THE WILDERNESS. 17

« Were there many of them, grandfather?” George
asked.

Grandfather. A great many. The Lord had told
Abraham that his descendants should be as the sand on
the seashore—innumerable. At that time Abraham
had no child; two hundred and fifteen years after, his
descendants by Isaac, the son of the promise, were
seventy souls; two hundred and fifteen years after that,
four hundred and thirty years after the promise was
given, they were six hundred thousand fighting men—
in all nearly three millions of people. In the wilderness
of Arabia, where they journeyed, there was neither food
nor water. The Lord provided them with food by a
miraculous supply of manna. When they felt the want of
water the people murmured against Moses, saying that he
had brought them up out of Egypt to kill them and their
cattle with thirst. It was wicked in the people to do
this; they ought to have prayed to God ; he had pro-
vided them with food, and was as able to supply them
with water. Moses cried to God, and God told him to
smite a rock, and, to encourage him, said that He would
be there before him, and that when the rock was smit-
ten, water would come out of it. Moses did this, and
the water gushed out. Some think that the stream
which then flowed from the rock accompanied the Israel-
ites on their journey all through the wilderness, and sup-
plied them with water. Want of water is mentioned
again, but not till very many years after that. Travel-
lers who have seen the rock that Moses struck at this

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