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Others might conceive them to have arisen rather through the forces of expe- rience and conscience; say, to have been suggested in part by observation of what the Almighty had done before, or to have been foreboded by a feeling of the righteousness which must run through the eternal counsels; and so to be bound up with a £Ekith in the unseen, with a moral instinct, and with a trust in the AUholy ; yet by no means therefore to be dissociated from earthly affections, or even from misconceptions as to the events and persons through which the eternal truth should find its way to fulfilment. Such differences of view as to the ancient predic- tions need not, I say, destroy their moral significance, which might even come out more strongly with the second view than with the first. Again, if a great lesson of Divine providence were taught us in the way I have imagined, we should not be at all disturbed by errors of human agency, or even by short- comings in the sacred records through which the lesson was derived to us. We should not care whether India was rightly described as having nine dwtpas (circles) and seven chains of mountains, or whether it had more or less. For we could con- ceive such things indifferent to goodness of life, and the know- ledge of them left to natural means ; while, again, the more important truths of justice and mercy and soberness would find an echo firom that which is holiest within us ; and this internal witness would not be easily persuaded that the things most vital to itself depended on external accidents, or that the great Author of our holiest thoughts could ever be found a liar. Such disso- ciation of the eternal truth from its temporal or written vehicle, would be still more justified, in proportion as the sacred record should all along put the Divine wisdom above its human dis- ciples, and make the diviner breathing of godliness a thing bat slightly connected with pride or even strengh of intellect. Only of course there must be a ruling forethought in the history, and a true or blessed result arrived at in its course ; otherwise there PABSIS. GIPSIES. HEBREWS. S07 would be no lesson taught by it Do 70a ondeistimd what I have been saying?" ^' Certainly I do,** answered Sad&nanda. ** You are fiimiliar/* resumed Blancombe, " with the Parsfs of Bombay. They are descended from the Persians who took refuge in India when the first flood of Mahometanism swept over their country. They retain their ancient faith and its symbols, with books and rites, which however they hardly understand. Again, you may have heard of the gipsies, a people of Hindd affinity, who seem to have been displaced in some of the commotions which attended the conquests of Zingis Khan, or of Timur, and who, finding the nations of the West too firmly settled to make room for them, have wandered through Europe, with no fixed home. They are probably the latest in- stance of the old tendency of nations to migrate firom the East ; but time and place did not allow them to find room. But there is another people, of whom specimens may be found in India, though perhaps you know less of them. They have an ancient fiedth, and books of their own, like the Parsfs ; and they are for the most part wanderers, with no national home, like the gipsies: I mean now the Jews, or descendants of the ancient Hebrews. They often adopt customs either natural to the countries in which they dwell, or forced upon them by the necessities of trade, and its ingrained habits. In so far, however, as they remain true to their ancient genius, they have a faith embodied in sacred books, which they call the Law, the Prophets, and the Scriptures, and which are grouped together as the Old Testament. In these books is a history of this kind. About nineteen centuries before Christ, there was a Hebrew, named Abraham, who became divinely impressed with the evils of idolatry, and of all impurity in worship or in life. The only true and eternal God spake to him in whatever way God who is Spirit can speak to man encompassed with flesh and blood, and bade him leave a land of unholy rites, and go forth in hope, though it were to dwell as a pilgrim among strangers, promising to be with him and his seed. ' Fear not, Abraham, 20—2 308 ABRAHAM. ISRAEL. said the Lord, I am thy shield, and exceeding great reward.' Accordingly Abraham obeyed, his heart and conscience, I sup- pose, witnessing to him that the pure service of God was better than any earthly gain ; and this faith of his in shaking off lower attractions, where the love of a holy God or any duty might be against them, is a sort of model, after which true men in all ages should shape themselves. By doing so they partake the mind of Abraham, and may be called mentally his children, whether they are of his blood or not. Nor need we doubt, that since the true G^d is eternal, therefore such promises as He made to Abraham must for ever come true in fit measure to whoever in love of things unseen, or in faithfulness to the call of duty, vanquishes any temptation to do wrong. First, how- ever, the promise was to be made good to the natural heirs of Abraham's body, so far as they came within the mental con- dition of it. Therefore, according to the history, God by won- derful methods brought them out of bondage in Egypt, and gave them the land of Canaan, just as He gave India to the Aryan tribes. Out of the power of the t}Tant Pharaoh, through the sea and through the wilderness, across the river Jordan, and through many enemies, God led the victorious ranks of tlie people, who had been slaves, into cities which they had not builded, and gave them the fields to till, over which their ancestors had wandered as strangers with their tents. Such a deliverance and triumph would naturally take strong hold of the imagination of the people, and accordingly became the theme of many famous songs, whicli were both expressions of the feeling of the nation, and chants in honour of the God who had preserved it. For to the Israelites* was given the true feeling that nothing happened to them by chance, but that the God who doeth wondrous things had in His eternal counsels brought about wliat they seemed to win by sword or spear, and that His name must be honoured among them in truth. * The name ffebrewt Beema to mark the race ; Israel the people in its religioui aspect, and Ja^h nearly synonymous, but less usual. Jewish meant properly belonging to the kingdom of Judah. MOSAIC LAW. 309 " But the Giver of our lives is also their Master and their Judge. So in raising up Moses as a deliverer of the Israelites, €rod made him also their lawgiver. In the famous law of Moses are some things taken from that wisdom of the Egyptians* in which Moses was learned; there are some merely temporary, and regulations of ritual or convenience; but there are also wrapt up in the precepts unchangeable truths, such as should enter into the life of every man, and the law of every nation. These main truths are chiefly in the Ten Commandments, of which I shall speak hereafter. There are also appointed sacri- fices of animals, not as the most perfect or final mode of worship, but partly as witnesses that all life is the gift of God, and that its service is due to Him in whatever way He may please to employ it ; partly as symbols of devout penitence, by which the ofierer should express his contrition for sin, and acknowledge his own life to be forfeit, if God were severe to exact the utter- most ; and again, some sacrifices were mere expressions of joyftil thanksgiving, and might be eaten both in homage to the Giver of all good things, and in participation both with the priests as ministers of God, and with the poor who might have need. There are also in the law of Moses many purifying rites, such as Hindtis should readily understand, intended to take away any stain, or rather, as I should say, to express and keep alive a mental carefulness both as to holiness and cleanliness. Through- out the law there runs a constant acknowledgment of the Eternal Grod as the source of all right : and many duties to the poorf, to the slave, to the vanquished, the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow, are taught in His Name. The neighbour's beast must not be suffered to lie under his burthen without helping him. The harvest is not to be reaped without some sparing for the poor gleaner.