ot so. And Paul (Hebrews viii. 6, 7) alleges the
imperfection of Moses' law as a good reason for the introduction of a
better covenant. The Bible itself then recognizes an advance from good
to better, the path of the just shining more and more unto the perfect
day.

But then it is asked, Is God the Author of an imperfect law? Could God
give a defective code of morals? The question entirely misses the design
of God's revelation as a process of educating his children. Suppose we
ask, Could God speak Hebrew--a language so defective in philosophical
terms? God must condescend to the mental, and even, in some degree, to
the moral level of mankind if he is to reach us at all. All education
must begin low, and rise from step to step. The A, B, C of morals must
be first learned. The whole analogy of providence shows this to be God's
method of procedure. The kingdom of God is like the growing seed; first
the blade, then the ear, then the full corn in the ear. Gradual, and
even slow, progress is the law of nature.

Our modern civilization, which is so proudly invoked, is very far indeed
from any such perfection as might enable us to look down upon Moses'
legislation with contempt. We have only to name our standing armies and
conscriptions; our national promises to pay debts, which no one ever
expects to pay; our laws regarding drunkenness, and our revenues derived
from the licenses for the sale of liquors; the utter failure of our
attempts to put down betting, gambling, and stock and gold speculations,
prostitution, bribery, frauds, and plundering of the public funds; to
convince ourselves that there are many things law can not do, even in
this nineteenth century of civilization.

Our little progress, such as it is, has not been made all at once, or by
one great advance. God gives mankind blessings by degrees. He gave the
mariner's compass to the fourteenth century, the printing press and
America to the fifteenth, the Bible in the vulgar tongue to the
sixteenth, parliamentary government to the seventeenth, the steam
engine to the eighteenth, railroads and the telegraph to the nineteenth.
One might as well cavil at his providence for not giving the Hebrews
sewing machines, Hoe's printing presses, and daily newspapers, when they
entered into Canaan, as for delaying to give them the elements of
Christian civil law, and social life, before they were able to value and
to use them.

As it was, Moses' law was so far in advance of th