rtain the author I
was reading didn't know; and I doubted if any one else did. I felt the
incipient doubts of my school days returning, only in much larger
volume and greater force. If the reader will pardon the phrase: "I
felt myself slipping."

Then followed a study of the authorship, origin, character, and purpose
of the remaining canonical books of the Old Testament. These may all
be grouped into two or three divisions. Of the historical books of
Joshua, Judges, First and Second Samuel, First and Second Kings and
First and Second Chronicles, I found to my surprise, that nobody knows
who wrote any of them; nor anything definite about the time, or
circumstances under which they were written. Joshua was merely
_believed_ to have been written not later than twenty-five years after
the death of Joshua, by some person or persons who were personally
familiar with the events therein narrated. As the book is clearly
divided into two distinct parts, the first ending with the twelfth
chapter and the second beginning with the thirteenth, it is _supposed_
that it was written by Eleazar and Phinehas. But this is admitted to
be mere conjecture.

The Book of Judges is placed after that of Joshua, because it takes up
the narrative where Joshua closes. It is assumed that it _must have
been written_ sometime before the close of David's reign. "Respecting
the Authorship of Judges, nothing is known." The date of both books of
Samuel--originally one book--is wholly unknown, as is also that of the
Kings and Chronicles. It is conjectured from internal evidence, that
Chronicles was _probably_ compiled by Ezra, from Samuel, Kings, and
possibly other documents, sometime after the return from the exile.

As to the Book of Ezra, it was shown that it is probably one of the
most authentic books of the Old Testament, and written by the man whose
name it bears. Nehemiah was also placed in the thoroly authentic
class, with the admission that about one-fourth of the total contents
of the book, appearing in the middle of it, is _very probably_ an
interpolation by a later, and unknown author. But this, he insists,
does not detract from the divine inspiration and authenticity of the
book as a whole.

Ruth and Esther also belong to the class of the unknown. Nobody knows
who wrote either, nor when, nor where. Ruth is placed "probably
sometime during the reign of David." Esther is much later; in fact it
is one of the latest books in th