RIGHT RELATION OF REASON TO RELIGION 253 



of as compassionate and long-suffering, with tender 

 mercies upon all his works, the note of condescension 

 which this carries is the proof that the quality of 

 Sovereign Exaltation was still present, and really 

 the dominant idea. In fact, this note pervades even 

 the one utterance by an Old Testament writer that 

 approaches nearest to escaping from the usual Juda- 

 istic moods and entering into the spirit of Christ ; 

 for when this noble writer asks, " What is it that 

 God requires of thee?" and answers, "Nothing but 

 to do justice and love mercy, and xvalk Jiumbly zvitJi 

 tJiy God,'' we hear again an echo of the same over- 

 whelmed and awe-stricken voice that says, " God 

 is in Heaven and thou upon the earth, therefore 

 let thy words be few ; " or, " The Eternal is on his 

 Throne, let all the earth keep silence before Him." 

 To break away from this magisterial and monar- 

 chical conception of God, which left men nothing 

 but the submissive subjects of a Lord, whose sover- 

 eign will ordained all things, even the supreme dis- 

 tinction between what is right and what is wrong,^ 

 was indeed a great, an unprecedented step. But 

 Jesus took it. Instead of Majesty and a Lord, he 

 presents God as the Friend and moral Father of 

 men, who calls every human being, every spirit, to 



1 " Right," on Ihis view, being merely what God has commanded, 

 and sinii)ly because he has commanded it ; and " wrong," on the other 

 hand, merely what he has forbidden, and because he has forbidden it. 



