e earlier
and later Judaism. During the ages of the old covenant Judaism was a
living moral force. It gave birth to a peculiar type of heroes and
saints. Speaking of Judaism in the widest possible meaning, David and
Isaiah, as well as Samuel and Elijah, are its children. These men were
such heroes of religion that the saints of the Christian Church have not
dwarfed their greatness. But it is one of the traits of a living
religion to forget the past, or rather to use it only as a
stepping-stone to better things. It forgets the past in the sense in
which St. Paul urges the Philippians to count what things were gain a
loss, and to press on, forgetting the things which are behind, and
stretching forward to the things which are before. Religion lives in its
conscious, exultant power to create spiritual heroes, not in looking
back to admire its own handiwork. The only religion among men that lives
in its founder is Christianity. Forget Christ, and Christianity ceases
to be. But the life of Mosaism was not bound up with the memory of
Moses. Otherwise we may well suppose that idolatry would have crept in,
even before Hezekiah found it necessary to destroy the brazen serpent.

When we come down to the times of John the Baptist and our Lord, Mosaism
is to all practical ends a dead religion. The great movers of men's
souls came down upon the age, and were not developed out of it. The
product of Judaism at this time was Pharisaism, which had quite as
little true faith as Sadduceeism. But when a religion has lost its power
to create saints, men turn their faces to the great ones of olden times.
They raise the fallen tombstones of the prophets, and religion is
identical with hero-worship. An instance of this very thing may be seen
in England to-day, where Atheists have discovered how to be devout, and
Agnostics go on a pilgrimage! "We are the disciples of Moses," cried the
Pharisees. Can any one conceive of David or Samuel calling himself a
disciple of Moses? The notion of discipleship to Moses does not occur in
the Old Testament. Men never thought of such a relation. But it is the
dominant idea of Judaism in the time of Christ. Hence it was brought
about that he who was the servant and friend appears in the New
Testament as the antagonist. "For the Law was given by Moses; grace and
truth came by Jesus Christ."[281] This is opposition and rivalry. Yet
"this is that Moses which said unto the children of Israel, A Prophet
shall God rai