184 GENERAL SIR CHARLES WARREN, G.C.M.G., F.R.S., ON 



brought before Moses by divine command and stoned to 

 death (Num. xv, 32-36). 



The rebellious Korah, Dathan, and Abiram were swallowed 

 in an earthquake for their contumacy, and of the congregation 

 that murmured in the matter of Korah, no less than 14,700 

 died of the plague (Num. xvi, 49). 



The Israelites as the Chosen Kace had to take the bitter and 

 the sweet together, and if they were to expect the help of the 

 Almighty they must be prepared for strenuous and uncongenial 

 work and rigid punishments for disobedience — all in this life. 



We may ask ourselves, then, what was the driving power 

 that impelled them ? Was it training, or habit, or fear, or 

 religious awe ? 



The view in the Pentateuch, attributed to the Almighty, is 

 that they were a stiff-necked, backsliding people, but would not 

 this be the character of all races ? 



For the benefit of mankind a small portion of the ruling of 

 the universe has been unveiled, and we are permitted to see in 

 the Pentateuch how the Almighty dealt with the Chosen Kace, 

 making it His instrument for chastising other races. We do 

 not know but that this may not be the constant method of the 

 Almighty ; and in all our doings as a nation we may be acting 

 under direct interposition of Providence, with the same stiff 

 necks as Israel of old. Israel was threatened with the sword 

 without and terror within, if God's Will was not done ; but some 

 greater force than this must have kept the people in the right 

 way so often. 



I take it that the people actually were impressed with the 

 desire to serve God, and were attracted by the Majesty of the 

 Almighty, and during a great part of their lives gave a willing 

 service to God. If we can take an impartial view of Israel at 

 work, we must realize that they were given a task beyond their 

 powers, because it was necessary that they should recognize 

 that they were agents of the Almighty and not fighting only 

 for themselves. 



As we know them after their forty years in the desert, we 

 may say that with such stuff and a year's training we should be 

 glad to welcome the whole 600,000 of them as our allies at the 

 present day. 



Training — the Exodus, 



The account given in the Pentateuch of the Exodus is the 

 most remarkable lesson recorded in history of the effect of 

 training on a nation, changing it in a few months from a rabble 



