idolatry. During that period, therefore, the religion of Israel was the only true religion in the world. But if this is the case—if the religion of Israel was once the only true one, having been revealed by God to Moses on Mount Sinai (see Ex. xix. etc.)—is then our question not answered already, and ought not all Muhammadans and Christians to become Jews? By no means; for it does not follow that what was once the whole revealed truth of God is so still; on the contrary, there was a growth and progress in revelation, as in every thing else, until completeness and maturity were attained. As God created the world, not in one day, but in a succession of days, so also did He reveal the whole of His saving truth, not at once, but gradually. At the call of Abraham, the great ancestor of the Jewish nation, many hundred years had already elapsed since the deluge; and between the call of Abraham and the giving of the Law in the days of Moses again more than four hundred years passed away. God is not dependent on time, but time depends on Him. He can well wait with His manifestations of mercy and judgement till mankind is prepared for them, or till the right time is come. The family of Abraham had first to be prepared by their great affliction in Egypt and their miraculous deliverance from Pharaoh, before God saw fit that they should receive His Law from Sinai. So, likewise, ages of preparation had to pass away, before the time of the

coming of Messiah was fulfilled. And again, generations have come and gone since then; and still the day of judgement, which will close the present order of things, has not yet broken in upon us, because the world, in the eyes of God, is not yet ripe for it. It seems, then, there is good reason why God should not reveal His truth all at once, or at the beginning of the world, but gradually, and after mankind, by a long history and accumulated experience, has become prepared for it; and we must easily perceive it to be possible that, when God sends a further revelation, men should sin against Him and His truth, by rejecting the later revelation under the pretence of clinging to that which had been revealed before. Now it appears that this is actually the sin of which the Jews have made themselves guilty; for when the Messiah came, and proved, by His holy life no less than by His mighty words and works, that He was sent from heaven, only a few thousand Jews glorified God by believing in Him, whereas the nation at large refused to receive the gospel, and the Pharisees, or leaders, said, 'We know that God hath spoken unto Moses: but as for this man, we know not whence he is' (John ix. 29). By thus rejecting the messenger of God, who spoke to them not His own words, but those of the heavenly Father that had sent Him (John xii. 49-50), the Jews separated themselves from the true religion; and instead of still being God's favoured people, they