{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_30908/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_30908","id":"gutenberg_30908","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/30908","summary":null,"tags":["Bible -- Authorship","Bible -- History","Bible -- Inspiration","Category: History - Religious","Category: Religion/Spirituality"],"text":"Produced by Al Haines\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration: Cover art]\n\n\n\n\n\nTHE BIBLE IN ITS MAKING\n\nThe most Wonderful Book in the World\n\n\nBY\n\nMILDRED DUFF AND NOEL HOPE\n\n\n\nCOMPANION VOLUME TO\n\n  '_Where Moses went to School,_'\n  '_When Moses learnt to Rule,_'\n  '_Esther the Queen,_'\n  _'Daniel the Prophet,' and_\n  '_Hezekiah the King._'\n\n\n\nILLUSTRATED BY NOEL HOPE\n\n\nWith Sketches of the Original Monuments and Stone Pictures\n\n\n\n\n\nMARSHALL BROTHERS, LTD.,\n\nPUBLISHERS,\n\nLONDON, EDINBURGH & NEW YORK\n\n\n1912\n\n\n\n\n_Uniform with this Volume_\n\nPRICE ONE SHILLING\n\n  Where Moses went to School\n  Where Moses learnt to Rule\n  Esther the Queen\n  Daniel the Prophet\n  Hezekiah the King\n\n_All fully Illustrated_\n\n\nMARSHALL BROTHERS, LTD.,\n\nPUBLISHERS,\n\nLONDON, EDINBURGH & NEW YORK\n\n\n\n\nFOREWORD\n\nOne great universal law runs through the realm of nature.  Our Saviour\ngave it in a sentence: 'First the blade, then the ear, after that the\nfull corn in the ear.'\n\nIt is with the desire to show that the same law rules in another of\nGod's creations--The Bible--that this little volume has been prepared.\n\nThe Bible has as literally 'grown' as has an oak tree; and probably\nthere is no more likeness between the Bible as we know it to-day and\nits earliest beginning, than we find between the mighty tree, and the\nacorn from which it sprang.\n\nThe subject is so vast that we have not attempted anything beyond the\nbriefest outline.  Our purpose has been merely to give some idea of the\norigin of the Bible books, up to the measure of our present light upon\nthe subject, and also to show the purpose for which they were written.\n\nBut if our readers, by seeing something of the wonder and glory of the\nHoly Scriptures, are able to catch a glimpse of the Creator's mind\nbehind the whole, our work will not have been in vain.\n\nMILDRED DUFF.\n\n\n\n\nCONTENTS\n\n\nCHAP.\n\n    I.  A LIVING BOOK\n   II.  THE SECRET OF ITS GREATNESS\n  III.  MOSES AND HIS WRITINGS\n   IV.  THE HISTORY BOOKS\n    V.  THE SCATTERING OF THE PEOPLE\n   VI.  THE ATTACK ON THE SCRIPTURES\n  VII.  TWO FAMOUS VERSIONS OF THE SCRIPTURES\n VIII.  THE BIBLE IN THE DAYS OF JESUS CHRIST\n   IX.  THE DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM\n    X.  THE BEGINNING OF THE NEW TESTAMENT\n   XI.  HOW THE GOSPELS CAME TO BE WRITTEN\n  XII.  SOME OTHER WRITERS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT\n XIII.  THE FIRST BIBLE PICTURES\n\n\n\n\nTHE BIBLE IN ITS MAKING\n\n\nCHAPTER I\n\nA LIVING BOOK\n\n[Illustration: (drop cap T) Symbol of \"Asshur\", the principal Assyrian\nidol.]\n\nThere is only one Book that never grows old.\n\nFor thousands of years men have been writing books.  Most books are\nforgotten soon after they are written; a few of the best and wisest are\nremembered for a time.\n\nBut all at last grow old; new discoveries are made; new ideas arise;\nthe old books are out of date; their usefulness is at an end.  Students\nare the only people who still care to read them.\n\nThe nations to which the authors of these first books belonged have\npassed away, the languages in which they were written are 'dead'--that\nis, they have ceased to be used in daily life in any part of the world.\n\nBroken bits and torn fragments of some of the early books may be seen\nin the glass cases of museums.  Learned men pore over the fragments,\nand try to piece them together, to find out their meaning once again;\nbut no one else cares much whether they mean anything or not.  For the\nbooks are dead.  They cannot touch the heart of any human being; they\nhave nothing to do with the busy world of living men and women any more.\n\nNow, our Bible was first written in these ancient languages: is it,\ntherefore, to be classed among the 'dead' books of the world?\n\nNo, indeed.  The fact alone that the Word of God can be read to-day in\n412 living languages proves clearly that it is no dead book; and when\nwe remember that last year 5,000,000 new copies of the Bible were sent\ninto the busy working world for men and women by one Society alone, we\nsee how truly 'alive' it must be.\n\nNations may pass, languages die, the whole world may change, yet the\nBible will live on.  Why is this?\n\nBecause in the Bible alone, of all the books seen on this earth, there\nis found a message for every man, woman, or child who has ever lived or\nwill live while the world lasts:\n\nIt is the Message of God's Salvation through His Son Jesus Christ.\n\nThe message is for all; for the cleverest white man, the most ignorant\nsavage; for the black man of Africa, the yellow man of China, the tawny\nlittle man who lives among the icefields of the Arctic Circle.\n\nIt does not matter who the person is, nor where he lives; a living\nforce exists in the Bible that will help every human being who acts\nupon its words to become one of God's true sons and soldiers.  No human\nwisdom can explain this.\n\nThe Bible tells us about Christ.  Before Christ came all teaching led\nup to Him.  He is the only safe Guide for our daily life.  Through His\ndeath alone we have hope for the future.  From the first page to the\nlast the Bible speaks of Christ.  This is the secret of its wondrous\npower.\n\n'_These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you,\nthat all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of\nMoses, and in the prophets, and in the Psalms, concerning Me._' (Luke\nxxiv. 44.)\n\nAlthough we speak of the Bible as one Book, because it tells one\nworld-wide story, yet this one Book is made up of many books--of a\nwhole library of books in fact.\n\n[Illustration: BROKEN BITS OF CLAY BOOKS IN THE CUNEIFORM LANGUAGE,\nBELONGING TO THE TIME WHEN MOSES WROTE THE FIRST WORDS OF GENESIS]\n\nGo into a library, look at the well-stocked shelves.  Here is a volume\nof history, here a book of beautiful poetry, here a life of a great and\nnoble warrior.  This book was written only last year, this one appeared\nmany years before you were born.\n\nJust so is it with the books of the Bible.\n\nFor more than a thousand years God was calling the best and wisest men\nof the Jewish nation to write for His Book.  Some of the authors were\nrich and learned; many were humble and poor.  Kings wrote for it; a\nshepherd-boy; a captive lad who had been carried away as a slave into a\nstrange land; a great leader; a humble fruit-gatherer; a hated\ntax-collector; a tent-maker; many poor fishermen.  God found work for\nthem all.\n\nThere are sixty-six books in the Bible, written by at least forty\ndifferent authors.  Books on history; collections of sacred songs;\nlives of good men and women; stirring appeals to the sinful.  God chose\nthe men best fitted to write each part.  He called them to His work; He\nspoke to their hearts; He put His Spirit into their minds.\n\nIn these days those who read God's Word often forget what old, old\nwritings the first books in the Bible are, and how everything has\nchanged since they were written.\n\nSeeing the words so clearly printed on fine white paper, readers do not\nstop to think that they have come down to us from the days when the\ngreatest nations in the world wrote their best books on lumps of clay,\nor on rough, brittle paper made from brown reeds.\n\nSo these Bible readers grow impatient, and because they cannot\nunderstand everything all at once, some are even foolish enough to give\nup reading the Old Testament altogether.\n\nBut the things that are hard to understand are only hard because we are\nstill so ignorant.  Whenever any new discovery about the ancient times\nhas been made it has always shown us how exactly true the Bible is.\n\nSome years ago, just at the time when the doubts and carpings were at\ntheir worst, when those people who did not trust God even declared that\nmany of the cities and kings mentioned in the Old Testament had never\nexisted at all, a wonderful thing happened.  God allowed the old cities\nthemselves to be brought to light once more.\n\nDeep under the earth they were found, with their beautiful palaces,\nlibraries full of books, and long picture-galleries, lined from end to\nend with stone and marble slabs, on which were cut portraits of the\nvery kings whose existence the people were beginning to doubt!  This is\nhow it happened.\n\n'The Bible does not describe things as they really were,' said some\npeople.  'In Old Testament times, for instance, the nations were very\nrough and ignorant; as for Moses--who is supposed to have written the\nfirst books of the Bible--it is most doubtful whether he ever learned\nto read and write at all.'\n\n'But Moses was brought up in Egypt, and the Egyptians were very\nlearned; the Bible says so,' answered others.\n\n'The man who wrote those words in the Bible may have made a mistake.\nIt is true that the ruins of old Egyptian temples and palaces are\ncovered with strange figures and signs; but who can say now whether\nthey mean anything or not?'\n\nThose who trusted in God's Word could not answer these questions; but\njust at this time God allowed the first great discovery to be made; for\nthe moment had at last come when all thoughtful men and women needed to\nbe able to settle these questions for themselves.\n\nIn the year 1799 a French officer who was in Egypt with Napoleon's army\ndiscovered the Rosetta Stone.\n\nYou may see this stone in the British Museum.  It is a great block of\nblack marble.  On the smooth side, cut deeply in the stone, are a\nnumber of lines of ancient writing.  Many stones covered with ancient\nwriting had been found before, but this one is different from all the\nrest.\n\nThe lines at the top of the stone are in the strange old Egyptian\npicture-writing, which learned men have agreed to call 'Hieroglyphic';\nthat is, 'writing in pictures.'  This was a very special kind of\nwriting in ancient Egypt, and generally kept for important occasions.\nThe lines in the middle give the same words, but in the ordinary\nhandwriting used for correspondence in ancient Egypt; and last of all\nis found a translation of the Egyptian words written in ancient Greek.\n\nThis old kind of Greek is not spoken in daily life by any people\nto-day, but many learned men can read and write it with ease; so that,\nyou see, by the help of the Greek translation, the Rosetta Stone became\na key for discovering the meaning of both kinds of ancient Egyptian\nletters.  Thus, by the help of the Rosetta Stone, and after years of\npatient labour, the long-dead language could be read once more.\n\nEgypt--the land into which Joseph was sold, where the Israelites became\na nation, and Moses was born and educated!  How great a joy to read the\nwords carved on temple walls, or in palace halls; and to find with each\nword read how exactly the Egypt of ancient days is described in the\nBible!\n\nThe dress the people wore, the food they ate, the way they spoke to\ntheir kings, the description of their funerals, the very name of their\nfamous river, and the words they used to describe the plants, insects,\nand cattle of Egypt--all these are found in the Bible and are proofs of\nthe care with which Moses wrote of the land of his birth.\n\nBut other nations besides the Egyptians are mentioned in the Bible; and\nabout them also grave doubts arose.  Almost all the Old Testament\nprophets cried out against the wickedness of Assyria and Babylon, and\nforetold the awful punishment which God would bring upon them for their\npride and cruelty, unless they repented.\n\nThey did not repent; destruction came upon them; their very names were\nforgotten, and their cities as utterly lost to the world as though they\nhad never existed.\n\n'Nineveh, Babylon?  There _were_ such cities once, perhaps; but as for\nthe kings of whom the Bible speaks--Sennacherib, who came up against\nJerusalem, and was driven back through the prayers of God's servants,\nIsaiah and King Hezekiah (2 Kings xviii. 19); Nebuchadnezzar, who\ncarried Daniel away into Babylon; Ahasuerus, who reigned \"_from India\neven unto Ethiopia_\" (Esther)--well, if they ever lived at all, they\nwere certainly not the kind of kings spoken of in the Old Testament.\nBut it all happened so long ago that we cannot expect to understand\nmuch about it now.'\n\n[Illustration: EGYPTIAN SCRIBES AT WORK.  (A) CASES FOR HOLDING WRITING\nMATERIALS.  NOTICE SPARE PEN PLACED BEHIND THE CLERK'S  EAR]\n\nSo the questioners settled the matter in their own minds; but God had\nthe answer to their questions all ready for them.\n\nHe put into the hearts of some brave men the idea of going out to the\ndesolate plains, '_empty and void, and waste_' (Nahum ii. 10), the\nplains that had once been the rich empires of Assyria and Babylon, and\nthere to search patiently for some trace of the splendid cities of old.\n\nVery wonderful is the story of how these searchers found them.\n\nNineveh had been lying buried under huge mounds of rubbish for more\nthan two thousand years.  Now, just at the time when her testimony was\nneeded, the ruined halls of her majestic palaces were once more brought\nto the light of day.\n\nWhat had been the names of these grim kings of old, whose stern-faced\nfigures were sculptured on the walls?  Could any among them be the\nfierce Assyrian kings mentioned in the Bible?\n\nIf only the strange wedge-shaped letters that covered every vacant\nspace on the stone slabs could be read, what a message from the past\nthey would reveal.\n\nOnce again clever men set to work and persevered until the strange\nletters were deciphered, and the palace-walls gave up their secrets.\nHere was King Sennacherib; here Tiglath-pileser (2 Kings xv. 29); here\nEsarhaddon (2 Kings xix. 37).  Oh, how wonderful to look at the\nold-time portraits which had been drawn from the men themselves!\n\n'Well, although the Egyptians and Assyrians prove to have been great\nnations in the time of Moses, they had no communication with each other\nexcept in war time; they spoke different languages, wrote in altogether\ndifferent styles, and had very different ideas about everything.\nNations kept to themselves in those days.  What the Bible says of their\nintercourse must be wrong.'\n\nThis all the clever people were quite sure about, but once again God\nshowed them their mistake.\n\nTwenty-five years ago an Egyptian peasant woman was walking among the\nruins of an ancient Egyptian city--a city built before the time of\nMoses.  Bright yellow sand had drifted over the broken columns and\npainted pavements of what had once been the palace of a great king.\nBut the peasant woman did not care for that.  Was there anything hidden\nin the sand that she could sell?  This was all her thought.\n\nSuddenly her foot struck against something hard in the sand.  She\nlooked down.  Could it be a stone?\n\nNo, it was not a stone, but a queer oblong lump, or tablet of clay,\nhardened into a brick, and covered with strange marks that looked like\nwriting.  She wondered at it, for with all her findings in the ruins\nshe had never come upon anything like this before.\n\nShe showed the tablet to her friends, and they dug down deep in the\nsand, and found whole sackfuls of baked clay tablets.  But when the\ndealer in curiosities saw the lumps of baked clay he shook his head,\nand would give very little money for them.\n\nAfter a while some of the bricks were taken to Paris and London.\n\n'These tablets could _not_ have been found in Egypt,' decided the\nlearned professors; 'they are either imitations, or they were found\nsomewhere else.  These are clay letters, and must have been written in\nAssyria or Babylonia.  No Egyptian could have understood a word of\nthem.'\n\nYet the tablets had been found in Egypt, and had been read by the king\nof Egypt's scribes, for the peasant woman, had all unknowingly\ndiscovered what remained of the Foreign Office belonging to the old\nEgyptian nation, and thus we see that the Egyptians of Moses' time\ncould read and write foreign languages as easily as we can to-day read\nand write French or German!\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER II\n\nTHE SECRET OF ITS GREATNESS\n\n[Illustration: (drop cap G) The Great Pyramid]\n\nGod always chooses the right kind of people to do His work.  Not only\nso, He always gives to those whom He chooses just the sort of life\nwhich will best prepare them for the work He will one day call them to\ndo.\n\nThat is why God put it into the heart of Pharaoh's daughter to bring up\nMoses as her own son in the Egyptian palace.\n\nThe most important part of Moses' training was that his heart should be\nright with God, and therefore he was allowed to remain with his Hebrew\nparents during his early years.  There he learned to love and serve the\none true God.  Without that knowledge no education can make a man or\nwoman fit to be a blessing to the world.\n\nBut after this God gave him another training.  The man who should be\ncalled to write the first words of God's Book would need a very special\neducation.  Most likely some of the Children of Israel could read and\nwrite, for we know there were plenty of books and good schools in\nMoses' time, but they certainly did not make such good scholars as the\nEgyptians.\n\n'_And the child grew and she (his mother) brought him unto Pharaoh's\ndaughter, and he became her son._' (Exodus ii. 10.)\n\nIn those few words the Bible shows us the Egyptian side of Moses'\neducation.\n\nAnd a very thorough education it must have been, for the Egyptians were\nthe most highly cultured people in the world in those days, and we know\nthat '_Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians._' (Acts\nvii. 22.)\n\nThe Egypt of Moses' time was very different from the Egypt of to-day.\nAmong all the great nations it held the first place; for the people of\nEgypt were more clever, and rich; their gardens more beautiful, their\ncornfields and orchards more fruitful than those of the dwellers in any\nother land.\n\nAgain, of all the peoples in the world the Egyptians were looked upon\nat that time as the most religious.  From one end to another the land\nwas full of temples, many of them so huge in size, and so magnificent\nwith carvings and paintings, that even their poor ruins--the great\ncolumns shattered or fallen, the enormous walls tottering and\nbroken--are still the wonder of the world.\n\nEvery great city had its schools and colleges.  Clever men devoted\ntheir whole lives to teaching in these colleges and to writing learned\nbooks, just as they do in the cities of Europe and America to-day.\nThese men were called 'scribes,' that is, 'writers.'  Moses, a boy\nbrought up in the royal palace, would have the best and most learned\nscribes for his teachers.\n\nA fragment of an old Egyptian book describing the duties of a lad in\nthe scribes' school has been found.  It tells how the schoolmaster\nwakes the boys very early in the morning.  'The books are already in\nthe hands of thy companions,' he cries; 'put on thy garments, call for\nthy sandals.'\n\nIf the lad does not make haste he is severely punished; if he is not\nattentive in school the master speaks to him very seriously indeed.\n'Let thy mouth read the book in thy hand, and take advice from those\nwho know more than thou dost!'\n\nHe has to write many copies, and as he gets he learns to compose\nbusiness letters to his master; before he is fourteen he is most likely\na clerk in a government office, and must continue his studies at the\nsame time.\n\nThe letters and copies of a schoolboy who lived three thousand years\nago have been discovered.  How many bad marks did his teacher give him,\ndo you think, when he had to correct that carelessly written capital?\n\n[Illustration: Schoolboy's copy from ancient Egypt.  Notice the\nteacher's corrections]\n\nSo great a respect had the Egyptians for writing that they used to say,\n'The great god Thoth invented letters; no human being could have given\nanything so wonderful and useful to the world.'\n\nArithmetic, geometry, astronomy, drawing, an Egyptian lad was supposed\nto study all these, and as we have seen, those lads who were trained\nfor work in the Foreign Office had to learn other languages as well;\nthey had also to read and write 'cuneiform'--the name given to the\nstrange wedge-shaped letters of Assyria and Babylonia.\n\nAll the letters from the people of Canaan to the Egyptian king and his\nForeign Office were written in cuneiform.\n\nChinese is supposed to be the most difficult language to learn in our\nday; but the ancient cuneiform was certainly quite as complicated as\nChinese.  The cuneiform had no real alphabet, only 'signs.'  There were\nfive hundred simple signs, and nearly as many compound signs, so that\nthe student had to begin with a thousand different signs to memorize.\nYes, boys had their troubles even in those days.\n\nNow, as Moses grew older and learned more, he must often have felt very\nthoughtful and sad.  So many books, so many ideas, so many stories of\ncruel gods and evil spirits--where was the truth to be found?  No one\nseemed to remember the One True God, the God of his fathers, Abraham,\nIsaac, and Jacob.\n\nVery likely a Babylonian book written in cuneiform, and pretending to\ndescribe the Creation of the world, and the story of the Ark and the\ngreat Flood found its way into Egypt.  Many copies of this book existed\nin Moses' day; part of a later copy was found a short time ago in the\nruins of the library of a great Assyrian king, and is now to be seen in\nthe British Museum.  A strange book it is.  The words were not written,\nremember, but pricked down on a large flat tablet of clay.\n\nIf Moses read such a book as this, it must have troubled and puzzled\nhim very much.  For it is a heathen book, in which the beautiful clear\nstory of the Creation of the world is all darkened and spoilt.  The\nBabylonian who wrote the book, and the Assyrians who copied it, were\nall descended from Noah, and therefore some dim remembrance of God's\ndealings with the world still lingered in their hearts; but as the time\npassed they had grown farther from the truth.  That is why the oldest\ncopies of these books are always the best; the heathen had not had time\nto separate themselves so completely from God.\n\n'In the old, old days,' they said, 'there were not so many gods as\nthere are now'; and some of the most learned heathen even believed that\nin the beginning there was but one God.  'Afterwards many others sprang\nup,' they declared.\n\n'_In the beginning God created the Heaven and the earth._' (Genesis i.\n1.)  Oh, how far the nations had wandered already from the greatest,\ndeepest truth which the world can know!  How sad to think that horrible\nnightmare stories of evil spirits and cruel gods should have come\nbetween men's souls and the loving Father and Creator of all!\n\nYes; it was time, indeed, that the first words of the Bible should be\nwritten, and that a stream of pure truth should begin to flow through\nthe world.\n\nBut Moses had much to do for God before he could write one word of his\npart of the Bible.\n\nWe know how his life of learning and splendour came to a sudden end; he\nfled from Egypt, and became a shepherd in the land of Midian; and there\nin Midian God called him to the great work of leading the Children of\nIsrael out of Egypt towards the Promised Land.\n\nTerrible troubles had come upon God's people in the land of Goshen.[1]\nFor the most selfish and cruel Pharaoh who ever reigned over Egypt had\ndetermined to treat the people who had come to live in Egypt, at the\ninvitation of a former Pharaoh, just as though they were captives taken\nin battle.\n\nMany of the old ruins in Egypt are covered with writings describing his\ncruelties.  He killed all who rebelled against him, and condemned whole\nnations to wear out their lives by working for him in the gold mines,\nor granite quarries, or by making endless stores of bricks; he cared\nfor no man's life if only he could be called the richest king in the\nworld.\n\n'_And they built for Pharaoh treasure cities, Pithom and Raamses,_'\n(Exodus i. 11) that is, store-cities.  In Egypt many store-cities were\nneeded because corn was more plentiful there than in any other country.\n\n'Pithom--where was Pithom?'  So people were asking a few years ago, and\nbecause there was no answer to that question they began to doubt.  Had\nthere ever been such a city?\n\nBut in the year 1884 the earth gave up another of its secrets--the\nruins of Pithom were found, buried deep in the dust; and the remains of\ngreat store-houses built of rough bricks, mixed with chopped straw\n(Exodus v.)  and stamped with the name of the cruel Pharaoh (Ramesis\nthe Second) were laid bare once more.[2]\n\nWhat a pity some readers had not waited a little longer before doubting\nthe truth of the Bible!\n\n'_And the Lord said unto Moses, Write thou these words._' (Exodus\nxxxiv. 27.)  So it was at last that God called Moses to begin the great\nwork of writing the Bible, just as He had called him to lead the people\nout of Egypt; just as by His Spirit He calls men and women to do His\nwork to-day.\n\nHow did Moses write the first words of the Bible?  What kind of letters\nand what language did he use?\n\nThese are great questions.  We know at least that he could have his\nchoice between two or three different kinds of letters and materials.\n\nPerhaps he wrote the first words of the Bible on rolls of papyrus paper\nwith a soft reed pen, in the manner of the Egyptian scribes.\n\nHundreds of these rolls have been found in Egypt: poems, histories,\nnovels, hymns to the Egyptian gods; and some of these writings are at\nleast as old as the time of Moses.  The Egyptian climate is so fine and\ndry, and the Egyptians stored the rolls so carefully in the tombs of\ntheir kings, that the fragile papyrus--that is, reed-paper--has not\nrotted away, as would have been the case in any other country.\n\nCertainly in after years the Jews used the same shaped books as the\nEgyptians.  Indeed, the Jews' Bible--that is, the Old Testament--was\nstill called '_a roll of a book_' in the days of Jeremiah.  (Jeremiah\nxxxvi. 2.)\n\nOr perhaps Moses wrote on tablets of clay like those used by the great\nempires of Babylon and Assyria, and by the people of Canaan.  Clay was\ncheap enough; all one had to do was to mould moist clay into a smooth\ntablet, and then to prick words on it with a metal pen.  The prophet\nJeremiah mentions this kind of book also.  (Jeremiah xvii. 1.)\n\nMost likely, however, Moses wrote on parchment made from the skins of\nsheep and goats.  The Children of Israel kept large flocks, and could\nsupply him with as many skins as he wanted.\n\nAnd in what language did he write?\n\nPerhaps even the very first words were written in Hebrew; we know that\nin later times the prophets and historians of the Jews wrote in Hebrew.\n\nBut we must remember that languages alter as years pass on.  The Hebrew\nof Moses' time could only have been an ancient kind of Hebrew, very\ndifferent from the Hebrew of to-day.  Does this surprise you?  Why, you\nand I could hardly read one word of the English written in England even\na thousand years ago!\n\nAbout the middle of the last century a German missionary found a large\ncarved stone in that part of Palestine which used to be called Moab.\nThis wonderful stone, which is black and shaped something like a\ntombstone, is covered with writing.  It is called 'The Moabite Stone,'\nand was set up by Mesha, king of Moab. (2 Kings iii. 4.)  The writing\non it is neither Egyptian nor cuneiform, but a very ancient kind of\nHebrew.\n\n[Illustration: First words of Kin Mesha's writing on the Moabite Stone.\nMoses most likely used letters like these]\n\nOf course, this does not take us back actually to the days of Moses,\nbut still it is so old that Moses may well have used the same kind of\nwriting.\n\nWe have seen that most nations in those old times had their books, and\nwe know that each nation had always one book that it valued more than\nthe rest.  This was the book that told the people about their religion,\nand the gods in whom they believed.\n\nIn most of these books some grains of truth were found.  All the\nnations of the world are but one great family, you know, and even the\nmost ignorant people were not without some knowledge.\n\nThe heathen nations of Moses' time therefore remembered dimly some of\nGod's dealings with the world; they were so blinded by their heathen\nworship, that no atom of fresh light could reach them, and little by\nlittle they drifted further into the darkness.\n\nBut, though tiny fragments of truth are to be found in their books, not\none word is to be traced in any book of the most precious truth of all\nuntil God revealed it to His servant Moses.\n\nThis makes our Bible so wonderful and different from all other books:\nit is a revelation--that is, something which comes to us from God and\nwhich we could never have known without His help.\n\nFrom first to last the Bible is written to teach us about Christ.\nThroughout the whole of the Old Testament Christ is referred to as the\ncoming Saviour, or Messiah, which you know, is the Hebrew word for\nChrist.\n\nChrist is to bruise the serpent's head. (Genesis iii. 15.)  In Him all\nthe nations of the earth are to be blessed. (Genesis xxii. 18.)  He is\nthe Star that shall come out of Jacob.  (Numbers xxiv. 17.) When the\nLamb of the Passover was killed, and the people taught they could only\nescape from death through the sprinkled blood, this was a type or\npicture of Salvation through the Blood of Jesus.\n\nWhen at last the Saviour came, the Jews rejected Him and would not\naccept Him as the Messiah.  Then He said to them: '_Had ye believed\nMoses, ye would have believed Me: for he wrote of Me._' (John v. 46.)\n\n\n\n[1] The Egyptians spelt 'Goshen' 'Kosem.'  An old writing says, 'The\ncountry is not cultivated, but left as a pasture for cattle because of\nthe stranger.'\n\n[2] Some of these bricks are in the British Museum.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER III\n\nMOSES AND HIS WRITINGS\n\n[Illustration: (drop cap W) Clay letter tablet of Moses' time.]\n\nWe now begin to understand a little of the very beginning of God's\nBook--of the times in which it was written, the materials used by its\nfirst author, and the different kinds of writing from which he had to\nchoose; but we must go a step farther.\n\nHow much did Moses know about the history of his forefathers, Abraham\nand Jacob, and of all the old nations and kings mentioned in Genesis,\nbefore God called him to the great work of writing his part of the\nBible?\n\nWe believe that he knew a great deal about them all.\n\nMost thoughtful young people like to read right through their Bibles,\nand perhaps you have been perplexed to find that many parts of the Old\nTestament are both puzzling and dry.  Of what use, then, can these\nchapters be? you have perhaps asked yourself.  Is it not all God's Book?\n\nBut you must not let this trouble you.  Every passage, every verse has\nits special place and object.  Not a line of God's Book could be taken\naway without serious loss to the whole.\n\n'What, all those long lists of the queer names of people we never hear\nof again?' asks some one.  'Why, I dread those chapters.  I once had to\nread Genesis x. aloud, and I shall never forget it!'\n\nThose who feel like this will be surprised to know that many of the\nmost learned men of our own days are giving much time and thought to\nthe careful and patient study of this very list of names; and the more\ncarefully they study it, the fuller and wider does the subject become.\n\n'_Babel, and Erech, and Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar._'\n(Genesis x. 10.)  The ruins of all these great cities and kingdoms have\nnow been found.  They were old before Moses was born; indeed, they were\nso old that their names were only to be found in ancient books; even\nthe very language spoken by some of these nations had been forgotten by\nall save the learned scribes of Babylonia and Assyria.\n\nAnd yet we find these names accurately given in Genesis; had they been\nmissing from its pages, the Bible would give us no true idea of the\nbeginnings of history.  Remember this when next you are tempted to feel\nimpatient at the awkward syllables.\n\nAgain, in Genesis xiv. we read the names of the kings who governed nine\nnations in the time of Abraham, and of how they fought together '_four\nkings with five_' (verse 9) three hundred years before Moses was born.\n\nUntil a very few years ago the Bible was the only Book that told us\nabout these ancient kings and kingdoms.\n\nAnd people said, 'The man who wrote that chapter did not really know\nanything; he just collected a pack of old stories that had been\nrepeated over and over again with so many exaggerations and alterations\nthat at last there was scarcely a word of truth left in them.'\n\nSince this foolish conclusion was arrived at many new discoveries have\nbeen made, the broken fragments of old tablets have been pieced\ntogether and read, and the names of all the nine kings brought to light\nonce more.\n\nCertain it is that Moses, with the help of the writings which we now\nknow must have existed in his time, would have but little difficulty in\nwriting those parts of Genesis which tell us the history of some of the\nmost ancient nations of the world.  For when God gives a man some work\nto do, He always helps him to do it.  To those who really trust Him,\nand have patience to work on, the help they need always comes, the\ndifficult path is made smooth.  This has been the experience of God's\nservants in all times.\n\n[Illustration: PORTRAIT AND WRITING OF AMRAPHEL, KING OF SHINAR, IN\nABRAHAM'S TIME]\n\nMany letters and books belonging to the reign of '_Amraphel_[1] _king\nof Shinar_' (Genesis xiv. 1) have lately been found.  He was one of the\nwisest heathen kings who ever lived, and the writings of his times are\nvery interesting, because they bring us quite back to the days of\nAbraham.\n\nAmraphel kept written records describing the splendid temples he built,\nand a great embankment which he made to keep the river Tigris from\nflooding his people's cornfields; but the wisest thing he did was to\ncollect and write out a long list of all the laws by which he governed\nthe land of Shinar.  Thus he worked in very much the same kind of way\nfor Shinar that our own King Alfred did, thousands of years later, for\nEngland.\n\nThis list of laws was found in 1901.  They are engraved on a great\nblock of black marble, and are so numerous that they would fill pages\nof our Bible.\n\nThey are wise and just as far as they go.  There is a great deal about\nbuying and selling in them, and the lawful way of conducting different\nkinds of business; but they are wholly different from those wonderful\nCommandments which God gave to the Children of Israel three hundred\nyears later.\n\nFor Shinar's laws were the heathen laws of a heathen king; in them\nthere is no word of God; no word even of the heathen gods in which\nAmraphel believed.\n\n'_Thou shalt love the Lord thy God ... and thy neighbour as thyself._'\n(Luke x. 27.)  In these words Jesus Christ gives to us the true meaning\nof the Commandments which Moses wrote down in our Bible.\n\nAgain, until quite lately many people were certain that there could\nnever have been a king like Melchizedek, the king of Salem, who came\nand blessed Abraham, and of whom we read in Genesis xiv. and also in\nHebrews vii.\n\nBut among the letters found in the Foreign Office of the king of Egypt,\nis one from the king of Salem.  Not from Melchizedek, but from another\nking of Salem, who describes himself in these words: '_I was set in my\nplace neither by father nor mother, but by the Mighty King_'--meaning\n'by God.'  Read what is said about Melchizedek in Hebrews vii.  These\nwords show us that all the kings of Salem believed that they owed\neverything to God.  This is why Abraham honoured Melchizedek so highly.\n\n'_Salem_--that is, peace.  '_Jeru-salem_' means city of peace.  So, as\nwe see from these ancient letters, Jerusalem was called the city of\npeace even in the days of Abraham.\n\nAll these old records and many more Moses must surely have seen; the\ncities of Canaan were as full of books as were those of Egypt and\nBabylonia, for the name '_Kirjath-sepher_' (Joshua xv. 15) means 'City\nof Books.'\n\nThus, as year by year new discoveries are made, we realize more clearly\nthe kind of preparation which Moses had for his great work, and the\nsources from which he gathered much of his information.  Yet no single\nword of the Bible is copied from the heathen writings.\n\nNo; just as a man who decides to give his whole life to God to-day\nuses, in the Lord's service, the knowledge he gained before he was\nconverted; so, after God called Moses to his great work, all the\nlearning and wide knowledge he had gathered during his life were\ndedicated to the service of God, and used by His Holy Spirit.\n\nWe do not know--we are nowhere told--whether Moses wrote every word of\nthe 'Books of the Law.'  The Jews believed that every letter, every\ntiniest dot was his.  It may well have been so, as we have seen.\n\nBut, again, he may very likely have had helpers and editors; that is,\npeople who arranged and copied his original writings.\n\nBut the Children of Israel always called the first five books of the\nBible 'The Torah'; that is, 'The Law'; and they looked upon these as\ntheir most precious possession, something quite above and apart from\nevery other writing--Jehovah's direct words and commandments to His\npeople.\n\nAt last the life-work of Moses was done, and Joshua took his place,\ncalled by God to lead the people forward.  But the new leader found\nhimself at once in a very different position.  When Moses brought the\nChildren of Israel out of Egypt they were without a Bible.\n\nBut in Joshua's days the light had begun to shine, the river of the\nknowledge of God to flow, and God was able, therefore, to say to His\nservant Joshua:\n\n'_This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou\nshall meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do\naccording to all that is written therein: for then thou shall make thy\nway prosperous, and then thou shall have good success._' (Joshua i. 8.)\n\nWe are not told who was called by God to write the Book of Joshua; we\nthink that Joshua wrote at least a part of it himself, but we all know\nthat it describes how the Israelites came at last into the Promised\nLand, and drove out the wicked idol-worshippers.\n\nBuried deep in the earth the remains of many old Canaanite cities have\nbeen found.\n\nThose of Lachish, the great Amorite city, are specially interesting.\nWe know how the Children of Israel dreaded the Amorite cities.  '_Great\nand walled up to Heaven_' (Deuteronomy i. 28), as the people said.\nYet, in spite of their great strength, Joshua took them one by one,\noverthrew them, and afterwards built the Jewish towns upon their ruins.\nThis was the custom of conquerors with all these ancient cities, as the\nexcavators find to-day.\n\nNow, in the remains of Lachish we can see its whole history.  Three\ndistinct cities have been found, one below the other.\n\nDeepest down of all, full sixty feet underground, are the enormous\nwalls of the Amorite city; great masses of rough brick forming huge\nwalls at least twenty-eight feet wide.  No wonder the Children of\nIsrael, felt doubtful of victory!\n\nAbove the Amorite walls are the scattered fragments of rough mud-huts\nand cattle shelters.  The Israelites had no time to build anything\nbetter until Canaan was conquered.\n\nAbove these again stand the ruined walls of a later Jewish city,\nLachish, as it was in the days of Solomon and the Jewish kings.\n\nA fair city it must have been, built of white stone, the capitals of\nsome of the columns carved to resemble a ram's horn, perhaps to remind\nthe people of the horns of the altar in the Tabernacle.  But the walls\nof the Jewish Lachish have none of the massive strength of the ancient\nAmorite city.\n\nHad we space we might pause over many of the other ancient Canaanitish\ncities, for the subject is of absorbing interest, but perhaps we may\nreturn to it in a later volume.  Joshua, like all God's true servants\npast and present, made full use of the precious Book, and, '_There was\nnot a word of all that Moses commanded, which Joshua read not before\nall the congregation of Israel, with the women, and the little ones,\nand the strangers._' (Joshua viii. 35.)\n\nBefore he died he spoke to the people very sorrowfully about their\nsins.  Many of them, in spite of God's commandments and His favour and\nlove, had begun to serve the false gods of Canaan.  The people repented\nat the old leader's earnest words, and they cried, '_The Lord our God\nwill we serve, and His voice will we obey._' (Joshua xxiv. 24.)  Joshua\nmade them promise to be steadfast.  '_And Joshua wrote these words in\nthe Book of the Law of God._' (Verse 26.)  From this we see that Joshua\nwrote a part, at least, of the Book that is called by his name.\n\nPeople have often thought it strange that the Children of Israel should\nagain and again break God's clear command, '_Thou shall have no other\ngods before Me._' (Exodus xx. 3.)  How could they have been so foolish\nas to care for false gods when the living God had done so much for them?\n\nIt is the old story.  A man who has once given way to drunkenness is\nnot safe unless he puts strong drink out of his life for ever.  If he\neven touches it he is liable to fall back again into its power.  So it\nwas with the Children of Israel.  The worship of false gods had been\nthe terrible sin of their wilderness wanderings, and now to serve the\ngods of Canaan became their strongest temptation.\n\nThe temples were so strange, so beautiful, the gods themselves so\nmysterious, and then all was so easy, so pleasant!  No stern\nself-denial was needed; there were no difficult laws to keep; no\nholiness was asked for.  Drinking, feasting, and all kinds of\nself-indulgence were part of the worship of Baal, and those who served\nAshtaroth, the goddess of beauty, might spend their whole lives in\nwicked and degrading pleasures.\n\n[Illustration: ANCIENT FIGURE OF ASHTAROTH, THE WICKED IDOL-GODDESS OF\nCANAAN]\n\nThe backsliders of Israel found it only too easy to give up the\nstruggle for right, and to sink down into the horrible wickedness of\nthe heathen tribes around them.\n\nMany people to-day are asking how a God of love and mercy could bid the\nIsraelites utterly to destroy the cities of Canaan, and to kill their\ninhabitants, but the more we discover of these ancient tribes, the more\nhopelessly depraved do we find them to have been.  For centuries God\nhad been waiting in patience; the warning He had given to them through\nSodom's swift destruction had been unheeded; now at last the cup of\ntheir iniquity was full (Genesis xv. 16) and the Israelites were to be\nHis means of ridding the world of this plague spot.\n\nIn the Book of Judges we see how each time His people disobeyed His\ncommand and copied the sins they were called to sweep away, God\npunished them by letting their merciless neighbours rule over them,\ntill they loathed the bondage and turned once more to the living God.\n\nHad Israel absorbed the vices of these nations instead of destroying\nthem, try to think what the world would have lost!  The one channel\nthrough which God was giving His Book to man would have become so\nchoked and polluted with vice that in its turn it also would have\nbecome a source of infection and not of health.\n\n\n\n[1] This king's name is also spelt Hammurabi.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IV\n\nTHE HISTORY BOOKS\n\n[Illustration: (drop cap T) Assyrian idol-god]\n\nThus little by little the Book of God grew, and the people He had\nchosen to be its guardians took their place among the nations.\n\nA small place it was from one point of view!  A narrow strip of land,\nbut unique in its position as one of the highways of the world, on\nwhich a few tribes were banded together.  All around great empires\nwatched them with eager eyes; the powerful kings of Assyria, Egypt, and\nBabylonia, the learned Greeks, and, in later times, the warlike Romans.\n\nHow small and unimportant the Israelites appeared to the world then!\nYet we know that in reality they were greater than any people the world\nhad ever seen.  God's words have been fulfilled; through the Children\nof Israel all the nations of the world are blessed.\n\nThe old empires have crumbled into dust; the great conquerors of\nancient days are forgotten; few people to-day remember the names of the\nwise men of Greece and Rome, but our lives and thoughts are daily\ninfluenced by the thoughts, words, and deeds of the Jews of old.\nAbraham, Jacob, Moses, Samuel, David, Elijah--their very names are\nnearer and dearer to us than those of the heroes of our own land.\n\nWhen Queen Victoria was asked the secret  of England's greatness, she\nheld up a Bible.  Their Sacred Book was all that the Jews possessed.\nTheir whole greatness was wrapped up in it.  As the heathen truly said,\nthey were 'The People of the Book.'\n\nAnd now let us glance at the history books of the Bible.  The first and\nsecond Books of Samuel have been put together from several other\nrecords.  Most likely Samuel himself did part of the work.  In Shiloh,\nwhere he was educated, the old documents were kept, and Samuel, the\ngifted lad, who so early gave his heart to God, was in every way fitted\nto write the story of the Lord's chosen people during his own life-time.\n\nThe Bible mentions several other histories that were written in these\ndays besides those which we know.  '_Now the acts of David the king,\nfirst and last, behold, they are written in the book of Samuel the\nseer, and in the book of Nathan the prophet, and in the book of Gad the\nseer._'  (These last have disappeared.)  (1 Chronicles xxix. 29.)\n\nStores of books were being gathered.  When, for instance, Saul was\nchosen king, Samuel '_wrote in a book and laid it up before the Lord._'\n(1 Samuel x. 25.)  These books were most likely written on a rough kind\nof parchment, made from the skins of goats, sewn together, and rolled\nup into thick rolls.\n\nThe Books of Samuel are very precious to us, for in them we read nearly\nall we know of the history of David the shepherd-king.  Some of David's\nown writings are found in these books, but for most of them we have to\nturn to the Book of the Psalms, which was the manual of the Temple\nchoir, and became the national collection of sacred poems.  These\nPsalms were composed by different authors, and at different times,\nchiefly for use in the Temple, but the collection was founded by David,\nand he contributed many of its most beautiful hymns.\n\nDavid's boyhood was spent among the rugged hills and valleys of\nBethlehem.  As we read his Psalms we feel that the writer has passed\nlong hours alone with God, and the beautiful things which God has made.\n\nLet us watch him for a moment.  It is evening, and the young lad is\nalone on the hills, keeping his father's sheep.  The sun is sinking,\nand all the earth is bathed in golden light.  Even the sullen surface\nof the Dead Sea reflects the glory, and the hills of Moab glow as\nthough on fire.\n\n'God is the Creator of all this beauty,' thinks David.  'Yes, bright as\nis that golden sky, His glory is _above the heavens_.' (Psalm viii. 1.)\n\nNow the sun has quite gone; night's dark curtain draws across the\nworld, the rosy glow fades from the hills.  One by one the great white\nstars shine out, and presently the moon rises.  The young lad raises\nhis face, and gazes upward.  '_When I consider Thy heavens, the work of\nThy fingers, the moon and the stars, which Thou hast ordained_' (Psalm\nviii. 3) he murmurs; 'how great is this mighty God, how far beyond all\nthe thoughts and ways of men!  _What is man, that Thou art mindful of\nhim?_' (Verse 4.)\n\nBut God loves us even though we are lower than the angels.  He has\ncrowned us with glory and honour.  He has given all His beautiful\nworld, and all the wonderful things He has made, into our hands.  '_O\nLord_ (verse 4) _our Lord, how excellent is Thy name in all the\nearth._' (Verse 9.)\n\nIn Psalm xxix. David gives a word picture of a thunderstorm.  He\ndescribes the furious blast, the crashing thunder, the vivid lightning.\nMany times as a young lad he had watched the black storm-clouds gather\nover the hills and valleys of Bethlehem.  He had no fear of the\ntempest.  God's voice was in the wind; God's voice divided the\nlightning-flashes; God's voice shook the wilderness.  Yes, God would\nmake His people strong, even as the storm was strong.\n\nAnd when the storm had passed, and the sun shone out once more over the\nquiet hills, how clearly the words rose in David's mind, '_The Lord\nwill bless His people with peace!_' (Verse 11.)\n\nSolomon, David's son, was the wisest king of ancient times.  He wrote\nmany books, but only small fragments of them are found in the Bible; a\nfew Psalms, Solomon's Song, and a collection Proverbs.\n\n[Illustration: SENNACHERIB, KING OF ASSYRIA.  FROM THE ASSYRIAN PICTURE\nOF THE TAKING OF LACHISH.  (2 Kings xviii.)]\n\nFor much of Solomon's wisdom was of the earthly sort.  He stood first\namong all the learned men of his day.  He would now be called a\n'scientific' man.  But all science which is limited to mere human\nwisdom grows quickly out of date.  The cleverest men of to-day will be\nthought very ignorant in a few years.\n\nWhereas David's writings live.  His love for God, and his faith in God,\nmade him able to write those words of trust and hope and praise which\nare as sweet and fresh to-day as when they were written, and which go\nright home to our hearts.\n\nHow many cold hearts have not David's psalms warmed into life, how many\nwounded spirits have they not comforted!  There is not a grief or\nanxiety in our lives to-day that could not be met and softened by the\nwords of the Jewish writer of long ago.  Yes, the work done for God and\ninspired by His Spirit never grows old.\n\nAnd now, as we open the books of the kings, the great empires of the\ndays of old, of Assyria, Babylonia, Egypt, Persia, seem to start into\nvivid life once more.\n\nHow strong they were--how terrible!  What defence had the little\nkingdom of Judah against such overwhelming power, such mighty armies,\nsuch merciless rulers?\n\nShe had the best defence of all--God's holy promises chronicled in His\nBook.  While her people loved and served their God they would be safe.\n\nBut, alas! they soon forgot to read and obey His Book, and neither\nloved nor served Him any more.  Then came sorrow and trouble exactly as\nMoses had foretold.  Cities were sacked, and many hundreds of people\nled away into slavery; yet, until the days of Hezekiah, no one tried to\nunderstand the reason for all this.\n\nKing Hezekiah understood and trembled; he prayed earnestly that God\nwould pardon the nation's sin, and when the Book of the Law was lying\nforgotten in the Temple he had it brought out and read before him.  (2\nChronicles xxxiv. 14-18.)\n\nUnder his direction the Proverbs of Solomon were collected and copied\n(Proverbs xxv. i), and the Psalms of David sung in the Temple once\nagain.\n\nThe wonderful story of the King of Assyria's campaign against\nJerusalem, followed shortly after by the defence of the Holy City by\nGod Himself in answer to Hezekiah's prayer, can be read at length in\nthe story of 'Hezekiah the King.'[1]\n\nAlthough Sennacherib of Assyria was one of the mightiest rulers the\nworld has ever seen, he was utterly discomfited when he set his power\nagainst the will of God.\n\nThe Books of Kings and Chronicles give us, as it were, the history of a\nnation from God's point of view.\n\nThe writers' names are not even known.  But in these Books we are shown\nclearly that God rules over the nations, and is working His purpose out\nthrough His chosen instruments, year by year.  It is in vain for a man\nto strive against God, or for a nation to hope for prosperity while it\nforsakes the law of the Lord.\n\nNo other history has ever attempted to show us the deep truths and\nperfect order which lie behind apparent confusion in the story of a\nnation.\n\nWith the History Books of the Bible, the Books of the Prophets are\nclosely interwoven.  Throughout Kings and Chronicles we catch many\nglimpses of the prophets and of their noble efforts to keep alive God's\nwords in the hearts of the people; but in the writings of the prophets\nthemselves we may read the actual messages which God's messengers\nproclaimed in order to stir up their hearers in times of national\ndistress or heart-backsliding.\n\nGod's indignation against hypocrites and oppressors is declared in\nwords that cannot be passed over; but ever as the clouds of trouble\ngather more thickly over His people is the hope of a coming Saviour\nmore clearly put before them.\n\nFor a real understanding of the Prophets' Books it is necessary to know\nsomething of the circumstances under which each man lived and wrote.\nAmos and Hosea, for instance, warned their people of the approach of\nSargon of Assyria unless they repented and turned again to the law of\nthe Lord.  As they did not repent the prophets' warning came true, and\nSargon invaded and destroyed the Kingdom of Israel.\n\nBut Nahum brings comfort, for he tells the suffering Kingdoms of Judah\nand Israel that the Kings of Assyria shall so disappear that in the\nyears to come the very place where they dwelt shall be forgotten, while\nJudah shall keep the Lord's feasts for ever.  (Nahum i. 15.)\n\nThe Bible tells of many of God's acts which seem very wonderful to us.\nWe call these acts 'miracles,' because we cannot explain them, nor how\nthey happened.\n\nNow the writings of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the rest of the\nprophets are also miracles, for although these men wrote at widely\ndifferent times, and hundreds of years before the birth of Christ, yet\ntheir books all speak of Him.  The light of God's Spirit shone into\ntheir hearts so that they foresaw and foretold the coming of the\nSaviour King.\n\nTerrible troubles would overwhelm the Jews; but, even though the wall\nof Jerusalem should be broken down, the city laid waste, and the\ninhabitants led away captive, God's words were sure.  He would visit\nHis people at last.  He would redeem them from their sins.\n\nThe troubles came, the prophets' eyes streamed with tears, and their\nhearts were torn with grief as they saw their land wasted by the\nheathen.  Yet they did not despair.  The dark night of sorrow would\nwear away at last, God's people should be brought back, Jerusalem\nrebuilt; her King would come, the Sun of Righteousness arise, '_And His\nname shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The Mighty God, The\nEverlasting Father, The Prince of Peace._' (Isaiah ix. 6.)\n\n\n\n[1] A companion volume to this book.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER V\n\nTHE SCATTERING OF THE PEOPLE\n\n[Illustration: (drop cap A) The Fish-god of Assyria and Babylonia]\n\nAt last the full punishment for their many sins fell upon God's chosen\npeople.\n\nThe words of warning written in the fifth book of Moses had told them\nplainly that if they turned aside and worshipped the wicked idol-gods\nof Canaan, the Lord would take their country from them and drive them\nout into strange lands.\n\nYet again and again they had yielded to temptation.  And now the day of\nreckoning had come.\n\nNebuchadnezzar, the great king of Babylon, sent his armies into the\nHoly Land.  No nation at this time could resist Nebuchadnezzar; even\nthe fierce Assyrians had to bow before him, for he was one of the most\npowerful kings the world has ever seen.\n\nYet even Nebuchadnezzar was but an instrument in the hands of God, as\nDaniel recognized when he said: '_Thou, O king, art a king of kings:\nfor the God of Heaven hath given thee a kingdom, power, and strength,\nand glory._' (Daniel ii. 37.)\n\nThis thought had been Daniel's comfort and stay, though he had been\ncarried into the great heathen land far from Jerusalem, his beloved and\nholy city.  But to those Jews who had no trust in God to uphold them,\nthe sorrow was almost greater than they could bear.\n\nFor Nebuchadnezzar broke down the wall of Jerusalem, and led many\nthousands of her people away to be his slaves in Babylon.\n\n'We have taken their treasure of gold and silver; we have laid their\ncity wall in ruins; their Temple is bare and deserted; their gardens of\nlilies and spices are choked with weeds; their fields are unsown; their\nvineyards untended; the best men and women of the land are serving us\nin Babylon.  Now, at last, there is an end of this proud Jewish nation,\nfor all that they most valued is in our hands.'\n\nSo said the heathen Babylonians, mocking the poor captives.  How little\nthey dreamt that the Jews' most precious possession was with them still!\n\nMore valued than jewels or gold, sweeter than the milk and honey of\ntheir own land, was the Book of the Law--the Book which told them all\nthey knew of God.\n\nIndeed, not until the people were forced to live in a heathen city did\nthey really learn to understand how great a treasure their nation\npossessed in the written words of God.\n\nBut in Babylon, with its huge heathen temples blazing with jewels and\ngold, its scores of cunning idol-priests, who deceived the people by\npretending to tell fortunes and make charms, and its countless images,\nhere, at last, God's chosen people began to see the greatness of the\ngift with which the Lord had blessed them, when He gave them the words\nwhich have now become the first books of our Bible.\n\nNebuchadnezzar might break down the wall of their city, he could not\nbreak down the spiritual wall which God Himself had built round His\npeople.  Scattered through many lands, forced to serve heathen masters\nas they were, the Book of God's Law was a living gift which bound the\nJewish people together.\n\nAs we have seen, the Psalms were written by different writers, and one\nof the later Psalms, the 137th, gives us a vivid picture of those sad\ndays: '_By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when\nwe remembered Zion._' (Verse 1.)\n\nBabylon was famous for its great rivers; and the poor captives watched\nthe flowing water, and the great wind-swept beds of reeds and giant\nrushes.  '_We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof._'\n(Verse 2.)\n\n[Illustration: 'LED AWAY CAPTIVE.'--ASSYRIAN PICTURE OF THE INHABITANTS\nFROM A CONQUERED CITY BEING LED AWAY INTO SLAVERY]\n\nBut their Babylonian masters had heard of the sweet psalms of the\nLord's people.  'Sing to us,' they said; 'sing us a merry song.  _Sing\nus one of the songs of Zion._' (Verse 3.)\n\n'Sing to these cruel heathen who have wasted our country, and carried\nus away into slavery!  Sing one of the holy songs of Israel, the songs\nwhich King David wrote, that they may laugh and mock at us!  _How shall\nwe sing the Lord's song in a strange land?_' (Verse 4.)\n\nNo, they could not sing; their hearts were breaking with grief.  Never,\nnever could they forget the Holy City.  Ruined, desolate as it lay,\nJerusalem was still to them the place most loved in all the world.\n\nAnd yet, even in far-off heathen Babylon the Lord called men to add to\nHis Book.\n\nThe Book of Daniel has troubled many people greatly.  It was not\nhistory at all, some critics said, but a mere collection of myths and\nlegends.  But year by year, as fresh discoveries are made, we see ever\nmore clearly that it would have been better to trust the old Bible\nwords after all.\n\n'There never was a ruler over Babylon named Belshazzar' so these people\nsaid; 'the last Babylonian king was Nabonides.'  A few years ago,\nhowever, Belshazzar's name was found on an old cuneiform tablet.\nNabonides had been crowned king, but he seldom took any part in the\naffairs of the empire.  All that he left to his eldest son, Belshazzar,\nwho seems to have acted as king in his father's stead.\n\nAlmost daily further discoveries are being made, all proving the\naccuracy of Daniel's writings.  What is probably the floor of the very\ndining-hall in which the hand-writing appeared has recently been\nuncovered.\n\nCyrus,[1] of whom Ezra speaks in the first chapter of his book, was a\nvery different king from Nebuchadnezzar.\n\nNebuchadnezzar loved to pull down and destroy nations; but the great\nwish of Cyrus was to build up and restore.  The cuneiform writings of\nthe old Babylonian and Assyrian kings consist mostly of long lists of\nthe nations they led away into slavery and the towns they burnt with\nfire; but the inscriptions made by Cyrus, the Persian king, speak of\nthe people he sent back to their homes.  'All their people I collected,\nand restored their habitations.'[2]  And among these people, as the\nBible tells us, were the Jews of Jerusalem.\n\nMany and great were the difficulties before them; but led, during the\nreign of Artaxerxes, by Ezra and Nehemiah, they faced their troubles\nbravely, until at last the wall of Jerusalem was rebuilt, and the city\nrestored to something of its old beauty.\n\nWhat a time of joy and triumph!  Hardly could the Jews believe that\nthey were in their own dear city once again.  Psalm cxxvi. describes\nthis wonderful day.\n\n'_When the Lord turned again the captivity of Zion, we were like them\nthat dream.  Then was our mouth filled with laughter, and our tongue\nwith singing: then said they among the heathen, The Lord hath done\ngreat things for them._' (Verses 1, 2.)\n\n'We have sinned against the Lord, we have been untrue to our promises;\nbut never again will we neglect His Book, nor forget His Law.'\n\n'_And all the people gathered themselves together as one man...; and\nthey spake unto Ezra the scribe to bring the Book of the Law of Moses,\nwhich the Lord had commanded to Israel._' (Nehemiah viii. 1.)\n\nA solemn day that was, as we read in the Book of Nehemiah, a day of\nreal returning to the Lord.  Picture them standing there, those men and\nwomen and little children of Jerusalem; their faces would be worn with\ntoil and hardship.\n\nOn a raised platform of wood stood Ezra ready with the rolls of the\nBooks of the Law, and beside him were the interpreters.\n\nFor the people had been so long in a strange land that scarcely any of\nthem could speak Hebrew; that is, the old Hebrew language in which King\nDavid wrote.  If the Law of God was to be impressed afresh on the\nnation's heart that day, the scribes, the writers and the teachers must\ntranslate it into the language of their heathen conquerors.\n\n'_So they read in the Book of the Law of God distinctly, and gave the\nsense, and caused them to understand the reading._' (Nehemiah viii. 8.)\n\nSince those days of Ezra, the Bible has been translated into nearly\nevery known language.  It is most interesting, therefore, to read in\nthe Bible itself about what was most likely the very first translation\nof all--and this not a _written_ translation, remember.\n\nNow when the people heard the words of God's Book they were very sad;\nfor now at last they understood how deeply they had sinned against Him.\n\nThey had been proud of their Bible, and had rightly felt it to be a\ngreat treasure; but now they saw that the words of the Bible must be\nshown forth in the lives of those who believe.  To honour God's Book is\nnot enough; we must obey it.\n\nThe Jewish people did not again learn to speak the old language of\ntheir nation.  Yet all the copies of the Books of the Law, and the\nBooks of the Prophets, the Psalms, and those writings which tell of the\nhistory of the Lord's people--that is, the whole of the Old\nTestament--were still written in the ancient tongue.\n\nSo it came to pass, after a while, that the Bible could only be read by\nthe learned people; for the words in which the Law of God was given had\nbecome a 'dead language'--that is, a language that had ceased to be\nused in daily life at all.\n\nBefore the death of Ezra and Nehemiah, or else very soon after, the\nscribes of Jerusalem--that is, the writers and teachers--began to\ndevote themselves almost entirely to the studying and copying of the\nBible.\n\nA young lad of those days who became a pupil in the School of the\nScribes at Jerusalem would have to begin by learning the Old Testament\nalmost by heart.  To read an old Hebrew writing correctly was almost\nimpossible, unless you had heard it read two or three times, and knew\npretty well what was coming.  For the ancient Hebrew alphabet consisted\nentirely of consonants; there were actually _no_ vowels!\n\nThe little dots you see in the specimen of Hebrew given on this page\nare called 'vowel-points,' and are a guide to the sound of the word;\nbut in the old, old days of which we are speaking, these dots had not\nbeen invented.  The reader had nothing but consonants before him, and\nwas obliged to guess the rest.\n\nJust think of it!  Suppose we followed this rule in English, and you\ncame to the word, 'TP,' you would be puzzled indeed to know whether\ntap, tip, or top was meant!\n\nBut the Jewish scribes had wonderful memories.  A teacher would read a\nlong passage from the Psalms to his pupil, and very soon the lad would\nbe able to repeat the whole correctly, the consonant words just\nrefreshing his memory.\n\n[Illustration: THE FIRST LINE OF THE BIBLE IN HEBREW]\n\nThis would not always be as difficult as you might suppose.  For\ninstance, you can read this easily enough:\n\n'TH LRD S M SHPHRD SHLL NT WNT.'\n\nIndeed, to this day the Hebrew of the sacred Books in the Jewish\nSynagogues is all written without vowel-points.\n\nAt this time it was that the Jews became really the 'People of the\nBook,' and that a special society was formed to guard and copy the\nBible.\n\nHow wonderfully this work was done!  Never have the words of any other\nbook been so lovingly cared for.\n\nWe have called the Bible the oldest Book in the world; we have seen\nthat it tells about nations and people who were almost forgotten before\nthe days of Abraham.  It seems strange, therefore, that the most\nancient copy of the Old Testament Scriptures, written in Hebrew and in\nthe possession of the Jews to-day, carries us back only to the time of\nour Saxon kings.[3]\n\nThis is because the Jews' custom is reverently to destroy every copy of\nthe Books of the Old Testament--that is, of their Bible--as soon as it\nbecomes worn with use, or blurred with the kisses of its readers.\n\n'This is a living Book,' they say; 'it should look new.  God's Word can\nnever grow old.'\n\nSo, year by year, they make new copies directly the old are worn out,\nand this they have done for long ages.  And so careful have they been\nin making the copies, that although all was written by hand, there has\npractically been no alteration in the words for more than two thousand\nyears.  God had indeed well chosen the guardians of His Book.\n\nLet us try to picture to ourselves a young scribe of those old, old\ndays, with his dark hair and big, serious eyes, and dressed in his\nwhite robe.\n\nHe has been very patient and industrious for many months past, working\nearly and late; now, at last, he is to be allowed to copy one of the\nsacred books.\n\n'My son,' his old teacher has said, 'take heed how thou doest thy work;\ndrop not nor add one letter, lest thou becomest the destruction of the\nworld.'\n\n'Oh, may the Lord keep my attention fixed, may He hold my hand that it\nshake not!'\n\nSo, with a prayer on his lips, the young scribe begins his work.\n\nAnd it is through such patient, careful work as his that the older part\nof our Bible has come down to us from the half-forgotten ages of the\npast.\n\n\n\n[1] Cyrus became King of Persia 546 B.C., conquered Babylon 538, died\n528 B.C.\n\n[2] Cuneiform writing made by order of Cyrus.\n\n[3] The Codex Babylonicus, the earliest known Jewish manuscript, dates\nfrom the year A.D. 916.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VI\n\nTHE ATTACK ON THE SCRIPTURES\n\n[Illustration: (drop cap B) A Greek Warrior]\n\nBut troubled times came again to Jerusalem.  The great empires of\nBabylon and Assyria had passed away for ever, exactly as the prophets\nof Israel had foretold; but new powers had arisen in the world, and the\ngreat nations fought together so constantly that all the smaller\ncountries, and with them the Kingdom of Judah, changed hands very often.\n\nAt last Alexander the Great managed to make himself master of all the\ncountries of the then-known world.  Alexander was an even greater\nconqueror than Nebuchadnezzar had been.  He did not treat the Jews\nunkindly; he neither interfered with their religion nor took treasure\nfrom their temple.\n\nYet while Alexander did God's people no outward injury, his influence\nand example led them astray.\n\nFor Alexander was a Greek, and the Greeks, although at this time the\ncleverest people in the whole world, were a heathen nation, and as such\ndid many foolish and wicked things.  Alexander himself offered\nsacrifice to Venus, Jupiter, and Bacchus (the pretended god of wine and\nstrong drink[1]), and to many other gods of man's invention.\n\nNever again would God's chosen people willingly worship false gods;\ntheir troubles had cured them once for all of that sin.\n\nBut although they knew the Greek religion to be untrue, they began\ngreatly to admire the Greeks themselves, and to take their opinion\nabout many things.\n\n'Who can build like these Greeks?' they will have said.  'Who can carve\nsuch beautiful statues, or paint such beautiful pictures?  Every one\nknows that their poetry is the finest in the world, and that their\nbooks are the wisest and pleasantest to read; and then, how well they\ntrain their young people!  The lads of Greece are the strongest\nwrestlers and the swiftest runners in the world!'\n\nAll this was quite true; but the Jews forgot that mere cleverness does\nnot make a man or woman good, and that the fear of God is the beginning\nof all true wisdom.  Many people forget this even to-day.\n\nSo the Jews began to give their children Greek names, and to send them\nto Greek schools, and, what was worse, they put Greek books into their\nhands instead of the Bible.\n\nSlowly but surely this unholy 'leaven' entered the people's life, and\ninfluenced their thoughts.  But, in spite of all, many Jewish men and\nwomen remained faithful to God; they kept His laws, and read in His\nBook daily, looking always for the coming Saviour, the Messiah, who\nwould rule and redeem His people.\n\nAs the years passed the fashion for Greek ideas and ways grew stronger\nin Jerusalem, until at last even the High Priest himself[2] began to\nencourage the people to neglect the services and sacrifices of the\nTemple, that they might go to heathen sports and games.\n\nThe Greeks were very fond of foot-races and wrestling-matches, and they\nheld large athletic meetings two or three times a year; but no one who\nbelieved in God should have gone near those meetings, for the Grecian\ngames were always held in honour of some heathen god or goddess.\n\n[Illustration: FIG. 1.--COIN OF ALEXANDER THE GREAT, WITH PORTRAIT OF\nHIMSELF AND FIGURE OF JUPITER, THE FALSE GOD HE WORSHIPPED.\n\nFIG. 2.--COIN OF ANTIOCHUS, THE WICKED KING.  PORTRAIT OF HIMSELF, AND\nFIGURE OF VENUS, ONE OF THE FALSE GODS HE TRIED TO FORCE THE JEWS TO\nBELIEVE IN]\n\nWhen Alexander died he left his vast empire to be divided among his\ngenerals, just as Napoleon did centuries later with his conquests.  The\ndescendant of one of these generals was named Antiochus, and he began\nto reign over Syria, which included the country of Judah, a hundred and\nseventy years before the birth of Christ.  He was known as Antiochus\nIV, and was a selfish and cruel ruler.\n\nAlthough indifferent to his own heathen religion, he set himself to\ndestroy all other forms of faith.  'I am king; all my subjects shall\nthink as I do,' he said.  He was told that the Jews believed in only\none God, but he cried with a scornful laugh, 'Yes, but I will soon\nalter that!'\n\nBefore this there had been trouble between Antiochus and the people of\nJerusalem, and he thought to himself, 'I must break down their old\nideas and force them to disobey the laws of Moses, as they call them;\nabove all, I must utterly destroy their Book.  The Book of their Law\nonce gone, they will be easy enough to manage.'\n\nSo he sent one of his generals to Jerusalem, and bade him take an army\nof soldiers and 'speak peaceable words unto them; but all this was\ndeceit.'[3]\n\nThe orders of Antiochus were obeyed; the Jews suspected nothing, and\nthe soldiers kept quiet until the Sabbath day.\n\nBut while the Jews were at prayer, and unable to defend themselves, the\ntreacherous Greeks 'fell suddenly upon the city, and smote it very\nsore, and destroyed much people of Israel.'  Then these wicked men\nbuilt a strong castle on the hill of Zion, so overlooking the entrance\nto the Temple that no one could come in or go out without the knowledge\nand consent of the governor of the castle.\n\nBut this was only the beginning of sorrows.  Soon the dreadful orders\nof the heathen king were cried through the streets of Jerusalem:\n\n'It is the will of Antiochus the king that all the people throughout\nhis whole empire shall worship the same gods as himself, and shall\ndeclare that his religion alone is true.  Death to all those who\ndisobey.'\n\nThe Jews looked at one another in utter dismay, for they knew well that\nAntiochus had power to keep his word.\n\n'No more burnt offerings may be made to the God of the Jews in the\nTemple.  I forbid the keeping of the Sabbath.  The Jews' law declares\nthe flesh of swine to be unclean.  I command that on the altar of the\nJewish God, in His Temple at Jerusalem, a sow be offered in honour of\nmy god Jupiter.  The Priests themselves shall be forced to eat of it.\n\n'As for the Books of their Law, destroy them utterly; let not a word\nremain in the whole land.  Publish this order against the Book; and if,\nafter my will has been declared, any man is found to have a copy in his\npossession, let him be put to death.'\n\nHorrible as it seems, all these wicked commands were carried out.  A\nsow was slaughtered on the altar, and an image of Jupiter set up in\nGod's Holy Temple.  More cruel than all, the Book of the Law was torn\nand trodden underfoot.\n\nThroughout Jerusalem and all the cities of Palestine bands of soldiers\nwent everywhere searching for copies of the Scriptures.  Torn to\nfragments, burnt with fire, often, alas! drenched with the life-blood\nof those who loved them, now, indeed, the Books of the Bible were in\nterrible danger, for the most powerful king of the fierce heathen world\nwas fighting directly against them!\n\n'_O God, the heathen are come into Thine inheritance; Thy holy Temple\nhave they defiled; they have laid Jerusalem on heaps....  The blood of\nThy servants have they shed like water round about Jerusalem; and there\nwas none to bury them._' (Psalm lxxix.)\n\nSo the cry went up from those faithful hearts who still dared to serve\nthe true God.\n\nThe altar--the Temple itself--was now defiled, made 'unclean'; the Book\nof the Law had been torn to fragments; but His people could still cry\nto the Lord, and He heard.\n\nThey did not obey the wicked heathen king; and the stories of their\ncourage thrill our hearts as we read them, for they show us what those\nsaints of old suffered rather than deny their God.\n\n'_They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain\nwith the sword: they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being\ndestitute, afflicted, tormented; (of whom the world was not worthy)._'\n(Hebrews xi. 37, 38.)\n\nIt was of these times especially that the writer of Hebrews was\nthinking when he penned those words.\n\nSeven young men, the sons of one woman, were with their mother brought\nbefore the king's officer--or, as some say, before the king\nhimself--for refusing to break the laws of God.\n\nThey were cruelly beaten, but one of them cried:\n\n'What wouldst thou ask of us?  We are ready to die,  rather than to\ntransgress the laws of our fathers!'\n\nThe torturers thereupon seized the brave fellow, and so cruelly\ntormented him that he died, his mother and brothers being forced to\nlook on.\n\nBut though their faces grew pale as death, and they quivered with\nanguish to see their loved one suffer, they gazed steadfastly at each\nother.\n\n'The Lord looketh upon us, the Lord God hath comfort in us,' they said.\n\nThen the second son was taken, and before he died he cried with a loud\nvoice, looking his heathen judge full in the face:\n\n'Thou, like a fury, takest us out of this present life, but the King of\nthe world shall raise us up, who have died for His laws, unto life\neverlasting!'\n\nBut when it came to the turn of the youngest son even the heathen judge\nwas anxious to spare him, and he promised the lad honour and great\nriches if he would but turn from his faith.\n\nBut the youth stepped out before them all, his boyish face as brave as\na man's and his boyish voice as steady.\n\n'Whom wait ye for?' he asked.  'I will obey the Commandments of the Law\nthat was given unto our fathers by Moses; but thou shalt not escape the\nhands of God.\n\n'We suffer for our sins, but our pain is short.  See, I offer up my\nbody and life for the Laws of my fathers, beseeching God to be merciful\nto my nation, and that thou at last mayest confess that He alone is\nGod!'\n\nLast of all, after her sons, the mother died as well.[4]\n\n[Illustration: THE JEWS OF ANTIOCHUS' TIMES COVERED THEIR HOUSES AND\nTOMBS WITH HEATHEN GREEK ORNAMENTS THAT THEY MIGHT BE 'IN THE FASHION.'\nHERE IS THE CORNICE OF ONE OF THEM, DECORATED IN EXACTLY THE SAME WAY\nAS THE GREEK IDOL-TEMPLES]\n\nBut the saints of God did not die in vain; their victories over pain\nand death fired the hearts that had grown so cold, and awakened the\ncareless into active life.  Those who had forsaken the religion of\ntheir fathers returned by hundreds to God, confessing their sins, and\npleading for pardon.\n\nSo the very fierceness of the trial proved a blessing, and the days of\ntorture were followed by a revival of faith in God, and devotion to His\nservice.\n\nNow there was an old priest named Mattathias who, with his four sons,\nhad never listened to the cunning temptations of the heathen Greeks.\nAll his life he had served God with his whole heart, and had brought up\nhis sons to follow in his steps.  When Mattathias and his sons heard\nwhat was being done at Jerusalem, they clothed themselves in sackcloth\nand wept, praying, and fasting continually, beseeching God to forgive\nHis people, and to put away their sins.\n\nIn a little while the king's officers came to the heathen altar at\nModin, the town where the old priest lived.\n\n'Sacrifice to Jupiter, our master's god!' they said.  'Sacrifice, as\nall Jews shall be forced to do, or die!'\n\nBut the old man looked the Greek straight in the face.  'Though all the\nnations in the world obey the king, yet will I and my sons walk in the\ncovenant of our fathers.  God forbid that we should forsake His Law.'\n\nAs he spoke a backsliding Jew stepped up to the altar to sacrifice.\nThe old priest's eyes flashed fire, and in an instant he had struck him\ndown, and the Greek officer with him.\n\nQuivering with indignation Mattathias then turned to the startled\npeople: 'Whosoever loves God, let him follow me!'\n\nAnd he turned and fled swiftly through the streets of the city.\n\nMany followed him at once.  Others joined him later in the strong camp\nhe formed in the mountains, until at last he was at the head of an army.\n\nWonderful it is to read how, little by little, this army of God's\npeople drove the heathen from the cities of Judah; how they overturned\nthe heathen altars, and cast down the images of the false gods; and\nhow, at last, they came to Jerusalem, cleansed the Temple, and purified\nthe golden altar from the stains of heathen sacrifices.\n\nThen, tenderly and reverently, they gathered together all that was left\nof the copies of their Scriptures, weeping as they saw the poor\nfragments, blackened with fire, stained with blood, and scrawled all\nover with the horrible figures of heathen gods.\n\nAs to-day we read in the clean white pages of our Bible, let us\nremember this scene and of the time when those torn and blood-stained\nfragments were all that remained to the world.\n\nBut, thank God, when all the pieces had been collected together, there\nwas plenty of material from which to make fresh copies; and no sooner\nhad peace been restored to the city than the scribes set to work, with\neager, loving care.\n\nThe Book had become doubly precious now!  Its written words were indeed\nsacred, for the blood of martyrs had fallen upon them, and men and\nwomen, and little children, too, had chosen to die by hundreds rather\nthan to deny them.\n\n\n\n[1] With all his cleverness, Alexander, while still quite young, drank\nhimself to death.\n\n[2] In the days of Joshua, who bought the office of High Priest under\nthe reign of Antiochus, so many priests took part in the games that the\nregularity of the Temple services suffered.\n\n[3] From 'Maccabees,' an old Jewish history, which is sometimes bound\nup with our Bible.\n\n[4] This is taken from 'Maccabees.'\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VII\n\nTWO FAMOUS VERSIONS OF THE SCRIPTURES\n\n[Illustration: (drop cap B) Samaritan Book of the Law]\n\nBy the blue waters of the Mediterranean Sea, on the coast of Egypt,\nlies Alexandria, a busy and prosperous city of to-day.\n\nYou remember the great conqueror, Alexander, and how nation after\nnation had been forced to submit to him, until all the then-known world\nowned him for its emperor?  He built this city, and called it after his\nown name.\n\nAbout a hundred years before the days of Antiochus (of whom we read in\nour last chapter) a company of Jews were living in Alexandria, then a\nrich and beautiful city, with its stately palaces and temples  of white\nmarble, its beautiful gardens, and groves of graceful palm-trees.\n\nAfter the death of Alexander, the Greek kings of Egypt delighted to\nlive in the new city, and in the old Greek books we can yet read of the\nsplendid processions and festivals held in its streets year by year.\n\nAt this time Alexandria drew all the merchants of the world to her\nmarkets; and her harbour was constantly filled with ships laden with\nsilver, amber, and copper; while caravans were arriving daily, bringing\njewels and rich silks from China, India, and the cities of the far East.\n\nThe Jews of Alexandria were not treated as foreigners, but as good\nsubjects and citizens, by the Greek rulers of Egypt, and therefore as\nthe years passed they grew rich and honoured in their beautiful home.\nTheir children, however, seldom if ever heard Hebrew spoken; for all\nthe Jews of Alexandria, for convenience' sake, spoke Greek like their\nneighbours.\n\nBut, although these Jews lived in a heathen city where they read\nnothing but Greek books, and heard Greek spoken all day long, they did\nnot forget their God.  They longed as earnestly as ever to hear about\nHim, and to read in His Book; but what was to be done?  Only a few of\nthe elder Jews could read Hebrew, and their children could not\nunderstand one word of the language.  Must the little ones, therefore,\ngrow up in ignorance of the Word of God?\n\nThis was impossible.  Here in the heathen city of Alexandria the\nScriptures would be the only safeguard of Jewish boys and girls.  'If\nthe language of our children is Greek, then the Bible must be\ntranslated into Greek, so that they all can understand it.'  So said\nthese Jewish parents.\n\nThis was a wonderful proof of the Bible's living power.  The Jews had\nchanged their language and their country.  Thousands of the cleverest\nbooks ever written were within their reach--for Alexandria had at this\ntime the largest library in the world--yet all this made no difference;\nwithout the written Word of God, they could not exist.\n\nSome writers say that Ptolemy Philadelphus, the king of Egypt of that\ntime, having heard the Jews speak of their Book, and wishing to have a\ncopy of it to place in his great library, sent all the way to Jerusalem\nfor seventy learned scribes who should translate the Book into Greek.\n\nNow, however, it is believed that the Jews of Alexandria did the work\nentirely themselves, although their Greek Bible is still called the\n'Septuagint'--that is, 'The Scriptures of the Seventy'--in memory of\nthe old tradition.\n\n[Illustration: FRAGMENT OF THE 'SEPTUAGINT'--THE OLD TESTAMENT IN\nANCIENT GREEK, THE FIRST WRITTEN TRANSLATION OF THE BIBLE EVER MADE]\n\nGradually, as the years passed, the Greek language spread to other\nnations, until at last it became, as we have seen, the leading language\nof the world.  Even to-day, as you know, this old Greek tongue is\ntaught in many of our schools and colleges, and those who can read it\ntell us that there is no language so beautiful; none with words so\nsweet to the ear, nor in which such deep thoughts can be expressed.\n\nThus we see how God used the learning of the heathen Greeks to make His\nBook known to the world!\n\nFor hundreds of years the Bible had been a Book for the people of\nIsrael alone; but now, as the time drew near when the Son of God\nHimself should come to the world--that the world by Him might be\nsaved--the Scriptures, which had since the days of Moses spoken of His\ncoming, were sent out to the nations by God Himself in order to prepare\nthe way.\n\nThe Jews of old divided all dwellers on the earth into two classes: the\nJews--that is, themselves; the Gentiles--that is, all the other nations.\n\nBut now the wall of separation was to be broken down, and the words of\nthe Prophet Isaiah were to be fulfilled, '_The Gentiles shall come to\nThy light._' (Isaiah Ix. 3.)\n\nNow that God's Holy Word had been translated into Greek, the one\nlanguage which every man of those days wished to learn, the message\ncould ring through all the Gentile cities: 'A King, a Saviour, is\ncoming; be ready to meet Him!'\n\nSo the Scriptures went forth, north, south, east, and west, and we\nthink they reached to that far eastern city in which those three wise\nmen lived who afterwards travelled to Bethlehem, seeking the Messiah,\nand saying, '_Where is He that is born King of the Jews?_' (Matthew ii.\n2.)\n\nThe Bible had indeed taken a strong leap forward now!\n\nFor long centuries it had been like a tiny stream flowing through a dry\nland, and reaching only a few people.  Now it had become as a river of\ntruth, ever growing deeper and wider, guided by God in all its\nwanderings across the earth.\n\nThe Bible was now no longer locked up in a language which was already\nhalf-forgotten.  With this Greek translation its world-wide work had\nbegun!\n\nBut while the Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures was becoming\nan open door through which the people of many lands could draw nearer\nto God, a second witness to the truth of God's Book was hidden away in\nSamaria.\n\nFor the Samaritans had their own copies of the Books of the Law, and\nkept them closely shut up among their own people for hundreds of years.\n\nIt is impossible now to give the actual date when the Samaritans began\nto use a different copy of the Scriptures from the Jews.  The\nIsraelitish city of Samaria was captured by Sargon, king of Assyria, in\n722 B.C.; but although he carried away the most important inhabitants\ncaptive, a great number of the poorer people remained on the land, and\nwhen Sargon filled the country with new and heathen settlers, so many\nmarriages took place between the two races that the Children of Israel\nlost their old name and were known to the Jews of Judah as 'Samaritans.'\n\nYet the Samaritans still clung to the Jews' religion, and the\nseparation did not probably become complete until Nehemiah expelled all\nthose Jews from Jerusalem who had married heathen wives.  (Nehemiah\nxiii. 23-30.)\n\nNow Josephus, the Jewish historian, tells us that among these exiles\nwas a man named Manasseh, a grandson of the high priest, and that,\nindignant at being cast out, he fled to Samaria.  Here he determined to\nset up a separate worship of Jehovah, and, having obtained permission\nfrom the king of Persia to erect a Temple, he built a Holy Place on\nMount Gerizim, which became the centre of a new form of religion.\n\nIt is thought that Manasseh had carried away a copy of the Books of the\nLaw from Jerusalem, and by means of certain alterations in the words he\nmade it appear that God had chosen Mount Gerizim in Samaria for the\nsite of His House, instead of Mount Moriah in Jerusalem.\n\nNow at this time all the Jews still wrote in the ancient style, forming\ntheir letters as we see them on the Moabite Stone; but not long\nafterwards they adopted the square letters of Hebrew writing such as\nare still in use to-day.\n\nThe Samaritans, however, in their hatred of everything Jewish, refused\nto follow their example.  The Jews had cut them off, and they would\ntake nothing from the Jews; they would keep to the old style of\nletters; they would not allow a single word of the Books of the\nProphets or the Psalms or History Books to have a place among their\nsacred writings.  The Jews accepted these Books as inspired; therefore\nthe Samaritans rejected them.\n\nThus Jewish pride and Samaritan littleness raised a terrible barrier\nbetween the two nations, which grew more hopeless every year.\n\n[Illustration: THE SAMARITAN BOOK OF THE LAW AT NABLOUS]\n\nYet these hidden Samaritan documents,  falsified as they had been, have\nhad a work to do for God's Word within comparatively recent times.\n\nFor in the year 1616 A.D., just as some people were beginning to attack\nthe Bible, and to declare that they could find no evidence that the Old\nTestament was so ancient after all, the world was suddenly startled to\nhear of a great discovery--an ancient copy of the Law had been found in\nSyria.\n\nOther copies soon afterwards came to light: the world had rediscovered\nthe Samaritan Bible!\n\nAt Nablous, in Samaria, known in Old Testament times as Shechem, a\ntraveller was allowed to look at the oldest Samaritan copy of the\naltered books of the Law.  Its queer letter signs are traced on\nparchment rolls, which are said to have been formed from the skins of\nrams offered in sacrifice.  They are kept in a silver cylinder, covered\nwith crimson satin, heavily embroidered with gold.\n\nBut out of this discovery a new difficulty arose.  Some of the critics\ndecided that this was the original copy written by Moses, and therefore\nmore correct than the Jewish Scriptures.  They would have done better\nto wait, and to have trusted the Bible a little more.\n\nTrue, the discovery was of great importance, for these documents proved\nbeyond all doubt that the Book of the Law dated back to a time when the\nancient form of letters were still in use, and so they bore a strong\nwitness to the great age of the first five Books of our Bible.\n\nBut learned scholars were soon able to prove that the oldest Samaritan\ncopy was probably not older than the tenth or eleventh century of our\nera, and that the form of the letters was so ancient merely because the\nSamaritans refused to imitate the improved Jewish writing.  A hundred\nyears ago, for instance, books with long 's's' were printed in England;\nbut the old form of letter was tiresome to read, and is now entirely\nout of date.\n\nNow the Samaritans had not only refused to accept the new and improved\nform of letters--they had rejected as well all the fresh light and\ninspiration which God was continually giving to His people through the\nHoly prophets.  According to the Samaritans, Moses was the only true\nprophet.  Thus they cut themselves adrift from further light, and\nlittle by little the nations had dwindled away.\n\nYet because so many of the Samaritans in the time of Christ were\nfaithful to the measure of light they had, and kept alive in their\nhearts the hope of a coming Messiah, God made for them a wonderful way\nof escape.\n\nEvery Bible reader knows and loves that beautiful scene by the well of\nSychar, in Samaria, where the Saviour began by asking a woman for water\nto drink, and ended by explaining to her some of the deepest truths of\nGod's Kingdom.\n\nWe understand now why the woman was so surprised that a Jew should\ncondescend to speak to her, and why the Jews would have '_no dealings\nwith the Samaritans_.'  As we have seen, a great barrier divided her\nfrom all ordinary Jewish teachers--she had been taught to believe in an\naltered Bible.\n\nNot merely a different translation, remember, for the Bible should be\nthe same in every language, but a Book of the Law in which some of the\nwords had been changed and the original meaning destroyed.\n\nSo the woman said to our Lord, '_Our fathers worshipped in this\nmountain; and ye say, that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to\nworship._' (John iv. 20.)\n\nThe Saviour had not said so, but she felt sure that He, as a Jew, would\ncertainly contradict the old traditions of his countrymen.\n\nBut the Lord Jesus Christ had come to show the world that it was no\nlonger a question of this mountain or that.  Such matters had been but\na shadow of the good things to come.  '_God is a Spirit: and they that\nworship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth._' (John iv. 24.)\n\nWith these words Jesus, the Messiah, for whom both Jews and Samaritans\nwere waiting, threw down the barrier of ages, and united the two\nnations in a spiritual worship.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VIII\n\nTHE BIBLE IN THE DAYS OF JESUS CHRIST\n\n[Illustration: (drop cap S) Reading from a Roll--old Roman Painting]\n\nSlowly but surely, as time went on, God was adding to His Book, until\nabout four hundred years before the birth of Jesus Christ the Old\nTestament Scriptures, in their present shape, were completed.\n\nMany questions have been asked as to how the canon of the Old Testament\nwas formed--that is, how and when did the Jews first begin to\nunderstand that the Books of the Old Testament were inspired by God.\n\nAbout the first five Books--the Books of the Law--there had never been\nany question.  From the very earliest times those Books, so wonderfully\ngiven to the people, had been the strength and stay of the Children of\nIsrael.\n\nBut many books had been written in the days of the old Jewish kings,\nand also after the return of the people from Babylon: some of these\nwere very beautiful and helpful.  How were the sacred Scriptures first\ndivided from the other Jewish writings?\n\nWe do not know.  Some have thought that Ezra the scribe, with the\nassistance of a council of elders, fixed the canon of Hebrew Scripture;\nothers have supposed Nehemiah to have undertaken the work; but most\nlikely it was a gradual process, directed by God Himself, who inspired\nHis servants to carry out His will.\n\nThe Christian Bible is composed of two parts, the Old and the New\nTestament; but the Jews divided their Scriptures--our Old\nTestament--into three parts, and they certainly looked upon some books\nas far more sacred than others.  The 'Torah'--that is, the\nLaw--included, as we have seen, the first five books of the Bible.\nFrom the very earliest days the Torah was reverenced as containing the\ncommandments and promises of God.\n\nThe second division consisted of the 'Prophets,' these being subdivided\ninto the 'Former Prophets' (four volumes)--Joshua, Judges, Samuel,\nKings--and the 'Latter Prophets' (three volumes)--Isaiah, Jeremiah,\nEzekiel--and the Twelve Minor Prophets (which were included in one\nbook).\n\nNext in order of sanctity came the third division, the 'Writings,' and\nthese again were subdivided into three groups: the poetical Books of\nthe Psalms, Proverbs, and Job; the 'Rolls' or 'Readings' (seven\nvolumes)--Solomon's Song, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, Esther,\nDaniel, and one volume containing Ezra and Nehemiah; and, lastly, in a\nseparate book, Chronicles.  Thus the whole Scriptures were contained in\ntwenty-four books.\n\nIndeed, not until the Greek translation was made were the books grouped\nin the order in which we have them now, and at the same time their\nnumber was increased to thirty-nine by taking the writings of each of\nthe prophets separately, and treating Ezra and Nehemiah as different\nbooks.\n\nAnd now God, who has spoken in times past by many different ways and\nvoices, spoke at last to the nations by His Son, '_by whom also He made\nthe worlds_.' (Hebrews i. 2.)\n\nLet us think for a little while of what was being done with the\nScriptures in the days when the Lord Jesus learnt to read their words\nat His mother's knee; words which from first to last told of Himself.\n\nWe have seen that no people could possibly honour the actual letters of\nthe Scripture more highly than did the Jews.  The care they took to\nkeep the words exactly as they had been handed down to them was\ninfinite; and God, who knows all things, knew that a time would come\nwhen the pure Hebrew words of the old Bible would be eagerly sought\nfor, and treasured by all who truly honour His Book.\n\nTherefore, although the eyes of the learned Jewish scribes were so\nblinded, that they did not recognize their King and Saviour when He\ncame, yet God blessed all that was true in their work, and it is from\nthe Hebrew copies which they made of the Books of the Old Testament,\nand not from the 'Septuagint,' or Greek translation, that the Old\nTestament of our Bible has come to us to-day.\n\nYet, sad to say, while so careful to preserve the words of the\nScriptures, the Scribes and Pharisees forgot its spirit, the very\npurpose for which the Bible had been given them.\n\nA man might know by memory every letter of the Bible, but unless the\nSpirit of God were in his heart, helping him to act out in his life the\nwords he repeats with his lips, all his knowledge of the Bible would\nonly lie as a dead-weight upon his soul.  '_The letter killeth, but the\nspirit giveth life._' (2 Corinthians iii. 6.)  So wrote the Apostle\nPaul, who had, as we know, been educated by the Scribes and Pharisees,\nand when he wrote those words he was recalling his own experience.\n\nThus, as year by year the learned Jews thought more of the letters of\ntheir Bible, they saw less of its spirit; worse still, they began to\nadd to the teaching of the Books of the Law.\n\nNot that they ventured to put other words between those of the Bible,\nor to alter it as the Samaritans had done; but they invented long\nexplanations of almost every verse, and declared that these\nexplanations must be followed as absolutely as the words of the Bible\nitself.\n\nFor instance, a learned Jewish teacher wrote an explanation of Moses'\ncommand about obeying the Levites. (Deuteronomy xvii. 11.)  Moses had\nsaid that the people were to do what the Levites told them respecting\nthe Law of God, neither turning _'to the right hand, nor to the left._'\nThe Jewish teachers declared what Moses really meant was that if a\nteacher of the Law told you that your left hand was your right you must\nbelieve him!\n\n[Illustration: PLAN OF A SYNAGOGUE\n\n1. MODEL OF THE ARK WHICH WAS CARRIED BEFORE THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL.\n2. STAND FOR THE  READER.  3. WOMEN'S GALLERY.  4. ENTRANCE]\n\nIn this way, while professing to explain God's Word, the scribes and\nteachers were confusing the simple people who wanted to obey this Holy\nLaw.\n\nThe Saviour saw this, and He fearlessly rebuked the teachers of the\nLaw, grieved beyond words that those to whom God had entrusted His Book\nshould make '_the Word of God of none effect through your tradition._'\n(Mark vii. 13.)\n\nHis own way of using the Scriptures was very different.  From His\nmother He had first learned to repeat texts from the Old Testament, and\nwith her He had gone to the Synagogue, Sabbath by Sabbath, to hear the\nBooks of the Law and the Prophets read.\n\nAs He grew older He would have been sent to school and taught to read\nand recite the Scriptures, and long before He began Himself to teach\nthe people He had so absorbed the spirit of the Old Testament that His\nvery thoughts seem to have been given in Scripture words.\n\nPerhaps you have wondered why the names of some of the prophets and\nheroes of the Old Testament are spelt so differently when mentioned in\nthe New--'Elias' instead of 'Elijah,' 'Noe' instead of 'Noah,' and so\non.  This is because the writers of the New Testament quoted from the\nGreek translation of the Bible instead of from the Hebrew.  Names\nchange a little, you know, when translated into other languages.  For\ninstance, our name of Mary becomes 'Marie' in French, and 'Maria' in\nItalian, and yet it is all the while the same name.\n\nSome people think that this, the Septuagint, or first Greek\ntranslation, was the special translation of the Bible which the Saviour\nused.  Many of the quotations which He gave from the Old Testament\nappear to have been from this translation, although some seem taken\ndirectly from the Hebrew, and others again from an Aramaic version\nwhich has disappeared.\n\nChrist Himself no doubt taught the people in the Aramaic tongue, which\nwas a mixed language, and came into use after the Jews' return from\nBabylon.  Aramaic is called 'Chaldee' in the Book of Daniel.\n\nBut while our Saviour constantly quoted from the Old Testament, He\nnever used its words without definite purpose.  The Sword of the Spirit\nin His hands was either turned against the Evil One, or brought\ndirectly to bear with overwhelming force on some mistaken teaching\nwhich had blinded the people to the true meaning of the Word of God.\n\nThe direct and yet simple way in which He reached the point, and once\nand for all swept away the difficulty, amazed and confounded the\nlearned Jews.\n\nAn instance of this is found in His wonderful answer to the Sadducees,\nwho disbelieved in the Resurrection.  '_As touching the Resurrection of\nthe dead,_' He said, '_have ye not read that which was spoken unto you\nby God, saying, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the\nGod of Jacob?_' (Matthew xxii. 31, 32.)  His hearers, of course, had\nheard these words quoted from childhood, but not till the Saviour\nexplained their full significance--'_God is not the God of the dead,\nbut of the living_'--did they realize that in the first recorded words\nspoken by God to Moses lay a proof of the Resurrection and of life\nafter death.\n\nLet us take a look at the first time in which Christ publicly read and\nexplained the Scriptures.  It is the Sabbath, and the synagogue of\nNazareth is full of people, serious and attentive, for they have met\ntogether to hear the Word of God.\n\nNow One stands up to read.  The sacred Roll is in His hand; the Roll of\nthe Book of the prophet Isaiah.  Listen:--\n\n'_The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He hath anointed Me to\npreach the Gospel to the poor; He hath sent Me to heal the\nbroken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering\nof sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,_\n\n'_To preach the acceptable year of the Lord._' (Luke iv. 18, 19.)\n\nHe closes the Book and sits down.\n\nFrom the dim ages of the past those words had been read; in the long,\nlong ages to come they will yet be read, until the World shall cease to\nexist, and time itself be known no more.\n\nBut never before and never again could there be so heart-searching or\nsacred a reading as this, when the Son of God read from His Father's\nBook in the simple village meeting in Galilee.\n\nAnd yet His listeners did not understand the reading.  Even after His\nexplanation of the words they fell upon deaf ears and raised only anger\nand surprise.  It was then that the first attempt was made to destroy\nHim.  (Verse 29.)\n\nTo His own Apostles, enlightened as they were, the message of the Old\nTestament was sealed until after the Saviour's Resurrection, when He\n'_opened their understanding, that they might understand the\nScriptures._' (Luke xxiv. 45.)  Then only did the wonderful truth dawn\nupon them that in coming to earth, in suffering, rising from the dead,\nand ascending to Heaven, their Master had not destroyed the Scriptures,\nbut had fulfilled them.  (Matthew v. 17.)\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IX\n\nTHE DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM\n\n[Illustration: (drop cap G) Ruins of a Synagogue]\n\nGod had given to His people a Book foretelling the coming of the\nChrist--or Messiah, as the word is written in Hebrew--so that they\nmight be prepared and ready for His appearance.  Yet when He came they\ndid not receive Him.  They were looking for an earthly king, and the\nbeautiful words spoken by the ancient prophets had no meaning to them.\n\nWhen Jesus Christ was born in Bethlehem, the Jews were under the iron\nrule of the Roman Empire, of which they formed a part, for although the\nJewish family of the Herods reigned over Judea, they only held their\nthrone under the Roman Emperor.  This the Jews could not endure.  They\nlonged to be a free and independent nation once again.\n\n'When our Messiah comes He will be a great warrior,' they said.  'He\nwill utterly destroy all our enemies.  He will make Jerusalem the\ngreatest and richest city in the whole earth; all other nations will\nbow down before us, acknowledging that the Jews alone are the chosen\npeople of God.'\n\nThus they were expecting a Messiah who would begin his work by killing\nall the Roman soldiers in Palestine.\n\nHad Jesus of Nazareth been willing to become their earthly king and to\nlead the nation against the Romans, the Jews would probably have\nfollowed Him to a man. (John vi. 15.)  But He saw that, even from a\nhuman standpoint, the nation could not be helped in this way, and that\nthe Jews would only rebel against the Romans to their destruction.\n\nInstead of widening the breach between them and their conquerors, the\nSaviour sought to heal it.  He called out the faith and gratitude of\nthe Roman centurion, and His answer to the Jewish leaders, '_Render to\nCaesar the things that are Caesar's_ (Mark xii. 17) showed them the\nright attitude in which to regard the Roman rule.\n\nWhen, therefore, He was brought at last before Pilate, the Roman\nGovernment had no quarrel with Him.  '_Thine own nation ... hath\ndelivered Thee unto me,_' said Pilate who would have released his\nprisoner, had not the Jews prevented it.\n\n'_If thou let this Man go, thou art not Caesar's friend,_' they cried,\nthus compelling Pilate, at the risk of being reported as a traitor to\nhis Emperor, to crucify Jesus of Nazareth, and to free Barabbas.\n\nBut in choosing the rebel, Barabbas (Mark xv. 7) as their hero, the\nnation started on their downward road, as the story of the forty years\nwhich followed the Saviour's crucifixion clearly shows.\n\nFor the Jews were determined at all costs to throw off the Roman yoke,\nand the history of those years is one long list of terrible risings and\nmassacres, while cities were ruined, villages wrapped in flames, and\nmen, women and children perished with hunger.\n\nYet the keener the suffering, the more desperate the Jews became.\nTheir whole souls were possessed with a wild and mad passion for\nrevenge.\n\nThe Saviour had warned His hearers most earnestly against following\nfalse Christs.  '_Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is\nChrist, or there; believe it not._' (Matthew xxiv. 23.)\n\nYet no sooner did a daring rebel or murderer gather a band of robbers\naround him, and begin to kill and plunder, than multitudes of Jews\ncried, 'The Christ, or Messiah has come; now we shall have vengeance on\nour enemies!'\n\nThey were fighting against God now, and against the Book which He had\ngiven them.  All peace-loving people who could possibly do so left the\ncountry.\n\n[Illustration: THE PRECIOUS GOLDEN CANDLESTICK, FROM THE TEMPLE AT\nJERUSALEM, CARRIED BY THE ROMAN CONQUERORS THROUGH THE STREETS OF\nROME--FROM THE BROKEN ROMAN CARVING STILL TO BE SEEN IN ROME TO-DAY]\n\nAt last, in 66 A.D., all the Jews in Jerusalem rose in a body against\ntheir Roman governors.  They surrounded the great tower of Antonia\nwhere the Roman soldiers were quartered, and cried out to the garrison\nwithin that their lives should be spared if they would lay down their\nweapons.  The Roman soldiers hesitated, but the Jews promised most\nfaithfully to keep their word.\n\nThe Romans believed them, and opened their gates; but no sooner were\nthey in the power of the Jewish mob than they were fallen upon and\nmurdered to the last man!\n\nAs they died the Roman soldiers, whom not even death could terrify,\nlifted up their hands to Heaven, as though calling upon God to witness\nthat the Jews had broken their solemn oath.\n\nThe Roman Emperor could not overlook such rebellion and treachery, and\nhe sent a great army against Jerusalem.  The Jews shut the gates of\ntheir city, and so began the awful siege of Jerusalem.\n\n'_And when ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that\nthe desolation thereof is nigh._' (Luke xxi. 20.)\n\nForty years before, Jesus Christ Himself had spoken these words, and\nnow there began for Jerusalem days filled with horror and woe, '_such\nas was not from the beginning of the creation which God created unto\nthis time._' (Mark xiii. 19.)\n\nThe story of these days has been written for us by a wise Jew named\nJosephus.  He was a prisoner in the Roman camp during the siege of\nJerusalem, and he watched with dismay the great battering-rams and war\nengines crashing through the walls of the Holy City.  His ears rang\nwith the cries of rage and despair which broke from the Jews within, as\none by one their defences fell, and the end drew near!\n\nThen food failed in the city; men fought like demons in the streets for\na tiny loaf of barley-bread; so frantic were the people with hunger\nthat mothers even snatched the bread from their own children's mouths!\n\n'Look over the walls, O people of Jerusalem; the Roman soldiers are\ncrucifying all the prisoners they have taken, and the line of crosses\nis as long as our city is wide!'\n\nHard, merciless as was the Roman general, even he grew sick with horror\nat last, and he sent his Jewish prisoner, Josephus, to the Jews,\npromising them their lives if they would give up the city.  But a\nfurious madness had possessed the people, and they refused to yield.\n\nJosephus pleaded in vain.  He was not a Christian, but he could see\nplainly enough that God was no longer with His people.\n\n'Ah, my countrymen,' he cried, 'we did nothing without God in the past,\nbut now you are fighting against Him.  Had God judged you worthy of\nfreedom, He would have punished the Romans as He did the Assyrians long\nago.  God is fled out of your holy place, and stands on the side of\nthose against whom you fight!'[1]\n\nIt is strange and wonderful to read these words in the old history.\nEven a Jew who had no faith in Jesus Christ could see plainly that the\nancient power and glory of his nation had gone.\n\nAt last the end came.  The first wall fell, then the second and the\nthird, until the Roman soldiers, now as mad as the Jews themselves,\nburst into the Holy City, hewing down the defenceless people at every\nstep.\n\nAnd so they came to the Temple--that beautiful Temple of white marble\nand gold, which still glittered like a hill of snow in the morning\nsunshine, or sparkled as though wrapped in flame when the sunbeams\nstruck full on its golden roof.\n\nThen redder flames than ever the sunshine made leapt above the golden\nroof; pillars fell, beams crumbled to ashes, while round the altar of\nsacrifice the people of Jerusalem lay heaped together, slain in such\nnumbers in the Holy Place that their blood flowed down the broad marble\nsteps in a heavy crimson stream.\n\nAnd the golden candlestick and the Book of the Law were carried away in\ntriumph into heathen Rome.\n\nAlas for the Holy City, over which the Saviour of the world had stood\nand wept forty years before, knowing the suffering that lay before her!\n\n'These Jews are dangerous.  We must not allow them to rebuild their\ncity, or to become a separate people again.  As a nation they must\ncease to exist.'\n\nSo the Roman conquerors of Jerusalem agreed; and from that day onward\nthe Jewish people have had no country of their own.  They have, indeed,\nbeen '_led away captive into all nations_' (Luke xxi. 24) exactly as\nthe Lord foretold.\n\nThere is scarcely a country in the world where Jews may not be found,\nbut Jerusalem lies still in the hands of strangers, and is the property\nof the Turkish nation.\n\nThe Jews were now no longer a nation.  They had become merely a body of\npeople led by their Rabbis, or teachers of the Law; but they were still\n'the people of the Book,' for even after frequent rebellions had so\nangered the Romans that they passed a law forbidding a Jew to enter the\npartially re-built city of Jerusalem under pain of death, they allowed\nthe Jewish teachers to continue the synagogue services in other parts\nof Palestine, and to teach in their colleges.\n\nThe most famous Jewish college of these days was at Tiberius, on the\nshores of the 'Sea of Galilee,' over whose clear depths the Lord Jesus\nChrist had sailed so often, and beside whose shores He had done so many\nwonderful deeds of love and mercy.\n\nA great and beautiful college it was, with broad terraced gardens,\nwhere the students paced to and fro, their whole hearts and souls\nabsorbed in their work.  The Temple copy of the Book of the Law was now\nin the palace of the heathen Emperor in Rome, but many less precious\ncopies were left to them.  So all day long they studied and copied the\nold Hebrew Bible.\n\nAs we have seen, the Jewish scribes had not been content with taking\nthe Word of God just as it stood; they had begun, even in our Lord's\nday, to invent explanations of many parts of the old Books which quite\naltered their true meaning.\n\nAfter the fall of Jerusalem the learned Jews, shut away in their\ncolleges and striving to forget their sorrows, began to write down the\nScripture explanations, and to add to them so greatly that it became\nmore difficult to recall the comments on the Bible than it was to\nremember the Bible itself.\n\n[Illustration: MEDAL MADE BY TITUS, THE CONQUEROR OF JERUSALEM.  THE\nWORDS, IVDAEA CAPTA, MEAN 'CAPTIVE JUDEA.'  THE WOMAN WEEPING UNDER A\nPALM-TREE STANDS FOR THE CITY OF JERUSALEM]\n\nThese explanations, all collected together, are called 'The Talmud.'\nNow the learned Jews grew so fond of their Talmud, that they declared a\nman to be a blockhead if he knew only the Scriptures and not the Talmud\nexplanation.\n\n'The law of Moses is like salt, but the Talmud is balmy spice,' they\nwould say.\n\nYet although they heeded so little the true meaning of God's Book, they\nguarded its _words_ more and more carefully; and the rules for copying\nany portion of the holy Books were strict indeed.\n\n'My son,' an old teacher would say to his pupil, 'before you copy a\nsingle word you must wash your body all over, and clothe yourself in\nfull Jewish dress, preparing your mind with solemn thoughts.  The\nparchment you write upon must be made from the skins of \"clean\" animals\nonly--that is clean according to the Law of Moses.\n\n'The ink you write with must be of a pure black, made only from a\nmixture of soot, charcoal, and honey.  Though you know the whole Book\nof the Law by heart, you must not write a single word from memory, but\nraise your eyes to your copy, and pronounce the word aloud before\ntrusting it to your pen.  Before writing any of the names of God you\nmust wash your pen: before writing His most sacred Name you must wash\nyour whole body.  If, after your copy has itself been examined, three\ncorrections have to be made, that copy must be destroyed.'\n\nNot satisfied with all these directions, the master taught his scholar\nto count the _letters_ of every Book.\n\nOne of the letters in Leviticus xi. is the _middle letter_ of all the\nfive Books of Moses, a word in chapter x. is the middle of all the\nwords, and a verse in chapter viii. is the very centre of all the\nverses.  The letter 'A'--that is the Hebrew letter which stands for\n'A'--occurs 42,377 times; the letter 'B' 35,218, and so on.\n\nNot only this, but every scribe was required to know from memory\nexactly how many letters of each kind there should be in his sheet\nbefore he began to write.  Every sheet of parchment must contain an\nequal number of lines, and the breadth of each column had to be thirty\nletters wide.\n\nThere are eleven verses in the Book of the Law beginning and ending\nwith 'N,' there are forty verses in which 'Lo' is read three times--and\nso on, and so on.\n\nHow tedious and meaningless such information appears!  Of what value\nwere all these details?\n\nTo spend all his days in learning such things as these could have no\ninfluence on a man's character, nor make him a power for good in the\nworld.  Not for this purpose had God revealed His will to man.\n\nSome years ago in the coffin of an Egyptian mummy, a little jar of\nwheat was found.  For thousands of years it had lain there, shut up in\nthe dark, while out in the fields the corn which had been sown had\ngrown up and been reaped every year, and men and women had been fed.\nBut this jar of corn was useless, because it had been prevented from\ndoing the work in the world for which it was created.\n\nJust so was it with the Hebrew copies of God's Word.  Locked up in a\ndead language, kept close, away from the world, they were like the jar\nof wheat which could not grow.\n\nBut meanwhile God's Book was growing in the wide fields beyond.  While\nthe Jews were keeping safe the _letters_ of the Old Testament, the New\nTestament was beginning to do its mighty work in the great heathen\ncities of the world.\n\n\n\n[1] Josephus: 'Wars,' Books v. and vi.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER X\n\nTHE BEGINNING OF THE NEW TESTAMENT\n\n[Illustration: (drop cap T) Coin of Thessalonica]\n\nTurn to the list of books given in the beginning of your New Testament.\nYou will see that first come the four Gospels, or glimpses of the\nSaviour's life given by four different writers.  Then follows the Acts\nof the Apostles, and, lastly, after the twenty-one epistles, the volume\nends with the Revelation.\n\nNow this is not the order in which the books were written--they are\nonly arranged like this for our convenience.\n\nThe first words of the New Testament were written, not as we should\nhave supposed by one of the twelve apostles, or by some one who had\nloved and followed the Lord Jesus Christ when He was upon earth.  They\nare written by a Pharisee who had been one of Christ's bitterest\nenemies.\n\nThough Saul had, as far as we know, never seen the Saviour on earth,\nwhat he had heard of His work and teaching made him feel that in\nstamping out all the followers of the so-called Messiah, he would be\ndoing God service.  But we remember how the Saviour Himself appeared to\nSaul on his way to Damascus, and how his heart was changed, and his\neyes were opened.\n\nWe can scarcely imagine the transformation which came over his mind.\nTogether with all the other learned Jews he had considered Jesus of\nNazareth to be an impostor, and to blaspheme the words of God's Holy\nBook when He applied them to Himself.  Now Saul the Pharisee understood\nthat he and his countrymen, not Jesus of Nazareth, were at fault.  As\nhe read the old prophesies he understood their true meaning, '_and\nstraightway he preached Christ in the synagogues, that He is the Son of\nGod._' (Acts ix. 9.)\n\nThen the full tide of Jewish anger turned upon him.  That he should\njoin the followers of the despised Nazarene and forsake the sacred\ntraditions of the Law made all the Jews scattered through the\nthen-known world into his bitterest enemies.\n\nPaul, as he was afterwards called, loved his countrymen with a\npassionate love.  He would gladly have died for them,[1] and that he\nshould be unable to show them what was so clear to himself, was\ncertainly the greatest sorrow and disappointment of his life.  But\nthough he was unable to help his countrymen, as a nation, God made him\nthe most successful missionary-traveller the world has ever known, and\nto him was given the privilege of writing a large part of the New\nTestament.\n\nBefore we think about his writings, however, let us look at the\ncondition of the great heathen cities of the world at the time when he\nlived.\n\nIn the year A.D. 54, that is, twenty years after our Saviour's death\nupon the cross, the Emperor Nero, who is still remembered as one of the\nworst men who ever lived, began to reign in Rome.\n\nFor many years the Roman Emperors had been masters of all the\nthen-known nations, and for awhile they had ruled justly; but ever as\nthe Roman Empire increased in power and riches, the Roman rulers grew\nmore haughty and selfish, until at last they cared for nothing but\ntheir own pleasures, and spent their days in drinking and feasting,\nwasting enormous sums in senseless extravagance, while thousands of\ntheir subjects starved.\n\nA dreadful city Rome must have been in those days, though to look at\nshe was beautiful indeed.\n\nA city of marble palaces, of fair white statues and green gardens; of\nhuge public baths and theatres.  On one side stood an enormous\nbuilding, with a round space in the centre, and tiers of seats rising\none above another like a circus.  This was an amphitheatre, where shows\nand performances were given.\n\nThere were no sham combats in a Roman circus; no mere pretence of being\nwounded.  Men fought with men in stern reality; worse still, men were\nmade to fight with wild beasts.  Lions and tigers, and fierce bulls\ntore and gored men to death, while the audience leaned back in their\ncomfortable seats, watching the horrible scenes intently.\n\nEvery rich man in Rome at the time of which we write owned hundreds of\nslaves, who were the absolute property of their owners.\n\nA slave-girl who arranged her mistress's hair badly was burnt with a\nhot iron.  If a slave-boy broke a costly vase his master might whip him\nto death, or have him thrown into a tank full of ravenous fish.  There\nwas no limit to the master's power.\n\nAlthough millions of people had scarcely a rag to cover them, or a\ncrust to eat, the rich people flung their gold away on useless trifles.\nIndeed, a kind of competition existed among them as to who could waste\nhis money the most foolishly.\n\n'Nightingales sing more sweetly than any other bird,' thought one of\nthese.  'I have it.  I'll order a dish of nightingales' tongues for my\nfeast next week; that will be something rare and expensive indeed!'\n\nAll his friends were charmed with the new idea, and nightingales'\ntongues became quite the fashion.\n\nBut all the time, in this mighty city, so black with sin, so red with\ncruelty, the pure white light of the Gospel of Christ had begun to\nshine.\n\n'Gospel' means good news.  The story of Jesus was blessed news indeed,\nfor the suffering, hopeless people.  As yet all unnoticed by the rulers\nof the heathen world, the little band of Christians was ever increasing.\n\n[Illustration: THESSALONICA: NOW CALLED SALONICA.  IT WAS TO THE\nCHRISTIANS OF THIS TOWN THAT PAUL WROTE HIS FIRST EPISTLE]\n\nFrom Jerusalem the good news had spread to Rome and to numbers of other\nheathen cities.  The Apostle Paul had preached and gained little groups\nof converts in Thessalonica and Philippi and other strongholds of evil,\nand in the year when Nero became Emperor of Rome, the first words of\nthe New Testament were written.\n\nIt happened in this way: St. Paul was in Greece, carrying on the war\nfor Christ in the very centre of the idol-worshippers.  Most of the\nRoman ideas of the false gods had come from Greece.  In Athens and\nCorinth the most beautiful buildings were heathen temples, and not a\nhouse in the whole land was without its images.\n\nPaul had preached at Athens and Corinth, but in the very midst of his\ndifficult work he heard that the little band of faithful followers he\nhad left behind in the city of Thessalonica were in great trouble.\n\nThey had no books to help them except the Old Testament, written in\nGreek.  Although they had tried hard to remember his words, many things\nstill perplexed them.  Besides, the Jews living in the city were their\nbitterest enemies, and had so stirred up the people against them, that\nthey were in constant danger of losing their lives.\n\nWould not their great leader tell them what they ought to believe, and\nhow they ought to live?\n\nPaul loved these Thessalonians, and longed to go to them.  But he could\nnot leave his work in Corinth.  What then was he to do?\n\nHe could write a long letter to them, bidding them to '_Stand fast in\nthe Lord_.' (1 Thessalonians iii. 8.)  To remember that God had called\nthem '_unto Holiness_.' (1 Thessalonians iv. 7.)  Paul did not need to\nremind them to love one another, for that God Himself had taught them.\n(Verse 9.)\n\nHe told them, too, not to sorrow hopelessly for those who had died for\nChrist, for when Christ returns, as He surely will, those who have\nloved Him shall rise first to meet Him, and so be with Him for\nevermore.  '_Wherefore, comfort one another with these words._' (Verse\n18.)\n\nWe can imagine how eagerly the Thessalonian converts listened to the\nletter.  We see, too, that the first Christian document ever written\ncontained the full Gospel message, and that the heathen had already\n'_turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God; and to\nwait for His Son from Heaven, whom He raised from the dead, even Jesus,\nwhich delivered us from the wrath to come._' (1 Thessalonians i. 9, 10.)\n\nA few months later the Thessalonians were once more in great perplexity.\n\n'What are we to believe?' they had asked.  'Paul tells us plainly that\nChrist will return to the earth.  How can we settle down to our\nordinary work with such a wonderful hope before us?'\n\nFrom the answer which the Apostle sent to their questions--which we\ncall to-day the Second Epistle to the Thessalonians--we can see clearly\nhow troubled they must have been.\n\nIn order to understand their position we must remember that the words\nand acts of the Lord Jesus Christ had not as yet been written down, and\nall that the Thessalonians knew about Him was from Paul's preaching and\nteaching.  They could not turn to their Bibles as you can when you long\nto know just what the Saviour would have you do.\n\nSo Paul wrote to them again, explaining that they must wait in\npatience, quietly doing their daily work, and earning their own bread,\nas he and his companions had done whilst living in Thessalonica.  (2\nThessalonians iii. 12.)\n\nMost of St. Paul's Epistles--that is, his letters--were written in this\nway because of some special need or danger.\n\nThe converts in Corinth, Galatia, or Ephesus, were in difficulty, or in\ndanger of losing their faith in Christ, and Paul, ever watchful, but\nunable to go to them at the moment, wrote the message of comfort and\nwarning which God had put into His heart.\n\nAt last there came a time when Paul could visit his converts no more.\n\nThe Roman rulers were as yet not angry with the followers of Christ.\nThey simply despised them, and thought the Jews very foolish to trouble\nabout a pack of low, ignorant people.  'They are mostly slaves or such\nlike whose opinions are worth nothing.  Why do they not let them alone\nas we do?' said the proud Romans.\n\nBut at last so bitter had the Jews become against Paul, and so violent\nwere their attacks on him, that the Roman Government was obliged to\ninterfere.  Paul was arrested in Jerusalem and imprisoned in Caesarea.\nHere he remained for many months, until, at last, finding he would get\nno justice from the Roman governor, he demanded to be taken to Rome\nitself to the Judgment Seat of the Emperor.\n\nTwo or three years before this he had written a most wonderful letter\nto the Roman Christians.\n\n'_To all that be in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints,_' his\nletter was addressed.  He told them how he prayed for them, and how he\nlonged to see them '_Making request, if by any means now at length I\nmight have a prosperous journey by the will of God to come unto you._'\n(Romans i. 10.)\n\nHis prayer was answered, but he came as a prisoner in the year of our\nLord 61.\n\nYet Paul was not put in prison when he arrived in Rome.  He was allowed\nto see his friends, and even to hire a lodging of his own, though day\nand night he had to be chained to a Roman soldier.  The soldiers were\nchanged when their watch expired, but never for one instant could the\nApostle go free.\n\nMany of these Roman soldiers were hard and proud, believing in nothing\nat all, not even in their own idol gods; but after a while, won by\nPaul's words and life, the soldiers learned to believe also, and became\nhis converts.\n\nFor the first year of his imprisonment Paul wrote little, but he spoke\nand thought much; as the second year drew on he sent letters to many of\nthose he so longed to see again which are as precious to us as they\nwere to those old-time Christians.\n\nAmong these are the Epistles to the Galatians, the Ephesians, the\nPhilippians, the Colossians, and a touching little appeal to Philemon\nconcerning a runaway slave who had become one of Paul's converts at\nRome.\n\nWe are almost certain that the Apostle was released for a time so that\nhe was enabled to revisit many of his converts, as he so earnestly\ndesired to do.\n\n[Illustration: THE OLD ROMAN ROAD, DOWN WHICH ST. PAUL TRAVELLED INTO\nROME, AS IT APPEARS TO-DAY]\n\nThen he was once more taken prisoner and brought again to Rome, where\nNero's wickedness had become repulsive even to the Romans themselves,\ncruel and hardened though they were.\n\nTo Timothy, who was to him as a son, Paul the prisoner wrote a farewell\nletter, just when he was to be brought before Nero the second time.\n\n'_I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept\nthe faith._' (2 Timothy iv. 7.)  So he wrote, and before he closed his\nletter he begged Timothy to make a special effort to come to him, and\nto bring with him '_the books, but especially the parchments._' (Verse\n13.)\n\nThese 'books' would most likely be the first copies of two or three of\nthe books of the New Testament, just the very beginnings.  Perhaps the\nlife of Jesus Christ, written by Mark, and a letter or two of Peter's;\nfragile, reed-paper rolls, which would tear and crack unless they were\nhandled with the greatest care.  These would be written just like the\nordinary books of the time, for as yet no one dreamt that they would\none day be bound up with the 'parchments,' and so form the Christians'\nBible.  For by the 'parchments' Paul almost certainly meant the Old\nTestament written in Greek.\n\nHe needed these very 'specially.'  He had time to think and study now;\nand the old, old Books of the Law and the Prophets spoke from the first\npage to the last of his beloved Master, Jesus Christ.\n\nDid he live to receive the parchments?  We do not know.  How did he\ndie?  The Bible does not tell us.  But about the date St. Paul wrote\nthe last of his words that have come down to us, a fierce time of trial\nswept like a storm over the little Christian colony in Rome.\n\nIn his mad wickedness, the Emperor Nero set fire to his own city so\nthat he might watch the blaze.  Half Rome was burnt, and then he grew\nalarmed, for the people were furiously angry at losing their homes.  So\nhe looked round for some one on whom to throw the blame.\n\nIn an evil hour he thought of the Christians.  'The Christians plotted\nto destroy my city--death to them!  Drag them from their houses, burn\nthem, throw them to wild beasts!'\n\nThe order went forth, the excited people were only too ready to obey,\nand so the Lord's faithful followers were put to death by hundreds.\nNero prided himself on inventing the most horrible tortures for them.\n\nOn one dreadful night he even caused a number of living men and women\nto be wrapped in cloths soaked in pitch, tied to the top of long poles,\nand then set on fire.  This horrible deed was carried out in Nero's own\nbeautiful gardens, which were thus all lighted up with the glare of the\nflames.\n\nBut nothing could shake the faith and courage of these saints and\nwarriors.\n\n'_As it is written, For Thy sake we are killed all the day long._'\n(Romans viii. 36.)  But they feared none of these things; they were\nfaithful unto death, and the Lord has given them a crown of life.\n(Revelation ii. 10.)\n\n\n\n[1] Romans ix. 3.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XI\n\nHOW THE GOSPELS CAME TO BE WRITTEN\n\n[Illustration: (drop cap B) Early Christian Lamp]\n\nBut how did the story of the Saviour's life on earth come to be written?\n\nWe have seen that many years passed before any one thought of writing\nit down at all.  The men and women who had really seen Him, who had\nlistened to His voice, looked into His face, and who knew that He had\nconquered death and sin for evermore, could not sit down to write, for\ntheir hearts were all on fire to speak.\n\nBut as the years passed, the number of those who had seen Christ grew\nless, and the need of a written Gospel became ever greater.  Precious\nwords would be forgotten, precious facts passed over, unless they were\ncollected together and put down in black and white.  Some of those,\ntherefore, who had seen and heard Christ began to write down all they\nremembered of His life.\n\nThey had no thought, as yet, of a New Testament being added to their\nBible; the Old Testament Scriptures were still the 'Bible'[1] to them.\nThese early Christians, as we remember, did not read the Bible in the\noriginal Hebrew, but in its Greek translation.  They loved it and\nsearched its pages eagerly, as they realized that all its words spoke\nof Christ!\n\nBut about the time that St. Paul was imprisoned at Rome we think that\nthe Gospel according to St. Mark was written.\n\nMost of you know that Mark was a young Jew who began his work for God\nby travelling with Paul and Barnabas (Acts xii. 25), but who left them\nwhen the work grew dangerous. (Acts xiii. 13.) Paul was so grieved at\nhis failure, that for a while he refused to trust him again; but\nBarnabas, who believed in his repentance, gave him another trial.\n(Acts xv. 37-39.)  That Mark proved himself even to Paul we find from\nthe Apostle's last Epistle to Timothy, when he writes: '_Take Mark, and\nbring him with thee: for he is profitable to me for the ministry._' (2\nTimothy iv. 11.)\n\nBefore that time, however, Mark had lived and worked for many years\nwith the Apostle Peter, who in his letter written from Babylon speaks\nof him as '_Marcus my son_.' (1 Peter v. 13.)\n\nNow a Christian writer, named Papias, who lived about sixty years after\nthis time, tells us that Mark wrote his Gospel story from what Peter\nhad told him about Christ; so we think this Gospel writing is really\nthe Apostle Peter's account of our Lord's life on earth.\n\nVery likely, as Mark journeyed with the Apostle from place to place,\nand heard him tell and retell the wonderful story of His Master's life\non earth, the thought came into the young man's mind, 'Why not write\ndown what Peter says, so that his words shall not be forgotten?'\n\nAnd so fresh and vivid are the words of Mark's Gospel, so full of\nlittle natural touches, that most people agree that old Papias must\nhave been right.  The very things St. Peter would have noticed are\nmentioned by Mark.\n\nMatthew, the writer of the Gospel which comes the first in our New\nTestament, was a Levite; that is, he belonged to the tribe of Levi, and\nthis tribe was specially chosen in the time of Moses to learn the Law\nand serve God in His Temple.  Matthew, therefore, was very learned in\nthe books of the Law, and in the writings of the old prophets.  As you\nall know, the Lord Jesus chose Matthew to be one of His special\ncompanions; and as Matthew followed his Master day by day, he saw more\nand more clearly how all the old prophecies which he knew so well\npointed to the coming of Christ.\n\n[Illustration: A FRAGMENT OF PAPYRUS-PAPER WITH ANCIENT WRITING]\n\nSo, when the Holy Spirit called Matthew to write what he knew of the\nLord's life on earth, those ancient prophecies, and the wonderful way\nin which they had come true, were still in his thoughts.  This is why\nwe find in the Gospel according to Matthew more quotations from the Old\nTestament than in the writings of any of the other evangelists.\n\n'See, My Book has always spoken of the coming of My Son.'  This is the\nwonderful message which God gave to the world through Matthew's\nknowledge of the Old Testament Scriptures.\n\nYears passed, and those who had seen Christ in His earthly life had\nnearly all died, while Gentile Christians everywhere were asking\neagerly for the written story of His life.\n\nTwenty years after Matthew's Gospel was written, God called a Greek\nscholar, named Luke, to write what was to be a most important part of\nour Bible.  The Jews of old hated and despised the Gentiles; we have\nseen how bitterly they persecuted Paul because he declared that God had\nsent him to preach to the heathen nations; think, therefore, how\nimpossible it would have seemed to a Jew of this time, that a Gentile\ncould, at God's bidding, write two Books which should become even more\nprecious and sacred than the Books of the Law, which the Jews rightly\nprized as the greatest treasure of their nation!\n\nThose who work in heathen lands to-day tell us that the Gospel of St.\nLuke is always the favourite book of the converts, and that if they can\nonly afford to buy one Gospel they always ask for that of Luke.  This\nis because the whole work is written from the Gentile point of view--it\nis the world's history of Christ.\n\nSt. Luke wrote his Gospel as an historian, and in dedicating his work\nto Theophilus[2] in a kind of preface, he followed the Greek custom.\n'_Many,_' he says, '_have taken in hand to set forth in order a\ndeclaration of those things which are most surely believed among us_'\n(Luke i. 1), but their records have disappeared, while that of Luke\nremains.\n\nHe was a physician, as we know (Colossians iv. 14), and besides being\nhighly educated and gifted, he took infinite pains with his work.  He\ncollected all the information he could both from books and\neye-witnesses--either from the Saviour's Mother herself, or from some\nof her relations--and to him we owe many of the most beautiful and\ntouching facts of our Lord's life on earth.\n\nWritten last of all, we have the good news--that is, Gospel, told by\nSt. John.\n\nWhen the Saviour ascended into Heaven, John was still a young man, but\nhe lived to be older than all the other Apostles.  By the time that St.\nJohn wrote his Gospel, Jerusalem had been destroyed and her inhabitants\nslain or scattered.  He was able, therefore, to mention details, and\ngive the actual names of people and places, which, if told earlier,\nmight have endangered the lives of those of whom he wrote.\n\nMany instances of this will be found by those who read carefully.  He\nalone mentions the name of the Apostle who struck off the ear of the\nHigh Priest's servant, and the story of the raising of Lazarus is given\nonly by St.  John as though it would have been dangerous to record it\nearlier.\n\nSo filled with love was the Apostle John that before he died his spirit\nbecame altogether one with Christ's spirit, and the sayings of Jesus,\nwhich he had only half understood whilst his Master had walked this\nearth, grew quite clear to him, so that he remembered them distinctly.\n\nTherefore, that others might understand also, God's Spirit called John,\nwhen he was an old man, to write out those precious words of Jesus\nChrist's which were always echoing in his heart, and which the other\nwriters had not known, or had forgotten.  It is in John's Gospel that\nwe learn most about the love of Christ.\n\nMatthew, Mark, Luke, and John--let us thank God for them all.\n\n\n\n[1] The name 'Bible' is derived from the Greek word 'Byblus,' i.e.\n'Papyrus,' the paper reed on which the New Testament was written.\n\n[2] The name 'Theophilus' means 'God's friend.'  Most people believe\nthat he was a notable convert of those days, though unknown to history.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XII\n\nSOME OTHER WRITERS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT\n\n[Illustration: (drop cap L) Ancient engraving of man reading scroll]\n\nLet us now look at the rest of the books which make up the New\nTestament.  In the days when Paul preached at Athens, the old capital\nof Greece, much of the ancient splendour and power of the Greek people\nhad passed away, for the Romans had conquered their country, and they\nwere no longer a free nation.\n\nYet, although the Greeks had been forced to yield to Rome, their\nconquerors knew that the Grecian scholars and artists were far better\neducated and more highly gifted than themselves, and Greek statues and\nwritings had therefore become the fashion throughout the Roman Empire.\nIndeed, many of the Greek sculptors and authors are remembered and\nadmired to this day.  Homer, the greatest Greek poet, who lived about a\nthousand years B.C., is still world famous.\n\nHomer's best-known poem[1] is about a terrible war which took place\nbetween the Greeks and the Trojans.  Its words are noble, and its\ndescriptions very clever, but although all must admire the beauty of\nthe lines, the poem produces a dismal and depressing effect.\n\nThe picture it gives of the old heathen religion is terrible, for Homer\ndescribed the 'gods' and 'goddesses' in whom he believed as being far\nmore cruel and unjust than the worst men and women of his time.\nAccording to his ideas, Jupiter, Diana, Apollo, Mars, and the rest came\ndown to earth and took part in the battle.\n\nIn vain did the great hero, Hector, fight his bravest; in vain did he\nsacrifice himself, and strive to make up for the wrong-doing of his\nbrother; he failed utterly, for Homer tells us that he was hated by\nsome of the 'gods' for no fault of his own, and so they doomed him to\ndestruction, and guided the hand of the man who slew him.  How little\nthose clever Greeks had been able to discover of the mercy and justice\nof God!\n\nBut although the men of this great nation knew nothing of our wise and\nloving Heavenly Father, He knew and loved them every one, and as we\nhave seen, He called a Greek Christian author to help Him in the\nwonderful work of writing the Bible.\n\nIn addition to the story of our Saviour's life this Greek author, St.\nLuke, also wrote a book about a war--a war that was to become\nworld-wide--the war against sin and the Devil, and the name of this\nsecond book is the '_Acts of the Apostles_.'\n\nIn all this wonderful Bible of ours there is no Book more wonderful\nthan the 'Book of the Acts.'  Have you ever stopped to think what a\nterrible gap there would be in the history of God's dealings with the\nworld had the 'Acts' never been written?\n\nThe Apostle Paul's life would be almost a blank.  Stephen's victorious\ndeath would be all unknown to us.  Above all, the story of our\nSaviour's ascension into Heaven, and the marvellous fulfilment of His\npromises in the gift of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, would have been\nleft untold.\n\nThe Book of the Acts stands alone.\n\nThere are four Gospels--written from four different points of view, but\nof the four writers, Luke, the Greek, was the only one who wrote a\nsequel and showed the results which our Saviour's Life, and Death, and\nResurrection produced at once in the world.\n\nThe marvellous accuracy of St. Luke and his keen observation become\nevery year more striking as fresh discoveries in the lands of which he\nwrote show how true he is in the tiniest detail; while his modesty is\nequally remarkable, for only by carefully noticing when he says 'we'\nand when 'they' can we discover when he shared St. Paul's dangers and\ntrials.\n\n[Illustration: VERY ANCIENT FRAGMENT OF A PAPYRUS ROLL, WITH PORTIONS\nOF THREE PSALMS WRITTEN IN GREEK]\n\n'_Only Luke is with me_' (2 Timothy iv. 11) wrote the Apostle from his\nRoman prison.  The beloved physician was faithful to his great leader\nto the last.\n\nHow did Luke write, and what did his two books look like when he had\nfinished them?  He wrote on papyrus--that is, on reed paper, using an\nink like black paint, and a reed pen.\n\nAs far as we know no portions of the Bible-books of this date are left\nin the world, but in the beginning of the year 1911 a large number of\nvery ancient fragments of Bible-books were discovered in Upper Egypt,\nand with these was part of a translation of Luke's Book of the\nActs--just shreds and tatters of fragile papyrus paper, the remains of\nwhat is up till now the oldest copy of the New Testament in the world.\n\nAmongst the ancient manuscripts kept in the British Museum are old old\ncopies of Homer's War poems, and here also are stored the precious\nfragments of the chronicles of that other great Greek writer--St. Luke.\n\nHomer's book belongs to the forgotten past, for the heathen religion of\nGreece is to-day as though it had never been.\n\nBut the writings of St. Luke are as full of blessing and power as ever,\nand the war he wrote about grows more wonderful every day.  For Christ,\nthe Son of God, came down from Heaven not to fight _against_ men as the\nfalse gods of the old Greeks were supposed to have done, but to fight\nand conquer _for_ men, to lift up the fallen, and to win for the\nvictors a crown of deathless glory.\n\nThe Apostle Peter, in contrast to St. Luke, was only a fisherman when\nthe Lord bade him leave his boat and his nets to preach and teach the\nGospel.\n\nHis ideas were very limited when Jesus Christ first came into his life,\nand he knew little or nothing of the various branches of knowledge\nwhich had become a second nature to the Greek scholar; but the\nfisherman was to receive his education in a very different fashion from\nLuke, for his teacher was the Lord Jesus Christ Himself.\n\nHow impossible it would have seemed to Peter, in the days when he\nwashed his nets by the Lake of Galilee, that his writings should ever\nform a part of the Scriptures--God's Book, which he had learned from\nhis childhood to love and reverence!\n\nYet with God all things are possible.\n\nNot only did the Apostle Peter write a part of the Bible, but that\nshort book known as the 'First Epistle of Peter,' is one of the most\nfrequently mentioned by all the earliest Christian writers--those\nauthors and teachers who had seen the Apostles, and had heard from\ntheir lips the story of the Saviour's life on earth.  Thus it is that\nPeter's contribution to our Bible has become one of the strongest\nwitnesses to the truth of the words written down in the Gospels.  There\nis no possibility of a mistake; the man who wrote this Epistle could\nhave been none other than the Apostle Peter who had been with the Lord\nfrom the beginning of His public work.\n\nAnd it is very beautiful to trace throughout Peter's writings the\nechoes of the great facts which he had seen, and which to the end of\nhis days formed the background of all his thoughts.\n\nChrist had given him his name 'Peter' or 'Cephas,' that is, a rock or\nstone, and so he wrote of his Master as the great Corner-stone of God's\nspiritual house, in which each one of Christ's people are living\nstones, (1 Peter ii. 5-7.)\n\nThe Saviour had once told Peter that he must forgive his brother\nalthough he was wronged by him on seventy-times seven occasions, and in\nPeter's Epistle we read, '_Above all things have fervent charity among\nyourselves: for charity shall cover the multitude of sins_.' (1 Peter\niv. 8.)  'Charity' should have been translated 'love.'\n\nThen the Lord had warned Peter that Satan had desired to have him, and\nhe--remembering that solemn fact in his own life--tried to put his\nreaders on their guard against the great enemy, '_because your\nadversary the Devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he\nmay devour._' (1 Peter v. 8.)\n\nMost touching of all are the words he wrote: '_For what glory is it,\nif, when ye be buffeted for your faults, ye shall take it patiently?\nBut if, when ye do well, and suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this\nis acceptable with God ... because Christ also suffered for us, leaving\nus an example._' (1 Peter ii. 20, 21.)  The man who had seen the Lord\nJesus Christ suffer patiently could never forget.\n\n'_Feed the flock of God which is among you....  And when the Chief\nShepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory._' (1 Peter v.\n2, 4.)  His Master's last command by the Lake of Galilee to feed His\nflock was so deeply impressed on Peter's mind that it coloured all his\nthoughts to the last day of his life. (John xxi.)\n\nThis Epistle of St. Peter was written, we believe, to comfort God's\npeople under the heavy trial of Paul's second imprisonment.  Cruelty\nand persecution were doing their worst, but God was above all.\n'_Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to\ntry you ... but rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's\nsufferings._' (1 Peter iv. 12, 13.)\n\nTwo short, but very beautiful, epistles are believed to have been\nwritten by two of the Lord's brethren, St. James and St. Jude.\n\nEusebius, the first Christian historian--born 260 A.D., died 340--tells\nus that James was a Nazarite.  This means that he had taken the old\nJewish vow of special purity; he ate no meat, drank no wine, and wore\nnothing but white linen garments.  This vow is often mentioned in the\nOld Testament.  James had not believed that Jesus Christ was the\nSaviour of the world until after His Resurrection, when the Lord\nappeared to him.  '_After that, He was seen of James._' (1 Corinthians\nxv. 7.)\n\nThis set his doubts at rest for ever, and St. James too was called to\nwrite a part of God's Book.\n\nOf St. Jude, author of the Epistle of that name, scarcely anything is\nknown, but from Matthew xiii. 55 and Mark vi. 3 we learn that he was\none of the Lord's brethren, and, like his brother, James, did not\nbelieve that Jesus Christ was the Messiah until after the Resurrection.\nThis Jude must not be confused with the Apostle Jude.\n\nThese writers of the New Testament as they took their reed pens in\ntheir hands, and spread out their rolls of whitey-brown papyrus-paper,\nwere not like Moses.  True, they knew that the Holy Spirit was bidding\nthem write, but that their written words should ever be used by God to\nform a part of the Bible would have seemed impossible to them all.\n\n[Illustration: PART OF AN ANCIENT COPTIC TOMBSTONE--IN BRITISH MUSEUM]\n\nThe last and by far the latest writer of God's Book was St. John, the\nbeloved disciple.\n\nLong after most of the other Apostles were dead, he still lived on,\nspeaking and writing of his Master, and to the Apostle John the Lord\nJesus Christ entrusted the record of many of His most beautiful and\ncomforting words, and of the deepest and most spiritual teaching in the\nwhole Bible.\n\nThree of the shortest and yet most beautiful Books of the Bible are the\nthree epistles which bear John's name.  They are supposed to have been\nwritten from Ephesus, in John's latter days, and every sentence in them\nseems to breathe forth the peace, love, and wisdom of a very old man\nwho has lived close to Christ for many years.  It may well be then that\nthese calm and loving letters were the last of all the Bible words to\nbe written.\n\nNow the 'Revelation,' though placed at the end of our Bible, was not\nthe last Book to be written.\n\nIt was probably composed whilst Nero, the wicked Emperor, was torturing\nand burning the followers of Christ.  St. John's heart must have been\nready to break with distress, but the Holy Spirit comforted him, and\nlifted his thoughts right up to Heaven, showing him in a vision the end\nof all these things.\n\nAmong the fragments of the oldest Bibles in the world recently\ndiscovered, the Book of Revelation takes a prominent place.  Some of\nthese were probably written about the year 150 A.D.  Let us remember\nwhen we look on the faded pages lying in the British Museum that when\ntheir discoloured lines were fresh and clean, men were still living who\nhad seen the early martyrs die.\n\n\n\n[1] The Iliad.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XIII\n\nTHE FIRST BIBLE PICTURES\n\n[Illustration: (drop cap T) Roman Scourge]\n\nThose boys and girls who love their Bibles are fond of Bible pictures.\nEven tiny children delight to see a picture of Jesus Christ holding the\nlittle ones in His arms; and how sad children feel when they are shown\na painting or engraving of the Saviour led away to die!\n\nWe have learnt much now of the Bible, and of how the Old and New\nTestaments were written, but who first thought of making pictures from\nthe Bible?\n\nWe shall see.\n\nA few miles from the city of Rome, deep, deep underground, are those\nwonderful networks of galleries and chambers called 'The Catacombs.'\n\n'Catacomb' means 'scooped out.'  Miles and miles of passages are there,\nsome low and narrow, others wide and lofty; they cross and re-cross\neach other, like the streets of a town, and all are scooped out of the\nsolid earth.\n\nOn either side of every gallery are almost endless rows of spaces\nhollowed out in the walls, one above another like the berths on board\nship.  For the most part they are open and empty, but a few are still\nclosed.  Above some of them words are faintly traced on stone slabs; a\nman or woman's name perhaps, oftener still the Latin words, '_In\nPace_'--that is, 'In Peace.'\n\nFor all this great underground city is in reality one huge cemetery:\nthe quiet resting-place where the first Christians of heathen Rome\nburied their dead, where the martyred bodies so cruelly tortured by\nNero were laid at last.  In pace, in peace.\n\nHow wonderful to read the names of those who loved Christ and suffered\nfor His sake so long, long ago!  Their very names speak to us of the\ncourage and joy which, in spite of torture, Christ had brought into\ntheir lives.\n\n[Illustration: TWO EMPTY TOMBS IN THE CATACOMBS, THE LOWER ONE SHOWING\nPART OF THE COVERING SLAB WITH A ROUGH CARVING OF THE MARTYRS' PALM OF\nVICTORY]\n\n'Rest,' 'Constancy,' 'God's will.'  Many names have meanings like\nthese.  Sometimes a simple picture of a victor's crown or martyr's\npalm-branch is placed beside them; sometimes a few words are added.\nLatin is a dead language now, but in those days it was the everyday\nlanguage of Rome, so most of these inscriptions are in Latin.\n\nSome of them are sorrowful, for the mourners grieve to think that the\nloved one will open his eyes on earth no more; but in all the hope of\neternal life is sure and certain.  Our beloved mother, our little\nchild, our dear brother is with Christ; the parting is only for a time.\nYonder, in our beautiful Heavenly Home, we shall meet once more.\n\nHow different from the words carved over heathen tombs!  We know what\nthese were like, for not very far away is a heathen catacomb.\n\n'_Valeria dormit in pace._'  Valeria sleeps in peace.  So the Christian\nwoman was laid to rest.\n\n'I lift up my hands against God, who snatched me away.'  We can still\nread these despairing, rebellious words on a heathen tomb.\n\n'Spare your tears, dear husband and daughter, and believe that it is\nforbidden to weep for one who lives in God.'  How beautiful to know\nthat we shall one day meet the woman in Heaven of whom these words are\nwritten!\n\nNow, about the time of Nero's cruel persecution, the Christians of Rome\nbegan to use the Catacombs for meetings and services.  Their heathen\ntormentors had a horror of death, and therefore among the quiet dead\nthe Christians were safe for a while.\n\nSo they met deep underground in the dim galleries, their little\noil-lamps twinkling like stars, and there they listened to the Word of\nGod, and prayed and sang together.\n\nMany touching stories are told of these days; and of the meetings held\nunderground in these Catacombs, where the living were surrounded by the\nbodies of the martyred dead.\n\nNow, these first Christians loved the Bible with all their hearts, and\njust as you like to see hanging in your room the picture of the Good\nShepherd with the little lamb, so they began to long for pictures from\ntheir Bible.  Every heathen Roman had his house decorated with pictures\nand carvings from his pagan religion, but it was in the dim underground\ngalleries that the first Bible pictures appeared.\n\nSome of the subjects were taken from the Old Testament, some from the\nNew.  Only Bible pictures interested the first Christians.\n\nNoah and the Ark was a very favourite subject.  'Noah was safe in the\nark,' they said, 'although thousands perished.  So will God keep safe\nall those who trust in Him.'\n\nThere are many pictures of Jonah and the whale, and one of the three\nchildren in the burning fiery furnace, for this had special messages\nfor the martyrs as we can well understand.\n\n[Illustration: ONE OF THE FIRST PICTURES EVER MADE OF 'CHRIST, THE GOOD\nSHEPHERD.'  FOUND IN THE CATACOMBS, THE FIRST CHRISTIAN CEMETERY]\n\nAnother very touching picture is of the raising of Lazarus.  The artist\nwho carved this had once been a heathen; perhaps in former days he had\nmade and sold idols, but now all his life and talents were consecrated\nto God.\n\nAnd here carved in stone, is the Good Shepherd, Christ bearing the lost\nlamb on His shoulder, just as He does in the picture you love so well\nat home; Christ, the Good Shepherd of your life, just as surely as He\nwas the Saviour and Friend of these men and women who fell asleep so\nlong ago!\n\nHere is a picture of Jesus feeding the five thousand with the loaves\nand fishes; in this carving He is changing the water into wine; here,\ncarved on a small panel, let into a tomb, is a Roman soldier crowning\nour Lord in mockery; and here is Pilate washing his hands in the vain\nhope that he could wash away his responsibility.\n\nNow, there is one very wonderful thing about all these pictures:\nalthough so many martyrs lie buried here, nearly all the pictures and\ninscriptions are cheerful!\n\nThe heathen Roman writers tell a great deal about the dreadful\nsufferings of the Christians, but there is very little said about it on\nthe tombs of the martyrs themselves.  In peace; they are at peace: the\ntorture, the shame is over for ever; the life of love and joy and\nvictory is all before them.\n\nHow thoroughly these first Christians knew their Bible!  How they loved\nto picture its scenes.  Had all the writings of the New Testament been\nlost, we should have known the most important events of our Lord's life\non earth from these faded paintings and worn carvings alone.\n\nLove, joy, peace; the love of Christ from which nothing can separate\nus; the joy which even the fires of martyrdom cannot quench; the peace\nwhich the world does not give, and cannot take away.  This is the\nmessage which these first Bible pictures bring to us all.  For to the\nearly martyrs the Bible was what God intends it should be to us--a\nliving power, a Divine Voice, a constant source of strength and\ninspiration on the heavenward journey.\n\n\n\n\nSTORIES FOR INTELLIGENT CHILDREN\n\n\nA REALLY DELIGHTFUL SERIES, Charmingly Bound and Illustrated\n\nPrice 1s. each.  Cloth Boards\n\nBy MILDRED DUFF and NOEL HOPE\n\nOver 30,000 already in circulation\n\nBIBLE STORIES!  Who does not love Bible Stories?  Even the words\nthemselves bring back memories of past years, when, as children, we\nlistened to stirring tales of those men and women of old whose names\nare so familiar, and of whom we were then first taught.  Crude in style\nperhaps many of the stories were, but none the less interesting.\nPerhaps there were things we could not quite understand, and knowledge\nhad not sufficiently advanced to explain, but we accepted them all.\nNow great progress has been made in research; modern discoveries in\nEgypt supply the details which were lacking, and the old stories can be\ntold again in a new style, in the light of fuller knowledge, with added\ninterest, and with a force which previously had been impossible.  How\nwonderful the result?  Our Bibles become dearer to us than ever before;\nwe need have no fear of being asked the reason of our belief; what we\nmerely accepted before is now proved for us.\n\nLet us take, for example, the story of Moses.  In this, modern\ndiscovery has done splendid service, supplying just those details most\nneeded, as though his sayings and doings had been preserved for our\nreading.  'Where Moses went to School' is a fascinating title.\n\nTo be obtained from Marshall Brothers, Ltd., Paternoster Row, E.C., or\n9 North Bank Street, Edinburgh.\n\n\nThe Campfield Press, St. Albans","title":"The Bible in its Making: The most Wonderful Book in the World","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":28329}