CHAPTER XIX.

MOSES TAKES COUNSEL OF JETHRO, PRINCE OF MIDIAN, AND INSTITUTES A GOVERNTMENT ACCORDING TO THE INSTRUCTIONS GIVEN BY HIM.

"Hearken now unto my voice, I will give thee counsel, and God shall be with thee: be thou for the people to God-ward, that thou mayest bring the causes unto God: and thou shalt teach them ordinances and laws, and shalt shew them the way wherein they must walk, and the work that they must do. Moreover, thou shalt provide out of all the people able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness; and place such over them, to be rulers of thousands, and rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens. And let them judge the people at all seasons: and it shall be, that every great matter they shall bring unto thee, but every small matter they shall judge: so shall it be easier for thyself, and they shall bear the burden with thee. If thou shalt do this thing, and God command thee so, then thou shalt be able to endure, and all this people shall also go to their place in peace. So Moses hearkened to the voice of his father-in-law, (Jethro,) and did all that he had said. * And they judged the people at all seasons: the hard causes they brought unto Moses, but every small matter they judged themselves." [Ex. XVIII: 19-26.

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SECTION 1. It may not be without profit to the reader for me to state here that this counsel by his father-in-law was given to Moses while he and the children of Israel were encamped in the wilderness of Sinai before the mount of God, as Moses, or his biographer, was pleased to call a portion of the Horeb mountain. But as to the particular day or month, or year, even, in which it was given nothing can be clearly ascertained from the record; commentators widely disagree as to the time. By taking a careful survey of the different sections of the record which bear upon this point, I am forced to conclude that Jethro visited Moses, bringing with him Moses' wife and children, soon after his arrival and encampment before that mount, and before he ascended it the first time, after this coming to it. Then, it is evident

from the whole narration that Moses and his people were there encamped more than one day before he took his first retirement into the mountain; and, more than five days passed between the time of their pitching tent there and the giving the law, as it is called. The times here specified are those allowed by Commentators for the supervening of the two events-the first ascension and the giving of the law.

SEC. 2. It has ever been the teaching of the teachers of the popular religion of christendom, that Moses was specially called, specially commissioned, and specially inspired of God; and, that in instituting government, and in giving laws, and ordinances, he acted under the special dictation of the Father of universal spirit-life. But his own record tells a different story from this. His record says that in the first civil government which he extended over the Israelites he gave it the form which was suggested to him by his father-in-law, Jethro. There is not the least indication in his record that he directed a thought, even, toward imploring the aid of the spirit of God to instruct and guide him in the matter; but the record is clear, and explicit, that he acted solely under the stimulus of the promptings of the prince of Midian, and upon his own judgment. This record, quoted above, says: "Moses hearkened to the voice of his fatherin-law, (not to the voice of God, but that of his father-in-law,) and did all that he (Jethro, not God,) had said." At his suggestion Moses appointed all the administrative officers of government, and deputed them with, and set bounds to, their authority; thereby assuming autocratic rule over the people, and openly declaring that the government over the children of Israel was, and it should be, an autocracy, and himself would be the autocrat.

SEC. 3. Then, if Moses was the special viceroy of God to the children of Israel, as his religious partisan friends claim that he was, is it not more than a little singular that his principal should have neglected to have instructed him as to the form of government which he would have instituted, and as to the manner in which it should be administered when

it was once instituted? It appears by the record of Moses that he labored incessantly from morning to evening to judge the people, thereby rapidly exhausted his physical life, of which fact, it appears by the record, his Lord was unconscious; else, he was unmindful of the wants and necessities of his agent, for how to obviate the difficulties, and remove the burdens which he had taken upon himself, he failed to teach him. But Jethro was more observing and regardful of Moses than was his Lord; he, at once, suggested to him the way to rid himself of those burdens, and divest himself of none of his controlling authority, nor of the influence and power of government. This mode was, as has been stated above-himself be absolute in authority over the people—be “for them God-ward ”—make laws for them to obey, and religious ordinances for them to observe, and show them how they must walk, and what they must do what to do and how they should do it; and depute authority to appointees, making them his subordinates and his overseers over his subjects, the people.

SEC. 4. But, says the objector, the Mosaic government was a Theocracy—a government instituted by God himself, and administered under his supervision, and by his special direction. This is the very question in issue. I have shown, above, that no God, outside of Jethro and Moses, had anything to do in inaugurating the first civil government extended over the Israelites, after they came out of Egypt. And this government, first instituted, was not changed in its fundamental principles, nor in its administrative policy, during the life-time of Moses-that which it was at the first, it remained to the end-an Autocracy. Before leaving this subject, I shall endeavor to make it obvious to all candid minds, and comprehensible to the most obtuse intellect of the most bigoted religionist in christendom, that Moses never inaugurated, nor administered, a theocratic government; and, that the government which he inaugurated and administered was formed after his own false ideas of man

and his prerogatives, which were in perfect harmony with his false conceptions of God and his attributes.

SEC. 5. Again, I shall endeavor to show, before I am done with the subject, that never has there been to any great extent, a theocratic government among men; and, that never will there be a government of God among men until they themselves inaugurate it; and, that whenever such an institution is inaugurated among them it will be directly antipodal to the Mosaic civil and religious institutions. Until society adopts for its standard a system of rule founded upon this fundamental principle, that each adult individual of society is an absolute sovereign over himself and his, and acknowledges in its organic laws that all communities, which are organized in the order of God, are simply confederacies of just so many sovereignties as there are individuals connected together by league, there can be no theocratic government. Then this would be a perfect Democracy, which the government of God is. In no age of the world has this government been in operation, nor recognized, to any considerable extent. Then all written, or unwritten, constitutions of government, which are in unison with the principles of the government of God, are leagues, only, between independent sovereignties.

CHAPTER XX.

MOSES AND THE ISRAELITES IN THE WILDERNESS OF SINAIMOSES ASCENDS THE MOUNT.

"In the third month, when the children of Israel were gone forth out of the land of Egypt, the same day came they into the wilderness of Sinai. For they were departed from Rephidim, and were come to the desert of Sinai and had pitched in the wilderness; and there Israel camped before the mount. And Moses went up unto God, and the Lord called unto him out of the mountain, saying, thus shalt thou say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel; Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles' wings, and brought you unto myself. Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine: and ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation. (The government over you shall be administered by priests, and if you are submissive to their rule and dictation then you will be a pure people.) These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel."

[Ex. XIX: 1-6.

SECTION 1. In my examination I now have arrived to that point in the history of Moses and the descendants of Jacob, which, by reason of the popular religious education, is looked upon, and studied, with more than ordinary interest. And in like manner I have entered upon that locality which is viewed by the same religionist as sacred ground; it is viewed with a veneration second to that felt for no other place, Calvary excepted. But, before I am done with the narration of Moses and the Israelites, I hope to make it plain to the comprehension of each reader precisely how much of the religious veneration of the sons and daughters of God this knob in Arabia Petræa, called Sinai, and the grounds which encompass it, are entitled to receive; and, in some measure, show what amount of the spirit of fraudulent teaching, concerning them, has been instilled into all of us