lint here, again, while the nations in separating from one another look, each one, some degree of respect for the Word revealed, or for some pan of it. it was rest r\ ed
to one nation only to preserve it pure and entire. " To the .lews were com m i 1 1 ed I he oracles of God." I Mhi r nations retained a glimmering tradition, a tetragram- maton, a holy phrase, of which they knew not the meaning and used it merely as a charm a i vXaicrfipi- iii'. How the true believer in every age and country appreciates the word, we may learn, if not by happy experience, by Psa. cxix. Under these beams of the Sun of Kighteousness, Enoch walked with God. Light and life ami love are again restored. If we come to the particular doctrines of this primitive religion, we have many scattered hints of. say, acceptance w ith God, in the sacrifice of Abel ; a higher life, in the translation of Enoch; retribution, in the conscience of Cain; call- ing on tin' name of the l.ofd. in the days of l.nos: judg- ment combined with mercy, in the deluge and the cities
RELIGION
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RELIGIOUS LIBERTY
of the plain; intercession, by Abraham; and from the I same source, that the Judge of all the earth will do right; family government and instruction; covenant with God; precepts given to Noah; and many, very many, of the doctrines of Christianity. But what a vac- uum we should have just here were it not for the book of Job! Wherever the patriarch may have lived, or in whatever age, besides the lesson Of his own biography, we have, in the speeches of himself and of his friends, a very full development of the patriarchal theology. Whether each particular doctrine of Watson's Institutes or Hodge's Outlines could be deduced from the hook of Job, or whether each expression in it is to be relied on ' as correct, we shall not here inquire; but certain it is that each chapter contains a mass of theological thought befitting our age as well as that in which it was deliv- ered. It opens with the doctrine of holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord. Next we have God's blessing on all that Job possessed, as in Psa. cvii, 38. Then his anxiety about his children — their liability to sin. We have the atonement in his offering sacrifices; particular atonement, "to the number of them all.'" The humblest resignation when all was taken from him — •• Blessed be the name of the Lord." The Kinsman — a living Redeemer, and his coming to the earth. The speciality of providence is iterated and reiterated. But, not to dwell ou the more common doctrines, we find some of those which would be an attainment even in our own time. Civil-service reform is taught, or rath- er taken for granted, in ch. xxxiv, 17, 18; and national reform in all its depth comes in ver. 29, 30 : " When he giveth quietness, who then can give trouble? and when he hideth his face, who then can behold him? whether it be done against a nation or against a man only : that the hypocrite reign not, lest the people be ensnared." Let any one take up the book of Job under this aspect, and he will see how much of the Gospel there is in such passages as ch. xxii, 21-30; xxxiii, 14-30. Alto- gether, apart from the plot of the poem, there is wrought into the speeches a vast amount of the deep knowledge of God, not by the inspiration of the several speakers, but by their earnestness in using the floating capital which belonged to the patriarchal faith. The occasion was such as made an extraordinary call on their knowl- edge, and on their skill in using it.
We must here pass in silence the ancient religions of those respective nations which issued in the many gods of Greece and Rome, of the Celtic tribes, and the Gothic hordes. There was truth underlying them all, but oh, how deeply buried in the filth and rubbish of ages !
It is not to be denied that the worship of mere nat- ure furnished the element of these fallen religions. We have enough of that in Jer. xliv among the chosen peo- ple. But it is never to be admitted that any religion was ever originated by man, however it may have been manipulated "by art and man's device." No historian can feel that Mohammed, even with the assistance of the monk Sergius, originated Islam; his claim was to restore the ancient religion of the world. Mecca was a place of pilgrimage ages before he was born. All his revelations were ostensibly to restore and improve the primitive faith of Adam, of Abraham, and of Ishmael. A large amount of popery, even, is, independent of di- vine revelation, brought down from ancient traditions much later than the primitive faith. Paul preached at Athens the service of God, who made the world and all things therein (as the people had been taught by their own poets) ; though he was still, in a great measure, the Unknown, and the apostle was esteemed a setter-forth of strange deities. While we rejoice in the abundance of our Scriptures, it is to be remembered that Adam, Seth, and Enos did not require so much as we do. They were born to a bright inheritance near the throne of their heavenly Father. "Adam who was the son of God." Thus, while we have added line upon line as it was needed, the true religion is, like its Author, " the same yesterday, to-day, and forever." (R. H.)