tions which God had made in the Old
Testament of himself, of the course of his providence, and of his
purposes towards the human family. The _unity of God_, especially, is
assumed as a truth so firmly established in the national faith of the
Jews, that the doctrine of our Lord's deity, and that of the Holy
Spirit, can be taught without the danger of its being misunderstood in a
polytheistic sense--as if the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit were
three gods. It is certain that this could not have been done any time
before the Babylonish captivity. The idea of _vicarious sacrifice_,
moreover--that great fundamental idea of the gospel that "without
shedding of blood there is no remission"--the writers of the New
Testament found ready at hand, and in its light they interpreted the
mission of Christ. Upon his very first appearance, John the Baptist, his
forerunner, exclaimed to the assembled multitudes: "Behold the Lamb of
God, which taketh away the sin of the world." To the Jew, with his
training under the Mosaic system of sacrifices, how significant were
these words! Without such a previous training, how meaningless to him
and to the world for which Christ died! Then again the gospel, in strong
contrast with the Mosaic law, deals in _general principles_. Herein it
assumes a comparative maturity of human thought--a capacity to include
many particulars under one general idea. A beautiful illustration of
this is our Lord's summary of social duties; "Therefore all things
whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them:
for this is the law and the prophets." Matt. 7:12. We may add (what is
indeed implied in the preceding remark) that the gospel required for its
introduction a _well-developed state of civilization_ and culture, as
contrasted with one of rude barbarism. Now the Hebrews were introduced,
in the beginning of their national existence, to the civilization of
Egypt; which, with all its defects, was perhaps as good a type as then
existed in the world. Afterwards they were brought successively into
intimate connection with Babylonian, Persian, Grecian, and Roman
civilization; particularly with the last two. This was, moreover, at a
time when their national training under the Mosaic institutions had
given them such maturity of religious character that they were not in
danger of being seduced into the idolatrous worship of these nations.
Dispersed throughout all the provinces of the Roman empire, they