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The historical evidences of the truth of the Scripture records (1859)
The historical evidences of the truth of the Scripture records - 1859 Author:George Rawlinson Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: LECTURE H. JOB VIII. verses 8 to 10. Enquire, I pray thee, of the former age, and prepare thyself to the search of their fathers; (for we are but of yester... more »day, and knoiu nothing, because our days upon earth are a shadow ') shall not they teach thee, and tell thee, and utter words out of their heart ? J.N every historical enquiry it is possible to pursue our researches in two ways: we may either trace the stream of time upwards, and pursue history to its earliest source; or we may reverse the process, and beginning at the fountain-head follow down the course of events in chronological order to our own day. The former is the more philosophical, because the more real and genuine method of procedure: it is the course which in the original investigation of the subject must, in point of fact, have been pursued : the present is our standing point, and we necessarily view the past from it; and only know so much of the past as we connect, more or less distinctly, with it. But the opposite process lias certain advantages which cause it commonly to be preferred. It is the order of the actual occurrence, and therefore has an objective truth which the other lacks. It is the simpler and clearer of the two, being synthetic and not analytic; commencing with little, it proceeds by continual accretion, thus adapting itself to our capacities, which cannot take in much at once; and further it has the advantage of conducting us out of comparative darkness into a light, which brightens and broadens as we keep advancing, "shining more and more unto the perfect day8." Its difficulties and inconveniences are at the first outset, when we plunge as it were into a world unknown, and seek in the dim twilight of the remote past for some sure and solid ground upon which to plant our foot. On the whole ...« less