anger of the Lord is kindled against them, ever regarding them as mere children who know no self-control!  How patient he is in the performance of his duties, accepting counsel from Jethro and listening to the voice of Aaron!  With what stern and awful majesty does he lay down the law!  What inspiration gilds his features as he descends the Mount with the Tables in his hands!  How terrible he is amid the thunders and lightnings of Sinai, at the rock of Horeb, at the dances around the golden calf, at the rebellion of Korah and Dathan, at the waters of Meribah, at the burning of Nadab and Abihu!  How efficient he is in the administration of justice, in the assemblies of the people, in the great councils of rulers and princes, and in all the crises of the State; and yet how gentle, forgiving, tender, and accessible!  How sad he is when the people weary of manna and seek flesh to eat!  How nobly does he plead with the king of Edom for a passage through his territories!  How humbly does he call on God for help amid perplexing cares!  Never was a man armed with such authority so patient and so self-distrustful.  Never was so experienced and learned a man so little conscious of his greatness.

     “This was the truest warrior
        That ever buckled sword;
      This the most gifted poet
        That ever breathed a word: 
      And never earth’s philosopher
        Traced with his golden pen,
      On the deathless page, truths half so sage,
        As he wrote down for men.”

At length—­at one hundred and twenty years of age, with undimmed eye and unabated strength, after having done more for his nation and for posterity than any ruler or king in the world’s history, and won a fame which shall last through all the generations of men, growing brighter and brighter as his vast labors and genius are appreciated—­the time comes to lay down his burdens.  So he assembles together the princes and elders of Israel, recapitulates his laws, enumerates the mercies of the God to whom he has ever been loyal, and gives his final instructions.  He appoints Joshua as his successor, adds words of encouragement to the people, whom he so fervently loves, sings his final song, and ascends the mountain above the plains of Moab, from which he is permitted to see, but not to enter, the promised land; not pensive and sad like Godfrey, because he cannot enter Jerusalem, but full of joyous visions of the future glories of his nation, and breaking out in the language of exultation, “Who is like unto thee, O people saved by Jehovah, the shield of thy help and the sword of thy excellency!” So Moses, the like of whom no prophet has since arisen (except that later One whom he himself foretold), the greatest man in Jewish annals, passes away from mortal sight, and Jehovah buries him in a valley of the land of Moab, and no man knoweth his sepulchre until this day.