nd
idolatry. Their training required severity, and all the severity
employed by God brought forth at last its appropriate fruits. The laws
imposed upon them were stern and burdensome from their multiplicity. But
no one can show that in either of these respects they could have been
wisely modified; for the nation was then in its childhood and pupilage
(Gal. 4:1-3), and needed to be treated accordingly.

An objection much insisted on by some is the _exclusive_ character of
the Mosaic institutions--a religion, it is alleged, for only one nation,
while all the other nations were left in ignorance. To this a summary
answer can be given. In selecting Israel as his covenant people, God had
in view the salvation of the whole world: "In thee shall all families of
the earth be blessed" (Gen. 12:3)--such was the tenor of the covenant
from the beginning. His plan was to bring one nation into special
relation to himself, establish in it the true religion, prepare it for
the advent of Christ, and then propagate the gospel from it as a centre
throughout all nations. If men are to be dealt with in a moral way, as
free, responsible subjects of law (and this is the only way in which God
deals with men under a system of either natural or revealed religion),
can the objector propose any better way? He might as well object to the
procedure of a military commander that, instead of spreading his army
over a whole province, he concentrates it on one strong point. Let him
wait patiently, and he will find that in gaining this point the
commander gains the whole country.

4. Having seen the relation of the Old Testament as a whole to the
system of divine revelation, we are now prepared to consider the place
occupied by its _several divisions_.

(1.) To prepare the way for our Lord's advent, one nation was to be
selected and trained up under a system of divine laws and
ordinances--the _theocracy_ established under Moses. The _Pentateuch_
records _the establishment of the theocracy_, with the previous steps
that led to it, and the historical events immediately connected with.
it. Hence the five books of Moses are called emphatically _the Law_; and
as such, their province in the Old Testament is clear and well defined.

(2.) The end of the Mosaic law being the preparation of the Israelitish
people, and through them the world, for Christ's advent, it was not the
purpose of God that it should be hidden as a dead letter beside the ark
in the inner