362 
more obvious ; and of this He alone is the competent judge, 
who unfolds the purpose. Of this, however, we may be con- 
fident; nothing that He sees fit to interweave into Hi 
Revelation will be other than absolutely true, absolutely 
worthy of our subjection of mind, whether it appear to our 
clouded vision trivial or momentous. i ^ , 
34 Having shown, as I trust I have, that the number 
assigned to Israel at the Exode is no lectio varia, no lapsus 
calami of a careless scribe, but an integral part of the text as it 
came from the writer, I proceed to test the demand that it be 
rejected, because of the “palpable self-contradictions which 
cleave to it. This is, as Dr. Thornton remarks (§ 12), the 
very basis of the operations of Dr. Colenso and his followers 
against the authenticity of the Old Testament. 
35. It is argued that such a population, on the given con- 
ditions of origin and time, was, if not absolutely imp ossi e 
without a miracle, at least so excessively improbable as to be 
unworthy of belief. How could the households which went 
down with Jacob have increased to 600,000 adult males during 
the soiourn in Egypt ? Now, at the outset, what is probability ( 
S it itX assumption that the like results will. follow certain 
conditions, as have invariably followed them hitherto within 
human experience, cceteris paribus ? The application of this 
law to the case before us breaks down at once, as soon as 
we admit that the sacred narrative everywhere asserts,, that 
God Himself had a special object in view; for what parity is 
there between human experience and the energy of the Mo 
High God ? (See supra, § 12.) _ OK , . 
36 I admit that the period of the increase was 215, and not 
430 years ; the authority of Paul (Gal. in. 17) bang 1 condu- 
sive that the Giving of the Law was 430 years after the 
Covenant of Promise made to Abraham (Gen. xii. 3, /). It 
is certain from the narrative that at the bisection of this term 
Jacob went down to Egypt. For, from the Covenant 
To the birth of Isaac 
To the birth of J acob 
To the interview with Pharaoh 
25 years. 
60 „ 
130 „ 
215 
Gen. xii. 4 ; xxi. 5. 
„ xxv. 26. 
.. xlvii. 9. 
37 That the multiplication of the chosen seed should be a 
matter of Divine care, was guaranteed by express covenant, 
“ften reiterated. “ I will n4e of thee a great -Lon .was 
the nromise of Jehovah to Abram when He called km to 
£,X”» MW. h.». <G« » 2). 
seed as the dust of the earth” (xin. 16). Tell the stars. 
