eive the Bible as containing a revelation
from God agree in holding the truth of the narrative. So also in
regard to the Deluge and other events involving scientific
questions which are recorded in the book of Genesis. Some of
these questions may perhaps be satisfactorily solved by further
inquiry. Others will probably remain shrouded in mystery till
the consummation of all things. To the class of historical
difficulties belong several chronological questions, as, for
example, that of the duration of the Israelitish residence in
Egypt. It is sufficient to say that however these shall be
settled--if settled at all--they cannot with any reasonable man
affect the divine authority of the Pentateuch which is certified
to us by so many sure proofs.

4. The difficulties which are urged against the Pentateuch on moral
grounds rest partly on misapprehension, and are partly of such a
character that, when rightly considered, they turn against the objectors
themselves. This will be illustrated by a few examples.

A common objection to the Mosaic economy is drawn from its
_exclusiveness_. It contains, it is alleged, a religion not for all
mankind, but for a single nation. The answer is at hand. That this
economy may be rightly understood, it must be considered not separately
and independently, but as one part of a great plan. It was, as we have
seen, subordinate to the covenant made with Abraham, which had respect
to "all the families of the earth." Chap. 8, No. 4. It came in
temporarily to prepare the way for the advent of Christ, through whom
the Abrahamic covenant was to be carried into effect. It was a
_partial_, preparatory to a _universal_ dispensation, and looked,
therefore, ultimately to the salvation of the entire race. So far then
as the benevolent design of God is concerned, the objection drawn from
the exclusiveness of the Mosaic economy falls to the ground. It remains
for the objector to show how a universal dispensation, like
Christianity, could have been wisely introduced, without a previous work
of preparation, or how any better plan of preparation could have been
adopted than that contained in the Mosaic economy.

If the laws of Moses interposed, as they certainly did, many obstacles
to the intercourse of the Israelites with other nations, the design was
not to encourage in them a spirit of national pride and contempt of
other nations, but to preserve them from the