THE EXPOSITOR.

The Staff.

THE VERY REV. THE DEAN OF CANTERBURY.

THE VERY REV. THE DEAN OF PETERBOROUGH.
THE VERY REV. THE DEAN OF WELLS.
VEN. ARCHDEACON FARRAR, D.D., F.R.S.
REV. CANON EVANS, M.A. ̧

REV. CANON BARRY, D.D., D.C.L.

MR. R. H. HUTTON, M.A.

REV. GEORGE SALMON, D.D.

REV. W. SANDAY, D.D.

REV. HENRY WACE, M.A.

REV. EDWIN A. ABBOTT, D.D.
REV. J. RAWSON LUMBY, D.D.
REV. T. K. CHEYNE, M.A.
REV. R. E. BARTLETT, M.A.
REV. EDGAR C. S. GIBSON, M.A.

REV. JOHN TULLOCH, D.D.

REV. A. B. DAVIDSON, D.D.

REV. W. ROBERTSON SMITH, D.D.

REV. GEORGE MATHESON, D.D.

REV. JAMES MORISON, D.D.

REV. W. MILLIGAN, D.D.

REV. A. B. BRUCE, D.D.

REV. J. OSWALD DYKES, D.D.

REV. R. W. DALE, LL.D.

REV. A. M. FAIRBAIRN, D.D.

REV. H. R. REYNOLDS, D.D.

REV. D. W. SIMON, PH.D.

REV. JOSEPH AGAR BEET.

REV. GEORGE G. FINDLAY, M.A.

THE

EXPOSITOR.

EDITED BY THE REV.

SAMUEL COX, D.D.

SECOND SERIES.

Volume VI.

London:

HODDER AND STOUGHTON,

27, PATERNOSTER ROW.

MDCCCLXXXIII.

Butler & Tanner,

The Selwood Printing Works,

Frome, and London.

THE EXPOSITOR.

BALAAM: AN EXPOSITION AND STUDY.

III. The Conclusion.

WE have now studied all the Scriptures which relate to Balaam, and if our study has added but few new features to his character, it has served, I hope, to bring out his features more clearly, to cast higher lights and deeper shadows upon them, and to define and enlarge our conceptions both of the good and of the evil qualities of the man. The problem of his character-how a good man could be so bad and a great man so base-has not yet been solved; we are as far perhaps from its solution as ever but something—much— has been gained if only we have the terms of that problem more distinctly and fully before our minds. To reach the solution of it, in so far as we can reach it, we must fall back on the second method of inquiry which, at the outset, I proposed to employ. We must apply the comparative method to the history and character of Balaam; we must place him beside other prophets as faulty and sinful as himself, and in whom the elements were as strangely mixed as they were in him: we must endeavour to classify him, and to read the problem of his life in the light of that of men of his own order and type.

Yet that is by no means easy to do without putting him to a grave disadvantage. For the only prophets with whom we can compare him are the Hebrew prophets; and Balaam JULY, 1883.

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