What did he command Moses to do? and what was the effect?

What did the Israelites then do?

What did the Egyptians do?

What did God do to the Egyptians towards the morning watch?

What did God command Moses to do?

What was the consequence?

What did Moses and the Israelites do after they reached the opposite shore of the Red Sea?

Who went forth with timbrels and dances, and answered them ?

LESSON XXXVII.

FROM EXODUS XV. AND XVI.

AND Moses brought Israel from the Red Sea, and they went forth into the wilderness of Shur; and they journeyed three days in the wilderness, and found no water. And they came to Marah, and they could not drink of the waters of Marah, for they were bitter: therefore the name of it was called Marah. And the people murmured against Moses, saying, What shall we drink? And he cried to the LORD; and the LORD showed him a tree, and he cast it into the waters, and the waters were sweetened.

There he made for him a statute and an ordinance, and there he tried him, saying, If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the LORD thy God, and wilt do that which is right in his sight, and wilt give ear to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, I will put none of these evils upon thee, which I have brought upon the Egyptians: for I am the LORD that healeth thee.

* Marah, i. e. Bitter

And they came to Elim, where were twelvo wells of water, and threescore and ten palm trees: and they encamped there by the waters. And

they removed from Elim, and all the congregation of the children of Israel came unto the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after their coming out of the land of Egypt.

And the whole congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. And the children of Israel said to them, Would to God we had died by the hands of the LORD in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the flesh pots, and when we ate bread to the full; for ye have brought us forth into this wilderness, to kill this whole assembly with hunger. And the LORD said to Moses, Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you; and the people shall go out and gather a certain rate every day, that I may prove them, whether they will walk in my law, or not. And it shall be, that on the sixth day they shall prepare whatever they bring in; and it shall be twice as much as they gather daily.

And Moses and Aaron said to all the children of Israel, At even, ye shall know that the LORD hath brought you out from the land of Egypt: and in the morning, ye shall see the glory of the LORD; for that he heareth your murmurings against the LORD: but what are we, that ye mur-. mur against us? And Moses said, When the LORD shall give you in the evening flesh to eat, and in the morning bread to the full; [it is] because the LORD heareth your murmurings which ye murmur against him: for what are we? your

* It is a remarkable confirmation of this narrative, that travellers, on crossing the Red Sea from Egypt into Arabia, still find a spring of brackish water, and to the south of it wells of sweet water, with palm trees growing beside them.

murmurings are not against us, but against the LORD.

And Moses said to Aaron, Say to all the congregation of the children of Israel, Come near before the LORD: for he hath heard your murmurings. And so it was that as Aaron spoke to the whole congregation of the children of Israel, they looked toward the wilderness, and, behold, the glory of the LORD appeared in the cloud.

And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel : speak to them, saying, In the evening ye shall eat flesh, and in the morning ye shall be filled with bread; and ye shall know that I am the LORD your God.

So it came to pass, that, in the evening, the quails came up, and covered the camp: and, in the morning, the dew was lying round about the camp. And when the dew that was lying was gone up, behold, upon the face of the wilderness a small scaly thing, as small as the hoar frost on the ground. And when the children of Israel saw it, they said one to another, What is this? for they knew not what it was. And Moses said to them, This is the bread which the LORD hath given you to eat. This is the thing which the LORD hath commanded, Gather of it every man according to his eating, an omer a head ye shall take, each man according to the number of your persons that dwell in his tent.

And the children of Israel did so, and gathered, some more, some less. And when they measured it with an omer, he that gathered much had nothing over, and he that gathered little had no want;* they gathered every man according to his eating.

*He that gathered much had nothing over, &c.-The Apos tle Paul makes use of this distribution of the manna, te teach Christians the duty of supplying each other's neces

And Moses said to them, Let no man leave of it till the morning. Notwithstanding they hearkened not to Moses; but some of them left of it until the morning, and it bred worms, and stank : and Moses was wroth with them. And they gathered it morning by morning, every man according to his eating: and when the sun became hot, it melted.

And so it was, that on the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread, two omers for one man: and all the rulers of the congregation came and told Moses. And he said to them, This is that which the LORD hath said, To-morrow is the rest of the holy Sabbath to the LORD: what ye intend to bake that bake, and what ye intend to seethe, seethe; and that which remains over lay up for you to be kept until the morning. And they laid it up till the morning, as Moses bade : and it did not stink, neither was there any worm

sities, in 2 Corinthians viii. 13-15. In that passage the Apostle, urging the Christians at Corinth to make a collection for the poor persecuted Christians in Judea, uses this argument: "For I mean not," says he, "that others should be eased and you burdened; but by equalizing, that, on the present occasion, your abundance may be a supply for their want; and that their abundance may be a supply for your want, that thus there may be an equality: as it is written, He who gathered much had nothing over; and he who gathered little had no want." Thus the Apostle teaches us from this passage, that God makes sufficient provision for the necessities of his people, if only they be kind to one another, and supply one another's necessities, as they have opportunity. If those that have more than enough were ready to distribute, willing to communicate," to those who have too little, then if they, in their turn, should at any time have too little, they might look with confidence to those who had abundance to supply their wants. And it is thus that God, by making some rich and some poor, lays the foundation for an interchange of kind affections among all his people, of sympathy and benevolence in the rich, and of gratitude in the poor, and for uniting them altogether in one bond of brotherhood.

in it. And Moses said, Eat that to-day; for today is a Sabbath to the LORD: to-day ye shall not find it in the field. Six days ye shall gather it; but on the seventh day, which is the Sabbath, in it there shall be none.

And so it was, that, on the seventh day, some of the people went out to gather, and they found none. And the LORD said to Moses, How long do ye refuse to keep my commandments, and my laws? See, for that the LORD hath given you the Sabbath, therefore he giveth you on the sixth day the bread of two days; remain ye every man in his place, let no man go out of his place on the seventh day. So the people kept the Sabbath on the seventh day.

And the house of Israel called the name of it Manna* and it was like coriander seed, white; and the taste of it was like cakes made with honey.

And Moses said, This is the thing which the LORD commands, Fill an omer of it to be kept for your generations; that they may see the bread with which I fed you in the wilderness, in bringing you forth from the land of Egypt. And Moses said to Aaron, Take a vessel, and put an omer full of manna therein, and lay it up before the Lord, to be kept for your generations. As the Lord commanded Moses, so Aaron laid it up before the Testimony, to be preserved.

And the children of Israel ate manna forty years, till they came to a land inhabited; they ate manna, till they came unto the borders of the land of Canaan. Now an omer is the tenth part of an ephah.

QUESTIONS ON LESSON XXXVII.

WHERE did the people come to after three days' journey from the Red Sea?

What happened there?

Manna, i. e. What?