194 BERTHA'S VISIT TO HER 



which made and knew his heart, says 'He was 

 very meek above .all men upon earth.' Mild- 

 ness and fortitude may well lodge together in 

 one breast ; it is not the fierce and cruel who are 

 the most valiant. 



" In the sedition of Miriam and Aaron, we 

 see a beautiful example of his meekness, and 

 of that true magnanimity which arises from it ; 

 and those very qualities are given as the reason 

 why God avenged their ingratitude to Moses. 

 Their trial must have been the more painful to 

 him, because the enmity which he endured was 

 from his own nearest relations. Yet he inter- 

 ceded for them, and God remitted the punish- 

 ment which they had justly incurred. There, 

 my children, is a pattern for you of that for- 

 bearance and generosity, which our Saviour 

 afterwards so strongly commanded his disciples 

 to exercise. 



"If Moses himself excited the anger of the 

 Lord at Meribah-Kadesh, by the distrust which 

 induced him to strike the rock twice, as if 

 doubtful of God's omnipotence if even he could 

 be guilty of such weakness, or could be provoked 

 by the people to ' speak unadvisedly with his 

 lips,' how much more then do all of us require 

 a continual watchfulness of our hearts, lest we 

 give way to the same kind of ignorant and pre- 

 sumptuous scepticism ! 



"The punishment of Moses, by prohibiting 



