covery of hell for the enlargement of the world, and the union of the faithful in a beatified life of righteousness and worship-these constitute a picture not unworthy to be set beside the visions of the Ideal Future which are chief among the gifts of Israel to humanity.

The higher prophetic faith, and its sequel in the Psalms, were confronted with a still wider question. It dealt with religion pre-eminently as the shaping and controlling power of life. It was not metaphysical, engaged with the great ontological problems of God and the world. Nor was it psychological, occupied with the phases of personal experience, or ethically concerned in the examination of the contents and operation of the conscience. Its field was action; it sought to interpret the vicissitudes of events; it read the meaning in the shifting scenes of Israel's triumph or Israel's pain. At first, as we have seen, the seer's view was limited to the fortunes of his nation. But as Yahweh rose into the majestic grandeur of the Lord of the world, king of the forces of earth and heaven, the scene of his energy expanded, and the prophet saw the scope of his working correspondingly enlarged. For one power conceived one purpose, and made for one goal. A new sense of the unity of history rose dimly in Israel's mind; the past was no hap-hazard succession of incidents, it was bound together by a continuous thread of moral causation; all its changes were seen continually marching to one end, the establishment of the reign of God over man, as his sovereignty was

already acknowledged by nature. Israel thus became the depository of a great trust for the world's welfare; and to this conception of a divine idea destined to be worked out by the nation for the good of man, the prophetic spirit dedicated itself with enthusiastic devotion. As Vergil, reflecting on the majesty of Rome, told the tale of the pious Eneas and his flight from Troy, linking the faroff anguish of the burning city in one chain of Providential design to the full splendours of Augustan glory, so Hebrew prophecy, with a more impassioned sense of the tears of things,' a more splendid conviction of the divine righteousness, saw the migration of Abraham's clan, the conflicts of tribes, the rise and fall of dynasties, the clash of empires, all pointing to one end, the union of the nations in one vast fellowship of obedience and trust.

This great hope was really begotten historically. It finds its earliest expression in the belief that Israel has been chosen for a peculiar destiny. This was, in fact, its own way of explaining the circumstances of its position. The tribes which quitted the Arabian desert, crossed the Jordan under the banner of Yahweh. They took possession of what Yahweh their God could win for them, just as Ammon must be content with whatever Chemosh its god could secure.1 Their wars were Yahweh's wars; their conquests were Yahweh's victories; their territory was Yahweh's gift. David's empire, so swift in its rise and its decline, is readily brought into the same

1 See ante, p. 189.

P

scheme. The national traditions, the ancestral story, are all organised on this fundamental idea; and the entire sequence from Abraham onwards is pervaded with like faith. Israel's election is thus the theological method of expressing a particular set of historic facts, the possession of the land of Canaan by a group of allied tribes; it describes the inner meaning of the process by which they acquired it. This doctrine is then inserted into a general view of human history; and Abraham is finally connected with the first father of the race. But though one creative power wrought the world, and one providential purpose guided the steps of man, early thought really concentrated this power and this purpose on the welfare of Israel. It was the work of the higher prophecy of the eighth century to break down this limitation. Two penetrating ideas helped this process. The rule of Yahweh over Israel was asserted to be intrinsically moral; it sought not for national glory but for national righteousness; nor did it shrink from using a foreign power as the means of chastisement for this great end. And, secondly, the sovereignty of the heavenly King was not, after all, confined to Israel. If he brought their tribes to Canaan, he led no less the migration of the Philistines from Caphtor, or the Syrians from Kîr. The movements of nations were all under his control, and the events in the great drama of history were divinely planned. Had Hellenic thought been impregnated with kindred faith, what might not

1 Amos 97.

Delphi have discerned in the great conflict between Persia and Greece, what secrets of destiny might not have been won from Marathon and Salamis !

son.

Nothing in truth can exceed the boldness of the seers of Israel. This little mountain people, so insignificant compared with the vast empires of Assyria or Egypt, conceived the idea that it was Yahweh's The travail of creation and humanity all happened for its sake. In so august a relation the first question that rose in the prophet's mind concerned the fitting conduct through which Israel should express its obedience. A pure worship and a life of pious duty summed up the demand. On Israel's unfaithfulness judgment must inevitably descend. But behind the dark shadow of impending doom there is always a light of divine purpose. Critical opinion is not now unanimous as to the authenticity of all the passages in which Isaiah, for example, expresses this great faith.1 faith.1 But enough remains to shew that whether in the form of a righteous remnant, or a regenerated people, eighth century prophecy discerned the fulfilment of Yahweh's intent for the nation. As the generations follow one another, the mighty hope rises and falls; and it changes its outward expression, for it is always conceived in relation to the circumstances of the time. Sometimes the Davidic king stands with heroic personality in the centre; sometimes he fades into the background or even disappears altogether; but the horizon is always more or less clearly bounded

1 For instance, Is. 91-7, 111-9.

by the political powers within the prophet's ken. To this trust a certain passionate strength was given by the doctrine of the inviolability of Jerusalem established with such signal success by Isaiah. The temple on the sacred hill was the earthly counterpart of an ideal sanctuary in heaven where seraphs sang the adoring song 'Holy, holy, holy.' Yet Jeremiah was not afraid to declare its impending fall, as Micah had done before him (comp. Jer. 2628), though in the golden future that rises into vision in the distance Jerusalem is once more the centre to which all nations shall be gathered in homage to the heavenly King.1 This glowing expectation wins splendid utterance in the great ode in Is. 60. Jerusalem, lying prostrate on the ground in gloom and desolation, beholds the dawn of a new day of glory, and responds to the mysterious summons' Arise! Shine!' The gifts of nature and the wealth of nations are lavished on the new sanctuary. What agency has made Zion the religious centre of the world? It is the splendid issue of the work of Yahweh's servant, who takes up the word, 611, 'The spirit of the Lord Yahweh is upon me.' His mission is at last fulfilled. It has been his high task to carry forth the truths of Yahweh's religion to the nations. Despised and forsaken, called even to lay down his life, he nevertheless sees of the travail of his soul and makes many righteous. Israel, that is to say,

1 Whether any portion of 316-18 belongs to Jeremiah himself, is difficult to decide. But 42 and 161 contain the germs of similar hope, though they, also, are not unsuspected.