OLD TESTAMENT HISTORY CONFIRMING THE MONUMENTS Boys and girls listen eagerly to tales of buried cities uncovered, and ancient treasures unearthed, and of the Assyrian who "came down like the wolf on the fold." They will find more wonderful than romance the history of modern excavation in the Orient, and the stories related by the ancient monuments and the clay tablets from the Assyrian libraries. After the Bible story is over, the story-teller may tell of the discovery of the Moabite Stone, and of the Inscription on the wall of the Pool of Siloam, and of the finding of the treasure city - Pithom-built by the Hebrews for Pharaoh. The Egyptologist who uncovered this city found some of the bricks made with straw and some without straw. The English Assyriologist, Professor Sayce, writes: "Unexpected light has been thrown upon facts and statements hitherto obscure, or a wholly new explanation has been given of some event recorded by the inspired writer. What can be more startling than the discovery of the great Hittite Empire, the very existence of which had been forgotten, and which yet once contended on equal terms with Egypt on the one side, and Assyria on the other? The allusions to the Hittites in the Old Testament, which had been doubted by a skep tical criticism, have been shown to be fully in accordance with the facts, and their true place in history has been pointed out." The Semitic scholar, Professor Fritz Hommel, of the University of Munich, who has given much study to the deciphering of Assyro-Babylonian and South Arabian inscriptions, says: "We have seen from the evidence of personal names, and of inscriptions also, that personalities such as those of Abraham and Melchizedek, have nothing of the nature of anachronisms about them, but rest upon traditions which had been put into writing long before the time of Moses. How much further material lies still buried in the soil of Babylon, Arabia, and Egypt, with promise of new surprises and further confirmation! Let us in the meantime, in thankful acknowledgment of the Providence of God, rejoice in the treasures already brought to the surface. The contemporaneous monuments illustrating the religious and secular history of Abraham's time are indeed worth their weight in gold.' The story-teller will find descriptions of these discoveries, and many more as wonderful, in Professor Sayce's little book, Fresh Light from the Monuments. This small volume, written in a simple yet interesting way, will not only furnish the boys and girls with historical matter illustrative of the Bible, but it may fire their imaginations so that they will read other books telling of these ancient peoples. Layard's Nineveh and its Remains, Wilkinson's or Rawlinson's volumes on on Ancient Egypt, and Rawlinson's Phoenicia, cannot fail to fascinate older children both by text and pictures. In the Beginning Lord, thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations. Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God. For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night. PSALM 90 |