Footnotes

Footnotes1.The Second Sunday in Advent.2.1 Cor. vii. 10.3.1 Cor. vii. 12.4.1 Cor. vii. 40.5.1 Cor. vii. 25.6.Hebrews i. 1.7.2 Peter i. 21.8.1 Peter i. 10, 11.9.2 Timothy iii. 16.10.Sacred Books of the East, vol. i. p. xiii.11.2 Maccabees, ii. 13.12."The Jews and the priests have found it good that Simon shall be their leader and high priest forever until there shall arise a trustworthy prophet."—1 Macc. xiv. 41.13.Introduction to the New Testament. Samuel Davidson, I.:279.14.Introduction to the New Testament. Samuel Davidson, I.:384.15.The contrast between the fifteenth and sixteenth century Confessions of Faith reveals this process, and explains the prevalent Protestant theory.16.About 600 A.D.17.2 Maccabees ii. 13.18.The Dial: October, 1840.19.Ewald: History of Israel, i. 4.20.Esther is the most notable apparent exception, but this it only apparent.21.In speaking of the book of Esther, Dean Stanley observes that "it never names the name of God from first to last," and remarks "It is necessary for us that in the rest of the sacred volume the name of God should constantly be brought before us, to show that He is all in all to our moral perfection. But it is expedient for us no less that there should be one book which omits it altogether, to prevent us from attaching to the mere name a reverence which belongs only to the reality.... The name of God isnotthere, but the work of Godis.... When Esther nerved herself to enter, at the risk of her life, the presence of Ahasuerus—'I will go in unto the king, and if I perish I perish'—when her patriotic feeling vented itself in that noble cry, 'How can I endure to see the evil that shall come unto my people? or can I endure to see the destruction of my kindred?'—she expressed, although she never named the name of God, a religious devotion as acceptable to Him as that of Moses and David, who, no less sincerely, had the sacred name always on their lips."—History of the Jewish Church, iii. 301.22.Ewald: History of Israel, i. 4.23.The Old Testament is a record of the growth of human intelligence in relation to the Deity—of the revelation made by Spirit to spirit. When therefore God is described asspeakingto man, he does so in the only way in which He who is a Spirit can speak to one encompassed with flesh and blood; not to the outward organs of sensation, but to that intelligence which is kindred to Himself the great Fountain of knowledge.—Davidson:Introduction to the Old Testament, i. 233.24.Emerson: Miscellanies, p. 200.25."To hear people speak," said Goethe, "one would almost believe that they were of opinion that God had withdrawn into silence since those old times, and that man was now placed quite upon his own feet, and had to see how he could get on without God and his daily invisible breath."—Conversations,March 11, 1832.26.Our advancing knowledge of the early portions of the Bible is clearing its offensive portions of the grossness which characterized them as literal histories, by resolving them into nature-myths, or into social traditions, symbolical stories of casuistry, "token-tales," whose original meaning had been lost by the time they were committed to writing.Every school-boy knows how the worst stories of the Greek gods and goddesses lose their immorality as seen to be parables of nature's processes, myths, whose poetry had exhaled in the course of time. Goldziher's "Mythology Among the Hebrews," shows the mythic character of many of these revolting Jewish stories, though his theory carries him off his feet. Fenton's "Early Hebrew Life," brings out the social and casuistical origin of many of these traditions as decisions, "Judgments," of the village elders and priests upon cases of conduct, thrown into the form of imaginary stories to make them realistic and ensure their preservation. "In this way, various dubious points of primitive morality and politics were governed; and the stories which enshrine them stand to primitive life in much the same relation as do collections of precedents to modern lawyers, and dictionaries of cases of conscience to father confessors." (p. 81)But, as these aspects of such traditions as Lot and his daughters, Judah and Tamar, &c., cannot be divined without interpretation, they should be omitted from our children's Bibles.My suggestion of an expurgated Bible, on which so many hard criticisms have been passed, seemed to me innocent enough, since most sensible people have been in the habit of expurgating the Bible for themselves in home readings and in the readings in the churches. This is what Plato thought of such stories in the sacred book of the Grecians:"Whatever beautiful fable they may invent, we should select, and what is not so, we should reject: and we are to prevail on nurses and mothers to repeat to the children such fables as are selected, and fashion their minds by fables * * * For though these things were true, yet I think they should not be so readily told to the unwise and the young, but rather concealed from them. As little ought we to describe in fables, the battles of the giants and other many and various feuds, both of gods and heroes, with their own kindred and relatives; but if we would persuade them that never at all should one citizen hate another, and that it is not holy, such things as these are rather to be told them in early childhood; and the poets should be obliged to compose consistently with these views * * * Young persons are not able to judge what is allegory and what is not, but whatever opinions they receive at such an age are wont to be obliterated with difficulty, and immovable. Hence one would think, we should of all things endeavor, that what they should first hear be composed in the best manner for exciting them to virtue.""Republic," Book II.27.How then are we to know what words and deeds express the mind of God, are words of the Lord, examples He presents for our imitation? By the mind of God manifest in 'the express image of His person?' All morality and religion is to be tried by 'the mind which was in Christ,' 'the spirit of Christ which dwelleth in us.'28.In what is said above there la no positive denial intended of the Old Testament miracles. We are in no position to deny them. The point is simply that they are not bounden on us in any reasonable and reverent recognition of a real historical revelation in the Old Testament, and need trouble no one who cannot receive them. The miracles of Christ, when reduced to the wonders reported by the conjoint testimony of the synoptics,—i.e., to the common tradition of the early church, stand apart from all other Scripture miracles; having a reasonable and natural character as the powers of such a personality, and coming within the ken of our visions of possibility. They are imaged In the well attested powers of rare men. They appear as in no wise violations of law, but as the manifestations of nature's laws and forces worked by the normal man, having 'dominion' over the earth. "The wise soul expels disease."29.So judicious a commentator as Dean Alford, in his introduction to the Second Epistle to the Thessalonians, discussing the vexed question of the Daniel-like section in the third chapter, so wholly unlike Paul observes:"If we have" (in any sense, God speaking in the Bible) "then, of all passages, it is in these, which treat so confidently of futurity, that we must recognize His voice; if we have it not in these passages,then, where are we to listen for it at all?"—Greek Testament III:64.30."History of American Socialisms,"—Noyes.—p. 608.31."To understand that the language of the Bible is fluid, passing and literary, not rigid, fixed and scientific, is the first step towards a right understanding of the Bible."—Literature and Dogma.—p. xii.32.The revised version calls the attention of English readers to this latter influence, in the marginal rendering of "Tartarus" for "Hell" in 2 Peter, 11: 4.33.Luther's strong sense detected his unevangelicalness.34.Ewald says the tenth century, and Kuenen the eighth century.35.Ask at Abel and at Dan whether the genuine old statutes of Israel have lost their force?—2 Samuel, xx. 18. Restored by Ewald from the LXX.36.Such a late codification is no more inconceivable than Justinian's codification of Roman law.37.Brook Foss Westcott. Smith's Bible Dictionary: article on Daniel.38."The Bible of To-day," Chadwick, p. 50.39.Of this process we see hints in the various references to the consecration of great trees and stones to Jehovah.40.The indications of this nature-worship lie scattered on the surface of the Old Testament so plainly that no one can fail to notice them.41."Among the Edomites, Ishmaelites, Ammonites and Moabites—the tribes with which Israel felt itself most nearly related—the service of the rigorous and destroying god was most prominent The very names for God which are most common among them—Baal, El, Molech, Milcom, Chemosh—are enough to show this. These names denote the mighty, violent, death-dealing God." "The Religion of Israel," Knappert, p. 29. These names constantly recur in the early history of Israel. Jephthah's vow is a familiar instance of this abhorrent rite. Circumcision is supposed to mark a merciful compromise with this blood-gift; in addition to its sanitary character.42.We know from general history how among other people the homage paid to the productive powers of nature led to systematized prostitution, in the name of the personification of this force of nature. Tradition records how early in this period the Midianites seduced Israel temporarily from Jehovah, by the licentious pleasures of their worship of Baal-Peor. Later on in history we find that it is these impure rites that especially provoke the anger of the prophets.43.The sun symbols may not have been permanent features of the Temple-worship at this period, though, from the probable identification of the early Jehovah with the sun, it seems likely that their presence there was no casual fact.44.2 Kings, xxiii. 6, 7.45.Isaiah, i. 11-17.46.Micah, vi. 6-8.47.Isaiah, xi. 2-5.48.Isaiah, v. 8; iii. 14, 15.49.Cf. Exodus, xxiii, 10, 11 (the earliest code) with Deuteronomy, xv. 1-18.50.The latter seems the probable influence of Persia. At all events, from this time Hebrew literature shows the gradual development of an angelic hierarchy.51.The comparison of the earlier prophetic writings with the exilic prophecies, and with the later writings, such as Jonah, Ecclesiastes, &c., will illustrate this change.52.Ezekiel's vision of the valley of dry bones is the earliest appearance of this thought in any writing of whose date we are certain.53.And thou shalt-number seven sabbaths of years unto thee, seven times seven years; and the space of the seven sabbaths of years shall be unto thee forty and nine years. Then shalt thou cause the trumpet of the jubilee to sound on the tenthdayof the seventh month, in the day of atonement shall ye make the trumpet sound throughout all your land. And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughoutallthe land unto all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a jubilee unto you; and ye shall return every man unto his possession, and ye shall return every man unto his family. A jubilee shall that fiftieth year be unto you: ye shall not sow, neither reap that which groweth of itself in it, nor gatherthe grapesin it of the vine undressed. For itisthe jubilee; it shall be holy unto you: ye shall eat the increase thereof out of the field. In the year of this jubilee ye shall return every man unto his possession. And if thou sell ought unto thy neighbor, or buyestoughtof thy neighbor's hand, ye shall not oppress one another: According to the number of years after the jubilee thou shalt buy of thy neighbor,andaccording unto the number of years of the fruits he shall sell unto thee: According to the multitude of years thou shalt increase the price thereof, and according to the fewness of years thou shalt diminish the price of it: foraccordingto the numberof the yearsof the fruits doth he sell unto thee. Ye shall not therefore oppress one another; but thou shalt fear thy God: for Iamthe Lord your God.The land shall not be sold for ever: for the landismine; for yearestrangers and sojourners with me. And in all the land of your possession ye shall grant a redemption for the land.And if thy brother be waxen poor, and fallen in decay with thee; then thou shalt relieve him:yea, though he bea stranger, or a sojourner; that he may live with thee. Take thou no usury of him, or increase: but fear thy God; that thy brother may live with thee. Thou shalt not give him thy money upon usury, nor lend him thy victuals for increase. Iamthe Lord your God, which brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, to give you the land of Canaan,andto be your God. And if thy brotherthat dwellethby thee be waxen poor, and be sold unto thee; thou shalt not compel him to serve as a bondservant:Butas an hired servant,andas a sojourner, he shall be with thee,andshall serve thee unto the year of jubilee: Andthenshall he depart from thee,bothhe and his children with him, and shall return unto his own family, and unto the possession of his fathers shall he return. For theyaremy servants, which I brought forth out of the land of Egypt: they shall not be sold as bondmen. Thou shalt not rule over him with rigor; but shalt fear thy God.—Leviticus xxv. 8et seq.Fenton, "Early Hebrew Life," has, I think, given the clue through the difficulties of the jubilee-year legislation. He traces the early communal character of Hebrew society, its gradual break-up under the encroachments of manorial lords, and the natural efforts of the people to regain their communal rights. "But how remedy the evil? How restore to the communities their old rights and privileges, without unduly trenching upon rights and possessions that had since been acquired? The year of Jubilee is the Hebrew solution of the problem," (p 71). It was a compromise; the old seventh year communal right adjourned to seven times seven years, and enlarged. Fenton quotes a curious survival, in the borough of Newtown-upon-Ayr, of this very compromise between the old and the new social systems—a Scottish Jubilee.It is a queer sign of the disproportionate development of individual religion in our current Christianity, that this social and economic legislation should have been so spiritualized away as to leave no consciousness of its original character in the minds of those who sing in our prayer-meetings that "The year of Jubilee is come."54.The Dialogues of Plato: Jowett's edition, II. 106.55.Matthew Arnold inContemporary Review, xxiv. 800; xxv. 508.56.The Friend: Essay x.57.Sacred Books of the East: I. ix.et seq.58.Confessions of Augustine: Book X. § vi.59.Exodus, xx. 31.60.Richard Hooker: Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity, Book I., ch. xvi. § 8.61.Le Page Renouf: Hibbert Lectures, 1879, p. 250.62.Hibbert Lectures, 1879, p. 279.63.God in Christ, p. 93.

1.The Second Sunday in Advent.

2.1 Cor. vii. 10.

3.1 Cor. vii. 12.

4.1 Cor. vii. 40.

5.1 Cor. vii. 25.

6.Hebrews i. 1.

7.2 Peter i. 21.

8.1 Peter i. 10, 11.

9.2 Timothy iii. 16.

10.Sacred Books of the East, vol. i. p. xiii.

11.2 Maccabees, ii. 13.

12."The Jews and the priests have found it good that Simon shall be their leader and high priest forever until there shall arise a trustworthy prophet."—1 Macc. xiv. 41.

13.Introduction to the New Testament. Samuel Davidson, I.:279.

14.Introduction to the New Testament. Samuel Davidson, I.:384.

15.The contrast between the fifteenth and sixteenth century Confessions of Faith reveals this process, and explains the prevalent Protestant theory.

16.About 600 A.D.

17.2 Maccabees ii. 13.

18.The Dial: October, 1840.

19.Ewald: History of Israel, i. 4.

20.Esther is the most notable apparent exception, but this it only apparent.

21.In speaking of the book of Esther, Dean Stanley observes that "it never names the name of God from first to last," and remarks "It is necessary for us that in the rest of the sacred volume the name of God should constantly be brought before us, to show that He is all in all to our moral perfection. But it is expedient for us no less that there should be one book which omits it altogether, to prevent us from attaching to the mere name a reverence which belongs only to the reality.... The name of God isnotthere, but the work of Godis.... When Esther nerved herself to enter, at the risk of her life, the presence of Ahasuerus—'I will go in unto the king, and if I perish I perish'—when her patriotic feeling vented itself in that noble cry, 'How can I endure to see the evil that shall come unto my people? or can I endure to see the destruction of my kindred?'—she expressed, although she never named the name of God, a religious devotion as acceptable to Him as that of Moses and David, who, no less sincerely, had the sacred name always on their lips."—History of the Jewish Church, iii. 301.

22.Ewald: History of Israel, i. 4.

23.The Old Testament is a record of the growth of human intelligence in relation to the Deity—of the revelation made by Spirit to spirit. When therefore God is described asspeakingto man, he does so in the only way in which He who is a Spirit can speak to one encompassed with flesh and blood; not to the outward organs of sensation, but to that intelligence which is kindred to Himself the great Fountain of knowledge.—Davidson:Introduction to the Old Testament, i. 233.

24.Emerson: Miscellanies, p. 200.

25."To hear people speak," said Goethe, "one would almost believe that they were of opinion that God had withdrawn into silence since those old times, and that man was now placed quite upon his own feet, and had to see how he could get on without God and his daily invisible breath."—Conversations,March 11, 1832.

26.Our advancing knowledge of the early portions of the Bible is clearing its offensive portions of the grossness which characterized them as literal histories, by resolving them into nature-myths, or into social traditions, symbolical stories of casuistry, "token-tales," whose original meaning had been lost by the time they were committed to writing.Every school-boy knows how the worst stories of the Greek gods and goddesses lose their immorality as seen to be parables of nature's processes, myths, whose poetry had exhaled in the course of time. Goldziher's "Mythology Among the Hebrews," shows the mythic character of many of these revolting Jewish stories, though his theory carries him off his feet. Fenton's "Early Hebrew Life," brings out the social and casuistical origin of many of these traditions as decisions, "Judgments," of the village elders and priests upon cases of conduct, thrown into the form of imaginary stories to make them realistic and ensure their preservation. "In this way, various dubious points of primitive morality and politics were governed; and the stories which enshrine them stand to primitive life in much the same relation as do collections of precedents to modern lawyers, and dictionaries of cases of conscience to father confessors." (p. 81)But, as these aspects of such traditions as Lot and his daughters, Judah and Tamar, &c., cannot be divined without interpretation, they should be omitted from our children's Bibles.My suggestion of an expurgated Bible, on which so many hard criticisms have been passed, seemed to me innocent enough, since most sensible people have been in the habit of expurgating the Bible for themselves in home readings and in the readings in the churches. This is what Plato thought of such stories in the sacred book of the Grecians:"Whatever beautiful fable they may invent, we should select, and what is not so, we should reject: and we are to prevail on nurses and mothers to repeat to the children such fables as are selected, and fashion their minds by fables * * * For though these things were true, yet I think they should not be so readily told to the unwise and the young, but rather concealed from them. As little ought we to describe in fables, the battles of the giants and other many and various feuds, both of gods and heroes, with their own kindred and relatives; but if we would persuade them that never at all should one citizen hate another, and that it is not holy, such things as these are rather to be told them in early childhood; and the poets should be obliged to compose consistently with these views * * * Young persons are not able to judge what is allegory and what is not, but whatever opinions they receive at such an age are wont to be obliterated with difficulty, and immovable. Hence one would think, we should of all things endeavor, that what they should first hear be composed in the best manner for exciting them to virtue.""Republic," Book II.

Every school-boy knows how the worst stories of the Greek gods and goddesses lose their immorality as seen to be parables of nature's processes, myths, whose poetry had exhaled in the course of time. Goldziher's "Mythology Among the Hebrews," shows the mythic character of many of these revolting Jewish stories, though his theory carries him off his feet. Fenton's "Early Hebrew Life," brings out the social and casuistical origin of many of these traditions as decisions, "Judgments," of the village elders and priests upon cases of conduct, thrown into the form of imaginary stories to make them realistic and ensure their preservation. "In this way, various dubious points of primitive morality and politics were governed; and the stories which enshrine them stand to primitive life in much the same relation as do collections of precedents to modern lawyers, and dictionaries of cases of conscience to father confessors." (p. 81)

But, as these aspects of such traditions as Lot and his daughters, Judah and Tamar, &c., cannot be divined without interpretation, they should be omitted from our children's Bibles.

My suggestion of an expurgated Bible, on which so many hard criticisms have been passed, seemed to me innocent enough, since most sensible people have been in the habit of expurgating the Bible for themselves in home readings and in the readings in the churches. This is what Plato thought of such stories in the sacred book of the Grecians:

"Whatever beautiful fable they may invent, we should select, and what is not so, we should reject: and we are to prevail on nurses and mothers to repeat to the children such fables as are selected, and fashion their minds by fables * * * For though these things were true, yet I think they should not be so readily told to the unwise and the young, but rather concealed from them. As little ought we to describe in fables, the battles of the giants and other many and various feuds, both of gods and heroes, with their own kindred and relatives; but if we would persuade them that never at all should one citizen hate another, and that it is not holy, such things as these are rather to be told them in early childhood; and the poets should be obliged to compose consistently with these views * * * Young persons are not able to judge what is allegory and what is not, but whatever opinions they receive at such an age are wont to be obliterated with difficulty, and immovable. Hence one would think, we should of all things endeavor, that what they should first hear be composed in the best manner for exciting them to virtue."

"Republic," Book II.

27.How then are we to know what words and deeds express the mind of God, are words of the Lord, examples He presents for our imitation? By the mind of God manifest in 'the express image of His person?' All morality and religion is to be tried by 'the mind which was in Christ,' 'the spirit of Christ which dwelleth in us.'

28.In what is said above there la no positive denial intended of the Old Testament miracles. We are in no position to deny them. The point is simply that they are not bounden on us in any reasonable and reverent recognition of a real historical revelation in the Old Testament, and need trouble no one who cannot receive them. The miracles of Christ, when reduced to the wonders reported by the conjoint testimony of the synoptics,—i.e., to the common tradition of the early church, stand apart from all other Scripture miracles; having a reasonable and natural character as the powers of such a personality, and coming within the ken of our visions of possibility. They are imaged In the well attested powers of rare men. They appear as in no wise violations of law, but as the manifestations of nature's laws and forces worked by the normal man, having 'dominion' over the earth. "The wise soul expels disease."

29.So judicious a commentator as Dean Alford, in his introduction to the Second Epistle to the Thessalonians, discussing the vexed question of the Daniel-like section in the third chapter, so wholly unlike Paul observes:"If we have" (in any sense, God speaking in the Bible) "then, of all passages, it is in these, which treat so confidently of futurity, that we must recognize His voice; if we have it not in these passages,then, where are we to listen for it at all?"—Greek Testament III:64.

"If we have" (in any sense, God speaking in the Bible) "then, of all passages, it is in these, which treat so confidently of futurity, that we must recognize His voice; if we have it not in these passages,then, where are we to listen for it at all?"—Greek Testament III:64.

30."History of American Socialisms,"—Noyes.—p. 608.

31."To understand that the language of the Bible is fluid, passing and literary, not rigid, fixed and scientific, is the first step towards a right understanding of the Bible."—Literature and Dogma.—p. xii.

32.The revised version calls the attention of English readers to this latter influence, in the marginal rendering of "Tartarus" for "Hell" in 2 Peter, 11: 4.

33.Luther's strong sense detected his unevangelicalness.

34.Ewald says the tenth century, and Kuenen the eighth century.

35.Ask at Abel and at Dan whether the genuine old statutes of Israel have lost their force?—2 Samuel, xx. 18. Restored by Ewald from the LXX.

36.Such a late codification is no more inconceivable than Justinian's codification of Roman law.

37.Brook Foss Westcott. Smith's Bible Dictionary: article on Daniel.

38."The Bible of To-day," Chadwick, p. 50.

39.Of this process we see hints in the various references to the consecration of great trees and stones to Jehovah.

40.The indications of this nature-worship lie scattered on the surface of the Old Testament so plainly that no one can fail to notice them.

41."Among the Edomites, Ishmaelites, Ammonites and Moabites—the tribes with which Israel felt itself most nearly related—the service of the rigorous and destroying god was most prominent The very names for God which are most common among them—Baal, El, Molech, Milcom, Chemosh—are enough to show this. These names denote the mighty, violent, death-dealing God." "The Religion of Israel," Knappert, p. 29. These names constantly recur in the early history of Israel. Jephthah's vow is a familiar instance of this abhorrent rite. Circumcision is supposed to mark a merciful compromise with this blood-gift; in addition to its sanitary character.

42.We know from general history how among other people the homage paid to the productive powers of nature led to systematized prostitution, in the name of the personification of this force of nature. Tradition records how early in this period the Midianites seduced Israel temporarily from Jehovah, by the licentious pleasures of their worship of Baal-Peor. Later on in history we find that it is these impure rites that especially provoke the anger of the prophets.

43.The sun symbols may not have been permanent features of the Temple-worship at this period, though, from the probable identification of the early Jehovah with the sun, it seems likely that their presence there was no casual fact.

44.2 Kings, xxiii. 6, 7.

45.Isaiah, i. 11-17.

46.Micah, vi. 6-8.

47.Isaiah, xi. 2-5.

48.Isaiah, v. 8; iii. 14, 15.

49.Cf. Exodus, xxiii, 10, 11 (the earliest code) with Deuteronomy, xv. 1-18.

50.The latter seems the probable influence of Persia. At all events, from this time Hebrew literature shows the gradual development of an angelic hierarchy.

51.The comparison of the earlier prophetic writings with the exilic prophecies, and with the later writings, such as Jonah, Ecclesiastes, &c., will illustrate this change.

52.Ezekiel's vision of the valley of dry bones is the earliest appearance of this thought in any writing of whose date we are certain.

53.And thou shalt-number seven sabbaths of years unto thee, seven times seven years; and the space of the seven sabbaths of years shall be unto thee forty and nine years. Then shalt thou cause the trumpet of the jubilee to sound on the tenthdayof the seventh month, in the day of atonement shall ye make the trumpet sound throughout all your land. And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughoutallthe land unto all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a jubilee unto you; and ye shall return every man unto his possession, and ye shall return every man unto his family. A jubilee shall that fiftieth year be unto you: ye shall not sow, neither reap that which groweth of itself in it, nor gatherthe grapesin it of the vine undressed. For itisthe jubilee; it shall be holy unto you: ye shall eat the increase thereof out of the field. In the year of this jubilee ye shall return every man unto his possession. And if thou sell ought unto thy neighbor, or buyestoughtof thy neighbor's hand, ye shall not oppress one another: According to the number of years after the jubilee thou shalt buy of thy neighbor,andaccording unto the number of years of the fruits he shall sell unto thee: According to the multitude of years thou shalt increase the price thereof, and according to the fewness of years thou shalt diminish the price of it: foraccordingto the numberof the yearsof the fruits doth he sell unto thee. Ye shall not therefore oppress one another; but thou shalt fear thy God: for Iamthe Lord your God.The land shall not be sold for ever: for the landismine; for yearestrangers and sojourners with me. And in all the land of your possession ye shall grant a redemption for the land.And if thy brother be waxen poor, and fallen in decay with thee; then thou shalt relieve him:yea, though he bea stranger, or a sojourner; that he may live with thee. Take thou no usury of him, or increase: but fear thy God; that thy brother may live with thee. Thou shalt not give him thy money upon usury, nor lend him thy victuals for increase. Iamthe Lord your God, which brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, to give you the land of Canaan,andto be your God. And if thy brotherthat dwellethby thee be waxen poor, and be sold unto thee; thou shalt not compel him to serve as a bondservant:Butas an hired servant,andas a sojourner, he shall be with thee,andshall serve thee unto the year of jubilee: Andthenshall he depart from thee,bothhe and his children with him, and shall return unto his own family, and unto the possession of his fathers shall he return. For theyaremy servants, which I brought forth out of the land of Egypt: they shall not be sold as bondmen. Thou shalt not rule over him with rigor; but shalt fear thy God.—Leviticus xxv. 8et seq.Fenton, "Early Hebrew Life," has, I think, given the clue through the difficulties of the jubilee-year legislation. He traces the early communal character of Hebrew society, its gradual break-up under the encroachments of manorial lords, and the natural efforts of the people to regain their communal rights. "But how remedy the evil? How restore to the communities their old rights and privileges, without unduly trenching upon rights and possessions that had since been acquired? The year of Jubilee is the Hebrew solution of the problem," (p 71). It was a compromise; the old seventh year communal right adjourned to seven times seven years, and enlarged. Fenton quotes a curious survival, in the borough of Newtown-upon-Ayr, of this very compromise between the old and the new social systems—a Scottish Jubilee.It is a queer sign of the disproportionate development of individual religion in our current Christianity, that this social and economic legislation should have been so spiritualized away as to leave no consciousness of its original character in the minds of those who sing in our prayer-meetings that "The year of Jubilee is come."

The land shall not be sold for ever: for the landismine; for yearestrangers and sojourners with me. And in all the land of your possession ye shall grant a redemption for the land.

And if thy brother be waxen poor, and fallen in decay with thee; then thou shalt relieve him:yea, though he bea stranger, or a sojourner; that he may live with thee. Take thou no usury of him, or increase: but fear thy God; that thy brother may live with thee. Thou shalt not give him thy money upon usury, nor lend him thy victuals for increase. Iamthe Lord your God, which brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, to give you the land of Canaan,andto be your God. And if thy brotherthat dwellethby thee be waxen poor, and be sold unto thee; thou shalt not compel him to serve as a bondservant:Butas an hired servant,andas a sojourner, he shall be with thee,andshall serve thee unto the year of jubilee: Andthenshall he depart from thee,bothhe and his children with him, and shall return unto his own family, and unto the possession of his fathers shall he return. For theyaremy servants, which I brought forth out of the land of Egypt: they shall not be sold as bondmen. Thou shalt not rule over him with rigor; but shalt fear thy God.—Leviticus xxv. 8et seq.

Fenton, "Early Hebrew Life," has, I think, given the clue through the difficulties of the jubilee-year legislation. He traces the early communal character of Hebrew society, its gradual break-up under the encroachments of manorial lords, and the natural efforts of the people to regain their communal rights. "But how remedy the evil? How restore to the communities their old rights and privileges, without unduly trenching upon rights and possessions that had since been acquired? The year of Jubilee is the Hebrew solution of the problem," (p 71). It was a compromise; the old seventh year communal right adjourned to seven times seven years, and enlarged. Fenton quotes a curious survival, in the borough of Newtown-upon-Ayr, of this very compromise between the old and the new social systems—a Scottish Jubilee.

It is a queer sign of the disproportionate development of individual religion in our current Christianity, that this social and economic legislation should have been so spiritualized away as to leave no consciousness of its original character in the minds of those who sing in our prayer-meetings that "The year of Jubilee is come."

54.The Dialogues of Plato: Jowett's edition, II. 106.

55.Matthew Arnold inContemporary Review, xxiv. 800; xxv. 508.

56.The Friend: Essay x.

57.Sacred Books of the East: I. ix.et seq.

58.Confessions of Augustine: Book X. § vi.

59.Exodus, xx. 31.

60.Richard Hooker: Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity, Book I., ch. xvi. § 8.

61.Le Page Renouf: Hibbert Lectures, 1879, p. 250.

62.Hibbert Lectures, 1879, p. 279.

63.God in Christ, p. 93.

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