owmen could scarcely reach them. If these
men were not to be idle, it was needful that they should be summoned to
the battle-field.

Hur had long since shouted to Uri to remember them and use their aid
again; but now the figure of a youth suddenly appeared approaching from
the direction of the camp as nimbly as a mountain goat, by climbing and
leaping from one rock to another.

As soon as he reached the first ones he spoke to them, and made signs to
the next, who passed the message on, and at last they all climbed down
into the valley, scaled the western cliff to the height of several men,
and suddenly vanished as though the rock had swallowed them.

The youth whom the slingers and archers had followed was Ephraim.

A black shadow on the cliff where he had disappeared with the others
must be the opening of a ravine, through which they were doubtless to be
guided to the men who had followed Joshua to the succor of the camp.

Such was the belief, not only of Hur but of Aaron, and the former again
began to doubt Joshua's fitness for the Lord's call; for what benefited
those in the tents weakened the army whose command devolved upon his son
Uri and his associate in office Naashon. The battle around the camp had
already lasted for hours and Moses had not ceased to pray with hands
uplifted toward heaven, when the Amalekites succeeded in gaining a
considerable vantage.

Then the leader of the Hebrews summoned his strength for a new and more
earnest appeal to the Most High; but the exhausted man's knees tottered
and his wearied arms fell. But his soul had retained its energy, his
heart the desire not to cease pleading to the Ruler of Battles.

Moses was unwilling to remain inactive during this conflict and his
weapon was prayer.

Like a child who will not cease urging its mother until she grants
what it unselfishly beseeches for its brothers and sisters, he clung
imploring to the Omnipotent One, who had hitherto proved Himself a
father to him and to his people and wonderfully preserved them from the
greatest perils.

But his physical strength was exhausted, so he summoned his companions
who pushed forward a rock on which he seated himself, in order to assail
the heart of the Most High with fresh prayers.

There he sat and though his wearied limbs refused their service,
his soul was obedient and rose with all its fire to the Ruler of the
destinies of men.

But his arms grew more and more paralysed, and at last fell