The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1882-01-25
agreeable to them.

SIOunu IudC JuSy udu Ueeu ueINeIeu 10
an inspired man nearly thousand years
before, and had just come to light? If
they were fiction" the people knew
they were fiction; and do people accept
fraudulently-constructed legislative en-
actments, knowing them to be such, and
suffer themselves to be quoted with the
explanation that they are merely "a legal
fiction"2 Could Mr. Gladstone, in Eng
land, suddenly persuade the English peo-
pie that he had discovered in Westmin-
ster Abbey book written by st. Peter,
containing land-bill and much Incl
dental legislation, all intended to settle
the Irish question? Could he persuade
either the English people or the Irish
people that such book had any author
ity? Could he make them submit to it.
and not only submit to it, but embrace
it heartily as coming from God himself?
The Jews not only accepted the suddenly
discovered book, but they have defended
it with their blood these twenty five
hundred years. Witness the Maccabean
wars. And all this is audaciously given
to us with solemn smirk, and the as
sumption of greatly superior knowledge,
as 1.-The higher criticism These literary
puppies undertake to kick over the work
of sober and sensible scholars with abso-
lutely irrational and purely arbitrary
theoriesl
There are no traces, says Professor
Smith, of the Mosaic law in the histor-
zeal and other books of the Old Tesla
ment, and there was no central sane
tuary with an Aaronic priesthood, until
ages after the death of Moses. In order
to make good this assertion, he first rules
out the Book of Joshua, as an incompe-
tent witness, because of its close relations
to the Pentateuch. He then makes the
Books of Chronicles stand aside, because
they were written after the time of Ezra.
Prof. Green allows him (almost con-
temptuously) to put aside these witnesses,
and appeals to the remaining books, in
which we cannot of course follow him.
Turn anywhere almost at random to
the books of the Old Testament Zone or
two excepted), and we find references to
the tabernacle, and to sacrifices, and to
the Levites, and to the Aaronic priest
hood, and to the law" which Moses"
gave. In l Kings ii 8, David enjoins
it on Solomon to keep the statutes, and
commandments, and judgments of the
LORD, " as written in the law of Moses"
Then we read in l Kings of the building
and the dedication of the Temple three
or four hundred years before Josiahs
reign. So we read again in 2 Kings
xviii: 6, how Hezekiah (who lived
century before JOSIAH kept his com
mandments which the Lord commanded
Moses" In l Sam. vi Is, we have
mention of the Levites and the ark of the
Lord. We learn from Judges xviii-xxi,
that the ark of the Lord" was at Shiloh
during the early part of the period of
the Judges, and we learn from l Sam.
i "a, that "the house of the LORD" was
still at Shiloh at the close of that period,
and that in it was the lamp of God"
Gil: 3 and the ark with its cherubim
Gv: a, whittier Elkanah went up yearly
to worship and sacrifice Ii: 81. In Judges
Xxx: 27, the people come to the ark to in
quire of the LORD. "The feast of the
Lord was observed annually at Shiloh.
Judges xxi: 10. Read also the story of
Ruth, which is based on the Levirate
law
How does Prof Smith answer all this?
He says the worship of the Israelities was
carried on at number of "local sane
tuaries that there were other shrines
besides Shiloh, and that Samuel sacrificed
at various places, and made a yearly cir
cult to Bethel, Gilgal, aad Mizpeh, re-
turning to Ramah
Now there is no intimation in the Book
Of Judges, from beginning to end of any
legitimate sanctuary but Shiloh, or Of
any legitimate priest out of the Aaronic
line. The people were in a lamentable
state Of religious declension, and God did
from time to time appear to special in
dividuals who were permitted on such