people of America the conviction that the kingdom of God is a spiritual kingdom to be administered by its own constitution as laid down in the New Testament and not an institution which is to be bulwarked by laws of the state, if He shall impress upon us that Christianity is obedience to Christ and imitation of Him rather than adherence to a peculiar code of ritual forms and credal formulas, then the American Church will come to the appreciation of her opportunity and continue in the execution of her mission. It will then be a matter of minor import whether there are fewer or more groups of Christian believers among us, for upon the basis of a warm Christian experience and an energetic performance of Christ's will, they will all be united as one household, as one army, as one flock under one Shepherd.

THE WESTERN THEOLOGICAL Seminary, AllEGHENY.

II.

THE HIGHER CRITICISM: POSITIVE AND

CONSTRUCTIVE.

BY PROFESSOR F. A. GAST, D.D.

We have seen that, in the progress of religious thought in Israel, the conception of God passed through several stages of purification and spiritualization, until in the course of centuries it came to express the idea of the one only, holy and transcendent God, excluding the reality of all other gods. The possibility of sketching this development is due to the higher criticism, which thus displays its positive, constructive character. It has brought order out of the confusion which results from the commingling of materials derived from various periods and reflecting the beliefs held at different stages of culture. Only after a chronological rearrangement of the literary sources of the Old Testament books-and this is one of the important tasks of criticism-are we in a position to trace the progress made by the mind of Israel in conceiving of God.

But any change in the conception of God will necessarily effect a corresponding change in the mode of worship. Religious thought and religious worship advance at equal pace. Worship was the main part of every ancient religion. It was the practical side of the religious life, dissociated to a large extent from the moral life, and more essential than the theological beliefs. Yet the form of worship was always, consciously or unconsciously, determined by the nature of the god worshipped. As was the god, such was his cult. This is as apparent in the religion of Israel, as in the religion of any other people. The worship of Jahveh underwent a development parallel to the development of the conception of * REFORMED CHURCH REVIEW, January, 1904.

Jahveh. This the higher criticism by its application of the scientific method has clearly and fully demonstrated.

Let us, in a general way, without entering into details for which we have no space, sketch the historical development of worship in Israel, marking the several stages which lead up from the simplicity and freedom of the earliest period in Canaan, through more complex and regulated forms, to the highly elaborated ritual prescribed in the Priests' Code. It may be well, however, at the very beginning, to describe in a few words the main characteristic features of the Levitical system, which, if we except a few later additions, regulated the worship of Israel from the time of Ezra by whom it was put into operation. Such a description may serve as a standard with which to compare the worship that prevailed in earlier periods of Israel's history; for after the reformation instituted by Ezra, only that worship was regarded as legitimate which conformed to the requirements of the Priests' Code.

Jahveh, as He comes to view in the Priestly document, both in the laws and in the historical framework in which the laws are inserted, is a transcendent God, no longer immersed in the life of nature, but a spiritual Being exalted above the world. Yet after the establishment of the covenant at Sinai, He condescends to dwell in the midst of His people Israel. His dwelling-place is the Tabernacle, whose splendor corresponds to His Majesty. For the construction of the Tabernacle, Moses is divinely furnished with minutest details as to plan and dimensions (Ex. 25:10-27:19; 36: 8-38:31). Tabernacle is the center of the whole worship; indeed, it is the basis on which the theocracy itself rests. Here alone sacrifice and offering can be presented to Jahveh, here alone His people can draw near to Him. As the name ('ohel moʻed, A.V. tabernacle of the congregation, Ex. 27: 21), implies, it is the place of meeting between Jahveh and His worshippers:

The

On account of His holiness, however, approach to Him is dangerous. His people is never permitted to come into His

immediate presence. That privilege is reserved for Moses alone, first on Mt. Sinai at the giving of the Law, and later, after the Tabernacle was erected, in the Holy of Holies, the inner chamber of the sanctuary, where Jahveh had His special abode beneath the cherubim above the mercy seat of the Ark, whence Jahveh spoke to His most highly favored servant (Num. 7:89). From the people He kept Himself aloof and to them He was invisible. The glory of the Lord which on extraordinary occasions appeared above the Tabernacle was not Jahveh Himself, but the splendor of light radiating from Him; and even that had to be screened by a cloud lest it consume the people, who could not so much as behold even the reflection of that glory from the illuminated face of Moses (Ex. 34:29-35).

Jahveh, the holy God, chose Israel to be His holy people. But Israel in its moral and ceremonial uncleanness and with its constant need of forgiveness could hold no immediate communion with its absolutely holy God in His holy sanctuary. If the bond of union was to be maintained between them there was need of a system of priestly mediation. Accordingly, after the erection of the Tabernacle, Moses consecrated Aaron and his sons the Priests; and as in the performance of their official duties they needed helpers, a subordinate order of clergy was created out of the tribe of Levi to which the family of Aaron belonged. These three orders stood as a triple wall of partition between Jahveh and the congregation, and it was only through them that the mass of the people could draw near to God. They represented three distinct degrees of ceremonial purity. The highest degree attached to the High Priest, who alone could enter into the Holy of Holies, Jahveh's private chamber, and he only once a year, on the great Day of Atonement. The Priests, with a lower degree of holiness, performed their sacred functions, partly in the Holy Place, which was separated from the Holy of Holies by a veil and contained the table of shewbread, the golden candlestick and the altar of incense; and partly, in the

Court of the Tabernacle where stood the altar of burnt offering. The Levites, with a still lower degree of holiness, did not belong properly to the order of Priests, the ministers of Jahveh, but were only attendants on the Priests. They were excluded even from the Holy Place, and it was death for a Levite to touch the altar (Num. 1:53).

These ideas were embodied in the arrangement of the tribes in camp and on march. In the center is the sanctuary, the tent of meeting, wherein Jahveh abides in the midst of Israel. Round about this, to guard His holy presence against intrusion, is a cordon formed by the sacred tribe of Levi, with the priests, the sons of Aaron, on the east before the entrance to the tent, and the remaining Levites in three divisions on the other three sides. Beyond this an outer cordon was formed by the twelve secular tribes, three on each side.

The purpose of the Priests' Code was to make Israel a holy people, exclusively devoted to Jahveh and standing in a relation to Him different from that of other nations. Only it must be understood that holiness, according to this Code, is as much ceremonial as moral. Indeed special emphasis is laid on the ceremonial, which is not broadly distinguished from the moral. The sacrifice of peace offerings, for example, must be eaten the day it is offered, or on the day following; and he that eats of aught that remains over till the third day "shall bear his iniquity, because he hath profaned the hallowed thing of the Lord, and that soul shall be cut off from among his people" (Lev. 19:5-8). The whole life of the Israelite was regulated by law which found fixed expression in ceremonial observances. The violation of any legal ordinance, whether a prohibition or a command, however trivial, as well as all uncleanness contracted from childbirth, diseases of various kinds, especially leprosy, and contact with the carcass of an unclean animal, were offensive to the holiness of Jahveh, brought guilt on the head of the offender, and disturbed the relation of God to His people. If the transgression was intentional, the guilty person was either cut off from the