high position in Egypt.

The chapter on the patriarchs was followed by one that dealt with the
incidents of the Exodus. The writer said that he feared that even the
most indulgent critic must allow that the whole scheme of Moses was a
shocking one; but he was probably the greatest man that ever lived on
the face of the earth, if he was the leader and organizer of a band of
depredators who for bloodthirst and rapacity had no parallel in history.
How could it be expected that a kingdom founded upon the massacre of men
and cemented by the blood of women and children should survive? It
had survived only as example to the world of the impossibility of a
permanent success being founded upon the atrocious methods pursued by
the worst of the robber states of the East. While civilization had been
spreading on all sides of them, the people of Israel had remained the
worst of barbarians, murdering the men who had from time to time arisen
to try and rescue them from the abysses of criminality into which they
had fallen,--abysses of criminality and superstition,--until they
had filled their cup of crime by the murder of the One whom the world
worships to-day.

Incidentally, of course, the character of Samson was dealt with. Delilah
was shown to be one of the most heroic of womankind, making greater
sacrifices through her splendid patriotism than Joan of Arc. But
Samson----

Ruth was also dealt with incidentally. She was the woman who expresses
her willingness to give up her God at the bidding of another woman, and
who had entered into a plot with that same woman to entrap a man whom
they looked to support them.