These revelations of himself stand forth in sunlight throughout this Mosaic code. They are a glorious advance upon all that the world had seen before. The true mission of civil law is brought out here with great fullness; for it seems to be every-where assumed that if laws protect and befriend the poor, they protect and befriend _all_. If the spirit of law faithfully guards their interests, it can not well fail to guard all interests that need the guardianship of human legislation. It is a priceless boon to the race to have these ideas so beautifully set forth and so substantially embodied in a code of laws fresh from the hand and from the heart of the Infinite Father. CHAPTER XIX. THE RELIGIOUS SYSTEM OF THE HEBREWS. THIS system contemplates as its ultimate end the obedience, homage, and worship due from men to God. As a prime means toward this end, it prescribes modes and forms of worship. It proposes to bring God near to men and men near to God; and for this purpose would cultivate in men the spirit of penitence and of faith――impressing them with a sense of their sins and suggesting to them how sin may be forgiven; and how, on the basis of God’s own provision for pardon, he can accept the humble, reverent worship of his people.――――These fundamental ideas respecting the sinner’s acceptance with God, the system now before us sought especially to develop by means of visible symbols――these symbols constituting the very elaborate and minutely described _religious system of the Hebrews_.――――This system, having long since “waxed old and vanished away” is no longer in practice, and therefore can not be useful as a rule of present duty, but is useful for the light it throws on the great and fundamental questions――How shall man――a sinner――become just before God? Is an atonement necessary? What are the fundamental ideas of “atonement”? How were they developed in the Mosaic system, and what light does this development bring to the atonement presented to view in the New Testament? With superlative wisdom God began to give lessons on this great subject very early in the history of our race. It was wise to give such lessons long and carefully before the Great Atoning Sacrifice came in human flesh. It was also wise to give them largely by visible illustrations――by the aid of a system having so much of the external and the visible that minds not disciplined to abstract thought might see the truth and feel its power by means of sensible manifestations.