200 THE CHARACTER OF JEHOVAH. 



wanted it kept clean, who manoeuvred the troops in 

 battle, who delighted in massacres and human sacrifice, 

 who murdered people in sudden fits of rage, who changed 

 his mind, who enjoined petty larceny and employed 

 angels to tell lies, who, in short, possessed all the 

 vices of the Arab character. He also possessed their 

 ideal virtues, for he prohibited immorality, and com- 

 manded them to be hospitable to the stranger, to be 

 charitable to the poor, to treat with kindness the 

 domestic beast and the captive wife. 



It was impossible for Moses to raise their minds to a 

 nobler conception of the Deity ; it would have been as 

 easy to make them see Roman noses when they looked 

 into a mirror. He therefore made use of their super- 

 stition in order to rule them for their own good, and 

 descended to trumpetings and fire-tricks, which cham- 

 ber moralists may condemn with virtuous indignation, 

 but which those who have known what it is to com- 

 mand a savage mob will not be inclined to criticise 

 severely. 



When the settlement in Canaan took place the 

 course of events gave rise to a theory about Jehovah, 

 which not only the Israelites held, but also the Philis- 

 tines. It was believed that he was a mountain god, 

 and could not fight on level ground. He was unlike 

 the pagan gods in one respect, namely, that he ordered 

 his people to destroy the groves and idols of his rivals, 

 and threatened to punish them if they worshipped any 

 god but him. However, as might be supposed, 

 although the Israelites were very loyal on the moun- 

 tains they worshipped other gods when they fought 

 upon the plains. Whenever they won a battle they 

 sang a song in honour of Jehovah, and declared that 

 he was "a man of war;" but when they lost a battle 



