that their tenacious
fingers have hold of a _form_, not yet the spirit. Yet this is an immense
gain.

By and by this is the pedigree: A man, a family, tribes, a nation, a
strong nation, a broken nation, a literature, ragged remnants of a nation,
an ideal the like of which could not be found anywhere on earth, and a
_book_ embodying that ideal written as with acid-point in metal, as with
sharpest chisel in hardest stone.

At last a start was made. God had gotten a hook inside man's will to
which He could tie His tether, and _draw_, lovingly, tenderly,
tenaciously, persistently, _draw_ up out of the mire, toward the
highlands, toward Himself.

<u>The First Touches on the Canvas.</u>

This old Hebrew picture is found to be a mosaic made up of bits gathered
here and there, scattered throughout the Book. Some of the bits are of
very quiet sober colors found in obscure corners. Others are bright. When
brought together all blend into one with wondrous, fine beauty. The first
bit is of grave hue. It comes at the very beginning. There is to be sharp
enmity, then a crisis, resulting in a fatal wound for the head of evil,
with scars for the victor.

After this earliest general statement there are three distinct groups or
periods of prediction regarding the coming One. During the making of the
nation, during its high tide of strength and glory under David and his
son, during the time of its going to pieces. As the national glory is
departing, the vision takes on its most glorious coloring. The first of
these is during the making of the nation. As the man who is to be father
of the chosen family is called away from his kinfolk to a preparatory
isolation, he is cheered with the promise that his relationship is to be a
relationship of leadership and of great blessing _to the whole earth_.
This is repeated to his son and to his grandson, as each in turn becomes
head of the family. As his grandson, the father of the twelve men whose
names become the tribe names, is passing away he prophetically sees the
coming leadership narrowed to Judah, through whom the great Leader is to
come.

Later yet, in a story of divination and superstition characteristic of the
time, a strange prophet is hired by an enemy to pronounce a curse upon the
new nation. This diviner is taken possession of by the Spirit of God, and
forced to utter what is clearly against his own mercenary desires. He sees
a coming One, in the future, who is to smite Isra