Then they felt that their hearts were lightened, and they feared no more, and they listened to the commands of Aaron, and prepared to do in the morning according to his word.

When we think of the condition of Israel at this time, we must feel it could not be denied that some unusual exercise of the Divine power, some miracle-was absolutely necessary for the support of this numerous host. But little food was to be found in the Desert, and that which they had brought with them from Egypt had been soon exhausted, and the farther they went, the more hopelessly bare and barren did the Desert seem. But even here, God provided for them, as he has so often done, before and since, for those who trust in him. The way in which their new supplies were furnished was after this manner. Every evening large flights of quails, a small bird like a partridge, very common in those countries, even now, came down and settled about the camp, and the people easily caught them, and cooked them for their daily food. This was the flesh they had given them; but that they should not be obliged to live entirely on flesh, another kind of food was provided for them also. Early in the morning, when the dew, which lay thick upon the ground, disappeared under the first touch of the rising sun, there was left upon the surface of the ground, a small round thing like a tiny seed, or like hoar frost. It was a thing the Israelites had never seen before, and they called it "manna. This they were told to collect every morning, and to take just as much as they wanted for that day, but on no account to lay any by, as if they could not trust the return of it on the morrow. This manna they made into cakes, like bread, and eat it with the quails, and doubtless also with the milk and cheese they procured from their flocks and herds.

How these last were fed does not very well appear; but afterwards, when the people had received the law, and only had to wander up and down over this extensive tract of country, we must suppose that like other wandering tribes, they went from one part of it to another, wherever they could find pasture, where a well of water invited them to linger, or where a little stream gushing from the side of the mountain, fed some valley that it flowed along, marking its course by a belt of fresh verdure, or by the trees that grew along its banks, and sheltered its waters from the fierce rays of that cloudless, burning sky. We cannot, indeed, account entirely for the sustenance of these animals in this way; for the case of the Israelites was a very different one to that of the wandering tribes that are usually to be met with roaming over these wild districts. They generally consist only of a few families; or, if there are more, they divide into separate parties, and each takes a different line, and

goes through a different part of the country, so that there may not be too many at once occupying the pasture grounds. So it had been with Abraham and Lot in times past. But here were a whole people, moving in one mass over the country. Probably their numbers amounted to some hundred thousand. The flocks and herds belonging to them were doubtless extremely numerous, and whatever may have been the superior resources of the country compared to those we find there developed now, we may still be certain that at least during the hot months of the year, pasture of any kind must have been extremely scarce, and altogether inadequate to the support of so many animals as were here congregated together.

Well! on they went,-still slowly, slowly onwards. Morning and evening they were fed by the care of heaven, and famine they feared no more; and they were made to feel their daily dependence upon the God who was leading them-in more senses than one-by a way that they knew not. At length they pitched their camp in the great valley of Rephidim, and here a new want began to be felt, and a new fear sprang up among the people. Ever since they had crossed the Red Sea water had been very scarce among them. Now and then they would find a well; sometimes a pool of water sheltered among the rocks, or the remnants of a mountain torrent, formed by the winter rains, and not yet quite dried up by the approaching heats of summer. Thus, though it had been very scarce, still they had not been positively without it. But here, neither well, nor pool, nor fountain could be discovered. It was all dry sand, dry rock, dry shingle, dry watercourses. What was to be done? They had been journeying slowly on all the day, under that burning sun, without a breath of air to refresh their parched lips-without the shade of a tree-without even the sight of a green shrub, or a patch of green herbage for the eye to rest upon. And now, at length, when they had pitched their encampment, and looked round for water, there was no water to be found anywhere. The whole land looked as if a fiery blast had swept over it, and licked up every drop that had ever fallen from the sky. It seemed impossible to believe that even dew could ever be seen there, or that those dry red mountains could ever be refreshed by any cooling exhalation. The hearts of the people sank within them as they looked round on this scene of hopeless desolation. Their memories turned with regretful longings towards that mighty river whose waters were never dry; where all the nations of the earth might drink, and which would still roll on in the full tide of its strength towards its ocean goal. Oh, for one hour by that river's brink! How they would plunge into its waters! How they would quench this burning fever, and drink deep, deep of

66

its exhaustless tide. The cry rose up from the encampment like the cry of an expiring nation: "Water! water! Give us water; we perish." Many of the people went again to Moses, as they had done before, and again in murmurings and complainings, cried to him that they and their children were perishing, and they demanded of him angrily why he had led them up into the barren wilderness, there to make them die the most miserable of all deaths. Wherefore," said they, "hast thou brought us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children, and our cattle with thirst? Is God among us, or is he not?" Yes; God was yet among them; He was yet watching over them, and when they broke forth in this impious murmuring, again He heard their cry, and again He was not angry with them, but was patient and long-suffering; for He knew that when men are enduring this extreme of thirst, and sinking also under the heat of a sultry climate, they are almost maddened by the torment, or hardly know what they do or what they say. So when Moses called to Him in prayer, and said, "What shall I do unto this people, for they are almost ready to stone me?" then God told him what he must do, and how he should be enabled to satisfy the sore need of his suffering followers. Moses, therefore, answered those who had come unto him and said, "Let all the people come out before the camp, and the Lord will give them water.' Then the word passed from tent to tent, that every man was to come forth, and that Moses was going to give them water. At the glad tidings, forth came every man from his tent, and every woman and child of the encampment, and stood in long array down the valley, and each had his water pitcher, or some vessel in which he might catch the precious fluid when it should gush forth. There they stood, but still all was dry, and bare, and desolate around them, and the hot sun was yet flaming on the tops of the western mountains, and still there was no water. But ever and anon the cry passed from lip to lip, Moses will give us water; the Lord will give us water." At length Moses, too, came forth with Aaron; his rod was in his hand; that same rod which he had stretched over the waters of the Red Sea; that same rod which the people had so often seen in his hand when he had gone in before Pharaoh, to demand the release of God's children from their bondage. With that rod in his hand now, he moved on in the sight of all Israel, till he stood before a high perpendicular rock, that rose straight up by itself in the middle of the valley, bare, dry, and hard, as if it had been crystallised after passing through the fire of a furnace Before this Moses took his stand, and turning towards all the people, he seemed as if about to speak to them. At once

there was silence through the expectant host of Israel. Then addressing those who had just been with him, murmuring and complaining, he repeated to them their own words, and said in a stern and solemn voice--" Is God among us, or is He not?" Then he struck the rock with the rod that was in his hand, and as the stroke fell upon it, the face of the granite crag was opened as cleft by a thunderbolt, and from the rent there came gushing forth a full stream of cool, pure, crystal water, which flowing freely onwards down the valley, took its glad way right through the ranks of the waiting multitude. A cry of joy was heard ringing along the mountain side, as the people pressed forward to meet the welcome torrent, and plunged their vessels into it, and drank deep, deep, of its cool, delicious waters. The sound and the fresh smell of the rushing stream soon reached the panting cattle, and their lowing and bleating was heard mingling with the cry of the people, as they came running eagerly in the direction where their instinct told them that the precious water was to be found. And there was great joy that day in Israel-water had made the wilderness a land of plenty :—as they sat by the rushing torrent, the past was forgotten, and the future was uncared for. Hours passed by the evening shades gathered over the camp of the wanderers: the morning light broke over the rugged mountains: day followed day; and still the new river went flowing on: the people still drank of its waters :-the Nile was no longer regretted: the flesh-pots of Egypt were for gotten and gradually, as the days rolled by, the people began to enjoy the freedom of their desert life, and to trust more babitu ally to the care of that Great Jehovah, who seemed to have gathered them into His keeping.

(To be continued.)

A CHILD'S PRAYER.

SWEETER than the song of thrushes,
When the winds are low;

Brighter than the spring-time blushes,
Reddening out of snow,

Were the voice and cheek so fair
Of the little child at prayer.

Like a white lamb of the meadow
Climbing through the light;
Like a priestess in the shadow
Of the temple bright,

Seem'd she saying "Holy One
Thine, and not my will be done."
ALICE CAREY.

MOSES AT SINAI.

BUT they were not to rest here. Indeed, henceforth, they were not to rest anywhere. Henceforth, till all the existing generation had passed away, they were to be a nation of wanderers. Their country was the desert, their landmarks were to be its barren peaks and herbless plains, and their only home the black tent of the wayfarer of the wilderness. After allowing a short period of repose, therefore, by the newly-found waters of Rephidim, Moses again broke up the camp of his people, and led them forward still farther into the wilderness, bearing to the south-east. This led them along many a rocky valley and sandy plain, till at length the long procession wound round the foot of Mount Serbal, whose huge, bare, rocky mass, rose grandly above them. Here they found the valley more fertile than any they had seen for a long time. The tufts of desert shrubs grew thicker and larger, the tamarisk bushes became trees, and soon thick palm groves rose before them, through which, as they passed, they felt as if they might be again in Egypt,-so cool, so green, so shady, were these welcome woodlands,--so suggestive of water, plenty, and repose. Brooks, too, stole down the mountain side; and fresh grass and flowers fringed them with verdure and beauty. Here the people lingered, refilled their water skins, and pastured their cattle along the banks of the streams, and the cool damp meadow-like land that was formed by the natural irrigation of these rivulets across the whole width of the valley. But after a while, the signal of march was again sounded, and on went this great stream of living life-this moving nation, with their flocks and herds, and every living thing that belonged to them. A native shepherd of the wilderness, looking down from the rocky flank of Serbal, must have seen a strange sight winding along the valley, at his feet. Tribe after tribe-company after company--rank behind rank, not indeed marching with the precision of an army, but scattered along the valley and the hill sides in broken parties, or as individual wayfarers, yet still divided here and there by longer intervals of separation, which showed arrangement, and some apparent distinctive divisions in that vast horde of wanderers. Flocks and herds, too, followed or mingled with them, and the young lambs and kids disdaining the more level track that older limbs were content to follow, were skipping and frolicking up the mountain side, browsing on the shrubs, and exploring hidden' recesses in search of some greener herbage. They did not come, and then pass away, as if they were a native tribe of the Desert