CONCERNING THE COMPOSITION OF HOLY SCRIPTURE. 185 



foes. Then under the monarchy the schism soon came, and a 

 series of unfaithful kings and priests caused in both nations so 

 serious a lapse into idohitry as ultimately brought both down 

 to irreparable ruin. It was during this latter period for the 

 most part that the ministry of the prophets took place. 



Xow if the prophets preceded the Law, not only must we 

 abandon all faith in the veracity of the records which describe the 

 giving of the Law, but we must assign to the prophets themselves 

 a role which honest men of God could never have taken. They 

 were chiefly of the non-sacerdotal classes, and their missions were 

 largely to rebuke both kings and priests and people for their 

 unfaithfulness to the Divine Laws — Laws which with one voice 

 they attribute to Moses. They call for a return to the loyal 

 obedience of those Laws, and utter solemn threats of national 

 disaster and final ruin if disobedience be persisted in. " The 

 ox knoweth his owner and the ass his master's crib," said Isaiah, 

 " but Israel doth not know, and my people doth not consider." 

 Ezekiel the prophet of the Exile, says in the name of the Lord, 

 " Wherefore I caused them to go forth out of the land of 

 Egypt and brought them into the wilderness. And I gave 

 them my statutes and showed them my judgments, which if a 

 man do he shall even live in them. . . . But the house of 

 Israel rebelled against me in the wilderness ; they w^alked not in 

 my statutes, and they despised my judgments . . . then I 

 said I would pour out my fury upon them in the wilderness to 

 consume them " (xx, 10-12). Xow if the hypothesis under 

 consideration be correct, there is not a word of truth in this 

 statement, and we must conclude that such language was mere 

 prophetic chicanery, rulers and people being rebuked for dis- 

 obedience to Laws which had never been given, and browbeaten 

 into the observance of Laws wdiich had yet to be enacted. 



On the whole then it must be concluded that the hypothesis 

 for the reconstruction of Old Testament history which places 

 the prophets before the Law, and treats the earlier records as 

 legends, creates more difficulties than it removes, and makes 

 larger demands upon our credulity tlian the most miraculous 

 event recorded upon the sacred page. 



III. The Theory of Spiritual Evolution. 



Xo account of these modern theories could be regarded as 

 approximately adequate which passed over the theory of 

 spiritual evolution. The facts dealt with are briefly these: — 

 Upon the earlier pages of the Sacred Volume the religious 



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