ologian, it is the petrifaction of what is meant to develop
and expand, the solidification of the inadequate, the accepting of what
is human as our idea of the divine.

Nor will it long continue to be merely inadequate. Experience proves
that ideas, like air and water, cannot be confined without stagnating.
Idolatries not only fail to develop, they degenerate; and systems,
however orthodox they may appear at starting, which connect worship with
palpable imagery, are doomed to sink into superstition.

To this precept there is added a startling and painful caution--"For I
the Lord thy God am a jealous God." That a man should be jealous is no
passport to our friendship: we think of unreasonable estrangements,
exaggerated demands, implacable and cruel resentments. It would not
enter the average mind to doubt that one is highly praised when another
says of him, 'I never traced in his words or actions the slightest stain
of jealousy.' And yet we are to think of God Himself as the jealous God.

Upon reflection, however, we must admit that a man is not condemned as
jealous-minded because he is capable of jealousy, but because he has an
unjust and unreasonable tendency towards it. It is a narrowing and
suspicious quality when it operates without due cause, a vindictive and
cruel one when it operates in excessive measure. But what should we
think of a parent who felt no jealousy if the heart of his child were
stolen from him by intriguing servants or by frivolous comrades? Now,
God has called Israel His son, even His firstborn. The truth is that
with us jealousy is dangerous and frequently perverted, because we are
bad judges of the measure of our own rights, especially when our
affections are involved. But some measure of jealousy is the necessary
pain of love neglected, love wronged or slighted by those upon whom it
has a claim. Jealousy is the shadow thrown where the sunshine of love is
intercepted, and it is strong in proportion to the strength of the
light. It operates in the heart exactly like the sense of justice in the
reason. Justice expects a recompense where it has given service, and
jealousy asks for love where it has given affection.

And therefore, when God tells us that He is jealous, He implies that He
condescends to love us, to look for a return, to desire more from us
than outward service. We cannot be jealous concerning things which are
indifferent to us. Even the jealousy of rival competitors for business
o