Nicodemus and Zacchaeus, in the time of Jesus, lived in better houses, wore more comfortable clothes, and ate better food than did King David himself in an earlier, ruder age.  But the common people of Jesus’ day were not so well off as even in the days of Abraham.  For as wandering shepherds they were free.  Life might be a bitter struggle against wild beasts and drought and famine.  But no haughty masters looked down on them with contempt, or robbed them of their last farthing in unjust taxation.  Shall we say, then, that as a whole, the great enterprise was a failure?

THE GREAT ACHIEVEMENT—­A TRUE RELIGION

No, the great quest was not a failure, even though it was so far from a complete success.  Out of the long years of struggle and prayer had come a new religion, not, indeed, understood by many but partly grasped at least by some, and written down in books so that it could never be wholly lost.  This was a religion of the brotherhood of man and of a universal Father-God.  The four eras of their history when the common people had been happy were eras when the principles of this religion had partly prevailed.  And these eras still shine out for us as examples of what that kind of religion means in the life of a people.  And the lives and words of the great prophets, and, greatest of all, the life of Jesus Christ, are a priceless legacy to us, who are still continuing the quest which Abraham began.

=The truth which has been revealed to us.=—­All men, everywhere, who are longing and toiling for a better chance for life and happiness and for knowledge and beauty and love for themselves and for their children, may now know that they are not without a mighty helper.  There is One who revealed himself, in the history of the people of Israel and uniquely in Jesus Christ his Son, who still speaks in the name of all the hungry and thirsty and ragged and sick: 

    ="I was an hungered, and ye gave me no meat:  I was thirsty,
    and ye gave me no drink:  ...  Inasmuch as ye did it not unto
    one of these least, ye did it not unto me."=

STUDY TOPICS

1.  Of the four short eras of righteousness, in the history of the Hebrews, in which does it seem to you that the common people made the greatest gains?

2.  What were some of the improvements in civilization which rich or well-to-do people, in the later centuries of this history, enjoyed, as compared with the earlier centuries?  Study Chapters I and II, VI, VII, and VIII, and XXII.

3.  Compare the earliest religion of the Hebrews with the religion of the prophets and Jesus.  Mention four great discoveries in regard to the character of God.

REVIEW AND TEST QUESTIONS

1.  Describe the daily life of the earliest ancestors of the Hebrews.