MOSES AND THE ISRAELITES.
THE ISRAELITES-THE MOSAIC RECORD IS AN UNRELIABLE NARRATION-IT IS THE BOOK OF MORAL AND SPIRITUAL DEATH TO MAN, IN JEWRY AND IN CHRISTENDOM.
SECTION 1. Before entering upon an analytical examination of the statements of the Mosaic record, I would make a few preliminary remarks. I will here say, that the people denominated, in the writings of Moses, "the children of Israel," do not comprise all who are included in the term "Jews." The term "Israelites" includes none who lived and died anterior to the time that Jacob emigrated from Canaan and took up his residence in Egypt, by the request of his son Joseph. The Jews, so called, in their dates, carry their ancestry back to a Semitic origin-to, and past, the days of Abraham. But the point which I desire most to here impress upon the mind of the reader is this, that the Israelites proper, in the Mosaic narration called "The children of Israel," were the direct issue of Jacob, coming from him down through the "three-score and fifteen souls" who emigrated into Egypt with him, Joseph included. The importance of bearing in mind this historical data will be apparent to the reader when I come to treat on the subject of the population of this people, at the time of their departure from Egypt under the lead of Moses, and to analyze his statements concerning their numbers.
SEC. 2. I say in the heading, above, that the statements of the Mosaic record are unreliable. This averment I shall endeavor to demonstrate to the comprehension of each