upon the sins of men? For more than four thousand years men were ignorant of the conception of God with which we are now familiar. 'rhis is nn undeniable fact in the economy of Providence. It is sul'Cly un- reasopable to require men to act upon any other principles than those which God had then permitted to be known. (8) For it must be remembered that the severe pun_ishment inflicted by Joshua upon the Canaanites who fell into his hands was not a mere out- burst of savage cruelty. The i~stitutions and principles of the Jews were far more humane than those of any other nation in those early times.* The precept to exterminate the Canaanites owed its origin to a stern indig- nation against vices which were sufficient of themselves, according to God's righteous order, to destroy by a more lingering, and therefore a more cruel, death any nation who yielded to them. It was a part of God's curse against that sin, the existence of which has been in many ways man's gre:test difficulty in comprehending God. The awful catalogue of abomin- ations which we scarcely venture to read in Leviticus xviii.-xx., are distinctly said to have been committed by "the men of the land" (eh. xvi ii. 24--30; xx. 23), and the land was "defiled" therewith, and God "ab- horred " it. The power of grown-up women to lead the Israelites into such sins had been already fatally proved (see Numbers xxvi.). In days before men were endowed with supernatural strength from on high, there seemed no safeguard against the seductive influences of the sensual creed of Palestine but the destruction of those who professed it. The neglect to to carry out the command was at once followed by a relapse into these abominable idolatries, and as lust and cruelty are strangely and nearly allied, the land was filled with bloodshed, and injustice, and crime, culminating in the atrocious custom of the sacrifice of innocent children at the altar of the infernal Moloch. It may even be questioned whether, in view of the inevitable results of a cultus like thl t ~f Palestine, severity might not have been, as it often is, the truest kindness; whether, had the Jewish law been fulfilled, the Canaanites extirpated, and Jewish ascendancy been established from Lebanon to the wilderness, from Euphrates to the river of Egypt, the principles of humanity now gaining ground among us might not ha,e been antedated, and the inhabitants of Palestine have been socially and politically almost as much gainers by the Jewish polity as the world at large by the religion of Christ. (4J We are entitled, besides, to remember that the revelation of God through Moses was an immense advance in the moral education of the world. Perhaps we have been too much absorbed in its visible failure as regards the many, to observe that, as regards the few, it was as conspicuous a success. • This is not the place for a detailed examination of the statement. It properly belongs to the trea.tment of the Pentateuch, TO THE BOOK OF JOSHUA. xv
Our minds have been so occupied with St. Paul's view of it as demonstrating to man his utter inability to satisfy God by exact compliance with the conditions of a rigid covenant of law, that we have omitted to notice what a vast stride it was in the moral education of the world. The history of the conquest of Palestine can compare favourably with the history of any other conquest the world has known, in the simplicity and absence of personal aims of its leader, in the absolute fairness and equity of his conduct, in the wisdom and humanity of the institutions it established, in the provision, not only for religious worship, but for the moral instruction of the people. The dispersion of the Levites throughout the ten tribes, with the duty of expounding and enforcing the Jewish law, was a means of moral elevation greater than any other nation possessed. Nor, though it did not succeed in securing the obedience of the nation at large, can it be held altogether to have failed. The schools of the prophets raised up men who for their energy, courage, moral grandeur, and sometimes (as in the case of Samuel) political capacity and honesty, can challenge comparison with any great men that have been produced elsewhere. David was a monarch of a type unknown to the world in that or even in far later times, and the one crime into which he was betrayed by irresponsible power would not have excited equal reprobation in an Alexander, a Cresar, a Charlemagne, a Charles V., or a Napoleon ; though au honest and independent prophet could foresee that it would " cause the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme" when committed by "the sweet Psalmist of Israel,'' the man who in his ingenuous youth was the "man after God's own heart." Thus the objection that Moses and Joshua were not in every respect in advance of their age would seem inconclusive, when weighed against the fact that in so many respects they were in advance of it. So far from the Jewish religion having introduced barbarity into the world, it greatly mitigated such a spirit, while the Jewish law was the seed-plot from whence spnmg that vast improvement, both in humanity and morality, which has contributed not a little to the happiness and the excellence of mankind. II. A more formidable objection by far is raised to the miraculous portion of the Book of Joshua. The progress of modern physical science has altogether altered the position of miracles among the evidences of Chris- tianity. In earlier ages the marvels that were believed to have been wrought by God at the inauguration both of the old covenant and the new, were regarded as among the most conspicuous proofs of the Divine origin of both. Now these very miracles are the greatest difficulties in the way of the reception of Christianity. The discovery of the laws of force by which the universe is governed, and the apparent invariability of their action, is calculated to throw considerable doubt on the accuracy of a narrative which records so startling a departure from the ordinary course of nature. The xvi INTRODUCTION