om being mixed with other liquids, but the
vessel itself belongs to the rude and early world. In the Jewish
religion of this time there are far different elements, which point
forward and not backward, and in which the future course of religious
progress is clearly anticipated. If his temple ritual was crude, and
if his law pursued him into every one of his actions, the thoughts of
the Jew were free; the truths which were unfolding their riches in
his mind were sufficient compensation for much outward restraint, and
the fair world of imagination was open to him in which the past
clothed itself with legend and the future with splendid hopes.

Spiritual Elements.--The period after the exile is that of the
composition of the Psalms. Many of these poems may have been written
earlier; many were undoubtedly written at this time, and the belief
gains ground that the Psalmist came after the prophet, and adopted
for popular use the prophet's ideas. In the Psalter we hear the
thrill of joy and triumph as the great truths of theism come to be
grasped as certainties. The congregation now utters in song what,
when the prophet first announced it, so few had courage to believe,
that Jehovah is king, that he rules over the nations, that he is far
above all the gods, nay, that there is no other God than he. The joy
of having embraced this thought, of having escaped from all confusion
with regard to the powers that rule the world, and of seeing all
things in this splendid light, finds manifold expression. The
believers delight themselves anew in the worship of Jehovah, and see
fresh beauties in his courts, and in the service of him there; they
delight in his word in connection with every part of their
experience. They understand the world as they never did before, since
it is his work, and praise the Creator as they follow the whole
process of creation. New lights open to them on the history of their
race, new solutions occur to them of the moral difficulties they have
felt, as they saw the wicked prosper and the good cast down. There is
very little about ritual in the Psalms; it is regarded chiefly as an
offering of thanks and praise to Jehovah for his wonderful works, and
for his mercies; and it is viewed ideally as an act of homage in
which not only the immediate worshippers, but all nations on the
earth may be conceived as taking part. On the other hand, the
observance of Jehovah's moral requirements, and implicit trust in him
while