w of the Lord is perfect, converting the
soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple"!
There seems to the critic to be historic error in the statement of
Stephen that Jacob was buried at Sychem (Acts 7: 16) instead of in the
field of Machpelah before Mamre, as recorded in Gen. 50: 13, just as it
was once thought that Luke had made a mistake, not to be explained
away, in his reference to Cyrenius in chapter 2: 1, 2. But as the
latter contradiction has disappeared, only confirming the veracity of
Scripture by the investigation which it has called forth, so may the
former. And so also with such alleged discrepancies as that between
the record in {183} one place that King Solomon had four thousand
stalls for horses, and in another forty thousand; or that of the
statement in one passage that King Josias began to reign at eight years
of age, and in another, at eighteen. What if we freely admit that we
cannot reconcile these statements? That does not prove that they are
not reconcilable. The history of solved contradictions has certainly
shown this, that as "the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the
weakness of God stronger than men," so the discords of God are more
harmonious than men.

We may say, in closing this chapter, that almost the highest proof of
the infallibility of Scripture is the practical one, that we have
proved it so; that as the coin of the State has always been found able
to buy the amount represented on its face, so the prophecies and the
promises of Holy Scripture have yielded their face value to those who
have taken pains to prove them. If they have not always done so, it is
probable that they have not yet matured. Certainly there are
multitudes of Christians who have so far proved the veracity of
Scripture that they are ready to trust it without reserve in all that
it pledges for the world yet unseen and the life yet unrealized.
"Believe that thou mayest know," then, is the admonition which
Scripture and history combine to enforce. In the farewell of that rare
saint, Adolph Monod, these golden words occur: {184} "When I shall
enter the invisible world, I do not expect to find things different
from what the word of God represented them to me here. The voice I
shall then hear will be the same I now hear upon the earth, and I shall
say, 'This is indeed what God said to me; _and how thankful I am that I
did not wait till I had seen in order to believe_.'"

[1] John