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Untitled Article
The work was effected by the Judaical revelation ; and how was the method suited to the ohject ? As the great truth which was the object of this revelation was to be recognized by mankind at large , the object would have been lost if the special mode had been employed on every nation . If a separate revelation had been made to each people , each would have been occupied with the manifestations granted to itself , and the Universal Father would have been
regarded by each as a national God . No one nation could have compared the various dispensations and ascertained the point to which they were severally made to tend . The experiment would have been too vast . For any practical purpose , the world at large is too undefined a spectacle to the world at large . A revelation to individuals would still less have answered the purpose . Such a diversity of experiences would have created perplexity in the
minds of those who might be disposed to observation and inquiry ; while the careless would have failed to recognize any common object among dispensations so various . Nothing ;; remarkable and interesting to the race could have speedily arisen from the separate convictions of insulated minds . The mode of human education would in this case have been too diversified , as in the other too vast . These imperfections might be avoided by the selection of a single people , who , by being educated apart , might be an object of attention to the entire race , while they afforded an unquestionable instance of the allotment of prosperity in reward of obedience , —of the accommodation of condition to character . Such was the method adopted .
The time , the place , the circumstances , were all suited to the object in view . The Jewish people was surrounded by nations capable of observing and disposed to observe its peculiarities , their origin and consequences . Placed in the midst of these nations , enduring through their vicissitudes , or undergoing changes as peculiar as its internal institutions , —changes whose commencement was never unforeseen , and whose results were ever remarkable , the Jewish nation could not but be a conspicuous object , and human reason could not resist the conviction which was pressed upon it , thai , as obedience to a certain law was always followed by national prosperity , and disobedience by national affliction , the giver of that law must be a Moral Governor .
It was necessary that the people designed to exemplify the existence of a moral government should be uncultivated , i . e . should have made but little progress under the general system of education . The special process could not be so complete as to enable the subjects of it to become the preceptors of others , unless they themselves had gone through every stage . Instead , therefore , of selecting the most enlightened of nations , and causing it to start from an advanced point , Providence called out from the most abject slavery and the most debasing ignorance a people who were destined soon to outstr ip the more civilized nations by whom they were oppressed .
What was the nature of the religion of the Jews during their Egyptian bondage , we have no means of ascertaining ; but their history affords internal evidence that they had no firm trust in God , and that they inclined to the superstitions of their task-masters . Moses was far more enlightened than the generality of his nation ; yet he had no notion of a ready obedience ; and when charged with a message to the people , requested to know by what name the Deliverer should be announced . The people had no expectation of a deliverance , and only submitted to the necessary means while signs and wonders were wrought before their eyes . During each interval
Untitled Article
302 Education of the Human Race ,
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1830, page 302, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2584/page/14/
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