ms, with the wool. But
it came to pass that when Ahab was dead that the King of Moab rebelled
against the King of Israel.

Now amid the perpetual wars of the petty kingdoms of Asia, and after the
utter extirpation of the Moabitish nation, the chances were millions to
one against our recovering any historical monuments whatever of that
people; and almost infinite against recovering any which should coincide
with the half dozen allusions to them in the Bible. But Mr. Klein
discovered in the ruins of Dibon, one of the ancient cities of Moab, and
Capt. Warren recovered, the fragments of the now famous Moabite Stone,
on which, in the old Samaritan characters, we read: "I, Mesha, son of
Jobin, King of Moab. My father reigned over Moab thirty years, and I
reigned after my father. I erected this altar unto Chemosh, who granted
me victory over mine enemies, the people of Omri, King of Israel, who,
together with his son, Ahab, oppressed Moab a long time--even forty
years,"[140] etc.

But space forbids even the enumeration of the corroborations of Bible
history from the days of Abraham to the time of the first census of the
Roman Empire, when Cyrenius was Governor of Syria the second time. In
every instance where its monuments have spoken of biblical affairs they
have confirmed the accuracy of the Bible history. The history of Great
Britain, or of the United States, is not more authentic than, and not so
accurate as, the long line of history recorded in the Bible. No
important error has been proven in any of its historical statements of
the world's history for forty centuries. This accuracy contrasted with
the acknowledged errors of the best historians, is proof to every candid
mind of divine direction and help to the sacred writers.

Sweeping away, then, these cobwebs, we open the volume and form our
opinion of its genuineness and authenticity from its own internal
evidences--its nature and contents--and from the way in which it was
used by the Hebrew nation.

It is important at the outset to know how long these documents have
undoubtedly existed. No one denies that they were in existence eighteen
hundred years ago. Indeed, the first literary attack on them which has
been recorded was made about that time; and Josephus' defense of the
Scriptures against Apion still exists. The very same writings which the
Protestant churches now acknowledge as canonical, and none other, were
then acknowledged to be of divine authority by the