equal terms to all nations. He would have used all the key words and phrases of Christianity, and he would have defined incarnation, trinity, redemption, sacrament, bishop, priest, church, apostle, apostolical succession, ordination, and saving faith, so that there would have been no opportunity for the disputes which have divided Christians in reference to the meanings of these terms. He would have ordained priests, with instructions to transmit their authority to a continuous line of successors, protected by unquestionable sacerdotal credentials.

These points, which, as the history of Christianity shows, were indispensable to the development of the church; and which were done in later times amidst unexampled controversy and bloodshed; and which in the interests of harmony and truth, if the latter is at all concerned with Christianity, should have been explained clearly and finally at the start. Jesus did not explain them, did not understand their importance, and did not foresee the career of Christianity. In short, he had no purpose of founding a new religion. That he did not explicitly announce such a purpose, as he is reported in the gospels, is admitted; and some of the orthodox writers are greatly puzzled to explain his conduct. Milman, one of the ablest among them, thinks he concealed his project of a new religion, because if "avowed without disguise" it "would have revolted the popular mind and clashed too directly with the inveterate nationality" of the Jews. According to this theory, the founder of a new religion possessing omnipotence and omniscience to aid him in converting his favorite people, concealed or veiled his truth from them, and not from them only, but from the evangelists who were to write his life, and from the apostles who were to preach his doctrines! Chris

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tians accept the main points of their creed and discipline from tradition, under the influence of which they find in the New Testament ideas that never occurred to its authors.

Most of the sayings attributed, in the gospels, to Jesus give no support to the theory that he intended to found a new religion or to the other theory that he labored to purify Judaism. For neither project did he need to be the son of David or to have a Jewish apostle to sit on the throne of each of the twelve Israelitish tribes. Neither could be aided materially by such talk as that ascribed to him about the near approach of judgment day, about the duty of nonresistance, about the damnation of the Pharisees, and about the miracles and miraculous powers given to all believers.

SEC. 527. The Messiah.-In our examination of the sayings and doings attributed to Jesus by the evangelists, we have found conflicting statements which left us in doubt about the main purpose of his public ministry. He claimed to be the Messiah of Jewish popular expectation, and of Jewish prophecy. The Hebrew mashiach, which takes the form of meshiha in Aramaic, and messiah or messias in English, means "an anointed person," or "anointed," as does christos in Greek. From christos, we have the English Christ. Mashiach, meshiha, and christos all mean the anointed king or priest, consecrated by anointment to the service of Jehovah.

Let us now inquire what the Messiah of Jewish prophecy was. Section 318 of this book gives a brief account of the messianic predictions. They promised the restoration of the independent Jewish monarchy, the perpetual authority of the dynasty of David, the exaltation and security of Jerusalem, and the eternal observance of

the Mosaic law under the ministrations of the Aaronite priesthood. All these predictions were associated together in the Jewish Scriptures and in the popular expectation, and they were called messianic because the messiah was to be the chief agent in their fulfillment. He was to be the anointed king, the chief heir of David, by virtue of his seniority in the direct male line of descent. The title mashiach is used thirty-nine times in the Hebrew Bible, and is invariably applied to a king or priest. "He shall give strength unto His king and exalt the horn of His anointed [mashiach]." "I will raise me up a faithful priest . . and he shall walk before mine anointed [mashiach] forever." "The Lord forbid that I should stretch forth mine hand against him [Saul], seeing he is the anointed [mashiach] of the Lord." "And David said to Abishai,' Destroy him [Saul] not; for who can stretch forth his hand against the Lord's anointed [mashiach] and be guiltless'?" "Shall not Shimei be put to death for this because he cursed [David] the Lord's anointed [mashiach]?" "He [Jehovah] is the tower of salvation for His king; and showeth mercy to His anointed [mashiach] unto David and to his seed forever more." "David, the man who was raised up on high, the anointed [mashiach] of the God of Israel." "O Lord, turn not away the [Thy] face of [from] Thine anointed [mashiach Solomon]." "Great deliverance giveth He to His king and showeth mercy to His anointed [mashiach], to David and to his seed forever more." "Thou has been wroth with Thine anointed [mashiach]." "I will make the horn of David to bud; I have ordained a lamp for Mine anointed [mashiach]. His enemies will I clothe with shame; but upon himself shall his crown flourish,"1

These passages give an idea of the manner in which the word mashiach was used by the Jews; and in every case it had the same meaning. It meant the anointed servant of Jehovah; and in the Septuagint, the Greek version made in the IIIrd century B. C., it was invariably rendered by the Greek word christos. The English translators of the Jewish Bible were unwilling to apply the title messiah to Saul, David, Solomon, or any Levitical priest or temporal ruler, and they used the word anointed to represent mashiach except in several passages where they understood it to apply prophetically to Jesus; and there they translated it Messiah. By this treatment of the Hebrew word mashiach, English readers of the Bible have been systematically misled to suppose that the messiahship had no association with any temporal kingdom or office.

The monarch hopes that his dynasty will occupy the throne for a long period; and the prophet who seeks to please the monarch predicts permanence to the sovereign authority of his descendants. Such promises were common in Egypt and Assyria. They were made to David and Solomon. By the mouth of Nathan, Jehovah said to David, "Thine house and thy kingdom shall be established forever before thee, thy throne shall be established forever." On another occasion he said to David, "There shall not fail thee a man in my sight to sit on the throne of Israel." Referring to the time when the national independence of the Jews should be re-established, Isaiah predicted that "in that day there shall be a root of Jesse [father of David] which shall stand for an ensign of the people." Through Ezekiel, Jehovah said, "I will save My flock. And I will set up one shepherd over them, and he shall feed them, even My servant David,"

In Jeremiah we find these words attributed to Jehovah. "I will raise unto David a righteous branch, and a king shall reign." "Behold the days come that I will perform that good thing which I have promised unto the house of Israel and to the house of Judah. David shall never want a man to sit upon the throne of the house of Israel." The passages quoted from the books of Samuel, Kings, Ezekiel, and Jeremiah in the preceding paragraph are the leading messianic prophecies of the Old Testament. They are direct in their language and clear in their meaning, but they are not cited as messianic by orthodox writers because they do not sustain the orthodox theory that the Messiah promised in the Old Testament was to be a savior, a spiritual king, and a religious reformer.

SEC. 528. Judaism Eternal.—These prophecies of the perpetuity of the dynasty of David were accompanied by others that the Mosaic law, the Mosaic ceremonial,,the exclusive covenant of Jehovah with the children of Israel, the exclusive worship of Jehovah at Jerusalem, the Jewish monarchy and the temple of Jehovah at Jerusalem, should be maintained forever. All these predictions are conceived in the same spirit; they are recorded in the same books; they are part of the same ecclesiastical system; and they were the basis of the messianic ideas current in ancient Judea.

Jehovah said to Nathan, "I will appoint a place for my people Israel, and will plant them, that they may dwell in a place of their own, and move no more; neither shall the children of wickedness afflict them any more, as beforetime."

To Solomon, Jehovah said, "I have hallowed this house [the temple] which thou hast built, to put My