“But if he went for the fighting he may have had a good time in the wilderness, for there must have been many alarms, and a battle now and then,” said Frank.
“But, mamma,” said Violet, earnestly, “they had the pillar of cloud, and the pillar of fire, and the Angel of the Covenant going before. Why should we suppose they needed the help of Hobab?”
“God helps them that help themselves, Letty, dear,” said Jem.
“Gently, Jem,” said his mother; “speak reverently, my boy. Yes, Letty, they were miraculously guarded and guided; but we do not see that they were allowed to fold their hands and do nothing. God fought for them, and they fought for themselves. And as for Hobab, he must have been a good and brave man, as David says, and so the chances are he went with the people, thinking less of what he could get for himself than of what he could do for others, as is the way with good and brave men.”
“Like the people we read about in books,” said Jem.
“Yes; and like some of the people we meet in real life,” said his mother, smiling. “The men who even in the eyes of the world are the best and bravest, are the men who have forgotten themselves and their own transitory interests to live or die for the sake of others.”
“Like Moses, when he pleaded that the people might not be destroyed, even though the Lord said He would make him the father of a great nation,” said David.
“Like Paul,” said Violet, “who ‘counted not his life dear to him,’ and who was willing ‘to spend and be spent,’ though the more abundantly he loved the people, the less he was loved.”
“Like Leonidas with his three hundred heroes.”
“Like Curtius, who leapt into the gulf.”