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Whether the men who withstood Moses were really called Jannes and
Jambres or not, I do not know. The Old Testament does not say they were.
The probability is, that Paul rested his illustration on a Jewish
tradition. But as the tradition was received as true by his people, his
lesson was just as good as if it had rested on some unquestionable fact
stated in authentic history.
And so with regard to illustrations and incidental statements and
allusions generally. Though they may rest on misconceptions, the moral
lessons and spiritual revelations into the service of which they are
pressed, may be God's own oracles, and the book in which they appear
may, as a whole, be given by divine inspiration, and be profitable for
teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction in
righteousness, and conducive to all the great and desirable ends so dear
to God.
There is no such thing as absolute perfection with regard to books.
There is no authorized standard, no test, no measure of absolute
perfection for books; and if there were, no man could apply it. Of a
thousand different books each may be perfect in its way, yet none of
them be absolutely perfect. Each may have some great good end in view,
and be adapted to answer that end; and that is the only perfection of
which a book admits.
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