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thine honor upon him, that all the congregation of the children of Israel may be obedient. And he shall stand before Eleazar the priest, who shall ask counsel for him after the judgment of Urim before the Lord at his word shall they go out, and at his word they shall come in, both he, and all the children of Israel with him, even all the congregation. And Moses did as the Lord commanded him and he took Joshua, and set him before Eleazar the priest, and before all the congregation: and he laid his hands upon him, and gave him a charge, as the Lord commanded by the hand of Moses."

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Thus we perceive that Joshua was fully authorized to take up and continue the work, as Moses laid it down; a work in which he had already been associated with him for nearly forty years. And hence we not only have no difficulty in assigning the authorship of these closing paragraphs to Joshua, but from the flow of the narrative and the importance of the occasion we are inevitably led to this conclusion, in accordance with the universal belief of both Jewish and Christian Churches.

XII,- Divine Care for the Preservation of the Word.

In this connection it will be important to study closely the whole of the thirty-first chapter of Deuteronomy, where we shall see the emphasis which is laid upon the transactions of the last days of Moses; how the successorship of Joshua is provided for in the most public manner, before the whole congregation of Israel. And then we read (vs. 9-13), "And Moses wrote this Law, and delivered it unto the priests the sons of Levi, which bare the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and unto all the elders of Israel. And Moses commanded them, saying, at the end of every seven years, in the solemnity of the year of release, in the feast of tabernacles, when all Israel is come to appear before the Lord thy God in the place which He shall choose, thou shalt read this Law before all Israel in their hearing.

"Gather the people together, men and women, and children, and thy stranger that is within thy gates, that they may hear, and that they may learn, and fear the Lord your God, and observe to do all the words of this Law; and that their children, which have not known anything, may hear, and learn to fear the Lord your God, as long

as ye live in the land whither ye go over Jordan to possess it."

And then, after the Lord's charge to Moses concerning the "Song" in the thirtythird chapter, and its delivery to Joshua for preservation and rehearsal, we read further (vs. 24-26): "And it came to pass, when Moses had made an end of writing the words of this Law in a Book, until they were finished, that Moses commanded the Levites, which bare the ark of the covenant of the Lord, saying, take this Book of the Law, and put it by the side of the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God, that it be there for a witness against thee."

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While it had just before been commanded, "And it shall be when he," the king whom the Israelites would in a future age set over themselves,- Sitteth upon the throne of his kingdom, that he shall write him a copy of this law in a book out of that which is before the priests the Levites; and it shall be with him, and he shall read therein all the days of his life; that he may learn to fear the Lord his God, to keep all the words of this law and the statutes, to do them." (Chap. xvii. 18, 19.)

These things are of the utmost importance. They were not done in a corner. A knowledge of them was not confined to a few individuals. The rehearsals and ceremonies were carried on in the most public manner. A whole nation was summoned

as witnesses. These transactions occurred in the presence and before the eyes and ears of probably not less than two millions of people. And they show us the Divine official manner in which the written Word of that day was committed to the keeping of the public authorities, ecclesiastical and civil; that it might be preserved, receiving the necessary additions from age to age, and be transmitted intact for the coming generations. The public reading required would be an additional protection against a corruption of the text, for the organic law of a people, including their religious, civil and domestic usages, could not be changed without exciting comment and criticism. And we nowhere hear of any such change having been made in all their history. On the contrary, we hear only of one and the same "Book of the Law" throughout.

It was laid up by the side of the ark, in the most holy place of the tabernacle, along with the golden pot containing the omer of manna, and Aaron's rod that budded. And the method subsequently pursued we learn from the closing part of the Book of Joshua, where we read: "And Joshua wrote these words in the Book of the Law of God, and took a great stone and set it up there under an oak, that was by the sanctuary of the Lord. And Joshua said unto all the people, Behold this stone shall be a witness unto us; for it hath heard all the words of the

Lord which He spake unto us; it shall be therefore a witness unto you, lest ye deny your God."

Thus the Word, as its different portions were written from age to age, was placed as it were in the keeping of the whole nation; being committed for safety into the hands of the tribe of Levi, and deposited in the Sanctuary with the most holy things. The same Providence which brought it into existence, could not, in the nature of things, fail to watch over its preservation. And though to human eyes the sacred text might in some ages seem to be in peril of loss or corruption, yet we know that under the supervision of the great Keeper of Israel it was always perfectly safe. He without whom not a sparrow falls to the ground, and by whom the very hairs of our heads are all numbered, could not fail to provide that not one jot or tittle of His Law should fail. The hereditary priesthood, the ark, the sanctuary, the holy things, the Word, were maintained in unbroken succession till the Babylonian captivity; and after the restoration under the lead of Ezra, kept in continuance again until the coming of our Lord.

We can see in the deep reverence inspired into the minds of the Jews for their sacred writings, one of the means employed by Divine Providence for their preservation and correct transmission. So that it was

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