Monuments to the Truth of the Scriptures. 313 keep in mind that where so few facts are known, and general ignorance is so great, negative evidence is of small account, while every scrap of positive evidence has great weight. The burden of proof in such cases falls upon those who dispute f th e e rr p ed os t i o ti , ve Pr e o v f i e d s e s n o c r e. Ba F rt o o r n e a x r a g m u p es le, th i a n t t i h t e is ar n ti o c t le "q a u bo it v e e c r e e r tain" that Arioch (Eri-Agu) was a real Babylonian king. But he admits that our ignorance is such that we must admit its "possibility." Dr. Barton further argues that "we have as yet no evidence from the inscriptions that Arad-Sin, even if m he ur w a e b r i. e " ca B ll u e t d , h Ir e i- a A d g d u s, , " e O ve f r c h o a u d rse a , n i y t th is in p g os t s o ib d le o t w ha it t h he H m am ay have had, as their rei gn mains to be proved." s must have overlapped, but that re All such reasoning (and there is any amount of it in the critics of the prevalent school) reveals a lamentable lack in their logical training. When we have a reputable document containing positive historical statements which are shown by circumstantial evidence to be possible, that is all we- need to accept them as true. When, further, we find a great amount o m f en c t ir s c c u o m n s f t o a r n m tia t l o e t v h i e de c n o c n e di p ti o o s n it s iv o e f ly tim sh e ow an in d g p t l h ac a e t , t s h o e f s a t r at a e s w tim e o k n n y o . w W the e m n , e t v h e i r s c a a d n ds fil i l m i m n e a n l s l el t y he to ba t c h k e g w ro e u i n gh d t o o f f a t n h y e h te is s torical fact. But if the statement of it fits into the background s ti o ve fa c r o a n s tr w ar e y ca e n vi fi d l e l n i c t e in i , s w p e ro s d h u o c u e l d d . ac N ce o pt s t u h p e p f o a s c it t io u n nti c l a p n os b i e more extravagant than that which Professor Barton seems to accept (which is that of the German critic, Meyer) that a Jew, more than 1,000 years after the event, obtained in Babylon the amount of exact information concerning the conditions in Babylonia in Abraham's time, found in the fourteenth chapter p of ed G it e io n n es i i n s t , o a t n h d e i b n a t c e k rp gr o o la u t n e d d t t h h u e s s f t u o r r n y is o h f ed C . h T ed o o e r n la te o r m ta e i r n 's su e c x h
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