But they had accomplished their work; a nation had been created which through exile and disaster still maintained its religion and its characteristics, and was prepared, when happier days should come, to return again to its old home, to rebuild the temple, and carry out all the ordinances of its faith.

From henceforth Judah realised its mission as a peculiar people, separated from the rest of the world, whose instructor in religion it was to be.

More and more it ceased to be a nation and became a race--a race, moreover, which had its roots in a common religious history, a common faith, and a common hope.

Israel according to the flesh became Israel according to the spirit.
[Footnote 1: See Pinches in the _Journal_ of the Royal Asiatic Society, July 1897.

In a tablet belonging to a period long before that of Abraham, Isma-ilu or Ishmael is given as the name of an "Amorite" slave from Palestine (Thureau-Dangin, _Tablettes chaldeennes inedites_, p.
10).].