en
the Old Testament sacred literature and that of the surrounding
nations. There is in the former abundant evidence of the activity of a
Spirit whose presence is less manifest in the sacred literatures of
other ancient nations.

True, the monuments have not spoken their last word; but if we have the
right to draw inferences from the known, we may safely affirm that
though the monuments may swell into infinity, they will offer nothing
to equal, much less to supersede, in substance and spirit, our {223}
Old Testament. We may receive gratefully every ray of light, but the
time has not yet come, nor ever will come, when we may lay aside the
Old Testament and accept as a substitute the legends and myths of
heathen lands to give to us the bread of life which the Saviour found
in the pages of the Old Book. Let us welcome the light and knowledge
God has bestowed upon us; let us rejoice in them with perfect assurance
that they are for good and not for evil; let us learn to use them
wisely and honestly, and let us still be ever alert listening for other
words, uttered ages ago, but not yet audible to modern ears. "It is
for us to catch these messages, and to understand them, that we may fit
them into the great fabric of apprehended truth to the enrichment of
ourselves, and to the glory of our common Lord."

NOTES ON CHAPTER V

[1] J. P. Peters, The Old Testament and the New Scholarship, p. 92.

[2] S. G. Smith, Religion in the Making, p. 20.

[3] Hugo Winckler, Himmels- und Weltenbild der Babylonier, p. 9.

[4] Professor Friedrich Delitzsch, of the University of Berlin,
delivered three lectures on the relation of Babylonian religion to the
religion of the Old Testament, under the title, "Babel und Bibel."

[5] A. H. Sayce, The Religions of Ancient Egypt and Babylonia, pp. 276,
277.

[6] A. Jeremias, The Old Testament in the Light of the Ancient East, I,
p. 86.

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[7] R. W. Rogers, The Religion of Babylonia and Assyria, p. 88.
Practically all the cuneiform inscriptions quoted or referred to in
this chapter are translated in R. W. Rogers, Cuneiform Parallels to the
Old Testament.

[8] Friedrich Delitzsch, Babel and Bible, Two Lectures, published by
Open Court Co., p. 65.

[9] A translation of the entire psalm is found in Sayce, The Religions
of Ancient Egypt and Babylonia, pp. 419-421; also in Rogers, Religion
of Babylonia and Assyria, pp. 182-184; R. F. Harper, Assyrian and
Babylonian Literature, pp. 4