aborated in their
schools a spiritual monotheism, over against the crude polytheism of the
people generally--a theocratic ideal inadequately apprehended by gross and
sensuous Israel--Jehovism simple and sublime amid a sacerdotal worship
which left the heart impure while cleansing the hands. Instead of taking
their stand upon the law, with its rules of worship, its ceremonial
precepts and penalties against transgressors, the prophets set themselves
above it, speaking slightingly of the forms and customs which the people
took for the whole of religion. To the view of such as were prepared to
receive a faith that looked for its realization to the future, they helped
to create a millennium, in which the worship of Jehovah alone should
become the basis of a universal religion for humanity. In addition to the
prophetic literature proper, they wrote historical works also. How
superior this literature is to the priestly, appears from a comparison of
the Kings and Chronicles. The subjective underlies the one; the objective
distinguishes the other. Faith in Jehovah, clothed, it may be in sensible
or historical forms, characterizes the one; reference of an outward order
to a divine source, the other. The sanctity of a people under the
government of a righteous God, is the object of the one; the sanctity of
institutions, that of the other. Even when the prophets wrote history,
_the facts_ are subordinate to _the belief_. Subjective purposes colored
their representation of real events.

To them we are indebted for the Messianic idea, the hope of a better time
in which their high ideal of the theocracy should be realized. With such
belief in the future, with pious aspirations enlivening their patriotism,
did they comfort and encourage their countrymen. The hope, general or
indefinite at first, was afterwards attached to the house of David, out of
which a restorer of the theocracy was expected, a king pre-eminent in
righteousness, and marvelously gifted. It was not merely a political but a
religious hope, implying the thorough purification of the nation, the
extinction of idolatry, the general spread and triumph of true religion.
The pious wishes of the prophets, often repeated, became a sort of
doctrine, and contributed to sustain the failing spirit of the people. The
indefinite idea of a golden age was commoner than that of a personal
prince who should reign in equity and peace. Neither was part of the
national faith, like the law, o