widow, and loveth the stranger, in giving him food and raiment. Love ye therefore the stranger; for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt. Thou shalt fear Jehovah thy God, him shalt thou serve; and to him shalt thou cleave, and by his name shalt thou swear. He is thy praise, and he is thy God, that hath done for thee these great and terrible things, which thine eyes have seen. Thy fathers went down into Egypt with three score and ten persons; and now Jehovah thy God hath made thee as the stars of heaven for multitude.'

The command to love Jehovah, thus amplified, consists in two requirements which constitute the whole law, the

Holiness and Right

eousness.

requirements of holiness and righteousness, two aspects of one matter. Holy means set apart, made sacred, consecrated to God; it applies to sacred land, buildings, utensils, which may be used only for purposes of worship. Jehovah chose Israel, set her apart as a peculiar people, made her holy unto himself; and Aaron, because a priest, is termed the holy one of Jehovah. As applied to God, the word denotes his height and aloofness, his purity from sin, his separateness from all contamination of wickedness or impotence, his sacredness unto his own nature; more metaphysically speaking, his essential Godhead.' But righteousness in God is his efficient Godhead, his might, his power of righteousness, which as the active manifestation of his holiness, brings back the world to a state of holiness to him. Righteousness in man, in Israel, means conduct pursuant to Jehovah's righteous will, accordant with Jehovah's holy nature; it means that conduct which accords with consecration to an essentially holy and manifestly righteous God. It is the active, efficient side of Israel's consecration to Jehovah.

Ancient religions largely consisted of formal observance whereby the worshipper maintained his due relationship to his god, in order that his god might reciprocate 1 Deut. x, 12-22. 'Psalms cvi, 16. 3 See Isaiah vi. 4 See ante, p. 134.

with benefit and protection. They all conceived of holy things, sacred to the god, and of certain acceptable or holy acts on the part of his votaries; even some of his votaries might as priests be altogether devoted to his service. Likewise in all ancient religions there would be some conception of righteousness, that is, of a positive line of conduct on the part of the worshippers among themselves and towards other men which should be pleasing to the god. These conceptions of right conduct often remained limited to the narrow reciprocity existing between the god and his worshippers. If the worshipper rendered the god his due of rite and sacrifice, the god would remain favorable; and if the worshipper refrained from injuring other worshippers of the god, he satisfied the god's demand of right conduct. Mankind outside the circle were not under the protection of the god. But Jehovah was God over all men, and a God of righteousness absolute and universal, and the righteousness he looked for in his people not only consisted in his worship and called for an extension of kindness to those of the community most needing it, the widow, the fatherless, and the dumb beast, but demanded a universalizing of right conduct towards all mankind. This is the teaching of the law as well as prophets. Jehovah "regardeth not persons, nor taketh reward; he doth execute the judg ment of the fatherless and the widow, and loveth the stranger." Therefore injustice to any man, Israelite or heathen, is an act of unrighteousness before Jehovah, a sin against him. Here is a demand of positive universal righteousness. And the ethics of the law call for justice as well as acts of mercy, forbid vengeance, and culminate in the command, "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." To be sure, Jehovah permitted distinctions between Israel and the outside world, and though he demanded of his people justice towards all men,' he did

'Lev. xix, 18. See also generally Lev. xix, and xxv, and Deut. passim. Deut. xxiv, 17.

not command them to act towards other nations, in such fullness of love and charity as among themselves; the religion of Jehovah was not Christianity.'

Such was the universal, absolute nature of the righteousness which Jehovah in his law demanded of his people. The more peculiar requirements of the The Ritual. 'law come rather within the compass of Jehovah's demand that Israel should remain as he had chosen her to be, a people set apart unto him, sanctified, holy. But to be holy unto Jehovah required a zealous devotion of such character as should accord with Jehovah's holiness, his purity, his absolute sinlessness. Only by striving to preserve in the community such qualities as these, could Israel hope to maintain toward her God the right relationship of chosen worshipper consecrated to his service. Jehovah was pure and sinless; so must Israel be; or rather, since no community can remain free from sin, she must be ever striving to purify herself and atone for sin, and keep herself in right relation towards her God. To this end were the requirements of Israel's ritual, the carefully discriminated institution of the priesthood—a holier and mediating Israel within Israel,'-the members of which should be of a certain lineage' and should maintain themselves spotless by cleansing ceremonial, by abstention from strong drink,' by avoidance of unchaste defilement; to this end, with a view to periodical purification and renovation, were the weekly Sabbaths, the Sabbath months, and Sabbath years; to this end, the careful definings of the forms of temple service-the

1 E. g., Israelites were forbidden to take usury of Israelites, Exodus xxii, 25; Deut. xxiii, 19; or to take Israelites as bondservants. They should buy bondsmen of the nations round about, Lev. xxv, 39 cf. Ex. xxi, 2, Likewise there was no duty to redeem a stranger from bondage, but only a near of kin. See Lev. xxv, 47, etc.

etc.

2 See Ewald, Antiquities, p. 269, 271.

3 Priesthood limited to Aaron and his sons, Ex. xxix, 9; viii-x.

Before entering the sanctuary, Lev. x, 9. This shut off much of bestial Canaanitish revelry.

5 See Lev. xviii, xxi, xxii.

6 See Ewald, Antiquities, p. 337, etc.

service of the temple where Jehovah dwelt

and of the

many forms of sacrifice, thank-offerings, and guilt-offerings. The religion of Jehovah, though spiritual, had its formal accompaniments, of value in keeping the people obedient and minded towards their God. It never was a principle of Jehovah's religion that form, sacrifice of a bullock for example, would of itself atone for wilful guilt or purify an unrepentant man. An offering might atone for an unwitting sin,' but to atone for any wilful sin, as fraud or violence, there must be restitution and confession; after which a guilt-offering might be accepted by a forgiving God.' Men who are careful of religious forms, tend to rely on them; thus the religion becomes unspiritual, immoral, corrupt. Against such corruption the prophets cried out. But in Israel a strong reason for scrupulous form and ritual lay in the need of keeping Jehovah's religion distinct from Canaanitish rites; and hence in Deuteronomic times sacrifices were forbidden on the “high places" where worshippers confused Jehovah with Baal. Deuteronomy enjoins sacrifice at Jerusalem alone, in order to avoid heathen influences. And from this time on, the ritual was recognized as a means of keeping Jehovah's religion pure.

So it came that ritual, the visible form of the religion, attained special sanctity, and the details became essential; to violate them was a sin. This is the Levitical standpoint. The corruption lay in recognizing the forms as saving in themselves without regard to the worshipper's spiritual state, of unrepentant wickedness it might be. But aside from such corruption, the forms of Israel's 1 Ex. xxv, 8. 3 See Num. v, 7; Lev. vi, 1–7. 4 In periods when intent is clearly distinguished from outward act, there may be consciousness of distinction between the righteous heart and the ceremonial act. But primitive thought does not make this distinction, a consciousness of which may come only with recognition of inconsistency between the character of God, as the higher thought of the community at length conceives him, and the conduct of those who comply with the ceremonial requirements of the religion.

2 Num. xv, 27.

5 xii, 11-14; xvi, 5, 6.

religion, the rites and festivals and sacrifices, became an endeared expression of her devoted, minute, and allobserving obedience to her God; it was one expression of her love, and if to many Israelites it became more than form, more than expression, verily the thing itself, it was also inseparable from holiness of conduct, and awakened holiest devotion of the heart, the eager observance of the loved law of a loving God, such as finds voice in the one hundred and nineteenth psalm. If in that psalmist's mind Jehovah's commands of mercy and justice stood on no higher plane than Jehovah's commands of worship and sacrifice, it was far from his heart to pass over any portion of the law which came from an holy and righteous God. The ritual covered many secondary matters not to be overlooked by a people set on keeping itself clean and pure, holy before a sinless God. But the main Him Only element of Israel's holiness, the essence if not the sum of her right relation as chosen worshipper and devoted servant, was that she should worship and pray to Jehovah alone, as the one and only God, and serve him and cleave to him alone, and abjure all thoughts of other gods,' and keep herself in the condition of due humility and adoring reverence towards Jehovah and his name. "I am Jehovah. Sanctify yourselves, and be ye holy," pure and spotless, free from sin, free from defilement. "I am Jehovah, and ye shall not profane my holy name; but I will be hallowed among the children of Israel; I am Jehovah which hallow you, that brought you out of the land of Egypt, to be

Shalt Thou
Serve

'The Israelite who serves other gods, shall be stoned, Deut. xvii, 5; his kin shall not conceal or spare him; but the hand of his nearest kin shall stone him first of all, and afterwards the hand of all the people, Deut. xiii, 9. Marriages with the heathen nations of Canaan are prohibited, Deut. vii, 3; see xx, 16-18. Let the Israelites follow no prophet bidding them serve other gods, though he do signs and wonders and they come to pass; "for Jehovah your God proveth you to know whether ye love Jehovah your God with all your heart and with all your soul." Deut. xiii, 3.

2 Lev. xx, 7.