at the place for other important documents pertaining
to the theocracy was "before the Lord," where the law was deposited.
Hence we infer with much probability that, besides the addition made to
"the book of the law of God," important historical writings, proceeding
from prophetical men, like Joshua and Samuel, were in process of
collection at the sanctuary all the time from Moses to Samuel.

5. If now we examine the books of Joshua and Judges, we must be
satisfied that the men who compiled them made use of such materials. In
the book of Joshua is recorded, with much detail, the allotment of the
land of Canaan among the several tribes. A document of this nature must
have been written at the time, and by Joshua himself, or under his
immediate direction. The same may be reasonably supposed of other
portions of the book. If then it was put into its present form after the
death of Joshua, as some suppose, the materials must still have been
furnished by him to a great extent. The book of Judges covers a period
of more than three centuries. Who composed it we do not know, but the
materials employed by him must have existed, in part at least, in a
written form. The book of Ruth may be regarded as an appendix to that of
the Judges.

6. The two books of Samuel (which originally constituted one whole)
bring down the history of the Theocracy from the birth of Samuel to the
close of David's reign--a period of about a century and a half. The
author, therefore, can have been, upon any supposition, only in part
contemporary with the events which he records. Yet if we examine the
biographical sketches of Saul, Samuel, and David contained in these
books, the conviction forces itself upon us that they must have been
written by contemporaries. Their freshness, minute accuracy of detail,
and graphic vividness of style mark them as coming from eye-witnesses,
or from writers who had received their accounts from eye-witnesses. Who
were authors of these original documents we cannot determine. It is
certain that Samuel was one of them. 1 Chron. 29:29. Who composed the
books, again, is a question that we are unable to answer. It was
probably a prophet living not very long after the separation of the
kingdoms of Israel and Judah. From the days of Samuel and onward there
was a flourishing school of the prophets at hand which could furnish,
under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, both the writers of the
original materials and the author of the b