The ceremonial law given after leaving Sinai, at the beginning of that memorable march of forty years, was necessary because the nation had lost all appreciation of the spiritual in the abstract, and could gain no idea whatever of God as a _Spirit_ except through some appeal to the physical senses. This condition was due to the fact that four generations had been subject to Egyptian education. [Sidenote: Israel at the Exodus] The plan of types and ceremonies alone appealed to the mind. And even in this inductive method of teaching, the nation seemed slow to learn; for the forty years between the Red Sea and Jordan served to develop scarcely enough faith to carry the people into the promised land. God’s law, written on the tablets of the heart by the pen of faith, appealed to but few. Men ate manna from heaven, but knew not that it was the token of a crucified Saviour: they drank of water flowing constantly from the smitten rock, never dreaming that it prefigured the shed blood of the dying Son of God. Once settled in Canaan, the whole system of education was so planned as to teach the child to accept Christ by faith. Some grasped this spiritual truth; but a few had eyes which saw the things hidden from the multitude, because faith was an avenue to the very soul. Having the privilege of living by faith, and accepting the divine teaching in this its highest form, they preferred the old way, and walked by sight. “Except ye see, ye will not believe;” “O ye of little faith.” When we look at what the Israelites might have been, and then at what they were, there is a feeling of intense pain, for the fall is inexpressibly great. By little and little, Jehovah strove to reach the higher nature again, and bring Israel to its heaven-selected place. There was steady progress until the days of Solomon, whose wisdom outshone that of the great men of earth, and Israel as a nation was again on the verge of becoming the leading people of the world politically, intellectually, and morally. [Sidenote: Solomon’s wisdom] Solomon was raised to a position of eminence among the great men of earth because he learned from God the secret of true education. His wisdom was not a gift to him exclusively, but was offered to all who would comply with the educational requirements. Of Solomon we read that God gave him a hearing ear. His spiritual senses were awakened by faith, and he found himself so in harmony with the God of nature that all the works of the Creator were read by him as an open book. His wisdom seemed great in contrast with that of other Jews merely because others failed to live up to their privileges. God desired the whole nation to stand before other people as Solomon stood before the kings of the earth.