sublime in their conception and in the vast audience which they
challenged, sublimely pure alike from taint of idolatrous superstition
and of moral evil, profound and far-reaching in their practical effect
upon humanity, which deserve to be so closely associated with the giving
of the Mosaic law that in their collapse it also must be destroyed, as
the fall of one tree sometimes breaks the next. But this narrative
stands out so far in the open, and lifts its head so high, that no other
even touches a bough of it when overturned.

Is it seriously meant to compare the alleged disappearance of Romulus,
or the secret interviews of Numa with his Egeria, to a history like
this? Surely one similar story should be produced, before it is asserted
that such stories are everywhere.

FOOTNOTES:

[33] This phrase is not found elsewhere in the Pentateuch. Is it fancy
which detects in it a desire to remind them of their connection with the
least worthy rather than the noblest of the Patriarchs? One would not
expect, for instance, to read, Fear not, thou worm Abraham, or even
Israel; but the name of Jacob at once calls up humble associations.

[34] This word is the same which occurs in the verse so beautifully but
erroneously rendered "They shall be Mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in
the day when I make up My jewels" (Mal. iii. 17, A.V.). "They shall be
Mine ... in the day that I do make, even a peculiar treasure" (R.V.).

CHAPTER XX.

_THE LAW._

xx. 1-17.

We have now reached that great event, one of the most momentous in all
history, the giving of the Ten Commandments. And it is necessary to
consider what was the meaning of this event, what part were they
designed to play in the religious development of mankind.

1. St. Paul tells us plainly what they did _not_ effect. By the works of
the law could no flesh be justified: to the father of the Hebrew race
faith was reckoned instead of righteousness; the first of their royal
line coveted the blessedness not of the obedient but of the pardoned;
and Habakkuk declared that the just should live by his faith, while the
law is not of faith, and offers life only to the man that doeth these
things (Rom. iv. 3, 6; Gal. iii. 12). In the doctrinal scheme of St.
Paul there was no room for a compromise between salvation by faith and
reliance upon our own performance of any works, even those simple and
obvious duties which are of world-wide obligation.

2. But he never meant to t