dren's children after us.
Amen.

SERMON XIII. KORAH, DATHAN, AND ABIRAM

(First Sunday after Easter, 1863.)

Numbers xvi. 32-35. And the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed
them up, and their houses, and all the men that appertained unto
Korah, and all their goods. They, and all that appertained to them,
went down alive into the pit, and the earth closed upon them: and
they perished from among the congregation. And all Israel that were
round about them fled at the cry of them: for they said, Lest the
earth swallow us up also. And there came out a fire from the Lord,
and consumed the two hundred and fifty men that offered incense.

I will begin by saying that there are several things in this chapter
which I do not understand, and cannot explain to you. Be it so.
That is no reason why we should not look at the parts of the chapter
which we can understand and can explain.

There are matters without end in the world round us, and in our own
hearts, and in the life of every one, which we cannot explain; and
therefore we need not be surprised to find things which we cannot
explain in the life and history of the most remarkable nation upon
earth--the nation whose business it has been to teach all other
nations the knowledge of the true God, and who was specially and
curiously trained for that work.

But the one broad common-sense lesson of this chapter, it seems to
me, is one which is on the very surface of it; one which every true
Englishman at least will see, and see to be true, when he hears the
chapter read; and that is, the necessity of DISCIPLINE.

God has brought the Israelites out of Egypt, and set them free. One
of the first lessons which they have to learn is, that freedom does
not mean license and discord--does not mean every one doing that
which is right in the sight of his own eyes. From that springs
self-will, division, quarrels, revolt, civil war, weakness,
profligacy, and ruin to the whole people. Without order,
discipline, obedience to law, there can be no true and lasting
freedom; and, therefore, order must be kept at all risks, the law
obeyed, and rebellion punished.

Now rebellion may be and ought to be punished far more severely in
some cases than in others. If men rebel here, in Great Britain or
Ireland, we smile at them, and let them off with a slight
imprisonment, because we are not afraid of them. They can do no
harm.

But there are cases in which rebellion must be p