accomplishment of his design upon their independent manliness. To believe in, and fear, him and his Lord were the necessary points to be first attained.

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SEC. 4. The second step up the rounds of the ladder of despotism, taken by successful brazen-faced deceivers, ever has been to get the dupes of their impostures to singing hosannahs to the power with whom they had acknowledged that the impostor was in special alliance, and likewise to the praise of him in whom they stood in awe. And the greater the fraud practiced the more devout would be the deceiver; and the more complete his success in palming off his impositions the longer were his chants and the louder were the praises hymned. According to the record, when safely on the opposite shore with his party, and Moses saw the Egyptians overwhelmed in the sea, by the returning tide, he and his fleeing fugitives sang praises to their Lord for their: happy deliverance. The record says: "Then sang Moses and the children of Israel this song unto the Lord." That song which the record says they sung on that occasion is recorded in Ex. Chap. xv, and I need not copy it here. This song is appropriate to be sung by any modern victorious band of warriors, successful raiders, filibusters, or privateering crew; and the chorus is appropriate to be chanted, after the manner of Miriam and her female friends, "with timbrels and with dances," by the female friends of any of the aforesaid modern successful robbers and slayers of their fellow

men.

SEC. 5. The next step in the progress of a successful impostor, in his march towards the complete subjugation of the victims of his lust for power, is to get them to expect good things as the reward for submission and obedience to the dictation of the Lord, the impostor being sure to be the oracle of that Lord to them; and to expect evil things, as arbitrary punishments from the hand of the Lord, for disobedience to, or disregard of, whatever ordinances and statutes he propounds through this, self-claiming to be, oracle of his. It is through the ordinances and statutes,

authoritatively propounded for their observance, that the impostor proves the loyalty of his victims to him and his Lord. Moses played this game at Marah. I shall here say very little about the manner in which the waters were there made palatable by Moses. It is sufficient, for the present, to say that the story related in the record, though evidently untrue in every essential particular, was necessary to keep up the interest and show forth the wonderful virtues of the imaginary hero of the narrative.

SEC. 6. Josephus, who copied from the same ancient manuscripts from which the original of the Pentateuch of our English bible was copied, gives a narration about the well at Marah, and of the bitter waters in it, and the sweetening of them. He tells a story which, when viewed dispassionately, not only appears rational, but it brings a disastrous collapse to the hero of the story-the apparent miracle proves to be no miracle, and the apparent alliance and coöperation of Moses with the divine, vanishes into thin air; and also takes the wind away from those who are continually harping about this sweetening of the waters as having been a miraculous event. After having related his story about there being a well at Marah, and about the conduct of the people there, also the doings of Mosesabout his putting a split stick down into the well, and of his persuading the people that God had hearkened to his prayer, and promised to sweeten the waters, provided "they would be subservient to him (Moses) in what he should enjoin them to do; and this not after a remiss or negligent manner," Josephus closes the narration of this transaction thus:

"And when they (the people) asked, what they were to do in order to have the water changed for the better, he (Moses) bid the strongest men among them that stood there, to draw up water; and told them that when the greatest part was drawn up, the remainder would be fit to drink; so they labored at it till the water was so agitated and purged as to be fit to drink."

This very thing of changing the impure waters of old unused wells is a matter of every-day occurrence, and has

been done from time immemorial, and times without number.

SEC. 7. In almost every low and flat country on the globe, where there are no subterranean rills, the soil serves as a filter to purify the waters which percolate through it; otherwise, it "changes for the better" the undrinkable, and slough waters that pass through it; to the truth of this, thousands, of every age, could testify. And this was all there was to Moses' miracle in changing the stagnant waters in the old well at Marah, Josephus being a witness on the subject, corroborative of reason and common sense. According to the record and Josephus, both, when the Israelites came to Marah they there found an old unused well of undrinkable water. Now, what was necessary to be done in order to render the water palatable? not to stick the end of a split stick into the filthy waters, but go to work, diligently, and, as we now would say, pump out the stagnant water and thereby give place for others that would percolate through the soil which would be sweet by reason of this natural filter. This drawing out the water found in the well was the first thing which the Israelites did; and, as before said, this was all that there was to Moses' miracle of sweetening the waters at Marah.

SEC. 8. After the Israelites, at Marah, had acknowledged to Moses that they feared his Lord, and they had confessed to him their faith in his Lord, and in him, too, he propounded to them, or, in the language of the record, "there he made them, a statute and an ordinance, and there he proved them." And then, according to the record, Moses' Lord, through Moses' organ of speech, told the people that, if they would diligently hearken to the voice of the Lord their God, (Moses to be spokesman, of course,) and would do that which would be right in his sight, (Moses, of course, being the one to judge as to what was right,) and if they would give ear to his commandments, (as given by Moses, of course,) and keep all his statutes, (those which Moses subsequently should make and propound to them,) then he, Moses' Lord, would

put none of those diseases upon them which he had brought upon the Egyptians. The record also says that he proved them, the meaning of which is, they stood up to the requirements and obeyed the arbitrary exactions of Moses. This was another nail driven by the impostor into the coffin of the people's natural liberty, unsuspected by them.

The story about the wells and the palm-trees at Elim will be referred to in the next Chapter.

CHAPTER XVI.

MOSES-THE ISRAELITES-THEIR TRAVELS FROM ELIM TO THE WILDERNESS OF SIN.

"And they removed from Elim, and encamped by the Red Sea. And they removed from the Red Sea, and encamped in the wilderness of Sin."

[Num. XXXIII: 10, 11.

SECTION 1. A word here about the wells of water and the palm-trees at Elim, where, it is said, the Israelites encamped. The Pentateuch says "there were twelve wells of water, and threescore and ten palm-trees." Some commentators seize hold of this with avidity, and expatiate on the miraculous numbers twelve and seventy; the number of the wells just agreeing with the number of the twelve patriarchs and the tribes of the children of Jacob, and with the number of the twelve apostles; and the number of the palmtrees just corresponds with the number of the seventy elders of Israel, and with the seventy disciples. All this is gulped down as veritable fact by many having mystified minds, but to every rational thinker the numbers given, and this application of them, are evidence of fraud instead of there being anything miraculous, or super-human, about the matter. One orthodox commentator expatiates on the matter thus:

"A well of water to each tribe, and the palm-trees for a cooling shade and pleasant fruit. It is remarkable that the number answers to the twelve patriarchs and the seventy elders, and to twelve apostles and the seventy disciples."

SEC. 2. Josephus tells a very different story from the above about those wells and palm-trees. He says:

"They (the Israelites) came to Elim; which place looked well at a distance, for there was a grove of palm-trees; but when they came near it, it appeared to be a bad place, for the palmtrees were no more than seventy; and they were ill grown and