CANTICLE OF MOSES.

1 Let us sing to the Lord: for He is gloriously magnified, the horse and the rider He hath thrown into the sea.

2 The Lord is my strength and my praise, and He is become salvation to me: He is my God and I will glorify Him: the God of my father, and I will exalt Him.

3 The Lord is as a man of war, Almighty is His name.

4 Pharao's chariots and his army He hath cast into the sea: his chosen captains are drowned in the Red Sea.

5 The depths have covered them, they are sunk to the bottom like a stone.

6 Thy right hand, O Lord, is magnified in strength: Thy right hand, O Lord, hath slain the enemy.

7 And in the multitude of Thy glory Thou hast put down Thy adversaries: Thou hast sent Thy wrath, which hath devoured them like stubble.

8 And with the blast of Thy anger the waters were gathered together: the flowing water stood, the depths were gathered together in the midst of the sea.

9 The enemy said: I will pursue and overtake, I will divide the spoils, my soul shall have its fill: I will draw my sword, my hand shall slay them.

10 Thy wind blew and the sea covered them they sunk as lead in the mighty waters.

11 Who is like to Thee, among the strong, O Lord? who is like to Thee, glorious in holiness, terrible and praise-worthy, doing wonders?

12 Thou stretchedst forth Thy hand, and the earth swallowed them.

13 In Thy mercy Thou hast been a leader to the people which Thou hast redeemed: and in Thy strength Thou hast carried them to Thy holy habitation.

14 Nations rose up, and were angry: sorrows took hold on the inhabitants of Philisthiim.

15 Then were the princes of Edom troubled, trembling seized on the stout men of Moab all the inhabitants of Canaan became

stiff.

SECOND SUBDIVISION.-WANDERING IN THE DESERT-40 YEARS,

§ 12. Discontent begins. The Manna falls from Heaven, B.c. 1490. Hardly had the people finished their song of triumph, than they began to be discontented on finding

have you ignorant, brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all in Moses were baptized in the cloud, and in the sea." (I. Cor., x., 1.) Passing through the Red Sea, the people were delivered from being slaves to Pharao the king of Egypt, whose power was utterly destroyed in its waters. In the water of the sacrament of Baptism, the power of Satan over us is broken, and we are taken out of the state of servitude to him. Also, when they were safe through the Red Sea, the sea became a barrier between them and Egypt, separating them from all the idolatries, vices, and luxuries of the land of Egypt, and preventing their return to them. In the sacrament of Baptism we renounce all the pride of the world, the wicked desires of the flesh, and the pomps of the Devil, and promise our Lord never to return to them, but to be satisfied with such blessings and graces as He will be pleased to give us in our passage through the wilderness to the promised land, viz., Heaven, where He reigns for ever with His Saints.

that though Egypt had been a land of bitter servitude, from which they were rejoiced to escape, the wilderness they had come into had also its sufferings. The first well they came to, contained nothing but bitter water, which caused them to murmur against Moses. Moses changed its waters from bitter to sweet. After this they moved to Elim, where they found palm-trees and a stream of sweet water. In their next encampment, the bread that they had brought out of Egypt beginning to fail, the whole congregation murmured against Moses and Aaron: "Would to God we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat over the flesh-pots, and ate bread to the full! Why have you brought us into this desert, that you might destroy the whole multitude with famine?" Moses and Aaron answered: "What are we? your murmuring is not against us, but against the Lord." The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: "I have heard the murmuring of the children of Israel; say to them, 'In the evening you shall eat flesh, and in the morning you shall have your fill of bread, and you shall know that I am the Lord your God."" And so it came to pass: the same evening quails came up and covered the camp, and in the morning a dew lay round about the camp. And when the children of Israel saw it looking like hoar-frost on the ground, they said one to another, "Manhü," or, "What is this ?" What is this ?" Moses said to them: "This is the bread which the Lord hath given you to eat. He that gathereth more, let him give to him that gathereth less." He taught the people also to gather on the sixth day each man a double portion,

M

"For the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord,

After the sun grew Its taste also was Such was the bread with

therefore it shall not be found." hot, it melted and disappeared. like flour with honey.

TYPE OF THE HOLY EUCHARIST.

which the people were fed, till they came to the borders of the land promised to them; and the house of Israel called the name of it Manna.

EXPLANATION OF THE TYPE OF THE MANNA.-The Manna that fell down from heaven is a type of the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist. "I am the bread of life,"

WATER FROM THE ROCK.

159

§ 13. The Water from the Rock.

The multitude went forward and encamped in Raphidim, where there was no water for the people to drink.

Hereupon there arose another fierce murmuring against

says our Lord: "your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness and are dead; this is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that if any man eat of it he may not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven; if any man eat of this bread he shall live for ever: and the bread which I will give is my flesh for the life of the

Moses, the people saying to him, "Why didst thou make us go forth out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our beasts with thirst ?" Moses cried to the Lord, saying, "What shall I do to this people? yet a little more and they will stone me.

The Lord said to

Moses: "Go before the people, and take with thee the ancients of Israel, and take in thy hand the rod with which thou didst strike the river, and go. Behold, I will stand before thee on the rock Horeb, and thou shalt strike the rock, and water shall come out of it, that the people may drink.' Moses did so before the ancients of Israel, and he called the name of the place "Temptation," for the people said, "Is the Lord amongst us or not?”

§ 14. The Prayer of Moses upon the Mount.

The people of Amalec now came to fight against Israel; and Moses said to Josue, "Choose out men, and go and fight against Amalec, and I will stand on the top of the hill, having the rod of God in my hand."

world." (John, vi., 48.) The wandering in the wilderness is a figure of the life of the Christian upon earth, subject in a similar manner to many privations and dangers. The Holy Eucharist is the Christian manna, and the food of Christian life. As the manna continued for the whole period of the wandering, ceasing only the day that the people entered the promised land, so the Holy Eucharist is the spiritual food for this present life, and first ceases on the passage into the better life of the world to come.

EXPLANATION OF THE TYPE OF THE WATER FROM THE ROCK.-St. Paul says (I. Cor., x., 1): "I would not have you ignorant, brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all in Moses were baptised in the cloud and the sea, and all did cat the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink, and they drank of the spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was Christ." Christ on the cross was pierced by a soldier with spear, and there flowed from the wound blood and water, viz., the Holy Sacrament of Baptism and the Holy Eucharist. Isaias, speaking of the times of Christ, exclaims: "Waters are broken out in the desert, and streams in the wilderness."