located between Sinai and the first encamping; and Hazeroth was the place of the second encamping. And Josephus, who copied his book from the same old manuscripts from which the original Pentateuch was compiled, says that the mutiny, noted above, took place at Hazeroth, and before the Israelites had arrived at their first place of encamping-one says that the emeute was at Taberah, and the other says that it was at Hazeroth; the one says that Hazeroth lay between Sinai and Kibroth-Hattaavah, and the other says it lay a days' journey, or more, beyond Kibroth-Hattaavah. Who shall decide when doctors disagree?"

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CHAPTER XXXI.

MOSES AND THE ISRAELITES AT KIBROTH-HATTAAVAH-TKE PEOPLE HUNGER FOR THEIR ACCUSTOMED DIET-THEY WEEP OVER THEIR DESTITUTE CONDITION-MOSES IS DISPLEASED AND HIS LORD IS ANGRY.

"And the mixed multitude that was among them fell a lusting: (hungering for meat:) and the children of Israel also wept again, and said, Who shall give us flesh to eat? We remember the fish which we did eat in Egypt freely; and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlick. But now our soul is dried away: there is nothing at all, beside this manna, before our eyes. Then Moses heard the people weep throughout their families, every man in the door of his tent: and the anger of the Lord was kindled greatly: Moses also was displeased." Num. XI: 4, 5, 6, 10.

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SECTION 1. The extracts, above, show very plainly that the Israelites were not in so lamentable condition while in Egypt as they were under the iron rule of Moses. In contrasting their condition here in the wilderness of Paran with what it was while in Egypt, they say: "We remember the fish, which we did eat in Egypt freely; the cucumbers, and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlick. But now our soul is dried away: there is nothing at all beside this manna, before our eyes." This, their former diet, was a generous one, one which they relished, and they had eaten it with a zest from their infancy; and, it was such a diet as the people of that country ate, and with a gusto, too. Their present diet was a restricted one, one that barely kept the soul and body together, and which they had been wholly unaccustomed to-they had manna, only, to eat, and their souls dried away within them, so they said. Then, they had been reduced and brought into their destitute

condition, and deplorable circumstances, by the deceitful arts, and the seductive influence of Moses; he promising them fulness and happiness-peace and plenty—a land flowing with milk and honey; and it, and all, as the free gift of the God of their fathers. But the people wept over their condition.

SEC. 2. The unchanging law of nature did not, at any time, cease operating in the corporeal structures of the children of Israel, in order to adjust itself to the desires of Moses-for the purpose of enabling him to better prosecute his ambitious designs, in his filibustering campaign against the Canaanites. The material natures of those whom Moses led, or rather, those whom he drove, into the wilderness of Paran, called, imperatively, for the mixed generous diet on which they had been built up, from infancy. His restricted diet of manna did not satisfy those internal cravings of the people's natures, and which they felt eating out their lives. In the absence of that aliment with which they had been satiated aforetime, the people had no control over those cravings; and it was not within their power to attain this, while being driven, like cattle, across barren wastes, and through wild forests. Then, Moses says of the operation of this inexorable law of nature: "The people fell a lusting." In this allegation the natural hungering of the people is charged upon them as being their crime. Here Moses, ambitious and heartless tyrant that he was, for ends of self-aggrandizement, brings an innocent and unoffending people into a state of great destitution—to near the point of starvation-then, because of the clamorous demands of their material natures, over which they have no power, he taunts them as criminals--he charges them with the crime of which he, himself, is guilty, before them, and in the sight of high heaven.

SEC. 3. Again, the record says: "Then Moses heard the people weep throughout their families, every man in the door of his tent: and the anger of the Lord was kindled greatly; Moses also was displeased." Now, what could

have been more humane and paternal-more God-like in man-than for the paternal heads of the masses of a whole nation to weep in the midst of their surrounding families, and grieve over the calamities which, without understanding, they had brought upon their bosom companions, and upon their innocent little ones? when the miseries so brought were of a magnitude, the removal of which, was beyond the limits of their power? The paternal heads, under false representations made to them, had torn their families from all the pleasing scenes of their childhood and youth, and made themselves, and those they loved and would have served for their good, wanderers in a strange and cheerless land; and, they had placed themselves, and all in charge, as automatons, in the power of one who was exacting, and unsympathizing with them. Was it strange then, that all such fathers should have been heard weeping, knowing that they had not the power to change conditions for the better? Was weeping in such a case as this a crime? Would any humane man be displeased at such exhibitions of the divine? No one whose bosom did not contain a demon's heart could have been displeased at such overflowings of the tender passions of the human mind. Would a righteous God have been greatly angered at the manifestation of such God-like emotions in the creatures of his power? None but spirits damned, could have got angry because of such paternal weepings.

SEC. 4. In the two succeeding Sections I shall not give the words of the texts referred to, but give, in my own language, the sentiment which they contain. From the reading of Num. chap. xI: from verse 11 to verse 15, it appears that when Moses saw that the people hungered, and that they would weep, in spite of his iron rule over them, and of his frownings to prevent it, and the anger of his Lord against it, he took his Lord to task, and berated him, for his nonperformance, in supplying the people with flesh to eat; and, he grumbled at his Lord, because he had cast on him the burden of providing flesh for so vast a multitude, and that,

too, when the people, comprising that multitude, were not his children. Then, he told his Lord, if he was going to deal with him in that way-do as he had done by him—he would that he would kill him, outright; he had no flesh with which to feed such a multitude; he, alone, could not bear the burdens of taking care of such a people; and, that he chose death to the witnessing of the wretchedness among the people, and hearing such moanings, as he had heard from them.

SEC. 5. Immediately after Moses had berated his Lord, and before any change had taken place in the people, or in their external circumstances, Moses' Lord told him to just watch, and see if his word failed. And then he told him to strengthen his rule over the people by selecting from among them seventy whom he knew to be the people's confidants--—— those whom he knew had controling influence over the masscs-" elders"-and bring those whom he had selected before the tabernacle, (the place of the great gatherings of the people,) and have his men all stand there with him, before the people, and he, the Lord, would come and infuse his, Moses', spirit into them; and these should help him to bear the burden of ruling the people. Bestowed special favors, by way of exalted position, from governmental authority, founded on a false base, is a bribe, and it ever destroys the manhood of all who accept such trusts, or bonuses, and faithfully executes the implied contract. Every official station in all monarchial, and despotic, governments, is a bribe to wrong doing, and it operates as such on the incumbent. Moses understood this law, and its operative effects, and he always availed himself of it, in his administrative policies.

SEC. 6. It is more than probable that many of Moses' officers, first appointed, were murdered by him and his assassins, the Levites, in the slaughter of the three thousands, mentioned in the twenty-seventh Chapter of this book. And in the absence of their former rulers, and being free from espionage consequent of their presence, the people, as