aided her intellectual development, as she was thus brought under the direct action of foreign ideas.  Her rapid growth of population forced upon her a system of emigration, that drew off her youth to the great centres of the world and established large colonies in every leading city.  Israel was never left to settle down again into provincialism, but was stirred by the currents of the great world of thought that poured in upon her from Greece and Egypt, from Rome and the far East.  “A cross-fertilization of ideas” was thus carried on by Providence.  The result of grafting the richest varieties of thought upon such a sturdy stock could not fail of proving something rare and rich.  As was natural from such conditions, the thought of the nation took on new forms.  Calm study of nature and man, and rational speculation on the great problems of life displaced impassioned and imaginative thought.  Prophecy gave way to philosophy.  The sages became the teachers of men.  The third class of books in the Old Testament Canon, known by the Jews as the Writings, belong to this period; Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Esther, Jonah, Daniel, etc.  To this period also belongs the Apocrypha, which contains some noble books.  These varied writings show, when critically studied, a direct bearing on the problems that we know were occupying the mind of the nation during this period, and illustrate the tendencies working among the people.  We thus see, plainly, the growth of the seeds of noble thought which were sown in the national consciousness during the exile, and the growth of the rich germs wafted into Judea from Greece and Egypt.

We can trace the development of the circle of ideas which, later on, crystallized, under the ethical and spiritual force of Jesus into the theology of Christianity.  We watch the embryonic stages of this thought-body, which at length awaited only the breathing within it of an informing spirit to issue in a new and noble religion.

Nor was this period of the Restoration merely one of intellectual development, else there would have been no such issue as came at length.  It was a period of quiet ethical and spiritual development.  No prophet arose, indeed, to quicken Israel, but the ancient prophets still spake from the institutions into which they had breathed somewhat of their spirit, and from the holy books which were read in every synagogue, and learned in every home.  The temple worship of this period retained the old forms of sacrifice; but charged them with spiritual significances which are difficult for us to associate with such bloody rites, did we not know how easily the religious spirit adapts itself to any outward ceremonies, and transforms them into its own life.  The soul spurns the symbols to which it yet will cling, and soars beyond the poor height to which the laboring wings of ordinance and ritual can carry it.  The profound spiritual life which was awakened in the exile flooded these low forms with supernal light.  They spoke to men of better