STUDY IX
THE ORIGIN AND GROWTH OF LAW.
MOSES' WORK AS JUDGE AND PROPHET.—Ex. 18; 1-27; 33:5-11.
Parallel References.
Hist. Bible I, 198-203. Prin. of Politics, Ch. VI. Maine, Ancient Law.
Jehovah spake to Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend—Ex. 33: 11.
And Moses chose able men out of all Israel, and made them heads over the people, rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens. And they judged the people at all seasons: the hard cases they brought unto Moses, but every small matter they judged themselves—Ex. 18:25, 26.
Love is the fulfilling of the law.—St. Paul.
Now this is the Law of the Jungle—as old and as true
as the sky;
And the Wolf that shall keep it may prosper, but the Wolf
that shall break it must die.
As the creeper that girdles the tree-trunk the Law runneth
forward and back—
For the strength of the Pack is the Wolf, and the strength
of the Wolf is the Pack.
Now these are the Laws of the Jungle, and many and mighty
are they;
But the head and the hoof of the Law and the haunch and
the bump is "Obey!"
—Kipling.
Nothing is that errs from law.—Tennyson.
In vain we call old notions fudge,
And bend conventions to our dealing,
The Ten Commandments will not budge,
And stealing still continues stealing.
—Lowell.
If chosen men could never be alone,
In deep mid-silence, open-doored with God
No greatness ever had been dreamed or done.
These roots bear up Dominion: Knowledge, Will,—
These twain are strong, but stronger yet the third,—
Obedience,—'tis the great tap-root that still,
Knit round the rock of Duty, is not stirred,
Though Heaven-loosed tempests spend their utmost skill.
—Lowell (The Washers of the Shroud).