ys to come all
will have been already forgotten. And how doth the wise man
die even as the fool! So I hated life; because the work that
is wrought under the sun was grievous unto me: for all is
vanity and a striving after wind."[93:10]

It is evident that he who expects the favor of fortune in return for
his observance of precept is mistaken. The "work that is wrought under
the sun" makes no special provision for him during his lifetime. Unless
the cry of vanity is to be the last word there must be a
reinterpretation of the promise of God. This appears in the new ideal of
patient submission, and the chastened faith that expects only the love
of God. And those whom God loves He will not forsake. They will come to
their own, if not here, then beyond, according to His inscrutable but
unswerving plan.

"The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a
contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise."

"For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth
eternity, whose name is Holy: I dwell in the high and holy
place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit,
to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of
the contrite ones."[94:11]

In this faith Judaism merges into Christianity.[94:12] In the whole
course of this evolution God is regarded as the friend of his people,
but his people learn to find a new significance in his friendship. That
which is altered is the conduct which that friendship requires and the
expectation which it determines. The practical ideal which the
relationship sanctions, changes gradually from that of prudence to that
of goodness for its own sake. God, once an instrument relevant to human
temporal welfare, has come to be an object of disinterested service.

No such transformation as this was absolutely realized during the period
covered by the writings of the Old Testament, nor has it even yet been
realized in the development of Christianity. But the evolution of both
Judaism and Christianity has taken this direction. The criterion of this
evolution is manifestly both ethical and metaphysical. A Christian avows
that he rates purity of character above worldly prosperity, so that the
former cannot properly be prized for the sake of the latter.
Furthermore, he shares more or less unconsciously such philosophical and
scientific opinions as deny truth to the conception of special
interferences and dispensation