zar, and Belshazzar. Whether in the Abrahamic line there was kept any physical type of the original cheru- bim until renewed by Moses is nowhere recorded. Yet there are some hints worthy of our serious considera- tion. («.) Rebekah went somewhere to inquire of the Lord and received a specific answer. May not this have come from sacred utensils still in the custody of Abraham ? (6.) Before Moses had set up the new tab- ernacle there was some kind of tabernacle in use (Exod. xxxiii, 7). (c.) A sacred chest belonged to many of the ancient idolatries. Was it copied from a true orig- inal? ((/.) In the higher rank of families the teraphim were long retained in connection with the true religion. Not only did Rachel import them from Laban's house, but Michal brought one into David's; and they are classed with recognised symbols in Hos. iii, 4. On the other side they are classed with idols, and were used by the king of Babylon for idolatrous purposes. May they not have been like the brazen serpent, at first a mere memorial of truth, afterwards turned into an ob- ject of false worship. See Tkraphim.
IX. Inferences. — Other ancient religions we must pass over here in order to take a survey of the leading features of the primitive, from which they are all de- rived, and from which they all inherit some features in common, while each seems to have dropped other mat- ters, according to their various tastes and circumstances (see Princeton Rev. July, 1872 ; Tayler Lewis, The Prim- itive Greek Religion).
On what foundation did the primitive faith rest its confidence?
1. The knowledge, fear, and reverence which Adam retained even after the fall. Let it be fairly admitted that Adam, by transgression, was lost — lost to all spirit- ual good accompanying salvation ; that the first of all the commandments — love — was completely obliterated in his heart; that he was dead in trespasses and sins. Still the apostle tells us that where the law of love had been written there was still left to tpyov tov vofiov ■ypaTTTov, the "work" of the law, which work is still written in the heart of even the heathen (Rom. li, 14, 15). This work he places largely in the domain of knowledge, and even conscience, yet it is not in any degree the law of love (i, 32) : " Who, knowing the judgment of God, that they who commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them." This by nature is our own moral state; yet, blessed be God, knowledge, memory, reason, conscience, have not been entirely de- stroved, though conscience has been seared, and all the faculties greatly debilitated. Adam, on leaving the gar- den, still retained the sad remembrance of happiness in great variety, now lost, lost ! lost ! ! Lost forever through the former channel. With all that he had lost, who is there among us that would not travel a long, long pilgrimage to hear him tell the beauty of the gar- den inside; the perfect satisfaction of everything he saw, heard, felt, while innocent; the nature of that ho- liness which is only now to be regained by incessant la* bor, suffering, and watching; unimpeded communion with God. Darwin himself, and the modern race of improved baboons, might envy the intellect which he retained even then. Acquaintance with God! Fel- lowship of the Spirit! Seeing him as he is! Social worship in the holy family! The first Sabbath-day!
2. The promise of a Seed, a coming Deliverer, while as yet he had no child. Modern theologians can see in the first promise a deliverance, but many of us cannot see a personal Deliverer. It was not so with Eve, the mother of all living (Gen. iv, 1): <;I have obtained a man, the Lord."* What if she were mistaken in the time, the individual, and many other material consider- ations? What if she were a Millenarian? An Adven- tess? Such can be found under brighter skies to-day.
* The particle TX here, however, is correctly rendered ' from" in the English version.— Ed.
KELIGIOX
1032
RELIGION
She bad faith in One ■who is able to save to the utter- most Set- Si ed of Promise. Through .-ill those an- cienl faiths noted above there are traces of the coming One. Some of them retain ibis idea while they have losl many others, ami sunk into dark paganism. Wit- ness the ten Avatars of Vishnu, as well as the " Desire of all nations" < Hag. ii. 7).
.".. The institution of sacrifice. This needs no( lure to be discussi d ; how early ii was observed, how exten- sively propagated, however altered and perverted, it held a place in all ancienl religions, teaching in some sense or other the doctrine of atonement by blood, as well as of purification by blood and water. S< e Ai.i \i: ; A rONI mint: S \' Kit mi .
4. The cherubim. For the structure and uses of these, see the word. For their spiritual meaning, see Living ( REATUKES; Seraphim. Sel over against the sword of flame, they were the symbols of mercy to those rec- onciled by the sacrifice. Their place in the ancient re- ligions is well known, even after those religions had de- parted far from primitive rectitude, both in ritual ami moral code.