exhibit, with substantial agreement, minor diversities which it is sometimes not easy to harmonize.  It has not pleased God that in this respect the sacred narratives of either the Old or the New Testament should constitute an exception to the general rule.  The parallel narratives of our Lord’s life contain as many and as great diversities as those of the old Hebrew commonwealth.  Though we may not always be able to show how these are to be brought into harmony, they constitute no valid objection to the authenticity of the histories in the one case any more than in the other.

VI.  EZRA AND NEHEMIAH.

23.  In the books of Ezra and Nehemiah, which record the most important events connected with the restoration of the Hebrew commonwealth, we have unfolded to our view a new era in the history of the Theocracy.  The contrast between the relation of the Israelitish people to the heathen world in the days of Joshua, and of Ezra and Nehemiah is as great as possible.  Under Joshua the people marched, sword in hand, as invincible conquerors, to the possession of the promised land, while the hearts of their enemies melted before them.  After the captivity they returned in weakness and fear, by the permission of their heathen rulers and under their patronage and protection.  But in the latter case, not less than in the former, the Theocracy was steadily advancing under God’s guidance towards the accomplishment of its high end, which was the preparation of the Jewish people, and through them the world, for the advent of the promised Messiah.  In the beginning of the Mosaic economy, and during the earlier part of its course, it was altogether appropriate that God should make stupendous supernatural manifestations of his infinite perfections and of his supreme power over the nations of the world.  Thus he revealed himself as the only living and true God in the sight of all men.  But as the history of the covenant people went forward, there was a gradual return to the ordinary providential administration of the divine government.  God’s miraculous interventions were never made for mere display.  They always had in view a high religious end.  As that end approached its accomplishment, they were more and more withdrawn, and soon after the captivity they ceased altogether until the final and perfect manifestation of God in Christ.  From Malachi to Christ was the last stage of the Theocracy, when, in the language of the New Testament, it was waxing old and ready to vanish away.  Heb. 8:13.  It was neither needful nor proper that its history should be dignified by such displays of God’s miraculous power as marked its earlier periods.