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rendered up to God to make an atonement for their souls.

Thus the idea was conveyed to their mind through the senses, that the desert of sin in the sight of God was the death of the soul. And while they stood praying in the outer court of the tabernacle, and beheld the dark volume of smoke ascending from the fire that consumed the sacrifice which was burning in their stead, how awful must have been the impression of the desert of sin, made by that dark volume of ascending smoke! The idea was distinct and deeply impressed, that God's justice was a consuming fire to sinners; and that their souls escaped only through a vicarious atonement.

As a picture in a child's primer will convey an idea to the infant mind, long before it can be taught by abstract signs, so the Jews, in the infancy of their knowledge of God, and before there were any abstract signs to convey that knowledge, had thrown into their minds, through the senses, the two essential ideas of God's justice and mercy: his justice, in that the wages of sin is the death of the soul; and his mercy, in that God would pardon the sinner, if he confessed his sin, acknowledged the life of his soul forfeited, and offered the life of the sacrifice as his substitute.

In this manner an idea of the desert of sin was conveyed to the minds of the Jews-God's law honoured; and the utter hostility of the lawgiver to sin clearly manifested; and God's mercy was likewise revealed as stated in the preceding paragraph. Thus in a manner accordant with the circumstances of the Jews, and by means adapted in their operation to the constitution of nature, was the knowledge of God's attribute of justice, and the relation which mercy sustains to that attribute, fully revealed in the world; and in view of the

nature of things it could have been revealed in no other way.*

* Inquiring readers of the Old Testament often find many things announced in the name of God, which must seem to them inconsistent with the majesty of the Divine nature, unless they view those requirements in the light of the inquiry, "What impressions were they adapted to make upon the Jewish mind?" There are but few readers of the Old Testament who read on this subject intelligently. In this remark we do not refer to the historical or preceptive portions of these writings, but to the elements of the Mosaic institution. In order to see the design of many items of the system, we must consider those items as exhibitions to the senses, designed chiefly, perhaps only, to produce right ideas, or to correct erroneous ones then existing, in the minds of the Jews. The inquiry ought not to be, What impressions are they adapted to produce upon our minds concerning God? but, What impression would the particular revelation make upon their minds? An instance or two will illustrate these remarks.

The adaptation to accomplish a necessary end is apparent in the scene at Sinai. The Israelites had been accustomed to an idolatry where the most common familiarities were practised with the idol gods. The idea of reverence and majesty which belongs to the character of God, had been lost, by attaching the idea of divinity to the objects of sense. It was necessary, therefore, that the idea of God should now be clothed, in their minds, with that reverence and majesty which properly belong to it. The scene at Sinai was adapted to produce, and did produce for the time being, the right impression. The mountain was made to tremble to its base. A cloud of darkness covered its summit, from which the lightnings leaped out and thunders uttered their voices. In the words of a New Testament writer, there was "darkness, and blackness, and tempest." It was ordered that neither man nor beast should touch the mountain lest they should be visited with death. The exhibition in all its forms was adapted to produce that sense of majesty and awe in view of the Divine character which the Israelites needed to feel. To minds subjected to the influence of other circumstances than those which affected the character of the Israelites in Egypt, such manifestations might not be necessary: but in the case of the Jews, accustomed as they had been to witness a besotting familiarity with idols, these manifestations were directly adapted to counteract low views of the Divine character, and to inspire the soul with suitable reverence in view of the infinite majesty and eternal power of the Being with whom they had to do.

The testimony of the Bible in relation to the design of the exhibition at Sinai corroborates the views that have been given. "When the people saw it, they removed and stood afar off. And they said unto Moses, Speak thou with us, and we will hear: but

let not God speak with us, lest we die. And Moses said unto the people, Fear not: for God is come to prove you, and that his fear may be before your faces, that ye sin not."-Exodus xx. 18-20.

The scene which occurred afterwards, evinced the necessity of this exhibition, and developed the result of the proof [trial] that was made of their character. In the absence of Moses, they required an image of Jehovah to be made, and they feasted and "played"-this last word having a licentious import-in its presence. Thus, after trial of the strongest exhibitions upon their mind, some of them proved themselves so incorrigibly attached to licentious idolatry that they desired to worship Jehovah under the character of the Egyptian calf. They thus proved themselves unfit material, too corrupt for the end in view; and they were, in accordance with the reason of the case, destroyed.

Another conviction necessary to be lodged in the minds of the Israelites, and impressed deeply and frequently upon their hearts, was faith in the present and overruling God. This was the more necessary, as no visible image of Jehovah was allowed in the camp. There were but two methods possible, by which their minds could be convinced of the immediate presence and power of God controlling all the events of their history. Either such exhibitions must be made that they would see certain ends accomplished without human instrumentality; or, they must see human instrumentality clothed with a power which it is not possible in the nature of things, it should in itself possess. The circumstances connected with the fall of Jericho will illustrate the case. The people were required to surround the city, by a silent procession during seven days, bearing the sacred ark, and blowing with rude instruments which they used for trumpets. On the seventh day, the people were to shout after they had compassed the city seven times; and when they shouted, according to a Divine promise, the walls of the city fell to the ground. Now, here was a process of means in which there was no adaptation to produce the external effect, in order that the INTERNAL effect, the great end of all revelation, might be produced-that they might be taught to recognise Jehovah as the present God of nature and providence, and rest their faith on him.

If the Israelites had, in this case, used the common instrumentalities to secure success-if they had destroyed the wall with instruments of war, or scaled its height with ladders, and thus overcome by the strength of their own arm, or the aid of their own devices, instead of being led to humble reliance upon God, and to recognise his agency in their behalf, they would have seen in the means which they had used a cause adequate to produce the effect, and they would have forgotten the First Cause, upon whose power they were dependent. Second causes were avoided in order that they might see the connexion between the First Cause and the effect produced-human instrumentality stood in abeyance, in order that the Divine agency might be recognised. Thus they were taught to have faith in God, and to rely upon the presence and the power of the Invisible Jehovah.

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CHAPTER IX

CONCERNING THE TRANSITION FROM THE MATERIAL SYSTEM, BY WHICH RELIGIOUS IDEAS WERE CON VEYED THROUGH THE SENSES, TO THE SPIRITUAL SYSTEM, IN WHICH ABSTRACT IDEAS WERE CONVEYED BY WORDS AND PARABLES.

HUMAN language has always advanced from its first stage, in which ideas are acquired directly through the medium of the senses, to the higher state, in which abstract ideas are conveyed by appropriate words and signs. When an idea is once formed by outward objects, and a word formed representing that idea, it is then no longer necessary, or desirable, that the object which first originated the idea should longer be associated in the mind with the idea itself. It is even true that the import of abstract ideas suffers from a co-existence in the mind of the abstract thought with the idea of the object which originated it. Thus the word spirit now conveys a distinct idea to the mind of pure spiritual existence; but the distinctness and power of the idea are impaired, by remembering that the word from which it was derived, originally signified wind, and that the word itself was originated in the first place by the wind. So in other cases; although the ideas of abstract and spiritual things can be originated, primarily, only from outward objects, yet when they have been

originated, and the spiritual idea connected with the sign or word conveying its proper sense, it is desirable, in order to their greatest force and perspicuity, that their connexion with materiality should be broken off in the mind.

In all written languages, this advancement from one stage of perfection to another, by the addition of abstract ideas, can be traced; and experience teaches, incontrovertibly, that the advancement of human language, as above described, and the advancement of human society, are dependent upon each other.

The preceding principles being applied to the subject under consideration, it would follow that the Mosaic machinery, which formed the abstract ideas, conveying the knowledge of God's true Character, would no longer be useful after those ideas were originated, defined, and connected with the words which expressed their abstract or spiritual import. It would follow, therefore, that the machinery would be entirely dispensed with whenever it had answered the entire design for which it was put into operation. Whenever the Jews were cured of idolatry, and had obtained true ideas of the attributes of the true God, then the dispensation of shadows and ceremonies, which "could not make the comers thereunto perfect," would, according to the reason of things, pass away, and give place to a more perfect and more spiritual dispensation.

We find, accordingly, that the machinery of the tabernacle was gradually removed; it never having existed in perfection after the location of the tribes in Palestine. They sojourned in the wilderness until those who had come out of Egypt died. The generation who succeeded them had the advantage of having received their entire education through

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