thou afflicted thy servant? and wherefore have I not found favour in thy sight, that Thou layest the burden of all this people upon me? Have I conceived all this people? Have I begotten them, that thou shouldst say unto me, carry them in thy bosom, as a nursing father beareth a sucking child, unto the land which thou swearest unto their fathers? Whence should I have flesh to give unto all this people? I am not able to bear all this people alone, because it is too heavy for me. If thou deal thus with me, kill me, I pray thee, out of hand, and let me not see my wretchedness." Such was the prayer of Moses in the encampment of the wilderness of Paran. And God listened to his prayer, and was patient with his servant, and did not even rebuke the cry of an outworn and overtasked spirit. He did not say to him, "Thou art rebellious"-but He said rather, "Thou art wearied and worn :-thou wouldst not else have spoken thus thou shalt have rest." And He said "Go, gather unto me seventy men of the Elders of Israel, and bring them into the Tabernacle of the congregation, that they may stand there with thee. And I will come down and talk with thee there. And I will take of the spirit which is upon thee, and will put it upon them; and they shall bear the burden of the people with thee, that thou bear it not thyself alone." And Moses did as the Lord commanded him, and seventy of the Elders of Israel were appointed to assist him in his labours, and make known his wishes to the people, and tell him theirs and henceforth the weight of his burden was lightened.

The prayer of the people however was heard, and their murmuring was answered, but it was answered, not in mercy, but in judgment. The account we have received of this singular occurrence is given us in these words. "And the Lord said, say unto the people, sanctify yourselves against to-morrow, and ye shall eat flesh; -for ye have wept in the ears of the Lord, saying, Who shall give us flesh to eat? for it was well with us in Egypt; therefore the Lord shall give you flesh, and ye shall eat, ye shall not eat one day, nor two days, nor five days, neither ten days, nor twenty days,—but even a whole month, until it come out at your nostrils, and be loathsome unto you; because ye have despised the Lord who is among you, and have wept before Him, saying, why came we forth out of Egypt? And Moses said, The people are six hundred thousand footmen, and Thou hast said, I will give them flesh, that they may eat a whole month. Shall the flocks and the herds be slain for them, to suffice them? or shall all the fish of the sea be gathered together for them, to suffice them? And the Lord said unto Moses, Is the Lord's hand waxed short? Thou shalt see

whether my word shall come to pass unto thee, or not.

"And there went forth a wind from the Lord, and brought quails from the sea, and let them fall by the camp, as it were a day's journey on this side, and a day's journey on the other side, round about the camp, and as it were, two cubits high upon the face of the earth. And the people stood up all that day, and all that night, and all the next day, and they gathered the quails. And while the flesh was yet between their teeth, ere it was chewed, the wrath of the Lord was kindled against them, and the Lord smote the people with a very great plague." Numb. xi. 18.

Thus they journeyed on from day to day, and from week to week, still taking for their guide the cloud of the Tabernacle, moving where it moved, resting where it stayed. Their course brought them at length to a portion of the wilderness that lay not far from the borders of Canaan, and near to the south-western shore of the Dead Sea. From this spot Moses sent a number of the leading men of the people-one from each tribe, to go forward into that part of the land that lay nearest to them, and learn the nature of the country and the character and apparent strength of the inhabitants. This they did, and on their return made a favourable report of the fertility and richness of the soil, but at the same time gave such an account of the formidable stature of the people and the strength of their walled cities, representing it as quite impossible that they, the children of Israel, with their means, could ever overcome them, so as to possess their land, that all the people were filled with discouragement and fear; and as their universal habit was, on such occasions of trial, they began to weep, and murmur, and complain. They did not come like men of sense and right feeling to ask of Moses what he would counsel them to do, saying at the same time that such was their confidence in him-so sure were they that whatever he advised, God would sanction and assist them in accomplishingthat they were ready to do his bidding, whatever that might be. But they came to Moses and Aaron like angry and disobedient children, asking nothing, but murmuring and reviling, and mourning over their hard fate, and saying, that they wished they had staid to die in Egypt, or had even died in the wilderness as they journeyed. "Wherefore," they said, "had the Lord brought them unto this land to fall by the sword, that their wives and their little ones should be a prey unto their enemies? It were better for them to return to Egypt.' "Let us make a captain," continued they, "and let us return to Egypt," There were two men among them, however, of another sort, stout-hearted, truc-hearted, loyal, and pious men who could not forget what God had already done for them-who could not be blind to what Moses still was to them;

who feared nothing that lay before them, as long as he led them, and as long as God stood at his right hand. In after years, one of these men said aloud in the hearing of all the people, "Choose ye this day whom ye will serve but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord." By what he did, he said the same thing now. This was Joshua, the son of Nun; and his companion was a man of like metal with himself, Caleb, the son of Jephunneh. Both these men had been of the party that went forward to reconnoitre the land, what that land was, and what the people were,— and they knew as well as those who had gone with them who dwelt in it. They knew that there were no giants there, as their companions had asserted, and no means of defence existing, which they could not easily overcome. They knew that their comrades had spoken falsely in this matter, and knowing this they did not hesitate to stand forth, they two alone, before all the people, and tell them so. And they spoke aloud before all the assembly of Israel, and assured them that the land was an exceeding good land, and that if only the Lord would go up with them, there was nothing to prevent them from carrying all before them, and becoming the possessors of a country flowing with milk and honey. And they implored them earnestly not to rebel against the Lord, or turn away from the leading of His prophet. But the counsel of these good men was vain; their countrymen would not listen to their words, but full of angry discontent, and ready to turn upon every one who showed front against their folly, they even threatened to stone their brave and steadfast comrades.

While all was tumult and uproar in the camp, suddenly the glory of the Lord appeared upon the Tabernacle, and immediately every eye was turned thitherwards, as if to ask what God was now about to say to his people. And presently, the awful voice was heard, calling to Moses from the Tabernacle. And Moses went towards it, and disappeared within the outer curtains of the entrance. Then God said unto Moses, "How long will this people provoke me? and how long will it be ere they believe me for all the signs which I have showed among them? I will smite them with pestilence and will disinherit them, but I will make of thee a greater nation and mightier than they." But Moses would not forsake the cause of his people, or separate his own lot from theirs, provoking and ungrateful as they were, unworthy of the forbearance of God, or His overruling care. And again he pleaded for them, as he had so Then," said he, "the Egyptians shall hear of it, and they will tell it to the inhabitants of this land; for they have heard that thou, Lord, art among this people, that thou art seen face to

often done. 66

face, and that thy cloud standeth over them, and that thou goest before them by day in a pillar of cloud, and in a pillar of fire by night. Now, if thou shalt kill all this people as one man, then the nations which have heard the fame of thee shall speak, saying, because the Lord was not able to bring this people unto the land which he sware unto them, therefore he hath slain them in the wilderness. Pardon therefore, I beseech thee, the iniquity of this people, according to the greatness of thy mercy, and as thou hast forgiven this people from Egypt even until now." Thus again Moses prayed for Israel, and God having expressed his grave displeasure with his people, and given their leader yet another opportunity of proving how worthy he was to be the chosen servant of a merciful and long suffering Lord, said at length, that at the word of Moses he would pardon them: but he would pardon them only thus far, that they should not be destroyed in their sin; but he said that a punishment not much less severe should fall upon them, for, that since they had murmured and rebelled so often against his will, and even after they had seen so many evidences of his power and watchful care over them, still, as it were, set him aside in all their plans and wishes, in all their hopes and fears, as if he were not near to them. and had nothing to do with them, and they stood alone, depending upon their own resources, like any of the barbarous tribes around them, that therefore that promised land which was now before them, and into which He had been but yesterday ready to lead them, they should never enter. Except Caleb and Joshua, who had been faithful and true men, not one of all that assembled congregation should ever find a resting place in the home that had been promised to their fathers. As I live," said the Lord, as ye have spoken in mine ears, so will I do unto you. Your carcases shall fall in the wilderness; and all that were numbered of you, according to your whole number, from twenty years old and upwards, which have murmured against me. Ye shall not come unto the land which I sware to give unto you to dwell therein. But your little ones, which ye said should be a prey, these will I bring in, and they shall know the land which ye have despised. And your children shall wander in the wilderness forty years, until your carcases be wasted in the wilderness."

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When Moses reported this decree to the people they were filled with consternation ;- they mourned greatly." To be detained in this wilderness-for life: to live there, and die there — in a desert prison never to enter the land which had been the promised goal of all their toilsome wanderings-to go to and fro between the luxuries of Egypt, and the rest, freedom, and plenty of Canaan,

beholding both

one with the eye of memory, the other with the eye of longing, yet possessing neither-to have no hope-nothing to look forward to no goal to reach, no prize before them to win. They could not accept the decree. They could not bow their heads, and say, "It is the Lord." Though they were just smarting from the scourge, just sinking under the weight of the sentence passed upon their rebellion, they rebelled yet again. Though but yesterday, with God to lead them against their enemies, they had yet feared to go forward, now, when God had forsaken them, and told them they should not go, these infatuated childish people said that they would go up alone. They acknowledged indeed that they had sinned, but they said, “we are here — we will go up into the place which the Lord hath promised us." No," said Moses-"go not up: it will not prosper: the Lord is not among you, and you will be smitten before your enemies." Yet, notwithstanding this solemn warning from one who they knew had never yet deceived them, these mad multitudes went blindly on towards the borders of the land of Canaan. But Moses did not go with them, and the Ark of the Lord did not go with them, and God himself did not go with them. They went alone in their weakness and their folly, and it fared with them as with the weak and the foolish. They were smitten before the sword of the Amalekites, and driven back helpless into the Desert, which now seemed to close around them like the tomb.

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THE ERRAND OF MERCY.

ON a cold, dark, misty morning, a little cluster of men were hanging about the corner of one of the bridges over the Thames, lead ing from London towards the great market gardens, which supply the wants of the metropolis, and from whence narrow streets and flights of steps diverge towards the busy wharves and docks. The clock of a neighbouring church had but just struck four, and there were yet few sounds, save an occasional hoarse cough from the group of men, who had risen thus early, and were waiting in that cold spot in the hope of procuring work. A little aloof from the others, stood one who bore the marks of poverty and distress, even more visibly than his companions; hunger was painfully marked on his sunk fea tures, and his gaunt figure was hardly covered by the scanty gar ments which he drew closer round him, as the keen blast swept down the street, and the fog rose from the river.