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sketched by his own hand of his treatment of them is appropriately beautiful: "As an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings, so the Lord alone did lead them:"-and yet, with all this, there is a sternness and unyieldingness in retribution which may very well make us pause and think. If with all his love to his favorite nation, and his tenderness and care, there was this unyieldingness, how can other nations, when transgressing the laws of righteousness, hope to escape? And again, more wonderful far than this peculiar regard to the Israelites, has been Christ's regard which has led him, God himself, to come and die as a ransom for the transgressors. Unfathomable was that love of Jesus; and yet Christ's words, even during this mission when he came to die for us, have a firmness and decision respecting transgressors that equal any thing in the laws or acts spread before us in the Mosaic record. The same lips which declared that he, the Divinity, had come to seek and to save that which was lost; and that he in our nature would suffer for us and be lifted up on the cross that all the world might come unto him; and that God so loved the world as to give his Son to die, said also with emphasis that "Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law till all be fulfilled;" and also drew the scene-far more frightful than any thing sketched by Moses-of the final Judge declaring, "Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels."

God is a being of infinite love and compassion; and he surely was so to the Israelites; yet in the parting address now made by Moses, they were told, "For the Lord thy God is a consuming fire, even a jealous God." Who can wonder that he was a jealous God, when the antagonistic heathenism around was productive of such scenes as we have just been only hinting at, in the temples of Baal and Ashteroth?

As respects the unyieldingness of the judgments that come from God's hand, we must remember that he is the ruler not over a community alone, but over the earth, and still more over the universe of matter and of spirit.

The petition of Moses to be allowed to cross the river with his people was almost pathetic; but his transgression at Kadesh had been open and marked; and the higher and more distinguished the man, the firmer was the decree and the doom.

After the refusal he set himself to work, to make the final organization of the people and arrangements for his separation from them. Reuben and Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh, who were all peculiarly of a nomadic character and had large flocks and herds, had been captivated by the adaptedness of the region now about them for their interests, and had requested that it might be assigned to them; which had been done, on condition that their soldiers should go over with the rest and assist in any needed warlike demonstrations west of the Jordan. Reuben had the more southern portion, and the other two received the country of Bashan and about Gilead. Individuals (a prince from each tribe, together with Eleazar and Joshua) were designated by the divine authority, for making the allotments across the river, after possession there should have been gained.

Then the feelings of the great leader returned again to the fear that was continually upon him,—that the people would desert God, a fear which their late apostasy had served so much to strengthen. God would then desert them; and in Jehovah, as he knew, was their only hope. He recapitulated before the multitudes what had been done for them by the divine help, making a review, in doing this, of their history since the departure from Egypt. He promised them abundant blessings in the future, if they would be faithful to their heavenly Protector: and the same

spirit of prophecy which dictated his sublime language declared also, if they should be unfaithful, the fearfulness of the scenes awaiting them-where it was stated they would be "an astonishment, a proverb, and a by-word, among all nations whither the Lord shall lead thee. . . . And the Lord shall scatter thee among all people, from the one end of the earth even unto the other. . . . And among these nations shalt thou find no ease, neither shall the sole of thy foot have rest but the Lord shall give thee there a trembling heart, and failing of eyes, and sorrow of mind. And thy life shall hang in doubt before thee; and thou shalt fear day and night, and shalt have none assurance of thy life. In the morning thou shalt say, Would God it were even! and at even thou shalt say, Would God it were morning! for the fear of thy heart wherewith thou shalt fear, and for the sight of thine eyes which thou shalt see." To us, who can now look back on what was to them the future, how much this prophecy, written three thousand three hundred and eighty years ago, reads like history! He added, "I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live that thou mayest love the Lord thy God, and that thou mayest obey his voice, and that thou mayest cleave unto him (for he is thy life, and the length of thy days), that thou mayest dwell in the land which the Lord sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham,, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them." There seems to run through all these last words, a mournful feeling, as if Moses was too prescient to be quiet under it, as respected the future.

The divine communication now announced to him, "Behold, thy days approach that thou must die," and directed him to call Joshua; and then the two went together into the Tabernacle, where now the pillar of cloud came and "stood over the door." The people were here given into Joshua's

charge. The leadership by the great man, who had done his duty so long and so faithfully, was ended.

"Give ear, O ye heavens, and I will speak; and hear, O earth, the words of my mouth:"-they are among the last words of Moses that we shall hear, for he was to die on that day-and these were by the divine dictation his farewell hymn before the assembled multitudes. He and Joshua had come out of the Tabernacle, and they stood before the people, the old man and the young man, side by side; and upon them all the eyes of the congregation were fixed. They knew that they were to lose him. He was before them, most venerable in age; his successor was there, a trustworthy man, but far less experienced; and all that soundness of judgment which can arise only from experience would be needed in their near future. How often, in the past, had that aged and now doubly beloved man stood between them and God's vengeance, threatened for their sins, and had warded off the blow! There could be no such intercessor now; and they, so weak and so given to falling! They gazed on that face, so marked with age and care and griefs which they themselves had caused; they noted well the grandeur of expression, now all lighted up by the divine afflatus in his song:-they gazed, and would have kept him among them-would have led him across the river,—have asked his counsel there and have kept his love still among them.

But they understood that this could not be.

He gave now his blessing to each of the tribes individually; and then included all in one general benediction: "Happy art thou, O Israel: who is like unto thee, O people saved by the Lord, the shield of thy help, and who is the sword of thy excellency? and thine enemies shall be found liars unto thee; and thou shalt tread upon their high places."

1 Of their false gods.

This last scene appears to have been at the great plain by the Jordan, where he could stand on the lower part of the mountain, and be visible to all below. Then he ascended the mountain, and having reached the heights above, he went alone to the loftiest ridge, Pisgah, and to Nebo, the highest point on that ridge. There he gazed over the very wide scene spread out on every side, to the Mediterranean, far in the west, to Lebanon and the snowy Hermon on the north, to where, on the south, the landscape faded away into the desert of the long wanderings, and on the east over the table-land of Moab and toward Bashan. Across the Jordan were vast stretches of landscape,-hills and plains intermingled-extending off till all took an indistinct character, except where here and there a mountain peak rose up in greater prominence. Below, flowed the river, winding along in a silvery line, and then discharging itself into the Dead Sea; and upon its banks, spread out invitingly the great green plain of Jericho, with its palm tops waving, as if the breeze and the foliage were inviting the spectator But he was not to go.

over.

God was with the aged man on that mountain-top, and there spoke to him words of kindness and assurance. Then came the end:

"So Moses, the servant of the Lord died there in the land of Moab, according to the word of the Lord.

"And he buried him in a valley in the land of Moab, over against Beth-Peor: but no man knoweth of his sepulchre unto this day."

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