3 o 4 THE OLIVE LEAF. CHAP. 



what were the purpose and meaning of the monument 

 that was invisible beneath the waters of the river. In- 

 deed, so great is the difficulty, that not a few able com- 

 mentators have alleged that the text is an interpolation, 

 and that in reality there was only one monument of the 

 event erected. The reference to an apparently double 

 memorial, they contend, is simply a continuation of the 

 description of the manner in which God's commands 

 were fulfilled, as " Thus Joshua set up the twelve stones 

 which they had taken from the midst of the Jordan in 

 the place where the feet of the priests which bore the 

 ark of the covenant stood." Against this plausible 

 theory, however, there is the formidable authority of the 

 Septuagint translators, who have accepted the text as it 

 is rendered in our version. 



There can be no doubt that all the circumstances con- 

 nected with the entrance of the Israelites into the Holy 

 Land by the passage of the Jordan were meant to have 

 a deeper significance than a mere natural one. For 

 just as the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt and their 

 wanderings in the wilderness, while truly historical, may 

 be regarded as a religious parable written for our in- 

 struction, so the circumstances connected with the 

 entrance of the Israelites into Canaan, while truly his- 

 torical, may be regarded as a pictorial representation of 

 spiritual experiences. Look, for instance, at the fact 

 that the Israelites were shut up by Providence to enter 

 the Holy Land where they did. They attempted to 

 enter by the open desert of the south-west directly from 

 Egypt, but they failed, and were driven back, con- 



