ing, now blasting--were his
immediate manifestations.

Later, he was conceived to favor certain kinds of human action. He was
at first appeased under the influences of analogies from the lower side
of human nature,--Give him a present, something to eat, or to smell, or
to see. Then came the idea that he was the friend and favorer of the
righteous,--of the merciful and just. The turning-point in the history
of Judaism--the birth-hour of religion as it has come down to us--is
marked by that great dimly-seen personality, Moses, who taught that the
worship of Yahveh forbade murder, adultery, theft, false witness,
covetousness.

The Jews had neither science nor logic; they had no intelligent induction
as to nature,--hence they never got beyond the idea of supernatural
intervention.[3] Apparently they never challenged and sifted their
fundamental ideas,--never raised the question as to the actual existence
of Yahveh. They saw and felt the incongruities of the world as a moral
administration, and sometimes pressed the inquiry, as in Job, _Why_ does
Yahveh thus? But the denial of any ruling personal Will, as by
Lucretius, was impossible to them. They were imaginative, intense, and
their imagination got the saving ethical impress especially from the
prophets.

Judaism as a religion grew from "the Law and the Prophets." From almost
the earliest historic time there existed some brief code of
precepts,--probably an abbreviated form of what we know as the Ten
Commandments. Later came the impassioned preaching of the prophets.
Still later, there was formulated that elaborate statute-book for which
by a pious fiction was claimed the authority of Moses.

The prophets spoke out of an exaltation of which no other account was
given than it was the inspiration of Yahveh,--"Thus saith the Lord!"
They did not argue, they asserted--with a passion that bred conviction,
or at least fear and respect.

It is here that the distinction between the Greek and the Hebrew method
is most marked. Socrates, for example, called himself the midwife of
men's thoughts. His maxim was, "Know thyself." His cross-examination
was designed to make men see for themselves. That is, he taught by
reason. But the prophet's claim was, "Thus saith the Lord!" He spoke
out of his personal and passionate conviction, for which he believed he
had the highest supernatural sanction.

The heart of the typical prophetic message was that the Ruler of the
worl