ness.

way of the Red Sea. And the Lord spake unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying, How long shall I bear with this evil congregation, which murmur against me? I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel, which they murmur against me. Say unto them, 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 Jephunneb, 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 wilderAnd your children shall wander in the wilderness forty years, and bear your whoredoms, until your carcases be wasted in the wilderness. After the number of the days in which ye searched the land, even forty days, each day for a year, shall ye bear your iniquities, even forty years, and ye shall know my breach of promise. I the Lord have said, I will surely do it unto all this evil congregation, that are gathered together against me: in this wilderness they shall be consumed, and there they shall die. And the men, which Moses sent to search the land, who returned, and made all the congregation to murmur against him, by bringing up a slander upou the land. Even those men that did bring up the evil report upon the land, died by the plague before the Lord. But Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb the son of Jephunnel, which were of the men that went to search the land, lived still. And Moses told these sayings unto all the children of Israel: and the people mourned greatly. And they rose up early in the morning, and gat them up into the top of the mountain, saying, lo, we be here, and will go up unto the place which the Lord hath promised: for we have sinned. And Moses said, wherefore now do ye transgress the commandment of the Lord? but it shall not prosper. Go not up, for the Lord is not among you; that ye be not smitten before enemies. For the Amalekites and the Canaanites are your there before you, and ye shall fall by the sword: because ye are turned away from the Lord, therefore the Lord will not be with you. But they presumed to go up unto the hill top: nevertheless the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and Moses, departed not out of the camp. Then the Amalekites came down, and the Canaanites which dwelt in that hill, and smote them, and discomfited them, even unto Hormah."

In consequence of ten of the foregoing spies having brought back a discouraging account, the Israelites are disheartened, and threaten Jehovah and Moses, that they will make them another captain and return to Egypt! This might be considered but a natural consequence, when they found how they

had been imposed upon, and that their leaders were afraid to go forward to this land flowing with milk and honey, until They had sent spies to examine it; and those spies bringing back an unfavourable report. The people talk about stoning both Gods and leaders, and Jehovah threatens to make them feel his vengeance; but Moses, who it appears could never controul his own passion, is a complete master over Jehovah, and softens him down nicely. Moses's speech to Jehovah is worthy of notice: he tells him that he will fall into disgrace with other nations, if he destroys the Israelites, as he threatens, and Jehovah recollecting himself, takes the advice of Moses. But he cannot fully forgive the consequences of his own folly and advice, for he threatens the people, because that the spies had returned a true report of the state of the country they had to conquer, that none of the people which had listened to them should see the promised land, and that they should wander still forty years further in the wilderness, until the present generation had died, save Joshua and Caleb. It might be prudently asked here, why Jehovah did not send the hornets before him to drive out the inhabitants of the land, as he had previously promised the Israelites? He certainly promised them many things which he never performed, and was more in fault than the people. We are told that in consequence of this threat, that the present generation should not see the land, they became most anxious to march forward, and that Moses could not restrain them, and further, that they ascended a certain hill on which the Canaanites and Amalekites dwelt, and that the latter came down from the hill, and made great slaughter of them. To say nothing about two different nations living on one hill, we are told in a former part of this very chapter, without any apparent cause whatever, than that one account should give the lie to the other, that "the Amalekites and Canaanites dwelt in the valley." Jehovah admits himself to be a promise breaker in the thirty-fourth verse of this chapter!

The fifteenth chapter makes a sudden break from the former deplorable tale, and begins in the usual way with "the Lord spake unto Moses, saying," and then commences a scrap of the law which has already been repeated two or three times: the reader may guess that it is to bring more bullocks and rams to the priests! The latter part of the chapter is worthy of notice, which I here insert.

"And while the children of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man that gathered sticks upon the sabbath day. And they

that found him gathering sticks brought him unto Moses and Aaron, and unto all the congregation. And they put him in ward, because it was not declared what should be done to him. And the Lord said unto Moses, the man shall be surely put to death: all the congregation shall stone him with stones without the camp. And all the congregation brought him without the camp, and stoned him with stones, and he died; as the Lord commanded Moses. And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, and bid them that they make them fringes in the borders of their garments throughout their generations, and that they put upon the fringe of the borders a ribband of blue: And it shall be unto you for a fringe, that ye may look upon it, and remember all the commandments of the Lord, and do them; and that ye seek not after your own heart and your own eyes, after which ye use to go a whoring: That ye may remember, and do all my commandments, and be holy unto your God. I am the Lord your God, which brought you out of the land of Egypt, to be your God: I am the Lord your God.".

I have not a doubt but that this bloody and fictious code of the Jews, has been the ground-work of all the bloody codes which have disgraced Europe, and which the English government retains and cherishes with an inexcusable and cruel pertinacity. Here we have a tale about a man put to death for gathering a few sticks on the sabbath day, whilst our modern fashionables, who profess a belief in the divinity of this book, sing, dance, gamble, and hold their routs on this very day, and at the same time, applaud the punishment of the butcher or the green grocer for selling a little food to a labouring man, who is frequently obliged to wait until Sunday morning to receive his weekly wages. I recollect the old women were wont to tell me, that this stick gatherer was to be seen in the moon with a bundle at his back, and was what they called, "The Man in the Moon." I have many a time looked after him and fancied that I could see him. The reader will smile at the law of fringes, as well as at my man in the moon! Mark the last two verses.

I proceed to the 16th chapter:

"Now Korah, the son of Izhar, the son of Kohath, the son of Levi, and Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, and On, the son of Peleth, sons of Reuben, took men: and they rose up before Moses, with certain of the children of Israel, two hundred and fifty princes of the assembly, famous in the congregation, men of renown: and they gathered themselves together against Moses and against 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? And when Moses heard it, he fell upon his face: and he spake unto Korah and unto all his company, saying, even to-morrow the Lord will shew

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. This do; take ye 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 hely: ye take too much upon you, ye sons of Levi. And Moses said unto Korab, hear, I pr: y you, ye sons of Levi: Seemeth it but a small thing unto you, that the God of Israel hath separated you from the congregation of Israel, to bring you near to himself to do the service of the tabernacle of the Lord, and to stand before the congregation to minister unto them? And he hath brought thee near to him, and all thy brethren the sons of Levi with thee: and seek ye the priesthood also? For which cause both thou and all thy company are gathered together against the Lord; and what is Aaron, that ye murmur against him? And Moses sent to cal! Dathan aud Abiram, the sons of Eliab; which said, we will not come up. Is it a small thing that thou hast brought us up out of a land that floweth with milk and honey, to kill us in the wilderness, except thou make thyself altogether a prince over us? Moreover thou hast not brought us into a land that floweth with milk and honey, or given us inheritance of fields and vineyards: wilt thou put out the eyes of these men? We will not come up. And Moses was very wroth, and said unto the Lord, Respect not thou their offering. I have not taken one ass from them, neither have I hurt one of them. And Moses said unto Korah, be thou and all thy company before the Lord, thou, and they, and Aaron, to-morrow; and take every man his censer, and put incense in them, and bring ye before the Lord every man his censer, two hundred and fifty censers; thou also, and Aaron, each of you his censer. And they took every man his censer, and put fire in them, and laid incense thereon, and stood in the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, with Moses and Aaron. And Korah gathered all the congregation against them unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation; and the glory of the Lord appeared unto all the congregation. And the Lord spake unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying, Separate yourselves from among this congregation, that I may consume them in a moment. And they fell upon their faces and said, O God, the God of the spirits of all flesh, shall one man sin, and wilt thou be wroth with all the congregation? And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the congregation, saying, Get ye up from about the tabernacle of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram. And Moses rose up and went unto Dathan and Abiram; and the elders of Israel followed him. And he spake unto the congregation, saying, depart, I pray you, from the tents of these wicked men, and touch nothing of their's, lest ye be consumed in all their sins. So they gat up from the tabernacle of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, on every side: and Dathan and Abiram came out, and stood in the door of their tents, and their wives, and their sons, and their little children. And Moses said, hereby ye shall know that the Lord hath sent me to do all these

works; for I have not done them of mine own mind. If these men die the common death of all men, or if they be visited after the visitation of all men, then the Lord hath not sent me. But if the Lord make a new thing, and the earth open her mouth, and swallow them up, with all that appertain unto them, and they go down quick into the pit, then ye shall understand that these men have provoked the Lord. And it came to pass, as he had made an end of speaking all these words, that the ground clave asunder that was under them: and the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed them up, and their houses, and all the men that appertained unto Korah, and all their goods. They, and all that appertained to them, went down alive into the pit, and the earth closed upon them; and they perished from among the congregation. And all Israel that were round about them fled at the cry of them; for they said, lest the earth swallow us up also. And there came out a fire from the Lord, and consumed the two hundred and fifty men that offered incense. And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto Eleazar the son of Aaron the priest, that he take up the censers out of the burning, and scatter thou the fire yonder; for they are hallowed. The censers of these sinners against their own souls, let them make them broad plates for a covering of the altar: for they offered them before the Lord, therefore they are hallowed; and they shall be a sign unto the children of Israel. And Eleazar the priest took the brasen censers, wherewith they that were burnt had offered; and they were made broad plates for a covering of the altar: to be a memorial unto the children of Israel, that no stranger, which is not of the seed of Aaron, come near to offer incense before the Lord; that he be not as Korah, and as his company; as the Lord said to him by the hand of Moses. But on the morrow all the congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron, saying, ye have killed the people of the Lord. And it came to pass, when the congregation was gathered against Moses and against Aaron, that they looked toward the tabernacle of the congregation: and, behold, the cloud covered it, and the glory of the Lord appeared. And Moses and Aaron came before the tabernacle of the congregation. And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Get ye up from among this congregation, that I may consume them as in a moment. And they fell upon their faces. And Moses said unto Aaron, take a censer, and put fire therein from off the altar, and put on incense, and go quickly unto the congregation, and make an atonement for them: for there is wrath gone out from the Lord; the plague is begun. And Aaron took as Moses commanded, and ran into the midst of the congregation; and, behold, the plague was begun among the people: and he put on incense, and made an atonement for the people. And he stood between the dead and the living; and the plague was stayed. Now they that died in the plague were fourteen thousand and seven hundred, beside them that died about the matter of Korah. And Aaron returned unto