ed; so, after God called Moses to his great work, all the
learning and wide knowledge he had gathered during his life were
dedicated to the service of God, and used by His Holy Spirit.

We do not know--we are nowhere told--whether Moses wrote every word of
the 'Books of the Law.' The Jews believed that every letter, every
tiniest dot was his. It may well have been so, as we have seen.

But, again, he may very likely have had helpers and editors; that is,
people who arranged and copied his original writings.

But the Children of Israel always called the first five books of the
Bible 'The Torah'; that is, 'The Law'; and they looked upon these as
their most precious possession, something quite above and apart from
every other writing--Jehovah's direct words and commandments to His
people.

At last the life-work of Moses was done, and Joshua took his place,
called by God to lead the people forward. But the new leader found
himself at once in a very different position. When Moses brought the
Children of Israel out of Egypt they were without a Bible.

But in Joshua's days the light had begun to shine, the river of the
knowledge of God to flow, and God was able, therefore, to say to His
servant Joshua:

'_This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou
shall meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do
according to all that is written therein: for then thou shall make thy
way prosperous, and then thou shall have good success._' (Joshua i. 8.)

We are not told who was called by God to write the Book of Joshua; we
think that Joshua wrote at least a part of it himself, but we all know
that it describes how the Israelites came at last into the Promised
Land, and drove out the wicked idol-worshippers.

Buried deep in the earth the remains of many old Canaanite cities have
been found.

Those of Lachish, the great Amorite city, are specially interesting.
We know how the Children of Israel dreaded the Amorite cities. '_Great
and walled up to Heaven_' (Deuteronomy i. 28), as the people said.
Yet, in spite of their great strength, Joshua took them one by one,
overthrew them, and afterwards built the Jewish towns upon their ruins.
This was the custom of conquerors with all these ancient cities, as the
excavators find to-day.

Now, in the remains of Lachish we can see its whole history. Three
distinct cities have been found, one below the other.

Deepest down of all, full sixty feet un