HUMAN NATURE AND BRUTE NATURE. 91 



tion of God presents Him in the simplest form, the 

 easiest for us to understand, as the Great Patriarch of 

 mankind. Along with this revelation came simple 

 commands and prohibitions, the requirements of ex- 

 ternal sacrifice, the promise and warning- of temporal 

 rewards and punishments. The law of retaliation, an 

 eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, seems brutal now, 

 but it is the beginning of a noble education. It says 

 indeed, ' Do to others as they have done to you,' but 

 then in regard to injuries it bids you exact no more 

 than you have suffered, instead of taking a brutal 

 revenge by repaying the injury tenfold : and in regard 

 to benefits it bids you never forget to be grateful. 

 From it springs the higher and better law, of doing 

 to others, not as they have done to you, but as you 

 would have them do to you. Without these begin- 

 nings the human mind could never have comprehended 

 or received the highest education that we are not only 

 to forgive but to love our enemies. The system of 

 material sacrifices trained men to a capability of under- 

 standing and of offering the sacrifice of the heart ; the 

 outward cleansings demanded by the law led them by 

 degrees to recognize the need of inward purity. By the 

 law came the knowledge of sin. Not till man knew that 

 sin was sinful could he either wish for or receive a 

 Saviour. Hence it was that Christ came not at the 

 beginning, but only in the fulness of time. The gift of 

 the Holy Ghost was not outpoured till men in part 

 were ready to receive it. That it is still bestowed with 

 so sparing a hand is not the fault of God's liberality, 



