books prescribed was "Harman's Introduction to the Study of the Holy Scriptures." Dr. Harman was Professor of Greek and Hebrew in Dickinson College. I was told that in this book I would find "completely detailed, uncontrovertible proofs of the divine authenticity, inspiration, and infallible truth of the Bible." This was just what I had long been looking for, and just how I found it will soon appear.

APPROACHING THE CRISIS

The first one-third of this book of 770 pages is devoted to proving the Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch, its inspiration and infallible truth. On the subject of inspiration generally the author follows the ideal rather than the verbal theory. His theory of the necessity of inspiration is based upon the idea that the Bible contains records that could not otherwise have been known at the time they were written; for example, the account of Creation "must have been divinely revealed to Moses, as he could not otherwise have known it." The extent of inspiration he limits to those matters that were "not otherwise known" to the writers. Things of which they had personal knowledge were therefore not the subjects of inspiration. For example, the advice of Jethro, concerning the division in the burdens of the government, was not inspired, because Moses got it directly from the mouth of Jethro himself. Nevertheless the author was "divinely guided" in writing of matters of his personal knowledge, in order that the "sacred record" might be preserved from error. As to the proofs of inspiration, I quote verbatim: "The inspiration of the Bible is evident from its sublime doctrines concerning God, the purity of its moral precepts, and from the wonderful fulfillment of its prophecies." When I read this I confess I felt a little disappointed. I had understood this before. I wanted something more specific, material, tangible.

Then follows a lengthy treatise on the Hebrew language, the original characters in which the Pentateuch was written, without vowels or punctuation marks; how it was preserved by copying from generation to generation; how errors crept into various copies; an account of the Samaritan Pentateuch, and the Septuagint; how these all differ the one from the other in many details; of the ancient manuscripts that are still extant, and how these all differ more or less from each other,—not in anything fundamental, but in many minor details; and finally winds up with the statement that "the original text is uncertain"!

This was all new to me. I had naturally supposed that not only the original text was divinely inspired and infallibly correct, but that by some sort of divine supervision, it had been so preserved and kept down thru the ages. And now I was not only disappointed, but alarmed. I wondered what would come next. And I soon learned.

Before this I had never discovered, nor had any one pointed them out to me, the many discrepancies and contradictions in the early Biblical records,—the two stories of creation, the two accounts of the flood that are so intricately woven together, the changes in the law in Deuteronomy from those in Exodus and Leviticus; and others. My simple, blind faith had completely obscured all these until now. It is true the author pointed them out only to explain or reconcile them. But in practically every instance, the explanation failed to explain, or reconcile, and was only an apology or an excuse; and I was left with a clear vision of the discrepancy, and with no adequate explanation. The differences between some parts of the law, as recorded in Deuteronomy and in the earlier books, was explained as a "progressive development according to the changing conditions and needs of the Hebrews." From a purely human viewpoint, I considered this explanation satisfactory. But from that of "divine revelation," I wondered why God did not reveal it correctly at the first; or why he found it necessary to change his own law.

Concerning the ritual law of the tabernacle and the priesthood, the author confesses that, in all probability, Moses was educated at Heliopolis, in Egypt, for the Egyptian priesthood, and was therefore perfectly familiar with all the priestly regulations of the religion of Egypt; and that the tabernacle service, its priesthood, their dress, sacred utensils, etc., were doubtless all patterned after Egyptian models, but devoted to Jehovah instead of the gods of Egypt; and he cites this as a proof of the Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch.

And in support of this view, he quotes the opinion of the Abbé Victor Ancessi! And I had always been taught that the tabernacle, the priesthood, and all that pertained to both, were divinely revealed to Moses on Mt. Sinai! "According to the pattern shown thee in the mount."

Then on the question of interpolations, our author confesses that there are many of them in the Pentateuch, most of them showing that they belong to a much later age than Moses; yet he denies that any of them are material, or in any way change the original meaning or sense of the text.

Thus I went thru over 250 pages, devoted, not so much to the questions of divine inspiration and supernatural revelation, as these seemed to be very largely taken for granted; but to the defense of the Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch upon which seemed to hinge the whole question of its authenticity and infallible authority. As the author puts it, "If the Pentateuch was not written by Moses it is a forgery." To do this he quotes quite elaborately from the higher critics, Bauer, Davidson, Bleek, Ewald, Kuenen, Wellhausen, and others, for the ostensible purpose of answering and refuting them.

Now I had, up to this time, never read a line of such Biblical criticism, except that quoted by this author. Naturally, I not only had no sympathy with it, but was strongly prejudiced against it. But I could not fail to note that the refutations and explanations of my author very often failed to either refute or explain.

To sum the whole thing up, when I had gone thus far, I could not avoid the impression that from the standpoint of logical argument, based upon any known facts, the whole thing was a failure. It was simply a continued series of apologetics; in legal parlance, a sort of "confession and avoidance." I began in the firm belief that Moses wrote the Pentateuch, and that he was divinely inspired in doing it. I expected to find the definite proofs that this was true. When I got thru I didn't know who wrote it. I was equally certain the author I was reading didn't know; and I doubted if any one else did. I felt the incipient doubts of my school days returning, only in much larger volume and greater force. If the reader will pardon the phrase: "I felt myself slipping."

Then followed a study of the authorship, origin, character, and purpose of the remaining canonical books of the Old Testament. These may all be grouped into two or three divisions. Of the historical books of Joshua, Judges, First and Second Samuel, First and Second Kings and First and Second Chronicles, I found to my surprise, that nobody knows who wrote any of them; nor anything definite about the time, or circumstances under which they were written. Joshua was merely believed to have been written not later than twenty-five years after the death of Joshua, by some person or persons who were personally familiar with the events therein narrated. As the book is clearly divided into two distinct parts, the first ending with the twelfth chapter and the second beginning with the thirteenth, it is supposed that it was written by Eleazar and Phinehas. But this is admitted to be mere conjecture.

The Book of Judges is placed after that of Joshua, because it takes up the narrative where Joshua closes. It is assumed that it must have been written sometime before the close of David's reign. "Respecting the Authorship of Judges, nothing is known." The date of both books of Samuel—originally one book—is wholly unknown, as is also