such steps that the Old Testament prepared Israel for
the Incarnation. Since the Incarnation we have actually needed help from
the other side, to prevent us from humanising our conceptions over-much.
And this has been provided in the ever-expanding views of His creation
given to us by science, which tell us that if He draws nigh to us it is
from heights formerly undreamed of. Now, such a step as we have been
considering is taken unawares in the bold phrase "Jehovah is a man of
war." For in the original, as in the English, this includes the
assertion "Jehovah is a man." Of course it is only a bold figure. But
such a figure prepares the mind for new light, suggesting more than it
logically asserts.

The phrase is more striking when we remember that remarkable peculiarity
of the Exodus and its revelations which has been already pointed out.
Elsewhere God appears in human likeness. To Abraham it was so, just
before, and to Manoah soon afterwards. Ezekiel saw upon the likeness of
the throne the likeness of the appearance of a man (Ezek. i. 26). But
Israel saw no similitude, only he heard a voice. This was obviously a
safeguard against idolatry. And it makes the words more noteworthy,
"Jehovah is a man of war," marching with us, our champion, into the
battle. And we know Him as our fathers knew Him not,--"Jehovah is His
name."

* * * * *

The poem next describes the overthrow of the enemy: the heavy plunge of
men in armour into the deeps, the arm of the Lord dashing them in
pieces, His "fire" consuming them, while the blast of His nostrils is
the storm which "piles up" the waters, solid as a wall of ice,
"congealed in the heart of the sea." Then the singers exultantly
rehearse the short panting eager phrases, full of greedy expectation, of
the enemy breathless in pursuit--a passage well remembered by Deborah,
when her triumphant song closed by an insulting repetition of the vain
calculations of the mother of Sisera and "her wise ladies."

The eleventh verse is remarkable as being the first announcement of the
holiness of God. "Who is like unto Thee, glorious in holiness?" And
what does holiness mean? The Hebrew word is apparently suggestive of
"brightness," and the two ideas are coupled by Isaiah (x. 17): "The
Light of Israel shall be for a fire, and his Holy One for a flame."
There is indeed something in the purity of light, in its absolute
immunity from stain--no passive cleanness, as of