ministration of rewards and punishments. Only so could it make the idea of God a really wholesome power and his authority effective in sustaining civil govern

ment.

4. This divinely given code rested upon justice and equity, and determined every thing by this standard. So doing, it ruled out at once a multitude of interests and ends which human laws have often sought to secure. Its example therefore, in so far at least, was simply and supremely beneficent.

5. In yet further detail, it recognized the common and equal rights of all men, irrespective of condition, rank, wealth-holding constantly the doctrine, "No respect of persons."

6. It appreciated at their just value the rights of the poor and of all that large class who look only to God and to human law for protection.

We come now to the question of historic fact: Did this Hebrew code and government send forth its influence upon the nations of ancient history? Did it in any perceptible degree leaven the best systems of human law and jurisprudence. If the proof for the affirmative falls short of positive certainty, what is its amount of probability? Here we may fitly consider

(a.) That God chose for Israel the land of Canaan, in the center of the ancient world of mind; immediately between Egypt on the one hand and Babylon, Assyria, Persia-all the great nations of Western Asia-on the other; and closely contiguous to ancient Greece and Rome.

(b.) That David and Solomon became known to all the great powers of the world of their time. Solomon's renown turned largely on the fact that his people were prosperous and happy, his government well ordered, and his own wisdom in all affairs of state unsurpassed.

It is simply impossible that such examples should drop powerless upon the nations of the earth.

(c.) That at a later period the personal history of Mordecai, of Esther, and especially of Daniel in the courts of Nebuchadnezzar and of Cyrus show that the Jews, their religion, their God, and their law, did impress themselves upon the greatest centers of influence and power in their time.

(d) This dispersion of the Jews at and after their

captivity planted them in large numbers in the chief seats of human science and learning; in Egypt on the South-West; in Babylon, Persia, and adjacent countries of the East. It is historically certain that in the age of the Ptolemies, a large body of learned Jews lived in Egypt; that the Old Testament was translated into Greek by request of Ptolemy Philadelphus; that the Egypt of that age was the school of wisdom and jurisprudence for Ancient Greece and was herself the pupil of Moses.*That the best Greek authors knew Moses is matter of history. Longinus quotes from Moses (Gen. 1: 3) in his treatise on Sublimity; Strabo makes honorable mention of him as a law-giver; and Diodorus Siculus acknowledges him to be "the first of legislators from whom all laws had their origin." Numenius a Greek philosopher of the Pythagorean school, speaking of Plato, exclaims-"What is Plato but Moses Atticising"-i. e. teaching in Attic Greek? Origen believed that Plato drew largely from Moses.The list of em

inent Grecian authors and savans who went personally to Egypt for wisdom and science is long-such as Thales, Anaximander, Anaxagoras, Pythagoras, Plato, Herodotus. There they came into contact with learned Jews and not improbably with the writings of Moses.† Prof. Wines (p. 335) cites the learned Grotius as saying"The most ancient Attic laws, whence in aftertimes the Roman were derived, owe their origin to Moses' law. That the Grecians, especially the Attics, took their laws from Moses is credible. This is the reason why the Attic laws and the Roman twelve Tables which sprang from them so much resemble the Hebrew laws." This similarity between the Attic laws and those of Moses has been noticed by many other learned men, e. g. Josephus, Clement of Alexandria, Augustine, Sir Matthew Hale, Archbishop Potter. The last named in his "Grecian Antiquities" has adduced many points of

*Of Ptolemy Philadelphus Prof. Wines says--"He was delighted with the laws of Moses; pronounced his legislation wonderful; was astonished at the depth of his wisdom, and professed to have learned from him the true science of government."-Wines' Commentaries. See also Josephus against Apion, p. 308.

† Prof. Wines' Commentaries on the Laws of the Ancient Hebrews, pp. 312-388, a work which elaborates its theme very fully, substantiating its points by copious authorities.

Grecian law which seem to have been taken from Mosesviz. the laws of divorce; the purgation oath compared with "the oath of jealousy" among the Hebrews; the harvest and vintage festival; the law of first-fruits; the law requiring the best offerings for God; the portion for the priests; protection to the man-slayer at their altars; requiring priests to be unblemished; the agrarian law; laws regulating descent of property, and prohibiting marriage within certain degrees of consanguinity. Plato in his ideal "Republic" is thought to have drawn largely from Moses.Clement of Alexandria accosts him (by Apostrophe)-"But as for laws, whatever are true were conveyed to thee from the Hebrews."

These historic facts seem to indicate the definite channel through which the laws of Moses reached the Grecian mind in its earliest stages of culture and thus wrought themselves into the great fountains of Grecian and Roman civilization and jurisprudence.

(e.) There seem to be strong grounds for the general statement that the greatest reformers of all known history have acted upon the ideas of Moses, and have probably drawn their doctrines more or less directly from that fountain. I will venture to place in this category Zoroaster, Plato, Confucius, Buddha, and Mahomet. These men were in their time reformers of society, of morals, and of jurisprudence. Their influence led toward if not fully unto the doctrine of one God, and by natural consequence, to a purer morality and juster views of law and equity; of love to one's neighbor and purity of life.I regret that my limits forbid any attempt to present the historic evidence which might support more or less fully these broad, comprehensive statements. The historic evidence that Zoroaster, Plato, and Mahomet drew from Moses is very strong. Of the great Indian reformer and of the Chinese comparatively little is known.

-I

(f.) Of Roman law as finally embodied in the great code of Justinian, it has been already suggested that its best things came from Moses and the Septuagint through Greece and the Egypt of the Ptolemies.add two other remarks:-(a) That in the age of Justinian (first half of the sixth Christian century) primitive Christianity had quite fully leavened the public

sentiment and thus the jurisprudence of the then civilized world.(b.) That when Justinian created a commission of learned jurists to "collect the scattered monuments of ancient jurisprudence," he recommended them in settling any point to regard neither the number nor the reputation of the jurisconsults who had given opinions on the subject, but to be guided solely by reason and equity.*

(g.) Of Alfred the Great (reigned A. D. 871-901) the central testimony of history is that he was severely just. Despite of surroundings almost barbarous, he rose by dint of his irrepressible manliness to become the greatest legislator and scholar of his age, and so was able to lay the foundations for the best and truest glory of the English name. The common law of England and of the English-speaking world began its development under his hand. One fact is of itself a volume of testimony to the spirit of this ancient law. When after a long struggle Wilberforce brought the question before the English bench-Does English law sanction human bondage? the world heard the answer-Never. "Slaves can not breathe in England." What moment they take in her pure air, they are free! The spirit of her law from the days of Alfred was justice and righteousness between a man and his neighbor. The laws of Moses were in Alfred's eye; the spirit of those laws filled and fired his noble soul. It is currently said that the telling words which describe the needy as "God's poor" are original (for our mother Saxon tongue) with him. Moses had reiterated the sentiment long ages before.- "Sir Matthew Hale has traced the influence of the Bible generally on the laws. of England. Sismondi testifies that Alfred, in causing a republication of the Saxon laws, inserted several statutes taken from the code of Moses, to give new strength and cogency to the principles of morality.

"Thus have the principles of the Mosaic code found their way to a greater or less extent into the jurisprudence of all civilized nations." [Wines-p. 337.]

* Taylor's Manual of History, p. 335. Moses and the Lord speaking through him (Deut. 1: 16, 17 and 16: 18-20) had announced this doctrine more than two thousand years before. It is fair to presume that the earlier promulgation had sent its influence down the ages to Justinian's time.

It falls within our plan to speak briefly of the civil code of Moses as a series of progressive revelations of God to

man.

I have spoken of the law of Sinai as a manifestation of God to man at once sublime in its majesty and most benignly practical in its moral bearings. The civil code "the statutes and judgments"-carry out yet more fully the practical unfoldings of God's wisdom and of his sense of justice and right as between man and man. It is not easy to select the most striking cases to illustrate this point, for the whole code is radiant with divine wisdom and aglow with testimonies of his love, manifesting itself in wisest legislation for human welfare. Confining our attention to the second table of the law of Sinai-man's relation to his fellow-man-we may consider how much there is here adapted to conserve all the best elements of society-in securing the honor due to parents and rulers; in guarding human life and providing the means for its protection; in making the marriage covenant sacred; on the one hand shielding the sexual relation of the race against abuses most pernicious; and on the other, providing agencies which may enrich man's social life with priceless blessings. So also the statutes in detail respecting rights of property and rights of reputation are replete with fresh testimonies to the wisdom and the love of the Great Father. Speaking frankly of the impressions made on my mind by this study of the code of Moses, I must say that no part has seemed to me more deeply imbued with the tenderness and pity of the Lord than the provisions made for the poor, and the restrictions and limitations upon personal servitude. In all his utterances on these points the Lord assumes that no interests of man more need his protection than these, and he comes promptly to the front to give it. He would have us know that over these interests his watchful eye never sleeps; his quick ear is never shut to any cry for help. The rich and the mighty may get on without his special aid; the poor are his own wards and shall never lack his sympathy nor his present hand. Human laws are in great part worthless-at least they miss their most important function--unless they make it their chief endeavor to protect the interests and rights of those