xxii INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. indeed these have already so far gained the ear of the intelligent public, that if they are to be Disbelieved, they will have to be Disproved, and by something more than sceptical assertion. Meanwhile-in this age of doubt, and at the close of our selected Era of observation-the Ten years between our International Exhibitions-there have arisen, not only those who would puff out the precious flicker of the small antique Lamp of Mesopotamia's tombs; but those who would adventure to dim the Divine Light of that LAMP OF GOD-His own inspired Word, given first to the Jews and then to the Gentiles, wherewith to explore the Past, the Present, and the Future. In the unshaken trust, that "to withstand MOSES," as has thus been attempted, must be to "resist the truth," even as Jannes and Jambres did of old (2 Tim. iii. 8), and that it will of a surety be manifested "folly unto all men, as theirs also was," we have stayed our steps in going round the world to observe what the Bible has of late achieved,-and resolved to ask our readers to return with us to the TIMES OF THE EARLY PATRIARCHS, and to examine carefully that age of the world in which Moses lived, and his relations to it-before the Bible began to be written. It was the notice of the length of Nineveh's sleep INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. xxiii that first led us to observe, that the length of these Patriarchal Times was curiously similar-i. e., five-and-twenty centuries, a little more or less; and that taking the chronology of the Hebrew, and happily of the English Bible, and reckoning by the dates given in the text itself, the times before the Flood, or 1656 years, were but two centuries short of the period-which seems to modern eyes so long-of our own era, counting from the birth of our Saviour. Yet this long time was spanned by only two human lives. Adam lived 243 years with Methusaleh, and all the incidents of Eden must have been communicated to the Ark family by him who had dwelt on earth for more than two centuries with the father of men. The chosen son of Noah, Shem, lived on to see Isaac, the chosen seed of Abraham, grow up to half a century old; and thus Isaac may have seen him who had seen the friend of Adam. Isaac lived on to the thirty-fourth year of his grandson Levi; and Levi's own daughter, Jochebed, was the mother of Moses: by only seven links of oral tradition, therefore, are these fiveand-twenty centuries spanned. Meantime, it is impossible to study the Bible without observing the importance historically attached to the number seven in the history of Israel; and it was observed incidentally, that EBER has scarcely been enough considered in patriarchal story. He is the longest liver after the flood, survives his great grand xxiv INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. father Shem by thirty-one years, and is really the ancestor of both the Arabs and the Hebrews. EBER stands out in the new world as seventh from ENOCH, who it is said was "seventh from Adam," and sees Isaac born-" the child of promise"-the seventh from himself. His own son Peleg stands midway between Noah and Abraham. In the days of Peleg, came "division," in the days of Abraham, "choice." Eber sees both; and is it not likely that Eber must have spoken the primitive Ark language? He sees the birth of the three ancestors of the "mingled people that dwell in the desert," for he probably outlives his own son, Joktan, and is found on the earth ninety-three years with Ishmael, and nineteen with Esau. We thus definitely perceive how, beside all the long lines of earth's history, runs the Arabian thread. The Arabs have withstood the armies of all ages, and to this day have defied alike the Roman eagle and the Turkish crescent, while the posterity of Isaac have been obliged to bow to the yoke of both. We have assumed, according to common belief, that the country of Arabia contributed the material of the first book to the Hebrew Scriptures, and that Job, owing to his long life, may have been personally known to Moses, during his forty years' absence from Egypt. (A short table of Archbishop Usher's chronology, p. 161, showing the ages of the patriarchs, as reckoned from the Flood, presents this possibility.) INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. XXV During the last ten years, the researches of the Rev. Charles Forster, an English clergyman, have brought most interesting correlative Rock-witness to bear on the Book of Job (which is our only inspired Arabian record of the patriarchal period), and also on the site of the true Sinai*. Mr. Forster's discoveries have been much disputed, though they were accredited by the highest legal authorities and judges of evidence in this country, and looked upon with favour by M. Lottin de Laval, who, to the honour of French enterprise, photographed in large type, in the year 1856, 330 fresh SINAITIC INSCRIPTIONS. Mr. Forster's verification of SERBAL as Sinai, ought alone to secure him a hearing with the followers of M. Lepsius, and that large number of scholars who have accepted the proofs brought by the learned German, whereby he has rescued the five-peaked monarch of the Desert from the monastic clouds of 1000 years. It has been our aim carefully to examine and clearly to present Mr. Forster's views on these subjects, to our readers. But our book has a second division THE TRIAL ERA OF THE CHOSEN NATION. It was impossible to observe the above two periods of five-and-twenty centuries-the sleep of Nineveh comprehending as it did, no other than "THE TIMES OF * See likewise "The Tent and the Khan," by Dr. Stewart, of Leghorn. xxvi INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. THE GENTILES "—without inquiry as to the length of the TIMES OF THE JEWS. These must have begun when Abram was called out of Ur of the Chaldees. The Bible marks an era when God said as certainly that He would "cast this people out of his sight, and let them go forth," as He had said to Abram that He would choose them, and give them the land of Canaan; and He fixes the date of His Divine resolve from the time and sins of Manasseh, though it is recorded by the prophet Jeremiah at a somewhat later era. Jer. xv. 1, 4. Now the question is, it seems, not of the fall of the royal City of the Jews under Nebuchadnezzar, as has been generally supposed, but of the Divine choice and rejection of them as a people; and we have another guide in Scripture to the length of their probation, for Moses had thrice declared to them, in Leviticus xxvi. 18, 24, 28, that if they "walked contrary unto the Lord, and broke His covenant, He would chastise them seven times for their sins." The Prophet Isaiah, in his fortieth chapter, verse 2, is long afterwards commissioned to comfort them by the voice of prophecy, and to speak of their "warfare accomplished," and of their "iniquity pardoned," Jerusalem having received of the Lord's hand double for all her sins. Then if " seven times" be "double," according to the united evidence of Moses and Isaiah, and Jeremiah (xvi. 18), what is the half of seven times? It will be no other, in Scripture compu |