e who read God's Word often forget what old, old
writings the first books in the Bible are, and how everything has
changed since they were written.

Seeing the words so clearly printed on fine white paper, readers do not
stop to think that they have come down to us from the days when the
greatest nations in the world wrote their best books on lumps of clay,
or on rough, brittle paper made from brown reeds.

So these Bible readers grow impatient, and because they cannot
understand everything all at once, some are even foolish enough to give
up reading the Old Testament altogether.

But the things that are hard to understand are only hard because we are
still so ignorant. Whenever any new discovery about the ancient times
has been made it has always shown us how exactly true the Bible is.

Some years ago, just at the time when the doubts and carpings were at
their worst, when those people who did not trust God even declared that
many of the cities and kings mentioned in the Old Testament had never
existed at all, a wonderful thing happened. God allowed the old cities
themselves to be brought to light once more.

Deep under the earth they were found, with their beautiful palaces,
libraries full of books, and long picture-galleries, lined from end to
end with stone and marble slabs, on which were cut portraits of the
very kings whose existence the people were beginning to doubt! This is
how it happened.

'The Bible does not describe things as they really were,' said some
people. 'In Old Testament times, for instance, the nations were very
rough and ignorant; as for Moses--who is supposed to have written the
first books of the Bible--it is most doubtful whether he ever learned
to read and write at all.'

'But Moses was brought up in Egypt, and the Egyptians were very
learned; the Bible says so,' answered others.

'The man who wrote those words in the Bible may have made a mistake.
It is true that the ruins of old Egyptian temples and palaces are
covered with strange figures and signs; but who can say now whether
they mean anything or not?'

Those who trusted in God's Word could not answer these questions; but
just at this time God allowed the first great discovery to be made; for
the moment had at last come when all thoughtful men and women needed to
be able to settle these questions for themselves.

In the year 1799 a French officer who was in Egypt with Napoleon's army
discovered the Rosetta Stone.

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