man progress; the
ideas which may be seen in crystallized form in modern Judaism, in
perverted form in Mohammedanism, and in expanded and spiritualized form
in Christianity. {241} Preeminent among these conceptions is the idea
of one personal holy and righteous God. The Hebrews were also the
first to teach man that the supreme goal of life is righteousness, and
thus they became the ethical teachers of the human race. They first
gave objective expression to pure and lofty ethics in law. To-day the
principles of Hebrew legislation are still the bone and marrow of the
world's greatest legal systems. Though the Romans may be, to a large
extent, responsible for the form which modern legal systems have
adopted, the substance must be traced back to Hebrew legislation.

Moreover, the Hebrews prepared the way for Christianity. Jesus himself
recognized that the faith he proclaimed was not a new creation. "Think
not," said he, "that I came to destroy the law or the prophets: I came
not to destroy, but to fulfill."[14] He came to fill up, to
spiritualize and intensify the religious and ethical teaching of the
great leaders of the Hebrews. Men needed the preliminary training of
the Old Testament dispensation before they were ready to appreciate the
fuller revelation in and through Jesus the Christ, and Christianity
could never have triumphed had it not been for the preparatory work of
the religious and ethical teachers of the Hebrews, whose activity was
very largely determined by the course of the nation's history. Again,
{242} Jesus, according to the flesh, was a descendant of Abraham,
reared in a Jewish home, and under Jewish influences. He studied
Jewish literature and Jewish ideals were held up before him. All this
must have made some impression upon the mind and life of the Master.
He and his teaching can be understood only if he is studied in the
light of Jewish thought and Jewish religion reaching back to the very
beginning of Hebrew history. All this shows how important is the study
of the historical books of the Old Testament to one who desires to
appreciate fully the Christian religion.

It is impossible to estimate too highly the eternal value of the
devotional literature of the Old Testament as illustrated, for example,
in the book of Psalms. Well has it been said, "What the heart is in
man, that is the Psalter in the Bible."[15] The Psalms touch the
heart, because they are the expressions of the deepest