[Illustration: SCULPTURED LOCUST.] THE GOLDEN CALF. With the remembrance of God’s victory over the idol-worship of Egypt still fresh in their minds, the Israelites soon fell into idolatrous ways. Their leader, Moses, was absent in the mountain with God. He had gone thither to receive the commands of God, the first of which was an unqualified condemnation of all idolatry. As if to show the necessity of this command, even while Moses was so engaged, the people were demanding of Aaron that he should make them an idol. The commandments were given to warn Israel against sin. They were as a fence to keep them from falling into the mouth of hell. The Israelites recalled the visible objects of worship to which they had been accustomed in Egypt, and besought Aaron to make them gods. Weakly yielding to their urgent request, Aaron asks for their golden ear-rings, hoping, it may be, that they would not be willing to make this sacrifice. With the gold thus furnished he cast a “molten calf,” the image of the Babylonish winged bull Cherub. This he placed before the Israelites as the image of the God who had led them out of Egypt. He then built an altar before the idol. In the name of Jehovah, he proclaimed a festival. God is for this cause exceedingly angry, but in answer to Moses’ prayer He finally spares the people. As Moses comes nearer to the camp of Israel, he hears the sound of their revelry, and when his eyes behold the disgraceful scenes attending the worship of the golden calf, in his anger he throws the stone tablets containing the commandments to the ground. He then causes the image to be ground into powder and strewn upon the water which the people must needs drink. Then came the awful slaughter of those who were not loyal to Jehovah. Just how far Israel had looked upon the golden calf as a mere symbol of Jehovah, it is impossible to say, but God condemns even the use of a symbol, though it may be truly said that the symbol is not itself worshiped. [Illustration: GODDESS ASHTORETH, ISHTAR.] During the rest of their wandering in the desert, the people did not again commit the sin of idolatry. The terrible punishments which had fallen upon them were quite sufficient to deter them from it. Into the fearfully wicked worship of Baal-Peor, the Israelites were led by the daughters of Moab. God sent upon them an awful punishment for this sin also. During the lives of Joshua and the elders they remained true to their allegiance to Jehovah, but the following generation remembered not the awful penalties God visited on idolatry, and they were caught in the snare again. BAAL-WORSHIP.