Bible Romances, First SeriesFoote, G. W. (George William)
Religion
Bible Romances, First Series
Foote, G. W. (George William)
Bible; Free thought
Not only were the Jews, like their flocks and herds, miraculously
supported; they were also miraculously found in clothes. For forty years
their garments and shoes did not wear out. How was this miracle wrought?
When matter rubs against matter, particles are lost by abrasion. Did the
Lord stop this process, or did he collect all the particles that were
worn off during the day and replace them by night, on the soles of
shoes, on the elbows of coats, and on the knees of pantaloons? If
the clothes never wore out, it is fair to suppose that they remained
absolutely unchanged. Imagine a toddling urchin, two years old at the
exodus from Egypt, wearing the same rig when he grew up to manhood!
Justin, however, says that the clothes grew with their growth. Some
Jewish rabbis hold that angels acted as tailors in the wilderness, and
so the garments were all kept straight. But Augustine, Chrysostom, and
other Fathers abide by the literal interpretation that, through the
blessing of God, the clothes and shoes never wore out, so that those
who grew to manhood were able to hand them over, as good as new, to the
rising generation. According to this theory, _everybody_ must have had
a poor fit, unless there was a transference of garments every twelve
months or so.
The history of the Wandering Jews is full of miracles and wonders. It
says that all the congregation of Israel, numbering over two millions,
assembled at the door of the Tabernacle. As the whole width of the
Tabernacle was eighteen feet, only nine men could have stood in front
of it; and therefore the warriors of Israel alone, to say nothing of the
rest of the population, if we allow eighteen inches between each rank of
nine men, would have formed a column nearly _twenty miles_ long! We
find also that Moses, and Joshua after him, addressed not only the whole
congregation of Israel, including men, women, and children, but the
"mixed multitude" of strangers as well. Their voices were distinctly
heard by a crowded mass of people as large as the entire population of
London. They must have had stentorian lungs, or the people must have had
a wonderful sense of hearing.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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