p. 106Ladies and Gentlemen,—
There are some other features of the Mosaic record that stand in the same category as those already passed under review: that is, as regards the impossibility of accounting rationally for their existence except on the principle of their being true. I pray you to excuse my prolixity in calling your attention to them. The day we live in is so distinguished by activity and diligence and ingenuity on the part of those who would undermine the truth of the Bible, that some countermining on the part of those who would defend it is both necessary and excusable.
I would ask you first of all to give a moment’s reflection to the natural character of Joshua’s campaigns from the fall of Jericho onwards. We have seen his repulsed attack with a small force on Ai. We next see him resort to strategy to draw out the defenders of Ai into the plain where he overthrows them and takes possession of the city. Then we see p. 107 Gibeon make alliance with him by means of a ruse (Josh. ix.), and five kings mustering to the siege of Gibeon for this piece of perfidy, attacked and routed by Joshua, and their capital cities captured afterwards by the Israelites in detail. Then we see a coalition formed against Joshua in the north of the land under the leadership of Jabin, king of Hazor, who summons to his aid the kings of Madon, Shimron, and Achshaph; also “the kings on the north of the mountains (of Lebanon), and of the plains south of Chinneroth, and in the valley and on the borders of Dor on the west, and the Canaanite in the east and west, and the Amorite and the Hittite and Perizzite and the Jebusite in the mountains, and the Hivite under Hermon in the land of Mizpeh.” Hearing of their mustering hosts, at the waters of Merom, Joshua makes a forced march, and attacks them unexpectedly, and defeats and disperses them with great slaughter, after which he invades and subdues the several countries of the allies, one after the other, until the whole land is in his possession.
It may seem strange to you at first that the natural character of these proceedings should be put forward as yielding any inference as to the truth of the supernatural operations with which they are associated. But consider for a moment; recall the nature of the supernatural operations in question; the passage of the Red Sea; the sustenance of the whole congregation in the wilderness for forty years with manna; the opening of the Jordan at the season of overflow to let Israel over into Canaan in the absence of boats or bridges of any kind, and the falling of the walls of Jericho by the children of Israel marching round the city once a day for six days, and seven times on the seventh. What has modern unbelief to say p. 108 to these things? Oh, they never happened. What have they to say to the written account of them, then? “Oh, they are the legends invented by a people vain of their history. They liked to represent God on their side so, of course, seas and rivers opened and cities fell down.” Very well, if that is the true account of the matter, it would be natural to expect the whole narrative to be of that character. When romancing once gets to work, it goes ahead and does not stop. It would not open the Jordan miraculously and throw down the walls of Jericho by Divine power, and then invent a defeat at Ai, happening because of sin, and a victory following by good generalship, and then a successful campaign of sheer hard fighting for several years. We know what Jewish legend is when it gets to work, and if this history of the invasion of Canaan by Joshua had been an affair of Jewish legend, we should have had cities surrendering to one of Joshua’s gloves, and armies dissolving into thin air at the sound of a Jewish trumpet, and whole districts bursting into flames at the flash of a Jewish soldier’s sword. Instead of that, it is all hard military work, calling for incessant courage and skill, and sometimes striking fear into Joshua’s heart, against which he had to be Divinely supported (Josh. vii. 6; xi. 6).
How are we to account for this except on the principle that the whole is true? “Oh, very likely the prosaic part is true enough,” says the objector. “It is not all legend; part is true enough. No doubt, Joshua fought his way into Canaan in the ordinary manner.” But, my good friend, if the prosaic part of the narrative is true, how can you object to the crossing of the Jordan, and the fall of Jericho’s walls at the blowing of rams’ horns? If miracle was p. 109 falsely represented in connection with these events, would it not have been falsely represented throughout the campaign? “Perhaps not,” says our clever quibbler. “The writer might put in a little bit of spice here and there without making it all spice.” Upon which we turn upon our quibbler and ask, “Was the Bible written for spice, then? If so, why does it lower Israel on every page, and declare man to be worthless, and exalt the glory of God everywhere?” Our quibbler does not understand this argument, and turns it off with a listless, “Oh, I don’t know.” But his escape is not so neat as he thinks. He unwittingly falls into a deep pit in admitting that the prosaic part of the history may be true, for then comes the question, Where did Israel come from? Where were they before their eruption on the Canaanites? What led them to invade the land? And how came they to be so successful? The answer to these questions, in any serious and rational manner, brings before us Israel in the wilderness, Israel under Moses, Israel breaking the power of Egypt—as problems that are absolutely insoluble, apart from the Divine element in the situation—granting which, all is intelligible.
Ladies and Gentlemen,—As you value light in the darkness, and sure guidance in a slippery way, I beseech you to address your minds earnestly to all these considerations which from time to time I have been permitted to press on your attention. They contain the clue that many of you must desire for some solid standing ground in the quagmire of public uncertainties. They lay hold of tangible fact. They are not in the nature of a guess theory, as Theosophy; or a phantom possibility like Spiritualism; or the fog-clouds of a vague sentimentality like poetry or orthodox religion. p. 110 They put you in touch with the hither end of a chain of verity whose links go backwards, upwards, and forwards in actual discoverable ramifications of knowledge and truth and hope. The Bible is an actual fact in your day. The fact earnestly looked into and logically estimated will not only enable but compel you to accept the joyful alternative of faith in God and confidence in the glorious work He is working out upon the earth.