subjugate them; the Canaanites, they said, greatly outnum. bered them; they were larger in stature, and stronger; they lived in walled cities and they could not be dislodged by them. The ten, like the Author of Christianity, reasoned from cause to effect; he demonstrated his views when he asked the multitude if one king went to war against another king who had a force double that of his own numbers. The unanimous report showed that there was far greater odds than two to one against Moses and the Israelites. Hence, the ten were opposed to the fool-hardy policy of Moses, that of marching the men of Israel, with their families, and all their effects, directly into the land of Canaan, into the very midst of a dense population of a strong and brave people, living in cities, walled and populous.

SEC. 4. But the other two spies harmonized with Moses in his policy, and drew inferences in support of his designs upon the Canaanites. They were for going it blind; they admitted the principal facts in the case; but were for risking everything on the events of a single dash, or raid, into that territory in which Moses desired to permanently establish his Empire. They said: "Let us go up at once and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it." This was the question of division between the spies, one party-the majority party -the party which was the most closely allied to the people, and the most nearly represented their interests-the party of ten out of the twelve-in view of the facts submitted, said that the Canaanites would be more than a match for them in a contest for the possession of their country. The other party-the minority party-the pimps of Moses and enemies to the people—the party of two out of the twelve— said that, "if the Lord delighted in them he would bring them into the land, and give it to them." As before said, in this was the simple issue, at first, at Kadesh-Barnea : Can we, the children of Israel, dispossess the Canaanites? SEC. 5. The unanimous report of the spies, made on their return from the country searched, confirmed the previously aroused suspicions of the people-their fears that the

things ahead were not as, from the beginning, Moses had represented them; and that he and his junto were urging the whole mass of the children of Israel forward into conditions from which they could not extricate themselves. By Moses' third version of this story about sending out these spies, it appears that, soon after he arrived at KadeshBarnea, he told the people that they then had arrived at the border of that land which the Lord God of their fathers had promised to them-he said that the Lord their God had now set the land before them, and he urged them to go up and possess it. But in the succeeding sentence of his narrative he records that which bears testimony of the fact that the suspicions of the people were awakened against Moses, before the spies were appointed. In this sentence he tells them that every one of them came near him, and said to him that they would send out scouts before them, have them search out the land and return, bringing them word, informing them by what way they should go up, and in what city therein they should locate. (See Deut. 1: 21, 22.). Then, in the next sentence, he says their saying pleased him well; and he took twelve of their number for that purpose, and they went forth. Elsewhere he says the Lord commanded him to do it.

SEC. 6. I said, above, that the unanimous report of the returned spies confirmed in the minds of the people their previously awakened suspicions. This declaration is substantiated by Num. XIII: 30, quoted at the head of this Chapter, where it is said: "And Caleb stilled the people before Moses." The spies had scarcely ceased speaking, in the delivery of their report, when the murmurings of the people were heard throughout their ranks; uttering complaints against Moses and his junto. At the solicitation of Caleb, made while they were thus complaining, the people ceased, for the time being, and gave him audience. It was in this speech of Caleb's to the people, that the glove was cast before the ten spies who had regard for the interests of the mass. Here Caleb publicly made the issue, and thereby

invited public collision, and the slaughter of the ten, who, Jesus-like, called in requisition the exercise of their rational faculties, before blindly rushing themselves, and leading their entire nation of kinsmen, headlong, into either perpetual slavery, or into the chamber of death, at the bidding of Moses and the beck of his subalterns. Contrary to the decision of the God-powers of the human mind, Caleb told the people that they were able to whip out the Canaanites, and to occupy their country, when, in the report which he had just made to them, he told them that the Canaanites were more numerous, and, so to speak, were immeasurably stronger than they, and that they were well prepared to defend themselves. But Moses' scheme demanded that this death-giving, and death-receiving movement upon the Canaanites be made; else, failure would be written across all of his ambitious plans. Hence, the urgency of Caleb for an immediate forward movement of the whole camp of Israel into the country of the Canaanites.

SEC. 7. But, says the adorer of Moses, the ten gave to the children of Israel an evil report of the land which they searched. They said the land through which they went was a land that ate up the inhabitants therein; all the people that they saw were men of great stature, and were stronger than they; there they saw the giants, the sons of Anak; and they, in their own sight, were as grasshoppers, and so were they in the sight of the sons of Anak. (See Num. XIII: 31-33.) With slight exceptions, this, said to be, evil report is, substantially, the unanimous report of the twelve. All were agreed in saying that the people who dwelt in the land were "strong," and that, "they saw the children of Anak there." The expression giving their diminutiveness, compared with the Anakims, is expounded by an orthodox, so called, commentator thus:

"The plain meaning being this, that the Anakims looked down upon them with perfect contempt. By all which it appears that they had not only a sight of the Anakims, but the Anakims also saw them, and looked upon them, it is likely, as they did upon other travelers, who were wont to come thither, either for their

pleasure, or to traffic in their country; or on their way to other places; whom it was not their custom to examine strictly, whence they came, and what their business was; but let them pass to and fro among them freely."

SEC. 8. A word about the expression, "the land eateth up the inhabitants." By biblical commentators it is said that the ancient Hebrews said there was a great plague in the land of Canaan at the time the spies went through it. Others of modern times, and who were not Hebrews, coincided in opinion with that view of the matter. And they say that, by reason of that plague, the spies saw the natives, in every part of the country, carrying the dead to their graves. Hence the ten said: "The land eateth up the inhabitants." Such is history, but whether it is authentic and founded on fact, or is a legendary tale founded on bare conjecture, I will not here express an opinion. Then, according to history, in what did the "evil" of the report of the ten consist? They made a truthful statement to the people and before Moses, as to the things they therein saw. Therefore, it was for their fidelity to Truth, and loyalty to Justice, that they incurred the displeasure of Moses and his partisan friends. Facts, Truth, Justice, all were arrayed against Moses and adverse to his designs. Caleb, in his address to the people, strove to suppress the truth, in part, and to estop, or forestall, all logical conclusions from that which was told them in the unanimous report of the spies. Moses, and the members of his cabal, were bent on deceiving the people, and rushing them into a condition where the fight of desperation would inevitably ensue—where all must fight and be victorious, too, else be slaughtered, or themselves and children be made slaves for life. This plot of Moses', so extra hazardous to the people, the ten laid bare before them, and unless the position was taken, all of Moses' immediate political glory would vanish into thin air. Hence the anger of his Lord.

CHAPTER XXXVI.

THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL WEEP AND LAMENT OVER THEIR CONDITION-THEY MURMUR AT MOSES AND AARON-THEY DECIDE TO RETURN TO EGYPT-THEY CHOOSE A LEADER- -MOSES, AARON, JOSHUA, AND CALEB, STRIVE TO DISSUADE THEMTHE PEOPLE ABOUT TO STONE THEM.

"And all the congregation lifted up their voice, and cried; and the people wept that night. And all the children of Israel murmured against Moses, and against Aaron: and the whole congregation said unto them, would to God that we had died in the land of Egypt! or, would to God we had died in this wilderness! And wherefore hath the Lord brought us unto this land to fall by the sword, that our wives, and our children should be a prey? Were it not better for us to return into Egypt? And they said one to another, let us make a captain, and let us return into Egypt. Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly of the congregation of the children of Israel. And Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, which were of them that searched the land, rent their clothes. And they spake unto all the company of the children of Israel, saying, The land, which we passed through to search it, is an exceeding good land. If the Lord delight in us, then he will bring us into this land, and give it us; a land flowing with milk and honey. Only rebel not ye against the Lord, neither fear ye the people of the land; for they are bread for us: their defence is departed from them, and the Lord is with us; fear them not. But all the congregation bade stone them with stones. And the glory of the Lord appeared in the tabernacle of the congregation, before all the children of Israel." [Num. XIV: 1-10.

SECTION 1. Well might the congregation of Israel lift up their voice and weep all night-express their grief and lamentations over their condition in loud and deep tones. For they now found themselves, as Josephus expresses it, "in a place difficult to be continued in ;" and, behind them was, as Moses expresses it, "a great and terrible wilderness.” On their right lay the mountain of the Amorites; on their left, stretching far away, and spreading itself wide, was a