tered through the
historical books, with nothing to distinguish them, in the ordinary
versions, from the historic context. In the volumes of this series the
distinction is made by titles; the reader can thus, without difficulty,
bring to each of these varieties of literature the kind of attention it
requires; it is further possible, and highly desirable, for him to make
a separate study of Scriptural Story. History it is not easy to
illustrate by selections; but the stories of the sacred books are
represented in the present volume by typical specimens.

One book that has a place in the historic sequence of the Bible
introduces us in reality to a different class of literature--Oratory.
Deuteronomy is made up of the Orations (and Songs) of Moses,
constituting his Farewell to the People of Israel. It is oratory in the
fullest sense of the term, representing the words as they may be
supposed to come direct from the speaker. For the most part however the
sacred literature of oratory is of a different kind; not exact reports
of spoken words, but the substance, it may be, of several similar
speeches worked up afresh into a form of written discourse. In this
wider sense, the oratorical literature of the Bible is of considerable
extent; it includes the prophetic discourses, and reflects the fervid
contests over first principles of righteousness which constituted the
main life of Israel. The principal varieties of Biblical oratory are
illustrated in this volume.

Philosophy has an important place in Scripture. The word however is not
there used to describe a division of literature, but the sacred
philosophy is called 'wisdom,'--a term suggestive of its close
application to matters of human life and duty. This Wisdom literature
started from the 'proverbs'--simple thoughts conveyed in a couplet or
triplet of verse, which were collected together by King Solomon and
other of the wise men of Israel. From these proverbs the form of wisdom
enlarged to verse epigrams and sonnets, or prose maxims and essays,
until we find books of wisdom comprehending complete systems of thought.
To catch the development of this Wisdom literature, it is necessary to
take in two books of 'The Apocrypha'; a portion of sacred Scripture
which in the last century used to be bound up with Bibles, standing in
its historical position between the Old and New Testaments, though now
it is usually separated. In theology, which is concerned with questions
of authori