Arise, then, meek Lamb! arise in thy pacific wrath against the enemies of all men, and against the true enemies of God's kingdom! Arise and drive them from the temple! Thus did the synagogue perish, and the Christian Church come to life.
II. The Representatives Of The Spirit.
I have said (and you already knew it) that we have nothing to fear from the triumphs of the letter. Yet we cannot overlook the struggles and temptations, not only of every priesthood, but of all pious persons; the temptation of the faithful, as well as of priests, to allow the letter to predominate over the spirit. Let us glorify God because we are born in a holy and infallible church, which Jesus Christ protects, and will protect until the consummation of his work, in the course of ages, against the ignorance of our minds and the weakness of our wills.
But what voice strikes my ear? These are no longer the coarse tones of earthly domination, nor of carnal legislation. Nor yet is it a Christian voice, the voice of Christ speaking to us a moment ago; but, though anterior to Christ, how like to him it sounds:
"Hear the word of the Lord, ye rulers of Sodom; give ear to the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrha," saith the voice; and yet it is speaking to the church of Sion. "To what purpose do you offer me the multitude of your victims, saith the Lord? I am full; I desire not holocausts of rams, and fat of fatlings, and blood of calves, and lambs, and buck-goats. Offer sacrifice no more in vain: incense is an abomination to me. The new moons, and the sabbaths, and other festivals, I will not abide; your assemblies are wicked. My soul hateth your new moons, and your solemnities: they are become troublesome to me; I am weary of bearing them. And when you stretch forth your hands, I will turn away my eyes from you: and when you multiply prayer, I will not hear: for your hands are full of blood.
"Wash yourselves, be clean, take away the evil of your devices from my eyes: cease to do perversely, learn to do well: seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge for the fatherless, defend the widow. And then come and accuse me, saith the Lord: if your sins be as scarlet, they shall be made as white as snow: and if they be red as crimson, they shall be white as wool."
This is the voice of Mosaic spirituality in all its energy and light. How different from the pharisaism we were speaking of just now; from the letter, smothering beneath its murderous weight reason, conscience, and heart! How like the gospel, the law of Christ, with its two commandments: an insatiable hunger, an inextinguishable thirst after righteousness, and a heart ever open to mercy! Ah! I feel that this is no local law, no national organization, no restricted or temporary code. It is the law of all people and of all ages. It needs but the breath of St. Paul to bear it from one end of the world to the other.
But the voice of the Spirit still speaks—no longer, now, of the carnal law, but of the earthly kingdom:
"And in the last days, the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be prepared on the top of mountains, and it shall be exalted above the hills: and all nations shall flow into it, fluent ad eum omnes gentes. And many people shall go, and say: Come and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, and to the house of Jacob, and he will teach us his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for the law shall come forth from Sion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem, quia de Sion exibit lex et verbum Domini de Jerusalem. Come, let us break our swords and make ploughshares; let us shatter our lances and turn them into sickles, for the anointed of the Lord will reign in justice and peace; all idols shall be broken, et idola penitus conterentur, and in those days the Eternal shall alone be great."