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What people have God so near them as thou, O Israel?
Perhaps no religious question has called forth more
speculation and difference of opinion than the simple one of, who the
Messiah is to be, and what shall be his mission? for upon it hangs the
faith of the Christian and the hope of the Israelite. A question, like
each grand truth in nature, extremely easy of solution, if once looked for
amidst simple causes; but like them oft sought for in vain, because
mankind love too well to hide themselves within the dark web of mystery
that fancy throws around them, to follow the straight and sunshiny path
that wisdom points out. More difficult still of solution, because each one
seizes upon a theory, and then gives that shadowing to facts so as to
cause their proposition to have an appearance of correctness, (as if it
were possible to construct a building that would bear the storms of ages
by commencing at the housetop, instead of beginning with the foundation,)
leaping over in their eager haste, at one bound, the whole law, where
alone the solution is to be found. Let us examine in the first place the
simple structure upon which the Mosaic creed is raised.
Man, the creature of impulse, whilst passion holds
its sway, could only be brought to acknowledge the superiority of the
spiritual over his corporeal nature by the full development of the
reasoning faculties. These faculties, again, could only become
strengthened by the investigation of things within his comprehension.
Therefore a religious system that would inspire him with a pure and
trustful faith, under every circumstance of life, must be founded upon
those simple and self-evident truths that are within the grasp of every
grade of intellect. The first question, then, that would occur to the
budding mind would be—As I myself was formed without any agency or innate
power of my own, this beautiful world, and the hosts of magnificent
systems with which it is surrounded, could not have made themselves, as
they appear less life-like, less endowed with constructive powers than
myself; and whether they have existed for thousands or millions of years,
there must still be a commencement to the line of time, even if stretching
far beyond the finite gaze of our intellect. They therefore must have been
created by a Being vastly superior to myself; for I find that I cannot
through any possibility call even the smallest atom into existence. This
great Being must be self-existent; because I find, by the whole
experience of man, that a created being has no faculty through the
exercise of which he is enabled to call any matter into existence. A Being
so immeasurably superior to man, cannot derive power or become more
perfect through the influence or agency of any created thing.
Now, these very doctrines are what the laws of Moses
proclaim. They teach us that our Creator is an eternal, immutable
Being; that He has called all these vast creations into existence, for His
glory, not for His necessity; and that, having endowed inan with His
spiritual essence, He has given him a law beautiful for its simplicity,
through the following of whose precepts he may keep this pure essence free
from contamination. Omniscient and immutable, He constructed the law upon
a basis that should last for ever. And that generations yet unborn should
not doubt its authenticity, the glory of His presence appeared to a nation
assembled at the same time, and in their hearing pronounced it perfect
and unchangeable.
Now, the primordial principles of this law
were—Firstly, The eternal self-existence of God; secondly, His perfect
unity and incorporeality; and thirdly, As an omniscient and benevolent
Being, our actions are all known to Him, all acted upon by Him; and that
He is our only Redeemer, and will acknowledge no saviour except himself.
Now, as regards the first principles, either God is
an incorporeal eternal unity (as his law every where proclaims), or He is
not. If He is, then man’s constructions or suppositions cannot alter His
essence; if He is not, then the whole law must fall to the ground as a
baseless imposition, and bury the reasoning faculties beneath its ruins;
for so long as its two great witnesses exist—reason and nature—the most
sceptical must bow to the truths of revelation. Then, if the law be true
in one respect, it must be so in all; and this law proclaims there is no
god save the Lord, nor any saviour save our God. Taking these words for
our guide, the Messiah appears to us in his Scripture garb, as a wise and
just prince, a lineal descendant of David, who will teach righteousness by
his example, and wisdom by his precepts; a man amongst men; not governing
by the strong hand of power, but by the potent one of love; who, scorning
strife, and infused by his Maker with the spirit of benevolence, shall be
an enemy to vice and oppression, whether found on the monarch’s throne or
in the peasant’s hovel; who, like the moon, shall shine, not with his own,
but with a reflected light, whose rays, falling calm and sweet on the
broken heart, shall be like a healing balm, causing the buds of hope to
burst forth into flowering luxuriance, until tears shall no longer be
known as the outpourings of grief, but as the gushings of a heart filled
with light and joy. Still then, even then, will God be our only Saviour;
for who would beg the servant to mediate with the ruler, when the ear of
God is always open to the prayer of the contrite? who would ask the
dweller on the threshold to intercede for forgiveness, when he himself
could enter the presence chamber and lay his petition at the foot of the
throne of his heavenly Father?
What people have God so near them as thou, O Israel?
Yes; thou requirest no mediator save thy own repentant heart. A temple
thyself! and thou hast but to sanctify it and make it holy, and, God, even
the God of Israel, will in it take up his abode, and guard thy goings out
and thy comings in, and the rays of his presence shall so circumfuse thy
being, that though the sun should flee away upon the wings of the morning,
and the bright orbs of space be covered with the pall of night, no gloom
shall hover round thee, but guided by the Omnipotent Saviour, thou shalt
pass world upon world in thy circling flight, until the glories of
eternity shall encircle thy brow, and thou and thy redeemed race shalt
acknowledge, with one accord, that the glorious King of kings is not so
circumscribed in power, but that He can save all that He has created
without a sacrifice, or listen to their prayers without a mediator, and
that the Messiah is but an earthly prince, the first in virtue as the
first in power.
S. SOLIS. |
