ARTICLE VII.

COLENSO UPON MOSES AND JOSHUA.

The Pentateuch and Book of Joshua critically examined. By the Right Rev. JOHN WILLIAM COLENSO, D.D., Bishop of Natal. New York: D. Appleton & Co. 1863.

THAT a Christian bishop should set himself to the task of disproving the genuineness of any portion of Holy Scripture presents an incongruous idea. That he should be, at the same time, a missionary churchman among the Hottentots, does not help the incongruity. The statements are antagonistic, per se. That this person may have a legal right to attempt such work, that he may be sincere in his scepticism, does not relieve the difficulty. There is a fitness of things which should be observed. Not every one should volunteer every kind of enterprise. If a writer neglects this common law of appearances, in selecting his subject, he must suffer the evil of having his edifice entered through this unsightly porch. The bishop is suffering just in this way, as is evident in many notices of his book. This is not an invidious criticism: nor is it to be set aside, in a case like this, by the more frequent than conclusive assumption that truth is the object sought, and that everybody, in every way conceivable, not only is at liberty, but is under obligation, to pursue this search. We all know that the pretence of a special mission to set the world right has covered the propagandism of error in all the ages.

This volume consists, first, of a narrative of the author's doubtings and mental troubles, from which we conclude that he is honestly perplexed by biblical questions which he cannot answer. Then follows the critical examination of the sacred history which has caused his difficulty. The passages involved are those which may be called the arithmetic of Moses and Joshua. Thus the front of the Tabernacle was eighteen feet across. In single files, nine men could have stood in this space,

at which rate, with eighteen inches or so between the ranks, it would have required twenty miles for the whole congregation to have been assembled before the Tabernacle, as is described in the Pentateuch. This is incredible; therefore an error is detected; therefore, no divine authority in the documents. Abraham, again, could not have had three hundred and eighteen servants born in his own house, to lead against his hostile neighbors, as is affirmed. (?) Consequently another mistake, and no inspiration. These are fair specimens of the reasoning of this new treatise upon numbers. Its author, years ago, published an elementary work in the mathematics, and this is its application to the science of hermeneutics. From these examinations with slate and pencil he gathers (1) that the Pentateuch, as a whole, cannot possibly have been written by Moses, or by any one acquainted personally with the facts which it professes to describe; (2) that the so-called Mosaic narrative, by whomsoever written, cannot be regarded as historically true. And so with Joshua.

The defect in the bishop's argumentation is obvious. In order to an inspiration from God, of religious authority, through human agents, he requires the impossibility of the slightest departure from historical accuracy in the transmission of the minutest details of events through thousands of years; that is, he demands an absolute truth, in all the unimportant accessories of the narrative. This is simply to destroy the human element of the Bible, and to turn it from its true function of a religious revelation, into a text-book of secular knowledge. We do not admit a large portion of the bishop's calculations and alleged exaggerations. As usual with these writers, he has drawn largely on the conjectural. But we know of no respectable advocates of the divine origin of the Scriptures who adopt the theory that an impossibility of all misstatement, in every circumstance of an inspired narrative, is necessary to the defence of its inspiration. We thought that this point was settled among biblical critics, on the ground that divine wisdom and power never perform a needless miracle, which this would seem to be. Other answers to this very lame logic were easy, but this is conclusive. Looking at the labored investigation thus, we feel the force of a contemporary reviewer's judgment of the volume: "This is a

much less important book than we had supposed it to be." For the same reason we are sorry to see that more of what, it is presumable, will be of the same quality, is promised. A friend put this point to us the other day in just its right light. It is (said he) like walking along the outside of a cathedral - the windows seen from the street are only wretched and unmeaning daubs. But enter, and walk slowly up the aisles, and those painted lights become radiant with seraphic glories. So must God's scriptures be seen from the inside, not the outside, if their beauties and splendors shall ever open upon our souls.

In the last number of the "North American Review," in the article, "Phases of Scholarship," we find a sentence or two so germane to the subject of this notice and to the increasing class of similar publications, that we must find room for it here:

"It is a fine thing, we admit, to arraign a line in Hesiod upon the charge of obtaining credit on false pretences, to hear the evidence, to weigh it, and perhaps finally to condemn the line to be expunged from all future editions. We are not disputing the value of such judgments, we are but pointing out the subtile temptation to the judge of perpetually asserting his authority. Thus the arrogance of criticism leads to change, to rejection, to annihilation. The mind becomes morbidly active, and a hunger takes hold of the reasoning power which constantly craves some new food; but it never is satisfied because it is diseased. . . . Tragic indeed is the interest which attaches to these solitary, restless spirits, vainly pushing on and on after perfection, and lying down at last, so many of them, with the cold mists of sceptical death gathering about them."

...

We should judge this author to be one of those very conscientious and weakly men, of considerable learning, yet narrow view, whose chief disqualification to become a guide to others lies in the one idea which so frequently takes exclusive possession of them that Providence has given them a special commission to "reconstruct" the groundwork of our most important beliefs. The bishop will doubtless be surprised at the slight impression which his painful labors will make on the Christian world, though his position in it is giving them a notoriety which otherwise they could not command. We have no fears but that Moses and Joshua will still be read and historically accepted when this impugner (and others) of their authenticity and biblical authority shall be alike out of print and memory.

For the perpetual certification of these ancient books, to the human heart, as divinely inspired, lies in the savor of a pure piety which they preserve, in undiminishing freshness as the ages roll away. To the end of days, the memory of Abel and Enoch and Abraham and Moses, and others of those worthies, will be inseparably associated with a godly life and conversation in the world. Their histories and spirit could never have been the creation of a merely human genius. They show for themselves that they were men regenerated and sanctified from their generation by the Spirit of the Lord. Those records are all pervaded by a holy spirit, as none others of a similar national significance ever were. They embody the organization of society and the institutions of religion upon a different basis, and by an essentially unlike moving power, to anything else of which the early history of men gives account. Now, to go searching into such a series of documents to find here and there some superficial and very likely clerical flaw, and, on the discovery of something of this kind to proclaim the demolition of the whole biblical authority of the narrative, is puerile in the extreme. If men, of this author's antecedents and surroundings, or others less conspicuous, will still do it, they can hardly expect that any one, who has other serious occupations in hand, will stop to refute their busy idleness with much particularity. At least, we feel inclined to wait until it begins to be proved, as well as surmised and asserted, that there was no written language among the Jews until centuries subsequent to the time of Israel's sojourn in Egypt and the desert.

ARTICLE VIII.

SHORT SERMONS.

"Then said Martha unto Jesus, Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died.” — John xi. 21.

THIS was like Martha- busy, careful, frank, impetuous, loving Martha. And it was like Mary-contemplative, humble, devout - to

sit still in the house. Both were overwhelmed with sorrow for their brother's death. Martha's sorrow was as when the sea wrought and was tempestuous. The sorrow of Mary as when dark night settles down on the beautiful landscape, and waits in silence for the morning. Martha had been restless and impatient till Jesus came, and hastened to meet him, and said just what she had wished and meant to say: : "Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died." Here was Martha's faith and unbelief.

It was a noble testimony to Christ's divinity her instant acknowledgment of his absolute dominion over disease and death. But why had he not come sooner, and saved her, as he, and he only could, from this huge and bitter grief, aggravated by a thousand regrets? Some intended comfort or embellishment for her brother's chamber had been put off by other cares; some impatient word had been spoken, to which he had answered only by silence; or she had carelessly missed the opportunity to accompany him in his last stroll through the cornfields of Bethany. Now it was too late forever. Why had not the Master's love saved her from this?

There was transcendent benignity and wisdom in the Saviour's reply: "Thy brother shall rise again." No word of reproof — Oh wondrous love! for he saw her heart full of anguish; but light shall spring out of this dark dispensation, such as she could not have conceived. That sublimest of all the sayings of Christ, "I am the resurrection and the life," his unutterable sympathy for the sorrowing sisters, his tears at the grave, and the miraculous resurrection of Lazarus these, for the assurance and consolation of the mourners to the end of time, were the decreed result of that great calamity which fell upon the little family at Bethany.

"Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye

be my

THIS is that truest greatness in the kingdom of God which is placed within the reach of all— to bring forth much fruit Genius is not required, nor learning, nor eloquence, nor riches, nor eminent position in the church or the community.

I. What is the fruit spoken of?

Not so much external as internal, the fruit of the Spirit: "Without me ye can do nothing." Any man can be active in a religious way; may mightily stir up others, like Jehu, by his zeal; may go to the