30 BATTLES OF THE BIBLE.

only too well; the Israelites bowed down before strange
gods. To punish this wickedness, the Lord sent a
plague upon them, of which twenty-four thousand of
them died. The Moabites were descendants of Lot,
and the Midianites were descendants of Abraham, so
they might have escaped the destruction to which the
Canaanites and Amorites were doomed; but they did
not escape—their own conduct brought ruin upon them.
The Lord said to Moses, “ Avenge the children of Israel
of the Midianites.” They were to be avenged of them
because they had led them into sin. We ought to re-
gard those as our worst enemies who seek to tempt us
to do what is wrong. It isa greater injury than rob-
bing or wounding us, for the soul is more noble than the
body.” |

Grandfather then stopped, telling us he would leave the
battle with the Midianites till the next day. We talked
about Balaam and his ass, and Johnnie was very anxious
to hear about them, so grandfather bade us get our
Bibles, and read aloud the twenty-second, twenty-third,
and twenty-fourth chapters of Numbers. He explained
it to us as we went on.

From a rock in the wilderness the Israelites were sup-
plied with water—Why was that rock a type of Christ ?

The prayers of Moses brought victory to the Israelites
—What does this teach us ?

Caleb and Joshua stood alone against the multitude
—What do we learn from this ?