ritual sacrifice of Israel there was no element of holiness as we understand it. In the altar sacrifices the people felt that they were giving something of value to God, as it seems likely in the earlier sacrifices they were having a mystic form of communion with God. But the time was sure to come when something more was needed than this sense of separation to express the requirements of human conduct.

As the conception of the holiness of God took on forms that have been permanent among men in the voices of the prophets and singers of the later centuries, we find also that social righteousness assumes new forms. This is the essential reason why fasts and feasts are decried by the prophets. Forms of worship, however noble, are not enough. The exactions of the strong, the tyrannies of the rich, the brutalities of princes and the corruptions of life are denounced in burning words such as might well be used to-day against the sins of modern society. The service of Jehovah must now manifest itself in rectitude of life and in the fulfilment of social obligations.

Ezekiel, priest as he was, shuddered because of the unclean animals that he found in his temple vision, but Zechariah declares that holiness unto the Lord is not a thing which belongs to those ob

jects and services which have been known as sacred. Sanctity is not a property of those things set apart from common use. He looks forward to the time when the things most secular shall become sacred, hence he declares, "In that time shall there be upon the bells of the horses Holiness unto the Lord and the pots in the Lord's house shall be like the bowls before the altar" (Zech. xiv. 20).

Joel, indeed, teaches a future for Jerusalem when both city and temple mountain shall be holy because no strangers shall pass through the streets, but Isaiah sings in nobler terms: "One cried unto another and said, Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of his glory." The priest might deal with ceremonial uncleanness. He might keep the mother out of the sanctuary for a month because the sacred function had unfitted her for worship, but the prophet knew how to sing and how to characterize uncleanness. Purity was to be had not by formal rules but by coming in contact with the Ever-Living and the All-Cleansing God. Life must exhibit a moral heroism. Every religion has to deal with conduct. It prescribes things to be done and things to be left undone, and all these prescriptions were as schoolmasters leading to the higher law. For Isaiah the time came when the clean and the unclean of the traditional law would

no longer serve. Ritual indeed might continue and make itself perfect in future generations, but in the development of conduct men came more and more to long for realities. To deal justly and to love mercy were more than altars and stone. Once again, the rising tide of life found expression through prophetic voices. The law of Jehovah must become ennobled as the character of Jehovah became more fully recognized. It was inevitable that the judge of the whole earth must do right and nothing less than righteousness in man would He exact. Taboo and Totem were servants of the Lord in the beginnings of human conduct. They trained men to discrimination. They aided men to measure fields, to recognize property, to construct homes. But they were servants of the Lord, while men were on the march to the dignity of loftier conceptions. The time was to come when the law of God should reveal itself in a more perfect manner. Not alone in moral precept nor in prophet's scorn, but in the hymns of the people also was this truth to be found. So the spiritual nature of the requirements of God are finally sung: "The law of Jehovah is perfect, restoring the soul. The precepts of Jehovah are right, rejoicing the heart. The fear of Jehovah is clean, enduring forever. The ordinances of Jehovah are true and righteous altogether" (Psa. xix.).

CHAPTER XIII

SOME RESULTANT CONCLUSIONS

THE great body of religious facts contained in the Old Testament can be grouped under a few heads. Besides, these classes of facts show intimate connection. Where facts, whether social or physical, can be grouped, science may arise. Where there are recurrent sequences, it may be conjectured that facts are governed by law. Classes of facts in the same realm of human experience in one social group may be compared with similar classes of facts in another social group. This conclusion shows the possibility of a science of religion.

No one is more aware of the incompleteness of the study presented in this work than the author. Nor is the genetic process in every class of facts clearly evident in every stage of the Hebrew history. May it be asked, however, that possible critics will consider that since the process is shown in these different classes of facts, and in some of them quite completely, the argument for no one of the chapters stands by itself, and the connection of worship, sacred persons, sacred places, and sacred

services, is so intimate that where a process is clearly shown in one of them, it may rightly be presupposed in the other connected systems of facts. In other words, the argument is cumulative.

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A separate study might have been made of the religious laws, but it is scarcely necessary, since they come out in the topics that have been presented. We are accustomed to think of canon and civil law as distinct departments. It was not so among the Hebrews any more than it was among some other ancient peoples, and we must not project too many of our modern ideas backward to the destruction of our historic perspective. The "Law of Moses" became a current phrase in Israel. We have seen the processes of religion grow and there is no doubt that the code grew also. Distinct changes were made in the ritual service and it was completed late in the history. We are able to note the growth of the Sabbath law as though it were under our very eyes. It was not finally formulated until after the books of the Bible were written. Some indications of the growth and changes of law leave room at once for the supposition that the code of Moses grew as the times required. This is true of every living form of law in every land. The code of a state or the statutes of a nation do not cease to remain the central authority