THE ISRAELITES IN THE WILDERNESS.

THE children of Israel, delivered from all fear of Pharaoh and his host, journeyed onward to the wilderness of Shur; but, in the course of a three days' march, they found no water; and when at length they reached the springs of Marah, they could not drink thereof, for the waters were bitter. Then the people murmured against their leader; and were dissatisfied that he had brought them from Egpyt, without having ascertained that there would be ample provision for them by the way in which they were journeying. Humanly considered, it must be admitted that the prospects of the Hebrews were, at this time, by no means the most cheering. They had admitted the chieftainship of Moses and of Aaron, on account of the miracles which those chosen agents of the Lord had been enabled to perform in Egypt; and because it was believed that they would be enabled, by a succession of wonders, to overcome all difficulties which might occur during the advance of the multitude to the land of Canaan. A reliance of this kind must have required strong faith in the imme

diate protection of the Almighty; and to be secure in the continuance of this favour, faith should have been accompanied by sincere love of God, and obedience to his known will. The Israelites, on the contrary, appear to have been an obstinate and self-willed people; accepting every boon conferred on them rather as a matter of right, than of Divine favour; and reckoning more upon the promises made to their ancestors, than upon any merits or efforts at well-doing of their own. Hence, their conscience must have smote them, at every appearance of impending danger, with a sense of their unworthiness; and they grew clamorous in proportion as their fears deserved to be fulfilled. The account of the wanderings of the Israelites in the wilderness, is full of instances of the wayward self-sufficiency of the people, and of the enduring mercy and kindness of God; and, moreover, it is full of awful instances of the penance exacted by the Supreme, for sin against his holy name and word; and of retributive justice, inflicted upon the hardened offenders.

At Shur, when the congregation murmured, Moses prayed to the Lord for direction; and Jehovah shewed him a tree, and commanded him to cast it into the waters; which being done, the springs instantly became sweet, so that the people could satisfy their thirst. At the same time God declared himself unto the Israelites, saying, "If ye will diligently hearken

to the voice of the Lord your God, and will do that which is right in His sight, and will give ear to His commandments, and keep all His statues, I will put none of those diseases upon you, which I have brought upon the Egyptians; for I am the Lord that healeth you."

Notwithstanding this promise, however, and the miracle by which it was accompanied, the children of Israel soon afterwards, when the provisions which they had brought with them from Egypt were exhausted, murmured again; exclaiming, "Would to God we had died by the hand of the Lord, in the land of Egypt; when we sat by the flesh-pots, and did eat bread to the full for ye, Moses and Aaron, have brought us forth into this wilderness, to kill the whole assembly with hunger."

Still the Lord, mindful of the frailty of human nature, and desirous of detaching his people from evil courses, by kindness rather than terror; and of manifesting to the world his power and goodness, instead of punishing those who doubted and repined, exhibited his supremacy before them by a new miracle. At even, shoals of quails flew hovering over the earth, and alighted near the Hebrew camp; so wearied on the wing, that they were unable to resume their flight when the people came to take them, but suffered themselves to be caught and killed; and in the morning, a thick: dew lay

round about the host, which, being dispersed at sunrise, left upon the ground a small round substance, which was like coriander-seed, white, and tasting like wafers made with honey; and the people used it for bread, and called it manna. Thus, morning and evening the Israelites were fed, without other toil than that of collecting their food: every day they gathered sufficient for the day's consumption, except on the sixth day, when each gathered enough for the sabbath also; because, at the creation of the world, the Lord had ordained that the seventh day should be a day of rest and holiness, for ever. Nevertheless, some of the impious went forth on the seventh as on other days, but there was neither fall of manna nor flight of quails.

As if nothing would satisfy or convince the Israelites that they ought implicitly to rely on the salvation of the Lord, they again broke forth in open discontent against Moses, at Rephidim, because there was no water. Moses was driven almost to despair by their reproaches; and he entreated the Lord, saying, "What shall I do unto this people? They are almost ready to stone me.”

Not even yet, however, did Jehovah determine to punish. "Go on," He said to His chosen minister, "before the people, and take with thee of the elders of Israel; and thy rod wherewith thou smotest the river, take in thine hand and go. Be

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hold, I will stand before thee there, upon the rock in Horeb; and thou shalt smite the rock, and there shall come water out of it, that the people may drink.”

According to the commandment of the Lord so did Moses. He smote the rock, and a pure stream gushed forth; a cool and refreshing fountain in the great desert, where no green thing had formerly been able to endure the burning heat and choking sand. In the language of the Psalmist, "The people drank, as from the great deep."

While the Hebrews were still encamped at Rephidim, Amalek, a descendant of Esau, and chief of one of the wandering tribes which infested the Arabian deserts-partly for the sake of plundering travelling merchants, and partly to make sudden marauding incursions into the cities and towns of Egypt, and of the land of Canaan-came with his band of warriors against the Israelites, hoping to obtain a rich booty from the conquest of such a vast multitude. His faith in the promises of the Lord, alone endued Moses with fortitude to meet these daring freebooters; for the people were wholly unaccustomed to war, and could have been but very imperfectly armed. Relying, however, in the guardianship of Him who had opened to His people a road through the sea, and spread for them a bounteous table in the wilderness, the prophet chose Joshua, the son of Nun, of the tribe of Ephraim, to be captain