To conclude; we challenge the infidel to blot out, if he can, the name of ABRAHAM, with the promise and the prophecy it contains, from the pages of the Pentateuch and of the entire Bible. If he cannot do that, we challenge him to blot out the four thousand years of Jewish, Arabian, and Gentile history which have fulfilled that prophecy, and made good that promise. If he can do neither the one nor the other -if it be beyond his power either to obliterate the name or to alter the history-let him confess with all honesty that the history was anticipated, that what has happened was foreseen and foretold; or, in other words, that there is here an unquestionable miracle of foreknowledge, and a proof of inspiration so conclusive that it cannot be gainsaid. "I AM JEHOVAH: THAT IS MY NAME: AND MY GLORY WILL I NOT GIVE TO ANOTHER, NEITHER MY PRAISE TO GRAVEN IMAGES. BEHOLD, THE FORMER THINGS ARE COME TO PASS, AND NEW THINGS DO I DECLARE: BEFORE THEY SPRING FORTH I TELL YOU OF THEM" (Isa. xlii. 8, 9). "KNOWN UNTO GOD ARE ALL HIS WORKS FROM THE BEGINNING OF THE WORLD" (Acts xv. 18). CHAPTER IV. THE MOSAIC PROGRAMME. NEARLY five centuries had passed since the days of Abraham when the next great crisis in the history of redemption occurred. It is associated with the name of Moses, one who is more notable as a founder than as a father. His "seed," his own personal descendants, were of small account. The programme of the future given through him relates, not, as in the case of Abraham, to his own posterity, but to the people of Israel to whom by birth (though not by education) he belonged the people whom he was commissioned by God to constitute and train into a nation, and to lead to the borders of their promised inheritance. It was when he had done this, when his long and marvellous life had reached its close, when he was just about to commit to Joshua the leadership of the people who were destined to become the world's benefactors, that he was inspired to foretell their future-in that fourth section of the Divine programme of the world's history which we have now to consider. In order to its right appreciation, we must briefly review the interval which had elapsed since the age of the patriarchs treated in our last chapter. We must endeavour to realize the character of the times in which Moses' lot was cast, and recall the main features of the romantic, heroic, and most extraordinary life which he himself lived-a life unmatched among those of the sons of men for the sublimity of its incidents, the striking contrasts of its experiences, and the everlasting importance of its results. |