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that he had taken their golden contribution. "So they gave it to me; then I cast it into the fire, and there came out this calf." Was there ever a more ridiculous, a more childish lie? Can't you see the liar's face?

Observe that meek Moses was not rebuked by God for smashing the tables; he was given new ones in their place. He was punished for only one thing -because he had momentarily lost confidence in God at the waters of Meribah, when he was more afraid of popular clamour than of God Himself. For this reason he was not permitted to enter the Promised Land.

Moses lived to be one hundred and twenty years old, in sound bodily and mental health. His eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated. His farewell charge to the people is filled with poetry and splendid imagery, containing many promises and many warnings. Like all persons, they needed advice, received it, and forgot it. Human nature is revealed in their shortness of memory; for nothing is more frequently heard than good advice, and there is nothing so quickly forgotten. The first alluring picture is enough to drive it out of the mind.

One passage in this farewell speech retains its flavour: "Thou shalt lend unto many nations, and thou shalt not borrow."

Moses stood on Pisgah Heights, on Mount Nebo, and looked with what emotion we can only imagine

on the fair panorama of Canaan. He could not enter it any more than Abraham Lincoln could live to see the growth of the mighty nation he had saved. But Moses, though he had little confidence in the people, knew that their immediate future was assured; that the results of his wisdom and foresight would last long; he saw the travail of his soul and was satisfied.

IV

FAMOUS FIGHTERS IN CANAAN

Wilderness Tragedies-Nadab and Abihu-Korah and the Earthquake-the Spies-Horrors of WarRahab-Fall of Jericho-Achan-Death of JoshuaDefeat of Sisera-Gideon and the Desperado Abimelech-Story of Jephthah-Samson and His ExploitsTragedy in the Tribe of Benjamin.

IV

FAMOUS FIGHTERS IN CANAAN

There were terrible adventures in the wilderness; for there was treason in high places, and it was punished in spectacular style. The sons of AaronNadab and Abihu-so eloquently mentioned by Browning in One Word More-together with their father and Moses and seventy elders, went up the mountain and saw the glory of God.

And they saw the God of Israel; and there was under his feet as it were a paved work of a sapphire stone, and as it were the body of heaven in his clearness.

Yet later Nadab and Abihu, who had seen the King in His beauty, offered up strange fire near Sinai, and instantly perished. So quickly forgotten then and now is the Divine Revelation; forgotten by those especially chosen to receive it.

Miriam, the Prophetess, sister of Moses and Aaron, may perhaps be pardoned for family jealousy when Moses married a black girl, an Ethiopian; but her method of revenge was strange, and the punishment accurately fitted the crime. Together with Aaron she started a sedition and was smitten

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