THE SIGNIFICA-NCE OF THE GEOGRAPHY OP PALESTINE. 195 



Israel, on leaving Canaan, is described as " now physically and 

 mentally unfit " ; and on page 189, lines 4, 5, " Physically they were 

 fit ; mentally they were untrained," after a year's discipline in the 

 wilderness. In the first of these cases their bodies were all right : 

 "there was not one feeble person among their tribes." Moreover, 

 less than two months after leaving Egypt, they put up a good fight 

 with Amalek. Physically, therefore, they were all right though 

 mentally they were unequipped. 



In the second case, after a year's training, they were right mentally, 

 for the mind is physical and not spiritual — I mean in the sense that 

 men and beasts are all sharers of the same spirit (see Genesis vii, 21- 

 22). Apart from the spirit the mind cannot think, but neither can 

 the body move. When we read of all the wonderful ways in which 

 Jehovah had shown His mastery over the gods of Egypt, and of His 

 miraculous care and protection during the first two months of the 

 wanderings, the only conclusion at Avhich I can arrive is that the 

 moral and spiritual elements alone were at fault, and that ancient 

 Israel must be awarded the palm for perversity. I find no difficulty 

 in the command to exterminate certain races. When depravity is in 

 the very bones, it is the most merciful thing to do. Why, in some 

 cases, cattle were also to be destroyed, and in others virgins alone 

 amongst humanity were to be preserved alive, is at present some- 

 what of a mystery which, when solved, may prove to be the clue to 

 important truth. 



Dr. SCHQFIELD : May I be allowed to suggest an additional 

 explanation to Sir Charles Warren's solution on page 190, that the 

 duty of destroying nations in this extraordinary way may be a test 

 similar to that imposed by Abraham on his son Isaac. I should 

 like to suggest that there is a very sinister reason beyond that which 

 is hinted at in Genesis vi, where it says : " There were giants in the 

 earth in those days, and also after that." To my mind this is a 

 reference to the race of Anak, and the special reason for the extra- 

 ordinary command to exterminate this particular race was to carry 

 out the word : "I will destroy man, because he has corrupted his 

 way on the earth." That is to say, the preservation of the clean 

 race in a pure state was dependent upon the destruction of the 

 unclean in a defiled state. That, I think, is the possible clue to 

 the extraordinary commands given with regard to the nations of 

 Canaan. 



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