was educated at
Heliopolis, in Egypt, for the Egyptian priesthood, and was therefore
perfectly familiar with all the priestly regulations of the religion of
Egypt; and that _the tabernacle service, its priesthood, their dress,
sacred utensils, etc., were doubtless all patterned after Egyptian
models, but devoted to Jehovah instead of the gods of Egypt; and he
cites this as a proof of the Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch_.

And in support of this view, he quotes the opinion of the Abbe Victor
Ancessi! And I had always been taught that the tabernacle, the
priesthood, and all that pertained to both, were divinely revealed to
Moses on Mt. Sinai! "According to the pattern shown thee in the mount."

Then on the question of interpolations, our author confesses that there
are many of them in the Pentateuch, most of them showing that they
belong to a much later age than Moses; yet he denies that any of them
are material, or in any way change the original meaning or sense of the
text.

Thus I went thru over 250 pages, devoted, not so much to the questions
of divine inspiration and supernatural revelation, as these seemed to
be very largely taken for granted; but to the defense of the Mosaic
authorship of the Pentateuch upon which seemed to hinge the whole
question of its authenticity and infallible authority. As the author
puts it, "If the Pentateuch was not written by Moses it is a forgery."
To do this he quotes quite elaborately from the higher critics, Bauer,
Davidson, Bleek, Ewald, Kuenen, Wellhausen, and others, for the
ostensible purpose of answering and refuting them.

Now I had, up to this time, never read a line of such Biblical
criticism, except that quoted by this author. Naturally, I not only
had no sympathy with it, but was strongly prejudiced against it. But I
could not fail to note that the refutations and explanations of my
author very often failed to either refute or explain.

To sum the whole thing up, when I had gone thus far, I could not avoid
the impression that from the standpoint of logical argument, based upon
any _known facts_, the whole thing was a failure. It was simply a
continued series of apologetics; in legal parlance, a sort of
"confession and avoidance." I began in the firm _belief_ that Moses
wrote the Pentateuch, and that he was divinely inspired in doing it. I
expected to find the definite proofs that this was true. When I got
thru I didn't know who wrote it. I was equally ce