furniture Israel then possessed. From this fixed point the student is
able to infer what happened to Israel in earlier times, and to judge
of the spirit in which the early history of the people was afterwards
written and edited. The history of Israel which the student arrives
at after these critical processes differs, it is true, in very
important respects from that which appears at first sight on the face
of the Bible. But the same thing has occurred in the case of other
nations. The sacred books of Persia also have to be turned outside in
before they furnish the historian with an account he can accept. Even
of the speeches of Mohammed the same is true. Those who undertake the
task of codifying sacred literatures have to consider the purpose to
which the books are to be put in the community, and to arrange them
so as best to serve that purpose; they do not ask, How must they be
arranged so as to exhibit the true sequence of the history?--that
interest only arises much later--but, How will they best serve the
needs of the community? The order of books in sacred collections is,
therefore, fixed by practical considerations, now of one kind and now
of another, and not according to the requirements of the student of
history. We now proceed to give the outline of the history of the
religion of Israel as it appears in the light of recent critical
investigation.

Israel consisted originally of a group of tribes, bound together by
the memory of a great deliverance they had experienced in common, and
of battles in which they had fought side by side. Accustomed to the
free life of shepherds, they had been enslaved in Egypt and held to
intolerable tasks; but they had made their escape in a wonderful
manner under a leader who had known how to kindle them to heroic
efforts by reminding them of their religious traditions. Under his
leadership they had visited the Sinaitic peninsula after leaving
Egypt, and had wandered in the regions to the north of Sinai, till at
last they conquered territory to the east of Jordan, on which some of
them settled, while others crossed the Jordan, and took up their
abodes among the Canaanite tribes whom they found there.

The nation and the religion came into the world at the same time.
Although the tribes retained their separate gods and religious
observances, and families among them also had their own family cults,
the bond by which they had been formed into a people and made capable
of common ac