THE BOOMERANG; 
 
 4\ 
 
 OR, 
 
 THE BISHOP OP NATAL SMITTEN WITH HIS i 
 OWN WEAPON. 1 
 
 BY 
 
 "A MAN OF TRSAOTTAir' ■ 
 
 AND A RETURNED PILGRIM FROM THK FAST 
 
 AN ARGUMENT AND A DEFENCE, WITH A FLW l<At 
 AND FIGURES FOR PRACTICAL ENGLISHMEN. 
 
THE BOOMERANG; 
 
 OR, 
 
 -f"'- 
 
 Si THE BISHOP 0¥ NATAL SMITTEN WITH HIS 
 
 OWN WEAPON. 
 
 .ji:;ftUFpi!i%, 
 
 BY 
 
 "A MAN OF ISSACHAR" (Jud. x. l), 
 
 AND A KETUENED PILGRIM FROM THE EAST. 
 
 AN ARGUMENT AND A DEFENCE, WITH A FEW FACTS 
 AND FIGURES FOR PRACTICAL ENGLISHMEN. 
 
 The Men of lasachar had understanding of the times."—! Ch. xu. 32. 
 «' I am set for the defence of the Gospel." Phil. i. 17. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 ELLIOT STOCK, 62, PATERNOSTER ROW. 
 
 1863. 
 
THE PENTATEUCH AND BOOK OF JOSHUA, 
 CEITICALLY EXAMINED BY DK. COLENSO. 
 
 Par. 7. — " I have arrived at tlie conviction — as painful 
 to myself at first as it may be to my reader, though pain- 
 ful now no longer, under the clear shining of the light of 
 Truth — 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 ; and, further, 
 that the (so-called) Mosaic narrative, by whomsoever written, 
 and though imparting to us, as I fully believe it does, revela- 
 tions of the Divine will and character, cannot be regarded as 
 historically true." 
 
 Par. 8. — " Let it be observed that I am not here speaking of 
 a number of petty variations and contradictions, such as, on 
 closer examination, are found to exist throughout the books, 
 but which may be in many cases sufficiently explained, by 
 alleging our ignorance of all the circumstances of the case, or 
 by supposing some misplacement, or loss, or corruption, of the 
 original manuscript, or by suggesting that a later writer has 
 inserted his own gloss here and there, or even whole passages 
 which may contain facts or expressions at variance with the 
 true Mosaic books, and throwing an unmerited suspicion upon 
 them," &c. &c. 
 
 In page 10, par. 10. — He says : "But I wish to repeat here 
 most distinctly that my reasons for no longer receiving the 
 Pentateuch as historically true, is not that 1 find insuperable 
 dithculties with regard to the miracles, or supernatural revela- 
 tions of Almighty (jiod recorded in it, but solely that I cannot, 
 as a true man, consent any longer to shut my eyes to the 
 absolute, palpable, self-contradictions of the narrative." 
 
TO THE BRITISH CHRISTIAN PUBLIC. 
 
 Men, Brethren, and Fathers, — 
 
 I am a living personal responsible being, and not a 
 body corporate, or an editorial "We"; and, therefore, choose to 
 address you in the first person singular, assured that those who 
 know me will acquit me of egotism. 
 
 You are at liberty to challenge my arguments, judge me, and 
 smite me if you can ; but hear me. I recall now the feelings 
 which thrilled me as I stood beneath the emblem of our faith 
 in the Colosseum at Eome. Eighteen hundred years ago the 
 " irrepressible conflict " between light and darkness, truth and 
 error, commenced in the city of the Seven Hills, and in a 
 brief period of time the despised sect, which was everywhere 
 spoken against, succeeded in supplanting and superseding the 
 hoary and venerable system of idolatry, whose imperishable 
 memorials lay scattered around me. 
 
 Mars and Mercury, Neptune and Vulcan, with all the gods 
 that filled the Pantheon, and even the lofty Jove, bowed to 
 Jesus. 
 
 To-day the religion that assailed is in turn attacked, and 
 professed friend and profane foe have come up in firm 
 phalanx or single file, to assault the faith of our fathers. My 
 imagination filled those vacant seats with the gay and dis- 
 solute Eomans who sat there when the gladiator or the Chris- 
 tian was " butchered to make a Koman holiday," and now it 
 surrounds me with British spectators who are as eager to know 
 
what will be the fate of the Bible, as those Eomans were to 
 see the issue when the cry rang, and was re-echoed by the 
 crowd, " The Christians to the lions." 
 
 Are we to have an " auto da fe ?" or is the Bible to be put 
 upon the shelf among the obsolete and lumberous records of a 
 past age ? 
 
 The latter alternative would be forced upon us by the 
 " seven champions of unchristendom." 
 
 We have not yet recovered from our surprise and alarm at 
 their bold attempt, before a solitary but strong successor, stands 
 forth to aim another blow, and demolisli a little more of the 
 bulwark of our faith and freedom. 
 
 Stepping into the arena, to combat with one who has his 
 own chosen weapons — one who is mighty in mathematics — 
 may well make a stout, strong, and brave man tremble. Be- 
 sides, the accomplished editor of "Guesses at Truth," says, 
 " It is not without a whimsical analogy to polemical fulmina- 
 tions that great g-uns are loaded with iron, pistols and muskets 
 fire lead rapidly, incessantly, fatiguingly, and ninety-nine 
 times out of a hundred they say without effect." But truth 
 results from discussion and controversy, and I will throw a 
 polemical pebble at the head of the new Goliath. 
 
 I prefer keeping my visor down, having before my eyes the 
 story of Ulysses and his bow, and the " Black Prince," in Ivan- 
 hoe, as eminent illustrations of concealed strength and skill ; 
 and also of less successful men, who had no great reason for 
 raising it. 
 
 I shall then be able to boar my blushing honour or burning 
 shame into the retirement for which I am fitted alike by 
 constitution and habit. But my chief reason is that truth may 
 go forth in her native worth, without the meretricious garb of a 
 great name, or the mean attire in wliich the " great unknown " 
 
are, alas ! too often compelled to clothe their dependents and 
 companions. 
 
 You will not know whether I sit upon the bench of bishops 
 — send my &We/ answer from the " Temple " — "Wite " from the 
 West end — or proclaim my firm and indignant protest from the 
 lowest stratum of society. It shall be a virtuous indignation, 
 however, such as a true knight felt when defending and pro- 
 tecting the honour of his lady. 
 
 But whether lay or clerical, the rules of fair and lawful con- 
 troversy shall be observed, and you may rest assured that be- 
 neath the mask there is a genial face, with all the warmer glow 
 for the wearer's knowledge of the " Old Testament," with its 
 Pentateuch and " Israel in Egypt." 
 
 I am conscious of " short comings," but you will have longer 
 ones from abler hands. I commit this contribution to the 
 interests of truth, to your custody, and the blessing of Him 
 whose cause it aims to defend. 
 
 Your visible, yet invisible, 
 Friend, 
 
 THE AUTHOR 
 
" COLENSO'S AKITHMETIC APPLIED TO THE 
 PENTATEUCH." 
 
 TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 I. A QUICK CALCULATOR. 
 
 II. Multiplication — a vexation. 
 
 III. Practice (exode) makes mad. 
 
 IV. "The tables turned." 
 
 V. Conclusion of the whole matter. 
 
 ' Multiplication is vexation, 
 
 Division is as bad ; 
 Tho rule of three it puzzles me, 
 
 And practice drives me mad." 
 
PART I. 
 A QUICK CALCULATOR. 
 
 Some of the feats of mental arithmetic performed by men 
 who have the bump of number very large, are truly extra- 
 ordinary ; and those who have seen the rapidity with which 
 they combine figures and draw conclusions, must have been 
 surprised at their general accuracy. Very few are endowed 
 with &uch a wonderful gift. 
 
 But the author of a work on arithmetic — which has been 
 variously estimated — has quite eclipsed the most gifted of 
 them by a more recent production, bearing, however, as some 
 affiim, a family resemblance, and sent into the wide world 
 upon the same benevolent mission, to wit — to correct the mis- 
 takes of his predecessors. 
 
 Tie success of the first effort has inspired the confidence 
 and emboldened the courage of our author — for if a generous 
 public witness with satisfaction the removal of old figures 
 from our schools, why should not that same arithmetic applied 
 to tie Pentateuch remove the old faith in fables from our 
 sanctuaries, and gain for him the thanks of all wise men ! 
 
 A generous public does not bind itself to admire and em- 
 brace every bantling that claims brotherhood with one of its 
 :)ets ; and may regard this birth of the Bishop's more matured 
 manhood as a premature abortion of his brain. 
 
 I propose showing in this section, how q^dck his calculations 
 are, and how readily he reckons up old and hard questions, 
 when once he is moved to real zeal by a Zulu. It will be 
 seen as we advance that he puts his strong arguments first ; 
 but let them come when they may the defences of the Bible 
 are as safe as those of the British at Waterloo. 
 
 The Bishop places great stress, and very properly, upon a 
 striking passage in Zech. xiii. 3 : " Thou shalt not live ; for 
 thou speakest lies in the name of the Lord." I will place one 
 passage side by side with that, to show how virtuously indig- 
 nant the Jews were when Moses, in whom they trusted, was 
 
assailed — even thougli tlie life of the offender were never so 
 pure. When Stephen was brought upon trial the witnesses 
 said, " We have heard him speak blasphemous words against 
 Moses." — Actsvi. 11. 
 
 Let us see how far these solemn words have exercised a 
 wholesome and salutary influence over his mind, as made 
 known to us in the production of his pen. 
 
 The first sixteen pages are introductory and contain very 
 little to the point, but rather a kind of " special pleading," and 
 deprecation of any uncharitable criticism, and severe ceasure, 
 and a profession of ardent love for the truth — such as is gene- 
 rally made by all parties — secularists and sceptics of all shades 
 — as well as those whose writings are tinged by some very 
 questionable views of scripture truth — with a repetrion of 
 much of the preface, and strong appeals to God as to the 
 purity of his motives, and a willingness to bear all that fide- 
 lity to convictions may entail upon him as a man, and espe- 
 cially in his official position as a bishop. 
 
 All this is natural and allowable, but when we know that 
 this is done by all parties there is not much gained by i1, ex- 
 cept some few pages for the printer — for men in these days 
 of rapid reading are anxious to crack the shell that they may 
 get at the kernel. There is an honest out-spoken intention to 
 look " facts in the face," and this is repeated three or four 
 times in the course of a few pages, and keeping this, as a kind 
 of motto, in view, I shall proceed at once to meet the Bishop 
 as well as the facts " face to face," and, what is more, scripture 
 witli scripture, so that some supplementary passages ma^ 
 elucidate a few things which have been buried beneath many 
 figures. There are some " old saws which I will meet witli 
 modern instances," culled during my travels in many lan(Js, 
 and tlirougli some years of practical observation. ' 
 
 I cannot accept this book as a sufficient guide, for the fol- 
 lowing among many other reasons : — 
 
 I. His figures are not facts. 
 
 II. His philosophy is fallacious. 
 
 III. His religion is rationalistic. 
 
 IV. His leadership of the modern crusade is loose and 
 irr(!gular. 
 
 V. I liave drunk the old wine, and desire not the new, for I 
 believe the old is better. 
 
I shall not take up these points seriatim, as it would involve 
 too much labour to cull out the different passages scattered 
 with reckless prodigality through the bishop's book, and resem- 
 bling " Joseph's coat of many colours " (if he ever had one) more 
 than the modern methodical way of dressing up a new work — 
 but shall allow them to tell their own tale in the web, warp, 
 and woof of this pamphlet. To the best of my belief I have 
 never seen the Bishop of Natal, nor any of the Zulu people, but 
 just at the present time it is important to know that there are 
 some brains in Africa, and that the untaught sables of that 
 much abused coimtry, must stand very well on a phrenological 
 chart — and measured by the doctor's most exact rules, and 
 weighed by the nicest scales, the African, in this instance, has 
 more than the educated Englishman. 
 
 The scholar in this case became wiser than liis teacher, and 
 the missionary was converted by the pagan. A melancholy 
 instance this of an old saying, " Evil communications corrupt 
 good manners." It was bad enough for William Jay to try 
 the experiment upon a pious parrot, by allowing it to asso- 
 ciate with a profane parrot, until the songs of the sanctuary 
 were replaced by the not very moral " songs of the ship," but 
 when such a metamorphosis takes place in a civilized and 
 educated man, we are almost inclined to reject the plea of the 
 African, "Am I not a man and a brother?" and look 
 upon him as an angel of darkness, or as another Balaam, 
 causing a bishop " to err from the right way." I submit 
 one of my " modern instances " by way of comparison. I 
 once travelled in company with a schoolmaster from Shec- 
 hem to Jerusalem, who was perplexed about our Lord's 
 words, " For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the 
 whale's belly, so shall the Son of Man be three days and three 
 nights in the heart of the earth," Matt. xii. 40. " How," ^ said 
 he, " can these things be ? for Christ was buried on Friday, 
 and rose again on Sunday." There seemed to be a good deal 
 of oriental obtuseness about this "enlightened native," for 
 when I told him that if he went to a hotel where they charged 
 so much by the day, he would have to pay for three whether 
 he stopped from Friday over Sunday night or not, he could 
 not see the force of the argument, although in a country where, 
 in counting time, the night is included in the day. If this 
 work had then been in my hands I might have settled the 
 
10 
 
 point at once by referring to the account of hoo evenings in 
 one day, as explained by the bishop in his account of the 
 offering of the evening sacrifice. I feel thankful, however, 
 that he did not drag me down into that darkness in which he 
 may now be stumbling, even in this day of arithmetical light, 
 for aught I know. The bishop, as will appear, was not so for- 
 tunate in his dealings with the " enlightened Zulu." 
 
 I beg leave to submit a problem to those who are able to 
 solve one. If one Zulu, in the simplicity of his mind, could 
 effect such a change, what might that one have done multiplied 
 by three, and those three designing and sophistical knaves ? 
 
 I am here forcibly reminded of the story of the Brahmin : — 
 
 PiLPAi's Fable. — A pious Brahmin made a vow that on a certain day he 
 would sacrifice a sheep, and on the appointed morning he went forth to buy- 
 one. There lived in his neighbourhood three rogues who knew of his vow, 
 and laid a scheme for profiting by it. The first met him and said, "Oh, 
 Brahmin, wilt thou buy a sheep ? I have one fit for sacrifice." " It is for 
 that very purpose," said the holy (.?) man, "that I came forth this day." 
 Then the impostor opened a bag, and brought out of it an unclean beast, an 
 ngly dog, lame and blind. Thereon the Brahmin cried out, " Wretch, 
 thou touchest things impure, and utterest things untrue. Callest thou 
 that cur a sheep?" " Truly," answered the other, "it is a sheep of the 
 finest fleece, and of the sweetest flesh. Oh, Brahmin, it will be an ofiering 
 most acceptable to the gods." "Friend," said the Brahmin, "either thou 
 or I must be blind." Just then one of the accomplices came up. " Praised 
 be the gods," cried this second rogue, " that I have been saved the trouble 
 of going to the market for a sheep ! This is such a sheep as I wanted ; for 
 how much wilt thou sell it ?" When the Brahmin heard this his mind 
 waved to and fro, like one swinging in the air at a holy festival. " Sir," 
 eaid he to the new comer, "take heed what thou dost; this is no sheep, but 
 an unclean cur." " Oh, Brahmin," said the new comer, " thou art drunk or 
 mad." At this time the third confederate drew near. " Let us ask this 
 man," said the Brahmin, "what the creature is, and I will stand by what 
 he shall say." To this the others agreed, and the Brahmin called out, " 
 stranger, what dost thou call this beast ?" " Surely, Brahmin," said 
 the knave, "it is a fine sheep." Then tlie Brahmin said, " Surely the gods 
 have taken away my senses," and he asked pardon of him who carried the 
 dog, and bought it for a measure of rice and a pot of ghee, and ofiered 
 it up to the gods, who, being wroth at this unclean sacrifice, smote him with 
 a sore disease in all his joints. 
 
 The story, as applicable to the present case, carries its own 
 moral ; and that it may be so applied will appear, I humbly 
 think, in the sequel. When in Africa, the bishop (no longer 
 a simple incumbent) found out a new canon of interpretation 
 for " Till I come give attendance to reading : Meditate upon 
 these things : Give tliyself wholly to them, that thy profiting 
 may appear to all," 1 Timothy iv. 13 — 15 ; and he could no 
 
11 
 
 longer neglect tlie study of the Pentateuch, and by implication 
 teaches us that only bishops in the modern, and not apostolic 
 and New Testament sense of the word, ought to give them- 
 selves to the study of Moses and the law. A very novel dis- 
 covery, indeed, when looked at in light of the Master's com- 
 mand to all, "Search the Scriptures." When he made this 
 discovery, the sudden awakening of conscience from a long 
 siesta, must have been as startling and vivid as the sensations 
 of drowning, when all the acts of a long lifetime pass in rapid 
 review, and the fearful Nemesis disturbed the disobedient 
 bishop (who couldn't wholly neglect the Pentateuch as a 
 clergyman, much less as a bishop) lashed him on to a hasty, 
 and mayhap a rash atonement, which, like a sorrow that 
 needeth to be repented of, will require to be atoned for. 
 
 The bishop, like the Brahmin, has offered the unclean, the 
 lame, and the blind for sacrifice, and many will feel inclined 
 to ask, in the solemn language of Scripture, "Who hath 
 
 REQUIRED THIS AT YOUR HANDS?" 
 
 The story of the deluge, and the sun and moon standing 
 still, as related by the bishop, will supply us with some ex- 
 amples of quick calculation. 
 
 One can hardly tell why a few lines only on the subject of 
 the deluge are vouchsafed, except it be to prejudice the mind 
 in favour of the startling statements about to follow — and 
 why Lyell alone should be quoted when other authorities 
 have pronounced in favour of the harmony between Scripture 
 and geology. (See Hitchcock's " Scripture and Geology)." 
 
 The same remarks apply to Joshua's miracle, when the 
 sun and moon stood still in Gibeon and the valley of 
 Ajalon, as recorded in Jos. x., 12. To his flippant remarks 
 on this passage I offer a brief reply, and the reader will bear 
 with me if I use his own weapons. I suppose the earth re- 
 volves in one direction, and I k7ww that the wind veers round, 
 and does not always come from the same point, — and yet 
 notwithstanding the immense velocity of the earth, and the 
 very high wind wliich must come sometimes from an opposite 
 direction, most quiet people manage to keep their equilibrium, 
 and retain their beavers and bonnets, but as the objector is so 
 very fast in his calculations, and rapid in his advancing move- 
 ments, he naturally objects to the whole narrative, as, should 
 such an event happen again, he would have a poor chance of 
 
12 
 
 standing erect on " terra firma," and would indeed be among the 
 first to fall. I might also reply that He who controls gravity 
 can manage his own affairs. 
 
 But the secret of much of the Bishop's positivism is at 
 once disclosed when he tells us that he has not only a Zulu 
 teacher, but has called to his aid " German schoolmasters," and 
 shows a decided preference for the mist of the fatherland, 
 while nothing that Cook can prepare in his motherland will 
 satisfy his mental appetite, and he has a decided objection 
 to the fog w^hich hangs over one of her " Pools." Indeed, most 
 English commentators and scholars, with the exception of Dr. 
 Davidson, are treated by him in rather a cavalier Avay, while 
 the living ministry are regarded as incompetent or afraid to 
 unsettle the basis of their belief by facing the difficulties of 
 the Pentateuch. But they may console themselves w^ith the 
 reflection, that his love for the Germans is easily quenched 
 when they cross his purpose. 
 
 Now it is a noteworthy fact, that while the German Geolo- 
 gists have been beaten on their own chosen ground, and a re- 
 action has set in in favour of evangelical religion, Englishmen 
 — so belauded for their common sense, and withal so practical 
 — should be content to wear for a time the " O'clo' " of their 
 phlegmatic neighbours, or the still more threadbare garments 
 which liave been imported of late from more Eastern climes. 
 It may be as well, perhaps, for me to inform you that I have 
 no objection to German writing ^cr se, only to its misty mani- 
 festations, and profound smoke. Clear away all that smoke, 
 and we shall have as mucli reason to rejoice as any foreigner 
 who ever came to our own London in a fog — and was fogged 
 uj) in a garret, or down in a cellar for days — when he saw that 
 glorious Phoebus was shining in his glittering car, and fair 
 weather liad come out of the North. 
 
 I hold to free trade — in feeling as in fabric, in mind as in 
 material — and believe that a look into the mental display of 
 the Zollverein will please some, and profit many, as much as 
 tliose now remembered looks we took at the beautiful display 
 in the west end of the Exliiljition building. Erom Germany 
 we received tlie Peformation, and the men and works which 
 the world will not willingly let die; as also the garish garbs of 
 the Strauss school which are temptingly offered to the young, 
 free, and ardent. But in going to the mental market to buy, 
 
13 
 
 let us remember that it is not all gold tliat glitters, and that 
 there is some " Brummagem ware " passed off as genuine upon 
 the simple who sometimes seek after the truth. Some " ask for 
 bread, and receive only a stone," from those who profess to 
 feed them. 
 
 An antiquarian society, whose fundamental law should 
 bind its members to gather up the cast-off garments of the 
 high priests of scepticism, might render immense service to 
 the world in its next great fair. I venture to offer a small 
 contribution to be preserved in its archives. In my pere- 
 grinations the other day I saw a book on the Pentateuch, a 
 production of the New World, containing many sober and some 
 senseless things (Boston, 1838). It had evidently fallen into 
 the hands of some one learned in the law of Hermeneutics. 
 Here are a few choice flowers of rhetoric culled from the 
 borders (only pencil sketches). For the sake of brevity I shall 
 only quote enough from the Boston author to indicate what 
 part of the Pentateuch he refers to, and shall enclose the mar- 
 ginal notes of his Commentator in inverted commas, and my 
 object is to show that the Bishop's objections are not so novel as 
 some suppose : — On attributing the books to Moses — "Dodges 
 the question." The Samaritans — " Moses' is the later reli- 
 gion." Time of Ezra and The Books of Moses. — " Manufac- 
 tured then." From the earliest period the Jews had the 
 doctrine of one God. — " Nonsense." Admit the truth of the 
 Mosaic history, and all is clear ; deny it and the most extra- 
 ordinary and perplexing problem in all history is presented — 
 " Not at all." The reading of the law by Ezra. — " This is 
 in favour of its being written after the captivity." Tabernacle 
 — "Fabulous;" — "Cabala like"— "So Temple." I am at 
 a loss to point to any principle in human nature which will 
 help us to account for such a composition, (5 B Moses) pro- 
 ceeding from any other than one so situated as Moses is 
 related to have been — "I am not; true to this day, for the 
 desert never changes.'' We cannot question God's right to 
 withhold, &c. — "No?" — "All taken for granted." On a re- 
 velation from God — " And can the Jews prove they had one? ' 
 " No need of a revelation. Why ? Because man has every- 
 thing in himself" Moses smites the Nile — "What a fiction ! 
 fancy it." Ye shall not go very far — " How could they ? — 80 
 miles" The mortality of the firstborn — "Nonsense!" 270 
 
14 
 
 per diem with a population of 5,000,000 !" Slavery a sin — 
 " Why ? " 72 (Jacob's family, 70) mystic number. " Suppose 
 the population to have doubled once in 25 years, as in 
 the United States, (independently of immigration) 430 to the 
 EX would have raised it, not to 3,000,000 only, but to more 
 than ten. — " Stuff! " " A perfect absurdity, history and sta- 
 tistics." God inflicted leprosy on Miriam — " God is said." 
 Jewish system — "All Levitical, priestcraft." Plan approved 
 by God, "i.e., Moses lied." Marah — "The name gave origin 
 to the Myth." JNIanna, two kinds — " Delirious, confound both.'" 
 Keep, " Why not ? a miracle presents no difficulty." Twelve 
 tribes — " Signs of the zodiac." Attribute the writings to 
 ]\Ioses, and all is natural — " Oh no, several." Who would 
 thmk of writing it in a later age? — "Priestcraft would." 
 Aaron — golden calf — "Skulking." "Who but a calf would 
 credit it?" Ephraim and Manasseh. " "V\Tiat is the cabala of 
 these numbers ? " Jacob's family — " What nonsense when 
 viewed as history." The breach of Moses and Aaron — " He 
 actually takes it all as history." Balak — "AVliy not grant 
 him too the miraculous power among those blackguard out- 
 casts from Egypt ?" The marches of the Jews — " Just as if it 
 were all history." 
 
 And these are only a few samples of choice selections from 
 an unpublished scribe of the present age, put in perhaps to 
 make an unsaleable book realize a little higher pecuniary con- 
 sideration. I can supply more from the second volume, and 
 will promise to spread them over a page or two should they 
 be called for. I have put before you the free comments of a 
 man wlio never expected them to see the light in the form in 
 which they are now presented to the world. ]5ut those who 
 appear before the pul)lic in the more formal garb of an 
 author, and in tlie first impression of " my publisher," have 
 to refine a little, put a guard upon their pen, and draw their 
 language a little more mild, as we have not gone back to the 
 barbarism of the last century. There is too much, however, as it 
 is, that is common between the " publislied " and unpublished 
 pensee of scepticism. But happily tlie time when bold blas- 
 pliemy raved at revelation has passed away, we hope, for ever. I 
 think I am warranted in saying, with the above samples before 
 us, and without giving instances of a similar kind from more 
 ancient authorities, from Celsus down to our own day, that 
 
15 
 
 niucli of the merit of novelty is taken away from the Bishop. 
 
 And if any of my West-end young friends want to make a 
 sensation, without having any mental capital to begin with, let 
 them go to some book- worm, and I promise them they can 
 "come out" in the sceptical world without paying such a 
 high rate of interest as some of our friends we wot of pay, 
 who apply for money on the " usual terms," to Moshes & Co. 
 But I warn my " young friend " that some of the " knowing 
 ones " will say his coat is made of shoddy, his hat is off an 
 old block, and he is standing in other men's shoes. Look 
 you well to your head, your heart, and your feet. Keep the 
 one clear, the other warm, and have firm ground for your 
 understandings, as " there is nothing new under the sun." 
 
 In answer to the question, Who wi'ote the Pentateuch ? we 
 have another example of quick calculation. And on no subject 
 is the author more positive than this — that Moses did not 
 write it — and the old worn-out objection, how could a man 
 write an account of his own death, is brought out vnth. all 
 the novelty of a grand discovery — Eureka ! 
 
 I reply that the internal evidence is sufficient to prove that 
 Moses wrote the books which go by his name — and the follow- 
 ing passages are adduced in proof thereof : " And Moses 
 wrote al] the words of the Lord. . . . And he took the book 
 of the covenant and read in the audience of the people." Ex. 
 xxiv. 4 — 7. " And the Lord said unto Moses, write thou 
 these words : for after the tenor of these words I have made 
 a covenant with thee and with ' Israel.'" (Ex. xxxiv., 27). 
 "And Moses wi'ote this law and delivered it unto the priests, 
 the sons of Levi," (Deut. xxxi., 9 — 4) And I suppose he, 
 wrote the sublime song recorded in the end of the book 
 if we are to believe verse 22 : " Moses therefore wrote 
 this song the same day and taught it to the children of 
 Israel." Ample proof is provided in these Scriptures to show 
 that the Bishop's objection falls to the ground; and the 
 exter7ial evidence is as conclusive against him. As I shall 
 take up these two points of evidence more at large when I 
 come to look at the moral bearings of the whole question, I 
 shall content myself by answering now in the following way : 
 Moses did not write the last chapter of Deuteronomy, there- 
 fore Moses did not write the Pentateuch. Very good, — and 
 now for the logical sequence. 
 
 A large portion of the Bishop's book was written by many 
 
16 
 
 other authors — and yet no one would say the Doctor was dis- 
 honest, when he called it " Colenso on the Pentateuch," ex- 
 cept he had been trained in this new method of reasoning. 
 Practical Enojlishmen will deal with such reasoning as a hiiih 
 
 . o o 
 
 authority recommends sensible people to treat physic, " throw 
 it to the dogs ; " and it may be that some future Oriental scholar 
 w^ll attempt to prove, by his own logic, thatDr. Colenso, Gibbon, 
 Hume, Macaulay, and others, never wrote the books ascribed 
 to them, because events which took place subsequent to their 
 death have been added by later editors. 
 
 It should be borne in mind that in the short space of two 
 years the bishop discovered, among many other things, that 
 the Exodus, as recorded by Moses, is a myth ; and, contrary to 
 his ordination vows, he rejects the canonical authority of the 
 Pentateuch ; for on the subject of its inspiration, he rejoices 
 that he has escaped from slavery, and that the cord has 
 been snapt altogether. "Our examination has forced on 
 lis the conviction, by reason of the utter impossibilities 
 and absurdities contained in it, that the story of the Exodus 
 is a fiction." It is thus seen that the moving of men — 
 as the moving of the waters of the deluge — has the same 
 effect upon him. He cannot believe in tlie historical veracity 
 of the deluge or the Exodus. If you are perplexed, and ask 
 the question. What is authentic history? hear the bishop. 
 " The story of the Exodus, &c., though based, probably, on 
 some really historical foundation, is certainly not to be 
 regarded as historically true," and yet he has just told us that 
 the " cords are snapt altogether " — why break loose altogether, 
 if there is the least anchorage, and be driven out to sea in a 
 storm ? For my part, I should not like to sail under such a 
 captain, as I fear we should soon be cast upon a lee shore. 
 
 We next come to a very handsome piece of fine " Broad 
 Church " altar cloth — or a memorial stained glass window — 
 giving " a dim religious light." The P>ishop's belief in God is 
 un([U(^stionable, and clearly testified — "God Is" — and is, though 
 the Tjilde be not. ITndoubtedly — amen ! say E. W. Emerson 
 and Tlu'o. Parker. But the religious life of England looks for 
 and is nourished by an objective revelation. The " unwritten " 
 inward testimony is there too, that is, the " inner light," of 
 which others boast so much, and unites with the Bible in 
 making the strong, active, and progressive Christian men of 
 
17 
 
 the present day ; and to those who accuse us of a slavish 
 cleaving to the mere "letter," to the neglect of the "subjective 
 experience," we say, "the Spirit giveth life." "Where the 
 Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty." " The Spirit Himself 
 beareth witness with our spirit." 
 
 Ha,ving virtually avowed that we might do as well without 
 the Bible as with it, we find the bold innovator, startled by the 
 prospect before him, as though he saw a number of innocents 
 slaughtered by the shafts from his quiver, and he hastens to 
 assure them, that though their prejudices may be shocked at 
 first, they will soon get rid of their fear for the safety of the 
 Ark. " I have arrived at the conclusion — as painful to myself 
 at first as it may be to my readers, though painful noAv 
 no longer under the clear shining of the light of truth" 
 (p. 7). Those words were before him then, " Take heed that ye 
 offend not one of these little ones." 
 
 " 'No wise man will offend the weak in that which pertains 
 to their faith," are words we do well to remember ; but while 
 the "letter" seems to have been before the eye, the spirit ap- 
 pears to me to have been absent, and in his anxiety to spare 
 the feelings of the devout, he has evidently forgotten the 
 distinction between "milk and strong meat." Is this the way 
 in which prudence and providence have approached the 
 babes ? "I felt that I dare not as a servant of the God of 
 truth urge my brother man to believe that which I did not 
 myself believe, which I kneiv to be untrue as a matter-of-fact 
 historical narrative." I think the " little ones " will be 
 offended by that, and become "weaker," unless he recalk 
 his " assent and consent," and resigns his place in the Church. 
 
 But the verdict of Dr. Lushington, in the Court of Arches, 
 has opened a door of hope for oppressed and burdened 
 consciences, and the Bishop of Natal has availed himself of 
 the relief afforded, and although he has " dared the venturous 
 deed," he seems to discover that there is written over that 
 door the mystic words, "Abandon hope all ye who enter 
 here," as he is afraid to consecrate a man who believes as 
 much as he does. The Pharos which has lighted him into 
 his present snug harbour, may have even a royal name out- 
 side, but the one name conscience, which alone in such cases 
 can give security, is inscribed in deeper and more intielible 
 lines, and, if I am not mistaken, sways its sceptre still, and pro- 
 
 B 
 
18 
 
 claims itself within as tlie " Higher Law." Else why those fer- 
 vent and fervid appeals to the laity — that wail over the few 
 candidates for holy orders — and that hesitancy to receive and 
 ordain the man whose faith he had made his own, and whom 
 he was following in the most eventful and momentous step 
 of his whole life ? There is a story told in one of the books 
 reviewed by the bishop (Joshua) of a certain Jephtha who 
 took a rash vow, and lost thereby the lamb that had been 
 nourished in his bosom. Wliether he would regard it as a 
 myth or true history, the same thing is happening among us, 
 and thousands who have vowed to do great things for them- 
 selves or others have had to bite the dust, while their peace, 
 which once flowed as a river, has been disturbed and de- 
 stroyed by the waters of strife. A prophetic high priest of the 
 last century said " I will crush the wretch." It was a rash 
 vow, and the man who purposes to supersede the Pentateuch 
 reckons without his host, and will fail as signally as others. 
 The object of this section has been to remove some of the out- 
 posts and skirmishing parties, that I might advance to the 
 bishop's main positions unimpeded ; and also to prove that 
 with all his mathematical precision he has not calmly looked 
 at the bearing of the Bible testimony to Moses ; and finally, 
 tliat while as a bishop, he remembered the apostle's command, 
 " Lay hands suddenly on no man," and was careful not to 
 commit himself by ordaining the Zulu, he has not been so 
 cautious in laying hands on figures, but has marshalled as 
 many as possible, and sent them into the world, for weal or for 
 woe, without, I fear, duly calculating the cost. 
 
 PAET IT. 
 
 MULTIPLICATION A VEXATION. 
 
 Before we go down into Egypt, wliither the writer seems to 
 have gone with all liaste, and taken the family and flock of 
 Jacob, with a facility which would do credit to a Scotchman 
 in coming over the Border; I will supplement his deficiency 
 by a little, as I suppose, authentic history. Abram was sent 
 out of Egypt with flocks, herds and servants, Gen. xii. 1(>, 
 
19 
 
 and wlien lie (Abram) called his liouseliold together in order 
 to pursue the northern kings we find that he could muster 
 three hundred and eighteen men capable of bearing arms. 
 He was then a sheikh of some power and distinction, Gen. 
 xiv. 14. Another case of some importance is supplied in the 
 xxvi. chapter and 15th verse. When the nomad Isaac had 
 a dispute with Abimelech, the king was anxious to make 
 a covenant touching territory and the wells, because Isaac 
 had grown' great — " Go from us (to Gerar) for thou art much 
 mightier than we." " Swear to us that thou wilt do us no 
 hurt :" and he swore to him at Beersheba. 
 
 When Jacob met Esau on the east side of Jordan, he 
 became alarmed, and divided his retainers and goods into 
 two bands ; and gratefully acknowledging the great increase 
 with which God had blessed him, saying, "With this staff, 
 that is in my hand, I passed over this Jordan, and noiu I 
 am become two bands," while Esau brought with him four 
 hundred men. After this interview, prosperity attends the 
 patriarch for many years, during which time his children's 
 children are born, and then the fearful famine drives him 
 down into Egypt. It is evident that much depends upon 
 a correct view of the number who went down with him, and 
 the time of their sojourn. The usage of the East, in ever}^ 
 day language and life, has not materially changed, and in 
 one respect we resemble those people, for when a family 
 of distinction returns to town all their names appear in the 
 " Court Journal," (answering to the geneological tables,) and 
 it often happens that the servants, whose names are not 
 entered, are more in number than the parents and children, (in 
 fact, sixty for a complete household,) and it is well known that 
 in India, one man may often have at least ten personal domestic 
 attendants. Now in Gen. xv. 2, xxiv. 2, we get an occasional 
 glimpse into the domestic life of the Patriarch, and find that 
 Eliezer was the tried and trusty (eldest) servant of Abram. 
 We might not have known that but for some special service 
 rendered to his master's son. In Chap, xvi., Hagar, the hand- 
 maid of Sarah, in Hke manner has her name brought before 
 us, because of the peculiar relation she stood in as the 
 mother of the wild man IshmaeL Moreover, Abram was 
 commanded to circumcise all the males born (sons, ser- 
 vants, and slaves) in his house, and surely there must have 
 
20 
 
 been other handmaids than Hagar, who became the wives 
 of some at least of the three hundred and eighteen men — un- 
 less an ancient Dr. Malthus alarmed them by his frightful 
 facts and figures on the evils of an increase in the popidation; 
 and it is implied, in Gen. xv. 2 — 3, that Eliezer, of Damascus, 
 had one son at least — "and one born in my house is mine heir." 
 
 Again, in Jacob's household there are only two handmaids 
 mentioned — Bilhah and Zilpah (Gens, xxx.) — and nothing 
 whatever is said of the men who had charge of the tv:o hands. 
 But there must have been some, for as yet his sons were too 
 young and tender to look after them. 
 
 The natural inference I draw from all this is that only the 
 immediate descendants of the Patriarch Jacob are mentioned 
 in Gen. xlvi. ; but further, that he was not so unfeeling and 
 so umiatural as to leave his servants behind him to die of 
 famine ; and they must have swelled the number very largely. 
 
 Here we cross the path of chronology at a very important 
 point in our inquiry, for we are to examine the trunk of the 
 chronological tree, and see whether the branches are natural 
 or grafted on by designing men ; and the question, how many 
 went down in all, becomes a very vital one, especially when 
 coupled with the other. How long did they sojourn in a strange 
 land ? How are we to decide it ? All parties are driven to the 
 Scriptures as affording the only key to imlock the mystery. 
 In prosecuting this inquiry I shall be mindful of the canon, 
 that one doubtful passage must give place to the many which 
 are clear and explicit, and that the doubtful ones may have 
 some light cast upon them by a fair exegesis, and a care- 
 ful attention to the usus loquendi. I shall waive for the 
 present the clear statements made in Exodus as to the rapid 
 increase of the Israelites. How, then, are we to account for 
 that increase? Can we approximate to anything like that 
 niunber (2,000,000) by the natural course of events without 
 resorting to some special and Divine disposing causes ? With 
 the limited knowledge we have of those times we cannot 
 dogmatise, and I only venture to offer a few hints towards 
 a solution. At tlie time they went to Egypt I shall assume 
 that they were all well received by Joseph, and by Pharoah 
 for his sake. 
 
 Joseph has married a person of distinction, a native princess, 
 and his great-grandfather, Abraham, had an Egyptian concu- 
 
21 
 
 bine, Hagar. Moses married a Midianitess ; and in after days 
 the property of a family was saved by the marriage of a 
 daughter with an Egyptian proselyte (2 Chron. ii., 3, 4). These 
 were the circumstances in which they were brought up in Canaan, 
 and in Egypt. We discover no law against this even among the 
 sons of Jacob, for one of them married a Canaanitish woman ; 
 and only a repugnance to it on account of the bad issue in the 
 case of Esau. The example and favour of Joseph, however, would 
 naturally lead men to follow in his footsteps — at least so we 
 think and act when an advantageous offer presents itself in 
 the case of a rich foreign heiress — and unless the Egyptian 
 ladies were more particular than our own, who show a decided 
 preference for a foreign gentleman of good, or even indifferent 
 prospects, there is some a 'priori ground to believe that the 
 two peoples intermarried during the times of peace and friend- 
 ship, — at least that the men, who loved the brunette, would 
 seek spouses from their swarthy neighbours. Long after this, 
 when they had been trodden down as the mire of the street, 
 " a mixed multitude followed them into the wilderness," thus 
 showing their sympathy with them ; and the women spoiled 
 themselves of their jewels, so that their sister sex, though of 
 another race, might appear well in the wilderness at a religious 
 festival. The slightest knowledge of female human nature will 
 teach us how very probable and feminine such a friendly act 
 appears. This weakness for display — if you will call it so — is 
 closely allied to that kindness which prompts the fair to lend 
 their jewels, &c., upon such occasions as parties, balls, &c. 
 As I do not intend to reveal the secrets of high and imitative 
 high life, I shall proceed at once with my argument. 
 
 The common practice of polygamy, and the absence of any 
 law, at that time, forbidding them to marry strangers would 
 operate in favour of a rapid increase, and that they married 
 Egyptians is put beyond a doubt by the following and other 
 passages of Scripture : — "And the son of an Israebtish woman, 
 whose father was an Egyptian, went out among the children 
 of Israel, &c. — Lev. xxiv., 10, and in Deut. xxiii., 8, there is an 
 express law relating to mixed marriages — " The children 
 which are begotten of them shall enter into the congregation 
 of the Lord in their third generation." With these facts before 
 us we are now prepared to examine the question whetlier the 
 bishop is right in concluding that only seventy went down to 
 
22 
 
 Egypt, and that their descendants come out again in 215 
 years. This is such a vital point, that I wish to put it in a 
 clear light. Archimedes is reported to have said, " Give me a 
 fulcrum, and I will move the world." Dr. Colenso thinks he 
 has found a fulcrum in figures, and is resolved to move the 
 Pentateuch out of its present position in the canon of sacred 
 Scriptures. Grant him his premises, and he can do it — for 
 seventy souls increasing at 23 per cent, in ten years during 
 only 215 years would not exceed 5,000. This is the key ^of 
 the position — the Malakoff — and for it we will do battle with 
 all the fair and manly moral courage which distinguishes 
 British warfare. Chronology is the mooring to our ship in 
 this storm, and we feel thankful for the tables which have 
 been preserved. 
 
 Having examined into the previous habits of this house- 
 hold, and given a view drawn from a wide range before, during, 
 and subsequent to their life in Egypt, I think the following 
 estimate of those who went down to Eg}^t to form the basis of 
 a mighty people will not be deemed extravagant. 
 
 There are seventy souls mentioned in the text, consisting of 
 fathers, sons, daughters, and Tamar (servants not included). 
 It is noteworthy that all who died were mentioned by name 
 (Eachel and Onan, Leah, &c.) Hence I infer the rest were 
 alive, though the Bishop concludes they were dead. Adding 
 Zilpah, and Bilhah, and the twelve wives of the patriarchs, 
 wonld make the number of the household eighty-four, — what 
 would be a fair proportion of servants and their families, 
 judging from what is recorded of the habits of Abraham, 
 Jacob and Esau? Looking at the fact, that the flocks and 
 herds of Jacob extended from Hebron as far north as Shechem, 
 and at the close and intimate connexion between the master 
 and servant, I think w^e might safely say that there were at 
 least three servants of all grades to each of the souls that came 
 out of the loins of Jacob, and that would swell the number to 
 252, to be still further increased by allowing that half were 
 married, and that on an average each married servant had a 
 child, you will then have in round numbers say 462. Not an 
 extravagant calculation, when we remember how many able- 
 bodied men Alu'aham, &c., had as a retinue ; and it must always 
 be borne in mind that the Doctor is very liberal in his calcu- 
 lations, always making the strong men represent four. 
 
23 
 
 Moreover, tlie domestic and religious arrangements of this 
 family were such that all born in the house, or bought with 
 the money, were circumcised and formed part of the tribe to 
 all intents and purposes. Had not the men of Shechem 
 joined them on their own terms? and if treachery had not 
 crept in, they would have fused and been as one people, as 
 the Gibeonites did subsequently. Starting with the 462, and 
 taking 430 years as the time of the sojourn, and assuming 
 that the population increased at 25 per cent, every ten years, 
 and it can be shown that there would have been about 
 6,000,000. The history of the Edomites, and their increase 
 and power, will help us somewhat here. How did they 
 grow in the interval of separation ? Esau was the father 
 of the Edomites, and this is the blessing wherewith Isaac 
 blessed him when he lost his birthright, " Behold, thy 
 dwelling shall be the fatness of the earth, and of the dew 
 of heaven from above" (Gens, xxvii. 39). When Esau 
 and Jacob parted on friendly terms, as recorded in xxxvi. 8, 
 " Thus dwelt Esau in Mount Seir : Esau is Edom." Ages after 
 this, Moses recognised the relationship between their descend- 
 ants, when he sent messengers from Kadesh to the King of 
 Edom with this message, "Thus saith thy brother Israel, 
 ' Thou knowest all the travail that hath befallen us ; how our 
 fathers went down (Num. xx.) into Egypt ; and we have dwelt 
 in Egypt a long time, &c.' Let us pass, I pray thee, through 
 thy country ; we will not pass through the fields, or through the 
 vineyards, neither will we drink of the water of the wells ; we 
 will go by the king's highway. . . . And he said thou shalt 
 not go through : and Edom came out against him with micch 
 people, and with a st^vng hand." It is evident from this that 
 the family of Esau had become strong, numerous, and wealthy. 
 Why should the descendants of Jacob, who had the greater 
 blessing, be less prospered in the fruit of their body at least. 
 Yet the Bishop says they were not 5,000 in all? Hear some 
 testimony about Edom. Volney speaks of the once pros- 
 perous condition of Idumea, and that the natural and nearest 
 passage from the Bed Sea to Judea was through Edom. 
 Job was one of its princes, and at one time possessed 14,000 
 sheep, 6,000 camels, 1,000 yoke of oxen, &c. ; and whatever 
 be the date assigned to his residence in the land of Uz, 
 the book contains the most conclusive proofs of prosperity 
 
24 
 
 and artistic progress, — that the weaver plied his shuttle, 
 and the sculptor left the impress of his chisel on the rock. 
 E^ddence which confirms the Scriptural account of the im- 
 portance of the rock city may be gathered from the writings 
 of Virgil, Lucan, Pliny, Strabo, Ptolemy, Diodorus Siculus,. 
 Josephus, &c., while modern historians and travellers have 
 stood amazed at the revelations of the rocks, temples, tombs, 
 palaces, theatres, &c. Lying beneath the curse, and doomed 
 to perpetual desolation, it was concealed for ages, and appa^- 
 rently sealed up effectually from the curiosity of the Saxon, 
 The withering curse under which it has languished and died 
 was long supposed to extend literally to the man who should 
 pass the forbidden bounds, and go through Edom; and the 
 boldest men have experienced a mysterious awe as the ques- 
 tion has been debated. Shall we break the seal, or turn away 
 from the awful mystery? 
 
 It has now become apparent that the language of Scripture, 
 in this, as in many other instances, must be used with certain 
 limitations, and this should be borne in mind. 
 
 If Mount Seir was to be a desolation, &c., one purpose to 
 be served thereby would be that of luarning. " These things 
 happened unto them for ensamples," and if no man ever went 
 through, how would the nations know, that they might 
 remember? Their example was lost to the West until lately, 
 for Burkhardt ^vas the first Frank who for ages had burst the 
 barriers which fear and Arab jealousy had imposed, and, 
 dressed in the costume of the country, he penetrated the 
 narrow defile from the east; and passing between rocks rising 
 from 400 to 700 feet high, and extending for two miles along 
 the Wady ^lousa to the opening in the city, he stood in sub- 
 lime solitude, and awful and mysterious silence, before the 
 splendid monuments of dim and misty ages. 
 
 After seeing all he could he writes, "In many places it 
 (Petra) is overgrown with wild herbs, and nmst once have 
 been thickly inhabited, for the traces of many towns and 
 villages are met with on both sides of the Hadj road. At 
 present all this country is a desert." The same uniform testi- 
 mony is borne by Ca})tains Irby and Mangles, Laborbe, Stephens, 
 l^r. Piobinson, and all who have turned aside from the beaten 
 track to see this great sight. 
 
 It seems to photograph itself upon the minds of all who 
 
25 
 
 look upon it, and amid the crowded incidents of commercial 
 life never loses the freshness of its first impression. The 
 blending of many styles of architecture in the narrow limits 
 imposed by Nature on the city would point to distinct periods 
 in its artistic and civil life. Names, characters, and traditions 
 carry the mind back to the days of the Pharoahs, and monu- 
 ments on the Hadj road show that Egyptian artists wrought 
 upon the rocks in the solitary desert. The graceful Corinthian 
 colmnn, and the names found on the tombs, lead us to 
 trace tlie effects of Alexander's conquests in the East, while 
 Eoman remains, posterior to Trajan and Adrian, tell of the 
 tenacity with which the mistress of the seven hills nourished 
 her most distant dependencies. Long after Josephus describes 
 the fierce men of Idumea, wlio were called to the defence of 
 Jerusalem, a Koman governor is found at Petra, and his name 
 is traced upon one of the tombs which have been brought to 
 light. It is evident, then, that Edom must have been fertile, 
 for traces are here and there found even now of rich grain and 
 luscious fruit. The vine, tamarisk, fig, oleander, acasia, caper, 
 &c., flourish under the shadow of the rocks, and upon the few 
 cultivated terraces, making an ample return for small toil, when 
 the robber is for the nonce honest, and the locust does not de- 
 vour. The Edomites appear to have been on friendly terms 
 with the Egyptians from an early period; and in the days of 
 David, Hadad, the king, fled from the face of Joab, and went to 
 Pharoah, who made royal provision for him, and wdien he was 
 married to an Egyptian princess, the daughter of Pharoah 
 wished him to remain in the land. But he broke through all 
 restraint, and returned to Mount Seir (1 Kings xi.), so highly 
 did he value it. 
 
 The Ishmaelites and Midianites were friendly neighbours to 
 Edom, and Closes, as he fed Jethro's flocks, must have known 
 the power of its dukes; yet when he is celebrating the won- 
 drous power of God in his song of deliverance, he anticipates 
 great things when he sings, "The dukes of Edom shall be 
 amazed." In Gen. xxxvi. and 1 Chron. i. we are told some- 
 thing about the kings and dukes of Edom. We obtain an 
 insight into the early dukedoms, and then, long before there 
 were any kings in Israel, eight reigned in successio7i in Edom — 
 Bela, Jobat, Hushan, Hadad, Samlah, Shaul, Baalhanan, and 
 Hadar. Eleven dukes succeed the kings, and they in their turn 
 
26 
 
 are succeeded by kings who reigned cotemporaiy with the kings 
 of Judah and Israel, and were more or less subject to them 
 until the final revolt under Joram, when they secured their 
 independence, and finally drew off the Israelites to the worship 
 of their gods in the days of Jehoash. At one time there was 
 no king in Edom, a deputy was king, and garrisons were put 
 by David in their cities; "every male was cut off," and this 
 affords us another instance of the license of language, which 
 compels us to the conclusion that the men who opposed simply 
 were put to the sword, just as it happens in a modern army, 
 when no quarters are given to the besieged. Yet all about 
 Saul, David, and Edom is questioned by the Bishop. 
 
 2 Kings iii. contains a graphic description of the route 
 through Edom to Moab, when Elisha brought forth water by 
 miracle, and saved the army and flocks. 
 
 From the time when Saul the first king in Israel smote 
 them, until they were smitten by Titus, when Simon com- 
 manded them at Jerusalem, and they fell a prey and lost 
 their sceptre as Judah did, and became what Balaam and 
 truer prophets than Balaam said they would, their history, 
 running coeval with that of the descendants of Jacob, shows 
 that to both were granted a prolific increase and a remarkable 
 destiny. 
 
 I return now to the descendants of Jacob. 
 
 The statistics showing the growth of modern populations 
 would make one open liis eyes in absolute amazement, as 
 Eip Van Winkle did when he saw his native village after a 
 few years slumber; and the most sceptical must hold his 
 peace if he would save his credit for common sense. We are 
 increasing at the rate of 23 per cent, in ten years, and the 
 United States of America, as I shall presently show, and it is 
 easy of explanation, exceed that. For the purpose of setting 
 forth the possible growth of Israel witli as few figures as will 
 suffice for clearness, and which may soon be worked out when 
 the key is given, I follow the Doctor, and strike the mean 
 as near as I can conveniently between 23 per cent, in 
 England, and 28 among the slaves in the Southern States of 
 America ; and it will be seen in the following calculation that 
 this is a fair way of dealing with the subject, and then there 
 may have been about 6,000,000, as any one can prove by 
 working the above figures, 4G2 at 25 per cent., 10 years, for 
 430 years. 
 
27 
 
 I come now to the question, How long did they sojourn ? 
 I have shown what Esau did, and the time must have been 
 longer than 215 years. Joseph was 110 when he died, and he 
 saw three generations (Gen. 1.) Up to the time of his 
 death there is no intimation that the Israehtes suffered much, 
 but we have every reason to suppose that the oppression in 
 its strict sense did not commence for some time after, when 
 another king arose who knew not Joseph ; perhaps Cheops. 
 
 The passages in (Gen. xvi. 13, 16.) They shall afflict 
 them 400 years, and in the fourth generation they shall come 
 hither again, (Ex. xii. 40.) "Now the sojourning of the 
 children of Israel who dwelt in Egypt was 430 years," &c., 
 (Acts vii., 6.) Stephen says : " And God spake on this wise, 
 that his seed should sojourn in a strange land, and that 
 they should hring them into bondage and entreat them evil 
 400 years" (Gal. 3, xvi., xvii.) Now to Abraham and his 
 seed was the promise made . . the law which was 430 years 
 after, &c. King, in his Chronology of Sacred History 
 (Houlston and Wright), a work which I heartily recommend to 
 every Bibhcal student, has some judicious remarks on these 
 passages, p. 5. "The passage on Exodus speaks of the children 
 of Israel" (not of Abraham), and again, (Gal. iii. 17) may 
 signify 430 years after the entrance of Jacob into Egypt. 
 Indeed, as to Abraham, this passage refers to the promises 
 made to him and "confirmed to his seed." My own impression is 
 that Paul refers to the time when the promise was last reneiued 
 to Jacob at Beersheba, and there is something suggestive in 
 the fact that it ceased after his day. Why then if it was not 
 intended to mark a distinct period or epoch? Upon this 
 data I am prepared to prove the rapid increase. Eacts 
 are stubborn things, and America is a great fact. We 
 find that the United States population has increased at a 
 starthng rate, doubling every 23 years from about 3,000,000 
 to 31,000,000 in 85 years. I will not avail myself of the 
 license which these facts and figures afford me upon the 
 Bishop's theory and philosophy; arguing from the known 
 to the unknown, but will take the cases which are analogous, 
 at least, as near so as any we can find. The condition of 
 Israel in Eg}^t was as much like the slaves in the Southern 
 States as you could find any two people in this respect (I 
 speak in general terms) for some years, say 40, none were 
 
28 
 
 added to either by immigration. Wliat are the facts brought 
 to light by the last official census of the United States ? 
 Taking the mean, I assert that they double in 25 years. 
 The increase among the slaves in the Southern States of 
 America has been going on ever since the slave trade was 
 abolished in 1808, upon the principles of geometrical pro- 
 gression, and under circumstances very much resembling the 
 condition of Israel in Egypt, At the time when Moses was 
 born, the people had increased so as to alarm the Pharoah. 
 as recorded in Ex. i. 9. " They are more and mightier than we." 
 Now, making all allowance for the excited imagination of 
 the monarch and his myrmidons, granted they wanted to get 
 up a sensation panic ; and then a considerable margin must 
 be allowed for the existence of a disturbing thought at the 
 number actually existing among them, who might join an 
 invading army, and turn the tide of battle against their op- 
 pressors. Take the number as set down by some at 5,000, 
 (the Bishop even puts it at that 80 years after) and deduct 
 the women and children, and you have at most 1,500 fight- 
 ing men, not a very formidable host, but rather a ridiculous 
 number for a nation to fear, especially as they had no arms, 
 wliich is shown or assumed by our accurate calculator. They 
 were more likely to have been 500,000 in all at that time. 
 Eighty years after this date Moses goes down to deliver 
 them by Divine command, how did they stand upon the 
 muster roll ? We infer what was possible to them from what 
 has taken place in our own day, and here is one of my facts. 
 
 In forty years from the suppression of the slave trade, just 
 half that time, in the South the negroes have multiplied at least 
 twice. Surely we are on the safe side without allowing for Divine 
 interference, in saying that tliey liad kept up the same rate of 
 progression, and you will tlien find that they could not have 
 been far short of the 2,000,000 ; if not above that number. Look 
 closely at the case thus : Joseph lived to see the third gene- 
 r.ition (Gen. 1. 26), and yet he was only 110 when he died, 
 I conclude therefore that tliey married young at that time 
 when they were })rosperous, as the Romans and the early 
 Christians did, as may be proved by the tombs taken out of 
 the catacombs, whicli I saw at the Lapidarian Gallery of 
 the Vatican. One died aged 40, having been married 25 
 years; another had married at 17; and my own grand- 
 
29 
 
 mother's cousin was followed to tlie grave by five genera- 
 tions. The Americans marry from the age of 13 up. For 80 
 long years after Moses was born they continued to multiply ; 
 and whatever objection may be taken to the language em- 
 ployed in Exodus to set forth their marvellous increase ; and 
 however much we may put down to the exaggerated fear of 
 the Pharaoh, common sense teaches us that allowing the 
 Egjrptians to have decreased after the decline of Thebes, it is 
 agreed on all hands that they were 7,000,000 ; and they must 
 have been cowards indeed if they were intimidated even by 
 1,000,000, or one in seven. But availing myself of half that 
 number at the birth of Moses, I have shown that they might 
 have been at least 2,000,000 at the exodus. 
 
 I can thus see my way clear to accept the statement in 
 Exodus without resorting to Bishop Patrick's theory, or making 
 the number swell to that given by Kurtz and others up to 
 10,000,000. 
 
 Let me be convinced that Aristotle truly represented the 
 case of the Egyptian women, that they bore many children, 
 and I see everything to favour his words in the massive 
 remains of Ancient Egypt, its temples and pyramids, and 
 tumuli covering its buried cities, &c. For as I looked 
 upon them I asked who built them ? Where did the 
 people come from? those who worked in almost countless 
 myriads upon the massive Cheops for 40 years, and re- 
 ceived their radishes, bread, garlic, and leeks, according to 
 the inscriptions on the stones seen by Herodotus ! Who 
 cut the canals and did other things which baffle our most 
 skiKul engineers to conceive, much less accomplish? and 
 the answer I get to all these questions from nature, from his- 
 tory, and from art, is but the feeble echo of those grand des- 
 criptive words of her glory and her shame, found in subKme 
 harmony in the Pentateuch and the Prophets. The multipli- 
 cation of the Israelites, which is such a vexation to the Bishop, 
 is thus easy of explanation, and especially so when we 
 remember God's favour towards them. 
 
30 
 
 PART III. 
 
 PRACTICE (EXODE) MAKES ]\IAD. 
 
 If the "multiplication" of the people in Egypt puzzled 
 our scholar, their severance from Pharoah and the house of 
 bondage, with all its results, has evidently driven him to his 
 wit's end, as I shall proceed to prove. As the Passover and 
 the Exodus together constitute the great stronghold of the 
 Bishop, I shall use every lawful instrument of warfare to 
 dislodge him ; and if I succeed in this his minor outworks 
 will be of no use to him. 
 
 A certain Darius, as ancient story runs, an ambitious Per- 
 sian, purposed to subjugate glorious Greece, and headed an 
 army of 300,000 men ; and a few years after Xerxes went 
 thither with a host variously-estimated from 3,000,000 to 
 5,000,000 ; and he had to pass to Athens, over the narrow 
 Pass of Thermopylae, which will only admit of one chariot at 
 a time. 
 
 Now if figures could have restrained the fancy of those 
 once supposed veracious historians — as the leader of this 
 second mighty multitude tried to chain the sea — then they 
 might have reduced the number within the bounds of our 
 belief. 
 
 But after recent oracular statements based on figures "which 
 cannot lie," I am compelled to reject the whole story as 
 fabulous. Why? Because I have been to Marathon and 
 stood upon the narrow strip of land between the mountains 
 and the sea. I have also been on part of the desert leading from 
 Cairo to Suez, much more open than Marathon ; and as you 
 look upon the wide waste opening before you from Heliopolis 
 and the petrified forest, you think of the lines of our great 
 Poet, on the expulsion from Paradise — 
 
 " The world was all before them were to choose, 
 And Providence their guide." 
 
 and find on that barren tract of earth ample scope and verge 
 enough for the feet of two or three million pilgrims. 
 
 If I am to renounce that as impossible, then what becomes 
 
31 
 
 of my Herodotus and liis Persians on the sea and hill-bound 
 plain of Marathon ? 
 
 How could they effect a landing ? But they did neverthe- 
 less, and were driven back by the Greeks into the sea. And 
 somehow or another, caravans of pilgrims in incredible numbers, 
 and in incredible ways, still flock to Mecca and Jerusalem, as 
 I have seen them, with an hurly-burly, and a pell-mell, hap- 
 hazard kind of irregular movement, which would frighten any 
 accurate man of figures out of his propriety. I begin to be 
 very sceptical on the subject of such figures as we have had 
 recently worked out for us, and confess that I am tainted 
 with an English practical turn of mind, and certainly I have 
 had enough to raise grave doubts in my mind. For instance, 
 when in America I became acquainted with a grave mathe- 
 matical Doctor of Divinity who had wrought out the theory 
 of redemption upon geometrical principles ; he was a "smarter" 
 man than his countryman, who wished to " calculate " the 
 water-power of the Niagara, for my friend also took a mental 
 survey of Westchester County, Pennsylvania, and proved to 
 a certainty that it would make a cemetery capable of con- 
 taining all the people that had ever died since the founda- 
 tion of the world. 
 
 Certainly, America "is a great country," and that is a 
 great county in one of its States ; but when I find that a 
 great authority in figures tells me that only two or three 
 millions of men, with their flocks and herds, must make a 
 train leading more than two-thirds of the way from Cairo 
 to Suez, that is sixty-eight out of ninety miles, — as the 
 Bishop says, — I am staggered by the two statements, and find 
 relief in the well-known distich — 
 
 *' When doctors disagree. 
 Disciples then are free." 
 
 Turning to one or two of my modern instances, I become 
 more sceptical — it is the doctor's fault. For example, I find 
 that 400,000 or 500,000 men get into Hyde Park to witness 
 skating by torchlight, or when some gTeat political or patriotic 
 tidal wave bears them westward on a fine Sunday afternoon ; 
 and again, that 500,000 people — one-fourth or fifth of the 
 number of the Israelites — pass over London-bridge in one day, 
 besides the cabs, carriages, carts, waggons, and drays, &c., and 
 other four-legged and creeping things. Now, no sane man 
 
32 
 
 would doubt for a moment that the whole population of London 
 might go over the five bridges which span the Thames from 
 Westminster to London-bridge, supposing the day were before 
 them, and the way clear. Yet we are gravely assured, that 
 witli an open country before them, extending for miles from 
 the banks of the Nile to the breezes of the free desert, and their 
 tyrants " thrusting them out," and affording every facility for 
 their flight, in their frantic desire to get rid of them, " it was 
 utterly impossible for the Israelites to leave Eameses in one 
 day." It is assumed that they all went to Eameses, but it 'is 
 probable that only the vanguard left the city, while the others 
 fell in from the Goshen district through which they would 
 pass. I shall not enlarge upon the well-known fact that 
 caravans encamp on the borders of the desert the first night 
 after starting from Cairo, and that during the rendezvous 
 the final arrangements for the order of march are settled, and 
 the word to " move on " is passed from the " captain of ten up 
 to the captain of fifty or five hundred, but it will be seen 
 at a glance, that although "600,000 men went out harnessed," 
 five in a row, they might have spread out until they were a 
 consolidated square, and moving on as a Macedonian phalanx 
 or a Eoman cohort, with their distinct yet combined ranks 
 of five. 
 
 But how were they to know that the hour of freedom 
 struck for them, when the destroying angel smote the first- 
 born in all the land, so that they might muster for the 
 march? To spread the news through the city and country 
 seems to the man of rules and precedents, purely impossible. 
 Hush ! death enters the gate and goes up into the palace 
 at eleven o'clock on a gloomy December, 1861, '' a night to 
 be remendjered," and "Albert the Good" sleeps with the 
 slain, and he " has fallen in his high places." By eleven 
 o'clock on the next day, as we went to worship, all London 
 knew that the nation had sustained an irreparable loss. 
 But there was one slain in every house — " the firstborn of 
 man and beast," and it was .'poken of as such a mourning 
 as Kgypt never knew ; and yet we are told that their neigh- 
 bours did not know it ! Did not the mothers and the 
 wailing women lift up their voices? "Tell it not in Gath," 
 only "to the marines." In matters of this kind, I cannot 
 be guided by men who " think by rule and feel by precedent," 
 
and believing I have reason to conclude that his figures are 
 not facts, I cannot pin my faith to the theory based upon them, 
 especially as he shows an utter ignorance of Egj^t and the 
 Egyptians, ancient and modern. 
 
 But allowing them to get out, how are they to live ? for the 
 goodly tents of Jacob are "black but not comely" in the estima- 
 tion of our learned and sympathetic friend ; and whether 
 harnessed and going out " five deep " reposing in the tented 
 camp, or going out to war with Amelek or Midian, he is 
 intent on showing how utterly impossible and unworthy of 
 belief the whole story is from beginning to end. I answer. 
 The simple provision made by the Bedouin Arabs, and the 
 Christian and Mahommedan pilgrims, will show how possible 
 it was "to go out for three days," and the subsequent arrange- 
 ments for their long pilgrimage may be explained by reference 
 to the many places visited by them as recorded in Numbers, 
 after definite instructions had been given them, when the camp 
 had been fairly organized, and the order of march proclaimed. 
 
 The pilgrims to Mecca and Jerusalem carry with them sufii- 
 cient provision — ^bread, fruit, &c., except meat, and as many 
 as 30,000 crowd into Suez in a day, and 70,000 take up their 
 abode in Mecca during the three festivals. 
 
 How do they carry and cook their provisions ? How do 
 they take their tents, and where do they tabernacle ? Many 
 of them carry "bags," as the Arabs do, with rings attached, 
 so that by drawing a cord through them, they make a "trough" 
 or bag, and spread that out as a table when they eat ; and the 
 vessel in which they cook their food becomes the dish into 
 which they dip their hands, while the Arab " flat-bread," like 
 cakes, substitutes the spoon or the knife and fork of the Frank. 
 I had a striking illustration of this custom the last night I 
 was in Palestine, at a village near Eamleh, where I was de- 
 tained by the sheik, lest I should be plundered on the plain. 
 I was among a more settled people, and yet when the boiled 
 meal, which seemed like Scotch porridge, was brought on to 
 the floor (not the tal)le), our host leading the way, beckoned 
 us to follow suit, and out of courtesy we joined in his primi- 
 tive pursuit of getting dinner under difdculties. As to tents, 
 how many did they require at first, for it was the spring of 
 the year? I have seen Greeks in December going up the 
 gulf of Lepanto wrapped up in their shaggy capotes, lying 
 
 c 
 
34 
 
 on deck and sleeping as soundly as if tliey belonged to the 
 " seven sleepers," and everywhere in the Levant I met with 
 the lower orders, and some who appeared a step removed 
 above them, dressed in the Arab " abba," made commonly of 
 camel's hair or the shaggy goat skin, while the sheep and 
 lamb skins make softer garments for the "upper ten thou- 
 sand." 
 
 I have seen the pilgrims en route for Jerusalem, and sailed 
 with many from Smyrna to Syria ; and all of them lay on the 
 deck in the month of January, with very little more than 
 these, and the cloth they spread upon the floor to kneel upon, 
 when they pray towards Mecca, as a covering and bed. An 
 ordinary travelling-rug and a knapsack have served me as bed 
 and bolster upon more than one occasion, but " I was not to 
 the manner born," and yet I found it no great hardship after 
 a little use ; and I suppose that the Israelites could accommo- 
 date themselves to a condition very little, if any worse, than 
 the hard bondage in which they had been brought up in 
 Eg}^t. One might well ask, where do the Mahommedans 
 find even standing-room in the miserable little town of Mecca ? 
 Why, all the houses are open to them, and it is the " season," 
 as at our w^atering-places, and families stow themselves away 
 as only our sea-coast population can do, when there is an 
 influx of strangers, and money to be made. The pubhc 
 buildings and the broad canopy of heaven bend over them in 
 their slumbers ; and, moreover, the Lazzaroni of Naples show 
 plainly how possible it is to live and be lively under their 
 hard condition of midnight musings and open-air repose. 
 The mosques, churches, convents, and similar places at Jeru- 
 salem, swarm with men, women, and children during Easter, 
 "thick as autumnal leaves which strew the vale in Valambrosa." 
 
 Now, with these facts patent before us, I can easily conclude 
 that they were tolerably comfortable in that first night of their 
 inarch in the fine spring equinox. 
 
 Let us now follow them in their route : Succoth was the 
 point at which they aimed, and the direct course would be to 
 keep N.E. Irom llamesos, and skirting the Mukattam range of 
 mountains, whose dark shadow looks down on Cairo now, as 
 it did on liameses then, and whose extreme north base rests 
 upon the Arabian desert. There is a good lake about twelve 
 miles from Cairo, where the Mecca caravan draws up, and the 
 
35 
 
 most deliglitful disorder prevails, even among tlie decorous 
 disciples of the Prophet, so that everywhere, except imme- 
 diately around the Had j, "confusion worse confounded" seems 
 the order of the day, and the spirit of misrule reigns even 
 in the nineteenth century, and with all the appliances for 
 modern travel. 
 
 Leaving the locality of the lake we find they turned to the 
 south, and, after the passage of the Eed Sea in their march 
 still south, they came to the waters of Marah, which were 
 bitter. 
 
 Marah stood near the shores of the Eed Sea, and the 
 water, though unpleasant to the taste, would be easily taken 
 by the thirsty traveller, and they did not go very far before 
 they found a spot where purer water satisfied the people and 
 their flocks, for Elim contained seventy palm trees — and 
 wherever they are found it is a sure sign of water — and even 
 in that sterile region most travellers are often cheered by the 
 graceful towering palm, beneath whose broad and beautiful 
 branches they may shelter, and share with their animals, 
 nature's beverage. Dr. Shaw found a place far south of Elim 
 which he tried to identify with the Elim of Scripture ; but it 
 was evidently too near to Midian and Tor. There were 2,000 
 palm trees and a large lake of pure water, and its existence 
 there may serve to silence those who think there is no water 
 to be found in the desert, any more than rain in Egypt. Both 
 these impressions are wrong, and a man often finds springs in 
 the desert whose waters can gladden the soul. 
 
 But I hasten to look at another objection, and one often 
 made. How could so many people, &c., find a resting-place 
 in the narrow valleys around the awful mount ? The group of 
 mountains at Sinai formed a diameter of forty miles, so that 
 there was sufficient space for 2,400,000. London contains a 
 population of nearly 3,000,000 — dwelhng-houses, churches, 
 chapels, public buildings, docks, warehouses, with the most 
 ample provision for artificial life, such as no city ever had 
 before, and very unlike the circumstances of those wandering 
 ones — yet we find it quite possible to live and breathe in a 
 city, with its suburbs, about half the dimension. We know 
 what we require for comfort, and look for the same amount 
 when abroad ; but what a contrast in the case of the children 
 of the desert! 
 
 n 9- 
 
36 
 
 The outfit of an Arab, and the free and friendly life of tlie 
 child of the desert, as described by all who have had an op- 
 portunity of judging, will throw some light upon the early 
 life in the wilderness. 
 
 The affection of the Arab for his horse is a proverb, and 
 other animals share it in part. I have seen the camel driver 
 take out his bread and roll up a leak in it, and thus making a 
 sandwich, and then seat himself, a la Turk, among his grumb- 
 ling beasts, — and, night and day, whether living in their sun- 
 shine or under their frown, he is their constant companion — 
 where they lie he lies, and whether in the desert or in the 
 khan a circle is formed by the animals, and man rests in that 
 circle ; and this is done, not always from necessity, but often 
 from choice, not only by the Fellahin, but by the sheik, for 
 some of them respectfully declined to share Laborde's tent, 
 and slept with their animals and in the more settled habita- 
 tion, where they dwell in houses, one is often reminded of the 
 life in a log cabin in Ireland, where all the live stock dw^ell 
 together under one roof, dogs and donkeys, pigs and poultry, 
 and whatsoever else seeks shelter from the darkness and the 
 cold. In the mud hut, however, of the Fellahin they gene- 
 rally contrive to have one part — say about half — raised some 
 two feet or so above the other, and it is upon this the family 
 live, cook, eat, and sleep, while in the winter time the quad- 
 rupeds occupy a lower platform in the social scale. If these 
 facts are borne in mind they shew how very far wrong every cal- 
 culation upon space, based uponowr experience, must necessarily 
 be, for where a quadruped will live man can live, and where 
 he rests man wiU. rest, and be warmed by the wool or the heat 
 of other bodies. Water, such an essential to our comfort 
 when we rise from slumber, is not such an absolute necessity 
 in the desert, for the fine sand serves the purpose for ablutions, 
 and down beneath the surface man often finds water for him- 
 self and beast. So bountiful is a kind providence, very often 
 causing things to spring forth, and the desert to blossom as 
 the rose. 
 
 I protest strongly against judging of the past condition of 
 a people and a country solely by what we know of both now. 
 Historians, and ai)ologists for men and nations, have taught 
 us to deal more kindly by their memories, and to judge of 
 what they were by some of their imperisJiable remains, more 
 
37 
 
 than by the miserable and pitiable plight in which modern 
 travellers see them. If the Bishop had studied the anatomy 
 of his subject — ^looked at the greatness of the Egyptian nation 
 in the light of her monumental remains with the broad grasp 
 of some explorers on the Nile and at Nineveh, if he had read 
 the mystic characters on the frowning rocks of Sinai, and 
 stood beneath the shadow of the hills overhanging rocky 
 Petra, and gazed upon the temple and theatre amid the wild 
 wilderness, and read the awful fulfilment of the prophetic 
 curse in the silence, solitude, and symbols of that awe-inspir- 
 ing region, it might have taught him to cherish a wholesome 
 fear of trespassing on forbidden ground, such as Mr. Stephen's 
 felt when he proposed a visit to Idumea and the rock city. 
 Who inscribed those characters? Who built that city? 
 Surely no people would be mad enough to settle in a country 
 such as that which thrills the traveller with a mysterious 
 awe as he enters it 1 I turn from my Bible, and find that 
 the Eoman legions defended the treasures which came through 
 that now howling desert from the Ezion-Geber of Moses 
 and Solomon, the Akaba of our day. I pass through Syria 
 and Palestine now and can see no traces of the Eoman 
 road, except here and there, and in this I see a purpose. 
 Prom Dan to Beersheba there was but one solitary vehicle 
 which might stand instead of an Eg3rptian, Eoman, S3rrian, 
 or Assyrian chariot, and, as I rode over those rough roads, 
 and felt that my life was in jeopardy if the horse made a 
 false step, I said where are the chariots and horsemen? 
 Where the countless hordes of vassals whom the shepherd 
 kings marshalled for conquest and defence ? Wliere Cyrus 
 and Csesar, Alexander and Artaxerxes? where Titus and Ves- 
 pasian? Am I to believe that all have vanished into thin 
 air? that the muse of history is a myth? The stones on the 
 steps of Tyre, and the fallen arches of the Eoman bridge 
 over the Orontes, and other dumb oracles, like Caesar's 
 wounds, cry out against me ! I mount my Arabian steed, 
 and gallop off to the Dog river (Nahr-el-Kelb), a few miles 
 north of Beyrout, and bright in the light of a Syrian sun 
 stand the cuneiform figures of the well-known Assyrian cast, 
 while high above the sea, and under the frowning brow of 
 Lebanon, runs the Eoman road, where the ruts of the chariot 
 wheels and the war waggons are deeply imbedded in the solid 
 
38 
 
 rock. A little further on, a brick aquadiict recalls to mind 
 the long lines of similar construction which I had seen near 
 the cities, and crossing the plains of sunny Italy. I cross in 
 imagination to the plain of Marathon ; I get into confidential 
 communication with my host, the " demark " or governor of 
 the village ; he is in good heart and high spirits, for Otho and 
 Amelia, with a German prince, have been here, and honoured 
 me with a visit ; the king has pledged his royal word that he 
 will make a road from Athens to Marathon, so that men may 
 visit the immortal field in some comfort, and not be subject to 
 the ups and downs of a jaunty journey upon a horse or mule. 
 Long live the king, and may he do such a work ! Poor Otho ! 
 his royal word was of as much value to the "demark " as his 
 own faded crown is to himself in this year of grace. 
 
 But for similar "ups and downs" in history; what must I 
 say to my experience to and fro on foot from Athens ? Why, 
 that the history of Miltiades and the 192 men who lie buried 
 beneath the mound on which I stood when I had reached the 
 gaol of my pilgrimage, is misty moonshine, more shadowy 
 than the moonlight which saved me from a perilous position 
 in my descent from Pentelicus. 
 
 The more I read the Pentateuch in the light of imperishable 
 monuments, and the unchanged habits and customs of eastern 
 nations, the more satisfied I am, not only of " tlie divine lega- 
 tions of Moses," but of the practical wisdom and adaptation 
 of the minute details to the circumstances of the people at 
 the time. Camp life, and to\vn life, came before his compre- 
 hensive legislative mind, and he fixed the bounds for both ; 
 the people understood them and were content. — others do not, 
 and murmur. The Bishop displays an ignorance of the books 
 themselves, which convinces me he has not read them, and 
 this, with his shallow knowledge of the literature of all the 
 subjects involved, in a fair and full investigation, satisfies me 
 that his philosophy is fallacious. 
 
 There are several grave blunders in this book, and none 
 more glaring than those touching the preparation for, and the 
 institution of the Passover. The Bishop forgets that it came 
 upon them as the coming of the Son of Man — ^liy surprise — 
 but not unexpected, or without warning, as attempted to be 
 shown by an explanation of the xii. chapter. And he over- 
 looks the fact that in Ex, xi. they were instructed to "borrow" 
 
39 
 
 of their neighbours some days before the lamb was slain, and 
 they were to take the lamb or goat on the tenth day and keep 
 it prepared for the fourteenth ; and if a man was too poor to 
 get one, his next neighbour was to join him. From these cir- 
 cumstances, it is seen that they were like Londoners expecting 
 a Eoyal visit to the Metropolis, when the event is certain, 
 but the exact day not fixed. They were not unprepared, 
 therefore, for the death of the first-born, as asserted, although 
 they did not know the exact issues involved, — to return after 
 offering sacrifice, or go on to some other goal. Nay more, 
 things were left unexplained and indefinite as to the time of 
 their occurrence, while they were even led to expect that their 
 removal would be sudden. 
 
 They were told, " Pharoah will thrust you out," which he 
 actually did in the end, when his madness of heart culminated, 
 and the first-born was slain. Nay more, they had borrowed 
 (or asked) of their neighbours, and said to the king, " Let us 
 go three days," and there was a willingness on his part to 
 allow a portion of them to go. And Moses rose in his de- 
 mand, and compelled the monarch to give him cattle, &c. But 
 Pharoah was fickle and capricious in his movements, and 
 hence they had not provided any victuals, and one reason 
 was that there was no leaven in their houses, though they may 
 have had plenty of meal, as is implied in the command to take 
 the "baking troughs." Just as an army or regiment may be 
 under marching orders for days, and yet have to leave before 
 they could cook food and prepare a hasty meal. At length 
 the final instruction came, and the heads of families informed 
 their household — "Thus shall ye eat it, with your loins girded," 
 &c., and they were as men ready to go out at a moment's 
 notice after they had kept the Passover. This religious rite 
 w^as instituted in Egypt under the circumstances detailed 
 in Exodus, and circumstantially related in the Pentateuch 
 when again observed in the wilderness, and enjoined in the 
 law as a perpetual memorial, to be kept by the Israelites and 
 their children to all generations. Let us see how this matter 
 is treated. On page 54 we have " a minute and particular" 
 relation of the number of " lambs " required by the heads of 
 families ; and with a liberality which does credit to the ^vriter's 
 heart, he makes a compromise between ten and twenty, and 
 allows fifteen persons to partake of one lamb. 
 
40 
 
 I suppose liis reason for excluding the " kids " is, that he 
 has an antipathy to "goats" and all their kith and kin. 
 150,000 of the first year lambs would he required for all the 
 families, and there must have been between 2,000,000 and 
 3,000,000 sheep to produce them. An appalling number ! 
 
 Now, where did they come from, and how were they fed ? 
 That was the question that puzzled the priest. And with this 
 burden upon his mind he betook himself to his " Zulu." " A 
 friend in need is a friend indeed." Again lie finds that friend 
 in a " far off country," and is " confirmed " in his new faith 
 when informed tliat a Zulu is liberal enough to allow two 
 acres of "rich" Zulu grazing land to one sheep. The "Zulu" 
 has come " to the rescue " of his protege, or proselyte, with a 
 right good will, and with some considerable success ; but mth 
 all his gratitude there seems to be a lingering doubt, or 
 perhaps it is to " make assurance doubly sure " that he re- 
 sorts to a New Zealand grazier to ask his opinion on the 
 momentous question pending. 
 
 I may as well say, that he was not put to the trouble and 
 expense of a long sea voyage to New Zealand before he found 
 this great authority ; but it was fortunate for him that, allured 
 by the superior richness of the Zulu country, or led there by 
 business or pleasure, the right man was found in the right 
 " place," and at the right time. I might describe the meeting 
 of these men, and the dialogue which ensued, but forbear, as I 
 want to lay the result before you. Eureka again ! Fortune 
 favours the brave ; aye, and figures too ! The New Zealander 
 is more liberal than the Zulu, for he allows three or five 
 acres for each sheep. Oh! most kind friend ! 
 
 What can the Doctor do now but apply the facts to the 
 case in hand, and ultimately give us the result of his profound 
 research? On tlie strength of this discovery he proclaims the 
 utter im])Ossibility of the story as told in the Pentateuch : or 
 imagined by him — which? Of course the land of Eg}^it, in 
 the valley of the Nile, does not now, nor did it ever, equal in 
 richness either the Zulu country or New Zealand ! Yet I must 
 again bring out one or two of my " modern instances " to bear 
 liere. It matters not how lon^^, but not \o\\^ ix^io — and now that 
 Kgy|)t IS considered the basest of kingdoms — I weut to see 
 tlie mausoleums of its miglity men, the ])yramids of Memphis 
 and Gizah. I would have gone in grander style had circum- 
 
41 
 
 stances permitted, but I went in the usual way — on an Egyp- 
 tian donkey. Abdul Fatah, the donkey-boy, looked with a 
 longing eye upon the fine fields of clover grass as we passed 
 by, and presently came for a " backsheesh " to buy some for 
 his favourite beast. In a short time he returned with his 
 arms filled with food, taken from fields on the very border 
 of the Lybian desert. 
 
 I don't know whether " sheep" confabulate or no, but I dare 
 say Cowper-, who made birds do so in spite of J. J. Eousseau, 
 w^ould, were he living, make them move the Doctor a vote of 
 thanks for allowing them to "live in clover" from tvjo to 
 five acres each, or impeach him for cruelty to animals in over- 
 feeding them. In all seriousness, should I be justified in ap- 
 plying my experience of this case to the experience of men 
 and their flocks who lived 3,500 years ago ? Or, in taking an 
 opposite view, and saying that, because I passed through a 
 portion of the land of Goshen, and found it bare and barren, 
 therefore it could never have been productive? Yet it is 
 upon such uncertain evidence the Doctor decides that 2,000,000 
 sheep could not have been kept in Goshen. 
 
 Shades of the philosophers of the groves of Attica, and of 
 the shepherds of ancient Greece, what would ye say if I dared 
 to tell the world that ye never felt delighted in, and wooed 
 philosophy or the muse under the umbrageous shade of the 
 olive, or played your peaceful pastoral pipe on that now barren 
 plain, or among those lovely vales, where I saw your succes- 
 sors armed to the teeth while watching their flocks ? 
 
 Let an English farmer tell me that he can maintain five 
 sheep on one acre of fine meadow land near the Metropolis, 
 or in some rich pastural district, and am I warranted in show- 
 ing by the rules of arithmetic that Goshen was as good land, 
 and that not only 2,000,000 but 20,000,000 sheep might have 
 roamed at their own sweet will over the fertile fields ? I 
 don't wish to bring a railing accusation against my country- 
 men ; but any market day these many years, in the old market 
 at Smithfield, or the new one, as many as 20,000 sheep are 
 brought to the slaughter from one market only, making over 
 1,000,000 a year. Surely we might put down one sheep for 
 each Israelite, and then the difficulty of getting the 150,000 
 lambs and goats vanishes into thin air. 
 
 But granted that so many were well cared for in Goshen, 
 
42 
 
 what becomes of them during the time which elapsed between 
 the first and second Passover ? How did they get through 
 the Desert to Sinai ? and how were they nourished until the 
 next holacaust was offered? On these points the humane 
 feeKngs of the Bishop burst all bounds, and speak well for 
 the warmth of his heart. No comparison is more apj^ro- 
 priate than that of David : " I am distressed for thee, my 
 brother Jonathan !" How does tliis burst of grief look side 
 by side with the piteous wail of these reiterated words. "But 
 what became of the sheep V I wonder whether, as a " Bishop 
 of souls," he is as careful to "feed the sheep and feed the 
 lambs ?" And what kind of pasture they were led to ? Eather 
 dry and hard, I fear. 
 
 Let us see what facts mil do in helping us to tide over tliis 
 difficulty. I shall assume that they could travel as fast as 
 our own flocks, and that they could live on as little as our 
 own on a push, and they go all day on the way to market 
 mthout eating, except the occasional nibble they get at the 
 grass on the road side. They would, therefore, be able to go 
 as fast as their encumbered masters, and their wives and little 
 ones. Three miles an hour is the average speed even of small 
 parties in Palestine, and that when they have horses and 
 asses only to bear their luggage. I think, therefore, they may 
 have kept company without the men being compelled to say 
 to the bleating sheep, "Kawam" (come on), as I was fre- 
 quently compelled to say to my muliteer, or mukiro. Let it 
 be remembered that it is not the first time they are found in 
 company, for Jacob had them in two bands, and excited the 
 wonder of his brother Esau. A second time we find them on 
 the move, and the Bishop, as I have shown, gives them every 
 facility, and that in a time of famine and through a desert, 
 to go down into Egy})t, but hampers them very much in their 
 efforts to get out, as though he were a very Pharoah who knew 
 neither Jacob nor Joseph, and had forgotten his former kind- 
 ness to his friend; or as though they were all Scotchmen, 
 who, having once crossed the border, are proverbially reluctant 
 to return, and truly if they had been mindful of the land from 
 whence they came, they miglit have had opportunity to have 
 returned; and indeed, some of them turned back in their 
 hearts, if we are to believe New as well as Old Testament 
 authority. 
 
43 
 
 But softly ! How did Jacob and his flocks and herds get 
 through the desert, especially as they (the flocks) must have 
 been, like Pharoah's lean kine, ready to devour anything green, 
 after that "severe famine" felt in the land of Canaan? The 
 difliculty is of the same kind in both cases, and only differs 
 in point of mimhers, for both wildernesses were " waste places." 
 
 The good old Book tells how a certain Hagar was driven 
 into this same wilderness, and there sat down under a shrub; 
 how a caravan of Ishmaelites and Midianites went that way 
 bearing spices into Egypt, and that they took with them the 
 purchase of blood money, in the person of Joseph ; still more, 
 that this was the high road down to Egypt; that turning to 
 the left, men and armies would go, in the days of Solomon, 
 to Ezion-Gebar; and what else shall I say? why, that modern 
 travellers let loose their cattle and camels at night to nip the 
 sweet herbage that God grows there, while they themselves 
 are supplied mth a lamb or a kid from the flock of friendly 
 Bedouin Arabs. — See Dr. Eobinson, Stephens, Laborde, and 
 others. Beautiful and truthful! — "God never sends mouths 
 without food to fill them." And by miracle or otherwise. 
 He fed His people and their flocks, and " led them by the 
 hand of Moses and Aaron." 
 
 It is taken for granted that countless flocks and herds went 
 with them into the wilderness, and had to be fed there ; but 
 it is probable that many of them became food for the hungry, 
 while their skins helped to clothe the people, and formed the 
 material out of which the tents were made ; and if this be so, 
 the difficulty of feeding the flocks is diminished, and what of 
 them remained were doubtless nourished in a way not made 
 known to us in the brief narrative of Moses, but may be ac- 
 counted for in part as follows : — They were soon supplied with 
 water at Elim ; and as they were not slow to complain, it is fair 
 to conclude that they had water until they came to Kephidim — 
 (Ex. xvii., 1 — 3) — where they made their first recorded com- 
 plaint on behalf of themselves and their cattle. I shall not 
 make them worse than they really were. Ah! but they have 
 to pass by Sinai? "When they wanted they cried out ;" and 
 the smitten rock yields water, while the manna and quails 
 supply the people with food. Miracles are not denied, on 
 the admission of the Bishop, and the Bible says that they were 
 performed in the desert. "Ye shall buy meat of them for 
 
44 
 
 money" (Deut. ii., 6.) is the lesson of honesty they receive 
 when the miracle ceases; and they come where provision may 
 be purchased for money. 
 
 Canon Stanley is quoted on page 69, and he bears testi- 
 mony to the wild and wierd, bleak and barren region around 
 Sinai; and yet he speaks of a "thin transparent coating" of 
 herbage, and it is upon this the camels feed in part, when the 
 camp fires are lighted for the night, and deep sleep falleth 
 upon man. Besides, God may have given special fertility to 
 the soil. 
 
 We have only to account for their subsistence during their 
 encampment at and around Sinai, when miracles were per- 
 formed for them; for afterwards they visited, during their 
 long roamings, as many as forty-two towns, and might have 
 traded with the tribes, and they were as able to cultivate the 
 land, and to live upon it, as the myriads of Bedouin Arabs 
 who roam through Arabia at the present time ; and it must 
 not be forgotten that commerce leads to a higher state of cul- 
 tivation, and that commerce had some of its central marts on 
 and near the line of march taken up by Moses, who knew 
 that country well, having spent forty years actually feeding 
 Jethro's flocks. Besides, fallow gTound is improved when 
 flocks and herds are turned out to feed upon it. As it is said, 
 "The appetite grows with what it feeds on." 
 
 In celebrating the second Passover he takes it for granted 
 (p. 130) that the same order was observed as in Eg}qjt: a 
 gratuitous assumption, as may be seen by looking at 2 Cliron. 
 XXX. and xxxv., 6, and the time of our Lord. 
 
 Lev. xvii., 2 — 6 must be susceptible of some interpretation 
 which may throw light upon it ; and the reference in ver. 7 to 
 idols shows tliat it looked more to the future than to anything 
 that had happened among them before the giving of the Law. 
 
 Kurtz says on (p. 5) " In the place where I record my name." 
 "Where the Tabernacle was pitched, the enclosed camp was holy 
 ground." Already they had performed the office of the priest- 
 hood, when they slew the first pascal lamb, and they were a 
 nation designated a kingdom of priests — (Ex. xix., 6) — and, in 
 fact, the prohibition extended to the j^/ac^ and not the person. 
 Did they offer in conjunction with the jiriests, and assist in some 
 way as the Levites did, allowing the high priest and his sons 
 to perform the more solemn act? Tliis is answered by the 
 
45 
 
 fact that, although there were 8,000 Levites, each man killed 
 his own sacrifice before the Tabernacle, except the pigeons and 
 doves, whose heads were twisted off by the priests. 
 
 Now what was the custom of the people, long after the 
 Temple was built, and the number of the priests had increased, 
 and there was more room in the several courts ? 
 
 2 Chron. xxxv. We find upon a special occasion, when after a 
 long neglect of the rite, Josiah wished to revive a memorial so im- 
 pressive, that. the families were represented by their heads only. 
 If they were allowed to go unpunished for the 7io?i-observance 
 of the Passover when they were quietly settled in their own 
 land, and they had set at nought practically the injunction for 
 ever, to all generations, surely it is not to be supposed that the 
 people who rebelled so often in the wilderness kept "each 
 minute and particular" point, and, for aught we know to 
 the contrary, points which were prospective — why, even the 
 rite of circumcision was neglected, (see Jos. v.) It was not 
 until the second year after the exodus that the Tabernacle 
 was erected, and the priests set apart to their office by Moses. 
 The spirit of the rite was maintained, but the form was 
 altered, if we may judge by their subsequent conduct. 
 
 Did our Lord deem it irregular to keep the Passover in any 
 other place but the Temple? He went up to Jerusalem for 
 the express purpose; but we find Him saying, "I will keep 
 the Passover at thy house with My disciples." Paul strove to 
 be at Jerusalem at the Passover; and before the destruction 
 of the city 1,100,000 people were there, but they could not 
 all be present at one time in the Temple, but were there by 
 representatives, the elders and heads of families. 
 
 In Amos v., 25, we find these words, " Have ye offered unto 
 me, &c.?" but it does not follow that aU required by the law weie 
 offered as affirmed by our literaHst. If he had read with care 
 the nature of the work allotted to the priests, and the part 
 the man who brought the sacrifice, and the Levites took in the 
 service of the sanctuary he might have spared his compassion 
 for them, and saved himself from the just charge of ineffi- 
 ciency. Pancy a Jew taking him to book! 
 
 He has as much sympathy almost for Aaron and his sons, 
 who were hard worked but weU fed, as for the pastureless 
 sheep of the desert. No modern priests were ever so deal^ 
 by, for the Doctor allows no room for escape from the con- 
 clusion that thev were to work and eat incessantly. 
 
46 
 
 Poor men ! if they had lived in our times they might have 
 found '' Curates" to do the work while they received the lion's 
 share of the pay, and the poor priests'- wives and families 
 might have been fed with the fat of the sacrifices, even to 
 repletion, and clothed with the fine wool of the offerino- 
 
 Now the Bible says their sons, daughters, &c, are allowed to 
 eat thereof. But he compels three of them to eat 90,000 lambs 
 m a year, and with a little tinge of sarcasm, wants to know 
 whether they brought the pigeons from Egj^t. 
 
 I have read of a Eoman Emperor who^'demanded a disb of 
 the most dehcate part of a rare bird to be brought to his table 
 every morning. But perhaps that was written or spoken in a 
 post prandial speech, and therefore I shall not attempt to 
 prove that the epicure never had them, because I saw none 
 like them at Eome. But you may take a bit of authentic 
 modern history which was told me in the presence of a 
 prudent and Avise man, by a Missionary at St. Helena, who 
 had it from the old natives of that island. The British 
 Government generously allowed the illustrious exile Iv^apo- 
 leon anything he might express a wish for. Now what- 
 ever his dislike for the monarchs who sent him there he 
 felt for the men who obeyed their orders. He asked for a 
 bullock s heart for breakfast every morning, and his request 
 was granted. Some said it was a whim, others a petty pique • 
 but a benevolent intention lay at the bottom, for he kne\v 
 that the British soldier loved beef, and he would get part of 
 the carcase slam each day. The supply in the island was soon 
 exhausted, and the governor had to obtain more from the Cape 
 Supply and demand are about equally balanced, and I have 
 no doubt the Israelites found their pigeons and turtle doves 
 as they wanted them for use ; for any one who reads of the 
 "doves flocking to the windows," and has seen the holes in the 
 eastern rocks, which serve as dove cotes, will be at no loss to 
 account for their presence in and around the camp of 
 Israel. "Where the carcase is there will the eaoles be fathered 
 together." ^ 
 
 But again the question returns, How did the priests dispose 
 of them (p. 129)? Many of the provisions of the law were pro- 
 sp(;ctive, and we know they had assistants afterwards, why not 
 then, though not specially named ; and, besides, they might 
 have given portions away to the people, as they do now in the 
 Convents of St. Bernard, Carmel, Bethlehem, and St. Cathe- 
 
47 
 
 line's, at Sinai and elsewhere. I conclude therefore that only 
 special parts were to be eaten by the priests alone, and the 
 rest of the sacrifices were used by the Levite's households, 
 &c., (p. 130) and after strict orders are given that cdl must 
 be eaten, it is immediately added, " and such as is left shall 
 be burnt." 
 
 What number of priests, Levites, and their famiKes does 
 the Bible bring before us in contrast with the Bishop's few 
 poor hard worked priests ? Of the three branches there were 
 22,000 and 8,000 above 25, and under 50 years, eligible to 
 the work of the Tabernacle. If it be objected that they were 
 "Laymen," I reply that Moses offered a sacrifice for himself when 
 he consecrated Aaron and his sons, and then each of them offered 
 one for himself, and so when any man brought a sacrifice, he 
 offered or killed it himself, and the priest only sprinkled the 
 blood, except when one offering was to be made for the congre- 
 gation. What becomes then of the great expenditure of sym- 
 pathy for the priests ? and there might have been absenteeism 
 after all ; and the priest might have had a sinecure instead of 
 being a slave ; for while Eliezer offered the oil and incense, 
 others attended to the rest of the offices of the daily service. 
 If there had been more made out of the Consecration, perhaps 
 the Bishop might have known how many they were, and what 
 they did. 
 
 There are so many other points upon which he might be set 
 right by a scholar in a Sunday School Bible Class, that I feel it 
 would be a waste of time to follow him upon all the points 
 where he is palpably open to a damaging exposure ; but I will 
 give one out of many instances, it is the passage on the door of 
 the Tabernacle (p. 32). He enters upon an elaborate calcu- 
 lation to show that it was impossible for " all Israel" to pre- 
 sent themselves at the door of the Tabernacle, as they were 
 between 2,000,000 and 3,000,000 (p. 35). Now, no scholar 
 will doubt for a moment that this is a Hebraism, as "all the 
 congregation were to stone the Sabbath breaker," and does not 
 always mean the entire number, and frequent instances are 
 recorded in Exodus, which conclusively show that the writer 
 meant a large number, — about the effect of the plagues, to wit, 
 just as we say, " I saw thousands," or I have told you a thou- 
 sand times, &c. 
 
 The same indefinite language is used in the New Testament 
 
48 
 
 by the apostles. Jacob, when he stood before Pharoah, said, 
 " few and evil have the days of the years," &c., (Gen. xlvii. 9) 
 and yet in dying, he records, " The God who fed me all my 
 life long," &c., and "redeemed me from all evil, bless the 
 lads " (Gen. xlviii. 15, 16). 
 
 In 1855, I witnessed a grand review of 45,000 troops in 
 the Champ de Mars, Paris, and they all passed before the 
 Emperor and the King of Portugal, who were on horseback, 
 while the Empress was seated on the balcony of the Ecole 
 Militaire, in an open space, much less than the door of tlie 
 Tabernacle. And last summer I went to the Crystal Palace 
 one day when there were 84,000 persons present, and nearly 
 all of them must have passed in and out of the entrance 
 facing the grounds again and again, yet when they occupied 
 the ground in front to witness a spectacle, I was surprised 
 to find what a small portion was covered by such a host of 
 people. 68,000 persons were in the Exhibition in one day, 
 and probably at the same time. The mathematical measure- 
 ment of the camp, and his reduction of it to a particular size, 
 reminds me of a certain philosophical mathematician, who 
 contended that " a pentagon was the proper figure for a field," 
 and raises certain other historical and statistical doubts. 
 
 But the war on Midian seems to crown all the extravagant 
 demands made upon our credulity. It ought to be sufficient 
 to say that we judge of that by the past, and recognize the 
 prerogative of one who smites when the iniquity is full (]). 139). 
 "One has great faith in the mere mcrtia of religious faith." Some 
 have very little in the political and Protestant faitli in quiet 
 times, but let an Orsini plot incite some foolish French generals 
 to fulminate against free England, and the Erench Govern- 
 ment to demand of ours the repeal of the Alien Bill and ask 
 for the Conspiracy Bill ; a strong Government headed by a 
 l^o])ular ])romier, goes to the Avail upon tlie measure. And let 
 a pious Po])e invade Eu gland with a lot of scarlet, and divide 
 our land into pastoral districts for foreign shepherds, and the law 
 of premunire starts up before the mind of British Protestants, 
 and the cry — " No Popery !" makes the wide welkin ring. 
 
 How far this attempt to move it Avill rouse a too credulous 
 people to examine the reason of faith, and be able to answer 
 fur the "h()])e they have Avithin them," one cannot tell; but 
 it must lead them to " search the Scriptures," " to see Avhether 
 
49 
 
 these tilings are so." And the language used on page 133-4 to 
 describe the share of the "Lord of Midian" in the spoils. 
 "Jehovah's tribute of slaves" will not increase their confi- 
 dence — in one of their teachers, at least. The time taken up 
 in the war, and the movements of the men, women and cattle, 
 make the story incredible to the Doctor. Now the first war 
 in which any of the Patriarchs engaged is recorded in Gen. xiv., 
 and we find that Abram made short work of it, when he 
 spoiled the kings. 
 
 The number and rapid movements of men will be painfully 
 illustrated by a reference to the unhappy war which is being 
 waged in America. The many and bloody battles which have 
 been fought within a few months on the banks of the Potomac, 
 must show what is possible when the dread arbitrament of 
 war is decided upon. The raid into Maryland, and the almost 
 lightning speed with which the inert McClellan pushed forward 
 his avenging columns, point distinctly to the possibility of the- 
 case as recorded in Numbers. Virginia alone is as large as 
 England, yet we no sooner hear that the siege of Piichmond 
 is raised, than the army of the South is wheeled to the north, 
 baggage and heavy war material, with the speed and destruc- 
 tive powder of the wdiirlwind. Neither have we forgotten 
 Havelock's avenging column, and their swift deeds of ven- 
 geance. And while a future sceptic may pronounce aU this 
 " fiction," we know it to be the " stern logic of fact." 
 
 (Page 41.) Allison's " History of Europe " is cited, and the 
 number slain on the side of the allies at AVaterloo is put down 
 at 4,172, as proof that the fig-ures of the Bible on the battles 
 fought are fictitious. That was the great decisive battle of 
 modern times — ergo — there were more men slain than in any 
 other ! Come to life again, most logical grave-digger, and 
 reason once more for the benefit of our distracted Hamlet ! 
 Happy shall we be to hear thy most clear proofs, that less 
 than that number fell at Alma and Inkermann, Magenta and 
 Solferino, Mannasses, and Antietam. 
 
 War estimates of men and material are very loose, and we 
 know that the number of men on the paper of an Austrian, 
 Ptussian, French, and American minister of war, are very im- 
 posing — always much more that the men under arms — and we 
 make allowance for their exageration. There were 3,000,000 
 armed men in America when I w^as there, but to Europe they 
 
 J) 
 
50 
 
 were only 25,000, because that was tlie peace establislmient of 
 soldiers — the rest were militia. Who shall say that something- 
 like this is not the case in Judah. 2 Chron. xvii., where 
 4,000,000 are made out? The men of war were in Jerusalem 
 — the King's guard of chosen men of war, I think — while 
 the others in the castles and cities were ready on a call for 
 special service. "The kingdom of Judah embraced only 4,500 
 square miles — not as large as three of our counties — there- 
 fore the numbers are impossible." I reply London alone con- 
 tains nearly as many. 
 
 But in his treatment of this case, he is evidently nibbling 
 at an old objection, and one based upon the present popula- 
 ■ tion of Palestine, and the poverty of the land ; and forgetting 
 those truthful words — " a fruitful land maketh He desolate, 
 for the wickedness of them that dwell therein." And yet at 
 the present time the Druses and Maronites on Mount LelDanon 
 alone number 300,000, and nearly all the men are armed, and 
 as the Arabs carry arms, the Israelites could have bought 
 some from them ; and with what they had when they left 
 Egypt, and found on the shores of the Eed Sea, and the pro- 
 tecting power of the " God of battles," they were able to do 
 what is recorded of them. 
 
 His whole argument is destructive and not constructive ; 
 and before he leaves it he becomes the apologist of Balaam, 
 and in his perplexity, forgets that the Old and New Testa- 
 ment tell us of him. But I will remind him of Peter's 
 words — 2 Peter ii. 16, " Tlie dumb ass speaking in man's 
 voice forbad the madness of the prophet." Let us now 
 listen to the voices of men in all ages, who forbid the madness 
 of the Bishop. 
 
 PART IV. 
 THE TABLES TURNED. 
 
 " Should not years teach wisdom?" And should not mathe- 
 matics? Yet both have failed, the Bishop as the leader 
 of the modern crusade against the Bible, for on page 10 we 
 find him using the following language : " My difficulty is not 
 with miracles, — but solely that I cannot, as a true man, con- 
 
51 
 
 sent any longer to shut my eyes to the absolute palpable self- 
 contradictions of the narrative!" 
 
 In this statement he certainly gives the advantage to those 
 who contend for the integrity of the narrative, for nothing can 
 be more contrary to our qxperience than many of those mighty 
 wonders recorded. 
 
 As a man whose matured intellect should have taught him 
 to render all points of attack impregnable to the assaults of 
 the literary harpies Avho might prey upon him, he is one of 
 the most unskilled of generals. The thing which Job desired 
 in vain he has freely granted to the critics — " Oh ! that mine 
 enemy had written a book." But while he disclaims for the 
 present, all intention of grappling with the great question of 
 miracles, and is pursuing a shorter method to get rid of " the 
 old wives' fables " by the facile process of figures ; he is 
 attempting to perform a miracle that shall be as striking as 
 that of Aaron's rod ; for if he succeeds he may then say " let 
 me die," and will be at once entitled to canonization. 
 
 One by one all the evidences of the "Divine legation of 
 Moses " are removed, or at least the attempt to do so, is put forth 
 with a confidence which must make the timid tremble, and think 
 that the old land-marks are being removed. Ought we to 
 wonder if some begin to spiritualize and say, " Cursed is he 
 that removeth his neighbour's landmark?" especially when 
 such words as those are found in a Book which the Church for 
 ages has regarded as one of the Five written by the meekest 
 of men ? 
 
 To recur to the Bishop's own canon — while there is such 
 a general agreement, men will range themselves with the 
 many and not with the few. Is it credible to suppose that 
 from the times of Joshua and the Judges down to our day, 
 all the kings of Israel, who were bound to transcribe one book 
 at least, of the five Books of Moses, the Seventy, the Eabbis, 
 Josephus, Eusebius, &c., should have been deluded into the 
 belief that Moses wrote the five books, and that some future 
 historian shall have to say of the Bishop " Among the faith- 
 less faithful only he?" 
 
 It appears to me that there is a disposition (among many even 
 so called teachers of the people) to ignore not only the Pen- 
 tateuch, but the whole of the Old Testament, or, at least, to 
 put it into the lumber room of forgotten and effete lore — to 
 
 d2 
 
52 
 
 re^dve and outbid the antinomainism of the past generation — 
 to outlaw and out-gospel those who believe that they dove- 
 tail, and are not to be divorced. And this is done under the 
 profession of doing honour to the " Spirit," and to sacrihce 
 the "letter" to the better genius of the newer birth of time, and 
 in accordance with the advanced state of humanity. Very 
 good! but if we are taught carefulness in weeding up "tares" 
 found among the wheat, how much more guarded should we 
 be, when from many a heart and home there comes the en- 
 treaty — '' destroy it not, for there is a blessing in it." " These 
 things ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other un- 
 done." And above all there comes forth the solemn soimd, 
 "that which God hath joined together let not man," &c. "AVhere- 
 fore, the law is holy, just and good." I repeat it, there is a 
 studious and plausible attempt to undervalue, if not ignore the 
 teachings of the Old Testament, and the "Inner Light" is 
 made to supercede the objective Written Word, which was 
 given under such solemn sanctions. 
 
 " Not to exceed and not to fall short of facts, not to add to 
 and not to take away, to state the truth, the whole truth, and 
 nothing but the truth, are the grand, the vital maxims of Eng- 
 lish law — and, let us add, of Christian faith." The spirit of 
 fair play and honest dealing is supposed at least to hover over 
 our courts at AVestminster, and the integrity of our statute 
 books is a guarantee that justice will be administered in a 
 court of equity. But it has come to pass that bit by bit and 
 book by book the old Bible has been nearly frittered away. One 
 man doesn't like dogma or discipline, another will have pathos 
 but dreads power. Another thinks there is not sufficient 
 unction in historical sermons, such as those preached by Peter 
 and Stephen, &c. It would not be difficult to imagine a com- 
 pany of Ijiblical epicures whetting their appetites for a high 
 festival Problem to be discussed at table — " given the Bible," 
 how much of it will be left after each has been allowed to 
 dissect and devour his favourite part ? Cowper's fable of the 
 Prophet's perplexed followers may help us here, — 
 
 " Thus says the Prophet of the Turk, 
 Good Musselman, abstain from pork; 
 There is a part in every swine 
 No friend or follower of mine 
 iMay take, whatc'cr liis inf lination, 
 On pain of excommunication. 
 
53 
 
 Such Mahomet's mysterious charge, 
 And thus he left the point at large. 
 Had he the sinful part expressed 
 They might with safety eat the rest. 
 But for one piece they thought it hard 
 From the whole hog to be debarr'd, 
 And set their wit at work to find 
 What joint the Prophet had in mind. 
 Much controversy straight arose — 
 These choose the back, the belly those ; 
 By some 'tis confidently said 
 He meant not to forbid the head, 
 While others at that doctrine rail 
 And piously prefer the tail. 
 Thus, conscience free from every clog, 
 Mahomedans eat up the hog." 
 
 I verily believe that if we were to reject tlie different por- 
 tions of the Word of God which the most conscientious men 
 have declared spurious there would be a "famine of the Word." 
 But we wo'nt give up the Bible thus, for it has been handed 
 down to us in its integrity by inspired and uninspired men. 
 
 Josephus — who was born 37 Anno Domini — says, "There 
 are not with us myriads of books, inconsistent and conflict- 
 ing, but only twenty-two, comprising a record of all time, 
 which are justly confided in ; and of these, five are the Books 
 of Moses, which embrace laws, and the tradition of the origin 
 of man, extending to his death. This period falls a little 
 short of three thousand years, and it is plain in our conduct 
 what credit we have given to our Scriptures, for, though so long 
 a time has passed, no one has ventured to add anything 
 to, nor take away from, nor alter them." — Lib. iv., cap. 26. 
 Eusebius writes of Melito, Bishop of Sardis, in Lydia, A.D., 
 170 : — " Since," he writes to his brother or friend Onesimus, 
 " in thy zeal for the word thou hast often desired to have selec- 
 tions from the law and the prophets concerning the Saviour, 
 and the whole of our faith. — Having come, therefore, to the 
 East, and arrived at the place where these things were 
 preached and done, and having accurately acquainted myself 
 with the books of the old covenant, I have subjoined and 
 sent them to thee. Of which the names are these : — of Moses, 
 five, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy," 
 &c. 
 
 It would be very easy to multiply proofs gathered from the 
 Fathers and the Rabbinical writings, of the uniform antiquity 
 
54 
 
 ascribed to the TVTitings, and without entering into the ques- 
 tion of the Samaritan version, and the manner in which it 
 came into their hands after the return from Babylon, upon 
 which an argument of some importance may be built up, I 
 will say that the miserable remnant of Samaritans of Shechem 
 — the Karaites Jews in the Crimea, and the orthodox Jews 
 scattered throughout the world, widely differing upon many 
 social and secular points, and minor ones about certain obser- 
 vances, are one in their estimate, alike of the man Moses, and 
 the Five Books of the law wliich he gave to the priests and 
 the Levites, just before he took his leave of the people, over 
 against Bethpeor, where he died and was buried. " His works 
 do follow him," in all the solemn testimony which has been 
 accumulating through the ages, among a people whose history 
 from his day to ours has been a mystery and a miracle. 
 
 But I shall leave the voices of both Jew and Gentile secu- 
 lar historians to attend to the words of him who came accord- 
 ing to promise — "a prophet like unto Moses " — and who was 
 "faithful in all his house as Moses was." And the words of 
 the Lord Jesus shall be followed by a few of those who were 
 taught of Him, that they might teach others. I avow my full 
 confidence in their wisdom, knowledge, and integrity, but what 
 are we to think of them now that a point has been raised 
 which touches the character of Jesus and His Apostles, and 
 their competency to teach? The Bishop brings us "face to 
 face " with the moral aspect of the whole question, and has 
 no sooner done this, and anticipated the verdict of the whole 
 true Church of Christ, than he expresses a fear lest we should 
 bring the "Ark" into the battle-field. But he has forced 
 u]X3n us the awful and blas])hemous question — Christ or 
 Colenso? And while he believes that the voices of the 
 "crying children" near the priest prevented the people hearing 
 the law read between the two mountains, Ebal and Gerizim ; I 
 believe the "voices of the children" of ]Mount Zion, as they shout 
 Hosanna to Moses and his JNIaster, will say of this new voice 
 in the wihlerness, "Go ye not out to hear him." Notwith- 
 standing his remonstrance, I shall consider in what way the 
 New Testament is affected by the questions raised and the 
 inquiries instituted. This is a question of the gravest impoi-t, 
 and tlie conclusion we reach must be of vital interest. The 
 character of Christ and His disciples for intelligence or 
 
55 
 
 honesty will be gravely compromised if we accept the con- 
 clusions of the volume before us. We are not competent to 
 decide when the Divine and human in the person of Jesus 
 were united or separate in their action ; this is too deep a 
 question for us, and we content ourselves with the assurance 
 that "secret things belong unto the Lord our God, but things 
 which are revealed to us and our children," but " fools rush 
 in where angels fear to tread." 
 
 To those things we shall limit ourselves in the present 
 enquiry, borrowing such aids as the facts of his life supply, 
 as recorded in the Gospels. We have received in the sim- 
 plicity of our childish faith, such passages as these. That is 
 the true light which lighteth every man that cometh into the 
 world. " I am the way, the truth, and the life." And I for 
 one, feel shocked at language which throws a doubt upon His 
 competency and veracity. "We do not know when he spoke 
 the truth or when he was mistaken." This is the grand ques- 
 tion — Was He true — the truth — and an infallible guide ? 
 That settled, all is settled, as to Him in this inquiry. 
 
 In speaking of the numbers used in the Old Testament 
 who feU in battle, there is charity enough in the good Bishop 
 to allow for an occasional mistake, but when they all bear the 
 same cast and character, there is nothing left for him but to 
 reject the whole as a delusion ; designed or otherwise, he has 
 not yet determined. I accept his statement — for I am using 
 his own weapon, and apply the foregoing deduction, only re- 
 versing — happily, as I think, for me and others — the result 
 attained. 
 
 The Doctor rejects the Pentateuch because numbers tell 
 against its authenticity. I accept it because they confirm its 
 truth and authority. What did Jesus do and say in relation 
 to it and its author? If He and His disciples speak one 
 language, and uniformly agree in ascribing to Moses the 
 words and the things recorded in the Pentateuch, and never 
 call in question the authenticity thereof ; then it affords the 
 strongest j^Wm« /ac?'e evidence of its genuineness. 
 
 He was circumcised the eiglith day, according to the in- 
 structions laid down in the law : Luke ii. "To do after the 
 custom of the law," and followed invariably by the Jews. He 
 went to Jerusalem to worship, at the time prescribed by the 
 law (twelve years old). At thirty, standing on the banks of 
 
56 
 
 Jordan, He said, " Tims it behovetli us to fulfil all righteous- 
 ness." He enjoined obedience to the (ceremonial) law upon 
 the cleansed leper — " Go and offer the gifts which Moses com- 
 manded." The Scribes and Pharisees sit in Moses' seat ; all 
 therefore that they command do ye ; and He himself went 
 up to Jerusalem, " that the law of Moses be not broken," at 
 least three times to keep the Passover. He avowed his pur- 
 pose to fulfil, and not destroy the law, and in His life, and in 
 His death " magnified it and made it honourable." He ex- 
 pounded the law — "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God, with &c., 
 and thy neighbour as thyself." " On these two commandments 
 hang all the law and the prophets." He expounded the law to 
 His disciples ; and, beginning at Moses, He opened unto them 
 the Scripture — " ! fools, and slow of heart to believe all that 
 the prophets have spoken." "Did not Moses give you the law ?" 
 Both before and after His resurrection, He substantiates His 
 claim to the Messiahship by the most cogent and convincing 
 arguments drawn from the writings of the great Lawgiver, and 
 silenced those who sought to entrap Him by saying — " If ye 
 believed Moses, ye would believe me, for he wrote of me." 
 " If ye believe not Moses' writings, how shall ye believe my 
 words?" "Did not Moses give you the Law?" And yet 
 further He gave Moses a pre-eminence for power, above the 
 ghostly miraculous signs which an evil and adulterous genera- 
 tion sought after. "If they believe not Moses and the Prophets, 
 neither will they be persuaded though one rose from the dead." 
 Surely this does not look as though he had any misgivings as 
 to the historical truth of the Bible ; and I prefer to follow 
 where He leads, than to grope my way in the dark, with a 
 a guide who is as liable to err as myself. 
 
 Finally, He reminded them in effect, of what He had once 
 told them before in the case of Abraham, &c., " that God was 
 not the God of the dead, but of the living," and that though 
 they might reject His message with impunity, they would not 
 escape. " There is one that accuseth you, even Moses, in 
 whom ye trust." 
 
 The same uniform and even tenor of testimony is uttered 
 by the Evangelists and Apostles. "The law was given by 
 Moses." (Jo. i. 7.) " We have found him of whom Moses in 
 the law, &c.; " and under still more glorious circumstances do 
 they discover and recognise him with. Elijah and the Master 
 
57 
 
 on the Mount of Transfiguration. " There appeared unto 
 them Moses and Elias." Steplien answers tlie accusation of 
 blasphemy against Moses in the address or defence recorded 
 Acts vii. in a way that must be very satisfactory — or unsatis- 
 factory — to some who profess to avoid it. The Epistles 
 sparkle like stars in a dark night with genius borrowed from 
 these books, and the writers remind the Church that they "re- 
 ceived the law by the dispensation of angels/' therein agreeing 
 with an old song — " The Lord gave the word, and great was 
 the company of angels, or witnesses." Where and when? 
 Let Paul inform us ; — " They were all baptized into Moses ; 
 they did all drink of that rock which followed them, and 
 that rock was Christ." " The law which was given," (430) 
 says Paul to the Galatians. " Neither tempt ye as some of 
 them and were destroyed in the wilderness ; " and the Epistle 
 to the Hebrews would be unintelligible without the Pentateuch, 
 as it is the key by which we explain the ceremonial law. If 
 inspired men have not forgotten his doings, neither have they 
 his destiny, for when the discordant notes of men shall be 
 hushed and the feet of the redeemed ones from the earth shall 
 tread the plains of heaven, and all shall " see eye to eye " the 
 only name found worthy to be associated with " that name 
 which is above every name," will be that of the " meek man 
 Moses," the legislator, whose "law was a schoolmaster to bring 
 men to Christ," and a harmony of sound such as was never 
 heard below, shall pronounce the final and unalterable verdict 
 in the song which couples the two names, "the song of Moses 
 and the Lamb." 
 
 I have shown by internal evidence that Moses wrote the 
 books ascribed to him, and one standing proof is found in the 
 number of his disciples who cleave to him as the father and 
 founder of their religion. Wherever they are found an unvary- 
 ing testimony is borne, and this is as strong an argument as 
 you can find externally, for the existence and teachings of such 
 men as Confucius, Zoroaster, Mahommed, the Sikh Gooroos, 
 and others, in whom the Bishop places such confidence. 
 
 Coming down the stream of time Moses rises like the Father 
 of his Country in every emergence, and from Nehemiah down, 
 the principal ordinances instituted by him have been kept as 
 a perpetual memorial by the Jews. From the remotest period 
 of authentic history the chain has never been broken. Where 
 
58 
 
 did they get their notions ? for on their first settlement in 
 Canaan long years before the captivity, or Ezra's days, the 
 people kept their appointed feasts. 
 
 "Why did not the Pharisees, and Saducees, and Scribes, 
 confound Christ by proving " his ignorance ?" Were they not 
 rather at first surprised at his questions and answers as a boy 
 in the Temple, and confounded by tlie sjnritual light which 
 he brought to bear upon the Law? Moses was as needful to 
 Christ as the Baptist. " A\^ierefore, the Law was our school- 
 master to bring us to Christ." That is, the Law in its integrity, 
 the ceremonial and moral Law, the one denouncing disobedi- 
 ence, and the other pointing to the cleansing by "a better 
 offering," as eloquently and forcibly explained in the Epistle 
 to the Hebrews. 
 
 " There was a gi^and and complete unity in the whole narra- 
 tive, and a want of unity in the form of it which rendered 
 foolish the notion that the work was merely a compilation." 
 It is doubtless a condensed narrative, but complete and har- 
 monious ; but we have seen from the earliest ages down to 
 the present time traces of the master hand have been dis- 
 cerned, and tradition has been too vigilant on both sides, 
 orthodox and heterodox, to allow of interpolation ; and whether 
 the Samaritan priest at Shechem, who told me that the copy 
 of the Pentateuch which was enrolled for me w^as written six 
 years after the death of Moses, is correct or not, it certainly 
 bears marks of great antiquity. Again 1 repeat, all things 
 combine to assure me that nothing shall prevent that sublime 
 consummation which the seer of Patmos beheld in vision, 
 when the multitude sung the song of Moses and the Lamb ; 
 and I say of the man who rejects so much testimony to him, 
 that his religion is rationalistic. 
 
 I don't know whetlier tlie ISTew Zealander taught his lord- 
 ship the use of the Boomerang, but I am given to understand 
 it is used most dexterously by the natives of Australia. 
 
 It is a very curious wooden instrument with a joint, and 
 possesses a very elastic spring. Tliey throw it an immense dis- 
 tance in the air, and a skilful man can make it rebound and 
 return to its starting-point with deadly precision, so that he is 
 obliged to remove from the spot, or run the risk of being 
 smitten by liis own weapon. 
 
 Figures are the boomerang which the bishop has unskil- 
 
59 
 
 fully used in his novel warfare, and the weapon will return to 
 do its own work. The eagle sometimes supplies the feathers 
 to the hunter with which he sends the unerring arrow to her 
 quivering heart ; and before this book is done with, its in- 
 herent weakness will furnish the friends of truth with suffi- 
 cient material to show its transparent fallacies and its shallow 
 philosophy, and the tables of a "ready reckoner" will be 
 completely "turned." 
 
 A man who was brought up at the feet of Gamaliel, and 
 whose profound knowledge of the Law enabled him to be its 
 best expositor under the new dispensation, cautioned a bishop 
 against those who "were ever learning, and never coming to a 
 knowledge of the truth,'' and coupled with his caution a fact 
 drawn from the life of Israel's lawgiver. (2 Tim. iii. 8.) " As 
 Jannes and Jambres, (the Egyptian magicians,) Avithstood 
 Moses, so do these also resist the truth." 
 
 Adopting this language as bearing upon the present attempt 
 to weaken and destroy the influence of one who survived all 
 the efforts to thwart his mission in Egypt, I feel as little con- 
 cerned for the issue, for that is safe, and will revive in our 
 day the lustre which has always encircled his name. 
 
 It would be false modesty on my part to say that I have 
 not done something to bring about the consummation, for I 
 feel that as far as I have carried my argument and defence, I 
 believe my effort meets the case ; for in the main my position 
 is unassailable. Others will doubtless follow, and meet points 
 which my time will not allow me to grapple with. With this 
 deep conviction on my mind, I have no hesitation in using 
 the language of the Apostle in the same connection, "But 
 they shall proceed no further, and their folly shall be manifest 
 unto all men as theirs also was." 
 
 PART V. 
 CON-CLUSION OE THE WHOLE MATTER 
 
 " Now of what we have heard this is the sum." We have 
 had to look at a grave indictment l^rought by a bishop against 
 not only one, but many parts of the Bible ; but thank God 
 a " bill of divorce " has not been made out, and British faith 
 
60 
 
 will cling to the " Old Book." It believes in promise and 
 performance ; and looks upon the comprehensive scheme of 
 Moses as a proof of a master mind, which could form a com- 
 plete code for the present and prospective race of Abraham. 
 
 Let the "orthodox concede the probability of some other 
 interpretations," to the joy of the Bishop, and others perplex 
 themselves about the " various versions " of the Bible, the 
 " simple babes," whose privilege it is to " know the mysteries 
 of the kingdom of heaven " will still see a perfect harmony 
 between such words as " Look now toward heaven and tell tlie 
 stars, if thou be able to number them ; and He said so shall 
 thy seed be." Gen. xv. 5; xxii. 17; xxxii. 12, and many 
 others to the same effect ; and the wondrous increase of the 
 seed of Abraham as recorded in the Pentateuch. 
 
 It is to be hoped that they will not lay aside the whole 
 subject because "the objections are old, all of them; they 
 have been refuted over and over again," for I believe the most 
 sifting inquiry will serve, the interests of truth. " Forewarned, 
 forearmed." 
 
 It would be easy to point out how far the change in the 
 use of words may have modified the meaning of scripture. 
 Here is a case in point in reference to the priests " carrying 
 the offal, &c., out of the camp." In Addison's Spectator the 
 writer says " Will Wimble came . . and carried me to the 
 theatre," — quite a task for a friend to perform with liis frilled 
 sliirt and ruffles ; but still worse for a man in Virginia, where 
 they say to the slave " car," for carr}^, " that horse to water." 
 
 But unhappily for the Bishop, he takes everything as it 
 stands ; and in the absence of poetry, and imagination, I shall 
 not be surprised if in the " second part " he should tell us the 
 result of an experiment with optical instruments upon the 
 passage " the waters saw Thee, God," or give us after feel- 
 ing the pulse, the exact answer to the questions, " What ailed 
 thee, sea, that thou fleddest ? thou Jordan, that thou 
 wast driven back?" "Ye mountains, that ye skipped like 
 rams, and ye little hills like lambs ?" Alas ! " trifles light as 
 air," urge him to " pull down," while we look in vain for 
 attempts to " build up," but in this he is only following his 
 predecessors in scepticism. " Can God furnish a table in the 
 wilderness ?" Ps. Ixxviii. 19. I would recommend him to read 
 that, and other psalms, and to look more closely at the chrono- 
 
61 
 
 logical tables, and then he will find here and there a hiatus, 
 easily explained, which will account " for some difficulties," 
 whereas, if we lose sight of that, it can be proved that there 
 were but two generations from Moses to David, as Moses son 
 was treasurer to David (I Chron. xx. 24). Many of his cal- 
 culations utterly break down because of their anachronism as 
 to time, place, and circumstances ; and I am driven to use the 
 Apostle's language, " But even unto this day when Moses' is 
 read, the vail is upon their heart" (2 Cor. iii. 15). 
 
 To characterize the book in one word, it is shalloiv ; it is a 
 proof that there is professorial as well as popular ignorance. 
 Who can describe the evils arising from both ? 
 
 *' A little knowledge is a dangerous thing, 
 Drink deep, or taste not the pyerian spring." 
 
 A little knowledge will merely unsettle a man's prejudices 
 without giving him anything better instead. Many of the 
 supposed increases in knowledge have only given a new name, 
 and often worse, to what was known before. And it is a 
 great truth to be borne in mind that faith and love must in- 
 terpret the Bible, and the Gospel is only comprehended by 
 the heart. " Generally speaking, it is only the half thinker 
 who, in matters concerning the feelings and ancestral opinions 
 of men, stumbles on new conclusions." The Jews have a 
 saying — " He that would understand God's meaning must look 
 above, below, and round about." I have met with the follow- 
 ing remarks endorsed by men whose wisdom, knowledge, and 
 charity were unquestionable. "EeKgion presents few diffi- 
 culties to the humble, many to the proud, and insuperable 
 ones to the vain." And the most dangerous fiction and 
 poisonous poetry is that which insinuates itself into the good 
 opinion of the reader by its close resemblance to virtue, while 
 the hero is in reality a double distilled villain. The most 
 mischievous liars are those who keep sliding on the verge of 
 truth ; and the polished shaft of a dexterous archer, who ap- 
 parently draws the bow at a venture, does more harm than 
 the poisoned arrow of a Voltaire or a Paine. Besides the 
 most difficult man to deal with, is a conscientious but ob- 
 stinate good man ; and history and experience teach us that 
 a sincere and conscientious man may do many things in the 
 name of religion, thinking he is doing God's service, while 
 all the time he is violating some of the first principles of 
 
62 
 
 Christian faith. " Oh ! Liberty," said the French heroine, as 
 she was being led to the guillotine, " what crimes have been 
 committed in thy name." Men who act against the truth in 
 this way are like Milton's moon — 
 
 " One that had been led astray, 
 Through the heaven's wide pathless way." 
 
 The most flippant philosophy of the past and present age has 
 tried to whet its wit upon the difficulties and seeming contra- 
 dictions of the Scriptures, but of the laughter produced thereby 
 we may say with Solomon, "I said of laughter it is mad." 
 (Eccl. ii. 2.) 
 
 The inevitable tendency of this superficial way of thinking 
 is to obscure the light which otherwise might stream into the 
 understanding, so that seeing they might see. " Thou hast 
 hid these things from the wise and prudent." " The letter 
 ■kills, the spirit giveth life." Peter Bell is as qualified to 
 interpret nature, as such men Eevelation — 
 
 " A primrose by the river's brim, 
 A yellow primrose was to him, 
 And it was nothing more." 
 
 Let US never forget that truth is one ; and the old and the 
 new must agree, though we may have to wait awhile before 
 we see their harmony. But however imperfect our knowledge 
 of the olden times, and the people who received the Gospel, 
 no thoughtful man can fail to see that one was preparatory to 
 the other. 
 
 We take the whole as dove-tailing the promise made to 
 Abram, and the law which was given 400 years after its last 
 renewal to Jacob, and the Gospel which was brought in in the 
 fulness of time, as constituting a perfect revelation of the 
 Divine will, and by this Book we will yet conquer as our 
 fathers did. 
 
 Our fathers received the lively oracles from God through 
 Closes, but Ave are called upon to cast them aside as an " old 
 wives' fable," and to look upon Moses as a great mountain 
 myth, appearing to the diseased and exaggerated imagination 
 of the Oriental mind. 
 
 There are some whose attachment to a worn out heir-loom 
 expresses itself in the well-known line — 
 
 "A sacred thing is the old arm chair." 
 
 Others will say, "Sceptic, spare that Book !" 
 
63 
 
 The Bible is more to them than mere sentiment, however 
 touching and tender, and is more sacred than aught else 
 beneath the sun ; and, were it necessary, I could quote votive 
 literary offerings which have been made to it by the best, most 
 brilliant, and most base, but that is not my purpose. I only 
 remark that amid all vicissitudes 
 
 "Age cannot wither, and custom cannot stale 
 Its infinite variety;" 
 
 and as I have found my own faith confirmed by a renewed 
 study of some of its fundamental principles, my prayer is that 
 he who has moved me to it may come back to the old faith he 
 learned beside his mother's knee. When a man has put forth 
 his highest power and finds that the grand oak cannot be bent, 
 he may well ask, was it a wise expenditure of strength ? 
 
 I feel thankful that a stronger case has not been made out 
 against the claims of the Bible to my confidence. There are 
 those who think that the Bishop smites with the flat hand of 
 rhetoric, and not the fist of logic. " Bring forth your strong 
 reasons," and then, as of old, " The things which remain can- 
 not be shaken." Pliny tells us of some cattle who fatten on 
 smoke, and I fear the Bishop has been too much in " cloud- 
 land," or among the casuists of a warmer and more hazy 
 clime. But he will yet find how futile the attempt to over- 
 throw the faith of those who are resolved to " hold fast the 
 things which they have received," and be left at last a warn- 
 ing to rash men — 
 
 " To point a moral, and adoi'n a tale." 
 
 I would respectfully say to him, " Put up thy sword into 
 its scabbard, for he that taketh the sword shall perish by the 
 sword." 
 
 One in whom the genius of our race found a fitting and 
 trusty echo said, " I am set for the defence of the Gospel ;" 
 and "When Peter was come to Antioch I withstood him to the 
 face, because he was to be blamed ;" and spiritual wickedness 
 in high places, even though it be " the sin of ignorance," must 
 be called to account, lest those who pass it by are censured 
 as Eli was as touching his own sons. However painful it may 
 be to come face to face with a man occupying a high place in 
 the Church, I have no fear of meeting the same fate as Korah, 
 &c., when they said, "Ye take too much upon you " (Num. 
 
G4 
 
 xvi.) ; but feel emboldened, because " strange fire has been 
 offered upon tlie altar." 
 
 It is for the Bishop to consider how far a mder application 
 may be made of those words to wdiich the people at Ebal said 
 Amen — " Cursed is he that removeth his neighbour's land- 
 mark. Cursed is he that maketh the blind to wander out of 
 the way" — (Deut. xxvii. 17, 18); and those also, "Ye shall 
 not add unto the word which I command, nor diminish." 
 (Deut. iv. 2.) 
 
 I may attack the character of the book, for thank God tliis 
 is an age of free criticism and fair play ; but I am not at 
 liberty to "do evil that good may come," and therefore all 
 personalities are avoided. I feel moved, however, when the 
 slightest suspicion is cast upon the character of the Master, 
 and think it a challenge to investigate that of the man who 
 brings it, although I shall leave others to do that. Herein I 
 think " he is to be blamed." 
 
 I do not impute motives ; for on the very face of the move- 
 ment you are led to believe that with the tremendous power 
 which can, and may, be brought to bear against him, there is 
 evidently more to lose than gain. The clearest definition of 
 the Avriter, to my mind, is supplied in the words, " My inherit- 
 ance is a speckled bird." But if underlying all this cry of 
 conscience, there be a lurking desire to become a proto-martyr 
 bishop of these last days, it is to be hoped that a little of the 
 practical wisdom of William III. will prevail in the modern 
 
 Sanhedrim, the Convocation : — "Mr. ■ ," said William, 
 
 " has set his heart upon being a martyr-, but I have made up 
 my mind to disappoint him." 
 
 The Bishop is no infidel ; yet a man may under a mistaken 
 notion and with the best intentions, infiict a great injury on 
 the cause he professes to love ; and this is not the first time 
 that Christ has been woinided in the house of his friends, and 
 many as honest as he will think they hear a voice saying, " Is 
 this thy kindness to thy friend ? "— " Et tu Brute ! " 
 
 I recall with pleasure an incident which happened in the 
 history of my people. When the land was divided by lot to 
 the twelve triljcs, and they were settled in their own bound- 
 aries, the inheritance of my forefathers became the chosen 
 battle-ground. 
 
 Through long years the Canaanites who were left to prove 
 
65 
 
 the people, were often aided by the Midianites and the noma- 
 dic tribes who made war upon Israel ; but they were defeated 
 by Deborah and Barak, Gideon, Jephtha, Samson, and other 
 deliverers, and at length a king was chosen, who betrayed the 
 interests of the people, and was doomed by God to be deposed 
 by David. (1 Chron. xii. 23.) 
 
 When the rival of Saul raised his standard at Hebron the 
 representatives of the tribes rallied around him, and honour- 
 able mention is made of the little tribe from which I sprang, 
 " and of the children of Issachar, which were men that had 
 understanding of the times to know what Israel ought to do." 
 " The heads of them were two hundred, and all tlieir brethren 
 were at their commandment." (1 Chron. xii. 32.) 
 
 We have ever been distinguished for understanding and a 
 consistent subordination to command ; and though we have 
 shared in the dispersion of the ten tribes, we are known among 
 the nations, and our old spirit still walks the earth. Do not 
 think I am the "wandering Jew" because you have followed 
 my wanderings in Europe, Asia, Africa, and America, for it is 
 our mission to have "understanding of the times," and to 
 collect and collate facts, so that fiction may fall before them 
 as Dagan did before the Ark of the Lord. But our grand 
 "Eepertory of useful knowledge" was collected by wise men 
 during many ages, and we have in it the collective wisdom of 
 lawgivers, poet j)rinces, prophets, evangelists, and apostles, 
 and have ever found it the most valuable magazine from 
 whence to draw supplies when called upon to defend our own. 
 It helps us to testify for the truth, and confound those who 
 gainsay or resist it. 
 
 I should be recreant to the traditions of my tribe if I did 
 not, in this instance, stand "in the old paths" and say, "this 
 is the way, walk ye therein," and should fear to hear the 
 reproach, " Why abodest thou among the sheep-folds to hear 
 the bleating of the flocks?" — (Judges v. 16) — and still more 
 the dread words, " Curse ye Meroz bitterly, because they 
 came not to the help of the Lord, to the help of the Lord 
 against the mighty." 
 
 In bidding adieu to the reader, I would say that, like most 
 other young men, I started out in life under the banner of the 
 " truth- seekers," and accepted as my liberal creed — 
 
 E 
 
" Seize on truth where'er 'tis found, 
 On Christian or on heathen ground ; 
 The plant's Divine where'er it grows : 
 Kcjeet the thistle, and assume the rose," 
 
 ] was not long- before I found myself in " Doubting Castle." 
 1 wanted some one to " minister to a mind diseased/' and soon 
 ibund enough of alimentary food supplied by the "free 
 tliinkers" of the day. But I was like the woman who w^ent 
 to Christ, and told him she had suffered much from many phy- 
 sicians, and was no better, but rather the worse. I too could 
 sa\-, as I say now, with Tennyson, " In JMemoriam " — 
 
 •' There is more faith in honest doubt, 
 Believe me, than in half the creeds." 
 
 And doubt \\'as the ladder by which I was to climb to belief. 
 There was something liberal in Pope also which appealed to, 
 and ol)tained my warm suffrage — 
 
 "For modes of faith let graceless bigots fight. 
 He can't be wrong whose life is in the right." 
 
 Exi)erience has since taught me to reverse my judgment of 
 Voi)Q thus — 
 
 *• Dark thoughts and deeds to darkened minds belong, 
 He can't live right whose faith is in the wrong." 
 
 But I wanted more than a negation and an eternal secMng 
 after truth, and began to ask myself the question. Is man 
 doomed to be involved in tlie endless stud}^ " Ever learning, 
 and never coming to the knowledge of the truth?" and in an 
 agony of desire 1 prayed to be deliA'ered from weakness and 
 darkness, and now what joy to feel and know — 
 
 <' Rolled away that fearful darkness, 
 Pu.st my weakness, past my grief; 
 Washed with bitter tears 1 sat 
 Full in the sunshine of belief." 
 
 Tliaiik (1(.(1 "tlie sable cloud turned fortli her silver lining on 
 llic night." 
 
 The siiiipk' means l)y which this change was effected, was 
 a careful reading of the New Testament. The internal evi- 
 (lenc(! of its authenticity left me no room to doubt; and 
 although I have read much, jt^^o. and con., since, my fixed faith 
 has roniaiiied unshaken ])y any foe ; and is very little firmer 
 for the services rendered by any friend who has put forth his 
 lianrl to save the ark whicli contained it from falling. I re- 
 
67 
 
 peat it — " truth is one " — and wherever found, utters the Gos- 
 pel of wisdom to men, and whenever there is another voice, 
 those who have been taught by her will not be deceived, as 
 Isaac was by Jacob when he simulated Esau's voice. " My 
 sheep hear my voice." With the Bible in hand, a clear head, 
 and an honest heart, I have no fear of the issue of that ordeal 
 through which we are passing or shall have to pass. But 
 what we want is to awaken inquiry, and to be like the heroic 
 Bereans, who " searched the Scriptures daily, and demand of 
 those of wdiom it is said " should not the priest's lips keep 
 knowledge/' that they go to the law and the testimony. "For 
 if they speak not according to that, it is because there is no 
 light in them." The hcaton oil, which is for the lamps of the 
 sanctuary, will give the steady and true light — not the yea 
 to-day, and the nay to-morrow — but if it has been kindled by 
 Him who is " the Father of lights," it will be the "everlasting 
 yea." " He that believeth in me shall not Avalk in darkness, 
 but have the light of life." Bring all things to the real touch- 
 stone of truth, and not simply to its semblance. In one word, 
 to use the language of tlie prince of dreamers, as he sends 
 out his pilgrims — " Let truth be free to make her sallies upon 
 thee and me, which way it pleaseth God." 
 
 And then mental perplexity will give place to perfect peace, 
 and man will learn how true it is, that to live to the full, 
 we must live in the faith that works, with the love that 
 never fails, and the hope that blooms with immortality. This 
 will yet prove the glorious " Excelsior " of our young men ; 
 and though through heedlessness or ignorance, they may be 
 tempest tossed upon the sea of doubt, yet their earnest cry 
 will bring to their aid One who once said, " Peace be still," 
 and with Kirk White they will thankfully sing : — 
 
 ''Once on the raging seas I rode — 
 The storm was loud, the night was dark, 
 The ocean yawned, and rudely blowed 
 The wind, which tossed my foundering bark. 
 
 Deep horror then my vitals froze, 
 Death-struck, I ceased the tide to stem, 
 When suddenly a star arose, 
 It was the star of Bethlehem. 
 
68 
 
 Tt was my guide, my life, my all. 
 It bade my dark forebodings cease ; 
 And through the storm and danger's thrall, 
 It led me to the port of peace. 
 
 Now safely moored, my peril's o'er, 
 I'll sing fii-st in night's diadem 
 For ever, and for evermore, 
 The star — the star of Bethlehem." 
 
 FINIS. 
 
1 
 
Photomount 
 
 Pamphlet 
 
 Binder 
 
 Gaylord Bros., Inc, 
 
 Makers 
 Syracuse, N. Y, 
 
 FAT. JAN 21. 1908 
 
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