through them is the voice of Jehovah. Nature becomes the instrument of grace. That in the spiritual sphere proper everything proceeds along the same line need hardly be pointed out. God speaks comfortably unto Israel to call her back to repentance. He loves her freely, and it is through making her realize this fact that He effects her return. His bridal gifts to Israel are righteousness and mercy and faithfulness and lovingkindness. The mercy that He shows them in their distress is at bottom something far deeper and finer and more spiritualized than the generic sense of pity. It is chesed, lovingkindness, that is, mercy intensified a thousand times by the tenderness of an antecedent love. It is not compassion that saves Israel, for compassion, though truly spiritual in itself, lies but on the circumference of that mysterious saving movement that springs in the divine heart from love and grace as its center.
In the second place the possession and enjoyment for which Jehovah offers Himself to Israel are an exclusive relationship. Here the figure of marriage comes into play. Hosea has greatly idealized this figure, at least as compared with the customs of his time. No matter which side we choose in the exegetical dispute as to whether the first three chapters are allegory or recite facts, in either case, be it by a unique experience or through a unique vision, the prophet has produced a marriage ideal fit to be the parable of the covenant. In this idealized form it renders most faithfully the latter's essential features. For emphasizing the pure spirituality of
