50 REV. CHANCELLOR LIAS, M.A., OJ^ 



sense kindred to the former, brings in the aspect of terror side 

 by side Avith that of origination or protection. God is here 

 conceived of as a God of wrath, capable of avenging Himself 

 against His enemies, as Avell as of guiding and protecting His 

 votaries. It is a conception which every one who is familiar 

 with the Old Testament writings sees to have been embodied 

 in what, until lately, have unanimously been accepted as the 

 later Hebrew delineatious of the character of God. The 

 word disappears in the later literature, but the ideas it repre- 

 sented are preserved. The use of the word Shaddai in the 

 Hebrew Scriptures is verj- characteristic and significant. It 

 is confined almost entirely to the Pentateuch, tlie Book of 

 Ruth and the Book of Job. It occurs only three or four 

 times in the Prophets, and only once, I believe, in the Psalms, 

 In the Pentateuch and the Book of Ruth it is placed in the 

 mouths of the patriarchs on solemn occasions,* in the mouth 

 of Balaam, and in the mouth of Naomi when she returns 

 from her sojourn in the land of ^Moab. By far the greater 

 number of cases in which the word occurs are found in the 

 Book of Job. In Balaam's utterances the title Shaddai is the 

 parallel to the title El 'Eljon, the Deity Avhose priest 

 Melchizedek is represented as being. I shall not take up 

 your time by discussing the question of the authorship of 

 ithe Book of Job. But I thuik it cannot be regarded as 

 unfair if I venture to represent it as the most cosmopolitan 

 of the books of the Old Testament — the one which, of all 

 others, displays the most familiarity with Semitic mono- 

 theistic thought outside the Jewish race. Thus, then, our 

 authorities with remarkable unanimity represent the early 

 Semites, and, we may add, the monotheistic Semites of a later 

 date outside the borders of Israel, as believing in one God, 

 a God of vengeance as well as a God of might, one who 

 would punish His enemies as well as reward those who were 

 faithful to Him — in fact, precisely the conception of God 

 which is embodied in the Second Commandment. The 

 moral aspects of this Being were as yet undeveloped. He 

 appears before us as Power, not as Righteousness — power to 

 avenge as well as to reward, but Avithout any definite ethical 

 characteristics attached to His use of the power which is in 

 His hands. 



We come next to a remarkable step in the development of 



* It is noteworthy that the word is found in both the narratives into 

 •which modern criticism has divided the first four " Books of Moses." 



