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bath can hope to reach the highest ideal physically, socially or morally. In his farewell address Washington said: "Let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principles. It is because of our religion, our altruism, our ideals that these problems press upon us. When men's wants are few, and the ideals are low, and the passions bedraggle conscience and all that is god-like in man, the problems are few and easily solved. The grim justice meted out, in such a low estate, forbids the rise of vexing and heart-lifting problems. Whenever the tide of life rises, the national ideals begin to glow with the starlight of heaven, and men are bounding towards the sunlit hills of everlasting glory, with problems of god-like proportion and import buzzing about them like bees. The recognition of these problems puts us half way towards their solution. Their solution for the glory of the kingdom and the welfare of humanity are certain, because of the religious life in America. That shrewd observer of American institutions, James Bryce, says: "Christianity is in fact understood to be, though not the legally established religion, yet the national religion. So far from thinking their commonwealth godless, the Americans conceive that the religious character of a government consists in nothing but the religious belief of the individual citizen, and the conformity of their conduct to that belief. They deem the general acceptance of Christianity to be one of the main sources of their national prosperity and their nation a special object of divine favor."

Remembering then that we are only in the midst of every problem that makes for the welfare of human kind, and that we have scarcely begun to work upon these problems, we have great reason to thank God and take courage at the progress that we have made. By the help of the Eternal we will solve

We will
We will go forward

them. We are working at them with a confidence begotten from the assurance that we are on God's side. President Lincoln was once asked, Do you think that God is on our side? The great president with that supreme wisdom that served him so well said we should be far more concerned to know whether we are on God's side. Since the confidence that our nation is a part of the universal plan of God grows in intensity, there arises a confidence that will bestir all the patriotism of which the soul is capable. feeling that we are about the Father's business. There are problems approaching with proportions that are as sublime as the largest stars that bedeck our evening sky. But from what we have done, we are sure that we are able to do even greater things. American Christianity forbids us to doubt. There has been such a constant succession of triumphs, with such a limited number of failures, that there is no manner of doubt about the ultimate success. The tide in the affairs of the nation has arisen, and we have taken it at its grandest flow. We have made the decision to be on the side of God.

And truth is truth as God is God.

And truth the day will win;
To doubt would be disloyalty,

To falter would be sin.

The hope of the final victory, when the powers of darkness will be routed, and righteousness cover the earth as the waters do the channels of the great deep grows brighter. If some Black Friday, now and then, shall dare to throw its foul shadows, when it seems as though the purposes of a divine providence were hesitating, and the world staying in its march to the brighter goal America shall cry-clouds and darkness are round about Him but righteousness and judg ment are the habitation of His throne. The millennial dawn is nearer because of what religion in American life has been enabled to do. The kingdoms of this world are more confidently palpitating with the instincts of divine paternity because of what religion incarnated in political and national life

has accomplished. The pathway to the palace of the King is smoother and plainer because of the heavenward direction that American Christianity gives to the consecrated energies of the nation and the church.

O Star of Empire, stay thee on thy westward way! Here linger that thou mayest receive from generations yet unborn expressions of gratitude vieing with the surf thunders of song that roll and reverberate around the throne, since thou didst guide their fathers to Immanuel's land.

O star of Bethlehem, who hast guided our fathers so safely through perils of the heathen and perils of false brethren, through perils of failure and perils of success, through perils of poverty and perils of wealth, let thy healing beams fall upon the pathway along which their sons and daughters must journey. Fill us with such abounding ideas of personal responsibility to God and man, that we can give no sleep to our eyes or slumber to our eyelids, till the God of Jacob shall be enthroned in the hearts of the brave and free. Help us to realize that except the Lord build the house they labor in vain that build it, except the Lord keep the city the watchman waketh but in vain. Give us broader ideas of the mollifying and regenerating influence of the word of the Lord. Shine with a brightness above that of the sun in his midday splendor, so that no hand dare be lifted against this ark of God. Lead us in that processional of joy and singing which shall grow louder and clearer and sweeter till it shall lose itself in that heavenly chorus which ascribes honor and glory and dominion and power unto Him that sitteth upon the throne and to the Lamb for ever and ever.

Sail on, O ship of state!

Sail on, O union strong and great;
Humanity with all its fears,

With all the hopes of future years,

Is hanging breathless on thy fate.

Our hearts, our hopes, are all with thee,

Our hearts, our hopes, our prayers, our tears,

Our faith triumphant o'er our fears,

Are all with thee, are all with thee.

III.

DEUTERONOMY AND THE HAMMURABI CODE.

A. H. GODBEY, A.M.

In the first fever of interest aroused by the discovery of the Hammurabi Code, it was hoped that it would throw much light upon the Deuteronomic reform. So far, the results of comparison seen purely negative. Nothing really decisive has been attained. We are not able to declare with finality what Deuteronomy is, or what it is not.

The methods of comparison used are chiefly to blame for this lack of result. Isolated details have been examined, and a number of analogies noted. But this method is defective: for analogies can be discovered between any two considerable bodies of human law. Experience and inclination achieve many similar results in various lands, and among dissimilar peoples. Were analogies between Deuteronomy and Hammurabi twice as numerous as they are, the direct influence of Babylon upon Israel would not thereby be proven. It would still be possible that Deuteronomy represents a revulsion from Babylonian influence; an open attack upon Chaldea. analogies might represent survivals of a time when both legal systems were closer together. This would involve then a study of the Covenant Code, and its relations to Deuteronomy and the Code of Hammurabi. Do any improvements upon the Covenant Code, apparent in Deuteronomy, represent Babylonian influences, or merely the natural advance in civilization, as influenced by prophetic teaching?

The

We should inquire also into the earliest known periods of each people. Were they once in contact, or practically one? If so, what common institutions should we most naturally expect to survive? What are the respective ideals: should we

look for parallel or divergent development? Does the Babylonian civilization offer the prophet anything that would enable him to realize his great dreams? Is the prophet to be considered as accepting or rejecting such supposed advantages? What allowance must be made for the traditional conservatism of the Hebrew ?

Again, recognizing that Ur-Casdim was probably in southern Babylonia, are the analogies discovered as numerous as might be expected; especially when we remember that there was a renewal of contact, a long period of Assyrian influence, before the publication of Deuteronomy? Should the familiarity with Babylonian law appear to be very minute in the earliest periods of the Hebrew, and far less at a later day, despite the stubborn traditionalism of the Hebrew, we would be compelled to recognize that some very powerful influence, perhaps as yet unknown, had displaced Babylon in Hebrew tradition, and that Deuteronomy might be a declaration of war upon Babylon.

Since the early Hebrew-Aramean came from Ur-Casdim, we are warranted in examining Babylonian law to see if it is discoverable in the patriarchal period of the Hebrew. Conversely, if such influence be shown, we may decide against Kittel's theory that Ur-Casdim was in Armenia, in favor of Babylonia. An ordinary sympathy with the home of their ancestors might be expected to develop the Hebrew parallel with the Babylonian, provided the nation was sufficiently strong from the beginning to mould its own institutions. If he did not so develop; if the Babylonian institutions were lost as quickly as their Aramean speech, we may suspect their settled institutions came to be, in the main, as Canaanitish as their language. We know how Babylonian colonists settled

in Samaria came to be in all essential features Jews. We have no good reason to suppose that the result was otherwise with the early Hebrew; especially when we find the prophets complaining that much evil is learned in Canaan. Thoroughly one-sided learning we may consider impossible. That much

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