ritical.
The question of Christian or not Christian brooked no delay. The Son of
man was nigh, at the doors. Even after swift vengeance had overtaken the
doomed city of Jerusalem, the urgent cry was still the same. In the
so-called "Epistle of Barnabas," in the "Pastor of Hermas," and in the
priceless treasure recently brought to light, "The Teaching of the
Twelve Apostles," the two ways are described: the way of life and the
way of death. Those who professed and called themselves Christians were
warned to make the right choice. It was no time for facing both ways,
and halting between two opinions.

Moses too refused and chose. This is the second scene in the history of
the man. Standing as he did at the fountain-head of nationalism, the
prominence assigned to his act of individual choice and rejection is
very significant. Before his days the heirs of the promise were in the
bond of God's covenant in virtue of their birth. They were members of
the elect family. After the days of Moses every Israelite enjoyed the
privileges of the covenant by right of national descent. They were the
elect nation. Moses stands at the turning point. The nation now absorbs
the family, which becomes henceforth part of the larger conception. In
the critical moment between the two, a great personality emerges above
the confusion. The patriarchal Church of the family comes to a
dispensational end in giving birth to a great man. That man's personal
act of refusing the broad and choosing the narrow way marks the birth of
the theocratic Church of nationalism. Before and after, personality is
of secondary importance. In Moses for a moment it is everything.

Do we seek the motives that determined his choice? The Apostle mentions
two, and they are really two sides of the same conception.

_First_, he chose to be evil-entreated with the people of God. The work
of his life was to create a spiritual nation. This idea had already been
presented to his mind before he refused to be called the son of
Pharaoh's daughter. "He was instructed in all the wisdom of the
Egyptians; and he was mighty in his words and works."[285] But an idea
had taken possession of him. That idea had already invested the
miserable and despised bondsmen with glory. Truly no man will achieve
great things who does not pay homage to an idea, and is not ready to
sacrifice wealth and position for the sake of what is as yet only a
thought. He who sells the world for an idea is not far fr