Deuteronomy (The Speeches of Moses) - Ferrar Fenton Bible Translation page 222

consequently is to support, teach, and practise the Religion of the Nation, by public recognition and honour paid to it in the outward forms of its worship, and by using it as the groundwork of the education of the people; and by putting a social stigma upon all deviation from it. If this is not done, the Prophet·Statesman shows that from the tendency of men to follow the mode of life of the Court and those socially above them, the irreligion of the Monarch or President rapidly spreads to the lower strata of social life; while at the same time an opposite current is developed amongst the people, especially of the lower classes, who, in their earnest desire to preserve the faith of their fathers, separate themselves from the Constituted Authorities. and make the destruction of those Authorities the devouring passion of their lives, even if such destruction involves the ruin of their Nation; and in opposition to them the apostate or sceptically indifferent Governors become, step by step, savage persecutors, and call foreign allies to assist in suppressing the old National Faith which alone they find themselves unable to suppress. Thus the Nation becomes divided into two parties, whose objects are, not

the defence of their Country, but the extermination of each other; and in its distraction the land becomes the prey of its neighbours and rivals, with all the horrors of national degradation and personal slavery to follow. To listen to these lessons and be taught by them is as important to ourselves

as it was to the Hebrews of Isaiah's time, and if we neglect them, or turn in scorn to ridicule them, the same fate will be ours as fell upon the Hebrews. These may not be the fashionable doctrines of our day, but are those of the great Prophet whose teachings I am endeavouring to point out. The work of Isaiah, then,_ would seem to end with the zoth Chapter of

II. Kings, and the remaining four chapters to be the product of a later hand, of a date after the Babylonian Captivity. Probably they were by Nehemiah, written as a supplement to Isaialfs

history. The style and tone is different, and the wide views of the lessons and philosophy of history contained in the work from joshua to_the 2ISt of Kings are wanting, and the difference in the dramatic power of the narrative in the four concluding chapters is also noticeable. I would, therefore, head Supplementary Chapters to Isaial1’s History of Israel} Louoon, ENGLAND. FERRAR FENTON.