Historically, we first meet him
coming forth from the Arabian desert, a rude unlettered herdsman, in
intelligence, cultivation, and morality far below the tribes among whom
he is thrown. A terrible weapon arms him--a theism stern, hard, and
pitiless, beyond, perhaps, all the world has ever seen. To the bravest
and best of his race--a Moses and a Joshua, a Deborah and a Jephtha--this
presents ruthless massacre, the vilest treachery, offering up a sacrifice
the dearest and most loved, not as mere permissible acts, but as deeds of
religious homage solemnly enjoined by his Most High. This theism has one
central thought in which it practically stands alone, and which it was
the aim of all its supposed heads and legislators to keep inviolate amid
all surrounding antagonisms--the intense assertion of the Divine unity.
"Hear, O Israel! the Lord thy God is _one_ Lord." In these brief words
lies the very core of Judaism. So long as he holds fast by this central
truth, the Jew is exhibited to us as practically omnipotent. Seas and
floods divide before him; hosts numberless as the sands are scattered at
his appearance; cyclopean walls fall prone at his trumpet-blast.
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