318

BODY AND SOUL.

body which we dread so much as what hurts the soul. Our warfare is not so much in time and in external act, as in the presence of eternity, and in thought and intention of will. It is not by change of place that we draw near, so much as by opening the eyes of our understanding to that which is about our path and about our bed, but which without holiness no man sees. Instead of local temple, we put the power of lifting up pure hands in prayer everywhere. Our sacrifice is not bloodshedding, but consecrating ourselves and our lives to do the will of God. And as His will may often be the subjugation of something evil in us, so our victory must often be over ourselves, or consist simply in yielding. Our most perfect Priest will be He who most thoroughly makes this offering; 'Not my will, but thine.' Our Prophet will not be one who predicts external events, except so far as these are bound up in Divine righteousness, but rather one who utters truths to which the heart makes answer. So our highest King will not be one ruling by might, so much as some representative of a dominion over mind; one who rules by thought, or by truth, or right. And although we believe that they who accept such a spiritual rule, will by meekness give least offence to man, and so inherit any land they are cast upon, yet our inheritance of highest promise must be something which concerns the immortal in us, whether a place of sight, or rather a state of mental fellowship with One who upholdeth our souls in life. All earthly things become sacred to us, in proportion as they are witness or symbols of that which is eternal. Thus, however wonderful the history of the Jews was in itself, we find its higher significance even for outward life in those truths which lay behind its precepts, and for the inner life of the soul, by translating its events into thought, or taking them as signs of mental things, which more truly concern our peace. Not that thus we undo the facts, but we enter into the meaning of the great Spirit who permitted them, just as we learn a man's mind by studying its expression in his conduct. We take the letter

HISTORICAL TENDENCY, DIVINE DESIGN.

319

as a comment on Divine Providence in outward act, and find in the spirit an index to thoughts which concern the soul.

"The promises to Abraham, then, belong, as we think, to whoever reproduces the type of Abraham's faith. The Israel of the future is, in the Divine goodwill, all mankind; and in effect, that company of upright men which suffers itself to be guided by the Divine Spirit. The Messiah, or truly anointed in meaning, is not any one set apart by external ceremony, so much as one consecrated by a gift of power from on high to a holy mission, and fulfilling it with devoted mind. It may be be argued against us, that the language of the Old Testament was not intended by its writers in this largeness of meaning. But we cannot help seeing that there would be a natural tendency for thoughts such as theirs to grow up and enlarge themselves. They could not conceive deeply of goodness and equity in God, but such conceptions, when once put forth, would become extended to all objects capable of benefiting by these Divine attributes, as well as to the persons whose consciousness of them had embraced only a narrower circle of operation. It may be that the human agents or speakers saw but a little way; and so the fullest sense entertained by them may be but human imagery of the Divine plan, which yet extended itself by their means. Their consciousness, however, does not limit the Divine intention, which is not to be measured by what they said, so much as what their sayings tended to, and by what has actually come about in the world. For there is nothing done for good on a large scale, but what the Governor of the world first thought. Now it is manifest that the sayings of the Hebrew prophets have had a large development in fact; and it is upon our spiritual extension of them that the widest belief of the world is being fashioned. And as this actual result is to firm believers in the foresight of the Almighty no slight indication of what He must have designed, so, on finding it evidently better for the welfare of mankind, we judge it most consonant with His goodness; and we assent from goodwill, as well as from

320 KING, PROPHET, PRIEST, IN LETTER AND SPIRIT.

necessity. For what if a powerful Hebrew nation were built up in Palestine, and their king extended his sway over the world? We should be none the better for another great conqueror, nor would an universal monarchy, which must produce all the faults of prosperity in the dominant nation, be any blessing to others, even if it were to themselves. Or what if one or more prophets should give minute pictures of earthly events to come? This would at best gratify mere curiosity, and perhaps impede exertion; thus complicating human affairs, while it would turn our thoughts from things eternal. Or what if priests should offer sacrifices of blood on altars at Jerusalem? We see mankind already grown, under Divine guidance, out of the thought that such a slaying is the truest hallowing in the sight of God. Your case of Sunah-sephas is not uninstructive here. I do not doubt, on comparing the Rig-Veda with the Vishnu Purána, that human sacrifices were practised by your very remote ancestors, and that the story of Sunah-sephas points to a time of their being abolished. Nor is it without meaning that the hymn which promises the release of the human victim is said to have been taught him by Viswamitra. For this is the name of a king who opposed the Brahmanical caste; and it is by a kind of revolt of humanity, under the Spirit of God, against the professional formalism of a priesthood, that steps in the purifying of religion are gained. The Greeks have something of the same kind implied in their story of the princess Iphigenia, who in the older accounts was said to be slain; but as growing humanity revolted at the thought, she was said to have been snatched by Heaven from the altar. So when the Hebrew Abraham was tempted to sacrifice his son, his willingness to surrender to God his dearest was tested, but his fatherly instinct was not shocked, because such offerings of human victims were common in the land. But he was justified, that is, God was well pleased with him, not because of finishing a bloody deed, but because of his faith, and by faith he knew the love of God,

* Romans iv. 3-18: Psalms xl. 6, 7 ; l. 8—14; li. 16: Hebrews xiii. 15, 16.

SACRIFICE IN LETTER AND SPIRIT.

321

and that He is pleased with other sacrifices*. Thus, in many countries we see manslaughter, which had been intended as the offering of the best, giving way first before a higher conception of God our Father; and in most, as in India among yourselves, this improvement continues, until no blood of any animal is shed in worship, but the life of the worshipper is dedicated to welldoing, and the incense of his heart goes up as prayer. Only among barbarous Mlechchas, such as the Khonds, ruder notions find still a more bloody expression.

"But now, how much better for mankind is the Christian growth into that thought and feeling which suggested the Hebrew prophecies, than the Jewish attempt to stand fast by the written law! All nations must be happier in proportion as a dominion of the highest right and goodness extends itself over their thoughts, thereby fulfilling on earth the kingdom of God. All men must become wiser in proportion as a clear mental sight of the Divine laws takes the place of anxiety about external events, and as a speaker of truth in meekness awakening the answer of conscience, and urging the heart to action, is allowed to be emphatically a prophet or forth-teller of the mind of the Heavenly Spirit. So in proportion as we come, with a feeling of the sanctity of life, to do the Divine will in ourselves and to others, we become a spiritual priesthood. These three fulfilments of the king, the prophet, and the priest, whom the old prophets described as having an unction of office, are far better than falling back upon force, or curiosity, or ritual. These also are being fulfilled in event daily, and were therefore the things essentially intended by the Divine author of the drama, however imperfectly the human players understood it.

"What then is the substance of this Christian religion, which we contend to be the natural fulfilment to which the religion of the Jews had a tendency of old? Or, to speak differently, what were the thoughts with which Judaism was pregnant, and which have come to birth in Christianity? We

M. P.

* Hebrews x. 9; xiii. 16.

21

322

CHRISTIAN PRAYER.

HEBREW LAW.

cannot answer this better, than by taking the prayer which all Christians everywhere use, and which expresses the thoughts of the Founder of their faith in His own words. This prayer Jesus Christ taught His followers :

Our Father, which art in heaven,

Hallowed be thy name;

Thy kingdom come;

Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven :

Give us this day our daily bread;

And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them that trespass against us;

And lead us not into temptation,

But deliver us from evil:

For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen.

"The meaning of this prayer will come out more fully, if we look at the principal commandments in which the will of Jehovah was expressed by Moses. They are these:

1. Thou shalt have none other Gods but me.

2. Thou shalt not make images to worship.

3. Thou shalt not lift God's name over falsehood.

4. Keep holy the day of rest.

5. Honour thy father and thy mother.

6. Thou shalt not kill.

7. Thou shalt not commit adultery.

8. Thou shalt not steal.

9. Thou shalt not bear false witness.

10. Thou shalt not desire what is thy neighbour's.

"Like the wise Hindú, who told the Athenians that it was not possible to know human duties without knowing Divine things, you see, Moses begins with the fear of God. His God is the Eternal Being, by whose will all things stand. And as there is no greater sign or cause, than idolatry is, of men's losing the conception of pure Spirit, so this is the first thing jealously forbidden. For this entails a blindness from fathers to children, which degrades nations both in worship and righteousness. But where there is a pure mental conception of our