With the intermediate and higher stages
of political organisation, with the building of the upper structure,
however, religion had no concern; they were too far removed from
the foundation. The derivative, which did not carry immediately
in itself its own title to exist, was a matter of indifference
to it; what had come into being it suffered to go its own way
as soon as it was capable of asserting its independence. For
this reason it always turned by preference to the future, not
in a utopian but in a thoroughly practical way; by a single
step only did it keep ahead of the present. It prepared the
way for such developments as are not derived from existing
institutions, but spring immediately from the depths in
which human society has its secret and mysterious roots.
The expression "Jehovah is the God of Israel," accordingly, meant
that every tosk of the nation, internal as well as external, was
conceived as holy. It certainly did not mean that the almighty
Creator of heaven and earth was conceived of as having first made
a covenant with this one people that by them He might be truly
known and worshipped.
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