Ten Great Religions by James Freeman Clarke

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But beside genius, beside knowledge, did not Moses also possess that which
he claimed, a special inspiration? And if so, what was his inspiration
and what is its evidence? The evidence of his inspiration is in that which
he said and did. His inspiration, like that of Abraham, consisted in his
inward vision of God, in his sight of the divine unity and holiness, in
his feeling of the personal presence and power of the Supreme Being, in
his perception of his will and of his law. He was inwardly placed by the
Divine Providence where he could see these truths, and become the medium
of communicating them to a nation. His inspiration was deeper than that of
the greatest of subsequent prophets. It was perhaps not so large, nor so
full, nor so high, but it was more entire; and therefore the power that
went forth from the word and life of Moses was not surpassed afterward.
"There arose not a prophet since in Israel like unto Moses, whom the Lord
knew face to face." No prophet afterward till the time of Jesus did such a
work as he did. Purity, simplicity, and strength characterized his whole
conduct. His theology, his liturgy, his moral code, and his civil code
were admirable in their design and their execution.

We are, indeed, not able to say how much of the Pentateuch came from
Moses. Many parts of it were probably the work of other writers and of
subsequent times. But we cannot doubt that the essential ideas of the law
proceeded from him.

We have regarded Moses and his laws on the side of religion and also on
that of morals; it remains to consider them on that of politics. What was
the form of government established by Moses? Was it despotism or freedom?
Was it monarchy, aristocracy, democracy, or republicanism? Were the Jews a
free people or an enslaved people?

Certainly the Jews were not enslaved. They had one great protection from
despotism,--a constitution. The Mosaic law was their constitution. It was
a written constitution, and could therefore be appealed to. It was a
published constitution, and was therefore known by all the people. It was
a sacred constitution; given on the authority of God, and therefore could
not be modified, except by the same authority. This constitution therefore
was a protection against despotism. A constitution like this excludes all
arbitrary and despotic authority. We can therefore safely say that the law
of Moses saved the nation from despotism. Thus he gave them an important
element of political freedom. No matter how oppressive laws are, a
government of fixed law involves in the long run much more real freedom
than the government, however kind, which is arbitrary, and therefore
uncertain and changeable.

But were these laws oppressive? Let us look at them in a few obvious
points of view.

What did they exact in regard to taxation? We know that in Eastern
governments the people have been ground to the earth by taxation, and that
agriculture has been destroyed, the fruitful field become a wilderness,
and populous countries depopulated, by this one form of oppression. It is
because there has been no fixed rate of taxation. Each governor is allowed
to take as much as he can from his subordinates, and each of the
subordinates as much as he can get from his inferiors, and so on, till the
people are finally reached, out of whom it must all come. But under the
Mosaic constitution the taxes were fixed and certain. They consisted in a
poll-tax, in the first-fruits, and the tithes. The poll-tax was a
half-shekel paid every year at the Temple, by every adult Jew. The
first-fruits were rather an expression of gratitude than a tax. The tithes
were a tenth part of the annual produce of the soil, and went for the
support of the Levites and the general expenses of the government.

Another important point relates to trials and punishments. What security
has one of a fair trial, in case he is accused of crime, or what assurance
of justice in a civil cause? Now we know that in Eastern countries
everything depends on bribery. This Moses forbade in his law. "Thou shalt
take no gift, for the gift blindeth the eyes; thou shalt not wrest the
judgment of the poor, but in righteousness shalt thou judge thy neighbor."

Again, the accuser and accused were to appear together before the judge.
The witnesses were sworn, and were examined separately. The people had
cheap justice and near at hand. "Judges and officers shalt thou make thee
in all thy gates, throughout thy tribes; and they shall judge the people
with just judgment."

There were courts of appeal from these local judges.

There seems to have been no legislative body, since the laws of Moses were
not only a constitution but also a code. No doubt a common law grew up
under the decisions of the local courts and courts of appeal. But
provision was made by Moses for any necessary amendment of his laws by the
reference which he made to any prophet like himself who might afterward
arise, whom the people were to obey.[356]

There was no provision in the Jewish constitution for a supreme executive.
But the law foretold that the time would come in which they would desire a
king, and it defined his authority. He should be a constitutional king.
(Deut. xvii. 14-20.)

We have already said that one great object and purpose of the ceremonial
law of Moses was to develop in the minds of the people the idea of
holiness. This is expressed (Lev. xix. 2), "Speak unto all the
congregation of the children of Israel, and say unto them, Ye shall be
holy; for I the Lord your God am holy."

Another object of the ceremonial law was to surround the whole nation with
an impenetrable hedge of peculiarities, and so to keep them separate from
surrounding nations. The ceremonial law was like a shell which protected
the kernel within till it was ripe. The ritual was the thorny husk, the
theology and morality were the sacred included fruit. In this point of
view the strangest peculiarities of the ritual find an easy explanation.
The more strange they are, the better they serve their purpose. These
peculiarities produced bitter prejudice between the Jews and the
surrounding nations. Despised by their neighbors, they despised them again
in turn; and this mutual contempt has produced the result desired. The
Jews, in the very heart of the world, surrounded by great nations far more
powerful than themselves, conquered and overrun by Assyrians, Medes,
Persians, Syrians, Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, have been more entirely
separated from other nations than the Chinese or the people of Japan.
Dispersed as they are, they are still a distinct people, a nation within
other nations. Like drops of oil floating on the water but never mingling
with it, so the Jews are found everywhere, floating drops of national life
in the midst of other nationalities. In Leviticus (xviii. 3) we find the
command, "After the doings of the land of Egypt, wherein ye dwelt, shall
ye not do; and after the doings of the land of Canaan, whither I bring
you, shall ye not do; neither shall ye walk in their ordinances." They
have not obeyed this command in its letter, but continue to obey its
spirit in its unwritten continuation: "After the doings of the English and
French and Americans shall ye not do, nor walk in their ordinances, but
shall still continue a peculiar people."

Sec. 4. David; or, Judaism as the personal Worship of a Father and friend.

Many disasters befell the Jews after their settlement in Palestine, which
we should allude to were we writing the heads of their history rather than
giving an account of their religion. Among these were their long conflict
with the Philistines, and their subjection by that people during twenty
years. The Philistines, it has been recently discovered, were not a
Semitic nation, and were not in the land in the time of Moses. They are
not mentioned as a powerful people in the Pentateuch or the Book of
Joshua, but suddenly appear as invaders in the time of the Judges,
completely defeating and subduing the Canaanites along the shore. In fact,
the Philistines were probably an Indo-European or Aryan people, and their
name is now believed to be the same as that of the Pelasgi. They were
probably a body of Pelasgi from the island of Crete, who, by successive
invasions, overran Palestine, and gave their name to it.[357] They were
finally reduced by David; and as his reign is the culminating period of
Judaism, we will devote some space to his character and influence.

The life of David makes an epoch in Jewish history and human history.
Nations, like plants, have their period of flowers and of fruit. They have
their springtime, their summer, autumn, and winter. The age of David among
the Jews was like the age of Pericles among the Greeks, of Augustus among
the Romans, of Louis XIV. in France, of Charles V. in Spain. Such periods
separate themselves from those which went before and from those which
follow. The period of David seems a thousand years removed from that of
the Judges, and yet it follows it almost immediately. As a few weeks in
spring turn the brown earth to a glad green, load the trees with foliage,
and fill the air with the perfume of blossoms and the song of birds, so a
few years in the life of a nation will change barbarism into civilization,
and pour the light of literature and knowledge over a sleeping land. Arts
flourish, external enemies are conquered, inward discontents are pacified,
wealth pours in, luxury increases, genius accomplishes its triumphs.
Summer, with its flowers and fruits, has arrived.

When a nation is ripe for such a change, the advent of a man of genius
will accomplish it. Around him the particles crystallize and take form and
beauty. Such a man was David,--a brave soldier, a great captain, a
sagacious adventurer, an artist, musician, and poet, a man of profound
religious experience; he was, more than all these, a statesman. By his
great organizing ability he made a powerful nation out of that which, when
he came to the throne, consisted of a few discordant and half-conquered
tribes. In the time of Saul the Israelites were invaded by all the
surrounding nations; by the Syrians on the north, the Ammonites and
Moabites on the east, the Amalekites and Edomites on the south, and the
Philistines on the west. In the time of David all these nations were
completely subdued, their cities garrisoned, and the power of the
Israelites submitted to from the Euphrates to the Mediterranean.

Most great men are contented to be distinguished in one thing, and to lead
a single life; but David led three lives, each distinct from the
other,--the life of a soldier and statesman, the life of a poet and
artist, the life of deep religious experience. We will look at his
character in each of these three directions.

We have already said that David found the Israelites divided and half
conquered, and left them united and conquerors. By means of his personal
qualities he had made himself popular among the tribes. He was known as a
brave and cautious guerilla chief. His native generosity and
open-heartedness won him the love of the people. His religious tendencies
gained for him the friendship of the priests, and the great influence of
Samuel was always exerted in his favor. He was thus enabled to unite the
people, and gain their confidence till he could make use of them in larger
enterprises. The Jews were not naturally a military nation, and were never
meant to be such. Yet when their strength was united they were capable, by
their determination and tenacity of purpose, of extraordinary military
exploits. Everything depended on their _morale_. Demoralized and weakened
by doubts and scruples, or when conscious that they were disobeying the
laws of Moses, they were easily defeated by any invader. The first duty of
their general was to bring them back from their idolatries and
backslidings to the service of God. Under Joshua it only needed two great
battles to conquer the whole land of Palestine. So, reunited under David,
a few campaigns made them victorious over the surrounding nations.

The early part of David's life was a perpetual discipline in prudence. He
was continually beset with dangers. He had to fly from the presence and
ferocious jealousy of Saul again and again, and even to take refuge with
the Philistines, who had reason enough to be his enemies. He fled from
Saul to Samuel, and took shelter under his protection. Pursued to this
retreat by the king, he had no resource but to throw himself on the mercy
of the Philistines, and he went to Gath. When he saw himself in danger
there, he pretended to be insane; insanity being throughout the East a
protection from injury. His next step was to go to the cave Adullam, and
to collect around him a body of partisans, with whom to protect himself.
Saul watched his opportunity, and when David had left the fastnesses of
the mountain, and came into the city Keilah to defend it from the
Philistines, Saul went down with a detachment of troops to besiege him, so
that he had to fly again to the mountains. Betrayed by the Ziphites, as he
had been before betrayed by the men of Keilah, he went to another
wilderness and escaped. The king continued to pursue him whenever he could
get any tidings of his position, and again David was obliged to take
refuge among the Philistines. But throughout this whole period he never
permitted himself any hostile measures against Saul, his implacable enemy.
In this he showed great wisdom, for the result of such a course would have
been a civil war, in which part of the nation would have taken sides with
one and part with the other, and David never could have ascended the
throne with the consent of the whole people. But the consequence of his
forbearance was, that when by the death of Saul the throne became vacant,
David succeeded to it with scarcely any opposition. His subsequent course
showed always the same prudence. He disarmed his enemies by kindness and
clemency. He understood the policy of making a bridge of gold for a flying
enemy. When Abner, the most influential man of his opponents, offered to
submit to him, David received him with kindness and made him a friend. And
when Abner was treacherously killed by Joab, David publicly mourned for
him, following the bier, and weeping at the grave. The historian says
concerning this: "And all the people took notice of it and it pleased
them: as whatsoever the king did pleased all the people. For all the
people understood that day that it was not of the king to slay Abner the
son of Ner." His policy was to conciliate and unite. When Saul's son was
slain by his own servants, who thought to please David by that act, he
immediately put them to death. Equally cautious and judicious was his
course in transferring the Ark and its worship to Jerusalem. He did this
only gradually, and as he saw that the people were prepared for it.

We next will look at David in his character as man of genius, musician,
artist, poet. It is not often that an eminent statesman and soldier is, at
the same time, a distinguished poet and writer. Sometimes they can write
history or annals, like Caesar and Frederick the Great; but the imaginative
and poetic element is rarely found connected with the determined will and
practical intellect of a great commander. Alexander the Great had a taste
for good poetry, for he carried Homer with him through his campaigns; but
the taste of Napoleon went no higher than a liking for Ossian.

But David was a poet, in whom the tender, lyrical, personal element rose
to the highest point. The daring soldier, when he took his harp, became
another man. He consoled himself and sought comfort in trial, and sang his
thankfulness in his hours of joy. The Book of Psalms, so far as it is the
work of David, is the record of his life. As Horace says of Lucilius and
his book of Odes, that the whole of the old man's life hangs suspended
therein in votive pictures; and as Goethe says that his Lyrics are a book
of confessions, in which joy and sorrow turn to song; so the Book of
Psalms can only be understood when we consider it as David's poetical
autobiography. In this he anticipates the Koran, which was the private
journal of Mohammed.

"The harp of David," says Herder, "was his comforter and friend. In his
youth he sang to its music while tending his flocks as a shepherd on the
mountains of Judaea. By its means he had access to Saul, and could sooth
with it the dark mood of the king. In his days of exile he confided to it
his sorrows. When he triumphed over his enemies the harp became in his
royal hands a thank-offering to the deity. Afterward he organized on a
magnificent scale music and poetry in the worship of God. Four thousand
Levites, distinguished by a peculiar dress, were arranged in classes and
choirs under master-singers, of whom the three most distinguished, Asaph,
Heman, and Jeduthun, are known to us by specimens of their art. In his
Psalms his whole kingdom lives."

We speak of the inspiration of genius, and distinguish it from the
inspiration of the religious teacher. But in ancient times the prophet and
poet were often the same, and one word (as, in Latin, "vates") was used
for both. In the case of David the two inspirations were perfectly at one.
His religion was poetry, and his poetry was religion. The genius of his
poetry is not grandeur, but beauty. Sometimes it expresses a single
thought or sentiment, as that (Psalm cxxxiii.) describing the beauty of
brotherly union, or as that (Psalm xxiii.) which paints trust in God like
that of a sheep in his shepherd. Of the same sort is the fifteenth Psalm,
"Lord, who shall abide in thy tabernacle?" the twenty-ninth, a description
of a thunderstorm; the sixty-seventh, "O God, be merciful to us and bless
us"; the eighty-fourth, "How lovely are thy tabernacles"; and the last
Psalm, calling on mankind to praise God in all ways.

It is a striking fact that these Hebrew lyrics, written long before the
foundation of Rome, and before the time of Homer, should be used to-day in
Christian worship and for private devotion all over the world.

In speaking of the Vedas and the Avesta we said that in such hymns and
liturgies the truest belief of a nation can be found. What men say to God
in their prayers may be assumed to express their practical convictions.
The Jewish religion is not to be found so surely in its Levitical code as
in these national lyrics, which were the liturgy of the people.[358]

What then do they say concerning God? They teach his universal dominion.
They declare that none in the heaven can be compared to him (Psalm
lxxxix.); that he is to be feared above all gods (Psalm xcvi.). They teach
his eternity; declaring that he is God from everlasting to everlasting;
that a thousand years in his sight are as yesterday; that he laid the
foundations of the earth and made the heavens, and that when these perish
he will endure; that at some period they shall be changed like a garment,
but that God will always be the same (Psalm xc., cii.). They teach in
numerous places that God is the Creator of all things. They adore and
bless his fatherly love and kindness, which heals all our diseases and
redeems our life, crowning us with loving-kindness, pitying us, and
forgiving our sins (Psalm ciii.). They teach that he is in all nature
(Psalm civ.), that he searches and knows all our thoughts, and that we can
go nowhere from his presence (Psalm cxxxix.). They declare that he
protects all who trust in him (Psalm xci., cxxi.), and that he purifies
the heart and life (Psalm cxix.), creating in us a clean heart, and not
asking for sacrifice, but for a broken spirit (Psalm li.).

These Psalms express the highest and best moments of Jewish life, and rise
in certain points to the level of Christianity. They do not contain the
Christian spirit of forgiveness, nor that of love to one's enemy. They are
still narrowed to the range of the Jewish land and nation, and do not
embrace humanity. They are mountain summits of faith, rising into the pure
air and light of day from hidden depths, and appearing as islands in the
ocean. They reach, here and there, the level of the vast continent, though
not broad enough themselves to become the home of all races and nations.

There is nothing in the Vedas, nothing in the Avesta, nothing in the
sacred books of Egypt, or the philosophy of Greece and Rome, which so
unites the grandeur of omnipotence with the tenderness of a father toward
his child.

Sec. 5. Solomon; or, the Religious Relapse.

We have seen how the religion of Abraham, as the family worship of the
Supreme Being, was developed into that of Moses, as the national worship
of a just and holy King. We have seen it going onward from that, ascending
in the inspirations of David into trust in an infinite God as a friend,
and love to him as a father. We now come to a period of relapse. Under
Solomon and his successors, this religion became corrupted and degraded.
Its faith was changed into doubt, its lofty courage into the fear of kings
and tyrants, its worship of the Most High into adoration of the idols of
its neighbors. The great increase of power and wealth in the hands of
Solomon corrupted his own heart and that of his people. Luxury came in;
and, as in Rome the old puritanic virtues were dissolved by the desire for
wealth and pleasure, so it happened among the Jews. Then came the
retribution, in the long captivity in Babylon, and the beginning of a new
and better life under this hard discipline. And then comes the age of the
Prophets, who gradually became the teachers of a higher and broader faith.
So, when the Jews returned to Jerusalem, they came back purified, and
prepared to become once more loyal subjects of Jehovah.

The principle of hereditary succession, but not of primogeniture, had been
established by an agreement between David and the people when he proposed
erecting a Temple at Jerusalem. He had appointed his son Solomon as his
successor before his own death. With the entrance of Solomon we have an
entirely different personality from any whom we have thus far met. With
him also is inaugurated a new period and a different age. The age of Moses
was distinguished as that of law,--on the side of God absolute authority,
commanding and forbidding; on the side of man the only question was
between obedience and disobedience. Moses was the Law-giver, and his age
was the age of law. In the time of the Judges the question concerned
national existence and national independence. The age of the Judges was
the heroic age of the Jewish nation. The Judges were men combining
religious faith with patriotism; they were religious heroes. Then came the
time of David, in which the nation, having become independent, became also
powerful and wealthy. After his time the religion, instead of being a law
to be obeyed or an impulse to action, became ceremony and pageant. Going
one step further, it passed into reflection and meditation. In the age of
Solomon the inspiration of the national religion had already gone. A great
intellectual development had taken the place of inspiration. So that the
Jewish nation seems to have passed through a fourfold religious
experience. Religion was first law, then action, next inspiration and
sentiment, afterward ceremony, and lastly opinion and intellectual
culture.

It is the belief of Herder and other scholars that the age of Solomon gave
birth to a copious literature, born of peace, tranquillity, and
prosperity, which has all passed away except a few Psalms, the Book of
Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Solomon.

Solomon is personally a much less interesting character than David; for
policy is never so interesting as impulse, and the crimes of policy seem
worse than those of passion. The first act of Solomon was of this sort. He
put his brother Adonijah to death for his attempt to seize the throne.
Joab, who supported Adonijah against Solomon, was also put to death, for
which we do not grieve, when we remember his assassination of Abner and
Amasa, shedding the blood of war in peace. But the cold, unscrupulous
character of Solomon is seen in his ordering Joab to be slain in the
tabernacle while holding the horns of the altar, and causing Adonijah to
be taken by force from the same place of refuge. No religious
consideration or superstitious fear could prevent Solomon from doing what
he thought necessary for his own security. He had given Adonijah a
conditional pardon, limited to good behavior on his part. But after his
establishment on the throne Adonijah requested the mother of Solomon,
Bathsheba, to ask her son to give him for a wife the beautiful Abishag,
the last wife of David. Solomon understood this to mean, what his mother
did not understand, that his brother was still intriguing to supplant him
on the throne, and with cool policy he ordered him to immediate execution.
Solomon could pardon a criminal, but not a dangerous rival. He deposed the
high-priest for the same reason, considering him to be also dangerous.
Shimei, who seems to have been wealthy and influential as well as a
determined character, was ordered not to leave Jerusalem under penalty of
death. He did so, and Solomon put him to death. David, before his death,
had warned Solomon to keep an eye both on Joab and on Shimei, for David
could forgive his own enemies, but not those of his cause; he was not
afraid on his own account, but was afraid for the safety of his son.