f
contemporary history; and there is scarcely any fact in history better
established.

The light comes to us from the Gospel. This light did not appear as a
sudden and absolutely new illumination. It had cast pale gleams on the
soul of the heathen in their search after the unknown God; it had shone
apart upon that strange and glorious people which bears the name of
Israel. Israel had preserved the primitive light encompassed by
temporary safe-guards. It was the flame of a lamp, too feeble to live in
the open air, and which remained shut up in a vase, until the moment
when it should have become strong enough to shine forth from its
shattered envelope upon the world. The worship of Jehovah is a local
worship; but this worship, localized for a time, is addressed to the
only and sovereign God. To every nation which says to Israel as Athaliah
to Joash:

I have my God to serve--serve thou thine own,[14]

Israel replies with Joash:

Nay, Madam, but my God is God alone;
Him must thou fear: thy God is nought--a dream![15]

Israel does not affirm merely that the God of Israel is the only true
God, but affirms moreover that the time will come when all the earth
will acknowledge Him for the only and universal Lord. A grand thought, a
grand hope, is in the soul of this people, and assures it that all
nations shall one day look to Jerusalem. Its prophets threaten, warn,
denounce chastisements, predict terrible catastrophes; but in the midst
of their severer utterances breaks forth ever and again the song of
future triumph:

Uplift, Jerusalem, thy queenly brow:
Light of the nations, and their glory, thou![16]

Thus is preserved in the ancient world the knowledge of God amongst an
exceptional people, amidst the darkness of idolatry and the glimmerings
of an imperfect wisdom. And not only is it preserved, but it shines with
a brightness more and more vivid and pure. The conception of sovereignty
which constitutes its foundation, is crowned as it advances by the
conception of love. At length He appears by whom the universal Father
was to be known of all.

Have you not remarked the surprising simplicity with which Jesus speaks
of His work? He speaks of the universe and of the future as a lawful
proprietor speaks of his property. The field in which the Word shall be
sown is the world. He introduces that worship in spirit and in truth
before which all barriers shall fall. He knows that humanit