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النشر الإلكتروني

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got into the camp and refused to submit even to the Voice of the Sovereign. A more violent and extensive opposition to his legation soon after appeared;-Korah, one of the Levites, Dathan and Abiram, with two hundred and fifty other chiefs of the assembly, inflated with the high destiny to which, as a nation, they were called, yet envious of the transcendent preference bestowed on the two brothers, indignantly exclaimed, "The whole congregation are holy-ye take too much upon you, Moses and Aaron.', "Ye have brought us up to kill us in this wilderness, and have not given us an inheritance in fields and vineyards." "Hear, I pray you," returned the meekest of men, ye sons of Levi! Seemeth it but a small thing to you, that the God of Israel hath separated you from the congregation, to bring you near to him, to do the service of the tabernacle, and seek ye the priesthood also?" "Bring your censers all of you prepared with fire and with incense, to-morrow, and let Aaron bring also his censer-and the Lord will shew whom He hath chosen"-But Dathan and Abiram not only refused to obey his summons to come and answer for their conduct, but vilified him to his messengers, reiterating the outrageous accusation. "Thou hast brought us up to kill us in this wilderness, and wilt thou altogether make thyself a prince over us ?" Not at all intimidated, however, by the ominous offer of Moses to try their pretensions, the next morning the whole company of mutineers appeared at the door of the Tabernacle with incense and censers in their unhallowed hands. To the command to separate himself and Aaron from this perverse nation, that they might be consumed in a moment, their compassionate leader again interposed his supplications, that the innocent might not be involved with the guilty. "Depart, said

he, to the 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 alone, was 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 returning again to their folly-till one act, pre-eminent in ingratitude, filled up the measure of their provocations, and excluded them for ever from the promised inheritance.

CATHERINE. Excluded for ever! Could that be without implicating the veracity of the Deity ?-Had he not promised? I ask the question, I assure you, with diffidence.

MRS. M. 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 dispatched privately, to examine the resources of their adversaries and the quality of their soil. This request, apparently so reasonable, was acceded to, and twelve per

sons, 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 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, 66 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."

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.

MRS. M. 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

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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 harkened 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 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 for forty years after the number of the days that ye searched the land, each day for a year. But as for you turn ye, 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

* Numbers, 14, 22, 23, 29, 30, 31.

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