dently did not gather all of it, on any day, for we are expressly told that what was left ungathered, melted, when the sun was up. That there was none on the Sabbath, seems to be here stated; but I do not feel quite certain that we ought so to understand the record. It often occurs that words are omitted in speech, that are to be supplied by the sense, and the nature of the subject. When, therefore, it is said that, on the Sabbath, there should be none, the meaning is, there should be none gathered. So when Moses says, "Today ye shall not find it in the field," the language is a command, and means, "Ye shall not seek, or ye shall not gather it in the field ;" and when some of the people went out, but "found none," the meaning is, that, in the sense of the command, they found none-they did not gather any. We freely confess that the appearance of the phraseology here employed is favorable to the idea that, on the Sabbath, there was no manna; but that is not a necessary construction. We doubt whether it is the true one. The difference, in the two constructions, is not worth a great deal of effort to sustain either the one or the other view. Both opinions make the supply of manna a miracle; only one opinion makes its modifications somewhat more miraculous, than the other.

354. The philosophy of the production of manna, as a natural event, is explained thus:-"Let it be supposed that the great heat of Arabia expels a quantity of sweet juices, of different kinds of shrubs and trees, growing there, as rhamnus, date trees, &c.; that these exhalations float, or rise in the air, as long as their specific gravity is less than that of the atmosphere; that they are condensed by the coolness of the night, and by the laws of gravitation fall with the dew, or more properly, with the dew form a common substance. They must, therefore, when they fall in quantities, consist of a clammy and honey-like substance, which acquires more solidity by the coldness of the night;

when, after the fall of this clammy dew, the watery parts evaporate, the sweet and heavier manna remains behin 1. ke hoar-frost or sugar; but when the rays of the sun begin to have more power, these grains melt likewise."

This view will explain the difference between the manna there produced as food for the Israelites, and the manna of the present day which is used only for medicine. Its quality would depend on the productions of the country, which, it is presumed, may have undergone some change since the days of Moses.

355. The manna that was to be put in a pot, and kept as a memorial, was probably first prepared like that to be eaten on the Sabbath; and being thus prepared, and kept in an air tight pot or can, it could be preserved for many years. The amount thus kept, was an omer, the same as that allowed to one man for one day. Of course an omer was not a large measure; but the exact amount we cannot tell from what is here said.

SECTION V.-THE PEOPLE MURMUR AGAIN FOR WATER. THEY ARE ATTACKED BY AMALEK.

EXODUS XVII.

1. And all the congregation of the children of Israel journeyed from the wilderness of Sin, after their journeys, according to the commandment of the LORD, and pitched in Rephidim: and there was no water for the people to drink.

2. Wherefore the people did chide with Moses, and said, Give us water that we may drink, And Moses said unto them, Why chide ye with me? Wherefore do ye tempt the LORD?

3. And the people thirsted there for water; and the people mur

mured against Moses, and said, Wherefore is this that thou hast brought us up out of Egypt to kill us and our children and our cattle with thirst?

4. And Moses cried unto the LORD, saying, What shall I do unto this people? they be almost ready to stone me.

5. And the LORD said unto Moses, Go on before the people, and take with thee of the elders of Israel; and thy rod, wherewith thou smotest the river, take in thine hand, and go.

* Oedman. See Burder.

6. Behold, I will stand before thee there upon the rock in Horeb; and thou shalt smite the rock, anu there shall come water out of it, that the people may drink. And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel.

7. And he called the name of the place Massah, and Meribah, because of chiding of the children of Israel, and because they tempted the LORD, saying, is the LORD among us, or not?

356. Between Sin and Rephidim, it appears from, Num. xxiii. 12-14, there were two places not here put down. These were Dophkah and Alush. At Rephidim there was no water not absolutely none; but none comparatively—not enough to answer the wants of the people. Hence Moses was sent forward to Horeb to obtain some, from which it appears that Horeb was not far from Rephidim. Horeb and Sinai are the same mountain; and this is the next station on the list.

That water was produced at the rock in Horeb, at this particular time, need not be supposed. The water was there before, but it found a passage through the earth in some other way, or was pent up without any outlet at all. Now, for the first time, it is made to flow out, in a particular place, indicated by Moses. That there may have been some artificial means, made use of, to reach the water, besides what is here stated, is a supposition that the record does not necessarily exclude; for we find that many circumstances are omitted in one part of the narrative, that are supplied in another part. For example, in this very chapter, there is an omission of two stations, between Sin and Rephidim, that are supplied in Numbers. The one passage does not contradict the other-it only supplies its omissions. The actual discovery of water, at this particular time, was itself obviously a divine, interposition, and its discovery by Moses was clearly an attestation of his mission. If the miracle is to be interpreted as absolute, in all its circumstances, we would ask, why it was not performed in Rephidim as well at Horeb? No doubt Almighty power was capable of

as

producing water in the former place, as well as the latter. We can understand this matter only by supposing that, there was water at Horeb, awaiting the divine mandate; and there was none in Rephidim.

357. It is interesting to know that there is now at Sinai, a beautiful fountain of good water, which is looked upon as miraculous, since it is hardly conceivable how water should rise from the brow of so high a mountain. We know, too, that, afterwards, while Moses remained at Sinai, there is allusion to a brook from which the people drank the same no doubt as that issuing from the rock.

358. There is a convent (St. Catharine's) at Mount Sinai, and there has been one there for many centuries. And the monks are said to take great interest in pointing out to travellers the most remarkable localities of the place. The Rock from which the waters flowed is there, and travellers tell us that it has all the marks of having been cleft asunder by Divine power. It does not seem to have occurred to most of them, that there has been plenty of time, in past ages, to have gotten up an artificial arrangement of this kind to impose upon credulous pilgrims, and plenty of motives to induce designing men to do it. The more cautious and discreet, place no confidence in these representations. Evidently the fraud was committed in a dark age when the more wonderful a thing was, the better it suited the prevailing taste. The monks of St. Catharine will do well to invent something that will better suit the taste and intelligence of the present time.

EXODUS XVII.

8. Then came Amalek, and fought with Israel in Rephidim.

9. And Moses said unto Joshua, Choose us out men, and go out, fight with Amalek: to-morrow I will stand on the top of the hill with the rod of God in mine hand.

10. So Joshua did as Moses had sid to him, and fought with Ama

lek: and Moses, Aaron, and Hur, went up to the top of the hill.

11. And it came to pass, when Moses held up his hand, that Israel prevailed:, and when he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed.

12. But Moses' hands were heavy; and they took a stone, and put il under him, and he sat there

on; and Aaron and Hur stayed up his hands, the one on the one side, and the other on the other side; and his hands were steady until the going down of the sun.

13. And Joshua discomfitted Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword.

13. And the LORD said unto Moses, Write this for a memorial in a book, and rehearse it in the ears

of Joshua: for I will utterly put out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven.

15. And Moses built an altar, and called the name of it JEHOVAH-nissi.

16. For he said, Because the LORD hath sworn that the LORD will have war with Amalek from generation to generation.

359. Amalek was grandson of Esau. Gen. xxxvi. 10-12; and it is from him probably that the Amalekites took their name. They were, then, a branch of the Edomites. Here the name Amalek stands for the tribe. Of course the Israelites are getting into the vicinity of Mt. Seir or Edom, though it is not unreasonable to suppose that the Amalekites may have come a good ways to meet the Hebrews, hoping by this early opposition, while the Hebrews were so far away, to weaken them, and prevent the disastrous consequences of allowing them to come near before hostilities commenced.

The connection between the hand of Moses and the success of the battle, was a very natural one. That Moses had something in his hand, that could be seen by the whole army is a necessary supposition; and if the army were led to understand, that the lowering of the standard, indicated despair or discouragement, on the part of Moses, nothing could be more natural than the success of their enemies when the hand was lowered; and if they understood the raising up of the standard, as a sign of encouragement, then their confidence would insure their success, as the standard was raised. The reason of writing this in a book, and rehearsing it in the ears of Joshua, was to keep it constantly in the mind of their military leader; and thereby the more certainly to insure the destruction of this nation