This period is often neglected, even by the student of religious history, yet it is one which indicates no less clearly than earlier epochs the presence of God with His people, and that in various ways. To say nothing of the stirring events and successful results of the Maccabean contest, we cannot fail to see the action of Divine Providence in the exclusion from the Old Testament Canon of Books which might well have obtained the suffrages of many for their admission, had it been merely a question of the amount of value and interest which they possessed on their literary or historical side. Again, the LXX., viewed merely as a bond of religious unity, and an influence which counteracted the disintegrating tendencies involved in the dispersion of the nation, forms one of the many proofs that the hand of God was still stretched out over His people. Questions involving the "Higher Criticism" of the Old Testament enter but slightly into the times here treated of. There is, however, one exception, viz., the date and authorship of the Book of Daniel. Inasmuch as eminent theologians in England as well as abroad place the origin of that book—at least in the form in which we now have it—in Maccabean days, it seemed impossible to ignore the question. been made in one of the Appendices to furnish a kind of précis of the controversy. For a full discussion of the matter on the conservative side, the reader may be An attempt has accordingly referred to Dr. Kennedy's newly-published work, forming a volume of the present series. While writing in the main for the non-expert in matters theological, I have sought in my footnotes to point the reader to such further sources of information ―ancient as well as modern-as he might desire to consult. In this, as in earlier literary work, I have had the advantage of unfailing help in the way of suggestion and criticism from my friend, the Rev. R. Sinker, D.D., Librarian of Trinity College, Cambridge. CAMBRIDGE, September, 1898. A. W. S. |