CHAPTER IV.

THE HALT AT CASIUM.

In the morning our travellers found themselves in the neighbourhood of Casium. The march had not been long, but the situations of the wells determine the halts of the caravans. Near the town a large sand-hill extended into the sea, on the point of which was built the temple of Jupiter Casius. The active Greek set off, though the distance was considerable, not for the purpose of worshipping there, but of examining it as a work of art. Helon felt no desire to accompany him, for on a journey to Jerusalem and in his present state of mind, it seemed to him nothing less than a sin to visit a heathen temple, even for the gratification of his curiosity. Elisama praised his determination, and reminded him of the reproof delivered by the mouth of Jeremiah, “Thou hast always broken thy yoke and burst thy bands; and hast said, I will not be restrained, but on every high hill and every green tree thou hast gone after idolatry.”[28] In the mean time Elisama began, and Helon devoutly joined in this psalm:

Footnote 28:

Jer. ii. 20.

Bless the Lord O my soul, And all that is within me bless his holy name! Bless the Lord O my soul, And forget not all his benefits; Who forgiveth all thine iniquities, Who healeth all thy diseases, Who redeemeth thy life from destruction, Who crowneth thee with loving kindness and tender mercy. He satisfieth thy mouth with good things So that thy youth is renewed like the eagle’s. Jehovah executeth righteousness And judgment for all that are oppressed. He made known his ways unto Moses, His acts unto the children of Israel. The Lord is merciful and gracious, Slow to anger and plenteous in mercy.—Ps. ciii.

They next sang the hundred and sixth Psalm, which describes the journey, the wilderness, and the disobedience of Israel. “It is well,” said Elisama, when they had done, “that our Greek is not here, or his nascent reverence for our people might be stopped in its growth. I must confess his society was at first very burthensome to me, but he is more open to the reception of the truth than I had given him credit for being, and I have hopes that he may become a stranger of the gate.”

Myron returned full of admiration of the precious works of art which he had found in the temple of the Casian Jupiter, in which however, as a connoisseur, he found of course something to blame. At the meal the discourse of Helon and Myron (for Elisama was too oriental in his habits to talk at such a time) turned upon the ancient Goshen, in whose limits they now supposed themselves to be. They agreed that at the distance of fourteen hundred years it was very difficult to identify it, but that probably it was the district of Lower Egypt which is bounded by the sea, by the eastern branch of the Nile at Pelusium and by the river of Egypt, and that it perhaps ascended as far as Heliopolis to the south.

When they awoke towards evening, refreshed by their sleep, the conversation respecting Goshen was resumed. Elisama, seated upon his carpet, thus took up the discourse:

“It seems then that we are at least on the skirts of that fruitful district of pasturage, in which the children of Abraham sojourned, and where they grew from a family to a people. Thou hast already heard, Myron, that our father Jacob came down to Egypt, with seventy persons, to his son Joseph, who had preserved the land of Pharaoh, by his wise precautions, from the miseries of famine; that two hundred and fifteen years after Jacob went down into Egypt, and four hundred and thirty years after Abraham left his native country at God’s command, 603,550 fighting men of the Israelites quitted Egypt, without reckoning the 22,000 Levites, or the women and children. During these four hundred and thirty years Israel grew into a nation.

“In order that the promise of Jehovah, ‘that all nations should be blessed in Abraham,’ might be accomplished, it may easily be conceived that it was necessary that Abraham should become a people. But there was no country where it could have been accomplished in so short a time as in this. Canaan was already fully peopled, but in Goshen there was ample room for them to increase and spread. The Canaanites would not have looked quietly on for so many years, and have witnessed their increase, whereas the Egyptians would feel themselves bound by gratitude to Joseph, at least during the first century after his death, to abstain from any injury towards his nation. Nowhere else could Israel have been kept so free from mixture with other nations, as in the neighbourhood of the Egyptians, whose religion inspired them with a horror of pastoral tribes. The land was at the same time fruitful, and facilitated the existence of numerous families. Finally, Egypt already possessed a civil polity more perfect than existed at that time in any other country; and though no human means were necessary to form a lawgiver for Israel, yet by constantly observing a people living under a constitution which regulated the rights and duties even of the lowest order of the people, the Israelites were prepared to value and receive a similar constitution themselves.

“When therefore Israel had become a numerous people, and began to feel the want of a system of laws, Divine Providence so arranged circumstances, as to awaken in them a longing for freedom and for the promised land. The Pharaohs inhumanly oppressed them, and made their lives bitter to them, by labour in brick and tile, and in all manner of service in the field. At length it was even given in command to the midwives to kill all the male infants. This was indeed, in one point of view, only a just punishment for the guilt of Israel, in worshipping the sacred animals of the Egyptians, and leaving the service of the true God: but as calamity, by the wise ordinance of Jehovah, serves at once for punishment and deliverance, the cruelty of the Egyptians proved the means of Israel’s deliverance and exaltation.

“God raised up Moses and laid his spirit upon him. After the command of Pharaoh for the murder of the male infants, he was exposed by his parents among the reeds of the Nile, and rescued in a wonderful manner by the king’s own daughter. At the royal court, where he was brought up, he became acquainted with all the wisdom of the Egyptians. When forty years of age, hurried away by sympathy for his suffering countrymen, whom even at Pharaoh’s court he had not forgotten, he slew an Egyptian who was committing an outrage upon an Israelite, and was compelled to flee. He took refuge in the wilderness, and by a pastoral life of forty years formed his mind in solitude and amidst the sublimities of nature, where only a faint remembrance of the world remained to him, and thoughts of God filled his soul. Here God appeared to him in mount Horeb, in a bush that burned with fire and yet was not consumed. ‘And Moses said, I will now turn aside and see this great sight, why the bush is not burned. And when the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst of the bush, and said, Moses, Moses, and he said, Here am I. And he said, Draw not nigh hither: put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground. Moreover he said, I am the God of thy fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And Moses hid his face. And the Lord said, I have seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters. I know their sorrows, and I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them out of that land unto a good land and a large, a land flowing with milk and honey. Come now, therefore, I will send thee to Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring forth my people, the children of Israel, out of the land of Egypt.’[29]

Footnote 29:

Exod. iii. 2.

“This was the calling of Moses. His apprehension of his own unworthiness was removed, and the Lord made known his name unto him; I WILL BE THAT I WILL BE. He began the great work, and at the first step had to contend with the unsteadiness of Israel, which, during the remaining forty years of his life, occasioned him no less trouble than the assaults of their enemies. Pharaoh refused to let the people go, and nine plagues in succession, which Jehovah denounced by Moses, and then brought upon the land, were able only for a time to overcome Israel’s fickleness and Pharaoh’s obstinacy. At last the tenth was inflicted, and on the fourteenth of the month Nisan, Israel, with their wives and their children, and all their possessions, came out from the house of bondage in Egypt, and passed through the Red Sea, in which the Egyptians, following them, were drowned. This is, of all the events in the history of our nation, the most important, from its connection with the giving of the law which immediately followed. We keep the feast of the Passover in remembrance of this event. Our great leader was also a poet, and sang the following song, the oldest and the noblest ode of victory that the world can show:

I sing unto the Lord for he is great— Chariot and horse he hath thrown into the sea. The Lord is my strength, my song, my salvation:

He is my God, and I will sing praise unto him, My father’s God, and I will exalt him. Jehovah is mighty in war, Jehovah is his name. Pharaoh’s chariots and his host hath he cast into the sea, His chosen captains are drowned in the Red Sea. The depths have covered them, They sank to the bottom as a stone. Thy right-hand, O Jehovah, is become glorious in power, Thy right-hand, O Jehovah, hath dashed in pieces the enemy. In the greatness of thy might thou overthrowest them that rise up against thee, Thou sendest forth thy wrath which consumeth them as stubble. With the blast of thy nostrils the waters were gathered together, The floods stood upright as a heap, The waves were congealed in the depths of the sea.

The enemy said,—

I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the spoil, My desire shall be gratified upon them, I will draw my sword, my hand shall destroy them. Thou didst blow with thy breath, the sea covered them, They sank like lead in the mighty waters. Who is like unto thee, O Lord, among the gods? Who is like unto thee, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders? Thou stretchedst out thy right-hand—the earth swallowed them. Thou hast led forth in thy mercy thy redeemed people, Thou hast guided them in thy strength unto thy holy place;

The people hear and are afraid Anxiety taketh hold on the inhabitants of the land of the Philistines; The princes of Edom quake, Terror taketh hold on the mighty men of Moab, All the inhabitants of Canaan shall melt away. Let fear and dread fall upon them, by thy mighty arm, Let them become stiff as stone, Till thy people pass over, O Lord, Till the people which thou hast purchased pass over. Bring them in, plant them in the mountain of thine inheritance, To the place of thy dwelling which thou thyself hast prepared, To the sanctuary which thy hands have built. Jehovah reigns for ever and ever.—Exod. xv.

“This first victory, which ennobled Israel as a people, was destined to be the forerunner of a series of victories, till its greatest, that over all nations, shall be won. This first song of triumph has given the model to a number of similar compositions, all of which refer to it.

“Israel was now made free. But this was scarcely accomplished when it was made also a holy nation, and on the fiftieth day after the departure from Egypt, God gave to our fathers that treasure which hallows them above every other people, the law upon mount Sinai. Yonder in the desert, in the midst of a sandy and naked region, rises a mountain, with two summits, of which the lower is called Horeb, the higher Sinai. Northward from them are two valleys, terminating in a plain, in which the people was encamped. In this impressive solitude, cut off from all other nations of the earth, surrounded with steep and pointed rocks, beneath a burning sky, amidst the thunders and the lightnings of Jehovah’s presence, they received the law.

“Jehovah declared to Moses that Israel should be to him a kingdom of priests and a holy people.[30] For this purpose they were commanded to wash their garments and keep themselves holy to the third day, and it was forbidden that man or beast should ascend the mountain, or even touch it with his foot. The third day came. Early in the morning ‘there were thunders and lightnings and a thick cloud upon the mount, and the voice of the trumpet exceeding loud, so that all the people that were in the camp trembled. And Moses brought forth the people out of the camp to meet God; and they stood at the lower part of the mount. And mount Sinai was altogether in a smoke, because the Lord descended upon it in fire, and the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mount trembled greatly. And the voice of the trumpet sounded long, and grew louder and louder, and Moses spake, and the Lord answered him with a voice.’

Footnote 30:

Exod. xix. 6.

“Awful preparations! symbols of the presence of Jehovah! who drew near to give the law. While he thus displayed himself in all the terrific majesty of heaven on the loftiest pinnacles of the land; and the people, overwhelmed with terror, felt their own feebleness before him, he gave to Moses the tables with the ten commandments, and afterwards the rest of the law; and all was concluded with a promise to the obedient, and the threat, ‘Cursed be he that fulfilleth not all the words of this law to do it. And all the people shall say Amen.’

“The whole constitution and legislation of Israel rests on the relation of the people to God as their king. From the covenant between them arose a twofold authority. Aaron was the first high priest and Moses the first chief. The high priest conducted the worship of the people before Jehovah; the chief directed their civil and military affairs. Their employment in the land which they were to occupy was to be agriculture.

“But the Jews, who had been corrupted by living in Egypt, were not fit subjects for such a constitution. It was necessary that a new generation should arise, and for this purpose Moses led them forty years backward and forward in the wilderness, and only two, of whom he himself was not one, came into the promised land. Forty-four stations in the desert are reckoned up, in which they successively encamped, as we do now; and it was only by the severest discipline that they could be retained in obedience. Often was Jehovah compelled to visit them with heavy calamities, and sweep them away by thousands. Yet he never ceased also to perform miracles of mercy and almighty power upon them.

“Amidst all these sins of the people, in their forty years wandering in the wilderness, Moses was the representative of the divine authority, and the medium of divine communication. Against him the fury of the rebellious people was vented, and by him Jehovah both blessed and punished them. Moses stood among them, like a rock in the desert, a wonder, or rather a miracle of firmness combined with meekness, steadfast resolution, with wise indulgence, absolute submission to God, with boldness and determination in the guidance of the people. In the long and unhappy period of forty years of wandering, he displayed the aptitude for command which his kingly education had given him, joined with that love to his suffering countrymen, with which he could only have been inspired by being a native Jew.

“He died on mount Nebo, in the sight of that land for which he had done and suffered all to which human strength was equal. His eye was permitted to behold it, but not his foot to tread its soil. Firm as he was in acting and in suffering, he had once allowed himself to be overcome, and therefore he was not permitted to attain the end of his journey, or go to his rest in Canaan. Perhaps it was also the will of God, that the hands which had been stretched out over the Red Sea, which had received the tables of the law from Jehovah, and had built his tabernacle, should not be stained by the blood of the Canaanites. Even in the battle with Amalek, these hands were only lifted up in the attitude of prayer.[31]

Footnote 31:

Exod. xvii. 11.

“Listen to the last glowing words of this extraordinary man!

Give ear, O ye heavens, and I will speak, And hear, O earth, the words of my mouth! My doctrine shall drop as the rain, My speech shall distil as the dew. As rain upon the tender herb, And as the showers upon the grass. For I will proclaim aloud the name of Jehovah, Ascribe ye greatness unto our God! He is a rock, his work is infinite, All his ways are just. God is truth, without deceit, Just and right is he— Remember the days of old, Consider the years of many generations, Ask thy father and he will show thee, Thine elders, and they will tell thee, When the Most High divided the lands to the nations, When he separated the children of men, He set bounds to the people, That the numbers of Israel might have room to dwell. For the Lord’s portion is his people, Jacob is the extent of his inheritance. He found him in a desert land, And in the waste howling wilderness. He led him about, he instructed him, He kept him as the apple of his eye. As an eagle covers her nest around, And hovers over her young, Spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them up, And beareth them aloft upon her pinions, So the Lord, he alone, did lead them, And there was no strange god with him— See now that it is I, And there is no god with me. I kill and I make alive, I wound and I heal; There is none that can deliver out of my hand. For I lift my head to heaven, And say, I live for ever. If I whet my glittering sword, And my hand lay hold on judgment, I will render vengeance to mine enemies, And reward them that hate me. I will make my arrows drunk with blood, And my sword shall satiate itself on carcasses, On the blood of the slain and the captive, On the bared head of mine enemies?—Deut. xxxii.

“Again in the animated commencement of his benediction, imitated in so many later poems of our nation:

Jehovah came from Sinai, He rose up unto them from Seir; He shined forth from Paran, He came from the hills of Cadesh. From his right hand darted the rolling fire; Yea, he loved the people! All his glory is around thee; And sitting at thy feet they received thy words. Moses commanded us the law, The inheritance of the congregation of Israel. He was king in Israel, In the assembly of the heads of the people, Together with the tribes of Israel.—Deut. xxxiii.

“In this manner, Myron, and by means of such a man, did Israel obtain its treasure and inheritance, the law. And this is the first period of the history of our people.”

“Our best thanks belong to thee, venerable old man,” said Myron, “for the relation of it, and I can readily believe, that the history of thy nation has more in it than is commonly supposed. It was, I must confess, in a very different way that Lycurgus, Solon, Numa Pompilius, and even Pythagoras himself, gave their laws. There is something grand, exalted and divine, in the manner in which Moses speaks and acts. But permit me to remind you, that though you mentioned his being brought up at the court of Pharaoh, and instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, you have given us no hint that he may have learned much from the pillars of Isis, and that an imitation of the Egyptian polity is every where conspicuous in your law, especially in the double power of the king and the priest, the institution of a sacerdotal caste, the encouragement given to agriculture, your festivals, and many other particulars.”

“I gave no hint of it,” said Elisama, “because in this sense it does not exist. To say nothing of its being as yet an undetermined point, whether the Jews learned these things from the Egyptians, or the Egyptians from the Jews; I will suppose that the wisdom of the Egyptians is of that high antiquity which you ascribe to it, and maintain that Jehovah wisely chose institutions for his people not too remote from those to which they were accustomed; that some things, which were for higher reasons essential in the Jewish economy, have an accidental coincidence with circumstances of the Egyptian customs. But disregarding outward and accidental things, let the spirit of the two systems be compared, and you will find that one is the spirit of God, and the other the spirit of the world. In our religion there is no worship of animals or of images, no polytheism, no secret doctrines of the priests. These are essential points, which show that the legislation of Moses must have had a higher origin, and was not learned by him from any other nation. Would it, besides, be surprising if, in giving a divine revelation to his people, Jehovah should have chosen a form for its communication, in which, as being familiar to them, they would more readily adopt it? Though this form was of human invention, it was purified and hallowed by God’s adoption of it.”

“I will confute his heathen unbelief in another way,” said Helon, “and turn his own weapons upon him, more successfully, I hope, than he lately endeavoured to do upon me.”

“Speak then,” said Myron, “do you question, and I will reply: here in the desert let us renew our ancient practice among the Academic philosophers. A dialogue will be a relief too, for your uncle presumes upon more patience in his hearers than belongs to Greeks of Athenian blood.”

“This,” said Helon, “is not the only thing which is tiresome to you.”

“I acknowledge it—a transient gleam of the Divinity from time to time is well; but my thoughts must return to the things of earth.”

“How well hast thou characterised thyself and the religion of thy heathen brethren,” said Helon. “You have, indeed, a gleam of divine truth, a remnant of ancient, primeval tradition, eclipsed and shrouded in the darkness of human error.”

“To look on the sun, and only on the sun, dazzles the eyes. Elisama is always pointing thither, and my eyes already ache with straining.”

“The rising sun does not dazzle or strain the eye,” replied Helon, “and Elisama will tell you, that as yet we only see the dawn, and that thousands of years will pass before noon arrives. But I was going to confute you out of your own Plato. Does he not say that truth and virtue cannot be taught?”

“He does.”

“How then, O wise Myron, can they be attained?”

“Only in the state of divine inspiration, as we have often read in the dialogues of the god-like sage,” replied Myron.

“What name then must be given to the knowledge of that which is true, and which is?” continued Helon.

“We must call it a reminiscence of that divine condition, in which, according to Plato, the soul formerly was, but from which it has fallen.”

“And do not you yourself say, that all this is merely an intimation of the truth, and that that which is, cannot be comprehended by means of such symbols? It is for this reason that I call such knowledge, Revelation; and I hold this doctrine of Plato to be a relic of those primeval times, when the true and revealed knowledge of God was not yet entirely obliterated. But we can prove by historical evidence that God spoke by Moses, and that our law therefore is what it claims to be, a Revelation.”

“But what are these historical proofs, on which all depends?” interrupted Myron.

“Has not Elisama given them in the course of his narrative, and are they not plainly to be discerned in our sacred writings? But I will give you another proof. If Moses had read his doctrines on the hieroglyphic pillars of Egypt, how happened it that they were not read by the priests of Isis, who must have had still readier access to them?”

Myron appeared to be about to answer, though somewhat perplexed by the question, when they were interrupted by the well-known blast of the trumpet. They had not observed that they were prolonging their discourse far into the night. Sallu and the slave came up, and pulled the poles of the tent out of the sand. “It is time,” said Elisama, “that we should desist, and indeed such disputes, Helon, have little results! Let him fear God, and he will believe in the law.”

“In that case,” said Helon, “we should as men enjoy that friendly communion in the knowledge of the truth, of which as youths we dreamt in the Bruchium.” He reached his hand to Myron, who took it smiling, and hastened to his horse.