130 PROP. HULL, LL.D., F.E.S., ON HOLY SCRIPTURE ILLUSTRATED AND 



would be considered ample in the case of any other docu- 

 ment. The whole account, for example, of the Exodus is 

 saturated Avith the miraculous ; and to eliminate this element 

 Avould be to set up a history of events absolutely unintelli- 

 gible. Either tlie account of the Exodus must be taken 

 with its statements of the interposition of Almighty power 

 at successive periods and in critical stages of tlie Israelitish 

 history, or the Avhole must be relegated to the catalogue of 

 mythical narratives such as the Odyssey of Homer or the 

 jEneid of Virgil. I refer to the Exodus as a typical case on 

 which it is desirable to obtain whatever light can be throAvn 

 by modern research ; for if we can show that such research 

 has resulted in the identification of the localities and sites 

 of the events recorded we have a strong argument for 

 maintaining that the events themselves actually occurred and 

 that the narrative is authentic. 



I do not intend on this occasion to dwell at any lengtli 

 upon the subject of Tlie Exodus ; having done so on several 

 previous occasions, particularly at the meeting of the Church 

 Congress at Carlisle. But I desire to point to the fact that 

 this narrative is so intimately mixed up with topographical 

 details that they are essential to its credibility. If the 

 physical features of Egypt, Sinai, Edom, Moab, the Jordan 

 valley, and Palestine (which have undergone but little altera- 

 tion within the past three or four thousand years) Avere 

 essentially different from those required by the narrative in 

 the books of Exodus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, and Joshua, 

 we should have grave cause to doubt the authenticity and 

 truth of the events recorded. These physical features 

 remain standing monuments to the truth or falsehood of the 

 Biblical narrative. So the question may be asked under 

 which aspect are they to be regarded ? Well, I might 

 summon a number of witnesses who are able to record from 

 their own observation the fact that the physical features, and 

 often the very names attached to them — translated from the 

 Hebrew into the Arabic — accord remarkably with the narra- 

 tive ; so that, standing on the spots with our Bibles in our 

 hands, we can picture to ourselves the successive events as 

 recorded in the sacred books. I have only to mention the 

 names of S7ich travellers as the late Dean Stanley ; of Pro- 

 fessor Palmer, who in his Desert of the Exodus, has succeeded 

 in identifying almost every spot where important events 

 occurred in connection with the Israelitish emigration ; of 

 BurckharcJt: of Sir Charles AVilson and the officers of the 



