l and spiritual religion discovered to the nobler
natures of Israel the very ideals which they and their fathers had long
been strenuously seeking. These heathen were worshipping the same source
and standard of goodness before which they themselves had been doing
homage. A new sense of human brotherhood stirred within the exclusive
race, and with it the perception that there is one Father of all men.
Religion threw off all lingering polytheistic notions and soared to the
vision of One God. Monotheism dates as a clear consciousness from this
era.[51] It was saved from becoming an abstract, philosophic conception,
merging good and evil in a common source, by the stern ethical dualism of
the Persians. Though there be but one God, who is ultimately to triumph
over all evil, yet, said these Persians, evil is a present power in
creation, organized and active, waging constant warfare with the powers of
goodness. Earth is the scene of the battle between light and darkness, in
which each man must play his part, for weal or for woe.

These high ethical and religious conceptions were nourished from the deeps
of sorrow out of which the people cried bitterly to God. Their nation was
crushed, their homes were broken up, and they themselves were captives in
a strange land. Israel might have said,

A deep distress hath humanized my soul.

All tender and gracious and holy humanities sprang forth from the hard
Hebrew nature under this deep distress. The national ideal changed wholly.
The old dream of a puissant king passed from the minds of the better men,
and we hear little of it thenceforth in the writings of the nation. In the
place of it arose the vision of the Righteous, Suffering, Servant of
God--the Nation trained in the school of sorrow for a sacrificial mission,
and charged to lead the peoples of the earth into the knowledge of the
Eternal, who loveth righteousness.

As the crown and consummation of religion, the holy hope of life beyond
the grave dawned in this night of suffering, gleaming toward the day of
Him who brought life and immortality to light.[52]

Around this deepening and enriching life the remarkable body of the
prophetic-priestly system was fashioned, as the law of the new nation when
it should gain once more the old home. It looked to the formation of a
holy people; through its minute direction of the daily life, its
sacrificial symbolism charged with spiritual significances, its sacred
books for the inst