8.  The Mosaic economy was but the scaffolding of the gospel.  God took it down ages ago by the hand of the Romans.  It perished amid fire and sword and blood, but not till it had accomplished the great work for which it was established.  It bequeathed to Christianity, and through Christianity to “all the families of the earth,” a glorious body of truth, which makes an inseparable part of the plan of redemption, and has thus blessed the world ever since, and shall continue to bless it to the end of time.

CHAPTER XI.

REMAINING BOOKS OF THE OLD TESTAMENT.

1.  The divine authority of the Pentateuch having been established, it is not necessary to dwell at length on the historical books which follow.  The events which they record are a natural and necessary sequel to the establishment of the theocracy, as given in the five books of Moses.  The Pentateuch is occupied mainly with the founding of the theocracy; the following historical books describe the settlement of the Israelitish nation under this theocracy in the promised land, and its practical operation there for the space of a thousand years.  There is no history in the world so full of God’s presence and providence.  It sets forth with divine clearness and power, on the one side, God’s faithfulness in the fulfilment of the promises and threatenings contained in the Mosaic law; and on the other, the perverseness and rebellion of the people, and their perpetual relapses into idolatry, with the mighty conflict thus inaugurated between the pure monotheism of the theocracy, and the polytheism and image-worship of the surrounding heathen nations—­a conflict which lasted through many ages, which enlisted on both sides the great and mighty men of the world, and which resulted in the complete triumph of the Mosaic law, at least so far as its outward form was concerned, thus preparing the way for the advent of that great Prophet in whom the theocracy had its end and its fulfilment.

2.  How fully the divine authority of these books is recognized by Christ and his apostles, every reader of the New Testament understands.  It is not necessary to establish this point by the quotation of particular passages.  Though the writers of the historical books which follow the Pentateuch are for the most part unknown, the books themselves are put in the New Testament on the same basis as the Pentateuch.  To those who deny Christ, the Mosaic economy, with the history that follows, is a mystery; for when they read it “the veil is upon their heart.”  But to those who receive Christ as the Son of God, and the New Testament as containing a true record of his heavenly mission, Moses and the historical books that follow are luminous with divine wisdom and glory, for they contain the record of the way in which God prepared the world for the manifestation of his Son Jesus Christ.