At the Yorkshire Evangelical Conference, held in 1899 Canon Faussett, D.D., gave

an address entitled "The Old Testament in the light of internal evidences" which was

recorded in Things to Come, Vol. 6:, pages 54 to 56. Some of the statements made by

Canon Faussett seem worthy of preservation and expansion, for until the end of time the

Scriptures will be attacked, and we need to be reminded that they contain abundant

evidence of their integrity. Omitting many items that it was wise and necessary to

include at the actual conference, we note:

"History fits geography."--To-day we usually speak of "Tyre and Sidon" as though

they always existed together, but while Genesis knows the city of Zidon, Tyre is never

mentioned (Gen. 10: 19, 49: 13). The greatness of Zidon is acknowledged by Joshua

who calls it "Great Zidon" (Josh. 11: 8, 19: 28), but at that time Tyre was but a

stronghold of Zidon, and not mentioned. In David's day however Tyre took the lead

(II Sam. 5: 11) and Zidon takes a lesser place. Had the book of Genesis been written in

later times, Tyre and Sidon would most certainly have been coupled together, and thereby

have betrayed the hand of the late writer.

"Language accords with the context."--The record is that Moses was brought up in

Egypt, and Egyptian words should therefore make their appearance in the books of

Genesis and Exodus. The Egyptian word tebah is actually used of Noah's ark, whereas

the Hebrew aron is used of the ark in the tabernacle. Again, the early date of the

Pentateuch can be discerned by the way in which the pronouns "he" and "she" are

represented. In the five books of Moses "he" and "she" are not distinguished by gender,

but in the later books "he" is written hu (masculine) and "she" is written hi (feminine).

Hi is never used in the Pentateuch. No other writer than Moses uses the word naar

"youth" in both genders. Again Moses uses the Egyptian achu translated "meadow"

(Gen. 41: 2) but which should be rendered "reeds". Many other Egyptian words not

listed by Canon Faussett, could be brought forward to supplement this testimony to the

integrity of the books of Moses.

"Natural History accords with the wilderness sojourn."--There are eleven animals

mentioned in Deuteronomy which are not recorded in Leviticus and Numbers, mainly

antelopes, the ibex of Arabia, the coney or hyrax, the little pachyderm related to the

hippopotamus. They are numerous in the Arabian desert, but are not found in Egypt or

Palestine. This accords with the record that when Leviticus was written, Israel had only

just come from Egypt and did not know yet the animals of the desert. Deuteronomy,

written at the close of the forty years in the wilderness, and before entering Canaan, is