might lay his hand upon us both.”  Nor does the answer that came to Job out of the whirlwind give any hint of a “daysman” betwixt man and God, but only enlarges on the presumption of man’s wishing to understand the counsels of the Almighty.  Absolute submission to a law which is entirely outside of us and beyond our comprehension, is the final lesson of the book.[56] The nation exhibited the merits and defects of this type.  On the one hand, it showed a deep sense of the supremacy of the moral law, and of personal responsibility; a stubborn independence and faith in its mission; and a strong national spirit, combined with vigorous individuality; but with these virtues went a tendency to externalise both religion and the ideal of well-being:  the former became a matter of forms and ceremonies; the latter, of worldly possessions.  It was only after the collapse of the national polity that these ideals became transmuted and spiritualised.  Those disasters, which at first seemed to indicate a hopeless estrangement between God and His people, were the means of a deeper reconciliation.  We can trace the process, from the old proverb that “to see God is death,” down to that remarkable passage in Jeremiah where the approaching advent, or rather restoration, of spiritual religion, is announced with all the solemnity due to so glorious a message.  “Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah....  After those days, saith the Lord, I will put My law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.  And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord:  for they shall all know Me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord.[57]” That this knowledge of God, and the assurance of blessedness which it brings, is the reward of righteousness and purity, is the chief message of the great prophets and psalmists.  “Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire?  Who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?  He that walketh righteously, and speaketh uprightly; he that despiseth the gain of oppressions, that shaketh his hands from holding of bribes, that stoppeth his ears from hearing of blood, and shutteth his eyes from seeing evil, he shall dwell on high; his place of defence shall be the munitions of rocks:  bread shall be given unto him; his waters shall be sure.  Thine eyes shall see the King in His beauty; they shall behold the land that is very far off.[58]”

This passage of Isaiah bears a very close resemblance to the 15th and 24th Psalms; and there are many other psalms which have been dear to Christian mystics.  In some of them we find the “amoris desiderium”—­the thirst of the soul for God—­which is the characteristic note of mystical devotion; in others, that longing for a safe refuge from the provoking of all men and the strife of tongues, which drove