286 THE MEANING OF EVOLUTION 



Last of all and perhaps most characteristic of the 

 Hebrew people is the great lesson that this Eternal 

 God, who created the universe and cares for his 

 people, demands righteousness of his people. To the 

 nations round about religion was not a matter of 

 righteousness. For them religion had nothing to do 

 with morality. Thieves might have gods favorable 

 to them quite as well as righteous men. The worship 

 of Diana of the Ephesians or of Astarte in the groves 

 of the Asia Minor coast could be so unspeakably licen- 

 tious and vile as not to admit of description to-day. 

 Yet this was all religion. To the Hebrew came the 

 inspired, exalted conception of a God who demanded 

 righteousness of his people. Beside this wonderful 

 revelation to the human mind details of serpents, and 

 of apples, of names of men and of women, of gardens 

 and of swords are absolutely but the transitory cloth- 

 ing. This brought them to the minds of the times. 

 The value of the form is evidenced by the fact that it 

 brought the conception. But we must not lose the 

 glory of the conception in an over regard for the 

 clothing in which the idea came. 



Does this mean that Genesis has served its purpose 

 and is to-day to be conceived of as a beautiful relic of 

 the past, to be reverently enshrined but not seriously 

 accepted? Far from it. The glory of the Genesis 

 story lies in its wonderful power to grow. It strength- 



