(2) Touches of Nature. There are touches of nature in the narrative which bespeak its truth, for it is not easy to regard thein otherwise than as strokes from the life; as where "the mixed multitude," whether half-castes or Egyptians, are the first to sigh for the cucumbers and melons of Egypt, and to spread discontent through the camp (Num. xi :4) ; as the miserable exculpation of him self which Aaron attempts, with all the cowardice of conscious guilt: "I cast into the fire, and there came out this calf ;" the fire, to be sure, being in the fault (Exod. xxxii :24).
(3) Unexpected Incidents. There are certain little inconveniences represented as turning up un expectedly, that bespeak truth in the story; for they are just such accidents as are characteristic of the working of a new system and untried ma chinery. What is to be done with the man who is found gathering sticks on the Sabbath day? (Num. xv :32). (Could an impostor have de vised such a trifle?) How is the inheritance of the daughters of Zelophehad to be disposed of, there being no male heir? (Num. xxxvi :2)— either of them inconsiderable matters in them selves, but both giving occasion to very important taws; the one touching life, and the other prop erty.
(4) Simplicity of Story. There is a simplicity in the manner of Moses, when telling his tale, which bespeaks its truth ; no parade of language, no pomp of circumstance even in his miracles, a modesty and dignity throughout all. Let us but compare him in any trying scene with Josephus; his description, for instance, of the passage through the Red Sea (Exod. xiv), of the murmur ing of the Israelites and the supply of quails and manna, with the same as given by the Jewish his torian, or rhetorician we might rather say, and the force of the observation will be felt.
(5) Candor. There is a candor in the treat ment of his subject by Moses, which bespeaks his truth; as when he tells of his own want of elo quence, which unfitted him for a leader (Exod. iv :to), his own want of faith, which prevented him from entering the Protnised Land (Num. xx 12), the idolatry of Aaron his brother (Exod. xxxii :21), the profaneness of Nadab and Abihu, his nephews (Lev. x), the disaffection and pun ishment of Miriam, his sister (Num. xii:1).
(6) Disinterested Conduct. There is a disin terestedness in his conduct, which bespeaks him to be a man of truth; for though he had sons. he ap parently takes no measures during his life to give them offices of trust or profit ; and at his death Ile appoints as his successor one who had no claims upon him, either of alliance, of clanship, or of blood.
(7) Prophetic Passages. There are certain prophetical passages in the writings of Moses, which bespeak their truth; as, several respecting the future Nlessiah, and the very sublime and literal one respecting the final fall of Jerusalem (Deut. xxviii).
(8) Key to Tradition. There is a sinzple key supplied by these writings, to the meaning of many ancient traditions current amongst the heathens, though greatly disguised, which is another cir cumstance that bespeaks their truth ; as, the golden age; the garden of the Hesperides; the fruit-tree in the midst of the garden which the dragon guarded; the destruction of mankind by a flood, all except two persons, and those, righteous persons; the seventh day a sacred day; with many others, all conspiring to establish the reality of the facts which Moses relates, because tending to show that vestiges of the like present themselves in the traditional history of the world at large.
(9) ConcurTence with New Testament. The concurrence which is found between the writings of Nloses and those of the New Testament be speaks their truth, the latter constantly appealing to them, being indeed but the completion of the system which the others are the first to put forth. Surely it is a very improbable thing that ttvo dis pensations, separated by an interval of some fifteen hundred years, each exhibiting prophecies of its ow n, since fulfilled, each asserting miracles of its own, on strong evidence of its own, and each with such individual claims to belief, should also be found to stand in the closest relation to one an other, and yet both turn out impostures after all.
(10) Purity. Above all, there is a comparative purity in the theology and morality of the Penta teuch, which argues not only its truth, but its high origin ; for how else are we to account for a sys tem like that of Moses, in such an age and amongst such a people; that the doctrine of the unity, the self-existence, the providence, the perfections of the great God of heaven and earth should thus have blazed forth (how far more brightly than even in the vaunted schools of Athens at its most refined era!) from the midst of a nation of them selves, ever plunging into gross and groveling idolatry; and that principles of social duty, of benevolence, and of self-restraint, extending even to the thoughts of the heart, should have bum the produce of an age, which the very provisions of the Levitical law itself show to have been full of savage and licentious abominations? (See Exod. ; xx :3-17; Lev. xix :2, 18; Deut. vi: 4; xxx :6.) Such are some of the internal evi dences for the veracity of the books of Moses. (See PENTATEUCH.) 6. Later Scripture Allusions. ( I) Moses was a type of Christ. The parallel is readily traced, ''As Moses, in the early part of his career, refused the Egyptian monarchy because it could be gained to him only by disloyalty to God, Jesus turned away from the kingdoms of the world because they were offered on condition that he would wor ship Satan; as Moses became the emancipator of his people, so was Jesus; as Moses, penetrating to the soul of the symbolism of idolatry, introduced a new dispensation wherein symbolism was allied to spirituality of worship, so Jesus, seizing the spirit uality of the Mosaic system, freed it from its national restrictions, and ushered in the day when the true worshiper would worship the Father any where; as Moses was preeminently a lawgiver. so Jesus, in his Sermon on the Mount, laid down a code which not only expounds but fulfills the Decalogue; as Moses was a prophet. so Jesus is the great Prophet of his Church; as Moses was a Mediator, so Jesus is the Mediator of the new covenant, standing between God and man, and bridging, by his atonement and intercession, the gulf between the two. We cannot wonder, there fore, that in the vision of the Apocalypse they who have gotten the victory over the beast and his image are represented as singing the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb (Rev. xv :3." (2) In Jude 9 is an al lusion to an altercation between Michael and Satan over the body of Moses. It probably refers to a lost apocryphal book, mentioned by Origen, called the 'Ascension, or Assumption, of Moses' (Smith, Bib. Dirt.).