vement and its preparation for the age
of Example. The Hebrew did the most, though his work was of the same
class and aimed at the same result. The Roman gave an iron will; the
Greek, a cultivated reason and taste; the Asiatic, the idea of
immortality, and spiritual imagination; and the Hebrew, the trained
conscience.

The whole period from the close of the old Testament to the termination
of the New was the time of the world's youth, the age of examples.[172]
Christ came just at the right time; if he had waited until the present
age his incarnation would have been misplaced, and we could not
recognize his divinity; for the faculty of faith has turned inwards, and
cannot now accept any outward manifestations of the truth of God.[173]

The present age is that of independent reflection and the supremacy of
conscience--the world's manhood. Laws and examples are absolute, and
should be forgotten, just as we look lightly upon the things of our
childhood. The world has arrived at its present exalted state through a
severe ordeal, but the grandeur of its position is sufficient to make it
forget its trials. "The spirit or conscience [which are terms for
reason] comes to full strength and assumes the throne intended for him
in the soul. As an accredited judge, invested with full powers, he sits
in the tribunal of our inner kingdom, decides upon the past, and
legislates upon the future, without appeal except to himself. He decides
not by what is beautiful or noble, or soul-inspiring, but by what is
right. Gradually he frames his code of laws, revising, adding,
abrogating, as a wiser and deeper experience gives him clearer light. He
is the third great teacher and the last."[174]

In some aspects this essay is the least objectionable in the volume. Yet
it contains radical errors which many a reader would accept without
suspicion. The agency of the Holy Spirit in revelation is ignored, and
the development through which the world has passed is confounded with
civilization. This development is alleged to have occurred in a purely
natural way, the Hebrew type being no more a divine appointment than
that of the Grecian or Roman. The doctrines of Christianity were not
clearly stated in the early Church, and the flight of eighteen centuries
has been required to lift the curtain from them.[175] Conscience is
placed above the Bible, and if the statements of the Scriptures be in
conflict with it, allowance must be made for occasional inacc