3. _Character of Moses._ "Now Moses lived in all one hundred and twenty years; a third part of which time, abating one month, he was the people's ruler; and he died on the last month of the year, which is called by the Macedonians 'Dystrus,' but by us 'Adar,' on the first day of the month. He was one that exceeded all men that ever were, in understanding, and made the best use of what that understanding suggested to him. He had a very graceful way of speaking, in addressing the multitude, and as to his other qualifications, he had such a full command of his passions, as if he hardly had any such in his soul, and only knew them by their names, as rather perceiving them in other men than in himself. He was also such a general of an army as is seldom seen, as well as such a prophet as was never known, and this to such a degree, that whatsoever he pronounced you would think you heard the voice of God himself. So the people mourned for him thirty days: nor did ever any grief so deeply affect the Hebrews as did this upon the death of Moses; nor were those that had experienced his conduct the only persons that desired him, but those also that perused the laws he left behind him, had a strong desire after him, and by them gathered the extraordinary virtue he was master of. And this shall suffice for the declaration of the manner of the death of Moses." (Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, p. 98.) 4. _The Greatness and Influence of Moses._ "Where shall we find one that combines in his personality so many greatnesses as Moses, if I may say so? He was the liberator of his people, but he spurned crowns and scepters, and did not, as many others after him did, put a new yoke on the neck from which he had taken the old one. * * * * * And his republic was not of short duration. It lasted through all the storms of barbaric wars and revolutions--hundreds of years, down to the days of Samuel, that all-stout-hearted republican who could endure no kings. * * * * But the republic he founded stands unique in the history of the world, for it was altogether based upon an idea--the idea of the unity of God and the righteousness of his will. Think of it! Among a nation escaped from bondage, too degraded even to be led to war, that needed the education, the hammering, as it were, into a people for forty years, to go among them with the sublimest truth that the human mind ever can conceive and to say of them: 'Though you are now benighted and enslaved, any truth that I know is not too good for you nor any child of God." * * * * As a teacher of morality why need I praise him? As a teacher of statecraft in the highest and best sense, who surpassed him? The great wonder is that that man speaks the language of today. The problems which we have not yet succeeded in solving were already present to his mind, and he founded a nation in which the difference between the poor and the rich was almost abolished. The laborer was not only worthy but sure of his hire.