In the ancient development of the world there came a time when
there was danger of truth being corrupted and mingled with fable
among those who did not follow the guidance of God, as did
Abraham and the patriarchs; then the great lawgiver, Moses, was
given the divine commission to make a written record of the
creation of the world and of man and to transmit it to later
ages; and because he was thus commanded and inspired by God, his
literature represents the most perfect and trustworthy expression
of the primitive revelations. From the very beginning, therefore,
we trace this interdependence of literature. Moses, authorized by
God, turns to all that is best in the older Babylonian, Egyptian
and Indic literature, and uses it to regenerate and uplift the
Hebrew race, so that we see the things contained in the Bible
remained the same truths that God had been teaching from the
beginning of time. The older Egyptian and Babylonian literature
became lost to the world for thousands of years until in the
nineteenth century modern research in the Pyramids and elsewhere,
brought it to light; but the Hebrew literature was passed down to
the Christian era, and thence to our own times, intact. It excels
in beauty, comprehensiveness, and a true religious spirit, any
other writing prior to the advent of Christ. Its poetry, which
ranges from the most extreme simplicity and clearness, to the
loftiest majesty of expression, depicts the pastoral life of the
Patriarchs, the marvellous history of the Hebrew nation, the
beautiful scenery in which they lived and moved, the stately
ceremonial of their liturgy, and the promise of a Messiah. Its
chief strength and charm is that it personifies inanimate
objects, as in the sixty-fourth Psalm, where David says:

"The beautiful places of the wilderness shall grow fat; and the