nish, and show that he is not a dead God, but a living God, one
who can defend himself, and enforce his own laws, and execute
judgment--and, if need be, vengeance--without needing any man to
fight his battles for him.

And God does so. The powers of Nature--the earthquake and the
nether fire--shall punish these rebels; and so they do.

'And Moses said, Hereby ye shall know that the Lord hath sent me to
do all these works; for I have not done them of mine own mind. If
these men die the common death of all men, or if they be visited
after the visitation of all men; then the Lord hath not sent me.
But if the Lord make a new thing, and the earth open her mouth and
swallow them up, with all that appertain to them and they go down
quick into the pit; then ye shall understand that these men have
provoked the Lord.'

Men have thought differently of the story; but I call it a righteous
story, and a noble story, and one which agrees with my conscience,
and my reason, and my notion of what ought to be, and my experience
also of what is--of the way in which God's world is governed unto
this day.

What then are we to think of the earth opening and swallowing them
up? What are we to think of a fire coming out from the Lord, and
consuming two hundred and fifty men that offered incense?

This first. That discipline and order are so absolutely necessary
for the well-being of a nation that they must be kept at all risks,
and enforced by the most terrible punishments.

It seems to me (to speak with all reverence) as if God had said to
the Jews, 'I have set you free. I will make of you a great nation;
I will lead you into a good land and large. But if you are to be a
great nation, if you are to conquer that good land and large, you
must obey: and you shall obey. The earthquake and the fire shall
teach you to obey, and make you an example to the rest of the
Israelites, and to all nations after you.' But how hard, some may
think, that the wives and the children should suffer for their
parents' sins.

My friends, we do not know that a single woman or child died then
for whom it was not better that he or she should die. That is one
of the deep things which we must leave to the perfect justice and
mercy of God.

And next--what is it after all, but what we see going on round us
all the day long? God does visit the sins of the fathers on the
children. There is no denying it. Wives do suffer for their
husbands' sins; child