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assembled congregation, "from the tents of these wicked men, and if they die the common death of all men, then the Lord hath not sent me. But if the Lord make a new thing, and the earth open her mouth, and swallow them up, then ye shall understand that they have provoked the Lord; and hereby ye shall know that he hath sent me to do these works." Scarcely had he ceased to speak, when the earth indeed opened, and of all those that had mutinied against Moses and Aaron, some fell down alive into the pit, and the rest were instantly consumed by fire! The censers which Korah and his adherents had profaned, were converted into broad plates, and fixed permanently on the altar—a warning to all who should dare to invade the sacred province of Aaron and his family. Not yet admonished, but rather irritated by the chastening that should have subdued them, other undaunted spirits now cried against Moses and Aaron, "Ye have killed the people of the Lord!"-Again they were threatened with instant extermination, and the plague broke out and made dreadful ravages in the camp. Fourteen thousand seven hundred became its victims, before Aaron could arrest its progress and obtain a remission of the penalty for their aggravated offences, by making a ceremonial atonement, in the manner prescribed by their humane legislator. To reduce, if possible, these aspiring pretensions, and settle the momentous question so daringly pursued, yet another confirmation was condescendingly given. At the command of Moses, twelve rods or twigs of the almond tree, one for each tribe of the house of Israel, were brought by their princes, and laid up in the tabernacle; and on the morrow, the rod of Aaron, for the house of Levi-and his alonewas found to have "budded, blossomed, and yielded almonds!" After this beautiful emblem of the divine appropriation of the tribe of Levi, and pre-eminently of the family of Aaron, had been displayed to the wondering congregation, and produced, at least, a momentary conviction of their guilt, it was laid up for a memorial "beside the ark of the Covenant."

Thus did this inconsiderate nation go on, incurring and suffering the penalty of disobedience-repenting and re

106

ISRAELITES SURVEY CANAAN.

turning again to their folly-till one act, pre-eminent in ingratitude, filled up the measure of their provocations, and excluded them forever from the promised inheritance. Catherine. Excluded forever! Could that be without implicating the veracity of the Deity ?-Had he not promised?—I ask the question, I assure you, with diffidence. Mother. You do right to inquire when you do not fully comprehend my meaning; and especially every suspicion of the nature you now intimate, should be cleared up. Every act of the Deity can be vindicated; and no one with more certainty than that of the excision of the rebellious Israelites. The inheritance was promised to the posterity of Abraham, not to individuals; and the generation we are accompanying through their probation, paid the just forfeit of their own infidelity.

At Kadesh-barnea they were in the neighbourhood of the Amorites, a branch of the family of Canaan, on whom the malediction had passed, and the Israelites were commanded to ascend the mountains and dispossess them. But having heard that this district was inhabited by men of gigantic stature and strength, they proposed that a few men might first be despatched privately, to examine the resources of their adversaries and the quality of their soil. This request, apparently so reasonable, was acceded to, and twelve persons, all rulers of tribes, were commissioned to make a careful survey of the country. After forty days' absence they returned, bringing with them specimens of its fruits, figs and pomegranates, and grapes of an extraordinary size, and acknowledged that they had, indeed, beheld a country of superior excellence, but "the cities," they said, "were walled, and the people were tall, and some places were even inhabited by giants, the sons of Anak, the giant !”. - so that their hearts failed, and they saw nothing but defeat and disgrace in the projected enterprise. Caleb and Joshua, two of the deputies, men of faith and fortitude, interrupted this discouraging harangue, by entreating, eagerly, that they might go up at once, and drive out these formidable natives-mere spectres of the imagination to them-who would be led on by Him who was able to conquer! But this pious recollection, which

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should have unfurled the banners of hope and joy, availed them nothing! The terrified messengers had spread dismay throughout the camp, and they were ready to put Caleb and Joshua to death. "Would to God," said they, we had died in the wilderness. We are brought here, our wives and our children, to fall by the sword of the Canaanites;-rather let us make us a captain, and return into Egypt."

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Catherine. Surely, mother, nothing less than the word of inspiration could persuade us, that this people could thus seriously withdraw their confidence from a Power so magnificently, so unceasingly displayed in their preservation.

Mother. Self-love, my daughter, believe me, suggests your indignant doubt. The same power preserves us; the same beneficence bestows our daily bread; and if we forget our obligations, surrounded as we are by all the comforts of social life, shall we question the existence of unbelief in the poor Israelites, detained in a barren desert? Yet let us not think lightly of their glaring derelictions. They had seen the Egyptians severely afflicted, and themselves exempted-they had seen the rolling waves divided to make a path for them, and the pursuing host of Pharaoh overwhelmed they had been sheltered from the sun by day, and guided by a supernatural light by night-bread had fallen from heaven into their hands, and water had burst from the rock for them; yet they refused to believe that the same Almighty arm would carry them through !— Disinheritance, and extirpation, had often been threatened, and promises and repentance had hitherto found mercybut now the dread decree sounded terribly in their ears* "Because all those men which have seen my glory and my miracles in the wilderness, have tempted me now these ten times, and have not hearkened to my voice-surely they shall not see the land which I sware unto their fathers; your carcases shall fall in this wilderness-all that were numbered of you from twenty years old and upwards, which have murmured against me. But Caleb, the

*Numbers, xiv, 22, 23, 29, 30, 31.

*

son of Jephunneh, and Joshua, the son of Nun, and your little ones, which ye said should be a prey, them will I bring in, and they shall know the land ye have despised. Your children shall wander in this wilderness forty years -after the number of the days that ye searched the land, each day for a year. But as for you-turn ye, and take your journey into the wilderness by the way of the Red Sea." This sentence filled them with consternation, and they came weeping and confessing their sins to their governor, and professing their readiness to attack the mountains of the Amorites; but their day of grace was gone, and Moses discouraged them from the vain attempt. Yet trusting in the lenity they had so often experienced, they presumptuously persisted, although neither led by Moses nor the ark of the Covenant, which always went with them to battle, and were deservedly defeated; while the timid spies, who had been chiefly instrumental in the sad catastrophe, were all cut off by the plague.

The occurrences I have been relating, took place at a very early period of the migration of the Israelites. Time and correction had somewhat allayed their restless temper; and thirty-seven years had wasted away and swept off many of the principal offenders—when, encompassing the highlands of mount Seir, they found themselves bereft of the refreshing stream, which, like their tutelary cloud, had accompanied their devious way. Again the smothered flame of rebellion burst out-again they returned to their former accusation against Moses and Aaron-" Ye have brought us to die in this wilderness!" The wisdom that had determined to make that people the monuments of His long-suffering mercy, again directed Moses to take Aaron, and, with his rod in his hand, to speak to the rock at Meribah, and, at his word, water should flow in the presence of the whole congregation.

Several scriptures concur in bestowing on Moses the appellation of the meekest of men. With unwearied patience he had firmly conducted his administration till this fatal moment, when he suffered one unhappy doubt to interrupt his duty. The Great Supreme had, perhaps, imparted to his miraculous rod an influence which he would

DEATH OF AARON.

109 fail to extend to his word; and instead of speaking to the rock* as he had been commanded to do, he raised his arm and smote it twice! Water, indeed, flowed abundantly at the stroke; but his disobedience, and that of his brother, who had participated in his crime, brought upon them the sentence which had been before pronounced upon the rebellious congregation-exclusion from the promised land!

In the first month of the fortieth year, they came, after seventeen encampments, to the wilderness of Zin, in the vicinity of the Edomites.

Charles. I think you told us, mother, that mount Seir, the dwelling of Esau, was also called Edom.

Mother. I did. And because it was the possession of their brethren, the Israelites were not suffered to invade it, nor do them any injury. But the most convenient way to their place of destination being through that country, they sent a respectful request to the Edomites, that they might pass by the king's high-way, not touching their fields or vineyards, or even drinking of their wells, without compensation.

Charles. Not drink of their wells!-surely, water is cheap-Who would refuse water to a traveller?

Mother. Very cheap to us. In our favoured climate, all the luxuries of nature abound; but in the deserts of Arabia, a well is a treasure: and, perhaps, being rare, they contain so little water, that the supply of an army, and a multitude of cattle, might occasion great distress to the inhabitants. In the days of Abraham and Isaac, we know that wells of water were objects of strife between the herdsmen. Yet it seemed not likely that the Edomites would refuse the refreshment of water, and the use of the 'high-way to a nation descended from the same stock with themselves. They did, however, refuse; and the weary travellers were obliged to reach mount Hor, on the opposite border of the king of Edom's dominions, by a circuitous road. At mount Hor, Aaron died; and Eleazer, his

*The rock of Meribah of mount Sinai, is still seen, bearing the evident marks of a supernatural event. The holes and the channels of the miraculous stream are its indelible inscription.-See Shaw's Travels.