What is the purpose in this series of studies? At what point does history begin? Name the six great events in early Bible history. How is the fact of a deluge attested? What date is commonly given to this event? What was the moral cause of the flood? What was its extent? What was its purpose in the plan of God? What new spirit took possession of men soon after the flood? To what results did this lead? What was the relation of this fact to the confusion of tongues? What evidences of these migrations are found? What were the three great centers of national life in the Oriental world? What city became the center of commercial life? To what race did the earliest empires belong? What was the most important journey, in its results, in all history? What three causes are given for this migration? What was especially the religious motive of this journey? How long did Abraham's descendants remain in Palestine? In what part of the country did they live? What were their relations with the native peoples in Palestine? What is meant by "the sojourn?" What was its immediate cause? What four providential results came to Israel through this sojourn? How long was the time of the sojourn? How were the Israelites protected from corruption through this sojourn? What was the effect of the sojourn upon their civilization? Subjects for Special Papers. THE PYRAMIDS. THE CITY OF BABYLON. THE GREAT RACES. TRADITIONS OF THE DELUGE. THE CHARACTER OF ABRAHAM. EGYPT IN THE TIME OF JOSEPH. FOOTNOTES: [A] See Geikie's _Hours with the Bible_, vol. 1, chap. xiii; _Bible Commentary_, note at the end of Gen. 8. [B] From the fact that in several genealogies four generations are given to the sojourn in Egypt, the shorter period, from 1706 to 1491, has been generally assumed. But it is almost impossible that seventy people could become two million in four generations by natural increase alone. Moreover, the genealogy of Joshua (1 Chron. 7. 22-27) gives either ten or eleven generations to this period. It is probable that the other tables name only sufficient links to show the line, and omit many of the generations. This was frequently the case with Jewish records. (See the genealogy of Jesus Christ in Matt. 1, where several names are omitted.) We conclude that the sojourn began about 1900 B. C., and the call of Abraham was about 2100 B. C., or earlier; but we give in the text the usual chronology. SECOND STUDY. THE WANDERING IN THE WILDERNESS. I. Let us notice briefly the =EVENTS LEADING TO THE WANDERING.=