as long as the world endures, the relations between man and man are to be settled on lofty moral grounds.  An elevated morality is the professed aim of all enlightened lawgivers; and the prosperity of nations is built upon it, for it is righteousness which exalteth them.  Culture is desirable; but the welfare of nations is based on morals rather than on aesthetics.  On this point Moses, or even Epictetus, is a greater authority than Goethe.  All the ordinances of Moses tend to this end.  They are the publication of natural religion,—­that God is a rewarder of virtuous actions, and punishes wicked deeds.  Moses, from first to last, insists imperatively on the doctrine of personal responsibility to God, which doctrine is the logical sequence of belief in Him as the moral governor of the world.  And in enforcing this cardinal truth he is dogmatic and dictatorial, as a prophet and ambassador of the Most High should be.

It is a waste of time to use arguments in the teaching of the primal principles which appeal to consciousness; and I am not certain but that elaborate and metaphysical reasoning on the nature and attributes of God weakens rather than strengthens the belief in Him, since He is a power made known by revelation, and received and accepted by the soul at once, if received at all.  Among the earliest noticeable corruptions of the Church was the introduction of Greek philosophy to harmonize and reconcile with it the truths of the gospel, which to a certain class ever have been, and ever will be, foolishness.  The speculations and metaphysics of theologians, I verily believe, have done more harm than good,—­from Athanasius to Jonathan Edwards,—­whenever they have brought the aid of finite reason to support the ultimate truths declared by an infinite and almighty mind.  Moses does not reason, nor speculate, nor refine; he affirms, and appeals to the law written on the heart,—­to the consciousness of mankind.  What he declares to be duties are not even to be discussed.  They are to be obeyed with unhesitating obedience, since no discussion or argument can make them clearer or more imperative.  The obligation to obey them is seen and felt at once, as soon as they are declared.  What he says in regard to the relations of master and servant; to injuries inflicted on the body; to the respect due to parents; to the protection of the widow, the fatherless, and the unfortunate; to delicacy in the treatment of women; to unjust judgments; to bribery and corruption; to revenge, hatred, and covetousness; to falsehood and tale-bearing; to unchastity, theft, murder, and adultery,—­can never be gainsaid, and would have been accepted by Roman jurists as readily as by modern legislators; yea, they would not be disputed by savages, if they acknowledged a God at all.  The elevated morality of the ethical code of Moses is its most striking feature, since it appeals to the universal heart, and does not conflict with some of the ethical teachings of those great lights of the