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of life was to enjoy the fruits of the earth, peace and plenty, and to possess much cattle and rich, fat valleys. God was not an invisible, mysterious and spiritual spiritual being, confined neither to time nor space, but a being with the form and faculties of a man, yet possessing unlimited power, might and insight. Thus we find that God appeared before the Patriarchs in the form and habits of a man, etc., walked and talked with them: Gen. 3:8; 8:21; 11:5; 18:21123, 33 ; Ex. 4:24. The God of the early Israelites was God of power, mighty in battle, who delighted in warfare and in bringing his Chosen People to victory. But not only was their God a God of battle, it was chiefly for his aid in war that the people called on him, offered praise and sacrifices to him. The idea of a spiritual God who healed the soul, delivered it from evil and evil thoughts, had not yet dawned; the only deliverance they yet knew being from their human enemies. As yet there is no knowledge of the peace of which the psalmists spoke, "the peace which passeth understanding."

yet

If we examine the petitions that are made to God in these stories we shall find the ultimate end in view is physical wellbeing and material prosperity. Their deTheir de sires are ever for strong sons and beautiful daughters; for full store-houses, large flocks and herds of sheep and cattle, good crops, and prosperity to their seed for ever. In several of the stories, such as those of The Fall, The Flood, Jacob Wrestling with God, we may see indications of an awakening moral consciousness; but as yet there is no strong sense of social morality, no recognition of a moral law, no signs of a love of righteousness for its own sake. Such morals as do exist are of a very crude order, being based for the most part on the barbaric principle of an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, etc. (Ex. 21; Lev. 24: 20-21). Even as late as the time of the Judges we can find no trace that the Israelites had attained consciousness of any sort of spirituality. We know that they did not conceive of God as a spiritual Being from the fact that they were so prone to fall into idolatry. Idolatry was easy because God had not yet begun to dwell in the hearts of men. He still existed as an external being whose value and popularity depended solely on his ability or desire to help them in battle, to destroy their enemies.

But perhaps the best idea of the moral

ideas that were extant at this time is to be got from a study of the kind of hero that appealed to the imagination. Almost without exception the heroes were men of strength and cunning. The parts of the story of Joseph, for instance, that are made most attractive are those which exhibit his power of cunning. Samson was evi dently a great Israelitish hero: but his deeds are the vindication of the absolute right of physical force and of the most revolting deceit. Ehud was another hero, yet did he not use the name of God to se cure by deceit an opportunity for assassi nating an enemy? Jael treacherously murdered Sisera, vet did not Deborah and Barak chant before God the praises of Jael for her deed? And it is significant that such acts as Rebekah's and Jacob's deception of Isaac; Jacob's dishonest dealing with Laban; the expulsion of Hagar, etc., should have been passed over without censure or condemnation.

It is quite true that many beautiful and noble deeds are recorded in these stories. but that does not weaken my conception that at this early stage in the Israelitish development, morals were of a very crude order, and that physical and materialistic conceptions of life prevailed. As yet the Hebrew is essentially a physical being whose chief delight is to enjoy the fruits of the earth. Homage is paid to God, but chiefly for his protecting and conquering power. A species of hero-worship has come into existence, which is one of the few signs that life is being raised above the merely physical plane.

In the interim (which consisted of something like two centuries), between the writing of the Primitive and Deuterenomic documents, several of the minor prophesies appeared, typical of which is that of Amos. These were specially written against the ido latry and the social oppression which evi dently were now very rife. The Israelites had now become a fairly prosperous nation; they had begun to trade with surrounding peoples and to mingle freely with them. It was thus that they began to worship foreign gods. If they heard of the wonder ful doings of other gods they were at tracted, and were quite ready to worship such. This fact alone is sufficient to prove that the Children of Israel had not yet

conceived of a spiritual God or of spiritual

life.

The sole aim of Amos and his successors

was to arrest the people in their life of physical self-seeking. Hence they preached in impending doom, the wrath of God, the coming of judgment and destruction. It was the object of the pre-Deuteronomic school of writers to lay hold of the people's magination by preaching a God of wrath and vengeance; to awaken their minds to the evils they were falling into by threatening them with calamity and destruction. And it would seem that these writers were pretty successful in their mission, for not long afterwards a new set of writers, the Deuteronomic, appear whose tone is quite different, as if the cause for great anxiety had been removed. The object of this batch of writers is to bring their countrymen to a consciousness of the moral law, and to establish a belief in a just and righteous God. In the Deuteronomic document the attempt is made for the first time to establish a love of righteousness for its own sake. There is not so strong a tendency to concentrate on material well-being, while righteousness and godliness are glorified and held up as ideals, tibutes loveable for their own sakes. Social life is now increasing in complexity; new issues are appearing and new realities being discovered; so that the deeper questions of life and conduct have to be faced in earnest. Social morality has become a vital problem.

But although it is the deliberate aim of the Deuteronomic writers to create a love of righteousness for its own sake, it is quite evident, as proved by such statements as those given in Deut. 28, (which is a fair representation of the then prevailing conception of the Good for man), that the Children of Israel were still governed by a physical idea of well-being. Throughout, the basis of the Deuteronomic exhortation to righteousness and godliness is the promise of material prosperity, such prosperity being, it would seem, a proof of virtue and a sign of God's satisfaction and blessing. As was the case during Patriarchical times the Jews still reckon national prosperity and personal welfare in terms of material possession. This school of writers are opposed to the older anthropomorphic ideas, and profess a belief in an invisible, spiritual God. God is One and Absolute. (Deut. 6:4.) They also address themselves to the heart, insisting that the law of God must be written in the heart (Deut. 6: 6); and by

a patient and persistent appeal endeavour to turn the attention of the individual inward, to the heart and soul, (Deut. 6:5; 10: 12; 30: 6.). Still, it is quite evident that the discovery of the soul and of the possibility of a spiritual life in communion with God has not yet been made: hence the constant falling back upon the promise of material prosperity as a reward for virtue. As yet we hear nothing about the delight of the soul in the worship and contemplation of God, the thirsting of the soul for God, etc.

Nor can it be said that the writers of the Priestly document had discovered the human soul. The Hebrews would seem at this time to be on the borderland of the spiritual kingdom, but they had not yet found their way into it. The creation of a regular priesthood and the establishment of an elaborate ritual might seem to presuppose a belief in spiritual life, but really they do not. The Levitical priesthood was called into existence to do what the Deuteronomic writers had evidently failed to do, viz., arrest the tendency towards lawlessness and awaken the moral consciousness. It was absolutely imperative in the interests of social advancement that the moral law, the codes which the Deuteronomic writers had drawn up, should be obeyed. Thus was the function of the priesthood to subdue the Hebrew character on its physical side, to arrest its materialistic and lawless tendencies, and to bring about that calm in the nation's mind which was necessary to give birth to the soul,-to the life spiritual.

Thus besides being a means of arresting the lawless and materialistic tendencies of the time, the Levitical priesthood was the recognition that man is something more than a body, a mere physical being, and that physical existence is incapable of satisfying the deeper needs of the heart. The sacrificial system among the Hebrews reminds one of the elaborate symbolism of Roman Catholicism during the Middle Ages. Both originated at about the same stage in social development, and for similar reasons. And in both cases the object desired was gained. As the monastery, and later, highly symbolic ritual, struck awe into the mind of the semi-barbaric Teuton, so the sacrificial system compelled the lawless and physical Hebrews to make a halt in their wild career; to stop and

think. In each case the lawless tendency was checked; and in each case there followed the discovery of the human soul and of spiritual life. The Levitical priesthood helped to intensify the sense of the sacredness of life; to foster the idea that God is an all-powerful, all-pervading spirit; it thus made possible the discovery of the soul. It is not long. now before the singers appear who extol the virtues and the beauty of the life of spiritual relationship with God.

In spite of the fact that they are usually held up as an intensely religious race, it has to be confessed that the Jews as a people never inclined towards asceticism, a strict form of religious idealism: they loved the world, the joy of conquest and of possession too much to be carried away by an ideal of religious ecstasy. Many of the psalmists were religious idealists, it is true, and found the secret of life in religious contemplation, in quiet communion with God. Then, too, many of the psalms, numerous proverbs, and practically the whole of the book of Ecclesiastes, point in the direction of physical renunciation. But for all that an ideal of worldly renunciation never seems to find great favour among the Jews. At the same time, in such psalms as the 23rd, 25th, 34th, 40th, and 42nd, and in such chapters as the 55th of Isaiah, as in the book of Isaiah generally after the 40th chapter, the insufficiency of the world to satisfy the heart of man finds explicit utterance, and a form of religious idealism is extolled and practised. The outstanding ideas of this period are, first, that the chief condition of well-being is a clean heart and a contrite spirit, and second, that the peace and satisfaction of the indwelling spirit of God is life's supreme blessing and good.

Up to this time religion had been a secondary concern, a mere means to an end, that of worldly prosperity. But now a great change took place. The more thoughtful and refined had begun to grow weary of a life that was almost wholly of the body, and to long for a new and finer kind of existence. The satisfaction they sought was found in religion, in communion with God. In the psalms the rapture of this new life finds beautiful expressionas, e. g., in the 51st. God does not now require the sacrifice of beasts, etc., as hereto-fore, but a broken heart and a contrite spirit. At last the soul, and the life appropriate to the soul had been discover

ed. Henceforth the culture of the heart becomes man's primary duty, the posses sion of the peace of God his chief aim. Not wealth, not even the pleasures of the flesh now constitute the Good for man, but the sweet consciousness of the ind welling spirit of God. Such was the new ideai, and it persisted, more or less absolutely right down to Christ's time; and although many attempts were made in the meantime to improve and advance upon this ideal, it was not until Christ preached his Gospel of love and service, of self-sacrifice. that such an advance was made. Christ was the individual to find a basis for a broader and deeper life after the discovery of the soul and the rise of religious idealism.

The new life of the spirit of which the psalmists had sung was preached and popularised by the later prophets. And it probably became very popular, for it seems to have been the means of rejuvenat ing the Jewish nation. The spiritual ideal gripped the Hebrew mind to the extent of causing the old theocratical ideal to be renounced in favour of an ideal of a vast spiritual kingdom, which should embrace both Jews and Gentiles. Such passages as Is. 19:16 25, which has a post-exilic origin, and Mal. 1:11, show that the Jews had advanced beyond the conception which limited the Kingdom of God to their own nation, to one which included the whole world. The significance of this fact is that it shows that as the idea of a spiritual God and a spiritual life took deeper root, race antagonism began to die, and the impression to grow that mankind the world over is one; that all the nations of the earth ought to constitute one vast brotherhood.

After the discovery of the soul and the soul life, there is to be noticed a not unnatural oscillation between the two extremes worldliness and absolute spiri tualism. Two distinct forms and ideals of life are now exposed to view; and the question. How ought life to be lived?" opens up a new and searching problem. For a long time after the discovery of the soul, the peace of God was counted as the Good for man; but eventually, the new enthusiasm began to wave, and the pendulum to swing back, as it were, upon the recognition, which was undeniable, that many things of a worldly and physical nature were good. For was it not the case

hat man had to feed and clothe himself, nd that there was real pleasure in eating nd drinking, in wearing beautiful cloth1g, and in fulfilling many other simple uties? So a new problem arose, viz., how > reconcile the apparently conflicting aims of the spiritual and the material, of he life of the spirit and that of the body, he senses. That problem, in one form or nother, is treated in what are known as he Wisdom Books, viz: Proverbs, Ecclesistes and Job.

In Proverbs the idea still persists that fe is essentially spiritual, but it is tacitly dmitted that other things, not spiritual 1 the religious sense, are also good. The roblem of life is treated objectively, itionally. Whereas the Psalmists simply ttered the burden of their hearts, spoke ist what they felt, the writers of Proverbs deavoured to teach life by means of disission, comparison. In Proverbs (as was he case with Europe after the Reformaon), the world, which had to some <tent been shut out by the psalmists, etc., ends to come back, so to speak, into vour. But as was the case in posteformation Europe, the problem of how > reconcile religious with worldly life is ot solved. The life of the spirit is emphased, but life in the world is justified. dulged in to a reasonable extent the leasures of the world are good, these riters would seem to say. Thus the aching of Proverbs is that life is a judiciis mixture of two Goods, spiritual and hysical; that while man ought first and remost to seek to be rich towards God, is permissible to enjoy pleasure in ason; but one ought always to keep the ody in restraint, in strict subjection to e mind. Hence the great need of life is isdom, understanding.

In Ecclesiastes a position is reached that both more logical and more of a unity an that reached in Proverbs. It is often id that the author of Ecclesiastes deounces wealth and worldly pleasure unompromisingly, but a closer study shows at such is not the case. What he deounces is not pleasure but the pleasuree. He describes with shattering touch, ith the cynicism and pungency of a disilsioned mind, the vacancy and folly of restrained self-indulgence. And in this le writer has more in common with the :oic than with the Puritan. To seek leasure is not evil, as the Puritan believed,

but foolish, as the Stoic believed. To seek pleasure as the end of life is "vanity and vexation of spirit." Wealth may be enjoy. ed and pleasure sought, but only in moder. ation and when-and this is the important condition-it is the counterpart of a life of labour and service. Hence his verdict: "Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man." "Better is an handful with quietness, than both hands full with travail and vexation of spirit." "There is nothing better for a man, than that he should eat and drink, and that he should make his soul enjoy good in his labour. This also. I saw that it was from the hand of God."

These quotations are also important as showing the growth of the idea of social duty and the awakening of the social consciousness. At the same time there is no indication throughout Ecclesiastes that the author had conceived of the spiritual value of fellowship. He had discovered the value of work, of social duty, stating as a first principle that apart from service or productive labour true pleasure is impossible; but beyond this he did not go. It was left for a greater thinker than he to discover the spiritual discover the spiritual value of human fellowship.

In one particular the book of Job shows a further advance still: it lays stress on the need for social duty. Hitherto social morality had been of a negative character, its object having been to restrain the individual in his efforts after personal aggrandisement. But in Job a new note is struck, the duty of the rich towards the poor being definitely emphasised. For the first time the poor man is justified, his rights asserted and defended. In many passages in the book of Job we have something more than a denunciation of oppression such as we get in the older prophesies, (see Amos. Ch. 5,) and something more than a mere recognition of the rights of the poor man: to do good to the poor is counted as a delight, a condition of well-being.

From the philosophy of the Wisdom Books to the spiritual idealism of Christianity there is but a step; an important step, certainly, but still only a step. Christ was the first Jew to discover the spirit of man as an objective reality and was the first to preach love or social service as a fundamental principle of life. Whether Christianity can be reduced to a

system, a unity, be shown to rest on a single principle, is a question not easily answered, but there is every reason to believe that the founder of Christianity possessed a complete and consistent theory of life. Of course we have only the fragments of Christ's teachings to go from, but judging from these, as well as from the confident way in which he taught, we are compelled to believe that Christ had resolved life to a unity, and that to him life was based on a single principle, viz., love.

First and foremost Christ was a teacher, a man with a message. "I must preach the Kingdom of God to other cities also, for therefore am I sent." "And when the Sabbath was come he began to teach...... and many were astonished." And it was to his teaching rather than to himself that he tried to draw attention. "Why callest thou me good?" It is also to the truth he taught and not to his person that he refers in such passages as: "I am the light of the world; " "I am the way, the truth and the life;" "He that followeth me shall not walk in darkness." "I am the bread of life." If it were true that Christ intended to excite faith in himself as the Son of God, why did he appeal to reason, to the intellect rather than to faith and feeling? and why did he give utterance to such unconventional ideas-ideas which would be sure to alienate from his cause great numbers of "good" and tractable people?

Christ's appeal was essentially to the reason, and nobody knew better than he the worthlessness of conduct based on faith. Christ knew full well that to fall back on faith and feeling was to succumb to convention. Did ever teacher praise or seek to produce vital and original conduct more than he? Consider his words concerning the women who annointed him with spikenard! his admonition to the rich young ruler! his remarks about the Sabbath! his advice to the rich man concerning whom to invite to his feast! etc., etc. It was because Christ appealed to the intelligence that he used such graphic language, and that he taught in parables: his one desire was to excite thought. Moreover, did he not say to his disciples: "Blessed are your eyes for they see" ? "Take my yoke upon you and learn of me"? And was not his great complaint against the Scribes and Pharisees just this, that they obeyed the letter and not the spirit of the law? that they believed without under

standing, were absolutely conventional? To accept Christ's teachings as dogm was to miss the spirit and meaning bot of his life and his message: it was to fa in attaining that more abundant life which he so loved to speak. Christ ha a new truth to unfold to his generation and he knew that his ultimate succes would depend upon his power to awake the understanding.

With respect to the content of Christian ity I think it may be claimed that embodies two great truths: (1) that ma is a spiritual being who ought to be live towards spiritually; (2) that love ough to be the fundamental principle of life.

(1) It was Christ's supreme aim to for a great brotherhood of all mankind, to e tablish the Kingdom of Heaven on eart And to this end he endeavoured to creat a certain mind in man, a spiritual regar for his fellow man. Thus his insistence o love, the service of one's fellows, st sacrifice. The Kingdom of God which Chris sought to establish has a twofold sign ficance. In the first place it is a Kingdon residing in the heart: "The Kingdom God is within you" (see also the parab of the sower, of the merchant seeking good ly pearls, of the hidden treasure). In th second place it is the body of all who accep and put into operation the principle of lov -Mat. 13: 41; 21: 43; see also the para ble of the mustard seed, of the heaven, the tares. Hence he said: "A new com mandment I give unto you; that ye lov one another." It was Christ's aim t annihilate selfishness, to subordinate th love of things carnal and material to diviner principle, the love of things spir tual, and thus to establish a society whic should be bound together by strong spir tual ties and be governed by love. Hen to Christ, to live was to love: to love an worship God; to love and serve man. T Christ, therefore, man as well as Go was a spiritual being, who ought to i lived towards spiritually. According t Christ to live ideally was to cultivate an enjoy spiritual relationship with all form of being, finite and infinite.

(2) Look where we will, at his life o his teaching, Christ is always exemplifying and emphasising the need and value of lov as a complete life-principle. And it is lov to man rather than to God that Chris speaks of most. Christ saw that huma life was and must be essentially social; bu