other words, his next move was the holding of a grand levee of invited guests, of those who had been the chief instruments with which he had operated to attain his position and despoil the people. And this political jubilee was held not on the public camping grounds, nor thereabouts; it was to be the gathering of a select number, and it must be held far away from the gaze of the multitude, and held where they not only could see Moses' Lord, but that they could have a good time generally, in eating and drinking. That the invited guests did have a regular “bender,” on that occasion, similar to what the victorious party of us moderns have, on like occasions, bating the torch-light procession by the multitude, see Ex. xxiv: 9-11. They on that occasion saw stars, and the whole heavens appeared unto them of great brilliancy. These select and invited guests of Moses' saw, while "eating and drinking," that which to them looked as though the ground was a paved work of the sparkling "sapphire stone," and all else, the accompaniments and surroundings, were bright and joyous: so says the record.

SEC. 9. I said above, that this jollification, or feast of triumph, was not for the masses, but for the select; and, that it was celebrated far away from the gaze of the vulgar multitude. Moses' interested, and very accommodating, Lord, immediately after Moses had triumphed over the people, by consummating his wily scheme, issued unto him, for the aforesaid purposes, the following royal mandate: "Come up unto the Lord, thou, and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel; and worship ye afar off.” (See Ex. XXIV: 1.) It requires very little sagacity, in any person, to perceive the object of the foregoing call, likewise the cunning diabolism of designating the place for holding the bacchanalian revel of these victors "afar off"-far away from the sight of the valiant vanquished, the leaders of those who opposed Moses' wicked designs, and away from the people whom they, by strategy, had despoiled of their every heavenly birthright. It requires no greater acumen

to perceive the artfulness, and the God-defying sacrilege of Moses, who dictated the language of the aforesaid mandate, in calling his gormandizing and drunken feast the "worship" of God, than it does to see his duplicity and iniquity, in saying that God projected, located, and ordered this select gathering, and the sensual indulgences of the invited guests.

SEC. 10. As substantiative of my position, that Moses' "worship" was a feast of the victors-was turned into that when "the nobles of the children of Israel" had got up the mount, the place designated in the call, "afar off," from the people-I will here give a short extract from an orthodox standard Commentator. In commenting upon the eleventh verse, to which reference was made, above, he says:

"After they (the nobles') had seen God, they were so far from receiving any harm, that they feasted with him upon the relics of the peace-offerings, with great joy and gladness. Or we may suppose, the glory of the Lord shone upon them, as they sat down to eat and drink, in token of their full consent to the covenant now made (for so the custom was of making covenants,) and notwithstanding they continued to finish their feast, not being dispirited, but rather made more vigorous."

Then he gives it as his opinion that the original text teaches that they continued some considerable time eating and drinking in God's beatific presence and at his bounteous board. The opinion that those who were invited to this grand levee of Moses', and jollification over his political success, there feasted many days, is substantiated by subsequent texts, as given in the record.

SEC. 11. According to the record, Moses was called from the presence of his Lord in that locality where he held his grand levee, or rich entertainment of his political friends, and leading accomplices in the fraud which they had just consummated, to come higher up the mount-up to the place where his Lord was then stopping. This second mandate of his Lord's, the record says, came to him in the following words:

"Come up to me into the mount, and be there; and I will give thee tables of stone, and a law, and commandments, which I have written; that thou mayest teach them."

SEC. 12. The following facts will be borne in mind; that Moses had been acknowledged by the Israelites the supreme head of their several tribes, at least, the majority of them had assented that he rule over them with absolute authority; that he had formed the distinct tribes into a National Union, and had instituted a national Government which abolished all tribial rule and authority; that he had circumvented the people and had extorted from them the vow of allegiance, likewise their pledge of perpetual obedience to his dictation, as of the Lord; that he now had recompensed with marked distinction, by inviting and admitting to his levee, those whom he had used as vile tools in consummating his great wickedness-the elders and the nobles of the children of Israel; that he now had everything his own way and all responsibility of government rested upon him-the people were as wax in his hands and he must make further provisions for ruling them. To enable Moses to extricate himself from the condition in which he now found that he was placed, and to succeed in his ambitious purposes, this second mandate of his accommodating Lord was proclaimed. Then, Moses saw that there was no time to be lost; consequently, he left the perfidious nobles and elders of the children of Israel in the midst of their "worship," bacchanalian revelings, and retired into the mountain for meditative purposes to devise ways and means with which to fortify himself in his newly attained position, and how to rule the people with least trouble to himself.

SEC. 13. I said that Moses hurriedly left his accomplices in the midst of their revelings and hasted away higher up the mountain, there to cogitate and abide for a time-as he termed it, there to commune with his Lord, and to receive laws from him. The record says: "And Moses rose up, and his minister Joshua: and Moses went up into the

mount of God.

for us, until we

And he said unto the elders, tarry ye here come again unto you: and, behold, Aaron and Hur are with you; if any man have any matters to do let him come unto them." Ex. XXIV: 13, 14.

This subject will be further examined in the next Chapter.

CHAPTER XXV.

SUNSHINE THE GLORY OF THE LORD-MOSES AND JOSHUA TOGETHER IN THE MOUNT DRAFTING LAWS AND MATURING THEIR CHICANERY THE LAW AND THE FALSE GOD OF MOSES.

"And Moses went up into the mount, and a cloud covered the mount. And the glory of the Lord abode upon mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it six days: and the seventh day he called unto Moses out of the midst of the cloud. And the sight of the glory of the Lord was like devouring fire on the top of the mount, in the eyes of the children of Israel. And Moses went into the midst of the cloud, and gat him up into the mount: and Moses was in the mount forty days, and forty nights."

[Ex. XXIV: 15-18.

SECTION 1. Before taking up and pursuing further the thread of thought dropped with the closing of the last Chapter, I will refer to some matters stated in the above extract from Moses' record, namely: the aspects about mount Sinai-the clouds and the sunshine. This autobiography of his informs us that, notwithstanding the mountain was enwrapped by a cloud which shut the top of it from the view of the people who were at the foot of it, and for the space of six days, the glory of the Lord shone "like a devouring fire upon the top of the mount." It also informs us that on the seventh day after he left his select company-the guests invited to his feast of triumph-he passed on up through the cloud, or, in the exact words of the record, "Moses went into the midst of the cloud, and gat him up into the mount," where the glory of the Lord was visible to the eyes of mortal men. This is a succinct, but just, statement of the substance of the events narrated in the texts above quoted. But when the matter is expressed