this type of messianic hope in its broadest and most spiritualized form.  He declared that the Israelites had been called and trained for a unique service and that that service was to be performed by them quietly and unostentatiously, as prophets and teachers of men.  He also presented most clearly Israel’s missionary ideal, and showed that its task was not to destroy but to bring light to the Gentile world.  He and the more enlightened prophets who followed him saw an ever-widening kingdom established without the aid of the sword and freed from all racial barriers—­the eternal, universal, spiritual kingdom of God on earth.  It is evident that in contrast to the other types of messianic prophecy this form was comprehensible, practicable, and alone capable of realization.

V. The Messianic Hopes of Judaism at the Beginning of the Christian Era.  Unfortunately, as a result of the varied experiences through which Judaism passed in the centuries immediately preceding the Christian era, its ethical and universal messianic hopes were largely eclipsed.  The ideal of the suffering servant appears to have been almost forgotten.  As the later Jews read the earlier scriptures of their race in order to determine what the future held in store for them, they fixed their eyes upon the kingly and apocalyptic prophecies.  Regarding all scriptures as equally authoritative, they attempted the impossible task of blending these fundamentally different types of prophecy.  The result was that their beliefs became, indeed, a complex labyrinth with paths leading in opposite directions.  Later events have proved beyond question that these popular types were the dreams of religious enthusiasts rather than true pictures of the way in which the divine purpose was to be perfected in human history, and yet the apocalyptic type of prophecy was not without its significance.  It tended to correct the narrow national hopes of the Jews and to lift them to the consideration of that which was spiritual and eternal.  It also led them to appreciate the unity of all history, and in times of distress it kept alive their faith in a God who was wisely guiding their destinies.  Underlying all these different types of prophecy is the appreciation of the broad truth that God was working out in the lives of men and nations a definite purpose, and that that purpose was good, and that the God back of all history was a God not only of power but also of love.  It was inevitable that the ethical and more spiritual expectations of the early Hebrew prophets should find the fullest response in the heart and life of the Great Teacher.  In the face of opposition from the leaders of his race, from the multitudes that gathered about him, and even from the disciples who loved and followed him, he proclaimed that the kingdom of God would not come by observation, but that its growth would be natural and gradual like that of the mustard seed, that it was not external but within the hearts of men, that membership in that kingdom depended not upon the arbitrary will of God, but upon men’s acting in accord with that will in the every-day relations of life.  Thus Jesus prepared the way for the complete fulfillment of all that was noblest and best in Israel’s messianic hopes, and in his character and teachings far surpassed the highest expectations of the inspired teachers of his race.