Need we remind the Christian, that the Scriptures account for all
those mighty things by the power and the mercy of the God of Israel
alone; that Moses was simply an instrument in the hand of Providence;
that so far from meditating in the desert, plans of Jewish liberation,
he was even a reluctant instrument. Every part of his character and
condition repelled the very idea of his acting from himself. He was
eighty years old; he had been forty years without seeing the face of
his countrymen; his bold spirit had been so much changed by time, as
to render him the "meekest" of men; and even when the miracle of the
Divine presence was before him, he pleaded his unfitness for the task,
and at length yielded only to the repeated command of Jehovah.
Willingly acquitting the writer of these volumes of all evil
intention, we regret that she should have touched on Palestine at all.
Whatever weakness there may be in her lucubrations on Moses, it is
fully matched by her lucubrations on what she calls "Bibliolatry." But
we shall not follow her rambles through subjects on which no mind
ought to look but with a sense of the narrowness of human faculties,
and with an humble and necessary solicitation for that loftier
enlightenment which is given only to the humble heart. The knowledge
of Scripture is to be attained only by the sincere search after truth,
by natural homage in the presence of Infinite Wisdom, and by the
intelligent exertion of mind, and the faithful gratitude, which alike
rejoice in obeying the revealed will of Heaven.
EIGHTEEN HUNDRED AND TWELVE.
A RETROSPECTIVE REVIEW.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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