FROM JULY 6 TO SEPTEMBER 28.

THE PENTATEUCH AND MODERN SCHOLARSHIP. Around the whole of the Pentateuch has been waged, of recent years, a strenuous battle. Many modern critics have denied the unity of authorship, and some even declare it to be of post-exilic date. The more conservative scholars have, we believe, conclusively proved that the central portions of it, at least, were written by Moses, though the great lawgiver doubtless made use of documents still more ancient, and his work, doubtless, received editorial and explanatory touches from later hands. As to the entire accuracy of the book, which is the main point with which Christians are concerned, it has been strikingly confirmed by excavations and explorations in Egypt, Chaldea, and the desert, while nothing in the important and constant archæological discoveries of recent years tends to discredit it. "Higher criticism," so far as it discloses new truth about God's Word, is to be received with gratitude. We will not follow those higher critics that draw hasty conclusions from unwarranted conjectures. But there are other higher critics, deeply reverent, profoundly cautious, and conservative, whose learning compels respect, and whose decisions are worthy of acceptance. In a volume such as the present it would be manifestly out of place to rehearse these scholastic discussions. The positive and undoubted results of recent study we have tried to embody in these notes; the points on which the best scholars themselves are not agreed, we have ignored. Whoever wishes to pursue the study into such technical details is referred to the following books:

THE PENTATEUCH FROM THE CONSERVATIVE STANDPOINT. The Higher Criticism and the Pentateuch, by Professor Green ($1.50, Scribners); The Pentateuch: Its Origin and Structure, by Professor Bissell ($3.00, Scribners); The Battle of the Standpoints, by Professor Cave (20 cts., Eyre & Spottiswoode); The Veracity of the Pentateuch, by Pres. S. C. Bartlett ($1.50, Revell); Introduction to the Pentateuch, by Rev. R. Wheeler Bush (Religious Tract Society); Moses and the Prophets, by W. H. Green, D.D.; Lex Mosaica, or the Law of Moses and the Higher Criticism, edited by French (Eyre & Spottiswoode); Book by Book, in which the Pentateuch is treated by Robertson (Isbister).

THE PENTATEUCH VIEWED FROM THE MORE RADICAL STANDPOINT. The Polychrome Bible (Dodd & Mead); Rev. W. E. Addis' Documents of the Hexateuch (pt. 1., $3.00; pt. 2, $4.00, Putnams); Professor Driver's Introduction to the Literature of the Old Testament ($2.50, Scribners); Dr. Lyman Abbott's Lowell Lectures in the winter of 1900 (Houghton, Mifflin & Co.); Prof. Robertson Smith's The Old Testament and the Jewish Church (Appleton & Co.); Rev. Dr. Washington Gladden's Who Wrote the Bible? (Houghton, Mifflin & Co.); Hebrew Story from Creation to Exile, by Professors Bartlett and Peters ($1.50, Putnams); The International Critical Commentary (Scribners); The Triple Tradition of the Exodus, by B. W. Bacon, D.D. ($2.50, Student Publishing Co.). THE MONUMENTS. The Monuments and the Old Testament, by Prof. Ira M. Price ($1.25, Christian Culture Press); Higher Critics and the Monuments, by Prof. A. H. Sayce (Soc. for Promotion of Christian Knowledge); Professor Hommel's Ancient Hebrew Tradition as Illustrated by the Monuments ($1.75, E. and B. Young); Recent Research in Bible Lands, by Prof. H. V. Hilprecht (Wattles); History, Prophecy, and the Monuments, by Prof. J. F. McCurdy (2 vols., $6.00, Macmillan); Schrader's Cuneiform Inscriptions and the Monuments (2 vols., Williams & Norgate).

GENERAL COMMENTARIES ON THE PENTATEUCH. The People's Bible, by Joseph Parker, D.D. (Funk & Wagnalls); The Pulpit Commentary, by Spence and Exell; Gray's Biblical Museum, by George M. Adams, D.D.; The Speaker's Commentary; Commentary by Lange; The Bible Commentary, by Cook (Scribners); Butler's Bible Work (Funk & Wagnalls); The Sermon Bible (Armstrong); The Gospel of the Pentateuch, by Charles Kingsley ($1.25, Macmillan); Moses, the Lawgiver, by William M. Taylor, D.D. ($1.50, Harper & Brothers); Moses, a Biblical Study, by J. J. Van Oosterzee, D.D. (Edinburgh, T. and T. Clark); Moses, the Servant of God, by Rev. F. B. Meyer ($1.00, Revell); Moses, the Man of God, by James Hamilton, D.D.

SPECIAL COMMENTARIES. EXODUS. The Expositor's Bible, by G. A. Chadwick, D.D. (especially helpful); The Pulpit Bible; The Cambridge Bible; The Handy Commentary (Rawlinson); Bush's Notes; Professor Moulton's admirable arrangement in The Modern Reader's Bible (50 cts., Macmillan); Commentaries by Murphy (Warren F. Draper); Alford (Isbister). LEVITICUS. S. H. Kellogg, D.D. in The Expositor's Bible. NUMBERS. Ellicott in The Handy Commentary; Watson in The Expositor's Bible. DEUTERONOMY. Professor Driver in The International Critical Commentary. Professor Moulton's suggestive arrangement in The Modern Reader's Bible (50 cts., Macmillan); Andrew Harper in The Expositor's Bible.

A PREVIEW OF THE QUARTER.

Previews are as necessary as reviews. Let us glance ahead over the coming quarter. Our studies cover the forty years in the wilderness, and exhibit God's education of the Israelites from a nation of slaves into a unified, strong people, ready to conquer the Promised Land. Therefore our title for the quarter is Lessons in God's Training School. We shall find that eleven fundamental lessons are taught:

TEACHING.
trust.

duty.
obedience.
worship.

temperance.

progress.

courage.
faith.
purity.

faithfulness.
hope.

II., III. The Ten Commandments

The brazen calf

The tabernacle

Nadab and Abihu.

Hobab. The cloud
Caleb and Joshua

The warnings against idolatry

Moses' last exhortation.

Moses' Pisgah vision

There is reason in this order. Trust is always the first thing to be learned in God's school of life; hope is the glorious climax of the studies. Duty-doing and obedience must follow close on trust, and they are themselves impossible without worship. Temperance and purity, faith and faithfulness, progress and courage, are cognate studies. The crossing of the Red Sea was the entrance to the school; the crossing of the Jordan was Commencement Day; Moses' final exhortations were the Baccalaureate Sermon.

The teacher may well write these eleven lessons on a school slate, one by one as the weeks go by, and keep the slate hung before the class.

LESSON I. - July 6.

THE GIVING OF MANNA. Exodus 16: 4-15.

GOLDEN TEXT. — Give us this day our daily bread.

THE REFERENCE LIBRARY. Chapter on "The Route of the Exodus" in Trumbull's Kadesh-barnea (Scribners); The Desert of the Exodus, by Palmer ($3.00, Harper and Brothers); chapter on Typography of the Exodus" in Dawson's Modern Science in Bible Lands ($2.00, Harper and Brothers); "The Hunger and Thirst of the Wilderness," a chapter in Mrs. Whitney's The Open Mystery ($1.25, Houghton, Mifflin & Co.); three fine chapters in Chadwick's Exodus; Moses the Lawgiver, by Taylor ($1.50, Harper and Brothers); chapters 5, 6, and 7 in Stanley's History of the Jewish Church (Scribners); many hymns, such as Day by Day the Manna Fell"; Mrs. Browning's sonnet, "Cheerfulness taught by Reason."

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I. The Israelites in God's Training School. Why They needed a Lesson in Trust. - Vs. I-3. Our last lesson in the Old Testament, six months ago, left the Israelites at the northern end of the Gulf of Suez. They had crossed this arm of the Red Sea, at or near the present Suez. Then they proceeded southeastward toward Sinai, 'keeping close to the shores of the Red Sea. Three routes were possible (see map). (1) The Philistia road, the northern road, around the Mediterranean. This they avoided, because it would lead them through the warlike tribe of Philistines. (2) The "Way of Shur," directly east. They rejected this, because

PRONUNCIATIONS.

Sinai (Si'nă or Si'năi), Sin, A'bib, Sūěz, Shur, Ma'rah, E'lim, A(a)'ron, Kib'rothHattaăvăh, Pa răn.

PICTURES.

The Israelites passing through the Red Sea, Raphael; Moses and the Israelites after the Passage of the Red Sea, Rosselli (Sistine Chapel, Rome); The Life of Moses, Botticelli (in the Sistine Chapel); photograph of Michael Angelo's Moses; the Lord gives Manna to the People of Israel, photograph of a scene in the Passion Play at OberAmmergau.

it traversed the worst of the desert. They chose, therefore, (3) the southerly route, to

ward Sinai.

The Israelites had now entered their training school, where they were to receive forty years of discipline. This training transformed them from a nation of two million slaves, weakened in spirit and body by two centuries of servitude, into a people strong and selfreliant enough to conquer Canaan. The story is one that is duplicated in the life of every man and nation that is led by God from sin and weakness into power for good; we shall find it full of instruction for ourselves.

Marah and
Elim.

The first month's journey lay near the Red Sea, and was not severe. Two incidents only are recorded (Ex. 15: 22-27). After three days of wilderness travel, they found they had used up their supplies of water. They had reached Marah (which means bitter), where the water was unfit to drink. Here God taught the Israelites their first lesson in trust, showing Moses a tree which he cast into the waters, and they became clear and healthful. Next they came to Elim, a beautiful oasis, with springs and fruitful palm trees. Here they pitched their tents and rested.

THE FIRST LESSONS. Marah has remained the type of sorrow, but of sorrow whose

certain rate

4. Then said the LORD unto Mō'ses, Behold, I will rain 1 bread from heaven for you; and the people shall go out and gather a day, that I may prove them, whether they will walk in my law, or no.

2

1 Psa. 78: 24; John 6: 31, 32.

day's portion every

2 Ex. 15: 25; Deut. 8: 2, 16.

bitter tears are comforted by God's love and human faith. Elim is the type of life's joys, the sweet that comes with every bitter; "the Palace Beautiful," as Chadwick says, “just beyond the lions, and the Delectable Mountains next after Doubting Castle." When we come to Marah in our life journeys, let us cast into the bitter waters the tree of our faith, and remember that God has Elims ahead, waiting for us.

THE LESSONS GROW HARDER. Turning eastward from the pleasanter neighborhood of the Red Sea, the Israelites entered upon the Wilderness of Sin, between the sea and Sinai.

Wilderness
Terrors.

This was a most inhospitable region, dreary and desolate, though not yet free from the fear of Egyptian border garrisons. They had been thirty days away from Egypt, their food was almost exhausted, and no fresh supply was in sight. It was a severe test of their faith, and their faith failed, even with Marah vividly in mind. They fell to murmuring against Moses and Aaron, wished they had died in Egypt, and longed for its "fleshpots," or meat dishes. There is no reason for thinking that the Israelites had fared well in Egypt, even in the matter of food; but, as Bush says, "It is easy to overestimate the past when men are disposed to aggravate, to themselves or others, the hardships of their present lot."

"No sooner out, but grumble? Is the Brick
So soone forgotten? "Tis a common trick:
Serve God in Plenty? Egypt can doe thus ;
No thanks to serve our God, when God serves us;
Some sullen curres, when they perceive a Bone,

Will wagg their Tayles and faune; But snarle, if none."

-Francis Quarles (b. 1592).

APPLICATIONS AND ILLUSTRATIONS.

Men still act much as these Israelites acted. God

redeems us from our bondage, rescues us from our foes, leads us on our way, sweetens our Marahs, and provides for us many an Elim; but on the first approach of trouble we forget it all. We long for "the fleshpots of Egypt," the fancied delights of a life unrestrained by religion; or we wish we were dead, as the Israelites wished.

One way to conquer trouble is to look backward, not to the fleshpots, but to the miracles. Call to mind how good God has already been to you, and be sure he will be equally good in the future.

Another way is to look forward, not to the desert ahead, but beyond it, to the promised Canaan. The Bible is full of promises of joys, in this life as well as in heaven, to those who let God lead them.

A third way is to look upward, praying to a present God, always ready to answer prayer and help his children. A friend of mine was once wandering in a thick fog. He could not see a step behind or before, and his soul was filled with gloomy thoughts. Of a sudden he looked upward, and lo! the sky was visible, full of stars. He was walking through a thick fog that reached only a few feet above his head. So in all our troubles; we have only to look up, and we can see God's kindness through them.

II. God's Answer to the Complaining People. Vs. 4, 5. Evidently this murmuring, faint-hearted people needed a lesson in trust, and therefore God made that the first lesson in his wilderness training school.

4. Then said the Lord unto Moses. God may have spoken audibly, or, just as really, by prompting his thoughts. Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you. The manna, called by name later. And the people shall go out and gather. The manna fell outside the camp (v. 14). A certain rate (day's portion) every day. If they gathered more than enough for a day, the extra portion became corrupt and useless (v. 20). That I may prove them. The test lay in their obedience to God's rules for manna gathering. So God used the one tree in the Garden of Eden to test Adam and Eve. Whether they will walk in my law, or no. God wanted their trust in him and their obedience to his laws to become as instinctive as walking.