ten tribes, in which the true spirit of the theocracy was confessedly at a very low ebb. Those of the proph- ets who have left their writings as a portion of Scrip- ture have furnished references to facts and phrases in the books of Moses, sometimes longer and more direct, sometimes briefer and more incidental, but so various and multiplied that it has been found necessary to frame the hypothesis that the prophetic writings were the originals out of which our present I'entateuch was formed : a supposition in itself sufficiently unnatural, and, if it w^ere admitted, still forcing us back upon the question, What, then, was the foundation of divine au- thority, as acknowledged by the people of Israel, on which the pr(»phetic office rested, and to which the prophets in their teaching appealed?
(c) A strong support is also furnished by two books of Scripture which are of a very difterent nature from any that have yet been noticed — the books of Psalms and of Proverbs: the one dealing with the devotional feelings, the other with the practical life of the people of Israel, and both often naming the law, and contin- ually referring to it, or tacitly assuming that it was known and reverenced.
(d) It is unnecessary to speak of the testimony of books written after the return from Babylon, as Ezra, Nehemiah, and Chronicles: a testimony which is ad- mitted to be so full and explicit that there is no way of destroying its force, or of even materially diminishing its value, unless by affirming boldly that these are sucli late writings that they are no authorities upon the question ; as in fact the history given in the books of Chronicles is often pronounced incorrect and untrust- worthy.
(e) But now if, as appears from the examination of all the extant Jewish literal lue, the Pentateuch exist- ed as a canonical book ; if, moreover, it was a book so well known that its words had become household Avords among the people ; and if the prophets could appeal to it as a recognised and well-known document — how comes it to pass that in the reign of Josiah, one of the latest kings, its existence as a canonical book seems to have been almost forgotten? Yet such was evidently the fact. The circumstances, as narrated in 2 Chron. xxxiv, 14, etc., were these: In the eighteenth year of his reign, the king, who had already taken act ive measures for the suppression of idolatry, determined to execute the neces- sarj' repairs of the Temple, which had become seriously dilapidated, and to restore the worship of Jehovah in its purity. He accordingl_y directed Hilkiah the high- priest to take charge of the moneys that were contrib- uted for this purpose. During the progress of the work, Hilkiah, who was busy in the 'i'cmple, came upon a copy of the book of the Law — which must have long lain neg- lected and forgotten — and told Shaidian the scribe of his discover)'. The effect produced by this was very re- markable. The king, to whom Shaphan read the words of the book, was filled with consternation when he learn- ed for the first time how fiir the nation had departed from the law of Jehovah. He sent Hilkiah and others to considt the prophetess Huldah, who only confirmed his fears. The consequence was that he held a solemn as- sembly in the house of the Lord, and -'read in their ears all the words of the book of the covenant that was found in the house of the Lord." How are we to ex- plain this surprise and alarm in the mind of Josiah, be- traying as it does such utter ignorance of tlie book of the Law, and of the severity of its threatenings, except on the supposition that as a written document it had well-nigh perished? This must have been the case, and it is not so extraordinary a fact, perhaps, as it ap pears at first sight. It is quite true that in the reign of Jehoshaphat pains had been taken to make the na- tion at large acquainted with the law. That monarch not only instituted " teaching priests," but we are told that as they went about the conntrj' they had the book of the Law with them. But that was 300 years before — a period equal to that between the days of Luther and
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our own ; ami in such an interval great changes must have taken place. It is true that in the reign of Ahaz the i)r(iiihct Isaiah directed the people, who in their hopeless infatuation were seeking counsel of ventrilo- quists and necromancers, to turn "to the law and to the testimony;" and Hezekiah, who succeeded Ahaz, had no doubt reigned in the spirit of the prophet's ad- vice. But the next monarch was guilty of outrageous wickedness, and filled Jerusalem with idols. How great a desolation miglit one wicked prince effect, especially during a lengthened reign ! To this we must add that at no time, in all probability, were there many copies of the law existing in writing. It was probably then the custom, as it still is in the East, to trust largely to the memory for its transmission. .Just as at this day in Egypt persons are to be found, even illiterate in other respects, who can repeat the whole Koran by heart, and as some modern Jews are able to recite the whole of the five books of Moses, so it probably was then : the law, for the great bulk of the nation, was oralh^ preserved and inculcated. (See Mr. Grove's very interesting pa- per on Nablus and the Samaritans in Vacation Tourists, 1861. Speaking of the service of the ?/o?« kippiir in the Samaritan synagogue, he says that the recitation of the Pentateuch was continued through the night, "without even the feeble lamp which on even,^ other night of the year but this burns in front of the holy books. The two priests and a few of the people know the whole of the Torah by heart" [p. 346].) The ritual would easily be perpetuated by the mere force of ob- servance, though much of it doubtless became perverted, and some part of it perhaps obsolete, through the neg- lect of the priests. Still it is against the perfunctory and lifeless manner of their worship, not against their total neglect, that the burning words of the prophets are directed. The command of IMoses, which laid upon the king the obligation of making a copy of the law for himself, had of course long been disregarded. Here and there, perhaps, only some prophet or righteous man possessed a copy of the sacred book. The bulk of the nation were without it. Nor was there any reason why copies should be brought under the notice of the king. We may understand this by a parallel case. How easy it would have been in England, before the inven- tion of printing, for a similar circumstance to have happened. How many copies, do we suppose, of the Scriptures were made? Such as did exist would be in the hands of a few learned men, or more probably in the libraries of monasteries. Even after a translation, like WicklifFe's, had been made, the people as a whole would know nothing whatever of the Bible ; and yet they were a Christian people, and were in some measure at least instructed out of the Scriptures, though the volume it- self could scarcely ever have been seen. Even the mon- arch, unless he liappened to be a man of learning or pi- ety, would remain in the same ignorance as his subjects. Whatever knowledge there was of the Bible and of religion would be kept alive chief!}' by means of the liturgies used in public worship. So it was in Judah. The oral transmission of the law and the living testimony of the projihets had superseded the written document, till at last it had liccunie so scarce as to be almost un- known. But the hand of God so ordered it that when king and people wore both zealous for reformation, and ripest for the reception of the truth, the written docu- ment itself was brought to light.