THE MESSIAH THEORY. 211 



tion of the Messiah, though not less ardent, was of a 

 more spiritual kind. They believed that the Messiah 

 was that prophet often called the Son of Man, who 

 would be sent by God to proclaim the defeat of Satan, 

 and the renovation of the world. They interpreted 

 the prophets after a manner of their own : the kingdom 

 foretold was the kingdom of heaven, and the new 

 Jerusalem was not a Jerusalem on earth, but a celestial 

 city built of precious stones and watered by the Stream 

 of Life. 



Such were the hopes of the Jews. The whole 

 nation trembled with excitement and suspense ; the 

 mob of Judsea awaiting the Messiah or kirjg who 

 should lead them to the conquest of the world ; the 

 more noble-minded Jews of Palestine, and especially 

 the foreign Jews, awaiting the Messiah or Son of Man, 

 who should proclaim the approach of the most terrible 

 of all events. There were many pious men and women 

 who withdrew entirely from the cares of ordinary life, 

 and passed their days in watching and in prayer. 



The Neo-Jewish or Persian-Hebrew religion, with 

 its sublime theory of a single god, with its clearly 

 defined doctrine of rewards and punishments, with its 

 1 one grand duty of faith or allegiance to a divine king, 

 was so attractive to the mind on account of its 

 simplicity that it could not fail to conquer the dis- 

 cordant and jarring creeds of the Pagan world, as soon 

 as it should be propagated in the right manner. 

 There is a kind of Natural Selection in religion ; the 

 creed which is best adapted to the mental world will 

 invariably prevail ; and the mental world is being 

 gradually prepared for the reception of higher and 

 higher forms of religious life. At this period Europe 

 was ready for the reception of the one-god species 



