"But, brethren, he mistakes who deems that God Is to one place, one race, one time, one clime, One mode of showing forth Himself, shut up. Consider through what phases manifold Has passed already heretofore God's way With men; thence learn how lightly reckons God Of place or method. "Unto Abraham first Before he came to Charan, while he yet Dwelt in the land between the rivers, God Appeared. Nor in a place thus holy made, And glorious, by theophany, was he, Our father, suffered to abide. 'Arise,' Jehovah said, 'and get thee hence and come Into the land which I will show thee.' Then To Charan that obedient pilgrim passed. Nor there found he a settled rest. Again He journeyed and in Canaan, this fair land Wherein ye dwell, a sojourner became; For here God gave him no inheritance, Promising only that in after times That childless father's children here should dwell. "Meanwhile another change, and now what seems A long postponement of the purposed grace. Four hundred years should Abraham's seed sojourn As strangers in an alien land where they Should suffer bondage and an evil lot: Delivered thence with judgment on their foes, They then should hither come and here serve God. "Yet when the ripeness of the time was full, And Moses offered to deliver them, Our fathers doubted and refused his hand: But Moses notwithstanding led them out. And that same Moses prophesied of One To follow him as Prophet Whom must all Obey. Yet Moses, mouth of God to men, Obeyed our fathers not, but, in their hearts Gone back to Egypt, spurned him far aloof From them. Then followed that apostasy To idols, by Jehovah God chastised, On those offending, with captivity Which beyond Babylon carried them away. "Albeit Jehovah gave to Moses such Honor as never yet to man was given, Still much that Moses wrought was cast aside. That tabernacle, made by him express As God Himself had shown him in the mount, And so inwove with Hebrew history, God suffered this to pass, and in its place Preferred the temple built by Solomon. "Yet not in houses built with human hands Dwells the Most High; as, by His prophet, God Says, 'On the heaven sit I as on a throne, And the earth make a footstool for My feet.' 'What house will ye build Me,' the Lord inquires, 'Or what shall be the place of Mine abode?'"