of the Old
Testament, with which oriental archaeology can be satisfied. But it is
obvious that this irreducible minimum is a good deal less than what a
fair-minded historian will admit. The archaeological facts support the
traditional rather than the so-called "critical" view of the age and
authority of the Pentateuch, and tend to show that we have in it not
only a historical monument whose statements can be trusted, but also
what is substantially a work of the great Hebrew legislator himself.

For those who "profess and call themselves Christians," however, there
is another side to the question besides the archaeological. The modern
"critical" views in regard to the Pentateuch are in violent
contradiction to the teaching and belief of the Jewish Church in the
time of our Lord, and this teaching and belief has been accepted by
Christ and His Apostles, and inherited by the Christian Church. It is a
teaching and belief which lies at the root of many of the dogmas of the
Church, and if we are to reject or revise it, we must at the same time
reject and revise historical Christianity. It is difficult to see how we
can call ourselves Christians in the sense which the term has borne for
the last eighteen hundred years, and at the same time repudiate or
modify, in accordance with our individual fancies, the articles of faith
which historical Christianity has maintained everywhere and at all
periods. For those who look beyond the covers of grammars and lexicons,
the great practical fact of historical Christianity must outweigh all
the speculations of individual scholars, however ingenious and elaborate
they may be. It is for the individual to harmonize his conclusions with
the immemorial doctrine of the Church, not for the Church to reconcile
its teaching with the theories of the individual. Christ promised that
the Spirit of God should guide His Apostles and their followers into
"all truth," and those who believe the promise cannot also believe that
the "Spirit of Truth" has been at any time a Spirit of illusion.

Oriental archaeology, at all events, is on the side of those who see in
the Hebrew patriarchs real men of flesh and blood, and who hold that in
the narratives of the Pentateuch we have historical records many of
which go back to the age of the events they describe. Each fresh
discovery made by the archaeologist yields fresh testimony to the truth
of the Old Testament stories. Since the manuscript of the present work