in Judaea when the Messias, so long promised, appeared on earth in human form, even Christ the Lord, to whom be honour and glory for ever and ever.
COMMENTARY.
A retrospect by which we can recognise God’s wisdom in the guidance of mankind:
1. Even in Paradise God revealed Himself to man, and promised a Redeemer. But the greater number of Adam’s descendants turned away from God, and sank so low that their reason was obscured and they lost all power of understanding even that natural religion which was taught to them by the visible creation, and the voice of their own consciences. Nevertheless, in all pagan religions, there were preserved some remains of the original revelation, such as the memory of a former and happier state, the consciousness of the debt of sin hanging over the human race, the sense of the necessity of reconciliation with an offended God, the dim expectation of a Redeemer, and of a future and better state.
2. God revealed Himself supernaturally to the people of Israel, in order to preserve in them belief in the true God and in the future Redeemer, and through them to spread abroad this belief among the Gentiles. However, the inclination towards idolatry was so strong in the chosen people that it was many centuries before God, by repeated revelations and visitations, could wean them from it. Man is very ready to make his own god, that is, to make out God to be such as his own inclinations lead him to wish Him to be. Instead of moulding his own inclinations, will and actions to accord with God’s almighty will, he seeks to accommodate God and His attributes to his own desires. It was not until paganism was eradicated from the religious belief of the
