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kind, the sons of Enac, in comparison of whom we seemed like grasshoppers." Upon this the whole people began to murmur, and say: "Would God that we had died in Egypt, and would God that we might die in this wilderness: is it not better to return to Egypt ?" And they even went so far as to say one to another, "Let us appoint a captain, and let us return to Egypt."

§ 30. The Murmurers are condemned to die in the Wilderness. When Moses and Aaron heard this, they fell down flat upon the ground before the children of Israel. Josue and Caleb rent their garments and came forward before the people, saying: "The land, which we have gone round is very good; if the Lord be favourable, He will bring us into it and give it to us. Be not rebellious against the Lord; fear ye not the people of this land, for we are able to eat them up as bread. All aid is gone from them: fear ye not, the Lord is with us."

As the people would not listen, but cried out, and were ready to have stoned them, the glory of the Lord appeared over the Tabernacle of the Covenant to all the children of Israel. And the Lord said to Moses: "How long will this people not believe Me for all the signs I have wrought before them? I will strike them with pestilence, but thee I will make a ruler over a nation mightier than this is." Moses said to the Lord: "Lest the Egyptians from the midst of whom thou hast brought forth this people, and the inhabitants of this land, who have heard that thou, O God, art among them and art seen face to face, (for thou goest

before them in a pillar of a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night,) may hear that thou hast killed so great a multitude as it were one man, and may say, He could not bring the people into the land for which He had sworn, therefore did He kill them in the wilderness-let the strength of the Lord be magnified, as Thou hast sworn: forgive I beseech Thee and be merciful to this people." The Lord said: "I have forgiven them according to thy word. Nevertheless, say thou to this people: According as you have spoken in my hearing, so will I do to you. In the wilderness shall your carcasses lie. From twenty years old and upwards, of those who have murmured against me, none shall enter into the land over which I lifted up my hand to make you dwell therein, except Caleb and Josue. But your children, of whom you said that they should be a prey to their enemies, will I bring in, that they may see the land which you have despised.'

The messengers who had spoken ill of the land were struck, and died before the Lord. And when Moses spoke all these words to the people of Israel, they mourned exceedingly. Some of them, acting blindly and contrary to the warning of Moses, who said, "Go not up: the Lord is not with you "—went up armed, but were driven back with slaughter as far as Horma.

§ 31. The Schism of Core and his adherents.

A new evil now broke out in the camp. A cabal was formed against Moses and Aaron, by about two

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hundred and fifty of the leading men of the congregation, headed by Core, a principal Levite, who said: "Why lift ye up yourselves above the people of the Lord?" Moses replied to Core: "Hear, ye sons of Levi is it a small thing that the Lord hath separated you from all the people, and hath joined you to Himself, that you should challenge to yourselves the Priesthood also?" Moses also sent to Dathan and Abiron, the other ringleaders of the schism. They answered: "Wilt thou rule like a lord over us, and dost thou think to put out our eyes? We will not come." As they persisted in their opposition, Moses appointed the following trial to put the truth of their pretensions to the test. Core and his congregation were to stand on the following day with their censers, before the Lord and in the sight of all the people, at the door of the Tabernacle, and Aaron and his priests stood over against them. When this was done, the glory of the Lord appeared to them all, and Moses, at the command of God, ordered the whole people to separate themselves from the tents of Core, Dathan, and Abiron. As they were going away, Dathan and Abiron came and stood in the entry of their tents, with their wives and children. Moses bid the people take notice of them, and said: "If these men die the common death of all men, then the Lord hath not spoken by me. But if the Lord do a new thing, and the earth opening her mouth swallow them up alive, then you shall know that they have blasphemed the Lord." Immediately as he made an end of speaking, the earth broke asunder under their feet, and opening her mouth

devoured them with their tents and all their substance. Thus they perished from among the people, while a fire from the Lord destroyed the two hundred and fifty that offered incense.

The metal of their censers was afterwards made into plates and fastened to the altar for a memorial for ever, that no stranger not of the seed of Aaron should come near to offer incense to the Lord, lest he should. suffer as Core had suffered.

The following day all the people murmured against Moses, and said: "You have killed the people of the Lord." This fresh sin was punished by a plague in which 14,700 men died. The cessation of the plague was obtained by the prayer of Aaron, who ran and offered incense, and thus stood between the dead and the living.

§ 32. The Rod of Aaron blossoms.

To put an end once for all to the cabals of the people respecting the title of Aaron to the Priesthood, and of the tribe of Levi to the ministry of the Sanctuary, God appointed all the princes of the people to bring a rod to represent each tribe, whilst Aaron's rod was to stand for the tribe of Levi. Thus there were Moses laid them

twelve rods besides the rod of Aaron. before the Lord in the Tabernacle of the Testimony. On the following day the rod of Aaron, for the house of Levi, was found to have budded; and the buds swelled and formed into blossoms, which spread their leaves and produced almonds. This miracle had such an effect upon the children of Israel, that they

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said: "We shall all to a man be utterly destroyed!" Moses returned to each of the tribes the rod which had represented them, and Aaron's rod was laid up by the ark of the covenant for a memorial for ever of his being chosen for the Priesthood. The blossoming of Aaron's rod is a figure of the glorious maternity of the Blessed Virgin, alone of all women both virgin and mother. It is also a figure of the fruitfulness of the Catholic Church, as compared with the barrenness of sects and heresies: it is the Catholic Church alone which is ever multiplying new missions in all countries, and ever shooting forth new blossoms and fruit.

§ 33. The Brazen Serpent: a type of Christ.

Mary the sister of Aaron was now dead, and Aaron by the command of God had gone up to die upon Mount Hor, Eleazar his son becoming High Priest in his stead. The forty years of wandering were drawing to an end, but the murmuring and discontented spirit of the people remained unchanged. The children of Edom had refused them the right of passage through their territory, and this refusal made it necessary to return back southward and pass to the east of Mount Seir where Edom dwelt. This increase of marching drew from them complaints and murmurs; they quarrelled with the manna, and asked Moses why he had brought them up out of Egypt, and complained that they had neither bread nor water. To punish them, God sent serpents among them, which bit and killed many of them. The people came at length, and said that they had sinned, and prayed Moses to take aw