amaria, nor yet at
Jerusalem, shall men worship the Father," to the exclusion of any other
spot on earth; the real temple of the living God is now the heart of
man. The _Holiness_ of God was an idea too lofty for human thought to
grasp at once. The light of God's ineffable purity was too bright and
dazzling to burst at once on human eyes. Therefore it was gradually
displayed. The election of a chosen seed in Abraham's race to a nearer
approach to God than the rest of pagan humanity; the announcement of the
Decalogue at Sinai amidst awe-inspiring wonders; the separation of a
single tribe to the priestly office, who were dedicated to, and purified
in an especial manner for the service of the tabernacle; the
sanctification of the High-priest by sacrifice and lustration before he
dared to enter "the holiest place"--the presence-chamber of Jehovah: and
then the direct and explicit teaching of the prophets--were all
advancing steps by which the Jewish mind was lifted up to the clearer
apprehension of the holiness of God, the impurity of man, the distance
of man from God, and the need of Mediation.

The ideas of _Redemption_ and _Salvation_--of atonement, expiation,
pardon, adoption, and regeneration--are unique and _sui-generis_. Before
these conceptions could be presented in the fullness and maturity of the
Christian system, there was needed the culture and education of the ages
of Mosaic ritualism, with its sacrificial system, its rights of
purification, its priestly absolution, and its family of God.[850]
Redemption itself, as an economy, is a development, and has
consequently, a history--a history which had its commencement in the
first Eden, and which shall have its consummation in the second Eden of
a regenerated world. It was germinally infolded in the first promise,
gradually unfolded in successive types and prophecies, more fully
developed in the life, and sayings, and sufferings of the Son of God,
and its ripened fruit is presented to the eye of faith in the closing
scenic representations of the grand Apocalypse of John. "Judaism was not
given as a perfect religion. Whatever may have been its superiority over
surrounding forms of worship, it was, notwithstanding, a provisional
form only. The consciousness that it was a preparatory, and not a
definite dispensation, is evident throughout. It points to an end beyond
itself, suggests a grander thought than any in itself; its glory
precisely consists in its constant look