y over the nations of the earth, not only to the covenant
people, but also to the surrounding heathen world. Had the Canaanites
perished by famine, pestilence, earthquake, or fire from heaven, it
might have remained doubtful to the heathen by whose anger their
destruction had been effected, that of the Canaanitish gods, or of the
God of Israel. But now that God went forth with his people, dividing the
Jordan before them, overthrowing the walls of Jericho, arresting the sun
and the moon in their course, and raining down upon their enemies great
hailstones from heaven, it was manifest to all that the God of Israel
was the supreme Lord of heaven and earth, and that the gods of the
gentile nations were vanity. This was one of the great lessons which the
Theocracy was destined to teach the human family. At the same time the
Israelites, who executed God's vengeance on the Canaanites, were
carefully instructed that it was for their sins that the land spewed out
its inhabitants, and that if they imitated them in their abominations,
they should in like manner perish.

8. The Mosaic economy was but the scaffolding of the gospel. God took it
down ages ago by the hand of the Romans. It perished amid fire and sword
and blood, but not till it had accomplished the great work for which it
was established. It bequeathed to Christianity, and through Christianity
to "all the families of the earth," a glorious body of truth, which
makes an inseparable part of the plan of redemption, and has thus
blessed the world ever since, and shall continue to bless it to the end
of time.

CHAPTER XI.

REMAINING BOOKS OF THE OLD TESTAMENT.

1. The divine authority of the Pentateuch having been established, it is
not necessary to dwell at length on the historical books which follow.
The events which they record are a natural and necessary sequel to the
establishment of the theocracy, as given in the five books of Moses. The
Pentateuch is occupied mainly with the founding of the theocracy; the
following historical books describe the settlement of the Israelitish
nation under this theocracy in the promised land, and its practical
operation there for the space of a thousand years. There is no history
in the world so full of God's presence and providence. It sets forth
with divine clearness and power, on the one side, God's faithfulness in
the fulfilment of the promises and threatenings contained in the Mosaic
law; and on the other, the perversen