cause doubt has been cast upon their absolute historical accuracy.
"Abraham is still the hero of righteousness and faith; Lot and Laban,
Sarah and Rebekah, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph, in their characters and
experiences, are still in different ways types of our own selves, and
still in one way or another exemplify the ways in which God deals with
the individual soul, and the manner in which the individual soul ought,
or ought not, to respond to his leadings."[12] What if some of these
figures pass before us on the stage rather than in real life, do they
on that account lose their vividness, their truthfulness, their force?
"If," says J. E. McFadyen,[13] "it should be made highly probable that
the stories were not strictly historical, what should we then have to
say? We should then have to say that their religious value was still
extremely high. The religious truth to which they give vivid and
immortal expression would remain the same. The story of Abraham would
still illustrate the trials and the rewards of faith. The story of
Jacob would still illustrate the power of sin to haunt and determine a
man's career, and the power of God to humble, discipline, and purify a
self-confident nature. The story of Joseph would still illustrate how
fidelity amid {240} temptation, wrong, and sorrow is crowned at last
with glory and honor. The spiritual value of these and similar tales
is not lost, even when their historical value is reduced to a minimum,
for the truths which they illustrate are truths of universal
experience." The present writer is convinced that even as historical
documents these narratives are of immense value. Nevertheless, it may
be well to remind ourselves again that the apostle does not point his
readers to the Old Testament Scriptures for instruction in ancient
history, but he claims that they are profitable "for teaching, for
reproof, for correction, for instruction which is in righteousness";
and these records, whatever their historical shortcomings may be, are
most assuredly profitable for all these purposes.

The historical books of the Old Testament are a continuous illustration
of the reality of a Divine Providence, by revealing on almost every
page the hand of God in human history. Only as we trace the history of
the Hebrews can we understand the unfolding in the mind of man under
the influence of the Divine Spirit of the great religious ideas and
conceptions which have become the mainspring of hu