 
 fore, any age or any body of men can be proved to have 
 given to Judaism a colouring, beneficial or even inevitable 
 at the time, but by no means beneficial or inevitable now, 
 the very words of Moses are a warrant for its removal. 
 
 But we must be firm to principles. Judaism is not to 
 be made to adapt itself to the ever changing views of 
 caprice, it is not to be confounded with those other forms 
 of belief which originated when men were ignorant of God. 
 To compel Judaism to adapt itself to caprice, would be to 
 deviate from the text with which these reflections are 
 headed, and would, therefore, be to deprive it of one of its 
 most essential characteristics. To confound Judaism with 
 those other forms of belief, would be to permit priestcraft 
 to plot for the preservation of a dominion, based on 
 popular blindness on the one side and on hierarchical 
 tyranny on the other side. The principles of Judaism are 
 few and simj)le. If the existence of a Supreme Intelli- 
 gence be conceded, and the necessity for a revelation of 
 its attributes be not denied, there is nothing about which 
 even scepticism can cavil. Free-will, responsibility, the 
 
AND ITS APPOINTED TIMES. 337 
 
 immortality of the soul, reward and punishment hereafter, 
 are common to Judaism with Christianity and Maliomet- 
 anism. The unity of God, his undivided majesty, his all- 
 powerful supervision, his long-suffering mercy, shine with 
 unclouded beauty in the grand teachings of Sinai and the 
 wilderness. 
 
 But Judaism diverges in two directions. 
 
 It narrows, for its peculiar professors, into a belief in 
 the Mosaic dispensation, and in its eternal character as a 
 revelation. It claims faith in the other inspired writers 
 of the Bible, as the successors chosen by Heaven to 
 make known the consequences of sin and the rewards of 
 virtue, and as necessary links between God and man, when 
 a special providence was still visible on earth. It de- 
 mands perpetual observation of certain ceremonies, not as 
 mere forms, but as representatives of internal convictions, 
 and of spiritual aspirations for a communion with the 
 Divine. It enforces uniformity in this observation, as the 
 only safeguard against that corruption which always grows 
 from what is mortal. It keeps Jews separate only as 
 religionists, and bids them, in all secular matters, co- 
 operate with their fellow-creatures, without distinction of 
 creed. 
 
 It widens, for all mankind, into the design of raising 
 perishable mortality to imitate a perfect Creator. It 
 awakens universal love and universal charity. It incul- 
 cates as a duty the necessity for regarding all men as 
 brothers, not merely those who adopt its tenets, but even 
 unbelievers, as the children of one God. In its doctrine 
 of a Messiah and a restoration of the seed of Abraham to 
 Canaan, it points out the improvability of the human race 
 and the share which Heaven proposes to itself in human 
 regeneration. If it declines to recognise vicarious atone- 
 ment and the superior value of faith alone without works, 
 it does so because not only does it find no warrant for 
 such principles in the successive revelations through Muses 
 
338 THE LAW OF SINAI, 
 
 and the prophets, but it finds a wiser and a higher morality 
 in believing man to be the only means to his own salva- 
 tion, and his deeds the only medium for his acceptance or 
 rejection by the Supreme Judge. If it refuses to accept 
 the mysteries with which spiritualism has sought to 
 envelop the plain facts of Scripture, it does so because 
 Scripture, in the words above quoted, so ordains. If, for 
 example, it regards the sacrifice of Isaac as a simple event, 
 requiring no typical explanation to render it significant, it 
 raises faith in God to the level on which God himself 
 placed it when he counted it as righteousness. If it reads 
 the prophecies of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and others, in 
 their evident connection with Jewish history, and gives 
 to them the only interpretation which the sacred language 
 allows, it is steadily pursuing the behest of Moses not to 
 " go up to heaven," not to " go beyond the sea." If it ac- 
 knowledges no teaching which supersedes the law of 
 Moses, if it continues steadfastly to observe the "feasts of 
 the Lord " in their literality, and to practise the Abra- 
 hamic covenant in its integrity, again it adopts the simple 
 commands of the Eternal, and leaves to priestcraft and 
 controversy the mysteries of a symbolical paschal lamb 
 and an uncircumcised heart. 
 
 Judaism remains firmly on earth ; it does " not go up 
 to heaven," it does " not go beyond the sea." It grasps in 
 one bond of universal sympathy all creation. It has 
 peculiar duties for its followers, and the peculiar vocation 
 of preserving for the benefit of mankind the great trutlis 
 of revelation, but it claims no peculiar privileges. It ad- 
 mits the inherent right of every man to worship God after 
 his own fashion, and it is thus the chau)pion of liberty of 
 conscience. It asks of the members of other creeds only 
 the observance of the traditional Noahchide prectpbs, 
 because history and experience have shown them to be 
 the basis of all morality, and these observed, it is content 
 to leave the soul free to soar to heaven through any 
 
AND ITS APPOINTED TIMES. 339 
 
 medium tliat its wing can cleave. It does not seek to 
 proselytize, because it has no object to gain in making 
 converts. It does not strive to make others accept its 
 ^saving grace, and failing this, to thrust it into their unwil- 
 ling hearts, because it believes that all God- worship is 
 equally calculated to elevate, to improve, to redeem from 
 sin. 
 
 And still, although Jews, and with them Judaism, have 
 penetrated into almost every corner of the civilised 
 globe ; although there is scarcely any society which does 
 not count Jews among its members, there is no peojjle, 
 there is no religion which is so little known or so little 
 understood V)y others. Prejudice has stood with a fla- 
 ming sword to prevent that free intercommunication with- 
 out which friendship cannot be cemented. From the 
 dark ages of ignorant superstition, of intolerance, of 
 blood-stained persecution, errors have come down like 
 heirlooms even to the present generation. Education 
 which has enlightened all else, has left this one corner 
 dark. Men, whose intellect has embraced the vast extent 
 of science, whose genius has dazzled others and ennobled 
 themselves, have been mere infants in their ideas of Jews 
 and Judaism. Men, whose judgment has guided states 
 through political convulsions, or whose prudence has 
 averted national danger, who have dared to act as reason 
 and justice have taught even where interest or policy 
 may have pointed in a different direction, have stumbled 
 like blind men against Jews and Judaism. Errors, like 
 manors, have become real property, to be handed down 
 with titles and transmitted by entail. Some have been 
 willing to enact over again the dark deeds of the first 
 crusaders. Some have had all the will, but have revolted 
 against the horror, and so have called in refinement to 
 kill without offending decency. Some have pretended to 
 find in Moses and the pro[)hets a warrant for any thing 
 but mercy or brotherly love. Because Holy Writ, in 
 
340 THE LAW OF SINAI, 
 
 cautioning Israelites against the consequences of sin, 
 declared that they would be the scorn of mankind, man- | 
 kind have willed that they should be. As though any 
 act were not voluntary, any being not responsible. Mean- 
 while, Jews have held their peace ; they have not sought ' 
 to outroot the hatred of caste which has made them its i 
 victims, because they have felt that while they might cut j 
 off one head from the hydra, they had no fire wherewith j 
 to prevent the growth of a hundred other heads. Silently- j 
 and steadfastly, like finger-posts pointing the right road, ! 
 they have directed their eyes to the Bible, and, in the 
 spirit of the portion before us, have hoped to be judged by 
 it, without mystery, without spiritualism. They have held 
 up the Law of Moses and the words of the prophets in their 
 literal meaning, and have wished these to be the standard \ 
 by which they should be measured. They have felt that 
 all the accusations which bigotry or fanaticism has raised | 
 against them would there be refuted ; that by adherence 
 to the direct text of Scripture, without symbolizing or i 
 typifying, not only would Judaism be best understood, 
 but religion generally be better estimated. And they i 
 feel so still, notwithstanding the conflicting opinions on 
 the best manner of preserving Judaism true to the past, 
 and yet not at variance with the present, notwithstanding 
 the endeavours which they are making for an outward 
 recognition of rights. For what changes soever Jews may i 
 desire, at least they desire none essentially religious. j 
 They are still anxious to maintain the Mosaic dispensation | 
 in its perfect integrity. They may have differences chiefly ; 
 upon points of form or unimportant matters of detail, i 
 some obsolete and no longer subservient to their original 
 design, some incompatible with the more enlarged Si3lxere \ 
 of action to which a wiser policy is calling men of all ; 
 creeds ; but on all essential principles there exists no j 
 diversity, for still every zealous Israelite acknowledges his j 
 heirship in the possession which the Eternal conferred \ 
 
AND ITS APPOINTED TIMES. 341 
 
 witli the words : " Neither with you ouly do I make this 
 covenant and this oath, but with him that standeth here 
 this day with us before the Lord our God, and also with 
 him that is not here with us this day." 
 
 DEUTERONOMY: CHAPTER XXXI. 
 On the confines of eternity human nature frequently 
 seems to undergo a complete revolution. Whereas, in life, 
 the constant struggle between the animal and the spiritual 
 but too often terminates in favour of the more ignoble 
 wrestler, in death, the soul ever gains the ascendant, and 
 borrows from heaven in proportion as it looses itself from 
 earth. Whether visions of the future " cast their shadow 
 before," or wdiether all worldly hope, and therefore all 
 agitation, being lost, serenity lends a beauty which is 
 known only to the majesty of content, it were difficult to 
 decide ; but there is certainly no spectacle more sublime 
 than that presented by the gentle departure from existence 
 of a being resigned to Almighty will. Even a beast of 
 the field, ignorant of an hereafter, quietly awaiting the 
 strobe of death, excites no common emotion. A man, in 
 the full possession of his faculties, and who, knowing 
 something of futurity, can confidently go into the presence 
 of his God, is more dignified in his shattered remains of 
 humanity than a king in the pride of his power. The 
 strength that is gone from the body enters into the soul, 
 and all that is ethereal acquires a brightness before un- 
 known. On to the wan and wrinkled face of age, marked 
 by a thousand passions, creeps the long-forgotten expres- 
 sion of childlike innocence ; charms sit on the brow which 
 but now was haggard ; in the eye beams a holy calm, never 
 previously beheld. Then is it, too, that the tongue, hitherto 
 indulging in the vain, and often empty, verbiage of society, 
 bursts into language wdiich elevates while it haiTOWs the 
 
"342 THE LAW OF SINAI, 
 
 hearers, and which with the voice of infancy, teaches tniths 
 which before thunder had failed to inculcate. Abandoned 
 indeed must be the individual who can bear unmoved the 
 reflections suggested by these death-bed changes, who is 
 not penetrated by the holy realities there presented to his 
 mind. 
 
 History, ever so suggestive to those who reason on its facts, 
 and who are not content with merely learning them, affords 
 a host of instances illustrative of the dying scenes or dying 
 acts of men, to whose end some God-like attributes have 
 given undying existence. Who can read the story of 
 Jacob's death without a tear 1 How beautifully calm is 
 the piety with which the aged patriarch — whose years had 
 been " few and evil," and had not aj^proached to the years 
 of his ancestors — resigns his soul to its Divine giver ! 
 What a type of his fate is the peace which reigns around 
 him in his last moments, as compared Hvith the troubled 
 activity of his past life ! as though Heaven thereby de- 
 clared that in its rest is tbe compensation for all the mis- 
 fortunes that beset humanity. 
 
 The glorious poet, warrior, and king, who sat second on 
 the thrcme of Israel, affords many an example worthy our 
 imitation. His psalms dwell in our hearts, his patriotism 
 lives in our memories. We turn with admiring pity to 
 his prayer : " Let me fall now into the hands of the 
 Eternal ; " for we see as much greatness in his humility 
 as in the forbearance which induced him to spare the life 
 of the persecutor Sa,ul. But, of all the recollections that 
 he has left, none is so sacred as that which cherishes his 
 last song, when, at the end of a perilous career, he at 
 length found rest from his enemies. 
 
 Who has not loved to believe in the mythic story of 
 which Lycurgus is the hero ? How great are the self- 
 denial, the stern justice, the incorruptible simplicity of 
 the man ! We bow to the force of genius which, in that 
 primitive age, gave birth to a legislation so pure, and so 
 
AND ITS APPOINTED TIMES. 343 
 
 adapted to its end ; and, while we pity the faith whicli 
 could inculcate the propriety of a voluntary death, we 
 cannot refuse our admiration to the motive wdiicli 
 exacted an oath that it hecame impossible to break 
 without sacrilege. The refusal of the crowu was only 
 light ; the pardon of Alcander was only merciful ; the 
 suicide was as noble in its self-abnegation as it was terrible 
 in its superstitious darkness. 
 
 Solon, whose wisdom saved one king from death, and 
 another from barbarity ; who gave to the most polished 
 city of antiquity a constitution which is still remarkable 
 for the knowledge it displayed of human character, never 
 did any act half so worthy of respect as that which 
 prompted him to go into exile to die, that he might not 
 see his fellow-conntrymen submic to a dishonourable 
 tyranny. 
 
 Who 'that has read the story of Henry the Second's 
 eldest son, remembers his rebellions or his follies 1 the 
 affecting sentiments evoked by his penitence and his 
 humiliation wipe away every recollection, save of his 
 agonizing grief and his self-elected place of death. 
 
 What a picture do the death-beds of Louis the Sixth 
 and Louis the Saint, of France, present. The former 
 would scarcely live in history but for the dying charge 
 with which he committed his crown and his power into 
 the hands of his son. The latter teaches us to respect 
 the mistaken piety and zeal which induced him to forget 
 the great interests of his subjects, in what he conceived to 
 be the holier duty of attempting to extirpate a belief 
 opposed to his own. When, plague-stricken on the arid 
 sands of Africa, he yielded to the uncontrollable fate of 
 mortality, his calmness, amid the noisy grit^f of his mail- 
 clad warriors, sheds a halo round the religious phrenzy 
 which was bringing him to a premature grave in a strange 
 land, and we admire, though we would not imitate, the 
 faith that could give such devotion. • 
 
344 THE LAW OF SINAI, 
 
 But of all the tales wliich time has recorded of hiiinan 
 dignity in the hour of human suffering, where is the 
 recital that can compare with that given by Moses of his 
 own final proceedings? Distinguished from all other 
 men as the faithful servant of the Eternal, he is as highly 
 distinguished by the characteristics which rendered him 
 worthy of his vocation, and the choice of his Divine 
 Master. The fidelity with which he represented God, 
 and the testimony which history and science have borne 
 to the truth of his revelation, are warrants for the 
 sincerity with which he depicts himself. We accept his 
 own character at his own hands with as much trust as 
 though he were speaking of another. The honesty with 
 which he has laid bare the feelings into which passion or 
 indiscretion carried him, is a warrant for the integrity of 
 his whole work. And that work ! The first and the 
 grandest of all productions of the human mind. Other 
 authors may have excelled Moses in the profundity 
 of science, but his history stands unrivalled for its 
 impartiality, its simplicity, its vigour. What poem 
 contains greater beauties than the magnificent song at 
 the Red Sea ? What apostrophe or invocation does not 
 fall tamely on the ears when compared with that in the 
 portion before us 1 Its imagery is at once natural and 
 sublime. There is no straining after effect ; no super- 
 fluity of words to cloud meaning, or veil the want of it. 
 Every phrase is terse and pointed, and the beauty of the 
 whole is augmented by the reflection that it is the address 
 of a dying man. Noble unselfishness! With the vista 
 of eternity before him ; with the consciousness that, good 
 though he has been, he has mortal weaknesses and mortal 
 sins for which to account; with the dread which the uncer- 
 tain always produces close before him, the dying legislator 
 has no thought for himself or his own future. His whole 
 life has been a peace-offering ; he has not to make his 
 peace at life's close. With the full knowledge of the 
 
AND ITS APPOINTED TIMES. 345 
 
 exact moment of his death, he has none of the wavering 
 which should be consistent with that knowledge. He 
 has set himself the task of repeating to his flock the 
 various precepts and statutes which are to guide them to 
 happiness and salvation, and he fulfils that task as firmly 
 as he did the first behest of his God. He is never once 
 interrupted by thoughts of his approaching fate ; he never 
 dwells on the bourne to which he is approaching, except 
 to bovv submissively to the will of the Eternal. He can 
 pray for every sinner but himself. Even the most 
 dazzling hopes for his posterity, hopes not problematic 
 because mortal, but certain because Divine, cannot attract 
 him into one moment's forgetfulness of the people which 
 he has loved and guided, but which have seduced him into 
 tlie one momentary aberration that is to cost him so dear. 
 Picture a righteous man, of ordinary mould, toiling 
 and toiling to attain the goal of his desires. Say he has 
 travelled the uphill path of virtue with unshaken firmness. 
 He has withstood every temptation to ill, every seduction 
 to pleasure. He has spent a long and zealous life in tlie 
 narrow path of duty, and has avoided the broad highway 
 of gratification. Where others did fall, he maintained his 
 position ; where others might have fallen, he went triumph- 
 antly onwards. Picture all this, and say that, at the very 
 last moment of existence, he is precipitated into the abyss 
 of the vicious, not because he fails on his own behalf, but 
 because, jealous for the power of his Creator, he only 
 censures too hastily others who have not followed his lead- 
 ing. And then, to know and appreciate Moses, the 
 greatest and yet the humblest of men, peruse his last 
 appeal, and learn how he diflfers from all that your nature 
 knows of self-love and self-aggrandisement. 
 
 His last precept is repeated. There remains only to 
 find a peroration worthy his task. The Israelites have 
 been reared into a nation amid the wild grandeur of 
 nature 3 earth and heaven have been the solitary witnesses 
 
 q2 
 
346 THE LAW OF SINAI, 
 
 of their progress, of the sins of one generation and the 
 training of another. To earth and heaven, the eternal 
 witnesses that Divine mercy to Noah pronoimced un- 
 ceasing, the dying legislator appeals : " Hear, O ye 
 heavens, and I will speak, and let the earth hearken to 
 the words of my mouth." The Israelites are about to 
 become an agricultural people, to depend on the favourable 
 aspect of the seasons, on the light showers of spring and 
 the heavier decomposing rains of autumn. Moses in- 
 vokes them in the name of those providential sources of 
 abundance : " My doctrine shall drop as the rain, my 
 speech shall distil as the dew, as the small rain on the 
 tender herb, and as the showers on the grass." With 
 the true genius of inspiration, he dwells on the benefits 
 already conferred on his charge ; and with the intention 
 of awakening a feeling of gratitude that had not existed 
 in those redeemed from Egypt, he reminds them alike of 
 the mercy and the wrath of the Eternal : " But J eshurun 
 
 waxed fat and kicked 
 
 Then he forsook God which made him, and lightly es- 
 teemed the Kock of his Salvation 
 
 And when the Eternal saw it, he abhorred them, because 
 of the provoking of his sons and of his daughters." 
 Nothing, in short, is omitted in the eloquent conclusion 
 of the Deuteronomy that human judgment can deem 
 necessary to secure obedience and fidelity ; and propor- 
 tionate to our admiration of the faithful servant is our 
 regret that his invocation should have fallen on ears that 
 did not appreciate the beauty of his language, on minds 
 that did not value the honesty of his purpose. The 
 sacred volume tells us but too soon how perversely our 
 ancestors fell away from the lessons given amid so many 
 confirming circumstances, taught with so much exemplary 
 piety ; and, on reading this portion in the synagogue, we 
 reflect with increased seriousness on the task which reli- 
 gion and duty bid us perform. 
 
AND ITS APPOINTKD TIMES. 347 
 
 We feel tliat, great as has been the anger of the 
 Eternal, and the punishment which he has inflicted, 
 greater still was the provocation he received, and still 
 greater was the mercy which forbore so long. We feel 
 that, while every man is judged by his own actions, as a 
 people we have the same right to atone for the misdeeds 
 of some of our ancestors, that we have to appeal for good- 
 ness on behalf of the righteousness of others. To us the 
 " Binding of Isaac " and the " Lamentations " are equally 
 important. If we rejoice with the heartiness of mortals 
 on our festivals, we repent with the fervour of sinners on 
 our " awful days." We know that, while individual eflforts 
 sometimes succeed in effecting change in individual cha- 
 racter, national traits remain unaltered for a hundred 
 generations ; and, knowing this, we bow to the conviction 
 that nothing but the unanimous return of Israel to the 
 ways of the Eternal can at all change Israel's destiny. 
 But this very idea renders all true believers more anxious 
 for their own conduct, because, in addition to the con- 
 scientious satisfaction which they derive from observing 
 the Divine laws, they know that example is the best of 
 teachers, and that the regeneration of the mass must 
 eventually depend on the use of the good to guide the 
 bad by the power of precept, and the still more irresistible 
 power of practice. Therefore, during the days especially 
 appointed by God for reconciliation and atonement, all 
 Jews, ordinarily pious, become more pious, because of the 
 considerations suggested by the season, and because they 
 see, in the solemnity with which even scoffers bow to the 
 awe inspired by Kippur, an opportunity for awakening 
 love for the Eternal through fear of his vengeance and 
 respect for their fidelity. The ordinarily careless, who 
 make religion secondary to self, or subservient to interest, 
 find themselves overwhelmed with the dread which the 
 penitential days, they know not why, inspire. Like men 
 stunned by some sudden visitation of death, they are 
 
348 THE LAW OF SINAI, 
 
 recalled at once to the nothingness of life. Like parents 
 who have forgotten heaven in affection for a favourite 
 child, and whose hearts have been riven, as with light- 
 ning, by its decease, their very grief proves a balm by the 
 wounds which it cures in their souls. A compensation 
 of nature, that when the body suffers the mind soars. 
 Recalled into the bosom of their brethren, they no longer 
 seek to sever themselves from the community. Seeing 
 some so fervent, they become fervent too ; there is no 
 stranger by to sneer them from their peculiar observances, 
 to laugh them out of their propriety, and so, for once at 
 least, they are Jews in feeling and conduct ; and na- 
 tionality blooms, if only for a few fleeting hours. When 
 these hours shall grow into years we shall properly 
 appreciate the invocation of our Divine Legislator, we 
 shall fear the " awful days, but we shall not be frightened 
 by them. And when these hours shall *grow into years, 
 our fellow-citizens of other creeds shall learn to respect us, 
 despite their prejudice, and because of our religion, for 
 then even hatred shall fail; o find an accusation to blur 
 the fair fame of Israel, ^to mpiign the perfection of the 
 Law of Sinai. 
 
9 
 AND ITS APPOINTED TIMES. 349 
 
 THE APPOINTED TIMES OE THE ETEENAL. 
 
 L-PASSOYEE. 
 
 It was not by accident that the Feast of Passover was 
 made to be celebrated in the early spring. The birth- 
 day of a nation was appropriately fixed in the youth of 
 the year, and it thus came crowned, as it were, with 
 a garland of the new green leaves. It is naturally a 
 joyous season. The smiles of the ascending sun disperse 
 the clouds of dreary winter and melt the icy fetters 
 which have been imposed on earth. Vegetation awakes 
 from its torpor, and puts forth its millions of bright 
 shoots. Animals, wooed by the softened gales, and no 
 longer terrified by howling blasts chilled with eternal 
 snows, come from their coverts, and whisper a thousand 
 sweet sounds to gladden the scene. Man, enabled more 
 effectually to fulfil the industrial vocation of his being, 
 rushes with eager anxiety to win the earth to his pleasure, 
 and hails as harbingers of hope the signs of her innate 
 fertility. It is indeed a radiant period for all created 
 things. But to the Israelite, the advent of spring, and 
 with it, of the Passover, is peculiarly grateful. It suggests 
 to him a comparison between the fate of his people and of 
 the earth. As winter bound the earth with chains of 
 frost, restrained all her powers and bared her of all her 
 beauty; so Egypt imposed the bonds of slavery on Israel, 
 curbed his energies, and deprived him of all the loveliness 
 of the patriarchal faith. As, spontaneously, earth could 
 not overthrow the dominion of winter, but must remain 
 
350 THE LAW OF SINAI, 
 
 for ever rigid and j^rostrate, save that the snn of deliver- 
 ance shone from heaven ; so, unaided, Israel could never 
 have shaken off the yoke of Egypt, but must have con- 
 tinued in eternal bondage, save that the light of his 
 Redeemer penetrated into his prison, and led him to 
 liberty and religion. As the earth, released from re- 
 straint, woidd develop her resources in exuberant luxu- 
 riousness, and would yield indiscriminately useful fruits 
 and noxious weeds, but that man's higher faculties coerce 
 her fruitfulness to beneficial ends ; so Israel, freed from 
 slavery might have run riot in the excess of his joy, might 
 have confounded licence with licentiousness, might have 
 abused what he should only use, but that an Intelligence, 
 Supreme and Omniscient, directed his pleasure to a legiti- 
 mate purpose, and sanctified it by Divine association. 
 
 To the Israelite, then, the season of the Passover has 
 more than ordinary interest. Irrespective of sharing the 
 universal gratitude, he is impressed with sentiments all 
 his own. Amidst the song of praise that rises to heaven 
 from the millions of earth, his voice is heard hymning 
 mercy exercised on his behalf only. Among the myriads 
 of human beings who, through countless ages, have trodden 
 the road to eternity, he finds himself alone singled out as 
 the object of a declared special Providence. And in what 
 a cause ! Not for the individual merits of the suffering 
 labourers " in hard bondage," not for the infliction of ven- 
 geance on the tyrannic oppressors j but for the vindication 
 of the sacred rights of conscience, for the maintenance of 
 the inalienable principle of religious liberty. Since the 
 slavery of Egypt, man has invented a thousand ways for 
 violating religious rights ; but, in Egypt, might first pro- 
 claimed its will to persecute, man first announced his 
 determination to oppress his fellow- creatures of a different 
 faith, and justified his oppression on the score of policy ; 
 in Egypt, God first declared himself the champion of the 
 holy cause involved, He first showed that when all human 
 
AND ITS APPOINTED TIMKS. 351 
 
 means failed to riglit the wronged, He could interfere to 
 avenge the cries of martyred innocents : " The Lord shall 
 light for you : ye shall only hold your peace." 
 
 Since then, wild beasts have fed on Jewish flesh, the 
 block and the axe have been dyed with Jewish blood ; 
 living Jewis^h victims have been imj)aled quivering in un- 
 utterable agony, the rack and the wheel have croaked a 
 hoarse echo to groans wTung from Jewish heart-strings ; 
 many a charred Jewish corpse has been blown in ashes 
 from the smouldering stake, many a Jewish limb has 
 gladdened the grasp of an infuriated zealot ; Jewish 
 maidens have been dishonoured before the eyes of their 
 expiring mothers ; Jewish youths have been maimed in 
 the presence of their dying sires ; Jewish spirits have been 
 degraded to the dust, and almost all that was human has 
 been crushed out of them ; every thing that extortion and 
 avarice could extract from Jewish coffers has been exacted 
 even at the price of mutilation and torture ; to Jewish pos- 
 session has been left little but the dear faith which upheld 
 Jews in sorrow, and comforted them in misfortune ; and 
 yet, as year followed year and brought no external conso- 
 lation ; as season succeeded season and showed no diminu- 
 tion of hatred and ojDpression ; as era closed on era and 
 proved but too well that, while relinetaent and civilization 
 softened all else, the fate of the Jew knew no change, yet 
 in these depths the Jew has hailed the advent of Passover 
 as a proof that, Providence having once pronounced sacred 
 the rights of conscience, all man's efforts must prove 
 ineffectual to prevent the ultimate recognition of an in- 
 violable principle. 
 
 Beautiful Passover : flower of the young spring ! thou 
 bearest in thy cup the essence of true happiness — eternal 
 hope ! What though calumny, ever anxious to justify its 
 hate, has invented sanguinary charges as a plea for perse- 
 cution ; w^e, who take thee to our bosoms, know that the 
 only blood with which thou hast been dyed, has been the 
 
352 THE LAW OF SINAI, 
 
 harmless life-stream of the paschal lamb. We know how 
 long that blood has ceased to consecrate thy coming, but 
 we know, too, that we dare not substitute any sacrifice for 
 that commanded of God in thine honour. Thou art the 
 production of a merciful Creator ; thou teachest charity 
 and love : with thee in our homes, how could we pollute 
 the face of nature with inhlimaii deeds ; how could we 
 utter words of universal affection, and falsify them by acts 
 universally detested ? ThoU art a perennial blossom of 
 eternal bounty, proving how constant and enduring is the 
 Divine care ; how then, could we, whose mission it has been 
 to preserve and spread the knowledge of that bounty and 
 care, whose privilege it has been to diffuse the great truths 
 of revelation, of religion, of morality — how could we dese- 
 crate thee, and pollute our sacred trust by imbruing our 
 hands in crime ? If we have not repudiated the accusa- 
 tion, it has been because its very falsehood has condemned 
 it to the silent indignation of scorn. 
 
 And now that we breathe a milder atmosphere, now 
 that we enjoy a more genial climate, now that the sun of 
 toleration warms us to vigorous existence, now, O Pass- 
 over, we love thee still more dearly, because we hail our 
 present boons as a type of the good to come. True, the 
 mikler atmosjDhere bears to our ears sounds no longer all 
 reproach ; true, it reverberates not wholly with slanders 
 affecting all we love ; true, the more genial climate 
 engenders fruits that do not turn to gall in our mouths ; 
 true, the sun of toleration beams within our dwellings ; 
 but in the air there still lingers a faint echo of past grief; 
 amid the pleasant fruits there still lurks one bitter apj)le ; 
 before the sun there still looms one darkening cloud. 
 Still we are not free ; still the trumpet voice of truth, 
 which proclaimed Passover an eternal ordinance in cele- 
 bration of the rights of conscience, has not penetrated 
 into the hearts of all mankind. Still, in some countries, 
 Judaism bows beneath a heavy yoke ; lighter it may be 
 
AND ITS APPOINTED TIMES. 353 
 
 than tlie yoke of old, but not less abrasive. Still, in some 
 countries, Judaism suffers under exceptional laws, which 
 press on its industry, fetter its energies, coerce its genius. 
 Still, even in this fair land, the bulwark of freedom, the 
 champion of liberty, even here we ask for equality^ and 
 w^e obtain only toleration. Toleration ! are we not British- 
 born subjects 1 Have we not the same temporal hopes, 
 the same temporal fears, as other Britons 1 Is not the 
 triumph of our native country, our triumph ; her shame, 
 our shame 1 Do we not cheerfully bear our part in all 
 public burdens ? Do we not contribute our share in pro- 
 moting the general weal by our wealth, our zeal, our 
 talent, our commercial, social, and civilizing influence ? 
 And for this are we to receive only toleration? Men 
 tolerate what is beneath them ; they tolerate w^hat they 
 have too much forbearance to prosecute or to punish, and 
 by their toleration they assume their superiority. But in 
 what are Jews beneath their Christian fellow-country- 
 men 1 In what are these superior to Jews ? On their 
 o^vn acknowledgment, in nothing save in that might 
 wdiicli numbers give to rule as might wills. They claim 
 some exclusive rights for their Christianity ; but is exclu- 
 sion ever a right except on broad moral grounds 1 Is it 
 even honourable to maintain a pretended right which 
 hangs rather on chance than on justice ? We bar our 
 doors against the midnight robber, but is it proper to keej) 
 up the bar when a neighbour claims the duties of hospi- 
 tality ? We daoi up the flood which might inundate 
 our lands, but is it expedient to extend the dyke to pre- 
 vent the stream from fertilizing adjoining fields'? We 
 exclude from communion with us the dishonest, the 
 untruthful, the immoral, but should we condemn to their 
 society one accidentally placed in juxtaposition with them, 
 and thus brand him in the eyes of the world as their 
 willing associate ] There surely is no princijjle in this. 
 There surely can be no Christianity in making a sacrifice 
 
354 THE LAW OF SINAI, 
 
 to the God of all mankind at the expense of another's 
 feelings. There surely can be no true religion in insist- 
 ing on inequality in the eyes of that Providence — ■ 
 
 " Who sees with equal eye as God of all, 
 A hero perish, or a spaiTow fall." 
 
 No; even as the Jews have promulgated among men 
 the eternal truths of revelation ; even as the Passover has 
 circulated among Jews the assurance of the sacred cha- 
 racter of the rights of conscience, so ultimately Jews shall 
 receive the equality which they deserve, and shall command 
 respect as a right wliere they now obtain only toleration 
 as a privilege. As charity is twice blessed, blessing him 
 who gives and him who receives, so persecution, in what 
 form soever it represents itself, is doubly cursed ; it curses 
 him who suffers and him who inflicts ; the former it 
 degrades into a coward and a slave, converting a victim 
 into a martyr ; the latter it degrades into a tyrant and a 
 taskmaster, converting power into oppression, and hu- 
 manity into crime. But great changes are of slow growth. 
 Man is es^;entially imitative ; use suspends even the powers 
 of nature. The fakeer deprives his muscles of their mo- 
 tive agency by a STq:>erstit]ous determination to keep a 
 limb in one fixed position. What is called a free consti- 
 tution, therefore, being a great human fVibric, and having 
 been originated when men's ideas of right were something 
 like " what is mine is mine, and what is thine is mine 
 also," must of necessity partake of the characteristics among 
 which it was conceived. Time and true enlightenment, 
 knowledge and genuine religion, can alone effect the 
 requisite alterations. In the good old days, men built 
 prisons for malefactors whom they had suffered to fall into 
 ci'ime, by not leading them into virtue ; now, they erect 
 schools to train useful, industrious and self-supporting 
 citizens, as a wiser and more civilized alternative. Then, 
 the criminal code, like that of Draco, was a never satiated 
 
AND ITS APPOINTED TIMES. 355 
 
 axe, still driuking the blood of victims, still greedy for 
 more ; now, a life only demands the atonement of a life, 
 and men live to sin less. Then, power was the privilege 
 of the few for the degradation of the many ; now, power 
 is the right of the many for the distinction of the fe^v. 
 Then, demands for justice were clamour, and opposition 
 was faction; now, agitation moves the most deeply 
 rooted prejudice, and abuse, bound in red tape, is disap- 
 pearing before popular opinion. And these things happen 
 because the principles of creation are inalienable, because 
 all rights are founded on truth and justice, which are as 
 much tlie property of universal mankind as any other of 
 the " corner stones " in which the world was established. 
 And so go we Jews to the celebration of our Passover, in the 
 full assurance, that the great cause represented by our first 
 festival must ultimately triumph. Let us commemorate 
 our deliverance from Egypt as a fact of the past, but also 
 as a type for the future. Let ns look on the Passover as 
 a " sign for ever," that all wrongs which men inflict on 
 men shall end ; that slavery, no matter how disguised, is 
 antagonistic to Divine laws, and must therefore cease ; 
 that oppression is always a wrong, and therefore cannot 
 endure ; that even as the phantom ignorance vanishes 
 before the illuminating rays of education, so the ghosts 
 raised by bigotry and intolerance shall at last disappear 
 before the common sense of enlightenment, to be laid in a 
 place " where they shall not be remembered, nor remarked, 
 nor ever more come to mind ;" for " Thou, O Lord, wilt 
 peiibrm the truth to Jacob, and the grace to Abraham, as 
 thou hast sworn to our ancestors from the earliest days." 
 
356 THE LAW OF SINAI, 
 
 II.-THE FEAST OF WEEKS. 
 
 In" describing the festivals, an attempt has already been 
 made to show their design in respect to the promotion of 
 social and political welfare. The Passover has also been 
 described as the celebration of the delivery of con- 
 science from wroug, of mind from thraldom. But man 
 consists of three distinct parts : he has mind which 
 requires cultivation, heart and morals which demand 
 formation, a body which needs exercise and recreation. 
 The necessary training of the mind, the heart, and the 
 body, is called education. In worldly affairs the school 
 and experience give all that is demanded of education, 
 in spiritual affairs the great teacher is religion. The 
 Eternal, having determined to choose a people from 
 among peoples, and to make the objects of his choice the 
 representatives before the world of the connection between 
 Heaven and earthj at the same time determined that it 
 was imperative to educate his charge so as to render them 
 worthy before him of their high vocation, and acceptable 
 before the world as examples of trust and fidelity. To 
 effect his object, he gave them a religion, simple in its 
 principles, sublime in its truths, grand in its elevating 
 influence. He attached to that religion a system of 
 morals so perfect, that, as has been often proved, man 
 becomes good and hapi)y in proportion as he conforms to 
 its doctrines. There was also joined a code of institutions 
 of a ceremonial nature, not obligatory on mankind in 
 general, but binding only on the chosen nation as the 
 external evidence of their belief and obedience. Of these 
 ceremonial institutions the festivals form an important 
 part ; that assigned to the Passover having been already 
 discussed, let us proceed to investigate the peculiar claims 
 of the Pentecost or Feast of Weeks. 
 
 The patriarchal ancestors of the Israelites were dis- 
 
AND ITS APPOINTED TIMES. 357 
 
 tiiiguished rather for their qualities of heart than for 
 iiitelleetual superiority. When Jacob and his sons went 
 down into Egypt, they carried ^\dtli them much that was 
 vahiable in principle and practice, but they also bore 
 thither most of the ordinary passions that influence man- 
 kind. Slavery stretched its baneful rule over their minds, 
 and these, coerced beneath a control so fatal, at once 
 lost that power of direction which is their peculiar pro- 
 vince. The hearts of the Israelites, thus left unrestrained 
 by mental sway, naturally degenerated into mere animal 
 organs, and their conduct probably was that of other men 
 in a similar condition. Some proof of this is afibrded in 
 the record, " And they did not hearken to Moses, from 
 anguish of spirit and from hard labour." The dignity of 
 intellect was so debased thatit could not at once rise to 
 its legitimate function of acknowledging God. The trium- 
 phant deliverance achieved for them, the magnificent 
 wages which the selfish fears of their late oppressors per- 
 mitted them at leno'th to claim and to receive ; the sicmal 
 and utter ruin of the apparently invincible enemy in the 
 depths of the Red Sea ; all these successes may have had 
 the tendency to gi-atify the revengeful feelings of ill-regu- 
 lated hearts, and to impress them with a certain joy in 
 the downfall of those they hated. The proneness which 
 the emancipated showed, even on entering the wilderness, 
 to murmur at the slightest obstacle to their enjoyment, 
 proves that gratitude for past favoui-s had only rendered 
 them more exacting — a certain sign of badly cultivated 
 feelings. Hence it may fairly be infeiTed that on leaving 
 Egypt not only were the minds of the Israelites in a 
 degraded condition, but that their hearts also were demo- 
 ralized and debased. 
 
 The miraculous deliverance had been accomplished not 
 so much to relieve their bodies from chains, as to fvee their 
 minds from fetters more adamantine. By that deliver- 
 ance, the Almighty designed to consecrate th e mind of 
 
Sr)8 THE LIW OF SINAI, 
 
 man to eternal liberty, and on the festival of its com- 
 ineni oration he stamped perpetual ordinances to carry 
 down to the remotest ages the great principle of liberty 
 of conscience. As has been shown, the season of the 
 year was most appropriate to the celebration of the first 
 national holiday, so that external influences might com- 
 bine with obedience to render the festival a period of holy 
 joy. But mind alone is a dangerous guide. Of subtle 
 nature, it has a tendency to soar and to defy those natural 
 laws by which matter is attracted. Like the agents 
 termed imponderables, we recognise it rather by what it 
 does than by what it is. Hence, men who rest entirely 
 on the powers of mind become rationalists or atheists, or 
 they disguise a little of both under a show of pure deism. 
 Such men are never happy, because they are never good. 
 Denying; the great truths of revelation, and admitting of 
 no standard above that created by their own reason, they 
 have nothing but what is mortal on which to build up a 
 structure of morality. If, therefore, they raise such a 
 structure, it must inevitably stand on a hollow founda- 
 tion ; the materials which compose it are borrowed from 
 a quarry of perishable earth, and the first storm over- 
 tlirows it. Alone, therefore, the festival of Passover 
 might have proved of pernicious tendency. Men are so 
 ])rone to mistake cause and effect, that the Israelites might 
 have seen in their Passover only the tribute paid to the 
 superiority of mind, the homage laid on the altar of 
 reason, and they might have grown to regard mind and 
 reason as the representatives of God. They would thus 
 have set an example of that most fascinating of all idola- 
 tries, which has since become the fashion with philoso- 
 phers and freethinkers. The design of Heaven in the 
 selection of Israel would have been frustrated, and the 
 education of men through religious teaching would thus 
 have failed, because the training would have cultivated 
 only the mind, and would have ignored the heart and the 
 
AXD ITS APPOINTED TLMES. 359 
 
 body. This evil result was prevented bj the institution of 
 Pentecost as the festival of the heart and. morals, of 
 Tabernacles as that of the body. 
 
 The Israelites, redeemed from Egypt, were allowed a 
 few days to taste the sweets of their newly-acquired li- 
 berty, and a few more to permit the intoxication natural to 
 their excited feelings to subside, and then, lest their 
 sweets might poison througli over indulgence, lest in- 
 toxication too long indulged in, like opium-eating, might 
 prove a pernicious necessity, it pleased Providence to de- 
 sign the exact limits within wliicli mortal tastes were, for 
 man's liappiness, to confine themselves. And to two 
 millions of people there was. presented the grandest 
 spectacle tliat the earth ever knew. From the double- 
 j)eaked mountain, where formerly the faithful shepherd 
 had fed. his flock, amidst thunders and lightnings and the 
 terrible bray of trumpets, there issued the dread voice of 
 the Eternal himself, designing to commune with living 
 men that they might learn his ways and be wise. Again, 
 external objects, ever so impressive on the senses, were 
 called ill to lend solemnity to the communication. Mi- 
 raculous clouds and fire dazzled the eyes, on tlie ears grew 
 tlie mysterious voice, before the body stood the restrain- 
 ing boundaries, and amid all, as though to comfort the 
 chosen seed amid the convulsions which surrounded them, 
 came the grateful assurance, "I am the Eternal thy God 
 who brought thee out of the land of Egypt." Well might 
 the people exclaim — " We will do, we will hear." Well 
 might they reverse the ordinary course of reason which 
 thinks first and acts afterwards ; here they had only to 
 obey the first promptings of their hearts, and these taught 
 them that in dealing with the Eternal, of wisdom so great, 
 of mercy so abundant, obedience to behest was the first 
 requirement, and reason but of secondary import. They 
 felt that the Being, who for them had eflfected such mira- 
 cles, whose power had been displayed in circumstances so 
 
360 THE LAW OF SI>^AT, 
 
 awful, might by chance be above their comprehension. 
 Already by intuition they appreciated the dictum, " Your 
 thoughts are not my thoughts," and, yielding to a first 
 honest impulse, they confidently reposed on the wisdom 
 and mercy which had so much benefited them. They 
 were well repaid for this trust, for there came from the 
 mouth of God those eternal principles of morality con- 
 tained in his commandments, which stand forward as the 
 bulwarks of morality, as the ramparts to defend man from 
 vice and to save him from misery. 
 
 Again did the season of the year prove a useful ad- 
 junct. The heart and the morals display themselves in 
 deeds which are the fruit of thought. And so, as Pass- 
 over, the feast of thought, was fixed in the early spring, 
 Pentecost, the feast of deeds, was placed in the early 
 summer. Already the first ripe fruits gladdened by their 
 promise of future plenty ; already a golden hue began to 
 glitter on the waving corn, a purple bloom to blush upon 
 the clustering grape ; and as these spoke of the bounteous 
 acts of nature, and of nature's G-od, so did they bid man 
 imitate those bounteous acts, and give like promise of a 
 future plenty. In that blessed land, "flowing with milk 
 and honey," who could witness the glowing face of the 
 productive earth without a feeling of admiration and love 
 for the cause of her beauty ? Who could journey as the 
 Israelites did, through fair tracts of country teeming with 
 a rich abundance, without pouring out his soul in grati- 
 tude to the Divine source of all blessings 1 
 
 The cheerful summer scene— 
 
 When nature glitters in her gladdest sheen ; 
 When gentle breezes echo joyous notes, 
 Proclaiming HeaA^en's praise from myriad throats ; 
 When perfumed flowers graceful homage nod. 
 Yielding their grateful incense up to God ; 
 When spangled streamlets murmur soft delights, 
 Whose rippling sound to cooling shade invites ; 
 
AND ITS APPOINTED TIMES. 3G1 
 
 When new-mown hay lies fragrant in the sun, 
 While labour sports — its healthful toiling done ; 
 When golden corn-waves crown the fertile vale, 
 And plenty's promise wafts the southern gale ; 
 As all the gay-deck'd landscape seems to dance, 
 And thick convective currents upward glance. 
 
 Such a scene must indeed have awakened the heart to 
 holiest feelings, must have prompted it to adore God, 
 to respect its fellow, and so to act as to render itself no 
 unworthy object on the bright face of creation. And 
 thus, the second of the festivals contributed its share to 
 Heaven's system of education, training the heart and 
 morals to a proper sense of right. 
 
 But, it may be asked, why was not the same precaution 
 that had been adopted on the Passover "taken also here 1 
 Why was leaven, exciting leaven, not forbidden ? Why 
 vfas not the stimulant to passion altogether removed ? 
 The reason is not wanting. Passover v>-as the feast of 
 mind celebrated through the body ; Pentecost was the 
 feast of morality celebrated through the mind. Passo^^er 
 lasted a whole week, Pentecost only a day. Now, as has 
 been shown, the mind alone is a bad director, and when it 
 }delds itself to discover pleasures for the body, it becomes 
 altogether -depraved even when it aspires to superiority. 
 The Epicureans were instances of this ; their doctrine 
 was worthy of revelation, their practice unworthy of 
 idolatiy. To allow the mind to run riot during the 
 length of the Passover, was to permit corruption to fasten 
 on the body and to make bad deeds the exponents of bad 
 thoughts. On the Passover, therefore, the body, cooled 
 by abstinence, was a safe companion, and the additional 
 trouble imposed by the national gathering was another 
 shield to guard from temptation. On Pentecost, the 
 moral feelings ruled : the heart was swayed by love and 
 gratitude, and, as a natural conclusion, it prompted the 
 mind to high thoughts and lofty aspirations. The 
 
362 THE LAW OF SINAI, 
 
 function of love is to ennoble, and when the object is a 
 perfect Creator, the desire to be worthy of his affection 
 must elevate man above himself There was no need 
 therefore to withhold stimulants ; for, except the celebra- 
 tion of the festival were altogether alienated from its 
 original purpose, there was no danger of the body's lead- 
 ing the mind astray, when the heart felt impelled to 
 render itself sensible of the treasures of whose possession 
 that feast was the anniversary. Men might run into 
 debauchery on a birthday ; they would scarcely do so on 
 a day dedicated to their moral regeneration. And so, 
 leaven was permitted, but additional offerings and another 
 national assembly lent their aid to occupy the festival 
 profitably and piously. And now, in our dispersion, we 
 celebrate this glorious commemoration, not with the four 
 cups of wine that accompany the Passover service, but by 
 lengthened recitations, prolonged through the night, of 
 psalms and thanksgiving, of Holy Writ and commentaries 
 thereon. We thus give to the festival a character entirely 
 its own. The anniversary of the giving of the law is 
 celebrated in the delightful truths of the Bible ; the 
 heart, mindful of the lessons so mercifully -bestowed on it 
 on Pentecost, gives itself up to a special recital of them, 
 so that they may be more deeply impressed upon it ; thus 
 the pleasures of the body become secondary to the nobler 
 emotions of the mind, awakened to thoughts of eternity 
 by the doctrines among which it soars. 
 
 IIL-THE ^^MlV>L DAYS: NEW YEAR AND KIPPUE. 
 
 Judaism is not a religion of the synagogue only ; it 
 associates itself with every phase of life. Its morality 
 colours moral relations, as in the command, " Thou shalt 
 love thy neighbour as thyself;" political relations, as in 
 the commands which ordain respect for constituted 
 
AND ITS APPOINTED TIMES. 363 
 
 authorities ; commercial relations, as in tlie commands 
 aflecting pledges and the lending of money without 
 interest. Its ceremonies peruieate domestic and public 
 proceedings, and everywhere bid the Jew recollect that 
 he is called on to perform certain duties, less because he 
 takes pleasure in their performance, than because in them 
 he acknowledges, and causes others to recognise, his 
 peculiar vocation as one of the descendants of Abraham, 
 In Canaan, some of the highest national interests were 
 promoted by divine laws, some of the most important 
 national advantages were protected by divine institutions. 
 In the dispersion, Jews adhere faithfully to the prescript 
 tions with which God and their dependence on him are 
 especially allied, because though they have ceased his- 
 torically to be a nation, they desire to preserve their 
 s})irituality as a people. In Canaan, " the Appointed 
 Times of the Eternal" subserved the temporal and reli-^ 
 gious welfare of the Israelites, by rallying them rouud the 
 tabernacle to cement alike the ties of friendship with man 
 and the ties of obedience to Heaven. In the dispersion, 
 those same "holy convocations" still preserve their 
 characteristic ; they bring Jews together who seldom 
 meet at other periods, and for the moment, at least, they 
 concentrate all diverging views to a focus in the presence 
 of the one Father of mankind. 
 
 Who that has frequented the synagogue, has not 
 noticed the unusual attendance on the festivals ? While 
 the Sabbath, though one of the most sacred of divine 
 institutions, claims but a small proportion of worshippers, 
 crowds assemble to celebrate the Passover. And this 
 cannot be because Jews design to show that they regard 
 the festival with more honour than they regard the 
 Sabbath, for greater licence is permitted on the former 
 than on the latter. It must arise partly from the con- 
 stant recurrence of the Sabbath, Avhich is treated with all 
 the indifference of familiarity, partly from the national 
 
864 THE LAW OF SINAI, 
 
 recollections which the Appointed Times awaken, and partly 
 from that innate feeling of brotherhood which lingers iu 
 the bosom of all Israelites, how diffused soever their aims 
 in life, how confused soever their ideas of religion, how suf- 
 fused soever their eyes with the waters of worldly ambition. 
 On the Sabbath, only the pious and the observer of cere- 
 monies unite ; but on the festival, even the rationalist 
 and the scoffer at ceremonies enter the sacred precincts, 
 and Judaism benefits from the strange commixture, be- 
 cause it still possesses influence sufficient to claim all its 
 professors, though at long intervals. 
 
 But, of all the Appointed Times, none engross the atten- 
 tion of Israelites so powerfully as " the awful days " — the 
 first ten days of the month Tishri, that is, from the New 
 Year to Kippur. Nor can we wonder at this ; the holy 
 voice of revelation has pronounced in fxvour of their 
 solemnity, the scarcely less attractive voice of tradition 
 has told its tale in their honour. The fear that is inspired 
 by the majesty of the Eternal, and the love that grows 
 from veneration for what our ancestors revered, combine 
 to render these days peculiarly holy days. The inspired 
 teachings of Sinai gave them to the soul just as the 
 memory of even older times gave them to the heart ; and 
 thus the individual who desires to tread only on the very 
 confines of Judaism at other times, on the New Year and 
 on Kippur enters into its sanctuary ; nay, many who 
 altogether stray from the fold, secretly and in awe bow 
 before the dread Day of Atonement. 
 
 And first as to revelation. Scripture in numerous 
 places points out Tishri as the commencement of the year ; 
 the Pentateuch alludes to it in speaking of the release of 
 the jubilee ; Ezekiel distinctly mentions it by name. This 
 alone would render the first day of Tishri important, for 
 there is always something solemn in the passage from 
 epoch to epoch, and men would regard the birth of a new 
 era in time as they might regard their own birthday. 
 
AND ITS APPOINTED TIMES. 365 
 
 But the New Year has other claims. Among the Ap- 
 pointed Times of the Eternal it is especially distinguished 
 from the first day of other months as a day of " strict rest," 
 as " a day of shouting." On other months it was sufficient 
 to proclaim the appearance of the new moon ; in Tishri 
 the rest and the shouting were to call attention to some- 
 thing more. Let us endeavour to harmonize this idea with 
 the ideas already enunciated in the reflections on Passover 
 and Pentecost. 
 
 The religion confided by the Eternal to Israel is essen- 
 tially constituted to promote human happiness through 
 virtue and piety. There is not one noble emotion that 
 can arise in a cultivated mind, that is not hallowed in the 
 teachings of Moses. Charity, philanthropy, love, the 
 desire to benefit mankind, are all raised in dignity by as- 
 sociating them with veneration for God. While, however, 
 the nobler part of man is thus elevated, care is taken to 
 permit those comforts, without which life would be one 
 constant struggle between the desires and self-denial, 
 without which the genial submission of faith would de- 
 generate into the harsh slavery of asceticism. The festi- 
 vals of the Eternal are for this particular purpose : " And 
 thou shalt rejoice before the Eternal thy Grod " is of con- 
 stant occurrence in their regard. But man is prone to de- 
 generacy ; for the purpose of securing universal liberty it 
 is necessary to impose individual restraints ; for the pur- 
 pose of preventing joy from becoming sensuality it is 
 necessary to add that it is to be " before the Eternal." 
 Thus the gladness of the Passover was confined within holy 
 limits, by the withdr^awal of all stimulants in food and 
 drink. Thus the gladness of the day of the first-fruits 
 was modified by allying it with the intellectuality of the 
 decalogue. Man was allowed, nay, he was even encouraged, 
 to relax from the steadiness becoming to business habits, 
 but he was to remember that he was still in the presence 
 of the Eternal, and was to restrict himself accordingly. 
 
366 THE LAW OF SINAI, 
 
 But, despite all tlie checks imposed for salutaiy purposes 
 by Heaven, Imman nature lias a tendency to go astray. In 
 the exuberance of joy, even the best intentions sometimes 
 fafl to coerce the loosened feelings. In the hurry of 
 worldly pursuits, even the wisest resolutions sometimes 
 produce the most blameable actions. Into the rivalry 
 which induces men to enter on their several careers of life, 
 jealousy infuses so much bitterness, that judgment is 
 poisoned, and bad passions are excited, till the landmarks 
 which separate right from wrong are either lost to view 
 or altogether obliterated. Some men sin through igno- 
 rance, ^ome deliberately, but in all cases something more 
 is necessary to the production of religion than the elevation 
 of principles already high, than the restraint of joy already 
 natural. This something the wisdom of the Eternal has 
 not failed to provide. It is found in the institution of 
 Kippur and in the preparations which led to it. Sacri- 
 fices and confo'ssion of error afforded means for the expres- 
 sion of contrition on ordinary occasions, but as man might 
 lose respect for these means through familiarity (as in the 
 case of the Sabbath), an extraordinary occasion was deemed 
 essential to arrest by its rarity, to awe by its solemnity. 
 
 Nature proceeds by scarcely perceptible gradations ; 
 there is no sudden leap ; from link to link in the great 
 chain of creation the progress is so small that the succes- 
 sive changes are all but indefinable. In religioii, which is 
 to guide and assist nature, the same gradation occurs. 
 Judaism, which differed so much from the idolatry then 
 prevailing, yet retained many of the ceremonies and 
 l)ractices of surrounding paganism ; it refined and hallowed 
 them by making them a part of God-worship, but it did 
 not repudiate what Israel had seen, and to which it was 
 accustomed, lest the sudden alteration should produce 
 a convulsion. Judaism did more ; even within its own 
 pale it followed closely the same law. Thus, already on 
 the tenth day of Nisan, steps were taken for inaugurating 
 
AND ITS APPOINTED TIMES. 867 
 
 tlie Passover, and the forbidden leaven Avas to be entirely 
 removed before tbe evening of the fourteenth. The 
 counting of the Omer was a preparation for the feast of 
 Pentecost. In the same way the " day of shouting " was 
 to be introductory to Kippur, and the intermediate days 
 were to partake of the solemn character of the period to 
 which they belonged. 
 
 Our ideas of Providence are so grand, that we often 
 lose ourselves in their immensity ; and yet they are all 
 so consistent ^dth the gentlest feelings of our nature, 
 that we can imagine nothing too mild or too merciful. 
 Pear and love, dread and adoration, blend so harmoniously, 
 that we can scarcely define where the one begins, where 
 the other ends. But of all the sentiments with which 
 the Eternal inspires us, none is more sacred than that 
 which tells us that he is open to our repentance. This 
 sentiment is so congenial to our nature. "We know our 
 OAATi fallibility and the perfection of God ; we know our 
 own proneness to regard others with suspicion, A\dth 
 jealousy, with revenge, and we also know the long-suffer- 
 ing kindness of Grod ; we feel how little we bear with the 
 weakness or crimes of others, and how patiently he permits 
 volition to rush into doubt or defiance ; and knowing and 
 feeling thus, we acknowledge in those silent hours of self- 
 examination which even the busiest sometimes snatch 
 from the shame that would blush before the world, that 
 we want repentance. We acknowledge the grace which 
 has declared that there is ever an open hand to receive 
 the penitent, because, without that grace, the truths which 
 sickness, or sorrow, or death, forces upon us, would terrify 
 even the vanity that envelops itself in indifference, the 
 sin that surrounds itself with imbelief And we bow 
 to this princi23le the more reverently, because it exists 
 nowhere else but with God, and is therefore foreign to 
 all our experience. What human authority can we 
 approach v/ith supplication for pardon, with the cer- 
 
3 63 THE LAW OF SINAI, 
 
 tainty that, if our contrition be sincere, we sliall not be 
 iinforgiven ? How much of our success may not depend 
 on the accidents of caprice, of temper, of health 1 How 
 often will the glib volubility of ready but empty words 
 prevail, where the broken utterance of real grief will fail ? 
 And for human well-being it is well that it is so. Social 
 advant5,ge demands that there must be an inexorable 
 tribunal which shall not admit the pleadings of sorrow. 
 The majesty of law must be inviolable to secure perma- 
 nence for order, security for progress. So frail are our 
 l}owers of judgment, that we must accept facts or what 
 seem to be facts, and reject opinions. Precedent also has 
 strong influence ; the lenience extended to one could not 
 in similar circumstances be reasonably refused to another, 
 and thus the sword of justice would lose its edge, while 
 wrong would remove with its plausible tongue what 
 had been done with its guilty hands. But for spiritual 
 w^eli-being how beautiful is the dispensation which gives 
 to prayer a benignant hearing and a merciful considera- 
 tion! If heaven's judgment were stern as earth's, who 
 could stand in the presence of God and not tremble ? If 
 the culprit, who abuses his powers here and suffers here, 
 were doomed also irrevocably to suffer hereafter, where 
 would be the consoling words that hallow the last hour of 
 even the vilest, where the atoning tears wrung from the 
 contrite heart and borne by the angel of pity to the 
 throne of grace, there to wash away the traces of sin in 
 ■fche waters of repentance 1 Take away the hope that 
 atonement is open to man, and he loses half his depend- 
 ence on God ; add to that hope the knowledge that com- 
 passion has declared itself peculiarly disposed to pardon at 
 one particular season, and where is the man so callous that 
 would not avail himself of the opportunity thus presented? 
 And God has so declared on Kippur : "For on that day 
 shall an expiation be made for you, to purify you from all 
 your sins ; before the Eternal shall you be purified." 
 
AND ITS APPOINTED TIMES. 369 
 
 The design of the " awfiil days" is tliiis apparent. 
 Kippur was not to burst suddenly on men, overtaking 
 tliem, like an earthquake, in the full career of their plea- 
 sures or their guilt, but it was to come upon them through 
 the preparation of the nine previous days, even as the 
 " Holy of Holies " was approached through the court or 
 vestibule." And there was something sublime in placing 
 this dread period of reconciliation in the month Tishri, 
 the month of the harvest-home. Of all seasons, that is 
 the one most likely to inspire man with pride, which 
 surrounds him with the fruits of his industry. Prosperity, 
 which should be the cause for gratitude, is certainly not 
 the best teacher of thankfulness. The very blessings 
 which should bind more closely to heaven frequently only 
 more widely estrange. To arrest the cup on its way to the 
 lip, and in the very act of drinking to instil moderation, 
 is a task which only the Omnipotent could successfully 
 achieve. The feast of the harvest-home (of which more 
 anon) was fixed for the fifteenth of Tishri. It was the 
 festival when nature rendered joy legitimate ; religion, 
 therefore, could only sanction what nature required, just 
 as it sanctioned marriage, the love for parents, &c. But 
 between the actual time of the ingathering and the cele- 
 bration of it, intervened the days appointed by God for 
 expiation and reconciliation. Men were thus bidden to 
 pause on the very threshold of their happiness, and, ere 
 they plunged into pleasure, they were taught to return 
 with more than usual devotion to the Source of their 
 abundance. Thus, while precautions were taken to pre- 
 vent the joy of the Tabernacle from becoming unrighteous, 
 those very precautions were of a character so solemn and 
 so elevating, that their influence was extended over every 
 individual of the community. God announced that on 
 
 * The later histitution of the days of Selichoth (penitence), prior 
 to the New Year, is evidently au adaptation of the principle sanc- 
 tioned by divine legislation. 
 
 r2 
 
370 THE LAW OF SIX AT, 
 
 Kippur (tlirougli tlie introdiictoiy days) lie was disposed 
 to listen to repentance ; who tlien could refuse to repent 1 
 His ineffable mercy, always so large, was by him declared 
 then to be more than usually tender ; who could resist 
 appealing to that of which conscience told him he stood 
 so much in need ? The wilfiil sinner cowered before the 
 express threat of divine vengeance against whomsoever 
 should violate the sanctity of the " Sabbath of strict rest ;" 
 the sinner " through ignorance " gladly availed himself of 
 the door for pardon so generously opened to him. The 
 religionist, who had little but the weakness inherent to 
 humanity to expiate, still joyfully afflicted his soul, (by 
 fasting,) as a voluntary token of his delight in the law of 
 the Eternal. To him the " awful days " were only so, 
 because they brought him more intimately into connec- 
 tion with the mysterious grandeur of heaven, because it 
 was proper to him " to worship with trembling." The 
 sceptic, who spent the rest of the year in worldly pursuits, 
 and never gave a thought to his Creator, dared not con- 
 tinue in his hollowness on Kippur. To him the holiness 
 of the Day of Atonement formed as it were a safety valve 
 to prevent him from annihilating himself He fasted in 
 real awe, because he feared to face the dread Being whose 
 presence he only sought when compelled ; and his re- 
 pentance was for the time sincere, because he recognised 
 in the institution of Kippur a visible token of revelation, 
 of the constant association of God in the affairs of man, 
 and of the continual desire of j^erfection that mor- 
 tality should aspire to imitate its goodness and its loving 
 kindness. 
 
 Tradition also, as has been said, lent its aid to sanctify 
 the New Year. On that day, God promised to our great 
 ancestor Abraham the child through whom the mission of 
 the patriarch was to be borne to posterity. On that day, 
 " the Eternal visited Sarah as he had promised," and she 
 bare a son whose birth had been foretold " at that season 
 
AND ITS APPOINTED TIMES. 371 
 
 in another year," On tliat day tlie father, whose faith had 
 ah-eady been counted to him as righteousness, performed 
 the crowning act of that faith by voluntarily offering to 
 sacrifice his loved and "only son" at the command of 
 God. "With that day, therefore, was connected the 
 possession of the blessing which was to be the futui-e 
 heritage of Israel : " By myself have I sworn, is the 
 declaration of the Eternal, that because thou hast done 
 this thing, and hast not kept back thy son, thine only 
 one ; that I will greatly bless thee, and I will exceedingly 
 multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven and as the 
 sand vv^hich is on the seashore ; and thy seed shall possess 
 the gate of his enemies, and all the nations of the earth 
 shall bless themselves through thy seed, because thou hast 
 hearkened to my voice." Can we wonder that " the 
 binding of Isaac " forms so prominent a feature in the 
 liturgy of the " aw^ful days," or that in appealing to 
 heaven for pardon through the merits of our ancestors, 
 we should recur to the highest merit attributed to them ? 
 
 Tradition also refers to the New Year the creation of 
 the world. Whether this originated in the belief that 
 God had appointed the New Year on the anniversary of 
 the birth of time, or in the inference that the period of 
 the same universal abundance that had been visible at 
 the creation was the one most proper to celebrate the 
 recurrence of that abundance, or in the verbal history 
 which forms the household words of every family and 
 every people, the Scriptures give no means for deter- 
 mining. But it is certain that some of the solemnity of 
 the day is o^dng to the association of ideas thus raised, 
 for, in the additional service, three times is the prayer 
 repeated, " On this day the earth was conceived." 
 
 But of all the titles by which the New Year claims 
 our veneration, none is more dread than its name " the 
 day of judgment." This lends to it an importance befit- 
 ting its precursorship to Kippur. " On the New Year is 
 
O / 15 THE LAW OF SINAI, 
 
 written, and on the fast of Kippur is sealed" the destiny 
 of all living things, says the voice of tradition. In what 
 manner soever this idea grew to be a part of Judaism, and 
 an integral part, the inference is by no means unnatural. 
 The Eternal had himself declared the awful days to be 
 the period for man's return to rectitude, for his atonement 
 by sincere repentance for the past, and faithful promises 
 for the future ; what period then, if any were selected by 
 God, would be more appropriate for dealing with man, 
 than that in which he brings forward the summary of his 
 past deeds, recounts his failings and confesses his crimes ; 
 in which, while passing across the threshold of time from 
 one year to another, he resolves to leave what he has 
 done, and adopt what he should do 1 Religion and con- 
 viction alike tell us that man is judged by his actions and 
 by the thoughts which prompt them. We know also, 
 although man is permitted the most unbounded use of his 
 free will, and although there is not any positive proof of 
 divine active interference in mortal concerns, that every 
 thing is ordained by Providence, and that there is neither 
 chance nor fate. What are called the accidents of life are 
 as much the work of God as the sun and moon ; what is 
 called the lot of life is the result of voluntary action only 
 foreknown to almighty prescience. When, therefore, we 
 speak of " the day of judgment," we mean that we our- 
 selves on that day determine our own future by the 
 sincerity of our desire to return to righteousness or by its 
 inanity. " He who knoweth the thoughts in the heart of 
 man, who understandeth all their works," does not make 
 us amenable to an inevitable destiny ; but he places in 
 our hands the choice of " life and good " of " death and 
 evil." Conscious of the weakness of our nature, aware of 
 the errors or sins into which we have been hurried, and 
 but too keenly certain that although our present frame of 
 mind be virtuous, and our contrition sincere, passion or 
 temptation may again sway us as it has already swayed 
 
AND ITS APPOINTED TIMES. 6 . 3 
 
 US, we naturally tremble before the tliroue of judgment, 
 even though it be a mercy-seat. Daily we see death ta- 
 king away the young and tlie loved ; daily we see those 
 whom we deem good overwhelmed with misfortune ; in a 
 thousand ways trouble lights on the path of man and bars 
 his progress. When we place onr repentance before God, 
 we deprecate the severity we may have deserved, and we 
 pray that these griefs may not come to us. But we 
 deprecate in doubt, we pray in awe; and even when w^e 
 most confide in the long-suffering mercy of the Eternal, 
 we most distrust our right to ask it. Therefore is it that 
 the New Year and Kippur are so deeply impressed on our 
 hearts. We feel that we are judged every day, but that 
 on those days when we ourselves recal our conduct before 
 God, we have more reason to expect a final sentence. Who 
 can entertain this idea without that mysterious dread 
 which ahvays shrouds the unknown ? And who that has 
 listened to the invocation of Israelite to Israelite, " May- 
 est thou be inscribed for a happy year," and to the final 
 invocations so fervently addressed to heaven at the close 
 of Kippur, can doubt that every individual who utters 
 those invocations does so with a fervour unknown at 
 other seasons, a fervour which revelation and tradition 
 both contribute to deepen. 
 
 IV-TABEPtNACLE. 
 
 Kippur and its solemnities are over. The pious have 
 given to it their hearts, the wdcked their fears, and ou 
 the ears of all the shrill blast of the shophar has fallen 
 with appalling sound. The pious have dreaded the sen- 
 tence which the inscrutable ways of Providence may have 
 deemed necessary ; the wicked have been afraid of the 
 decree which their own perverseness has rendered inevi- 
 table. Eut the close of the fast has been a relief, and 
 
374 THE LAW OF SINAI, 
 
 human nature, true to its destiny, has rushed with bound- 
 ing elasticity to the approaching gladness of the Taber- 
 nacle holidays. 
 
 Turning from the awe-inspiring ceremonies which 
 dignified the service of the day of Atonement, our ances- 
 tors prepared to celebrate the feast of the harvest-home 
 with feelings of joy rendered doubly grateful by contrast. 
 They saw their granaries teeming with the produce of an 
 abundant harvest ; their storehouses were loaded with the 
 rich produce of the orchard, the olive-press and the wine- 
 press. It was natural tliat they should exult in the fruits 
 of their industry. Keligion directed that exultation to 
 God. Alread}^, on the day after Kippur, crowds might 
 be seen turning their faces towards the place chosen by 
 the Eternal for the three annual gatherings. Every one 
 bore some tribute to the shrine of God, alike as the sign 
 of his prosperity and the symbol of their gratitude. It 
 had been wisely ordained that the offering presented by 
 each individual should be "according to his ca^pacity." 
 This afforded a certain test whereby to determine to what 
 extent each would carry his self-sacrifice. The truly 
 charitable, who desired that his expression of thankfulness 
 should be commensurate with his sense of dependence and 
 his appreciation of Divine blessing, took, with lavish 
 hand, the best that he had, in order that he might strive 
 to part with something worthy of the object he had in 
 view. The ostentatious, anxious to stand well in the eyes 
 of his neighbours, gave more than his means warranted. 
 The niggard, afraid to f excite j observation, gave more 
 than his parsimony cared. All had so recently bowed 
 beneath the weight of conscious shortcomings, and had so 
 willingly believed that " repentance, prayer, and charity," 
 were efficacious in restoring mortals to the Divine favour, 
 that none now stayed to measure with nice distinction 
 the exact amount which was to rei)resent their standard 
 before the world, and their respect for Heaven. 
 
AND ITS APPOINTED TIMES. 3 I 5 
 
 And so Israel prepared to celebrate " the feast of the 
 harvest-home at the decline of the year." Passover had 
 inaugurated the green ears, and Pentecost the first fruits ; 
 Tabernacle was to hallow the ingathering. But as, on 
 Passover and Pentecost, the wisdom of mercy had deigned 
 to guard men from forgetting, in the exuberance of their 
 joy, that they were to rejoice before the Eternal, so on 
 Tabernacle, the more dangerous period of abundance, 
 equal care was necessary. Nor was it wanting. The 
 hopes which the national birthday in the spring might 
 have rendered wholly material, received a spiritual direc- 
 tion through the coercion of animal appetites by the 
 absence of leaveu. The visions, already in process of 
 realization at the festival of the early summer, were raised 
 from earthly to heavenly subjects by association with the 
 immortal truths of the decalogue and the Jaw. The 
 realities which brought the autumn celebration dovrn to a 
 merely mortal level, were elevated by the solemn rites 
 that inaugurated Tishri, by the aspect that nature pre- 
 sented at that particular season, by the peculiar ordina- 
 tions for the fast itself, and by the sacred day which was 
 to terminate the " holy convocations." 
 
 The solemn rites of the awful days had left their impress 
 on the "minds of njen ; and although, with the natural 
 elasticity of humanity, they were but too ready to shake 
 off their despondency and soar to happier thoughts, still 
 there was that about them which forbade too much elation, 
 and sobered joy by reflections for the future.* The Israel- 
 ites journeyed to the " place which the Eternal chose," 
 amid scenes but too suofo'estive of the fate which is inevi- 
 table to all created things. Earth, recently so rich with 
 
 * Again, as at Passover and Pentecost, the season lent its pe- 
 culiar influenee. The circumstances by which men wei'e surrounded? 
 contributed to sanctify the feast of the ingathering, and to elevate 
 it from mere corporeal considerations. Just as spring spoke to the 
 mind, and summer to the heart, so autumn addressed the body. 
 
376 THE LAW OF SINAI, 
 
 the abundance of vegetation, lay stripped of her possessions, 
 and as it were exhausted ; a true type of the end of all 
 human greatness. Brown corn-fields no longer waved a 
 graceful homage ; luscious fruits no longer weighed down 
 the branches with their golden burden ; perfumed grapes 
 no more tempted to luxurious refreshment; the dark- 
 leafed olive no more gladdened the eye of passion. In 
 their stead, the naked soil everywhere presented the same 
 sombre hue of dying mould, and this very monotony sad- 
 dened. Bare trees stood like gaunt skeletons by the way, 
 while their leaves lay decomposing beneath them, sodden by 
 the rains of autumn. It was as though, by some stern decree 
 of Providence, sires had survived their children, remaining 
 withered and nude, while those to whom they had given 
 birth had perished in their fresh beauty. Youth rotting 
 at the feet of age, made youth pause in its heedless career, 
 and bade age think on its duties and responsibilities. If 
 there was plenty in the storehouse at home, there was abso- 
 lute nothingness in the void around ; men thence learned 
 the mutability of worldly hopes. If they were travelling 
 to the rallying point which was the fulcrum that propped 
 their nationality, theii' road lay through the dreary waste 
 of their individual greed. It was as though they had 
 robbed the fields of all their treasures, and were now leav- 
 ing them to perish in their misery. But for the social 
 intercourse that grew by the w^ay, sadness, and not joy, 
 would have been the characteristic of the Tabernacle. 
 
 All were converging to one centre. From Dan to Beer- 
 sheba, the thousands of Israel turned with unanimous accord 
 to the abiding place of the Divine presence. As they 
 approached their goal, the straggling troops gradually closed 
 into a serried mass. Friend grasped the hand of friend ; 
 genial conversation enlivened ; a comparison of respective 
 produce gave excitement. And so they arrived at their 
 destination. Then arose new duties. Like a vast army, 
 the nation had to construct itself temporaiy homes. " In 
 
AND ITS APPOINTED TIMES. S i / 
 
 tents sliall ye dwell seven days, because in tents I caused 
 the children of Israel to dwell, when I brought them out 
 of the land of Egypt." A nd thus Divine wisdom tempered 
 j^ersonal joy through national recollections. The festival 
 was not to be without its leavened food, because it was 
 only natural that the abundance of the harvest should be 
 celebrated from the best and the richest that that harvest 
 had yielded. It was not the anniversary of the rights of 
 conscience, when the supremacy conceded to mind might 
 render men ashamed to degenerate into animals merely 
 corporeal. It was the feast of the ingathering, and joy was 
 to reign — not despotically, as a tyrant, but wisely, as a 
 constitutional ruler. And these were the laws which 
 guided. The comforts of home were to be exchanged for 
 the inconveniences of the tempoa^ary tent. Instead of the 
 warmth of a w^ell-built hoiLse, there was the exposure of a 
 loosely constructed hut. Even in the midst of banquetiug 
 or the quiet of slumber, men were exposed to the already 
 chilHng blasts of autumn, to the already soaking rains of 
 the season. Women were absent from the festivities, and 
 men thus driven to provide and contrive for their own 
 domestic w^ants, were as inconsistent and as blundering as, 
 under such circumstances, they always are. In short, 
 pleasure w-as so modified that even indulgence had more 
 than its usual inconveniences. Depraved indeed must 
 have been the individual who could have plunged into the 
 abandonment of intemjDerate luxury, despite the obstacles 
 which barred him from his desire for self-indido-ence. 
 
 But, in addition to the checks imposed by the dwelling 
 in tents, religion also stepped in to assist in promoting 
 "joy before the Eternal." The tents were not to be of 
 the ordinary kind. They were to be constructed of 
 boughs, they were to be lined and covered with evergreens. 
 Thus, even in their abodes, Israelites saw in the naked 
 brandies the remams of the past, in the evergreens the 
 hopes for the future ; while above all, through their roofs 
 
378 THE LAW OF SINAI, 
 
 of foliage, the visible orbs of heaven told of the majesty 
 and power of their Divine Creator. Moreover, according 
 to the rescript of the law : " And ye shall take you on the 
 first day, the fruit of the tree liadar, and branches of palm 
 trees, and a bough of the tree aboth, and willows of the 
 brook; and ye shall rejoice before the Eternal your God 
 seven days :" thoughts of high and holy import were 
 specially awakened by the peculiar service of the festival. 
 The perfumed fruit and the still green portion of the luleh 
 spoke of life and its joys. The leafless branches and the 
 lowly willows were types of death and its terrors, and of 
 the vanity of all human aspirations. Irrespectively, there- 
 fore, of the serious reflections that usually accompany the 
 worship of God, the rites of Tabernacle suggested ideas 
 that could not fail to unfit men for that excess of enjoy- 
 ment in which it would be inappropriate to indulge 
 " before the Eternal." And thus again we bow to the 
 Divine wisdom which knew how to reconcile pleasure 
 with religion, the wants of the body with the require- 
 ments of the mind. We recognise in the ordinations of 
 Tabernacle merciful precautious, similar in spirit to those 
 which distinguished Passover and Pentecost, and we 
 admire, while we vainly strive to imitate, the mercy which 
 originated means so adapted to their end — the promotion 
 of human happiness. 
 
 The specially social object of the festivals was subserved 
 by none more effectually than by the Tabernacle. It has 
 already been shown that by the three annual gatherings 
 nationality was preserved, and that they formed a species 
 of agricultural exhibition of produce and live stock, 
 wherein prizes were not wanting to excite emulation. 
 At the Tabernacle, when the harvest had brought every 
 thing to maturity, the competition would naturally be 
 greater, particularly as the large additional sacrifices for 
 each day of the festival created a greater demand for 
 choice animals, flour, and oil, and thus afforded a more 
 
AXD ITS APPOINTED TIMES. o / \) 
 
 copious supply. Farmers, flushed with success, would with 
 pride expatiate on the means by which that success had 
 been achieved. One would communicate valuable iafor- 
 mation on feeding cattle, another on some choice article of 
 husbandry, and thus means would be aiforded for the 
 circulation of that knowledge without which people would 
 degenerate iuto little better than barbarians. 
 
 For in Canaan, w^here every man dwelt on his own 
 patrimonial inheritance, society would have been broken 
 into infinitesimal pieces, but for some measure calculated 
 to promote universal intermixture. Men would have 
 growTi up with interests exclusively indi^ddual ; families 
 would have married within their own pale, to their own 
 destruction ; and thus not only would nationality not have 
 existed, but the population would gradually have decreased 
 to a few scattered tribes. In modern times (when the 
 majority of men are not tied to any particular locality), 
 industry, skill, or enterprise, which cannot find a legiti- 
 mate field of operation at home, travels to a more 
 favourable arena, and takes with it the nerve and the 
 genius calculated to promote the general well-being. In 
 our own country, the manufacturing and the agricultural 
 districts mutually contribute, by this spuit of adventure, 
 to each other's advantage. In the western continents 
 generally, civilisation has progi-essed principally by the 
 fusion of races, because men have thus carried out the 
 great law of nature, that all mankind are brothers. The 
 great drawback to improvement among the Chinese has 
 been the isolation in which a jealous and impolitic spirit 
 lias kept them. Now this damaging influence would 
 necessarily prevail much more powerfully among Israelites, 
 because they were prevented by religious feelings, and by 
 the special command of heaven, from intermingling with 
 the surrounding people. There was, therefore, in their 
 festival gatherings the very lifespriug of their existence as 
 a nation. By means of these meetings the hardy moun- 
 
S80 THE LAW OF SINAI, 
 
 taineers of the north and centre were brought into connec- 
 tion with the less hardy dwellers in the valleys of Judah ; 
 the healthy inhabitants of the sea-coast carried their 
 strength into the more arid homesteads of the interioi'. 
 This constant intercommunication kept up the energies 
 and other physical qualifications of the race ; with how 
 much success may be inferred from the otherwise inexpli- 
 cable fact, that eighteen subsequent centuries of isola- 
 tion and persecution among men have not been able to 
 crush the vitality of the Israelites, who still stand pre- 
 eminent among the best specimens of the Caucasian family. 
 In the festivals of the Eternal, therefore, we recognise one 
 more proof of the care which divine wisdom displayed in 
 guiding man's volition to beneficial aims. We perceive 
 how the laws of Judaism subserve the great principles of 
 nature, and how true to the end of creation is the career 
 based on those laws. And with these feelings, selfish yet 
 devotional — selfish, because they bid ns consider our own 
 happiness as bound up in our obedience ; devotional, 
 because they attach us more firmly to the divine Being 
 who has exercised so much mercy on our behalf — we hail 
 the feast of the harvest-home with the conviction that 
 wisely spoke the legislator when he "announced the 
 Appointed Times 'of the Eternal to the children of Israel." 
 
 V.-THE EIGHTH DAY OF SOLEffl ASSEMBLY AND 
 TEK EEJOICING OE THE LAW. 
 
 Men naturally arrange themselves into two great 
 classes, according as they yield to the influences of the 
 mind or to those of the body. To the former all holy days 
 would be solemn, even in the midst of joy ; their contempla- 
 tive characters could not be brought into closer contact with 
 the Divinity without borrowing something of high and 
 sacred from the communion. They would never be likely 
 
AXD ITS APPOIN'TED TT3rES. 381 
 
 to forget that they were bidden to rejoice " before the 
 Eternal." The hitter woukl accept days of rest in a spirit 
 totally different. Plunged during the greater part of 
 their time in ignoble pursuits, thirsting for pleasure or 
 panting for gain ; now toiling for the evanescent honours 
 of fame ; now sacrificing every hope of an hereafter for 
 the more attractive, because more ready, possessions of 
 earth ; they would regard a cessation from their ordinary 
 labour as an opportunity for indulgence which it would be 
 criminal to lose. The hurry of their careers would be 
 gladly exchanged, afc intervals, for the calmness of domes- 
 tic enjoyment, if only as a means of acquiring, through 
 rest, renewed energies for further exertions. To these, 
 the Appointed Times of the Eternal would bring no en- 
 nobling aspirations, because, chained by all-powerful habit 
 to earth, they would be incapable of soaring towards 
 heaven ; because, devoted at all seasons to thoughts of 
 self, they would find in leisure only a new^ opportunity for 
 gi-atification. 
 
 But of all the festivals, the feast of the harvest-home 
 would most forcibly impress both those in whom mind 
 prevails and those abandoned to the body. The former, 
 made more deeply sensible of the responsibility and 
 nothingness of man by the reflections of the " awful days," 
 would find decaying nature responsive to the echoes 
 already in their hearts. Their mental eye would see the 
 same prospect for humanity that vegetation presented to 
 the corporeal eye. In the death of the year they would 
 behold a type of the fate of all living creatures. They 
 Avould rejoice ; for, in addition to the innate and irresis- 
 tible joy produced by abundance, they would yield them- 
 selves to pleasurable emotions because the Eternal had so 
 commanded ; but they would rejoice seriously, and without 
 any of that exuberance which leads to intoxication. For 
 them the ingathering would have no dangers. How dif- 
 ferent would be the effect of Tabernacle on those aban- 
 
382 THE LAW OF SINAI, 
 
 doned to the body — the majority of mankind. These 
 would rush into voluptuous enjoyment with all the fire of 
 their natures fanned into a conflagration by the breath of 
 what they would call religion. Bidden to be glad, they 
 would only too willingly obey. They would have re- 
 garded the Passover as the feast of conscience, rendered 
 innocent by its sacred origin ; they would have considered 
 the Pentecost as the feast of mind, too noble to be de- 
 based by sensuality ; the Tabernacle they would view as 
 the feast of the body, and in the plenty about them they 
 would see too many adjuncts to permit conscience to 
 whisper admonition, mind to assert supremacy. Terrified 
 by the momentary lull of the " awful days," they would 
 be too eager to throw off the yoke of fear and bind them- 
 selves in garlands. Even the precautions so wisely or- 
 dained by Divine Avisdom as peculiar to the festival, 
 would fail to restrain them within those limits which are 
 " before the Eternal." 
 
 To all, therefore, the Tabernacle, alone, would be im- 
 perfect. Something further was needed to prevent the 
 serious from falling into sadness, to restrain the worldling 
 from rushing into sin. And here the voice of religion 
 mingled with the voice of tradition to produce the harmo- 
 nious result desired. The Eternal said, "In tents shall 
 ye abide seven days ; but the eighth day shall be to you 
 a day of solemn assembly." Tradition, wjiich preserves 
 the future by recollections of the past, sanctified that 
 eighth day by prayers for rain, and added a ninth day, 
 devoted to the inestimable law which makes Israel the 
 peculiar people of God. Let us endeavour to analyze the 
 effects of these institutions on men. 
 
 The pious, whose joy before the Eternal might, for the 
 reasons already stated, be tinged with melancholy, would 
 find, in the day of solemn assembly, the antidote for their 
 sorrow. True, nature was failing ; true, death sat brood- 
 ing .over the remains of beauty, and winter was coming to 
 
AND ITS APPOINTED TDIES. 383 
 
 consimie what death had spared ; but, in the prayers for 
 rain, there breatlied anticipations for the future, which 
 spoke of comfort and enjoined hope. Although decay 
 had set its seal on the present, it was not annihilation. 
 'Men were calling on God for rain ; they were looking 
 forward to the coming spring, when earth should again 
 assume her mantle of loveliness, as, with renewed life and 
 vigour, she presented her produce to hail the feast of the 
 "green ears," This reflection would effectually banish 
 despair from the minds of the contemplative. Through 
 the darkness vfhich veiled the decline of the year they 
 would behold the light of future joys. Even as they 
 viewed the existence here as preparatory to the existence 
 hereafter, and as they knew it to be necessary to pass 
 through the portals of death to effect the transit from 
 time to eternity, so they would regard the eighth day of 
 solemn assembly^ and its ceremonies as the initiatory rites 
 of a new era. Their minds, ever aspiring to communion 
 with the Divine, would rise above the desolation of earthly 
 things, because of the sublime future to which that deso- 
 lation pointed. And thus to them might reasonably be 
 addressed the exhortation, " And ye shall rejoice on your 
 festivfth" 
 
 The worldly, who might be too willing to take the 
 curb from passion, and to give the rein to desire, would 
 pause before the knowledge that the licence of the 
 Tabernacle was to terminate in the sanctity of the 
 eighth day of solemn assembly. Mounted on the fiery 
 courser of sensuality, just freed from the trammels of 
 Kippur, they would be disposed to hurry with impetuous 
 pace into the plain of pleasure ; maddened with the 
 excitement of their headlong career, they would bound 
 over all the impechments which blocked theii- way ; but 
 before them would rise in awful grandeur the heights of 
 God's own appointment, and, even when they would rush 
 most swiftly, they would be checked by the impossibility 
 
384 THE LAW OF SINAI, 
 
 of surmounting these divinely set Iiills. Brouglit to 
 reflection, they would become sensible that the blessings 
 which surrounded them through the abundance of harvest 
 could not endure for ever; that wants and comforts 
 would gradually absorb the contents of granaries and 
 storehouses, and that, but for a renewal of the mercy 
 which had produced their plenty, the coming year might 
 be a period of famine and misery. In the prayers for 
 rain, therefore, they would find a certain moderator for 
 criminal excess of joy. In the true spirit of their world- 
 liness, they might be tempted to rely on their skill and 
 experience, but they would resist the temptation because 
 of all the results of human industry none are so entirely 
 beyond human control as the fruits of agriculture, those 
 fruits whose ingathering they were then celebrating, and 
 for a future supply of which they were invoking the 
 indispensable aid of Heaven. They woidd inevitably ask 
 themselves how they should dare supplicate for Divine 
 assistance, in the sending of fertilizing showers, if they 
 abused the favours already vouchsafed ; and these fears 
 for the future would prove salutary, by rendering the 
 present a season of true gladness " before the Eternal," by 
 hallowing in their hearts the exhortation, " And ye shall 
 rejoice on your festival." 
 
 The Rejoicing of the Law has also peculiar effects. 
 God has commanded that his law be always in Israel's 
 mouth. God is eternal ; he has neither beginning nor 
 end. The law, which is his visible representative on 
 earth, must, as far as is practicable, be endowed with his 
 characteristics. Israel does so endow it by the creed : 
 " I believe with a perfect faith that this law will never 
 be changed ; " and by completing the circle of its perusal 
 on this ninth day of the festival. Kead four times weekly 
 in the S3rnagogue, read additionally on every holiday, 
 studied at home at all hours, it is finished and begun 
 at almost the same moment. Scarcely does the voice of 
 
AXD ITS APPOINTED TlilES. 385 
 
 Israel proclaim its termination ere it utters aloud its 
 commencement. The eclioes of both sounds reverberate in 
 God's holiest shrine on earth — the pure heart — at the same 
 time. Who can listen to the sublime blessing of Moses, 
 the man of God, and to the no less sublime history of 
 creation, without feeling overwhelmed with a sense of 
 the grandeur to which mortality can rise, of the mercy to 
 which mortality is indebted ? Who can reflect on the 
 death of the faithful servant- — so sad and yet so blessed, so 
 judged, and yet so resigned — without the inward prayer, 
 " May my end be like his 1 " Who can contemplate the 
 power and majesty which called the boundless universe 
 out of chaos, and bade harmony supersede confusion, with- 
 out the secret invocation, " Show me, O Lord, thy ways ; 
 teach me thy commandments i " 
 
 Daily, the good and the worthless pass away into the 
 silence of the grave, and affection but too often loves to 
 blazon the tomb of the departed with a host of attributes 
 that exist only in the hearts of the survivors. Yearly, 
 too, some saddened survivor finds consolation for his 
 sorrowful recollections in the adornment of the last resting- 
 place of a valued friend or relative. But the marble 
 which tells of imaginary virtues, and the evergreen which 
 tells of undying memories, alike yield to the destructive 
 hand of time. Like all that is mortal, decay and forget- 
 fulness at length cover them for ever, and new associa- 
 tions grow to replace, and in turn to be displaced. " Not 
 so, my servant, Moses," said the Eternal. No monument 
 of perishable earth rose to his honoiu' ; no garlands decked 
 his bier. In their stead, the law which he had taught 
 and the revelation of which he had been the medium, 
 were stamped with the Divine seal of eternity, and his 
 memory was thus perpetuated for ever and ever. No 
 need that Israel observe the anniversary of his death, as 
 Israel, with filial veneration preserves the parental " year- 
 time," for the Eternal, in shrouding from mortal eyes the 
 
Si6 THE LAW OF SINAI, 
 
 ilace of his burial, desired to shrond from moi-tal minds 
 tlie ceremonies therewith connected. Therefore, we do 
 not recite the last verses of the Pentateuch at each return 
 of the day which they describe ; therefore, we do not 
 mourn over the event they relate. But as in life Moses 
 was different from all other men, so in death is he like- 
 wise different. "We rejoice where, for a less worthy 
 object, we might mourn ; we celebrate a festival where, in 
 another case, we might observe a solemn assembly. We 
 do more ; we consecrate our ordinary dead with things of 
 earth ; we hallow Moses, as becomes his mission, with 
 things of heaven. The law was destined to regenerate 
 the spiritual part of man ; we give to the ninth day a 
 character worthy of the Divine object of the law, and we 
 thus elevate it above corruption. As, at Pentecost, joy 
 cannot degenerate into excess, because it originates in too 
 noble a cause. 
 
 And thus, although the observances of the Rejoicing rest 
 only on the authority of tradition, we associate them so 
 closely with revelation that they become no less sacred. 
 And, the more efiectually to do this, we call to our aid an 
 idea connected with the Sabbath, and we admit within 
 the hallowed circle of the feast of reason all who claim the 
 right to reason. The Sabbath is termed the bride of 
 God ; we hail the Pentateuch as the bride of Israel, and 
 gladly does the bridegroom of the law " rejoice before the 
 Eternal." On the awful days, when memory pours its 
 stores into the lap of conscience, the reflections awakened 
 are too solemn for anything less solid than the maturity 
 of age. The thoughtlessness of youth is not consistent 
 with that dread period, and in the ceremonies then 
 observed we avoid permitting youth unnecessarily to 
 partake. But on the day of the Rejoicing such exclusion 
 is not needed. The law is for youth no less than for 
 manhood : " Train up a youth in the way in wliich lie 
 should i^o, and when he is old he will not depart from it." 
 
AND ITS APPOINTED TIMES. 387 
 
 Therefore, in the ceremonies of the Kejoicing, young and 
 old alike participate, and even children are occasionally 
 not shut out. And so bow we to the institutions which 
 include within their pale the extremes of life, and lead 
 them both to eternity; bow we to the wisdom which in 
 mercy gave us "Appointed Times," that we might therein 
 ally social progress with religious welfare, temporal 
 comfort with spiritual happiness ; bow we to the Holy 
 Law whose ordinances penetrate into the very core of our 
 existence, and which, as it is our "wisdom and under- 
 standing in the sight of nations," so be it the most sacred 
 possession " in the eyes of all Israel." 
 
 Reader — you have read that a sire once bequeathed to 
 his children a piece of land, with the information that it 
 contained, somewhere beneath its surface, an immense 
 treasure. You have read that his children laboured and 
 laboured to discover the hidden riches, but that, save iu 
 the abundant harvest to which their labour conduced, 
 they found nothing. You have read that, wise in their 
 generation, they regarded the certainty which they had 
 gained as more precious than the uncertainty which had 
 been promised by their sire, and that, when it came to 
 their turn to hand down the field to their posterity, they 
 held out the same hope that they had received. Thus, 
 untold ages passed, and still the happiness of present 
 abundance was all that came to the heirs, although each 
 lived in anticipation of some undiscovered blessing, 
 Keader, I have participated in that inheritance, I have 
 toiled for the promised guerdon. I have laboured, in so 
 far as my strength has allowed, to acquire the harvest of 
 glorious truths which our law and our religion — the heir- 
 looms of our race — are able to produce. I know that they 
 also contain a treasure — perfection in the eyes of God 
 
385 THE LAW OF SINAI, ETC. 
 
 d man ; and if, in conformity with tlie common lot, I 
 iave failed to discover that treasure, at least, like my pre- 
 decessors, I have acquired the content which always 
 accompanies honest exertions. I have placed the result 
 before you in the spirit which bids men hold their 
 possessions as stewards for the universal good. And so — 
 Farewell. 
 
 THE END. I 
 
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