"He humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with
manna, which thou knewest not."--_Deut. 8:3._
THIS morning you heard how God gave the children of Israel water to
drink in the wilderness. Now you shall hear what He gave them to eat.
The ground was all hard stones. There was grass which the cows and
sheep could eat, and there were a few trees with long sharp thorns, but
no fruit on them, and no corn to make bread; and soon the people were
very hungry, and began to cry out that they did not know what would
become of them.
But God was not going to forget them. When they rose up in the morning,
the fresh dew lay on the grass, and all about in the dew were little
white things that tasted like wafers made with honey. This was called
manna, and God had sent it from heaven for them to eat.
Every morning on week days there it was, and they had all to come out
and pick it up. But they must get up early to gather it, for when the
sun was hot it would melt away. And they could not keep it--it grew
bad and was not fit to use the next day; but there was always just
enough for everybody to have all they wanted. There was only one day
in each week that more came down, and that was the day before the
Sabbath-day, which they had instead of Sunday. Then each one could get
twice as much as could be eaten in one day, and it did not spoil so
fast. For on the Sabbath-day God would have them rest, and so no manna
was to be found anywhere, so that they might learn to keep the Fourth
Commandment--Remember the Sabbath-day to keep it holy.
[Illustration: PRIEST]
[Illustration: HIGH-PRIEST]
[Illustration: LEVITE]
All the time they stayed in the wilderness, the sweet white manna lay
on the grass in the morning for them to pick it up--twice as much on
the sixth day of the week, and on the Sabbath-day none at all. Was not
that very good of God?