Then the sabbatical year, when no
agricultural labor was to be done, took another seventh of their time
from their regular pursuits, as they were an agricultural people. This
was the amount of time and property demanded by God, simply to sustain
education, religion, and morality within the bounds of one nation. It
was promised to this nation and fulfilled by constant miraculous
interpositions, that in this life, obedience to God's laws should
secure health, peace, prosperity, and long life; while for disobedience
was threatened war, pestilence, famine, and all temporal evils. These
promises were constantly verified, and in the day of Solomon, when,
this nation was most obedient, the whole world was moved with wonder
at its wealth and prosperity. But up to this time, no attempt was made
by God to govern the Israelites by the rewards and penalties of the
world to come.
But "when the fullness of time had come," and the race of man was
prepared to receive higher responsibilities, Jesus Christ came and
"brought life and immortality to light" with a clearness never before
revealed. At the same time was revealed the fatherhood of God, not to
the Jews alone, but to the whole human race, and the consequent
brotherhood of man; and these revelations in many respects changed the
whole standard of duty and obligation.
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