Page:Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion volume 2.djvu/225

. It rests entirely on the abstraction of one Lord; the idea of vacillation comes into the mind only when various interests and points of view exist alongside of each other, and in such a struggle it is possible to take one side or the other, but in this state of concentration of thought on one Lord, the mind is completely held fast to one side. The consequence of this is that in view of the existence of this firm bond there is no freedom. Thought is simply bound on to this unity, which is the absolute authority. Many further consequences follow from this. Amongst the Greeks, too, it is true, certain institutions were held to have divine authority, but they had been established by men; the Jews, on the other hand, made no such distinction between the divine and the human. It was owing, too, to this absence of the idea of freedom that they did not believe in immortality, for even though it is perhaps possible to point to certain traces of belief in it, still those passages in which they occur are always of a very general character, and had not the slightest influence on the religious and moral points of view from which things were regarded. The immortality of the soul is not as yet an admitted truth, and there is accordingly no higher end than the service of Jehovah, and so far as man himself is concerned, his aim is to maintain himself and his family in life as long as possible. Temporal possessions, in fact, are consequent upon service, not something eternal, not eternal blessedness. The conscious perception of the unity of the soul with the Absolute, or of the reception of the soul into the bosom of the Absolute, has not yet arisen. Man has as yet no inner space, no inner extension, no soul of such an extent as to lead it to wish for satisfaction within itself, but rather it is the temporal which gives it fulness and reality. According to the Law, each family receives a property which must not be alienated, and in this way the family is to be provided for. The aim of life consequently was mainly the preservation of this bit of land.