A Jew of the time of the Apocrypha, or of the time
of our Lord, might have done such a thing, because he had lost faith
in the living God; but then his work would have been of a very
different kind from this noble and heart-stirring book. For the
pith and marrow, the essence and life of Deuteronomy is, that it is
full of faith in the living God; and for that very reason I am going
to speak to you to-day.
For the rest, whether Moses wrote the book down, and put it together
in the shape in which we now have it, we shall never be able to
tell. The several orations may have been put together into one
book. Alterations may have crept in by the carelessness of copiers;
sentences may have been added to it by later prophets--as, of
course, the grand account of Moses' death, which probably was at
first the beginning of the book of Joshua. And beyond that we need
know nothing--even if we need know that.
There the book is; and people, if they be wise, will, instead of
trying to pick it to pieces, read and study it in fear and
trembling, that the curses pronounced in it may NOT come, and the
blessings pronounced in it may come upon this English land.
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