the simple narrative of the text for, whether actual or legendary, the only way in which Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob can affect us at the present day is as characters in a history the significance of which will become clear if we read between the lines. But from this latter point of view the biblical statement of the national origin of Israel carries enfolded within it the hidden statement of those great principles which it is the purpose of the Bible to reveal. And here let me draw attention to the method adopted in Scripture. There are certain great universal principles which permeate all planes of being from the highest to the lowest. They are not many in number, and the relations between them are not difficult of comprehension when clearly stated; but we find difficulty in recognising the identity of the same principles when we meet with them, so to say, at different levels, as for example on the physical and the psychic planes respectively, and consequently we are apt to imagine them much more numerous and complicated than they really are. Now, the purpose of the Bible is to convey instruction in the nature and use of these principles to those in whose hands this knowledge would be safe and useful, while concealing it from others; and in a manner appropriate to this object, it continually repeats the same few all-embracing principles over and