at it
has given its life-blood as a ransom for humanity, and is ever bringing
new sacrifices for its cause.

Only because it has kept itself distinct as a priest-people among the
nations could it carry out its great task in history; and only if it
remains conscious of its priestly calling and therefore maintains itself
as the people of God, can it fulfill its mission. Not until the end of
time, when all of God's children will have entered the kingdom of God, may
Israel, the high-priest among the nations, renounce his priesthood.

Chapter LI. Israel, the People of the Law, and its World Mission

1. Judaism differs from all the ancient religions chiefly in its
intrusting its truth to the whole people instead of a special priesthood.
The law which "Moses commanded us is an inheritance of the Congregation of
Jacob,"(1129) is the Scriptural lesson impressed upon every Jew in early
childhood. As soon as the Torah passed from the care of the priests into
that of the whole nation, the people of the book became the priest-nation,
and set forth to conquer the world by its religious truth. This aim was
expressed by all the prophets beginning with Moses, who said: "Would that
all the Lord's people were prophets, that the Lord would put His spirit
upon them."(1130) The prophetic ideal was that "they shall all know Me
(God), from the least of them unto the greatest of them,"(1131) and that
"all thy (Zion's) children shall be taught of the Lord."(1132) After the
people came to realize that the Law was "their wisdom and understanding in
the sight of the peoples,"(1133) they soon felt the hope that one day "the
isles shall wait for His teaching,"(1134) and confidently expected the
time when "many peoples shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the
mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; and He will teach
us of His ways, and we will walk in His paths, for out of Zion shall go
forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem."(1135) Once
liberated from the dominance of the priesthood, religion became the
instrument of universal instruction, the factor of general spiritual and
moral advancement. In addition it endowed humanity with an educational
ideal, destined to regenerate its moral life far more deeply than Greek
culture could ever do. The object was to elevate all classes of the people
by the living word of God, by the reading and expounding of the Scripture
for the dissemination of its truth amon