hen the fiery old man
shattered the idol which was dear to them, and had it not been for the
love cherished for him, his son, and his grandson, and the respect
due his snow-white hair, many a hand would doubtless have been raised
against him.

Moses had retired to a solitary place, as was his wont after every great
danger from which the mercy of the Most High brought deliverance, and
tears filled Miriam's eyes as she thought of the grief which the tidings
of such apostasy and ingratitude would cause her noble brother.

A gloomy shadow had also darkened Joshua's joyous confidence. He lay
sleepless on the mat in his father's tent, reviewing the past.

His warrior-soul was elevated by the thought that a single, omnipotent,
never-erring Power guided the universe and the lives of men and exacted
implicit obedience from the whole creation. Every glance at nature and
life showed him that everything depended upon One infinitely great and
powerful Being, at whose sign all creatures rose, moved, or sank to
rest.

To him, the chief of a little army, his God was the highest and most
far-sighted of rulers, the only One, who was always certain of victory.

What a crime it was to offend such a Lord and repay His benefits with
apostasy!

Yet the people had committed before his eyes this heinous sin and, as
he recalled to mind the events which had compelled him to interpose, the
question arose how they were to be protected from the wrath of the
Most High, how the eyes of the dull multitude could be opened to His
wonderful grandeur, which expanded the heart and the soul.

But he found no answer, saw no expedient, when he reflected upon the
lawlessness and rebellion in the camp, which threatened to be fatal to
his people.

He had succeeded in making his soldiers obedient. As soon as the
trumpets summoned them, and he himself in full armor appeared at the
head of his men, they yielded their own obstinate wills to his. Was
there then nothing that could keep them, during peaceful daily life,
within the bounds which in Egypt secured the existence of the meanest
and weakest human beings and protected them from the attacks of those
who were bolder and stronger?

Amid such reflections he remained awake until early morning; when the
stars set, he started up, ordered the trumpets to be sounded, and as on
the preceding days, the new-made troops assembled without opposition and
in full force.

He was soon marching at their head through