“Awful preparations! symbols of the presence of Jehovah! who drew near to give the law. While he thus displayed himself in all the terrific majesty of heaven on the loftiest pinnacles of the land; and the people, overwhelmed with terror, felt their own feebleness before him, he gave to Moses the tables with the ten commandments, and afterwards the rest of the law; and all was concluded with a promise to the obedient, and the threat, ‘Cursed be he that fulfilleth not all the words of this law to do it. And all the people shall say Amen.’ “The whole constitution and legislation of Israel rests on the relation of the people to God as their king. From the covenant between them arose a twofold authority. Aaron was the first high priest and Moses the first chief. The high priest conducted the worship of the people before Jehovah; the chief directed their civil and military affairs. Their employment in the land which they were to occupy was to be agriculture. “But the Jews, who had been corrupted by living in Egypt, were not fit subjects for such a constitution. It was necessary that a new generation should arise, and for this purpose Moses led them forty years backward and forward in the wilderness, and only two, of whom he himself was not one, came into the promised land. Forty-four stations in the desert are reckoned up, in which they successively encamped, as we do now; and it was only by the severest discipline that they could be retained in obedience. Often was Jehovah compelled to visit them with heavy calamities, and sweep them away by thousands. Yet he never ceased also to perform miracles of mercy and almighty power upon them. “Amidst all these sins of the people, in their forty years wandering in the wilderness, Moses was the representative of the divine authority, and the medium of divine communication. Against him the fury of the rebellious people was vented, and by him Jehovah both blessed and punished them. Moses stood among them, like a rock in the desert, a wonder, or rather a miracle of firmness combined with meekness, steadfast resolution, with wise indulgence, absolute submission to God, with boldness and determination in the guidance of the people. In the long and unhappy period of forty years of wandering, he displayed the aptitude for command which his kingly education had given him, joined with that love to his suffering countrymen, with which he could only have been inspired by being a native Jew.