seen in him are
the strongest of all; the world exists for nothing else but to
realise them, and everything that stands opposed to them, whether in
Israel or in any other nation, must go down before them. It is in
this way that the conclusion is reached that Jehovah is the only God.
The moral ideal must be one. The whole of the religion of the
prophets is governed by moral considerations. God asks from man
nothing but goodness; the true sacrifices are those of the heart and
conduct. Man's intercourse with God is to be kept up as that of an
affectionate human relationship, into which no motives either of
force or of commerce enter. Although God is so just and holy, he is
perfectly placable, and ready to greet the approaches which are made
to him. It is absurd to spend so much money and toil on sacrifice,
when the happiest relations with God can be attained so much more
simply. God forgives without any sacrifice; his love and his desire
to meet with love surpass all that human relationships can show; his
constancy is like that of the returning seasons, or of the stars. He
yearns over Israel as a father over a wayward son, and will leave
nothing undone that he can do to bring his son back to him. He will
alter all his former plans to bring about that result. He will change
man's nature, and give him a new heart, if nothing short of that will
suffice; or he will change his own procedure entirely, and deal with
man not by way of commandments, but by way of inspiration, placing
his law in man's inward part, writing it in his heart, so that the
great union of God and man may be attained, which he desires.

Individualism of the Prophetic Teaching.--Here we must pause to
notice another great advance which the prophets have been led to make
in religious knowledge. Their view of Jehovah as a purely moral
being, and of man's relation to him as a moral relation, like that
between two human beings who have to live together, such as a husband
and wife or a father and son, makes religion less a matter for the
people as a body, more a matter for the individual. When religion is
carried on by public sacrifices and stately festivals and ceremonies,
then it is the people as a whole that transacts with God, and the
individual need feel no great weight of responsibility in the matter.
But if God asks for love, if he says he does not care for sacrifice,
but insists on love and devotion, and rather than not have it will
work a miracle on man