it.  It is not a revelation of abstract truths.  These would neither have excited the interest of the people, nor have been apprehended by them.  God made known to the covenant people his character and the duties which he required of them by a series of mighty acts and a system of positive laws.  The Old Testament, is, therefore, in an eminent degree documentary—­a record not simply of opinions, but rather of actions and institutions.  Of these actions and institutions we are to judge from the character of the people and the age in connection with the great end proposed by God.  This end was not the material prosperity of Israel, but the preparation of the nation for its high office as the medium through which the gospel should afterwards be given to the world.  The people were rebellious and stiff-necked, and surrounded by polytheism and idolatry.  Their training required severity, and all the severity employed by God brought forth at last its appropriate fruits.  The laws imposed upon them were stern and burdensome from their multiplicity.  But no one can show that in either of these respects they could have been wisely modified; for the nation was then in its childhood and pupilage (Gal. 4:1-3), and needed to be treated accordingly.

An objection much insisted on by some is the exclusive character of the Mosaic institutions—­a religion, it is alleged, for only one nation, while all the other nations were left in ignorance.  To this a summary answer can be given.  In selecting Israel as his covenant people, God had in view the salvation of the whole world:  “In thee shall all families of the earth be blessed” (Gen. 12:3)—­such was the tenor of the covenant from the beginning.  His plan was to bring one nation into special relation to himself, establish in it the true religion, prepare it for the advent of Christ, and then propagate the gospel from it as a centre throughout all nations.  If men are to be dealt with in a moral way, as free, responsible subjects of law (and this is the only way in which God deals with men under a system of either natural or revealed religion), can the objector propose any better way?  He might as well object to the procedure of a military commander that, instead of spreading his army over a whole province, he concentrates it on one strong point.  Let him wait patiently, and he will find that in gaining this point the commander gains the whole country.

4.  Having seen the relation of the Old Testament as a whole to the system of divine revelation, we are now prepared to consider the place occupied by its several divisions.

(1.) To prepare the way for our Lord’s advent, one nation was to be selected and trained up under a system of divine laws and ordinances—­the theocracy established under Moses.  The Pentateuch records the establishment of the theocracy, with the previous steps that led to it, and the historical events immediately connected with. it.  Hence the five books of Moses are called emphatically the Law; and as such, their province in the Old Testament is clear and well defined.