360 
and yet its relevancy to the present cardinal case must be 
wholly denied. The number of 600,000 certainly owes nothing 
to this cause. That all these constituent figures should have 
been miscopied by careless scribes, quite unintentionally, and 
yet that the totals, -addition-sums of five columns of twelve 
lines each, — should be delivered correct, could have resulted 
only from a special overruling Providence working expressly 
on behalf of falsehood ! . 
29. No, there is but one alternative possible, -hither the 
numbers are truly given, and 600,000 is the thoroughly trust- 
worthy sum of the men who left Egypt, or else the numbers 
have been systematically falsified, and this with elaborate care 
that there be no self-contained source of detection ; iaisihed 
therefore wilfully and wickedly. 
30. Thus we are brought face to face with those who, 
like Dr. Colenso (vol. i., pref. xvii.), deny the historical 
character of the Pentateuch. They see that no transcribers 
errors will account for the amplitude of these figures ; the 
narrative must stand or fall with them; if they cannot be 
received in their integrity, the Pentateuch is but a romance, a 
fiction, a comparatively modern “story,” compiled out oi 
f 1 f ancient legends.” . . , , . , . , , 
31. All our hopes for eternity are inseparably linked with 
this book. If it is not absolute truth,— there, was no 1 all ot 
Man ; no arch Adversary ; no promise of a Deliverer to bruise 
his head; no separation of Abraham; no covenant of bless- 
ing no chosen seed; no divinely-appointed redemption by 
blood ; no pictured reconciliation to G-od ; no access into the 
Holiest. All these were worthless fables ; unhistonc legends. 
If it is not absolute truth, then Jesus was indeed ‘ a deceiver 
of the people ;” or a brainless enthusiast ; He was not God 
manifest in the flesh; He did not “ speak the words of God ; 
the word which the people heard from Him was not the 
Father’s which had sent him;” His death was valueless as an 
atonement; He is not raised from the dead; and we aeb yet 
in our sins; and they that have fallen asleep m Ohns are 
perished. Yes, this is what we have to face; every one o 
these results must follow if the Pentateuch is not the revela- 
tion of the unlying God,— 6 tyevSric Owq. 
32. It is often asserted that some parts of the written VV ord 
stand on a different ground from others, in regard to their 
claims to our obedience of faith. In the discussion which 
followed Dr. Thornton’s paper, Mr. Titcomb is recorded to 
have said,— “ For if I see that in such matters, which are 
utterly indifferent to the purposes of eternal life, there are 
a variety of statements, one more full and another less full ; on 
