submitted in the most humiliating terms to his brother, and earnestly entreated him to mediate in behalf of their sister.

The prayer of Moses was heard; and after being shut out of the camp seven days, as a public example, Miriam was restored to health, and received into the congregation.

On approaching the confines of Palestine, Moses selected from the different tribes twelve persons to spy the land, and to discover its quality and strength. The return of these men must have been anxiously looked for by a people who had been so long wanderers in the desert; but what must have been the astonishment of the Israelites when ten of the spies brought an evil report of the country, representing it as not only incapable of supporting its inhabitants, but as being unconquerable.

Two of the spies however, Caleb and Joshua, gave a faithful representation of it; but the cowardly spirit of the others filled the minds of the people with despondency, and after reproaching Moses with deceiving them by false promises, they openly declared their resolution of electing a captain from among themselves to lead them back into Egypt.

In this critical situation Moses applied to the Almighty, who again offered to raise his family into a mighty nation, and to extirpate a people who were so little deserving of his favour.

Moses was not elated by this flattering proposal. His love for Israel, notwithstanding the cruel and ungrateful conduct which he continually experienced, still remained ardent; and he pleaded their cause with so much earnestness, that the Divine judgment was stayed, and they were preserved. But the Lord declared that for this heinous act of rebellion and impiety, "not one of the existing generation should enter into the promised land, except the two faithful spies, Caleb and Joshua." The denunciation of this sentence had such an effect upon the people, that some of them were resolved to force their way into

Canaan in spite of the remonstrances of Moses, who told them, that as they were acting in opposition to the will of heaven they would surely be unsuccessful. But these rash men, being now as obstinately resolute as before they were dispirited and timorous, hastened away early in the morning upon their mad enterprize, and were defeated with a great slaughter.

Soon after this, a formidable conspiracy was raised against Moses and Aaron, by Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, who brought over to their party "two hundred and fifty princes of the assembly, famous in the congregation and men of renown." Numbers xvi. 2.

Korah, the leader in this insurrection, was of the tribe of Levi, and a man of consequence among his brethren; but having no hopes of arriving at the priesthood while the civil and ecclesiastical government lay in the hands of Moses and Aaron, he resolved to obtain the object of his sacrilegious ambition by exciting the people to rebellion. His language was well calculated to make an impression upon minds naturally impatient of control, and always ready to murmur against their rulers. "And Korah and his associates gathered themselves together against Moses and against Aaron, and said unto them, Ye take too much upon you, seeing all the congregation are holy, every one of them, and the Lord is among them; wherefore then lift you up yourselves above the congregation of the Lord?”

This impious address struck at the very foundation of religion and government. Korah seems to have been the first broacher of the doctrine that all power originates with the people, and that even the right of conferring the priestly office belongs to them.

Hercin Korah set himself in direct opposition, not only to the theocracy by which Israel was peculiarly distinguished from all other nations, but even against the very right of Jehovah to legislate for his people, and to institute a particular order of religion for their direction.

This was a severe trial to Moses; but he preserved

in the midst of the contest a steady and an unshaken mind. Conscious of his integrity, he made an appeal on the behalf of himself and his brother, to the Almighty, and he said, "Even to-morrow the Lord will shew who are his, and who is holy, and will cause him to come near unto him. This do; take you censers, Korah and all his company; and put fire therein, and put incense in them before the Lord tomorrow, and it shall be that the man whom the Lord doth choose he shall be holy.

That Korah should venture to put his pretensions to the hazard to such a determination, is only to be accounted for from his having become desperate in his rebellion and wilful in his infidelity. He had been a witness of the miracles of Moses and of the Divine favour which rested upon him; what then could be hoped for in such an appeal as this, the decision of which must either confirm those miracles, and strengthen that authority, or throw the people into a state of idolatry and utterly subvert their religious and civil polity?

But Korah appears to have gone too far to recede; the challenge of Moses was public, and placed the matter at issue upon the most equitable footing. Had Korah refused the offer, he would have incurred the contempt and hatred of those whom he had alienated from their allegiance, and upon whose strength and attachment he probably relied for support.

Dathan and Abiram, however, totally rejected the invitation of Moses, and refused to come near him, for the ground of their opposition was different from that of Korah. He claimed the priesthood as being of the tribe of Levi, and they resisted the government of Moses because they were descended from Reuben the elder son of Jacob.

When the morning came Korah gathered all the congregation against Moses and Aaron, in the front of the door of the tabernacle; whence it is evident that the great body of the people had been seduced from their allegiance, and were preparing for an

open revolt. At this crisis "the Lord caused his glory to appear," for the defence of his servants; and he said, "Separate yourselves from this congregation, that I may consume them in a moment."

But Moses and Aaron felt a tender compassion for the misguided people, and falling prostrate on their faces offered up this prayer: "O God, the God of the spirits of all flesh, shall one man sin, and wilt thou be wroth with all the congregation ?"

The prayer was heard, and "the people were commanded to depart from the tents of the principal conspirators, lest they should be consumed in their sins."

This injunction was generally obeyed; for though the people had unhappily no sense of their folly, the dread of the Divine judgments made them fly from their partners in guilt.

Dathan and Abiram, however, came out, and stood in the door of their respective tents with an audacious air of mockery and contempt, despising Moses and braving the power of the Almighty.

Then Moses said to all the assembly, "Hereby ye shall know that the Lord hath sent me to do all these works, and that I have not done them of my own mind. If these men who deny my authority and commission shall die the common death of all men, or if they be visited after the visitation of all men, then the Lord hath not sent me; but if the Lord make a new thing, and the earth open and swallow them up, with all that appertains unto them, and they go down into the pit, then ye shall understand that these men have provoked the Lord."

The appeal was just, and the decision was instantaneous and awful; for no sooner had Moses made an end of speaking these words, than the ground clave asunder that was under them, and the earth opened her mouth and swallowed them up, with all that appertained to them; and then closed again upon them.

The authority of Moses having been confirmed by

the terrible judgment upon the rebels who opposed it, that of Aaron was next determined.

Korah and his associates appeared with their censers; but the wrath of the Lord immediately went forth against them, and they were all consumed with fire.

Notwithstanding these dreadful visitations, so refractory were the hearts of the people, that on the. succeeding morrow they murmured against Moses and Aaron, and charged them with the guilt of murder, saying, "Ye have killed the people of the Lord."

To this cruel and impious accusation the servants of the Most High made no other return than by supplicating pardon for the rebels, and making an atonement in their behalf when the plague broke out amongst them.

Who can behold Moses standing between an angry God and a sinful people, struggling to save them from destruction, at the very time when they were threatening his own life, without admiring his benevolence and magnanimity? His tenderness to this obstinate people was never so conspicuous as upon those occasions when their ingratitude and rebellion against his person and authority brought down the Divine judgments upon them. But here we cannot help turning to contemplate a pattern of meekness and love, infinitely exceeding what we admire in the legislator of the wandering Israelites.

Jesus Christ, who called Moses from the bush, and who conducted the people in the wilderness, when he came in the flesh to open the way to eternal life for us, endured not only the contradiction of sinners, but the treachery of friends. When he was reproached and blasphemed, he made no reply; though buffeted and spit upon, he took every contumely with patience; when he was scourged and lacerated, he neither groaned nor complained; and in the most excruciating agonies upon the cross, upbraided, mocked, and vilified by the infatuated multitude, his prayer