The American republic and human liberty foreshadowed in Scripture

Front matter

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UNITED STATES OF AMEEICA.

THE AMBEICAI REPUBLIC

Chapter I. Paoe

Civil Liberty of Divine Origin 21

Liberty, 21. Its origin, 22. Importance of the subject, 22. Our nation tried, 22. Erroneous opinions on the origin of civil liberty, 23. Of Divine origin, 24. Liberty in Greece and Rome, 24. Not originated by them, 25. Plato, 25. The Christian fathers, 26. Tyranny, 26. Liberty established among the Hebrews, 27. The Jewish theocracy, 28. God's will revealed, 28.

CHAPTER 11.

The Hebrew Commonwealth the Type of the American... 31 Types in the Sacred Scriptures, 31. Character of the prophecies, 32. The symbolic character best adapted to the human mind, 34. Nature typical, 34. Typology characterized, 35. Dr. Bushnell's opinion, 36. The Jewish Church typical of the Christian, 38. Their government typical of the American, 38. Fairbairn's Typology quoted, 38. The three rules for determining the type, 38. Chevalier's law, 39. The Hebrew commonwealth, 40. 1. Its State sovereignty, 40. 2. Separate government, 40. 3. Constitution, 41. 4. Chief magistrate, 42. Representative government, 43. Mode of electing oflScers, 44. 5. The judiciary, 45. 6. Law of evidence, 46. 7. Trial by jury, 46. Education, 47. The American system, 49. Our earliest schools, 50. Number of schools among the Hebrews, 51.

CHAPTER III. The American Republic the Restored Nation of Prophecy 53

Our Government a subject of prophecy, 53. Why not noticed by expositors, 56. The civil polity of the Hebrews misunderstood, 57. The literal restoration of Israel impossible, 58. Not countenanced by Christ and his apostles, 58. Terms employed in the prophecies, 59. Refer to a Christian republic, 60. The

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promised nationality described, 61. 1. Geographical boundary of its domain, 61. 2. Its previous condition, 61. 3. A place of spacious riyers, 63. 4. The new nation, one gathered out of all nations, 64. This prophecy fulfilled literally, 65. 5. The promised nationality a republic, 67. 6. Distinguished for rapid advancement of intelligence and Divine instruction, 68.

CHAPTER IV. The American Republic the Nation Born in a Day. 70

The prophecy, 70. Is it fulfilled ? 71. When fulfilled, 71. Time of the nation's birth, 72. The period pointed out by Daniel, 73. The obscure allusions, 74. How are we to determine the time of the end ? 74. Our own age fulfills the conditions, 74. Our periodical press as compared with the rest of the world, 75. Our schools, 76. Church enterprises, 76. The time described by prophetic days, 77. What is a prophetic day ? 78, Hebrew divisions of time, 78. How distinguished, 79. The seventy weeks of abbreviated time, 80. Reckoned from what point, 80. Justified according to the Sacred calendar, 81. Mathematical calculations, 82. The exact time thus determined, 82. Another calculation, 83. Same result reached, 83.

Chapter V

The American Republic the Fifth Power Symbolized by THE Stone Cut from the Mountain 85

The vision and the interpretation, 85. Does not refer to Christianity, 86. Kingdom of God established in patriarchal ages, 87. The fifth power to remain independent, 88. Can not mean the Church, for its origin does not synchronize with that of the Church, 90. Was to come out of the Church, 91. Indicates the same kind of government as the preceding four powers, 92. Tillinghast's argument, 92.

Chapter VI

The American Republic Symbolized by the Man-child Born in the Wilderness 94

The prophecy, 94. I. The woman driven into the wilderness, 94. 1. The woman symbolizes the Church, 94. 2. The dragon symbolizes the tyranny of the Roman Empire, 95. 3. Only one flight of the woman, 95. 4. Her flight symbolizes the Pilgrims flying to America, 95. Reasons for this interpretation, 97. Such a fulfillment agrees with the prophecy, 98. II. The man-

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child born in the wilderness, 99. Does not represent Constantine, 99. Symbolizes a civil power, 100. The power indicated is a civilized and enlightened Christian nationality, 101. 1. The nationality an offspring of the Church, 102. The American Republic the child of Christianity, 102. Proofs of this statement, 102. Bancroft quoted, 102. "Webster, 103. Christianity and liberty coincident, 104. 2. The Christian religion a preparation of the struggle for liberty, 105. The Reformation, 106. Civil and religious liberty, 107. The American Revolution an outgrowth of the Reformation, 109. 3. The new nationality protected by God, 112. Attempts to crush it, 112. Monarchy assisting the new republic, 115. France and Lafayette, 115.

Chapter VII

The American Republic Established by the Direct Interposition OF God 120

The fifth power established by God, 120. 1. God's disapproval of monarchies, 120. 2. God never plants monarchies, 120. 3. God's plan the same with the United States as with the Hebrew commonwealth, 121. (1.) Both nations tried in the fiery furnace, 122. (2.) The place of the nation's planting providentially prepared, 123. (3.) God's safe conduct of our fathers to the New World, 125. The Divine interposition in our Revolutionary struggle, 126. "Washington, 127. His religious character, 128. James Otis, 130. Joseph "Warren, 131. Samuel Adams, 132. Patrick Henry, 133. John Hancock, 133. Thomas Jefferson, 133. Dr. Franklin, 135. Revolutionary women, 136. God's interposition manifest in teaching our Senators wisdom, 140. Prayers in the Continental Congress, 141. Public fasts, 142. Thanksgiving, 143. Bibles ordered, 143. God's guiding hand in the formation of the Constitution, 145. 1. Qualifying the workmen for their work, 145. 2. Showing the founders their need of Divine help, 145. The Convention embarrassed, 146. Dr. Franklin's motion to open the sessions with prayer, 147. Remarks on the motion, 148. The motion carried, 150. 3. Light and wisdom bestowed in answer to prayer, 150. 4. Public acknowledgment of the Divine help, 151.

CHAPTER VIII. The Divine Purpose in Planting the American Republic 154

True idea of a nation, 154. "What is a nation? 155. God's purpose in our planting set forth in our "life covenant," the Doola-

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ration of Independence, 166. Proper estimate of humanity, 157. How men were regarded in ancient times, 158. Kadical idea of a republic, 159. The principle applied in the Church by Wesley, 160. The Divine purpose in harmony with the plan of redemption and the foundation of the Church, 160. How these views are to be reconciled with slavery, 161. No connection between the two, 161. Views of our Revolutionary fathers on slavery, 163. Washington, 163. Jefferson, 164. Dr. Franklin, 166. Abolition memorial, 166. Hamilton, 167. Madison, 167. John Adams, 168. Patrick Henry, 169. Modern views, 170. Our Grovernment to be expansive, 170. The trust given to us, 171.

CHAPTER IX. Our Apostasy as a Nation 174

Our apostasy seen in our failure to carry out the Divine purpose, 174. Christianity in its relation to civil polity, 174. Slavery cherished, 176. Outrage against humanity, 177. Effects of slavery, 178. Southern views, 178. Our public men plotting treason, 179. Contrast between modern writers and our earlier statesmen, on this subject, 179. Apostasy of the Church in the slave States, 182. Early testimony against slavery, 183. Influence of slavery on the Church in the free States, 183.

Chapter X

The Oppression of the Nation by the Slave Power.... 185 American slavery, 185. Hebrew servitude, 185. Slavery among the Romans, 186. Our laws prohibiting emancipation, 186. Slavery in other countries, 187. The non-slaveholding white population in the South, 187. Offices filled by slaveholders, 188. The school system in slave States, 189. Influence of slavery on the Church, 190. On the press, 190. On the civil government, 192. Degrading influence of slavery, 193. Demands of the slave power, 193. The plotting of treason, 194. Dispersion of our army, navy, and munitions of war, 195. Slavery despotism, 196.

CHAPTER XL

The American Republic and the Present Rebellion..... 197

War a Divine agency, 197. The American Republic born amidst

war, 198. The struggle against slavery, 198. The deliverance,

199. The period of strife, 200. The great contest, 200. The

hostile parties arrayed for the conflict, 200. The apocalyptic

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symbols, 201. The predictions concerning the war, 201. The symbols explained, 201. The place of the war, 202. What is signified by heaven, 202. Michael represents the genius of our free institutions, 203. The genius of our Government not to be confounded with the wrong-doing in the nation, 204. The Church is the Lamb's bride, though there are many things in it that Christ can not approve, 204. The dragon symbolizes the slave power, 204. The rattle-snake emblem well chosen, 205. The dragon distinguished from the great red dragon, 205. The war in heaven, 206. The end proposed by the rebellion, 207. The Union destined to be victorious, 208. Assisting the enemy, 208. The result, 209. The President, on leaving his home in Illinois, invoking prayers, 210. The prayers heard and answered, 211. The President's character, 212. The Emancipation Proclamation, 213. God's providence seen in the war, 213. Succession of Union victories, 213. Change in public sentiment on the subject of slavery, 213. The nation purified, 217. Practical benevolence, 217. God with us, 217.

Chapter XII

The Genius of the American Republic to Destroy the Monarchies of the World 219

The image of Nebuchadnezzar's dream a symbol of various monarchies, 219. Their history, 219. The first monarchy, 219. The second, 219. The third and the fourth, 220. The Roman Empire, 220. Union of Church and State, 220. Fate of the fourth, 221. The fifth power symbolized, 222. How the fourth monarchy was to be destroyed, 223. Church and State to be disunited, 223. National education, 224. Common schools, 224. Written constitutions, 224. Influence of our Government, 225. Russia, 226. Emancipation of the serfs, 226. Western Europe, 227. Aggressive influence of republican doctrines, 228.

Chapter XIII

The American Republic Destined to Become Unitersal...231 The American Republic to destroy monarchy, 231. No cessation of government, 231. Republican government universal, 231. Preparation of the world for this event, 232. God's painstaking to consummate this end, 232. The prediction of the event as fulfilled, 232. This view consistent with prophecy, and the desires and expectations of mankind, 232. In harmony with the universal laws of mind, 233. Harmonizes with

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the Divine plan regarding the universal dominion of Christianity, 233. No other form of government adapted to our Christian civilization, 234.

CHAPTER XIV. The American Republic Perpetual 235

As Christianity is to be perpetual, so is republican government, 235. This position sustained by the "Word of God, 235. Our laws changed so as to conform to the Divine law, 235. Our rulers to be able men, such as fear God and hate covetousness, 235. The day coming when righteousness shall be in the ascendance, 236. The future destiny and glory of the United States, 236.

THE AMERICAN REPUBLIC.

Chapter I. Civil Liberty Of Divine Origin

Liberty! What talismanic power in that single word! Its utterance thrills and moves the human soul, and always finds a response in the human heart, whether savage or civilized. The principle is one of the strongest of our nature. When combined with the higher element of Christianity it is the source of the mightiest and sublimest efforts of human genius. It is the grand instrument of human advancement. Its leading characteristic is energy — energy waking to life and action the powers that sleep in the human soul, and the might that slumbers in the human arm. The grandest achievements, and the noblest efforts of valor, and the sublimest ministrations of benevolence, the richest fruits of human industry that have illustrated and adorned the annals of our race, have all sprung from this principle. All Western Europe is to-day moved by

its wonderful power, while the common people are demanding, at the hands of their rulers, those rights and privileges which are justly theirs.

It is a truth made manifest in the history of all nations, ancient and modern, that

"'Tis liberty alone that gives the flower Of fleeting life its luster and perfume."

But whence originated this essence so necessary to the glow and fragrance of human existence ? Where and by whom were its cordial elements first distilled and shed over the cumbrous cares of fleeting life? Whence was it, from heaven or of men? of Divine or human origin?

This is a question at the present hour of great importance. Ours is an age of thought, of energy, of profound research, in every department of religion, government, and science. Old systems are being tried, condemned, rejected, and new ones introduced in their place. That system which has been built on the rock of truth, and that only, shall be able to stand amid these sweeping revolutions. Never before in the history of the world were systems of error swept away in so brief a period of time. God is already saying, "Remove the diadem, and take off the crown: this shall not be the same: exalt him that is low, and abase him that is high. I will overturn, overturn, overturn it, until He come whose right it is." Ezek. xxi, 26, 27.

Our own nation is being tried as by fire. The storm-cloud of civil war, which has hung over us for

ORIGIN OF CIVIL LIBERTY. 23

nearly three years, still darkens our political heavens, while our enemies, at home and abroad, by land and sea, predict our downfall. We are told that our civil polity is only the work of erring men, and that our effort at republican government is about to have an end. How important at such a time is the inquiry as to the origin of civil liberty! He who knows not the source whence he has derived his civil rights and privileges is incapable either of properly estimating or rightly preserving them. He can not fully appreciate them because he knows not the price at which they have been purchased, or the hight from which they have been brought. He can not properly preserve them ; for, in ignorance, he may close up the very fountain from which he has been di-inking, and extinguish the very torch by whose light he has been walking. If they have an origin higher than mere human expediency, they have also a value higher than mere human invention. If they have been given to us by means more potent and pure than the mere theories of statesmen or the tactics of the soldier, they can not surely be retained if these means are undervalued or rejected.

It is strange that an American citizen should ever have entertained erroneous opinions upon a subject of such vital importance as the origin of civil liberty. And yet, strange as it may seem, it is nevertheless true that the popular idea taught our youth upon this subject, in the schools of the country, is, that civil liberty was born and cradled in the ancient States of

Greece and Rome; that the renowned lawgivers of these pagan republics were the fathers of pohtical freedom to the world. This notion we regard as a serious evil, and one which should be at once corrected.

Civil liberty, whether we consider the innate principle which is a part of ours elf, or those laws, or that polity by which it is regulated for the safety and interest of the society. State, or nation, is of Divine origin. We claim that it was first taught by God himself to the ancient Hebrews, and embodied in a form of government known as the Hebrew theocracy. This theocratic form of goverment was given to the Hebrews in fulfillment of promises made to Abraham, their venerable ancestor and progenitor, four hundred and thirty years before they reached Sinai.

The pagan governments of Greece and Rome were never in a condition to accomplish so great a work. The stream can not rise higher than the fountain. "Do men gather grapes of thorns or figs of thistles? Can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit?" Matt, vii, 16. These governments have been vastly overrated. They never were republics in the proper signification of that term ; nothing more than overgrown aristocracies, where for every free man there were forty slaves. In none of these boasted republics were political rights extended to the mass of the people. Dark, crushing, and helpless oppression was the lot of the poor man's life and the legacy of the poor man's child. That there were bright lights in the galaxy of these ancient States, men of rare gen-

ORIGIN OF CIVIL LIBERTY. 25

ius, who felt all the force, and, in a measure, comprehended the nature, of this great principle, we admit ; while w^e do not forget that an eiFort to teach them to others secured a martyr's crown, as in the case of the noble Socrates and others.

Why should we ascribe to the ancients that which they never claimed? They never pretended to have originated their principles of civil liberty, but to have received them from their gods. Thus the laws of Crete are said to have been given by Minos, and were received by him through inspiration from Jupiter. Lycurgus, the Spartan lawgiver, professed to have received the principles of law from Apollo. Numa Pompilius proclaimed himself indebted to Egcria for the statutes and ordinances which formed the foundation of Roman greatness and subsequent Roman supremacy. This admission on the part of the ancient heathen lawgivers we regard as of special importance in its relation to the subject under consideration. They had the truth broken and corrupted. For certainly all this is but a corrupted account of the giving of the law by Jehovah to Moses, amid thunderings of Sinai. Suppose in the Cretan tradition alluded to, we substitute for the doubtful lawgiver, Minos, the actual Moses, and for the fabulous Jupiter the true Jehovah. This done the myth vanishes, and the Scriptural truth is restored in all its beauty and sublimity.

Plato, that devout and lofty sage, whose philosophy for so many ages ruled the world of mind, demanded assent to the truths which he taught, mainlj on the ground that it was ^'God-given wisdom," The ancient fathers, Justin Martyr, Cyril, Tertullian, and others, affirm that Plato derived many of his ideas from the writings of Moses, and that he would have mentioned his name as a teacher of the one and only God, but from fear of the Areopagus.* We must then go further back than to either Athens or Sparta for the origin of this blessing, so deeply interwoven with the progress and happiness of man. It w^as not Greece speaking from the halls of the Acropolis, but the wisdom of God speaking from the clouded summit of Sinai, and the verdant plains of Moab, which first instructed mankind in the principles of civil liberty. These great principles were received by Moses, and proclaimed to the Hebrews long before the world had learned to lisp the names of Lycurgus, Solon, or Numa, and while the Greeks and. Romans were yet in a savage state, and, like the Digger Indians of California, living on nuts and acorns.

It is a well-known fact of history, that at the time of the exodus of the Israelites, tyranny had become one of the so*est of curses, and one from which mankind knew no means of escape. Every-where the life, happiness, and liberty of the subject were at the will of the despot, who, intoxicated with power, ruled over men as the Southerli slaveholder rules over his human chattels, or a Mexican buccarrow

*' Christ in History. Turnbull.

ORIGIN OF CIVIL LIBERTY. 27

rules over herds of cattle. Light brought to bear upon the subject, from that interesting department of knowledge, hieroglyphic literature, shows those systems of government to have been the most cruel and despotic of which it is possible for us to conceive. The world had experimented on government through the preceding ages, but had failed to devise a system in which the liberties of the masses were regarded.

AVhen the Hebrews escaped from a long and cruel bondage, how opportune for Him, who is the fountain of wisdom and goodness, to interpose for the purpose of showing how a nation should be governed, so as best to secure its rights and liberties! If it be asked why this instruction was not given earlier, we answer the world was not prepared to receive it. " The fullness of time " had not come. It was necessary that men should test their own ability to govern each other, independent of God, and taste the bitterness of oppression, as in the case of the Israelites in Egypt, in order to be fully prepared to receive and rightly appreciate this Divine bestowment. In like manner, a Savior was withheld ^ill man became fully satisfied of his inability to save himself, and was brought deeply to feel his need of a Divine supernatural deliverer. So world-wide was this felt want of humanity, that the Savior was appropriately spoken of by the prophet Haggai as the " Desire of all nations."

The Jewish theocracy, in its leading characteristics, was intended by its great Author as a model government. It combined, in a very remarkable degree, liberty with law, the freedom of the individual with the welfare of the community. The great principles of constitutional law, as applied to civil and criminal jurisprudence, were here developed and reduced to practice in the administration of public affairs, and have since constituted the lights and landmarks to direct the labors of statesmen and legislators. The fact is, the government was strictly repubhcan. We believe w^ith Dr. Matthews, "that the Hebrew Government was a theocracy only in a limited sense. The Hebrews had their civil rulers, like other nations — men who exercised authority over other men, and who were acknowledged throughout the land as rightful magistrates." True, the law was divine; but the government, or instrument of administration, was human. And the same is true of all pure republics. It seems to have been one object of Jehovah's divine legislation to frame enactments which show how civil authority, of man over man, should be created, and how it should be administered so as best to promote the welfare of the people.

Here, then, God has distinctly revealed his will on the subject of government, so that we need be at no loss to determine the form which meets the Divine approval. A remarkable instance of his disapprobation of the kingly form of government occurred at the time that the people of Israel became dissatisfied with their representative government, and asked to

ORIGIN OF CIVIL LIBERTY. 29

have it changed like to that of the heathen around about them. He said to Samuel, '' Protest solemnly unto them, and show them the manner of the king that shall reign over them." And in obedience to his instructions, the prophet told all the words of the Lord unto the people that asked of him a king. "He will take," says he, "your sons, and appoint them for himself, for his chariots, and to be his horsemen; and some shall run before his chariots. And he will appoint him captains over thousands, and captains over fifties; and will set them to ear his ground, and to reap his harvest, and to make his instruments of war, and instruments of his chariots. And he will take your daughters to be confectionarics, and to be cooks, and to be bakers. And he will take your fields, and your vineyards, and your olive-yards, even the best of them, and give them to his servants. He will take the tenth of your seed, and of your vineyards, and give them to his officers, and to his servants. And he will take your men-servants, and your maid-servants, and your goodliest young men, and your asses, and put them to his work. He will take the tenth of your sheep: and ye shall be his servants. And ye shall cry out in that day because of your king which ye shall have chosen you; and the Lord will not hear you in that day." 1 Sam. viii, 11-18. Such is the solemn protest of Jehovah against an earthly monarchy; and how fully has the Divine affirmation been confirmed in the history of earthly kings !

The Hebrew republic existed four hundred and sixty-four years. During all that time Jerusalem was the great moral light-house of the Old World. From this luminous center, light rayed forth into the darkness of the surrounding nations.

God having thus made known, in the Bible, his will on the subject of government, we should expect to find its subsequent teachings in harmony with that revealed will. In this we are not disappointed. The very spirit of liberty breathes through its poetry and prose. Its voice is heard in the Sermon on the Mount, and in the writings of the prophets, evangelists, and apostles. Here are found the most lofty, burning, and indignant strains of invective against all forms of oppression and tyranny. It denies the right of any one man, or set of men, to think for any other man, or set of men, without their consent, for the reason that all men are responsible agents, and each held responsible for the exercise of his own powers.

Chapter II. The Hebrew Commonwealth A Type Of The American

The sacred Scriptures abound in types. The historical types or symbols of the Old Testament are found diffused over the whole period which extends from the creation of the world to the time when vision and prophecy were sealed. This teaching by types was not alone in reference to Christ and his Church, but on the same tablets of shadow were traced the numerous events of the world's future history. Here were shadowed forth the rise and fall of States, with their collateral events ; kingdoms shivered by kingdoms, and empires broken to rise no more. But all these were to be succeeded by a republic which Jehovah himself should set up, and which should encircle the world within its genial folds, and remain to the end of time.

These visions of the future, says Trail, have an amazing scenic effect ; are grand, sometimes gorgeous, beyond conception, in consequence of the substitution of their symbolic images for the literal events themselves. A splendid drapery is thrown around these future histories, which, in the ordinary hisdZ THE AMERICAN REPUBLIC.

torian, would be extravagant; but "whicli, in the prophet, is dignified and becoming, as the solemn folds of his own prophetic mantle. There is, says the same writer, a noble obscurity, as when the clouds, gilded by the twilight from the unrisen sun, seem to pile up palaces upon the mountain's dusky summit. Any one may convince himself of this by turning to the pages of Ezekiel, Daniel, or John. A prediction which should present itself in bare literalities would want those spectral proportions which only dimness can give to it, as we see it move on the distinct verges of distant centuries. Whatever the rapt eye of the seer might itself descry, it could fling back for other eyes only mantled glances; and it is the working out of the symbolism necessary for this obscuration, which so amazingly exhibits the literary excellence of these prophetic compositions. The artistic effect in the working of light and shade is similar to the finest efforts of Rembrandt.

The visual range of prophecy was not confined within our terrene horizon ; for to her eye was given to pierce the world unseen. Now, it will at once appear that in his description of the invisible world, the prophet could only describe by means of symbols. His pictures of a condition of existence of which we have no experience, if worked in colors borrowed from the earth, can be no other than symbolic representation. The material parts of his descriptions are not to be taken in their literal, but in their suggestive sense. Does lie represent heaven as a city whose walls are of precious stones ? This is simply a symbol of its magnificence. Are its inhabitants figured in white raiment, which glistens in unclouded light ? This is merely a symbol of their purity. The entire scenic representation is but one grand piece of symbolism; for, clearly, on no other principle could the unseen world and the future state be described if the descriptions are to be at all pictorial. But this once admitted, what an ample scope was given the prophet to work out the magnificent imagery of the heavenly world! All that is beautiful and bright, all that is grand and gorgeous — the magnificence of architecture, the minstrelsy of music, the wealth of Eastern mines, the insignia of Eastern royalty, the rich vestments of Eastern costume — all could be collected into the prophet's representations. He could dip his pen into the glories of the first Paradise ; could borrow beauty from the landscapes of Palestine, and magnificence from its palaces ; could gather into his pictures the sacred grandeurs which gleamed from the Temple, and enrich them with the loveliest hues from Mt. Zion, the "perfection of beauty." Or, working out his symbolism by means of contrast, he could figure a paradise where no serpent lurks to deceive; a sun-world where no sea lashes itself into storms ; an orb of light where no night alternates with day. In short, though what the prophet had to describe is that " which eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath entered into the heart of man to conceive;" yet, working out his descriptions on the principle of symbolism, where, in any language, will we find a grandeur of apocalyptic imagery to compare with that with which the banished seer of Patmos has enriched the sacred literature ?

The bare description of the types which were ritualistic has made the Pentateuch read like a finelyillustrated work. It is profusely and most graphically pictorial. The pen of the sacred lawgiver becomes, also, the pencil of the sacred artist. The entire ritualism under which are vailed so many spiritual meanings is the grand picture-representation of heavenly truth. *

It is said to be a difficult thing to write suitable books for children, particularly so as to give to abstract truths that concrete form which will fix them on the infantile mind. Now here, for the Church in its infancy, a body of divinity had to be written — a theological primer which should contain in substance the same profound revelations of the mind of God which were to be given in the fullness of the times. How admirably suited for this purpose was the symbolistic manual which Moses prepared !