was the central thought of all Judaism.

5. They were a moral people. Their Scripture set up a standard of character immeasurably superior to that in other ancient lands. Among the Jews womanhood was honored, drunkenness was rare, honesty was the rule, and crime was far less frequent than elsewhere.

These were the traits that made the Jews the people of God and fitted them to accomplish the divine purpose.

III. What was that purpose? Every race has its mission in the world. The Greeks were set to exalt the intellect; the Romans, to establish the reign of law. We notice the mission of the Jewish people:

1. To perpetuate the knowledge of God. In the general wickedness of the world and the spread of idolatry there was danger lest the true religion be utterly lost. Therefore God chose out one nation—the one having the traits best fitting it for his purpose—and set it apart to guard the holy fire of divine truth until the rest of the world should be ready to receive it.

2. To receive training for higher revelation. The higher revelations of God can come only to a people whose religious faculties have been trained to receive them. Judaism was God's school where a chosen race was educated. They received the Scriptures, the prophets, the ritual of worship, and, above all, the discipline of trial, fitting them to become "a nation of priests." See Paul's enumeration of their privileges in Rom. 9. 4, 5.

3. To proclaim the Gospel to the world. When, in the fullness of time, Israel was trained up to knowledge and the outer world prepared to receive the truth, Christ came as the consummation of Judaism. Then a new mission opened before the Jews—that of proclaiming Christ to the world. The little company of disciples were the seed that should replenish the whole earth. See the command. (Matt. 28. 19, 20.)

IV. We notice now the Jews in the time of Christ.

1. They were divided into two great branches: the Jews of Palestine and the Jews of the Dispersion. The former were descendants of those who had settled in Palestine after the decree of Cyrus, B. C. 536 (Ezra 1. 1-3); the latter those who remained in the lands of their adoption, were found all over the ancient world, and were far more numerous. See references to them in John 7. 35; James 1. 1; 1 Pet. 1. 1. We note that these "Jews of the Dispersion" were not descendants of the Ten Tribes, except in a few instances, but were Jews—that is, descendants of Judah.

2. Noticing now the Palestinian Jews, for with these the life of Christ was mainly connected, we find them divided into two sects, or schools of thought: the Pharisees and the Sadducees. These two parties arose about 168 B. C., in the time of the Maccabæan uprising. Let us look at them in contrast.