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THE REV. A. H. FINN ON 



world are in reality a trespassing on forbidden ground. For in 

 Deut. xviii, 11, the word which in our English Versions is repre- 

 sented by " wizard " means one who claims to possess occult know- 

 ledge, and " necromancer " stands for " a seeker to the dead." 



We still need the reminder of Deut. xxix, 29, that while " the 

 things revealed belong unto us and to our children," there are 

 also " secret tilings " which " belong unto the Lord our God." 



There is much of practical importance to be learnt by noting 

 carefully the silences of Holy Scripture. 



Addendum. 



The silences of Scripture may be compared to the inter-stellar 

 spaces which by their very darkness enhance the brilliance 

 of the stars, and mark out the forms of the constellations : 

 when however the sun rises, both darkness and stars disappear 

 and the whole sky becomes uniformly bright. It is much the 

 same with the writings of the Old Testament. While as yet the 

 Dayspring from on high had not visited us, the gleams of promise 

 and prophecy shone radiantly against the background of human 

 woe and sin, but more or less disconnected and scattered. Then 

 the sun, the Sun of Righteousness, arose and at once all was 

 transfused with heavenly light. The whole history is seen, 

 through all the many fluctuations and changes, to be governed 

 throughout and guided to one great and worthy end : utterances 

 of psalmist and seer are invested with a fulness of meaning 

 far beyond what could have been understood at the time when 

 they were uttered : rites and ceremonies can no longer be regarded 

 as arbitrary enactments, and the different sacrifices are perceived 

 to be significant symbols of the true Ofiering of devotion, 

 reconciliation, and atonement. Light, too, is thrown in quite 

 unexpected places. There are passages in the Old Testament 

 which do not seem necessary to the development of the history, 

 especially in records where there has been such evident careful 

 selection, and some of them not very edifying. Why should 

 those long, dry genealogies at the beginning of Chronicles have 

 been preserved ? Why was the repellent incident of Judah's 

 relations with his daughter-in-law thrust in to break the current 

 of the Joseph narrative ? The account of the two spies in Jericho 

 being sheltered by a woman might have been told without 

 laying repeated emphasis on her occupation. The story of Ruth 

 is very beautiful in its tender simplicity, but was it important 



