Million Book Collection - The Fishers of Men Ministries

FOUNDATION OF THE ROMAN CHURCH 39work of Moses, doctrine, morals, and worship all dependedupon a close personal relation between thepeople and their God. " Hear, 0 Israel, the Lordthy God is one God." " Be ye holy, for I am holy."This was to be the sanction of * doctrine and ofmorality : and the perpetual sacrifices were to deliverthe chosen people from the guilt of disobeying Onewho expressed His absolute sovereignty by the often-repeated word, " I am the Lord." The whole life ofthe Jew, then, and of the Jewish people, as conceivedand set forth by Moses, consisted in the maintenanceand discharge of a personal relation in belief, in conduct,and in worship to One whose own personalitywas conveyed in that most significant expression, " Iam the jealous God," of whom " Israel was the firstborn* son."But the three powers which were thus united inthe mediation of Moses, while they were continuedin the nation which he moulded, were not depositedin the same hands. We need not enter here intothe various manners in which during the course offifteen hundred years they were exercised. It isenough for the present purpose to note that in thenation as ultimately constituted we find the synagogue,the temple, and the throne of David,2 thatis, the teaching office which communicates doctrine,the priesthood which celebrates worship, the royaltywhich is the guardian and the transmitter of thekingdom promised to David. As Moses left thesethree powers in the Jewish community, so after allthe changes through which it had passed they werefound at the time of Christ still existing. The greatExod. iv. 22.2 Dollinger, Christenthum und Kirche, p. 228.