Page:The Last Judgement and Second Coming of the Lord Illustrated.djvu/71

 Idolatry was the besetting sin of the Israelitish nation: this is the reason why they were so strongly forbidden to make to themselves any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above or earth beneath, or that, is in the water under the earth. They were a community of naturally minded men, to whom, therefore, life and immortality were but imperfectly revealed; these were brought to light by the gospel. They were not disposed to appreciate interior truths, and hence it is that so little is said about spiritual things in the letter of their history: those things, however, are contained within the letter and imaged forth thereby. Idolatry prevailed for many ages in various portions of the world long before the Israelites were selected to become a representative people. The inhabitants of those countries had, by natural death, furnished the world of spirits with a multitude of idolatrous spirits; and these would find a plane for action in the Israelitish mind, for they were idolaters in origin and at heart; and this had