good old ways and the pure worship of
Jehovah only. And when Elijah speaks, he gives voice to this
tendency; he claims that everything should be determined by religion;
no considerations of state should for a moment stand in the way of
the pure faith of Jehovah, by which everything should be decided; and
whatever stands in the way of this policy is dedicated to
destruction. This, broadly speaking, is the keynote of Hebrew
prophecy.

When we come to the canonical prophets, however, we feel that there
is a great deal more in their teaching than the bare demand that
everything must give way to the requirements of religion. A great
change has taken place in their world of thought. It is no less than
that a new god and a new religion have announced themselves in the
thinking of these men. They do not say so; they are not aware of it,
and yet it is so.

The Old Religion National.--The religion of Israel during the
monarchy is, in the full sense of the term, a national one. From a
cluster of tribes Israel has become a nation, and has begun to think
of itself as a unity. It has its national history, its national
rulers, as other nations have. In their nationality it cannot be
denied that the Israelites had much to be proud of; nor did their
rapid growth in wealth and power, which gave them several centuries
of prosperity, tend to lesson that pride. Now as they have their own
king, they have also their own god. Jehovah is the god of Israel;
Israel is the people of Jehovah, on this they were all agreed. That
Jehovah was their god did not prevent them from believing in the
existence of other gods: Chemosh was the god of Moab, a being not
very unlike Jehovah, the Baals were the old gods of Canaan. Jehovah,
of course, was the greatest and strongest, and an Israelite should
worship him, in Canaan at least; but there was no great harm if he
worshipped other gods too, when it came in his way to do so. He might
join in the worship of Baal in country places; and the king might,
without doing any harm, set up the images of the gods of his wives
beside the images of Jehovah in the capital, and if many of his
subjects joined in these other worships, it was but natural. In this
way a great variety of gods was in some reigns brought together from
different countries.

Jehovah, however, was the special god of Israel, there could be no
doubt of that; Israel was specially pledged to him; and he on his
side was pledged to Israel, who was ent