116 The Brothers.

 

“He fed them with a food that fell from
heaven every day, except on the Sabbath ;
it looked like hoar frost on the ground, and it
tasted like cakes made with honey.

“ Another time, when they came to a place
where there was no water, the Lord told
Moses to strike the rock, and water came
flowing out for all the people to drink. After
all these wonders, it seems as if the Israelites
ought to have trusted the Lord, and believed
that He would certainly bring them to their
journey’s end, but they were very far from
doing so. They were often falling into sin by
distrusting Him, and wanting to follow their
own way.

“For this cause it was that the Lord did
not permit them to enter the Promised Land,
till they had wandered in the desert for forty
years. Moses died just before the end of their
wanderings, and it was under another leader
that they entered at last into the good land
promised to Abraham so long ago. Their
history ends the first part of the Bible—the
five books written by Moses himself, which
formed at first the whole Bible for the people
of Israel.

“It is a great essen we are taught by those
wanderings in the wilderness. For as the