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from Israel." And Moses said to the judges of Israel: "Let every man kill his neighbour that has been initiated to Baal-Phogor." And there were slain four and twenty thousand men.

Phineas, the son of Eleazar the priest, performed an act of zeal in behalf of the law, for which God rewarded him with the covenant of the priesthood for ever. Seeing an Israelite pass by the door of the Tabernacle, where the people were all weeping for their sin, in company with a Madianite woman, he rose up, and took a dagger, and following them into the tent, he thrust them both through, and the scourge ceased from Israel.

§ 36. Moses provides for the Education of Israel.

Moses, the lawgiver of his people, of whom God Himself bore witness, that he was most faithful in all His house, and that he spoke to Him mouth to mouth, knew well that a people of mere savages, rude, ignorant, and untaught, could not possibly continue to be the holy and royal people whom God had chosen to Himself for His own possession. Every one therefore had to be properly taught and instructed, for with an ignorant and degraded people God would not consent to dwell. Moses knew the difference between the two kinds of knowledge, which are described at length by the prophet Baruch, viz., natural knowledge and supernatural, or the knowledge of the present world, and the knowledge of God. And as the nations which Israel was commanded to destroy, were skilled in natural knowledge, Moses necessarily required for his people

a knowledge much beyond what these nations possessed, otherwise there would have been no real difference between them, and Israel the royal people and priestly nation. Hence, Moses gave to Israel the knowledge of God, and commanded them to keep for ever in memory that God had chosen them for His own possession and had brought them near to Himself. The Creed of Moses for his people ran thus:

When thy son shall ask thee in times to come, waying, What mean these testimonies, and cere monics, and judgments which the Lord our God nath commanded us?

Thou shalt way to him, We were bondsmen of Phano in Egypt, and the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a strong hand;

And He wrought signs and wonders great

and very grievous against Pharao and all his house in our sight;

And He brought us out from thence that He might bring us in, and give us this good land which He swore to our fathers;

And the Lord commanded that we should do all these ordinances, and fear the Lord our God, that it might be well with us as it is at this day.

"What other nation," says Moses, "is there so renowned, that hath ceremonies, just judgments, and laws like unto you?"

Keep thyself therefore and thy soul carefully. Forget not all that thine eyes have seen, and let not these words go out of thine heart all the days of thy life;

Thou shalt tench them to thy sons and to thy grandsons. These words which I command thee this day, shall be in thy heart.

Thou shalt tell them to thy children, thou shalt meditate upon them sitting in thy house, and walking on thy journey, sleeping and rising.

Thou shalt bind them as a sign on thy hand, and they shall be and shall move between thine eyes;

Thou shalt write them in the entry and on the doors of thine house.

And you shall observe and fulfil them practice. For this is your wisdom and understanding in the sight of nations.

The education then commanded by Moses, differed altogether from that of the other nations who knew not God. The knowledge of God was the life and the wisdom of Israel. What is now called “secular education," is nothing but what the nations which were cast out of Palestine already possessed, and it has no more to do now with the Divine wisdom and understanding that distinguished Israel in the sight of nations than it had then. The persons now, who without faith in

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another life, lay so much stress upon "secular education," are punished like the wicked nations of Canaan, by remaining strangers to the Divine wisdom and understanding which the Church inherits from Moses, and from a greater than Moses, our Lord Jesus Christ.

Moses, faithful to his mission to the last, assembled the people before his death, and gave them his

last warning. He was now nearly 120 years old, yet his eye was not dim, neither were his teeth loosened. His words spoke of blessings, if the people observed the covenant of the Lord their God, and of judgments and calamities if they broke their covenant.

LAST WORDS OF MOSES.

Now if thou wilt hear the voice of the Lord thy God, to do and keep all His commandments, which I command thee this day, the Lord thy God will make thee higher than all the nations that are on the earth.

And all these blessings shall come upon thee and overtake thee; yet so if thou hear His precepts.

Blessed shalt thou be in the city, and blessed in the field.

Blessed shall be the fruit of thy womb, and the fruit of thy ground, and the fruit of thy cattle, the droves of thy herds, and the folds of thy sheep.

Blessed shall be thy barns and blessed thy stores.

out.

Blessed shalt thou be coming in and going

And the Lord will raise thee up to be a holy people to Himself, as He swore to thee; if thou keep the commandments of the Lord thy God, and walk in His ways.

And all the people of the earth shall see that the name of the Lord is called upon thee, and they shall fear thee.

But if thou wilt not hear the voice of the Lord thy God, to keep and to do all His commandments and ceremonies, which I command thee this day, all these curses shall come upon thee, and overtake thee.

Cursed shalt thou be in the city, cursed in the field.

Cursed shall be thy barn, and cursed thy

stores.

Cursed shall be the fruit of thy womb, and the fruit of thy ground, the herds of thy oxen, and the flocks of thy sheep.

Cursed shalt thou be coming in, and cursed going out.

Be the heaven, that is over thee, of brass : and the ground thou treadest on, of iron.

And mayest thou grope at mid-day as the blind is wont to grope in the dark, and not make straight thy ways. And mayest thou at all times suffer wrong, and be oppressed with violence, and mayest thou have no one to deliver thee.

And thou shalt be lost, as a proverb and a bye-word to all people, among whom the Lord shall bring thee in.

And as the Lord rejoiced upon you before, doing good to you and multiplying you: so He shall rejoice destroying and bringing you to nought, so that you shall be taken away from the land which thou shalt go in to possess.

The Lord shall scatter thee among all nations, from the farthest parts of the earth to the ends thereof. Neither shalt thou be quiet even in those nations, nor shall there be any rest for the sole of thy foot; for the Lord shall give thee a fearful heart, and languishing eyes, and a soul consumed with pensiveness.

And all these curses shall come upon thee, and shall pursue and overtake thee, till thou perish; because thou heardest not the voice of the Lord thy God, and didst not keep His commandments and ceremonies which He commanded thee,

Moses wrote down all the words of his law in a book, and gave it to the Levites, with charge to put

EXPLANATION OF THE TYPE OF MOSES.-Moses is a type of Christ, as having broken the power of Pharao, a figure of the Devil whose power Christ has destroyed. Christ is the guide of every Christian in his passage through this life to Heaven, as Moses was the guide and leader of the people through the wilderness to the promised land. Christ did not speak in His own name, but was sent by God the Father. Moses in the same manner did not take his mission upon himself, but

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it in the side of the ark of the covenant, that it might be there for a testimony, saying: "While I am yet living and going in with you, you have always been rebellious against the Lord; how much more when I shall be dead!" Moses also wrote a song, and spoke it in the hearing of the whole assembly of Israel.

After this, Moses went up at the command of God from the plains of Moab to the top of Phasga, upon Mount Nebo, over against Jericho; and the Lord showed him all the land, saying: "This is the land which I swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, that I would give it to their seed. Thou hast seen it with thine eyes, but thou shalt not go over to possess it, for you trespassed against Me in the midst of the children was sent; and whenever the people murmured against him, he declared that they were not murmuring against him, but against God. Christ died upon Mount Calvary, and by His death opened the kingdom of Heaven. Moses by his death removed the last remaining hindrance to the people's entering the promised land. THE LAW OF MOSES A TYPE OF THE GOSPEL.-Moses had taught the people that they were not to pretend that they could not observe the laws which he gave them. "This commandment which I command thee this day is not above thee nor far off from thee, that thou shouldst say: Which of us can go up to Heaven to bring it unto us, that we may hear and fulfil it?' neither is it beyond the sea, that thou mayest excuse thyself and say: Which of us can cross the sea and bring it unto us?' but the word is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth and in thy heart that thou mayest do it. Consider that I have set before thee this day life and good, and on the other hand death and evil. Choose therefore life, that thou and thy seed may live." The warning spoken by Moses applies to every Christian, with far greater force. Our Lord has said to us: 'What shall it profit a man if he should gain the whole world and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?" St. John (Apoc., xxii., 11) says: "He that is filthy let him be filthy still, and he that is holy let him be sanctified still." To choose once for all between eternal life and eternal death, between eternity in heaven and eternity in hell, is the choice put before every Christian, and therefore a greater and far more serious choice, than the choice between the curses of Mount Ebal and the blessings of Mount Garizim, spoken by Moses. May Almighty God grant to all Christians, and especially to the readers of this little book, the grace to make the good choice of eternal life and of heaven, to which our most merciful Redeemer lovingly invites us all!