swered him. And Moses warned the Israelites, who were trembling with fear at the foot of the Mount, not to come up, lest they should be struck dead by the awful majesty of God. And amidst these terrific wonders, God delivered His Ten Commandments, which we read in the Catechism, the very first of which was directed especially against the sin of idolatry. The Jews, being the only people then in the world who worshipped the true God, and being surrounded by idolatrous nations, were especially bound to observe, with the most scrupulous exactness, not only the spirit but the letter of this commandment in the smallest particular; and how far they were careful to do so we shall presently hear. The rest of the Commandments were no less binding upon them, as, indeed, they are upon all Christians likewise, and in a more spiritual and perfect sense than with the Jews.

THE GOLDEN CALF.

MOSES remained on the Mount with God for a very long time; forty days and forty nights he remained there, conversing with Him and receiving His laws and commandments for the Israelites. And this people, finding their prophet and lawgiver delaying to return to them, began to waver again in their faith and fidelity to their God; they suffered the natural grossness and carnal tendency of human nature, fallen as it is, to overcome their belief in the spiritual world, and desired an image of an earthly god whom they could see and touch, rather than the God of heaven, whose awful presence must be approached with a reverence which wearied

them. They seemed, as it were, tired of His very love and patience with them; they forgot His wonderful miracles for and tender care of them; and finding Moses still remaining in the Mount, they rushed in a body to Aaron, and demanded of him a god made with hands to worship. "Arise," they said, "make us gods that may go before us: for as for this Moses who brought us out of the land of Egypt, we know not where he is." And Aaron, who seems to have been overcome by the violence of the people's demands, yielded with weakness to their request, and desired them to bring him all the golden ornaments they had, which he melted down; and willing, perhaps, to shame them and show them how low they had sunk in desiring a wretched idol to worship, he framed the gold into the image of a calf. And the people actually received this calf as their god, and offered sacrifices to it, and saying, "These are thy gods, O Israel, that have brought thee out of the land of Egypt," worshipped and danced around it. Alas, what a sight for that God who had rescued His people from slavery by miracles, who had sent plagues on their oppressors, who had dried up the very sea to deliver them from death, and who had caused the dry sands of the desert to give water and food to His fainting people, to preserve them! And God's anger was kindled at this shameful sight so greatly, that Moses again had to plead for his brethren, for God threatened to destroy them all; and he implored God to remember the devotion and fidelity of His servants Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and for their sake to spare these their descendants, against whom His wrath was so justly excited, and not wholly to destroy them.

And God again, in His endless mercy, heard the prayer of Moses, who, coming down from the Mount with the two tables of stone in his hand on which

were written the Ten Commandments, saw these frantic Israelites in the midst of their idolatry. He was shocked and horror-stricken at the sight, and in a transport of grief and indignation he threw the tables of the Ten Commandments from his hands, and broke them to pieces; showing the Israelites also, by this action, how they had broken all the laws of God by their wickedness. Then he took the calf, and burnt it and beat it to powder, which he strewed in water and gave to the children of Israel to drink, that they might see what a poor thing of dust they had been worshipping. Then he rebuked Aaron severely for having given way to them; and, last of all, he called to such of the Israelites as still had any feeling for their God, to unite with him in avenging His injured majesty. "If any man be on the Lord's side," said he, "let him join with me." And all the Levites, who were the tribe from which the Jewish priests were chosen, gathered themselves together to Moses. He ordered these Levites to unsheathe their swords, and to march in a straight line quite through the camp of Israel, and back again, killing every one who should come in their way, without any distinction, whoever it might be. And the Levites did so, and as many as twentythree thousand men were killed to atone for the dreadful sin of idolatry into which the people had fallen.

When we who are Christians read the history of our elder brothers in the faith of God, the Jews, we are apt to be struck with the hardness of heart shown by the Israelites, and shocked at what we feel to be their shameless ingratitude, their faithlessness, and the ready way in which they fall into idolatry, after the most wonderful miracles worked for them by God. And yet is it not far more wonderful to behold the scenes which the Catholic

Church presents daily to our eyes, if we would regard them by the light of faith? If we only look into our own hearts, what shall we see? something far more astonishing and quite as sad as the idolatry of the Jews: for how much greater miracles of grace has not God given to us, in having redeemed us with His own blood, brought us to baptism, given us His own flesh to eat to keep spiritual life in our own souls; and if yet again we fall into sin, He has given us His sacraments,-the sacrament of penance, whereby His blood again and again washes the guilty soul white and clean once more,- -and His priests to speak words of peace and comfort to our souls. Surely, then, to such a God we can never be untrue; surely, with the melancholy example of the Israelites before us, we may take warning. But no, it is not so; we are indeed ready enough to condemn this people for their faithlessness and idolatry, while we, alas, love the world and its false joys, worship the golden calves of riches and honours, neglect and despise God's ordinances, His sacraments, and His priests, or at best pass our lives in a cold-hearted half-service to our God, striving, as it were, to serve two masters, God and Mammon, which our Lord Jesus has warned us we cannot do. But let those at least who are young, and who read this sad account of the unhappy Israelites, guard themselves from falling into sins which, if persevered in, must bring down the judgments of God; above all, let us guard against the sin of pride, the parent of all other sins, and by which we fall lowest of all, even so low as to worship the creatures of God instead of Himself, such as riches, honours, and the fine things of this earth; and whether it be that we glory in our cleverness and sharp answers in school or class, or in dressing ourselves up in finer clothes than our neighbours, let us remember that we are

beginning to follow the poor blinded Israelites in their pride and forgetfulness of God, and shall surely, unless we repent and amend, end by falling into their idolatry, worshipping some of the idols of the devil, instead of walking after the saints of Christ, and receiving their crowns.

THE TABERNACLE.

THE people of Israel had now been punished by the arm of God for their dreadful crime; but Moses still grieved over the offence of his brethren, for he felt how terrible had been their sin in God's sight, and he ceased not to pray fervently and earnestly to God to obtain their entire forgiveness. And God, seeing that the Israelites humbled themselves and mourned for their sin, listened to Moses' prayer, and again renewed His promises to bring them into the land of Chanaan, and ordered Moses to make two fresh tables of stone in the place of those which had been broken, and to have His commandments again written upon them, as before. And He also commanded Moses to make a tabernacle, in which God promised that His presence should specially dwell, which should be carried before the camp of the Israelites on their journey. And when Moses came down from the Mount where he had been conversing with God, his face shone so brightly with the rays of glory from God's presence that the Israelites could not look upon it.

The tabernacle, which was to be made by the Israelites for God's dwelling-place amongst them, was to be very beautiful, and all the tribes of Israel were ordered by Moses to bring their gold orna