mercy, and as Thou hast forgiven this people, from Egypt until now."

Then the LORD answered Moses, and said, "I have pardoned according to thy word." But GOD is a GOD of judgment as well as of mercy, and while He pardoned and saved these sinners from destruction, He yet punished them in this world. "As truly as I live," said the LORD, "all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the LORD. Because all those men which have seen My glory, and My miracles, which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, have tempted Me now these ten times, and have not hearkened unto My Voice, surely they shall not see the land which I sware unto their fathers, neither shall any of them that provoked Me see it. But My servant Caleb, because he had another spirit with him, and hath followed Me fully, him will I bring into the land whereinto he went; and his seed shall possess it, and Joshua the son of Nun."

At this time the people were facing the Land of Canaan-the Promised Land; but now GOD commanded Moses to turn them, and lead them back into the wilderness, and He made known His sentence on the rebellious people, through His servant Moses.

"As truly as I live, saith the LORD, as ye have spoken in Mine ears, so will I do to you: Your carcases shall fall in this wilderness; and all that were numbered of you, according to your whole number, from twenty years old and upward, which have murmured against Me, doubtless ye shall not come into the land, concerning which I sware to make you dwell therein, save Caleb the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua the son of Nun. But your little ones, which ye said should be a prey, them will I bring in, and they shall know the land which ye have despised. But as for you, your carcases, they shall fall in this wilderness." Furthermore GOD fitted the punishment of the children of Israel to their sins, so that their own faults might be their scourge. The messengers had been forty days searching the land of Canaan, concerning which they gave such unfair reports on their return, and so the LORD appointed forty years a year for each day— during which their children should wander in the wilderness, and during those years the elder generation should die there. And this was no light punishment, to wander in that dreary wilderness instead of entering upon the "land of hills and valleys, that drinketh water of the

:

rain of heaven; a land which the LORD GOD careth for the Eyes of the LORD GOD are always upon it, from the beginning of the year even unto the end of the year." Those men who had brought up a slander against the LORD, and displeased GOD, died of the plague. "They thought scorn of that pleasant land, and gave no credence unto His word. . . . therefore was the wrath of the LORD kindled against His people."

When the people heard how displeased GOD was with them, they mourned greatly; and as often happens with people who let themselves be guided mainly by their feelings, they now wanted to disobey GoD on the opposite side. They rose up early in the morning, and went up to the top of the mountain, and wanted to go off at once to Canaan, where so lately they had feared to go. They said, "We have sinned against the LORD; we will go up and fight; we will go up unto the place which the LORD hath promised."

But God's message came to them through Moses, "Go not up, neither fight, for I am not among you; lest ye be smitten before your enemies; because ye turned away from the LORD, therefore the LORD will not be with you.'

They would not hearken however, and in their wilfulness some of the people went forth, even though Moses and the Ark did not go from the camp. GOD was not with them, and so they were defeated; the Amalekites and the Canaanites came against the children of Israel, and smote them, and drove them back as far as Hormah.

Truly GoD is a Loving and a Merciful GOD, and ready to forgive. He was indeed " provoked every day" by His people, and yet He never ceased to succour and lead them. While we wonder at the faithlessness and rebellion of the children of Israel let us take good heed that we do not fall into their sin; that we are not fighting against GOD in our daily life; mistrusting His Providence, and wilfully seeking our own pleasure rather than His Will; "for if GOD spared not" these His own chosen people; let us "take heed lest He also spare not us."

KORAH, DATHAN, AND ABIRAM.

AFTER awhile, a fresh trouble rose in the Hebrew camp. Certain men of high repute in. the congregation, well known and respected

men, led by three chiefs, (one of whom was a Levite,) by name Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, rose up against Moses and Aaron, and said unto them, "Ye take too much upon you, seeing all the congregation are holy, every one of them, and the LORD is among them: wherefore then lift ye up yourselves above the congregation of the LORD?"

When Moses heard these words, instead of being very angry, he humbled himself, falling upon his face before God; and having communed with the LORD he made answer, "Tomorrow the LORD will show who are His, and who is holy, and will cause him to come near unto Him; even him whom He hath chosen will He cause to come near unto Him."

Then Moses told the presumptuous men what God had appointed to prove them.

"This do ;—take you censers, Korah and all his company, and put fire therein, and put incense in them before the LORD to-morrow: and it shall be that the man whom the LORD doth choose, he shall be holy; ye take too much upon you, ye sons of Levi." Moses further reproached them with their ingratitude in not being content with the place to which GOD had called them, saying, “Hear, I pray