• Airuinst the construction put by Schwftlly on Jer KT, •«• 0l0Ml>riilit, Jerrm., and l>riv»r, Dnil. an;.
national history, were much more conspicuous and easily read than they would have been if p-jrformed in the life of individuals. His delivejance of the nation from Egypt revealed Hisiiowerand redemp- tive goodness on a scide that left an impression never ellaced from the heart of the people. His destruction of the nation, predicted by the prophet* and fulfilled, taught once for all that He was the righteous God and moral Ruler of the nations.
The religious development of Israel is virtually a development in the idea of God. As God was the only force in the world, particularly in human history, when a crisis occurred in history some con- ception of God had to be called in to explain it ; and when mysterious problems arose in the national or individual life, the problem was immediately rellcctcd back upon God, and became one in regard to His nature or action. In Israel the religious progress appears in the form of a condict. And if a conflict implies lower elements and conceptions, it also implies a higher element which was con- scious of the lower, and strove either to eject it or transform it. Such a transmuting force existed in Israel from the beginning, producing the results which mankind now inherit. This force may be identified with the moral in the conception of J". Mere progress in itself does not dcciile that the projjress was natural or supernatural. (Jur con- victions in regard to this point will be formed rather from our contemplation of the results eventually achieved, from contrasting these re- sults with those attained anywhere else, and from the trust we place in the consciousness of the prophets and leaders of Israel w ho felt that they were ins^iired. In a gen-«ral way the religious history ot Israel may be divided into three periods, in each of which the conflict resulted in a clearer conception of God, or of J" the God of Israel : —
(a) The period from the Exodus to the revolution of Jehu. — The revolution of Jehu jnit its ;.eal on the life-work of Elijah ; it gave riatiuiial oxprosioii to his demand : ' If J" be God, follow him' (1 K 18"'). To the mass the struggle probably appeared an external one between two names, two deities ; and it issued in the acceptance of the one. The numerical oneness of God was recognized. To Elijah and others the question was not one of numerical unity only, but also of moral nature.
{Ij) The prophetic period. — The conflict resulting in the recognition of J" as God alone, at least in Israel, was followed by one more inward. Though Baal as another than J ' was set aside, B;uil had incorjiorated himself in J". Now, the conflict waji not between J" and another, it was an internal one between J" and Jehovah-Baal, be- tween two conceptions of Him — the popular and i the prophetic. In the popular conception J" was still mainly their national gml, the god of the land, giver of its corn and wine, and wh'ise most pleasing service was sacrifice and olloring ; w Idle to the pro]ihets He wivs a purely ethical Being, elevated far above the people, the righteous Itulcr, to whom material oflerings were inappreciable, and whose .service could be nothing but a righteous life. What proportion existed between the jiro- plietic party and the more backward popular mass cannot be known. The projihets now broke with the people as a whole, a.s they believed J" had broken with it and deterniineil to destroy it. In earlier times prophets had broken only with par- ticular dynasties and threatened them with ilcstruo tion. But there was no diflerem-e in principle l)etween the earlier and the canonical prophets ; the groumls on which J' rejected a dyniusty and tiio people were alike moral (I IC 22). A liun<lre<i vi-ars l)efore the time of the canonica! proi)het.s, iilijah by his words, 'the children of Israel httVb forsaken thy covenant,' and by his flight to Horcb,
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oxjiressed his I.eeling that the breach was now one between J " and tlie puuple. Yet the bleach was not absolute or linal. Isaiuli's coiieoi>tion of tlie Keinnant appears lUready in Elijah's days : ' I will leave nie TUUO men in Israel '(IK 19"*). The de- struction of the state, foretold by the proiihets, verilied the prophetic conception of J ": He was the riy:hteous Kuler of tlie nations. It verilied also their judgment upon the past religious life of the people.
(f) From the destruction of the State onward. — The prophetic principles regarding J" had been conspicuously illustrated in the national history : J " was God alone ; He was righteous ; His nature was inscribed in letters of fire across the people's life and experience. But being written on the national history, these principles were as yet, to the individual mind, rather abstract. They were schematic, diagrammatic, seen to be true on the great scale and inteUectually, hardly yet felt to De true in the experience of the indi- vidual. They had to be assimilated into the per- sonal experience, equated by reflection with the condition of the world, the state of the people, the life of the individual. The process raised great problems, all of which became problems about God. (o) J" was God alone and righteous, yet He took no pains to assert Himself against the world. He slept ; the throne of the universe seemed vacant ; the nations knew Him not, and wrought unchecked their cruelties on the earth. (/3) So, too, Israel was His people ; they possessed the truth ; His cause and theirs was one ; because the eternal truth was in their heailis they were righteous as against the world, but all appeals to His tribunal were vain ; their passionate cries that He would arise and plead their cause, and their passionate hopes, ' he is near that will justify me,' only ex- pired on the air. (7) And in like manner the individual pined away solitary and deserted : ' Mine eyes fail while I wait for my God ' ( Ps 69^). More daring spirits like Job rose in rebellion : the throne of the world was not vacant, it was tilled by an Immorality ; the human conscience rose, and, proclaiming itself greater than He, deposed Him from His seat. The OT closed leaving these conHicts still undecided, though not without etl'orts towards a reconciliation. The people found a peace in hope and the future, and endured as seeing Him who is invisible. The individual spirit, too, caught glimpses of a future beyond the borders of this life, and in the ecstasy of faith could say, ' I know that I shall see God.' A few in their lottiest moments were able to bring the reconciliation into the present and feel it if not think it. Though J" was seen in the world and in events, He was not exhausted by them, He stood above them and apart. The mind, too, was its o^vn place, it could detach itself from its external conditions. And thus J" and the soul had fellowship, through no medium, spirit with spirit — ' Nevertheless I am continually with thee ' ( Ps 73=^).