133 
Mr. Edwards. — Samuel himself is distinctly called a judge. You may 
carry down the life of Samuel to the life of David himself. 
Mr. Titcomb.— Grant it all ; but still the period in the wilderness would 
he more than thirty years. 
Mr. Edwards. — But if Joshua was the first judge and Samuel the last 
Mr. Titcomb.— Joshua could not be considered a judge. 
Mr. Edwards. — W hy not ? 
Mr. Titcomb. — Joshua was the captain of the Lord’s host. 
Mr. Edwards. — But was he not a judge ? 
Mr. Titcomb.— O h, no. 
Mr. Beddie. — Dr. Thornton will no doubt pay attention to all this in his 
reply, and give a satisfactory solution of the difficulty. Mr. Bow has 
already mentioned that he did not agree with Dr. Thornton in the passage 
where he speaks of the upholders of Masoretic tradition. I thoroughly agree 
with Mr. Bow, and I think this part of Dr. Thornton’s paper is against his 
own view. You need not give up that Masoretic tradition because these 
errors of numbers are better explained in the 33rd and 35th paragraphs by 
blots and smears, &c. There is also one point in Mr. Bow’s remarks that it will 
be as well to notice. He talked of the tendency to exaggeration in profane 
history, and he gave us an example. He spoke of the fleet during the Bussian 
war being only half-manned 
Mr. Bow. — Not the Bussian war ; I said the great French war. 
Mr. Beddie. — I thought you referred to the Bussian war ; and as I have 
heard pretty much the same thing before, I was going to correct the error. 
We had 147,000 men at the time it seems Mr. Bow was speaking of — the 
very largest number we ever had in our navy. At the time of the Bussian 
war the same thing was said ; but it could only mean that our men were not 
half trained — that they were not thorough sailors — as to numbers we had 
enough. I ought also to notice that the Abouldr,' mentioned by Dr. Thornton, 
in comparison with the ark, is not a good specimen of our largest ships. 
Admiral Halsted will tell us that we have ships half as large again, if not even 
greater in size than that. The ark corresponded almost exactly with the 
dimensions of the Great Eastern , which is 600 feet long ; and it has always 
been considered as a sort of indirect testimony to the supernatural know- 
ledge of Noah, that he should have constructed a vessel corresponding so 
well with the greatest triumph of modern scientific shipbuilding 
The Chairman.— Was not the Great Eastern taken from Noah’s dimen" 
sions ? 
Mr. Beddie. — I think not. It was only afterwards discovered that there 
was this extraordinary coincidence in their dimensions and proportions. 
Mr. Titcomb. — The true state of the case with regard to the Judges is very 
important ; and it is no use for us to put our heads under the sand, like the 
ostriches, thinking that no one sees us. In the 19th verse of the 13th 
chapter of the Acts these words occur : — 
“ And when he had destroyed seven nations in the land of Canaan he 
divided their land to them by lot,” 
