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THE K I N G ’ S BUS I NE S S
walls, the disposition of the moist matter so removed, the replastering with other mortar, the destruction of the house if still insanitary, and the scrupulous care to bar the conveyance of infection by the persons employed in the work of cleans ing. Some 40 years ago, when nothing was known of bacteriology, or of the mar vels and influence of microbe life, as re vealed by the researches of Pasteur and others, one may be sure that the reasons for the processes as described by Moses in Leviticus in such minute detail were incomprehensible to the whole medical profession. W. M. Thomson, D. D., writing in Palestine in 1857, concerning these details, in his unique and valuable work, “ The Land and the Book,” says in perplexity:— “ Leprosy in garments, in the warp and
MOSES AND HYGIENE “ In the light of modern science it is interesting to note the elaborate precau tions adopted under the Mosaic Law for the prevention of the spread of disease,” says a writer in the “ London Christian. As a student in the Science Schools of “ the Oxford of Ancient Egypt,” learn ed in all their wisdom,” and taught of God to whose service he devoted his life, the ancient lawgiver worked on lines which are, broadly, in accord with the teachings of bacteriology to-day. Sir James Cantlie has witnessed to “ the great obligation of hygiene to the Laws of Moses in connection with bu bonic plague.” Dealing with the prevention of Lep rosy, in Leviticus 14; 33, one notes the preliminary emptying of the inspected house of its contents, the scraping of the
(¡Dtur? for All Jade 3 IE bedrock on which we stand—“ the Faith once for all g delivered to the saints” (Jude 3)—is, according to g this word, a deposit so infallible, so divine, that we ■ have to change nothing, yield nothing, and abandon g nothing. It was once given, once for all, once for ever; B not discovered, or invented, or evolved, but delivered; . g a written revelation, bodily deposited, that has sur- jj 1 vived all error, all corruption, all apostasy; so as to admit elucida- 1 ■ tion, and explanation, but never of addition, or doubt. New dis- 1 1 coveries in the Faith are always possible; just as telescopes, grown 1 ■ more powerful in the hands of astronomers themselves grown J 1 more skilful, will disclose new worlds hitherto invisible; but those g g worlds were always there. An astronomer can discover a new ¡j B star, even a star of the first magnitude, but he cannot create one: g 1 so the constellation of truth, overarching us, is the identical con- 1 1 stellation, unaltered and undimmed, on which the apostles gazed. ■ ■ Therefore it is not Roman tradition, or Anglican, or Baptist, or g g Brethren, or Quaker, which we seek: for all that is good in these B ¡| traditions is already in the Book, and all that is evil we do not g ' want. God has deposited in our hands the full orb of revealed | g truth once for all. g Now here is the command:— “ Contend earnestly for the B | Faith.” —D. M. PANTON. ................. .
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