THE WATERS OF MERIBAH. BY THE EDITOR. "WOULD God that we, before the Lord, had died as Korah died! Or fall'n when Dathan's living grave its portals opened wide! Oh, with Abiram and his host, if we engulphed had been, We had not lived to perish in the wilderness of Zin! "Where are the milk and honey, where, oh lying prophet, say, For which, from Egypt's flesh-pots, we have wandered far away? Oh, wherefore from the land of Ham unto this evil place, Did ye, with faithless promises, beguile our stricken race? "The sterile desert's arid sand our sinking spirit mocks— We parch with drought, ourselves and wives, our little ones and flocks This is no place of pomegranates, of figs, or vines, or seed, We thirst, we faint, we pant, we die, in our extremest need!" Thus did the house of Israel against the Lord complain, And thus against his servants rose their murmurings profane : And yet did Moses not delay, or halt with parleying word, But hastened in humility, to plead before the Lord. |