unusual feat of leaving the faith of old-fashioned
Christians undisturbed.

Yet many things have happened in the intervening thirty-one
years. The Bampton lecturer of 1859 had to grapple only with the
infant Hercules of historical criticism; and he is now a full-
grown athlete, bearing on his shoulders the spoils of all the
lions that have stood in his path. Surely a martyr's courage, as
well as a martyr's faith, is needed by any one who, at this
time, is prepared to stand by the following plea for the
veracity of the Pentateuch:--


Adam, according to the Hebrew original, was for 243 years
contemporary with Methuselah, who conversed for a hundred years
with Shem. Shem was for fifty years contemporary with Jacob, who
probably saw Jochebed, Moses's mother. Thus, Moses might by oral
tradition have obtained the history of Abraham, and even of the
Deluge, at third hand; and that of the Temptation and the Fall
at fifth hand. ...

If it be granted--as it seems to be--that the great and stirring
events in a nation's life will, under ordinary circumstances, be
remembered (apart from all written memorials) for the space of
150 years, being handed down through five generations, it must
be allowed (even on more human grounds) that the account which
Moses gives of the Temptation and the Fall is to be depended
upon, if it passed through no more than four hands between him
and Adam.<6>