76 



THE REV. A. H. FINN ON 



But then selection implies a plan and purpose on the part 

 of the writers requiring the omission of what is not essential 

 to the design. That is of course a characteristic of most 

 histories, especially of those written from a special point of view. 

 As a geological map will contain many features not in the ordinary 

 map, and omit much which is found there, so a poHtical history 

 will, generally speaking, take little notice of religious matters, 

 while an ecclesiastical history will pass by many a political 

 event. That is excellently exemphfied in the difference between 

 the books of the Kings and those of the Chronicles, and it is 

 simply unfair to assume, when the writers of the latter supply 

 reUgious details not recorded by the former, that they were 

 drawing on their imaginations, and " ideaHzing " the past. 



Then, again, selection will often, perhaps chiefly, mean noticing 

 what is unusual to the exclusion of the ordinary and regular. 

 In the Book of Judges, for instance, it is recorded that " the 

 land had rest " for 40 years in three instances, and for 80 years 

 in another, yet of these prolonged periods of quiet, nothing 

 whatever is chronicled. It is only to be expected that this will 

 also be the case with regard to matters religious. The excep- 

 tional passovers of Hezekiah and Josiah are noticed just because 

 they were exceptional, while elsewhere the observance of the 

 festival is not mentioned. After the days of Joshua, the 

 practice of circumcision is not alluded to, and there are only 

 two or three casual allusions to the Sabbath (in 2 Kings) : it 

 would be rash in the extreme to conclude that these were unknown 

 or neglected. 



On the other hand, breaches of the laws would call for notice, 

 and this would account for the mention of unauthorized places 

 of sacrifice (including those at the " high places," of which so 

 much has been made) and of irregularities such as Micah's 

 images, Gideon's ephod, and the golden calves of Jeroboam. 



From all this it follows that it is most unsafe to argue that 

 because certain matters are not mentioned in the histories 

 therefore they were unknown. A modern history notices the 

 refusal to pay an unauthorized impost, such as the ship-money 

 or the duty on tea in the American colonies, and might record 

 a police strike ; it will make no mention of the regular payment 

 of rent, rates, and taxes, or the steady activities of the police, 

 just because they are so constant. In precisely the same way 

 the normal observance of sacred days, rites, and dues, or the 

 performance of the duties of priests and Levites would be likely 



