THE WITNESS OF ARCH/EOLOGY TO THE BIBLE. 



201 



affliction. . . . All light thrown on Oriental ancient history has 

 made it increasingly evident how important was Palestine as a 

 meeting-place of all the great civihsations and races of the 

 ancient world." * 



" This is Jerusalem. I have set it in the midst of the nations 

 and countries that are round about her." Ezek. v. 5. 



Geographically, Palestine occupies a central position between 

 the three continents, Europe, Asia and Africa. Draw a straight 

 line from Jerusalem to Rome; then describe a circle with Jeru- 

 salem as the centre and this line as the radius. You will find 

 that circle includes all the great nations of the ancient world ; 

 the four world-empires of Nebuchadnezzar's dream — Babylon, 

 Medo-Persia, Greece and Rome; the great nation of Egypt, and 

 all the lesser kingdoms of " the world as known to the an- 

 cients." f 



" When the Most High divided to the nations their inheri- 

 tance, when He separated the sons of Adam, He set the bounds 

 of the people according to the number of the children of Israel." 

 Deut. xxxii. 8. The little nation of Israel was " set in the 

 midst." It touched the life of these nations at every point, 

 and was continually coming in contact with them. Its history, 

 as contained in the Bible, is full of allusions to each of these 

 other nations. Such allusions are a challenge to the truthful- 

 ness of the Scripture record. If we find them proved true by 

 the contemporary records of those nations the evidence goes a 

 long way to establish the integrity of Scripture ; for the work 

 of an impostor is not hkely to be accurate in its details. 



The lands inhabited by the ancient nations of the world con- 

 tain priceless archaeological treasures bearing upon history as 

 recorded in the Bible. But till quite lately these treasures were 

 inaccessible, from the fact that the inscriptions were writteq 

 in languages which no one living could read. They might be 

 compared to precious archives hidden in a locked casket of which 

 the key was lost. 



In most remarkable ways one after another of the keys has 

 been found, and found at the moment when the archives were 

 most needed as witnesses to the accuracy of the Scripture 

 record; found, moreover, in such a manner that we cannot but 

 regard the discoveries as providential, rather than accidental. 



Foremost among these keys stands the Eosetta Stone, now 

 in the British Museum, discovered in 1798 by a French engineer 

 named Broussard, near the Eosetta mouth of the Nile and 



Institute, Vol. XLIX., p. 218. 



* " Land of Palestine." by Dr. E. W. Masterman, Journal of Victoria 

 t See an article by Rev. Andrew Craig Eobinson, in " Friends' Wit- 

 ness," Vol. X., p 5.' 



