MOSAIC ORIGIN OF THE PENTATEUCH. 



53 



by a people— and a religious people too — as a basis and fount of 

 inspiration and of religious life and conduct. 



Counting you among the workers in the field of our Sacred Law, 

 let me congratulate you on the success which has hitherto attended 

 your labours. May you go from strength to strength ! 



Discussion. 



Prof. H. Langhorne Orchard, M.A., B.Sc, in moving a vote of 

 thanks to the lecturer, said : Any man purposing to criticise the 

 Holy Scriptures should possess the qualifications of (1) a reverent 

 spirit ; (2) detachment from bias ; and (3) adequate scholarship. 

 I do not find these three attributes together in any of the sceptical 

 critics. Yet a fourth qualification is important, namely, spirituality, 

 which says : "Oh, how love I Thy Law ! " The four are all promi- 

 nent in the Paper before us, — a Paper marked by acuteness in argu- 

 ment, cogency and cumulative force in reasoning, and fairness 

 "toward opponents. 



I am especially struck with the arguments showing inter-relation 

 of parts and unity of plan ; also with those drawn from linguistic 

 considerations and foreign words. The Holy Spirit was the Author 

 of Pentateuch, as of all the Scriptures. Moses was indeed the 

 principal writer. God has spoken to man by His holy prophets 

 from the very earliest times. There has from the beginning been a 

 Revelation, and this Revelation has not been left to the uncertainty 

 and corruption of merely oral tradition. It has been ivritten under 

 the " inspiration of God." 



Mr. M. L. Rouse, B.A., B.L. : Before now in such discussions as 

 these I have pointed out that several times in Joshua allusion is 

 made to Deuteronomy, and once or twice in such terms as no forger 

 could have thought of using. The passages are : " As I have said 

 unto Moses, all this land shall be thine ; " again, when Joshua rallied 

 the Israelites into two companies to hear the Commandments, he 

 added " as the Lord commanded Moses." Then, in an account of 

 how many nations or cities were left, we read : "for it was the Lord's 

 will to destroy them ... as the Lord commanded Moses." 

 These passages are witnesses to the fact that Deuteronomy was 

 written earlier than the book of Joshua was. In Job viii, 8, we read : 



Inquire, I pray thee, of the former age, and prepare thyself to 



